#Jon/martin | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

assbutt-writes · 2 months

Text

The Forest Chapter 1

Chapter below cut

[RECORDING STARTS, A BUTTON ON A TAPE RECORDER CLICKS, AND A FAINT TAPE WHIRRING NOISE CAN BE HEARD]

BENJI: Hello? Is this thing working?

[SOMEONE TAPS ON THE TAPE RECORDER, AND IT DROPS TO THE FLOOR WITH A CLATTER.]

BENJI: [FAINTLY] Oh, crap. Hope that’s not broken.

[A SHUFFLE CAN BE HEARD BEFORE THE TAPE RECORDER GETS PICKED UP AND SET BACK DOWN ON A CARDBOARD BOX]

BENJI: [INTO MIC] Well, anyway, my name is Benji, and-

DAN: No, no, I think you need to say your full name.

BENJI: Right. My name is Benjamin Blackbriar, and I… Dan, this is stupid. It’s not like they’re bound tobelieve me or anything, and I feel dumb talking into this strange old tape recorder.

DAN: Benj, just trust me.

BENJI: Oh, fine. My name is Benjamin Blackbriar, and I saw the Earth eat my sister. See? It sounds stupid.

DAN: Come on, please. They’ll believe you. I bet they’ve seen weirder with their own eyes.

BENJI: No, they’re definitely gonna say that I was hallucinating and it was just some weird sinkhole or something, and they’re gonna try and put me in a locked ward when I just need to find her, and then time might run out, and then she’ll be gone, and I don’t-

DAN: Woah, woah Benji, calm down. We’re gonna find her. I’m pretty sure that they can help.

[BENJI SIGHS]

BENJI: I’m sorry, but I’m not gonna spend what little time I have left to find Lizzie talking into a beat-up old tape recorder sitting on a cardboard box. This is pointless.

DAN: Benji-

[THERE ARE SOUNDS OF SHUFFLING AND SOMEONE STANDING UP]

BENJI: Goodbye, Dan.

[FOOTSTEPS RECEDE, AND DAN SIGHS]

DAN: [INTO MIC] Fine, I’ll tell you. For the record, my name is Daniel Whittier and the date is the tenth of April, 2016. So, basically, Benji and his sister, Elizabeth Blackbriar were on their morning hike, I think it was about 6:00-6:30 in the morning, early, I know, and I think they were on the Hampstead Heath trail near their apartments? Anyway, according to Benji, Lizzie decided to stop for a quick breather before continuing, but she told Benji that he could go on ahead, so he did. After about ten minutes or so, she hadn’t caught up with him, and he decided that he would, you know, go back and find her, cause he was getting kind of worried.

Well, when he got back to where she was, she wasn’t there, and since he didn’t see her on his way back, he started getting more worried. I think this is when he video called me, and he started rambling about how this wasn’t like Lizzie. He stopped pretty suddenly, though. His eyes went wide and he started swivelling his head around like a fuckin’ madman, calling out for Lizzie. He said he heard screaming, and from the look on his face, it seemed like it was Lizzie’s. I didn’t hear anything, mind you, but the phone didn’t exactly have the best microphone, so it might’ve been that.

I was honestly starting to get a little worried for him, but I was mainly worried about Lizzie. I had known both of them since before grade school, and Lizzie had always been the more, how do I put this? Protective? Assertive? I dunno, but she had always looked after Benji, and would definitely not abandon her little brother on a hike like this. And if he was hearing screaming… I couldn’t help but think something was horribly, horribly wrong. And I was right.

Benji ran off, I’m assuming towards the screaming, and I was trying to tell him that I was gonna call the cops, that he didn’t need to put himself in danger too, but he wouldn’t listen, and, even though all I could see was his face, I could tell when he found her. His face went pale and he screamed her name, turning around the camera to show an empty patch of dirt. He didn’t seem to think it was just dirt, though. He knelt down to the ground and started digging at the dirt frantically, and eventually he found what looked like a blank page torn out of a really old book? I don’t really know what it was, but the paper was this sort of yellowish colour and the edges looked frayed, like it was from one of those books you find in old libraries or something.

When Benji eventually got back to the apartment - I was there cause I’ve been staying with them while I look for a place to live - he said that this pitch-black hole in the Earth had appeared and swallowed up Lizzie and spat out the paper. He handed it to me, and there were words on it that I hadn’t seen over the phone. There was what looked like an address, a date and time, and the words “Liber Saltus”, whatever that means. I have the paper here with me, and I would give it to you with this recording, but Benji’s been weirdly protective of it, and the words don’t show up in photos, so I can’t give you a picture of it.

Anyway, I remembered that my aunt, Erin Whittier, had talked to you guys about the weird man she’d been seeing around and you guys had listened to her, so I thought that I’d have Benji talk to you and, well, you know how well that worked. Oh, I almost forgot. The date on the paper is for the eleventh of April, which is tomorrow, the time is midnight, and the address is for some place called “Carmen Books and Records”. So, yeah, we’re kind of running out of time, especially since we don’t know what the hell “Liber Saltus” means or where Carmen Books and Records is. That’s why I’m reaching out to you. So, yeah, if you could help us, preferably before midnight, that would be great. Erm, bye.

[THERE’S A PAUSE BEFORE A BUTTON ON THE TAPE RECORDER CLICKS AND THE TAPE WHIRRING NOISE ENDS BEFORE STARTING AGAIN WITH ANOTHER CLICK, HEAVY BREATHING ABLE TO BE HEARD OVER THE SOUND OF POUNDING FOOTSTEPS]

DAN: [OUT OF BREATH] Okay, so things may have developed a little bit. Remember when Benji left? Yeah, well, that was 3 hours ago, and he hasn’t picked up a single phone call since then. I’ve left so many voice messages that his voicemail box filled up after hour 1, and the GPS on his phone went dead and his calls started going straight to voicemail a few minutes ago. I’m really freaking out, and since Benji took the car when he left, I’m stuck running to your institute thing, which is over a 2 hour walk. Hopefully I get there before midnight comes, because I have a feeling that whatever took Lizzie got Benji too. I don’t know if it’s going to come for me too, or why it even took Benji before midnight, but, right now, I’m pretty sure that my only chance at getting the two of them back is going to you guys. I’m going to end the recording now so I can focus on running, but I wanted to add this to the record in case it takes me too.

[A BUTTON ON THE TAPE RECORDER CLICKS AND THE TAPE WHIRRING NOISE ENDS BEFORE ANOTHER CLICK, THIS ONE ECHOING AS IF IN A VOID. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN BE HEARD IS SOME STATIC AND WHISPERS UNLIKE ANY KNOWN LANGUAGE, DEAD OR ALIVE. A SCREAM PIERCES THE STATIC AND WHISPERS BEFORE THERE IS A WHOOSHING SOUND FOLLOWED BY A CLATTER AND THEN SOUNDS OF TAPE WHIRRING AND A BUSTLING STREET, FILLED WITH VOICES AND FOOTSTEPS. A SET OF FOOTSTEPS GET PROGRESSIVELY LOUDER AND LOUDER BEFORE SOMEONE PICKS UP THE TAPE RECORDER. A DOOR CAN BE HEARD BEING OPENED, AND THE PERSON CARRYING THE TAPE ENTERS THE BUILDING. THE CITY SOUNDS FADE AWAY, LEAVING ONLY THE FOOTSTEPS. AFTER A FEW SECONDS OF ONLY THE SOUND OF THE FOOTSTEPS, ANOTHER DOOR CAN BE HEARD OPENING. A CHAIR CAN BE HEARD FAINTLY SWIVELLING AROUND, PRESUMABLY TO FACE THE DOOR]

JON: Martin? What’s going on?

MARTIN: Did you drop something outside?

JON: What? No, why?

MARTIN: Well, I found this on the ground in front of the door to the building, and it has your name on it, and I’m pretty sure you use this kind of thing for the recordings, so I thought…

JON: Hold on, give it to me.

MARTIN: Oh, alright, erm, here you go.

[THERE ARE THE SOUNDS OF A SHUFFLING AS IF SOMEONE IS PASSING THE TAPE RECORDER TO SOMEONE ELSE. AFTER A SECOND OF THE RECORDER BEING TURNED AROUND IN SOMEONE’S HANDS, THE VOICES CONTINUE SPEAKING]

JON: I’ve never seen this before in my life. Where did you say you found it again?

MARTIN: Right outside the door. I almost stepped on it, and-

JON: Hold on a second, I think it’s recording.

[A BUTTON CLICKS, AND THE TAPE WHIRRING NOISE ENDS. THE BUTTON CLICKS AGAIN A MOMENT LATER, WITH THE TAPE WHIRRING NOISE RESUMING]

JON: Statement ends. After careful listening, I am inclined to think that this tape is a fake. Although I cannot decipher the language that the whispers are in during the, erm, how do I put this, intermission, it could very well be gibberish. As Benjamin said, the entire story sounds absurd. The ground eating someone? [SCOFFS] I am hesitant to believe a single word on this tape, as it all seems to be nothing more than some elaborate prank. There was a dark green substance on the tape recorder, clearly meant to be some sort of ectoplasm. I didn’t touch it, obviously, and I sent Martin to analyse it. He should have the results any-

[A KNOCK CAN BE HEARD THROUGH THE DOOR, AND JON SIGHS]

JON: There he is. Come in, Martin.

[THE DOOR OPENS AND FOOTSTEPS ENTER THE ROOM]

MARTIN: Oh, ok, well, the results came back for the tape, and you were right. It’s obviously not ectoplasm, I mean, the colour is all wrong, but it does seem to be something else. I think… I think it’s alive.

JON: [HARSHLY, WITH A SLIGHT NOTE OF FEAR IN HIS VOICE] What? Martin, are you sure?

MARTIN: [FRANTICALLY] Yes! Even the air around it felt very, very hot, and when I touched it - Yes, yes I know, stupid of me - it burned, but not like a fire burns. Almost like it was eating me, like it was acid and it was melting my skin or something, and I was only touching it for a second, but when I pulled my finger away, there was this red spot on my finger that felt like it was still on fire, so I washed it with cold water and now it doesn’t burn anymore, but my finger is still red, and-

JON: [FORCEFULLY] Martin?

MARTIN: [CONFUSED] What?

JON: [SLOWLY] Where is it?

MARTIN: I left it in the lab, and-

JON: [QUIETLY, VOICE FILLED WITH BARELY-CONCEALED TERROR] Shit. [INTO MIC, SOMEWHAT FRANTICALLY] End recording.

[A BUTTON ON THE TAPE RECORDER CLICKS, AND THE TAPE WHIRRING NOISE ENDS]

#the magnus archives #jon/martin #tma #the magnus archives fanfic #tma fanfic #ao3 #fanfic #fanfiction

3 notes · View notes