Cosmic Horror Premiere: "A Journey Beyond" | Full-Cast Audio Drama

0:00 Speaker 1: Doorway to Nightmare is brought to you in part by Swanage Press. It lies in wait amidst your dreams, where nothing is ever how it seems. It is a portal to a terrifying world beyond the doorway. Come in. Welcome. I'm Artemis Black. Where, oh death, is your victory? Where is your sting? A quote. From 1 Corinthians. Two major questions that mankind has been acting for centuries. But the main question is, what happens after the moment when we cease to be?

1:13 Speaker 2: You will tell me everything.

1:17 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.

1:18 Speaker 3: What if I can't tell you? What then?

1:23 Speaker 2: I'm sure that I'll find another... test subject.

1:36 Speaker 1: Our mystery drama, A Journey Beyond, was written especially for Doorway to Nightmare by Winslow Swan and edited by Crimson McKenzie, and our cast includes Crimson McKenzie and Winslow Swan. I'll return shortly with Act One.

1:54 Speaker 2: The only witness to her murder.

1:56 Speaker 4: cannot speak.

1:58 Speaker 2: Until now.

2:00 Speaker 4: Click A Tale of Revenge by Winslow Swan. Now available on Amazon. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

2:31 Speaker 1: American writer and filmmaker Chester Himes once said, Man cannot live without some knowledge of the purpose of life. If he can find no purpose in life, he creates one in the inevitability of death. The very crux of our offering tonight. Everyone, eventually, meets that hooded figure in the black robe, but the answer as to where we go has never been discovered. Or has it?

3:22 Speaker 3: You mind telling me what I'm doing here?

3:25 Speaker 2: I'm Dr. Elizabeth Gordon, Mr.

3:28 Speaker 1: Branch.

3:29 Speaker 3: And why do you find it necessary to chain me to this bed?

3:33 Speaker 2: The chains are necessary, I assure you. Not only for my safety, but for yours as well.

3:44 Speaker 3: And my first question? You got an answer for that?

3:48 Speaker 2: You are Emmett Branch? A rather nasty human being. Convicted of seven homicides and given over 1,200 years in prison?

4:02 Speaker 3: Lady, I'm sitting on death row. What, they think I'm going to come back and serve my time?

4:11 Speaker 2: You, Mr. Branch, are the worst of the worst. You killed without remorse. Your victims range from all ages and races, and your methods were, shall we say, barbaric.

4:30 Speaker 3: Who the hell are you anyway?

4:32 Speaker 2: I told you. Dr. Elizabeth Gordon. Again?

4:39 Speaker 3: What am I doing here?

4:42 Speaker 2: It took a considerable amount of time and effort to bring you to my... facility.

4:49 Speaker 3: You mean this isn't part of the prison?

4:55 Speaker 2: What do you remember, Mr. Branch?

4:59 Speaker 3: Nothing. I don't remember nothing.

5:02 Speaker 2: Think back.

5:04 Speaker 5: Very hard.

5:06 Speaker 2: What is the last thing that you remember doing before waking up here?

5:16 Speaker 3: I was in my cell. In the death house. I was going to bed when....

5:23 Speaker 1: When.

5:23 Speaker 2: Yes, Mr. Branch?

5:27 Speaker 3: Oh, I must have passed out. Well, then I'm here, chained to a table with a bunch of gizmos hooked up to me. Now, what the hell is this all about? How did you even break me out and get me here?

5:44 Speaker 2: Oh, Mr. Branch, a good magician never... Reveals their secrets.

5:52 Speaker 6: And I... I am a great magician.

6:36 Speaker 2: Test subject number 231. Mr. Emmett Branch. Subject appears to be in good health. All vital signs normal except for a slight elevation in blood pressure and pulse. It is now 1123 and tests will begin in 20 minutes.

6:54 Speaker 4: It is now.

6:54 Speaker 6: 1123 and tests will begin in 20 minutes.

7:14 Speaker 2: I failed to mention that this experiment will be the final one.

7:40 Speaker 3: Look, lady, I don't know what you think you can do to me. I'm a dead man already. Your tax dollars are seeing to that.

7:50 Speaker 2: Ever heard of Velma Thomas?

7:53 Speaker 3: Velma Thomas? What, was she one of my victims? I rarely remember the names.

7:59 Speaker 2: Hardly, Mr. Branch. She actually holds a Guinness World Record. She is quite... I had the pleasure of meeting her some time ago.

8:12 Speaker 3: So what does she have to do with me?

8:13 Speaker 2: Oh, a great deal, Mr. Branch. You see, she died in 2008. Heart attack. They tried to resuscitate, but could not. She was on life support with no brain activity when the doctors told her son that She was officially dead. He ordered her removed from said support, and that was that. But then, something miraculous happened.

8:51 Speaker 3: Yeah?

8:53 Speaker 1: What was that?

8:57 Speaker 2: As the doctors were getting ready to harvest her organs for transplant, ten minutes after removing the life support, Velma Thomas woke up.

9:10 Speaker 3: Wait, what do you mean she woke up?

9:14 Speaker 2: She was pronounced clinically dead, and yet, 17 hours later... Imagine it! 17 hours! Velma woke up! Alive and well! Doctors couldn't explain it!

9:29 Speaker 3: So again I ask you, what does she have to do with me?

9:32 Speaker 5: Oh, oh, oh, oh.

9:34 Speaker 2: A great deal, Mr. Branch. You see, I've made it my life's work to study such cases as Velma's. People who apparently die, but then come back.

9:51 Speaker 3: I highly doubt that after the state executes me, I'll be coming back.

9:59 Speaker 2: But that is... why you're here now. You see, I'm going to kill you.

10:07 Speaker 1: Indian Chief Crowfoot once asked, What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. End quote. And yet, all of us ask, at one time or another, what is death?

10:39 Speaker 1: I'll return shortly with Act Two. Meet Jerry Connors, family man. businessman, psychopathic killer. The Convincer by Winslow Swan. Now available on Amazon. Jerry Connors. He can convince you to do anything. Even die.

11:22 Speaker 1: British neurologist and author Oliver Sacks once said, There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate, the genetic and neural fate, of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path. To live his own life. To die his own death.

12:00 Speaker 3: Trying to save the state a little money?

12:04 Speaker 2: When I was eight years old, Mr. Branch, something happened to me that completely changed my life. I. I died.

12:17 Speaker 3: Well, you look pretty healthy to me.

12:20 Speaker 2: I was dead for about two minutes, according to my mother. The incident haunted me, and it was in college that I began to study the Lazarus Syndrome.

12:32 Speaker 3: No, I can't say that I've ever heard of it. Well, I have heard the name Lazarus.

12:40 Speaker 2: Do you read the Bible, Mr. Brant?

12:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I went to Sunday school when I was a kid. A fat lot of good it did me.

12:49 Speaker 5: Hmm.

12:50 Speaker 2: I will agree with you on that one. Um, but no, Mr. Branch. The Lazarus Syndrome is extremely rare. Since its first description in 1982, there have only been 63 cases reported. Theories abound, but no one, no one, has discovered what it really is.

13:15 Speaker 3: Oh, let me guess. You think that You have.

13:21 Speaker 2: I'm not interested, to be honest. What I am looking for is what happens after the person dies.

13:33 Speaker 3: Well, depending on what you believe, you either go to heaven or you go to hell. I think I know which one I'm heading to.

13:43 Speaker 2: But you see, we really don't know, do we? I've read reports on these victims. The Lazarus Syndrome? But most are sketchy at best. They saw a white light, a grassy field, a mysterious figure telling them it wasn't their time.

14:06 Speaker 3: You? What did you see?

14:10 Speaker 2: Nothing. I saw absolutely nothing. I heard nothing. Nothing. I felt nothing. I smelled nothing. Not a single sensation until... Until they revived me.

14:28 Speaker 3: So what do you want from me?

14:33 Speaker 2: Last month I met a man. Harry Norton. He was a good man. Great job, kids, a wife he adored. He never cheated on his taxes or anything else. He was a deacon in his church. He had a very strong belief system.

14:53 Speaker 3: And you, uh, you killed him.

14:57 Speaker 2: Yes, I did. But you see, I brought him back. No, it wasn't for 17 hours. No. Only a few minutes. And what he told me, let's just say that it was not... The results I was seeking.

15:18 Speaker 3: What did he tell you?

15:20 Speaker 2: The same damn thing that everyone says. The bright white light. The pasture. The sunlight.

15:28 Speaker 7: The warmth. The love.

15:32 Speaker 3: So what is bad about all that? I mean, it sounds pretty nice to me.

15:35 Speaker 2: There has to be something more. And I intend to find it.

15:40 Speaker 3: By killing me?

15:41 Speaker 5: Yes.

15:43 Speaker 2: By killing you. Bringing you back. I want to know everything that you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel.

15:52 Speaker 3: And what if I don't see anything? What then?

15:56 Speaker 2: I don't know. I'll just have to find another test subject. I'm hoping that you will be the last one.

16:21 Speaker 3: How many?

16:23 Speaker 2: I'm sorry, what?

16:25 Speaker 3: How many test subjects have you experimented on?

16:30 Speaker 2: Oh, that. A little over 200 over the last five years.

16:36 Speaker 1: I mean.

16:37 Speaker 3: And you were able to bring them all back and not learn anything?

16:42 Speaker 2: Well, I didn't say all of them came back.

16:47 Speaker 3: Well, how many were you able to revive?

16:52 Speaker 2: Only three.

16:52 Speaker 3: And I'm the one sitting on death row.

16:56 Speaker 2: Either way, Mr. Branch, you are going to die. Whether it's here or at the prison, does it really matter when?

17:13 Speaker 1: Pastor and author David Jeremiah once said, No Christian is abandoned at the moment of death. The angels are the ushers, and our passage to heaven is under their escort. A nice sentiment, but the question remains, what happens to the everyone else? I'll return with Act 3 shortly.

17:42 Speaker 4: It is in all of us, waiting, watching, growing, Evil Within by Winslow Swan. Now available on Amazon.

18:11 Speaker 1: American journalist Norman Cousins once said, Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss... It's what dies inside us while we live.

18:28 Speaker 2: Time of initial death, 1142. Current time, 1205. Have tried resuscitating since 1147. Five minutes after death. We'll dispose of the subject.

18:46 Speaker 1: No! Holy.

18:51 Speaker 2: Mr. Branch?

18:53 Speaker 3: Mr. Branch?

18:55 Speaker 2: Can you hear me? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

19:00 Speaker 3: I hear you. What happened?

19:04 Speaker 2: Wait a second.

19:05 Speaker 5: Wait.

19:05 Speaker 2: Let me start the recorder. There. Now tell me everything.

19:12 Speaker 3: I need something to drink.

19:14 Speaker 2: In a minute? First tell me everything that you experienced.

19:18 Speaker 1: Okay.

19:19 Speaker 2: I need to know.

19:21 Speaker 3: Fine. I was there. I couldn't see.

19:29 Speaker 1: Anything.

19:29 Speaker 3: All my darkness. But I could.

19:36 Speaker 1: Feel.

19:37 Speaker 3: Feel?

19:39 Speaker 2: What did you feel?

19:40 Speaker 1: The pain.

19:48 Speaker 3: All of the pain.

19:50 Speaker 1: From my victims.

19:52 Speaker 3: I could feel the moment they died by my hand. I could hear their thoughts, their fear, their anger, all directed at me.

20:11 Speaker 1: I could feel.

20:14 Speaker 3: Everything that they felt. All of their pain. I could feel the moment they died.

20:28 Speaker 2: Do you believe that you were in hell?

20:33 Speaker 3: I don't know where I was at. All that I know Is that I don't want to.

20:40 Speaker 1: Go back there.

20:40 Speaker 3: The terror that I felt. The pain. The horror.

20:49 Speaker 2: And that was all you remember?

20:51 Speaker 3: Oh, isn't that enough?

20:52 Speaker 5: I'm afraid that if I actually saw something, your mind wouldn't be able to fathom the horror and the terror. No.

21:04 Speaker 2: It's not enough. I need to know more.

21:09 Speaker 1: Do you?

21:11 Speaker 3: Do you really need to know?

21:16 Speaker 2: Yes, I do. What are you smiling at, Mr. Branch?

21:24 Speaker 3: Obviously, I'm smiling at you. Your fascination with the idea that there is a way for mere mortals to know What happens after they die. And I find it most amusing.

21:45 Speaker 2: Your eyes. They're... Oh, God. They're... They're glowing red.

21:54 Speaker 3: For over a thousand years, I've been a prisoner of that place. I have waited so long for a way to escape.

22:05 Speaker 1: And you.

22:06 Speaker 3: Dr. Elizabeth Gordon provided me with one.

22:10 Speaker 1: I thank you. Branch!

22:17 Speaker 2: What are you saying?

22:18 Speaker 7: Mr.

22:18 Speaker 1: Emmett Branch is no longer here. He brought something back for you.

22:30 Speaker 3: No.

22:30 Speaker 5: No.

22:30 Speaker 1: You're Experiment ends tonight. You will now know firsthand what happens to you when you die.

22:49 Speaker 5: Die.

22:50 Speaker 3: Die.

23:18 Speaker 1: Police eventually found the lab where Elizabeth Gordon had her... experiments. She had been dead for several days, and no other body was discovered. And Emmett Branch? His whereabouts are unknown. I'll return shortly with a final word.

23:41 Speaker 7: If you'd like to support us, visit our merchandise store, T-shirts, caps, mugs, and so much more. Visit doorwaytonightmare.com today.

23:53 Speaker 1: I leave you tonight with the words of Albert Einstein. Quote, Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us. Our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. Our cast included Crimson McKenzie and Winslow Swann. The story was edited by Crimson McKenzie and directed by Winslow Swann. And now, a preview of our next tale.

24:47 Speaker 2: He always told us that we would always be together. I take it that you never believed that, Charity? Oh yes, Paul. I definitely believed that Daddy would keep us together.

25:00 Speaker 3: But he's been dead for almost seven years.

25:04 Speaker 2: Surely you can go off on your own now. No, Paul. I can't. My sisters and I have to stay here and wait on Daddy.

25:16 Speaker 1: This is Artemis Black, inviting you to return with us to the doorway to nightmare for yet another adventure into the terrifying world of your imagination. Until next time, slumber peacefully.

25:35 Speaker 2: Epilogue The butler did it.