When the Lights Go Out: MAN OF MEDAN [The Dark Pictures Anthology]

xv. l'actrice

I was, again, back aboard the ship. Alex and Julia were discussing the previous events and entertaining the possibility of this ship being a "ghost ship." Just like Conrad did back then.

"We should never have split up. We should have stuck together. This would never have happened." Alex said. "Did you by any chance see Brad down there? My uh... brother instincts are running pretty crazy right now."

Well, it all comes to this then. My eyes started welling up tears again as I remember Brad's unforeseen death.

"I saw him." I brought out with a heavy sigh.

Alex immediately stood up and approached me. "You did? Where is he then?"

"Fliss killed him."

"What?!" Alex shouted.

"I told you there was something wrong about Fliss. She attacked Brad. She stabbed him. Then maybe she found out that I saw her and... and attacked both Conrad and I." I stumbled upon my words. "I-I'm really sorry, Alex."

It was then Alex' turn to cry.

Reviewing what I've been telling them, I'm starting to feel guilty about my testimonies. I haven't been really truthful to any of them and I'm only making things worse. But I really had to nail Fliss and make it look like she was 100% guilty of all crimes. Besides, I can't say anything about what happened to her.

"Are those... Brad's glasses?" I heard Alex ask with muffled cries. I was confused but saw him pointing at my chest. I looked down and there really were his glasses! It even has some splashes of his blood, or maybe it was Conrad's, when I hugged him. But how did this get here? I must've taken it out of habit...

"I... I took it. Something to remember him by..." I said, stuttering just a little bit. I took the glasses from the collar of my shirt and gave it to Alex, but he said that he doesn't want to see it, so I put it back again.

After a bit of silence, Julia shared what she saw earlier.

"Alex wasn't the only Alex." She started.

"What are you talking about?" Asked Alex.

"There were things walking around with your face on them." Julia said, completely affrighted. Her next statement however almost made me burst out laughing, but I contained myself. This is not the time for jokes, and it would totally be insensitive. "Alex' face. It was horrifying."

"Julia... I'd never hurt you. You know that, right?" Alex drew on her and held her close.

"No, I know, it's just..." Julia said but she stopped herself.

"This can't be all happening. Maybe like one thing could. But not all of these crazy things. It's too much of a coincidence. There's gotta be something going on here." Alex surmised.

Julia spoke with caution, "Am I crazy here or are we on a ghost ship? Was Conrad right all along?"

"I was going to say the same thing."

"No." I firmly said. "This is all just one big series of hallucinations. My speculation is... we're conjuring up shit that our minds strongly grasped on. Like yours, Julia. What if you keep seeing Alex because of your recent engagement with him? Maybe you're scared that something might go wrong with it?"

"Well, if you put it that way... maybe that's what's happening? I don't know anymore." Julia said.

"What did you see there, Emma?" Alex asked me.

I decided to be as truthful as possible this time.

"I... I saw... I can't explain it... But there was this monster... It was some sort of a combination of corpses... But that doesn't matter anymore. It's gone now."