Writer, Editor, and Director: Finley Cole
Voices: Finley Cole (Vikki Other), Noor Ali (Leila Singh)
VIKKI
Welcome back listeners. The oldest gods, the youngest fae, the worst wishes, and the best curses. Everything and everyone. It’s me, the one known far and wide as Vikki Other. From my timeline to yours, this… is Radio Other.
(Intro)
VIKKI
Are you ready?
LEILA SINGH
Yeah.
VIKKI
Alright!
Give me one second, then.
Darling listeners, the posters we put up last week have gotten their first response. I’d like everyone to meet our guest-
LEILA SINGH
Leila Singh.
VIKKI
Yes. So, you have some information about mysterious appearances?
LEILA SINGH
I guess. It’s more of a personal story.
VIKKI
Oh, stories! I love stories. At least, good stories. I really like those little nonfiction books that just give a lot of random facts, I read a lot of those when I was growing up. I still remember bits of them. Did you know that it used to be legal to own Rougarou as pets? Thank god for cryptid rights activists. I just think it’s really cool how-
LEILA SINGH
Um, not to interrupt, but are you going to let me speak?
VIKKI
Huh? OH! Yes, of course! I’m so terribly apologetic, m’lady.
LEILA SINGH
It’s fine. Thanks.
If you’re looking for people who appeared mysteriously, then… hi. I was one of them.
At least, that’s how it probably looks on my documents, if you were to search me up.
I don’t remember much of my time in the… world before. I think of it like that - two sides of a coin. The before and after. At one point I was happy living on one side… and then the coin flipped. Sorry that’s a bad analogy.
VIKKI
I can offer some better ones if you want. I’m GREAT at analogies.
LEILA SINGH
Thanks, but… I’m good.
(leila sighs)
I remember the day I crossed over. I was 8. At least, I was 8 in the Before world. Time felt more confusing here. Everything feels more confusing here. It’s not like my memories are completely destroyed, per se. I still knew things an 8 year old would. But I couldn’t pinpoint when or where it came from. I know how to read. But I can’t remember ever learning letters, or struggling through the sentences of a book with my parents. I think I had parents.
Sometimes it feels easier this way. There’s not much for me to miss.
But I remember the day I crossed over.
It was snowing. I was with my family. I don’t remember much about them. I think I had a brother, younger than me. I can remember my mother’s face out of the corner of my eye, but focusing on it, trying to bring a clear picture up… it just makes my head hurt.
We were walking down to the charter village across the river - I remember I was excited about it. We were going shopping for the holidays.
I think… yes, that’s right. There was a holiday. Christmas.
Here, we do Christmas all wrong. I remember silver, and red and green, colours and lights. So many lights. It was a day that shined like glass, like a mirror. Here, it’s all darkness.
Sorry, I’m getting off track. I didn’t… I don’t talk about this much, so all the details and little thoughts I’ve had about it seem to have stayed with me. I’ll stop.
VIKKI
No, no. All the information you can give us is much appreciated!
LEILA SINGH
Right. Okay then.
This is where things all become a bit more blurry. There was shouting, I remember. Something was wrong, we all knew it. There was a loud sound like breaking ice, then I looked down and saw cracks running through the asphalt of the bridge. We were on a bridge, by the way. I’m sorry if I forgot to mention it.
A bridge over a river. The charter village across the river.
The crack on the bridge.
… the crack on the bridge
When I close my eyes, I see that crack still. It seemed to hold me in place, mocking me or beckoning me. I couldn’t be sure.
That’s when the bridge started to collapse. In hindsight, this all must’ve happened in about a minute, probably less. But everything seems so stretched out when I think of it… I remember every second as a minute, the minute as an hour.
I screamed. I was calling out for someone, for my Mother maybe, but her hand had slipped from mine by that point. Cars were skidding, falling into the water and crashing as their weight took them to muddy, waterlogged graves.
I fell into the river. The water was cold, icy. I didn’t feel it so much on my skin as in my bones. Sometimes I wonder if it froze some part of me as well. Like something in my conscience that used to be afraid, or happy, or remorseful… one of them froze.
I knew at that point what death was. Death was not a singing angel. Death was a dark nothing. It was cold water. I would end in cold water.
But just as I saw my fate - death, or whatever an eight year old understands as death - something happened. A chunk of concrete had broken off, and fallen towards me.
Jagged, running across it, was that crack. The one I had seen first, the first sign things were going to go seriously wrong. It turned a faint red. The bridge fell on top of me, and I was hopeless against the concrete and the water and the metal. The red crack crushed me.
My vision went red. Everything went red.
If I died there, then my death was not darkness. It was light. But I wish it had been darkness.
I pleaded for darkness. It never came.
Nothing came. When I felt myself again… I felt the world was swirling. Like my body had been moved, absent of my conscience, my soul just an afterthought they shoved inside.
Then I was waking up in the middle of a forest. It was silent. And I was alone.
I still can’t quite describe to you what happened, but… the red light took me. It made me its own.
I have nightmares sometimes, did you know? Where I die, and they go and do their autopsy. Do you know what they find? That I’m hollow. Everything’s been removed, my bones and my organs. Just an empty hollow shell of bloody flesh walls and crushed veins.
Except for my heart. It remained. It still beats. And it glows red.
Nothing has ever been right since then. I know that wherever I come from, it is not this world. When I was younger, I would ask the names of friends, parents, teachers I still remembered. And every time, I would get a slow, confused head shake. “Who is Mrs. White?”
Once I got older, I started properly investigating - I searched public library records, local archives, everything.
But never did I manage to find out how I got there.
So yeah. I guess you could say that I mysteriously appeared. That’s certainly how it must look to others. Me? I’m not sure. It’s hard to say when the only perspective I have is from the inside. I don’t know where the horizon line is because I’m sitting on top of it. Does that make sense?
Yeah. The end.
Does that help? Did you get all of that?
V, a bit flustered: … yeah. Yes, I did.
LEILA SINGH
Cool.
VIKKI
Thank you,that’s been terrifically helpful.
LEILA SINGH
Yeah. Just- please don’t try and contact anyone close to me. I’ve been trying to build a life for myself, and I don’t want this to become a… thing. It’s just something that happened to me. No one needs to know about it. Especially not my girlfriend or any of the people at the commune.
VIKKI
Er, of course. We have a… strict privacy policy! You can read it right here, actually
LEILA SINGH
Um, that’s a beetle in a jar.
VIKKI
Yes! Which is a metaphor! You and your little words are the beetle, and I am the jar, keeping you safe.
LEILA SINGH
The beetle is dead.
VIKKI
It’s open to artistic interpretation. Anyways, thank you so much for sharing your astounding anecdote with us. I’m sure that this shall be of great use to me and Ellie, once she makes an effort to show her face here again.
LEILA SINGH
Hey, are you talking about Ellie Richards?
VIKKI
Indeed. You know her?
LEILA SINGH
Only by reputation. Daniel, my ex? He used to be a big fan of the Skeptic Screen. I didn’t really get the appeal, but I liked Ellie. Sure didn’t realise she was friends with Vikki Other.
VIKKI
She is an entity of many surprises. Except surprise parties. We tried to throw one for her once in eighth grade. I still have the scar on my side, just below my ribs! See?
LEILA SINGH
Um- You don’t have- I believe you.
VIKKI
Of course. I would never tell a lie. Unless I like, really wanted to. Then maybe.
So yes, Ellie Richards is friends with the one and only Vikki Other!
Honestly though, I’m not sure if she still wants to be friends with me. It’s one of those things where I can’t tell if her insults are supposed to be the snarky sentiments exchanged between the closest of acquaintances, or…. If she just genuinely can’t stand me.
I want to ask, but if she says yes, then I have to respect that, and stop trying to talk to her and be her friend. But she’s one of the only people I have left from my past. And if I let one go, all the threads are going to start falling apart!
LEILA SINGH
That… that sure sounds like it sucks…. And… also not really my problem.
VIKKI
I suppose it isn’t…
LEILA SINGH
Sorry if that came out insensitive. I…
I have a hard time feeling things some times. Like, I’ll be in a place where I know I should be happy. And I feel… nothing.
That’s why I always think some part of me stayed frozen.
VIKKI
… oh.
LEILA SINGH
Sorry. I should probably go. Thanks for having me.
VIKKI
Of course! We’re always glad to help.
Hang on, one more thing?
LEILA SINGH
Yeah?
VIKKI
Have you heard the name “America” before? Or maybe United States of America?
LEILA SINGH
… yeah, it sounds familiar. Why?
VIKKI
It’s a lead we’re pursuing. Anyways, have a splentastic day. You have been endlessly helpful!
LEILA SINGH
Yeah. Right.
See ya. I’m a fan of the show. Keep it up.
VIKKI
Oh! …
Thanks.
(The door slams)
(Vikki sighs)
VIKKI
That was odd.
Helpful, but… odd.
In my opinion, this cements the connection between America and John F Kennedy Jr. This also makes me more sure that this place, whatever it is, is somehow separate from our world.
That’s not what’s really bugging me though. It’s those cracks she described. You can probably guess what I’m thinking of. Cracks.
I know I’m just projecting though. The only connection I have to any of this is that I’m the one investigating. I’m going to wait for Ellie until I do any more theorising. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to know the posters worked. So, until then… from my timeline to yours…
This, is Radio Other.