Chapter Text
A click of a tape began.
A voice rang out through the speaker, clearing their throat before they started to speak.
“Oh, I hope this is working. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. The head Archivist here in The Order, located in the City of Coruscant. The Order is an Institution dedicated to the research and investigation of the paranormal and the unexplained. The Archivist before me was my teacher Qui-Gon Jinn, who died recently due to detail that has not yet been explained to me.
I was an assistant of his while he was the Archivist, alongside my now assistant Anakin Skywalker and his assistant, for whatever reason he has one, Ahsoka Tano. Their duty is to further investigate statements that have been given. Qui-Gon recorded these on a tape recorder, such as the one I am using now. Many of them are damaged thus causing them to not be playable. As well as many statements are not in chronological order but in what seems to be random piles. I already put Anakin and Ahsoka to work to be able to reorganize the piles that were created. But enough of this. The first statement I have found to be the most recently picked before Qui-Gon’s passing was statement #34896.
Statement of Val’tine Thems, regarding a world found behind her closet door. Original Statement given on October 12, 1994. Audio recording by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Head Archivist of The Order.
Statement Begins”
“It’s honestly so confusing to me. All of this is the only reason I’m here is because of an Ad I found about this place that made me even consider coming here to tell you what happened. I guess I’ll start at where it can make the most sense for both me and you. This whole thing started almost a year ago when I moved into a new apartment.
It was a normal place; standard kitchen, living room, a small patio connected to the living room, 2 bathrooms, and two bedrooms. The second bedroom was used as an office space since I lived alone. Everything was fine for a few months.
Then I started to hear noises, which at first I didn’t think twice about. It was an apartment, the walls were thin, and my neighbors were college students. It just seemed normal. That was until noises started to become more intense. Like it was actually in the walls instead of on the other side of them.
I decided to ask my neighbors to see if they heard the noises. The apartment hallways were thin, honestly, I’m lucky that I didn’t have claustrophobia. The college kids I asked first didn’t know anything about a noise. Almost as if it doesn’t exist. The other neighbor was an old woman, she was deaf in one ear and partly going deaf in the other. Or that’s what her son said when he visits her every so often.
It was basically a no-go. The noises got loader, I practically tried spending any second I didn’t have to be in my apartment somewhere out of it. Spending the night at a friend's, working overtime at work, etc. I just knew if I stayed in that apartment I would start pulling hair out of my head. I got so sick and tired of having to leave the apartment all the time, I…..I gave up.
It was a Thursday night; I didn’t have any work. I just sat on my couch, staring at the wall. The noise was so loud I couldn’t even hear my own thoughts. It was like the noise occupied every inch of my mind. It the thundering, like a drum. Screams of disembodied people, water that was flowing like rivers to destinations unknown. I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew the noise had to be coming from somewhere.
The noise was loud, yes, but it was louder in places around the apartment than others. I started in the kitchen, but it was too quiet. I made my way into my office, it was louder, but not quite the loudest. A feeling struck me, my bedroom. That was the only place in the entire apartment I realized I avoided the most, it took me then and there to realize…the noise was coming from my room.
There were only so many places in my room, but it didn’t matter. It was like my body was guiding itself, the closest was where I was heading. Behind my clothes was red. Just red. All of it, I placed my hand on the back, but it just went through. I walked through the red mash like it was a screen door. But the other side, I could have cried. I did cry. The noises I was hearing for months! It was so much worse, so….so much worse. The place, no…no the world on the other side of my closest door was horrifying. Tress like I have never seen before, bodies hung from them. Red water and I hoped to God that it wasn’t blood.
God, sorry if my handwriting is unreadable. It was too much to see. I think I blocked most of what I saw there. I don’t remember much, just…. just pain. Both physical, which I don’t know how, and mental. It just hurt.
I do remember that I stayed with a friend of mine for a few days before I decided to move. My family didn’t understand, honestly neither did I. I don’t even know if what I saw was real. I just needed to get out of there. I asked my sister to pack my stuff. She agreed once she saw how I acted with asked to go back there.
That was a year ago. My new apartment is better, but I now have a healthy fear of my closest. Guess you could say I’m afraid of the monster in my closet.”
“Statement ends. Unfortunately, we can no longer get an additional statement from Miss Thems. A month after she gave this statement she was issued to a mental hospital by her family because of ‘behavior issues' that were not regular to her normal behavior. She died shortly after being admitted because of a heart attack caused by stress. I did call to see if I could get some records on her treatment there. Apparently, she developed extreme paranoia as well as hallucinations of a ‘red world’ as said by her doctor's notes.
Whatever she saw in that Red World, even if there isn’t one, damaged her beyond belief. I just hope that she-
Anakin? Anakin! No, don’t put that-!”
The tape clicks off.