Alternate Version edited by RosieM
Nov 27, 2015 7:44:23 GMT
Post by joannem on Nov 27, 2015 7:44:23 GMT
Here's RosieM's alternate version of the Wendigo script. Guy will record both versions and we'll see which one works best.
Transcript #174461
Lee Palhuick:
So. Another one asking about that night, bothering an old man, disturbing my retirement? Fine. I'll tell you all about that damn night, and you'll wish I hadn't.
But before I start, you don't rush me, ya hear? And don't ask questions neither. In you damn well don't interrupt. This is my story and it gets told my way, or it doesn't get told at all.
Good.
Who knows, maybe I'll even sleep a little better, if I tell it enough and enough people have to share the burden. Doubt it, but maybe.
*Mr. Palhuick closes his eyes, draws a deep breathe, and begins.
It was a bitter, cold winter. Oh, I know, it's cold every winter, especially up here, but that winter, the winter of '97 was hellish.
Even with the wind howling down from the artic, and the temperature hovering near minus forty, well, there's something out there for every hunter. There’s something that drives us out into the cold and the snow seeking that flash of a white tail between the spruces, hoping for that one second of pure power. For some it's the thrill of the chase. For others, it's the magic out there, joining with nature in a ritual as old as man, and infinitely more primitive.
For me, it’s the silence. I used to love the woods at that time of year, when the only noise was the whistling of the wind against my ears and the sound of snow forming drifts and blowing in eddies beneath the trees. Oh I love that calm. My wife, rest her soul, could talk the ears off a man. Don't get me wrong, I loved her with all my heart, but there are times when a man needs some quiet reflection. So when she was really chewing on my last nerve…well that was what hunting was for. Besides, we needed the meat something fierce.
That night, that damn night…
Pauses and sighs distressed.
Twilight was drawing to a close and the shadows were rising up like fog from the ground to envelop the winter’s wood. I was just heading back down the trail to the homestead, when suddenly I spotted it; the deer every hunter was looking for.
It was big, that thing, I’m talking Boone and Crocket big, Antlers like a Christmas tree. Bigger than sin and twice as proud. It was too dark to get a good look at it, too dark to see the thing for what it was...
* He is silent for several seconds.*
... I... Look, I was young, ok? Hell it was twenty years ago, I was just a fool kid. My dad used to call it buck fever, it happens at night, when your mind fills in what your eyes can’t see. Thought I knew a deer light or no light. It was a shot I could make with my eyes closed. I chambered a round, drew down on ‘em, and fired.
It…screamed. Not a deer sound, not like any sound I'd ever heard before. It was horrible.
When I heard that wretched scream I knew it wasn't a deer. It bolted away into the forest, kinda awkward like. Running on all fours, but sort of... Loping, you know? Like an ape runs, an awkwardly graceful gallop.
I was too shocked to do more than stare blankly after the creature. Too horrified to even pull the gun from my shoulder. The prize deer had become a monster, a freak of nature. I knew I hit. Maybe I should have gone after it, but it was full dark by then, with no moon and barely any starlight…and I'll admit it, I was scared too. You think I'm gonna go tramping through the dark woods chasing some ungodly horror show?
I know why you’re looking at me like that. It’s okay, everyone thinks the same thing. You know why? I’ll tell you why. Because you didn’t hear that scream, you didn’t see that shaggy silhouette disappear into the night’s dark woods on a frozen winter’s night. If you had, you wouldn’t dare look at me like that. I suppose I'd be wondering too, if I was you. Wondering if the old man was full shit, or just wasting your time. Well, I'm getting to gruesome details you came here for, but this needs to be told right.
I started heading home, shaken by what had just happened. My ears were still ringing from the report of the rifle when the noises began. Chattering, scraping, branches breaking behind me. I'd whirl around, looking, but there was nothing. At times I thought I saw something move, but it was too dark to be sure.
I sprinted that last half mile back to my house. I don't think I'd ever run that fast in my entire life. All the while, those forest noises followed me, sometimes getting closer, sometimes fading back.
By some miracle I made it home, ran inside, and slammed the door. My wife, Marie, was just putting Jack to sleep, and let me tell you, she was in no mood for the story I told her.
Thought I was drunk! Accused me of drinking! She knew I never touched the stuff, not since I met her, not since I was 22. Well, maybe there was a time or two, a wedding or a party, but not that night. No, I was sober as a hymn.
We argued. We’d never yelled at each other, but that night was different. Things had been tight moneywise, so maybe there was some built up tensions there. It woke Jack up. He came running downstairs, bawling his eyes out.
Jack. My sweet, little Jack.
I tried to calm him down, tell him that mommy and daddy still loved him.
But he wasn't crying about the fight. He kept trying to say something, shrieking and hollering, but crying so hard I couldn't make out the words.
Well, Marie calmed him down, got him talking, and when I could understand him, well, that's when *I* started to panic.
All he said was "Daddy, there was a deer looking in my window."
Jack slept in the loft above the main room of the cabin, his window was fifteen feet off the ground. I grabbed my rifle and ran to his room, Marie following me, shouting for me to calm down, that I was scaring Jack. I got to his room, my stomach colder than the wind outside. From outside, I could hear the snuffling, chittering sound which had pursued me. There was something moving in the bushes.
And worse, I could see the bloody print it left in the snow below the window. Half hand, half paw, with scratch marks leading down the windowsill…
I took my family and put them in the den away from the windows. Then I called my friend Tom. Tommy answered my call, and when I told him what happened, he was silent for a second before he came over.
He lived about a mile down the road, but he made it to the cabin in under five minute. By the time he got there, the forest was silent again, as if holding it was breath in anticipation.
He and my wife shared a look. Then he and I checked out the windows and he grabbed his gun. Tom was the type of guy who wore a perpetual smile, and his grin was particular. It reminded me of a demon with s secret, kind of playful and mischevious. He took me aside, just outside the den, and asked me about what I saw, but the questions, they were like he already knew. "It was dark brown, black spots? Great rack of antlers? Hollers like damnation?"
I could only nod and describe what had happened. I asked him what we should do. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could utter a single sound, the chattering came back. The forest came alive again, but not the way a forest usually sounds. Not the peaceful serenity, like I used to love.
These sounds were angry noises, like wolves snarling, bears growling, moose bellowing when they see another male in their territory.
Every sound the forest makes to let you know you're not supposed to be there.
Tommy was telling me something, something important. I only caught the middle part of it, something about Jack, about not letting him out of my sight, when suddenly Marie burst out of the den, and the forest went silent.
I looked at her, to tell her that she should go back in with Jack, when suddenly her eyes went wide and her face went whiter than a sheet. I turned around to see what she was looking at.
Tom. His back had gone straight with surprise. His face had lost the grin but kept the snarl. His hands tightened on his rifle. His eyes focused on mine. His throat poured crimson around the claws.
As he dropped, the thing lept out the open window, a shadow leaping into the dark and dissolving. So quick, so damn quick.
Then the forest erupted up again, almost triumphant this time. The chatters, the howls, the growling that set your teeth on edge. I swear, it sounded different. Those bastards were cheering this time.
Well I lost it. I shot out the window, into the forest. Screaming and cursing them for every devil and damnation I knew them to be. Tom knew what that thing was, and he had tried to warn me. Whatever the creature was, that knowledge died with him.
My Marie... My beautiful, kind, loving Marie...
I felt her hand on my shoulder. I turned to look at her, and I felt something splash on my face. The shadows writhed behind her, and she fell into my arms.
What was left of her fell into my arms.
*Mr Palhuick is telling the story in between shuddering sobs. Tears are running down his face. He seems oblivious*
It…it took her from me. Opened her chest like tuna can, and tossed what was left down the hallway into my arms.
I got another glimpse, another shape darted into a side room, and the night screamed again, louder this time, loud enough cover my own screams.
I screamed for what felt like hours, howled for Marie, until my throat was raw and sore. My world was shattered, my family destroyed. I only had time to regret all the things I’d said during the fight, the things I’d done…
I stopped suddenly when I noticed that the forest was quiet again.
The silence.
Jack.
I ran on legs that felt like rubber. I saw the beast there, its shoulders wider than my Chevy, it's antlers touching the roof. A trickle of red, half congealed blood seeped from the bullet hole punched in its ribs. I saw its face, the animal snout, the predator's teeth, but the eyes...
The eyes held light.
The light of knowing.
It knew what I’d done, and it was here to punish me.
Cradled in the arms of the creature was a smaller creature, a miniature version of the giant monster before me, a child. Only, instead of a wound to its ribs the little one had a bullet hole in its head.
It was showing me. Showing me that my bullet had hit more than just the mother.
In its other hand it was holding another squirming creature I couldn’t make out through the tears. I blinked the tears back and I saw it holding Jack. He was screaming, beating at it with his tiny fists, but it held him, cradled like a baby in its massive arms.
I lunged forward, towards it, my rifle forgotten. At the last moment I was jerked back. Claws dug into my shoulders, my arms and legs. The other creatures, they grabbed me, pulled me back out of the den, away from that monster.
Away from Jack.
They threw me into the hallway, and I hit the ground hard. I must have hit my head, cause everything went black. And they left me. They took Jack and they left me in the silence, my mouth filled with the coppery taste of blood.
*Mr Palhuick breaks down at this point. Nothing more can be brought out of him*
F/X Tape Ends
Board Chairman:
So, he's still sticking to his story, doctor?
Doctor:
I'm afraid so Mr Chairman. Hasn't changed in 18 years.
Board Chairman:
Insanity always seems like the easy way out. Twenty years later and here he sits. Three counts of murder, with those mitigating factors…who knows maybe he’d have been out by now. Did they ever find…
Doctor:
The boy’s remains? Sadly, no. And heaven knows he had plenty of time to hide them. He was up there alone until the thaw. When they came upon the cabin, they say it looked like a butcher’s shop.
Chairman:
And the flesh that he…
Doctor:
Ate? He believes it was deer meat.
Chairman:
There's no way I can sanction his release if he still clings to these delusions. This board therefore recommends that Mr. Lee Palhuick remains detained at the Blue Brook mental health facility for the foreseeable future.
Transcript #174461
Lee Palhuick:
So. Another one asking about that night, bothering an old man, disturbing my retirement? Fine. I'll tell you all about that damn night, and you'll wish I hadn't.
But before I start, you don't rush me, ya hear? And don't ask questions neither. In you damn well don't interrupt. This is my story and it gets told my way, or it doesn't get told at all.
Good.
Who knows, maybe I'll even sleep a little better, if I tell it enough and enough people have to share the burden. Doubt it, but maybe.
*Mr. Palhuick closes his eyes, draws a deep breathe, and begins.
It was a bitter, cold winter. Oh, I know, it's cold every winter, especially up here, but that winter, the winter of '97 was hellish.
Even with the wind howling down from the artic, and the temperature hovering near minus forty, well, there's something out there for every hunter. There’s something that drives us out into the cold and the snow seeking that flash of a white tail between the spruces, hoping for that one second of pure power. For some it's the thrill of the chase. For others, it's the magic out there, joining with nature in a ritual as old as man, and infinitely more primitive.
For me, it’s the silence. I used to love the woods at that time of year, when the only noise was the whistling of the wind against my ears and the sound of snow forming drifts and blowing in eddies beneath the trees. Oh I love that calm. My wife, rest her soul, could talk the ears off a man. Don't get me wrong, I loved her with all my heart, but there are times when a man needs some quiet reflection. So when she was really chewing on my last nerve…well that was what hunting was for. Besides, we needed the meat something fierce.
That night, that damn night…
Pauses and sighs distressed.
Twilight was drawing to a close and the shadows were rising up like fog from the ground to envelop the winter’s wood. I was just heading back down the trail to the homestead, when suddenly I spotted it; the deer every hunter was looking for.
It was big, that thing, I’m talking Boone and Crocket big, Antlers like a Christmas tree. Bigger than sin and twice as proud. It was too dark to get a good look at it, too dark to see the thing for what it was...
* He is silent for several seconds.*
... I... Look, I was young, ok? Hell it was twenty years ago, I was just a fool kid. My dad used to call it buck fever, it happens at night, when your mind fills in what your eyes can’t see. Thought I knew a deer light or no light. It was a shot I could make with my eyes closed. I chambered a round, drew down on ‘em, and fired.
It…screamed. Not a deer sound, not like any sound I'd ever heard before. It was horrible.
When I heard that wretched scream I knew it wasn't a deer. It bolted away into the forest, kinda awkward like. Running on all fours, but sort of... Loping, you know? Like an ape runs, an awkwardly graceful gallop.
I was too shocked to do more than stare blankly after the creature. Too horrified to even pull the gun from my shoulder. The prize deer had become a monster, a freak of nature. I knew I hit. Maybe I should have gone after it, but it was full dark by then, with no moon and barely any starlight…and I'll admit it, I was scared too. You think I'm gonna go tramping through the dark woods chasing some ungodly horror show?
I know why you’re looking at me like that. It’s okay, everyone thinks the same thing. You know why? I’ll tell you why. Because you didn’t hear that scream, you didn’t see that shaggy silhouette disappear into the night’s dark woods on a frozen winter’s night. If you had, you wouldn’t dare look at me like that. I suppose I'd be wondering too, if I was you. Wondering if the old man was full shit, or just wasting your time. Well, I'm getting to gruesome details you came here for, but this needs to be told right.
I started heading home, shaken by what had just happened. My ears were still ringing from the report of the rifle when the noises began. Chattering, scraping, branches breaking behind me. I'd whirl around, looking, but there was nothing. At times I thought I saw something move, but it was too dark to be sure.
I sprinted that last half mile back to my house. I don't think I'd ever run that fast in my entire life. All the while, those forest noises followed me, sometimes getting closer, sometimes fading back.
By some miracle I made it home, ran inside, and slammed the door. My wife, Marie, was just putting Jack to sleep, and let me tell you, she was in no mood for the story I told her.
Thought I was drunk! Accused me of drinking! She knew I never touched the stuff, not since I met her, not since I was 22. Well, maybe there was a time or two, a wedding or a party, but not that night. No, I was sober as a hymn.
We argued. We’d never yelled at each other, but that night was different. Things had been tight moneywise, so maybe there was some built up tensions there. It woke Jack up. He came running downstairs, bawling his eyes out.
Jack. My sweet, little Jack.
I tried to calm him down, tell him that mommy and daddy still loved him.
But he wasn't crying about the fight. He kept trying to say something, shrieking and hollering, but crying so hard I couldn't make out the words.
Well, Marie calmed him down, got him talking, and when I could understand him, well, that's when *I* started to panic.
All he said was "Daddy, there was a deer looking in my window."
Jack slept in the loft above the main room of the cabin, his window was fifteen feet off the ground. I grabbed my rifle and ran to his room, Marie following me, shouting for me to calm down, that I was scaring Jack. I got to his room, my stomach colder than the wind outside. From outside, I could hear the snuffling, chittering sound which had pursued me. There was something moving in the bushes.
And worse, I could see the bloody print it left in the snow below the window. Half hand, half paw, with scratch marks leading down the windowsill…
I took my family and put them in the den away from the windows. Then I called my friend Tom. Tommy answered my call, and when I told him what happened, he was silent for a second before he came over.
He lived about a mile down the road, but he made it to the cabin in under five minute. By the time he got there, the forest was silent again, as if holding it was breath in anticipation.
He and my wife shared a look. Then he and I checked out the windows and he grabbed his gun. Tom was the type of guy who wore a perpetual smile, and his grin was particular. It reminded me of a demon with s secret, kind of playful and mischevious. He took me aside, just outside the den, and asked me about what I saw, but the questions, they were like he already knew. "It was dark brown, black spots? Great rack of antlers? Hollers like damnation?"
I could only nod and describe what had happened. I asked him what we should do. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could utter a single sound, the chattering came back. The forest came alive again, but not the way a forest usually sounds. Not the peaceful serenity, like I used to love.
These sounds were angry noises, like wolves snarling, bears growling, moose bellowing when they see another male in their territory.
Every sound the forest makes to let you know you're not supposed to be there.
Tommy was telling me something, something important. I only caught the middle part of it, something about Jack, about not letting him out of my sight, when suddenly Marie burst out of the den, and the forest went silent.
I looked at her, to tell her that she should go back in with Jack, when suddenly her eyes went wide and her face went whiter than a sheet. I turned around to see what she was looking at.
Tom. His back had gone straight with surprise. His face had lost the grin but kept the snarl. His hands tightened on his rifle. His eyes focused on mine. His throat poured crimson around the claws.
As he dropped, the thing lept out the open window, a shadow leaping into the dark and dissolving. So quick, so damn quick.
Then the forest erupted up again, almost triumphant this time. The chatters, the howls, the growling that set your teeth on edge. I swear, it sounded different. Those bastards were cheering this time.
Well I lost it. I shot out the window, into the forest. Screaming and cursing them for every devil and damnation I knew them to be. Tom knew what that thing was, and he had tried to warn me. Whatever the creature was, that knowledge died with him.
My Marie... My beautiful, kind, loving Marie...
I felt her hand on my shoulder. I turned to look at her, and I felt something splash on my face. The shadows writhed behind her, and she fell into my arms.
What was left of her fell into my arms.
*Mr Palhuick is telling the story in between shuddering sobs. Tears are running down his face. He seems oblivious*
It…it took her from me. Opened her chest like tuna can, and tossed what was left down the hallway into my arms.
I got another glimpse, another shape darted into a side room, and the night screamed again, louder this time, loud enough cover my own screams.
I screamed for what felt like hours, howled for Marie, until my throat was raw and sore. My world was shattered, my family destroyed. I only had time to regret all the things I’d said during the fight, the things I’d done…
I stopped suddenly when I noticed that the forest was quiet again.
The silence.
Jack.
I ran on legs that felt like rubber. I saw the beast there, its shoulders wider than my Chevy, it's antlers touching the roof. A trickle of red, half congealed blood seeped from the bullet hole punched in its ribs. I saw its face, the animal snout, the predator's teeth, but the eyes...
The eyes held light.
The light of knowing.
It knew what I’d done, and it was here to punish me.
Cradled in the arms of the creature was a smaller creature, a miniature version of the giant monster before me, a child. Only, instead of a wound to its ribs the little one had a bullet hole in its head.
It was showing me. Showing me that my bullet had hit more than just the mother.
In its other hand it was holding another squirming creature I couldn’t make out through the tears. I blinked the tears back and I saw it holding Jack. He was screaming, beating at it with his tiny fists, but it held him, cradled like a baby in its massive arms.
I lunged forward, towards it, my rifle forgotten. At the last moment I was jerked back. Claws dug into my shoulders, my arms and legs. The other creatures, they grabbed me, pulled me back out of the den, away from that monster.
Away from Jack.
They threw me into the hallway, and I hit the ground hard. I must have hit my head, cause everything went black. And they left me. They took Jack and they left me in the silence, my mouth filled with the coppery taste of blood.
*Mr Palhuick breaks down at this point. Nothing more can be brought out of him*
F/X Tape Ends
Board Chairman:
So, he's still sticking to his story, doctor?
Doctor:
I'm afraid so Mr Chairman. Hasn't changed in 18 years.
Board Chairman:
Insanity always seems like the easy way out. Twenty years later and here he sits. Three counts of murder, with those mitigating factors…who knows maybe he’d have been out by now. Did they ever find…
Doctor:
The boy’s remains? Sadly, no. And heaven knows he had plenty of time to hide them. He was up there alone until the thaw. When they came upon the cabin, they say it looked like a butcher’s shop.
Chairman:
And the flesh that he…
Doctor:
Ate? He believes it was deer meat.
Chairman:
There's no way I can sanction his release if he still clings to these delusions. This board therefore recommends that Mr. Lee Palhuick remains detained at the Blue Brook mental health facility for the foreseeable future.