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taranida · 7 months ago

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The faces of the Dark Presence

I have written a theory that explains the Bright Presence, obviously, there must be a theory about the Dark one. What do we know about its history, what happened to it after the Clicker “filled its heart with light,” why Taken are so different across the games and what is going on in the second game. Again, I will address the Presences as “it” as well as “she/he” when it suits my needs, obviously, both of them are “it”, for there is no indication that the gender for them is a thing.

Let’s begin from the short introduction to the Dark Presence’s origin and nature. For those who are familiar with the Bright Presence theory, yes, the first part will be similar, since the whole argument was built on the Dark Presence’s dialog in the first place, but with a lot of changes.

Obviously, we have no knowledge about the origin of the Presences and the Dark Place itself, except for it all being in Ahti’s bucket, but we at least have some information to help us understand their nature and what actually hides beneath the waves of Cauldron Lake.

Randolph, the trailer park manager has this to say about it:

“The Indians thought the lake was a doorway to the underworld.”

Alan in the notes of his poem from Samantha’s shoebox, expands on this from his insider perspective:

"E can't see it. He's view is too narrow, limited. It's not a lake, it's an ocean, darkness before the act of creation, before the Big Bang, darkness upon the face of the deep, upon the face of the waters, before light, before the primeval atom, before the word, before THE POEM. I can be a creator, the creator. It has happened before, and it will happen again, many times."

The Dark Place and its entities are old, tremendously old. The Dark Presence spells it for us in the final confrontation in the first game:

“I’m much older than you. Older than your first work of art.”

She’s talking to Alan, of course, but it is pointless to compare this entity with him, he’s 31-33 (depends on what you ask: the guide that puts his age at 31 in 2010, or the memorial statue, that has his year of birth as 1977), and the Dark Presence was kicking long before his birth, as we know from Thomas’ story and the beliefs of the locals. She’s talking about humanity, about our first primitive work of art. Which puts her at least at around 50 thousand years old, plus this vague “much older than you”, which will put her at an even greater age, depending on what she means by that — where her definition of “you” starts. I mean, we talking hundreds of thousands of years now or even millions; what is evolution for her, really? She finishes with a promise to find someone else to dream her free, so her definition of humanity might do something with the first glimpse of imagination. And that is hardly something that we can establish properly. The Dark Presence might’ve been “born” with the Dark Place, or might’ve been “created” later.

So, what are the Presences? This House of Dreams gives the explanation about the Dark Place as well as its inhabitants:

In the end, he finally understood what he had to do, finally understood the true nature of the dark place that was hidden under the waves of the lake where they lived. The lake was an opening to dark place that was much bigger than the lake itself, in fact, much bigger than the whole universe we live in. He wrote one last poem, his masterpiece, a secret poem, a hidden poem, a poem that’s not among the poems I’ve found in the shoebox. And he took his girlfriend for one last dive. Together they sank down into the depths, far deeper than he had ever dived before. In the dream, I was there, diving with them. And from the depths, something, or some things, surged up to meet them. Things of darkness, but bright things of light as well. The diver explained that these things, or these presences, were forever fighting a war between the forces of light and darkness. A dark presence had taken over his girlfriend, and a bright presence now came to take over him. And he surrendered his body to it, but at the same time, the essence of who he was kept diving deeper, ever deeper, holding the essence of his girlfriend (their spirits? their souls?). The diver (or what was left of him, his true self) spoke the words of his secret poem. The poem described a new world, an island in this sea of darkness, a safe haven, a paradise, a “baby” universe. The nature of the dark place was such that anything dreamed up there, any dream or a work of art, would come true, just as true as anything in our world can be. And the poem came true and the essence of the diver and the essence of his girlfriend escaped from the darkness and disappeared into this new world to live there happily ever after; while their shapes, his now taken over by a bright presence, as his girlfriend’s had been taken over by a dark presence, surged up, through the opening in the lake to our world, to continue their battle there.

From this, aside from what’s spelled there, we can also take two important things: the Dark Presence might be the “evils of the world”, but the Dark Place is not — it is a home for the bright things of light as well and can create new universes for the sole purpose of someone living there happily, it’s impartial in its nature and grants wishes good and bad; and the Dark Presence is not the only dark creature living there, not even necessarily the biggest one of them.

Let’s expand on this a bit more, so we are on the same page. The Dark Place is, indeed, impartial and not good or evil by its nature, yet it’s not suited for humans:

We are built differently from all other habitants; maybe, we are more complex? Not ideas, but the whole package of ideas we have and create, rights and wrongs, emotions and perceptions, that’s why humans can dream anything in the Dark Place and the Dark Place will deliver. Different characters, who ended up in the Dark Place, show different ways humans can exist there: some make rules and hoops for themselves; some excitedly explore and observe; some just exist there, making maps and humming songs; some ascend and manage to make the Dark Place do their bidding to mislead and help someone else in ascension.

And the creatures there are not limited to the two Presences and their minions.

It even has a fauna! I know it’s irrelevant, but curious nonetheless:

Mr. Scratch also talks about the populace of the Dark Place and their goals (from his side, of course):

“And there’s so much darkness out there. It goes deep, and the thing that live in it are vast. Big bastards! They don’t mind getting a little bit of elbow room. All that chaos and madness, it doesn’t really do that much down there. It’s like pouring a glass of water into the ocean, right? But up here… Yeah, you can really make an impact. All they need is someone to bring them all the way though.”

Alan through Zane’s notes in the cabin expands on it further:

“Anything outside of writing is a struggle. I feel ill. I managed to make my way downstairs. There’s a shoebox filled with books and papers by Thomas Zane. It’s very hard to focus but I managed to read some of it. He’s a poet and a good one. He writes of muses and creators, summoning fabulous things from a magic lake, using its power to shape the world, of a realm of gods and dreams, and demons, dark things that wait for a chance to slip through, wearing the flesh of men as disguise. Zane writes about himself, his girlfriend being taken over by a Dark Presence, about growing scared of the lake. Zane believes it’s a mirror to the gaping void of darkness above, where some Lovecraftian presence lurks. I crawled back upstairs. I’ll borrow these things for my story. They ring true. They fit.”

Alright, as I believe, the shoebox trick was added into Zane’s story by Alan, and also the whole “writing Thomas and Barbara out of reality” was him as well, but it doesn’t mean that all the contents were written by Alan; after all, in This House of Dreams we have two sets of poems — one by Thomas and another by Alan. It also fits into the Bright Presence’s story he showed Samantha, his own words in-game and what Mr. Scratch tells us about the Dark Place. So, I will count this information as the truth Alan borrowed, not as something borrowed becoming the truth. Although, it’s really exhausting — separating what Alan wrote into reality and what was the reality before Alan started to tinker with it.

Now we have a bit of an understanding of what the Presences are, where did they come from and what do they want. Let’s summarise: they are fighting an eternal war of light versus dark in the enormous, if not infinite, realm that has an opening into our world through Caldron Lake (among other places). They are insanely old and are not against taking humans faces to surge up. They are also drawn to our world, might be because of human’s ability to create something from nothing with just dreams or works of art; but most likely because the Dark Place is seen as a prison by them (the latter is also hinted at in the Dark Presence’s promise to find some who will dream her free; and in the Bright Presence’s acknowledgement, that he wasn’t able to find a way to leave the Dark Place for good; Mr. Scratch’s words about bringing “the big bastards” up here to make an impact). Although, the darkness and its minions are much more proactive when it comes to “find someone to dream them free”, as we see with the Dark Presence, Thomas’ story and Mr. Scratch. When both Presences in the bodies of Thomas and Barbara got out of the lake someone or something did put them back; the boys of OGoA (just a wild guess, there is only one thing that can tie them up to events of 1970 — the name of their first album, according to the now-dead site, was “The Memory of the Slaughter” and the release date is 1971)? The whole “we have bodies now, hell yeah” thing ended as they exhausted the freeing power of having flesh, but had no art, no story to sustain them being out of the Dark Place? Maybe this freeing power was exhausted in their clashing with no winner and they both retreated back. However it happened, back into the lake they went.

After that the story of the Dark Presence is pretty eventful:

We have her fighting with the boys of OGoA in 1976 and 1978, and them also keeping her always near. As Odin and Tor tell us:

“She’s been using you, boy. And you let her. You went and opened the door for her, didn’t you?” “Now now, it was already open a crack. And whose fault is that? We’re morally corrupt, disease-ridden, old, and stupid.” “Doesn’t mean he had to open it all the way, goddammit!” “Ahh, pfah.” “So tired...built the farm close to the lake. A place of power.” “We had parties there, man. You...you should go there and have a party.”

And, taking Cynthia’s words, we can assume, they weren’t the only ones:

“I have been preparing for these times. The dark tides. You have found my caches, haven’t you? You can see the signs? Very few people can. […] We have both been touched by the darkness, young man. He saved us both with light. But the darkness stays with you, leaves a stain.”

This is an excerpt from The Alan Wake Files, from the “Bright Falls: A History” book:

“It is unknown whether these strange lights are related to the more recent rumors of illuminated messages found in the nooks and crannies around Bright Falls. None have ever been photographed, but multiple reports from disparate sources certainly point to a trend. Local law enforcement seemed less enthusiastic about these reports. “We’ve never caught anybody at it,” said our same anonymous source, “but you can bet that if we do, we’ll give these kids a little talking to. We’ve got our eye out for any kind of mischief.” A survey of local teens produced blanket denials of vandalism, along with several shaky reports of sightings. “There were messages,” said one young woman. “I haven’t seen them myself, but my boyfriend’s cousin did and so has one of my sister’s friends. All different messages, too. Strange things, like, ‘Walk in Light’ and these odd symbols and arrows. Stuff like that.” Despite the lack of photographic evidence, a few artists’ renderings of the strange messages have been recreated with the assistance of the alleged witnesses. A common thread that gives the story some credibility is that all witnesses have described the symbol of a torch alongside the bizarre messages.”

And the illustration for this bit is this:

So, there were more people touched by darkness to have the ability to see Cynthia’s magic paint. Which is to be expected, as I noted, the Dark Presence is very proactive when it comes to interacting with humans.

Now, in the second game we have a peculiar detail: the newspapers from 2010, reporting on the “Chaos at Cauldron Lake” dated 18th July:

It might be nothing, but it strangely matches how the Dark Presence was using Taken before Thomas wrote Barbara back. And the Bright Falls mini-series, where the protagonist, Jake, is becoming Taken in the few days he spends in the town. So, the question here: how comes we have this manuscript?

Loops, of course! The way the Dark Presence is in the first game is the result of Alan writing and rewriting reality to make the story into what we see: he doesn’t arrive by car at night in the driver seat, with Alice as a passenger, as it was in the Bright Falls mini-series, and there are no Taken, because he retroactively wrote the Dark Presence being asleep before he showed up. This way he can weaken her and give himself a fighting chance.

Now let’s take a look at the event of the first game. In the “missing” week the Dark Presence is being the editor for Alan, making him write her free, using Alice as bait. But as much as Alan claims:

“But it seems I have an imaginary editor to help me. She’s an old woman in a funeral dress. I call her Barbara Jagger. She’s very strict. I’m writing faster and faster. My manuscript is being heavily revised. The edits are getting very aggressive and each day there’s less of me and more of her.”

She doesn’t notice when Alan starts to write himself into the story or summoning the Bright Presence to set him free. The Dark Presence doesn’t have the same intelligence as we do, doesn’t have much imagination, thinks differently. Her power grows in the story? Good. Writer does something else? No matter, her power grows in the story anyway. She’s tunnel-visioning her freedom or doesn’t understand where the creative process necessities end and Alan’s plotting starts. The Dark Presence even allows him to write manuscripts about her weaknesses and set-backs.

But let’s be fair, for the Dark Presence Alan might be the first to pull this off. We know only about how Thomas and the boys fought her and it’s nothing like with Alan, whom she held hostage. Her experience with humans and this kind of trickery can be very limited; and knowledge is power.

For the rest of the game she’s bound by the story and acts true to herself, but always loses. Because it was written. The Dark Presence is controlled by the power of the Dark Place that makes Alan’s writing into reality. Basically, she’s controlled by Alan.

At the end, when Alan jumps into the lake there is a brief moment, I believe, that was not necessarily written, but controlled by the dreaming and the power of the Clicker. In the New York flat and when the Bright Presence gave instruction of “fill its heart with light”, as well as the appearance of Mr. Scratch. The last one is a wild card; I can’t say for sure if he’s the Barbara’s Dark Presence’s minion or an agent of another dark being. He might as well be the Barbara’s Dark Presence’s yet another desperate attempt to stop Alan, and what we learn about him in AWAN is written by Alan himself, because, in fact, he has no idea of Mr. Scratch’s goals, but needs the grandiose one to make him the herald of darkness. And what herald of darkness he’d make if he wouldn’t be set on bringing the darkness into the world and just, you know, chill, killing right and left to his own enjoyment and harass Alan in the Dark Place?

But I digress. Returning to the ending of the game: judging by the text we need to burn with light, Alan is projecting himself to find the cabin, while he already is in the cabin, writing this journey. Ideas swirling around: phones, birds, shopping cards, but also dark ideas of Alice leaving him or them becoming like Barbara and Thomas. Alan pushes forward and there she stands: the Dark Presence, trapped in her own place of power, unable to even run or put up a fight. She says her last words:

“Now you will never get her back. I’m much older that you. Older than your first work of art. I will find a new face to wear. Someone else to dream me free.”

Then lets Alan insert the Clicker into her chest and just dies.

Well, “dies” is a very strong word for what happened; the Dark Presence as we knew her in the first game is no more, but the power and lingering goals, the essence of the entity, if you will, remain — in Alan. There are many clues. In The Signal DLC’s TV Alan says:

“The darkness wasn’t so bad. It was in him. he felt it. He knew the voice spoke the truth.”

And when we destroy his TVs with light, he screams “it burns!” and then, at the very end — “too loud. Too loud! I can’t think! It’s in my brain!” In The Writer DLC Alan-in-the-cabin keeps acting as the Dark Presence: sending Taken after his rational part, making Darknados and all those lovely things that launch themselves at you. The argument might be made that Alan just uses what he remembers, and it would be more plausible at the time of the DLCs. But, luckily, we have the second game.

But before we talk about it, we need to bring AW1 and AWAN together, because there we have two entities from the Dark Place, who have at least some agency in the constrains of the story, and their MO has similarities. The Taken are, maybe varying with Mr. Scratch’s creations being much more diverse, but have common things: they are shielded with darkness all over and, when killed, they dissipate in bright sparks. In AWAN we also have different, improved birds, the spiders are mostly not directly controlled by Mr. Scratch himself and good old poltergeists.

We have none of that in the second game. The rules are completely changed and Alan’s face is the face of the Dark Presence, that he’s calling (I’m sure in the loving memory) “Scratch”. Scratch in the second game is not Mr. Scratch from AWAN, they are not the same entity; aside from the obvious differences in their behaviour and demeanour, there is this little thing — Mr. Scratch, sadly, is utterly unalive, dead. He’s no more. So, the Dark Presence is a part of Alan; just like it was in the DLCs for the first game. Scratch is what remained of the Barbara’s Dark Presence, shaped by Alan’s mind — the result of Alan merging with the sheer force of the Dark Presence. His true dark half.

Scratch in the second game creates different Taken, who are not shielded by darkness all over; there are no birds or spiders, but there are wolfs; the poltergeists are abandoned for the walls of darkness with a suggestive “core”, where you need to burn it. And he’s kinda in love with the colour red — taking ideas from Hiss much? The difference in what we face in the first games and the second is stunning.

We also have a brilliant opportunity to look into the mind of the Taken: with Nightingale’s segment and with manuscript pages. In the first game we have a few pages that describe how people were becoming Taken; for all of them it was a horrible experience, for those, touched by darkness as well: we see that Rose is screaming inside in terror as she does what the Barbara’s Dark Presence told her to, same as Serena Valdivia in AWAN — while she flirts with Mr. Scratch, she’s screaming deep inside in horror. The last one of the Taken of, let’s say, first generation, that we see is Nightingale. First, he says that he’s lost and it’s dark, he needs someone to show him something. Then, as we walk him towards the Bookers, he says “please… can you hear me?” and then slowly the voices start to appear. After the first Scratch’s jumpscare, he sobs and starts to hear his own taken-voicelines. What do the Bookers tell about that encounter? “He was acting crazy, shouting weird shit at us”, thinking that he must have been on something. We never hear him shouting, because we are inside of his head, where he’s lost, confused and terrified, the shouts come from the outside, quiet and disturbing, he only breathes in distress. He even sees the Cult of the Tree as the Taken, when in fact, he’s the one with distorted voice and, probably, covered in shadows, not the cultists. For all we know, the Taken of the first generation were not aware of their own actions and suffering inside. What about the ones, that are taken by Scratch? We have few examples, but all of them are quite different from the first games: for Emmett Elwood it is a satisfying experience, for Gail Borrows, even if he knew he was dying, it felt good, he worshiped the darkness and even made a sacrifice to it in blood, Anna was overcame by vertigo, Thornton and Mulligan gave in to their guilt. Cynthia is the only person, whose corruption was violent, but after that?

“Cynthia Weaver smiled. Lost without her lantern? Nonsense. Cynthia felt giddy as a young girl in love. […] She sank into dark water. Into Tom.”

Some of these were edited by Alan, but some — not. Constrained by the story or not, Scratch tends to make Taken differently; even when he rails them up for the fight, they are filled with violent glee. It goes very well with what we see after he makes his story come true.

Let’s talk about what exactly happens when Scratch gets his hands on the Clicker. Bright Falls welcomes Alan with the Deerfest, sunny and happy day, revolving around the “Return” and how good it is. The Dark Presence in the first game wanted to take over the world, too, but, boy, she would probably cringe so hard she wanted twisted and evil things, as Mr. Scratch said about other dark presences, not this eternal celebration of Alan Wake! Even Alan is in awe, claiming this is not what he expected.

But, really, he is so clueless. He treats Scratch as the Barbara’s Dark Presence, but they are different to the core. The Barbara’s Dark Presence was in possession of a body with no soul, the shell of Barbara Jagger, taking from her only this much; Scratch is not only sharing the body with Alan, who is very present and aware (at times), but is entangled with his very being. The Barbara’s Dark Presence had agency and her own goals; Scratch, still being the Dark Presence, has an echo of that, but twisted by Alan, fed on his insecurities, fears and desires. And, most importantly, the Barbara’s Dark Presence needed someone to dream her free; Scratch, being so tightly connected with Alan, can dream himself free just fine: he wrote the first draft of Return after all. And the rules for changing reality are pretty clear:

Scratch is capable of performing a genuine act of creation; something, that was not available to the Barbara’s Dark Presence. “While the god is asleep, the devil rewrites reality” — one of the echoes, that describes exactly what happens with Alan and Scratch in the Dark Place. If Alan is not in the driver’s seat, Scratch takes over, benefiting from this tight connection greatly.

With all this said, Scratch is still the Dark Presence: he has all the powers of the Dark Presence, hunts Alan, can possess other people, create Taken, send Taken from the lake to retrieve the Clicker, turn into a mini Darknado, and wants to take over the world. But he’s sort of the next evolution: the essence of the entity, entirely alien to us, learnt humanity in its own twisted way. Alan notices that Scratch has an insecure need for fame and praise and questions if it was drawn from his own psyche. And it was. More so, the clinginess is from him as well: as Alan is lost without Alice, Scratch is lost without Alan. His lines during the chase in the Wellness Center are that of a puppy:

You are home! We should be one! We belong together! Welcome me back home! We can have this! Happy ending! We are the heart! We are one! Our story! Our ending! Our book! We made this! Everyone loves us! We won! Everything revolves around us! Fame! Worship! Alice!

And in the writer’s room Scratch is gladly jumping into Alan’s head at the first invitation “come home” (welcome me back home).

In the end, the Dark Presence, actually fulfilled its promise: it found a new face to “wear” and someone to dream it free. Only not someone “else”, it was freed from the Dark Place by Alan, yet the freedom came with a cost. I will not dive into the ending of the Final Draft here, but I believe the Dark Presence is still inside Alan, it’s just balanced with the light (or the Bright Presence, hmm?). It’s not a demon anymore, not an entity, Alan puts all the blame for any wrongs — his or not his — onto, it’s an essence, a power, a shadowy flicker in the corner of an eye, not real enough to properly exist, but accepted and merged with Alan too much to fade away completely. Back to the beginning, to the manuscript from 2010.

In the end, it's never just the light you need When balance slays the demon, you'll find peace In the end, it's never just the dark you seek When balance slays the demon, you'll find peace

#alan wake #alan wake 2 #alan wake game #alan wake ii #alan wake remastered #rcu theory #remedy connected universe #remedy entertainment #remedy games #the dark presence #the bright presence #barbara jagger #mr scratch #mr. scratch #scratch #alan wake's american nightmare #awan

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the-hidden-writer · 5 months ago

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A Piece of True Fiction: Chapter 17

An Alan Wake 2 fic. Spoilers for Alan Wake 2!

Summary: Aleksi Kesä manages to slip out of the spiral and film he was trapped in.

Saga Anderson, caught in the middle of Wake's horror story, finds a man that looks identical to her partner in the middle of the woods. He's lost, confused, and only seems to speak Finnish. Saga has to try and uncover the truth as well as trying to save her family. Where did he come from? How did he get here?

And where's her Casey?

Chapter Summary: Saga follows instructions. Chapter CW: knives, stabbing Words: 4,202 AO3 Link: [Here!] [First part] [Previous part] [Next part]

A Piece of True Fiction

Chapter 17: The Ritual

With the roads clear at such an early hour combined with Estevez’s strategically-reckless driving, they manage to make it all the way to Watery before Aleksi starts to stir.

When he does, Saga shares a look with Agent Young. They’re still a few minutes away from Coffee World, let alone the time it would take to transport Kesä to the well by foot, meaning that it’s only a matter of time before they’ll need to start dealing with an awake, coherent Kesä.

(The word victim comes to Saga’s mind. She tries to shake it away, but it lingers like a bad taste in the back of her brain.)

Young pulls out a packaged needle and gestures with it toward Kesä. Saga shakes her head. Despite receiving medical training, she’s no nurse and doesn’t know the full ins and outs of administering a second dose of ketamine so close to the first. Not only that, but Ilmo had said that Kesä would need to be alive for the ritual to work. Would being unconscious make a difference? She doesn’t want to take that risk. Their lives may just be more difficult when trying to carve the heart out.

The thought of actually carrying out the ritual makes her consider Aleksi again. His eyes are still shut and his head shifts ever so slightly, as if having a bad dream. The back of the FBC truck has two benches on either side facing each other, military-style. Young had offered to sit with (and hold) Kesä due to Saga’s bad arm. Saga was grateful for and had accepted the offer, but having to sit there staring Kesä’s unconscious body head-on ended up being highly unsettling. Especially since the sight of him sitting up with his head hanging near his chest reminds her too much of that strange film in the nursing home basement. It’s an unwelcome distraction.

When Aleksi had initially slipped under, she’d been struck with the idea of removing some of his clothing to try and make the ritual more efficient. Her conscience had quickly shut that thought down. She’s aware that it’s pretty hypocritical to draw the line at undressing someone without consent while also planning to cut their heart out, but there are some morals that she can’t shake even in the most desperate of situations.

Stranger still, she feels concerned that she’d even had that thought in the first place, because she’s so strongly against it. It had almost felt foreign, like an excited whisper in her ear. Drug him. Undress him. Steal his heart. Bring me back.

She doubles down on her stance. She’s not that sort of person. She doesn’t want to do this and is only doing it for Casey’s sake. Ilmo can do what he must and she will only assist where necessary, if necessary.

Aleksi lets out a whimper in his slumber and Saga momentarily rethinks everything.

Is this really the only way to bring Casey back? The initial panic about running out of time had made her rush into the idea of this ritual without properly discussing options with anyone. She’d normally discuss them with Casey, but…

She tries to imagine what Casey would say in this situation.

Don’t bother, Anderson. I’ll be fine, I’ve gotten out of worse scrapes. You go save that daughter of yours.

Nope. She tries again.

That’s a lot of faith you’re putting in Wake. Personally, I don’t trust that bastard one bit. Just because he spelled things out for you doesn’t mean he’s telling the truth. Are you even sure it was him?

The thought gives Saga pause. The truth is, she doesn’t have any evidence that the man claiming to be Alan Wake was actually Alan Wake. But the way the surface-Alan had described having doppelgängers, and the fact that she’s been seeing a version of him in the Overlaps, not to mention Scratch being still at large… combined it makes stuck-Alan’s explanation more viable. Plus, she’d since seen evidence that he’d been telling the truth, such as Kesä being friends with someone from Bright Falls, someone who she’s almost certain Casey has never met, and the film in the nursing home basement, one that she’s convinced displayed Casey’s predicament in the Dark Place like stuck-Alan’s description.

But still…

Clutching the bench for stability, she enters her Mind Place. There are so many clues waiting to be put together, so many more avenues she could go down with her deductions, she just doesn’t have the time right now. She ignores it all and heads straight to the locked door. She knocks firmly three times.

“Wake?”

No response. It was wishful thinking, anyways. Even so, she tries to leave a message in the low chance that it could work in that way.

“We’re almost at the well. Everything’s ready. If you’re still with Casey, tell him he’ll be out soon. I’m coming for him.”

She waits a minute in case something changes. Nothing does Saga returns to reality moments before they arrive at the trailer park.

“We’re here,” Estevez announces from out front, and Saga cringes when Aleksi’s breath hitches from the volume of her voice. Everyone had been silent for the entire journey both for fear of agitating Kesä, but also just because the tension of the situation was so palpable that nobody really knew how to fill the silence. Even Ilmo, to Saga’s surprise, hasn’t uttered a single word. She’d been expecting him to have questions, or even to protest more about the situation, but he’s been unusually quiet and complacent. Maybe the tension has gotten to him too.

The engine is switched off and everyone rushes into action. Estevez opens the back, letting Saga and Young out. When Young scoops Kesä into his arms bridal-style, the man mumbles incoherently and shifts his body in a subconscious protest. Though his eyes are still closed, Saga realizes that the minutes they had left have turned to seconds.

She also quickly realizes that Estevez can’t run because of her bad leg. She has a split-second decision to make: have everyone run ahead and leave Estevez behind, or travel slower, sticking together but also risking Aleksi waking up.

Saga chooses the latter, slipping an arm around Estevez for support. Her reasoning is admittedly a little selfish. Though she’s sure Estevez would be able to hold her own, she doesn’t want the additional burden of a lost life on her shoulders in this Taken-infested forest. Estevez tries to shrug her off at first, then quickly gives in and shoots her a grateful look.

Acting as Estevez’s crutch, Saga leads everyone into the park, all while Kesä becomes more and more restless. Every time she turns her head to check, she sees Young’s increasing struggle to hold him. Kesä twists in discomfort and his mumbling becomes louder and more frequent. Saga focuses on reaching their destination.

And then, with the well just thirty or so feet away, Young lets out a panicked yelp when Aleksi screams.

Saga releases Estevez and turns around to see Kesä, eyes now open, hyperventilating and thrashing against Young’s grip. Young tries his best to keep hold of him, but Aleksi writhes and lashes out with his cuffed hands until one wild, lucky swing catches Young in the nose, making the agent drop him with a loud exclamation. “Fuck!”

Aleksi grunts as he hits the ground and makes no initial move to get up, still clearly disoriented and not fully aware of his surroundings. Saga, on autopilot, leaps forward to pin him down while Young recovers from the blow.

She looks to Ilmo, who’s staring at Huotari Well in the distance. “Can't we just do it here?”

“Not here, it's too far,” Ilmo responds. Then he pulls his eyes away from the well, turns toward Estevez, and holds out his bound wrists. “It’ll be a lot easier if we drag him. Let me help, I've done this before, I know what I’m doing.”

Estevez hesitates, looking to Saga for her opinion. Saga is too busy trying to hold down a distraught Aleksi to provide a proper response.

In the end, Estevez relents and digs in her pockets for the keys. “Alright. Come here.”

Ilmo steps forward and allows Estevez to remove his handcuffs. As she does, he gestures his head toward Kesä. “He’ll be easier to drag if you undo his as well. Didn't you say you had more of your folks here?”

As if on cue, a rustling sound fills the air and Saga spots a figure jogging toward them. She experiences a spike of fear before she recognizes the man as Agent Miller, who approaches them with the two other more injured agents trailing behind.

“Ma’am!”

Saga doesn't miss the visible relief on Estevez’s face as she greets her agents, immediately slipping back into her role as leader.

“Where’s the container?”

“In the warehouse yard,” Miller answers. “It’s just over there, not far from the well.”

“You didn't touch the float, right?”

Ilmo receives a glare from both FBC agents.

“You go prime the power cores,” Estevez instructs her agents, “we’ll bring the entity there. We aren’t entirely sure what it’s capable of.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“You’ll help?” she adds to Ilmo.

Ilmo makes an expression that is close to a smile, but lacks any semblance of humor. His eyes remain cold. “It’s what I’m here for.”

“...I’ll take that as a yes.”

Estevez moves closer to where Saga has resorted to unashamedly sitting on Kesä’s chest. She holds out the handcuff key and seems unable to crouch or squat due to her leg, so instead she awkwardly leans forward until her hands are in reach of Kesä’s. Saga adjusts her own position to make it work.

“We take an arm each,” Ilmo says to Agent Young, whose mouth is streaked with red from the blood flowing from his nose. If Ilmo has any remorse for the initial injury, he displays none of it in this moment. “Drag him backward while he’s weak. Got that?”

Young can’t do much more than nod (causing droplets of blood to fall to the ground).

Once Kesä’s cuffs are undone, he starts to scratch and claw at Saga, his arms flailing around and often missing their target. He’s clearly panicking, but still groggy, not fully aware.

Estevez counts everyone down to coordinate a number of movements. On three, Saga jumps off Aleksi’s torso. The man immediately cries out and rolls onto his front, smothering his white shirt, already sticky from sweat, in dirt. He scrambles onto his knees, similarly caking them in mud, at which point Ilmo and Young rush forward and each hook an arm under one of Kesä’s shoulders. Kesä shouts as they do, the movement too fast for him to fully comprehend.

His eyes are left so wide that they’re almost separate from his skull. Extremely distraught, he limply struggles against the other men’s hold as they start to drag him along the path.

As she and Estevez follow behind, facing Aleksi head-on, Saga is suddenly struck with the thought that this isn’t the first time she’s seen Kesä like this. He’d displayed this amount of panic and distress when she’d first come across him not far from where they are now. She never found out why he’d appeared so scared at first, and seeing what’s prompting that kind of response now, she wonders what the hell could have caused it the first time. Where had he been before arriving here?

She startles when she realizes that Kesä’s eyes are zoned in on her in recognition. He stops mindlessly shouting, quietening to hurried pants as he visibly struggles to draw in air.

“Saga,” he says, his voice hoarse and cracking as he says her name. Two simple syllables that drip with devastation and hurt. "Sinäkinkö? Oletkin yksi niistä?"

Saga doesn’t know what to say to him. She doesn’t even think there’s anything she can say to him.

"Luotin sinuun," he continues, even as he tries to anchor his bare feet into the soil to stop himself from being dragged. His voice is laced with a thin layer of venom that isn’t able to mask the primal fear underneath. "Luotin sinuun, saatanan petturi! Niiden sadistien kätyri! Päästä irti! Painu helvettiin! Jätä minut rauhaan! Päästä irti!"

Perhaps realizing that she can’t understand him, Kesä ends his Finnish spiel and glowers at her instead. When she still doesn’t respond, he spits in her direction. Saga’s heart sinks. Message received.

Then something unusual happens.

There’s a moment as the group advances closer and closer to the well that something in the air seems to shift. A red hue seeps into their surroundings, blending with the blue-tinted darkness of the night. Too saturated to be natural, too widespread to be artificial. The whispers of the forest around them, and what Saga had thought was just the sound of leaves in the wind, are instantly far more audible and it becomes clear that it is actually an unintelligible whispered chant. Turning her head to glance around the outskirts of the forest, Saga spots a number of cultist Taken, all lingering between trees that she could have sworn weren't there before that fade in and out of view. Stranger still, one second there’s no rain, the next they’re caught in a sudden downpour. Like some higher power thought it was a good time for a shower.

The change in the environment is impossible. An impossibility that Saga is starting to get familiar with, though comprehending it leaves her with a light headache.

Did they unknowingly open an Overlap? It feels like the only explanation. But how?

She finds the answer to her question when she realizes that Ilmo’s knife in her pocket feels heavier than before. She draws it out. It's a different knife. Not too different, still a similar size, just slightly heavier and with a different handle. Maybe bringing the knife to the well had been the key?

Aleksi seems to recognize the change as well. He starts struggling harder against Young and Ilmo as he is dragged past the well and toward the warehouse, his anger replaced with desperation.

He begins shouting again, his bare feet kicking wildly against the ground.

"Ei, ei, ei, armoa! Ei taas! Lopettakaa!"

His hoarse voice becomes wet with tears and his cries morph into desperate high-pitched squeaks. His lower lip wobbles with emotion. Pure terror.

He is dragged through puddles into the yard, where Saga sees that the FBC have set up some sort of large cuboid containment cell surrounded by an array of lights (currently switched off) and glowing orange boxes. Three FBC agents each stand by one of the small light towers.

“Ahti!” Kesä calls into the night, now in tears. "Ahti! Auta minua! Älä jätä minua yksin! Ei taas! En pysty tähän enää..."

The sound of him calling out to his ‘friend’ strikes a chord in Saga. This isn't the actions of someone about to have their selfish plan foiled. This is a bewildered man fearing for his life. She suddenly wants to rethink everything, to make sure they're not about to make a terrible mistake, but her headache prevents her from contemplating too deeply.

She's drawn out of her attempt when she notices that Ilmo and Young have stopped moving, and that the former is holding a hand out to Saga, palm facing up.

“The knife,” Ilmo requests.

Saga hands it over and tries to resume her train of thought, her free hand reaching up to gently massage her temples. Why does she have to be afflicted with this discomfort now? Is the exhaustion finally catching up to her at the worst opportune moment?

She glances behind her. If she squints, it looks as though a hand is poking out from the well, flickering in and out of reality like many other scenes in an Overlap. Casey’s? Saga resists the urge to rush over and grab it. They aren’t ready yet, everything has to be right. Kesä starts screaming again when they bring him closer to the containment cell. The FBC agents, Estevez included, form a defensive formation a few feet away while Young and Ilmo proceed. Saga watches on in anxiousness, thorns of doubt pricking her heart.

They’re about to do this. But what if they're wrong? What if she’s wrong? What if Kesä isn't-

A sudden yell pierces through the clamor of rain.

“Stop!”

Everyone freezes. Even Aleksi briefly stops resisting. Saga follows the source of the sound past the well and sees… Wake?

Alan Wake, in that bloodied white tee and jeans, hurrying in their direction from one of the other paths. He looks soaked to the bone.

“Wake?!” Saga calls out in total confusion. How the fuck did he get here?

While he makes his way toward them, Saga spots another figure standing much further behind. She does her best to try and get a good glimpse through the torrent of rain, managing to make out gray hair, overalls, and a deep, deep frown. Is it… Ahti? What the fuck is going on? Unlike Alan, he’s staying far behind and doesn’t attempt to move any closer.

“You have to stop!” Alan shouts directly to Saga while running. “This won’t bring back Casey!”

Saga’s heart starts thudding in her chest. Wake has fear in his eyes, the same fear she’s starting to feel herself. She feels the need to hear him out.

She holds out a hand, motioning for Ilmo and Young to pause what they’re doing. “Hold on.” Then she turns back to Alan, needing to shout over the rain too. “What do you mean?”

“You’re right, this is a ritual,” Alan explains, out of breath. He winces and rubs his own forehead before continuing. Does he have a headache too? “It was like this in the film, I remember that now, even down to Aleksi… fuck, I forgot his name, but just listen. Doing this won’t bring back Casey, it’ll bring back someone else.”

“What?”

Saga looks over at Huotari Well again, where the hand poking out has extended to a forearm. The whole area is bathed in red and her throbbing head makes it difficult to concentrate, yet she’s certain she’s not imagining it. She has her own doubts, but the ritual seems to have already started…

“Are you sure?” “Yes, I’m sure.” Alan’s voice is strained but tinted with relief at finally being listened to. “You can’t- argh!”

Without warning, Wake falls to his knees. His eyes squeeze shut and he clutches his skull as his teeth grind in what Saga assumes is pain. What’s going on with him? What’s going on in general?

“Saga… the Clicker…” Alan grits out before there is an explosion of darkness emanating from him, muffling an agonized scream. Saga has to shield her eyes, and when she opens them again, she sees that Wake has stood up and wisps of Dark Presence snake and dance around him.

Bloody teeth bared, he dashes closer in the blink of an eye, one hand outstretched.

“T̵̪͘h̶̖̀e̵̦͑ ̶̭͒C̴̖̓l̴̞̍ḯ̷̧c̴͇̈ḱ̶̙e̶̘̔r̷̲̕.̶̰̋”

Shit.

Shit shit shit shit. That’s not Wake. That has to be-

“It’s Scratch!” Saga fearfully announces to the others.

The FBC agents all immediately draw their weapons. Saga does the same.

“What’s the play here, Anderson?” Estevez asks as Scratch stalks closer. “The containment cell is built to withstand the Shadow, so we could try and lure him-”

“Yeah, good idea.” Saga interrupts. She’d try and build a plan herself, but she can barely think with the constant pounding in her skull, so she accepts Estevez’s idea without a second thought. “Deal with Scratch first, then we can-”

“Shit!” “Voi vittu!”

Saga looks to the cell to find Ilmo and Young on the ground. Utilizing the distraction, Kesä has managed to break free. He crawls away from them, scrambles to his feet, and breaks into a run. Ilmo jolts to his own feet and races after him. Saga and Estevez share a panicked look.

Estevez raises her pistol. “Go. We’ll take care of Scratch.”

Saga nods, grateful, and sprints after Aleksi and Ilmo through the park.

“Ilmo, wait!”

She needs time to think. She needs to be able to think, but the headache is now starting to create spots in her vision. The cacophony of the chanting Taken, thunderous rainfall, and now the deafening sound of gunfire from behind her all combine into an additional sledgehammer to her brain. She groans at the pain. Ahead, Saga watches Aleksi weave around an attraction, dodge Ilmo’s grasp, and scurry back in the direction he came from. She decides to use the opportunity to retreat into the Mind Place, hoping to clear her head before trying to intercept

It’s there she discovers the source of the pain. That tremendous ache, that pounding in her skull, is literal. Something or someone is pounding at the locked door, unrelenting, shaking the very foundations of her Mind Place. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

Saga is shaken out of her own Mind Place and falls to her knees, clutching her skull just like Wake had done. It’s so loud. She can’t think.

She turns her head. Far behind her, it looks like the FBC agents have been successful in shooting Scratch into the cage and are preparing to blast him with light. In front, the arm is still extended out of the well, except terror washes over Saga as it hits her. The arm is too long. The fingers are too lithe. The little wave it gives is too familiar for the wrong reason.

It’s not Casey.

Wake was right.

Stunned, she isn’t able to block Kesä as he runs past her with Ilmo following suit.

“Stop…” Saga whispers at Kesä, Ilmo, Scratch, the pounding in her head, at everything.

She hears Ilmo shout at Kesä in Finnish as he catches up.

Aleksi turns to curse at him in response, but it results in him tripping over one of the empty beer bottles left by Jaakko at the base of the well. He falls to the ground, landing hard on his shoulder. Ilmo pounces on him in an instant, holding him down with his free hand while he moves his legs to straddle the man. He still looks intent on performing the ritual as he opens Aleksi’s shirt and raises the knife over his head.

“Ilmo, stop! We’re not doing this anymore!” Saga shrieks, trying to crawl toward. She attempts to stand, but a particularly loud knock at the Mind Place door sends her tumbling back down again. She pleads loud enough that he must hear her and is therefore choosing to ignore her. “Stop!”

Ilmo’s head snaps around and their eyes meet. Ilmo’s eyes are wild, his hair has fallen in front of his eyes, and there’s a craziness in his expression. Saga realizes in horror, too late, that that’s not Ilmo.

She makes an all-out attempt at reaching them, even though crawling with her bad arm is excruciating. But she can’t make it.

“No!”

Like a bolt of lightning in the thunderstorm of commotion around them, a cry pierces the night.

"Tämä riitti vie sinut tuonpuoleiseen!"

Saga is helpless as Ilmo plunges the knife deep into Aleksi’s chest.

Just then, there’s a blinding light followed by a booming eruption of darkness.

The force, coming from somewhere behind them, sends everyone in the vicinity flying a few feet. Saga’s face ends up being pressed painfully into the ground.

Slowly, she lifts her head. Everything’s gone quiet and her ears are ringing. The red coloring of the air is gone and both the gunfire and pounding has stopped, leaving only the patter of the rainfall. Saga’s whole body aches. What happened..?

“I’m sorry,” she hears a voice, Wake’s voice, distantly say. “I’m so sorry.”

She opens her eyes and tries to gather her bearings. She can see Ilmo on the ground a few feet away from her, yet to get up. The Taken are nowhere to be seen. Neither is Kesä.

At first.

As sense returns to her after the blast, Saga spots a pair of bare feet gradually stepping toward her. Her gaze trails upward to see that it’s Kesä. Kesä, with a bloody torso and twisted smile, enveloped by wisps of darkness.

Fuck.

He reaches her and she’s too weak to stop him from forcefully grabbing her injured arm and dragging her backward.

“No!” she screams, exhausted and frightened, fighting against his grip. “Aleksi!”

Aleksi, if it even is Aleksi anymore, just snarls and drags her through the mud. Saga’s head suddenly hits something behind her. Brick. Fuck.

“Don’t!” she begs while her body screams in agony.

Kesä doesn’t listen.

Saga thinks of Logan as a strong force lifts her up and tosses her over the edge of the well. She is powerless to stop it from happening, powerless against his grasp. She saw the truth too late and is facing the karma of her decisions.

Countless memories of Saga’s life flash through her mind as she falls down and down, preparing for impact, unaware of the water when it surges up to catch her.

Finnish translations:

Aleksi:

"Sinäkinkö? Oletkin yksi niistä?" = "You're one of them?"

"Luotin sinuun." = "I trusted you."

"Luotin sinuun, saatanan petturi!" = "I trusted you, you fucking traitor!"

"Niiden sadistien kätyri!" = "You're a lackey to those sadists!"

"Päästä irti! Painu helvettiin! Jätä minut rauhaan! Päästä irti!" = "Let go! Go to hell! Leave me in peace! Let go!"

"Ei, ei, ei, armoa! Ei taas! Lopettakaa!" = "No, no, no, mercy! Not again! Stop!"

"Ahti! Auta minua! Älä jätä minua yksin!" = "Ahti! Help me! Don't leave me alone!"

"Ei taas! En pysty tähän enää..." = "Not again! I can't do this anymore..."

Ilmari:

"Voi vittu!" = "Fuck!"

"Tämä riitti vie sinut tuonpuoleiseen!" = "This is the ritual to lead you on!"

Thanks for reading :)

#alan wake 2 #alan wake 2 spoilers #yötön yö #fic #fanfic #saga anderson #aleksi kesä #alex casey #kiran estevez #ilmo koskela #alan wake #ahti #thomas zane #barbara jagger #ilmari huotari #veikko alén #mr scratch #a piece of true fiction

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