Chester Zerum is just an average guy living an average life, until he finds himself the victim of a monstrous entity known as Barbatachthian. What can one man do against an ancient being of immeasurable power?
Chester Zerum was dead, to begin with.
Dying under mysterious circumstances, the world's most infamous private investigator, Detective Perspex, has been hired to solve the case. Visiting Chester's flat, and scouring it for clues, he begins to come up with a sense of what happened, his mind wandering as he puts the pieces together as only he can.
It all started on an average day in May 2020, Chester working from home while England was in the grips of a lockdown. He worked for a think-tank called Blue Sky, one fixated on exploring ways to deal with increasingly paranormal events. It's at this time that the haunting begins, even if he isn't aware of it at the time.
Everything seems normal during the day, but in the evening, while Chester is asleep, he sees a bizarre vision of his Uncle Frederick in his dreams. At the same time, a ghostly presence is floating through his apartment, playing havoc with the taps. This wakes Chester up and he, knowing about the paranormal, refuses to mark it as a coincidence.
The next day he speaks to his landlord on the phone, an argument ensuing. It transpires that Chester is close to losing his flat, owing to unpaid fees and a previous disagreement with the landlord and the landlords' wife. Things don't get any better that evening, when Chester has a vision of a pier and text floating in mid-air suggesting something evil has arrived.
More hauntings ensue, driving Chester to the point where he goes online to find out what he can discern, having forgotten he works for a paranormal think-tank. He sees a video from a Professor Pickle, and discovers that the demon is called Barbatachtian. Freaking out, Chester hides behind the sofa. He proceeds to angrily trash-talk the demon, going back online looking for aid when the hauntings worsen.
Another nightmare ensues, where a Chester Zerum from another Earth's future (the Chester Who Watches) visits Chester in his sleep and tells him he dies and fills him in on some key context. Chester confuses it for Barbatachtian's backstory, and thus seals his fate.
The next morning Chester tries communicating with Barbatachtian via pen and paper, and allows Barbatachtian to possess him to write his responses. This ends spectacularly badly, and as a result Chester calls his landlord to complain about the hauntings; the conversation not going how he wanted it to go.
Another vision comes to Chester, this one being his Uncle Frederick appearing through the void and being especially ominous. Chester reacts by trying to hold a solo séance to draw out Barbatachtian again, and in the process discovers there's more than just Barbatachtian in the flat; its haunted by a litany of monsters, ghouls and ghosts.
And, of course, Barbatachtian possesses Chester again and beats him up using his own hands.
This leads into Chester's death, as he finds himself brutally beaten by Barbatachtian. His arm and face become soaked in blood. At his lowest ebb, he's visited by the Archangel Michael who tells him that he'll fend off Barbatachtian while Chester escapes. Fleeing the room, a sense of peace comes over Chester. Sadly, it isn't the Archangel Michael, its Lucifer, who tells Barbatachtian to go and get Chester.Barbatachtian slaughters Chester in the bathroom, leading to the blood soaked bathtub from earlier.
That isn't the end though, as Chester finds himself in Purgatory. Dazed and confused, he comes across the actual Archangel Michael, who possesses a teddy bear. They have a tense conversation, and then the Archangel Michael kills Chester, sending him down to Heck while the Archangel Michael rises up to Earth.
In Heck, Chester runs into his Uncle Frederick, who is a gigantic racist and fled to Argentina after the Second World War. The two men discuss the film Inception for a moment, before Frederick kills Chester and rises up to Earth through the death of an innocent; it is unclear where Chester has gone.
Frederick proceeds to have a fight with the Archangel Michael, killing him. Unfortunately for Frederick, Barbatachtian possesses the teddy bear the Archangel Michael was possessing and tears out Frederick's neck.
