secrets-of-everwich

[secrets-of-everwich]

is there a plan for secrets of everwich to return anytime soon? is there any progress on the voiced episodes as well? /genq(s) i have been enjoying the series very much thus far

Secrets of Everwich Arc 2 is how it will return, but in the form of a video game/visual novel type thing (that's what we were discussing yesterday!). Arc 2 is kinda a sequel, and will tie up the loose ends left in arc 1 (yes, some plotpoints are deliberately left unsolved!). It follows Rin, Callie and Cyan (a new character) about 5 years after the events of Arc 1! Arc 2 is still in development, Specifically the concept stage!

The voiced episodes are still in production, stuff happened on my end that meant I couldn't organise recording, but I'm sorting that out as we speak!

I'm glad you've been enjoying it, this story is definitely my passion project, so I'm very glad you enjoyed it :D

[secrets-of-everwich]

Hi Pix @severevoiddragon

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!🎉🎉

Hihihi

Go look at Callie fearing for their life <3

[secrets-of-everwich]

Free For All: ROUND 1

-----------------------------------------------------------

Mother

(she/her)

oc by: @bismuthbloom

Propaganda:

literal star who keeps kidnapping her descendants because for SOME reason they keep withering. she doesn't get it!!!! she came to me in a dream btw. takes the facial features of those she sees since, in her realm, she can take any outline form she wants but the eyes are maintained no matter what. and the star shape behind her. she sucks i hate her. <3

-----------------------------------------------------------

Callie Hewitt

(She/They)

oc by: @severevoiddragon

Propaganda:

Callie is SUCH a blorbo. She's the Chosen One but that's not a good thing because she's been chosen by something out to destroy her hometown. She has a hyperfixation on her hometown, her house, and the family that used to live there, and that propels her to start documenting her research (which you can read on @secrets-of-everwich on Tumblr!). Callie is a chronically ill 14-year-old who won't let that stop her from learning all the secrets of her hometown, which includes getting lost in some caves for 24hrs. Their character arc in the story is simply learning that sometimes if you dig too deep, bad things happen, but they then go straight back to digging too deep 5 years later in the sequel (which I need to write). I think they deserve the world, and YOU can help that!! More propaganda, if the ramble wasn't enough for you: The more rounds Callie wins, the more chapters of the sequel story I will write :D

[secrets-of-everwich]

NEW COOL BANNER 🫵🫵🫵 AND PFP!!! >:0

:)

[secrets-of-everwich]

Emilia Smith from @severevoiddragon 's SoE

Surely she's fine, right :)

[secrets-of-everwich]

Secrets of Everwich Podcast Auditions Open!

Hello! I've decided to turn the scripts posted here into a proper podcast, but I'm going to need some help.

All the information should be in the form, but just to reiterate some things here:

This is an unpaid project. You are volunteering to help out.

If you commit to auditioning, you are also committing to the project itself, and consenting for your voice to be used in the podcast.

Information will be passed over Discord, however if you do not have Discord, please let me know! It won't affect your audition

You must be 13+ to audition. If I find out you are not, I am very sorry but you will not be allowed to participate further.

Accents and gender do not matter, I will be picking people based on the Vibes being correct.

The form will be open until 17:00 GMT, or 12:00 EST, on 5th February 2025. This is a month from when it opens.

I may ask people to recall a character after the form closes. This is to either see more from them, or hear them as a different character.

Any questions, please send an ask to either this blog, or my main at @severevoiddragon !!

Thanks for your interest if you got this far, this is definitely a passion project, so I'm so excited to get other people on board working on it !!

The old masterpost of episodes is here: Masterpost

[secrets-of-everwich]

Secrets of Everwich Podcast Auditions Open!

Hello! I've decided to turn the scripts posted here into a proper podcast, but I'm going to need some help.

All the information should be in the form, but just to reiterate some things here:

This is an unpaid project. You are volunteering to help out.

If you commit to auditioning, you are also committing to the project itself, and consenting for your voice to be used in the podcast.

Information will be passed over Discord, however if you do not have Discord, please let me know! It won't affect your audition

You must be 13+ to audition. If I find out you are not, I am very sorry but you will not be allowed to participate further.

Accents and gender do not matter, I will be picking people based on the Vibes being correct.

The form will be open until 17:00 GMT, or 12:00 EST, on 5th February 2025. This is a month from when it opens.

I may ask people to recall a character after the form closes. This is to either see more from them, or hear them as a different character.

Any questions, please send an ask to either this blog, or my main at @severevoiddragon !!

Thanks for your interest if you got this far, this is definitely a passion project, so I'm so excited to get other people on board working on it !!

The old masterpost of episodes is here: Masterpost

[secrets-of-everwich]

Some Charles (my oc) art I did, ft. Me singing a song I think is very Charles-Coded !

Not too pleased w the shading but whatever, I like the rest of the drawing xD

[secrets-of-everwich]

13-1 Callie’s Final Statement, and Final Thoughts

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

{Callie}

Hello, and welcome to this – final – secret of Everwich. Just like every other episode, my name is Callie Hewitt, recording on the 27th October 2021. This will be the last official episode, though I may do a reading of Charles’ journal. I’ve been through all the other statements, and I think I’ve managed to gather a semi-conclusive map of the last month or so.

Let’s begin.

As you know, I began this podcast on the 27th September. Unintentionally, exactly a month ago. However, my personal interest in Everwich began years ago, when I was small. I’ve already said I live in Everwich Manor, where all this weird stuff started. My parents decided to turn it into a tourist attraction to bring in some money, so I grew up helping out with the tours. I found it fascinating. But my fascination for the Florences, and therefore the secrets that Everwich holds began when I found a secret compartment in my bookshelves.

I think I mentioned before that I live in the same room that Charles Florence lived in. Some of the furniture is the same, in surprisingly good condition, the bookshelf being one of them. I was clearing out the old books to put some of my own in, and I found a loose board. I was only about 10, so I tried to pull it out. It was a bit like a puzzle box, I had to press in the correct area to get it to come out. But what I found was another book.

‘The Arachnid: A Philosophical Study by Charles Florence’

I’m a big spider fan – they’re so cute! – So I decided to have a read. I would have then gone on to find more information about it, but I got ill pretty soon after. However, the ‘study’ ended up not just being a journal of information, it ended up being a journal of Charles’ feelings. I know, it probably wasn’t good to read someone else’s private journal, but it did help me feel less alone. Like, even though 200 years separated us, we were friends… He was going through the same feelings I was, so…

It's probably stupid, though. Anyway, when I got a bit better, I started looking for all the information I could. Eventually, in September, I found a tape recorder, and thought it would be fun to talk through my discoveries. Essays are very hard to hand write for me, so I thought if I talked through everything, I could type it up later.

And that brings us up to now… I promise, I didn’t know everything. I really didn’t know there were caves under the house, or that something was wrong with Emilia. But… I thought that if I revealed that I had the journal, something bad might happen… And I guess I was right, because Xavier- Or something made Xavier steal Adam’s journal. I don’t want that to happen to Charles’. It’s a really special find.

So, onto the last month. Me starting the podcast seemed to happen at around the same time as Xavier getting- possessed? Is that the right word? By that spider. Xavier found the key, and went down into the basement, only to have a spider crawl on it, and get possessed by the parasite. Meanwhile, I was locking myself up in my room, talking into this.

On the 1st October, Emilia also got possessed, because a spider made its way into her house. This begs the question, how far do the spiders go? But I have a theory. The spiders seem to call the basement of Everwich Manor their home, and I presume they travel through the caves. I checked the photos I took, there were little holes in the ceiling. Big enough for the spiders. I think the caves were their burrow, where they got into people’s houses. I also checked the map. Assuming Jill Harris and ‘Harvey’ live on Lilacs Lane, where Jill got attacked, then all 4 of these people who we know for definite have been possessed by the parasite live on top of the cave tunnels – Xavier in Everwich Manor, right on top of their home, Jill and Harvey on Lilacs Lane, and Emilia on North Street. I’ll get back to the caves later.

A day or so later, Rin, Ash, X and Emilia all went to Everwich Manor, and X showed Ash the spiders. I think… I think whatever was using X’s body at the time was trying to possess Ash too. Don’t worry, I double-checked, Ash is A-okay in terms of spidery-ness. Considering they had the most accurate statement in terms of the spiders being present, and tried to stop everyone being possessed, I think he’s good anyway. Whatever it was, it didn’t work, probably because Ash ended up having an argument with X, and stormed off. It's lucky, really… I think if Ash had been possessed too, none of them would have survived this last month…

Throughout the following week, Emilia was working on some kind of experiment, something she has no idea about. As you know if you listened to the last episode, Emilia doesn’t remember anything, and she seemed really genuine about being sorry about that. I genuinely don’t know what that was about, there’s nothing in Adam or Charles’ journals that say about someone making some kind of chemical formula. This is new. So, I guess I’ll move onto the next major event.

We’ve heard a lot about the events of 11th October, when Rin, Ash and X discovered Emilia was possessed, and tried to get her to no longer be possessed. Somehow, though, the spider escaped, and went straight back to her when she was asleep. She says there might have been a person. There’s a tall figure that keeps coming up, but everyone is insistent that it’s not Xavier. I’d say it was the Everwich Ghost, but the Everwich Ghost is a short, 12 year old boy, so… I’m really confused about that, to be honest. But it’s weird… If it were just Asher spotting a random figure that could be explained by Ash thinking someone was the Everwich Ghost when they’re just a normal person, but considering Emilia saw a figure that didn’t sound like ‘anyone she knows’, X saw a ‘tall figure’…

OH, how could I forget?! I’ve seen a tall figure too! When I was in the graveyard. It��s weird… I’m not going to go looking for them, though. That’d be an easy way to get killed, disappear, or get possessed. I’m dropping this investigation. Genuinely.

The next few weeks are a few sightings of this figure, and me getting obsessed with the caves. I worked it out, I was in there for over 12 hours. It… It didn’t feel like 12 hours… And nobody noticed… But that was partially because Emilia and Xavier were very much possessed, and so Ash and Rin were distracted… And I’m sure – almost positive – the caves changed layout when I was in there. I walked around the same corridor at least 10 times. It’s a maze on the map, but not that much. But that night, while I was in the caves, Emilia became lucid and tried to kill the spider, injuring herself in the process. She’s okay now, as we have confirmed. I’m not sure what changed, to be honest. But something did, and I’m glad it did.

From there onwards, I’ve got a lot of conclusive statements about what happened.

So… I guess that concludes the Secrets of Everwich. I’m really not going to make another episode, with the exception of an episode reading out Charles’ journal. I think you, dear listener, whoever you are, deserve it.

Goodbye, and  thank you for listening to these Secrets of Everwich. I hope you enjoyed.

[Click]

[Click]

[Radio static]

{Voice}

I’m- -orry… G-dby-.

[Click]

[secrets-of-everwich]

12-2 Emilia’s Statement

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

{Callie}

Hello, this is Callie Hewitt, recording on the 26th October, 2021. It’s a day since my last episode, and Emilia says she’s feeling well enough to give a statement.

{Emilia}

Hi…

{Callie}

So, Emilia, first of all, I’m so glad you’re okay. What happened? How did all of this start?

{Emilia}

Um… Well, it was the first of October… I was studying… It was- It was late at night. I think… 2am? I’d somehow got ink on my hands- I think… I must have fallen asleep. So, I- I went to wash my hands in the bathroom. And… There was a little spider in the sink. I didn’t- I didn’t want to kill it- Drown it. So… I picked it up, to take it outside. It was… Really pretty. I’d never seen a spider like it. Its legs were black, and it’s body- it’s body was bright green. And there was a slight- A slight yellow glow to- To the green body. I thought that was… A trick of the light? But I… I guess it wasn’t. As I was- Was watching it, it crawled to the other side of my… Of my hand. I couldn’t see it anymore, so I washed my hands, I thought it… I thought it had gone…

And then everything went dark. I don’t… I don’t remember anything until… Until Rin, Ash and Xavi got rid of the spider.

{Callie}

When Xavier was… I guess… Possessed? By the spider? It said he could remember stuff like a dream, can you remember anything?

{Emilia}

No, I… I can’t… Believe me, I… I tried.

{Callie}

Oh… Continue, please.

{Emilia}

That night, I… I wanted to experiment on the spider. Biochemistry is one of my passions, so I thought… I might have found a… A new species. If I could extract its DNA, and analyse it… I don’t know…

I think I fell asleep, though… I remember checking the clock at 4am, and then… Again, I don’t remember anything for ages…

I think… I can almost remember someone yelling at someone, but… But it was only one voice. It didn’t… It didn’t sound like Aiden or anyone else I know, but I think… I think I was half asleep. I could have been dreaming? I don’t remember what they said.

I remember the night before yesterday. I’d woken up, and gone to get a glass of water, and… And then I realised… I realised I’d woken up. Not- Not just from being asleep, but from the spider. I could actually think. It was… It was weird. I wasn’t thinking straight, it was… I was still half asleep, almost… I tried to get rid of it… I tried my best… It wasn’t good enough. The spider stayed on me. So I thought, I need to… I need to kill it.

So I picked up a knife and stabbed it… I didn’t- I didn’t mean to hurt myself. I didn’t want to. Not anymore, but… I wasn’t thinking straight…

That’s… About everything… Sorry I couldn’t have been more help…

{Callie}

That’s okay, don’t worry! This was all really useful, thank you!

[Click]

[secrets-of-everwich]

12-1 At The Hospital

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

[Hospital noises – electronics, people talking, beeping]

{Callie}

[Very softly, sounds like the recorder is right up to Callie’s mouth]

Hello, this is Callie Hewitt. I’m at the hospital, and I thought I’d talk to Aiden a bit. Uh- Wait. I’m here with Aiden Smith, brother of Emilia Smith.

[A pause]

Go on, Aiden?

{Aiden}

I told you, there isn’t much to say.

{Callie}

Please?

{Aiden}

[Sighs]

I’ve had to say this so many times… [Another sigh] I was up playing video games at night. It wasn’t one that had screams. I heard Em’s scream. From the kitchen. She stays in her bedroom at night. Mum didn’t hear. I ran down. Em was lying there, bleeding. Told me to put a spider corpse in a test tube. I did, after I rung 999. Tried to keep Em conscious. She didn’t say much. Just that she didn’t mean to get hurt. Didn’t mean anyone to get hurt, apparently. The paramedics came, brought her in. I’ve been sat with her all night. So has mum. Used Em’s phone to call the groupchat-

{Callie}

How did you get into her phone?

{Aiden}

Facial recognition is crap. Identical twins, y’know.

{Callie}

Oh.

{Aiden}

I called the groupchat on Em’s phone. Asher and Rin picked up. Xave didn’t. I told them what happened. Rin hung up. Then I had a quick conversation with Asher. There’s nothing else that happened.

{Callie}

That’s okay, thank you for telling-

[Distantly]

[A small gasp]

{Voice}

Rin? You look awful…

[Rin’s voice sounds like she’s about to cry]

{Rin}

Says you.

[Rustling, lots of sounds of movement, various exclamations of happiness]

[Closer]

{Callie}

Emilia’s just woken up!

[Click]

[secrets-of-everwich]

11-4 Xavier’s Final Statement

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

{Callie}

Hello, and welcome to this Secret of Everwich. I’m here with Xavier, for his final statement. Rin has just gone with Asher and Jamie to town, Rin’s gonna be sat with Emilia’s brother, and Em’s mum, while they wait for her to wake up, and Asher will take Jamie to the shops and then he’s gonna join them, I think. Me and Xavier will be over to see them soon.

{Xavier}

We’re going straight away after this, but I want you to hear from me about the past month.

{Callie}

Well, I guess start at the beginning. That starts a bit further away than everyone else, doesn’t it?

{Xavier}

Yeah.

For me, it started when I found the key to the basement. You already know that the basement is locked. Nobody knows where the key is. I came home from school, saw the key there. I sat around for a bit, wondering what to do. Went in after dinner. I was just really curious. I didn’t want you to go in, I didn’t want you to get hurt down there. We hadn’t been in the basement before, so it could have been dangerous.

{Callie} Why didn’t you give the key to dad? He’d be mad if he knew you’d gone down alone.

{Xavier}

Maybe, yeah. I dunno why I didn’t give it to him. It was stupid, really.

I went down there, and… It was just covered in spiders. Dropped my torch because I could feel one crawling on my leg. I’m not scared of spiders, but god was it not pleasant.

{Callie}

Wait, last time we talked, you said you couldn’t see anything either time you were in there?

{Xavier}

I’ll get to that. As the torch was rolling away, I thought I saw a tall figure. And then…

I dunno, I don’t remember much.

[A pause]

I must have left the basement, because I woke up the next morning. But the rest of the month is all really… Hazy. Like I was dreaming. Didn’t notice anything was wrong. Like my body was in autopilot, working without me meaning to, and my brain, in turn, switched itself off.

[Another pause]

I feel like a jerk for how I treated everyone. The worst part is nobody noticed until it was too late.

[A long pause]

{Callie}

So, when you say you don’t remember much… Is there anything you remember at all?

{Xavier}

Mostly things like going to school, sitting through the lessons, coming home, eating food, and going to sleep. Yknow. Normal things. Whenever Em was found doing her weird experiment, going to Em’s to get rid of that spider, most of those next few weeks, were all… I don’t remember it.

{Callie}

Oh… What about today?

{Xavier}

It was like I’d woken up from a dream. You and Ash were there. You looked so scared. Ash had an expression I’d never seen on their face before. I think it was anger. But then it changed to delight as I came round properly. As you know, it took a while for me to work out when we were… It really felt like my brain had gone to sleep. I think any longer, and it might have actually gone to sleep.

{Callie}

I didn’t see Ash’s face much. But… But I don’t think he was angry at you! I think they were angry at the spider.

{Xavier}

Oh, no, there was definitely some anger at me. We had a chat while you were talking to Rin. He told me how much of a jerk I’d been to him. So… I told him I really liked him. That it wasn’t me that had said all of that. I really, genuinely didn’t mean it.

[A gasp from Callie]

{Callie}

Oh my gosh! So are you two going out then?

{Xavier}

Well, we’re gonna go get a coffee together in a few days, talk things out. I don’t know yet.

{Callie}

Aww, yay! Well, if that’s all, we should probably go and find Emilia.

{Xavier}

Yeah. Wait, there is one more thing. Callie, please stop looking into this.

{Callie}

What? Why? I mean, I’m not going to be continuing the podcast from now on, if that’s what you meant.

{Xavier}

No, I mean… I don’t know what it was, but something… It wanted me to keep an eye on you. I don’t know, it wasn’t like… A solid thought… But I can vaguely remember something saying ‘This one is next’. I don’t… Really know what it was, but I want you to be careful, okay? I can’t lose you.

[A long pause]

{Callie}

Did you steal Adam’s journal? Or- Sorry- Did something make you steal Adam’s journal?

[A longer pause]

{Xavier}

Yes, I think so.

[Another long pause]

{Callie}

It’s okay. I’m not going to be looking into the secrets of Everwich anymore. I’m just going to get people’s final statements, and then I’m going to stop. I’ll just focus on the tours. I promise.

{Xavier}

Okay. Well, I guess I’ll start listening to this podcast… See what I missed.

[Laughter]

{Callie}

Well, thank you for listening to this Secret of Everwich. Hopefully I can get a statement from Emilia.

[Click]

[secrets-of-everwich]

11-3 Rin’s Final Statement

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

{Callie}

Hello, and welcome to this episode of Secrets of Everwich. I’m here with Rin again, to get her full statement of the case.

{Rin}

Hi.

{Callie}

Can you start at the beginning, and tell me everything that happened up until now?

{Rin}

Okay, I guess. Start of the month, Emilia didn’t come into school. We had a chemistry test that day, and I knew something was up, because I’ll be damned if Em’s ever missed a chem test. She loves chemistry. I think I called her? I don’t remember at this point, to be honest. Either way, I remember being really worried because she didn’t really talk to me that much that day.

The next day was my birthday. Ash surprised me by calling me over to his house, I thought they needed help with something, but then Xavier and Em were there too, and they’d set up a surprise party for me. It was nice. But Em didn’t really talk to me, or anyone else. We then went round to this place-

{Callie}

For the record, we are currently in Everwich Manor. Sorry, continue.

{Rin}

Yeah. Everwich Manor. We went round to Everwich Manor, to see the show tour, because… I don’t really know why Ash wanted to bring me to it, to be honest.

[Laughter]

We were in the queue, and Em really didn’t say anything, didn’t look at us. I noted that she was looking pale, and she just kind of shrugged and said- Oh what did she say? Something like ‘It’s nothing’, or something. I dunno, whatever she said it felt different.

X and Ash walked off, so it was just me and Em. I have to say, it was… Kinda awkward. She didn’t say anything, barely responded to me. I was getting really worried to be honest. It was interesting- You know, you’re really good at the tours.

{Callie}

Oh… Thank you! Continue, continue!

{Rin}

We got to the end of the tour, and we stood around looking for Ash and X, and Ash appeared from somewhere else. I knew something was up. He’s my best friend, I’ve known them since we were kids, I know when something’s up. But he shrugged, and X appeared, and we left to go back to Ash’s place. Well, just me and Ash. Em just kind of disappeared, and X said he had to do a tour.

The next week or so- Few weeks? I don’t remember at this point. This whole month has been… Weird, to be honest. But, I kept seeing Em acting weird. As I said before, she was in the girl’s bathroom a lot working on some kind of experiment. This one girl, Abby, came up to me and that Em was doing some kinda weird chem experiment in the bathroom. I remember running to see what it was, cause I’d been looking for her anyway. She hadn’t been sat with me, Ash and X. If she’s not sat with me and the others, she’s in the chem lab, or the library. But she wasn’t.

I then went to see my grandfather. Well, my dad and Jamie’s mum made me, and my siblings. Jamie was showing off- What was she showing off? Some awful singing or something, and Grandpa took me to the side to show me his old journal. It wasn’t until he said that he knew something was wrong with the town that I started listening. I had a flick through and got to the page about his friends acting weird. I was really shocked, to be honest. It was the same as how Em had been acting.

So, I called Ash and they said that he would get bored, but to tell you, so, you did, and… Well, you’ve got it on tape how that went. I thought everything was fine. Em was acting normal again. I… I thought it was okay.

Then Ash came running, crying. Saying Em and X were going out. They’d been spending a bit more time together than normal, but… It was weird. Normally it’s me coming to Ash in a moment of crisis. I’d never seen him like that. They were… Really upset. I dunno, even I felt annoyed that Em and X were together. Maybe it’s cause they didn’t tell me. So, I told Ash that I’d always be on his side. It was scary, to be honest. The thought our friend group would split that much so close to our exams.

Ash eventually went home, and I woke up to a phone call.

[Rin’s voice sounds like it’s trembling]

Em had…

{Callie}

It’s okay, I know. You don’t need to say.

{Rin}

No, I- I know she’s okay now. [Sniffing] She’d tried to kill the spider. It had got back on her. I don’t even know how. I thought we’d gotten rid of it. I didn’t know it was the spider though.

I dunno, I don’t remember much of what happened next. I just felt so numb. I couldn’t think properly. Jamie’s mum told me to take her to school, but I didn’t even get as far as the playground. I just left her there. It was like my body was moving without me meaning to.

And then Ash was there, and he grounded me. Told me everything was okay. Told me Em was alive. Told me it was the spider again. God, I don’t know where I’d be without Ash. He told me everyone was in Everwich Manor, and that Jamie was in the playpark, she’d been there all day. I felt awful for just leaving her. And then we came back here.

[Rustling]

{Callie}

Thank you for telling me this. It’s really useful, getting a full picture of the ‘case’. If there’s anything else, just let me know, but in the meantime can you go and get X?

{Rin}

Okay.

[Rustling]

{Callie}

Hey, I like your new hair! It really suits you that short.

{Rin}

Oh. Thanks. It was… An accident. I need to get Ash to help me even it out. God, Jamie’s mum’s gonna have a field day telling me about how I’ve ruined my hair again.

{Callie}

It looks nice.

[A pause]

[Door opening]

[Door closing]

I hope Emilia wakes up soon. I’d like to get a statement from her. I hope she’s okay. In the meantime, I’m going to get a statement from X.

[Click]

[secrets-of-everwich]

11-2 Asher’s Final Statement

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

{Callie} Hello, my name is Callie Hewitt, and I’m recording on the 25th October 2021. I’m here with Asher Morris, a regular participant. I’m here for their final statement.

Ash, you explained to me everything that happened very briefly, but I wasn’t recording. Can you repeat it, please? Actually- Start from the beginning. I want a full statement.

{Asher}

Ohh, I think so. Well, okay, starting at the beginning.

It all began on that day Emilia wasn’t in school, which I don’t know how much you’ve heard on the podcast. I had a chemistry test and Emilia normally helps me with chemistry tests because she’s so smart and amazing at chemistry. She wasn’t in that day which was weird because she never takes a day off school unless she’s like really really ill, or Rin said there may have been another reason which was why she was so worried but she didn’t tell me what it was, so I just assumed she was ill.

But, normally she’ll text us and ask us to give her any catch-up work she needs, and I think she just spends the entire day doing the catch-up work, not actually resting, which always got Xavier very annoyed because it says we need to rest when we’re ill. He’s really caring for us like that. Anyway, I had to ask Xavier for help with the Chemistry test, which actually I got 48% on, which wasn’t too bad for me. Rin kept calling Em but she wouldn’t pick up, which was sad.

Anyway, the next day it was Rin’s birthday, and me, X and Em had been planning on taking her to see the show tour here at the manor because we thought it would be fun and Rin likes kinda creepy stuff like that, not as much as you though, but she definitely enjoys them, so we thought that would be a fun birthday present, and Emilia was there but she looked really pale and Rin was very worried about her, but then X took me aside, and… Do I really need to repeat myself for that? I really, really hate spiders…

{Callie} No, it’s okay. I won’t force you to.

{Asher}

Thank you. Anyway, after that I did the statement for you, and then all was fine until a few days later, I got a call from Rin, and… Well we’ve already talked about that. It all seemed to calm down after that until you sent me a message being like ‘Hello, I want you to make another statement pls come around at about 6pm ty’ and then you weren’t there, when I decided to record my own statement because I had no idea what you wanted me specifically for so I thought that if I just left something for you, that would be appreciated, while I was waiting because I am not good at waiting and you hadn’t texted anything but obviously that was when you were in the caves, but I didn’t know that.

Then after that I saw… Well, first I heard then I saw… Emilia and Xavier. It might have recorded on the tape, I don’t know, but they were talking about something, I think they were cooking something? And then…

[Very quietly, almost inaudible]

They kissed.

[Normal volume]

So, I- I ran away, I couldn’t be there anymore, I had to find Rin. And I did, I spoke with her, and she… Helped calm me down. I then went to bed, and woke up to the worst phone call I’ve ever had.

{Callie}

What was it?

{Asher}

Aiden called. On Emilia’s phone, we thought it was Emilia. He called our groupchat. Xavier didn’t pick up. Rin did, I did. He said Emilia was in hospital, and had been since 2am. She’d stabbed herself.

But it’s okay! She’s okay now!

{Callie}

Oh, good. Yeah, you, um… Mentioned earlier… Tell me what happened next.

{Asher}

Rin hung up, and it was just me and Aiden on the phone and he said that he was awake and was playing video games and heard a scream but not a scream from his video game apparently it wasn’t a video game that screamed, so he knew something was up and apparently that got him really worried so he went to the kitchen and there was Emilia lying there she was still kind of awake apparently and he said she said to put this spider corpse he called it in a test tube, so he phoned the emergency services and they took her to hospital, and said that she would be okay, he woke his mum up and put the spider in a test tube and he went to the hospital all night and I was thinking, oh a spider, what kind of spider, because while I really don’t like them, it reminded me of those green spiders from before, and he said it was a green spider.

I’m not normally good at working things out, Rin always says she doesn’t think I have the braincells for that and most of the time I agree, but I just thought, that maybe it was the spider from before, so I went to go and see Xavier because Rin wasn’t picking up, and Xavier was ignoring me and didn’t pick up, so I called you and you were still ignoring me, so I thought, maybe you’re back at home, so I was gonna see if you were in your room, and then I heard you, and you were covered in cobwebs and I told you everything.

[All quotes are acted out very overdramatically, in an over the top voice to mimic Callie and Xavier’s voices]

So then we went to Xavier’s room, and he was there, and he wasn’t doing anything, he was just sat there, and you were like, ‘You lied to me’, and Xavier was like, ‘No I didn’t’, and you were like ‘Yes, your statement, you said there were no spiders. There were so many spiders.’ And Xavier just sat there and then I spotted the spider thing, and it was a struggle but we managed to get it off.

And then we talked to Xavier for a bit and then I remembered about Rin, and so ran to go and find her because she wasn’t picking up her phone and I know Rin when she doesn’t pick up it means she’s really struggling so I went to her home, but I saw Jamie – that’s Rin’s half sister - playing in the playpark, which is weird because she should be at school, so I asked her where Rin was, and she was like ‘Why should I tell you’, and so I had to promise her 2 bags of candy which I really need to buy after this interview because I think Jamie is waiting outside with Rin and so I need to take her to the shops so she can buy some candy and anyway she eventually told me that Rin had walked over to the woods so I ran in to try and find her and I did and she’s okay now, I mean obviously cause she’s right outside this door, and so she grabbed Jamie and we both came back here.

{Callie}

Wow. That was… Very detailed.

{Asher}

Thank you!

{Callie}

Thank you for listening to this Secret of Everwich. Ash, could you ask Rin to come in?

[Click]

[secrets-of-everwich]

11-1 Callie’s Statement

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

{Callie}

Hello, this is Callie Hewitt recording on the 25th October 2021. I’m sorry I couldn’t take you along for the ride. But a lot of things happened, and I have a lot of statements to take.

First of all, my own.

My name is Callie Hewitt, and for the past month I’ve been investigating the secrets of Everwich. I’ve been recording my process on tape, trying to give as much information as possible. But I kept some vital information from you, listener. And I ignored the fact that my episodes kept being corrupted, with a second voice appearing. We’ll get to that later.

When I started this podcast, on the 29th September 2021, I simply stated that I wanted to uncover the secrets of Everwich. Namely, the Everwich Ghost. What I didn’t mention, was that I knew all along. I knew from the beginning who the Everwich Ghost was, and if I hadn’t been so- So stupid, I could have saved everyone.

Charles Florence kept a journal. Kind of- Kind of similar to this, I guess. With his ‘scientific research’ of a weird spider. It ended abruptly, with the last entry being:

‘I feel unwell, but not sick. I fear the end is near. I hear someone arising. I shall return to my thoughts presently.’

It does not, in fact, return to his thoughts. I don’t know exactly what happened to Charles, but I knew about the spider. I knew is was extremely likely Charles was the ghost. And yet, I pretended I didn’t.

Why?

[A pause]

I genuinely have no idea. I guess I wanted to ‘find’ it, and have it be a fun denouement to the podcast, a finale. But as I kept investigating, more and more bad stuff happened, and I kept wanting to go to more and more lengths to find out stuff. I didn’t need to know about the caves, they held absolutely no relevance to anything! But I did. And I went into the caves. Nearly at the cost of my life.

God, I’m so stupid. I didn’t care, pretended not to notice the creepy, glitchy voice at the end of my recordings whenever I listened back a few days later, because it frightened me so much. I could never hear it in real life while recording, which meant someone had tampered with my tapes. I genuinely don’t know why, and after what’s happened with Xavier, Emilia, Rin and Asher, I’m not going to find out.

On that note, these will be the last few episodes of Secrets of Everwich. I’m going to get a final statement from everyone, and that’s it. No more. No more Secrets of Everwich, none. It got me into so much trouble, and I didn’t even gain anything from it.

So, yeah. That’s it. Thanks for listening to this Secret of Everwich. Tune in next time for someone else’s statement, I don’t know who’s yet.

[Click]

[secrets-of-everwich]

10-4 The Lost Episode

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

{Voice}

[Very glitchy]

Tape from- 11th Oct-ber 2-1.

[This recording sounds like it’s being played through a speaker, it keeps glitching out]

{Callie}

Listener, if you’re scared of spiders, I’d advise not listening from this point onwards. If you are tuning out, I thank you very much for listening to this Secret of Everwich, and I don’t blame you for choosing to keep this secret hidden.

{Ash}

I wish I was able to stop listening-

{Rin}

Shut up, and let them speak!

{Callie}

The drawing depicts a small spider, to scale. This is apparently drawn by ‘Anna’, no last name provided. The spider has a green abdomen, with the rest of its body black. It doesn’t have a web producer, instead it has very small, and sharp pincers.

There’s an accompanying bit of information:

‘A parasite. We are dubbing it ‘Cimex Toxissimus’, after the Latin for ‘bug’ and ‘very toxic’. I do not think this is proper Latin, but neither Jill, nor Anna mind.

‘Starting from the head. Its sharp pincers are used to inject a toxin into the host’s nervous system, causing it to move the desired muscles for the parasite’s needs. From what we’ve seen, it lives on the host’s neck, just under the hairline.

‘We don’t know much else about them, other than it takes about a month for an arachnid to be in full control of the host. After the month, it seems to be hard for the host to recover their motor functions if they are saved.

‘I’m sorry to say this happened to Jill and Harvey. What is more, the fabled Everwich Ghost is real, and seems to target those who have links to the Cimex Toxissimus, as it successfully murdered Harvey, and nearly managed to get Jill too, had I not ran over to where she was after finding out about Harvey.’

{Rin}

I can’t believe that thing was on Em.

{Callie}

Do you two wanna tell me, and the record, what happened when you got to Em’s house?

{Rin}

Yeah.

[A pause]

Ash?

{Ash}

Hm? What? I zoned out because that was a lot of info about something I really hate.

{Callie}

Do you want to tell me and the record about what happened when you got to Em’s house?

{Ash}

Yes! Rin can start, though.

{Rin}

So, I’d been to see you, obviously, and I dunno. Something clicked in my brain. I knew something was up, I could feel it. You thought something was wrong too, so I needed to go and help her. I called up X and Ash on the way-

{Ash}

Yeah, she called us both up, saying ‘Hi, no time to talk, come and meet me at Em’s, it’s urgent’ and then hung up which got both me and X very very worried and so I cycled to Em’s house, and X ran over, you know he was really out of breath and annoyed that this hadn’t happened in 2 months’ time when he’d have been able to drive over-

{Rin} Anyway. We got outside Em’s house, and I banged on the door, and Aiden answered. He let us in, and we went upstairs. By then, I was starting to doubt myself. If I was wrong, I’d just barged into her room, pulled X and Ash away from whatever they’d been doing.

But, I saw it. Very briefly. Sitting there on her neck. She whipped around when we walked in, but I’m sure I saw it. So I showed the other three the book, and-

{Ash}

I’ve never seen Em shoot down an idea so quickly! It was weird.

{Rin}

So I told her simply to prove it. Normally she’d have thought it a bit odd, but gone along with it, but she was absolutely resolute.

{Ash}

Anyway long story short she was being possessed by that thing, and we got it off her and it was a big struggle but she’s okay now and it was lucky Aiden was yelling with his mum so nobody could hear Em’s shouts and then she had to go eat food so we all left because X really had to go to work or he’d get in trouble and we made sure that the thingy was trapped in a test tube!

{Rin}

Em wanted to do some experiments on it.

{Ash}

Oh yeah then there was that weird crash outside Em’s window but X said there wasn’t anything there so it’s ok.

{Rin}

Probably a fox.

{Callie}

Let’s hope it wasn’t the Everwich Ghost!

{Rin}

Don’t joke about that.

[A pause]

{Callie}

Well, that’s probably as much information as you’re gonna get today, so I thank you so much for listening to this Secret of Everwich if you stayed.

{Rin} Bye.

{Ash}

Byeeee!

[Click]

[secrets-of-everwich]

10-3 Out of the Caves

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

{Callie}

[Echos reverberate around the walls]

[Their voice sounds panicked, though she seems to be attempting to keep it steady]

Hello, this is Callie Hewitt, and I genuinely have no idea when I’m recording this. For purposes of the record, however, let’s say it’s still 24th October 2021. I’m still lost in the caves.

I’m lost in the caves, and my phone battery ran out after I tried to phone Xavier multiple times. He wouldn’t pick up. He never picks up my phone calls…

I’m now using my second torch, because everything else ran out of battery. It’s been a while. I’ve eaten most of my emergency food, and I’m sure I’ve been wandering in circles.

I tried to hold off talking into this recorder, because I don’t want this to run out of battery too. Or tape. But, it’s been a while, and I need company. Even if it’s my own.

[Footsteps underlie recording]

I left the trapdoor closed. I left it closed in the graveyard. How stupid am I? I should have just left it open, Bert would have noticed it was open! I can’t- I can’t find my way out, and if I can’t find my way out, that means I’m going to die in here.

I know people say to stay where you are, but I’ve tried that. I tried it for at least half an hour, phoning Xavier, then my parents, then Xavier again, then my parents again, then Xavier twice, then I even tried phoning Asher, but he wouldn’t respond too! I tried Xavier yet again, but he still wouldn’t pick up. I was about to try Rin, but then my phone ran out of battery. I swear I’d charged it before I left.

[Footsteps get quicker]

The caves circle round a lot, right? So, surely, if I keep walking I should find an exit, somewhere. Somewhere. I’m sure. I hope.

[Footsteps stop]

[Echoes get smaller, but still present]

Oh. Oh, I know where I am.

Wine barrels, 5 different exits into the caves. Boarded up door. Oh my god, wait, no that’s horrifying- That’s the thing, the thing Asher found!

[Sounds of running]

I need to get up these stairs, I need someone to hear me, I won’t be stuck here, I won’t disappear, I won’t!

[Crash]

[Sounds of running stops]

[A pause]

Ow…

Ew, ew, ew, get off me, get off me, you are not friendly spiders.

[Sounds of running again]

I’ll deal with that later, I’ll deal with a scratch later, I just need to get out, I need to-

[Banging]

[Loudly]

Hello? Hello, is anyone there? Anyone? Please- Please, help-

[Quieter, banging slows down]

Please- Anyone-

[Silence]

[Sounds of sobbing]

I’m so stupid. I’m so, so stupid. I shouldn’t have come down here, what did I even find that I didn’t already know. I knew about the arachnids, I knew about them from the start. I knew about Charles, I knew about what the big secret of Everwich was.

[Silence, other than sounds of sobbing]

[A pause, sobbing stops]

[Sounds of a lock opening]

[Sounds of a door opening]

Hello? Who’s there, oh my god thank you for letting me out, thank you- Hello?

[A pause]

[Silence]

[Slow footsteps]

How-

Questions later, run now.

[Sounds of a door closing]

[Sounds of a lock closing]

[Silence]

Well, here I am, back home. Everwich manor. It’s already morning, I can see the light. Did- Did Xavier not notice I was gone?

[Sounds of faint footsteps running]

{Asher}

[Faintly]

Callie! Callie, it’s an emergency, please stop ignoring your phone!

{Callie}

[Loudly]

Asher, I’m over here!

[Footsteps get louder]

{Asher}

[Growing louder]

Okay there’s a bit of a problem and I need your help to sort it- Whoa-

[Footsteps stop]

Why are you covered in dirt and cobwebs and have very ripped tights and are bleeding- WAIT WHY ARE YOU BLEEDING?

{Callie}

Um. Caves. I’ll explain later, what’s the problem?

{Asher}

Okay so Emilia was acting strange again and then I saw her and Xavier kissing yesterday because I came to chat with you like you asked me to but you weren’t there so I recorded a fun little statement because I thought why not since I was there and Xavier and Emilia were kissing when they got home and it was disgusting and I hated them and ran to Rin and then at like 2am last night apparently Em got really injured like she had to go into hospital and Aiden was calling us as soon as we awoke I think he actually woke Rin up but Xavier didn’t respond to the call and Aiden said there was a weird spider corpse but by that point Rin had already left the call because she was so worried about Emilia and so it was just me Aiden was saying that to so I thought, oh gosh, what if that’s the spider thing, well I’ve got to check because if it is maybe it wasn’t Xavier kissing Emilia then maybe me and Xavier can be together and so I came straight here.

[Silence]

{Callie}

Hold on, that’s a lot to process… What?!

[Click]