The Dog That Wasn't There | A Supernatural Mystery "Night Cries"

0:05 Speaker 1: 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 to nightmare. Nightmare. Come in. Welcome. I'm your host, Artemis Black. Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent, wrote the creator of Sherlock Holmes. And it is a statement that I would agree with. How many stories have you encountered that were, and I don't mean to be impertinent, almost impossible? To believe.

1:10 Speaker 2: Tom, I know that something is going on. Ever since I got here, people have been, well, not very friendly.

1:19 Speaker 3: Well, what did you expect, Liza? A hero's welcome home party? You've been away for ten years now.

1:26 Speaker 2: It isn't just that, Tom, and you know it. And I suppose a dog howling in the woods is my imagination, too.

1:37 Speaker 3: Can't anyone find it and do something about it?

1:40 Speaker 2: I was told that they had. That Mike Olsen killed it two days ago, so why is it still howling?

1:46 Speaker 4: Woof!

1:47 Speaker 5: Woof!

1:55 Speaker 1: Our mystery drama, Night Cries, was written especially for Doorway to Nightmare by Winslow Swan and edited by Crimson McKenzie. Our cast includes Annie Mick, Crimson McKenzie, William Stafford, and Winslow Swan. I'll return shortly with Act One.

2:12 Speaker 6: Act One.

2:28 Speaker 1: I'm sure that most of you have taken a vacation at some point in your life, not just to any destination, but perhaps a quiet place, up in the mountains, near a lake, with a small town filled with local inhabitants who make you feel welcome in their little community. Or do they?

2:55 Speaker 4: When you came in, don't have to keep ringing the damn bell.

2:59 Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I was wondering if you had a room available.

3:04 Speaker 4: It's off season. 15 rooms, 15 vacancies.

3:08 Speaker 2: That's fine.

3:10 Speaker 4: You look a little familiar. Have we ever met before?

3:14 Speaker 2: Well, if your name is Rosa Collins, then yes, we have. Liza! Liza Sloan!

3:22 Speaker 4: I thought that was you. Where you been, girl?

3:26 Speaker 2: Trying to make it on Broadway.

3:29 Speaker 4: I thought that you already had, at least from what I've read online.

3:34 Speaker 2: The show closed a week ago. I decided to take a little time for myself and.

3:42 Speaker 4: And try to get over Tom?

3:44 Speaker 2: My, you have been reading a lot online, haven't you?

3:48 Speaker 4: I didn't mean, I just thought.

3:51 Speaker 2: It's.

3:52 Speaker 6: Okay, Rosa.

3:53 Speaker 2: But do me a favor. If anyone asks if I'm here.

3:58 Speaker 4: Your secret is safe with me. I'll just put you down as Elizabeth Taylor. Wonderful!

4:06 Speaker 2: Thank you, Rosa.

4:08 Speaker 4: How long has it been since you left?

4:10 Speaker 2: About ten years.

4:12 Speaker 4: Well then, let me put you in room 113. Give you the most privacy.

4:20 Speaker 2: The poor thing.

4:21 Speaker 4: I'm sorry?

4:22 Speaker 2: That dog. Somewhere out in the woods. It must be starving.

4:27 Speaker 4: I don't hear any dog.

4:30 Speaker 2: But you must. See, there it is again.

4:35 Speaker 4: Sorry, Liza. I just don't hear it.

4:43 Speaker 6: Great dinner as always, Miss Collins.

4:45 Speaker 2: Am I too late for dinner?

4:48 Speaker 4: Not unless Mike here can get it all down before you get your plate.

4:53 Speaker 6: Oh, I think I can leave a little bit.

4:55 Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Liza. Liza Sloan.

4:59 Speaker 6: Mike Olson. And very pleased to meet you.

5:01 Speaker 2: Are you staying in the lodge?

5:03 Speaker 4: Mike just comes to help me out every once in a while.

5:06 Speaker 6: Yep, that's me, the handyman. So if you got a leaky faucet, Or loose boards. Let me know.

5:14 Speaker 2: Oh, no. Everything is fine. I remember when they built this place. I believe I was eight years old. I used to play down in the cellar.

5:26 Speaker 4: The cellar? Strange place for a child to play.

5:30 Speaker 2: No, not for me. It was my theater. My world.

5:37 Speaker 6: Rosa told me we had a world-famous actress staying with us.

5:41 Speaker 2: Maybe not. World famous. But I have done quite a number of Broadway shows.

5:49 Speaker 3: And will do even more if I have my say about it.

5:52 Speaker 2: Tom! How did you.

5:54 Speaker 3: Find you in such an out-of-the-way place? Come on, Liza. You told me about this place years ago.

6:00 Speaker 2: I should have known.

6:01 Speaker 4: Um, is there something I should know?

6:05 Speaker 2: This is Tom. Tom Redman. Tom Redman. My agent.

6:10 Speaker 4: Pleased to meet you, Mr. Redman. I suppose you will be wanting a room as well?

6:16 Speaker 3: Only for tonight. Then Liza and I are heading back to New York.

6:21 Speaker 2: I never agreed.

6:22 Speaker 6: Um, Rosa, maybe you and I should.

6:25 Speaker 3: I told you, Liza, they want you for the part. Now how much money are you going to try to squeeze out of them?

6:33 Speaker 2: Don't you hear that?

6:35 Speaker 6: Hear what?

6:36 Speaker 4: Liza... There is no dog.

6:41 Speaker 6: Unless....

6:43 Speaker 2: Unless what, Mike?

6:45 Speaker 6: No, I don't hear anything either. I think I'll head back to my own cabin. Thanks for dinner, Rosa.

6:56 Speaker 3: What are you talking about, Liza?

6:59 Speaker 2: Are you saying that you cannot hear that dog?

7:02 Speaker 3: Liza, I'm really worried about you.

7:16 Speaker 1: Well, I know that I heard something. I'm certainly glad that you are here, and hopefully also heard the dog howling somewhere in the woods. I don't exactly want to be alone when I return with Act Two. C.S. Lewis wrote, Sanity. Had it ever been more than a convention, a comfortable set of blinkers, an agreed mode of wishful thinking, which excluded from our view the full strangeness and malevolence of the universe we are compelled to inhabit.

8:11 Speaker 2: Has to be around here somewhere. Come on, boy. Where are you? You want a treat? Come on, boy. Come on.

8:32 Speaker 2: Come on. Come on, boy. I got a bone. Don't you want a nice meaty bone? There you are!

8:44 Speaker 1: What is it?

8:45 Speaker 2: You want me to follow you? Is Timmy in the well again? Okay, where are we going? Well, don't run so fast! Where did you go?

9:00 Speaker 1: Damn!

9:01 Speaker 2: Did you go this way? Wait, wait! Come on, boy! Come on! Tripped over it! Oh, no!

9:16 Speaker 3: Well, what were you doing out in the middle of the woods this time of night anyway?

9:21 Speaker 2: I told you. I wanted to find that dog and give it something to eat.

9:26 Speaker 4: But I told you already, Liza. There isn't any dog.

9:30 Speaker 2: But there is, Rosa. I saw it. It wanted me to follow it into the woods.

9:36 Speaker 3: Fine. Have it your way. What kind of a dog was it?

9:40 Speaker 2: A big one. Like a German Shepherd. It had golden tent to its fur.

9:46 Speaker 4: What did you say?

9:48 Speaker 3: Yes.

9:49 Speaker 2: In a large black spot on its chest?

9:51 Speaker 4: But that can't be.

9:54 Speaker 2: Rosa!

9:56 Speaker 6: I've got her.

9:57 Speaker 3: Here, I'll put her on the sofa.

9:59 Speaker 2: What did I say?

9:59 Speaker 6: I don't know.

10:02 Speaker 3: When she wakes up, I've got a lot of questions. I wish that sheriff would hurry up.

10:09 Speaker 6: I just talked to him, Miss Redmond. They found what Liza tripped over.

10:15 Speaker 3: And?

10:16 Speaker 6: What was it? It was a grave. A shallow grave. They found a teenage girl buried there.

10:25 Speaker 3: And the dog?

10:27 Speaker 6: No sign of a dog. Anywhere.

10:31 Speaker 2: Tom, is Rosa going to be okay?

10:34 Speaker 3: Yes, just a fainting spell.

10:37 Speaker 6: Nothing serious. But now, I'm worried about you.

10:41 Speaker 2: I'm fine. Just a little scared. Any idea who this girl was?

10:47 Speaker 1: Her name was Alicia.

10:48 Speaker 2: Alicia?

10:49 Speaker 3: Alicia Collins.

10:50 Speaker 2: But isn't that.

10:51 Speaker 3: Yes, Rosa's daughter. She disappeared a couple of weeks ago. Along with her dog.

10:58 Speaker 2: Oh, that's horrible. How did you find out?

11:02 Speaker 3: I talked to the sheriff. He filled me in on what happened. Alicia was seeing someone secretly and.

11:09 Speaker 4: And I didn't approve.

11:12 Speaker 2: Rosa?

11:14 Speaker 7: I suppose I should have just left well enough alone. I told her that if she was going to leave, she could just leave for good. We had a big fight and she ran out.

11:25 Speaker 2: Oh, Tom, you don't think that the sheriff thinks.

11:28 Speaker 3: He said he wants to ask Rosa a few questions once the autopsy is done.

11:34 Speaker 4: I had nothing to do with her.

11:38 Speaker 7: her.

11:39 Speaker 4: She was seeing someone. I don't know who it was.

11:44 Speaker 7: Someone said they saw her get into a light brown Mercedes.

11:47 Speaker 4: Benz one time about a month ago.

11:50 Speaker 5: That's all I ever knew.

11:52 Speaker 2: Tom, don't you own a car like that?

11:56 Speaker 6: Liza, I own a lot of cars.

11:59 Speaker 1: So what?

12:00 Speaker 2: Just an observation.

12:08 Speaker 6: Did they arrest Rosa?

12:10 Speaker 2: No, Mike. They just wanted to ask her some questions.

12:13 Speaker 6: You know, Liza, Tom has been here before.

12:17 Speaker 2: No, you must be mistaken.

12:19 Speaker 6: I saw him about two months ago down by the lake. He was fishing.

12:27 Speaker 2: There it is again.

12:28 Speaker 6: I don't hear anything.

12:34 Speaker 2: But I do. Mike, are you sure that it was Tom you saw?

12:39 Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am.

12:41 Speaker 6: He had that top-of-the-line rod and reel made by Kessler, and wearing one of their hats. Don't see many of them around this area.

12:52 Speaker 2: No, I suppose you don't.

13:00 Speaker 1: Strange is our situation here on Earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. But what purpose does Liza have in hearing the mournful cries of a dog? Perhaps we shall learn the answer in Act 3. The author Thomas Jones once said, dogs have a way of finding people who need them and filling an emptiness we didn't ever know we had.

13:58 Speaker 4: You play very well, Mr.

14:00 Speaker 3: Redmond.

14:01 Speaker 1: Thank you. Just something from my childhood.

14:06 Speaker 2: Tom. Why didn't you tell me that you came up here before?

14:11 Speaker 3: I told you, Liza. I've never been up here.

14:15 Speaker 1: Why don't you believe me?

14:17 Speaker 2: It's something that Mike said. Something about a hat.

14:22 Speaker 3: What about a hat?

14:24 Speaker 4: Yes, Liza. What are you talking about?

14:27 Speaker 2: Mike claims that he saw you up here fishing with brand new equipment. He even had a hat with the brand name on it.

14:35 Speaker 3: I'm sure that a lot of people up here go fishing. Yes, but... And many of them wear hats. Now, just forget it.

14:45 Speaker 6: Is it okay if I come in?

14:46 Speaker 4: Mike, you don't have to ask.

14:49 Speaker 5: What is it?

14:51 Speaker 6: I thought that Miss Liza would like to know something.

14:54 Speaker 3: Mike, be careful what you say.

14:58 Speaker 6: I wasn't going to say... What is it, Mike? The sheriff, he wanted me to let you know that, well... They found the dog you say you've been hearing.

15:09 Speaker 2: Aw, where was it?

15:12 Speaker 6: It was buried underneath the body of Alicia.

15:17 Speaker 3: Oh, dear God. Did they say what happened?

15:22 Speaker 6: Only that? Well, something was found in its fur.

15:26 Speaker 2: What was found, Mike?

15:29 Speaker 6: I'm sorry, Mr.

15:30 Speaker 1: Redman.

15:31 Speaker 6: I can't lie anymore. I know you paid me a lot, but.

15:36 Speaker 1: Mike!

15:38 Speaker 2: You, Tom, you murderer!

15:41 Speaker 7: Why, Tom?

15:44 Speaker 6: Yes, I killed her.

15:49 Speaker 3: Her and that stupid dog, too.

15:53 Speaker 4: You killed my baby?

15:56 Speaker 3: She was an evil little slut. She said that she was pregnant and that I was the father. She would have ruined me.

16:07 Speaker 2: Do you hear it?

16:09 Speaker 3: Oh, it's just another stupid dog, that's all.

16:13 Speaker 2: No, it's Alicia's dog.

16:15 Speaker 4: I know that howl.

16:19 Speaker 2: It's just a dog. Nothing more.

16:22 Speaker 5: No, it's her dog.

16:24 Speaker 4: And it's coming for you.

16:29 Speaker 2: No.

16:32 Speaker 5: No.

16:32 Speaker 7: Get back.

16:33 Speaker 1: Get back.

16:34 Speaker 2: Get back.

16:34 Speaker 5: Is Mike going to be okay?

16:36 Speaker 7: Yes.

16:36 Speaker 2: Yes.

16:52 Speaker 4: Doc says he should be up and around in about a week.

16:55 Speaker 2: I'm sorry about... Well, it's.

16:58 Speaker 4: Okay, Liza. She's at peace now. But I wonder.

17:02 Speaker 2: Wonder what, Rosa?

17:05 Speaker 7: Did we really see Alicia's dog attack and kill Tom?

17:11 Speaker 2: There weren't any marks on his body. And the coroner said he died of a heart attack.

17:16 Speaker 4: We both saw that dog, Liza.

17:21 Speaker 2: Did we? Did we really?

17:31 Speaker 1: Well, we heard it. At least, I did. And thankfully, I have all of you here to verify it. But that's what you get when you come here. A slightly different take on reality. I'll return in a moment with a final word. Orhan Pamuk once said, Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen. Our cast included Annie Mick, William Stafford, Crimson McKenzie, and Winslow Swan. This story was edited by Crimson McKenzie and directed by Winslow Swan. And now, a preview of our next tale.

18:39 Speaker 5: There. You see? Absolutely nothing is out there. But I swear, I heard someone.

18:47 Speaker 3: Or something.

18:50 Speaker 4: Jack, perhaps we should call the police.

18:55 Speaker 5: Fred, I promised Stan and Dorothy that everything will be fine while they're gone, and I intend to make sure of it.

19:03 Speaker 1: But I could have sworn that.

19:06 Speaker 5: Unless you actually see someone or something, I don't want to be bothered for the rest of the night. Do you understand?

19:16 Speaker 1: This is your host, 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.

19:34 Speaker 2: Epilogue. The butler did it.