The Deposition of Julian Thorne

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CASE NO: 88-CV-402 MATTER: Liability Claim regarding the Event at Val-Serein DATE: November 14, 19XX WITNESS: Julian Thorne COUNSEL: Marcus Vane (for the Plaintiff) (The witness is sworn in) Q: Mr. Thorne, please state your former occupation in the village of Val-Serein. A: I served as the primary campanologist, or bell-ringer, for the Parish of St. Jude for twelve years. Q: Specifically, can you describe the duties associated with the ritual known as the Waking Toll? A: The Waking Toll is not a religious service in the traditional sense. It is a rhythmic maintenance. Every morning at 4:12 AM, the Great Bronze bell must be struck in a specific sequence: three slow tolls, one rapid strike, a pause of exactly four seconds, and a final, sustained ringing. This sequence must be repeated three times without variation. Q: What is the purpose of this specific timing? A: The rhythm creates a sonic boundary. It does not wake the villagers; it keeps the perimeter of the town square closed. The frequency of the Great Bronze, when timed correctly, prevents certain... spatial inconsistencies from manifesting within the village limits. Q: You are referring to the events of August 3rd. Please describe the failure that occurred that morning. A: It was an unusually humid morning. The hemp rope had absorbed moisture and become heavy. During the second repetition of the sequence, on the fourth strike, my grip slipped. I was late by perhaps half a second. The rapid strike became a slow one. Q: And what was the immediate result of this rhythmic error? A: The silence that followed was not a natural silence. It was a vacuum. I remember looking down from the belfry into the square. The morning mist didn't just shift; it folded. It looked as though the air was being pinched by an invisible hand. Q: Did you observe anything enter the square? A: Yes. It emerged from the point where the rhythm had failed. It was a pale, translucent mass, roughly twelve feet in height, consisting of what appeared to be overlapping layers of human skin. It had no face, but it possessed several long, multi-jointed appendages that moved with a mechanical, clicking precision. Q: Describe the entity's interaction with the villagers. A: It did not attack in a conventional manner. It simply occupied the center of the square. As it breathed, the architecture of the surrounding buildings began to warp. The stones of the bakery softened like wax. People who were caught in the square began to... synchronize. They stopped screaming and began to move in time with the entity's clicking appendages. Q: Were you able to correct the error? A: I attempted to ring the bell again. I tried to force the rhythm, but the bell would not speak. The clapper hit the bronze, but there was no sound. The entity had not just entered the square; it had consumed the possibility of the sound. Q: How long did the entity remain in Val-Serein? A: Until the sun reached the zenith. Once the light hit the center of the square, the entity collapsed into a single, dense point and vanished. It left behind fourteen residents who were no longer capable of speech, though they continued to twitch in that same, rhythmic clicking pattern for the rest of their lives. Q: Did you report this to the Parish Council immediately? A: I did. They told me the rope was maintained to code and that my negligence was the sole cause of the breach. (End of transcript excerpt)