Quiet Please-Whence Came You

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An archeologist arrives back in Egypt after a short stay in Jerusalem. After he checks into his hotel, he’s greeted by a friend who tells him that a woman has been looking for him. When he sees the woman from across the lobby, he instantly knows she’s the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He approaches her, but she flees. He tries to follow, but he loses her in the dark night of the city.

The next day, the archeologist returns to the excavation he had been working on before being called away to Jerusalem. The crew has worked slowly and carefully, removing layer after layer of ancient artifacts. The team has uncovered four cities built on top of one another, spanning thousands upon thousands of years. A single slab of sandstone separates the excavation from a fifth city… undisturbed for forty centuries. With the aid of machinery, the eighty ton slab is removed and a tomb is revealed beneath. When humans descend into the depths of the ancient tomb for the first time in four thousand years, they discover a horror and a beauty more chilling than they could possibly have imagined.

“Whence Came You?” is both intensely realistic and intensely mystical. Combining history and mythology and yet maintaining a strong link to present reality, the story creates a terrifying brand of horror. As is true in many episodes of Quiet, Please, the most terrifying horror is not in what actually happens, but in the implied. The ending is made exceptionally powerful by a deep mystery and the stark reality of an impossible choice.

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Justin Redman

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