The Librarians Weasel

Arrows Peak

Genre: Horror/Mystery
Content Warnings: Loneliness, Deafness, Blindness, Scary Themes, Blood, Eyes, Tears, Confusing Occurrences, and Strong Language. Please proceed with caution.

This story in particular is a fan-made story for a podcast called "The Magnus Archives" I am in no part associated with them, nor do I claim to have any part in the creation of it. This is just a fun little story that takes place within the universe. For those such reasons it should not be considered part of The Magnus Archives canon, thank you for bearing with me. Do read it in Jonny's voice though. Please enjoy the short story.

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Right, let's begin. Ahem. Statement of Shuze Portian, regarding an the disappearance of Lindsay Todd. Statement given August 3rd 1998, committed to tape September 15th 2019. Recording by Jonathan Sims, The Archivist. Statement begins...

I know this sounds weird but your institute deals with weird things right? I hope I didn't misread something, is this one of the places that fines you if you waste time? I sure hope not...i'm rambling i'm sorry. My name is Shuze, Shuze Portian? I'm not sure if you've heard of me, I-I'm one of the first best-selling non-binary authors in London. My uh, my books centre around mystery mostly, some have occasionally dipped into horror. That's the thing though, I wrote my story "Misty August Rain" back in 96' but it happened...It really happened I swear. I'm uh... I'm not sure if I'm causing these things to happen or if it's the books themselves but I haven't tampered with anything I swear. My two friends, Amy Lonsdale, and Reginald Jacobs, they can vouch for me. What happened in the car that night...It happened.

It started back on April 30th, we were planning this trip for ages, we were going to take my car and go camping up by the border. Highland cows were around the area where we were going to be camping and we all would've loved to see them. We never got the chance really. Four of us went, myself, the two I mentioned prior, and our other friend Lindsay. Lindsay Todd. We sent out a missing persons report just the other day and apparently the police's line went dead when they went over Arrows Peak. That's the place where we drove over. We drove over the peak, it happened. I keep mentioning how it happened due to the absurdity of the events, it happened and you need to believe us. You might be our only chance at finding Lindsay and maybe, just maybe, glean some sort of semblance from what happened.

The date came and we were driving, the night was cold, but the headlights illuminated the road just fine. Until we turned onto Arrows Peak. The road that goes over Arrows Peak is technically called Bowmans Avenue, but that seems almost unfitting. Like the name is taunting us, desperately trying to distract from the real name of where we were. We didn't even need to go over the peak, looking back, there was a perfectly good road going almost straight to where we were camping. I feel like I would've remembered that though, yeah? Arrows Peak had always been creepy for all of us, if there was another road there all along...why didn't we take it?

That's beside the point though, we turned onto "Bowmans Avenue" and almost immediately a thick fog began rolling over the road. There was no fog advisory the day prior, it was supposed to be clear all day. That's when it hit me, I hadn't taken my eyes off the road before then, and I looked back to my friends. They all seemed worried, scratching at their nails and holding their arms awkwardly while staring out the windows. It was completely silent. I actually told Lindsay to stop scratching at the seats of my car, as she had ripped through a bit of the leather seating. She said nothing, but calmly put her hand on her arm. I asked them why we left so late, "Weren't we supposed to leave in the morning? Bright and early yeah?" I said. I heard my voice echo through the car and empty street, no one replied.

The fog got thickest when we reached the top of the mountain, and we began descending down the other side. We saw streetlights flicker out, and when I passed where they were, I was greeted to nothing but trees. The trees seemed to almost entirely block out the sky. I remember Lindsay said something, and I stopped the car for her. She stepped out of the car and began walking into the woods. I very simply went to open my door, and Reginald, who was sitting Passengers side, grabbed my arm firmly. I asked him what he was doing and he simply shook his head and looked to Amy. Amy nodded and closed the door where Lindsay got out, and firmly locked it. Amy locked her door as well, and seemed to begin crying. No sound could be heard. I asked Reginald where Lindsay was going and he just shook his head once more, and turned the car key for me. I locked the doors, and began driving down the road once more...I don't remember why I made this decision. I barely remember thinking at all, I just accepted that she was gone and went on our way. The fog grew thicker and thicker, to the point where we saw it folding over the windshield, we saw no road. I remembered the map and saw it was a straight line down the mountain...and I turned right. I expected them to stop me, or to feel sudden bumps and a crash. To feel anything other than the bitter growing numbness. Instead, the road seemed to continue. I looked back to Amy, and she was still crying, staring out her window so intently, like she saw something familiar, or someone familiar in the distance. Reginald opened his backpack and took out a small grain bar, and ate it. Crumbs fell to the seat but I put up no fuss. No noise could be heard. Complete choking silence.