Who: Magnus and Sadie When: Afternoon, Tuesday, October 17 Where: Joyland Coffee Status: Complete
It was a good thing that Noah had already managed to find a proper coffee place in town, else Magnus would have probably spent twenty minutes wandering aimlessly through the streets of Point Pleasant—as it was, he had instead found himself at a corner table of Joyland Coffee, where Dan’s cousin had agreed to meet him, five minutes ahead of time, a cup of coffee already in his hand.
It was easy, most of the time, to pretend the only reason they had come to Point Pleasant was to investigate the (most likely fake, most likely overstated) paranormal presence, because that was what they did, but truth was, Magnus really was concerned what had happened to Dan. He wanted to tell himself that his friends had simply packed his bags and settled down somewhere with more palm trees, less fog, but… It didn’t quite fit the level-headed, responsible guy he had come to know over the past few years.
With a heavy sigh, Magnus took a long drink of his coffee. It was a glum topic, and he didn’t like thinking about it too much; he didn’t have high hopes that he could unearth anything no one else had, but it was a nagging at the back of his mind that he couldn’t not try. So—he had to stay at least a little hopeful, and he fixed his eyes on the door, waiting for Sadie to arrive.
Sadie had been a little reluctant to meet with Magnus. She was more than aware of the fact that there were people out there who'd come to town, pretending like they were ghost hunters, and getting into peoples' faces, looking for some kind of viral fame as they disrupted the community. But Magnus had known Danny, and given what little information the police had on his disappearance, it felt wrong to turn the guy down. There was always the possibility that he knew something, and Sadie couldn't afford to ignore him for that reason alone.
When she arrived at Joyland, Sadie caught sight of Magnus in the corner and she held up her finger to indicate she would be with him in a moment. She needed caffeine, or just something to hold in her hands while they spoke. After her coffee was bought and paid for, Sadie joined Magnus at the table, pulling off her shoulder bag to hang on the back of the chair as she sat across from him. "I'm sorry I'm late," she said with a small smile. "Leaving school on time is a hit or miss these days. I hope you weren't waiting long."
Magnus perked up when he saw Sadie enter, and managed to flash her a smile before she turned to get some coffee of her own. Now that she had arrived, Magnus couldn’t deny that he was a little nervous about how this would go; he didn’t want to seem like someone who was carelessly treading all over an already tough situation, but Danny’s disappearance wouldn’t quite let him rest. That wasn’t how Magnus operated, he couldn’t just be told ‘oh, he’s gone missing’ and shrug his shoulders and not even try to do anything. “Don’t worry about it. I haven’t been waiting long at all. And the coffee’s pretty good, too.” Truly, one of the marks Magnus judged any town on. “Thanks for meeting me in the first place. I—really liked Danny, but I can’t imagine how much tougher this has to be on you.” Knowing someone was ‘missing’ put everything in some strange sort of limbo. Magnus wanted to stay hopeful—maybe Danny had grown a mustache and moved to Mexico, maybe he had decided he needed a Vegas trip without telling anyone—no matter how unrealistic, but at the same time, there was this uneasiness in the pit of his stomach, mourning he didn’t allow himself to do. “How are you?”
Sadie gave him a small smile as she got comfortable. She did enjoy Joyland's coffee, which was a blessing since there wasn't a Starbucks anywhere in town. Yet. They popped up all over the place, so maybe one day. "We're dealing with it the best that we can," Sadie explained, not wanting to express too much to a stranger until she got a better feel for him and what his motivations were. "There are good days and bad days, but I'm doing all right." She set her coffee down on the table, though she kept her hand wrapped around it to absorb the warmth. It helped center her a bit. "So, I understand you knew Danny. But what prompted you to come all the way to Point Pleasant?" Sadie asked. She didn't sound accusatory, or suspicious. She just wanted to know that Magnus wasn't there to exploit Danny's disappearance. Given Point Pleasant's track record for missing people, it had happened more than enough times in the past that Sadie couldn't help but feel a little on edge.
“I’m sorry. I can’t even imagine.” They had been friends, sure, but Magnus wasn’t missing family. That was another level entirely, he reasoned. And… that was a legitimate question, wasn’t it? Magnus realized that it had to be at least a little bit weird for some stranger to show up from a couple hundred miles away out of the blue—he knew he would find it at least a little bit dubious, if the roles were reversed. “I’m a freelancer. So it’s—it doesn’t really matter where I work from. I figured I might as well.” Hell, Magnus wasn’t even entirely sure he had a good reason to be here, or that he could contribute anything at all, but. Sitting on his hands simply wasn’t an option to him, either. “I don’t know, to be honest. It’s just…” Brows furrowed, he took a long drink of his coffee. “It didn’t feel right to sit in Chicago and go, ‘oh well, guess he’s disappeared now, nothing to be done about that,’ you know? Like he’s just a name that won’t pop up on my phone anymore now. That’s just—” Magnus grimaced, unsure how to phrase what he wanted to say, unsure what it was he wanted to say in the first place, and he sighed, frustrated. “It didn’t sit right with me.”
Sadie could understand that, although she wasn't entirely sure just how close Danny and Magnus had been. Sadie couldn't recall Danny ever mentioning the guy, but that didn't mean anything. They didn't know everything about each other's lives. Sadie considered this for a moment before she sighed and glanced out the window briefly before turning her attention back on Magnus. "So what is if that you think you can do here? There hasn't much been much to go on, and I know the police department have done just about as much as they can with what resources they have. This is a small town, and it has a history, which I'm sure you know if you were in frequent contact with Danny. People aren't overly eager to talk to strangers."
“I don’t know that I can do anything, but I know that I can’t… not do anything.” It was a frustrating situation, on top of being many, many other, even less pleasant things. “We always talked about meeting up eventually if one of us was in the area, and never got around to it, so I guess I’m—“ Magnus halted, and managed a somewhat mournful smile. “Well. I’m a bit late, now, but I kind of—need to get a picture of what this place is like.” It was hard to explain, even to himself, why he had come here; convincing Noah, by contrast, had been relatively easy. Then again, they both knew that Magnus was hard to deter once he had put his mind to something. “I know a bit about the history, especially the parts Danny was into. And I know that this place has a history of unexplained disappearances, too. And I guess, talking to people who knew him, and seeing it, it kind of puts things in relation.” He absent-mindedly chewed on his lower lip, then shook his head. “But I mean, I don’t want to be a bother. I get that I’m a total stranger to you, so if you’d rather be doing something else, I totally understand.”
Sadie considered Magnus as she sipped her coffee, needing a moment or two to gather her thoughts so she could express them properly without sounding dismissive or rude. She was grateful that someone Danny knew had come here to try and help find out what happened to him, even though the cynical side of her knew that it was a fruitless search. They were almost always fruitless searches. "I was born and raised here," Sadie began. "I moved away for school, and then I got married and came back. That's a story you'll hear a lot. Not necessarily the marriage or school, but there's plenty of people who want out of this place, and some actually manage to follow through. But they almost always come back. I'm sure that's something Danny told you about. There's a lot of stories about Point Pleasant. A lot of them are made up, or embellishments. A lot of them are true." She shrugged softly before sighing. "I want to help you, but I just need to know that you're not here searching for answers as some form of entertainment. There's been a lot of suffering in this town and we don't need to see it exploited, you know?"
“Yeah, Danny mentioned. He was … kind of enamored with all of these stories, the paranormal, the witches, all that. Exposing them, too. That’s how we met, online.” There was a small smile on his lips, just thinking about Danny, because, hell, he had been fond of the guy. “That’s what I do, too. I mean. In a different way, I guess.” Magnus couldn’t help it, he grimaced—he understood, rationally, why that would be one of Sadie’s concerns, but at the same time, he couldn’t help that at first sting, it hurt that she would think so little of him as to assume that. Sure, Magnus ran a youtube channel about the paranormal, but he stayed far away from things that involved any kind of human tragedy, but he just had to remind himself that it wasn’t personal, and that her concerns were warranted, too, he was pretty sure. “I—I get the concern. But Danny was a friend, and it’s just… a bad feeling in my stomach to know he’s gone and know nothing more about it. I’m here because I want to try and help, and it’s not for the internet or what have you.”
Sadie didn't know Magnus enough to think any other way. She certainly didn't know him well enough to assume he was there with pure intentions. For all she knew, he was there to exploit Danny's disappearance for his own hobby, or career, or whatever it was. Sadie wasn't getting that kind of vibe from him, but she owed it to Danny and her family to make sure this could actually be helpful and not hurtful. "I understand, because we feel that way too. He was your friend, but he was our family. If you're here to help, then we would appreciate the help. I'll do what I can to help you. Is there anything you need to know while you have me here?"
The truth of it was, while not particularly prone to conspiracy theorizing, Magnus knew the statistics when it came to crime in towns where everyone knew each other, and how much less likely anything was going to get solved when the local police had pre-formed opinions of the people involved. And how much further the odds of solving anything at all if a possible culprit was part of the police force. Magnus could understand why Sadie was suspicious of him and his intentions, but he still visibly relaxed when she offered to help. “Just things you’ve probably already told everyone else. Like, has he been off at all before he vanished? Has he ever mentioned wanting to leave this town?” He cupped his mug of coffee for warmth, and comfort, and tilted his head to the side as he spoke. “He sounded fond of this place whenever we spoke about it, but if something happened recently, I probably wouldn’t know.”
Sadie sighed and took a moment to think over the questions as she sipped her coffee. She wished Lucy was still around, and if Magnus proved to be trustworthy, maybe she would call her cousin and see if she wanted to talk. As of right now, Sadie was the best Magnus could do, unless he spoke to Fin. "Danny loved it here, and I never heard him talk about wanting to leave beyond just taking a vacation." She paused and licked her lips, debating her next words before she looked at Magnus with a small frown. "He was having blackouts before he disappeared. I didn't know about them but my... a friend did, and told me after the fact. They said he would wake up somewhere else and not know how he got there. I keep wondering if that's what happened, that maybe he woke up and just... had no idea where or who he was? I don't know. Maybe I'm grasping, but I can't imagine he left on his own without telling me, and certainly not without taking his sister. As far as I know, he didn't see a doctor about it, so I don't know how much that can help you."
Magnus thought that new bit of information over, if there was anything of it Danny had mentioned, if there was anything of the likes he had heard of before. “Was he ever a sleepwalker before that? That you know of?” Magnus had … plenty of cousins, and if anyone asked him any questions about them, he was pretty sure he couldn’t answer any of them. He wouldn’t necessarily recognize all of them on the street, truth be told, so he didn’t know how tightly everyone else held those familial bonds. “I mean, it’s a possibility,” he agreed, and he could understand the hope—he hadn’t given up hope himself, or he wouldn’t have made his way to Point Pleasant. For now, Danny was missing, not dead, and he held onto that. He imagined his family did even more so. “Has the search for him gone statewide? National?” Truthfully, Magnus didn’t think the effort had been made; Danny wasn’t a cute missing four year old blond girl, and Point Pleasant had a history of losing its inhabitants. And yet… He held on to hope.
"I don't know," Sadie admitted with a frown. "If he had been, he never told me, which wouldn't have been unusual. We spoke almost every day, but he tended to keep his problems to himself. I do know the police here have put out notices and BOLOs for him in other jurisdictions. Other stations and hospitals have his picture and information. But... no one has seen him so far. As far as I know, it hasn't gone national. If it has, no one has told me. The problem is," she continued, sounding a tad bit frustrated now, "is that he's a grown man, with no noted issues or disabilities that would make the police consider him an endangered person, you know? So for them, it's easy to just say he chose to leave and that's that. I know our police department does the best that it can, but I don't think Danny's disappearance is a priority for them. Not anymore."
“Yeah, I would… kind of expect the same,” Magnus admitted, as uncomfortable as he was with that thought as he was himself. But Danny was a grown adult, and there were people who, in theory at least, needed help more direly than he did. Even if the police had good intentions, there was only so much time and resources they could spend on trying to find someone who might have left of their own volition. That, and Point Pleasant probably had more missing people than just Danny. “Is there anyone else who has gone missing recently? Because I know Danny mentioned that it’s been kind of a part of Point Pleasant’s history, people going missing.” Magnus remembered his coffee as he continued racking his brain, and took a sip of it. He was glad Sadie was giving him the benefit of the doubt, and he could feel her frustration with the whole situation. “And returning, sometimes. I mean—that doesn’t happen so much anywhere else, as far as I know.”
Unable to help herself, Sadie released a short laugh before she shook her head. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "There's been so many disappearances in this town over the years. All I can suggest is to check the news online, or at the newspaper building. I would say go talk to one of the deputies, but I doubt they would give you any information if the cases are still open. I know there was a doctor at Mercy who vanished. Her ID badge was found in the parking lot, but based on what the cops found at her house, they believe she left voluntarily. I vaguely remember hearing a few other stories, but sometimes you can't tell what's real or made up around here." Sadie sipped her coffee, her blonde brows drawn together thoughtfully before she set her cup back on the table. "There was a rash of child disappearances years ago... and some of them returned home with no answers. I'm not positive of their names, but I'm sure there's a record of them somewhere."
“Yeah, I imagine they probably won’t be sharing that kind of information.” If they know how to do their job, Magnus thought, but didn’t say out loud. “But I’ll check the news online. I have, to some degree, but all of this is so local it doesn’t make it to many news outlets.” Which was kind of surprising--if disappearances were this common in Point Pleasant, he would assume bigger agencies would pick up on it. But as it stood, it was only talked about in forums of the obscure, and, well. Danny’s radio show. Magnus shook his head. “To be honest, it’s really odd to me how disappearances are just… a thing here. That’s just-- super weird to me.” He had known about the kids and disappearances, the returns, too, but that was where the news usually ended. Then again, it was a slightly different time, he assumed, when they didn’t play ‘catch up’ with old news stories every few years when they ran out of other things to report on. “So none of the kids ever talked about what happened?”
"I don't know how many people care about what goes on in a small town like Point Pleasant. It feels isolating sometimes." She shrugged softly. "We've had the state police swoop in and take some cases, but I honestly have no idea what happened with them. A lot of the disappearances were concluded to have been the person leaving of their own will, like the doctor at Mercy. But I know for sure there are a lot of cold cases. I know people throw around 'vanished without a trace' quite a bit, but here it seems to be actually true. I don't know how the police come to the conclusions they come to, but..." Sadie sighed with a soft smile. "As for the kids, no, a lot of them kept quiet, or claimed they had no idea what had happened or where they've been. Sometimes the parents are so relieved and overjoyed that their kids are back that they don't care what happened and they refuse to let the police or media talk to them. I'm sure if you do a bit of digging, you might find some names and maybe there are a few still living here. Whether or not they'll talk to you is a different matter."
“That’s just--” Magnus huffed out a frustrated sigh, “I can’t understand how not one case, apparently, has ever been solved around here.” He was from Chicago, he didn’t come equipped with the most faith in the police force in the first place, but this was stretching any amount of belief in their capabilities incredibly thin. “Saying that they left willfully seems like a cop out.” It was frustrating to listen to, he couldn’t even imagine how frustrating living in this place had to be--were people constantly worried that they or a loved one might vanish? Or was it the sort of thing they ignored and believed wouldn’t happen to them? But it gave him something to look into. He was sure he wasn’t the first to start digging, but maybe he would be the first to be lucky enough to stumble onto something. “Yeah, I can imagine not a lot of them would be thrilled to be confronted with all that now again. But man. There’s something incredibly rotten in the state of Denmark.”
"Some have been solved," Sadie corrected. "Not a lot, but some. And generally not with a happy ending. But you're right, it does seem like a cop out, especially to the families. The police department here is dedicated, and they're trying, but they're woefully understaffed and rarely get the funds they need to do their job. The state police will pop in every now and then and wrangle a case from them, but that's rare. I agree there's something strange happening, but it seems like something strange is always happening here. Strange is normal to most of us." She shrugged and gave Magnus a faint smile. "Honestly, I would rather find out Danny just up and left us than deal with any of the other possible scenarios, but I've never been much of an eternal optimist. If you and your friend can find anything... anything... I would be grateful."
From what Magnus knew of Danny, and from what Sadie knew of him, he was sure, he wasn’t the kind of guy who would’ve booked it to the Bahamas without anyone knowing, but he could understand wanting to believe that, and clinging to that belief, if all else failed. “It seems like some sort of … magnet for everything strange. Like the Bermuda triangle, except it’s not on anyone’s radar outside of here.” Except, well. For the niche people with a paranormal interest, like him and Noah, and a select few others. If he had lived his whole life in this town, Magnus really wasn’t sure how hopeful he would be—but he wasn’t from around here, and he still had hope, and he had tenacity. He wasn’t going to pack up before he had found something, and his smile aimed for reassuring. “That’s what I’m here for. We will try everything we can come up with.”
"It must be on some radars," Sadie countered with a small smile. Maybe Magnus had shown up because of Danny's disappearance, but there was always more to the stories of those who came into Point Pleasant to research. "But, thanks Magnus. We appreciate it. Danny's family and I. If you need anything, you have my cell, just give me a call, or shoot me a text and I'll see what I can do. My ex-husband is a deputy and we're still on good terms. I can't promise anything with it being an open case, but... if you need resources, I'll try my best." That was the best she could, at east. Sadie knew Jared wanted to help, even if his hands were tied. But all it would take is another missing person and Danny would be forgotten. If he hadn't been already.
“Niche radars,” Magnus mused, considering Danny’s radio show and the interest it drew in some forums, then added, “Or radars we just don’t know about.” Which had ominous implications he didn’t really want to think about yet. Reasonably, logically, Magnus could understand that maybe this town wasn’t under proper investigation. There were, technically, just a lot of single cases that didn’t have to be linked on a grander scale, but he still felt like this town warranted someone looking into it. ‘Two guys with a youtube channel,’ he had to admit, probably wasn’t the best investigative power to do that, but apparently, there weren’t many other. “Thank you. Is there anything you think I should talk to?” Without a good word from Sadie, Magnus was pretty sure no actual police officer would be willing to talk to him. “But. I don’t want to take up too much of your time. You can always tell me to scatter and I’ll text you with any questions I come up with.”
"Well, his sister has moved, and my family won't be able to tell you much more," she admitted. "Neither will the police, given it's an open case. But, I suppose you could talk to his friend, Fin Haynes. They were close. Are close. I don't know how much more he could tell you, but it never hurts to try, right? And as far as I know, Danny wasn't seeing anyone." Sadie smiled softly. "But yes, feel free to text me if you have any other questions, or need to know anything else. I don't know that I can be much help, but I'll do my best."
Magnus nodded. “He was her ward, right? Makes sense she’d not stay around here. Man, that’s—the poor girl.” The name Fin vaguely rang a bell; he thought Danny might have mentioned him once or twice, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it just yet. “Do you have any idea where I can find Fin? I mean. Without just knocking at his front door. People don’t… like that very much.” That he knew from personal experience, and had led to a few receptions he wasn’t particularly keen to repeat. “You’ve already been helpful. And I really, really appreciate.” Magnus’ smile aimed for encouraging, and he hoped he could pull it off; he wasn’t without hope yet that they could find out something.
"He owns Books and Beer," Sadie said. "He's working pretty much every day, so I would check there first. If you can't track him down, let me know and I'll shoot him a text to give you a call. When you do talk to him, just tell him I sent you to him so he knows it's okay to talk." She didn't think Fin would be uncomfortable with it. Anything, any hope to try and find Danny, and it was likely Fin would be on board with it. She gave Magnus a soft smile. "I should get going. But I'm available if you need anything, or if you find anything... day or night, okay?"
Books and Beer sounded, without a doubt, like the kind of establishment Magnus would end up on his own sooner or later; knowing the owner could maybe help him find Danny was another good reason to check it out. “Thank you, that will probably go a long way.” Magnus nodded; anything that could help him open doors around town was much, much appreciated. He’d gotten enough slammed in his face in the past few years already. “I’ll keep that in mind. And really. Thank you so much.” He gave her a smile of his own in return, as optimistic as he could be. It was a start, at least.