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