The Sudden Stop: Alan Wake's American Nightmare Pages

American Nightmare Manuscript: New Reality: Fragment 3

22:19 Rachel

I'd found her film from the pile of containers is the back. I'd threaded it into the projector. I swallowed hard, staring at the screen hearing her voice, the sunrise I remembered so well only moments away.

And then Mr. Scratch was there, nailed by the projector's beam, caught in his own trap. He shouted at me, first in confusion, then rage. And then the sun came up, and things started to burn.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Dr Meadows and Mr Scratch

22:17 Rachel

The man before Dr. Meadows was handsome and slick. He moved with lazy confidence and didn't bother to pretend that he wasn't staring at her. She didn't mind, at first.

Then the man flicked open the knife and shoved her out of the control room so she wouldn't hear the signal -- whatever it was. Outside, she pulled her lab coat closed and thought about running. She didn't. She didn't think she'd get very far, not from him.

She never was entirely sure why he spared her.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Everything is as Real as Everything Else

22:15 Rachel

This act of creation is exhilarating and frightening. Subtext and symbols loom, eager to take effect. Causality and consequence become domino chains that stretch into infinity. The more fundamental the change, the more unpredictable the variables become; reality is too complex to control completely. Ordinary questions become meaningless.

"Who created who?"

"What is really real?"

Everything is as real as everything else. You learn to let go of the things you can't control and go with the flow, or go insane.

American Nightmare Manuscript: New Reality: Fragment 2

22:14 Rachel

The film noir poster reminded me of Alex Casey, the detective's cool exterior never cracking even with the gun pointed in his face. In the back room, all of the lights had been turned off, except for the lone spotlight, which illuminated the bright red fire extinguisher on the wall.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Dr Meadows

22:13 Rachel

When Dr. Rachel Meadows got the call from Michael telling her to hurry to the observatory, she didn't waste any time. It had been a nice party, and she'd had a good time, but her social life would always play second fiddle to the mysteries of space.

Michael never showed up, of course; he'd pulled over at the wrong rest stop. She never even thought about him at the time; the phenomenon in the sky above her was too fascinating.

American Nightmare Manuscript: The Taken

22:11 Rachel

The Taken may well be the tool the darkness favors over any other. At some point, they used to be human, but whatever humanity they once had is long gone. Now they're just shells covered and filled by darkness.

The Taken Mr. Scratch throws at me are more grotesque and varied than the ones I first encountered in Bright Falls, but I know how to deal with them. I'd be lying if I said they don't frighten me, but I have survived worse. I can't let them stop me.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Cosmological Truths

22:09 Rachel

There are places where our world is worn thin and another reality brushes against ours. One such site is Cauldron Lake near Bright Falls, Washington, but there are others.

That other reality is dark, vast and malleable, always in flux. In its depths dwell vast forces and alien energies. They are dangerous, but in one of these places, if you know how, you can channel the power of that place and use it to shape reality.

American Nightmare Manuscript: The Nature of Stories

22:08 Rachel

Stories come naturally to us. We can't help it. There are many different worlds, many competing realities within our heads, fueled by books, television, even barely remembered childhood tales. There's an endless supply of fictional concepts more familiar to us than anything or anyone real. We have a far greater connection to the fictional characters we know and love than the random people we pass on the street. Our destinies and inspirations are shaped by lies, myths and fables.

American Nightmare Manuscript: The Darkness

22:01 Rachel

The darkness rose from the depths of Cauldron Lake and took Alice. It needed words. It needed me to write its way into our world. She was leverage, a hostage.

I complied, but with a twist -- I put in a loophole that gave me a chance to fight back. I was hunted by shadowy enemies, but I faced the darkness. I fought it with light. I drove it back. I saved Alice. But it came with a cost: I was trapped in the Dark Place below Cauldron Lake.

American Nightmare Manuscript: New Reality: Fragment 1

21:59 Rachel

The atmosphere in the projection booth at the drive-in was charged, almost unreal. Despite that, the air felt cool and refreshing this late at night. It had been a hot day. The summer was nearing its end, but it wasn't over yet.

American Nightmare Manuscript: The Spiders

21:38 Rachel

The spiders aren't really the work of the enemy. They're a side effect, a part of the Dark Place's less significant fauna that has managed to slip through the opening I made when I arrived; less an animal than an idea that has assumed the form of an animal.

It makes them no less dangerous, but at least they're a little easier to deal with: the darkness doesn't protect them like the Taken, and thus they can be destroyed by either light or bullets right away.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Fighting the Taken

21:35 Rachel

I've carried a flashlight and gun for so long that I feel naked without either. It's all too often that I need them.

The darkness protects the Taken. Shadows crawl over their forms like living things, protecting them from harm. Blows that would injure or kill a human outright mean nothing to them as long as the darkness persists. But light makes them vulnerable. Light burns the shadows away. The darkness that drives them is still in them, but now they're vulnerable.

Flashlight and gun. Sometimes, it feels they're all I have left.

American Nightmare Manuscript: The Genesis of Mr Scratch

21:34 Rachel

I've seen the enemy, and it's me. I've faced dark horrors before, things that live in the unimaginable pressures of the world beyond our own. Sometimes they masquerade as humans.

That's what ultimately lurks inside Mr. Scratch. He's every mean-spirited tabloid story about me, an evil caricature, a creature formed in that vague territory of misconception, half-truths and the dark imagination of people who "heard a story about me". An urban legend made flesh. A serial killer.

My dark half, brought to life by the power of Cauldron Lake.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Pressure

21:32 Rachel

The pressure of the success got to me. My wife, Alice, was the sole thing in my life that anchored me. Suddenly, it wasn't enough. I couldn't write anymore.

I distracted myself with wild parties and whatever trouble I could scare up. I wallowed in the drama of my life, sure that Alice would stick with me, even though she didn't sign up to be the lifeline of a tortured artist. It was dumb luck she's not the type to give up.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Success

21:28 Rachel

As a storyteller, my first real love was crime, and it was in that genre that I finished my first novel starring the perpetually miserable Alex Casey, whose entire life was a wound that never healed.

The book sold as fast as they hit the shelves. I wrote five more Alex Casey books, and they all were bestsellers. I became rich. I became famous. Success brought pressure,and I didn't handle it very well.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Alice's Film

21:26 Rachel

I held the film canister in my hands. I saw her name written across it in big letters, followed by the title.

It was a time capsule, moments snatched from times gone by, from a past that I hoped could also be our future. It was my salvation -- our salvation, our chance to be together. A tin can with a bit of magic in it that she didn't even know about, something I could put to good use.

There were only moments left before I had to face him.

American Nightmare Manuscript: New Clothes

21:23 Rachel

The clothes I wear now I shaped from dreams and memories. It's an old outfit, originally from the 90s; the last time I wore it was when I was still writing, and Alice and I took a vacation in the desert, before our troubles began.

The night before, we'd been at a party, and I'd dressed to the nines. On that lazy day, I put on these old clothes, worn and comfortable. Alice made a joke about grunge. I felt a little embarrassed, but stuck with them.

We were very happy. I'm sheathed in good memories, to remind myself of what is at stake.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Serena and Mr. Scratch

21:21 Rachel

When the dark man's eyes suddenly locked into Serena's, she flushed hot. They ignited a black fire in her.

He was talking: he wanted the power turned off. He said something about the projector booth. She hooked a finger under his belt buckle. He grabbed a hold of her throat and twisted until it hurt. Somewhere deep inside, a part of her screamed in paralyzed horror, but the moan that escaped from her throat had no panic in it.

"Pay attention," he said. "Business first." His eyes glittered shamelessly. Hers did, too.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Focusing The Beam

21:19 Rachel

There's more to fighting the Taken than just burning away the darkness that protects them. When I'm fighting for my life, I find myself slipping into a state of intense concentration that makes the beam of my flashlight seem more powerful and focused. I used to think it was just my imagination, something brought on by the adrenaline and fear of death, but now I'm not so sure. I have been touched by powers that I can't begin to truly comprehend, and they've left a mark. I'm starting to think this might be a part of it.

American Nightmare Manuscript: Serena Valdivia

21:15 Rachel

For Serena Valdivia, burning the midnight oil was more of an exception than a rule. A procrastinator and a perfectionist, she often worked when she wouldn't be disturbed.

Tonight was especially important: the film festival would open tomorrow, and there was still so much to sort out. It wasn't that the work hadn't been done; she just didn't feel like she had completely mastered everything yet.