Play@YSDC

Sunday, October 27th, 1929 2.35am.
St. Mary’s Teaching Hospital, 450 S West Street, Arkham, Mass.

The receiving staff at St. Mary’s were shocked when they saw the wretched condition of the vehicle that limped into the car park in the early hours of Sunday morning, but were doubly so when they looked inside and saw the young men battered, bloodied and covered in broken glass.

The team had swung into action and the unconscious Lawrence had been lifted carefully from the blood-soaked back seat of the car, before he was rushed into the operating theatre. The ambulatory wounded were helped into the hospital and gently sat down. The shock on the faces of the staff told the young men everything they needed to know about how they looked. They were quickly separated and ushered into individual treatment rooms where their wounds could be bathed and scratches attended to.

Their wounds dressed, William, Thomas and Jacob were shown to a small ward with six beds. After a brief consultation between the reception room team and Doctor Waldron - the campus physician - Howard was sent after Lawrence to the theatre, so the wound in his shoulder could be operated on.

Before long, a patrol car was out front but Doc Waldron told the patrolman in no uncertain terms that there was no way he was going to talk to any of his patients until the next day. The patrolman called it in, and after some discussion, was dispatched to stand guard by the ward doors. Inside, and despite any protests to the contrary, William, Thomas and Jacob were given a sleeping draught that knocked them out until the next day, in order to give their wounds a chance to heal.

As they slept, Lawrence and Howard were brought from the operating theatre to the ward and the room eventually fell quiet except for the sound of gentle snoring...
It was one in the afternoon before the first of them stirred and it was another hour before they were washed and fed, and able to receive visitors. Doctor Waldron pushed open the door to admit two men, who introduced themselves as Captain William Keats and Chief Detective Luther Harden from the Arkham Police Department. Both men appeared to be in their 40’s and had a stern look about them.

Captain Keats and Doc Waldron had pulled up chairs to sit on, while Harden leaned against the door frame. Captain Keats spoke first. “Well, why don’t you gentlemen tell us how you came about to be in such a condition?”

Howard keeps quiet for now. "Maybe it's better if the lawyer or cop goes first" he thinks.

"We stopped at the Squatters Lake Hotel on the West Road, in Newburyport," says William. "It was run by a man named William and his brother Robert. Last night, they and a few of their friends tried to kill us all. Damn near succeeded, too."

Howard speaks up, feeling grateful to William for taking the lead.

“Yes! And we found evidence that they may have attacked others too! We found boxes of clothes and personal belongings. And there’re tunnels running under the motel rooms!”

He decides not to mention the horrific monster.

Keats raised an eyebrow at Howard’s statement then looked over his shoulder at Harden, who shook his head.

Keats looked back at the young men. ”It’s not somewhere we’ve come across before. How come you were out there? A bit of rube baiting that went wrong?”

"No, we were looking for a missing person," says William. "He vanished on the way from Arkham to Amesbury. We were checking every hotel along the route, and that's the one he stayed in, all right. He wasn't the only one to disappear there, either. We're all lucky we didn't disappear too."

”A missing person?” asked Harden from beside the door. ”Why didn’t you report that to the police department?”

Howard

“It already was reported, to the police in Amesbury. And they hadn’t found anything. Well we did, and we were attacked before we could get to somewhere where we could inform the State Police.”

”Who’s gone missing? Someone from Amesbury?” asked Harden. ”Because unless I’m mistaken, you’re all from Arkham, aren’t you?”

"No, I'm from Arizona" replies Howard. "What difference does that make? He was last seen in Amesbury, that's why the police there knew about it."

”Don’t get smart!” snapped Captain Keats as he stabbed a finger in Howard’s direction. ”Just answer the question - who went missing?”

"The young man's name is James Fraser," says William. "We were hired by his father Gerald to look into his disappearance."

”Gerald Fraser? The banker?” asked Captain Keats. He looked over his shoulder at Harden, who raised a questioning eyebrow.

Keats looked back at the young men. ”So, leaving aside why one the town’s most influential citizens decided not to call the police when his son goes missing, did you find him?”

”Well yes, in a way.” Thomas began to say. ”We found James at the hotel but he and his associates were quite hostile to us, hence the mess that we’re currently in. We didn’t get a good chance to talk to him, either.”

”So, there’s the two brothers - William and Robert - and James Fraser... ” said Harden, who by now had taken out a pocketbook and was taking notes. ”Two motel owners and the son of a banker...?” He shrugged as if this was the sort of thing that happened all the time.

”You said ‘his associates’... were there any more people involved? And what happened to your car? It looks like someone shot out the back window and pounded on it with a baseball bat!”

“Well, yes” says Howard. “That’s how they attacked us as we were escaping. There was also more members of their group, a man and a woman. I… we… don’t know who they were. They never said anything.”

Harden continued to make notes as Keats said, ”So, why did they attack you? You understand that this doesn’t make a lot of sense... ...”

"They attacked us because we uncovered evidence that they've been waylaying people who've stayed at their hotel," says William. "We located some of their personal effects. Jacob here was looking for his friend, who has also gone missing."

Keats looked at Jacob, who nodded mutely, his eyes filled with tears that threatened to run down his pale face.

”The thing I don’t get,” said Harden, looking up from his pocketbook, ”Is this James Fraser’s involvement in all of this? Now, you said he went missing and you went to try to find him, I understand that. But when you find him at this hotel, he’s somehow in cahoots with the owners and their ‘associates’ and he’s trying to kill you?... ...” He shook his head.

Keats stood up. ”Right, we’re going to head out and see if we can find this place. Is there anything else you need to tell us before we go?”

"They've got some sort of trained animal too," says William. "It was too dark to get a good look at it, but it was big and scary, much worse than a dog. These people are also very dangerous. The two of you by yourselves won't stand a chance against them. Gather as many men as you can, and arm yourselves for bear."

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... ... ...