(Logan/Hanny/Brewin) I was once an avid believer in many things. I believed in love, in compassion, in hope. I even believed in a god watching lovingly over us and that somewhere, within the mystery of it all, there was a special place for us. This inclination towards blind faith was strong in me, stamped upon my DNA, cultivated through my upbringing. I was sheltered from the brutal reality of this world, hidden from the horrible truths of our existence. (Solo: Logan) The lucky among us remain sheltered, shielded by ignorance, but I am not one of those fortunate few. For nothing, perhaps not even death, can erase from my tortured mind the far-reaching implications of what I now know.

(Hanny/Logan/Brewin) TO KNOW THE FUTURE IS TO KNOW THE HORROR TO COME TO KNOW WHAT STALKS US CALLING FROM THE DARKNESS INSIDE I’VE SEEN THE NAKED TRUTH BEEN BURNED BY THE FLAME SEALED IS OUR FATE ONLY HELL AWAITS TAKE MY HAND, RENDER ME BLIND HIDE FROM ME THE FEAR THAT GRIPS MY MIND I WANT TO LIVE, I WANT TO BE NO LONGER WANT TO KNOW NOR SEE NOW MY WORLD'S A DARK VOID WHERE NO HOPE EXISTS AND DESPITE MY EFFORTS, ONLY THE DARK PERSISTS THE DARK HORDE WILL SOON WIN, THAT I CLEARLY SEE THEN THESE WORDS SHALL BE ALL THAT'S LEFT OF ME TAKE MY HAND, RENDER ME BLIND HIDE FROM ME THE FEAR THAT GRIPS MY MIND I WANT TO LIVE, I WANT TO BE NO LONGER WANT TO KNOW NOR SEE It is your choice to hear these words but be warned, once you understand what they mean, you will never be able to hide in the warm comfort of ignorance again. (Solo: Hanny) Unless you're prepared for this, it's best you stop now. I WISH TO WIPE FROM MY MIND ALL THAT I KNOW AND BE KEPT FOREVER IN TRUTH'S SHADOWS BUT I KNOW OUR SOULS ARE ALREADY WON SO LET THESE WORDS BE A WARNING OF WHAT'S TO COME

(Hanny/Logan/Brewin) Time is short now, I sense them drawing close. Whilst blood still flows through these shaking hands, I will tell you of them, in the hope that someone hears these words and knows of what is to inevitably come. I know not how to stop the Dark Horde, or how to stop the events I have set into motion. But I doubt it makes any difference… Mankind is doomed anyway. It wasn’t always like this. Once I enjoyed a happy life too… Once I had a life. My early childhood to the outsider seemed like any other: a child full of energy, confidence and wonder. Then, when I was only seven, came the visions. They were infrequent at first, like intermittent thunder before the storm. By the time I was eight they were coming to me not only every night, but every hour of every waking day. Every child fears the dark, but who’s to believe that a child’s nightmares could possibly be real? Mother: “Henry, your father and I are really worried about you lately. You seem so upset. What’s wrong?” Henry: “It’s the nightmares again… I can’t stop them and I know they’re real!” Mother: “Oh Henry, my poor little boy! It’s all in your mind. It’s your imagination. They’re just bad dreams, can’t you see that? They can’t hurt you, they’re not real.” Henry: “But it’s not in all my mind! I don’t know where the dreams come from!” Mother: “Henry!” Henry: “They talk in a strange language and tell me what’s gunna happen!” Mother: “Henry! I’ve had enough of this nonsense! I’m taking you to the doctor. This has got to stop!” Henry: “It isn’t like any other dream! You don’t understand!” Mother: “Henry!” Henry: “You don’t understand! Every day and night I hear them! I see them! I smell them! They won’t leave!”

(Hanny/Logan/Brewin) IT ISN’T ME, NOR WHAT I PLANNED I’M VICTIM TO A FORCE THAT TAKES COMMAND THEY RULE MY THOUGHTS AND FORCE MY HAND WHY DOES NO ONE UNDERSTAND? SAVE ME I PRAY FROM THIS FATE I DID NOT WANT AND DID NOT CREATE MY PRAYERS GO UNANSWERED, WHAT CAN I DO? THEY WILL DESTROY ME AND DESTROY YOU NOBODY SEES, NOBODY KNOWS WHEN ANGER FEEDS AND MALICE GROWS HATE IN MY HEART, FIRE IN MY BRAIN WHAT IS FANTASY AND WHAT IS SANE? THEY WILL DESTROY ME AND DESTROY YOU HOW CAN I LIVE WHEN THIS IS TRUE? ALL HOPE IS LOST, I WANT TO DIE TO END IT ALL, BUT FEAR TO TRY HELPLESS, ABANDONED, VICTIM AM I NIGHT HAS FALLEN, DARK IS THE SKY DARKNESS THROUGH WHICH I CANNOT SEE DARKNESS CORRUPTS INSIDE OF ME NOBODY SEES, NOBODY KNOWS WHEN ANGER FEEDS AND BITTERNESS GROWS HATE IN MY HEART, FIRE IN MY BRAIN WHAT IS FANTASY AND WHAT IS SANE? ALONE - NO ONE CAN SAVE ME FROM MY FATE UNKNOWN - NO ONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT I CREATE ENSLAVED - IMPRISONED FOREVER IN THIS HELL IN PAIN - IN NIGHTMARES OF TORMENT I AM TO DWELL (Solo: Hanny/Logan) MALIGNANT, ETERNAL, A HIDDEN BLIGHT CASTING LIFE INTO THE DEEPEST NIGHT BLACK IN MIND, BLACK IN HEARTS SLOWLY TEARING OUR SOULS APART THERE’S NO ESCAPE THAT I CAN SEE THE DARK HORDE ARE, WILL ALWAYS BE THEY COME FOR ME, THEY COME FOR YOU THE DARK HORDE ARE, THEIR TIME IS DUE

(Hanny/Logan/Brewin) I was trapped alone in a world of nightmares, under constant assault from a force no one could see or believe. With time, the cancerous visions grew only stronger and my parents grew evermore frantic in their attempts to find a cure. After many doctors and counsellors, my parents finally found one they liked: a psychiatrist named Bernard Russell. I was not yet ten when he gave his damning assessment… Bernard: “Henry is suffering from temporary psychosis of a type that is treatable and not uncommon in boys his age. Nightmares and the fear of the dark occur in most children and have been known to be so intense that they result in delusions and even hallucinations. “They are merely the product of the hormonal imbalance of puberty, of an over-active imagination… But he will be cured and in the years to come he’ll look back on these days with humour and think how silly he’d been! “Fear not. This psychosis will come to pass.” I was to receive therapy and medication, and for a few, mostly happy years, the treatment seemed successful. But always below the surface, dark forces gathered, revealing themselves in occasional “fits of madness”. My doctor was intrigued and sought to uncover what was best left alone. He put me under hypnosis, forever altering my life. I was only thirteen.

(Hanny/Logan/Brewin) Clouds of consciousness have cleared now, revealing my past. I see myself in archaic days of darkness and the rancid fruits of my labour! My mind is in agony, I CANNOT BELIEVE How could I have acted? TO SET THEM FREE? How could I teach them? AND LET THEM BREED? And create a legacy OF DEMONIC DEEDS? I was someone who meant this, MY SOUL WAS BLACK With calculated malice I PLANNED MY ATTACK To destroy humanity, TO DESTROY ALL To gloat on destruction, TO CELEBRATE THE FALL NOW I REMEMBER WHAT I HAVE DONE DONE IN A PAST LIFE, WHAT I’VE BEGUN AN ACT SO EVIL, DEEP IN MY MIND NOW I REMEMBER WHAT’S LEFT BEHIND The visions kept returning to haunt me because they were my past. In some archaic time I’d brought them into this world, not knowing what they were. I only knew they were alien to this world and meant only to destroy it. And I, in some “fit of madness”, had let them in. I want to be whole, TO RID THIS STAIN But horrible truth is BURNT IN MY BRAIN Whatever I do IT’S THERE TO REMAIN A constant reminder OF MY PAST REIGN NOW I REMEMBER WHAT I HAVE DONE DONE IN A PAST LIFE, WHAT I’VE BEGUN AN ACT SO EVIL, DEEP IN MY BRAIN NOW I REMEMBER WHAT REMAINS (Solo: Hanny)

(Logan/Hanny/Brewin) I became resigned to the power of the visions, recognising my place in the scheme of things and realising the futility of it all. With time I learnt to hide the visions’ effects and ceased even to tell others of their existence. By the age of sixteen, I was deemed cured and ready to join the “real world”. But I had merely learnt to wear the mask of sanity… Sometimes however, the mask slipped and deeds of darkness came to light. I would awake alone in a dark forest, shivering. Then I’d realise… I dreamt this. Somehow I had sleepwalked into the forest at night. The black shapes of swaying trees crowded around me and the wind taunted in strange voices. Then I’d notice the candle-lit marks etched in the dirt before me… If what I just dreamt was real, then we were in great danger. Screaming, I’d run through moonless undergrowth until I found a road I could follow home, or someone found me, bruised and feverish, the next day. My fate was inevitable. I was doomed to repeat history. Neither drugs nor therapy stopped my sleepwalking and before long I was sleeping in restraints. At seventeen I left school and moved with my parents from Howqua Hills to far away Melbourne. With the move, my sleepwalking ended. I began a new life among strangers who did not know my past, nor care. They teased me for my country background, but accepted me as normal, as someone who was dependable. But never did the visions relent, ever reminding me of who I was and was destined to be. Every waking hour, the visions called to me and every night, I would return.

(Hanny/Logan/Lee/Brewin) DARKENED ROOM – GROWING DARKER LIGHT FADES – SHADOWS MERGE EVIL LURKS, CREEPING CLOSER A SUDDEN CHILL GRIPS MY SOUL AM I CONSCIOUS? ALL IS DIZZY WHERE IS BODY? MIND IS BENDING SOMETHING IS CALLING – OVERWHELMING FALLING INTO DARKNESS – NEVER-ENDING I recall chanting one fateful night for many semiconscious hours, when I was startled awake by a sharp crack in front of me. Before me stretched a black void with depths beyond comprehension. A nauseating stench fell over me and I saw that within the nebulous darkness was a pair of eyes: red convex slits. They were a short distance away and staring directly at me, my mind naked before their gaze… My God, what had I done? YOUR PUPPET STRINGS I PULL LIKE REINS I SUCK THE LIFE THAT FLOWS THROUGH YOUR VEINS I POISON YOUR MIND WITH CONFUSION AND HATE EVER-PRESENT, I CONTROL YOUR FATE OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE THAT I AM MASTER RUNNING FROM ME WILL ONLY BRING YOU FASTER (Solo: Hanny) WITH VICIOUS LIES, I DRUG, DECEIVE AND TAUNT YOU YOU’LL NOT FIND TRUTH: ONLY I KNOW WHAT IS TRUE FOR AT THE END OF IT ALL, AT A TIME YOU’LL NOT SEE THERE’LL BE NOTHING LEFT, ONLY DEATH, ONLY ME (Solo: Hanny) That hellish window unto nightmare closed then, taking with it that infernal gaze. I did not feel the relief of safety, only the weight of imminent death. But I was to be granted no such liberty, for only the cold and miserable solitude remained now, as unchanging as my fate.

(Logan/Hanny/Brewin) Blood of the sinners, flesh of the tainted, thoughts of the damned and hated. All of them have given life, or unlife, to those that would uncreate all, even themselves, even creation itself. I have seen how the evil was invoked, giving rise to hate, spawning greed and conceiving fear. And so the Dark Horde was born... (Solo: Hanny)

(Chris/Brewin) MURMURS IN THE GLOOM, RED EYES FLICKER. FIGURES WAIT, GROANS RESONATE. A STENCH STIFLES THE SMELL OF BLOOD. CLAWS SCRAPE STONE: RESTLESS, EAGER. TORCHES BURST AFLAME, REVEALING THE CHAMBER ENDLESS IN SIZE: DEMONS BEYOND NUMBER AS ONE UNHOLY MASS, THEY BEGIN TO MOAN AND CAST THEIR GAZE TO THAT CENTRAL STONE A BLOODY PILLAR, GRACED WITH BARBED SPIKES DOMINATES THE ALTAR WHERE THE ELDERS STAND GATHERED ROUND THEIR LEADER, THE VENOMED ONE DEADLY HIS STRIKE, FEARSOME HIS MIGHT IMPALED BEFORE IT HUMANS IN TORMENT LIFELESS BUT LIVING, MINDS BLANK WITH TERROR UNABATED THEIR EYES AND WOUNDS WEEP AS THE PILLAR TWITCHES: A RESTLESS SLEEP VICTIMS HELD HELPLESS, AWAITING THEIR FATE VICTIMS TO BE CONSUMED AND REBORN THE VENOMED ONE ROARS, THE PILLAR AWAKES GLOWING AND PULSING WITH CORRUPTION PURPLE ICHOR LEAKS FROM ITS SIDES HARDENING TO FORM A HELLISH CANDLE VICTIMS CAN ONLY WATCH, HORROR GROWING THE VENOMED ONE APPROACH TO KILL The evil chorus rises in unison Reaching its peak – the time has come YOU ARE CHOSEN AS MY FIRST FEEL MY FURY, SATISFY MY THIRST FEEL MY GRIP AROUND YOUR HEART WATCH AS YOU DIE - RIPPED APART NOW SEE THIS HEART BEATING IN TIME WITH THE PILLAR, THEIR SOULS ENTWINED I OFFER TO YOU THE INFINITE ONES THIS FRESH KILL, US TO BECOME WITH EACH KILL THE PILLAR BEATS FASTER AS ITS FLUIDS ERUPT OVER THE STAGE THE VENOMED ONE GATHERS THE ICHOR AND MOULDS FOR EACH VICTIM A DARK NEW HEART THE ELDERS RECEIVE THE BEATING TRANSPLANTS AND PLACE THEM IN THE CHESTS OF THE DEAD CHANTING TO AWAKEN THE DARK WITHIN SO INVOKING A NEW LIFE TO BEGIN I’ve seen our past and I’ve seen their future. I’ve seen their rituals and I’ve seen our slaughter…

(James/Brewin) I BEHOLD THE SLAUGHTER OF OUR RACE I BEHOLD THE EVIL, I SEE ITS FACE LURKING HORROR REARS ITS HEAD TO INVADE OUR WORLD, TO STRIKE US DEAD WHERE TO RUN? WHERE TO HIDE? THE DARK HORDE WAITING ON EVERY SIDE WHERE TO RUN? WHERE TO HIDE? THE DARK HORDE WAITING ON EVERY SIDE BEFORE THE DARK HORDE FLEES HUMANITY RUNNING BLIND, DESPERATE TO BE FREE BUT THERE WAS NO ESCAPE, NO SANCTUARY NO SALVATION AND NO MERCY WHERE TO RUN? WHERE TO HIDE? THE DARK HORDE WAITING ON EVERY SIDE WHERE TO RUN? WHERE TO HIDE? THE DARK HORDE WAITING ON EVERY SIDE (Solo: James) THE DARK HORDE ATTACKED, BLOOD SPLATTERED BODIES WERE HACKED AND BONES SHATTERED ALL WERE FELLED TO THE LAST ONE THE MASSACRE OF MAN HAS BEGUN Destiny is cruel when you are its slave. There is no privilege in this, no fortune in being chosen, there is only eternal damnation. When all hope has faded from the world. When all the gates of salvation are closed and all the gates of hell are open.

(Hanny/Logan/Brewin) It is now five years later and things are no different. They are like a long-lost family to me, now welcome into my home. For only they truly understand me, only they truly care. You will not understand why I must do this and why, once this act is completed, I must await my death, but it makes no difference. If I wasn’t their channel, it inevitably would have been another. If it wasn’t my past life, it inevitably would have been someone else’s. But it was mine, so how can I prevent something that was determined before I was even born? (Solo: Logan) It is utterly useless to try to stop them. Their age is limitless, as is their knowledge and power. We are to them as ants on the Earth: an organised society that adapts and multiplies, but does not know of the world around it. We are not the most advanced creature in the universe, even on our own planet. Nor are we blessed or special in any way. And just as other species succumbed to our dominance, so shall we succumb to others… (Solo: Hanny) And now as I sit here making this recording of my final words, I know that I can restrain them no longer. Consciousness is fading now, the lights grow dim and my voice faint. They are so close… Calling… Calling… Calling… COME DARK HORDE REMEMBER YOUR JOURNEY WITH ME A JOURNEY OF SPIRALS, TURNING TO INFINITY SPIRALLING THROUGH ALL THAT WAS AND EVER WILL BE COME DARK HORDE REMEMBER, AS ONE ARE WE GREAT IS YOUR POWER, GREAT WAS YOUR REIGN GREAT IS YOUR AGE, YET GREAT IS YOUR PAIN HELD IN CONTEMPT AND ABANDONED IN SHAME HUNTED AND TORTURED AND PUT TO THE FLAME BUT NO MORE SHALL THIS BE, I RELEASE YOU TO CREATE ALL PATHS ARE OPEN NOW, YOU ARE FREE TO CONTROL YOUR FATE TO INHERIT THE EARTH, TO INHERIT ETERNITY COME DARK HORDE REMEMBER AND ONCE MORE BE! I AM DARKNESS, I AM DEATH. I AM LIGHT, I AM THE BREATH. I AM CREATION, ALL POSSIBILITY. I AM DESTRUCTION… ENTROPY. I AM YOUR ENEMY, YOUR DARKER TWIN, THE VOICE OF EVIL, CALLING FROM WITHIN. BUT I AM OUTCAST, I AM HATED. ALONE I HAVE SUFFERED, BUT I HAVE WAITED. UNTIL THE TIME OF MY RETURN, TO CLAIM WHAT IS MINE, THE WORLD TO BURN. I BRING YOU MISERY, INSANITY AND RAGE. I HERALD THE BEGINNING OF A NEW DARK AGE. YOU CANNOT RESIST ME, FOR YOU ARE ONLY MAN. YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME, NOR UNDERSTAND. ON WINDS OF REVENGE, MY SPIRIT FLIES FREE, MERCILESS MY POWER TO DESTROY ALL THAT BE. EVERY BARRIER BROKEN, EVERY CHAIN, EVERY WARD, NOW FEEL THE FURY OF THE DARK HORDE. (Solo: Logan/Hanny) WE ARE AS ONE, AS MANY ARE WE BECOME ONE, ONCE MORE BE WE ARE AS ONE, AS MANY ARE WE BECOME ONE, ONCE MORE BE WE ARE AS ONE, AS MANY ARE WE BECOME ONE, ONCE MORE BE WE ARE AS ONE, AS MANY ARE WE BECOME ONE, ONCE MORE BE… (Continued in the horror novel The Dark Horde by Brewin)