A Witch's Talisman & Buried Truths: "The Amulet" (Psychological Thriller)

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. American religious leader Thomas Monson once said, The past is behind. Learn from it. The future is ahead. Prepare for it. The present is here. Live it.

1:13 Speaker 2: What happened that night?

1:15 Speaker 3: There was another figure in the room.

1:17 Speaker 1: In the darkness. Waiting.

1:22 Speaker 4: When your father came in to help me, That figure leaped out and stabbed him in the back.

1:30 Speaker 2: And did you see who it was?

1:33 Speaker 1: Yes, I did.

1:34 Speaker 3: And I ran away.

1:37 Speaker 4: I was caught and convicted for the murder of your father, Joe, ten years ago.

1:46 Speaker 3: Which is why I have come back from the grave.

2:01 Speaker 1: Our mystery drama, The Amulet, was written especially for Doorway to Nightmare by Winslow Swan and edited by Crimson McKenzie. Our cast includes Annie Mick, Crimson McKenzie, Mick Davis, and Winslow Swan. I'll return shortly with Act One.

2:23 Speaker 2: It is in all of us.

2:25 Speaker 1: Waiting.

2:27 Speaker 2: Watching.

2:28 Speaker 1: Growing.

2:30 Speaker 2: Evil Within by Winslow Swan. Now available on Amazon.

2:51 Speaker 1: Albert Einstein once said, Learn from yesterday, live for today. hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning. I try to live by that statement. However, I find that some questions should not be answered.

3:26 Speaker 5: Joan, is that you?

3:28 Speaker 2: Yes. Yes, Mother, it is. Do you know what time it is?

3:35 Speaker 5: I've been worried sick.

3:37 Speaker 2: Have you? Have you, Mother? Have you really? And was my stepfather worried too?

3:46 Speaker 5: Yes, of course he was. Mark is still awake. Here, let me take your coat. It soaks through.

3:54 Speaker 2: Don't do that! Don't you touch me.

3:57 Speaker 5: Joan, darling. I was simply trying to help, dear.

4:01 Speaker 2: You're always trying to help me.

4:04 Speaker 6: I can't stand having you hovering over me all the time.

4:08 Speaker 5: I was only trying to help you.

4:12 Speaker 6: You're always trying to just help me. Why didn't you help me when you married that man upstairs?

4:23 Speaker 1: Oh, no.

4:25 Speaker 2: You're such a pretty woman. Mother, such a pretty woman.

4:30 Speaker 6: You couldn't possibly be without a husband.

4:34 Speaker 2: What would the social media have to say about that? Joan, stop it.

4:39 Speaker 5: You can't go on like this.

4:41 Speaker 2: No, I can't.

4:44 Speaker 6: I can't go on much longer without destroying myself.

4:48 Speaker 5: You mustn't say such things.

4:50 Speaker 7: Then why not?

4:53 Speaker 6: It would make you and Mark very happy if I should die.

4:59 Speaker 5: Now you know that isn't true.

5:02 Speaker 6: No one in this house wants me to go on living.

5:05 Speaker 1: Just what do you mean, Joan?

5:08 Speaker 2: Mark, I didn't know you were here. You heard?

5:14 Speaker 5: Mark, she didn't mean it. She didn't mean a word of it.

5:19 Speaker 2: Yes, I did, Mother. I meant every word.

5:23 Speaker 6: And now that you're both here, there's something that I must find out tonight.

5:31 Speaker 2: It's very important. What is it?

5:36 Speaker 6: Ten years ago tonight, my father died.

5:44 Speaker 5: Joan, we can't discuss that now.

5:47 Speaker 2: We have to.

5:49 Speaker 6: There's certain things I have to know.

5:53 Speaker 7: Martha, I have put up with the hysterics long enough. Let's just get this over with.

6:01 Speaker 1: All right, Joan.

6:02 Speaker 7: What certain things must you know tonight?

6:09 Speaker 6: I have to know how. How did my father die?

6:13 Speaker 5: But we've already told you. It was simply an accident.

6:18 Speaker 2: No, Mother, it wasn't. I was only eight years old.

6:23 Speaker 5: But even then, I knew.

6:26 Speaker 2: I knew it wasn't just an accident.

6:32 Speaker 7: Martha, I don't know what to do anymore. Perhaps we should call Dr. Ames in the morning.

6:38 Speaker 2: I've already spoken with Dr.

6:39 Speaker 6: Ames.

6:40 Speaker 5: You have?

6:42 Speaker 1: Yes.

6:44 Speaker 2: I've been seeing him.

6:45 Speaker 5: For several weeks now.

6:46 Speaker 2: Forget it, Martha.

6:50 Speaker 1: I'm going to bed.

6:52 Speaker 7: I suggest you do likewise, Joan.

6:57 Speaker 5: Please try to understand, Joan. Mark is only doing his best for both of us.

7:06 Speaker 6: Are you so sure, Mother? Ten years ago, in this very house, my father, Dr. Brainerd Hughes, died. And I have to find out what happened on that night. I was only a child, but I saw something. She said, told me to look deep into the crystal amulet. Let my mind go.

7:52 Speaker 2: And feel myself fall into the nothingness.

7:59 Speaker 5: Joan, what are you doing?

8:02 Speaker 2: I'm concentrating, Mother. I'm letting my mind fall into this.

8:15 Speaker 2: What is it?

8:17 Speaker 5: An amulet? Where did you get it?

8:21 Speaker 2: From that curio shop in town. You know, the one that's owned by.

8:27 Speaker 6: By a witch.

8:29 Speaker 5: And what are you going to do with it?

8:32 Speaker 2: I told you, Mother. I'm going to find out what happened that night. Ten years ago. This amulet. It'll bring back the dead.

8:46 Speaker 5: Joan, you can't mean it.

8:49 Speaker 7: Yes.

8:49 Speaker 2: Yes. Yes, Mother. Bring back the dead.

8:56 Speaker 6: I'm bringing back my father.

8:59 Speaker 2: He will tell me the truth.

9:01 Speaker 5: But that isn't possible. The dead can't come back.

9:06 Speaker 2: Then it won't hurt to try, will it? Or are you afraid of what he might say?

9:26 Speaker 1: Charlotte Bronte once said, what necessity is there to dwell on the past when the present is so much surer and the future so much brighter? I'll be back with Act 2 shortly.

9:45 Speaker 3: There, underneath your bed, there is some thing and it's waiting. waiting for another story. No one is afraid of monsters anymore. And other stories to read to the thing under the bed. By Winslow Swan. Paperback editions available at Amazon.com. Audiobook edition available at Spotify. Eight terrifying tales for you to enjoy and to read to the thing under your bed. Get it before the thing gets you.

10:41 Speaker 1: It is late in the evening as a storm rages outside the mansion. Joan sits at the fireplace looking deep into the amulet, waiting for something to happen.

11:25 Speaker 6: The electric has gone off due to the storm. The only light is from the fireplace. The firelight makes such strange colors in the crystal.

11:39 Speaker 2: I feel my mind beginning to wander. What was that? The thunder? The storm outside? No! Someone.

11:51 Speaker 6: Someone is coming!

12:01 Speaker 1: Don't scream.

12:03 Speaker 6: Who?

12:05 Speaker 2: Who are you?

12:06 Speaker 1: Hello, Joan.

12:08 Speaker 2: You know me?

12:11 Speaker 1: I did.

12:13 Speaker 3: Ten years ago, how strange this house has become. As if something deep inside of it has begun to rot and decay.

12:29 Speaker 2: Why is the amulet glowing a deep red? Where did you come from?

12:36 Speaker 3: Tell me, how do I appear to you? What do I look like?

12:52 Speaker 2: Half white, long flowing hair. A white beard. But your eyes. They're... They look.

13:05 Speaker 3: As if they were the eyes of a corpse. Dead eyes.

13:11 Speaker 2: Yes.

13:12 Speaker 3: That I look like more of a dead man than a living one. Where is your mother?

13:21 Speaker 2: Upstairs in their bedroom.

13:24 Speaker 3: And the man that she married?

13:27 Speaker 2: Yes. He is too.

13:29 Speaker 6: Did.

13:30 Speaker 2: Did you know my father?

13:33 Speaker 1: Oh, yes. Very well.

13:36 Speaker 4: He was trying to help me. I had been living on the streets when he took me in.

13:42 Speaker 3: They... They called me a. A madman. But your father. He saw something different. He tried to help me.

13:59 Speaker 6: Ow!

14:01 Speaker 5: Why is this.

14:01 Speaker 2: Thing glowing red hot? How did my father die?

14:06 Speaker 1: He was murdered.

14:08 Speaker 3: And I? I was convicted of the crime.

14:14 Speaker 2: But what happened?

14:18 Speaker 4: I was staying in the guest house when your father came to see me that night. But there was someone else in the house, hiding in the shadows. When your father came in, he was stabbed to death. I was so frightened that.

14:40 Speaker 1: I ran away.

14:41 Speaker 3: I was caught and convicted of his murder. But I was innocent.

14:51 Speaker 2: Then you must be.

14:53 Speaker 3: David.

14:55 Speaker 2: David Pierce. I remember you.

14:59 Speaker 1: Yes, I am.

15:01 Speaker 3: Do you remember anything else, Joan?

15:05 Speaker 2: I'm not sure. But you must tell me who killed my father.

15:12 Speaker 3: But you should already know.

15:14 Speaker 1: You were there as well.

15:33 Speaker 5: Joan, are you all right? We heard you talking.

15:38 Speaker 1: Yes, Joan. Who were you talking to?

15:43 Speaker 2: I was talking with... David. David Pierce.

15:49 Speaker 7: Now look here. I've had just enough with your lies.

15:53 Speaker 6: But he was here.

15:54 Speaker 2: The amulet brought him here. He told me... He told me that I knew who murdered my father.

16:04 Speaker 6: Murder?

16:06 Speaker 5: Who said anything about a murder?

16:09 Speaker 2: But it's true, isn't it?

16:12 Speaker 7: All right, Joan, yes, it's true. But it was David Pierce who killed him. And how he managed to get here is beyond me.

16:20 Speaker 2: Why do you say that, Mark?

16:22 Speaker 7: Because he is locked up in the state asylum for the criminally insane. Has been for ten years now. Unless he's escaped.

16:31 Speaker 6: But he didn't do it, Mark. The amulet showed me. There was someone else in that room. Someone else who murdered my father.

16:42 Speaker 7: Martha, are you just going to stand there and not say anything?

16:47 Speaker 1: Why are you looking at me that way?

16:49 Speaker 5: I was only remembering something, Mark. Something that I haven't thought about in a long time.

16:57 Speaker 7: And what is that?

16:58 Speaker 5: Two days before the murder... You told me you loved me. I told you to never come to this house again.

17:06 Speaker 1: So?

17:08 Speaker 5: I saw you that night, standing by the front gate. You told the police you had been home all evening.

17:16 Speaker 2: Mark, did you kill my father?

17:21 Speaker 7: Of course not. David Pierce did. And that is the end of it. I'm calling the asylum.

17:28 Speaker 2: If he was here.

17:29 Speaker 7: That means the police should be looking for him.

17:35 Speaker 5: What else did David tell you?

17:37 Speaker 6: That he was bringing my father back. And by the glow of the amulet.

17:44 Speaker 2: He will show me who killed him.

18:00 Speaker 1: American screenwriter Samuel Hoppenstein once wrote, The dead they sleep a long, long sleep. The dead they rest, and their rest is deep. The dead have peace, but the living weep.

18:21 Speaker 1: I'll return shortly with Act 3.

18:24 Speaker 2: Mystery.

18:26 Speaker 6: Horror.

18:27 Speaker 2: Thriller. Suspense. Novels and short story collections from Winslow Swann, now available from Amazon.

18:51 Speaker 1: The Poet William Blake wrote, Every night and every morn, some to misery are born. Every morn and every night, some are born to sweet delight. Some are born to endless night.

19:26 Speaker 7: And that settles that. I've just talked to the ward.

19:30 Speaker 5: And did David escape?

19:32 Speaker 7: David Pierce died in a fire two years ago. So you see, Joan is making the whole thing up.

19:40 Speaker 2: No!

19:41 Speaker 5: How would I know what happened?

19:43 Speaker 7: And how did you talk to someone who is dead?

19:47 Speaker 2: It was this ambulance. It called out to David.

19:52 Speaker 5: And brought him here.

19:54 Speaker 7: Then call him again.

19:55 Speaker 1: Or can't you do it?

19:59 Speaker 6: You're just trying to make me lose my mind.

20:02 Speaker 7: Then call him. Use your magic amulet. Tell David Pierce to appear.

20:09 Speaker 5: Stop it.

20:10 Speaker 2: Both of you.

20:11 Speaker 6: Please, Martha.

20:12 Speaker 2: Let me handle this. Just a thunder, Mother.

20:30 Speaker 1: Hello, Martha. Good to see you again. You?

20:34 Speaker 2: But....

20:37 Speaker 5: Mark just told us.

20:39 Speaker 7: How did you get here?

20:41 Speaker 3: I thought Joan told you. But didn't you tell them, Joan?

20:46 Speaker 2: Yes, I did.

20:49 Speaker 3: And I've brought your father with me. I'm afraid that you won't be able to see or hear him.

20:57 Speaker 2: Then how will he tell us who murdered him?

21:01 Speaker 1: Joan.

21:04 Speaker 5: Make him go away.

21:05 Speaker 7: Don't get hysterical, Martha. Obviously, David escaped two years ago when a fire broke out. They simply identified the wrong body.

21:13 Speaker 3: Are you sure, Mark?

21:16 Speaker 2: Who killed him, David? Who killed my father?

21:22 Speaker 3: You already know, Joan.

21:25 Speaker 1: Remember?

21:26 Speaker 3: You were there, standing in the doorway.

21:29 Speaker 1: You saw the whole thing, right?

21:36 Speaker 2: Why can't I remember?

21:40 Speaker 4: Because the killer had such a control over you, they made you forget.

21:47 Speaker 3: But your father is here now. Look into the amulet and remember.

21:55 Speaker 5: Joan, I demand you stop this at once.

21:59 Speaker 2: No, Mother.

22:00 Speaker 6: Not tonight.

22:02 Speaker 5: You always demand.

22:05 Speaker 2: Don't you? You're always hovering over me. Always telling me what to do. It was you.

22:18 Speaker 5: You killed him.

22:20 Speaker 1: Joan, no.

22:22 Speaker 2: Followed you out to that guest house. I saw you hide and I thought you were playing a game.

22:28 Speaker 6: I saw you punch the knife into my father's back.

22:32 Speaker 5: No, it isn't true.

22:35 Speaker 2: It's too late, Martha.

22:37 Speaker 7: She knows. I've tried to protect you for ten years.

22:40 Speaker 6: No!

22:42 Speaker 1: I saw you with the knife. The blood on your dress.

22:48 Speaker 2: You convinced me. I was only imagining... whole thing.

22:55 Speaker 3: And now your husband wants his retribution.

23:00 Speaker 2: Daddy?

23:05 Speaker 6: Look out!

23:06 Speaker 7: That norm from the fireplace flew out and hit Martha. The whole place is on fire.

23:10 Speaker 1: Quick, Joe!

23:11 Speaker 2: Run!

23:12 Speaker 4: Run!

23:20 Speaker 1: Are you All right, Joan.

23:23 Speaker 2: Did they find my mother?

23:25 Speaker 1: Yes.

23:26 Speaker 7: She burned alive. Funny thing is, they didn't find anyone else. I suppose David Pierce escaped, too.

23:35 Speaker 2: But how? He was trapped just as his mother was.

23:39 Speaker 7: Now, Joan, you know that the dead can't come back.

23:43 Speaker 2: Are you so sure?

23:50 Speaker 1: Joan holds on to the amulet tightly in her hands. She smiles up at Mark, who only shakes his head.

24:02 Speaker 1: You stick around and hold on when I return shortly with a final word.

24:07 Speaker 2: If you'd like to support us, visit our merchandise store. T-shirts, caps, mugs, and so much more. Visit doorwaytonightmare.com today.

24:38 Speaker 1: In 1962, Alfred Hitchcock introduced Ghost Stories for Young People, an album that is available today. The stories were written and narrated by actor John Allen, the first being The Haunted and the Haunters, or The Pirate's Curse. In this story, the main character finds a letter in a drawer. I quote from the story. There is nothing against you, unless the dead can come to life. In a shaky female hand had been written, they can. Our cast included Annie Mick, Winslow Swan, Mick Davis, and Crimson McKenzie.

25:28 Speaker 1: The story was edited by Crimson McKenzie and directed by Winslow Swan. Doorway to Nightmare is brought to you in part by Swanage Press.

25:41 Speaker 1: And now, a preview of our next tale.

25:49 Speaker 3: But I saw it, Martin. There.

25:54 Speaker 1: In the dark.

25:55 Speaker 2: Just there.

25:57 Speaker 3: Floating in the air.

25:58 Speaker 2: I swear... it was no dream.

26:04 Speaker 1: Edgar!

26:05 Speaker 4: You need to get a hold of yourself.

26:07 Speaker 1: It was only a nightmare. Nothing more than that. No, no, it wasn't a dream.

26:15 Speaker 2: I saw.

26:17 Speaker 1: Oh, God help me.

26:19 Speaker 3: I saw that grin, Berenice.

26:23 Speaker 2: Those blood-red lips... stretched.

26:27 Speaker 3: Around her teeth, floating in the darkness.

26:33 Speaker 2: Ha ha ha!

26:46 Speaker 1: This is Artemis Black, inviting you to return with us through the doorway to nightmare for another adventure into the terrifying world of your imagination. Until next time, slumber peacefully.

27:05 Speaker 2: Epilogue. That butler did it. The butler didn't do it!