Departure – Episodes 5 & 6
Throughout the entirety of his journey through Bright Falls, Alan Wake is looking for pages to a manuscript. It’s clear that what’s written on the pages is important. The events are unfolding right before his eyes. These pages will lead Alan to Alice–he’s certain of it.
Below are the manuscript pages for Departure, that are found in Episodes 5 and 6
Episode 5 – The Clicker
Nightingale Reads the Manuscript
Nightingale tried to make sense of the manuscript. It was disjointed and strange. He didn’t understand half of it, but it all rang true. He took out his hip flask when he reached the page that described how he reached the page that made him take out his hip flask.
It wasn’t the booze that made his mind reel.
Nightingale Attacked by the Dark Presence
Nightingale felt the situation veering out of control, but the gun at least felt steady in his hands. He was ready to fire, resolved that he would let this happen over his dead body—and yet he hesitated. He had seen this moment before—read it in the page.
He was transfixed by the déjà vu and the horror that he was a character in a story someone had written. Then the monstrous presence burst in behind him and dragged him into the night.
The Dark Presence Set Back
The darkness that wore Barbara Jagger’s face was furious. The story in the manuscript had been making it stronger all the time, but now the light had set the writer free and hurt it, weakened it. It was only a matter of days before the Dark Presence would be strong again, but meanwhile, it would be difficult to recapture the writer.
Cynthia’s Work
Cynthia Weaver worked hard, following her obsessive rituals, sometimes fighting them, but always giving into them in the end.
She haunted the halls of Bright Falls’ abandoned power plant. She marked her caches with light-sensitive paint that could only be seen by eyes that had been touched by darkness and saved by light like she’d been. She was preparing defenses and supply lines for the war she knew would come—the war between the forces of light and darkness.
The Dark Presence Hunts Wake
For it to be free, the Dark Presence needed the writer to finish the story. Again and again, the story let it get frustratingly close to the writer without letting it capture him. It was bound by the events depicted in the manuscript. But it could pursue the writer indirectly, put others on the task and stop those who would help him. It took over everything in its path, made them its puppets and sent them after Alan Wake.
Alice Trapped in the Dark
Alice had screamed until she had no voice left to scream. Around her, the darkness was alive. It was cold and wet and malevolent and without end. She was a prisoner, trapped in the dark place.
The terror would have burned her mind out, but one thing made her hang on: she could sense Alan in the dark. She could hear him, she could see the words he was writing as flickering shadows. He sensed her too, he was trying to work his way to her.
Barry in the Sheriff’s Station
Barry was in his element, making calls, making things happen, even if he didn’t entirely know what those things were. He wouldn’t let the hot sheriff chick down, even if every noise he heard from outside—and he heard plenty—made him jump. He had only paused to text Al a message, told him to hurry up.
Suddenly, Barry froze in mid-dial: a window broke somewhere in the building, and then the lights went out.
Barry in the General Store
Barry got back to his feet inside the Bright Falls General Store and dusted himself off. Right next to the cans of baked beans was a locked case filled with flare guns. And yet, he were was conveniently placed barrel of crowbars!
Barry’s smile widened as he realized that this was the classic movie scene where the hero had to gear up and arm himself to the teeth. Barry threw himself into the role.
Wake’s Plan
The story I had written in the cabin had come true. Touched by the Dark Presence, I had written a horror story, but the end was still missing. The story was incomplete and the last unfinished page of the manuscript still sat in the typewriter in the cabin study. If I could get back there, if I could read the page, then I could write my own ending to this story and save Alice.
The Falling Helicopter
Sarah was almost starting to relax. Maybe they could turn this into a win yet?
Suddenly, there was a piercing sound, like a table saw gone wild as a hundred birds made out of shadows swarmed into the rotor. The chopper bucked wildly and the board lit up, telling her what she already knew: they were going down. Barry Wheeler screamed next to her.
Zane’s Shoebox
Thomas Zane knew he had to remove all that had made this horror possible, including himself. That was the only way to banish the dark presence he had unleashed and now looked at him through the eyes of his dead love. But he also knew that despite his best efforts, it might someday return, so even as he wrote himself and his work out of existence, he added a loophole as insurance—an exception to the rule. Anything of his stored in a shoebox would remain.
Cynthia on her Way to the Dam
Making her way through the water pipe alone, Cynthia was angry at the writer. Foolish young man, taking unnecessary risks. And the way he broke the rules! Didn’t he understand what was at stake?
Since the terrible days in the 70s, she hadn’t wavered once. As hard as it had been. She was tired of protecting the town all these long years and now only wanted to rest.
The Poet and the Muse Lyrics (pt4)
The Poet and the Music Lyrics by Old Gods of Asgard
The chorus:
And now to see your love set free
You will need the witch’s cabin key
Find the lady of the light gone mad with the night
Find the lady of the light still racing in the night
That’s how you reshape destiny
Children of the Elder God Lyrics (pt 1)
Children of the Elder God lyrics by the Old Gods of Asgard,
The first verse and chorus:
Warriors, torchbearers, come redeem our dreams,
Shine a light upon this night of otherworldly fiends,
Odin’s might be your guide
divorce you from the sane
Hammer’s way will have its say,
rise up in their name
Oh, Memory and Thought
Jet Black and clawed
Children of the Elder God
Scourge of Light upon the dark.
Children of the Elder God Lyrics (pt2)
Children of the Elder God lyrics by Old Gods of Asgard
Second verse and chorus:
Scratching hag you can rake
Your claws and gnash your
Crooked teeth
You’ve taken slaves like ocean waves now feel the ocean seethe
Father Thor, bless this war
Between the dark and light
In their songs let their wrongs
Bring dissolution’s night
Oh Memory and Thought
Jet black and clawed
Children of the Elder God
Scourge of light upon the dark
Episode 6: Departure
The Dark Presence Wants to Stop Wake
The Dark Presence was no longer trying to capture the writer so he could create the ending it wanted. The writer knew too much. He was too strong, and he carried a weapon left behind by Thomas Zane, something that could hurt it.
Now the darkness was doing everything in its power to simply stop the writer from ever reaching Cauldron Lake and the dark place it came from.
The Trail of the Dark Presence
The bottom of Cauldron Lake was a graveyard of things the lake had claimed in one way or another over the decades. The Dark Presence brought them up in its wake, scattering the rotten, waterlogged hull of an old boat here, the remains of a long-ago crashed airplane there. Trees shattered under the impacts. The earth groaned. It didn’t even notice.
Thomas Zane’s Last Dive
Zane cut its hard out, but it didn’t die. The thing that wore Barbara’s face kecrooning sweet nothings, sugar laced with poison. He put on the suit, untied the monster from the chair. The thing in his arms thrashed weakly, but he held fast. He stepped outside, off the pier and into the dark water, a sinking pinprick of light, descending toward the bottom that never came.
The Dark Place
The dark place I found myself in was unlike anything I had ever imagined. It wasn’t solid, it flowed. It was conceptual and subjective. For someone else, an artist in another field, it would have been very different. I could sense the story of the manuscript all around me. The words and ideas floating in the air, poised to become real.
The Way through the Dark Place
After Zane had gone, I stood alone in the shifting dream that was the dark place. I had to find a way to the cabin. I had written myself a way through this place in the manuscript. I followed the idea of a path. I had written myself across the ocean that blocked my way, and with that, there was a bridge to the island beyond. The idea of the cabin flickered in the underwater darkness.
I willed the cabin to be real. And it was.
The Poet and the Muse Lyrics (pt1)
The Poet and the Muse Lyrics by Old Gods of Asgard
The first verse:
There’s an old tale wrought with mystery of Tom the Poet and his muse
And a magic lake which gave a life to the words the poet used
Now the muse she was his happiness and he rhymed about her grace
And told her stories of treasures deep beneath the blackened waves
‘Til the stillness of one dawn, still in its misty crown
The muse she went down to the lake and in the waves she drowned.
The Poet and the Muse Lyrics (pt 2)
The Poet and the Muse Lyrics by Old Gods of Asgard
The second verse
The poet came down to the lake to call out to his dear
When there was no answer he was overcome with fear
He searched in vain for his
treasure lost and too soon the night would fall
Only his own echo would wail back at his call
And when he swore to bring back his love by stories he’d create
Nightmares shifted in their sleep in the darkness of the lake.
The Poet and the Muse Lyrics (pt 3)
The Poet and the Muse lyrics by Old Gods of Asgard
The third verse
In the dead of night she came to him with darkness in her eyes
Wearing a mourning gown, sweet words as her disguise
He took her in without a word for he saw his grave mistake
And vowed them both to silence deep beneath the lake
Now it’s real or just a dream one mystery remains
For it is said on moonless nights they may still haunt this place
Sarah and Barry in the Well-Lit Room
In the end, Barry wasn’t going to shoot Sarah, they both knew that.
Once she had no chance of catching up to Wake, Barry gave up the gun and sat down on the floor, shielding his face from the merciless glare of the Well-Lit Room, “I don’t think I’m ever gonna see him again,” he said in a weak voice.
Sarah didn’t have it in her to be mad at him. Besides, he was probably right.
Zane’s Poem
I’d first heard the poem in a dream, recited by a strange UFO-like light. I’d read it again in the cabin, in a book by Thomas Zane:
For he did not know that beyond the lake he called home
Lies a deeper, darker ocean green
Where waves are both wilder and more serene
To its ports I’ve been
To its ports I’ve been.
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