A collection of pages from the Alan Wake Episode 6: Departure chapter.
The dark place I found myself in was unlike anything I could ever have imagined; it wasn’t solid, it flowed. It was conceptual and subjective.
Departure, Page 4: The Dark Place
The Dark Presence was no longer trying to capture the writer so he could create the ending it wanted.
The writer knew too much. He was too strong, and he carried a weapon left behind by Thomas Zane, something that could hurt it.
Now the darkness was doing everything in its power to simply stop the writer from ever reaching Cauldron Lake and the dark place it came from.
The bottom of Cauldron Lake was a graveyard of things the lake had claimed in one way or another over the decades. The Dark Presence brought them up in its wake, scattering the rotten, waterlogged hull of an old boat here, the remains of a long-ago crashed airplane there.
Trees shattered under the impacts. The earth groaned. It didn’t even notice.
Zane cut its heart out, but it didn’t die. The thing that wore Barbara’s face kept crooning sweet nothings, sugar laced with poison.
He put on the suit, untied the monster from the chair. The thing in his arms thrashed weakly, but he held fast. He stepped outside, off the pier, and into the dark water, a sinking pinprick of light, descending toward a bottom that never came.
The dark place I found myself in was unlike anything I could ever have imagined; it wasn’t solid, it flowed. It was conceptual and subjective.
For someone else, an artist in another field, it would have been very different. I could sense the story of the manuscript all around me, the words and ideas floating in the air, poised to become real.
After Zane had gone, I stood alone in the shifting dream that was the dark place. I had to find a way to the cabin. I had written myself a way through this place in the manuscript.
I followed the idea of a path. I had written myself across the ocean that blocked my way, and with that, there was a bridge to the island beyond. The idea of the cabin flickered in the underwater darkness. I willed the cabin to be real.
And it was.
Note: This page can only be found in Nightmare Mode.
You can find this page on a shelf on the barn’s second floor, following the possessed monster truck. On the first floor of this barn is a safe zone with a pickup truck you can drive.
The Poet and the Muse lyrics by Old Gods of Asgard.
The second verse:
The poet came down to the lake to call out to his dear
When there was no answer he was overcome with fear
He searched in vain for his treasure lost and too soon the night would fall
Only his own echo would wail back at his call
And when he swore to bring back his love by stories he’d create
Nightmares shifted in their sleep in the darkness of the lake.
Note: This page can only be found in Nightmare Mode.
You can find this page on a table on the second floor of the Yard Manager’s Garage.
The Poet and the Muse lyrics by Old Gods of Asgard.
The third verse:
In the dead of night she came to him with darkness in her eyes
Wearing a mourning gown, sweet words as her disguise
He took her in without a word for he saw his grave mistake
And vowed them both to silence deep beneath the lake
Now, if it’s real or just a dream one mystery remains
For it is said, on moonless nights they may still haunt this place
In the end, Barry wasn’t going to shoot Sarah, they both knew that. Once she had no chance of catching up to Wake, Barry gave up the gun and sat down on the floor, shielding his face from the merciless glare of the Well-Lit Room.
“I don’t think I’m ever gonna see him again,” he said in a weak voice.
Sarah didn’t have it in her to be mad at him. Besides, he was probably right.
Location: Once you reach the junkyard gate, you will see that the asphalt road straight forward is blocked. Drive around the blockade, among trees, or simply pass it by on foot. At the end of that road, you’ll find a green work truck truck and the page on it.
Note: This page can only be found in Nightmare Mode.
This page can only be found in Nightmare Mode.
I’d first heard the poem in a dream, recited by a strange UFO-like light. I’d read it again in the cabin, in a book by Thomas Zane:
For he did not know
That beyond the lake
He called home
Lies a deeper, darker
Ocean green
Where waves are
Both wilder
And more serene
To its ports I’ve been
To its ports I’ve been.
Location: Look for a mesh fence near the generator that powers the elevator, in the mine encampment; the note is pinned to the fence at the back of the fence when you go around.
