Samantha Wells

Samantha Wells
Biographical information
Profession:	Unknown
Physical description
Gender:	Female
Vital statistics
Faction:	Human
Status:	Unknown
Location:	Ordinary, Maine
Family:	Unnamed parents
Behind the Scenes

 It’s a free country, and I can write about anything I want in my own blog. And the shoebox and everything in it came with the house, and thus it’s mine. 

― Samantha Wells, on her blog This House of Dreams

Samantha Wells is a character mentioned in the Remedy Connected Universe. She is a resident of Ordinary, Maine and the writer of the This House of Dreams blog. During the first half of 2012, after finding a shoebox containing photos and poems belonging to Thomas Zane at her new home, Wells began experiencing a series of paranatural events seemingly related to not only Zane, but also Alan Wake.

Personality

 One thing is certain: this is my house, and I won’t be frightened away by ghosts or shadows. This is my house and I will fight for it if that’s what it takes. So there. 

― Samantha Wells, on her blog This House of Dreams

When she was young, Samantha Wells was fascinated by attics, considering them as magical, mysterious and rather scary places filled with "forgotten treasures waiting to be discovered." This feeling later resurfaced on her adult life while she explored the attic of her new house. After discovering a shoebox containing photographs of a couple whose faces were suspiciously covered with black ink stains, she decided to investigate further into the matter due to a genuine love for mystery.

As she herself stated, Wells had the life-long dream of owning a house. When she finally acquired a house, Wells was excited about all the renovation work ahead of her, considering it a challenge. After experiencing a potentially supernatural occurrence, which resulted in her being injured, rather than abandoning her new home, Wells opted to stay, stating that she was willing to fight for it. Moreover, she was also shown to be defiant when faced with the possible threat of individuals who were willing to commit crimes to acquire the shoebox.

Biography

Early life

When she was young, Samantha Wells would often sneak up on her grandmother's attic to explore, believing that there were "forgotten treasures waiting to be discovered" inside.

This House of Dreams

Moving to her new home

 I’ve fulfilled my lifelong dream and bought an old house. This blog will follow the process as I renovate the house into the house of my dreams. It’s going to be an exciting adventure. Welcome aboard! 

― Samantha Wells, on her blog This House of Dreams

Well's blog logo.

In February 2012, after fulfilling her lifelong dream of buying a house, Wells began writing a blog titled This House of Dreams, in which she would document her process of renovating her new home. The house in question, which she bought from the daughter of the previous owner, was located in the town of Ordinary, Maine. Some of her friends, namely Andrea and Jen, believed that Wells was crazy for deciding to carry out such a project on her own. While exploring the attic, Wells found many things left behind by the previous owner and her family. As they had no use for them, she was given permission to do with them whatever she wanted. Among the things Wells found, there was a shoebox containing a stash of poem sheets and a pair of black and white photographs of a young couple whose faces were covered with black inky stains. Unbeknownst to her, the couple's identity were poet Thomas Zane and his lover Barbara Jagger, both residents of the town of Bright Falls, Washington who were involved in a supernatural event in 1970. While the world forgot about the existence of Zane and all traces of his existence were forgotten, any of his belongings stored in a shoebox remained intact.

The shoebox.

On March 1, Wells spent her first night in the house, sleeping on a camping bag. However, she was kept awake by a strange flapping noise. Remembering a dead wren she had found earlier in the attic, she attributed it to there being a bird trapped somewhere inside the walls. The following morning, Wells wrote about the experience on her blog. Three days later, Wells wrote about her discoveries in the attic, more specifically, about the shoebox and its contents. Thrilled by the mystery behind the shoebox and the people in the photographs, she would later inquire about them to the daughter of the previous owner. However, she told Wells that she was certain that no one in her family was a poet and that she doubted that the people in the photos were from her family. She also told Wells that the shoebox was most likely bought in a yard sale, which her mother (who currently suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s disease and thus was unable to help) used to frequent.

Shoebox dreams

 This isn’t what I meant when I came up with the name, but now it feels strangely appropriate, don’t you think? 

― Samantha Wells, on her blog This House of Dreams

One of the photos in the shoebox.

On the night of March 13-14, Wells experienced a strange dream: after hearing the doorbell ring, she opened the door to find a federal agent, whose face was "leaking inky smoke" (similarly to the ink-covered faces of the couple in the photos), and whose badge, instead of the typical "FBI", read "AWE". The agent demanded Wells to hand the shoebox, claiming that it contained "top-secret information". Afraid that she would be sent to jail, Wells searched for the box, but was unable to find it. While looking for it in the bathroom, she saw in the mirror that her own face was also leaking "inky smoke". It was then when she woke up. Wells subsequently tried to look for the shoebox. However, just like in her dream, was not able to find it anywhere. While she attributed it to it simply being lost among all the junk lying around in the house, unbeknownst to her, the shoebox was seized by the Federal Bureau of Control, a clandestine government agency which learned about it through her blog. Wells later wrote on her blog about the dream and the disappearance of the shoebox. While she had not scanned the poem sheets, she did take photographs.

More than a week later, a group of men went to Wells' house for plumbing work. When they had to go under the house, Wells discovered that there was a trapdoor leading to the crawl space underneath. After the workmen finished, she decided to explore the crawl space, carrying a flashlight and her iPhone. Despite being much smaller than the workmen, Wells found the place to be cramped and claustrophobic. Fortunately for her - as she expected to find dead animals - she found nothing out of the ordinary there. After writing about this on her blog, Wells posted the photos that she took of the poems. Two weeks later, she also posted transcriptions of them. Due to her being too busy at her job, Wells was too exhausted to continue updating her blog for a time.

Home invasion

 Called 911. Men outside shadows darkcominghelpmoreligh 

― Samantha Wells, on her blog This House of Dreams

Well's description of the man in her dream matches that of Alan Wake.

Around two months later, on the night of May 29-30, Wells had another strange dream: while visiting a nursing home to meet with the previous owner of the house and learn more about the shoebox, she instead found a young man with dark hair, who was wearing a jacket with elbow patches. While she tried to ask him about the shoebox, the man, who was very agitated, did not listen to her and urged her to turn the lights on, claiming that it was too dark despite the fact that the place was brightly lit and it was sunny outside. The man soon began yelling at her, causing Wells to panic, believing that something was coming for them, before she finally woke up. Feeling thirsty, she got up for a glass of water. On her way back to her room, Wells suddenly saw a dark silhouette of a man outside the window, which caused her to scream aloud and drop her glass. Frightened, she ran through the house turning on all the lights. While her first impulse was to call local authorities, Wells stopped herself, thinking that it might had just been her imagination, and instead decided to call one of her friends, Joss, who lived nearby. Joss inspected the place, but found no sign that anyone had been outside. The following morning, Wells wrote on her blog about what happened. Because of this incident, she also decided to buy yard lights.

The following week, on the night of June 4, Wells was listening to Florence + the Machine's No Light, No Light, which caused her to remember the nightmare of the previous week. Not wanting to go to bed, she decided to write on her blog. Not long afterwards, Wells heard coming from the television in the living room - which she was not actually watching - the opening narration of a Night Springs episode, whose plot revolved around a young woman who bought a haunted house. Amused by the parallels with her life, Wells walked over to the living room to see. Much to her horror, she saw a group of men, who looked like "dark shadowy silhouettes", outside her window before the power suddenly went out. When she heard a window breaking in another room, Wells returned to the kitchen, grabbed her laptop and hid in a closet, shutting the door behind her. As she heard the men breaking in, along with shouts and laughter, she tried to call 911 for help, but stopped upon hearing them getting closer and opted instead to call for help through her blog. Hearing the men behind the door, Wells got up to try and keep it closed. However, it was violently open, causing her to fall and hit her head. In her last moments of consciousness, Wells saw the missing shoebox sitting on the shelf, illuminated by the glow of the laptop.

The light switch.

When the police arrived at her house, they found the unconscious Wells, but no sign of a break-in other than what they themselves caused to enter. After being taken to a hospital, Wells woke up with a mild contusion, and was kept overnight for observation. Following this, she spent a couple days at her parents’ house before finally returning to her own. Checking the closet, Wells confirmed that the shoebox was still there. However, its contents had changed; it now had a new stash of poet sheets, a manuscript title page reading "Return", which had the name of its author scratched, and an old, black switch. By asking in a local hardware store, she learnt that it was a light switch. The first time Wells flicked the switch, it seemingly caused all the power in her neighborhood to go out. However, she would later learn that it was, apparently, caused by a thunderstorm. As she was subsequently unable to replicate the effect, she dismissed it as mere coincidence. She also wrote on her blog about what occurred the night of June 4 and assured her readers that she was fine.

Diving deep

 I know that something amazing is coming, that something wonderful is going to happen, and at the same time I know that when it does, it will be something totally different from what I’m expecting, something I could never have imagined. And I know it might take a long time before it does happen, but no matter how long it takes, I’ll be here, waiting. 

― Samantha Wells, on her blog This House of Dreams

Shortly after her last post, Wells was contacted by an anonymous individual who found her through her blog and claimed to have information about the recent strange events that had happened to her and the origin of the shoebox contents, and told her that something similar had happened before, elsewhere. They promised to tell her more, but only on the condition that she stopped updating her blog as they believed that the whole matter should remain secret, insinuating that there were people who believed the contents of the box were valuable and were willing to commit crimes to obtain them. While at first Wells promised that she would think about it, and as a result stopped posting, she later became convinced that the warning was actually a threat and decided to continue writing on her blog in protest. Aside from talking about this, she also wrote about the new contents of the shoebox, and provided photos and transcripts for the new poems.

The diver.

On the night of July 28-29, during another dream, Wells was visited by an individual in a glowing diver suit who claimed to be the diver from the photographs; in reality, this was a paranatural entity known as the Bright Presence, which was using the guise of the actual diver as a vessel. The presence told - and showed - her that after Barbara Jagger's body was taken over by a dark presence, Thomas Zane attempted everything he could to banish it from her to no avail. When he eventually understood the true nature of the dark place beneath the lake they lived in, which allowed dreams and works of art to come true, Zane wrote one last poem. The poet dived into the lake, taking the possessed Jagger with him, and as they sank, they were met by both dark and bright presences, which were stuck in an endless war between the forces of light and darkness. After the poet surrendered his body to the Bright Presence, it and its counterpart returned to the surface to one day continue their battle. Meanwhile the couple's "essences" continued descending even deeper before Zane read his "master poem", which created a "baby universe" for them to escape to and live happily in.

After waking up, Wells felt an overwhelming happiness and sense of privilege for having been shown that. While she wrote on her blog everything she could remember from the dream, despite having forgotten many details, a feeling of hope still lingered and she expressed her belief that "something wonderful" was going to happen, which would be "totally different from what [she was] expecting" and "something she could never have imagined", and stated that she was willing to wait for it regardless of how long it would take.

Trivia

• Samantha Wells' surname was first revealed in Control, seen in an office whiteboard found in the Research Sector of the Oldest House.
• A document found within the Lake House had the web address of This House of Dreams listed among the websites related to the anonymous female parautilitarian that was being retained at the research site up to 2021. Whether this means that Wells and the anonymous parautilitarian are the same person is unknown.

Appearances

• Control (mentioned)