a warm tinted room in a house at night, stairs on the left and a comfortable chair on the right. there are portraits on the walls whose faces you cannot see. light spills across the floor from an open door in the center. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads:
[020] THE SHADOW. A CALLER TALKS TO DEATH. THE HOST COUCH SURFS.
listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:
[static, radio tuning]
[Traveling Sales Rep: Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back, after these short messages.] [static, radio tuning]
[click]
Hello and welcome to Thin Places Radio. I’m your host,
and it is the middle of the night. But don’t worry. You’re not alone.
[Thin Places theme]
I’m coming to you dusty from my studio, which is what I like to call the darkest corner of your living room. [clock ticking] [chimes] Yeah, that one. There’s a penny down here, and two bobby pins, and a chocolate chip that I did not eat. I was lying down on your couch earlier. It’s actually pretty comfortable, even though the one cushion is lumpier than the other.
You like the way that the light falls through the window when the sun starts setting, whenever you happen to take that small moment to notice it. Right now, though, it’s dark outside. [crickets join the clock] I don’t know where you are. I don’t think you can see me, and I can’t see you, either. We’ve only just missed each other. But thanks for letting me crash here, anyway.
So… what is Thin Places Radio? Well, you can call in about anything strange that you’ve got going on in your life - feelings, omens, premonitions, hauntings.
Are you feeling particularly wistful?
Are you thinking about making friends with the most famous supernatural entity around?
Are you two places at once, or one place, twice?
When the veil between worlds is thin, we get closer than ever to the strange and the unexplained - but also to each other. Call in, get it off your chest. Lines are open.
[click] [voicemail:]
Hi there, Thin Places. My name’s Katrina. I’m… being followed by. Death. Um… it’s been following me for a while. I noticed it whenever I was a child, actually. A shadow that was always behind me. It seemed scary, but I could tell that it was… not actually there to harm me. As I got older, the shadow seems to have, um - gotten closer. I see it around the people that I love, my friends and my family. I know when it’s coming. I know where it’s going. And… I know when it’ll be here for me. I don’t know what to do. I mean, we’ve talked, a little bit. Death is at least polite enough to say hello, from time to time. It doesn’t just, y’know, follow me silently. But… what do I do about that? Should we… I don’t know, maybe grab a drink? How do I handle this? I’d love to know. Thanks, Thin Places.
[click]
Hi, caller, thanks for taking the time. You’ve been given a gift. Well, you’ve been given something. Not all gifts are welcome. Sometimes you get a candle in a scent that turns your stomach. Sometimes Death makes itself available to you. You can see the thing that so many of the rest of us can’t. [searching music] But it’s always there. It is always following. What is there to do, when faced with the inevitable, but buy it a coffee, or maybe something stronger?
I don’t know how you feel about the knowledge that you have. Do you find it a burden, or a relief, or some sweet and bitter mixture of both? To not have to be looking over your shoulder? To always have to be?
Death was polite enough to introduce itself, and that means that it isn’t a stranger. Not that it sounds like it was to you, anyway. You have lost people. You’ve felt it pass close to you. But now it’s saying hello, and I know there’s a reason for this.
I don’t know how Death feels about what Death does, every day, every minute. Grief after grief after grief. It’s never satisfied. But maybe it’s also lonely. Maybe it needs to speak to you as much as you need to speak to it. So… speak to it. Ask it as many questions as you can, even if it can’t answer. Sometimes it’s more about the asking than it is about the answer. And sometimes… there isn’t an answer.
[click]
Something strange, listeners: numerology! Arithmancy. Mathi-magic. We’ve always been so desperate to know what’s coming for us, to wrestle it into a shape we understand.
Well, I don’t know s**t about numerology, but let’s give it a try.
7 plus 1 plus 7 makes fifteen. Plus 3 and 8 and 2, 8 and 0 and 9 and 3. It all adds up to 48. That’s a number that can be halved four times. The number of hours in two days. The number of contiguous states here in America, that I think I’ve driven through completely now.
There are six odd numbers in my phone number, and three even ones, and one that – well, I thought was neither, but something in the back of my head is telling me that zero is an even number, right between positive and negative. How unbearably lovely that there can be two of nothing – that it’s never alone, even in its solitude. Somebody taught me that. I… just don’t remember who.
[click]
[clock ticking] Okay. I checked to make sure your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detectors were working. [crickets] I don’t know if your home feels like a home to you - if you’ve unpacked enough, or if you feel at ease when you come through the door, or if there’s trust here, or love. But it’s safe, at least in this way. I hope it’s safe in the other ones, too.
I can’t remember being in anyone’s home in the ordinary way, but I think I miss it. I think that whatever I’ve become – whatever I am now – might understand whatever Death is. We brush alongside a lot of people while we’re doing our different jobs, but we always leave, and we always leave alone. But what else is there to do? What else can you do when you’ve got a calling?
I can see my car out the window. There’s a figure in the passenger seat that I know won’t be there by the time I get outside. It never is.
Tune your radio for me, will you? I’ll catch you over the airwaves.
[click]
Thank you for listening, callers, and thank you for calling, listeners. I hope you feel a little bit lighter. I know I do. As always, our number is 717.382.8093. That’s 717.382.8093. Until next time. I’ll be here.
[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]
Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. The voice of Your Host is Kristen O’Neal.
Tonight’s voicemail was left for us by Katrina. Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music tracks you heard in tonight’s episode are: the Thin Places theme, by Miles Morkri, and Umeed by RANA. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at (717) 382-8093. The lines are always open.
[Thin Places Theme outro]
21 notes
·
View notes
closed starter @sinsoakedsaints
"It's not that bad."
Mercy said unconvincingly, barely able to stifle the grimace from her face. She'd never been a good liar, she always got too wrapped up in her own web and over complicated things.
Simpler was better, she had to remind herself.
"I would just avoid direct eye contact with Sketchy Steve and consider investing in an eye patch. You could say it was a statement piece or a TikTok trend."
Anything would be better than the truth—that they had assaulted one of the club's clients for getting a little too handsy during Mercy's last dance, that Sketchy Steve had landed a punch before being hauled outside.
"Can I get you anything?" She felt a wave of guilt like this was her fault somehow. "An ice pack or a Corona from behind the bar?"
2 notes
·
View notes
@libertycities / lamar said: what? okay, relax. relax! what did i do?
despite his gaudy, and perhaps over-the-top outward appearance, anyone who knew johnny gat could say he possessed quite the composed personality. so it was odd, and even out of place, to see him so riled up, his usual laidback smirk turned stormy and blackened by the encroaching clouds of the wrath bubbling at the back of his stomach. like a volcano, readying itself to explode. “you wanna tell me truth now, lamar?” his pacing was feverish, back and forth, in front of his desk, before it all came to a halt… johnny quit his nervous walking, and sat down atop the mahogany counter, arms crossed in front of his chest.
“my people told me there’s been an issue, with your people. they ain't happy- he's not happy.” those clouds were quick to dissipate, but his somewhat stern expression didn’t seem like it was going to leave his features any time soon. “somethin’ ‘bout a shipment, or a drop-off, or somethin’ like that. your guys didn’t deliver. you know julius doesn’t fuck with sneaky shit like that.” his gaze draws and fires an arrow at the seat right in front of his, pushing the chair away from the desk with his shoe, in an irritated attempt at getting him to sit down. “i trust you. now you’re gonna sit the fuck down, n’ you’re gonna tell me what’s going on.”
1 note
·
View note