TRANSCRIPT OF MSRPB-NEW ENGLAND INTERNAL INTERVIEW

CONDUCTED STARTING MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1970, 01:14 EST, AT PITTSFIELD MA OFFICE.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT.

Regional Director Raymond BARONE: Agent Steinhaus. Agent Eriksen.

Assistant Sub-Regional Director Charles STEINHAUS: Director. Why did you ask to see us?

BARONE: I think we’d all benefit from hearing your report of the events of the night of the thirty-first in person.

STEINHAUS: Acknowledged. When should we start?

BARONE: Give us the background. If we have to send this to Geneva, I don’t want to have to deal with them asking follow-up questions.

Field Agent Richard ERIKSEN: You think it’ll come to that?

BARONE: I don’t know what to think. Maybe I’ll be able to answer if you tell me what happened.

ERIKSEN and STEINHAUS: Yes, sir.

STEINHAUS: At approximately ten P.M. yesterday— 

ERIKSEN: The day before. Look at the clock.

STEINHAUS: [EXPLETIVE DELETED], you’re right.

BARONE: Back on topic, please. I’ve had a very hectic day and I am not interested in making this last longer than it needs to.

ERIKSEN: Sorry.

STEINHAUS: Right. So, ten P.M, October thirty-first, nineteen-seventy. The Pittsfield office received a call from the phone at Bascom Lodge on Mount Greylock.

BARONE: Meaning they called the hotline.

STEINHAUS: Yes. It was a kid, probably fourteen at the oldest. He said he’d been out with some friends and they’d been drinking. Well, he didn’t say it, but he did imply it.

BARONE: Why did that warrant a call?

ERIKSEN: Because of the ghosts.

BARONE: The ghosts?

STEINHAUS: The caller told me that his friends had been telling ghost stories — because it was Halloween — and one of them somehow pulled the ghost from the story another one was telling into reality.

BARONE: So a minor demitheorealization. How did they describe the demitheos?

STEINHAUS: It was supposed to be a British soldier from the Revolution who was tarred and feathered. They said it looked like a tall person covered in, well, tar and feathers, burning and screaming.

ERIKSEN: Even though tarring and feathering wasn’t typically fatal.

STEINHAUS: I don’t expect drunk teenagers to be one hundred percent historically correct, but that’s beside the point right now. He said the ghost was chasing him and his friends, and we said to stay in the lodge and wait for help to come.

BARONE: Following protocol so far, but please maintain proper terminology. Then what?

STEINHAUS: Myself, Agent Eriksen, and… the late Recruit LaPorte… were the only field-certified staff on duty at the time. We got in a van and drove to the mountain as quickly as possible and arrived before eleven thirty P.M. We found the children and secured the lodge, barricading and placing warding runes at the doors. We didn’t think we’d be able to defeat the gh— the demitheos on its own, so we planned to hold out for reinforcements to come in the morning.

ERIKSEN: Which is what we were trained to do.

BARONE: That’s true. You’re still following protocol. What changed?

STEINHAUS: At around maybe one in the morning-

ERIKSEN: I think one, yeah.

BARONE: One o’clock? So you’d been inside the lodge for around an hour and a half?

STEINHAUS: I believe so. At that time, Joe, the one who had realized the demitheos, and who had been unconscious since we arrived, woke up, and said that it— the demitheos in question— was on its way.

BARONE: You said you had put up wards and barricades, though, right?

STEINHAUS: We had. But—

ERIKSEN: Do we have to get into this?

BARONE, STEINHAUS: Yes.

ERIKSEN: The kid—

STEINHAUS: Joe.

ERIKSEN: Whatever. He ran out— said he wanted to stop it. Clean up after himself, that sort of thing.

BARONE: Did you stop him?

STEINHAUS: Wait ‘til you hear this.

ERIKSEN: I tried. He kicked me and I decided it would be better if we help him.

BARONE: So you let a minor with uncontrolled magic leave a warded area— that you knew to be inhabited by a demitheos with unknown ability— in the middle of the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] night by himself?

ERIKSEN: Well, not by himself, I was going to…

BARONE: Shut up.

ERIKSEN: Yes sir.

BARONE: We’re going to discuss your future with this organization after I am finished interviewing you.

ERIKSEN: I was doing what I thought was right.

BARONE: That’s what everyone else says when they [EXPLETIVE DELETED] up as badly as you did, and most of them mean it more than you.

STEINHAUS: So, after he did that, me and Recruit LaPorte followed. Eriksen was behind us. We felt the wards would hold for however long it would take.

BARONE: That’s not an ideal decision, but I understand it.

STEINHAUS: Thank you.

BARONE: Keep going.

STEINHAUS: We followed Joe to the war memorial at the summit. We didn’t see the demitheos, but he said it was coming. Sounded haunted. 

ERIKSEN: Fitting.

STEINHAUS: Shut up. About as soon as he said that, it did appear. I estimate it was around six feet tall, with no distinguishable facial features aside from eyes glowing red. It was covered in black feathers and tar, its hands and feet looked like bird talons, and it smelled like tobacco smoke, for some reason. It was tangible, I think completely solid, and it was shambling as it moved. It made noises that sounded like how English might sound to someone who doesn’t know it. That’s the best description I can come up with, though. I didn’t think to bring a recorder.

BARONE: All right. What did you do?

STEINHAUS: I told Joe to get behind me, and he did. We all had brought with slowing runes, so I deployed mine first, and it largely worked.

BARONE: Largely?

ERIKSEN: The thing was still moving, just slowly.

STEINHAUS: Yes. LaPorte deployed hers as well, and it did stop moving. Eriksen kept his on standby, and we switched to banishing runes — we each had two.

BARONE: Meaning four or six total?

STEINHAUS: Four.

BARONE: Why so few?

STEINHAUS: It’s Pittsfield. It’s been ten years since the last time anyone from our office used a rune in the field. As far as I know, the ones we used are as old as the Bureau itself.

BARONE: What happened when you used them?

STEINHAUS: LaPorte and I each deployed one simultaneously. The demitheos wavered, but Joe said something I didn’t catch—

ERIKSEN: “For king and country,” it sounded like. I guess the ghost musta’ been speaking through him.

STEINHAUS: -and it solidified again, and started moving. I told Eriksen to use his slowing rune, and he did, and it slowed down. I deployed my second banishing rune, which had the same effect. 

BARONE: I see. Did you draw the conclusion I’m drawing now, which is that—

ERIKSEN: I doubt it.

STEINHAUS: If you’re going to suggest that the kid was making the demitheos more powerful, no, but LaPorte did. She told Eriksen to bring him back to the lodge, and he ran off. I watched him for half a [EXPLETIVE DELETED] second, and then suddenly I’m on my [EXPLETIVE DELETED] in the dirt, Eriksen’s running away holding a kid, and LaPorte is standing there, alone, the thing— demitheos, whatever— looming over her. She has a gun, somehow? I don’t know where she got that. She shoots, and it roars, or screams, or something, and I hear another scream from where Eriksen is.

ERIKSEN: The kid again.

STEINHAUS: It lunges at her, and as it’s in midair, she deploys her rune, and they both hit the ground at the same time. There’s some huge flash, then the thing is gone, and she’s…

BARONE: She’s what?

STEINHAUS: Lying there, and she didn’t look like she was breathing. I went over and checked her pulse, and there wasn’t any.

BARONE: I see. What happened then?

STEINHAUS: I— I picked up her body, which was still warm and brought it to the van. I informed Eriksen what had happened. We drove back and moved her to the infirmary here. AS far as I know, that’s where she is still.

BARONE: That is where the body is right now. The warmth, as far as I know, hasn’t gone away.

ERIKSEN: At least you don’t have to worry about paying her for this.

STEINHAUS, BARONE: Excuse me?

ERIKSEN: What? It’s not like you’re gonna fire me twice.

BARONE: Listen very closely, Dick— Agent Eriksen. I have been awake for about twenty-four hours straight. I have been trying to deal with compensation and slash or magical training for a group of traumatized teenage boys, and their parents, and trying to figure out exactly what happened to traumatize them, and you are making jokes. You think this is funny, and meanwhile I am trying to figure out how to tell Henri LaPorte, who has his name on the library at the headquarters in Geneva, that two of my agents let his twenty-year old daughter, who joined specifically despite his wishes, fight a demitheos by herself and die.

Medical Researcher Doctor Bela SIMKOVA [over intercom]: Director Barone?

BARONE: Doctor Simkova. I assume you’re disturbing a private interview for a good reason?

SIMKOVA: Yes. I’m sorry, but this is important. The agent whose body you asked me to look into is alive.

STEINHAUS, BARONE: What?

SIMKOVA: She’s panicking, but her heart is beating, and she’s breathing. 

BARONE: Get her in here as soon as she calms down!

SIMKOVA: Yes, sir.

RECORDING PAUSED FOR THIRTEEN MINUTES AND SIX SECONDS. ERIKSEN LEAVES DURING THIS TIME — REMOVED FROM POSITION THE NEXT DAY.

BARONE: Agent LaPorte.

Junior Field Agent Amelie LAPORTE: Yes, sir?

BARONE: We have the story up to your presumed demise. What do you remember?

LAPORTE: Well. Um. So, I threw down my banishing rune— deployed, sorry— and all I saw for a second was a bright flash. I could feel myself falling, but I couldn’t see anything. At that point,  I wasn’t even sure if my eyes were open.

BARONE: Falling?

LAPORTE: It didn’t seem too fast. I guess sinking is the right word-my skin wasn’t wet, but the air felt like a liquid.

BARONE: What conclusion did you draw?

LAPORTE: It fit with what I had heard about the Betwixt, so I figured it was that.

STEINHAUS: Good.

BARONE: You made the call I would have.

LAPORTE: Good. So, then, I opened my eyes and it was, well, [pauses] none of the descriptions I’ve ever heard can compare. It was like if you put chalk in a puddle, but it was wool, and stars at the same time. I think I heard music, and it was like if the Beatles got back together with Mozart as the fifth member and featuring Jimi Hendrix on guitar.

STEINHAUS: The Universal Music… I hear it as more like a church organ attached to a saxophone.

BARONE: I’m sure our various interpretations of the Universal Music would be a fascinating subject for a research paper after Agent LaPorte gives her report.

STEINHAUS: Right, sorry.

LAPORTE: It felt like multiple hours passed with nothing happening. I was drifting, still, but somehow I could tell I was standing.

STEINHAUS: Paradox ground. Right?

BARONE: You know more about the Betwixt than I do, but yes, I think so.

LAPORTE: Yeah, [pauses] that’s probably what it was. Sure felt like it. Um, throughout the whole time, I couldn’t see the ghost— demitheos, sorry. I assumed it was gone, but then it jumped on me out of nowhere. Something was wrong with it, though— it looked like it was on fire-fully, not like before where it just looked a bit like it had been burned. The fire looked exactly like the clouds making up the rest of the Betwixt, and it seemed cold, or at least not exceptionally warm.

STEINHAUS: Interesting.

BARONE: Indeed. What next?

LAPORTE: Obviously, having just been ambushed, all I could think of was to fight back. I tried to throw the thing off, and I could tell it was trying to claw at me, but it wasn’t doing anything. I didn’t throw it far, but I did manage to get it off of me. The fire grew, and it looked like a pencil drawing being erased.

STEINHAUS: A creature made from thoughts disintegrating back into the Betwixt. We’d theorized about that.

BARONE: Accurate. What then?

LAPORTE: Well, I was alone, now. I almost felt like I was dissolving, but I realized I was imagining it.

STEINHAUS: Well—

BARONE: You didn’t dissolve. If that’s because you weren’t dissolving in the first place, or because you stopped yourself by deciding not to, it doesn’t matter. Continue.

LAPORTE: Well, I thought for a while I was just stuck there, by myself. I did see, I guess, chunks of rock floating by me, but none of them were close enough to me for me to try to get over to them. Except-

BARONE: You’re hesitating.

LAPORTE: Um. Sir, can you remind me of the first paragraph of the chapter in the handbook that’s called something like “Unknown Supernatural Entity Encounter, Sentient?”

BARONE: “Do not agree to any bargain a supernatural entity offers to make with you?”

LAPORTE: That. Well, I broke that.

STEINHAUS: You what?

BARONE: This is— What, exactly, did you promise?

LAPORTE: A favor, to be rendered at a time no sooner than one year from now, in exchange for being returned to life now.

STEINHAUS: Which might include possession of your soul as soon as you die.

BARONE: You effectively sold your soul. What am I going to tell your father?

LAPORTE: Ideally, nothing. The being claimed to be a member of a group called the Archive Infernal.

STEINHAUS: I’ve heard of them, but I don’t know anything about what they do.

LAPORTE: I have a plan, though!

BARONE: If your plan is “not dying,” I don’t want to hear it.

LAPORTE: Worse.

BARONE: Oh, lord.

LAPORTE: I will sell my soul to someone else!

BARONE: What, exactly, does that accomplish?

LAPORTE: Well, then I’ll do it a third time. It will, at worst, cause conflict and I’ll be in a position to bargain for what ends up happening when I die. Assuming there actually is an afterlife. I’m not convinced.

BARONE: That is incredibly dangerous.

STEINHAUS: But she’s already effectively sold her soul.

BARONE: You think it could be like one of those finger traps?

STEINHAUS: I think so. I hope so.

BARONE: Agent LaPorte.

LAPORTE: Yes, sir?

BARONE: You put yourself in a very precarious position here, and I’m not happy about it, but it’s also good that you survived, and I, and the Bureau as a whole, have a vested interest in maintaining that. If you’d consent, and I’ll get some paperwork printed off about it, we’d be willing to run experiments to try to get you released from your bargain.

LAPORTE: Thank you. I—

STEINHAUS: You did also un-manifest the demitheos, which I couldn’t do.

BARONE: Keep doing that, and if your plan works out… I could see you ending up director, eventually.

LAPORTE: You— really?

BARONE: I think so.

STEINHAUS: I agree.

BARONE: Try to stay alive until then, though.

LAPORTE: I’ll do my best.

END TRANSCRIPT.

THE FOLLOWING SECTION WAS EXCISED AT THE TIME OF RECORDING. THIS TRANSCRIPTION WAS ADDED 1994 FOLLOWING DISCOVERY OF THE TAPE. DO NOT SHARE WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION FROM PERSONNEL WITH RANK SUB-REGIONAL DIRECTOR OR ABOVE.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT.

LAPORTE: Do you remember how, when you first hired me, you said that you’d tell me about Roswell “over my dead body?”

BARONE: I do.

LAPORTE: Well, I technically died, didn’t I?

BARONE: That’s supposed to be classified. But, I guess you’ll probably need to learn this eventually anyway.

LAPORTE: So? Was it aliens?

BARONE: What, specifically, are you asking?

LAPORTE: Was the “weather balloon” actually a flying saucer?

BARONE: No, but the U.S. government won’t tell us what it is.

LAPORTE: Well, then, how can you say with so much certainty that it wasn’t a flying saucer?

BARONE: Because I’ve spoken to the aliens that shot it down, and they say it wasn’t theirs.

END TRANSCRIPT.

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