Bright Falls AWE (1970)

Bright Falls AWE (1970)
Vital statistics
Participants	Thomas Zane Emil Hartman Cynthia Weaver The Bright Presence The Dark Presence (Primary instigator) Barbara Jagger (possessed)
Followed By	Bright Falls AWE (1976)
Date	07/10/1970 - 07/18/1970
Location	Bright Falls, Washington

 And then Tom started writing and woke the darkness up... He tried to bring her back... but you can't do that. There are no free rides like that.
I'm starting to realize that.
In that case, young man, perhaps you're a smarter man than Tom was... The witch looked like her, but it wasn't. Barbara was sweet. He didn't understand until it was too late. He tried to undo it, wrote himself, her, everything he'd ever written out of the world. 

― Cynthia Weaver and Alan Wake

The 1970 Bright Falls AWE (as named by the Federal Bureau of Control) was an Altered World Event that took place in the town of Bright Falls, Washington between July 10 and July 18 of said year. It was the first in an series of recurring AWEs that occurred in the area of Bright Falls. It was caused when poet Thomas Zane attempted to resurrect his lover, Barbara Jagger, using the supernatural properties of Cauldron Lake, inadvertently releasing the Dark Presence that inhabited the lake.

History

Prelude

Earlier reports of supernatural activity

 For residents of Bright Falls, a sleepy town of only a few hundred, strange events that may seem like an aberration in most communities of its size have become commonplace. Research into multiple Pacific Northwest news archives has revealed that the area has actually been something of a hotbed of tall tales and paranormal rumors since at least the 1850s. 

― Excerpt from Bright Falls: A History

Cauldron Lake.

The area of Bright Falls has had a long history of reports of paranormal phenoms and urban legends, some predating the official statehood of Washington. The Native American tribes that inhabited the area before the foundation of the town held the belief that the lake was a gateway to the underworld. This was not far from the truth, as the lake was, in reality, a threshold leading to alternate dimension known as the Dark Place, inhabited by mysterious entities, most notably, the Dark Presence and its counterpart, the Bright Presence. In addition, the lake, being a place of power, also caused certain works of fiction and legends in its vicinity to shape reality.

One notable incident took place in 1857 when "Mountain Mike" Callahan, a native of Missouri known for trapping in the Oregon and Washington Territories for decades, was camping on the shores of Cauldron lake. Locals of the community that would later become Bright Falls reported hearing bizarre animal sounds echoing across the lake followed by human screaming. Some locals also reported seeing Callahan, dressed only in his red flannel union suit, running scared through the town. The following day, Callahan was found two miles outside the town shivering, with his formerly brown hair now having turned completely white. Callahan, who did not speak again since the incident, subsequently died nine months later after being admitted in the Olympia Asylum for the Afflicted. Many locals attributed this incident with an encounter with the Sasquatch.

Newspaper article about Hambleton, written by Cynthia Weaver.

Another incident took place in 1901, when various local reported having seen hovering lights above the forest on four separated nights through the summer of that year. Many decades later, in 1957, Bright Falls residents Vern and Norma Bergdale passed away almost simultaneously, while on opposite sides of the town, from seemingly natural causes, though one eyewitness, Betsy Segerstrom, reported having seen Norma exhaling a small black cloud before her colapse and subsequent death. Some anonymous individuals also made reference to an "unsavory bargain" Vern had made and that "strange forces" were involved with the couples passing.

On July 5, 1970, less than a week before the start of AWE, British writer and artist Robert Hambleton, also known as "The Colonel", traveled to Bright Falls after the release of his last book, having been drawn to the town. Despite having rented the Huntsman's Cabin from Jack Stucky, Hambleton, being a self-proclaimed "outdoors man", set up a tent on the southern edge of the Rain Cove Point Hiking Trail, near the lighthouse. During the course of the night, the writer allegedly saw "floating lights" above the treeline, followed by "moaning sounds in the wind", before he was attacked by a "stranger lurking in the shadows" who "looked like he'd been set on fire, but there was only smoke". The following day, Hambleton was found by Stucky and told him what had occurred the night before. Resident Carol Troup also stated that Hambleton frantically told her that his vision had become "black and white." Local authorities suspected that the incident was the result of a prank. They were unable to assess his mental state as the writer disappeared from the area along with his car early Sunday morning and assumed he left for either Portland or Seattle.

Barbara Jagger's drowning

Barbara Jagger's Obituary.

During the 1960s, famous poet Thomas Zane settled on the town of Bright Falls, where he met and quickly fell in love with long-time resident Barbara Jagger. Zane's infatuation with Jagger was such that he began considering her as his muse. The two eventually moved to a cabin in a small island located in Cauldron Lake known as "Diver's Isle", name so due to Zane's enthusiasm for diving. On July 10, 1970, at the age of 25, Jagger died of an apparent drowning in Cauldron Lake. While some found her death to be suspicious, given the fact that Jagger was a capable swimmer, no evidence of an intentional or premeditated murder was found and an official investigation was deemed unnecessary. Jagger's death was greatly felt among the residents of the town.

The event

 No. You're not Barbara Jagger. I made a terrible mistake. I should have never written you back. You came back wrong. Your heart is filled with darkness.
Put that knife away, Thomas. Put it down.
Your heart is filled with darkness. I'll cut it out. And then I'll take you back to the depths you came from. 

― Thomas Zane and Barbara Jagger.

Shortly after his lover's death, Zane decided to use the supernatural properties of Cauldron Lake to bring Jagger back to life. As he began writing a poem, Zane became fearful of the power of the lake, but his assistant, Emil Hartman, encouraged him to continue. The poet was partially successful: while he managed to resurrect Jagger, the young woman was now possessed by the Dark Presence.

The Clicker inside one of Zane's shoeboxes.

Being under her spell, Zane was unable to realize that she no longer was the woman he once loved until it was already too late. Local reporter Cynthia Weaver was also touched by the Dark Presence, but was saved by the poet. Zane somehow managed to capture the possessed Jagger, tied her to a chair, and cut her heart out in vain effort to kill her. He eventually understood that the only way to stop the Dark Presence was to erase out of existence everything that had made its release possible, including himself. However, knowing well that the Dark Presence may one day return, he wrote an exception: any of his belongings stored in a shoebox would remain. Aware of her feelings for him, Zane entrusted Weaver with one of these boxes, which contained a light switch, cut from Zane's Angel Lamp, known as "the Clicker". Zane also wrote that the box would one day be given to Alan Wake and that he would use the Clicker - which was also an object from his childhood given to him at the age of 7 by his mother to help him sleep at night - to banish the Dark Presence.

The Bright Presence in Zane's body.

Putting on his diving suit, Zane untied the possessed Jagger and, holding her in his arms, dived into Cauldron Lake. As Zane and Jagger sank deeper into the lake, the former's body was taken over by the Bright Presence. While the couple's bodies would eventually return to the surface, now inhabited by the presences of light and darkness, their "essences" continued to dive deeper until Zane recited his "master poem", which, thanks to the nature of the Dark Place, created a "baby universe" that would allow them to escape from the Dark Presence and safely live in. A 7.3 volcanic earthquake subsequently occurred below Cauldron Lake, sinking Diver's Isle and also causing many of the deep mining tunnels in the region to collapse or flood.

Aftermath

 [...] there was an island there, owned by a guy called Thomas Zane. Now, some of the articles I found about him make him out to be a famous writer. But I ran a bunch of searches, couldn't find a single thing he wrote. 

― Barry Wheeler

An article of the Bright Falls Record written by Cynthia Weaver detailing the aftermath of the earthquake.

The volcanic earthquake caused significant damage to many buildings and homes in the area of Bright Falls, including the Bright Falls power plant. The collapse of the mining tunnels resulted in the death of 32 miners and the permanent halting of all mining activities in the area of Bright Falls. Although many residents noticed the sinking of Diver's Isle, none of them, with the exception of a few, including Hartman and Weaver, were able to remember that Zane ever lived on its cabin.

Some of days after the eruption, Doctor C.D. Ward, Deputy Chief Seismologist from the University of Marple, and Professor Richard Hallorann of the Randi College, decided to travel to Bright Falls to reveal "incredible and shocking information" related to the volcanic incident that "would change [people's] perception of reality." The two men, alongside Hallorann's assistant, Mary Derleth, traveled to Bright Falls by plane, with plans to land on the Watery airport. However, poor weather conditions, described as "thick, dense fog", caused the aircraft to crash on the Elderwood National Park, killing all passengers. The Academics' dossiers and all their field evidence was also lost in the crash.

On August 3, Robert Hambleton's remains were found in an advanced state of decomposition inside a wet pickup truck deep in the Elderwood National Park by an anonymous hiker, who claimed the vehicle fell from the sky after hearing "an almighty crack." Following the identification of his remains, authorities in the United Kingdom were notified.

Five years after the incident, Emil Hartman began a career in psychology, eventually becoming a psychiatrist specialized in struggling artists and converted a hotel in the shores of Cauldron Lake into a psychiatric institution. In reality, however, Hartman's true intentions were not to help his patients, but rather, to exploit them for his studies the lake's power. Meanwhile, Weaver, who developed an extreme fear towards darkness, built a special room on the Bright Falls Dam to hide the shoebox containing the Clicker known as the "Well-Lit Room." She also moved into the decommissioned power plant and for the next four decades dedicated her time to gathering and spreading stashes of supplies throughout the area of Bright Falls for the impending war between light and darkness, gaining the nickname of "The Lady of the Light".

The Scratching Hag of Bright Falls.

The Dark Presence would not be reawaken until 1976 by the Anderson Brothers during that year's annual Deerfest, essentially leading into another AWE. The dark entity, still inhabiting Jagger's body, would later become the center of a local legend in the area known as "The Scratching Hag". Said tales, which shared many similarities with those of Baba Yaga, described her as an old woman who ate children, with details about her physical traits varying as the story would frequently be modified over the years. However, not many residents believed in her existence and her tale was mainly used by parents to discourage their children from venturing into the woods.

Altered history

 I found something funny while I was down there. A newspaper article about Tom. But it called him a film maker. Tom didn't make movies he was a poet. A magnificent poet. I dug around and found film equipment, supposedly also Tom's. What is happening? This isn't right. I know it isn't. 

― Except from Cynthia Weaver's diary.

Zane and Jagger on the rewritten timeline.

Since writer Alan Wake became trapped in the Dark Place, the history surrounding Thomas Zane and Barbara Jagger drastically changed. In this new version of the events, Zane (born Thomas Seine) was a well-known and respected Finnish auteur filmmaker who migrated to Bright Falls in the 1960s, alongside his partner, actress Barbara Jagger (born Baba Jakala), to establish an artist commune known as the Oceanview Hotel. During his time in Bright Falls, Zane made a film titled "Tom the Poet" in which he played a version of himself that greatly resembled his version of the original history. Jagger still drowned in this version of events and her body was subsequently taken over by the Dark Presence. Zane also disappeared and became trapped in the Dark Place.