Finally, the truth of Danville is revealed. But is it too late? Racing against the clock, can Sarah and Gordon survive to do anything about it? Or will another body be consumed by the terror that has haunted the town for centuries?
Consumed as a production of iHeart Podcast and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Maky. Headphones recommended. Listener discretion advised.
Do you mind if I smoke? We called him the dark Man. We were told he would come through the shadows and make bad kids disappear. I was eight years old when Jimmy vanished. James Mooring he was sixteen or seventeen, and boy was he a trouble maker. He draws all of the kids at the McDonald the old middle school. I was looking for a fight would have gone pro in the ring. I suspect if only he hadn't been pushed so hard by his father. That son of a bit strength enough for the whole town. And we knew when Jimmy came around with a black eye it wasn't because he lost a fight. He never lost a fight or fell down the stairs. No one bought it, but he never said it out loud. You didn't back then. It was nineteen sixty. Twelve year old smoked a pack of luck. He's a day for fun. You just let Jimmy terrorize you, as if it was a way to give him a small win in his otherwise miserable life. Now, I don't know how much of this ended up being legend versus fact, but I was eight or nine, and remember that one day Jimmy was picking on us down behind the Anderson and the next day he was gone. Old Man Brooder, grandpa who ran the grocer, told us Jimmy had gone off to some prep school. I think your kids call it the Governor's Academy nowadays. Now look, there's no way in hell Jimmy Mooring would have let himself go to a prep school. Kid was smart, but he wasn't a suit and tie kind of guy. But we didn't question, not until well, it wasn't until we heard what happened to missus Shaw one night in nineteen sixty three. We didn't see it, but rumors said that she showed up the Mooring house, who were clearly still grieving, and she just started pounding on the door, yelling things like the dark Man took our children. They let him take them. And that's how it started and grew into an urban legend. Everyone wrote off Missus Shaw and Missus Mooring is coop, especially when mister Moring drunk himself into the ground a year later. But when you're sixteen years old, you start to worry about other things, like girls and Vietnam, wondering if you'd end up going if the US got involved, did you.
Oh?
Yeah. Only thing I ever won that wasn't Sandy's affection was the lottery. But this was the world's worst lottery, and I spent eighteen months there, barely survived Kese Song, only thinking I'd never see her nor Danville again. I suppose that's why we had little Joshua so fast when I got back.
And he's the boy that disappeared in nineteen ninety one at the rock concert in Boston.
That's what the paper said. But Joshua never made it down to Boston.
How do you know what happened?
I could see it in their eyes, the Shaws, the Bruders, the McDonald's. What the guilt? They knew? What happened?
What was it? What happened to your son, Rudy?
They happened, this town, happened, sat hides and you should in your house.
So was it the dark Man?
Because believe me.
We took care of that.
We stopped it.
Yeah, you didn't stop anything, just like I didn't thirty one years ago or this year what do you mean, Oshi, Manitou. I'm sorry, Manitou. It's everything to the Algonquin. It is the spirit of life, omnipresent and found everywhere animals, earth, trees, plants, food, even at birth and death.
Okay, And like.
Many spiritual cultures, there's a duality to it, the good and the bad.
No ugly Gordon, Sorry.
The good Manitou is the asha the bad Oatshee. Back in the seventeenth century, when the colonizers found Danville, they found a thriving community.
Holy shit, Gordon, the whispers.
They were welcomed by a tribe settled up top what you know is Anderson Hill, where this very library was eventually built. The chief of the tribe was convinced everyone could get along, but the colonizers had guns and greed.
Some things never change.
Still, this chief thought he could make things work, but little by little, the colonizers kept taking and he kept making deals. It wasn't until the deals ran out and he was forced to lock up his remaining tribespeople in a crypt built somewhere in town that they burned them all alive while making him watch. Then, because they were bored, brutally skinned, and murdered him. Oh Jesus, And do you want to know how old the chief was when he had everything, his children, his wife, his family, his tribe, his land, his entire village taken away from him.
Thirty one years old.
Thirty one years old.
But how does that explain that they got rid of the good spirits, leaving this area unbalanced?
Correct? Without Asha Manitou, only Oshi Manitou remained, and it laid upon Danville a curse that had to be fed every thirty one years.
A sacrifice like what they did to the chief.
Every thirty one years, someone from the town had to be consumed in order to keep the manner to it. Bay, I didn't believe any of the dark man or until it happened to my boy.
But what about the monster? We definitely ended something down by the old drain.
You ended a physical manifestation of what happens when the curse is ignored. The sacrificing of a resident has to be fulfilled.
Okay, supposing there's sillivandet out there, why did you leave and take the internet with you?
I shut down the grid because well, because I was angry. They took Joshua and you saw her they took my Sandy away twenty eight years. She tried to process, but it eats at you. All she wanted to talk about was the dark Man. No one else existed, myself included. I knew I'd have to work just to keep her in a safe place. I'd already developed the area's first computer network, so it was only natural that I create our rural isp framework as well. That's when I noticed this year that they could hear us, and some of us could hear.
Them through technology.
Through the waves are man made spirits, so they've been listening this whole time. But from where, from everywhere, radios, phones, speakers.
That does sound a bit crazy, though.
As crazy as the monster you say you incinerated, Well yeah, let me ask you. Did you ever see it.
The windy go?
Yeah?
Well no, but I heard it.
You heard what you're scared of. You heard your deepest fears, and it terrified you.
But why did you let it come back this year revenge?
What with Sandy at the home and Joshua gone. Once I saw that the patriarchs of the town were planning on defying the curse, I knew they'd pay for it, And my only regret is that the spirits haven't taken more of them.
Okay, but hold on, Alfonso had nothing to do with.
Any of this Wrong town, wrong time.
So how do we stop it?
Unless you can find a way to satiate the spirits, you can't. You should just pack a bag and never turn around.
Worry, But why did you come back?
I'm going to bury my wife next to the empty grave of my son, and by this time next week I'll be somewhere in Europe. Who knows?
Is there any way you can help us before someone else dies?
I've told you everything I know.
No, but for.
Real there, thank you for your time, Rudy, Sorry for your loss, says.
I hope you find some peace wherever you end up.
It's too late for peace or revenge for me, but perhaps not for you.
Was that helpful?
Dude has seen shit?
Yeah? But was it all shit?
What?
I don't mean his suffering? No, no, no, I.
Mean we could be talking big fish here. Memories makes with dreams as you get older, and it all becomes real in one's head.
Shut up for a second.
Listen you hear that the wind draft's gotta draft?
No, no, no.
No, it can't be. What the fuck we wrote that that demon from hell.
We did.
Listen, listen, Holy shit?
Was that English? That's not supposed to be this shit.
It's okay, listen, pray, remember Gordon, don't you get it?
What it's here, It's been here the whole time.
Sheriff, Sheriff, Hey, hey, I was just coming to it's the library.
What it's the library. That's the source of all of it. And if you don't come with us and help us try to stop it right now, I think we'll be in for a very massive fucking realization that things are nowhere near done.
Can someone just listen to us right now.
We need to get the.
Guns, the cups, the tactical whatever, and just get back to the tunnel tunnels.
I'm sorry, I'm a bit busy right now. I've that wasn't everything.
And the longer we wait here.
What the.
What's going on?
What's that smell?
I think it's wherever those fire trucks are going.
Oh my god, it's the library.
Get the ladder off on the side.
We need more water.
We don't have any more water.
What do you mean the hydrant is dream?
What the fuck?
A nott a fucking night?
Good job, boys and girls, we contained it.
Yeah, but the entire villain is basically turned to ash.
What's important is that it didn't spread and no one was hurt.
It took fourteen.
Hours, but we did it.
Let's get out of here. Thanks Max, Thanks guys.
Hello, officer, have you seen a woman named Sarah Simmons?
Lex Sarah? Oh, Jesus Christ, you're okay? Of course?
How did you find us?
You'll find my iPhone pings late last night after a day and a half of calling you and it going straight to voicemail, which we'll have to talk about later.
And you drove up here. Of course, I drove up here to chastise me. I suppose to make sure.
You were okay, Sis, talk of murders and then radio silence. I'll do a number on someone. So you're not here to I'm here for my sister, and that's all that matters. I'm relieved beyond measure that you're alive and well. And I'm not even going to ask what happened there.
That used to be my playground.
Hi?
Gordon Morales, you must be alex Sis.
This is Gordon literally just said that, Yeah, sorry, it's been what day is there? It's been a few days.
Nice to meet you, Gordon.
You used to live here.
Yeah, a lot of history. Just went up and smoke, Alex.
I'll explain everything, but I gotta Yeah, No.
I get it.
I saw a diner on the way in I can Uh no, I wouldn't go there.
Yeah, I'd avoid that place. They got to see you on their latest health inspection. But there's a great motel in Lumington just down the road. We'll make sure to get Sarah there once we uh.
Yeah, no, I get it.
I'm just happy you're okay.
Thanks, Lex. So, so where are you going to stay tonight?
I have no idea none.
I mean, this all kind of happened really quick. Yeah, one minute or researching centuries of history, and.
The next it's all gone without.
So much as a warning.
Shame the books, I guess. I guess when books are burned, things like this tend to happen.
Colonial cartnage, the terrorizing escapegoating of certain people's minorities if you're being nasty, theft, death, destruction lies to blink the public into thinking.
Feels like a New Hampshire primary.
Well less detrimental to the country as a whole, I suppose, But I'll still miss them.
And the newspapers. Oh, the old computer, the Tom Brady poster, all gone.
Well, almost all gone. For some reason.
I brought a little bag with me when we left the Gotell Maxwell's.
Yeah, I can see that. It's a beautiful bag, stunning. Did you want to describe it to me? Even though I'm standing here looking at it.
It's not the bag so much, but this.
Whoa is this the real thing?
The playbill for Man of Wamoncha's Broadway debut.
I mean one would have assumed it would have burned with everything else. And if I were a betting man, I would assume that if someone had time to get something out of a burning building, perhaps they had something.
To do with it.
Yeah, we can just keep on assuming it.
I like, just wait, which part?
What?
Which part?
Are we assuming that it would have burned with everything else? Or that someone might assume we had something to.
Do with this?
I do you think anyone is going to figure out that?
Think?
Sorry?
Think what?
I wouldn't want to risk it.
Well, lucky for us us, this beautiful bag has an inside zipper.
So I'll just put it back here, just.
For us, just for us, huh.
I mean until the rom com prophecy is fulfilled, and I find out you're building high rise luxury housing right here with my bank account.
Until I have a job, I won't be doing much of anything.
I don't think that will be an issue.
This story will open up a million doors for you.
What story?
What story? You mean the last four days of stories. Happy to remind.
You, I have no idea what you're talking about. Seems like some people.
Got mulled by woodland creatures and an unfortunate fire took a creaky, drafty, shaky building that really shouldn't have been there in the first place.
Yeah, Yeah, that's exactly what I was gonna say.
A real talk.
Wouldn't another version help you get one of those big fancy jobs?
Yeah?
Maybe, but at what cost?
Also, I think you're overestimating what a media job pays in twenty twenty two.
And besides, I think I found the job that I want.
Yeah, yeah, you want to get out of here?
Yeah?
The on Me.
Starve.
That was the impossible dream from that doozy man of La Mancho.
What a show.
And let me tell you, if you haven't seen the Saint Louis Players production of it, you have just two weeks to get tickets. I saw it last weekend and just bravo for tickets to Missouri's Best Peter menu. Head on over to Muni dot com slash tickets, slash Missouri, slash the Men, Babe.
Some kind of international number.
Hello Max, Max, put on speaker.
Max, you're on speaker with Gordon and I al.
Uh ola.
First off, relax, not calling about anything having to do with Danville.
Oh, I mean yeah cool? Like well would you yeah?
Well we'll get into that over some mezcal.
When I see you, I'm sorry.
When you see us.
Well, unless you're dying to staying. Where even are you.
Indiana, Missouri?
Sorry? I don't even know where that is really? North of Texas, south of Canada.
I presume hold on Mescal s Amigos.
In good old CDMX, or as we call it down here aks, but usually without my atrocious accent butchering it.
You're in Mexico City.
Indeed, how why when it dust.
Settled after that mysterious fire, I tried to tie up some LuSE enns And when I looked around, everyone that's had lost someone had family to lean on, except.
For Alfonso's mother.
Correct, So I decided that my time in America had come to a pause.
And that someone had to get consoled reunited with her relatives.
So you stayed down there.
Wouldn't you. It's gorgeous and the people are wonderful, but.
They're kind of getting annoyed with expats moving down there, aren't they Americans?
They're annoyed with Americans.
But that's a worldwide phenomena.
You're not wrong.
That's wonderful, But I think we're a bit confused as to why you're calling.
I guess what do you know about Elbosque, the Chapultepec.
The forest of Chapultepec.
Besides knowing what Bosque is in English, Google tells me it's like Mexico City Central Park.
Sure, but hundreds of years older.
As most things are.
So you're calling about a forest laden park in the middle of Mexico City.
I'm calling about a series of evidence that have been happening in and near the castle that overlooks the entire park.
What kind of incidents?
That's where I need your help.
Us You came together and solved a five hundred year old mystery, no matter your priory methods.
We don't know what you're talking about.
I know you've been searching out similar occurrences, looking to offer closure, and I'm offering you the chance to find closure for six boys who passed away.
Oh I'm sorry to hear that. When did they pass?
Eighteen forty seven?
We're on our way.
Consumed Episode twelve, The Reachable Star written by Carlos Folia, editing and sound design by Trevor Young, Starring Rachel Rosenbloom and Arturo Castro, with Ruth Connell, Sam Rod, Genevieve Padillaki, Benjamin Stockholm, Charlie, David Newell, Mike Korich, Anna East Fairweather, Junior, Alabby, Alma Martinez, Tracy Martin, Laura Shin, George Vincent, and Rafael Corkil. Guest starring Time Winters as Rudy. Directed by Alexander Williams, Assistant director Trevor Young, Casting by Sunday Bowling CSA and Meg Mormon CSA. Production coordinator Wayna Calderai. Music by Carlos Folio Consumed The season one score available now on Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever music is streamed. Executive producers Aaron Mankey, Carlos Folia, Matt Frederick, and Alexander Williams. Supervising producers Trevor Young and Josh Thain. Producers Noah, Ammy Griffin, Jesse Funk, and Rima Ilkali. Recorded at This Is Sound Design Studios, Burbank, California, engineered by Ross Erroneout east Side Studios, Austin, Texas, engineered by Austin Sisler and Aras Creative and Sound o Hi, California, engineered by Ken Aros. Consumed was created by Carlos Folia, inspired by the novel by Aaron Manky. Consumed is the newest chapter in the Bridgewater universe. To learn more and catch up, visit Grimandmild dot com Slash Bridgewater. Learn more about Consumed at grimandmile dot com Slash Consumed, and find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.