Doors to Darkness/The Darkness Beneath the Hill: “I Love what You’ve Done With the Place”
Monday, June 3rd: Funny how everyone
seems to be in Boston, knowing each other. I guess mob ties will do that;
whether affiliated or opposed to them. Steve calls the group together at
Johnny’s Grill, “Interested in a trip to Rhode Island? My old college classmate
called me about his find while renovating his old house. Josh is from old money
and apparently inherited his family digs; old colonial if I remember correctly.
Anyway, he didn’t give details but from the sound of his voice, he’s excited
about some historical find.”
Ashley as Steve (Diana’s paramour, secret love)
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Emma as Diana (aka Wonder Woman)
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Hannah as Eloise (cop)
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Ellie as
Barry (mobster)
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Bill as Jack (auto mechanic)
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Tony as Max (conman)
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Aaron as Kyle
(mob hitman)
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While Jack owns a car, cramming 7 folks into it makes for
a miserable trip; so, we take the train outa Boston to Providence, Rhode
Island. Steve and Diana steer the group to a nicer hotel when Max settles into
scamming the ritzy clientele. Casual conversation makes it obvious the locals
are VERY racist. KKK, Grand Wizard. The only things missing are the white
sheets and burning cross. Anyway Jack is off shopping for transportation,
working a deal with “Honest Joe’s Used Cars.” But it takes financial backing by
Max to secure the deal for the 1917 Cadillac 55 Landaulet Coupe. “OK, this’ll get us
around town if 2 folks are willing to stand on the running boards.”
Tuesday, June 4th: A warm and
inviting day as we head off for breakfast at a French deli. It’s still morning
as we drive on to 79 Power Street to meet Josh Winscott. Beyond the rusty fence
and broken gate stands a 2-story house sorely in need of repairs.
The porch steps creak as Steve approaches the door,
knocking. Nothing. Another knock and the door creaks open. Eloise steps in,
“Hello?” Rustling sounds from below then a reply, “Steve? Is that you?” We’re
soon introduced to Josh caked in dirt (turned to mud from his sweaty exertion) still
carrying a pickaxe. “Coffee? Coffee, yeah let me get you coffee” as Josh leads
us into the kitchen. Coffee thick as mud. Josh is a chain-smoker; a thick cloud
over him like a coal-locomotive chucking up a hill. “Quite the find. Yes, yes.
I was renovating downstairs. Couple a waps doing the heavy stuff when they
exposed a brick wall on the south side. May not sound like much to you, but I
remember the rumors of tunnels throughout the city back in the slave-running
days. This could be a historical find Brown
University would be willing to pay dearly for. I’ll need your help
documenting everything once I get through the wall. Come back tomorrow after
you do some research. Say 11 o’clock; I ougha be ready to get back at it by
then.”
As we start to leave, Eloise remarks (tongue-in-check),
“I love what you’ve done with the place. Can’t wait to see your finished
renovations.”
The group splits up the research between the Providence
Athenaeum library and City Hall (for land/title records):
John Brown was an American merchant, slave trader, and statesman from Providence, Rhode
Island. John was instrumental in founding the College of Rhode Island, built
upon his own lands. He was a powerful defender of slave trading, clashing
aggressively—in newspapers, courts and politics.
History of slaving tunnels dug throughout Providence,
crisscrossing Brown land (under college and personal lands). Used to secretly
move slaves to the riverbanks for loading aboard ships bound for the West
Indies. More notes of John’s ancestor Obadiah
Brown as master of shipping vessels in the West Indies trade.
Congress passed the Slave Trade Act of
1794, which prohibited the making, loading, outfitting,
equipping, or dispatching of any ship to be used in the trade of slaves. Subsequently,
on August 5, 1797, John Brown was tried in federal court as the first American
to be tried under the 1794 law. Brown was convicted and was forced to forfeit
his ship Hope.
Ironically, it was Nicholas
Brown, Jr. (philanthropist and abolitionist) who donated gobs of money in
1804 that got the College of Rhode
Island renamed to Brown
University.
[From Steve, “I coulda told you that! I’m a Brown
alumni.”]
City
records detail transfer of Josh’s house. Originally owned by Obadiah Brown but
sold to 40 year old Elysiah Winscott in 1796. Elysiah died 2 January, 1811;
thus, house inherited by nephew Micah Winscott. Family fortune declined during
Civil War as slave trading under scrutiny.
[City
Clerk adds details, “Hell, there’s even rumors of a lost 1796 slave shipment.
Slaves bought in DC but never made it to the ships to send south. Obadiah
probably sold the house to cover his loses. Then there’s Elysiah’s death. Mysterious; body never found. Probably killed
for his illegal activities. Yeah, Winscotts were also into slavery. Profitable
business in those days.”]
We
wrap up the day’s research and return to the hotel. Jack has bought a
house-warming gift for Josh: 2 bottles of scotch and 2 cartons of Camel
cigarettes.
Wednesday, June 5th: Another hearty
breakfast, comparing notes, before our 11am appointment with Josh. The house
silent; no answer to our knocks. So we enter finding darkness. Flashlights lead
us to the open basement door and cautious descent of the stairs. The flashlight
flickers through a man-sized hole on the south wall; Josh has busted through.
Footprints tell his entry into the exposed tunnels.
Diana in the lead as the natural tunnel gently slopes
down. Minutes pass before she stops at a branch. Rubble/garbage litters the
dirt floor. Flashlight dances across tattered clothing, bones, and rusting
chains. “That’s a femur bone! Another, another. And the clothing looks
colonial.” Max surmises, “African bones.” Steve questions, “How can you tell
white from black bones?!” White-men didn’t wear chains back then.
Barry calls out, “Over here. Cigarette butts. He climbed
through this side tunnel.”
We soon come upon a constructed room. VERY old. Wall
carvings…snake motif. Diana lets out a yelp as she recognizes figures bent in
supplication to a LARGE snake.
Max calls out, “Josh? Mate?” Scrapping sounds from behind
the walls…either side. Steve believes its Josh answering the call; so, he
levels his rifle to blast at the wall! BAMM!! “Damn it Steve. Give us warning
next time. Besides, sound from both sides. It’s not like Josh is running from
one side to the next scrapping. Something else is behind the walls.”
At least we can no longer hear scrapping sounds. THAT’S
BECAUSE WE’RE ALL DEAF from the gun blast in a closed area!
Barry takes the lead. More natural tunnels that soon open
unto another constructed room. More carvings that fill the entire wall:
“This ain’t no slave tunnel. Those are dinosaurs. And
snake people! These other carvings tell a story of the serpent people
abandoning above-ground cities, moving underground to avoid the dinosaurs. See
how the beasts try to push rocks down upon the snakes.”
Someone notices small footprints on the dirt floor.
Fresh. Running. We follow. And teeter to a halt at the edge of a sloping
dropoff. Jack knots a rope and anchors it with his grappling hook so we can
climb down the 20ft slope. Our noise hiding the approach of 2 humanoids that
confront Jack left alone at the top. Ghasts!
BLAM! Jack’s readied shotgun (extreme hit 30 points) only
causes one to turn and run away. The other charges but misses with its claws.
Jack gets a 2nd shot off…the creature slumps then slides down the
slope to the feet of the other explorers. “What the?!” It’s a Sanity check for
all at the sickening sight of this bipedal aberration.
We continue forward. Thankful some have brought extra
flashlight batteries as Barry’s flickers out. Another rectangular room. Crystal
prisms imbedded in the walls spray the flashlight in all directions, even
revealing the ceiling 150 feet up. Most curious is the bronze pipes lining the
western wall. A chair (unlike any human chair I’ve ever seen!) stands before
the base of the pipes. Is there a keyboard to this organ?
Eloise lets out a curdling scream as she raises her eyes
to the tops of the pipes. Sanity fades as she spies human heads atop each of
the 15 pipes…eyelids closed but the mouths opening and closing as creepy music
begins to fill the room. She runs in fear. Jack manages to tackle her, holding
her till she regains her composure.
We continue following the child’s footprints. Left,
right, left…we stand before a LARGE cavern that looks like a farm. Small
apelike creatures tend the gardens. We quietly back out to try another passage.
Another room adorned with a huge statue…of a snake!
Kyle
has seen enough and seeks the end of the tunnels, “Aren’t the slave tunnels
supposed to end at the river? That’s behind us to the west.” But lights ahead
draw us forward.
Heat
and humidity rise as we enter another room. Rugs piled on one side cuddling 3
baby apes. Another wall of shelves holding vials and bottles filled with green
liquid. An alcove with vertical iron bars…”Josh!!” Prisoner. Steve rushes
forward to free his friend but Josh has lost all sanity. Now a babbling idiot.
Barry
steps toward the shelves to analyze the liquid, when a clawed hand reaches out
from the opposing gate (magical portal) to grab him.
“I
am S’syaa-H’risss. What are yooo doing here? The man. My guest. These potions
dangerous. I wait for the heat so we can rise again. I’m hungry.” Barry
flinches expecting to be the main course, when the snakeman reaches further,
graps a baby ape, and pops it in his distended mouth as if it’s an olive.
Gunshots
ring out but the slugs bounce off the scaly hide. In reply, S’syaa casts at Max
who fired the 1st shot. Max’s forehead erupts in blisters that
burst; blood flows into his eyes blinding him. S’syaa then commands Diana to
“kill them all.” She attacks Steve.
Barry
considers running back from where we came, but scrapping sounds foretell the
approach of other creatures. It’s a mad scramble to get the hell out…through
the magical gate S’syaa entered from.
Jack leads the blind Max to the gate pushing him through. Barry tries to
grapple Diana but is knocked aside. Meanwhile Kyle fights off a spell cast by S’syaa.
He ain’t no fool as he rushes through the gate, followed by Barry. Eloise
wrestles Diana close enough for Jack to push her through the gate before he and
Eloise jump through themselves.
A
hissing voice echoes though the gate, “I’ll be seeing you soon.”
We
all lay in green pasture beside the Providence river, near the slum part of
town. Where S’syaa has been stealing black babies for his meals and slaves.
Epilog: We pause to
consider our next moves. Do we tell anyone what we’ve found? It’s graduation
day as we approach the Brown
University campus. We witness the students marching in an undulating
line much like a snake moves! Steve remembers, “It’s the traditional ‘Snake
Dance’. Oh. What do you suppose THAT tradition is based on? Could it be…?”
We
decide to avoid telling the Brown
University staff of our discoveries.
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