Shownotes
An explosion on Congress Street pulls Leonard Voss into a night that won't let go.
What begins as instinctive survival becomes something darker as Leonard enters a collapsing building filled with smoke, fire, and people who didn't get out in time.
Because good men don't hesitate.
But bad ones don't either.
Chapter 1, Part 1: Good Men Don't Hesitate begins Red in the Dark, a serialized psychological horror audio drama set in Maine and rooted in trauma, fractured memory, violence, survival, moral ambiguity, and the things people become when darkness starts feeling familiar.
Inside the wreckage, Leonard hears children crying from somewhere deep in the dark.
He wants to help.
But the darkness knows him.
And something inside him knows how to move through it.
This episode introduces Leonard Voss, the voice that follows him, and the first moments of a story where survival, mercy, violence, and identity begin to blur.
Support the show: share it with someone you think would love Red in the Dark.
Written, produced, sound engineered, and voice acted by Leonard Voss
Narrator, Leonard Voss, the voice, the father, and the young son voiced by Leonard Voss
All other voices are AI generated while we continue seeking voice actors to replace and update those performances.
Email [email protected] if you're interested in participating in the project, from voice acting and production to editing and website support.
Transcripts
The things we do to survive will eventually destroy us, but we do them anyway.
Speaker A:Because survival is all we know.
Speaker A:Chapter 1 Part 1 Good Men don't hesitate Leonard Voss walked with his hands in his jacket pockets, shoulders loose, humming something without words, a habit more than a tune.
Speaker A:The sidewalk was uneven here, bricks heaving from the radical main weather shifts.
Speaker A:Traffic slid by on the two lane road to his right, close enough that he felt it when a truck passed too fast.
Speaker A:A man came around the corner without looking, shoving his phone into his pocket.
Speaker A:They bumped shoulders, glancing, coats brushing enough to knock Larry half a step sideways.
Speaker A:The other man glanced at his wrist while continuing forward pace already.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker A:All good, he said.
Speaker A:The man didn't break pace.
Speaker A:Leonard reached the crosswalk as the light flipped and went anyway, adjusting his stride without thinking.
Speaker A:A silver sedan rolled closer than expected, and he half jogged the last step, laughing under his breath as he cleared the lane.
Speaker A:Appreciate you, he called, thumbs up at the driver.
Speaker A:He kept moving.
Speaker A:Near the convenience store, peeling red trim, buzzing open sign, a kid dragged his feet while an older man tugged him forward by the sleeve.
Speaker A:Don't let him rush you, kid, he said as he passed.
Speaker A:Fast walking is overrated.
Speaker A:The kid smiled.
Speaker A:The man snorted.
Speaker A:Almost there, larry said under his breath to no one in particular.
Speaker A:The sound of the street didn't stop, but something in it shifted.
Speaker A:His step faltered just for a fraction, as if he'd misjudged the curb.
Speaker A:Then the world hit him.
Speaker A:The blast drove into his back and threw him forward.
Speaker A:His arm shot out and slammed into a parking meter, metal jolting through his palm hard enough to rattle his teeth.
Speaker A:The air punched him full in the chest, the noise violent and tearing.
Speaker A:Glass exploded across the street.
Speaker A:Windows burst outward in a chain, shards flashing and spinning before they hit the pavement in a rain of sharp popping cracks.
Speaker A:Smoke rolled from the building across the street, its front torn open, the inside black and raw.
Speaker A:Dust chased the smoke thick and fast, stinging his eyes and throat.
Speaker A:Leonard stayed braced on the meter while the ground shuddered beneath him.
Speaker A:When the shaking eased, he let go.
Speaker A:Someone screamed.
Speaker A:A woman dropped to her knees.
Speaker A:Car alarms wailed, layering over the shouting.
Speaker A:The smell hit him.
Speaker A:Burned plastic, powdered concrete, something bitter that stuck in the back of his mouth.
Speaker A:The building groaned low and deep, like it was testing itself.
Speaker A:From inside came a thin, strained voice calling the same word again and again.
Speaker A:He shifted his weight and stepped off the curb.
Speaker A:Glass crunched under his boots as he crossed against the flow of people running the other way.
Speaker A:The smoke thickened as he got closer, swallowing detail and turning the daylight gray.
Speaker A:The front of the building yawned open.
Speaker A:Shelving lay toppled just inside, ceiling tiles hung by wires.
Speaker A:One support leaned at an angle that made his stomach tighten.
Speaker A:People were still inside.
Speaker A:Okay, larry said quietly.
Speaker A:He went in.
Speaker A:Inside, the air closed around him.
Speaker A:Dust hung thick enough to taste chalky and dry.
Speaker A:A fire alarm screamed somewhere deeper in the building, its rhythm warped.
Speaker A:Daylight spilled in through the torn front for only a few yards before the interior swallowed it, leaving everything beyond washed in dim gray.
Speaker A:Debris shifted under Leonard's boots.
Speaker A:He slowed without stopping, eyes lifting to the ceiling, tracking panels sagging and beams bowing.
Speaker A:Something creaked overhead, long, complaining, and he waited for it to settle before taking another step.
Speaker A:Hey, he called out.
Speaker B:If you can walk, head toward my voice, don't run.
Speaker A:Movement answered him.
Speaker A:Near the entrance.
Speaker A:A man stumbled forward, coughing.
Speaker A:Blood streaked along his cheek.
Speaker A:Larry caught his sleeve, turned him, and pointed.
Speaker A:Go out that way and keep moving.
Speaker A:Don't stop.
Speaker A:The man went.
Speaker A:He shifted deeper, listening.
Speaker A:The building groaned again, lower this time, and somewhere past the reach of the light came a sound that didn't belong with the others.
Speaker A:High, uneven, breaking apart and coming back together.
Speaker A:Crying children.
Speaker A:Larry stopped.
Speaker A:The sound threaded through the alarms in the settling structure, wrong in pitch and wrong in place.
Speaker A:It came from a hallway, narrow, unlit, the darkness beyond swallowing the light.
Speaker A:Hey, he called, his voice changing despite himself.
Speaker B:I hear you.
Speaker A:Crying hitched, then surged again, smaller and more frantic.
Speaker A:Larry took one step toward the hallway and felt it immediately, his balance slipping, breath catching where it shouldn't.
Speaker A:The darkness ahead pressed in, not empty, but waiting the way it always did.
Speaker A:He stopped at the mouth of the dark corridor, staring into it.
Speaker A:All right, he said quietly.
Speaker A:Do this.
Speaker A:The corridor narrowed as he went, just enough that his shoulders brushed the walls when he forgot to angle them.
Speaker A:Light thinned behind him, swallowed by turns that bent the space until he couldn't see the entrance anymore.
Speaker A:What remained came in patches, a flickering emergency strip buzzing like an angry insect, the a bare bulb glowing yellow behind cracked plastic, then nothing for several steps before the next weak spill.
Speaker A:He kept moving.
Speaker A:The building creaked around him, low and drawn out, the sound traveling through the walls instead of bouncing off them.
Speaker A:The corridor opened into something wider.
Speaker A:The ceiling had partially collapsed, leaving a jagged hole above.
Speaker A:Debris spilled across the floor in a mound.
Speaker A:Light barely reached here.
Speaker A:Shadows stacked until corners vanished into black.
Speaker A:The crying came from beyond.
Speaker C:Turn around.
Speaker A:The words brushed his ear, low, gravelly, weighted, like someone standing just behind him.
Speaker A:Leonard's shoulders locked.
Speaker A:His breath caught.
Speaker A:He leaned forward anyway, jaw tightening as he tried to move his balance faltered.
Speaker A:He caught himself on the wall, his hands skidding against rough concrete as the children's panicked cries echoed beyond.
Speaker A:I'm here, he called, forcing his voice steady.
Speaker B:I. I hear you.
Speaker B:Stay where you are.
Speaker C:I said turn around.
Speaker A:The voice was closer now, firmer, the metallic edge cutting sharper.
Speaker A:Larry stayed braced to the wall, staring into the dark that led to them, knowing he needed to go farther and knowing with sudden certainty that he couldn't do it like this.
Speaker A:Not like this.
Speaker A:The dark closed in the longer he stood still.
Speaker A:The voice stayed low and close, gravel forced through something broken.
Speaker C:They're not worth it.
Speaker A:Leonard's head snapped up.
Speaker C:We both know that this is not a place that you thrive in.
Speaker A:It continued casual.
Speaker C:The darkness is my domain.
Speaker A:He tried to step and failed.
Speaker A:His foot slid, heels scraping, before he caught himself again.
Speaker C:You're shaking.
Speaker C:Seconds from freezing.
Speaker C:If you stay here, the building takes you and them with it.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But they're kids, larry said, the words breaking with his breath.
Speaker C:I don't care what they are.
Speaker A:He bent forward, hands braced on his knees, chest heaving.
Speaker A:He lifted his head anyway, eyes fixed on the darkness ahead.
Speaker C:I'm not leaving them.
Speaker C:You don't have another option.
Speaker C:You can't get to them, but I can.
Speaker A:The crying spiked again in the distance.
Speaker A:He pressed himself against the wall to hold himself up.
Speaker C:Every kid gets out, he said.
Speaker A:The firmness in his voice didn't match the way his body shook.
Speaker A:Silence.
Speaker A:Darkness.
Speaker A:Absolute.
Speaker A:Fine, the voice said finally, irritation cutting through.
Speaker C:Every child lives.
Speaker C:You have my word.
Speaker A:Leonard swallowed hard, his throat tight.
Speaker A:He knew exactly why he couldn't do this himself, and exactly who could.
Speaker A:He closed his eyes.
Speaker A:Then his breath fell into a slow, measured rhythm, ignoring the screaming panic.
Speaker A:His shoulders set, his stance shifted on its own weight dropping clean and sure.
Speaker A:He rolled his head slowly, let out a long breath, then opened his eyes.
Speaker A:The calm that followed was wrong.
Speaker A:He looked down.
Speaker A:His hands didn't tremble.
Speaker A:The veins stood out tight against his skin.
Speaker A:He flexed his fingers and felt strength answer immediately, like it had been waiting.
Speaker A:A grin cut across his face, smooth and twisted.
Speaker A:His eyes, now empty, stayed fixed ahead, already mapping the dark.
Speaker A:He stepped forward.
Speaker A:The darkness didn't resist.
Speaker A:Leonard moved into it as if fear had never learned his name.
Speaker A:He moved through the corridor without hesitation.
Speaker A:His feet found clear patches between debris, stepping over twisted metal and shattered tile without looking down.
Speaker A:The darkness that had pinned him motionless moments ago was just space now.
Speaker A:Measurable, navigable, irrelevant.
Speaker A:A low groan passed through the ceiling.
Speaker A:He paused mid step, head tilting as he traced the sound to a stress fracture running along the left wall.
Speaker A:The groans settled.
Speaker A:He continued forward.
Speaker A:The crying was clearer now.
Speaker A:Two voices close together.
Speaker A:Leonard turned the corner and found them.
Speaker A:Two kids pressed against the remains of a collapsed wall.
Speaker A:A girl, maybe 10, with her arm around a younger boy who couldn't have been more than six.
Speaker A:Both were streaked with dust, eyes wide and red from crying.
Speaker A:They went quiet when they saw him, bodies tensing.
Speaker A:Stay right there.
Speaker A:Don't move, he said, voice calm and even.
Speaker A:The girl nodded quickly, pulling the boy closer.
Speaker A:He scanned the room.
Speaker A:Intact beams overhead, no loose fixtures.
Speaker A:Floor stable where they sat.
Speaker A:We are going to move now, he said.
Speaker C:When I say go, you stay close and you don't stop.
Speaker C:Do you understand?
Speaker A:They nodded in unison.
Speaker A:The girl's eyes hadn't left his face.
Speaker A:Are you okay?
Speaker A:She asked quietly.
Speaker A:He looked at her.
Speaker A:His expression didn't change.
Speaker C:I'm fine.
Speaker A:She didn't look convinced, but she didn't ask again.
Speaker A:Let's move, he said.
Speaker A:He turned toward the corridor.
Speaker A:Behind him, the younger boy whispered something to the girl.
Speaker A:She shushed him.
Speaker A:Too late.
Speaker C:He's scary.
Speaker A:Larry tilted his head slightly.
Speaker A:He didn't turn around.
Speaker A:He started them back the way he'd come.
Speaker A:Larry moved them out.
Speaker A:Hold hands, he said.
Speaker C:Don't let go.
Speaker A:The girl took the boy's hand.
Speaker A:They stayed close as he guided them back through the corridor, stopping when the building complained, moving when it went quiet.
Speaker A:Debris shifted underfoot.
Speaker A:He set the pace and they matched it.
Speaker A:The air thinned ahead.
Speaker A:Cooler, cleaner.
Speaker A:Sirens threaded through the distance.
Speaker A:Larry angled them away from a collapsed section and took the longer route, steering them through intact beams and solid floor until an emergency light flickered on near an interior stairwell.
Speaker A:Reinforced walls.
Speaker A:Higher ceiling.
Speaker A:A sound carried through the dust.
Speaker A:Faint, strained.
Speaker A:A man.
Speaker A:Can anyone hear me?
Speaker A:Followed by a wet, broken cough.
Speaker A:The kids froze.
Speaker A:The girl turned toward it.
Speaker B:Dispatch.
Speaker B:Possible explosion on Congress.
Speaker B:Multiple calls coming in.
Speaker B:Units respond.
Speaker B:Unseen fronts blown out.
Speaker B:Multiple casualties.
Speaker A:People still inside.
Speaker B:Request EMS expire now.
Speaker B:Breaking news.
Speaker A:An explosion on Congress.
Speaker A:Multiple casualties reported.
Speaker A:Officials say people may still be trapped inside.
Speaker C:Good men don't hesitate.
Speaker C:Bad ones don't either.