MAG 35: Old Passages

Statement of Harold Silvana, regarding discoveries made during the renovation of the Reform Club, Pall Mall.
==Statement==
Harold Silvana works in restoration and was called in to work on the Reform Club in Pall Mall. Although the work was not too difficult, it was likely to take a week as the building was a grade 1 listed building. He and Rachel Turley were working in the basement. Around 2am, when his colleague Alfred Bartlett went out to get coffee, a teenage Gerard Keay appeared asking if they had found any Leitner pages.
This shocked Harold: in 1987 he was called by Jurgen Leitner to do some work. He and Rachel went to 100 Pall Mall to meet the Norwegian. In his mostly empty office, Leitner asked them to dig a hole through the floor. When Harold insisted that they needed the building owner's permission, Leitner became shifty and agitated, saying that he already had permission, and before the restorers left, said some things were too important and too powerful to be owned.
Gerard asked if they could smell it, and for a moment Harold could smell damp old stone and musty paper. Gerard grabbed a hammer and, with strength unusual in his skinny size, smashed a hole in a wall, revealing a passage behind it. When asked how he knew it was there, he said "his mother knew about this stuff."
When Alfred returned they decided to go down the passage. The workers recognized it as likely having been built around the 19th century, as part of the basement of the Carlton Club; it seemed to lead to exactly where Leitner had asked them to dig. The passageway was cold and thick with mildew, and continuously seemed to be getting narrower and inducing claustrophobia, though it was always revealed to be 5 feet across when measured. At the end of the passage was a room with 13 other passages leading from it. One made Harold feel like he was going to fall into it, and another was too dark, even for their torches. In the centre of the room was a date stone: "Robert Smirke 1835: Balance and Fear".
Gerard suddenly bolted into one of the passages. Alfred followed with Harold quick on his heels. Whilst running down the slick corridor, Harold fell and found the floor was slightly tinged with red. After he got up, he heard Alfred scream and Gerard Keay, book in hand, crashed into Harold, throwing him to the floor again. As Gerard fled out of sight, Harold heard the clatter of something on the floor, and saw a collection of small animal bones, as if they had come from Gerard's book.
At the end of the corridor, Harold found a small room surrounded by rotten and decayed books, with Alfred dead in the centre and a look of terror on his face. The room was littered with a light smattering of small animal bones.
Harold fled, but his memory became hazy of how, and he entered some of the other tunnels before finding the one to take him back. He remembered a pile of pages covered in cobwebs; a stranger in the darkness who meant him harm; and the sensation of his skin burning and a smell of smoke.
When he got out, the police went into the passage to retrieve Alfred's body. The owners of the Reform Club told him to repair the damage and tell no one, or he would never work on projects like this again.
== Post-Statement ==
Sasha has tried to follow up with everyone involved in this case, including the police, but no one is willing to talk to the Institute about this. Gerard Keay is, as ever, impossible to contact.
Leitner did hire the ground floor office in Pall Mall between 1985 and 1994, Jonathan Sims wonders if his books were just stored there or found there.
Robert Smirke is an architect who Tim really likes, saying he is "a master of subtle stability" and notes that his buildings have a higher percentage of paranormal sightings than other buildings. He retired in 1845 and was involved in many sects and cults after he retired. He tried to design churches in his retirement.
At the end of this recording, the silver worms appear and John goes off to find a fire extinguisher, leaving the tape recorder on. Martin appears, looking for John, when Breekon & Hope arrive, giving him a package to deliver to John.
==Continuity==
* Gerard Keay was previously mentioned in MAG 4 and MAG 12. 
*The book that drops animal bones that Gerard Keay steals is presumably the same one Mary Keay had in MAG 4.
*Related Entity: This statement is not tied to a single Entity. Instead, each of the 14 passages appears to represent one of the entities.
**The passage the builders and Gerard Keay enter represents The Buried. Walking through the passage induces feelings of claustrophobia.
**The passage where Alfred Bartlett's body is found and that Gerard Keay takes a book from possibly represents The End. The room at the end of the passage can induce sudden death without clear cause. It also contains old, decaying bookshelves and a mummified hand. However, the book taken from this room drops small animal bones and is likely the Sanskrit poetry book mentioned in MAG 4 and MAG 62, which is related to The Flesh.
**A passage seen in passing represents The Vast. Harold felt like he was going to fall into it.
**A passage seen in passing represents The Dark. Torches don't penetrate it more than "a few feet inside."
**A passage seen in passing represents The Web. It contains a stack of paper covered in cobwebs.
**A passage seen in passing represents The Stranger. It contains the silhouette of a strange, menacing figure.
**A passage seen in passing represents The Desolation. It induces feelings of intense heat and of choking on smoke without the light of a flame.
* Martin burns the physical copy of this statement in MAG 118.
* Gerard Keay's death in 2014 prevents him from being contacted. 
Category:Leitner
Category:The Magnus Archives Episodes