Hi, guys, it's the Ghost. Welcome to another spine tingling tale of
the supernatural. I am the Ghost, I have my team. Let's get
right to the request that came in to me over the dark web about this
job. It's stated subject seeking help for a troubled friend. Greetings. I
hope this message finds you well. My name is Charlotte, and I'm reaching
out to you with a deeply concerning matter involving my dear friend, Oliver.
Oliver's not your typical individual. He's always been a good friend, someone I
could rely on in times of need. However, lately, something extraordinary and
troubling has been happening to him. It's not a gift, but rather a
distressing affliction that's consuming his sanity and affecting the lives of those around him.
I can't disclose all the details in this message, but I can tell you
that Oliver's dreams have taken a dark and disturbing turn. We are struggling to
differentiate between his dreams and reality. It's a situation that has left us all
baffled and deeply concerned. I've heard about your expertise in dealing with unusual and
perplexing phenomena and am reaching out to request your assistance. We are in desperate
need of understanding what's happening to Oliver and how we can help him find his
way back to the person he once was. If you are willing, I'd
like to invite you to our condo in this city. It's a place where
I often find solace in my writing. Oliver also has a condo in this
building, and that is where he has been experiencing his troubling episodes. Your
insights and guidance would be invaluable in this challenging time. Please consider this as
an earnest plea for your assistance. We are at a loss. Thank you
for taking the time to read this message, and I do hope to hear
from you soon. Sincerely, Charlotte. I received this request late in the
week, on a week when I was at the warehouse alone. I was
in town alone. The rest of my team was finishing up on another job
that we had just wrapped up. They'd be back in a couple of days,
so at that point of receiving this request, I'm the only one there
to receive it. I'm also the only one that goes to meet Charlotte in
the city where she is, Dallas, to discuss the request that she has
submitted to me. I hadn't been to Dallas in a while. You know,
it's a city that kind of is a combination of a few things,
right. It's modern, it's got wealth, great cultural diversity. It's a
blend of luxurious urban life, historic neighborhoods, and a whole bunch of other
stuff. Now it offers a wide variety of unique cultural experiences, which is
also really great. Charlotte and Oliver have a good reputation among their very affluent
community. There After researching their backgrounds, they seem solid and legit. So
I don't wait for the team to return, and instead I just take the
opportunity and I go meet Charlotte straight away. The city lights of Dallas shimmered
like distant stars as I made my way to the upscale condo where Charlotte was
waiting to meet me. The soft tom of the city's urban life just filled
the air, a stark contrast to the mysterious case that had drawn me there.
Now upon arrival, I find Charlotte waiting in her cozy living room in
her condo. She had two expressions on her face at the same time anticipation
and concern, although she tried to stay calm. She welcomed me with a
warm smile. She offers me to sit down, and seated across from her,
I listen intently as she shares the perplexing tale of her friend Oliver.
He was having these really big dreams that were having a profound to impact on
what he saw as his own reality, and it was impacting those around him
as well. And she proceeded to provide some examples of what she was talking
about. So she recounted instances where Oliver's dreams were seemingly taking shape in his
real life. In one case, he dreamt of rare butterflies, this rare
butterfly species, and then the very next day he was telling her that he
saw those exact same butterflies in a local park. Now, this is a
species that shouldn't have been found in the area at all, but he was
claiming they were there. Another time, he apparently dreamt of a field of
glowing neon colored little mushrooms in a far off forest. Well, the next
week, he's out with friends. They're trying to get him out, he's
hiking, and they stumble upon this remote clearing in the woods, and he
starts to go crazy because he is saying to them that the exact, same
surreal scene of these glowing mushrooms was right in front of them, what he
dreamt about, he was telling them he was now looking at. Of course
they could not see it. Charlotte said she couldn't believe it, and she
even tried to go look at these locations on other days, but of course
nothing was there. But the fact that he was so insistent it scared her.
The more she spoke, the more urgency I sensed in her voice.
She said there were a lot of times like this, and she gave me
a lot more examples. There were too many to even keep track of.
She described this phenomenon that's happening to him as relentless, and that the whole
year basically has been like this, getting worse along the way, and it's
still getting worse. I asked her how she knows Oliver, and she told
me that they were friends, and went on to explain that she has known
him all of her life since childhood. As they got older, and after
she got married, he now works for her husband. Apparently, Oliver's parents
died when he was only sixteen, and at that time he came to live
with Charlotte and her parents, so they're like brothers sister. Anyway, the
guy is kind of a loner, and it seems like he's sort of been
adopted by Charlotte and her new family. So this is how they're close,
and this is why she is just extra concerned. The guy is like family
to her. Charlotte told me a lot that day, and then after our
discussion, she reached for this small USB drive that she had on the coffee
table and she hands it to me, telling me that it contains video footage
of some of the instances. She described to me. They never had told
anyone about these occurrences, not yet anyway, and so I'd be the first
one to see this footage. She simply said she could not bring herself to
tell me about what was on that footage in person. I had to see
it for myself. And what she said was when Oliver's reality started to become
other people's realities, that's when she reached out to me, and apparently that's
what is on this USB drive. I won't know, of course, until
I look at it. And then with that our meeting came to an end.
I left her upscale condo and returned to the warehouse, where, late
that night, and in the sultitude of being there alone, I inserted the
USB drive into my computer. The screen flickered to life, and I began
to review the footage, delving into the strange occurrences that had besieged Oliver's life.
As I watched the footage, a sense of unease settled over me.
The scenes captured were beyond anything I had encountered before in our normal world.
It was as though the line between dreams and reality was no more. The
world danced to Oliver's subconscious whims. That's what was on this footage. In
one clip, I saw Oliver sleeping peacefully in his room, his face serene
as he lay in slumber. But as the seconds passed, something extraordinary happened.
A delicate swirl of colors and shapes began to materialize above him, forming
into a breathtaking display of these little vibrant lights. They flickered and floated around
him, creating a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of colors, before gently fading away as he
stirred in his sleep. I mean, this was interesting to watch and if
they hadn't set up cameras to observe him, because now everyone's on edge,
right is this guy telling the truth? They had to know anyway, I'm
glad that they got this on camera now. The next clip was a little
bit more unnerving. Oliver was seated in his living room staring at a blank
canvas on this easel that was set up before him him, and he starts
painting. With each stroke of his paint brush, a vivid scene emerged.
It was the same surreal field of neon colored mushrooms that he had dreamt about
and told Charlotte about. It was a landscape that definitely couldn't exist in our
waking world. The mushrooms glowed with an extraordinary, otherworldly radiance. It was
crazy but not real for us. But it was the final clip really on
this USB drive that left me completely awestruck. Oliver stood on the balcony of
his condo, gazing up at the night sky. Nothing abnormal as he closed
his eyes, though, the stars above him seemed to respond to his thoughts.
They began to dance and twinkle in these different patterns, forming constellations that
were completely illogical. It was, however, a breath taking spectacle for me
to see something brought to life through this guy's dreams. Questions were how and
why I went through all of that footage, and I couldn't help but wonder
what extraordinary power lay within Oliver's mind and how it all became some kind of
reality. I had a lot to think about and more to know. But
by the time the team returned to the warehouse, I was ready. I
shared with them the request and the job Charlotte, and what I had discovered
in that footage. It's amazing what you can see when you look at something
more than once. I mean, I went over that footage over and over
again. I described the scenes of Oliver's dreams to the team, the swirling
lights, the neon mushrooms, the dancing stars, all of that stuff.
But I had found even more than that, more than what appeared to meet
the eye. In one clip, I noticed a faint, shadowy figure lurking
at the edge of Oliver's dream created world, just beyond the glow of the
mushrooms. It was like a silhouette, an observer in the surreal landscape.
Another captivating detail emerged when I noticed a peculiar phenomenon In one of the dream
scenes, the butterflies, which Oliver had conjured in his dream, appeared somewhat
static at times, not fully taking form. I couldn't ignore the possibility,
okay, that Oliver's abilities weren't entirely his own, or at least that he
was not alone in them. As I shared these observations with the team,
a sense of curiosity and concern rippled through all of us, like it always
does. You know, people don't usually come to me unless there's something going
on that is really out of human hands. It's too much, it's too
crazy. Regular officials would do no good. Just the fact that Oliver was
having these episodes is concerning in itself, but you had these other weird facts,
and it becomes inexplicable to a serious degree. And that is why people
call on me. And that is what we're dealing with here. There is
more to this, and it's something that scares Charlotte, and we need to
find out what that hidden thing here is. Was that shadow a being a
person or something else entirely, or maybe nothing at all. These were questions
that we wanted and needed answers to. We had a few things that we
could do behind the scenes to get us started, and I put Scarlet and
Harley on that they would start a thorough background check investigation on Oliver. We
would dig into his past, look for any unusual events or encounters that might
have triggered these extraordinary abilities, in essence, find a logical explanation as to
why things appear to be the way they are. And then they would also
start to explore any connections between the dream manifestations and the physical world, searching,
you know, for patterns or clues. Then, while there on that
I need to set up a surveillance operation on Oliver's condo. We needed to
capture more footage of his dreams and what was going on if possible with our
own equipment. We have Oliver's information from Charlotte, and so he becomes the
next person that we need to meet. Since we now have taken this job,
We pack up what we think we might need and Jagger, Frankie Ryder
and I head out and we head to downtown Dallas to meet up with Oliver.
Oliver, like I said, also has a condo in the same building
as Charlotte, and you know it all overlooks the sprawling city scape of Dallas
which is beautiful. As we entered, immediately you felt the air just charged
with energy. We find Oliver in his great room, a space filled with
eclectic art, unusual trinkets that were reflected his artistic sensibilities. According to Charlotte,
art was his passion. He greeted us with a cautious smile, though
his eyes betrayed a sense of weariness and tension, which we expected. As
we settled into a conversation, Oliver's restlessness became increasingly evident. He fidgeted with
his hands, his fingers tracing invisible patterns on the armrest of his chair.
Each passing moment seemed to weigh heavily on him, and it was clear that
the relentless barrage of lucid dreams had taken a toll on his well being.
I began to ask him about his experiences, gently probing into the nature of
his dreams and the bizarre occurrences that had been unfolding. He was a bit
reluctant at first, again not surprising. He told us that this whole thing
was so hard to put into words, and that he was confused a lot.
That he knew that these were just dreams, but then but they weren't
dreams, that they were real, that he had no control in his dreams.
But then he would try to counter that with but, hey, no
one has control in their dreams. It was as if he was trying to
tell us something while also trying to convince himself that things weren't really all that
crazy, that maybe he'd made more out of this than it was. But
deep down he knew things were just nuts, and that became more obvious to
us and him once he did start talking about how his dreams were so bizarre
and then now how they're starting to spill over into reality, that over the
past year this has been happening and growing more vivid and uncontrollable. Objects and
creatures and landscapes things in his dreams they're showing up in his real life in
the real world. Explaining all of this to us was starting to get to
him. He would start shaking a little bit. He was starting to try.
We got him a glass of water. I took out my tablet to
try to kind of change the subject, and I show him an image,
though it was one that I pulled from the footage of this shadow r.
I hold it up to him and I ask him to explain this slight shadow
that I see. I mean, does he know what it is? Is
it meaningful to this job? He takes the tablet from me and he's zooming
in and out, and then I see this single tear start to fall from
his left eye. I prompt him, and he looks up at me and
in a soft and shaky voice, he tells me that's him or it.
So now we are getting somewhere. I look to my team and Frankie and
Jagger they know what to do. They kind of separate themselves and they start
to get to work on setting up the surveillance equipment, which we need to
do. We get Oliver to take a few deep breaths, and then he
gets into describing in more detail how this shadowy figure seemed to haunt his dreams
and how it has started to encroach on his waking life. His voice grew
steadier as he shared more about his experiences. He was becoming more calm.
He seemed actually relieved to have someone to confide in that might actually believe him.
He explained how the shadowy figure's presence was accompanied by an overwhelming sense of
dread, making his life a constant battle against fear and uncertainty, jumping at
shadows, exhausted but not wanting to go to sleep, not knowing which voices
to trust. This whole thing had turned his life upside down. He felt
very certain that he was on his way to complete insanity and soon, and
that the shadow was causing all of it. Oliver got all of that out,
and then he was wiped out. It drained him just to say those
things out loud. We sat there with Oliver Rider and I, taking in
everything he had shared about this shadowy figure that had infiltrated his dreams and reality.
The weight of his experiences hung heavily in the room, a tangible sense
of fear and uncertainty. In the midst of this quiet moment, we all
absorbed the gravity of Oliver's situation, and then he suddenly stood up, his
eyes wide with this realization. He lets out a shout, startling all of
us, calling out that he remembered something. Writer and I turned to him,
our attention now fully on him, and he took a moment to collect
his thoughts, his breathing gradually steadying again, and with a newfound determination,
he begins to speak. His voice tinged with a sense of urgency. He
described the presence of the dark oval like shadow that had been part of his
dreams before this figure emerged. Initially, he was frightened by the shadow.
It was a shadow, just the shape of an oval that seemed to always
be off in the distance in these little dreams he's having, so he'd noticed
it, and he was frightened by it at first. But then as this
other shadowy figure started taking center stage, he said, of course, he
paid less attention to whatever the oval was. While the room fell into a
heavy silence as we took in this revelation, Oliver's memories were a crucial puzzle
piece in our quest for answers. The Oval shadow, though seemingly passive,
held significance as the potential source of the intimidating figure, at least to us.
As I processed Oliver's words, a realization began to take shape. This
Oval shadow, which had been a silent observer, just might hold the key
to unraveling this mystery. It was the starting point, the origin from which
the menacing figure had sprung. Perhaps then our next move should be to delve
into the hidden secrets within that dark oval. After Oliver's revelation about this oval
like shadow. Our meeting continued with him sharing more details about his encounters with
the figure and the oval. We noted down everything he said, and he
actually seemed relieved to finally have someone to confide in about these haunting experiences.
Eventually, as the evening wore on, we did wrap up our conversation with
Oliver and we end up back at our hotel suite in Dallas. And so
there we were gathered around this large table. It was time to consolidate our
thoughts, review the information we had gathered, and chart our next steps.
The atmosphere was charged with a sense of urgency, and we knew that unraveling
the mystery of the shadowy figure required focused determination. We initiated a call with
Harley and Scarlet back at the warehouse, seeking their input and insights into the
baffling case that we were facing. As we engaged in our lively discussion with
them, our collective knowledge and experiences melded together, leading to a sudden recollection
of a peculiar legend. It was the legend of the Dark Night, a
story that had long faded into obscurity, but now held a new found relevance.
We began to piece together the details of this eerie legend, drawing from
various sources and shared experiences. This legend legend of the dark Night. It
spoke of a phenomenon known as the dark Knight, an ominous event that occurred
when an individual's dreams became infested with evil visitations. It was said that those
who experienced a dark knight meant they would go to bed with their sanity and
tis act, but then would awaken in the throes of madness, their minds
shattered by the relentless torment of unseen entities. The common threat among those who
suffered a dark Knight was the presence of mysterious visitations in their dreams. These
visitations were marked by an overwhelming sense of dread and intimidation, much like what
Oliver had described. They were harbingers of impending chaos, a precursor to the
ultimate descent into madness. This legend emphasizes that the visitations are a telltale sign,
a warning that the dark Knight had begun. If someone spoke of having
had a dark night, it meant that it the shadowy figure had made its
presence known in their dreams. Now This revelation sent a chilldown our spines because
it confirmed the connection between the Shadowy Figure and this legend. As we delved
deeper into the legend, we discovered that many who had endured a Dark Night
had reported the same symptoms as Oliver, the relentless nightmares, a clouding of
their logical mind, and a growing paranoia that left them haunted and fearful.
The legend hinted at the notion that the visitations sought to destabilize the dreamer's psyche,
gradually eroding their grip on reality. Now armed with this new understanding,
we realized that the legend of the Dark Knight might hold the key to our
next steps. It suggested that confronting the Shadowy Figure would require navigating the dream
realm, a treacherous journey into the very heart of madness, but it was
a path we were willing to tread with the hope of releasing Oliver from its
grip. We let Harley and Scarlet Goo and Frankie Jagger, Ryder and I
continue working, really digging into this idea and the different possibilities of how to
resolve this. After hours of playing out different scenarios, our plan began to
take shape. We knew that the most intense energy and the clearest connection to
the entity were at Oliver's condo, particularly during the hours between two and three
a m. When, after reviewing our footage that we received and our own
observations, it appeared this was the time as nightmares were the most active.
Our strategy hinged on creating a psychic bridge, a metaphysical link that would allow
us to enter the same realm where Oliver's dreams took shape. We would perform
this ritual within Oliver's condo, using its energy as a catalyst. Our preparations
were thorough. We fortified our mental defenses, honing our psychic abilities to protect
against the shadow Monster's mind manipulating tactics. And that's what we were calling it,
the shadow Monster. We didn't know what else to call it, and
that's what it was. This was an evil monster coming for people's psyche in
the form of a shadow. Unity among our team was paramount here because we
would need to rely on each other's strengths in order to navigate these illusions.
All right well, with our plan in place, before we knew it,
it was a Tuesday and we were setting up in Oliver's condo, and so
there we were in his great room. The room hummed with an eerie anticipation
as we got ourselves prepared. The legend of the Dark Knight in our newfound
understanding of the Shadow Monster's modus operandi had guided us to this point, and
now we stood at the precipice of our much needed confrontation. Every detailed map
as we set up in the heart of the haunting. For lack of a
better word, I mean, this wasn't a haunting, It wasn't a possession.
This was really we should call it a takeover, the takeover of someone's
mind for someone else's own enjoyment. This thing, this shadow shadow Monster,
is a mess of different things from all over the place, and it just
continues to suck up anything and everything where it can. The walls of Oliver's
condo seemed to carry his torment, like the last of his miserable fight in
all of this was there, just hovering without much hope. The air was
thick with the residue of his nightmares. We arranged ourselves in a circle,
our psychic energies intermingling, forming a protective barrier against this evil force. We
were about to face and just to remind you, it's me, Frankie,
Jagger and Rider. And there as the clock inched toward two am, we
knew the time had come for us to enact our plan. We took deep
breaths, centering ourselves for the challenge ahead, our minds resolute. In Oliver's
condo, the room was dimly lit, curtains drawn to block out the outside
world. We'd arranged ourselves in a circle around this table, our hands joined,
creating a conduit of energy that connected us all together. Oliver sat at
the head of the table, his eyes closed in concentration, ready to help
us with this surreal journey. As we initiated the ritual, I could feel
the room's atmosphere shift. The air grew thick and heavy, as if an
invisible pressure weighed down on us. It was like the sensation of diving deep
into the ocean, which as you know, we have done, where the
water presses in on all sides. That's what it felt like in that room,
just enveloping me in its embrace. My mind felt as though it were
expanding, stretching to accommodate the new dimension we were entering. Thoughts and perceptions
melded together, forming a swirling vortex of consciousness. It was an unsettling yet
exhilarating experience, like being caught in the eye of a psychic storm. We
were all there, and we were all doing it. And then, as
if a floodgate had opened, I opened my eyes and found myself in a
place that was entirely different from Oliver's condo. I can tell you that the
transition was seamless, though, as if I had crossed a threshold into a
realm of dreams and nightmares. You didn't know what was happening, but you
sure knew when you got there. And let me tell you what that was
like. The surroundings were surreal and ever shifting, A kaleidoscope of twisted landscapes
and crazy visions nightmares coal esque around us, each one a fragment of Oliver's
tortured psyche. This was a place where reality and unreality intertwined, where the
rules of the waking world no longer applied. And what was very interesting was
the fact that I felt something else there with us. I could actually feel
it, and so did the rest of the team. Ryder in particular,
said she felt immense pressure and it seemed to be more than the rest of
us. And you know, whenever we end up in these situations like this,
we always talk to each other so that we know how each other is
doing, what everyone is experiencing, in case anything stands out to us.
And the fact that Ryder's feeling a little bit differently already does stand out to
each and one, every one of us. But we're gonna have to just
keep an eye on it. We have to keep going. Maybe the travel
hit her differently. It could be a number of things, so we keep
going. And yeah, I was telling you about that. So everything was
just unfolding before us. It was a twisted, ever changing tapestry. This
was a place where the laws of our reality were non existent and they were
replaced by the unpredictable whims of Oliver's subconscious and whatever had been done to it.
So, yeah, that's where we're at. The first thing that struck
me was first of all that pressure, but in looking at everything, it
was the constant shifting of all the surroundings. Twisted trees with elongated limbs reaching
out their branches, writhing like serpents. The ground beneath our feet seemed to
move and shift, creating this unsettling sensation of unsteadiness. It's like anything and
everything to keep us on our toes while also keeping us confused and concentrating on
all these little things. But we know better, so we keep forging forward.
As we went, we saw just fields of these tiny little flowers that
were all lit up, but the light was kind of eerie. There were
shadows over everything, and that's what things were like, and that's what I
mean. I mean, things like this just were not possible in our own
reality. The shadows, the lighting, the things that we were finding.
Everything was being created to help disorient us, and so it took a minute
to kind of gain your footing when you got there as best you could and
take everything in and most importantly, you just had to accept it, which
was harder than you think in a place like that, But we had to
do it so that we could set it aside and not be overly distracted by
these things, which is exactly the point. And of course it all just
kept going. As we ventured even deeper into this dream like realm, nightmarish
creatures emerged from the shadows. They were these grotesque amalgamations of human fears,
and anxieties, their forms shifting and changing with each passing moment. Some sort
of looked like distorted versions of people that we knew, while others were entirely
alien in their grotesqueness. And the fact that anything was familiar to us at
all is something worth pointing out. Because we had not been there before,
we have not been affected by any of this yet, or so we thought,
clearly, whatever this is is already making its way into our own brains
because it's pulling things out that we recognize, and it couldn't do that with
just all of O's thoughts. So that was a little unnerving. On top
of the fact that Rider's unease was still there and very evident. She seemed
to feel the weight of this place more intensely than the rest of us.
It wasn't getting better with all the stuff that was going on, so we
made it a point to consciously keep an eye on her. As we ventured
even deeper into the surreal landscape of Oliver's dreams, that unsettling feeling of being
watched, not being alone, continued to hang over us. It was as
if unseen eyes followed our every move, and so we went forward slowly but
things kept coming at us. We were clearing cobwebs, searching for all the
sounds that we were hearing, the drips, the cracks, the hisses,
just echoing sounds all around us. Our collective unease grew as we continued our
journey through the bizarre corridors and chambers. The surreal environment played tricks on our
senses, distorting our perceptions and the things that we were seeing and taking in.
And then without warning, our surroundings changed again, morphing into this nightmarish
tableau of grotesque imagery. What we saw before us seemed like a nightmare carnival,
a carnival of horrors, if you will. That defied any real explanation.
It was crazy out there. It was as if whatever was in there
with us had conspired to confound us. And so, as you can imagine,
we were all on edge right. We were questioning everything and becoming hyper
alert and aware. So basically, what it was trying to do to us
was working, but we were still resisting. As we pressed forward, we
encountered what appeared to be a massive ornate door. Was this meant to block
us? I mean it wouldn't, but what was it doing there. We
were determined to unlock this door, believing it to be the next step in
our journey, our next challenge. However, as we scrutinized the door further,
we began to realize that something was a miss. There were no visible
locks or handles, no conventional means of entry. I mean, now we're
really thinking this is a challenge put here just for us figure out where the
lock is, Like, this is some kind of test. While we're looking
all around trying to figure out what this new riddle could be. When we
really started to focus on everything else around us, we really started looking around,
and when we did look more closely, we started to notice the subtle
distortions and inconsistencies in this dream realm. It was the way the objects were
shifting and morphing, the way the landscape now seemed to waver in and out
of focus. It was becoming clear that this dream like realm was malleable subject
to the whims of our collective subconscious. I mean, this thing was trying
to appease us, or at least get to us somehow. So what was
this door? Well, in that moment, we know we're just standing there.
We're all getting frustrated. We're all getting a little beat down by the
place. And Frankie he had had enough, and we all kind of had
but he always does something about it. He takes a fist and he punches
it right through this door. But when he did, his fist busted through
it like it became smoke. It was just disrupted. It wasn't solid wood.
That door dissolved and we were right, it was never really there.
And although that might sound confusing, let me explain it a little bit better.
So what we're figuring out here is everything before us is either being projected
onto us or we are projecting it because of whatever this thing is pulling out
of our minds. We as our team, we are the solvers of puzzles,
right, We solve cases, and so of course now there is a
puzzle before us. It has figured that out. So we realize that we
too, though, have power in this place as long as we are intact
mentally, because we are aware of what's going on, because we knew a
little bit about this, we have an advantage over others that are affected by
a dark night. We are on our game and we are prepared to defend
ourselves when Frankie breaks through that door that wasn't even really there. That was
a win for our team and was surely noticed by this place our shadow monster.
Not sure if we're going to be rewarded or punished for this, but
either way we need to continue so we can stop all of it from happening
all together. And so with that behind us, we continued moving forward.
But it wasn't all smooth sailing. More things started flying around and getting under
our feet. Whatever was going on, this thing was throwing more at us
to either slow us down or maybe hopefully turn us around, But we knew
too much at this point, and we were going to turn around or be
intimidated. We continued venturing forward, with everything twisting and wharping and changing around
us. We were dodging things, dipping thoughts and emotions materialized before us as
faded figures, dancing and swirling everywhere, as if it was intentional, which
we knew it was. Our memories individually and collectively were starting to manifest as
vivid images, movies, and even obstacles in front of us. This is
its pattern, just exactly what it was doing to Oliver, only we were
coming for it. That's the only difference here. The pressure in that place
was very real. Just because we knew better didn't mean that we weren't affected.
This thing bored down on us, and not just physically, mentally,
causing static in our thoughts. In certain moments, each of us had thoughts
that would have been otherwise logical. In any other scenario, we would have
known what to do, what to think, But in this place everything was
different. It was as if I was seeing my thoughts and everything around me
through some psychotic filter. And you know, there's only so much psychotic one
can take, so many things that you have to process and make right again
in your mind. This is the start of how all of this tries to
make one insane. And the further in we went, it's not just that
things weren't making sense. It was getting harder for us to make sense of
things. There would be flashes of normalcy and clarity, but then it would
go crazy again. And through all of it, we individually, each of
us, had to maintain that strong focus. I mean basically, each of
us for a moment began to glimpse the edge of insanity, just like Oliver
was talking about. It was like catching fleeting glimpses of a shadowy presence lurking
just beyond our vision, something coming for us, Voices and whispers calling,
beckoning us to go deeper into the darkness and closer to the shadow monster.
So before it's almost like it wanted to push us out, and now it's
really putting the pressure on and it wants us closer. So it really thinks
it's in control here, and it wants us closer for a reason. So
we have to stay on our game so that we do not become victims.
I mean, in the back of our minds, we knew that we were
getting close because everything was ramping up. I could feel my thoughts spiraling like
a tornado of fragmented ideas and emotions. It was disorienting, to say the
least. But then, out of the corner of my eye during all of
this, while we're trying to maintain our focus, I see something else going
on, something disturbing that distracts me. It's rider. She was already struggling
more than the rest of us, as you know, but now it seems
to have gone a little bit further to another level. She had fallen behind,
and we had waited for her a couple of times, but this last
time. Now she's kneeling on the ground, not looking like she's going to
go anywhere. Frankie, Jagger and I turn around and walk back over to
her, and she looks up. We're all surprised when we see her face,
though it's contorted in a grimace of pain, and her eyes they weren't
exactly focused on us. It almost seemed more like they were looking through us,
and they were with terror. Taking a quick scan of everyone on the
team, it was clear that this evil force was targeting Rider more than the
rest of us. For whatever reason, it thought it could get to her,
and it was working hard to push her to the brink of insanity,
and by the looks of it, it was working. It was almost as
if this place wanted us to see her spiral down. We could see that
she was falling, and right when we got to her, this wind picked
up just in the place, all by itself, also intentional. Debris and
dust started flying around everywhere, and the wind was making it hard for us
to stay grounded with Rider. So in that dim light of this dream like
realm, we gather around Wrider, our unity becoming our strength. We knew
that Rider was facing some major mental obstacles put before her. We couldn't see
all of it. It was all in her mind, and it was up
to us to help her break through it. As we formed a protective circle
around her, our collective energy began to surge in unison. We chanted the
words we had discovered during our research, words that held the power to help
shatter these mental spells and illusions. The chant echoed through the surreal landscape,
a beacon of determination from us in the face of adversity. Some of that
chance went like this. By the strength of mind and heart combined, we
break these chains that seek to bind in unity. Our spirits rise to pierce
the veil of false disguise. Our voices resonated with purpose as we called this
out, each word infused with our collective will power. We focused our energy
on Rider, willing her to break free from the mental shackles that held her
captive. And it worked. As our voice uses grew stronger, the oppressive
illusions surrounding Rider began to waver, and you could just see on her face
that her head was clearing. With a sudden surge of determination, Rider breaks
free from these mental barriers that had ensnared her. She rose from the ground,
her eyes filled with clarity and purpose. The illusions that surrounded her dissolved
into nothingness. We had broken whatever was upon her, at least for now,
and with that at least temporarily behind us, it was time to stop
this beast once and for all for good. And I'll fast forward a little
bit here, because we did sit for a bit, and it was kind
of painful, trying to eliminate what we knew would not work, and then
trying to come up with something that would, and getting to the source of
all of this, our mysterious shadow friend. I mean, you know,
we weren't just a bust forward at this point. We really wanted to have
a better handle on what was going on, and in the end we decided
we would get it by playing its own game. Together, we would form
an enticing dream. If this beast wanted all things evil, this is what
we would give it, a realm of our own, a realm within a
realm, one filled with evil and twisted thoughts. And so we harnessed the
intense power of that place, the collective unconscious, along with our own collective
imagination, and we were able to bring this dark dream to life, a
dream so enticing and terrifying that it would draw the Shadow Monster like a moth
to a flame. Yep, instead of us being sucked into its trap,
we were calling it out to come to us. In this new atmosphere we
created, things began to change suddenly, and all around us, towering citadels
of despair sprung from the ground, their spires reaching toward a blood red sky
that never saw daylight. The ground beneath our feet churned with shifting shadows,
and the air felt thick with an unmistakable sense of dread. In this bizarre
dreamscape, horrifying creatures of darkness moved freely, their forms a disturbing mix of
human nightmares and other worldly terrors. We started to separate ourselves even more from
the show unfolding in front of us, backing ourselves up as far as we
could so that we would just be observing in the midst of this surreal nightmare.
We positioned a throne okay, an ominous, imposing seat exuding evil.
It served as the centerpiece of our created illusion, embodying all the evil and
darkness at the Shadow Monster wanted. The throne itself appeared to pulse with a
wicked energy. It's twisted, jagged shapes reflecting the chaotic nature of this crazy
place that we were in. Surrounding it an audience of nightmarish beings, gazed
with hunger filled eyes and whispered ominous secrets. I have to say it was
pretty intimidating, and we knew it was all an illusion we created it,
but that's how powerful and real these things can be. We even felt it.
This was the dark dream we crafted, this irresistible snare, a realm
saturated with evil and twisted desires that would draw this monster even further into our
illusion. It was acting as our bait, this enticing vision of darkness.
It would lure this dark force deeper into our trap. We created this dark
dream as vivid and irresistible as possible, fully aware that it held the key
to our triumph. This trap was set, and the shadow Monster was on
the verge of falling into our carefully devised scheme. And so it approached and
it hesitated for a moment. It was sensing the malevolent energy emanating from our
dark dream. Its amorphous form quivered. This thing was torn between its insatiable
desire for the darkness we offered, and a nagging instinct that something was amiss.
Now we have confused it. With bated breath, we watched as the
shadow Monster took its first tentative step into our illusory realm, and as it
did, the world around it seemed to respond to its presence. The towering
citadels of despair loomed closer, the writhing shadows underfoot around its form, and
those nightmarish beings we planted in the audience while they turned their attention toward the
intruder. With us still in the shadows, the shadow Monster was drawn even
deeper into the illusion. Unable to resist the allure of the darkness we had
woven, it moved toward the ominous throne, its tendrils of shadow reaching out
to grasp the jagged contours. The audience of nightmarish beings watched in rapt anticipation.
They are hunger for despair, growing more insatiable. And then, at
the moment when the shadow Monster believed it had finally achieved its darkest desires,
we sprang our trap with the surge of collective will power, fueled by the
boundless energy of the collective unconscious and our vivid imagination. We seized control of
the illusory realm. As the creators of this dark dream. You see,
we held the reins of power, not the Shadow Monster. This was our
dream, our illusion, and within it only we possessed the ultimate authority.
It was a trap within a trap. Oh but this monster thought he had
won. However, as its evil laughter echoed around us, we focused once
again, this time on sealing the illusory realm around the Shadow Monster. Our
combined will. It was like a vice of our own, one of mental
force. It closed in on this malevolent entity, encasing it within the fabricated
nightmare. The very essence of the collective unconscious responded to our command, solidifying
the trap around the evil beast. Once the monster stepped into our trap,
it had no power there. It was us. We held dominion over our
own creation, and if we chose to lock up our dream forever, then
so too would the Shadow Monster be imprisoned within the confines of our collective imagination.
We had done it. We used this thing's own energy against it.
The temptations for it were too great, and so it will now live in
the consequences forever. The Shadow Monster thrashed and arrived, its form contorting in
agony as it realized it had fallen into our snare. It howled and howled,
but it was too late. This illusion had become its prison, and
the malevolent force was trapped within its own insatiable desires. That's the beauty of
it, and rider she was getting better every second. With one final exertion
of our combined power, we sufvered the connection between the shadow monster and the
collective unconscious, banished it from the realm of thoughts and dreams. With more
of our learned incantations, this evil force, this shadow monster, was finally
expelled, its darkness dissipating like a dissipating fog, leaving only an echo behind,
an echo of its evil. As the illusion began to unravel and collapse
upon itself, the boundaries between the dream like realm and Oliver's condo blurred,
shadows and lights, merging and twisting into a central point, forming this swirling,
misty vortex that defied the laws of our reality. The room filled with
an eerie silence as the illusion drew inward, condensing into a shimmery, smoky
sphere hovering in the center of the room. The atmosphere crackled with latent energy,
as if the very fabric of the dream realm had become tangible. Oliver
is just coming to it this point. Remember we were sucking out all of
his energy for this little trip we're all watching. And then, with a
hushed grace, the smoky sphere it descended gently to the floor, its surface
quivering with remnants of the illusion it once held. Instead of shattering, though,
it seemed to kind of sigh, releasing the pent up energies it had
harnessed during the Battle of Wills. As the last smoky tendril dissipated, the
room returned to its normal state, the illusionary realm having relinquished its hold on
the physical world. We stood there in awe, knowing that we had triumphed
over this evil force, and then we sealed it away within the confines of
our own collective imagination. We check on Oliver, who is definitely more clear
than he was when we got there, and he's just exhausted. The guy's
gonna need a very long nap. Writer. She came out of it great.
Her head is also clear. I mean, you know how it is,
guys, I mean, so much can happen on a job like this,
and then in an instant it's all over. But even though the ending
can be quick, so much happened right now. Some stories have a bad
guy, and some stories have things you can take care of, and then
there are the other stories of the totally and completely uncontrollably outrageous. And that's
what this was. There's no way to control what this is and where it
came from. There's no way to limit its abilities to come for us at
any given moment. This one instance, with this one entity, yes,
I was able to contain that together with my team, and hopefully that's forever,
but it may not be. And certainly it's not the only thing out
there like this. These things plague the universe, across eternity, and there's
no way to tell where any of this begins or ends. We're just in
the middle of it, guys. All we can know is when we're affected
and when we're not. Clarity is the key, if you think about it.
Greed comes from a clouded mind, Evil comes from a clouded and warped
mind. All things like that. They come when we are either enticed or
pulled in directions that are not exactly natural to our being. Nobody wants to
scam their friends, but as it would seem, any human on this earth
could end up scamming their friends, being brainwashed to scam their friends enticed.
I mean, that's the scary part about all of this. If something has
been studying you for a very long time, it will know exactly what to
do with you. And that's why you and I'm talking about each and every
one of you and us on the team, all of us, we need
to stay aware and vigilant. This is especially true when the world we're living
in has enemies that are trying to cloud our thoughts and dumb us down at
times. Don't let it happen in your world, guys, in your personal
lives, or anywhere. Well. With our mission successfully completed, I arranged
a meeting with Charlotte to provide her with some closure closure she needed. We
met in a quiet, pretty empty little diner, where the soothing ambiance allowed
for a more relaxed conversation, which we needed. As we sat across from
each other in this old booth, I could see the relief on her face,
a burden lifted from her shoulders. Charlotte had been through a harrowing experience
of her own, one that frightened her because she was affected by this even
though things weren't happening to her like they were OLIVERR. Okay, and you
know I didn't mention this earlier, But Charlotte is a pretty successful investigative journalist.
Okay. This woman is known for her relentless pursuit of the truth.
And here we were. She deals in facts and the real world, and
so it's easy to see how she could become frustrated in her inability to figure
this out and fearful of what it all was. Closure on this job was
crucial for Charlotte. She is a person like many of you out there,
a person with a family, children and a life. When these kinds of
things happen to someone who is living in otherwise normal and good existence, it
can be earth shattering. No one's ready for it. And that's exactly why
I got into what I'm doing now. And we take the jobs that we
do. Not everyone wants to look at what is possible out there and what
happened to some people. Sure, they say it's because they absolutely do not
believe, but let's be real here. Most of the time people are saying
that out of fear, they're too afraid to actually think they could believe in
anything so crazy, because it makes it real. You can decide for yourself
what you choose to believe. I hope you enjoyed the story today. It's
just a small piece of everything, as you know, and I have more
jobs, I have more stories to share, so subscribe, check back,
be a part of it, and join us on these journeys. Thanks again
for listening today and until next time, guys, and I will talk to
you all soon.