Chill, yo.
Here's last time.
The envoys were in a spot of bother. BB and Jordan are unconscious, and as Emily, Blake, and Samantha rush into the bedroom, they see a young man holding a gun and pointing it at Jordan, yelling incoherently.
Emily rushes the kid, disarming him and putting him in a joint lock. Blake scoops up the gun, and Samantha tries to talk the kid down. They do eventually succeed, and he's able to relate that "he" (probably Johnny Wren) said that if the kid shot Jordan, he'd let him have the inhaler.
Blake finds the inhaler in Jordan's hand and grabs for it, but it flies up into the air and hovers by the ceiling. Blake activates Hidden Hand to try and pull it down, but the force holding it is stronger, and he hears a whisper: "nice try, little man." And then something strikes Blake in the chest and he falls back, gasping and bleeding. Emily grabs the inhaler and gives it to the kid, who leaps out the shattered window and runs off. Samantha puts pressure on the stab wound in Blake chest, and helps him get back into the living room. Emily carries Jordan and BB back, and they both wake up.
Jordan stabilizes Blake, wincing in pain all the while from the cuts in her back. BB heals Blake and then Jordan, and the wounds mostly fade (except the word "JOHNNY" is visible in scar tissue). They talk over what to do next, and decide to follow the kid (Duncan) and see where he was going. But then they realize something else - Jennifer is missing.
Blake and Emily go to check for tracks, and Blake finds a trail leading into the woods. He also finds tracks from Jennifer, and so they call for the others and everyone heads into the brush. As they go, they note that it's raining...blood. The envoys find this pretty upsetting; it's not overtly violent but kind of a breaking point. They're out in the woods, covered in blood, and they realize that the sun has set, so the ward that Jordan created is gone.
They keep on and find a clearing. Standing at the mouth of it is a girl in her late teens, also covered in blood. She has a knife to her throat, and she looks terrified. The envoys try to talk her down (they're none of them close enough to grab her), and she says that if she kills herself, "he'll" let everyone go.
With her last ounce of willpower (and WPR), Jordan raises a Sphere of Protection. That doesn't seem to help, though, and the girl moves the knife. Blake manages to dive forward and grab it, and BB ties the girl's hands behind her back.
Blake hears a whisper: "Kill her, and I'll let you go." He mentally responds "get fucked, Johnny," and then asks about a new song. The voice responds: "I don't write the songs, son."
The envoys ask the girl who she is, and she says her name is Mary Sherman. They tell her that her Aunt Joy was the one who got them here, and they're going to help her. She says her friends disappeared, and that Johnny told them that if one of them died, he'd let them go.
BB hears the same whisper: "Kill her, and I'll let you go." He responds by asking if it matters who dies; Johnny says it doesn't. BB asks why, and Johnny says it's about the murder, not about the victim.
Blake checks the clearing and finds multiple sets of footprints. Clearly the rest of the teens, and Jennifer, were here, but there's no indication of where they went. The envoys question Mary and she says that when Johnny makes people disappear, they can't feel it. It's less that they're going somewhere and more that others just utterly ignore them. Samantha uses Postcognition and sees the group of them in the clearing. One girl is barely breathing, but Duncan runs in with the inhaler and she takes a hit, and starts to normalize.
At this point, Jennifer enters. She talks with the teens and tells them she's there to help, but as they're about to start heading back, everyone but Mary fades away. She speaks ("What? No, I'm not going to - what if I die?") and then looks over and watches as a knife appears and jabs itself into a tree.
Jordan hears the whisper: "Kill her, and I'll let you go," but Jordan has no more fucks to give. She yells at Johnny, calling him a meaningless little spirit, and then something yanks her backwards. She falls into the brush and doesn't move. Emily runs over and grabs her, but she has no pulse.
Emily pulls her out and carries her over to BB, who tries to heal her, but no use. Jordan is, to all appearances, dead. The envoys keep their composure and try to figure out a plan of action, but they don't know what to do next. Obviously Johnny is fixated on murder ballads, but Blake notes that he reacted with hostility to the idea of a new one or one about him. Does that mean he wants to write it, or that he's just interested in the killing itself? Or, as Blake notes, since sometimes these songs include comeuppance for the killer, is that it? Does he want to watch someone kill someone else and then pay for it?
Johnny appears, and Emily shoots him in the shoulder, but he just kind of pokes at it and asks if she feels better. He then gestures at the gun, and it gnarls and twists into a corkscrew. "You're a little too fond of those," he says. He fades away, not terribly concerned about the wound, and the envoys head back to the house. There, they discover that not only are the wards down, but their router is destroyed. No more Internet (and, as BB points out, they didn't contact the Ranch to check it while they could).
They clean the blood off themselves and Emily takes Mary down the hall to her room to get some clothes. She hears the whisper: "Kill her, and I'll let you go," but ignores it. When she gets back, she relates it, and the envoys rest and talk it out. BB notes that Johnny taking the name and identity of Johnny Wren has to mean something. The real Johnny Wren killed three women with an ax and then was driven off by one of his victims' fathers, who bashed him in the face with a log. Blake wonders if it's really as simple as hitting him with a piece of wood? Murder ballads have to figure in here, too, though, so maybe they need to play one? But the record is broken, so how?
Mary says that Vicki had a bunch on CD, and they find her CDs in her luggage. Now they just need to find a way to play one. They figure they could hotwire her car, but then they hear a scream out in the wood. Mary tries to rush out, but Emily stops her and makes sure everyone goes together.
They find Vicki in the clearing, bleeding from a wound in her stomach. BB rushes over and heals her, and Johnny appears next to him, screaming in rage, and stabs him in the shoulder. BB grabs him, and Blake runs over and puts him in the headlock. Samantha grabs the knife and yanks it out of BB, and Johnny vanishes.
They get Vicki calmed down and talk with her, and she says she's has a recording of "Wexford Girl" on her phone. She starts to play it, but Johnny appears and touches her phone, shattering it. Blake starts to sing "Knoxville Girl" and the others chime in, but Johnny appears playing a harmonica. "Nothing wrong with encores," he says.
The envoys argue with him for a while, and he finally vanishes, saying he's going to go check on "the other team." They figure they could hotwire Vicki's car and play a song there, but Emily insists they figure out what to do next. Samantha points out, though, that since they don't know what playing a murder ballad will
do, it's impossible to plan beyond that. Better to try it than stand out here in the woods talking out loud about their plans where Johnny can hear them.
They all head back to the cabin, Emily hotwires the car, and then takes the CDs and puts one in. It starts playing "
Banks of the Ohio". Johnny appears and tries to stab Emily, but becomes incorporeal mid-stab and fades back out of the car. "Fine, you're very damn smart," he mind-whispers to her. "But you're still not leaving until someone dies." He disappears.
But inside, Jordan wakes up and looks around. She calls out for the others, and Blake runs up to the house. The door opens, and Duncan pokes his head in. "Can you see me?"
They can, and he enters, along with Jennifer and the other teens. Next time, we'll see if the characters can capitalize on this respite.
