Termination Dust is a story collected in [[Swift To Chase (Book)]]. The story describes the events surrounding the killing spree of the [[Eagle Talon Ripper]], a massive fire and a huge blizzard in and around the Frazier Estate apartement building in Eagle Talon, [[Alaska]]. This story is itself almost a small collection of short stories. We get fragmented bits and pieces, but there are time jumps and point-of-view shifts with every new paragraph. It's hard to get a full picture of the events that took place: "Problem is, constant reader, you can’t believe a damned word of this story. (...) I get the gist of the plot, but the nuances escape into the vacuum.(...) Yeah, it’s a regular cluster. Take the wrong peg from this creaky narrative and the whole log pile falls on you. Anyway you know. You know." (Swift to Chase, p. ) --- ### Time, Place & Events The events of Termination Dust take place in the small village of Eagle Talon, Alaska, where all its residents live at the same apartment building: the Frazier Estate Apartments. The village's Frazier Estate Apartments and the Frazier Tower were built by Bailey Frazier & Sons in 1952. Both buildings were damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 1964, leading to the Frazier Tower's abandonment. The Estate, however, remained functional and lived-in. In the story [[(Little Miss) Queen of Darkness]], it is mentioned that the Eagle Talon murders took place in the winter of 2012. [[Julie Vellum]] (and therefore [[Jessica Mace]]?) are in senior year in 1998 (as mentioned in both [[Andy Kaufman Creeping through the Trees]] and (Little Miss) Queen of Darkness), so they must be around 30-31 years old during the events of the Eagle Talon murders. In a flash forward, 40 years after the night of the murders, Jessica is described as being recently retired when she's getting interviewed by a famous journalist. This seems to check out. The year of the journalist's interview should be around 2052. Most of the story's events revolve around the same night. On this night, one of the Estate's residents, Emmitt Snodgrass, throws a Christmas party. He spikes the punch with acid. One of the guests, Bobby Aickman, trips on a wire which leads to a massive fire that consumes the top three floors of the apartment complex. There's multiple deaths in the fire and a couple of people go missing prior to the party as well: "Cops recovered some bodies reduced to charcoal briquettes. Two of those charred corpses were never properly identified, and what with all the folks who went missing prior to the Christmas party" (Swift to Chase, p. ) The Ripper is in attendance of the party and is probably tripping on acid when he leaves the party, goes upstairs and attacks [[Nathan Custer]] outside of [[Jessica Mace]]'s apartment: "While everybody else has gathered upstairs for Snodgrass’ annual bash, you sneak away to share a special moment with Nathan Custer. (...) This is where it gets very, very confusing. For a lunatic moment you’re convinced it’s you (...) Why are your hands so fascinating all of the sudden? Oh, Jesus, what if Snodgrass spiked the punch?" (Swift to Chase, p. ) After attacking Nathan, he slices Jessica's throat and ties Nathan to a chair in her apartment. Then, he gets shot by Jessica. It's uncertain whether the Ripper actually dies after getting shot five times by Jessica. It's also uncertain whether Nathan dies in the event. I believe all the bodies found at the Estate are burned beyond recognition, so it's hard to know for certain. On the same night (I think?), the local Deputy Newcastle gets killed by the Eagle Talon Ripper when investigating a trespassing at the abandoned Frazier Tower. Afterwards, the killer takes his trooper hat. Forty years after the killing spree, a journalist visits Jessica Mace (now Jessica Mace Goldwood) at her home in Upstate New York. Jessica is recently retired from training security dogs. Her husband, Gerry Goldwood, passed away one year prior. Julie Vellum passed away a week ago. During the visit, the journalist is suddenly killed in a similar manner as Deputy Newcastle. Jessica finds the journalist's body with Newcastle's trooper hat placed top of his head. --- ### Characters There's parts in italics, written from the 2nd person perspective of the Eagle Talon Ripper himself. From his own descriptions, it's not easy to pinpoint whether he is just a person, a supernatural force or entity, multiple people or a confused, tripping sociopath. Perhaps he's all of the above. There's parts written from the 1st person perspective of [[Nathan Custer]]. Nathan once survived a shot to the head in a series of events dubbed the Moose Valley Slaughter. In Termination Dust, Nate gets murdered by the Ripper at the apartment building moments before Jessica Mace shoots the Ripper. There's parts written in 3rd person about various characters in Eagle Talon, such as Jessica Mace, Deputy Newcastle, Elam Newcastle (the Deputy's brother), Tammy Ferro and her son Mark, Emmitt Snodgrass, Dolly Sammerdyke, and Hendricks and Wannamaker. Jessica Mace gets into a fight with her high school nemesis Julie Vellum (who lives at the same apartment complex even years later??) at Emmitt's party, hooks up with Nathan (who she recently broke up with) and gets her throat cut by the Ripper after kicking Nate out of her apartment. Afterwards, she shoots the Ripper (who she describes as _'a big, fuzzy shadow'_) five times. Julie Vellum attends Emmitt's party and - we learn from the story (Little Miss) Queen of Darkness - spends the peak of the chaos hiding in a closet, according to some. --- ### Dead Celebrities The [[Children of Old Leech]] taking on the forms of dead celebrities is one of the main themes of the [[Antiquity]] tale [[The One We Tell Bad Children]] and of [[Andy Kaufman Creeping through the Trees]]. The sudden appearance of Michael Jackson before the Deputy in this story seems more like a figment of his imagination and not quite the same thing as Andy Kaufman. Although the fact that the Deputy's brother starts seeing Michael Jackson as soon as the Deputy dies does point towards something weird, I don't think MJ is a disguised alien. But still, they seem like somewhat similar ideas so I gotta point 'em out. Tyson Langtree, on the night of his murder, is overheard talking about Andy Kaufman, clearly drunk: "“I tell you, man. Andy Kaufman is alive, man. He’s alive, bigger than shit, and cuttin’ throats (...)” This was overheard at the packed Caribou Creek Tavern on a Friday night about thirty seconds before bartender Lonnie DeForrest tossed his sorry ass out onto a snowbank. (...) Everybody knows Andy Kaufman is crazy as a motherfucker." (Swift to Chase, p. ) This immediately brings to mind the events of [[Andy Kaufman Creeping through the Trees]]. It could be that Andy Kaufman is just the 'shape of preference' of the Alaskan branch of Old Leech, just like [[Black Bill]] in [[Ransom Hollow]]. #Story #Swift