Play@YSDC

Harden shook his head as if struggling to believe what he heard, but said nothing. Keats said, ”We’ll let you know what we find,” and both men left the room.

Doctor Waldron put away the chairs and checked everyone’s dressings. He gave a satisfied nod, and said ”Please get some rest, gentlemen. The matter is now in the hands of the police.” He nodded again and left the ward.

OOC,I don’t know if you want to try to do anything before the police return. Although you’ve had some treatment, you’re all still wounded and it could be a few weeks before you are fully fit. Healing: Howard [dice]0[/dice] HP 10/13 Lawrence [dice]1[/dice] HP 6/13 Thomas [dice]2[/dice] HP 10/10 William [dice]3[/dice] HP 8/12.

"Well, I'm feeling fine now, but I figure the rest of you might need more time." Thomas began.
"I imagine our opportunity to stop them might have passed by then, though."

OOC,I don't mind if we wait here longer or go back to the hotel.

"I'm still in awful shape," says William. "They could use at least some of us to back them up. If that thing is still there..." He shudders. "If I had a pistol, I could be at least some use in a fight, and I can drive the car. Well, a car. That one's seen better days."

Lawrence spoke up:
"I ain't in any condition to go back. Even if I didn't get blasted with pellets, not even god himself would be able to convince me to go back to that lake. This is the police's business, and I'm sure they'll be able to handle everyth...Lawrence's heart dropped, and his expression changed to one of realization and horror. "Wait. That thing in the lake... It must still be there, and those brothers are probably prepared for a police raid. It's going to be a bloodbath, for one group or the other."

Tuesday, October 30th, 1929, 7.30pm

The policemen did not return that afternoon, nor the day after, although they had sent word that there was nothing to be alarmed about; they were merely looking into what they had found at the hotel.

It was the evening of the third day before Chief Detective Harden returned to see them. When he had visited previously, he had been neatly dressed and coolly polite but on Tuesday evening he seemed ... raw ... as if affected by what he seen over the previous days. He nursed a coffee brought to him by Doctor Waldron, as he spoke.

“Me and the Chief took a couple of guys up there to look around but it looks as if whoever was there has cleared out fast. The hotel was empty; it was locked but we got in. The main rooms were all stripped of pretty much everything - there wasn’t much left.”

“We checked out the guest rooms and you were right, there were tunnels underneath. Well, more like spaces... They could have been for storage or maintenance or... who knows what else.”

“We found your car, Mr Preston, and Mr Gilman’s motorbike. We also found a licence plate trampled into the mud. It looks as if there may have been more - there were spaces on the wall in reception - but they could have been thrown into the lake. We ran a check on the plate we did find, and we got a match with a missing persons report.”

Harden pulled out a folded paper from his pocket and handed it over. The mimeographed report described a missing businessman and his pretty young secretary, who hadn’t returned from a sales conference. The photograph was grainy but it was clear that the missing people were the naked couple who had attacked the young men in the workshop.

“While we were there, we also saw a young girl hiding in the woods. She lead us a merry dance but we managed to track her down and capture her. She was clearly out of her mind and fought like the dickens to get away, but we managed to get her in the car. She was screaming some thing about ‘Glacky’? Whatever that means! She’s up at the Sanitarium now where the doc’s are taking a look at her. I don’t know what she went through but it had clearly fried her brain...”

Harden shook his head. “That’s about it. Something’s gone on there, but we can’t be sure exactly what. We’ll keep looking for them, though, and we’ll find them...” he trailed off, not sounding convinced by his own words, then looked at the young men carefully for a long while, before he bid them goodnight and left for home.

Epilogue

It is another week before the men are discharged from hospital. Jacob says his farewells and a taxi will take him home, where he will try to get on with his life.

Howard, Lawrence, Thomas and William stand on the steps of St. Mary’s and say their goodbyes. They have spoken at length of recent events during their enforced stay at the hospital, but they have struggled to come to terms with what they have seen, their dreams haunted by recent events. They make a promise to get in touch if they hear anything and go their separate ways.

Returning home, they each find a pile of mail waiting for them, a mix of letters and circulars. Tucked in among the correspondence they each find a postcard, with ‘Greetings from Louisiana’ inscribed above a nondescript image of Baton Rouge.

Puzzled, as none of the men can recall knowing anyone from Louisiana, they flip it over to read the message on the back. Addressed to them at home - they now recalled writing their addresses in the guest book at the motel - was the chilling message:

WE WILL MEET AGAIN!

IA! IA! GLA’AKI F’TAGN!

WILLIAM, ROBERT & JAMES... ... ...

The End...,... for now, at least. Thanks for playing - I hope you enjoyed it. We may see William, Robert and James again, you never know... ... ...