Collateral Damage, Part Five: The King Clash Key / The Body / The Langoliers

     Mateo receives the envelope.  Inside are two maps, a blank white page with "The Ritual of CHUD" written at the top and a hand written letter addressed to Mateo.   The first map was a topographical map of Albion,  the second a hand drawn map of "Derry". Derry being one of the fictional trilogy towns invented by Stephen King (Castle Rock and Jerusalem's Lot being the other two).  Several of King's stories and novels take place in Derry.  The letter, which started with the words, "Dear Mateo, I took your daughter into the Dark Tower" was not exactly what it appeared. 

The full letter was hand written in pleasant script and read:

Dear Mateao,

     I took your daughter into the Dark Tower.

     She took a bath with the Prince.

     She said, “Rapunzel Rapunzel Wherefore Art Thou, Rapunzel”.

     She likes Dragons. And Eyes. And Rumpelstiltskin. And Harry Potter.

     I took your daughter down memory lane.

     We had Cherry Soda.  And Rose Boozy Milk Shakes.  And Dark, Dark  Strawberry Water.

     And then, Three Streets.  Four Steps.  Midnight.  Half Past.  Dark.  Light.  Project Blue. Run.

     I took your daughter to a place where animals feed.

     Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet.

     Black.                                    - P

     Then, at the bottom of the page written in a second hand, with a different tone, was the phrase, "BEEP BEEP Mateo! They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too".  The second phrase had a John Hancock of, "P" but, again, the hand writing was different from that of the letter. 

     The PC's speculated much about the letter, recognizing several phrases and ideas from King novels as well as they, "ROYGBIV" rainbow reference. No one was sure what the "Ritual of CHUD" was. Mateo's daughter, Brigitta, was fine.  She was back at the office with Mr. Rush. 

     Mr. Rush had had enough.  He wanted out of the city.  Stephen King nightmares were popping up all over NYC including a mysterious "flu".  Mr. Rush was terrified that the super bug from The Stand was about to wipe out all humanity.  He wanted out of NYC and he wanted everyone safe.  He made plans to get everyone to safety.  Or at the very least, out of NYC. 

     While this is happening Sam reads the obituary for Freddy Foswell, aka, Foxbat. After several years of hospice care he died in his sleep. His final Tweet, "Hi kids. Final issue. Last page."  Sam and Mateo head to the hospice that was taking care of him but the nurse who looked after Foswell was gone.  They were allowed to enter the hospice apartment and Sam found a cache of Foxbat ping pong balls, his gun and one of his costumes.  They took everything.

     Also, the tattoo shop where Miranda got her tattoos has closed up shop.  Their social media sites are thank their patrons for years of business but they have decided to move on to "previous careers"

     Punchinello sends Jade a nasty post card with Punch and Judy related death threats.  She crumples it up and throws it away she later pulls it out and compares the writing on the letter to the writing on the post card.  It looks similar.  But Miranda points out that the writing looks similar to her penmanship too.  And she points out the weird Dark Half connection which makes everyone wonder (again) if Miranda has an evil twin out there.

      The PC's begin to make plans to get out of the city but before they do Miranda goes missing.  Sam picks up her trail and finds security footage of her booked on a flight to Albion. Mr. Rush asks Sam and Mateo to go after her while he plans to go to L.A. and make sure his wife is safe.  PC's hire Kirby to look after Mr. Rush. Attempts to contact Miranda via social media and TM go nowhere although Sam is able to track down a suspicious Facebook account for "Victoria Beaumont".  Victoria is friends with Miranda and "Beaumont" is the last name of the lead character in King's, "The Dark Half". Sam hacks her account and finds typical chatter between Victoria and her Millennial friends. The conversations between Victoria and Miranda are odd only that they are never online at the exact same time.   Jason, using Miranda's hacked FB account attempts a FB messenger exchange with Victoria that goes like this:

     Jason (as Miranda):  What are you up to?

     Victoria:  Nothing.  What's up?

     J (M):  Where are you?

     Victoria:  What are you drunk? (Victoria goes offline).

     No further messages happen.  Mateo speculates, correctly, that if they are both the same person then having Miranda ask Victoria where she was was a give away and Victoria bailed on the conversation.

     Oddly, while all of this is happening Jason's phone goes missing.  He's sure it was taken from his room while he was sleeping.  He gets a new phone and downloads his back up information from cloud.  But still ... the missing phone is odd.

     Everything goes according to plan.  Kirby gets Mr. Rush out of NYC and off to L.A.  The PC's book flight to Albion but they are about twelve hours behind Miranda's flight.  And so the PC's end up on a red-eye flight from NYC to Albion. 

     And then Sam wakes up.  He's on the plane.  It's quiet.  He looks around.  Not many people.  He wonders where everyone went but quickly deduces that everyone who was sleeping at the time "something" happened is still on the plane.  Everyone else who was awake, vanished.   He wakes up a few other sleeping people.  Mateo.  Jason.  Mateo's nanny.  Brigitta.   And also:

Captain Brian Engle, an off duty airline pilot on his way out of NYC after his ex-wife had died in a fire. He's trying to put the past behind him and he's off to a new life in Albion.  He is qualified to fly the plane and is able to take off and land it safely.

Dinah Catherine Bellman, a blind girl on her way to Albion to have a surgery to help restore her eyesight. She seems to be a very light psychic.  She is strong willed and seems to know a lot more of what's going on than anyone else.

Craig Toomey, a broker working for a big dollar company who is psychologically unsound. Craig believes the others to be manifestations of the Langoliers, monsters he feared as a child that go after those who are lazy and waste time.

Bob Jenkins, a former military man turned mystery writer with a strong ability for deduction. Angers quickly but eventually makes reasonable choices.

     After the initial shock and awe of waking up on a plane alone Sam gets Captain Engle into the cockpit to take the plane off autopilot and fly.   Jason blurts out that this is another Stephen King story called, "The Langoliers" and that he should have known better.  The mention of "The Langoliers" upsets Craig Toomey.  He mentions he used to dream about the Langoliers and knows them to be monsters out of time. 

     The PC's dig down into the bowels of the plane and get all of their belongings including Foxbats gear.  The costume goes on Brigitta's nanny and she uses it to hold and shield Brigitta from any harm.  Bob gets Foxbat's ping pong ball gun. 

     Eventually, as things are settling, Sam notices that Craig is sitting next to Dinah and is whispering bad things to her.  He has become convinced they are all manifestations of the Langoliers and are here to devour all of them and erase them from time and space.  He has a knife and his pushing it into her ribs.  Suddenly, Craig notices that Sam notices him and he stabs Dinah through the ribs attempting to pierce a lung and kill her. 

     He then goes berserk that they are all monsters and attacks everyone.  He gets a few cuts and swings in but eventually goes down.  Jade pulls every left behind bag and carry on apart looking for any kind of tools and instruments to save Dinah.  She finds plenty of crude instruments and a few first aid kids and performs a bloody,  bloody emergency field surgery on Dinah, stabilizing her.

     Eventually, the plane lands on an Island on the southern coast of Tuatha De Danann but the air field is totally abandoned.  Sam senses overwhelming evil from the south, most likely, "The Langoliers" coming to finish them off just like in the story.   Taking the subdued Craig and the stabilized Dinah in a makeshift stretcher the PC's flee into the forest.

     Not long after the forest opens up into a lush open ground with a Victorian English Mansion on the green.  It looks like something out of Downton Abbey.  

     Which, it turns out, is precisely what it is.

     The PC's are approached by a tall elf in fine 1920's attire.  He seems to have been expecting them and in rapid fire English explains they had been "monitored" crashing onto the Island and that he knows their arrival was an accident or he would be much more cross. 

     He does not introduce himself as it is apparent he does not expect them to stay long and claims that in approximately, "72 hours" a rescue, "glamour" will pull them into Tuatha de Dannan proper where they can go about their business. 

     The elf does not seem to care one bit about the tied up man or the unconscious bloody girl on the stretcher.  PC's ask him about the Island.  What is it?

     His long rambling explanation is that it's a magical Island of fantasies.  Something akin to that "Fantasy Island" show from the seventies.  Rich people pay rich sums to live out fantasies.  But the chaotic nature of some of their fantasies were dangerous and a few escaped.  So, after a few decades of retooling the island a new "more controlled" Island was revealed.  Now the island molds itself after pop culture phenomenon that is deemed "safe".  And the Island retains is mold for several years before a new voted upon safe fantasy is chosen by committee and pop culture.

     Currently, and for the last several years the Island has molded itself after the huge hit, Downton Abbey.  Now, rich folks can pay rich sum to come and live with the cast of Downton Abbey and get wrapped up in their adventures.  But ever since the show ended last season the island has been restless to move on and the elf expects this to be the final island episode of Downton Abbey before the committee moves on to something new.

     PC's have a few innocent questions about the nature of the island and ask how safe it is?

     The elf, at this point, is bringing them to the Yorkshire County Estate and tells you that you'll be safe there as long as you keep to your wing of the estate.  It's typically used for just the purpose.   The elf goes on to explain that the nature of the magical shifting island is as safe as safe can be.  Though, he admits, it would be possible for outside influence to alter the island but that would take extreme will and extreme circumstance and extreme and overwhelming thought.

     For example, he posits, "If a group of baseball afficinados crash landed onto the island.  And they were obsessed with baseball.  And baseball was their life.  And they talked baseball.  And they lived baseball.  And they had with them thousands of baseball cards.  Well, an overwhelming force of pop culture such as that, on this island, might indeed alter the island into Baseball Land.  Which sounds painfully dull.   But fear not, the Major Arcanum would reboot the island in jiffy and everything would be right as rain". 

     As the elf deposits you in a safe *"unused by patrons or the show" wing of the Downton Abbey estate he warns, "But don't talk about overwhelming things.  If you are obsessed with something, keep it to yourself.  The island has ears.  And a will of it's own. It's a nation a treasure and we would hate to lose it".

     And then the elf leaves you in your rooms at the Downton Abbey estate. 

     Everyone settles in as much as they can settle in and awaits rescue within the time frame of 72 hours. 

     And then something happens.  Your outside influence. Your overwhelming thought about the subject.  Your obsession. Your extreme circumstance that brought you here.   You don't talk about it but you all think about it over and over and over.  You are on a Fantasy Island that molds itself to pop culture phenomenon.   Pop culture phenomenon like Stephen King.

     And none of you are surprised when you fall asleep in the Downton Abbey estate and wake up in the Overlook Hotel.

     The Overlook Hotel from The Shining.