Alice Wake

Overview

One of Alice Wake’s most defining characteristics is her nyctophobia, a pathological fear of the dark. She has in the past described to Alan that the darkness, to her, "isn't just the absence of light, but something malign and malicious, something you can touch and can touch you" which Alan notes is something he can relate to. She is a professional photographer having an entire room in the Wake flat dedicated to photography, and has worked designing covers for Alan's books. She dislikes Barry Wheeler , Alan's agent, as she feels he is too invasive and a bad influence in Alan's private life.

After two years of Alan having severe writer’s block Alice and Alan agree to take a holiday in Bright Falls . Alice’s first appearance in the game is on a ferry travelling to Bright Falls where she attempts to take a number of scenic shots of Alan with the town in the background.

Upon making it to Bright Falls and to the cabin on Cauldron Lake , Alan immediately turns on the generator for the house for his wife's sake. It is mentioned in the in-game manuscripts that Alice thinks she notices a woman in a black veil standing in the shadow outside the window at this point, but looks again to see it was "only bush in the vague shape of a human". Later on that night, Alice sets up a small study within the cabin for Alan, trying to encourage him to write and telling him that she wants him to visit a psychiatrist by the name of Emil Hartman . Furious at this Alan storms out into the night, knowing that Alice won’t follow and seconds later the lights in the cabin go out. Alan hears Alice screaming for him and runs back to the cabin to see Alice disappearing into the waters of Cauldron Lake.

Alan begins searching for Alice and after spending a night fighting off a number of people possessed by a mysterious darkness Alan gets a call from a man named Mott who is a friend of Emil Hartman and claims to have kidnapped Alice. Mott has knowledge of the strange manuscript pages that Alan has found, which seem to tell the story of the strange events occurring at the time in Bright Falls. Mott tells Alan that if he finishes writing the manuscript he will return Alice to him. Alan attempts to deliver the story to Mott but finds that Mott hadn’t kidnapped Alice and was attempting to trick Alan to gain possession of the manuscript. Alan learns that Alice is being held in the lake by the dark presence itself.

Alan wakes up in Emil Hartman’s hospital at one point with Hartman telling him that Alice has died and that his vision of people corrupted by a darkness are part of his grief. After discovering the power of a device known as the clicker Alan attempts to use it to rescue Alice, returning to the cabin on Cauldron Lake and fighting off the dark presence. The ending to Alan Wake is ambiguous but shows Alan rescuing Alice from the lake. The last that is seen of Alice in the game is her emerging from the lake and calling for Alan, although her ultimate fate is unknown.

Alan occasionally hears Alice’s voice in his head in Alan Wake DLC ‘The Signal’ and at one point she is seen in one of Alan’s hallucinations, taking pictures of a shadowy version of Alan and appearing seemingly unaware of the real Alan.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare

After the events of Alan Wake, Alan is presumed dead by most of the world, including his wife, who has moved on with her life, though he still has a place in her heart. Alice, a photographer by trade, has made an independent movie out of footage she had made for personal use, with the help of Serena Valdivia. She controls Alan Wake's intellectual property, so she still maintains a working relationship with his former manager, Barry Wheeler, as well, although they don't really get along. At the end of American Nightmare, we see Alan and Alice reuniting, though when this takes place, or if indeed it really happens, is still unclear, due to the cryptic nature of the story, which sees reality reshuffling constantly.