The following is an interview between patient #117 and their attending physician, Dr. Robert Blake. All materials are property of the Willow Village Asylum:

(This tape begins differently… I can hear the sound of a woman singing. It is faint, I can’t make out any of the words, it might not even be in English. This goes on for a few minutes.)

Dr. Blake: That’s quite enough, you can see that I am wearing protection. Your song won’t work on me. I can’t hear a single sound you are making. If you would like to talk, I would be more than happy to read your lips to communicate, as is our usual arrangement.

(The woman laughs before she speaks and I feel a chill run along my spine. I hadn’t even noticed, but until the doctor spoke, there was clearly some kind of effect on me from her voice. My blood felt warm… my body and my train of thought was completely gone. It took me a moment to even realize where I was again as well as what I was doing.)

Patient #117: My apologies, doctor. You can’t blame me for trying.

Dr. Blake: I can actually, after all the time we have spent together.. Yet here we are, us in a room and you still trying to kill me.

(The woman on the tape gasps audibly before responding.)

Patient #117: I would never! The nerve of you! I am just a simple woman singing a tune. The music is meant to soothe and nothing more.

Dr. Blake: Why do you creatures lie? What is the motivation behind it? What makes you incapable of being truthful?

Patient #117: Such hurtful words, have you no manners? You can be such a brute, honestly.

Dr. Blake: Yes, it’s my job to be straightforward. Like right now, for instance, I am trying to figure out exactly what kind of monster you are, how many people you have killed exactly, for what feels like the hundredth time.

Patient #117: I used to be normal, like yourself. Did you know that, Doctor? I was concerned with the comings and goings of a life that is all to fleeting. An obsession with material possessions that held no true value.

Dr. Blake: You are dodging the question.

Patient #117: Please don’t interrupt…it is quite rude.

Dr. Blake: My apologies, please continue.
(I can hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice.)

Patient #117: They say that greed is the downfall of man, but that’s just not true. Greed is what gets you ahead. It goes hand in hand with ambition. If you are never satisfied with what you have, then you keep pushing forward, plowing ahead as you take everything you can.

Dr. Blake: Lovely.

(Again, she laughs. For the first time since the tape began, I detect..something off. At first she seemed enchanting, but now I shudder at the thought of ever being enamored by whomever had just made that sound.)

Patient #117: I had humble beginnings, like plenty of artists. I would sing in small watering holes, taverns, anywhere that would have me, really. It was never enough though, how could it be?

I clearly have impeccable taste, despite this drab white outfit that your organization makes me wear.

(There’s a pause for a few seconds, at which point she begans to hum softly. I felt myself becoming nauseated, my head beginning to swirl. Suddenly I felt heat..no wait…I felt fire.
I looked down and saw bright green flames dancing up along my clothes. The fires felt cleansing, as if they were here to liberate me from this exhausting and vile existence.)

Dr. Blake: Cut that out, seriously. One more time and I will make sure that the next time you get to come up out of your hole, you won’t even remember what the sun looks like.

(The humming stops immediately. I blink twice and then immediately begin to heave. After a few seconds I end up vomiting onto the floor.)

Patient #117: You feel strong, don’t you? You shouldn’t. This place can’t hold me forever, I’m going to get out of here eventually. You should ask me what I am going to do when I get out.

Dr. Blake: Incredibly bold of you to assume that you are ever going to see outside of these walls ever again.

Patient #117: Go on then, ask me. Don’t be shy, doctor.

(I hear the doctor sigh audibly before responding.)

Dr. Blake: What is it you are going to do when you get out of here?

Patient #117: I am going to track down every single person that you have ever cared about in your entire life. Your children, your family, your coworkers, every single person who is on good terms with you. Then after they are all in one place… I am going to sing them the most beautiful song that they’ll ever hear.

Dr. Blake: You know you are the only person I care about, Emma. You should start with yourself.

Patient #117: Flattery will get you everywhere…well usually. Not in your case though. You are somehow more of a liar than even myself, doctor.

Dr. Blake: Tell me about the concert in Vienna.

Patient #117: That brings back some memories, such a lovely crowd that I had that evening. I got a standing ovation from the entire audience, did you know that?

Dr. Blake: They were standing because they were trying to escape.

Patient #117: Nonsense, absolutely preposterous. They loved me, as they should have. Why don’t you take those ridiculous headphones off and find out why, doctor.

Dr. Blake: These sessions would go infinitely faster if you would just answer my questions instead of trying to kill me.

Patient #117: Where’s the fun in that though?

Dr. Blake: Tell me about Vienna, I am tired of asking you. My predecessor was tired of asking as well, he should have done me a favor and put a bullet in your skull.

Patient #117: Very well, if you insist. There is no need to be crass, there’s not much to tell.

It was my first major performance after a very important deal, and unfortunately thanks to your organization, my last true show. A good business deal is a wonderful thing that can change the very trajectory of an otherwise stagnant career.

Vienna was to be my unleashing upon humanity. It was to be the first of countless performances that would make the world absolutely shine.

Dr. Blake: Who did you make a deal with? You always mention this deal and never who is behind it.

Patient #117: These deals aren’t the kind that you make with people, doctor. Do you know of anyone you can ask? A person who can do for you what has been done for me? Transform you out of your dull mediocre existence and into an actual living god?

Dr. Blake: I want a name.

Patient #117: You already have a name, it’s Robert. Such a dull name for a dead man like yourself.

Dr. Blake: I guess we are done here then.

Patient #117: I suppose so.

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Subject:  EMMA RISKOT

Time since acquisition: 25 years, 6 months, 12 days.

Emma is one of our oldest and most dangerous patients here. I inherited her from my predecessor, who also was left with her by his superior. She has seen more change of personnel than I care to admit.

She sang a song, that was all. The effects of her song were catastrophic. In total there was over seventy five people dead. We couldn’t have done anything to stop it. So we did the next best thing.. we covered it up.

I have read the reports myself. Every single person in that room went out in a terrible way.
They had heard her sing…her price for that privilege was death. Every single persons teeth had been cracked from the sheer force of the grin that they wore upon their faces. It was as if their expressions were locked into place.

Their bodies were tense and rigid. This made them difficult to move. Seventy five was far too many to cover up using routine methods. So my predecessors had to get a little more creative than usual.

The bodies were piled up and doused in accelerant before the building was set ablaze. History would remember this as either an accident or as an act of arson,nothing more.

That just left us with one issue. We had no idea who we were even looking for.

There was a young rookie on her first month in the field, she was just starting out. It just so happened that night, her mentor felt like having a drink. So he stopped for one in a small out of the way watering hole, just outside the city limits.

The owner said they had live entertainment performing that night, a local woman who claimed she could sing like no other.

She was tall, about twenty five, blonde hair, green eyes, a captivating aura about her. She was a woman who commanded your attention, quite literally.

That was our Emma.

As soon as she sang, everything in the world stopped what it was doing. Every conversation instantly ceased, you couldn’t hear a breath in the room…even if you wanted to. There was nowhere else to look, nowhere else to stare, apparently the sound that came out of her was a thing of such pure beauty that it would drive anyone mad.

She sang her song, for about thirty seconds, before the rookie smashed a large wine bottle across the side of her head, stopping a performance that would have certainly ended up with more deceased.

It was a sheer stroke of luck that particular trainee was in that room. The song didn’t work on her because quite simply…well she was deaf. Her mentor had been mid-sentence with her when the show started, so she quite easily pieced together what was happening.

We didn’t know at that point Emma was responsible for the tragedy in Vienna, but we knew she was dangerous. It wasn’t hard to piece together the events after we found a flyer with her face plastered across it, a flyer that had promised the show of a lifetime.

She was sedated and moved to various locations throughout the years, always with the right precautions in place to ensure that she wasn’t heard by anyone. Her room is always soundproof and she is never checked on by anyone without completely blocked hearing.

Her voice isn’t the only confounding thing about her though. Twenty five years she has been with us, in all of that time her appearance hasn’t changed at all, not even in the slightest.

Healthy, tan, the same exact weight. These are all things that should have changed with her imprisonment, but didn’t. Not only that, but she hasn’t aged a single day. Same height, same exact weight. It shouldn’t be possible, but considering this profession, it’s not the strangest thing that I have come across.

Personally, I don’t know why we don’t just kill her, but that’s not my call to make. So we will continue to observe and occasionally meet with her. It is my professional opinion that if given the opportunity, she wouldn’t waste a second killing each and every one of us. She’s dangerous, probably more than we are even aware. If she’s not here… that means there are massive problems out there.

End recording