Culture
12 | The Unreachable Star
In this gripping episode of 'Havoc Town,' the haunting legacy of a cursed town unfolds as residents confront the dark man and the sacrifices demanded by their past. Tensions rise as secrets ...
12 | The Unreachable Star
Culture •
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Interactive Transcript
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This is an I Heart Podcast.
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There's a viral sickness in Abustown.
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You must excise it.
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Dig into the deep earth and cut it out.
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From I Heart Podcasts and Grimm & Mild from Aaron Manke,
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this is Havoc Town, a new fiction podcast
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set in the Bridgewater Audio Universe,
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starring Jules State and Ray Wise.
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Listen to Havoc Town on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcasts
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or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Consumed is a production of I Heart Podcasts and Grimm & Mild from Aaron Manke.
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Headphones recommended, listener discretion advised.
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Do you mind if I smoke?
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oK
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We called him the dark man.
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We were told he would come through the shadows and make bad kids disappear
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I was eight years old when Jimmy vanished
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and James Mauryng.
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He was 16 or 17.
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Boy, was he a troubled maker?
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He'd rather as all the kids at the McDonald's, the old middle school.
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I was looking for a fight.
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I would have gone pro in the ring, I suspect, if only hadn't been pushed so hard by his father.
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That son of a bitch drank enough for the whole town.
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And we knew when Jimmy came around with a black eye, it wasn't because he lost a fight.
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He never lost a fight or fell down the stairs.
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No one bought it.
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But he never set it out loud.
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He didn't back then, it was 1960.
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Twelve-year-old smoked to pack the luckies a day for fun.
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He just let Jimmy terrorize you, as if it was a way to give him a small win in his otherwise miserable life.
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Now, I don't know how much of this ended up being legend versus fact.
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But I was eight or nine, and remember that one day Jimmy was picking on us down behind the Anderson.
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And the next day, he was gone.
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Old man brooder.
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Jack's grandpa, who ran the grocer, told us Jimmy had gone off to some prep school.
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I think your kids call it the Governor's Academy nowadays.
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Now, look, there's no way in hell Jimmy mooring
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would have let himself go to a prep school.
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Kid was smart, but he wasn't a suit and tie kind of guy.
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But we didn't question.
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Not until, well, he wasn't until we heard what happened to Mrs Shaw one night in 1963.
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We didn't see it, but rumors said that she showed up at the mooring house,
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who were clearly still grieving.
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And she just started pounding on the door, yelling things like,
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the dark man took our children.
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They let him take them.
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And that's how it started and grew into an urban legend.
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Everyone wrote off Mrs Shaw and Mrs Mooring as cooks,
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especially when Mr. Mooring drunk himself into the ground a year later.
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But when you're 16 years old, you start to worry about other things,
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like girls and Vietnam.
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Wondering if you'd end up going if the U.S. got involved.
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Did you?
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Oh, yeah.
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Only thing I ever won that wasn't Sandy's affection was the lottery.
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But this was the world's worst lottery, and I spent 18 months there.
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Barely survived K-Saw.
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I was always thinking I'd never see or d'Anneville again.
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I suppose that's why we had a little Joshua so fast when I got back.
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And he's the boy that disappeared in 1991 at the rock concert in Boston.
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That's what the paper said.
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The Joshua never made it down to Boston.
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How do you know? What happened?
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I could see it in their eyes.
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The Shaw's, the Brooders, the McDonald's.
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What?
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The guilt.
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Then you what happened?
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What was it? What happened to your son, Rudy?
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They happened.
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This town happened.
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ان
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this feeling and this stupid thing
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you know what I am…
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I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
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I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
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I'm sorry.
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I'm sorry.
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I'm sorry.
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I'm sorry.
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I'm sorry.
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I'm sorry.
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So was it the dark man?
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Because believe me, we...
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Took care of that.
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We stopped it.
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You didn't stop anything.
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Just like I didn't 31 years ago.
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Or this year.
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What do you mean?
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Oh, she, Manitu.
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I'm sorry?
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Manitu.
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It's everything to the outgunk one.
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It is the spirit of life.
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Omnipresent and found everywhere.
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Animals, earth, trees, plants, food.
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Even at birth and death.
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Okay.
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And like many spiritual cultures,
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there's a duality to it.
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The good and the bad.
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No, ugly.
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Gordon.
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Sorry.
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The good Manitu is the Asha.
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The bad Ochi.
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Back in the 17th century when the colonizers found Danville,
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they found a thriving community.
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Holy shit.
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Gordon, the whispers.
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They were welcomed by a tribe settled up top.
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What you know is Anderson Hill.
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Where this very library was eventually built.
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The chief of the tribe was convinced everyone could get along.
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But the colonizers had guns.
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And greed.
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Some things never change.
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Still, this chief thought he could make things work.
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But little by little, the colonizers kept taking.
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And he kept making deals.
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It wasn't until the deals ran out and he was forced to lock up his remaining tribes people
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and equipped, built somewhere in town.
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But they burned them all alive while making him watch.
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Then, because they were bored, brutally skinned and murdered him.
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Oh, Jesus.
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And do you want to know how old the chief was when he had everything?
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His children, his wife, his family, his tribe, his land,
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his entire village, take it away from him?
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31 years old.
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31 years old.
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But how does that explain the...
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They got rid of the good spirits leaving this area unbalanced.
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Correct.
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Without Asha Manitou.
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Only Ochi Manitou remained.
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And it laid upon Danville a curse that had to be fed.
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Every 31 years.
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A sacrifice, like what they did to the chief.
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Every 31 years, someone from the town had to be consumed.
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In order to keep them anitou at bay.
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I didn't believe any of the dark man lore until it happened to my boy.
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But what about the monster?
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We definitely ended something down by the old drain.
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You ended a physical manifestation of what happens when the curse is ignored.
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The sacrificing of a resident has to be fulfilled.
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Okay.
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Supposing there's still a vendetta out there, why did you leave?
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And take the internet with you.
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I shut down the grid.
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Because...
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Well, because I was angry.
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They took Joshua.
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And you saw her.
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They took my Sandeer away.
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28 years.
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She tried to process.
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But it eats at you.
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No, she wanted to talk about what's the dark man.
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No one else existed myself included.
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I know I'd have to work to find the way.
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I wanted to keep her in a safe place.
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I'd already developed the area's first computer network.
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So it was only natural that I create our rural ISP framework as well.
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That's when I noticed this year that they could hear us.
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And some of us could hear them.
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Through technology.
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Through the waves.
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Our man-made spirits.
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So they've been listening this whole time?
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But from where?
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From everywhere.
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Radios, phones, speakers.
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That does sound a bit crazy though.
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As crazy as the monster you say you incinerated?
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Well, yeah.
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Let me ask you.
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Did you ever see it?
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The Wendigo?
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Yeah.
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Well, no, but I heard it.
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You heard what you're scared of.
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You heard your deepest fears.
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And it terrified you.
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But why did you let it come back this year?
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Revenge.
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Wait.
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What?
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Cassandi at the home in Joshua Gunn.
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And so I saw that the patriarchs of the town were planning on defying the curse.
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I knew they'd pay for it and my only regret is that the spirits haven't taken more of them.
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Okay, but hold on.
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I'll find so I had nothing to do with any of this.
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Wrong town.
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Wrong time.
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So how do we stop it?
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Unless you can find a way to satiate the spirits.
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You can't.
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You should just pack a bag and never turn around.
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Wait, but why did you come back?
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I'm going to bury my wife next to the empty grave of my son.
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And by this time next week, I'll be somewhere in Europe.
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Who knows?
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Is there any way you can help us before someone else dies?
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I'm told you everything I know.
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No, but for real, they're...
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Thank you for your time, Rudy.
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Sorry for your loss, sis.
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I hope you find some peace wherever you end up.
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It's too late for a piece or a revenge from me.
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But perhaps not for you.
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Was that helpful?
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Dude has seen shit.
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Yeah, but was it all shit?
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What?
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I don't mean his suffering.
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I mean, we could be talking big fish here.
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Memories make some dreams as you get older and it all becomes real in one's head.
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Shut up for a second.
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Listen.
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You hear that?
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The wind?
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The draft's going to draft.
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No.
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No, no, no.
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It can't be.
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What the fuck?
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We roasted that demon from hell.
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We did!
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Listen.
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Holy shit.
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What?
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Was that English?
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That's not supposed to be the sh-
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It's okay.
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Listen.
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Pray.
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Remember.
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Gordon, don't you get it?
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What?
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It's here.
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It's been here the whole time.
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Sheriff, Sheriff.
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Hey, hey, I was just coming to-
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It's the library.
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What?
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It's the library.
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That's the source of all of it.
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And if you don't come with us and help us try to stop it right now,
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I think we'll be in for a very massive fucking realization
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that things are nowhere near done.
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Can someone just listen to us right now?
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We need to get the guns, the coves, the tactical, whatever,
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and just get back to the tunnels.
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Tunnels?
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I'm sorry.
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I'm a bit busy right now.
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I've done-
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That wasn't everything.
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And the longer we wait here, the-
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What the-
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What's going on?
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What's that smell?
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I think it's wherever those fire trucks are going.
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Oh my god.
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It's the library.
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Get the ladder up on the side.
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We need more water!
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We don't have any more water.
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What do you mean?
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The hydrant was drained.
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What the fuck?
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What a fucking night!
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Good job, boys and girls.
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We contained it.
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Yeah, but the entire building is basically turned ash.
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What's important is that it didn't spread and no one was hurt.
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It took 14 hours, but we did it.
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Let's get out of here.
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Thanks, Max.
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Thanks, guys.
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Hello, officer. Have you seen a woman named Sarah Simmons?
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Lex?
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Sarah! Oh, Jesus Christ!
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You're okay!
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Of course-
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How did you find us?
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You were fine my iPhone pinged late last night after a day and a half of calling you
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and it going straight to voicemail, which we'll have to talk about later.
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And you drove up here?
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Of course I drove up here.
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To chastise me, I suppose.
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To make sure you were okay, sis.
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Talk of murders and then radio silence?
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That'll do a number on someone.
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So you're not here to-
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I'm here for my sister and that's all that matters.
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I'm relieved beyond measure that you're alive and well.
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And I'm not even going to ask what happened there.
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That used to be my playground.
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Hi, Gordon Morales.
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You must be Alex.
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Um, sis, this is Gordon.
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Literally just said that.
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Sorry, it's been-
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What day is this?
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It's been a few days.
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Nice to meet you.
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Gordon.
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You used to live here?
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Yeah, a lot of history just went up in smoke.
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Alex, I'll explain everything, but I gotta-
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Yeah, no, I get it.
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I saw a diner on the way in.
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I can-
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No, I wouldn't go there.
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Yeah, I'd avoid that place.
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They got to see you on their latest health inspection.
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But there's a great motel in Luminton just on the road.
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We'll make sure to get Sarah there once we, uh-
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Yeah, no, I get it.
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I've just happy you're okay.
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Thanks, Lex.
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So?
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So.
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Where are you gonna stay tonight?
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I have no idea.
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None?
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I mean, this all kind of happened really quick.
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Yeah.
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One minute or researching centuries of history.
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And the next, it's all gone.
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Without so much as a warning.
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Shame.
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The books.
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I guess when books are burned, things like this tend to happen.
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Colonial cardinage, the terrorizing and scapegoating of certain peoples.
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My minorities if you're being nasty.
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Fept, death, destruction.
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Lies of mind the public into thinking.
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Feels like a New Hampshire primary.
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Well, less detrimental to the country as a whole, I suppose.
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But I'll still miss them.
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Man, the newspapers.
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Oh, the old computer.
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The Tomb Raider poster.
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All gone.
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Well, almost all gone.
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For some reason, I brought a little bag with me
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when we left to go tell Maxwell what was up.
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Yeah, I can see that.
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It's a beautiful bag.
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Stunning.
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Did you want to describe it to me?
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Even though I'm standing here looking at it?
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It's not the bag so much.
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But this.
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Whoa.
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Is this the real thing?
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The play bill for men of little munches, Broadway debut.
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I mean, one would have assumed it would have burned with everything else.
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And if I were a betting man, I would assume that
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if someone had time to get something out of a burning building,
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perhaps they had something to do with it.
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Yeah.
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We can just keep on assuming it.
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I'll just...
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Wait, which part?
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What?
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Which part are we assuming that it would have burned with everything else?
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Or that someone might assume we had something to do with this?
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I, um...
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Do you think anyone is going to figure out that...
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Think.
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Sorry, think what?
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I wouldn't want to risk it.
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Well, lucky for us, this beautiful bag has an inside zipper.
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So I'll just put it back here just for us.
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Hmm.
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Just for us, huh?
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I mean, until the romcom prophecies fulfill,
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then I find out you're building high-rise luxury housing right here.
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With my bank account, until I have a job, I won't be doing much of anything.
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I don't think that will be an issue.
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This story will open up a million doors for you.
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What story?
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What story?
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You mean the last four days of stories?
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Happy to remind you.
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I have no idea what you're talking about.
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Seems like some people got mulled by woodland creatures.
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And an unfortunate fire took a creaky drafty shaky building that really...
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Shouldn't have been there in the first place.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say.
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But real talk, wouldn't another version help you get one of those big fancy jobs?
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Yeah, maybe.
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But what cost?
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Also, I think you're overestimating what a media job pays in 2022.
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Hmm.
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And besides, I think I found the job that I want.
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Yeah?
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Yeah.
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You want to get out of here?
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Yeah.
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They're on retabore.
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Star.
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That was the impossible dream from that doozzy man of Lamontia.
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What a show.
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And let me tell you, if you haven't seen the St. Louis players production of it,
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you have just two weeks to get tickets.
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I saw it last weekend and just Bravo.
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For tickets to Missouri's best theater venue, head on over to muni.com slash tickets slash Missouri slash the man.
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Bane, some kind of international number.
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Hello?
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Max?
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Max, put it on speaker.
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Max, you're on speaker with Gordon and I.
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Hola amigos.
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Hola?
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First of, relax.
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Not calling about anything having to do with Danville.
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Oh, I mean, yeah, cool. Like, why would you?
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Well, we'll get into that over some mezcal when I see you.
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I'm sorry, when you see us?
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Well, unless you're dying to see us, where even are you?
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Indiana?
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Missouri.
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Sorry, I don't even know where that is.
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Really?
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North of Texas, south of Canada, I presume.
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Hold on, mezcal.
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See, amigos.
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And good old CDMX, or as we call it down here, CDMX.
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But usually without my accrocious accent, Richard Ringer.
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You're in Mexico City.
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Indeed.
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How? Why?
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When the del Sattel, after that mysterious fire, I tried to tie up some loose ends and when I looked around,
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everyone that had lost someone had finally to lean on except for...
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Alfonso's mother.
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Correct.
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So, I decided that my time in America had come to a pause, and that someone had to get consuel reunited with her relatives.
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So you stayed down there?
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Written here. It's gorgeous, and the people are wonderful.
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But they're kind of getting annoyed with expats moving down there, aren't they?
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Americans. They're annoyed with Americans, but that's a worldwide phenomenon.
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You're not wrong. That's wonderful.
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But I think we're a bit confused as to why you're calling.
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What do you know about El Bosque, the Chippewtapic?
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The forest of Chippewtapic.
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Besides knowing what Bosque is in English.
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Google tells me it's like Mexico City Central Park.
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Sure. But hundreds of years older.
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As most things are.
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So you're calling about a forest-laden park in the middle of Mexico City.
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I'm calling by a series of incidents that have been happening in and near the castle that overlooks the entire park.
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What kind of incidents?
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That's where I need your help.
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Us?
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You came together and solved a 500-year-old mystery no matter your piety methods.
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We don't know what you're talking about.
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I know you've been searching out similar accounts looking to offer closure.
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And I'm offering you the chance to find closure for six boys who passed away.
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Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. When did they pass?
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1847.
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We're on our way.
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The End
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Consumed Episode 12, The Unreachable Star.
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Written by Carlos Folia, Editing and Sound Design by Trevor Young.
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Starring Rachel Rosenbloom and Arturo Castro with Ruth Connell, Sam Rod, Genevieve Patelaki, Benjamin Stockham, Charlie David Newell,
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Mike Corwich, Anna Ease Fairweather, Junior Alavi, Alma Martinez, Tracy Martin, Laura Shine, George Vincent and Raphael Corkill.
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Guest starring Time Winters as Rudy, directed by Alexander Williams, assistant director Trevor Young, casting by Sunday bowling, CSA and Meg Mormon CSA, production coordinator, Wayne E. Calderon.
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Music by Carlos Folia, consumed the season one score available now on Apple Music, Spotify or wherever music is streamed.
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Executive producers Aaron Manky, Carlos Folia, Matt Frederick and Alexander Williams, supervising producers Trevor Young and Josh Thane.
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Producers Noemi Griffin, Jesse Funk and Rima Ilkayali.
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Recorded at This Is Sound Design Studios, Burbank, California, engineered by Ross Aerono, Eastside Studios Austin, Texas, engineered by Austin Sysler, and Aeros Creative and Sound, Ohio, California, engineered by Ken Aeros.
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Consumed was created by Carlos Folia, inspired by the novel by Aaron Manky.
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Consumed is the newest chapter in the Bridgewater Universe.
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To learn more and catch up, visit grimandmild.com slash bridgewater.
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Learn more about Consumed at grimandmild.com slash consumed and find more podcasts from I Heart Radio by visiting the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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There's a viral sickness in Appestown. You must excise it. Dig into the deep earth and cut it out.
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From I Heart Podcasts and Grimm & Mild from Aaron Manky, this is Havoc Town, a new fiction podcast sets in the Bridgewater Audio Universe, starring Jules State and Ray Wise.
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Listen to Havoc Town on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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This is an I Heart Podcast.