Magnus Archives Episode 047 - The New Door

Magnus Archives Episode 047 - The New Door

(Mostly a dump of an auto-transcription, a very few edits.)

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Statement of Helen Richardson regarding how would you describe it miss Richardson

what

your experience how would you summarize it

well I've been I've been trying to draw you a map but it doesn't... it doesn't work.

right. statement of Helen Richardson regarding a new door in the house she was selling stable accorded direct from subject second October 2016. statement begins. miss Richardson?

there's no left turns look look none it just it just turns right it doesn't make any sense no it wasn't a spiral because you couldn't you could always go forward I mean I I did mostly just forward and the path never got shorter like you were coming to a Center they just kept going he doesn't doesn't make any sense look at it look at it

you're right this map doesn't make any sense after a few turns it becomes a mess of impossible lines yes but it will be very useful for our investigation if you could start at the beginning give us some context tell me how it got started

what do you want to know? there wasn't a door. and then there was.

I worked for Wolverton Kendrick I still do I suppose I haven't officially quit but I haven't been back there since this happened we mostly sell properties around the Wimbledon area sometimes as far as Collier's wood we specialize in well-appointed family homes for successful professionals looking to move further out of London we've had a lot of success and these days usually have anything up to 200 properties in the market most of them a detached family homes or big well-appointed flats.

I've been with the agency for about eight years now and I've done thousands of feelings for them so believe me when I say there was nothing unusual about that house on sand albans avenue i mean maybe the fact the owner was selling it for less than two million

even so, it still wasn't suspiciously cheap it was just a lovely house in a good area like every other house I sell but I think back to driving there the trees seem darker than they should have been the other houses sit there sinister behind their tall gates and empty driveways. But I think, oh, that's just my memory changing to fit what I know now at the time I don't think I felt anything except annoyance that I was going to be two minutes late to the viewing

you know what's funny even after everything that happened I actually have trouble picturing the house in my mind it was so much like all the others so unremarkable

and it's not like I've been back for most of the morning viewings it was business as usual I had the usual stream of bankers and executives asking the standard questions occasionally live and up by a private dentist or a barrister

I walked around that house for the better part of five hours and by the end I've been in every room and opened every cupboard dozens of times and I promise you I swear to you that door was not there

he came at the end of the viewings it was the last appointment and although he didn't give his name I am absolutely sure he was not mr. or mrs. Adrian Lombardi

it was tall maybe six and a half feet and he had long straw colored hair that fell onto his shoulders and loose ringlets his face was round and unthreatening although he stood so still an answered the door they did rather unnerve me

I asked him if he was mr. Lombardi and he said no but that mr. Lombardi wouldn't be coming so he was here instead it's not unheard of for some of our clients to send their people to viewings in that place so it didn't seem like an unreasonable statement even if it would normally you know be arranged ahead of time I just I just thought I'd missed an email

I held up my arm for a handshake but he just looked at it and laughed keeping his hands firmly by his side that was when I first started to think that something might be wrong because his laugh didn't sound right I don't know how to describe it but it wasn't it wasn't a human laugh

I should have stopped there and left or called the police but he'd already walked past me and into the house and I started to give him the sales pitch almost as it reflex I decided that since he didn't seem to be actively threatening I just gave him a quick rundown of the house and get out of there as soon as possible

he was strange but I felt that if he did work for the long bodies that I didn't want to be rude and have to deal with a complaint later so I took him around the place he followed me his his eyes were always looking where I pointed but he never seemed to take anything in and he didn't ask any questions at all at least not till we reached the second floor

we just climbed up the stairs to the top of the house I went into the first bedroom and I started talking about its potential as a child's room or a study the ceiling was quite low and I thought I'd best warn him to be careful but when he looked back he wasn't there

I stepped back out onto the landing to find him looking at a new door he asked me what was behind it and I just stood there staring

it was a small unremarkable door painted dark yellow with a matte black handle and it wasn't there before

I had been up on that landing dozens of times already and I definitely did not remember it being there it wasn't just that I hadn't noticed it you have to understand that it wasn't there it couldn't have been there I checked the floor plan I have with me and obviously there was no door shown on it it was an exterior wall on the second floor there can't have been anything beyond it but empty air and a significant drop except that I have made several circuits at the outside while showing off the garden and there was absolutely no door visible there it was just a dark yellow door that couldn't be there

the man asked me again what was inside and I just stood there staring at it with my mouth hanging open inch I honestly don't know how long I stood there looking at it my strange client said nothing and I'd almost forgotten he was there by the time I finally made up my mind they're each tout and gripped the handle it was warm I turned it and as soon as I did so the door swung open I didn't need to pull it at all

it opened slowly but deliberately like it was keen for me to go inside and beyond that threshold where they should have been empty air over the garden there was a long windowless corridor it was lit by electric lamps attached to the walls every ten feet or so and the walls were papered over in a swirling green pattern

running down the middle of the faded yellow carpet was a rug black and thick that disappeared off as the path very gradually curved to the left on the walls were what at first looked like mirrors but I soon realized that what a few of them were mirrors most of them were paintings or photographs at that same corridor from various odd angles

here's the thing I don't remember going through that door I remember standing there looking down it with this feeling of dread and then I remember feeling a surge of Terror as I heard the door closed behind me with a click I spun round but there was no handle on this side just a huge smooth mirror

I saw myself stood in that strange corridor it looked like I've been crying for hours i hammered shouted I threw myself against a in caring face of that mirror and nothing happened it didn't even crack

I took out my phone my mind was muddy but I don't know exactly what I was hoping to do call the police maybe my colleagues I I think I might have wanted just to check the time I had no idea how long I've been in that when I opened the phone all that was on the screen was another picture of the corridor just like the paintings on the walls

so I started walking down the corridor like I mean there was there was nothing else I could do it dragged on and on bending almost imperceptibly to the left well every once in a while there would be another corridor turning off to the right at a sharp angle at first I divided these branching paths thinking if I walked along the corridor far enough it would have to lead somewhere but after what felt like miles I finally decided that taking one of the turns big it couldn't make things worse

the branching corridors were identical mirrors and paintings that mirrored them were everywhere and when I turn back I think I must have gotten turned around because the left hand that would have led back towards the door wasn't it wasn't there anymore it was another long corridor which paths off to the right

the wallpaper was a different color though I think it definitely changed but I never noticed it switching I'd simply realize that it hadn't been red when I'd been walking on blue purple whatever colour was at the time all the colors seemed to shift in that place even the yellow of the carpet the black of the rug felt like I couldn't trust my eyes

based on the date of my appointment and the newspaper I found later I think I was in there for three days it was it was impossible to tell from inside though I don't remember sleeping or even feeling tired I did spend a lot of time just slumped in despair though so maybe I slept then

I had no food or water I got very delirious by the end it didn't help it was so warm in that although often seemed like I couldn't stop shivering like I was cold

I was almost passed out from misery when I saw it it was stood way off in the distance a long way down the corridor it seemed almost human from a distance but as it got closer I saw that it was anything but

its body was thin and limp and when it moved it shifted like I was watching it through rippling water it's hands were swollen and bits at them jutted out at annoying angles it was it was moving towards me fast and as I looked I saw that all the pictures on the wall now showed this thing although each distorted it differently like a selection of funhouse mirrors but all of them all of them showed their hands as bulbous and sharp

I looked around in desperation trying to find any hope of escape the thing was getting closer and closer and I could hear that weird laugh again and then I saw it the mirrored frame that did not contain the creature

I had no reason to think it would help but I could see no other choice but waiting for death so I threw myself at this empty mirror and just like that I was out

I felt the cold night air on my face and and wet tarmac under my hands and knees it was raining I turned up in Dulwich of all places I screamed for about five minutes before someone came to help me

I don't really know what else to tell you I was hospitalized for a short while until they were satisfied my dehydration wasn't going to cause any complications and I spent a long time at home not opening any doors

finally after the latest bout of nightmares I decided to come to you and tell you my story maybe you can make some sense of this perhaps

leave it with us we'll do some digging and see what we can find

you believe me then

I... yes. Yes, I think I do. One thing, though. You say you don't remember the man's name

I... I think he told me, but I just, I...

It wasn't Michael, was it?

Yes! Michael! That was it! Do you know him?

Maybe. we'll make some enquiries and get back to you miss Richardson thank you for your time

all right well just leave you to it

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Sasha!

sorry did you call?

I just had a statement from someone claims they met your Michael

Michael? the distorted Michael?

the very same. I don't think we rerecorded your statement on them did we

did we need to

it was one of the tapes that vanished during the attack

oh. well I can give it again if you'd like but I haven't seen him since

and you can't think of any further insights nothing you forgot to mention last time

I don't think so no

hmm

what are you doing at the moment

reorganizing your discredited section it's a bit of a mess if I may say so John I feel you've been a bit less conscientious about it since you got back

oh that's fair

sorry

let me know once you're finished I'd very much like you on this case

yes will do

do you even know they're lying to you

I'm sorry I didn't - can I help you this place is off-limits

I disagree

who let you in here

let? I'm afraid that isn't how this works

you're him

yes

Michael

that is a real name

are you here to kill me?

no

then why why are you here

I am simply collecting what is mine archivist the one who enters my domain

Miss Richardson? you own those hallways?

what a fascinating question. does your hand in any way own your stomach? in any case it doesn't matter. The Wanderer had a brief respite, but it's over now.

you're too late. she's gone.

*laugh* yes. did you notice which door she left through?

yes... wait. no, there was, there

there has never been a door there at all their archivist your mind plays tricks on you

let her go

*laugh* no?

get her back here!

are you going to attack me

ah ah ah

who the hell are you!?

{{?}} archivist i am a {{}} "who" requires a degree of identity I can't ever retain

so Michael isn't your real name

there is no such thing as a real name

what are you talking about

I am talking about myself it's not something I'm used to doing so I'm sorry if I'm not very good at it

you decided to appear down here and stab me anyway

I wanted to talk to you. I intervened to save you before. I'm, I'm interested in what happens now

yes well thank you for that I suppose. you still haven't told me why you intervened at all

I'm normally neutral yes but the loss of this place would have unbalanced to struggle too early I'm keen to see how it progresses

you make it sound like there's a war

then I will say nothing further I wouldn't wish tarnish your ignorance prematurely goodbye

this wait ah - ow... Michael? Michael?! Ah. End recording