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Red
An Epilogue
Red Responds: An Interview with Riley Dawson
By Arthur Lewis
The story of The Re-Creator has swept the nation. An obsessed fan of an independent webcomic tried to emulate his favorite villain, kidnapping and torturing three women in the North-Eastern United States. We are lucky enough to have gotten an exclusive interview with the writer of the comic and one confirmed survivor: Riley Elizabeth Dawson.
In my conversation with her she opened up about her traumatic experience, how it ties into her new book, and what the recovery process has been like.
AL: Let me just start on record by saying thank you for your time and willingness to discuss all of this.
RED: Thank you for having me. I’ve been looking for someone to help me get the word out there.
AL: I think a lot of people have been surprised by your absence in the media. Even with the book coming out last month, there wasn’t much of a press tour. You’ve been a challenging woman to get ahold of.
RED: I was for a little while. I needed some time to myself, to recover, you know? To process everything. To write the book. That helped a lot, just getting the story out there. But once my work was out in the world again, it felt like I could still be doing more to spread the word. I finally feel ready.
AL: Well as I said, I’m grateful you accepted the invitation. I have a lot of questions for you about the book, and your experience prior to writing it. But I hope you don’t mind if I start with a more personal question?
RED: Not at all.
AL: Mrs. Dawson?
Her whole face lights up to be asked about her name. Newspapers have been reporting on ‘Riley Langdon’ so much that she has become almost a household name at this point. It seems as though I have stumbled across a story in the change that she’s more than a little eager to tell.
RED: Yes. Yes! I’ve gotten married. Just before the release of the book, actually.
AL: Who’s the lucky man?
RED: Officer Sam Dawson
AL: Officer? I feel like there’s a story there.
Her smile is so soft and innocent. She looks younger than her thirty years, and hardly seems like the type of woman capable of writing such a lurid comic in the first place.
RED: He’s actually the one who found me and brought me into the hospital, if you can believe it.
AL: Was he really?
RED: He was, he was. He said he was just waiting for me to wake so he could take my statement, but he kept a watch over me while I was sleeping. He came to see me after his shifts when I didn’t have anyone else by my side. He held my hand while I was trying to remember everything. Eventually, it got to the point I just couldn’t imagine being apart from him.
AL: That sounds like something straight out of a great romance.
RED: It does, doesn’t it? Though, hopefully not the sort of romance I would write.
AL: Speaking of your writing. Do you mind if we get into it?
RED: Not at all. It’s why I’m here.
AL: They say that The Re-Creator was inspired by a webcomic you wrote.
RED: Yes. He was inspired by “The Creator” who I guess you would consider the comic’s antagonist. He’s the operator of the red room.
AL: What exactly is a red room?
This is a phrase that Mrs. Dawson has used before, and which has come up in several interviews over the course of her career. The publicity of this case has brought attention to the terrible concept, but I’m curious to see how she will describe them given her close, personal connection to the myth.
RED: Well... red rooms don’t really exist.
They’re just a sort of legend that has been around for ten, maybe fifteen years. They’re like chatrooms, but on the deep web. They’re very private, very exclusive. And basically, they let you pay to watch a person getting tortured on a sort of livestream. It’s all completely anonymous.
The whole thing has been thoroughly debunked, of course. I did a lot of research for my comic that proved that they’re not real.
AL: So you didn’t experience any of that while you were there?
RED: No, no. I mean...there was... there were bad things that happened. No one wants to hear the gory details of all that, but bad things happened in front of the cameras. I don’t doubt that the technology exists to livestream it somewhere. There wasn’t enough connection to do it on the deep web, but...
AL: But?
RED: Well, there are some real sickos out there. I think if there’s one thing that The Re-Creator has taught us, it’s that people are interested in this sort of thing. It scares me some that all the technology basically already exists
It’s not as secure or anonymous as the deep web, obviously, but someone could make a lot of money hosting this sort of thing on the surface web if they had a tech background and a lot of trust for the people in the chat with them.
AL: Let’s hope we never see such a thing attempted again. This was bad enough, I’m sure. Can you tell us what it was like, though? Waking up in your own comic?
Mrs. Dawson looks more serious, but resolved to talk about it. She has a quiet strength, even as she contemplates what to say.
RED: It was... I mean, there really are no words for it. I’d seen that room about a hundred times over, from just about every angle while we were working on the comic. But never from the table like that. And it was weird... it was almost like an out-of-body experience. Because Red, the protagonist, had also woken up in such a way during a pivotal moment in the comic. And she was modeled after me, so in a way I’d already seen what I’d look like in that situation, and it was so vivid in my mind that it was still sort of like I was looking down at myself, if that makes sense.
AL: It must have been terrifying.
RED: I have never been so scared in my life. I had no idea what was about to happen to me. How things were going to end.
AL: Did you already know that two other women had been killed?
RED: No. Well, not exactly. I knew one woman had died, a couple states over. I had feared the similarities between how they found her and my comic—which was why I had taken a hiatus.
That hiatus was something I thought about a lot while I was a prisoner. I didn’t have any close friends or family. I had a following, but I had basically told them not to expect any word from me. So I knew it would be awhile before anyone thought to look for me. If they ever did. I think that was the scariest part for me; having no one.
AL: And you didn’t know about the second victim yet?
RED: Not when I woke up. No.
She looks away so suddenly, and I wonder if I’ve said something wrong. I fear in the moment that I’ve triggered a memory too painful for the poor woman. I am about to apologize when she summons the strength required to continue her train of thought.
RED: But I came to know her. He had us at the same time. We were kept gagged, so we didn’t get the chance to talk to one another. But I felt like we shared something. I felt... very protective of this woman. I felt...responsible for her.
AL: Responsible?
RED: Well, I knew that I was the reason she was suffering. That she was there because of what I wrote.
AL: Can you tell us what happened to her?
RED: That’s the hardest part of this whole thing. I don’t even know.
AL: Was she still alive when you escaped?
RED: She was. I had knocked him—The Re-Creator—over the head and the first thing I did was go over to her. She was chained down to the floor and I was trying to get her loose, and she was just shaking her head so violently. She kept nodding to the door, and I knew she wanted me to run. But there was a part of me, you know, that just couldn’t bear to leave her. It wasn’t her fault, what was happening. She didn’t deserve to be there.
I remember the last thing I said to her was that I was going to bring back help. That I wasn’t going to leave her with him. And even when I was looking back over my shoulder, she was nodding, nodding for me to go.
AL: And that was the last time you ever saw her?
RED: It was the last time I ever saw her.
AL: The newspaper was unclear about what happened after you left. Can you tell us what happened to them?
RED: Nobody knows. We... no bodies were ever found. The facility was never found.
AL: How is that even possible?
RED: It doesn’t seem like it should be, does it? But it was this sort of... I don’t want to call it a bunker. But it was underground. The door was small. I was lucky enough to find his truck outside, but I had no idea where I was or what direction to go in. I was hungry and dehydrated, and just so, so scared.
When Officer Dawson—Sam—found me, I had crashed just off to the side of the road. They think I probably passed out behind the wheel.
The police were able to run plates after, which was how they identified The Re-Creator. They found some of Ms. Glasgow’s things at his apartment, but that was nearly a two days’ drive away from where they’d found me. Even by the time I regained consciousness, I could barely remember how I’d gotten to hospital, let alone any directions I’d taken before the crash.
AL: So they’re still looking?
RED: They’re still looking. I’m still looking. I promised I wasn’t going to leave her there and I won’t. I can’t. I couldn’t live with myself if I weren’t doing everything I could do, even if it’s not much.
AL: Well, is there anything else you can tell us about her? The second victim?
RED: Red. He called her Red. That was how I knew her.
AL: Do you know how old she might have been?
RED: She had been through hell... and looked a little rough. But I would say younger than me. I wouldn’t put her past her mid-twenties.
AL: And what does she look like?
RED: Well, she looked a bit like the character, a bit like me. Actually, after all the reconstructive surgeries I’ve had, she probably looks more like me than I do these days.
AL: Reconstructive surgeries?
RED: Another reason why I took some time before I accepted any interview requests. When I said I needed to heal, a lot of that was physical. There was emotional stuff too, therapy, support groups, reconnecting with my mother, but yes, there were several surgeries.
Indeed, looking at her, the jagged cuts that we have seen plastered all over the internet from her discovery last year seem to have faded into no more than soft, pink lines.
AL: It is remarkable that someone could go through what you’ve been through and come out the other side changed for the better.
RED: It is for the better, isn’t it?
AL: It certainly seems to be. You have a husband, your family, your book.
RED: Yes, yes. My book. Recreating Red.
AL: Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the first book you’ve ever written?
RED: Yes. While I was in recovery, writing it helped me to make sense of everything that had happened. And I wanted to release it, to help me to tell the stories of the other two victims to the extent that I can.
Half of the proceeds are going to the ongoing investigation. 25% is going to Mrs. Glasgow and her family. And 10% is being donated to help the victims of human trafficking.
AL: Well the book is everywhere right now. It seems as though you’re raising good money for all these caused.
RED: I have been truly amazed by the amount of support for this project. Even the artist of the comic offered to do the foreword, and has been great in promoting it.
AL: And do you see much of the artist?
RED: Not so much these days. Maybe, someday. We had talked once about collaborating again, but right now I just feel like I need to be working on my own.
AL: And on that note. I do have just one more question for you.
RED: Of course.
AL: What’s next for you? Creatively speaking.
RED: Well... it’s a little early to announce this... but I’ve found a publisher for my first proper novel, Heart-Eater. It’s fiction, but I think the world needs that kind of escapism right now.
AL: I think I speak for everyone when I say how inspiring it is to see you thriving. We were all relieved to see your part of the story get a happy ending.
RED: Oh, but my part of the story is just finally beginning.
‘Recreating Red’ is now available at bookstores and online. It features a foreword by esteemed comic artist and concerned friend, Mila, as well as a touching dedication from Riley herself.
“From one Red to another.”
