EPISODE 5: THE RITUAL ## CHAPTER 1: THE PROFESSOR Professor David Whitehorse was eighty-three years old and had spent sixty of those years preserving knowledge that most people didn't believe existed. "You're not the first to come asking about the sealing songs," he told Jessica. They sat in his cramped office at the university, surrounded by books and artifacts that most museums would kill to possess. "Every few decades, someone shows up. Usually after people have died." "You knew about the Galleria." "I knew what the newspapers refused to print. Twenty-three deaths. No explanation. A building demolished within a month." He fixed her with eyes that had seen too much. "What did you see down there?" "Everything. And not enough." --- ## CHAPTER 2: THE KNOWLEDGE The professor's collection included recordings. Old recordings, some on wax cylinders from the early 1900s, others on reel-to-reel tape from the 1950s. Voices speaking in languages that had nearly died out, singing melodies that hadn't been heard in public for over a century. "The Potawatomi called it the Devourer," Whitehorse explained as they listened. "Something that existed before the world was shaped. It sleeps in the spaces beneath, waiting for someone to disturb it." "How did they keep it sealed?" "Through sacrifice and song. Three parts, just as your research indicated. The Speaker...