Wyrd Woman is an audio drama from Broads and Books Productions. The show is written, performed and produced by Amy Lee Lillard.
Music comes from the Ghosts albums by Nine Inch Nails, courtesy of a Creative Commons license.
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Episode Transcript: Night 9
Intro voiceover:
Wyrd Woman is intended for an adult audience, and discusses mental health, history, and other tough topics. Take care when listening.
Music*:
01 Ghosts I, Nine Inch Nails
Sound:
Record button on Voice Notes
Woman:
I’ve been getting lots of texts and notifications today. I’ve muted them all. I’ve stayed off the internet. I know nothing.
But I also know everything.
It’s night again, and it feels… final somehow.
Last night, after the Original One left, something shifted. Booms in the distance. And noises outside all day. Sirens far away, getting closer.
It’s happening. Whatever it is.
I… I opened the door for Major Tom. And he looked at me for a second, then he sniffed, and then he ran. Far into the woods. Somewhere safe.
I… it’s better for him. It has to be.
Because I have this feeling that it’s time for me.
Music: Ugly One theme (2 Ghosts I, Nine Inch Nails)
Ugly One:
It’s night here too in Moscow. I see them. Down the dark street. Black cars, moving like gruesome shadows. Black clothes. Black mask for me.
Woman:
You’re back. I’m so glad. I hoped that you would come back. Especially tonight. Especially on your night.
Music: Old One theme (13 Ghosts II, Nine Inch Nails)
Old One:
It’s night, and I see the flames down the hill. The man wants. The man wants my land. He will call me witch to get it.
He is here.
Woman:
Yes. Thank you. Thank you for coming.
He’ll be here soon. But stay with us. Stay with me.
Music: Unnatural One theme (36 Ghosts IV, Nine Inch Nails)
Unnatural One:
It’s night, and the man is at the door, and I feel there will be pain tonight. A rage scorches his skin, rage that I will never truly be his. I wish … she was here.
Woman:
Yeah. He’s coming. Curl your fists. Close your eyes.
Music: Future One theme (33 Ghosts IV, Nine Inch Nails)
Future One:
It’s night in Paraguay, and the Americans are coming, in their black birds and black webs. They’ve found me and those with me.
Woman:
Breathe. Hear your breath, not the birds.
Music: Broken One theme (28 Ghosts IV, Nine Inch Nails)
Broken One:
Night has come, and there are thieves, brigands, outside the barn. They will not see I am truly an animal. They will see my shape and my end will come.
Woman:
Crouch down. Get ready.
Music: Mad One theme (20 Ghosts III, Nine Inch Nails)
Mad One:
It is night, and the asylum staff are coming. They came to take me away long ago, and they keep coming, keep prodding, and testing, and shocking, because I’m nothing, no one, not real…
Woman:
You are here. You are with us. You are real.
This is what it’s all for. This thread we have. This sight.
So we can see the end, and face it, and know we’re not the first, nor the last, to do it.
[Hums 12 Ghosts II, Nine Inch Nails]
Oh.
Down the road, I see a black car. It’s coming this way.
I’m going to disappear, aren’t I? They’re really going to do it. They’re really going to make me … just gone.
And – no one comes after me. I won’t be on a family tree for those that come later.
I knew that, when I decided not to have kids. I knew it, and I know it now, and it stings, it does. It… it hurts, that I’ll just be … like I was never here.
Music: Original One theme (22 Ghosts III, Nine Inch Nails)
Original One:
But you were. You are.
No matter if you bring more people into the world. That matters not, not in the face of annihilation. Not at the end.
Because people will keep living, keep making the world, keep ruining the world. Keep bringing about its end.
Woman:
It’s so dark, your wyrd.
The car is definitely coming up the road. Two of them.
Ok. Ok. Do I – do I do it? On my terms? Is that honor? To end my life, in my own way?
Or. Do I – do I grab whatever I can? A knife, a, a something heavy? Fight in the pathetic way that I can?
I don’t – I don’t even know if it’s really the end.
But I do, don’t I?
How… how (whispers) how do I know…
Music: Ugly One theme (2 Ghosts I, Nine Inch Nails)
Ugly One:
The black cars are outside my flat. The men in their boots pound on the door.
I will go with them. And I will face what comes.
Woman:
But it will be torture, pain. You know that. Then, the gulag – years of starvation and abuse and … how, how can you accept that?
Music: Old One theme (13 Ghosts II, Nine Inch Nails)
Old One:
My door. He demands. The witch come out. He promises flames.
I will go out, and I will face him.
Woman:
But – they’ll question you, and they’ll trick, and then, then they’ll burn you…
(whispers) oh god, the cars are outside the house.
No, no.
No, we had it all wrong! We can’t just accept pain and death, and we can’t fight, who do we think we are, we’re, we have to –
Music: Unnatural One theme (36 Ghosts IV, Nine Inch Nails)
Unnatural One:
The man is here, the husband, and he is so angry, so full of bile, holding a belt.
I will stand, and I will show him my frown, and my gritted teeth, and my closed fist.
Woman:
No, no, he’s just going to hurt you more, fuck, no, this is all wrong…
Music: Future One theme (33 Ghosts IV, Nine Inch Nails)
Future One:
The American birds are here, and they wait outside.
I will leave my home, and I will look them in the eye. I will make them see me.
Woman:
NO, no, no. Stop, we have to stop, we have to, wait wait wait…
All of you, no, we can’t, we have to stop, try to get them to stop…
Music: Broken One theme (28 Ghosts IV, Nine Inch Nails)
Broken One:
The rogues have spied me in the barn, and they taunt and tarry.
Under my hand, under the hay, there is cold steel. A tool for cleaning, for separating the straw, and I will take it and stand.
Woman:
This isn’t real. None of this is real. None of you are real.
It’s just a dream.
Just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream.
It was all just dreams.
I’m just a scared, pathetic woman, and they’re coming for me, and none of you can help me, none of you.
Music: Mad One theme (20 Ghosts III, Nine Inch Nails)
Mad One:
The asylum staff have captured me, taken me to their room of medical tools.
And I am docile. I do what they say.
I do what you say, you, Weird One. So scared and lost.
I give in. I don’t fight.
But – I remember.
I survive.
I exist.
Remember?
I exist.
You exist.
And that is fight. That is facing our fate with honor.
Woman:
Yes.
You’re right. I know. I know.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry to all of you.
And – I am here.
The Voyager. Think of the Voyager. It’s out there, it’s all alone. Far beyond the reach of anyone and anything. But it’s there, out there in the black. And someone will find it. Someone will find it. It won’t be for nothing. The sound, it will carry. Our sound will carry. It will travel. We’ll live on. Yeah, it’s alone and it’s so dark out there. We’re all traveling in the dark. We’re all out there in the dark. Our sound is in there, our sound is out in the dark, and it’s traveling. And it’s traveled between us. It’s connected all of us. It’s brought us together. That’s the power, that’s the power of sound. And you can hear my voice. You can hear it as it travels. And I can hear you. And that’s enough. That’s enough for now. And in the future maybe there’ll be more, maybe someone will find us again. And we won’t have disappeared. The Voyager hasn’t disappeared, it’s out there,
We’ll be out there, in the dark, we’ll be traveling. We’ll live. We’ll live on.
Music: Original One theme (22 Ghosts III, Nine Inch Nails)
Original One:
I found you all, as I faced the end of my world.
I was scared, and confused, and distrusting of wyrd, of everything we believe.
But. Our ends come.
And for us, those who question, who think, who are the strange, the old, the unnatural, the broken, the mad, the ugly…
Our ends may hurt.
But we are here. We have been here.
I will hold you all in me. I will bring you with my body as I walk the ground, and breathe the air, and pray to our gods, and I will spread you out into the world. And you will never die.
Music: All themes
All Ones:
I will remember you.
I exist.
You will never die.
Woman:
[hums 12 Ghosts II, Nine Inch Nails]
Sound: Pounding on door; radio static from outside the door
And it won’t always be dark.
There’s a bright sun out there. There’s a bright sun that’s drawing us towards it. And we’ll have to cross so far to get there. But it’s drawing us in, each of us, our own little explorers, our own little Voyagers. All of us together.
That sun, it’s out there. And it’s so bright.
It’s so bright. It’s out there. I know it is. In the meantime, we’ll fly, we’ll sail through the dark.
Because I exist.
Music: Weird One theme (34 Ghosts IV, Nine Inch Nails)
I exist.
I have existed.
You all exist.
I will remember.
We exist.
I am the Weird One, and I exist.
I exist, we exist, we will exist. Long into the dark. The sun is out there, it’s out there for us.
We will never die. We will never disappear, we will never die.
And neither will you.
Sound: Record off.
Music: Outro theme (12 Ghosts II, Nine Inch Nails)
Voiceover:
Wyrd Woman is an audio drama from Broads and Books Productions.
The show is written, performed and produced by Amy Lee Lillard.
Music comes from the Ghosts albums by Nine Inch Nails, courtesy of a Creative Commons license.
Find full episode notes, transcripts, and show details at wyrdwomanpodcast.com.
If you like what you hear, tell a weird friend.
Thanks for listening.
* All music comes from the Ghosts albums by Nine Inch Nails, courtesy of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.
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