Hey everyone, it's Nick. We're hard at work here on Season 6 of Tannis, but in the meantime, we've got some exciting Rabbits news. I'm talking to you now because my cousin Terry Miles has written a book. It's called Rabbits, and it's coming out June 8th. It's being published by one of my favourite imprints in the world, Delray. If you enjoy any of the podcasts we've created over the years, you're really going to dig this book. It's not an adaptation of the first season of Rabbits, it's a proper standalone novel. Pre-orders are everything when it comes to a new book from a new author, so your pre-order could help land Rabbits on a bestseller list, which would mean a lot for a debut novel. You can find Rabbits wherever books are sold, or check TerryMiles.com for more information. And if you are planning on checking out the book, please consider pre-ordering a copy before it comes out on June 8th. Thank you so much for all of the support over the years. It means a lot. Actually, it means everything. Check the Rabbits podcast feed for a three-episode miniseries called The Path, A Rabbit Story. And remember, if you're interested in the Rabbits novel, you can find it anywhere books are sold or visit TerryMiles.com for more information. And now, here is something new. Something called The Path. What did she ask you? Did she ask me how many steps to the lighthouse? What do you know about chaos there? The streets were red, then black, with blood. That sounds poetic. Where are you now? The bottom line isn't money or purpose. It's inspiration. Are we still going to have sex? I'm afraid not. She believed Hazel killed Emily Masterson. Maybe later. For sure later. Everything you're about to hear began as an investigation. But before we get into the details of exactly how everything started, I'm going to play a recent hidden microphone recording. After that, I'll be back to officially introduce myself and set the scene, as it were. Enter the parking lot between 7 and 7.05pm, three evenings from today. Park in the third stall from the left in the right-hand parking area. Turn off your headlights and then flash them off and on twice slowly. Wait three seconds and then turn off your car. What the fuck? Get out of your car and walk to the bus stop along the first road you see that's named after a tree. Once you reach the bus stop, sit down on the bench, tie the secure blindfold you brought with you across your eyes so you're unable to see anything, and await further instructions. Okay, so I'm blindfolded. I chose fabric I should be able to see through if there's enough light. But right now, it's pretty much pitch black. I'm sorry, what is that? What are you doing? It's a blindfold. I'm already wearing one, per the instructions. This one goes on top of the one you're wearing. That's not... I mean... Come on. We can stop right now. You're welcome to go back to your car and leave. Fine. What are you doing now? Making sure you're not wearing a wire. Wow. Where are we going? For a drive. Is all of this really necessary? Hello? Hello? You may remove your blindfold. My name is Manera. Have you prepared your mind per the instructions we provided? I took a hot bath and I did the meditation and whatever else was in the note, yes. You prepared your bath with the proper minerals and set your intentions with the sonic palette provided? Yes. Please wait here. What you're about to discover isn't going to be easy to comprehend. It's going to force you to question everything you know, everything you've learned up to this point. Are you prepared for this? Yes. Good. Very good. Okay. We're finished for tonight. We are? Yes, but tomorrow night we're going to show you something. And after that, you're going to understand that the world is different than you've been imagining from your birth until the moment you chose to contact us. You'll come to see that the universe, it's filled with darker purpose and hidden mystery. Mystery that's waiting for those who care enough to learn its secret language and uncover its deeper meaning. It's waiting for those dedicated enough to find a way to move through the path and enter another world From the Public Radio Alliance and Minnow Beats Whale you're listening to The Path, a rabbit story. I'm Veronica Dale. Stay with us. people already working has the it for as well What you heard earlier was audio from a tiny hidden microphone. Two of them, actually. One was hidden in the frame of my glasses, the other in one of the buttons of my jacket. Wireless. So they missed both of them when they checked for a wire. The male voice you heard belongs to a man who calls himself Manera. The female is Brenner. Manera was about six feet tall, kind of shaggy looking. A black leather jacket hung loose over his broad shoulders. His eyes were green and spaced wide across his face. Brenner looked like an anime heroine with short, cropped black hair and jet black eyes, but sparkled with something that felt more dangerous and electric than fun or mischievous. So, why was I surreptitiously recording a meeting between myself and a group of extremely culty-sounding people with a penchant for over-the-top security straight out of a Pierce Brosnan-era James Bond movie? It's because I was looking for information about something that had happened, That search eventually led me to those two people. I'm going to explain as much as I can about everything that's happening. At least, as far as I'm able to understand it. But my memory has been playing tricks on me lately, and I've been a bit stressed. So I thought it might be helpful to bring in a friend. It's fucking hot in here. That's my friend, Lucy Fitzgerald. She's medium height with dark hair and even darker brown eyes. She works as a bartender and a ring girl for an MMA club. Yeah, she's crazy hot. But don't get it twisted. Last year, she jumped into the ring to separate two MMA fighters and ended up knocking one of the two women out. A professional fighter. Lucy had a couple weight classes on the pro, but still, she's a killer. I can turn on the air conditioning if you like. Well, won't that mess up the recording? We can take a break. Wait for it to cool down. No, I'll be fine. Okay. So, um, I went to the meeting. I fucking knew it. I told you I was going. Yeah, and I told you not to. Turns out I really am the boss of me. Well, that was stupid. Those people are fucked. I don't know. I mean, they're definitely fucking weird, but I think they might actually be harmless. Who the fuck is harmless anymore? Well, I'm going back there tonight. They said they're going to show me something. No way you are. Yes way I am. No. Look, V, ever since that thing with Noah, you're not really thinking straight. Thing? With Noah? You mean, oh, that tiny little thing where he didn't recognize me? Like, at all, after we'd been in love and inseparable for over a year? I feel like I'm thinking absolutely straight. Oh, yeah? Well, mostly straight, anyway. Yeah? Lucy's right to be skeptical. She cares about me. And she was the one who had to pick me up after Noah went back to London. He was always going to be going back, but the thing is, he was supposed to take me with him. What he wasn't supposed to do was look into my eyes more than a year after we'd started seeing each other and act like he didn't recognize me. A week later, he was on a plane. Two days after that, he was killed in a freak car accident. He was only 27 years old. So what am I doing investigating this group of characters who requested that I drive out to the middle of nowhere and wear a blindfold while I sit and wait at a bus stop in the middle of the night? Well, it's because I believe those people may have had something to do with what happened to Noah. Not the getting on a plane to London part, Like I mentioned earlier, that was scheduled. No, it wasn't that. It's just... Okay, here goes. I think those people may have had something to do with the Noah forgetting I ever existed part of all this, and that's the part that's been making it hard for me to sleep through the night lately. I had no idea who this group of people were or what they were all about, But I found a phone number with the Seattle area code in some of Noah's things. It had been scribbled on the inside cover of a small journal he'd started carrying around near the end. Along with the phone number, there were a series of strange symbols. And beside the symbols, Noah had written two words. The path. I called the number. There was no answer. But a few seconds later, I received a text message from the number on my phone. It was a date, time, and location. A coffee shop. Five minutes after meeting Manera and Brenner in a coffee shop, I could tell they were into some mind-scrubber-type business. Hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, Scientology-adjacent shit for sure. The first time I met them, they were dressed in black jeans and matching dark green jackets. Expensive, but not designer. stuff. They were well put together, but it looked like everything they were wearing was brand new. Too new. I could tell right away that Brenner was in charge. Manera seemed nice-ish. Brenner was dangerous. We met for 10 minutes or so. They didn't tell me anything about themselves. They just asked a bunch of weird questions, stood up, and handed me a list of instructions. They said if I wanted to learn more to follow every instruction to the letter Miss anything and you learn nothing I asked Lucy to tag along to keep an eye on me and eavesdrop as much as possible from an adjacent table After Brenner and Manera left, Lucy and I made our way back to the studio to discuss. You're serious about this shit? Yeah, what? What? Those people. What about them? Well, there's no way Noah was hanging. They're like NLP death hippies or something. So? So, no offense, but Noah was kind of... Don't say it. Basic. I told you not to say it. Cute as fuck, I'll grant you, but not interested in those, like, weirdos. Wow, thanks for that. You know I'm kidding. Mostly. Mm-hmm. Seriously, though, what makes you think that Noah had anything to do with these desert death cult-looking motherfuckers? Okay, so let me back up. When I first met Noah, he was fine and easygoing and normal. Isn't that what I said? Zip it. Fine. And things were great. We were just about to move in together and more. It was really good. But then, things started to change. It was right after he'd started working on his final project, an article about astral projection and extreme belief. Okay. Something happened. He became obsessed. He'd lose time and focus. He started to act differently around me. How so? He became distant, stressed. It was clear that something was bugging him about the story, but when I asked him about it, he'd just shrug it off and do his best to try and act normal. But one night, after we'd had more than quite a few drinks, he opened up about something. What? He told me about a meeting he'd had with somebody, a man he met in a pub somewhere. He said that this was the event that started it all, that changed the direction of his article. Oh, the astral projection story? Yeah. I mean, I think so. What? I don't think that was all of it. I mean, maybe that's where the conversation started, but apparently that's not where it ended up. Okay. But, okay, just listen. So, Noah meets this guy, and he doesn't know much about astral projection, from what Noah told me. In fact, the guy probably doesn't believe any of that stuff is real. Who does? But he does tell Noah something. What? Something he swears to make Noah keep secret. Noah did tell this guy that he was a journalist though, right? Of course. I mean, I think he did. And that he was researching a story. Just let me finish telling it, okay? Okay, well then tell it. So this guy was really drunk, apparently, and Noah said he had a feeling that the man was sharing something he probably shouldn't be sharing. Which was what? Information about a highly secretive group of people who might be able to help Noah with his article. And who were these highly secretive people? Well, now that's the big question. I'm not sure. It was... it was something about the power of coincidence or symbology or something. It had something to do with this handbill covered in strange symbols. Do you have it? Yeah. Okay, so this is witchy, but it's probably nothing. Well, it looks like something to me. Plus, it just feels... It's fucked up. Sure, yeah, I guess. How the hell were these people supposed to help Noah with his article about extreme belief or whatever? I think it was because their beliefs were extremely extreme. How so? They believed they'd found a path to another world. The path to another world. It sounds pretty out there, I know. But Noah wasn't the type of person to fall for extravagant claims or delusions. For him to get involved with these people, he would have needed proof. And proof was exactly what I felt I needed as well. And that's why I ended up sitting blindfolded at that bus stop for a second time. Although that second time, I didn't bother with a see-through blindfold. I figured whatever was going to happen was going to happen. After they picked me up at the bus stop, we drove for about 15 minutes in silence. When we finally pulled over and parked, the man called Manera removed my blindfold and the three of us stepped out of a dark gray four-door Tesla sedan. Me, Manera, and the woman called Brenner. The audio you're about to hear begins when we step out of the car. We were a block or so away from the Pike Place Market. It was just after 7 p.m. Where are we going? They led me into a vintage clothing store. I followed them through the store to the back where there were three changing rooms. While Brenner consulted her small notebook, the woman working behind the counter called toward the back to see if we needed help. Something in Brenner's notebook finally convinced her that the middle change room was what she was looking for. She pulled me inside the change room and pulled the curtain shut behind us. Manera went up to speak with the woman behind the counter. Here, dip your finger in this. What is it? It's part of what we're doing, just trust me. Hurry. Brenner handed me a small glass vial filled with a viscous liquid. It was the color of amber and it was filled with flecks of ash or something. It smelled waxy and kind of musky. I was instructed to dip my finger into the liquid and then duplicate the figures Brenner had begun drawing in the air. I figured I'd come this far and the weird liquid wasn't burning my finger or anything. What are we doing? Shh. Just follow my lead. We performed six or so visual shapes at least a dozen times in a row. And then we stepped out of the change room. Manero was standing there when we exited. Ready? We're primed. Then lead the way. We stepped out of the clothing store and just started walking and walking. I was feeling strangely elated. I felt like I was finally moving closer to figuring out what had happened to Noah. We followed Brenner for hours as she moved up and down seemingly random streets and alleys, often turning around and forcing the three of us back the way we came There didn appear to be any rhyme or reason to what we were doing but we just kept doing it The entire time Brenner was checking her notes and occasionally drawing strange symbols both in the air, like we'd done in the changing booth, and on the walls and sidewalks using a thick piece of chalk. The symbols were simple, similar to the images on the front of the flyer Noah had been given. They reminded me of ancient alchemy or something. At one point, Manera stopped, and we followed suit. We were standing in a narrow alley in front of what appeared to be an abandoned car. On the rear window of the car, a Buick Skylark, someone had written a series of numbers in pink lipstick. Two numbers were set atop two sides of a vertical arrow, and two other numbers on a horizontal arrow that crossed the vertical arrow in the middle. It looked like some kind of compass. The numbers were as follows. From the top, moving clockwise. 119, 96, 42, and 11. Manera mentioned that the numbers had been placed there by what he called the Advanced Team. I asked him what he meant by that, but he ignored my question. Brenner looked over the numbers, checked something in a small moleskin notebook, and smiled. We're close. So you're really not going to tell me who wrote these numbers? Let's get moving. North first? Yes. One, two, three, four, five, six, six. We started walking north. Monero was in the lead. He was counting his steps. Once he reached 119 steps, he turned and started walking east. After 96 steps, we turned south. You get the idea. The final two sets of steps led us into an ATM vestibule. A few seconds after we'd stepped inside, a man entered the vestibule. He was tall, with long red hair. He wore a black leather motorcycle jacket over a Beatles t-shirt, the four Beatles faces from the inner sleeve of the White Album. I couldn't believe it. The man was my cousin. He said he'd been thinking about calling me all day, and that it was really weird to run into me. We spoke for a few minutes, and then he used the ATM and left. As soon as the door had closed, Brenner turned to Manera and asked if he recognized the song that was playing in the vestibule He did, and so did I It was an instrumental, or Muzak version of Dear Prudence by the Beatles Brenner opened the door and the three of us stepped back out onto the sidewalk As soon as we were outside, a somewhat drunken woman bumped into us Her friend grabbed her and then apologized and scolded her as they walked away She said, Watch where you're going, prudence. Minera turned to Brenner and nodded. We followed the two women for a couple of blocks. When they finally turned down a side street, Minera pulled us beneath the awning of a nearby record store. Brenner noticed something in the display window. Something about the number of records or the band names or something. The White Album was in there among a bunch of other records on display, but I'm not sure that had anything to do with anything. Brenner checked her notebook and turned to Minera. It should be just around the corner. What's around the corner? We're here, Manera. Let's go. Go where? They continued to ignore most of my questions as Brenner led us around the corner onto another street and finally pointed at something. There, across the street. You see the newsstand? Is that new? I was here last week. That was a shoe store. Go buy a copy of a news magazine. Okay. Which one? At that moment, a car drove by. The Beatles' song, Rocky Raccoon, was blasting from the open passenger side window. Brenner checked her watch. It doesn't matter which news magazine you choose, but you have to hurry. You have less than three minutes. Well, what if there's a line? Steal it. I'm not going to do that. If you don't hurry, you might not make it back in time. In time for what? Just go. Now. So I ran over to the newsstand. There was nobody else waiting to buy anything, but it felt like it took longer than three minutes for me to purchase a copy of Time magazine. I rushed back across the street to the ATM where Brenner and Manero were waiting as fast as I could. I suddenly had a whole bunch of questions for the two of them, but when I made it back there, Brenner and Manero were gone. It looked like I was going to have to wait to ask my questions, the most pressing of which was related to the fact that the person on the cover of Time magazine, Times Person of the Year was Steve Jobs, who had apparently just celebrated his 66th birthday. You've been listening to The Path, a rabbit story. I'm Veronica Dale. Stay safe. Thank you so much for listening to The Path. Once again, if you'd like to order or pre-order the book, you'll be able to find rabbits wherever books are sold or visit TerryMiles.com for more information. If you enjoy rabbits, please rate and especially review on Stitcher, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you found us. Reviews are key to keeping rabbits on the charts where people can find our show. Thank you so much for listening. We couldn't make rabbits without you. rabbits is produced by nick silver sadie robinson and mason woo produced mixed and edited by me veronica dale associate producers tara pratt charlie williams and david james executive producers nick silver and hollis adams lane as always listen to tannis at tannispodcast.com and the last movie at thelastmoviepod.com For legal and safety reasons, we've elected to change some names and leave others out entirely. We don't do this very often, but we're not willing to compromise people's safety for any reason. Thanks again for listening to Rabbits. Thank you.
