The Wicked Library · 9th Story Studios LLC

TWL 1202: "It Stares Back at You", by Vincent Robert-Nicoud

April 25, 2023·25 min·2 clips

Something pulls Harry downward in the dark, and when he calls out his dead friend Will's name, a voice from the depths answers back.

The story is narrated by Harry, who opens on a return to the Mont Blanc area after a five-year absence. Five years prior, Harry and his British climbing companion Will attempted an off-track ski descent through the Giant's Glacier in poor weather. Fog rolled in as they navigated a maze of ice seracs, and they lost their course. Following the sound of a glacial torrent, they came upon a deep gully of meltwater and a perfect circular hole — a moulin — into which Will fell. Harry witnessed the fall but could not rescue his friend; all subsequent rescue attempts failed and Will's body was never recovered. In the years that followed, Harry gave up alpine climbing, haunted by imagined ice caves beneath every glacier he walked on. On the fifth anniversary of Will's death, Harry overhears other climbers discussing a newly formed deep chasm in the glacier and is compelled by an irresistible urge to investigate. He equips himself carefully with 250 feet of rope, ice axes, crampons, a helmet with a headlamp, and two dozen ice screws. Despite questioning his own motives, he finds the new moulin and, feeling he is on an immutable path, begins his descent. The interior of the shaft surprises him with its extraordinary beauty — walls shimmering in blue, purple, orange, and golden crystal light. He descends about 90 feet, setting rope anchors at intervals. At that depth the silence grows oppressive and the darkness total. When he attempts to ascend, his crampons barely catch and his arms fail him. He falls back, exhausted and shivering. While hanging in the harness, something brushes his leg and then pulls at him from below. In a desperate moment, he calls out Will's name, and a voice echoes back from the depths — Harry, Harry — growing louder and more insistent. He glimpses shadows rising from a pool below and hears what sounds like footsteps and then a deep rumble. In sheer panic, his helmet is knocked off and falls into the depths below. Without the headlamp, Harry climbs in total darkness by rope anchor and ice axe alone, numb, exhausted, and barely conscious, driven purely by the desire to reach open air. The story ends as he continues his ascent, refusing to look down.

As heard by us

A cold descent where curiosity keeps outmuscling survival.

This episode follows a climber back onto a glacier with a private compulsion and a memory that still cuts. Its best stretch turns the landscape into a moral test: the sun is hard, the snow snaps under crampons, the gear is handled with care, and the mind keeps drifting toward…

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Why you'd press play

You follow a glacier into a place curiosity should have left alone.

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