The Studio, PT 1

I've kept my mouth shut about that studio for years, mostly because the man who ran it asked me to.

Back then I was a professional musician. Our first label-backed EP was out in the world, and we were deep into recording the follow-up. We had a New Year's Eve show booked in Connecticut, but the record still had a few loose ends, so our label booked us some studio time at a place in Massachusetts. It was right on the way to the gig. Convenient. That's the word I would have used at the time, anyway.

We pulled in excited out of our minds. The property was huge, the kind of place where you lose count of the doors, and it had every accommodation you could ask for. We even had our own personal chef. For a band used to gas station dinners, it felt like we had finally made it.

I'm not going to name any names or give away the location. Part of that is respect for the people involved. The bigger part is that the studio's head engineer asked us, pretty seriously, not to tell anyone about what happens there. At the time I assumed he meant the celebrity clients. It took me a while to understand he meant something else entirely.

Shortly after we arrived, the studio engineer greeted us, went over a few house rules, and took us on a tour so each of us could pick a room for the stay. (there was one room at the end of a long hallway that he wouldn't show us, more on that later) The place just kept going. Hallway after hallway, room after room, staircase after staircase. The layout was quite odd to be honest. It reminded me of something akin to the Winchester Mansion. Some of the bedrooms were named after musicians who had recorded or rehearsed there so often that they'd customized their rooms to their own liking. And when I say musicians, I mean big names you would know instantly. I won't drop them here, because a quick search of those names plus the state would give the whole place away. After each band member picked their room, it was time to unload our gear and get our equipment in the studio.

We got everything loaded in and setup. Did some sound checks and made sure the reels were good to go, but after that there wasn't much to do until the next day. There was a pool table room in the studio, so we decided to go play some pool to end the day.

Nothing much happened at this point, and we all eventually retired to our respective rooms for the remainder of the night.

PT 2, coming soon. This is where it really gets interesting, then eventually terrifying.