Savages (AHS: Roanoke)

Chapter 4

[MUSIC ABOVE ^]
Yeah, the storm cellar. It's a wonder, I didn't discover this piece of my property until about midweek following.

"But you didn't see the MacLean sisters until later that week?" the interviewer questioned.

Cole just sighed, shaking his head with a slight pout – I found out something really weird in that cellar. Let me just tell you, it's kind of a long story. Y-You're filming still, right?

The interviewer nodded, and Cole continued.

I found tapes down there. They had to have been 15 or 20 years old tops. I was nervous even going down into the cellar. There was a ladder leading down to the floor, and I climbed down slowly. I was cautious. Anything could have been down there. Turns out, I was right. I put on my flashlight and saw things laying around. Belongings. It was like someone had lived underneath my nose, or the noses of previous inhabitants. It chilled me to the bone.

One of the first things I noticed, aside from a dusty cot and old TV set was a set of tapes. I was curious, so...I naturally took the top 3 tapes laying on top of the box of other ones back into my house and took them to my TV. A VHS is unheard of, but....it was there when I moved in.

The first video I saw was really creepy and made no sense. It was, uh, frightful panting...and a guy with a pig head chasing after whoever filmed the tape. It looked like one of those creepy Youtube videos someone put up for fun to scare others. The camera also was shaky, which added to the creepy level. Scarier than Sarah, I'd say.

Next video I popped into the VHS player startled me the minute it played. I paused it, gasping to see a middle-aged man, probably in his late-50s with no hair and a long, matted, messy beard. Then I remember that the surroundings in the video were the same as what I saw in the cellar. The quality was horrible, but at the same time, I could make out what he was saying. I sat down, cracked open my soda, and listened as I took a sip.

"I am not what I am. This is not what I envisioned when I first came here, but there are forces that will not let me sleep."

The man's voice sounded crazed. He clearly wasn't sane in any way.

"They keep coming to me, showing me horrible things, escalating every night, until it got physical." Then I watched, in the video, he was taking down his shirt collar. "Look, look. Here's what they did to me!" I nearly had soda down the wrong pipe, watching as he showed deep scarring around his neck while frantically panting. My eyes widened, staying that way for the duration of his next sentence.

"I'm too afraid to go back into that house now. I fear that whatever malevolent force is there intends to kill me! S-So I'm living here in the cellar. It's-it's cold. It's smelly, a-and despite appearances, I am not crazy!"

Sure, sure you aren't, pal...well, then he got into, you know, who he was, exactly. It was a relief to know, but it was still...ugh, unsettling!

"I am an academic. I am an author," he said in the video. Keep in mind, he still sounded crazed. "Okay, from the beginning. Today is October 11, 2005. This recording will be my last testament."

So...this man is dead? That was my first thought, obviously.

"Um, I want to tell the truth, as much as I know of it. Fact: my name is Dr. Elias Cunningham. I am a professor at Bradley University," he described. "Fact: I came here two months ago to begin research on my new book about the Roanoke Colony disappearance of 1590. I was staying with my colleague, Professor Lawrence MacLean."