Season 2, Episode 5
Terrors of the Night
Content Warnings:
-Torture (Mild)
[An undisclosed location and time]
ICHABOD (RECORDING)
You've reached Ichabod Crane, Ingleside University music department. My office hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 3 PM to 7PM, and Friday from noon to 3. Please leave a message, and I'll call you back when I get back to my office.
CHRISTINE (RECORDING)
Hey, Professor Crane, It's Christine Daae. I've been thinking about when you called on Halloween, and I just wanted to make sure everything's good. I don't--
[The message is skipped]
CHRISTINE (RECORDING)
Hey, Professor Crane, it's Christine again. Just wanted to check in again. If you could call me back--
[The message is skipped again]
ROBOCALL
--Trying to get in contact with you regarding your car's extended warranty.
[Skip]
CHRISTINE (RECORDING)
Professor Crane, I--
[Skip]
KATRINA (RECORDING)
[Hesitant]
...Hi. I…. God, I didn't plan what I was gonna say. [Laughs] I uh… I found your number. Sorry if that's weird or creepy. I just-- I was trying to see if I could find anything out, and-- And you know, it just popped up. And this is the first time I've ever had any evidence that you're okay, that… that you're alive.
I hope you're doing well. Tarrytown's still the same, but I'm not sure much about it has changed my whole life. I mean-- I dunno if you ever went to Sunset Cove, that restaurant on Green Street? They closed a while ago, so that's sad I guess.
...I miss you, Ichabod. I really do. I'm sorry about what happened, I wish it had gone differently. ...I wish you were still here. And you know, even if he'd never admit it, I think Brom does, too. I'm sorry about him, by the way. He's… something, that's for sure. I can tell he feels bad. You know him as long as I have, and you start to be able to see through all that bravado.
I'm getting sidetracked, sorry. I just… if you ever want to talk, I'm willing, okay? I got a new number, it's 914-57--
[The recording is skipped]
LAURA
Well, isn't that sweet? Seems like someone misses you.
ICHABOD
Someone is going to notice I’m gone eventually.
LAURA
No, I don’t think they will. You really think we didn't plan for that? I'm hurt.
ICHABOD
Look, I-- I told you, I don't know anything else! I saw it one time, years ago! What else do you want me to do?!
LAURA
Oh, you don't have to do anything, Ichabod. You've told me everything I need to know. Now, it's just a matter of letting things play out. You left an impression on him, you know. I don't know how, or why. But you did. He wants to see you again. And what kind of friend would I be if I kept you two apart?
ICHABOD
[Panic creeping in]
I-- No. No, listen, I-- There is no reason why it would want anything to do with me, you don't know what the hell you're talking about!
LAURA
I think you'll find that I know a lot more than you could imagine. You think the Hessian is the only being in the world that's been watching you? You, Daae, Frankenstein. Clerval, as well.
ICHABOD
[Quietly]
Who?
LAURA
It's all connected, you just don't have the means to see it. Something is coming, and when it does, there will be no man or god who can drag you back to the world you left behind.
ICHABOD
Look, whatever you’re planning, it-- it’s none of my business, I won’t--
LAURA
Won’t get involved? Won’t try to fight? Now that, I believe. I’m not sure you’ve ever fought for anything in your life. All you ever do is run. ...Metaphorically speaking, of course.
[Ichabod gives a scoff, resonant of “Are you fucking kidding me”]
LAURA
I’m not wrong though, am I? You ran from your parents, who never thought you were worth the time, the effort, or the medical bills. You ran from the “friends” who only ever saw you as something to poke fun at. You ran from your bisexuality, you ran from the Hessian. You ran from the woman you claimed to love. That's all you ever do, Ichabod. It's all you ever will do. We both know that. [Beat.] Hmm. Hit a nerve, have I?
ICHABOD
Fuck you.
LAURA
Afraid someone's already filled that position. Love for you to meet her someday.
ICHABOD
[Sarcastic]
I'm sure she's a real angel.
LAURA
Oh, far from it. But, unfortunately, she's… occupied at the moment. Not for much longer, though, mind you.
ICHABOD
Why are you telling me this?
LAURA
I have my reasons. I suppose you'll just have to find out. But now that I think about it, I do have one more question for you. You seem to know more than most about… well, all of this. Why is that?
ICHABOD
I don't--
[He is cut off by a sound of pain]
LAURA
Please don't lie to me, Ichabod, you're only wasting both of our time. Something happened. Before Ingleside, before New York. So tell me. What really happened to Harley?
[Ichabod is quiet for a moment, as if debating whether or not to tell the story. He takes a long breath and finally begins speaking]
ICHABOD
I met Harley Warren when I was eight years old. He was twelve at the time, and the only person who bothered to help when a group of boys from school put my wheelchair in a tree. He looked out for me. And even despite the age difference, he was my best friend.
ICHABOD (Cont.)
We stayed close as we grew up. By the time I started college, he was…. Well, he was everything to me. Harley, he was a brilliant man. But superstitious. He considered himself an amateur occultist, which I always found absurd. In time, he introduced me to his roommate, Randy Carter, who was… cautiously interested in Harley’s studies. The three of us started spending a lot of time together. We were inseparable.
ICHABOD (Cont.)
Then… Harley started acting strange. Locking himself away, never taking his eyes off his work. We tried to get him to take a break, but it was no use. He kept going on about this book. He never told us how he got it, but it was filled with hundreds of pages worth of sigils and words in a language none of us could identify, let alone decipher. He insisted that this book held secrets about the workings of the world as we know it. But even stranger than that, he was convinced that there were portals scattered throughout the world that connected our reality with some sort of… other dimensions. He thought it was Hell. I thought it was a few too many bad dreams seeping into reality. So when he offered to take us to one of these “Gateways”, I wasn’t expecting much. I can’t say for sure what Randy was thinking, but I did notice that he was more easily startled than usual.
ICHABOD (Cont.)
He took us to a swamp about an hour away. It was difficult for me to get around, even with the wooden pathways, and Randy ended up having to carry me once Harley said that we had to go deeper in, wading through the mud, occasionally finding the top of some ancient, eroded tombstone poking up through the water. Maybe it took hours, maybe minutes, I don’t know. But eventually, we found a clearing with dry land. And right in the center was this… mausoleum or tomb. My first thought was that it was some sort of bunker from either the Revolutionary or Civil war. But it didn’t look old, not really. Like it hadn’t been there for more than a few decades, at most.
ICHABOD (Cont.)
Harley opened the iron gates that served as the doors, and again, I was surprised by just how good a condition they were in. Behind them was a black stone slab, which he managed to slide away from the entrance. Randy and I moved closer. That was when we saw it. A staircase that led down, so far underground that we couldn’t see the bottom, even when we shined our flashlights on it. That was when Harley handed us a walkie talkie, told us that he was going in, and insisted that we stay behind. Something about “frail nerves”. I wasn’t about to argue. In fact, I would have been more than happy to have left right then and there. But we’d left my wheelchair padlocked to a tree on the path, so even if I were selfish enough to abandon my friends, I wouldn’t have been able to.
ICHABOD (Cont.)
He promised to keep us informed every step of the way. But practically the moment we lost sight of him, it was quite literally radio silence. We tried talking to him on the walkie talkie, tried calling down the stairs. Nothing. For fifteen minutes, we sat there, waiting to hear anything. And then we did. Harley, screaming through the walkie talkie, begging us to run, to seal up the tomb and get out of there. That it was too late for him, and if we wasted any more time, it would be too late for us, as well. And, “He’s here. Oh, God, he’s here.” We asked questions. What was going on, who was down there with him. When he went quiet again, Randy was about to go down to make sure he was okay. He never even made it to the entrance.
ICHABOD (Cont.)
Randy grabbed me and ran faster than he should have been able to between the terrain and having to carry a full-grown man. But I wasn’t thinking about that. Because right before we made our escape, that was when I… felt it. That’s the only way I can describe what happened next. I felt a voice inside me, I didn’t hear it. I felt the words, “You fools, Warren is dead”. Maybe Randy heard it too, I don’t know. I tried asking him about it once, years later, but he just… shut down. I never tried again. And Harley Warren is still on the Connecticut Missing Persons list.
LAURA
And did you obey him?
ICHABOD
What?
LAURA
You say he told you to seal the entrance. Did you?
[Ichabod is silent]
You were so focused on your dear friend going in. You never once considered what could come out.
ICHABOD
Oh, God….
[There is a metallic clang in the background]
LAURA
Ah. Would you look at that. They’re early. I’m afraid our time here is up, Ichabod. But don’t worry. I’ll be seeing you again soon.
ICHABOD
Wait-- Wait, what are-- Who is that, who--
[Laura’s whispers fade in and out as she vanishes. Hardly a second after, a heavy metal door opens]
ENLIGHTENED
He's in here!
SCORNED
Hello, Mr Crane. Looks like you’ve gotten yourself into a bit of a situation.
ICHABOD
Who the hell--
[The recording cuts out, then another begins. We are back in the Frankenstein house, the night of the previous episode. We hear Victor pour himself another drink before he speaks]
VICTOR
“The sun and the heavens, who have viewed my operations, can bear witness of my truth. I am the assassin of those most innocent victims; they died by my machinations. A thousand times would I have shed my own blood, drop by drop, to have saved their lives; but I could not, my father, indeed I could not sacrifice the whole human race.”