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Then the titles say: Part 5 - Yesterday, Upon the Stair

The camera watches a bear and a coyote take seats on the couch next to eachother. It seems more than one person can be on screen at once, after all. The subtitles say

Devon, Cameron, Paranormal Investigators

"Well, I'm Cam, this is Dev, we're paranormal investigators," the coyote begins.

"My husband's the professional," the bear smiles, "for me it's just a side-hustle."

"Not a side-hustle, a passion project!" the coyote insists.

"Jacob's asked us to consult on cases before," continues the bear's voice over footage of the two of them getting situated on the couch. The camera lingers on the way they're comfortable with eachother, are more inclined to lean on eachother for support than any part of the couch, the way one of them always has at least one hand on the other at all times. "We've got a little more experience with the theoretical side of paranormal investigation. Plus, Jacob's neither a psychic nor a shamanic practitioner, so Cam's got an edge there."

"Oh my god you need to be stopped!" The camera cuts back to the footage this audio goes with. The coyote has one paw over his eyes, tries and fails to hide his blush. The bear is grinning wickedly.

"So, a Tulpa," the bear explains, on the other side of a cut once they're calmer, "the term comes from Tibet, it's supposedly something like an emanation of your psyche that's become defined enough to be real and independent from you."

"A lot of people will describe it as an imaginary friend that stops being imaginary," the coyote picks up, "And that's wrong, but you get the idea?"

"It's usually explained as a kind of long term autosuggestive state, a sort of voluntary induced dissociation usually connected to religious practice, where you convince yourself with more and more specific details that the thing you're picturing is real until as far as you're concerned it is."

"However, from the perspective of Chaos Practice or Seidr or other forms of, like, narrative shaping work? Those might hold that making a Tulpa is more like... defining the shape of what you need: name, identity, characteristics, all the stuff, and then letting the universe fill that with something. Mythmaking on an individual scale. Something like writing a role in a play, making a mask for that role, and then waiting for an actor to come along and put it on."

"I'm no believer in Chaos Work or Myths or any of that," Jacob waves a dismissive paw, "but I can see how, given that set of premises, 'making a mask and inviting the universe to fill it with something' in a place like Echo would work out unfathomably badly."

"Especially for someone who didn't realize they were doing it."

"The main point of difference is that with a Tulpa, nobody is supposed to be able to perceive it except the person who made it." Devon explains. "Now, maybe that means the thing they saw in Leo's house wasn't actually a Tulpa. Or maybe that means that like everything else, Tulpas just work different in Echo in whatever way'll make things worse for everyone."

"It's strange how running to Leo's house felt almost nostalgic," the fox has a wry detachment in her voice, like she's describing something unfortunate that happened centuries ago. "but it looked like it always had. Porch light on, his car out front. I do remember thinking it was taking him a long time to answer the door, because I was worried about someone coming along and seeing me under the porchlight, which again, very nostalgic. Luckily when someone did come along, it was Flynn and Carl."

"I pulled up at Leo's cause it was the closest place to Carl's that I thought any of the others might go." The gila frowns. "My plan was to get everyone, pile in, get to my place, cause that was sure as shit gonna be more secure than Leo's."

"I had this moment of relief when I recognized Jenna in the headlights." the ram says. "Like I thought, oh, we're all here, obviously, we'll just stick together and like... Flynn and Leo'll know the best way to get out of town safely, and before morning we'll be sitting around in a 24-hour diner in Payton, drinking lemonade and talking about how creepy nuts this was."

"I didn't actually know these people." The raccoon hunches his shoulders. "Leo'd introduced me to Chase, but nobody else yet. But they didn't seem to be about to kill anybody, and they weren't ghosts, so this was no time for social anxiety."

"They all jumped when I came out of the bushes. I think I said something like, 'Hi, I live next door, and I'm real worried right now, I don't think being alone's a good idea."

"I was about to say," the Gila remarks, "who the [bleep] is this?' when the door opened. Leo's standing there, his shirt's on inside out, his fur's mussed up. Like he just got out of bed."

"What's going on?' he says."

"Did you somehow not notice the warzone going on around you?' I snap."

"He looks confused, he goes "Well, I've been busy with Chase." And that's like, wait, then why isn't Chase at the door too? I can see Leo being an oblivious asshead, but Chase is twitchy enough that he'd notice something like a town full of nutjobs planning to sacrifice him to appease their dark gods, or whatever."

"Look,' I say, 'Get Chase out here, we gotta talk to him. There might be some shitheads after him and I don't really know why. I got some questions."

"For a split second he looks mad. Really mad, and then he blinks, and looks like he's trying to remember something. 'Uh,' he says, 'I think he's asleep.' And he shifts his weight a little, so that he's blocking the door.'"

"My hackles go up when I see how Leo's acting, and when I don't see Chase," the fox says. "Leo's always had a problematic temper. Had the hum prompted him to hurt Chase? Was he in trouble inside the house, and Leo wouldn't let us see?"

"The lizard, Flynn, I mean, but I didn't know him yet at that point," the raccoon waves his hands, recovers from the false start. "Flynn starts arguing. Leo won't come out or let anyone in. I'm about to say never mind and just go hide out in my trailer when Leo cocks his head and smiles."

"Then there's this sound. I dunno how to describe it, but it's like... you know the sound when you run your finger around the edge of a wine glass? Ok, imagine that, but it's not a finger, it's a power saw. And you're not hearing it in person, you're hearing it over, like, a really crackly school PA system."

"But Leo says, 'oh, here he comes.'"

"And then it steps through him."

"I think my mind went blank for a second." The fox says, "Because the first reaction I can remember having to seeing a blurry shadowy duplicate of my childhood friend emerge from his ex boyfriend like he was stepping through a beaded curtain, is just hearing myself say, very calmly, 'No.' And then I remember thinking, well, that didn't add much, Jenna, can you elaborate? And no, I don't think I can. Because I don't know what else to say."

"I looked like Chase, but like, entirely wrong." The ram fumbles for the right way to explain it "It's like, not lit right. Like the porchlight and the headlights on Flynn's car don't want to touch it. Like, imagine you were drawing a picture of us all, looking at it? You draw us on one layer, and then apply the lighting effects to that layer? Then draw it on another layer, and apply, like, no lighting effects to that one."

"And it moves wrong, like one of those old animations where the different pieces are like paper cutouts. And it doesn't have a face, there's the place a face ought to be, and there's these just... empty spaces where the eyes should be, and the mouth. Shaped like eyes, mostly, shaped like a smile, mostly, except they look like jackolantern cutouts, like they're holes in this thing and inside is darkness instead of light."

"It kinda stands there for a moment, like it isn't sure what to do next." The raccoon says, "that horrible sound hasn't stopped, and there's this pressure like my ears are trying to pop."

"But just right when I'm about to say, hey, this is the thing I saw in Leo's house! All those times I thought I saw Chase! it turns out it can talk."

"'He doesn't need you.'"

"It says. It talks like it's taken the words from different conversations, like it's playing them backwards. And when it talks, it's still in the wineglass static sound. That's its voice."

"'He only needs me.'"

"I still dunno what everyone else's talking about," the Gila snorts. "That thing was freaky as shit, sure, most [bleep]ed up thing I saw all night, absolutely, but it didn't look a god damn [bleep]ing thing like Chase."

"I finally manage," the fox swallows, "to ask where Chase is. Leo looks confused, and when he puts a hand on the Tulpa--I'm going to call it that for lack of a better term--it sinks in a little, past the surface."

"'Right here, yeah?' He says, and I think he's going to say more, but then it touches the side of his face, like," she demonstrates, caressing her cheek with one paw, "the kind of thing I'd seen Leo and Chase do hundreds of times."

"His eyes roll back, he leans into its hand, and he sinks to his knees. I don't know if I saw it get larger, or if that's just my memory being theatrical."

"It's like, hovering over him." the Gila's angry facade has cracked, he seems genuinely disturbed. "It makes me think of a spider sucking the guts out of a bug it's eating. And Leo suddenly seems to be having trouble breathing."

"I mean," the ram blushes, "judging by Leo's face, I'd say he came in his pants."

"And well," Devon shrugs, "I dunno what it was you guys saw, but none of that stuff is what any of the literature says a Tulpa is supposed to do."

"And then it just... fades out." The raccoon says. "When it's gone, Jenna looks at us all, one by one, says 'You all saw that too, right?' Nobody answers. And she just, really calmly, walks inside Leo's house, and I hear a door close."

"I was acting just on autopilot, at that point," says the fox. "My instincts decided that I'd started coming here, because this is where I used to come when I ran away from home for a night, and well, here I was, no reason to change plans. So I marched down the hall into what used to be Leo's older sister's room, shut the door, sat down with my back against the wall, and waited till I've calmed down enough to cry."

"I'm in shock," the ram says, "Till Flynn turns around and heads for his car."

"'Dude!' I rush over, stand in front of his jeep, which in hindsight was peak dumbass, like what if he'd been all hysteria'd and couldn't see me or just turned into Murder Flynn or something? 'You cannot be thinking of leaving him like this!'"

"Look, if wolfboy's getting his rocks off to phantoms he thinks are his otter, then where's real Chase?' he snaps. 'He's still out there with a lynch mob after him! Sooner I find him, the sooner we can snap Leo out of whatever this is. I won't be gone long.'"

"'The hell you won't!' which is like... the most assertive I've ever been to him, even to this day, 'You're not leaving me here when that thing might be hiding in my own shadow!' And I run around and climb in the passenger seat.' He doesn't argue, we take off."

"And I'm left standing there alone in the gravel. Door's still wide open, Leo's catatonic on his knees, and I'm realizing that there's no such thing as a safe place." The raccoon sighs. "I manage to coax Leo inside, he doesn't seem to really remember what just happened, and then I go see if Jenna's ok."

"So,' I say, when I knock, 'I don't know you, I'm assuming you're one of Leo's old friends, but I really don't want to be alone right now. And I doubt we're safe here."

"She doesn't answer."

"What I'd rather we all do is go next door, to my place, and hole up there.' Still nothing."

"I just,' and I'm kinda losing faith in my ability to get through the night, at this point, 'I don't think staying here's a good idea. If that... thing can walk through Leo, then maybe it can walk through walls. And if I'm sitting around somewhere where I know it's been, I'm just gonna spend all night expecting to see it in a closet, just looking at me."

"But still nothing. So I decide to just... leave the two of them there, head back to my place, and hope the voice in my head doesn't come back. But then I hear the door unlock."

"I'm sorry,' she says, 'but I don't think I got your name. I'm Jenna.'"

"Leo is sitting in the living room, when we get there," the fox explains. "Just staring into space. He seems a lot less worried than he ought to be. But before I have time to say anything to him, and I was ready to give him a piece of my mind, someone pounds on the door."

"'You got that hunter boy in there!' and this was a man named Duke. I knew him, he used to be friendly with my parents. He still thinks Chase is the one doing this, somehow, and is demanding we bring him out. When I look out the window, Duke's backed up from the door. He has a shotgun, and friends. Clint is there, I know him too, he's one of my brothers' old... gang, I guess is the right word, and there's a bear I don't know, but he looks in bad shape."

"There's an old weasel and a skinny ringtail, and there's Brian," The raccoon's version goes. "That's bad. Brian's a meth dealer in the neighborhood with a very scary reputation. I don't want to find out how much worse this nightmare's made him, or, even worse, that maybe it didn't have to make him any worse."

"Duke says something more, about how either Leo brings Chase out, or they're coming in to get him." The fox says, "That gets Leo to his feet. He doesn't look scared, or worried, he looks... excited. Like this is what he wanted to happen. He says 'This is Chase's home as much as mine. Nobody's taking him away.' I try to explain again that Chase isn't here. And he doesn't listen."

"He saunters out the front door, cocky as anything, like he wasn't unconscious on his knees mumbling sweet nothings to a shadow being ten minutes ago. He and Duke step forward to talk. I stay at the door, I can't hear what they're saying, but I'm just hoping Leo's got the sense to say that Chase isn't here, even if he doesn't believe it, because Chase isn't here!"

"Well," the Ram says, "We went up and down Chase's old street, checked what used to be his folks' house, but that was abandoned now. Flynn said he had a feeling about heading down the road toward the old Parson's building, but we weren't even halfway there when I saw him."

"He was slumped on the side of the road. It looked like he'd been trying to dig a hole in the sand and gravel before he zoned out."

"He said someone'd tried to drown him, and then someone'd tried to shoot him, and then he'd been run over, and then someone had hit him in the head with a pickaxe. and he was pretty roughed up but the only real injury Flynn could find was a broken ankle. I figure he musta been running from something in the night, tripped, and then when he couldn't walk he crawled into this abandoned van, cause there was one of those nearby, to try to sleep it off, and that's when the hallucinations got him."

"We got him in the car, made him drink some water, and made him promise not to put any weight on that foot. Then we turned around to head back to Leo's."

"The first I can hear of them is when the bear shouts from the sidelines, creepy and high pitched." The fox returns, with her thread of the story, "He says, 'Why not just kill em both?' and I don't know what Duke would have answered, because that's when I saw the thing was back. The tulpa." She has to take a moment to collect herself. "I didn't see where it came from. I guess it could have been standing there all along, and somehow nobody noticed it. It was just suddenly there, it had Duke by the arms. And then both Clint and the bear were screaming. I heard a gun go off, probably Duke's shotgun as he dropped it. And then..." The camera looks at her from the side. She looks deeply pained.

"I don't know if it broke his arms, or dislocated them," the raccoon picks up. "But when it drops him they're just destroyed. He doesn't move. The ringtail is gone, he fled the second he saw it. Brian tries to drag the weasel back to the pickup they came in, but halfway there he gives up and heads for the brush."

"I remember trying not to notice how," the fox wets her lips, "killing Duke somehow made it look more like Chase."

"Leo's legs went out from under him at some point, I can't remember exactly when," the raccoon continues, "and he collapsed. As soon as he's the only one out there, Jenna and I go out to get him, bring him inside before it comes back. Or they come back. He's not coherent, he's telling us to leave him, help Chase, Chase is gonna get hurt. Didn't make it easy to drag him inside, he's heavy. But the second we get him in, the lights go out."

"I don't know how the Bear got inside," the fox says. "Maybe he snuck in while we were trying to help Leo, maybe I was just so overstressed that I somehow didn't hear him break a window or the like. But there he is, hand still on the lightswitch. The window of the kitchen door is right behind him, so all I can see is the outline of his head, and a little bit of reflected light in his eyes."

"I've heard things about Brian." The raccoon says blankly. "So I'm pretty sure we're just dead."

"But then something is behind him, blocking out the light. It puts hands on his shoulders, and then, like... drags him bodily through the kitchen door, so hard it doesn't just break the door in half, it yanks the door frame out of the wall. How powerful is this doppelganger, anyway?"

"It wasn't the tulpa that killed the bear." The fox says. She doesn't elaborate.

"We headed back toward Leo's," the Gila seems tired, "I was planning on rubbing his stubborn nose in the fact I found Chase wandering around the desert, he didn't. But when we got there, shit was all [bleep]ed up. The lights were out. The side door looked like a bomb had gone off. There was blood all over the ground, but no bodies. And there was nobody inside."

He exhales heavily, through his nose. "It suddenly hit me that I'd left without having the slightest idea what that Other Chase Thing was capable of. Maybe it just killed everyone! I don't know!"

"But Chase speaks up, for like the first time since we rescued him. He says they'll be down at the abandoned railyard."

"No idea how he knows that, but even if they aren't there I guess it's less likely that a random maniac'll look for us there than in any of our houses."

"We find Jenna and Kud--and TJ too, no idea when he got there--up on top of one of the abandoned boxcars, with Leo. Wolfboy looks like he's got the mother[bleep]er of all hangovers. And you can see him age five years in a second when we tell him that Chase has been out in the desert all night."

"I don't really remember why I headed for the railyard." The lynx says. "I think I remember thinking, or hallucinating, or maybe just assuming that all my friends were dead. And maybe if I went someplace that Leo or Chase were likely to be haunting, they'd protect me from the other ghosts for a while. I knew they used to spend a lot of time there?" He shrugs. "But that's just a guess, I can't really explain why I was doing what I was doing, at that point."

"But after I got there, after I climbed up on a boxcar where hopefully nobody would be able to see me from the ground, it wasn't long before they started showing up. So whatever reason I did it, I guess it was the right thing."

"The two of them spent the rest of the night talking." the fox says. "I think we were all expecting them to cuddle and make out, but they didn't. Leo tried not to let anyone see he was crying, at one point, and that's a pretty good 'he's back to himself' indicator."

"I did spend all night cuddling," the ram smiles, a little shyly, like he knows it's odd to be smiling about anything from that night. "Didn't want Flynn getting cold. I dunno which of us was more embarrassed about letting everyone see us together."

"It woulda been pretty damn romantic, if not for, you know, the chance some ringwraith or whatever was about to appear and murder us any second. But the stars were [bleep]ing beautiful, and Flynn was holding me, we even shared my last joint. Coulda been a lot worse."

"The last ghost we saw," the lynx says, "was a train. Steam engine, old passenger cars, caboose. It rumbled past two tracks away, traveling slow like it wanted to trick someone into trying to board."

"But after it was gone the sun came up, and it was the second most relief I've ever felt."

"The most relief I've ever felt was when I felt my phone vibrate and realized we had signal again. I've never been so happy I could call 911."

"And that's what it was like to live through the," the fox purses her lips, "Black Hole Incident. Is that what you wanted to know?"