fiction

S4 E13: Your Neck

How it Ends·Mar 26, 2026·51:49

About this Episode

Mishaps come in threes. Note to sensitive listeners: Our general CWs are listed in our show description. Episode-specific CWs are at the end of the show notes and contain spoilers. We recommend you review them before listening. Written, Directed, and Produced by Micah Rodriguez, Stephanie Resendes Edited by Jacob Haller and Victoria Cheng Music by Joshua Van Ness Starring: Micah Rodriguez as Micah Jones, Stephanie Resendes as Elia Cabral, Alozie Nwosu as Devon Williams, Tori Thomson as Aimee Perry, J.T. Shea IV as Brendan Perry, Alex Lupica as John Buckley, Lisa Pengov as Abby Buckley, Phil Johnston as Wyll Reginald, Brittanny Taylor as Vallon Grant, Erika Berggren as Rina Castillo, Phi Hamens Nelson as Jacob, Ian R. Q. Slater as Leto Karras, Alexander Bryan as The Voice Episode transcripts by Evelyn Archer A production of How it Ends Studio ⁠Sound Effect Credits⁠ CWs: Threats, death, blood, self-harm, screams, frightening sounds and scenes, stalking, surveillance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Today, I met the love of my life.

Her name is Juniper Sima.

She just, she seemed kind of off to me.

Why would you think that?

Tell me.

It's her eyes. They're just so dark.

I feel like she's going to eat me or something.

I get that a lot.

Hell really, I feel like I'm about to be released.

And she is everything.

Something's amiss at Juniper's house,

available everywhere this Valentine's Day.

This is Micah Jones.

You know who I am.

Are you there?

Are you still listening?

Are you listening?

Are you wondering who I am?

That's the wrong question.

Maybe you should ask how long I've been here.

How long you've been talking to me.

After all the time, there's so much I don't know.

Don't understand.

But with your help, maybe I'll get there.

How it ends is something different now.

Oh, everything is different now.

You'll see.

How do I know?

Because sooner or later, I'll come for you to a few on the other side.

I'll see you in the next one.

John, I'm bringing my computer, tablet, and a portable Wi-Fi.

We don't need to draw our route on a map like it's the 80s again.

Ah, those things fail, Abby.

Always good to have a backup.

I'm glad we're doing this, Ab's.

Finally.

Yeah, me too.

Long overdue.

Hey, John, do you think we could add one more stop to the itinerary?

I don't know.

I've already drawn most of this route.

This is permanent, ain't it?

See, old school isn't always better.

What else would you like to go, my dear?

Here.

The Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge.

A 35,000 acre refuge with tightlands and open water,

featuring many fish species and wintering waterfalls.

You hate the cold.

And you could see so.

I know, I know, I don't know what it is.

It just came up in my searches and I feel drawn to it for some reason.

Where is this exactly?

Castlumat, Washington.

Or maybe it's pronounced Castlumay?

I don't know.

It's on the Columbia River, right on the border of Oregon and Washington.

I see that, yeah.

I mean, Abby, it seems like it's nice enough for you,

but it doesn't look like there's much to do there.

That's way out of the way, too.

Right now, our planned route doesn't have us going any further north than

Boise.

That's more than just a slight detour.

It's a good eight to nine hours off course.

John, the course is not set in stone.

I will go to the store and get you another map of that.

No, no, it's not about the map.

I'm just confused where you want to go that far out of the way

for what seems to be a glorified fishing area.

I don't know either.

Like I said, I just felt a pull towards it.

Maybe, maybe it's just the name, made it feel adventurous.

I'm sorry, Abby.

I didn't mean to burst your bubble.

I don't mind the course change, really.

With all that extra driving, we could find some place way more exciting.

Look here.

Mount Reneer is in that general area.

We could do that.

Yeah, sure.

Sounds good.

And once we leave Mount Reneer, this Lewis and Clark place is only a couple hours away.

If you still feel so strongly about it.

It's a plan.

Okay.

I will need you to get me that new map.

Are you okay?

Are you dizzy again?

Do you need to lie down?

No, not dizzy.

I'm not sure.

I just feel not well.

What do you mean?

What doesn't feel well?

I don't know.

I can't describe it.

It just feels like some sort of impending.

I'll get it.

John, no.

Wait.

What is it?

I don't, I'll come with you.

Hello.

Can we help you?

Jonathan and Abigail Buckley.

That's us.

Good.

Hey, that's what you get for staying out so late last night.

What?

Last night?

I heard you come in at like three or four in the morning.

No, he didn't.

I was in bed.

No.

Weird.

Devon?

It wasn't me.

Hmm.

Must have been molder or something.

I thought I heard the door though.

Yeah, maybe he had the zoomies.

Sounds like a horse when he runs up and down the hall, sometimes.

All right.

Anyone have anything new they want to share with the class?

Sorry, guys.

I wanted to work on some stuff yesterday,

but we have two doctors out on vacation.

I just been slammed all week.

I needed a brain break, so I took a few days off too.

Tried to hustle up some new clients.

Sorry.

It's all good.

I got sidetracked to damage control with the federal grant.

Okay.

Well, let's not waste the time we have now.

I know we're burnt out, but let's rally for the next

couple hours that we have together.

Our mind is in like 10,000 different places.

Yeah, exactly that.

We could pick up where we left off last time.

I also have something I've been working on.

Where did we leave off?

Bull, beacon, lighthouse thing.

Right.

Okay.

Well, actually, let's revisit that hole.

Mike can never get sick thing.

Maybe I'll fucking hell.

Come on.

You have to realize how insane that sounds, right?

There's no way it's true.

You're finding synchronicities and things that are purely coincidental

and forgetting that I don't know.

I've been alive for a long time without many of you around.

So how would you even know?

Are we though?

Are we just finding synchronicities or are you not really listening to us?

Micah, for real.

I'm not trying to gang up on you, but

you have to at least contend the thought that it's odd.

No, maybe you're right.

Maybe you do have some crazy good immune system,

but no one has it that good.

What would you suggest I do?

Maybe I can call up my parents so they can confirm your suspicions?

Oh wait, I fucking can't.

They're both dead.

No, Micah.

Oh, I got it.

Let's put it to bed once and for all.

Oh, Micah, what the fuck?

Why did you fucking do that?

Are you crazy?

Maybe I fucking him.

I'm just sick of you all trying to tell me that I'm some fucking miracle person or something.

The issues we're facing aren't fucking magical, right?

They're people.

We don't know what's going on.

That's the point.

I'm first in line to toss the magical age defying shit into the trash and write it off

as impossible.

But even I'm trying to make sense of what we've seen.

What the fuck are you doing, Micah?

What is this?

This isn't you.

That cut looks deep.

This might need stitches.

It doesn't.

It's not that bad.

How are you going to tell me that?

Because it's my fucking arm.

I'm fine.

Micah, let me at least just...

Fuck.

I don't know why I did that.

I'm so on edge.

Sorry.

It's okay?

Okay.

It's fine, right?

Everybody?

Micah's right.

We're all on edge.

And this whole thing is a lot to take in.

Let's just take a beat.

Hey, let Amy take a look at your arm and at least bandage it up.

Okay?

And then we can just...

Take a breath and move forward.

Are you serious, Elliott?

Yes, Brendan.

Right now, we just need to take a fucking beat.

All right?

Devin, are you okay?

Yeah, yeah, I'm good.

Amy, I'll get you another towel and grab some bandages and stuff from the bathroom.

Okay, uh, someone talk just about anything.

Um, how about...

While I fixed this, Brendan, you said you had something you wanted to bring up, right?

Yeah, uh, I've spent the past couple days going over Simon's map and

cross-referencing it with places Luke and I went.

What'd you come up with?

So there are a few places that I think are definitely significant.

Of course, I can't say for sure, but I've had money on it.

Where?

It's significant, how?

So it's Devil's Kettle, keep disappointment,

Centralia, Lake Tahoe, and somewhere in New Jersey.

I haven't quite been to town yet, but possibly in the area of the Pine Barrens.

I also want to say Thor's well, but I just don't have all the information yet.

So let's put that one aside for now.

Why are these places?

They're all places that Luke and or I were led to at some point, obviously.

And my dad had pins in all of them.

Remember there were three colors of pins on the map?

Black, orange, and gold?

Yeah.

Some of the places I went were marked with a black pin.

Some with orange.

Then there were also some marked with orange that we had on our list of potential places.

My theory is that the black pins are places he verified that I had been.

Orange is speculative.

Do you think he knew Luke was with you at some point?

I don't know.

There's no pattern to the color coding when it comes to places I went alone in places we went

together.

Okay, so what is so special about these places?

Dude, I'm getting there.

When we went to these places, we were always looking for stories, history, events.

But then never got us anywhere, really.

So I tried looking at it from a different angle.

What makes these places unique?

And I figured it out.

It's nature.

Nature?

Yes.

All of these locations have some sort of natural phenomenon associated with them.

Damn, Micah.

You might have been right on the money way back.

Pardon?

The night at Amy's old place, when we tried warrants gross ass look here,

we were looking at eatagims.com and sifting through the stuff that you and Luke sent us.

Not that we knew it came from you at the time, but I digress.

Micah theorized that the locations were potentially significant because of what they are,

not just where they are.

Who's this?

2020?

The award for the world's slowest sleuth goes to me, I guess.

Hey, come on.

Don't do that to yourself.

She only mentioned it as a possibility.

And then we started that sidetracked by the whole masked nightmare people thing.

So you coming to this conclusion after we have a lot more info,

just means that the potential of it being correct is a little higher, right?

Sure.

Makes for me to make me feel better.

Pause for a sec, Brendan.

I need to wash my hands and put this stuff back in the bathroom.

I don't want to miss anything.

Okay.

Uh, Micah, are you going to come sit?

Micah?

You who are comeica?

No.

Please.

No one.

Let's give them a scare, shall we?

No.

Yes.

Please.

Something's wrong.

Stay away.

What are we doing?

Aaahhh!

Huh?

AHHHHHH!

It's coming stop, it's coming!

Oh, no!

Huff!

Soon along in some need...

Huff!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Huff!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Huff!

So we um...

We cannot fucking ignore what just happened in front of our fucking eyes.

Brendan, please, we know we aren't going to ignore anything but yelling is not going to help.

What the hell do you expect?

This is the third time I've seen something like this happen in Micah, the third time.

Can you for a second stop to consider that?

Something is supremely fucked up here and I don't know what to do.

I just know I can't watch her go through this again.

I can't watch her get hurt.

We need to get professional help.

This is gone beyond us. Can't you all fucking see that?

Yes, Brendan, we can.

I think we are all feeling it.

We are trying to figure out what to do next.

Let's try to calm down and focus on solutions.

We have to be very careful about our next steps.

Depending on who Micah sees, what she tells them, this could all backfire.

Trying to explain the things we know or have experienced.

It's sort of a hard sell.

I don't know how to phrase it.

I'm exhausted, sorry.

I know what you're saying and I agree.

Putting it bluntly, if we try to explain any of this to anyone in an official capacity,

Micah could end up somewhere that is very, very hard to get her back from.

That goes for each of us too.

As much as we'd like to lean on someone outside of this group,

I don't see how that's possible.

What are we supposed to do then?

Please.

Someone start throwing out ideas.

Well, I don't think Micah should be alone.

Brendan, are you staying here full-time?

I know you said sometimes you stay at your apartment still.

Sometimes I go over there to work and crash, but I can be here around the clock.

I'm fine with that.

What about work?

You're going to need support, right?

I can come here when I don't have patience.

Micah can always stay with me upstairs too.

I've got the option to work from home more, so maybe I'll take them up on that for a bit.

Okay, that's something.

I have some flexibility as well, so.

Okay, so someone will be around Micah at all times,

and we can call each other for backup or support.

Is there any value in trying harder to track Billy down?

They at least know Micah.

If we can, maybe their sessions can be remote, so one of us can be around.

Yeah, I think that's a good idea.

I'll do what I can.

Maybe Wilkin help?

He might know someone.

Yeah, that's not a bad idea.

I'll call him and fill him in.

What is happening to me?

I don't know, but we're going to get through it, okay?

We're all here.

I feel like I'm ruining your lives.

Maybe you should just call someone and let them deal with this.

You aren't to blame here, Micah.

Something is happening to you, to us.

So what?

You're all just going to babysit me until I fall off the deep end?

That's not going to happen.

It's not like that, Micah.

We're looking out for you.

Yeah, at the expense of your own peace.

What happens when I have to go to New Jersey for stuff?

Like to check out my mom's house?

Is someone going to come with me for that, too?

Why do you have to go there?

Can you check in on a video call?

For the most part, but there's still an investigation into my mom.

Right, right.

Okay, we'll just let us know when you have to go and someone will go with you.

I mean, do you have a trip coming up?

Yeah, in a couple of weeks.

I was planning on going down for a day trip.

I need to meet with Will and the partner I just firm working on my mom's case.

All right, folks, who's up first?

I'll check my calendar.

I'm slammed right now, so I can't take a day off,

but I'm down for anything that's around Providence or at home.

I could go.

Maybe let one of us go this time.

Okay.

But...

Brandon.

Got it.

Sure.

The next few weeks are light for me.

And if you're going later in the week, it'll be even easier,

because I don't have office hours on Fridays.

I was planning on going on a Friday.

Great.

Okay.

We've got a plan.

Yeah.

A plan.

What do you want to drink?

My treat since you drove.

Oh.

I'll take a triple shot latte with open.

Triple shot?

Don't look at me like that.

I'm exhausted.

I'm still not getting enough sleep.

Nope.

I'm not for like a trying now.

And no more incidents.

Incidents?

No, no, nothing like that.

I promise.

If anything happened over the last few weeks, you'd have heard about it.

No.

I'm going to watch it being around the clock.

You know why?

I know.

I'm just crappy.

It's early.

It's fine.

Remind me what the plan is.

We're going to grab this coffee.

Get another drive to my mom's house.

Make sure everything is looking okay.

Catch up with Lucia.

If she's there, then drive to Will's firm for the meeting.

Drive home.

Lucia.

Hmm.

I wonder if that's who replaced.

Oh, so you want me to get you two coffees?

Mm.

All right.

Okay, Jacob.

Here's your moment.

Micah, is that really you?

What is it?

I thought I heard something from him.

Micah.

Micah Jones.

See?

I told you.

Oh.

Oh, shit.

Jacob.

That's me.

Micah, you good?

Yeah, yeah.

I know him.

Let me go say hi.

Come over when you're done ordering.

You might remember him, too.

Jacob fucking his bio.

Wild.

I haven't seen you since.

High school yearbook committee.

I was never in your book.

I am not doing this with you again.

Hey, uh, take a seat if you have a minute.

I'd love to hear how you've been.

Uh, I have just about that.

We're getting a coffee before running a bunch of errands.

Do you remember Amy?

That's who I'm here with.

She didn't go to some of her high school, but we all lived in.

Of course I remember Amy.

Yeah, here she comes.

Amy, do you remember Jacob?

He lived around the corner on demand.

Oh, wait, Jacob, a spayho.

Of course I remember you.

We were in the same class since kindergarten.

Waltland, until high school.

I mean, your sister's Val, right?

Valentina?

I played soccer with her at a maculata.

How are you?

How's Val?

Yeah, that's her.

She's good.

Live this in Northern California with her wife.

As for me, I'm all right.

Busy with work.

Same old stuff, I guess.

Are you local?

Or are you visiting your family?

Oh, my parents left Somerville a long time ago.

I own their house, though, because they wanted to keep it in our family.

Trying to update it here and there.

I'm living there for now, since I work at Rutgers, New Brunswick campus.

Rutgers, huh?

What do you do there?

I'm an adjunct in the communications department.

Journalism and media studies.

Chucks out.

Micah, you still a photographer?

Yeah, I have a few clients on retainer, but...

You keep it moving.

Uh, yeah.

You could say that.

Hmm, checks out.

What about you, too?

What are you doing here?

Any question?

Local or just visiting?

No, not local.

We both live a few hours away, but had some errands to run around here.

You know, checking up on my mom's house.

Amy's just long for the ride.

Are you...

Are you two a couple?

No.

Uh, no.

She's my best friend who's dating my other best friend.

Best friend who's dating other best friend.

Sounds cozy.

Amy...

Perry, right?

AP.

Uh, yeah.

Huh.

AP.

She's the AP from your last Willa test.

How do you even remember this shit, Jacob?

Damn, that was like 20 years ago.

It's my job to remember stuff.

What are you two talking about?

Never mind.

So, right.

Checking up on your mom's house.

Is she on vacation?

I think I drove past her place the other day.

Uh, um...

Just keeping an eye on the place, yeah.

You two come down here often?

I'm around here a lot, so...

Next time you do, you should drop in.

See what I've done with the place.

That's nice of you to offer.

Oh!

My friend is here.

I'll introduce you.

Hello, Jacob.

Hotel!

Hello!

Uh, Micah, Amy.

This is my colleague, hotel.

He works with me at the...

at Rutgers.

This is Micah Jones and Amy Perry.

We grew up together.

Nice to meet you both.

Hotel is an interesting name.

I like it.

My parents were strange, I guess.

Yeah, children of hippies always have the best names.

My parents are a little older than that.

But, yeah, I agree.

I know a woman named Petricor.

Hotel, you seem so familiar.

Have we met?

I don't believe so.

But I suppose you never know.

Yeah, true.

We've got to hurry up if we're going to be on time

for the meeting.

We should head out.

Oh, yeah, sure.

Hey, it was really nice to run into you.

Will you say hi to Val for me?

I definitely will.

And, same.

Really, Jacob, wild to run into you.

It was nice, even if you haven't quit trying to recruit me

for a club I never wanted to be a part of.

Sorry, hotel.

I was riffing off an inside joke about a high school thing.

Hmm.

You're good.

It was nice meeting you.

Maybe we'll run into each other again sometime.

Really, Micah.

Wild to run into you, too.

See you around.

Bye.

I'm assuming you planned that meeting?

It's possible.

I haven't had an ability to test myself in the field.

And how did it go?

Well, I think I'm holding it on the details.

I'm curious about something, though.

Maybe you can help.

Oh.

What's that?

This is obviously my first time engaging with a subject like her.

I wasn't sure what to expect.

I guess I thought I'd feel something akin to what I've read about.

And you didn't?

No.

I didn't.

Hmm.

Did you?

I feel comfortable admitting to you that I, too, was surprised by the fact that I didn't sense it.

I've not met anyone like her out in the field.

But I have at headquarters.

And there has always been something...

Something like a warmth.

Or a pull.

Almost as if you can feel...

As if you can feel a different type of gravity around them.

Yes.

That's a clever way to describe it.

I suppose that could be part of the reason she's remained elusive in her early life.

She doesn't seem to exhibit the traits we've come to expect.

There was something there, but it...

It felt like...

Waves.

Yes, like...

Like a changing of tides.

Hmm.

Strange.

Well, then.

Let's move on.

I'm assuming you have something to fill me in on since you called this meeting.

Yes, I do.

Though it's going to require the utmost commitment to confidentiality.

Even from certain superiors.

All right.

Before I begin, I have one question for you.

Sure.

Hotel.

Really?

That's the best you could do.

All right.

I'm going to upload this voice note to the shared drive so the group can give it a listen before we meet up again.

I'll do my best to keep it short, seeing as though we, Mike and I, have a meeting with Miss Cliffgate soon.

Since I last saw y'all, I followed up on a few pieces of information that came up.

Here's what I got.

First, I called the journalist friend that I mentioned, the one who lives in Austin.

I asked him to see what they could find on the Freddie Garza story.

They were pretty curious as to why I was asking about him, especially since they know I don't have much connection with the area.

I did my best to give him just enough to go on without saying anything about everything else.

They seem confident that they'll be able to at least get a slightly deeper sense of what happened.

They offered to go talk to the clerk that made the claim about Freddie's disappearance.

I told them to hold off on that for now.

We'll see what they can come up with by asking around.

Cross that bridge if we need to.

I'll follow up with them soon.

Separately, I dug out all my old notes and research on my score.

Micah, sorry, not just Micah, all of you.

It's been so long since I looked at any of this.

I won't lie.

It's pretty painful.

I could see the younger version of myself pouring over every scrap, every potential clue I thought I'd found.

When I opened the trunk, yes, a real trunk.

I keep everything in it.

It was as though I slipped for a moment, slipped through a gap in time.

I was 23 all over again.

I could smell the air of my spot at the university library.

That musty scent of paper, stale coffee, and the mints I kept around, when I pulled it on later,

didn't remember to pack my toothbrush.

A wave of sadness just hit me square in the jaw, made my head spin for a minute.

And then I remembered why I was going back to it.

I'm doing this because we are closer to getting the answers.

Sorry, I don't know where that came from.

Anyway, I've been looking through it, and I think I'm going to try to track down any relatives of Miss Chorus.

Back then, and I told you all this, I ran into a lot of dead ends.

But that was a long time ago.

I'm going to see if anyone I talked to before changes their story.

Or maybe I'll find someone with new information in the process.

I can't shake the conviction that Miss Chorus story and what happened to Ava are all connected.

Further, that the how of it was all executed in a similar way.

It was probably a lot easier to cover up Miss Chorus life, given it was the early 90s.

Still, we all know how the news doesn't cover stories of missing Black and Latinx folks, especially women, with the same level of Chorus.

Brendan, I'm looking in the key f**k's disappearance as well.

I'll see if I know anyone in that area that I can call.

I doubt it though.

Most of my colleagues that left the New Jersey, New York area, went to the West Coast or South.

I did, however, pull as many news stories as I could find on them.

So I'll start there and look for some similarities.

S4 E13: Your Neck

About this Episode

Hosts & Guests

More from How it Ends

S4 E15: Degausser

S4 E14: Kissing the Nightmare

ANNOUNCEMENT: Season 4 Finale Pre-Show & Listening Party

S4 E12: Marionette(s)