Oct 23, 20214 min read

The Westerly Tapes - Sat 23/10/21

I woke up halfway through the night, in a fright. I dreamt I was looking at my reflection in a mirror, but it wasn't my reflection I saw! It was Uncle Phil's with messy hair, yellow teeth grinning, big hands and feet like claws and wearing only old dirty rags. I look towards my bedroom mirror with a sense of fear, like I'm expecting to see Uncle Phil's reflection grinning at me but I soon shake the creepy image out of my mind. I decide there is no way I go back to sleep now, so I sit at my desk and turn the computer on again. I want to listen to the third day’s tape, labelled “Oct 23rd 1949 - Morning”.

As I let the program convert the recording to mp4, I empty the box of its contents and place them neatly on the desk. When it is done, I press play on my computer screen.

You can hear it here:

Uncle Phil sounds like he had very little rest the night before. I smile a little as I think to myself that I can definitely relate. He's seen the reflection in the mirror again and this time it is following his actions. As I listen to the tape, I decide to confront my nightmare and go over to the bedroom mirror. I sense my fear rising as I approach it, just like Uncle Phil, except when I look at my reflection, my normal tired self looks right back at me. I chuckle in relief. I am just being silly.

Uncle Phil is afraid of the thing in the mirror, but he is unexplainably fascinated with the strange phenomenon that is occurring and seems to want to observe it. The way he describes it, and its demeanour, it is almost like he is describing an animal version of himself… At the end of the tape, even though he doesn’t dare say it, he seems to believe it is his soul that is being reflected in the mirror.

When the recording is done, I leave my reflection in the mirror and go back to the desk, where I sit in silence for a while, before I start recording my own thoughts on the dictaphone.

Again, I smile to myself as I see two more similarities between Uncle Phil and I. The first one is my dictaphone and his reel recorder. We seem to have taken a habit of taking mental notes to a new level. And the second one is that today is the exact same date as he, seventy-two years ago, made that recording. I hadn’t noticed it yesterday. I wonder if Dad knows. I even wonder if he is playing a prank on me.

I look at the rest of the tapes, and as I suspected, the last one is on October 31st 1949, Halloween.

I head downstairs to get a glass of water and find my dad on the outside patio, mug in hand, looking into the early morning sky. I sit and chat to him. He tells me he's up so early because he woke up with this blurry memory of him as a kid, watching his mother, Granny Faith, make a solemn promise over Auntie Constance's grave. He was racking his brain, trying to figure out what it was in regards to. When he asks me why I'm up so early myself, I tell him about my nightmare before saying:

Me: You almost had me going, by the way! Did you get one of my brothers to help you?

Dad: What do you mean?

Me: Come on, the jig is up! You thought I wouldn’t notice the same dates on the tapes? And all of a sudden, you get this 'urgent' need to get me to listen to them on the exact same dates they were recorded? This is a long winded Halloween prank! Very elaborate. Bravo!

My smile fades as I notice dad has turned white and seems upset and confused:

Dad: No kiddo, I swear, it's not a prank. I just wanted your opinion on it. When I woke up after the stroke, it was all I could think about. It's still a little hazy... I had completely forgotten it happened on the days leading up to Halloween.

I was somewhat hoping it was all a prank at my expense. Dad stares at me with a concerned look and tells me not to investigate it like himself and my grandfather did. That he only wants my opinion. The realisation that it wasn’t a "trick or treat" made me deflate a bit. I collect myself and smile at him. I tell him how weird a coincidence it is, that if he didn't plan on it, then the universe was definitely having a good laugh. His alarmed stare softens slowly.

We sit in front of the rising sun in silence for a while. Just enjoying the stillness. I take a sip from my glass and say absentmindedly, still admiring the view:

Me: It is without a doubt a very creepy story, but it definitely has got me interested...

Next instalment October 24th

The Westerly Tapes is a Halloween Horror by Julia Mersobian and Nathan Schulz, for The Drama Merchant, based on the short story by Paul Compton. The voice of Westerly is performed by Kent Lee