The Awakening - Part 6

Friday June 10, 1921. Alfie Quinn awoke in a dark alley in St Albans with a pounding headache and no memory of how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was telling Mr. Anderton that he would go outside to check on a car parked in the street. Disoriented and confused, he made his way back to Mr. Anderton's house, slipping in through the service entrance after midnight. The next morning, when questioned by Mr. Anderton, Alfie could only explain that he had woken up in an alley about a mile away with no recollection of the intervening hours. He insisted he didn't drink, making the memory loss all the more perplexing, and accepted some aspirin from the housekeeper for his severe headache. Meanwhile, in St Albans, Everett Reed and Reverend William Grainger met with Dr. Freya Brandt, a German academic who had been brought in to help decipher ancient texts related to a critical ritual. Dr. Brandt confirmed that the instructions came from Scott's journal and emphasized the catastrophic consequences if the ritual was performed incorrectly. She revealed she was constructing a specialized containment box to block psychic radiation and would need the bowl and jar to complete the ceremony. The location of the jar, however, remained unknown at this time. As the morning progressed, the weather in London turned ominous. Alfie observed the sky cracking and swirling with unnatural patterns, and he became convinced that the end of the world was approaching. When Mr. Anderton called Everett in St Albans to report the alarming weather and Alfie's strange behavior, Everett and the Reverend climbed St Albans Cathedral to observe the conditions. To their surprise, they saw beautiful, clear weather in all directions, a stark contrast to the biblical storm raging over London. This discrepancy led Everett to recall a dream in which St Albans was the only safe place while everything else fell apart. Growing distrust began to fracture the team. Everett expressed concerns about Dr. Brandt and John Anderton, questioning how much they could truly trust the German academic who had arrived so recently. He and the Reverend questioned Dr. Vernon Nowell about Dr. Brandt's background, learning that she had been specifically sought out for her expertise and came highly recommended by Henry Armitage and Arthur Kittridge. To ease their concerns, Everett requested an independent translation of the Aramaic text from Scott's diary, which Dr. Nowell agreed to arrange. Despite his initial reservations, the Reverend ultimately decided to join the others in London, believing he still had a part to play in the unfolding events. While the others prepared for the ritual, John Anderton traveled to Clerkenwell to visit Romer and Sons, a master scientific glassblower, in search of a specialized Crookes-Hittorf valve. He learned that the last three valves had been purchased by a physicist named Kenneth Connolly, who had mentioned something about a chronological stabilizer but had not paid his bill. Armed with Connolly's address at Wellington Manor in Epping Forest, John made the journey and met the eccentric scientist. Connolly, impressed by John's interest in science, graciously gave him a spare valve, carefully packed in straw, and invited him to return for dinner in the future. As the group converged on London, communication issues led to confusion about where to meet and who had the jar. Alfie, still feeling unwell, waited at John's house and eventually left a note before heading to the hotel. Everett and the Reverend arrived at King's Cross amidst the severe storm and called John from a post office, urging him to retrieve the jar from the bank and meet them at the hotel. Alfie, however, spotted a familiar car parked a few blocks away, which he believed belonged to the lawyers who had been involved in earlier events, raising immediate concerns about potential interference. Alfie and the Reverend conducted a stealthy reconnaissance of the hotel, finding a gap in the fencing that would allow them to enter. Inside, they observed spiderwebs of thin blue lines, indicating numerous cracks in reality. The sky above the hotel was filled with spiralling clouds and cracks emitting strange blue light, and through a hole in the clouds, Alfie saw a full moon with a red rim, which Everett identified as a harbinger of a gate. John arrived with the jar and the group prepared to enter the hotel to perform the ritual. As they navigated the crack-filled interior, disaster struck when Alfie slipped and touched one of the blue cracks, causing it to widen. A slithery, dog-sized beast emerged from the rift, and Alfie immediately drew his gun and shot it. The Reverend also touched a crack, unleashing another creature that pursued him as he fled. John handed the box containing the jar to Dr. Brandt, instructing her and Everett to proceed with the ritual while he and Alfie provided covering fire. The beasts proved dangerous, with one biting the Reverend and inflicting a significant wound, but the group managed to kill them with gunfire and the Reverend's sword cane. While Dr. Brandt began the ritual, Alfie and Everett heard gunshots and discovered Beth Chilton performing a counter-incantation with Albright standing guard. Alfie shot Beth, causing her to fall, and a fierce firefight ensued. Albright shot Everett, inflicting a flesh wound, but Everett managed to kill him with a shot through the head. Everett found a strange mystical brooch on Beth's body and then rushed to stabilize Alfie, who was on the brink of death. The Reverend, meanwhile, regained consciousness and prepared to defend Dr. Brandt from any further threats. Dr. Brandt continued the ritual under immense pressure, placing the jar in the bowl and chanting continuously. The blue cracks initially disappeared, but then reformed into a large, glowing sphere around the party. More creatures emerged from new cracks, and the Reverend and Everett fought them off while Dr. Brandt remained focused on her task. The ritual reached its terrifying climax when a massive fissure opened in the wall, revealing stars, nebulae, and otherworldly pipes, with tentacles sliding out and grabbing bits of rubble. The investigators experienced a sanity-shattering vision, with the Reverend suppressing the memory to avoid temporary insanity. Despite the chaos and the tentacles sweeping through the area, Dr. Brandt's chanting never faltered. Her eyes were wide with strain, but she remained determined to complete the ritual. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, everything spiralled around and sealed. The cracks and the massive fissure disappeared, and the rift was successfully closed. The group stood in the aftermath, shaken but alive, having narrowly prevented a catastrophic breach in reality. Everett admitted he had been prepared to shoot Dr. Brandt if he thought she was opening the portal rather than closing it, but in the end, her expertise and determination had saved them all.