Lot 152: To Dance Among The Black Firs (Chapter 2 of 2)

The Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings

This episode continues the horror audio drama 'To Dance Among The Black Firs,' following investigator Chase Hastings as he delves deeper into a cursed forest marked by mysterious charcoal spirals. As Chase

Key takeaways

• Chase Hastings documents a series of charcoal spiral symbols on birch bark that seem to shift dimensionally when observed.
• The protagonist discovers a trashed campsite with tent poles twisted like taffy and embers that refuse to register on thermal imaging.

Main topics

• Horror audio drama
• Supernatural investigation

Notable quotes

Never reproduce a symbol whose meaning you don't understand. After all, you may think you're copying a warning. When you're actually writing an invitation.

Conclusion

The episode delivers a tightly paced descent into supernatural dread, using audio storytelling

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) Calling out my film freaks. The first annual Ripcord Halloween Film Festival is coming and you're invited. Starting October 19th, you can watch the top 50 genre shorts, monsters, ghosts, aliens, and twists you will not see coming. Then vote online to help pick the top 10 finalists with one freaky talented filmmaker about to win the biggest cash prize ever for a short film competition. $100,000. Someone's life is about to change this Halloween week. Here's how to get in on the action right now. Register at ripcord.film. It's free, and it not only gets you into the online festival, but automatically enters you for a shot at winning a pair of tickets to the live Hollywood screening at the world-famous TCL Chinese Theater October 29th. In fact, Ripcord is giving away something cool every week, like merch, signed posters, and more. So register today at ripcord.film and don't miss a single chance to win. Open to U.S. residents 18 and over. No purchase necessary. Official rules are in the giveaway post on Ripcord Films' Facebook and Instagram pages. This Speaker 5 (1:01) episode is brought to you by Carrie. Stephen King's iconic first novel is coming to television like you've never seen it before. From visionary showrunner Mike Flanagan comes Carrie. A bold new reimagining of the classic story. Carrie White has spent most of her life hidden away at home with her fiercely protective mother. But after the sudden death of her father sends her into the unforgiving world of public high school, Carrie finds herself dealing with a viral bullying scandal. The cruelty and pressure of the social media age and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers she's only beginning to understand. Across eight gripping episodes, Carrie expands Stephen King's legendary story into something timely, surprising, and deeply human, exploring the choices that can turn kindness into cruelty, and a misunderstood teenager into a hero, a monster, or something far more complicated. Starring Summer H. Howell as Carrie White and Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White. All eight episodes of Carrie premiere October 7th, exclusively on Prime Video. Speaker 3 (2:13) Hello again, dear friend. I see you've returned. How fortunate. Last time we met, I believe we left Mr. Chase Hastings heading rather enthusiastically into the woods. Curiosity does have a way of carrying us farther than intended. Particularly once we've convinced ourselves that we're the ones choosing the direction. Speaker 3 (2:38) Today's acquisition, a thin scrap of birch bark. Upon its surface, a symbol drawn in charcoal. A spiral ending in a single slash. I've attempted to copy it several times. Curiously, it never seems to come out quite the same. Perhaps you'll have better luck. Our account now continues with The Dance Among the Black Furs, Chapter 2. Before we begin, I want to point out some of the customers whose names have been etched in brass on this beautiful plaque I had made above the front desk. These are some of the members of the inner circle of the Antiquarium. We go by the Obsidian Covenant. Speaker 4 (3:30) Recent initiates include Katie Houston, Speaker 3 (3:34) Foundlings and Fae, Punky, Sapient Cheeseburger, Speaker 3 (3:43) and K7. We are ever appreciative of your devotion to the Order. Go to theobsidiancovenant.com to receive the sacrament. Now, where were we? Speaker 3 (4:01) Oh yes. Speaker 3 (4:03) Welcome to the antiquarium of sinister happenings and odd goings on. Speaker 2 (4:48) Stand of Dead Bird. He found the first symbol. It was carved into the side of a trunk. It had height. A looping sigil that started as a spiral and ended as a slash. It looked fresh, the inner wood still wet and Speaker 2 (5:06) The bark around it had healed over in a raised, waxy ridge. Chase reached out and ran his finger along the groove, then snapped a dozen high-res stills from different angles. He measured the size with a ruler, dictated the numbers into his recorder. Speaker 2 (5:25) When he reviewed the footage, the symbol seemed to crawl. The spiral tightening with each frame. He blinked, checked again, but the next playback was Momo. Marking first artifact. Speaker 2 (5:42) He said and moved on, breath coming sharp now. The air colder than it should have been. At 200 yards, another symbol. Speaker 2 (5:53) This one gouged deep into a fur, the lines overlapping until the pattern was almost unreadable. Chase felt the tremor in his hands and forced them steady. Switching to manual focus, lens wide open, he filmed, then moved to the next. They increased in frequency, one every dozen paces, then every few feet. The sequence led him to a clearing that he didn't remember on any of the satellite images he'd memorized. It was a perfect circle, twenty yards across. The forest trimmed back so abruptly it looked as if something had plucked each tree at the root and set it aside. Speaker 2 (6:35) The center of the clearing was bare, no grass or moss, only a black spiral etched into the ground with what looked like burned branches. Around the spiral, the air hummed, just above the threshold of hearing. She scrouched, camera rolling. He whispered. Speaker 5 (6:59) Central locus coordinates. Speaker 2 (7:03) and read the numbers from the GPS even as the screen pixelated and rebooted itself over and over. He planted the first motion camera at the edge of the clearing, triple-checking the aim. The second he sat by the spiral, the lens pointed at ground level. He felt watched. Speaker 2 (7:25) The sensation was precise, clinical. Not a vague dread, but the certainty of eyes tracking every breath. Chase panned the forest with his telephoto, searching for movement, but the trees gave nothing back. He set the last two motion cameras along the trail. each one programmed to text his phone if triggered. The signal bars were still absent, but he told himself the footage would auto-upload to the cloud once he got back to the cabin. He wasn't sure he believed it. His stomach roared, but he ignored the ache. There was a sense of urgency now. A compulsion. He circled the clearing. examining each trunk, each mark. He tried to sketch the symbols in his notebook, but they slipped from his memory the moment he looked away. Each attempt came out different. The sun never crested the trees, but somehow it was dusk. The clearing filled with a vapor. Not quite fog, but a wetness that hovered at shin height, refusing to rise. Speaker 2 (8:38) Chase set up his tripod, filmed a slow 360-degree pan. then dictated his observations until the recorded voice barely above a whisper. Something cracked in the forest behind him. The sharp ripwood, like a branch broken by hand, he spun. Kevin raised saw only the trembling blackness of the furs. Another sound. Speaker 2 (9:07) A creek. then a skittering, like fingers tapping at bark. Chase felt his scalp crawl. sweat trickling under his hat. He pressed to the cord, turned on the floodlight, and swept the woods. Speaker 2 (9:24) He heard his own breath, the rasp of it amplified by the microphone. Louder than the hush of the clearing, he forced himself to narrate to fill the silence. Motion at the edge of the perimeter. No visual. with strong acoustic presence. Speaker 2 (9:43) He swallowed. Heart thudding. We'll review footage at base. This is JSA Sync's documenting. He hesitated, staring into the void between the trees. Documenting the unknown. He let the camera roll as the darkness finished its slow collapse. When the last of the light was gone, he backed up with shaking hands, leaving the motion cams in place. Speaker 2 (10:12) The way back was shorter. Speaker 1 (10:13) Or maybe Speaker 2 (10:14) he just moved faster. The tape he'd left as trail markers was gone. Every strip snipped clean of the knot. He guided himself by GPS, which winked in and out. Then by memory, he didn't dare look back. At the cabin, he slammed the door and bolted it, then dumped the day's raw footage onto the laptop. Speaker 2 (10:39) The files loaded one by one, but the previews were wrong. The images warped, oversaturated. The sound rendered in a wet, sucking pulse that made his He watched the clearing and fast forward, searching for any sign of movement. At the 30-minute mark, a figure flickered at the edge of the frame, a slouching, pale outline, visible only for a single second before vanishing behind a tree. Chase Fruits the frame. He scrubbed back, frame by frame, but found only the static that ruined the shadow of the spiral. Speaker 2 (11:22) The last clip was from the camera nearest the spiral. In the instant before the battery died, there was a voice. Faint, but distinct. Speaking his name. Speaker 2 (11:38) He shut the laptop. and stared at the walls, every sense on high alert. The world outside was dead silent, but he knew with the certainty of a nightmare that the trees were moving, waiting, rearranging themselves for his return. He recorded a voice