Archive 81

She's not here.

They took her.

Jess, can you hear me?

Please.

Please find me. Please help.

No! Get off me!

- You're gonna be fine. - Get the fuck off me!

I got tapes!

Come get your tapes! Cassette tapes!

I got tapes!

Come get your tapes!

Any one... Any of those... That's the one-dollar box.

Anything in there is one dollar.

The box too. Want the box? That's a dollar too.

Tape... Tape?

I don't know what you need.

- Hey, what's going on, Dan? - Hey, man.

Picked these up at a storage-space auction last week.

You got first crack at these, man. Unseen. Ten bucks a pop.

You know last month you sold me 16 hours' worth of a T-ball tournament?

Yeah? Yeah.

But also, I sold you an uncut version of Phantasmagoria off channel 7.

That's unreleased and very rare.

I just think you need to get yourself a VCR so you know what you're selling.

Yeah, where's the fun in that?

Look, five bucks a pop.

If they're shitty, I'll give you store credit.

Look, I know you love the hunt.

All right.

All right.

My man.

Hey, Jill stopped by earlier, said to tell you hello.

- What, this morning? - Yeah.

She picked up some books from a haul last weekend.

Might be able to catch her if you, uh, head that way.

She's just going back to the shop.

You guys are still friendly, right?

All right. See you, man.

Hey, let me know what's on those.

I got tapes!

VHS tapes!

Cassette tapes!

I got a couple of 16mm projectors coming in next week

if you're still looking.

And we just got in two reels of Flash Gordon, 1940.

Good condition.

I'll have the museum call you.

Dan, it's Evie Crest. The package should've arrived today.

The footage is in terrible shape.

Let me know if you can do anything with it.

What is it?

The Circle.

A horror anthology, 1958.

Sort of like a pre- Twilight Zone kind of thing.

- I've never heard of it. - That's because it never aired.

William Crest died and all the tapes disappeared.

"Crest." Oh, um, that's that Robinson Crusoe guy, right?

He made all those movies in the '30s with Brenda Joyce.

- I used to love those movies as a kid. - Yeah, so did my dad.

Anyway, uh, two months ago,

his daughter Evie found a box of tapes buried somewhere on his estate

and now here we are.

- Ooh. Some creepy shit. - Mm.

Well, maybe the museum will issue a set

and you can write the companion guide.

Get a little glory for all that talent.

I kind of just wanted to give Evie a little piece of her father back.

Oh, um...

- From Karen. - What's this?

No idea.

Are you ready?

That's what the little red light means, Mel.

Okay.

I'm Melody Pendras,

doctoral candidate in sociocultural anthropology at NYU.

My upcoming research project will examine a small New York City community,

residents of the Visser apartment building in the East Village,

as individuals adapt to cultural shifts at the end of the 20th century.

They'll talk to me, right?

Oh God, no. No, no, no, they'll spit gum in your hair

and shove spiders under your door.

Yes, they'll talk to you.

Everybody talks to you. It's...

Maybe I should come with you.

You know, for protection.

From what?

I don't know.

Handsy old creeps, sewer rats, vampires.

What if you find a new best friend?

I won't.

Actually sounds pretty fucking boring. No offense.

It's for my dissertation.

Fine. Leave me.

I'm not going very far.

I'll be back before you can even miss me.

That's what Amelia Earhart said. And...

- No, she didn't. - No.

Wish me luck.

You don't need luck.

But in the middle of the park, there was nothing.

No radio. No phonograph.

Only the music coming from seemingly nowhere.

The song they had once shared.

Edmond, are you out there?

Is that you?

Could Edmond, a city park worker,

have unintentionally crossed into another dimension?

I'm Mark Higgins.

This is Mystery Signals: True Tales of the Secret City.

So, the guy's totally broke, okay?

So he buys his girlfriend, uh, this vintage engagement ring

from one of these junk shops on the Lower East Side.

Turns out, two days after he slides that fucking thing on her finger,

this girl loses her shit, okay?

She says that she's seeing a woman staring at her in the mirror.

What? Fucking what? The fucking ring is haunted, man.

Yeah, I don't believe that supernatural shit.

That's right. I forgot. You don't believe. Mr. Fucking Paranoid.

Mr. Someone Might Be Watching Me.

Uh, yeah, I got an early day. Sorry.

The museum doesn't open till noon. There's no such thing as an early day.

- Next week, I promise. - Hey.

Look, you... you let me know if you're feeling low again, all right?

Seriously. No fucking bullshit this time. You'll ask me for help?

Yeah, I'll ask you for help.

Okay.

All right.

Don't fuck with me.

Amazing work on the Hi8 footage, Dan.

Thanks for the quick turnaround.

Oh, sure thing.

You know, it didn't really seem like something

the museum would be interested in.

It was a favor for a big donor.

He'd like you to come by his office today to thank you in person.

Dan!

Great to meet you.

Thanks for coming.

No problem.

Hey, Callie, can I, uh, get an Arnold Palmer? Bring one for Dan too.

Have a seat.

Okay.

Thanks for taking on our little project last night.

Karen said you were the best man around to bring back lost things,

and she was right.

Well, she's my boss.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

That's actually why I asked you to stop by, Dan.

I was wondering if you might like to change that,

might like to come work for LMG.

Temporarily, of course.

Well, I don't... Uh...

Thank you.

Um...

What do you guys do exactly?

Because I did a little research and...

You couldn't find anything.

Right.

Makes us even.

I couldn't find anything on you.

Well, uh, I like my privacy.

I respect that. We like our privacy too.

Here's the thing, Dan.

We're looking for an artist.

Someone who can restore a recently acquired collection

of damaged video tapes.

Well, what kind of damage?

Fire damage.

Smoke, soot, water.

The fragment you digitized is part of the collection.

The fire at the Visser building, right?

That's right.

In any case, the contents of the tapes

would need to be kept confidential for legal purposes.

The fee would be a hundred thousand dollars.

- Wow. - There's just one hitch.

Because the materials are so fragile they can't be moved.

So you'd be doing the work at our remote research facility

in the Catskills.

It's beautiful up there.

Not a bad place to be all alone.

Right. Uh...

Before you say no, Dan,

here's why I think you're our guy.

Creating this archive,

putting this puzzle together,

finding out what happened at the Visser,

it would mean the world to everyone who lost someone in that fire.

And I know you have a...

special understanding of a situation like that.

Sorry?

You lost your family in a fire, isn't that right?

And it seems you've spent your life trying to bring lost things back to people.

Sorry, I have to get back to work.

I'm sorry, Dan. Truly, I didn't mean to...

I'm sorry for wasting your time.

Not at all, Dan. Not... not at all.

Let us know if you change your mind.

How the fuck would he find out about my family?