Unearthing the Tomb's Secrets: "City of the Dead" – A Chilling Audio Mystery

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. Nightmare. Come in. Welcome. I'm Artemis Black. A columnist author Brisbane once said, The fence around a cemetery is foolish, for those inside cannot come out, and those outside do not want to get in.

1:06 Speaker 2: So, where did you put the money?

1:09 Speaker 3: I told you, Morgan, there isn't any money.

1:15 Speaker 4: Of course there is. You killed the old man for it. Now where did you stash it?

1:20 Speaker 3: Please, Morgan. Let's get away from here. You don't know what could happen.

1:25 Speaker 2: It's just a field of nothing.

1:29 Speaker 5: Absolutely nothing.

1:30 Speaker 2: Except that well and that huge oak tree.

1:36 Speaker 3: No, Morgan. They are here. And they want us to stay here. Forever. Come play with us.

1:46 Speaker 1: Come. Our mystery drama, City of the Dead, was written especially for Doorway to Nightmare by Winslet Swan and edited by Crimson McKenzie. Our cast includes Dave Arkapov, Crimson McKenzie, and Mick Davis. I'll return shortly with Act One. Have you ever had one of... Those days. You're fired. Where everything goes completely wrong. Don't you lay a finger on me!

2:29 Speaker 3: I can't stand on you!

2:30 Speaker 1: And the day keeps getting worse and worse.

2:34 Speaker 4: Hey! Hey!

2:42 Speaker 1: And if just one more thing goes wrong, it could possibly send you Toppling over the edge. Toppling over the edge. A suspense thriller from Winslow Swan. Now available in paperback from Amazon.com. Sometimes you should take a step back. And then there are those times when even you toppling over the edge. Hang on to your sanity. No matter what town or city you happen to travel to you can always find A cemetery. Almost 30,000 acres of the United States is devoted to the resting place for the deceased.

4:02 Speaker 1: In some parts of the country, there have been places where a cemetery was moved, but the ground remains the same.

4:14 Speaker 5: Well, Miss Adams, I hope the house suits you.

4:17 Speaker 3: I think it's wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Davis, for allowing me to rent it out.

4:21 Speaker 5: If you find anything out of place or something that needs to be repaired, just drive up to the house. Either myself or my son can come and fix it for you.

4:31 Speaker 6: I'm sure that everything is in order. I really want to thank you for allowing me to move in so quickly. And with no lease agreement.

4:39 Speaker 5: I'm of the old school. A handshake's enough of a binding contract.

4:45 Speaker 3: Well then, here's your handshake.

4:48 Speaker 5: Good enough for me.

4:50 Speaker 3: And if you ever need anything from me, please do not hesitate to ask.

4:55 Speaker 5: Don't you worry about anything. It's nice and peaceful here. Everyone tends to look out for each other. Oh, and I meant to tell you when we first met about the valley below this house.

5:09 Speaker 3: Oh, is that part of the property?

5:11 Speaker 5: Um, no, ma'am, it isn't. It's kind of, well... Off limits, you might say.

5:18 Speaker 3: What do you mean by that?

5:22 Speaker 5: Oh, nothing really. It's just that it don't belong to me or anyone else that lives out here. Just a place to kind of stay away from.

5:31 Speaker 3: But it looks perfectly lovely.

5:33 Speaker 6: A green field with something in the middle and a lone oak tree. I wouldn't mind having a picnic lunch down there sometime.

5:41 Speaker 5: Please, Miss Adams, you've got to promise me. You won't go anywhere near that place.

5:49 Speaker 1: Understand?

5:49 Speaker 6: You mean I would be trespassing?

5:52 Speaker 1: Well, yes.

5:53 Speaker 5: Something like that.

5:55 Speaker 2: Oh.

5:55 Speaker 3: Well then. I will definitely stay away.

5:58 Speaker 6: I don't need any farmer taking pot shots at my constitutional amendment.

6:07 Speaker 5: Just remember what I said and everything will be fine.

6:16 Speaker 3: I think it's a perfectly lovely place. I wonder why it didn't want me to come here.

6:20 Speaker 5: Miss Adams, get back over here, now!

6:25 Speaker 3: I am not a child!

6:27 Speaker 5: Please, just come away from the field. Now, before it starts getting dark.

6:32 Speaker 3: What does that have to do with.

6:35 Speaker 5: Come stay with us.

6:38 Speaker 7: Come stay with us.

6:43 Speaker 3: I'm sorry? What did you say?

6:45 Speaker 5: I said to get over here, quickly.

6:48 Speaker 3: I heard that. What else did you say?

6:51 Speaker 6: Come stay with us. Come stay with us.

7:01 Speaker 3: Yes, I think I'll be getting back now.

7:16 Speaker 5: Thank you, Miss Adams. Much appreciated.

7:20 Speaker 3: Now, Mr.

7:20 Speaker 6: Davis, would you like to explain to me why I was ordered like a petulant child?

7:26 Speaker 5: I apologize.

7:28 Speaker 1: It's just.

7:30 Speaker 5: Well, you did promise that you wouldn't go down.

7:33 Speaker 1: There, and I.

7:34 Speaker 3: There wasn't anything there except the well and the tree. Nothing else.

7:39 Speaker 5: But there is something else, Miss Adams. About twenty bodies buried in the ground.

7:47 Speaker 3: What? Are you about to tell me that some killer used that field as his....

7:53 Speaker 5: Oh, no, nothing like that. You see, that used to be a cemetery. The well and the tree were at the center, and about 20 people were buried there.

8:04 Speaker 3: But I didn't see any headstones or markers of any kind.

8:07 Speaker 5: That's because the gravestones were all moved when a developing company came in. They were going to turn the valley into a housing project.

8:16 Speaker 3: But that... Never happened?

8:18 Speaker 1: No, no, never.

8:20 Speaker 5: Oh, the gravestones were moved, but the caskets and the bodies are still out there. You see, the developer was told the place was, well, haunted by twin girls.

8:33 Speaker 3: This story just got more interesting. Please, go on.

8:38 Speaker 5: It seems that those twin girls were playing in the cemetery when something happened. Their bodies were never found and it was believed they fell down the well.

8:50 Speaker 3: Couldn't the bodies have been retrieved?

8:52 Speaker 1: No, ma'am.

8:54 Speaker 5: You see, no one knows how deep that well goes. Some even said it was a gateway to hell.

9:03 Speaker 3: I just had a cold chill go down my spine. What happened?

9:07 Speaker 5: After the tombstones were moved, they were going to relocate the graves, but then things started happening. Equipment failures, workers quit because they kept hearing voices, and then, well, the developer committed suicide, supposedly.

9:26 Speaker 3: Why do you say supposedly? What actually happened?

9:30 Speaker 5: He was found hanging by a vine that was wrapped around his neck from the tree, hanging inside the well. Since then, no one has ventured near this city of the dead.

9:47 Speaker 1: American humorist Evan Isar once said, But there is nothing more alive than a tree that learns how to grow.

10:00 Speaker 1: in a cemetery. I'll return shortly with Act 2.

10:11 Speaker 3: The only witness to her murder cannot speak. Until now.

10:17 Speaker 8: Click.

10:18 Speaker 3: A Tale of Revenge by Winslow Swan. Now available on Amazon.

10:24 Speaker 8: Revenge is a dish best served cold.

10:30 Speaker 1: Revenge is a dish best served cold. Author Jessica Sorensen once said, The cemetery is my sense of comfort. My sanctuary in a world of darkness. The one piece of light that I have in my life.

11:02 Speaker 3: The City of the Dead?

11:04 Speaker 5: That's what people call it around here. I suppose it's because of those bodies still buried there.

11:12 Speaker 4: Now.

11:13 Speaker 5: You've got to promise me. And I mean really promise me. You won't go back there.

11:19 Speaker 3: After what you just told me? I don't think I have the courage to.

11:23 Speaker 5: And especially at night. Don't even look down there when the moon comes up.

11:29 Speaker 3: Why, Mr. Davis? What will I see?

11:32 Speaker 5: Oh, I've done said too much already. No, no.

11:38 Speaker 3: Now you have to tell me.

11:40 Speaker 5: Well, some say that the spirits of those two girls come and try to take people away to wherever they went to.

11:49 Speaker 3: You mean down into the well, don't you?

11:52 Speaker 5: I don't know, Miss Adams. No one around here is brave enough or stupid enough to try to find out.

12:36 Speaker 3: Morgan? How did you find me?

12:39 Speaker 2: I can tell you, it wasn't that easy.

12:43 Speaker 3: How did you get in here?

12:44 Speaker 2: You know me better than that, Hannah.

12:47 Speaker 3: I suppose I do. What are you doing here?

12:51 Speaker 2: Come on, Hannah. Don't play stupid. You know exactly what I'm doing here.

12:56 Speaker 3: Then you are completely out of luck. There isn't any money. There never was.

13:02 Speaker 4: And you expect me to believe that? I know how much the old boy had in that safe. You were supposed to get it. Meet me back at the hotel, and we split it up.

13:14 Speaker 6: Your information was wrong. The only thing he had in that safe was a few pictures and some cassette tapes.

13:21 Speaker 3: No money.

13:23 Speaker 2: Is that why you killed him?

13:24 Speaker 3: I didn't kill him. He found me and dropped dead of a heart attack. I had nothing to do with him dying.

13:31 Speaker 2: Sure you didn't.

13:34 Speaker 4: You just took the money and ran. Well, now you can't run anymore. And I want my cut of the money.

13:42 Speaker 2: Understand?

13:44 Speaker 3: I'm trying to tell you, Morgan. There isn't any money.

13:48 Speaker 4: Ow!

13:48 Speaker 2: You sure about that? Are you sure about that?

13:53 Speaker 1: Huh?

13:54 Speaker 4: Ow!

13:55 Speaker 1: Please, Morgan!

13:56 Speaker 3: Stop it! I'm telling you, there was no money in the safe!

14:00 Speaker 4: Ow!

14:01 Speaker 8: You want some more?

14:03 Speaker 2: You must like it. Ow!

14:05 Speaker 4: Do you?

14:06 Speaker 2: Where's the money?

14:07 Speaker 4: Ow!

14:08 Speaker 3: All right. All right. Just stop hitting me. I'll tell you. I'll tell you.

14:17 Speaker 1: There.

14:19 Speaker 2: You see? I can be reasonable. Now, what did you do with all of that, I mean, my money?

14:29 Speaker 5: Go away.

14:32 Speaker 7: Come stay.

14:39 Speaker 1: With us.

14:40 Speaker 3: It's down there, in the valley. I put it inside the well.

14:45 Speaker 4: Then why don't we go down there and get it?

14:49 Speaker 3: We can't. Not right now. When the sun comes up.

14:54 Speaker 2: What's the matter, Hannah? You're not afraid of the dark, are you?

15:00 Speaker 1: Henry David Thoreau once said, When the leaves fall, the whole earth is a cemetery pleasant to walk in. I love to wander and muse over them and their graves. Here are no lying nor vain epitaphs. I'll return shortly with Act 3.

15:27 Speaker 8: Have you heard any good books lately? Audiobooks from Winslow Swan, now available on Spotify.

15:34 Speaker 1: The French poet Charles Baudelaire once said, To the solemn graves near a lonely cemetery, My heart, like a muffled drum, is beating funeral marches.

16:04 Speaker 2: Quit trying to lag behind.

16:05 Speaker 3: I'm not. You just don't know about this place.

16:09 Speaker 2: What do you mean? It's just an empty field.

16:12 Speaker 3: No, Morgan. It was a cemetery.

16:15 Speaker 2: You're crazy.

16:17 Speaker 4: If this was a cemetery, then where are the gravestones?

16:20 Speaker 3: They got moved, but the graves never were.

16:23 Speaker 1: Ha ha ha ha. Oh, sure.

16:26 Speaker 2: And now the place is haunted? You're going to have to do a little better than that.

16:32 Speaker 3: Look, over there. The well. That's where the money is. Right beside the well.

16:38 Speaker 2: Beside the well?

16:40 Speaker 4: I thought you said you put it inside the well.

16:44 Speaker 3: No, no. Beside the well. I swear it. Come stay with us. Morgan, did you hear anything?

17:03 Speaker 2: Just the wind. Now where is my money?

17:07 Speaker 1: Come play with us. Come stay with us.

17:18 Speaker 3: Morgan, are you sure you didn't hear anything?

17:22 Speaker 4: No.

17:22 Speaker 2: Now where... Is my money.

17:29 Speaker 3: Morgan! Behind you! The oak tree!

17:32 Speaker 4: Oh, now the money is by the oak tree. Quit playing around, Hannah.

17:37 Speaker 2: No!

17:38 Speaker 3: Morgan! There's the vine! Behind you! Crawling through the grass! Towards you!

17:43 Speaker 4: What the hell are you talking about? Hey!

17:46 Speaker 2: What's going on? Get off me!

17:48 Speaker 8: Morgan!

17:49 Speaker 3: That vine! It's... wrapping itself.

17:53 Speaker 4: Around you get off me this thing is wrapping.

17:57 Speaker 7: Itself around my neck stop it hannah help me i.

18:03 Speaker 6: Can't another vine is holding me back morgan.

18:07 Speaker 4: It's dragging me towards the well hannah help me.

18:17 Speaker 1: The bite is.

18:21 Speaker 5: Getting sweeter from my neck.

18:27 Speaker 3: Hannah, help me.

18:28 Speaker 7: It's dragging me inside the well.

18:31 Speaker 4: Morgan!

18:53 Speaker 5: Miss Adams? Are you in there? Miss Adams? Miss Adams?

19:07 Speaker 3: Yes, Mr. Davis?

19:09 Speaker 5: Oh, Miss Adams, thank goodness. I was afraid.

19:13 Speaker 3: Such a beautiful morning. Would you like a cup of coffee?

19:17 Speaker 5: Are you all right, Miss Adams?

19:20 Speaker 3: Oh, I'm fine, Mr. Davis. Why do you ask?

19:23 Speaker 5: Well, Fred Jenkins, who lives on the other side of the valley, said he saw a light down in the City of the Dead last night. I thought perhaps you might have.

19:34 Speaker 6: After your story, I don't even look down into that valley, let alone go down there.

19:40 Speaker 5: Well, I hate to ask, but did you happen to have any company last night?

19:47 Speaker 3: What do you mean by company?

19:50 Speaker 5: You see, ma'am, we, that is, Fred Jenkins and I, went down there this morning. We found a man hanging by his neck from a vine from the oak tree inside the well.

20:06 Speaker 3: Curious. Any idea who he may be?

20:10 Speaker 5: No one from around here that we know of. That's why I asked if you had company or if anyone stopped by here last night.

20:18 Speaker 3: I haven't seen anyone since I moved in. Not a single soul.

20:28 Speaker 8: Come play with us.

20:33 Speaker 7: Come stay with us.

20:38 Speaker 6: Ha ha ha.

20:43 Speaker 1: Hannah smiles as she looks towards the valley and the city of the dead. I'll return shortly with a final word.

20:57 Speaker 8: If you'd like to support us, visit our merchandise store. T-shirts, caps, mugs, and so much more. Visit doorwaytonightmare.com today.

21:23 Speaker 1: The author Clive Barker once said, We are all our own graveyards, I believe. We squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. If we're healthy, every day is a celebration. A day of the dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived. And if we are neurotic, we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present. Our cast included Dave Archibald, Mick Davis, Crimson McKenzie, and a special appearance by Isabella Woogie. The story was edited by Crimson McKenzie and directed by Winslow Swann.

22:13 Speaker 1: And now, a preview of our next tale.

22:18 Speaker 7: Danvers saw something. Something that shattered his mind out there.

22:22 Speaker 5: And you of all people should know that some things should be left alone.

22:26 Speaker 4: Danvers has never said a word in over 50 years.

22:30 Speaker 7: Until last week.

22:33 Speaker 1: Uh, what are you saying, Alan?

22:35 Speaker 7: I played the recording received at the Institute, Greg. It had a rather profound effect on Danvers.

22:43 Speaker 5: What sort of effect?

22:46 Speaker 7: He said no. He warned me to stay away. Don't go near the Mountain of Madness.

22:56 Speaker 1: Doorway to Nightmare is brought to you in part by Swanage Press. This is Artemis Black, inviting you to return with us to the Doorway to Nightmare for another adventure into the terrifying world. of your imagination. Until next time, slumber peacefully. Epilogue.

23:23 Speaker 3: The butler did it.

23:28 Speaker 6: If you're liking these shows, check out our other episodes on our YouTube channel.

23:32 Speaker 3: There's also some previews of Swan's audiobooks on there as well. Come join us.