Part 2 (Conclusion) - Crimson Letters: Witch Way is Up?

FROM THE BEGINNING: https://rigglew4.blogspot.com/2017/03/entry-7-witch-trial-papers-are-missing.html

Dr Herman Bunyard (Bill) WWI Marine Corpsman		Zebadiah (Zac) Hunter/Tracker With his coon-dog 'Slim' at his heels	Philipe (Tony) Canadian Trapper A throwback to the French-and-Indian war

It’s a late Friday afternoon 25 minute walk to Leiter’s house just off campus. Neighborhood of small 2-story houses with porch and wooden picket fences. Street lights just coming on but darkness at the professor’s house as expected. Still, we decide to sneak up in case someone else is poking around. So much for sneak as Philipe finds THE loose porch board….”CREEEAAK.”

Using the key provided by Dean Fallon, Philipe and Zeb enter the house as Herman pauses at the stuffed mailbox. Atlantic City casino advertising, a 3^rd Notice letter from the Atlantic City Hotel and Casino, and a letter from one Arkham Sanatorium. “Hey, look at this. Huge hotel bill; quite the poor gambler. And this letter from the asylum regarding a ‘Cecil Hunter’ the professor checked in. Philipe, didn’t you say that artwork was signed by a ‘CH’?” Meanwhile, Philipe has other things on his mind upon entering the dark house as he calls out, “Lucy? You home?” Clattering, pans hitting the floor, then footsteps of someone running out the back.

Herman is too deaf to have heard the intruder, so he is surprised when Philipe knocks him aside rushing out the house to go around back. Zeb stumbles thru the dark house trying to find the back door. Herman steps in to find the light switch. “Click, click.” Nothing. No power. Either blown fuze or another bill not paid. At least the doctor has a flashlight to finally give Zeb lighting. Meanwhile Philipe rounds the side of the house just in time to see a college-aged man climbing the fence. Pursuit. The man stumbles on a root and falls; P rushing forward to stand over him with tomahawk drawn, “Let me guess, Tony?” Flinders indeed and the poor man has soiled himself as he squeaks, “Did you kill him? Do you have the papers?” P marches the man back to the house all the while trying to gain control as Tony continues to babble. “I said shut up. I’ll ask the questions.” Useless threats that only make the pee-stain grow larger.

Tony is pleading for his life, offering anything. Knowledge. “Read the papers. They tell how Keziah Mason was the ONE true witch. Child killer. Had a familiar…had magic…could control people. She was captured and put to death by fire. But apparently the papers record claims she made with her dying breath. I was hoping to read those papers to prove my theory. Emelia is the witch incarnate. That’s how she won the job over me. She bewitched professor…” Philipe had enough of the man besmirching the young aid of professor Leiter, as he slaps him around, “I said shut up.”

The neighbor’s light comes on as a face peers out. Philipe yelling, “Nothing to see out here! Mind your own business.” She goes back inside but can be seen reaching towards her wall for her phone. With flashlight on, we lead Tony inside the house. The den a mess; papers dumped on the floor, file cabinet tipped over. “Busy burglar weren’t you.” Tony pleads innocence, “It was that way when I got here.” We assume the dean and professor Roach would have been more careful when they came to collect the inventory.

Tires squeal as Zeb hears a car pull up. Then footsteps on the creaky porch to then hear the front door creak open. Damn the cops are quick around here. Except we hear, “Come out. No need for violence. Just here to collect a debt. $11K to be exact. He’s got a safe in here somewhere.” Mafia. Philipe and Tony in hiding. Zeb sneaking around the house lowers his rifle at the sight of tommy-guns drawn. Herman steps into their flashlight to plead our case. Lenny and Mac don’t believe Leiter is dead, “Just a plot to weasel out of his debt.” Herman agrees to take them to the morgue as proof. 

As they drive away, P prods Z, “Don’t just stand there. There’s a safe to be found.” Sure enough, upstairs, bedroom, behind a hollow wall. Slide panel. But the safe is open and empty. Almost an hour has passed before the pair hear more footsteps and panting from someone out of breath, “Problems. BIG problem. Leiter’s not dead!”

Along the drive, the mobsters admit THEY trashed the house looking for the safe and money. They’d paid the neighbor to call and report if anyone came by. The mobsters usher Herman out of the car and down the steps to the morgue. Gun in the face of Dr. Wheatcroft who WAS locking up. Room feeling colder than before. Slab pulled out as Lenny compares a photo to the corpse face, “I’ll be damn. It is him. Guess…” His sentence cut off as a hand rises from the slab to grab his collar and pull him down. “CRUNCH!” Gurgling screams as Lenny’s throat is bitten. The now lifeless body tossed across the room with inhuman strength. The zombie sitting up to then spit out an Adams apple. Herman already running out the door, stepping over the fainted coroner. Even the deaf doctor can hear the tommy-gun blazing…then more screams…then silence.

Herman now back at Leiter’s house telling the story only confirms Tony’s claims, “I told you, she’s a witch. She re-animated the dead.” He’s interrupted as the phone rings. A whispering harsh voice, “Come join your friends here at the morgue.”

To hell with that as we rush to Leiter’s office; Philipe wanting to check on Emelia’s safety. We pass police who are cordoning off the morgue. Upon seeing Tony, Emelia spews, “What’s HE doing here?!” Both accusing each other of stealing the papers. Zeb distracted by a reddish glow down the hall. Fire? “Keep your door locked as we investigate.” No smoke, no fumes, the reddish glow pulling away disappearing inside Dr. Roach’s office. Dark. No power. Flashlight on, we open the door.

Milton is slumped in his desk chair. Head back, eyes rolled up, scream frozen on his lifeless face. Dead less than an hour. Tony rushes in in a desperate search of the papers scattered on the floor. “It’s not here.” But Z’s search of the desk uncovers a slip of paper (9-44-26). Safe combo? We bang on the walls in search. Behind a painting, Z finds an outline, “Found it.” Zeb pulls out yellowish old papers.

“Careful” as Tony rushes forward with gloves. “It’s not here. Yes the ‘Witch Papers’ but a page is missing. You must have pocketed it.” Tony has lost it, as in a craze he swings at Zeb. But Z gets the better of the madman - rifle butt to his nose. T crumples to the floor, unconscious.

Herman lifts the papers from T’s hands, cautiously examining the papers. Not anxious to read them surmising Tony did that and that’s what entranced him. From Philipe, “We found what we were hired for. Let’s take them to Fallon for our reward. Don’t cheat me out of my money again, doc.” Herman gently puts the papers in his medical bag.

But first a check on Emelia’s safety. No answer. We open the door to find the room empty and her 2^nd floor window open. [It’s only P who keeps secret about finding rodent marks leading to a heating vent. On his knees peering in, he sees a human faced rat scampering away.] The tension too great, Herman busies himself at the bookcase, face buried in a book. His mania.  P has had enough and shakes T awake, kicking him out the door, “And don’t come back unless you’ve got news.” Tony staggers away still accusing Zeb of stealing the page.

We walk across the quad to the dean’s office. Lights on but they flicker as Herman gets closer. We knock but no answer. The door locked. Shoulders and feet to the door before it finally cracks open. The dean at his desk, head back, carvings on his forehead. Philipe recognizes the runes, “A curse spell. Send Mind.” Herman checks the body further. Recent death. And his heart carved out!!

Zeb finds small footprints; a female? Apparently stepped in the dean’s blood and tracks it to the door. P stoops to look in the heating vent spying more rodent prints. “I’d guess her familiar was here too.” Herman has turned to return to Emelia’s building to check her library for clues. He hasn’t heard the footsteps of someone limping up the steps. Tony with pistol in hand pointed at Zeb. “Hand it over. I know you have the page. There is rumored to be a spell on it. I want that spell.” Delusional. Philipe feints taking the student’s side to gain closer positioning. Swing and a miss; Tony swinging the barrel towards P. Herman steps forward to swing a fist, and Tony collapses…again. P ties the pest up. 

Strange to see Philipe tearing curtains down, ripping them into 3 inch wide strips that he carries with him as we return to Emelia’s building. P stays outside stuffing the cloth into each vent he can find, “Blocking any escape route for that familiar.” Zeb and Herman continue inside. But as they get closer to her room, Herman’s medical bag begins to jostle. An invisible person tugging at it? More something inside trying to get out. And growing from inside as the bag seams begin to split. Herman drops the bag, just in time to see a ghastly creature emerge…a mass of worms coalescing into the form of a bear…with tentacles!
“PHILIPE!!!” Failed sanity by the pair. Zeb staggers with loss of hearing and dexterity. Herman can only pick at his skin till it bleeds. Philipe has his own problems as Emelia confronts him,

 

“Too late. Let them go.” A spell, as she mentally suggest the Frenchman resume his vent stuffing.

It’s a struggle for life and Sanity. Slowed, Zeb’s shots continue to miss the gummy worm bear. Herman regains enough Sanity to draw a flare that he ignites to attack the bear. But the worms pulse and elude the flare as the bear advances on the doctor. Tendrils from the bear slash at both men. 

Meanwhile, Philipe shakes off his trance and rushes inside to find the witch. He can hear her casting from within her room; high-pitched trilling ululations…casting the “Song of Casters.” And as the witch sees the Frenchman, she casts. P can see and feel his skin blister and popping. Which screws his aim as his pistol shot misses. But pressing thru the pain, Philipe manages a steady aim and fires once more (002) blowing the bitch’s head clean off. P rushes toward his companions to attack the bear, lighting his flask of whiskey to toss but misses the wormy-bear. 

Herman’s Sanity is melting away as the bear now hovers over his tormented body. The doctor’s eyes already turning a milky white. Screams as his mind is lost forever. Zeb fairs better, taking a major wound that kills him outright…no torturous life of insanity. But all is not lost. The scattered papers catch fire from the broken whiskey flask. The flames grow and stretch toward the rafters, engulfing the beast, that shoots upwards past the exposed rafters escaping into the night sky.

If there were any students hanging about the quad on this horrific night, they would have seen a ruffled Frenchman dragging a body from the building and calling out. “Come Slim. You have a new master now. Be a good dog. As for you, doctor Herman. The least I can do is check you into a sanitarium. I mean now that you have willingly given me YOUR part of the ransom reward.”

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Post-Script:

There was no spell on the missing page. Had the investigators taken the time to read the ‘Witch Trial’ papers, they would have read about one witch named Keziah Mason. And they would have read claims by the dying witch to be a student from the 1920s.

Keziah had reached out into the world and switched minds with one Emelia Court from Miskatonic University. She waited to go on a killing spree till she knew who had the papers (she didn’t know Roach had stolen them).

The papers central to the beast. The wormy-bear was an alien that Keziah had entrapped in the papers back in the 1600's.  It's bonds were weakened when Professor Leiter decided to try and forge the papers (by Cecil Hunter, insane and in the sanatorium having read the papers during his forgery). The creature is able to affect anyone (living or dead) that spent more than a day with the papers.  Thus the creature was able to animate Dr. Leiter.

Just like the last micro-seconds before her death from Philipe’s shot. How she reached out into the void switching minds with another student walking the campus. Irony that she chose Tony Flinder’s body to occupy. Irony that Tony finally succeeded in learning the truth of the last page. Now knowing all the hidden truths of witches, since he is one now. Keziah getting used to a man’s body.