I can't tell you the future, Alan. Not directly. I can say it gets better. You're both happier.
[ Jesse's eyes widen slightly in worry at the Writer's paling face. The Dark Presence is coming back. She has to stay to help him. It's why he brought her here--to pull him out of the waters the Dark Presence pushes him under. There is a slightly shake of her head. She's not going.
She's staying here with him.
The next thing Jesse can truly register is the feeling and sounds of the Oceanview Motel.
The gentle music plays from some radio somewhere she can't truly ever locate. The lights are dimmed, as the connection to the Dark Place remains. Her own crazy wall is down the end of the hallway.
All Jesse can feel is numbness.
Tim gently unwraps his arms from her. He takes a step back. For a moment, Jesse simply stands where she is. The same spot she always shows up in before a loop begins. The same place the Light Switch Cord brings her.
The hallway filled with doors to places she can't reach.
She takes a half step, but finds herself crumbling down to her knees. Her hands catch her to help soften the blow. It's almost as if everything has been drained out of her at once. The constant fight against the Darkness within the Dark Place shows then, but her eyes are simply locked onto the floor of the Motel.
« I left him there. We left him there. After all of that... the show... everything... hes just THERE. Still. Stuck. What was the point of it?! What good is being awake going to do if its going to push him down again?! Why--why does this always happen? Why do I keep LEAVING people behind?! I'm supposed to be different now. I'm the Director! » ]
Jesse. For what it's worth? He's going to get out.
[ Jesse raises her eyes to Tim. He has moved past her and is standing up next to one of the chairs. In his hand is a dimly illuminated manuscript page, crumbled into a ball. Her eyebrows knit together. Alan... had left that page here. Hadn't he? He didn't want anyone to see it again. It... it was...
« Scratch. From the loop where he killed me. Why does "Tim" want it? » ]
Safe keeping. [ Tim's reacts almost as if he's heard her thoughts. ] I know Alan won't want to touch it at all. We can't risk someone or something getting a hold of it. So, I'll hang on to it now. Just like you keep holding onto the one he gave you. And... it might take a while, but, he'll come home, Jesse. I promise.
[ Jesse stares at the spot Tim stands even once he disappears as he had appeared in the room Alan remains trapped in. She shifts, leaning sideways until she hits a door. She leans entirely against it and closes her eyes. She doesn't need to see to know what door she's against. There's been plenty of shouting and pounding on it in hopes of somehow garnering the attention of the man on the otherside.
Jesse lowers her head and raises a hand to rest against the door. Then, her head leans against it too.
« I was supposed to bring him home. »
The manuscript rests in Alan's hands. Perfectly typed with no signs of edits or damage. Prestine. Everything on it happening as it should.
Tim Breaker was someone who ever went back on a promise. Even if that promise was made in another time. Another world. Places where faces were different and names changed. But, still, the same people.
He promised to help Wake when he needed it. "That's what friends do," he said once.
Wake needed a favor.
The Dark Presence -- Scratch -- was going to come for Wake again. It always did. It needed his mind to create a story where it could be free. Relentlessly trying to take the Writer for thirteen years. Wake fought back as long and hard as he could. Fought to the point of breaking multiple times. Fought until he needed a hero.
He couldn't let one of the heroes be trapped like he was. Faden couldn't be taken like he had been. Her guiding star wouldn't allow it to happen. But, the Dark Presence could break her like it broke Cynthia Weaver. Make her watch as it destroyed the man she loved over and over again until nothing of him remained. Until he wasn't Alan Wake.
Just a facade of a person turned into a character made write like a puppet on strings.
Wake needed Breaker's promise to save Faden. He couldn't get out of the Dark Place if Faden was trapped and broken. He needed her out to save him. The story needed her.
Wake needed the woman he loved alive to keep driving him to escape.
He nudged Faden's guiding star to help Breaker find them. Down in the depths of the Dark Place. Once he was there, Breaker could take Faden back to the place the loop would start.
The Oceanview Motel.
Breaker could easily walk through the doors now. Even if he hated it.
no subject
[ Jesse's eyes widen slightly in worry at the Writer's paling face. The Dark Presence is coming back. She has to stay to help him. It's why he brought her here--to pull him out of the waters the Dark Presence pushes him under. There is a slightly shake of her head. She's not going.
She's staying here with him.
The next thing Jesse can truly register is the feeling and sounds of the Oceanview Motel.
The gentle music plays from some radio somewhere she can't truly ever locate. The lights are dimmed, as the connection to the Dark Place remains. Her own crazy wall is down the end of the hallway.
All Jesse can feel is numbness.
Tim gently unwraps his arms from her. He takes a step back. For a moment, Jesse simply stands where she is. The same spot she always shows up in before a loop begins. The same place the Light Switch Cord brings her.
The hallway filled with doors to places she can't reach.
She takes a half step, but finds herself crumbling down to her knees. Her hands catch her to help soften the blow. It's almost as if everything has been drained out of her at once. The constant fight against the Darkness within the Dark Place shows then, but her eyes are simply locked onto the floor of the Motel.
« I left him there. We left him there. After all of that... the show... everything... hes just THERE. Still. Stuck. What was the point of it?! What good is being awake going to do if its going to push him down again?! Why--why does this always happen? Why do I keep LEAVING people behind?! I'm supposed to be different now. I'm the Director! » ]
Jesse. For what it's worth? He's going to get out.
[ Jesse raises her eyes to Tim. He has moved past her and is standing up next to one of the chairs. In his hand is a dimly illuminated manuscript page, crumbled into a ball. Her eyebrows knit together. Alan... had left that page here. Hadn't he? He didn't want anyone to see it again. It... it was...
« Scratch. From the loop where he killed me. Why does "Tim" want it? » ]
Safe keeping. [ Tim's reacts almost as if he's heard her thoughts. ] I know Alan won't want to touch it at all. We can't risk someone or something getting a hold of it. So, I'll hang on to it now. Just like you keep holding onto the one he gave you. And... it might take a while, but, he'll come home, Jesse. I promise.
[ Jesse stares at the spot Tim stands even once he disappears as he had appeared in the room Alan remains trapped in. She shifts, leaning sideways until she hits a door. She leans entirely against it and closes her eyes. She doesn't need to see to know what door she's against. There's been plenty of shouting and pounding on it in hopes of somehow garnering the attention of the man on the otherside.
Jesse lowers her head and raises a hand to rest against the door. Then, her head leans against it too.
« I was supposed to bring him home. »
The manuscript rests in Alan's hands. Perfectly typed with no signs of edits or damage. Prestine. Everything on it happening as it should.