Chapter 4 – Life Out Of Death

It’s been a long, long month. Where I’ve been doesn’t matter so much as WHAT happened.

This is the last part before we reach the Day of Separation and… well, to be truthful, I’ve not been fully honest with you all.

I’m not who I say I am.

We’ll get to that next time, I’m still trying to find the place to explain it all, but I hope you’ll forgive me.

After the last entry went up, my night terrors increased exponentially and I almost could not function. Sleeping became the biggest chore imaginable, and I was close to mentally breaking until last week when a message popped up from an old friend.

They want to meet, and with travel restrictions lifting, they’re aiming to come out soon. They want to “resolve this once and for all” and I’m inclined to let them. We’ll be doing a reunion soon, and I guess I’ll keep you posted on that.

The Day Of Separation affected us all differently…

I appreciate the well wishes and voices of concern, but my part in this isn’t so relevant right now. What I want to focus on is the matter at hand. These don’t get any easier as time goes on.

As always, if you have memories of the TV Network “Beneath The Static” PLEASE let me know, I’m collating all the information in the comments as it’s the easiest for my anxiety to deal with. I hope you understand.

Mantis Reach was The Sage’s old hangout before we migrated to the basement.

Something did happen up there, something I don’t think any of us then or now have fully come to terms with or accepted our part within.

I’ll say this much though; There weren’t always Six Sages, and we didn’t always have such a dysfunction within our group.

Before what happened that warm July evening, when everything began to fall apart…

There were seven.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8 (FINAL)

There was no real fanfare prior to our meeting this week, Fay was having nightmares and didn’t seem ready to discuss it, drawings were kept secret and I didn’t want to push the envelope on an already tense situation. Each week we do this, I feel us gradually growing apart both as siblings and as a unit. I know many of you have said “why are we doing this?” and questioning the logic of wanting our secrets laid bare. But the truth is, it’s already happened and to explain our mindset then is almost impossible to discern now. All I can say looking back is that it’s very akin to browsing gore sites with your friends; you want to stop, but you can’t because everyone else is still invested and nobody wants to back out.

Everyone shuffled in on their own, their idiosyncrasies diluted down to nothing more than some choice phrases and clothing options; Mathias repeatedly unlogged his glasses and was nose deep in a tech magazine, Warren had an earphone in blasting Bad Religion and giving a lazy fist bump, Millie shook my hand gingerly with the Cats Paw and Preston mumbled something between huge swathes of Doritos shovelled into his mouth.

If I said it felt like the old gang was back, I’d be lying.

We sat in an awkward malaise as the show counted down. The conversations were brief and muddled in anxiety. It seemed we didn’t really come alive until the show actually started, but Mathias was the only one to probe the question on everyone’s minds as the countdown for the show’s starting began;

Mathias: Do any of you think this is related to what JJ said at the end of the last show?

Fay: You mean Mantis Reach? There was a long pause, shuffling seats, and even Preston stopped eating to contemplate. That stormy night in the clubhouse, the fight, the incident, the promise.

Mathias: It just seems like we’re not acknowledging the Elephant in the room here…

Warren: It’s a big fucking Elephant and I’m content to keep it as far the fuck away from me as possible.

Fay: Problem is, we can’t do that forever, not if JJ or whoever this is knows everything.

Preston: But why would he use that info against us? What happened up there was-

Millie: Don’t. We know what happened with Livewire; we don’t need to go into it.

Tristan: I’m not sure who or what JJ and this network is. But we keep coming back every week, and we keep waiting to see who’s next. Something is drawing us here, and honestly? I think it’s our own desire for truth intermixed with something else…

The group pause and wait for me to finish, but I’m certain that the same word ran to everyone’s minds before I even finished uttering it;

Tristan: Guilt.

“Welcome to Beneath The Static. Tonight’s special documentary “Life Out of Death” will be presented by Sir Barclay Wigbert.”

0:00 – A sweeping shot of an orchard with beautiful orchestral music begins the show. This is by far the most high-definition concept we have seen out of them so far. As the innumerable trees pass over the stretch of land, we have shots of small animals and insects surviving and foraging as the narrator speaks. He sounds so much like David Attenborough that if I’d not seen he was a middle-aged man from Japan, I’d have been convinced they paid him to appear.

“Our planet is filled with an innumerable amount of remarkable creatures. It has been my life’s work to catalogue these strange, remarkable and potentially deadly creatures. But of course, we mustn’t forget our own place in this ecosystem. Our journey will look through some of the most unique members of the animal kingdom and our role within. I’m Sir Barclay Wigbert and this is Life Out Of Death.”

Tristan: Hey, you never know, this one may actually be normal for once. Millie: Anything with animals and soothing British voices is a good start. But…

Warren: But this isn’t a normal fucking station we’re dealing with.

Fay: Well, then we have to ask the question that none of us wants to ask, let alone answer…

Preston: Who’s next?

0:02: Our eyes turn back to the TV screen as the shot turns to a lush green forest; fauna and flora adorning the undergrowth, plants of shapes and sizes I’d have never guessed could possibly exist. Innumerable bugs crawling along the moss stricken logs, great-winged insects expertly darting through the air to avoid larger predators while small spindly rodents littered the ground, forever on the hunt for their next meal.

It was a veritable menagerie of strange creatures, both familiar and unfamiliar. The scene shifts to Barclay standing by a large tree branch, the lights dimmed low and the undergrowth looking almost an indigo rather than the usual emerald green.

“We’re here today for a special look at a few of this great realm’s most fascinating creatures. Starting off with Ampulex compressa…” The shot cuts to a closeup of an iridescent wasp, cleaning itself with its front legs and the shimmer of its abdomen bursting through the screen as a soft drone played in the background. Something indecipherable whispered underneath.

As soon as Barclay spoke the name of the creator, however, we heard a voice in the room call out at the exact same time. Not full of confidence, knowledge and price like his, but fear and pain; it was Millie.

“Behold: The Emerald Cockroach Wasp.” He said proudly as it crawled around its enclosure, Millie staring wide-eyed and a tear falling down her face. She was someone who refused to show extreme emotion or vulnerability unless it was forced out of her. This unsettled us all, but we didn’t say anything.

0:05 – The camera takes a wide angle approach to the behaviour of the Emerald Cockroach Wasp as it highlights the body structure, hive and prey. As it goes through the motions of capturing a helpless cockroach, stabbing its underbelly and dragging it into a burrow to lay an egg inside it. Sharp, loud static sounds would ring out as the scene rapidly progressed through the gestation process; each of us jumping in our seats from the sounds of crunching, gnawing and chewing of this larvae, eating the host alive with shots of pearly white teeth and cracked flesh appear momentarily.

Warren: This sick fuck is enjoying watching us…how long are we going to keep playing his game? WHY are we still doing this?

Fay: Because he knows about Mantis Reach. He knows about all of us and…

Warren: And what? He didn’t know about that shit until last week and we STILL came back.

Fay: I don’t know, I just feel there’s more to this than that. If he knows all this, why doesn’t the rest of the world? Why haven’t we been approached by anyone?

Mathias: Probably limited viewership. We could be the only ones watching.

Preston: Maybe they don’t know it’s us? Maybe they’re being told their own secrets, and that’s entrapping them?

Warren: Bullshit, Preston. That was YOUR brother, YOUR family. What the fuck are we still doing here?

Millie: Then why haven’t you gone?

We turned to look at her, clutching her lucky cat’s paw and eyes wide with fear as she stared at the tv screen, tears flowing down her face and her lip bitten so tightly that a trickle of blood still flowed even when she spoke.

Millie: Clearly, there’re reasons we all have to go and far more to stay. Everyone has a secret they keep, everyone has a face they never show. This fucking station exposes that and right now…right now, I’m the one in the spotlight.

Tristan: You know, we could just switch it off and be done with it, I can turn off the TV, close this laptop and we could just wash our hands of it all.

Fay: Yeah, we could maybe hook up some Mario Kart and-

Millie: Fuck that…fuck that… FUCK THAT.

We stared for a moment. She stood up and had her head bowed.

Millie: It’s better this way, so let’s just do it, okay? If this is gonna come out… I want it to MEAN something. Not just be useless shit that continues to fuck me up as I get older. I want to be better.

00:08 – I nodded, and we turned back. The devouring of the cockroach now finished and Barclay walking through the underbrush as multiple shadowed insects I couldn’t identify ran for cover. He stopped by a small clearing and knelt down near the burrow of one of the cockroaches and grinned.

“Now, if we’re very lucky, there should be a victim in here… right at the end of its gestation period. Let’s see if we can get a good look at the specimen.”

He reaches in and pulls out a small, emaciated digit. The skin melting away and exposing necrotic tissue, bone and sinew underneath. He pulls it up towards the camera and then sniffs it like a cigar before biting down hard and chewing it, in full view of the camera.

“Delightful, a small morsel to satiate the pallet before the main course. The Emerald Cockroach has a remarkable ability only recently discovered by scientists, you see. It is able to-“

Millie: Secrete acidic juices from the abdomen that will allow for prey to be easily digested, no matter the size.

We stare over at her, clutching her lucky cat’s paw and wide eyed with horror. No time to pause or give thought, Barclay continued on, walking through the underbrush to a larger burrow.

“You see, many creatures have hidden talents that permit them to go beyond their usual hunting patterns, base instincts and feeding habits. This is not only a mark of evolution, but survival of the fittest. We see this in multiple species across the animal kingdom, but no more so than in the insect kingdom.” He pauses, still chewing the sinew and fat from the finger, the entirety of our room hoping it’s either a prop or some kind of strange looking larvae.

0:10 – The camera pans in closer as he stands there chewing, a solid 30 seconds of nothing else as his eyes roll back, he moans and savours every bite. Drool and blood dribbling down his lips as the crunching sounds become louder. Eventually, the footage begins to inter splice with varying forms of predators taking down and devouring prey. Bear grabbing fish from the streams, cheetah’s at full speed taking down gazelle and Crocodiles pouncing on unsuspecting Zebra, each bite the predators jaws producing an ear-splitting screech from the television, flashing images over the look of ecstasy on Barclay’s face. The whole sequence growing progressively faster until they melded into one and the eyes rolled down to look directly at the camera lens.

Mathias: This one seems to have very little point to it, I’m almost wondering if this is an anti-meme… you know, where its entire point is to be something nonsensical and unstructured. Kinda like some of the more avant-garde German or European shows of the heyday…

Fay: The flashing images just make me feel ill, though the animal takedowns aren’t bothering me too much, just might not have any meat for a while.

Tristan: I give it 2 hours before you beg me to take you to Taco Bell because you either got the hunger pangs or need the energy to draw all night.

Fay: Hey man, when you have a craving, you have a craving. Right, Millie?

Millie hadn’t stopped staring, we knew she hadn’t. But we were desperate to bring normalcy to the group, knowing we needed to DO better to support one another when our “turn” came around, especially since we were now resolved to see this through. Her free hand was picking at the skin on her fingers so aggressively that blood was pooling down her wrist. If she was in pain, she didn’t give any notion to us. Instead, she stared ahead, nodding rhythmically with some unheard beat.

Preston: What is she… Warren? Tristan? Are you guys just going to let her do that? Shouldn’t we… I dunno… intervene?

Warren: No. Millie ain’t the type who’ll appreciate a handout. You guys didn’t stop me and even though that shit was scarring, I’d rather feel it and experience it. Otherwise, it’s just unresolved. All we can do is be there when she falls and catch her.

Fay: Wow, that almost sounded poetic, Warren.

Warren: Fuck off, I ain’t that type. Musician? Sure. Poet? Fuck that noise.

Fay: They’re the same thing, y’know…

0:20 – There was a loud thump, and the scenery distorted back to the sprawling landscapes and diverse undergrowth of creatures both recognisable and not so. Stag beetles with a bioluminescent carapace, diving from the air to impale rivals or small black caterpillars that leak acidic juices. A trapdoor spider the size of a dinner plate with the exact skin tone and camouflage to match a black human hand adeptly snapping out of a deep burrow in the ground to ensnare a shrew, fangs the size of nails piercing clean through and dragging it back underground in an instant. Lastly, the image settles on that of a leaf swaying in the wind on a thick log, a rhesus monkey off in the distance, smashing rocks together. Barclays soft, pleasant voice dripping with sinister undertones as he speaks over the scene, a darkness falling around the undergrowth;

“Do you know what else has a remarkable adaptation to taking down its prey? Humans. We are so good at manipulation tactics, both direct and subversive, that often times our prey simply walks right into the trap without knowing it!”

The leaf sways and the camera pans back, each one of us recoiling in horror as Millie breathes heavily, saying “no” over and over under her breath, I half expected her to have a full-blown panic attack.

The “leaf” was far larger than the shot made it appear, the size of a small man, and it was steadily moving towards its intended prey, the “monkey”; A child no older than 7 with a large brown hoodie on and a Totoro backpack. The “leaf’s” arms were pointed at the ends with spikes adorning the underside, the head tilted at a 90 degree axis and perfectly still, each of its legs gently moving its body forward until it was within striking range. Everything about the scene felt wrong. We knew we were being lead into something far darker than all the others, but we couldn’t look away. None of us could.

“Yes, that’s right. Not every creature is as it seems. The undergrowth, much like the average suburban neighbourhood, carries all manner of unusual, violent and disturbing secrets within it. It’s just a matter of time until they’re revealed. But, of course, many of our young viewers are aware of these encounters. Especially those of us with guarded emotions and a propensity to the macabre…”

0:25 – The screen flashes again and we’re greeted with images of tribes going to war, Chimpanzees ripping each other’s limbs off for fun and devouring the young of an enemy troop, executions by the guillotine in France, nuclear bombs going off in Japan and tragedies I swear hadn’t happened by that point. As each one appeared, one of us flinched and felt it hit their innermost fears; drowning, burning, buried, eaten alive, torture. One by one we felt our energy sapped, and we were powerless to stop it or to stop watching. Imagine the sensation of not being able to look away from a car crash amplified by a thousand. We were in whether we wanted to or not.

Millie: I know what’s going to come next, please don’t hate me for what you see. Please.

Millie was holding her arms at the shoulders and rocking slowly in place, unable to control herself.

Warren: How in the hell could you know… What is-Tristan: Not the time, dude. Don’t worry, Millie, we’re with you.

The group nodded sheepishly, though everyone was wondering the same thing as Warren. We never knew how this played out, but I’m sure the group who’d been featured so far at least knew their darkest secrets and fears, so it at least made sense on what would be shown.

But as it seemed the scene was reaching its apex, the camera cut to Barclay and a sherpa who were both grinning ear to ear, genuine joy displayed across their faces.

“Before we get to the finale of this exciting expose on predator & prey, I must first bring you a spectacle like no other; The Suffering Tree.”

They walk off screen and footage of their trail through the jungle and towards a large clearing plays as Barclay continues to talk.

“The Suffering Tree, or The Ouroboros Tree as it’s known to the locals, was once thought to be that of a legend until famed explorer Archibald Maitland Williams discovered it during his 19th century expedition to the new world. He had little interest in it, save for a remarkable Tortoise that’d survived in the fields nearby, but he reported it in his exploration novels nonetheless and provided the next generation of westerners the tools to study it and bring their troubles to its roots.”

As Barclay finishes, the shot of them walking into the clearing pans 180 degrees to show what they’re looking at; A gargantuan oak tree towering higher than anything I’d ever seen, the black roots digging deep into the ground and the branches sprawling across the forest. This was like some kind of mother tree but the size of a skyscraper, the tops of its branches impossible to see. Barclay puts his hands on his hips and sighs before mopping his brow and turning to the camera, Millie still shaking with fear.

“The Tree gets its name not only because of its life affirming properties, but because of HOW it amasses such properties. It is provided through the will of its believers. For when they discover it and provide a darkness from their lives that is more potent and insidious than any other, the tree will do its part to excise it. So long as the user gives up a life it loves to take, a life it hates, there will always be a place within this tree’s branches for that hatred. Allow me to demonstrate.”

Millie chokes on her sobs and begs it not to show, but Barclay pulls at one of the branches and a fetid growth descends from up high like it was waiting to be greeted. A thick, black and red tendril pulsing with power and bile ends in the spine of an extremely decayed man; his nude body twitching and necrotic tissue apparent all over him. Large holes where pustules had recently burst riddle his abdomen, thighs and even his head, one bursting right below his neck as an Emerald Cockroach crawls out, stinging him in a fresh spot before flying off to continue its cycle. The mans eyes are wide, his jaw open in an almost scream, save for some low gurgling moans and grunts.

“This man was one of the more vile creatures accepted into the tree. His sentencer was a victim of years of painful abuse and he repeatedly told his religious family that it was HER fault for how he acted. Because, after all, if she hadn’t dressed that way or behaved so capriciously, he wouldn’t have had to do what he did…” Barclay spat on the man and dug his finger into one of the wounds, letting the digit sink all the way into the wound and black blood spilling onto his hand. “We may be monsters by your perception, but I assure you, we can be just in our behaviours. We even took measures to ensure this man NEVER forgot what he did for the remainder of his natural life.”

The camera pans down and shows his lower half, mutilated and filled with parasites. Warren vomits and Millie collapses to the floor, screaming as we all struggle to comprehend what we’re seeing.

“Surely, she would say it was her fault, that she was to blame. But, such is the nature of a victim, and our network deduced the only way forward was to rip the bandaid off entirely. We are not monsters, but arbiters of true justice. Through our programming, we wish to ensure every member of our esteemed audience knows that Beneath The Static, there is a truth and we will expose it to ensure you are bettered for it. With that being said…”

Once more, the scene shifts back to the scene of the leaf man and the child. Something attracts the child’s attention and they dart off screen, though at this point I believe I’m the only one watching. Preston is standing in the corner looking at the wall to calm himself, Warren is cleaning up his vomit and Mathias and Fay are tending to Millie.

The leaf man turns towards the camera, his head still tilted but the bug eyes and mandible’s catching my attention immediately. His cracked skin, neat brown hair still apparent underneath his camouflage as his mouth parts click and hiss.

“Only two more to go and we’ll know what you did. There is an ebb, a flow, and a truth to what we do. Soon, you will know what Ouroboros truly means. Soon, you will all be exposed.”

JJ leans in closer, this malformed mantis monstrosity boring its way into my skull as I feel my eyes burn, repeating back the exact same thing I’d seen in Fays drawings weeks before, the same thing in her- no, OUR nightmares.

“YOUR TURN.”

It was an hour after the show had ended; the TV was switched off, and we turned our armchairs to form a makeshift circle that Millie told us what had happened.

We knew she was born into a very strict Mormon culture and while none of us, save for Preston, had any real religious views. But, in her culture, family and god were absolute and there was a hierarchy to be respected. Her brother being far older than her was often left in charge and, in his own words to Millie, said she “developed at a remarkably young age” and so felt it necessary to “purge the sin out of her the way only a man can”. I won’t go into the particulars, but you get the picture.

When Millie was 13, she fell pregnant by way of him and was determined to get rid of it. But, after finally finding the courage (and necessity due to the pregnancy) to out her brother to her parents.

They elected to side with him as the “good boy tempted by the she-devil”, casting her out and forcing her into foster care. Broken and devastated, she aborted and put up her guard over the next several years, becoming the person she always wanted to be while also striving to shed herself of that time in her life.

To the surprise of nobody by this point, her brother and parents had gone on a missionary trip to South America the year prior, though Millie kept no contact with them save for knowing they were nowhere near her. The entire family went missing, and it was expected they succumbed to the elements, that natural predators lurking in the jungle or a native tribe had killed them. This brought small comfort, but some degree of catharsis, she admitted.

That being said, JJ had a remarkable way of pulling out our innermost shame, our darkest secrets and laying them bare. We just didn’t know why.

One by one, we all talked about how we were feeling up to that point, our anxieties over what had been said, our fears over what WILL be said and our resolve to finish this.

Fay: I’m not stopping, there’s nothing he can say about me or Tristan that’d make us wanna quit, right?

Tristan: Yeah, I’m with you. We’ve done some dark stuff, but nothing we’d ever wanna hide from you guys. Plus, we’d feel shitty if we dropped out now when you’d all gone through it. That ain’t the Muldoon way.

Warren: I wanna smash JJ’s face in, I don’t know HOW we’re gonna find him, but we will. Because once the next episode airs and he’s done with all of us, the fuck is he gonna do then? My bet is he’ll want a face to face, settle the score.

Mathias: Well, this… man, monster, whatever… has abilities we don’t fully grasp. He’s clever, has people around him who he can manipulate and knows SO much about us. I think we need to do some research ahead of next week’s meet, finally get our heads out of our asses and fight back. Right?

Preston: mm, I’ll join you, you need someone like me to keep you on track and stop you overthinking too much.

Mathias: I do NOT overthink too much.

Fay: Remember when you had an anxiety attack over black holes?

Tristan: Oh yeah, you hyperventilated thinking about being sucked into one and the “absence of nothingness”

Fay: Local man is terrified of becoming space spaghetti.

There was a smatter of laughter around the room and for the first time in a long time, we felt better.

Mathias: It’s a normal reaction to something so fucking horrifying, okay? But sure, Preston, I’d appreciate the help. Millie: Whatever you decide, I’m in. I wanna prove that I’m not that girl anymore.

We put our hands in, each one of us determined to make sure that we held up our end of the bargain.

Of course, you know how this ends. The next time we met was The Day of Separation, the worst day in our lives and one that was permanently etched into our collective memories for 10 agonising years.

Because, if I’m being truthful, the name wasn’t just to imply we broke up as a friendship group. Nor was it a way of explaining what happened at Mantis Reach.

It was the day one of our group members was taken from us. By the network. By JJ. We watched them on air as they were stolen away.

And 10 years on… we don’t know how to get them back.