Patrick, the thing you and Jason need to realize from the start is that I don’t know a lot about the Nightlands. Not really. Part of what I know comes from what me and Martin experienced over the years of doing the heart mask rituals. Some of it comes from being connected to an extensive network of people fascinated with occult knowledge and practice. And there are tidbits of information that were gained as a side effect of us learning more about the House of the Claw and its beliefs.
It may actually be easiest to start there, as that information is the sparsest and the least reliable, both because it is second or third-hand information about a deranged cult’s belief system and because what I know about the House of the Claw, even after our efforts to learn as much as we could since we were abducted all those years ago, doesn’t amount to very much.
The House of the Claw believes that the soul is comprised of three parts. The part you have while you’re alive in this world, they call that the terrestrial soul. There is another part, in their idea of Heaven, called the key soul or the pure soul. The third part, they call that the night soul.
These people that can turn into monsters? These things that you hunt? The House practically worships them. They see them as spiritually evolved beings that have reclaimed their night soul. This is a big deal to them, because the House believes that to be complete, you have to spiritually evolve to the point that you can gain access to your night soul. Once you’ve done that, you no longer have to be reincarnated and can die a final time, going into an afterlife where you get your key soul and are made whole.
Sounds like a nice little religion, right? Except according to the House, you can only obtain your night soul through experiencing violence, death, and great pain through one or many lives. They see these monsters, these Ascendants, as heroes that are actually helping people through all the terrible things they do. And the House of the Claw see themselves as martyrs willing to sacrifice everything to further the spiritual evolution of the human race.
Obviously, a lot of this is crazy bullshit, but like so many things, there are bits of truth in there too. For example, the monsters clearly exist. And they have to come from somewhere, right? The somewhere is the Nightlands.
Martin and I are…we were…especially gifted at viewing things in the Nightlands through the heart mask ritual. Where most people only get a few images or a few seconds of peeking into that other place, we were able to both see and hear like we were there, often for minutes or up to an hour at a time. As we practiced, we were even able to sometimes control where the vision took us in the Nightlands and what we saw.
Understanding how important all of this was, we took detailed notes of everything. Tried to develop a sense of what and where that other world is. When we’re done talking, I’ve got a USB drive with a copy of all that I’m going to give you as well, and you can draw your own conclusions from what we learned.
But for now, I’ll tell you what I believe based on everything I’ve experienced and learned from sources I actually trust.
The Nightlands is not another world or dimension, at least not like you might think of it. It is actually one of seven prime Realms. I understand that, on its face, that may seem like a small or meaningless distinction, but I can assure you it is not. Another planet or dimension is going to be governed by certain rules, right? Physics, time, the sun sets in the east or whatever. Even a very chaotic dimension is governed by rules of the larger universe it is a part of, even if those rules seem inconsistent or sometimes absent.
The Realms are different. They are outside normal reality, and the only rules they follow are those defined by the Realm itself. These places could be described as both infinite and eternal, and while they frequently change, they are always…well, they are always. I don’t know if its possible for them to not exist.
I know much less about the other Realms. I know that Hell—which yes, it is a real place—is one of them. I have heard mention of two others, The Kingdom of Dust and The Void, but I know little about either of them, and what I have heard is not good.
I say all that to give you context for what I’m about to say. The Nightlands are very real and very important, even if I don’t really understand how. They are a primary part of how everything works, like light or gravity, and I can tell you from my time seeing them that they are a wonderful and terrifying place.
But it’s a mistake to look at the Nightlands as a single, unified place. A piece of land, or even an entire planet. It doesn’t work like that. It’s more like a Rubik’s cube. If you’re looking into the Nightlands, you may be on a dirt path under a green sun. If you can move yourself like I can when I’m doing a viewing there, you might travel that path for five minutes and then realize you’re suddenly in the middle of an abandoned city. You may turn a corner to head down an alley in that city and find yourself in a night-time ocean.
That’s one…one of several reasons…why, as much as I love the Nightlands from a distance, I’ve never really wanted to go there in my heart of hearts. It’s very hard to navigate, particularly because these endless slices of a billion worlds don’t stay still relative to each other. That same alley that took you to the ocean? The next time it might take you to a desert or a cave. Or it might just be an alley.
Because the size of these places change. The way time works changes. I’ve been seeing into the Nightlands for most of my life, and I still always feel like I’m looking into some elaborate clockwork that I can’t begin to truly understand. And that is just the land itself. There are also its inhabitants.
The Nightlands, in all its many forms, is far from a barren place. To the contrary, it’s teeming with life. There are all kinds of plants and animals, and some places have vast cities that are inhabited by one form of people or another. In many ways, it is like some kind of fairy tale land. The problem with that is fairy tales are full of hidden dangers and deadly monsters.
I think the House of the Claw is right. Based on our research and observation, it seems that the monsters we see here are coming from the Nightlands. I’ve actually heard accounts of people seeing the human form of an “Ascendant” sleeping in the Nightlands when the monster version of the person was over here. Maybe they swap places, I don’t know.
What I know for sure is that they aren’t the only, or even the most dangerous, things in that place. I’ve seen things…well, I’ve seen and heard a lot, I guess. Enough to know that its connected to the work you’re doing, and enough to know that after this, I’m done with it.
Martin and I…we trusted the wrong person. His name was Josh. He killed my brother, but it feels like he killed part of me too. The best part of me. And he did it all to get to the Nightlands—a place he didn’t really understand or fully appreciate.
I don’t know what has happened to him now, but I managed to find him once using the heart mask. This was shortly after I called you, Jason, and before I began making my way here. I knew it was a bad idea, but I think I wanted to find him being hunted by some creature or starving on some frozen peak. I wanted to see him suffer for what he had done.
What I saw may have been worse than anything I could have imagined for him. He was being drug by…well, I don’t know how to describe those things…but he was being drug to an enormous red building, a manor I guess you’d call it. And I knew right away where he was.
There are several very powerful beings in the Nightlands. One of them is called the Baron. I get the impression that he or she or it is relatively new—new as in centuries versus millennia, if you want to try and apply those kinds of terms to a place without normal time—but the Baron has gained control of a significant portion of the Nightlands, and it is not known for being a lenient ruler.
When I saw the man who killed Martin, he was being drug into the Baron’s home. After that, I…
I stopped talking as I felt a sudden change in air pressure followed by several strangers seeming to appear out of thin air in the hallway of what Jason called “the Batcave”. He was already up as the men came through the door, three of them wearing bulletproof vests and carrying automatic rifles. The fourth was an older, heavyset man carrying an exhausted-looking girl in his arms. It should have softened his appearance, but the look of barely restrained rage on his face dispelled any idea that he might have good intentions, and this was only confirmed when he spoke.
“Hi there. I’m Jimmy, and we’re here to collect you in the name of the House of the Claw. You can come peacefully or you can resist.” He looked between Jason and Dr. Barron before his eyes landed on me. “Please resist. I’ve got my orders, but I’d love to burn you all to death the way you did my little girl. I really fucking would.”
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