1
00:00:02,680 --> 00:00:06,599
Do you see that the disgust in
my cousin's voice. Maybe turn around,

2
00:00:06,599 --> 00:00:11,240
But I didn't notice anything unusual,
just a sewer grate clogged with dead leaves

3
00:00:11,279 --> 00:00:17,800
and an empty sidewalk. There was
a rat, big one. My cousin

4
00:00:17,839 --> 00:00:21,879
Laura shivered. Hate those things?
Are there a lot of them in a

5
00:00:21,879 --> 00:00:25,920
city? I don't think so,
I shrugged. But then again, it's

6
00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:28,920
been raining a lot recently. Maybe
the rising water made them come up out

7
00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:33,320
of the sewers. I thought of
slimy, flooded tunnels that would never see

8
00:00:33,399 --> 00:00:39,719
sunlight and the blind, chittering creatures
crawling through them, and shuddered. I

9
00:00:39,759 --> 00:00:43,200
didn't know that they could even get
that big. My cousin Laura had a

10
00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:49,240
special gift for finding something ugly in
any given situation. Here we were on

11
00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:54,039
a beautiful fall morning, strolling through
the park beneath golden leaves, and she

12
00:00:54,119 --> 00:00:57,960
was talking about giant rats. The
truth was, I wasn't even sure what

13
00:00:58,039 --> 00:01:00,560
Laura was doing here. We had
an exactly been close when we were younger.

14
00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,120
She'd always whined and rolled her eyes
whenever the adults made her take care

15
00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:07,959
of me, and I hadn't heard
from her in over ten years when she

16
00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:11,040
sent a text along asking to come
visit me in the city. There was

17
00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:15,920
something ominous about how short and insistent
the message was, but it felt wrong

18
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:19,280
to turn her down. If she
was trying to reconnect or make up for

19
00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:23,319
the past, I figured I should
at least give her a chance. I

20
00:01:23,359 --> 00:01:29,239
should have known. Laura had shown
up with a single, packed to bursting

21
00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:33,120
suitcase, glancing over her shoulder like
she expected someone to rob her at any

22
00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,120
minute. She was thinner than I
remembered. It looked like it had been

23
00:01:36,159 --> 00:01:40,120
a while since she'd slept. After
an awkward hug, I invited her in

24
00:01:40,159 --> 00:01:44,719
for coffee. My cousin eagerly accepted, but we soon discovered we had little

25
00:01:44,719 --> 00:01:48,760
to discuss above our steaming mugs.
Less than half an hour had passed before

26
00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,200
I suggested we'd take a walk,
mostly just to get away from the uncomfortable

27
00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:56,719
silence in my apartment. The change
of environment seemed to do us both good.

28
00:01:57,359 --> 00:02:00,760
Laura walked more lightly, like a
heavy burden had been lifted from her

29
00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:05,560
shoulders, at least until she saw
the rat. It was all downhill from

30
00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:08,919
there. Laura kept glancing nervously at
every sewer, great repast as though she

31
00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:15,039
expected a pack of rodents to come
swarming out and attack us. Sometimes she'd

32
00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:19,599
kick her feet and the fallen leaves, like she'd just felt tiny paws running

33
00:02:19,599 --> 00:02:23,000
over her shoelaces. Her behavior was
so odd that people were beginning to stare

34
00:02:23,879 --> 00:02:28,319
through gritted teeth. I suggested we
take a rest and admire the foliage.

35
00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:31,680
Laura eagerly accepted, but I noticed
she checked beneath the bench before she sat

36
00:02:31,719 --> 00:02:36,439
down beside me. I was about
to ask her what was wrong, but

37
00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,319
she stood with a shriek, clutching
her ankle in agony. Laura, you

38
00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:46,199
okay? What happened? The rat
it bit me? There was no sign

39
00:02:46,199 --> 00:02:51,199
of injury on my cousin's leg.
There was certainly no mangy rabid rats running

40
00:02:51,199 --> 00:02:54,599
down the sidewalk. Laura's eyes started
back and forth, as though she could

41
00:02:54,599 --> 00:02:58,919
see thousands of rab in his beady
eyes watching her from beneath the trees.

42
00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:02,400
I found my wondering about the real
motive for her visit. The dark circles

43
00:03:02,439 --> 00:03:07,879
under Laura's eyes and her nearest skeletal
thinness her telltale signs of drug addiction.

44
00:03:07,719 --> 00:03:12,039
It was the only explanation I could
think of that made sense. I wondered

45
00:03:12,039 --> 00:03:14,879
if the rest of the family knew. I wondered how long it would be

46
00:03:14,879 --> 00:03:17,800
before she hit me up for money. I chose my next words very carefully.

47
00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:23,000
I guess she should probably see a
doctor. Huh. If I could

48
00:03:23,039 --> 00:03:27,400
get my cousin admitted to a hospital, I thought, maybe she'd get the

49
00:03:27,439 --> 00:03:30,800
help she needed, not for her
imaginary bite, but for her mind.

50
00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,240
You can't see them, can you. The light in Laura's eyes was a

51
00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:42,719
mixture of pity and contempt. Don't
worry you will. At first I had

52
00:03:42,759 --> 00:03:46,080
been afraid, and now I was
angry. Babysitting my weird, attic cousin

53
00:03:46,159 --> 00:03:49,919
through her bad trip was not what
I had signed up for when I invited

54
00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:52,639
Laura to stay with me. I
got to my feet, not sure whether

55
00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:55,080
I was going to yell at her
walk away or threatened to call the police

56
00:03:55,120 --> 00:04:00,280
if she wouldn't get help. In
the end, I did know of the

57
00:04:00,319 --> 00:04:04,240
above. To my surprise and embarrassment, Laura had started tearing at her clothing,

58
00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:09,439
still screaming about rats that no one
else could see. They're under my

59
00:04:09,479 --> 00:04:14,680
clothes, she howled, They're under
my fucking skin. Angry, red gashes

60
00:04:14,719 --> 00:04:17,839
appeared on my cousin's body, where
she clawed herself. I spotted two park

61
00:04:17,879 --> 00:04:21,360
policemen jogging towards us, muttering into
their radios, but they didn't get the

62
00:04:21,439 --> 00:04:30,279
Laura in time. Suddenly, my
cousin stopped flailing and collapsed amongst the withered

63
00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:39,319
leaves. The autopsy revealed that her
heart had stopped beating, a response consistent

64
00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:43,040
with shock, but there were no
signs of any drug in her system.

65
00:04:43,319 --> 00:04:46,279
I called my cousin's parents from a
grimy police station phone booth. I kept

66
00:04:46,319 --> 00:04:50,160
my explanation vague, partly because I
couldn't find the words to express the nightmare

67
00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:56,439
I'd experienced, and partly because I
secretly hoped that their response, or to

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00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:00,120
veale, if they'd known what was
wrong with Laura there stunned horror sounded genuine.

69
00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:03,480
According to them, the only indication
they'd had that anything was a miss

70
00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:08,600
in their daughter's life was that she'd
missed her weekly call home on Sunday.

71
00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:14,680
They hadn't even known that she was
planning to visit me. If the answers

72
00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:17,759
weren't in Laura's personal life or her
autopsy results, maybe they were in the

73
00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:23,680
massive suitcase she dumped in my apartment. As numb and exhausted as I was,

74
00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:27,600
my heart pounded faster. When I
finally walked through my own front door.

75
00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:31,360
Laura's suitcase was right where she left
it, casting a long, ominous

76
00:05:31,439 --> 00:05:38,399
shadow on my wall in the evening
light. With trembling fingers, I tugged

77
00:05:38,439 --> 00:05:42,079
on the zipper. Laura had crammed
it so full of stuff it practically flew

78
00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:46,000
open, revealing a haphazard pile of
junk. It looked like my cousin had

79
00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:48,199
just thrown in whatever came to hand. I reached out to dig through the

80
00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:57,360
mess, then froze. I could
have sworn i'd seen movement in there.

81
00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,600
I waited for several agonizing seconds,
but the pile in the suitcase stayed still.

82
00:06:02,639 --> 00:06:05,839
Not taking any chances, I grabbed
my high school hockey stick and used

83
00:06:05,879 --> 00:06:10,680
it to poke through my cousin's stuff. If there was a nest of vermin

84
00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:17,480
in there, the last thing I
wanted was to get bitten, just like

85
00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:23,720
Laura had been. Suddenly, the
suitcase felt like a trap, a trap

86
00:06:23,759 --> 00:06:29,399
full of squirming, hairy creatures with
wormy tails, razors, sharp teeth.

87
00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:33,959
It was whatever I might find and
They're really worth the risk. The shadows

88
00:06:33,959 --> 00:06:38,639
on the wall across from me shifted
suddenly, like something had just skittered away.

89
00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:43,240
I realized that I wanted no I
needed to know what had happened to

90
00:06:43,279 --> 00:06:47,920
Laura. Tangled between two bras and
an old raincoat, I found it my

91
00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:53,160
cousin's diary. Now that I was
actually holding it in my hand, however,

92
00:06:53,199 --> 00:07:00,279
I hesitated opening. It felt like
disrespect to the dead and invasion of

93
00:07:00,319 --> 00:07:05,360
Laura's privacy. And yet if I
only looked at the most recent parts,

94
00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:12,120
that wouldn't be so bad. Wouldn't
my cousin have wanted someone to know what

95
00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:16,360
happened to her. Straining my eyes
against the dying light, I began to

96
00:07:16,399 --> 00:07:20,519
read. For the most part,
the purple notebook in my hand could have

97
00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:25,959
been the diary of anyone around my
age, struggles with financial insecurity, self

98
00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:34,680
doubt, feeling lost in life.
Then something caught my eye. October twenty

99
00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:40,120
fourth, Rainy, It's almost Halloween. I want to do a horror movie

100
00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:43,279
marathon, but I'm too tired to
focus. I slept so bad last night.

101
00:07:43,319 --> 00:07:46,480
Something kept waking me up. Sounded
almost like scratching in the walls.

102
00:07:46,959 --> 00:07:53,199
So I'll have to pick up some
mouse traps after work. October twenty fifth,

103
00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:56,920
more rain. Forgot all about the
mouse traps last night, I got

104
00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,439
drinks with Ryan instead. He's cute, but I can never out what he's

105
00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:03,800
thinking. He invited me to a
Halloween party, but with a stupid little

106
00:08:03,839 --> 00:08:05,800
grin of his, who knows if
it's a date or not. I give

107
00:08:05,879 --> 00:08:09,759
up. I'm sure about the noise
now, there's definitely something moving in the

108
00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,319
walls, because I'll have to warn
Ryan about it when he stays over.

109
00:08:13,439 --> 00:08:22,040
Hello. October twenty sixth, cold
but sunny, it's past midnight. I'm

110
00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:24,920
sitting in my room with the lights
on, towels stuffed under the door,

111
00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:28,160
and I'm so freaked out right now. Went to the kitchen for a glass

112
00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:33,879
of water. Saw a giant rat
creeping across the counter. The thing was

113
00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:37,399
bigger than a chihuahua. And then
when I turned around, there were two

114
00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:41,639
more pairs of rat eyes watching me
from the bathroom. Hell no, I'm

115
00:08:41,639 --> 00:08:48,559
staying in here until morning. Then
I'm calling Past Control. October twenty seventh.

116
00:08:50,759 --> 00:08:52,759
That was a scam. The so
called exterminator says there's no evidence of

117
00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,919
rats anywhere in the apartment. He
looked at me like I was crazy when

118
00:08:56,919 --> 00:09:01,159
I said that I could hear them
crawling inside the walls. Whatever, I'll

119
00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:03,399
just have to figure something else out. Who knows, maybe the whole town

120
00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:07,559
has a rat problem. There were
a few more of them around the dumpster

121
00:09:07,639 --> 00:09:15,360
at work gross October twenty eighth.
It was in my freaking bed. I

122
00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,720
wasn't even sure why I woke up
until I felt its cold nose on my

123
00:09:18,799 --> 00:09:22,679
belly and its tiny teeth. And
it wasn't alone. They're on my shelves,

124
00:09:22,679 --> 00:09:26,519
inside my slippers. When I ran
out of the room, one jumped

125
00:09:26,519 --> 00:09:28,320
on my back from the sofa.
I started the scratch marks, but the

126
00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:31,320
doctor said he couldn't see them.
I guess they weren't as deep as they

127
00:09:31,399 --> 00:09:35,639
felt. I couldn't spend another night
in that apartment. I don't even know

128
00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:39,879
what I've got in the suit case. They clawed and bit at me the

129
00:09:39,919 --> 00:09:41,639
whole time I was packing, like
they were trying to keep me there for

130
00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:46,039
a goddamn midnight snack. I told
my landlord, fat chance that she'll do

131
00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:50,639
anything about it. Claire from work
is letting me crash on our couch while

132
00:09:50,639 --> 00:09:56,039
the whole thing gets sorted out.
What a mess. I turned the page.

133
00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:58,200
Laura had stopped using dates at her
entries for getting a more haphazard.

134
00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:07,360
Her writing so precise at first,
it becomes slanted chicken scratch. I can't

135
00:10:07,399 --> 00:10:09,600
even remember the last time I got
a full night's sleep. Every time I

136
00:10:09,639 --> 00:10:13,360
close my eyes, I can feel
them pawing at my skin, nibbling at

137
00:10:13,399 --> 00:10:18,279
my toes. Claire kicked me out, says that I keep screaming in the

138
00:10:18,279 --> 00:10:20,000
middle of the night. I tried
my luck at a hotel, but the

139
00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:26,440
rats are there too. I could
hear them in the walls. Must have

140
00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:30,240
knotted off on a bench in the
park. I had a dream in and

141
00:10:30,279 --> 00:10:33,000
I was staying with my young cousin
downtown in some big city. We were

142
00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:37,399
talking, laughing, having a good
time until I started to feel sick.

143
00:10:37,759 --> 00:10:41,039
I ran into the bathroom and felt
something big, slimy and hairy sliding out

144
00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:45,799
of my throat. I coughed up
a rat into the sink. When I

145
00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,440
lifted up my shirt and looked in
the mirror, there were more of them

146
00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:52,360
squirming under the skin of my belly. The words on the next page were

147
00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:58,240
soiled by something, maybe rain,
water, tears, got fired from work

148
00:11:00,039 --> 00:11:03,799
after what happened with Claire. My
ex coworkers aren't answering my calls. I

149
00:11:03,879 --> 00:11:07,639
don't know anyone else here, but
spending the night where I can always big

150
00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:09,720
open spaces that I can see them
coming. I know that no one else

151
00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:13,080
can see the rats, but does
that even matter when I can feel their

152
00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:18,720
teeth gnawing on me. Can't tell
my parents to have me committed. Got

153
00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:22,360
to find someplace else to go.
Haven't thought about my cousin in years,

154
00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:26,919
So I had that dream. What
was it last night? Two nights ago?

155
00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,440
I've lost track and he used the
Wi Fi in the library to write

156
00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:35,080
to her. Oh if she gets
back to me, she's all I got.

157
00:11:37,279 --> 00:11:41,240
The last entry was two days ago. My cousin must have spent Halloween

158
00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:45,919
night crammed into an overnight bus with
a crowd of strangers trying desperately to reach

159
00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:50,080
me. Now I understood why she'd
look so pale and haunted, but I

160
00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:54,240
didn't understand how it has all started. As far as I could tell from

161
00:11:54,279 --> 00:11:56,440
Laura's diary, she'd been fine one
day, and the next she was surrounded

162
00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:01,960
by monstrous rats that only she could
see. Fear of them had taken her

163
00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:05,519
career, her relationship, and finally, her life. No one else could

164
00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:09,960
see what was hunting Laura, but
that didn't make the pain any less real

165
00:12:09,039 --> 00:12:13,240
for her. My hands clenched into
fists. It didn't make sense. It

166
00:12:13,279 --> 00:12:18,399
wasn't fair. Things like that weren't
supposed to just happen to people for no

167
00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:24,080
reason. There had to be some
cause, some logic behind it. I

168
00:12:24,279 --> 00:12:31,240
was still wondering what that might have
been when something scurried across my foot.

169
00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:41,919
Hey, their kids, it's me, mister creepy pasta. And I want

170
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:45,759
to tell you thank you so much
for watching tonight's video if you're watching on

171
00:12:45,799 --> 00:12:48,360
YouTube, thank you so much for
listening to tonight's podcast if you're listening on

172
00:12:48,399 --> 00:12:52,919
Spotify. And thank you guys for
doing that thing where you subscribe, where

173
00:12:52,919 --> 00:12:54,159
you hit the bell, where you
hit like, or you leave a little

174
00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:56,759
comment at the bottom, or wherever
you can leave comments that I don't know.

175
00:12:56,759 --> 00:13:00,679
I don't use Spotify that much.
And finally want to give a huge

176
00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:03,879
thank you to everybody who supports me
on Patreon. This past year has been

177
00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:09,399
rough. I've been gone for quite
a while, trying to get things organized

178
00:13:09,799 --> 00:13:16,039
for my own life. And Patreon
subscribers, You guys who subscribe everywhere this

179
00:13:16,039 --> 00:13:20,679
this has kept me afloat in turbulent
waters. So I want to give a

180
00:13:20,799 --> 00:13:26,519
very special thank you to Jordan Humble, Diana Krauss, Disciple, Strategy,

181
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Wolf, Emoji, Sully Man,
Brandon Mendoza, Brimstone, Pandemonium, Caltuna,

182
00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:33,080
William Wellington, Scruffy, the Janitor, Breanna Crowe, Leketa Canizalez,

183
00:13:33,279 --> 00:13:37,679
Smiley, the Psychotic, Jenna,
Dante and Kaid Simbas, Bodody, Mojo,

184
00:13:37,759 --> 00:13:41,200
Mephistopheles, Kurse, Pox, Primark, m Hissus, Corneo, Yar

185
00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:43,600
Ghoul, Verbal Horror, Amber Clark, Jay Kearns, Mike Himbo, Jerry

186
00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:48,000
Crusader, Jocobo, Gordon Dallas,
has To Bean, Seclude, Salty Surprise,

187
00:13:48,159 --> 00:13:50,039
Red Shadow, Cat, Turtleman,
Cryolinian, Mister Marcus Splitz, Dirt

188
00:13:50,039 --> 00:13:54,000
Divers zero three zero, Voice of
Sand, Psychamel, Melted Lake, Tully,

189
00:13:54,039 --> 00:13:56,240
Sue, William King, Sashi,
Suzaku, Croka, Nut five h

190
00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:58,399
nine, Stricken, Freddy Krueger,
Hadi's Nephew, Ascid System, Sky Harber,

191
00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,720
Niko, Kayle, The Ginger,
Bros, Emmon, Stormcrow, Daniel

192
00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:05,480
Poulson, and Corey Kensen, I
really appreciate your support and I cannot thank

193
00:14:05,519 --> 00:14:05,039
you in novel