Speaker 1: Welcome to May's Mouth, a Ghostwax interlude. May's Mouth is
set in the worlds of Ghostwax, but is a shade
darker and contains graphic content. Listener discretion is advised. Episode one,
support group.
Speaker 2: Rain falls on a dirty alley. Smoke trails up from
the cigarette clutched in the fingers of a young man.
He waits nervously watching a set of stairs with a
rusted railing. He's ten minutes late. They'll think he's not
coming now or never. The man takes a last drag.
He goes in.
Speaker 3: You came of shit. Sorry, no, I'll get it. We've
all got reasons to be nervous. That's why we're eh.
Everyone's inside.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm late.
Speaker 3: Oh good, Just glad you're eh. Yeah, wasn't supposed to rain.
Speaker 4: Huh.
Speaker 3: The weather weird lately, is it? Don't you think?
Speaker 2: The room smells like a wet basement and coffee. The
man finds more people like him. They look haunted, all
of them seem thin, worn through.
Speaker 5: Oh shit, he came in, Vicky, I owe you a coke?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I told you he needs it bad as we do.
Speaker 7: Hi, got you here?
Speaker 8: Yeah, kind of can't believe I am.
Speaker 7: We all stood out in the rain, wondered if we
were really gonna come down here too.
Speaker 6: Yep, Like, oh my god, am I really gonna go
in there and talk to people about the shit that
came out of my walls or the people that got
pulled in?
Speaker 5: But we wandered in flames?
Speaker 7: Ah, it's okay. You aren't feeling good lately, are you?
Dies he aches and pains.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's part of it.
Speaker 3: Okay, everybody, relax. We have a way we do this.
Speaker 5: You mean, now we pretend this isn't insane by playing
around with the support group pantomime a theater.
Speaker 3: Shit, fig you can't be starting this already.
Speaker 5: Dude, I'm hungry. Can we just cut to the chase.
Speaker 3: We have a way we do this?
Speaker 5: Fine, fuck, then let's do it.
Speaker 2: The man notices there is an empty folding chair for him.
Light from a street lamp outside almost hits it like
a spotlight.
Speaker 4: Sorry to keep everyone waiting.
Speaker 7: It's fine, have some coffee, Okay, let's get started.
Speaker 2: The man in charge of the meeting is big. He
looks like he works out a lot. Somehow, Even with
the muscles and broad shoulders, he still seems thin too.
Speaker 3: Hi everyone, my name is Ben Conning. That is my
real name. But again, no one has to use the
real name if they don't want to, just give an alia,
So whatever you like. I have seen the maze. Two
years ago, my wife and I picked up an old
wardrobe off a curbside. They had a sign on it
that said free, so we took it home. Didn't think
anything of it. It was nice, solid. We had bad
dreams the first night. They got worse, became night terrors
by the end of the week. Didn't imagine it had
anything to do with the wardrobe. Then one afternoon, something
came out the back of it, from behind the winter
coats and killed my wife bike, shaking her until she
came apart. I know that's a lot to hear. I
feel crazy every time I say it. I know the key.
We don't say crazy around here. I don't want any
confusion or misunderstandings. And again, no one has to talk
about the reasons they're here if they don't want to.
But I didn't want any illusions about why we are here.
These things are out there and we aren't going to
pretend that they aren't. So John, you and I talked
online a bit, and I just wanted to start right
up and say that, so you know, we aren't just
fucking you around.
Speaker 4: Holy shit, it.
Speaker 7: Can be overwhelming to hear other people admit to seeing
it too, the maze and what comes out of it.
That's normal.
Speaker 8: I just thought that what happened to my brother and
I I had just felt like alone on a desert island.
Speaker 3: You know, John, that's good sharing. But we have a
way we do this. We go around clockwise like then
we get to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Sorry, you said you saw the maze.
Speaker 3: I did. After what happened. I followed the blood. I
had a knife, one of my hunting knives. Don't know
what I was thinking. I was chasing it, I guess.
But I opened the wardrobe and the back of it
was a whole way cold stones criss crossing up into
the air, the air inside the space, inside the space.
You know, I got lost. When I came back out,
I was two towns over. I never went back home.
I tried anything to get back to normal, new job,
new city, new country. But well, you know, well I
think that's my time. We're just doing intros. Molly, Okay, Hi.
Speaker 7: My name is Molly sharp. I've seen the maze. I guess,
I guess. I just wanted to say this week has
been easier than most of them. Empty is the word.
We're all running from emptiness to emptiness. I got lost
in the maze for a week after I chased mister
long legs into it, trying to trying to get it
to let go of Lincoln, my son. I didn't need
to eat or sleep. I mean I didn't for the
whole week. I learned it was a week later when
I walked up out of a subway station all covered
in blood, and I was two states over and a
week later, empty empty ever since. I mean, I know
we're all feeling really empty. It's not just me. But
I'm ready. I am. I've got my levels really worked out,
and I'm getting good at sleep but actually keeping kind
of regular. I don't know why. Yeah, I feel like
we are getting close to something, like it's just right
around the corner. I know we felt like that last fall,
but like this time, I'm thinking it's different. And yeah,
I've been using kind of a lot what I'm tapering.
Don't look at me like that. I am. I know
I gotta be ready. I know I gotta be ready
to go because we are close and this thing without him,
that Deli, it's gonna be a hit. It's gonna get
through the fucking weekend.
Speaker 3: No talking about future plans yet, right right, one thing
at a time.
Speaker 7: First we get right, then we.
Speaker 5: Get moving right, Just gonna jump right in here. I'm
Figment Loneley, and I've seen the maze. That really is
my name, by the way, I know no one believes me,
but it is. My parents were in the Novetera Church
of Oneness, So okay, whatever, Hi, I'm fig and I
think it's dumb. We do this every time. Yeah, I
get it's for what do you want us to call you? John? Sure?
I mean it's not like John really matters right, like
he's not sticking around. Okay, okay, fine, Sorry, christ I
found the maze when I was sixteen and just fucked
around in it because well, it's amazing. After spending an
afternoon in a bunch of rooms where gravity switched every
couple of minutes, I guess something followed me back. And
those Culty parents I mentioned earlier. It ripped them to
shreds right through the walls.
Speaker 7: It was.
Speaker 5: So weird. Its bites made their flesh swell up like
clusters of grapes, and it ate those like they weren't
what it needed, but it was making them what it wanted.
Huh oh right, Sorry, John, I guess I'm done.
Speaker 9: Oh real fucking nice, real fucking nice. Fig he's green,
he's fucking green around the gilds and he's been here
for like what ten minutes, not even even ten five? God,
I'm sorry, new guy.
Speaker 6: Don't run off. And it would be really really bad
if you tried to run off, because we need you.
We sure, we for sure need you. This shit has
to stop, you know, John, And you've seen it.
Speaker 9: I could tell you've seen it.
Speaker 6: How do I know?
Speaker 1: How do I know? How do I know?
Speaker 5: I know?
Speaker 6: I know because the thing that took my daughter, or things,
a group of things. I don't know if they did
it to you too. I know I can tell that
look in your eye, the way check over your shoulder.
But I think more than anything, you know what, there's
a there's a smell. Yeah, I don't know if other
people can smell it. It's not a bad smell. It's
like it's like a storm in the air. I don't
know the others the others say they can't smell it.
Speaker 7: I uh, you.
Speaker 6: Know, there's something else I wanted to say. Yeah, it's uh,
it's important to me that we all agree. Okay, we
aren't just here to support one another, right, I mean,
we are looking for a way to find it way
back in. We've gone over and over checked all the
places we found ways in before, but they don't use
those anymore. They come in and out, they attack and retreat,
hit and runs. But but we are going to find
a way back and we are going to make it right. Yeah,
I lost my kid. Something took her, uh like this,
this long white bunch of fingers. They just they just
plucked her up like a flower through the TV.
Speaker 5: And they've.
Speaker 6: They've locked me up for saying it. But you guys,
you guys, you guys have seen it too. So yeah, yeah,
the ship. I'm I'm Vicky, Vicky Cassetti.
Speaker 5: That's my name.
Speaker 3: Okay, John, your turn, just tell us whatever you need to.
Speaker 8: Okay, I'm let's just go with John.
Speaker 4: Still, this is really this is really a.
Speaker 3: Lot gotta say. The thing like we talked about.
Speaker 8: Oh, my name is John, and I've seen the mace perfect.
I've been in groups like this before I get the
whole ritual thing. I spent some time in Autumn's the
mental health facility after what after the back of the garage,
my brother.
Speaker 2: His legs just.
Speaker 7: Fuck.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think I could. Yeah, I'm just gonna skip.
But I believe you.
Speaker 8: I finally believe myself. I saw this, this thing happen.
And I mean, when you see something like that, like
aliens or monsters or whatever.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 8: I mean, if I was religious, I'd think it was demons.
If I was a conspiracy person, I'd think aliens. If
I was another way, I'd think like ghosts. But you
see shit with your own two eyes, and you like,
can't believe.
Speaker 4: Certain kinds of things.
Speaker 8: But after all the meds and the therapy and the
nightmares and the sounds, it won't go. And I found
Ben online and and at a certain point, you're just like,
I am crazy fuck forever.
Speaker 4: Maybe something else.
Speaker 3: It's something else, John, You're not delusional.
Speaker 7: Well not just delusional. Hallucinations are part of it, though
you are fucked forever.
Speaker 4: I am pretty messed up. But it feels a lot
better to know I'm not alone.
Speaker 8: How many people does this happen to? How is it
not gotten out? I mean cameras in everyone's pocket.
Speaker 5: You can't capture the maze.
Speaker 4: But how do people don't know?
Speaker 7: We aren't sure, aren't sure?
Speaker 3: There's people keeping it secret.
Speaker 5: Vicky is convinced of a conspiracy. Their headquarters is just
behind the Great Wall of.
Speaker 6: Ice, mean mean, nasty twink.
Speaker 4: What do we do? We have to do something?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I'm really glad to hear you say that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, but what revenge? I would definitely like some revenge.
But are they like what demons? Animals you can kill?
But are they demons? Or what do we even do
if you can't record them? How do we expose it?
I feel like we have to expose it.
Speaker 3: We have plans, but finding a way is the first step.
Speaker 7: How there are people that help them? We don't know
if they know what they're doing, but we think there's
like a network of people involved.
Speaker 3: We shouldn't say anymore, not yet, but we are doing something.
We've got plans.
Speaker 4: I want to help.
Speaker 3: Okay, yes, great, you will, John, You get it right
that we have to stop this. This place wherever it is,
is preying on people, on children. It has to end.
We have to end it. Whatever it takes. How say
you swear to do anything it takes? What say you'll
do whatever it takes, and we'll tell you everything. What
I need to hear you say it?
Speaker 4: Okay, I'll do whatever it takes.
Speaker 2: How strange it is when a thing changes, when a
group turns on you. You can feel it, can't you?
Speaker 5: Hm?
Speaker 1: Hm?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 5: Oh, good dinner and a show.
Speaker 3: What the fuck?
Speaker 7: You know? That horrible ache you're feeling, the one that's
worse and worse every night, Well that feeling isn't gonna
go away. It's going to keep on gnawing at your
bones until it's crawling around in your marrow ants like
hot lead port striped through your nervous system. There's plants
in the jungle that have little fiberglass poison filled needles
in them, getting your skin. And it hurts so bad
and for so long that some people kill themselves. You're
gonna wish you hurt that bad. Your soul is gonna
catch fire.
Speaker 4: What the fuck is happening? What are you saying?
Speaker 5: Is locked? John? Stay seated? This is gonna happen.
Speaker 2: The large man named Ben has gotten up, taken off
his coat, and rolled up his sleeves. He has a
hunting knife in a holster at his side.
Speaker 7: Early on, when we had first met up, there was
another guy, Chucky. Yeah, and Chucky had been to the
Maze before us, so he was hurting the worst. He
was going nuts, tearing his skin all night, trying to
get it out of him, poor devil. Vicky tried to
stop him, keep from hurting himself, and he he turned
on it started biting her.
Speaker 2: Vicky shows him the deep white crescence all over her arms.
Speaker 7: So Vicky shot him.
Speaker 6: I can't believe y' all don't carry all the time
with the shit that's out there.
Speaker 7: Shut him in the chest, punctured one of his lungs.
Speaker 2: Ben is stretching like he's getting ready for a workout,
and this.
Speaker 7: Air came pouring out of his lungs. It was well,
we all remembered it from the Maze. It's that air
changes you, makes you need it. We were dying without it,
so here it came pouring out of poor Chucky, and
when we breathed it, we got right. It was months
before the pain came back.
Speaker 8: I want to get it through your head.
Speaker 5: We are all dying. It's one of us or all
of us. Ben brought you in, so it's you or him.
Speaker 4: What the fuck is this?
Speaker 7: This is a necessity, John, You'll get it if you
make it. If you don't, just trust us that we
have to do this.
Speaker 2: Ben tosses him a large hunting knife in a leather sheath.
It thumps to the floor.
Speaker 3: Pick it up.
Speaker 8: No, no, no, no no, you're crazy and you're a coward.
Speaker 4: What the fuck did you say?
Speaker 3: You ran when that thing started sucking the blood out
of your brother's legs. You could have saved him, You
could have tried. Fuck you, I'm going to count to
ten and then I'm gonna stab you to death. John.
If you don't fight back, you're gonna die, and we're
going to breathe the air in your lungs that we need.
Have you killed me instead? You can breathe me with
my blessing. You can take my place.
Speaker 4: Don't fucking do this.
Speaker 3: Be a man like you weren't when your brother begged
you to help him.
Speaker 5: He's trying to row you up, so you'll fight back
and he won't have to feel as guilty.
Speaker 7: Ah.
Speaker 8: Fuck here, you fucking psychos.
Speaker 2: John never really has a chance. Surprised, scared, betrayed all
for show. You suppose assuage the guilt, eat what you kill.
At the center of a ring of overturned metal chairs,
John tried to breathe.
Speaker 5: Jesus yugh you okay, yeah, it's not deep.
Speaker 2: John tried to breathe, but the air wouldn't come in.
It would only go out. And it wasn't just air.
Speaker 3: Ohlujah, don't waste it.
Speaker 6: Oh.
Speaker 2: John had wanted people to believe him.
Speaker 1: They did.
Speaker 2: John wanted people to surround him.
Speaker 1: They did.
Speaker 2: He wanted someone to take his pain away. They breathed
him in. He took theirs away instead.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Ghost Wax, a production of
Foreign Tall Tales. Find us at Farign Talltales dot squarespace
dot com. If you like the show, please rate and
review and consider joining us on Patreon at Patreon dot
com slash Farign Tall Tales. Ghost Wax is written and
directed by Robert Knutsen, production and editing by Aaron Schoenrock,
with music by Colton Warren. This episode features Michael mcgeekon
as Ben, Abigail Ramsdale as Molly, Adrian Northam as Big,
Allison Hassett as Vicky, and Adam McLaughlin as John