The Nightwing Tapes

The Tapes

Content Warning: This chapter contains brief mentions of violence against animals

Recording in progress...

"Uh, does this thing work? Oh the red light's on. Cool. What should I say. Um, so it is March 12, 2022. I'm in my great uncle's creepy attic, sorting through all of his crap to find some family photos for a school thing. Oh! My name is Steve Donahue. I'm a junior at- God, why is this turning into a freaking get-to-know-you activity. Ok. Anyway, I have to do this dumb family history, interesting stuff about your relatives thing for French class. Will someone please explain to me what the hell that has got to do with French? Anyway, my great uncle was like this historian for some museum in town for like thirty-five years, and I figured he'd be the type of person to have family photos. Um, yeah so I'm looking at all this junk in the attic, because apparently after he died his children couldn't be bothered to organize his stuff and so instead it was all just shoved up here. So now, I get to stumble around this fricking pitch-black attic and try to not step on nails and get tetanus. Yay."

Creeeak.

"Ugh, I swear this place must have rats or possums or something. Ok, so I was looking for pictures and I had to move all of these super heavy boxes in the corner of the room, and um, I found this cool silver box thing. So I opened it, and inside there was this tape recorder. It's in really good condition too, um, and I immediately lost all interest in the family photos and decided I had to check this thing out. Uh, so I did a lot of googling, and I think it's like a really old tape recorder, which is pretty cool. At least that's what Wikipedia says, I don't know. I'm actually really surprised there was just some tape that hadn't been used sitting next to it. Pretty convenient, and kinda weird. Yeah, so I found a video showing how to work it and stuff, and I actually figured it out! I know, I know, it's super impressive. I'd like to give a shout-out to my absent father, the tech genius in the family. You screaming at me when I couldn't understand how to operate the family computer or change the tv output to use the Wii was truly what motivated me to become the electronic legend that I am today. Haha, I'm just joking. Screw you, you abusive pile of human sewage."

Fshhhhhhh.

"Ha. Speaking of sewage. I hate it up here. You literally hear every single sound from the entire house. Including the toilet flushing. The perfect ambience for this already unpleasant environment. Ok where was I? So I got the recorder to work, and here I am! Well, I guess there's not much more to tell, but this is much more interesting than what I was doing before. I'm just gonna move this super normal-looking, totally not possessed doll off of this creaky rocking chair and take a break."

Creeeak.

"Achoo!"

"Ack, there's so much dust on this stupid thing. I'm definitely not sitting on this. Ok, floor it is. Maybe there's something else cool over here. Let's look in the boxes next to the recorder."

Thump.

"Ok, what've we got? Um, ok this box just has a ton of old books, that's kinda boring. Oh, this one has some clothes. We got some pants and a worn-out belt... What else? Ooh, there's this sick bomber jacket. I might have to take this. Ok, and there's a small container, maybe for sunglasses? Ugh it's just some super old, cracked glasses. Ew what is this stuff on the lenses? Gross. Ok, taking the jacket and now we're moving on. I think I gotta move this next box cause it's stuck under the books."

Wshhhhh.

"Ok, this box was super heavy to move, so this better be good. Ew, there's a ton of dust and- ugh, cobwebs. Holy crap that's a massive spider! Ew, die, die!"

Thwap.

"And in a moment of poor judgement, I just slapped a spider with my hand. Now there's spider insides all over me. Maybe there's a cloth or something somewhere. Nope, guess I'm wiping it on my pants. Ok, at this point in time, if this box isn't absolutely amazing I may just chuck it out the window."