Episode 1 - Keys

## Keys

Two keys, one red and one white, crossed over each other on a black background framed with a white outline. The keys have skulls in their grips.

### Author

William A. Wellman

A fisherman finds a mysterious cabinet, Diggory Graves makes a friend, and Riot outruns the Instrumentalist. The theme of tonight’s episode is Keys.

***Content Warnings:** Birds, Static, Drowning, Kidnapping + Abduction, Death + Injury, Body Horror, Abuse.*

## Intro

Nikignik introduces themself with many titles, including "the one who watches when you think no one is watching", and welcomes the listener to the Hallowoods. As they are interrupting the listener's nightmare, Nikignik is sitting in a spruce tree amongst ravens, which cannot see them but recognize their presence. Nikignik is looking down on a cottage at the edge of a rising lake.

## Story One - Yellow Boots

Jonah Duckworth assists his mother, Zelda Duckworth, with her flooded basement. She yells to him that she is making the watercress picnic sandwiches he likes for lunch and he yells back that he is going to try to clear out his father's study before the water gets any higher. He is nervous, and hopes not to meet any of the lake's residents in the murky, half-submerged basement. He goes to open his father's study and notices that water is flowing under the door into the room as if it has somewhere to go.

For a moment he hopes he might see his father, a bad-tempered librarian, hunched over his desk. Instead, he sees an ornately carved wooden cabinet. It seems to be locked shut but water seeps into it in a never-ending stream.

Jonah suddenly realizes that he is kneeling in front of the cabinet holding an ornate key that he does not quite remember receiving. He unlocks the cabinet and peers into the vast, ocean-like darkness inside. He is drawn to it, and his fisherman's instincts tell him that big things are lurking beneath the surface, which glimmers with a green light. Although he is drawn to the cabinet, he remembers that Zelda has most likely finished making lunch and stands to go wash up.

As he stands to leave, his yellow rubber boots slip on the stone floor and the rushing water pushes him into the cabinet. When Zelda peers down into the basement holding a platter of sandwiches, the current has already pushed the cabinet doors shut.

### Interlude - Mr. Friendly

Nikignik encourages the listeners to take note of Mr. Friendly, the squirrel, who can be seen in the Southeast Hallowoods. Mr. Friendly is described as having the body of a man, bony fingers, a long bushy tail, and eyes that glow "like emeralds" in the dark. He has huge incisors that can crack bones and stockpiles food for the winter during the summer. Sometimes, this "food" can be heard howling and screaming from inside giant trees. Mr. Friendly is a very good climber and likes to climb up outside your window to watch as you sleep.

Nikignik reassures listeners that, like all squirrels, Mr. Friendly can only hurt you if you notice he's there.

## Story Two - A Little Embroidered Tag

Diggory Graves knows only three things: that their name is Diggory Graves (from an embroidered tag on a spiked black jacket that reads "Property of Diggory Graves"), that they are dead with many stitched up scars running along their body, and that they are looking for something, although they cannot remember what it is that they're looking for. They have been walking through the trees and bogs for days or months trying to find what they are looking for.

Diggory comes upon a cabin as the sun sets and enters, wondering if this is what they're looking for. Inside the cabin, they see moth eaten and rotting furniture. Their eyes adjust to the darkness and they see burned letters written across the walls, reading "Let me go, let me go, let me go." The door slams behind them and Diggory is put on edge.

Diggory spots Percy Reed in the corner, at first barely visible but soon beginning to glow and become more detailed. Percy's lips are stitched together and he is unable to speak. Percy moves towards Diggory without taking a step and Diggory introduces themself to Percy. They offer a hand to Percy, but back away when he approaches. As they step back, they bump into something very large—a grand piano. It is intricately carved and has keys as white as bone.

Suddenly, Diggory is wracked with pain as "every seam in their mind threatened to tear". Diggory is pulled into darkness as Percy stands over them.

### Marketing - Recommend A Friend.

Nikignik's broadcast is interrupted by Lady Ethel Mallory, who is encouraging dreamers to use the Recommend A Friend program to reunite with family and friends not yet in a Dreaming Box. With the name, description, and last known location of the loved one, BotCo Reunion Organizers will tirelessly work to track them down and offer them a Dreaming Box subscription at a "discounted rate".

### Story Two, Continued - A Little Embroidered Tag

Nikignik apologizes for the interruption.

Diggory, lost in memories that don't seem to be theirs, has a first person perspective of being a boy at a piano being distracted by a lady that no one else can see. Then they are a girl playing a keyboard accompanied by her friends. The bass drum has an illustration reading 'Stonemaiden' and the group plays to an adoring crowd. Finally, they are a world leader on her wedding day admiring her wife-to-be.

As Diggory comes out of this state, Percy is sitting next to them, rocking back and forth. He looks very pained and appears to have been crying. Percy points at the piano and Diggory notices that Percy has wires wrapped around his wrists that trail off into nothingness. Diggory looks at the piano and reads the name on it: "Persephone". Percy shakes his head and blocks out part of the word so that Diggory reads "Perse. E. Percy," introducing himself. Diggory wonders how old Percy is and then plays a small tune on the piano without conscious thought. The music stirs up emotions that they can't identify.

Diggory apologizes for possibly disturbing Percy and remarks that they have "always" been walking but haven't met anyone until now but they are glad to meet him. Diggory realizes that Percy is upset that he is unable to speak and offers to help cut the stitches in Percy's mouth. However, when Diggory tries to cut the stitches with their claws, they pass right through. The stitches are just as intangible as Percy.

Percy, asks Diggory, through gestures, to destroy the piano, showing that the wires around his wrists are attached to the piano. As long as the piano exists, Percy is stuck here. Realizing that if the piano is destroyed, Percy might disappear, Diggory tells Percy how lonely they are and that they had hoped they might not be alone anymore after meeting Percy. Despite their wish for company, Diggory agrees to destroy the piano so that Percy is no longer stuck in such a miserable place.

Diggory burns the house and the piano within, much to Percy's delight. They walk away from the burning cabin alone and holding a single piano key, hoping that it will remind them of Percy and they first time they could remember not being alone.

### Interlude Two - Waking Up

Nikignik narrates as the sun rises, remarking on all of the different dreamers the rising sun's light touches. In the Northern Hallowoods, the light shines on dreamers who lie beneath black waters wearing lily crowns. It reflects off Dreaming Boxes in "cornfield wastelands". It reaches out to old things in deep, forgotten trenches. Glimmers of the rising sun even reach dreamers who sleep in nests on the rings of Saturn or in black holes.

## Story Three - Quiet, Riot

Riot Maidstone wakes up with the sunrise and listens fearfully for music. She realizes victoriously that she has done the impossible and outrun the Instrumentalist. She thinks of her mother, who would probably apologize for trying to keep her in the bunker if she could see Riot now. She also thinks of Clara, who is going to be so proud of her. She takes an ornate key out of her pocket and admires it. It is a skeleton key with a skull wearing a crown of flowers on the hilt, eerily similar to the key Nikignik had described Jonah holding earlier.

Satisfied that she is alone, Riot pushes aside her makeshift barricade and exits the shed she spent the night in. Clara is close by in an RV and if she hurries, she can get there before Clara even wakes up.

Suddenly, the music of an orchestra erupts from the surrounding forest and Riot runs. As the music gets louder and louder, she ducks behind a tree to hide. The music leaves as quickly as it arrived. Riot steps out from the tree and is plunged into darkness as something grabs her from behind.

## Outro

Nikignik closes the broadcast with a monologue about the importance of keys. They can grant you access or safety. In this case, Nikignik has given the listener a key—a glimpse into an important time and place. Nikignik recommends that the listener return to their usual dreams, preferably the "one with the teeth", as Nikignik enjoys it.