Statement of Craig Goodall, regarding his explorations of an abandoned chicken and kebab shop in Walthamstow.
Pre-Statement[]
Basira calls Jonathan to ask who Maxwell Rayner is: she and other Section 31 members are going to arrest him. He tells her that Rayner was a cult leader back in the 1990s for The People's Church of the Divine Host and advises her to bring as many torches as possible but the feed starts to cut out.
Statement[]
Craig Goodall was a cannibal, probably, but it wasn't his fault. He used to go to a small takeaway Higham Hill Road in Walthamstow run by Haan Yong, aka John Haan, which was closed in May 2004 when he was arrested for killing his wife. He had been disposing of the body by putting the flesh into the meat he sold at the takeaway, although it's not clear which meat contained his wife. "Meat is meat" were John Haan's last words as he was arrested.
The takeaway was never sold. One afternoon, Craig heard a sound of something falling inside the abandoned takeaway, followed a little later by laughter. The window was slightly ajar so he called the police.
Craig sat in a pub opposite and watched as the police arrived 20 minutes later. They dragged out a teenager with a spray can, told him off and then left. Craig returned to his house and went to bed where he had dreams of spray paint on rotisserie spikes.
He decided to have a look in the building and called Leroy Yates, a friend in Homerton, who had experience in urban exploration. Craig refused Leroy's request to join him, but asked him to stop by in an hour if Craig hadn't spoken to him.
Craig took a crowbar and headed into the takeaway. The teenager had sprayed "Meat is me" on the freezer. Craig opened the freezer to check for meat, but there was nothing in there. As he breathed a sigh of relief he heard a laugh and saw a thin, pale Chinese man (likely Tom Haan) under a desk with a pair of bolt cutters around his ankle. The man chuckled and closed them, cutting Craig's Achilles' tendon, causing him to pass out.
He regained consciousness lying on the floor, tied up. In the room he found himself in was a pile of chipped tea cups, a stack of old bibles and a pile of human fingers.
The Chinese man stepped out from the shadows chewing on something and holding a butcher's knife. He asked Craig if he was awake, speaking with a crisp RP accent. Craig asked who he was, but the man just laughed and he sliced three of Craig's fingers off with his knife.
Tossing the fingers into the pile, he wandered over and picked up a bible. He started to monologue about the Romans: how they persecuted early Christians for cannibalism, which may be related to unpleasant rituals involving babies. Craig asked him if he was Christian, which infuriated the man who started rambling about meat and souls and blood.
Suddenly, Leroy appeared and threw the man to the floor. Kicking the man in the ribs he picked up the knife and freed Craig, who was surprised to see his fingers and ankle in perfect condition. He could see his silver ring on one of the fingers on the pile which was no longer on his own hand.
A candle fell onto the pile of bibles and the building went up in flames.
Post-Statement[]
Jonathan believes that Craig gave a fake name. Tim confirmed that the takeaway burned down on the 27th September 2009 which was put down to unknown local vandals. Martin looked into John Haan, who married Lan Ying shortly after she arrived in the country and set up the takeaway. There were no defensive wounds on Lan Ying's body and some of the wounds on her body may have been self-inflicted.
Just before the shop was closed, John Haan let all his staff go and hired his nephew who recently moved from China. His name was Haan Tao, although he took the name Tom Haan, who was the Dalston Meat Plant employee that disappeared.
Supplemental[]
Jonathan hasn't been back into the tunnels, and feels like he might be able to get help from Basira in searching them.
Continuity[]
| ATTENTION! SPOILERS AHEAD!! This section contains information from later episodes of The Magnus Archives and may contain major spoilers for the setting and plot. Continue at your own risk. |