The Witnesses
Five voices tell the story of Monkhouse. Each hears the broadcast on a different channel. Each remembers a different town. All of them are telling the truth.
Portrait Placeholder
Night Shift — East Cliff Perimeter
"I check every door twice. Not because they might be unlocked — because sometimes they open on their own."
Twenty years on the night shift at the East Cliff perimeter. The post was supposed to be temporary — a favour for a friend who never came back. Now the night shift is all he knows.
His logbook contains entries he doesn't remember writing. The handwriting is his.
At exactly 02:27, every door on his route unlocks simultaneously. He has reported this 114 times. No action has been taken.
He started recording audio on his phone three years ago. The files are always blank — but his phone's storage is full.
He has never seen the dawn from inside the perimeter. By the time his shift ends, the sun is already up. He cannot account for the transition.
First Contact with The Broadcast
First heard the broadcast in 2019. He was checking the lighthouse door when his radio picked up a voice on 127.3 kHz — a frequency that had been decommissioned 25 years earlier.
Portrait Placeholder
St. Aldhelm's Ward — Monkhouse Infirmary
"Patients arrive with no records, no history, no next of kin. They remember everything about Monkhouse — except arriving."
Transferred from Newcastle Royal three years ago. The paperwork said six months. Nobody has mentioned a return date.
Her patients describe symptoms that don't match any known condition. They remember events from other people's lives.
Ward records show the same 12 beds occupied continuously since 1971. The names change. The handwriting on the intake forms does not.
She has started dreaming in a language she doesn't speak. The words correspond to entries in the Priory's pre-1349 records.
Every Tuesday at 02:27, the monitoring equipment on St. Aldhelm's Ward flatlines simultaneously. All patients are fine. They are all awake.
First Contact with The Broadcast
She found a cassette tape in a patient's bedside drawer. It contained a voice reading vital signs — her vital signs — dated three years in the future.
Portrait Placeholder
Route Unknown — Last GPS: A1 Northbound
"My satnav says I've arrived. I've been driving for nine hours. Monkhouse isn't on any map I can find."
Haulage contractor. Twenty-two years on the road. The contracts that route through Monkhouse pay triple. Nobody asks why.
The road to Monkhouse only appears on his satnav after midnight. The route changes every time.
He keeps a journal of every trip. Entries contradict each other — the same delivery described differently on consecutive pages.
His truck's odometer resets to zero every time he crosses the town boundary. The fuel gauge disagrees with the miles driven.
He has tried to leave Monkhouse by every road. Each one loops back. The journey takes exactly 2 hours and 27 minutes.
First Contact with The Broadcast
His CB radio picks up the broadcast every time he enters town limits. It reads his delivery manifest back to him — including items he hasn't yet collected.
Portrait Placeholder
Resident — 14 Harbour Row
"The children play in the garden until dark. Then they come inside and talk about people who lived here a hundred years ago. By name."
Moved to Monkhouse for the quiet life. Affordable housing, sea air, good schools. That's what the estate agent said. The estate agent has not been reachable since.
His children have started drawing maps of places that don't exist yet. Two months later, planning permission is granted for buildings that match their drawings exactly.
The house at 14 Harbour Row was listed as empty in the 2011 census. He moved in in 2021. The previous tenant's post still arrives. The name on it is his.
He hears the broadcast through the kitchen radio at 02:27. The radio is not plugged in.
His youngest child refers to "the other family" who lives in the house at the same time. He has found no evidence. He has also found nothing to disprove it.
First Contact with The Broadcast
The baby monitor picked up the signal first. A voice reading a bedtime story to his children — in his voice — but the story was one he'd never heard.
Portrait Placeholder
Lineage: Pre-657 AD — Archive Reference Only
"My family built this town. Or perhaps the town built us. The distinction stopped mattering generations ago."
Descended from the monks who first settled the eastern cliff before recorded history. The family doesn't discuss the time before the Priory. The records from that era are sealed.
The family tree goes back further than Monkhouse's official founding. The oldest entries are written in a script that predates Latin.
Each generation produces exactly one child who "hears the frequency." This child becomes the family's archivist. The role is not chosen.
The family home contains a room that does not appear on any floor plan. It has always been locked. The current family member claims they have never been inside. Their diary says otherwise.
They are the only resident who does not experience the 02:27 anomaly. They say the broadcast has always been there. It is the silence between broadcasts that concerns them.
First Contact with The Broadcast
They don't receive the broadcast. They transmit it. They have been transmitting since before they were born. This is recorded in the family's private archive.
[ Additional narrator files sealed — Level 3 required ]