1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:06,080
I worked as a social worker for
twelve years out on the East Coast.

2
00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:11,839
I saw children who were mistreated,
women that were abused, and plenty of

3
00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:18,000
others that had mental health problems,
bad judgment or worse luck. So many

4
00:00:18,039 --> 00:00:22,640
people suffering, and you get invested
and try to help and then have to

5
00:00:22,719 --> 00:00:25,879
leave it at the job so it
doesn't eat you alive when you go.

6
00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:33,600
And for the most part, I
was good at compartmentalizing that stuff. But

7
00:00:33,719 --> 00:00:38,960
then five months before I quit and
moved across the country, I met a

8
00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:49,039
young traumatized woman and everything changed.
Her name was Hattie McGovern and she was

9
00:00:49,079 --> 00:00:53,079
a college student who had been attacked
the night before as she crossed through a

10
00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:57,640
park on the way to a neighborhood. When I saw her, she was

11
00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:02,320
on the first day of three days
of observation. She had injuries, sure,

12
00:01:03,039 --> 00:01:07,480
but there were largely cuts and abrasions
to a scalp, and what she

13
00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:12,879
was saying didn't entirely make sense.
When we were alone and I was finished

14
00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:19,239
telling her about the government services she
might benefit from, I asked her if

15
00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:23,239
she wanted to talk about what happened. I'd heard enough from the nurse outside

16
00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:29,079
to know it would be wild,
but I had no idea of the details

17
00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:37,400
until she began to speak in a
soft, hoarse voice. She said she'd

18
00:01:37,439 --> 00:01:42,439
been halfway through the park, walking
at a fast pace because she planned on

19
00:01:42,519 --> 00:01:46,159
taking a shower and then heading back
out to meet some friends, and was

20
00:01:46,239 --> 00:01:52,640
running behind when she realized an older
man was walking next to her, well

21
00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:57,760
not next to her, she said, about fifty feet away, traveling across

22
00:01:57,799 --> 00:02:02,439
the grass, stepping over hedges and
sidewalks without slowing or even looking at where

23
00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:07,719
he was going. Instead, he
was just keeping pace with her, step

24
00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:13,360
for step and staring at her with
a wide smile that made him look like

25
00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:19,360
a skull between his pale skin and
his bald head. This freaked her out,

26
00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:23,120
of course, and she began walking
faster. She didn't run, she

27
00:02:23,199 --> 00:02:28,000
said, because she felt like it
was kind of like running from a bear.

28
00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,080
You shouldn't show weakness or fear,
but just get away before things went

29
00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:38,159
from weird to bad. So she
turned to look to where she was going

30
00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,639
and to see if she saw any
people closer than her apartment complex ad block

31
00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:46,319
away. There was none, and
when she looked back to where the man

32
00:02:46,319 --> 00:02:53,879
had been, he was gone.
That when she felt the hand plunging into

33
00:02:53,879 --> 00:03:00,919
a long blonde hair and pulling her
to the ground. Known he was going

34
00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:05,560
to be something about her hair.
Her injuries, other than a bruise on

35
00:03:05,599 --> 00:03:08,639
her throat and a couple of other
scrapes, were all on her head,

36
00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:15,400
dozens of oozing places where the strange
board man had held her down and roughly

37
00:03:15,439 --> 00:03:21,039
cut off all her hair with a
straight razor. Crying softly, she showed

38
00:03:21,039 --> 00:03:25,240
me a picture of her the week
before, long curly hair the color of

39
00:03:25,319 --> 00:03:31,719
summer honey framed her. Then smiling
face. I passed her that didn't know

40
00:03:31,879 --> 00:03:38,599
what was about to happen. The
version of her before me looked ten years

41
00:03:38,599 --> 00:03:45,680
older and broken in some fundamental way. Sniffing back tears, she said that

42
00:03:45,719 --> 00:03:49,360
when the men yanked her to the
ground, the breath went out of her,

43
00:03:50,159 --> 00:03:53,560
but she immediately started trying to get
up and get away. That he

44
00:03:53,599 --> 00:03:58,759
had grabbed her by the throat and
held her back down, but just for

45
00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:05,840
a moment, just long enough that
he could spit in her face. Hattie

46
00:04:05,879 --> 00:04:11,599
said it made no sense, but
after he did that, she couldn't move

47
00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:15,839
anymore, not at all. The
girl told me the doctors had tried to

48
00:04:15,879 --> 00:04:21,560
say it was shock or fear,
but she said that was nonsense. She

49
00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:27,560
was paralyzed by the thick, foul
smelling wad he'd spat onto her face,

50
00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:32,279
and even him producing the straight razor
from a hidden pocket didn't get a move

51
00:04:32,319 --> 00:04:39,160
and again, beyond the hammering of
a heart, he never said anything,

52
00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:44,920
just smiled as he began gripping handfuls
of her hair and scraping them off a

53
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,079
scalp. I asked her if it
hurt, and she gave me a warty

54
00:04:49,199 --> 00:04:57,040
laugh. She said that sure it
did, but that wasn't the worst part.

55
00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:00,720
He was feeling so violated and having
a part of her taken away,

56
00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:05,879
even more than the fear of what
he might do to her after the feeling

57
00:05:06,079 --> 00:05:11,839
had been the worst. When he
had rolled her over to her stomach to

58
00:05:11,879 --> 00:05:15,920
cut the rest of her hair off, she felt the first tingles of movements

59
00:05:15,959 --> 00:05:20,040
starting to come back, not enough
to really move, but some small,

60
00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:27,199
stirring twitches. She decided to wait, let it come back more, and

61
00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:32,160
then tried to run when the opportunity
came or he was distracted, not that

62
00:05:32,199 --> 00:05:36,839
she was just sitting and waiting for
him to do whatever he wanted. Every

63
00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:42,120
moment she was tensed to try and
fight if she saw the blade coming for

64
00:05:42,199 --> 00:05:46,519
her neck, or if he tried
to take her clothes off. She just

65
00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:50,040
knew that she couldn't really move or
fight yet, and she wanted him to

66
00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:57,519
either go slow or just stop and
leave her alone. He chose the latter.

67
00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:01,319
When he had cut off the last
of her hair, he scooped up

68
00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:05,720
the pile next to her head and
walked a few feet away out of a

69
00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:11,839
line of sight. She heard some
kind of gasping, choking sound then,

70
00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,079
and while it took all her strength, she managed to turn her head slightly

71
00:06:16,319 --> 00:06:25,319
to see what he was doing.
He was eating her hair, all of

72
00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:30,600
it. Golden fistfuls were crammed in
one after the other as he chewed and

73
00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:36,879
gasped and choked and swallowed. The
sound was disgusting, but seeing it was

74
00:06:36,959 --> 00:06:43,160
worse. She said, it scared
her worse than before, though she couldn't

75
00:06:43,199 --> 00:06:47,759
have said why. And it was
then, as she lay frozen and horrified,

76
00:06:48,439 --> 00:06:54,040
that the man suddenly let out a
gasping groan and toppled over under the

77
00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:59,879
grass. He lay there, twitching
for what felt like a minute or two,

78
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:04,160
and though from her angle she couldn't
see his face. She felt like

79
00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:10,399
he was either having a seizure or
choking to death. She hoped for the

80
00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:15,759
latter, but didn't dare rely on
that. Forcing her limbs to move,

81
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:21,360
she got to her hands and knees
and started to crawl out of the street.

82
00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:29,319
Everything felt weird and slow, but
she started making progress, periodically looking

83
00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:34,000
back to see if the man was
still out. First time, still down

84
00:07:34,079 --> 00:07:46,319
and twitching. Second time he was
sitting up and staring at her. It

85
00:07:46,439 --> 00:07:51,279
was at this point that she started
shaking and crying harder. So after waiting

86
00:07:51,279 --> 00:07:57,800
a couple of minutes, I asked
the question to prompt her. Did he

87
00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:05,199
come for her again? No,
she said. They looked at each other,

88
00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:11,000
He gave her another smile, and
she started crawling faster or screaming her

89
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:16,720
head off. The guy was jogging
down the other side of the street and

90
00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:20,959
came over to help. When she
looked back the next time, her attacker

91
00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:28,120
was gone. Thank god, I
said, and she nodded in mute agreement.

92
00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:35,240
But I could tell there was something
more. When I asked, she

93
00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:41,120
paused a long time before shaking her
head. You'll just think I'm a crazy

94
00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:46,399
liar, like they do. I
had to reassure her that I wouldn't think

95
00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:54,440
any such thing several times before she
finally told me the rest when he sat

96
00:08:54,559 --> 00:09:01,120
up. When I saw him that
last time, he wasn't bald anymore.

97
00:09:01,559 --> 00:09:09,000
He had long, curly hair,
blonde hair just like mine. He ate

98
00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:18,840
my hair and stole it from me. Over the next couple of months,

99
00:09:18,279 --> 00:09:24,039
I checked on her case. Hattie
had moved back to Wisconsin to be with

100
00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:28,120
her family, and while her physical
wounds were healing well enough, she still

101
00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:33,759
had emotional issues she was working through
from the attack. When I called her

102
00:09:33,799 --> 00:09:39,679
mental health counselor at a new college, she tried to talk very broadly and

103
00:09:39,759 --> 00:09:45,559
not give me any details, But
toward the end of the conversation she did

104
00:09:45,639 --> 00:09:52,960
let one slip. The poor dear, it's so strange how her hair won't

105
00:09:52,000 --> 00:10:00,559
grow back. It was another month
and a half before I saw the graffiti.

106
00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:03,639
I normally took a bus home to
just two blocks from my work,

107
00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,919
but one day my normal bus line
was delayed due to an accident, so

108
00:10:09,159 --> 00:10:13,240
I had the choice of paying for
a taxi or walking further to a different

109
00:10:13,279 --> 00:10:18,559
stop. I picked the latter,
and while the neighborhood I traveled through didn't

110
00:10:18,559 --> 00:10:24,000
seem especially rough or dangerous. It
was more run down than the places I

111
00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:30,639
worked or lived, more closed businesses
and unkent blots and graffiti scattered along the

112
00:10:30,639 --> 00:10:35,480
walls here and there. It was, when I was nearing the bus stop

113
00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:39,360
that I had to walk under an
overpass bridge that I had colorful drawings and

114
00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:46,960
sayings, insults and boasts. Yet
among that riot of lines and squiggles,

115
00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:52,399
one thing stood apart, as though
none of the rest wanted to be close

116
00:10:52,519 --> 00:11:00,039
to this single line, written in
simple letters of dark red, he I

117
00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:07,799
only eat the best of us.
A year earlier, I would have laughed

118
00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:11,159
at the line, wondering if it
was a social commentary or a line from

119
00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:16,960
a movie. But walking through that
patch of shadows, as the words burned

120
00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:22,360
down at me from above, my
mind immediately went a hattie, and I

121
00:11:22,399 --> 00:11:28,399
walked faster until I reached my stop. When I reached it, I looked

122
00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:37,080
back, and that's when I saw
him, a thin, pale man with

123
00:11:37,279 --> 00:11:45,360
long, flowing blonde hair. I
might have let out a little scream right

124
00:11:45,399 --> 00:11:48,799
then, I don't remember. I
do recall turning back to the street,

125
00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:54,840
thinking I needed to call a taxi
or get someone's attention. When I saw

126
00:11:54,879 --> 00:11:58,879
the bus turning the corner, A
blocked down and I nearly cried and really

127
00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:05,720
running to meet it. I jumped
on as soon as the doors opened,

128
00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:09,320
and when I looked back, I
saw no sign of the man anywhere.

129
00:12:11,159 --> 00:12:16,200
Heart pounding, I scanned my pass
and took a seat in the middle of

130
00:12:16,279 --> 00:12:20,600
the bus. It was only half
full, but the comfort of being around

131
00:12:20,639 --> 00:12:28,039
other people, even total strangers,
was undeniable. I felt like a gazelle

132
00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:33,720
hiding in the herd from a stalking
lion. The dramatic flare of the thought

133
00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:39,600
made me laugh. Wasn't I overreacting? Had I really seen the man?

134
00:12:39,159 --> 00:12:43,440
Or had I just imagined it because
I was tired and taking a strange route

135
00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:50,799
that made me uneasy. Glancing at
my phone, I guessed my nearest stop

136
00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:56,519
to home would be about twenty minutes
away. After a moment's debate, I

137
00:12:56,559 --> 00:13:01,200
set my phone alarm for fifteen in
case I dozed off, though that seemed

138
00:13:01,279 --> 00:13:05,960
unlikely given the panic I had felt
a few moments before. I might not

139
00:13:07,039 --> 00:13:13,720
ever sleep. I woke up to
words being spoken right next to my ear.

140
00:13:16,679 --> 00:13:22,919
Few have lovely eyes. I jumped
to my seat and started to turn

141
00:13:22,039 --> 00:13:28,120
round when I froze. The evening
had fully come on by now, and

142
00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:33,039
the windows of the bus were all
black with the growing night outside. In

143
00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:37,720
the reflection of the window closest to
me, I could not only see myself,

144
00:13:37,639 --> 00:13:43,720
but who had spoken to me.
It was the old blond man,

145
00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:50,480
leaning against my ear like a whispering
lover. In the reflection, my terrified

146
00:13:50,519 --> 00:13:56,759
gaze found his milky eyes hanging like
infected moons above his sickly sickle smile.

147
00:13:58,399 --> 00:14:01,559
He held me with that look for
a moment before rasping out the words again,

148
00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:11,639
you have lovely eyes. My fear
broke the spell this time, and

149
00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:13,960
I jumped out of my seat and
rushed to the front, yelling for the

150
00:14:15,039 --> 00:14:18,679
driver to let me out. Let
me out now, goddamn it. Looking

151
00:14:18,799 --> 00:14:24,159
surprised and irritated, he pulled at
the curb, even as my phone alarm

152
00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:28,399
went off. I was just two
blocks away now, and I wasn't above

153
00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:35,759
running the entire way, so that's
exactly what I did. I jumped off

154
00:14:35,799 --> 00:14:39,440
the bus as the doors opened,
pulling off my heels and running barefoot down

155
00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:45,799
the sidewalk for two blocks to my
building. I never looked back the entire

156
00:14:45,879 --> 00:14:48,919
time. And it wasn't until I
was behind my door and the dead bolt

157
00:14:50,039 --> 00:14:54,360
was thrown that I took a breath
or dared to look back out through the

158
00:14:54,360 --> 00:15:01,320
peep hole. I saw no sign
of anyone out there, and when I

159
00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:03,600
went to my windows to look for
any sign of the old man following me,

160
00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:11,559
I found none. Good it was
maybe a coincidence, but even if

161
00:15:11,559 --> 00:15:16,399
it was Hattie guy, he couldn't
have followed me all the way home,

162
00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:20,840
not with how fast I was.
There was a knock at the door,

163
00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:26,120
stifling another scream. I crept back
to the door, not wanting to betray

164
00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:31,360
that I was home. Looking back
through the peep hole, I saw nothing.

165
00:15:33,919 --> 00:15:37,320
Maybe he had been a mistake and
the person had realized they had the

166
00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:41,159
wrong door and went on. I
waited for a couple of minutes, watching

167
00:15:41,279 --> 00:15:48,000
and listening for someone, and there
was nothing. It wasn't until I turned

168
00:15:48,039 --> 00:15:52,120
to go into the living room that
a new knock returned, this one more

169
00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:58,120
rhythmic and familiar. Knock knock,
kN knock, knock, knock knock.

170
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:07,799
I gave a shudder as I realized
I recognized what that was. Shaven a

171
00:16:07,799 --> 00:16:12,399
haircut, two bits, biting my
lip, I went back to the door

172
00:16:12,639 --> 00:16:18,919
and stared out again through the hole. There was still no one out there

173
00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:22,519
that I could see, not that
I was about to open the door to

174
00:16:22,559 --> 00:16:26,399
fully check. What if they were
just standing to the side waiting for me

175
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:32,960
to crack the door. I debated
calling the police, but I wasn't sure

176
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:36,759
what to tell them, or if
they'd even come for something so small,

177
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:42,720
so instead I called the building's handyman. George told him I thought a creepy

178
00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:47,480
guy might have followed me into the
building, and now someone kept knocking on

179
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:52,480
my door. I asked him,
did he mind coming up and just see

180
00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:57,519
if he saw anything. He sounded
sleepy and irritated initially, but when he

181
00:16:57,519 --> 00:17:03,200
heard the fear of my voice,
he said he'd be right there. Less

182
00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:07,200
than five minutes later, there was
a new knock on the door, for

183
00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:14,400
this time who was quickly followed by
George's voice, Miss Castillo. There's no

184
00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:17,599
one out here. Now. I'm
going to double check the other doors,

185
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:22,359
but I think you're okay. Someone
did leave you something out here, though

186
00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:32,319
I unlocked the door and opened it
part way left something what. George pushed

187
00:17:32,319 --> 00:17:37,240
the items through the crack and handed
it to me. There that's for you.

188
00:17:37,319 --> 00:17:41,799
I guess. I think you're okay, but you be careful. Okay,

189
00:17:42,759 --> 00:17:48,480
there are some bad things out there. I noticed that he said things

190
00:17:48,519 --> 00:17:56,680
instead of people, but I let
it pass. George, it's something wrong.

191
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:02,440
He looked a little paler as he
forced a smile and shook his head,

192
00:18:03,079 --> 00:18:07,039
never raising his eyes to me.
No, I think everything is okay.

193
00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:12,759
Just keep your door locked, okay, and let me know if you

194
00:18:12,799 --> 00:18:21,000
have any more trouble. I gotta
get back downstairs. I thought about reminding

195
00:18:21,039 --> 00:18:26,480
him to check the other floors,
but then he was gone, shutting the

196
00:18:26,519 --> 00:18:30,400
door back and locking it. I
decided it didn't matter. I had a

197
00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:36,200
feeling he wasn't going anywhere except down
to his own apartment to turn his own

198
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:41,400
dead bolt. That feeling only grew
when I turned on the lights and looked

199
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:48,839
more closely at what had been left
for me. Maybe it had been a

200
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:56,640
mocking threat or a warning, but
I knew what it felt like a promise.

201
00:18:59,079 --> 00:19:03,880
So the next day I gave my
notice and move most my stuff into

202
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:08,400
an extended stay hotel. Three weeks
later, I was driving a moving truck

203
00:19:08,559 --> 00:19:14,400
across the country to my new home. The first thing I set out in

204
00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:19,720
my new house was the gift I
got that night. I hate looking at

205
00:19:19,759 --> 00:19:26,000
it, but I need to see
it, be reminded of it, like

206
00:19:26,079 --> 00:19:30,599
a head or heart full of scars, or the red letter scrawled underneath a

207
00:19:30,599 --> 00:19:36,799
bridge. It warns me to never
let my guard down, to never assume

208
00:19:37,039 --> 00:19:41,880
that the darkness has nothing but empty
fear waiting for me in its depths.

209
00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:48,200
Even now, I can see it
on my mantle, gleaming a dull gray.

210
00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:53,000
I think it's made of pewter,
and it feels very heavy and old.

211
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:57,960
The few times I've been able to
make myself touch it, not that

212
00:19:59,039 --> 00:20:03,160
I need to any more, I
still see it when I close my eyes.

213
00:20:03,839 --> 00:20:10,880
A thick handled metal spoon with a
deep round bowl. The tabors to

214
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:17,160
a sharp edge on the outer rim, not by initial design, but by

215
00:20:17,319 --> 00:20:21,960
use of wet stone or a grinder. It's more of a razor, now,

216
00:20:22,759 --> 00:20:29,400
hard and cold and bitingly thin,
shaped for cutting and digging. And

217
00:20:29,519 --> 00:20:33,480
I know, without checking that if
some one were to stick it into my

218
00:20:33,559 --> 00:20:37,319
eye socket, they could sliced through
the lid and scoop out my eyeball like

219
00:20:37,359 --> 00:20:44,720
a bit of over ripe melon.
My hands are shaking as I tell you

220
00:20:44,799 --> 00:20:48,839
this. I can't quite look at
the mantle any longer, so I look

221
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:56,000
out the window instead. It's not
dark yet, but the shadows are growing

222
00:20:56,079 --> 00:21:00,880
fatter with each passing morsel of the
day. I forced myself to keep looking

223
00:21:02,039 --> 00:21:07,920
into the deepening twilight, and some
nights I even tell myself, I'm not

224
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:14,559
still afraid, but the whisper in
my heart is enough bravery or strength.

225
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:21,599
It's the dreadful double thrum of the
gazelle's heart, looking out into the darkness,

226
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:29,119
not looking out of courage, but
out of terror and necessity and weak

227
00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:37,039
trembling hope, hope that when we
look out into the darkness, nothing looks

228
00:21:37,119 --> 00:21:55,039
back or is drawing near. We'd
all heard the urban legends, heeded the

229
00:21:55,079 --> 00:22:02,799
warnings, followed the rules. To
a t well of us there is Christian

230
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:07,039
and I weren't like normal kids.
We were always getting into trouble, from

231
00:22:07,079 --> 00:22:12,680
playing hockey to shoplifting to going on
joy rides. We did it all.

232
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:21,200
We were, without a doubt,
the most despised preteens in town. Little

233
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:26,279
do we know or that mischief would
inevitably lead us to the worst day of

234
00:22:26,319 --> 00:22:33,759
our lives. God, I wish
I could take it back, people in

235
00:22:33,799 --> 00:22:38,839
my town were always very superstitious.
Not like, oh, you spilled the

236
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:45,960
salt, throw a pincher over your
left shoulder superstitious. No, something happened

237
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:52,119
here a long time ago, something
sinister, something that still bears its burden,

238
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:57,039
and the townsfolk half a century later. You see, back in the

239
00:22:57,079 --> 00:23:06,559
seventies, kids started going missing.
The disappearances always occurred at night, always,

240
00:23:07,519 --> 00:23:12,079
and always in the same fashion.
Parents would lock their homes down tighter

241
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:17,720
than Fort Knox, only to find
the front door hanging wide open the following

242
00:23:17,759 --> 00:23:22,799
morning. The kidnappings were beginning to
pile up at the same time that nightly

243
00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:29,799
reports of an ice cream truck circling
neighborhoods began to flood into the police station.

244
00:23:30,279 --> 00:23:33,759
Every time the authorities were called,
the truck would be gone when they

245
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:41,559
arrived, no matter the response time. The strange thing was, we didn't

246
00:23:41,599 --> 00:23:47,960
have an ice cream truck in the
seventies. Well we still don't. This

247
00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:52,880
has always been the kind of place
where everyone knows everyone, and none other

248
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:59,640
families in town have ever owned an
ice cream truck. Naturally, people began

249
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:04,359
to associate the truck with the disappearances. Obviously, people tried to catch the

250
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:11,680
mysterious abductor behind the wheel. That
when the adults started going missing, no

251
00:24:11,759 --> 00:24:18,279
one whoever confronted the driver was ever
seen again. The fear was beginning to

252
00:24:18,319 --> 00:24:25,559
reach a boiling point. People panicked, families with children started packing their things.

253
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:30,680
Even some people without families at all
were looking at relocating. And then,

254
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:40,759
just when nearly half the population was
about to split, it stopped the

255
00:24:40,839 --> 00:24:45,240
almost nightly kidnappings, the sightings of
the ice cream truck, all of it.

256
00:24:48,079 --> 00:24:53,200
The townsfolk never truly recovered. I
mean, how could they. After

257
00:24:53,240 --> 00:25:00,160
that, most families of the victims
moved away, eventually losing any hope of

258
00:25:00,319 --> 00:25:04,680
ever seeing their loved ones again.
Can't say have blamed them. I wouldn't

259
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:10,920
have stuck around after that either.
The ones who did stay grew paranoid,

260
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:15,480
so they did everything in their power
to ensure that nothing similar would ever happen

261
00:25:15,519 --> 00:25:25,799
again. That unfortunately manifested into an
extremely strict set of rules. Girls aren't

262
00:25:25,799 --> 00:25:30,039
allowed to walk anywhere alone. The
doors and windows that every house must remain

263
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:36,279
locked at all times, and of
course, no one is allowed outside after

264
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:41,240
dark for any reason. The town
shuts down well before sundown as a not

265
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:48,440
so subtle a reminder. Growing up, I always thought the stories when nonsense.

266
00:25:48,559 --> 00:25:52,680
I thought it was just another lazy
excuse for parents to keep a close

267
00:25:52,720 --> 00:26:00,319
eye in their children to prevent us
from causing mayhem. I should have listened,

268
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:06,240
Sarah for the last time. I'm
not sneaking out with you tonight.

269
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:11,000
You know the rules, Christian whispered, tapping the eraser on his pencil against

270
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:17,599
his notebook absent mindedly. Come on, this is the one rule we haven't

271
00:26:17,599 --> 00:26:21,960
broken yet. You spray painted off
as a Dawkins police cruiser, and this

272
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:26,799
is what you're afraid of. I'm
not scared. This is different. It's

273
00:26:26,839 --> 00:26:30,880
something sacred. You've lived here for
just as long as I have. You

274
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:36,759
should know that, he hissed,
pretending the dial into Missus Huckabee's my numbing

275
00:26:36,839 --> 00:26:41,839
lecture on mitosis. Aren't you at
least a little curious? You can't seriously

276
00:26:41,839 --> 00:26:45,480
tell me you've never wondered about going
out at night. There's got to be

277
00:26:45,519 --> 00:26:51,000
something more than they're letting on,
Sarah. I'm not going with you.

278
00:26:51,599 --> 00:26:53,799
If you want to risk your life
by going out after dark, go right

279
00:26:53,799 --> 00:26:59,960
ahead, but leave me out of
it. Christian said, with a sternfire

280
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:06,160
in his tone. I never seen
him so serious about anything before, and

281
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:14,000
that frightened me. Remodeled to the
remainder of the class in silence. Christian

282
00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:18,720
gave me the cold shoulder all day. I was beginning to wonder if I'd

283
00:27:18,759 --> 00:27:25,799
overstepped. I'll give you some time
to blow over. I had just finished

284
00:27:25,799 --> 00:27:32,000
cramming my textbooks into my locker when
Christian approached me. I jumped, nearly

285
00:27:32,039 --> 00:27:37,119
dropping my backpack. I hadn't expected
to see him again that day. What's

286
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,640
up, dude? Thought you were
going to make me walk home alone?

287
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:47,400
He locked eyes with me, sending
a chill creeping up my spine. A

288
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:53,559
bit of determination was scrawled across his
visage. I'll go with you. I

289
00:27:53,680 --> 00:28:00,200
was taken aback. It'd been so
adamant earlier. What changed? Are you

290
00:28:00,279 --> 00:28:03,680
sure? I mean, I don't
want to go if you're not comfortable with

291
00:28:03,759 --> 00:28:10,160
it. I'm sure I have to
know, he said, averting his gaze.

292
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:15,720
Okay, we'll meet at your house
at midnight. Sound good? Yeah?

293
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:21,640
Christian sheepishly glanced up at me.
And you didn't seriously think I'd let

294
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:26,519
you walk home by yourself, did
you? I giggled, flashing him a

295
00:28:26,519 --> 00:28:33,799
grin. No, I guess I
didn't. Christian was seemingly back to his

296
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:37,519
old self. On the way home
from school. I listened intently as he

297
00:28:37,559 --> 00:28:42,480
babbled on about his latest revenge scheme. He was planning on setting off a

298
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:48,200
fart bomb in Becky Nelson's locker for
snitching on him. I didn't care if

299
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:52,319
I was being suckered into another one
of his devious pranks. I was just

300
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:56,599
happy that things were back to normal
between us. I'm gonna make a pay,

301
00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:03,000
christiansted, smashing his fist into his
palm. Can't wait to see the

302
00:29:03,079 --> 00:29:07,119
look on her ugly ass face.
Anyway, I'll see you tonight, I

303
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:14,680
said, as I trudged up my
driveway. You bet. We waved goodbye

304
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:21,359
to each other, and I watched
as Christian continued down the sidewalk. Midnight

305
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:26,680
couldn't come quickly enough. I giddly
awaited nightfall. I felt as though my

306
00:29:26,759 --> 00:29:33,599
heart would burst from my chest at
any given moment. My adrenaline always spiked

307
00:29:33,799 --> 00:29:38,960
before one of our little misadventures.
I was watching the time like a hawk.

308
00:29:41,119 --> 00:29:45,119
My parents had already turned in for
the night, so I was left

309
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:52,359
to my own devices. That was
a dangerous game. My eyes were glued

310
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:59,160
to the numbers of my phone screen. Eleven fifty eight pm. It was

311
00:29:59,319 --> 00:30:08,480
so close, yes, and that's
when I heard it clunk. Something hard

312
00:30:08,519 --> 00:30:14,559
pelted my window. My eyes grew
wide, and a smile inched across my

313
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:19,039
lips. As I raised to the
sauce. Christian was standing outside, his

314
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:25,480
arms cocked like a quarter back.
Oh there you are, hey, he

315
00:30:25,559 --> 00:30:29,440
said, dropping the rock in his
hand. Dude, you skat the hell

316
00:30:29,519 --> 00:30:32,799
out of me. Weren't we supposed
to meet your place? And why didn't

317
00:30:32,839 --> 00:30:37,279
you just text me like a normal
person. Sorry I got restless, he

318
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:41,480
muttered, staring at his feet.
My parents took my phone last week.

319
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:48,039
Remember. Oh yeah, I'm not
sure I've forgot Coming down, I said,

320
00:30:48,519 --> 00:30:53,359
cautiously, climbing out and steadying myself
on the step ladder that I strategically

321
00:30:53,359 --> 00:30:59,359
placed below my window. I hopped
down from the last step, landing in

322
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:04,079
the grass. The soft thumb ready, I said, eager to set off.

323
00:31:06,279 --> 00:31:11,519
Yeah, let's go, Christian said, taking my hand. I blushed,

324
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:15,519
and he quickly recoiled. Even in
the dim yellow light provided by the

325
00:31:15,559 --> 00:31:22,799
street lamps, I could tell that
his face was bright red. I'm sorry.

326
00:31:22,839 --> 00:31:26,039
I didn't mean to do that.
I just want to get going,

327
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:30,519
is all. No, No,
you could I get it. There was

328
00:31:30,559 --> 00:31:37,920
a long, awkward pause before Christians
spoke off, So where are we going?

329
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:42,319
Ah? I don't know. I
hadn't thought this fire ahead. Where

330
00:31:42,319 --> 00:31:47,160
do you want to go? How
about the park might be kind of fun

331
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:52,519
with no kids around the park.
It is lead the way, I said,

332
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:57,119
dramatically, extending my arm. A
big goofy grin plastered itself and Christian's

333
00:31:57,119 --> 00:32:05,200
face as he willingly apblo. We
walked in silence, drinking in the scene

334
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:10,000
around us. We passed by dozens
of houses, their looming presents lending and

335
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:15,079
unsettling air to the stillness of the
night. The faint light cast an eerie

336
00:32:15,079 --> 00:32:22,839
glow that glinted off their windows,
making my blood run cold. Another strange

337
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:29,960
thing I noticed was that it was
deathly quiet. The only sounds we heard

338
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:35,759
were our own light footfalls against the
pavement and the blood rushing in our ears.

339
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,599
There were no noises from creatures of
the night, no bugs, no

340
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:46,720
frogs, nothing. We couldn't even
hear any crickets chirping, and that sent

341
00:32:46,759 --> 00:32:52,279
a chill down my spine. I
was sweating bullets by the time we arrived

342
00:32:52,279 --> 00:32:58,960
at the playground. Christian looked and
fazed, but I highly suspected that he

343
00:32:59,119 --> 00:33:04,240
was putting on a front. And
don't get me wrong, Christian was one

344
00:33:04,319 --> 00:33:08,119
tough cookie, but truth be told, I was the braver of the two

345
00:33:08,119 --> 00:33:14,319
of us. Usually, if I
was feeling on edge, he'd be ten

346
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:20,759
times worse off. We plopped down
on adjacent swings. I cringed as the

347
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:25,440
rusted metal swing set creaked and groaned
under our weight. Even though we were

348
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:30,599
alone, I couldn't shake the feeling
that we were being watched, like something

349
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:37,559
sinister knew we were there. I
shuddered at the thought that something evil might

350
00:33:37,599 --> 00:33:44,319
be lurking in the darkness, waiting
for the perfect moment to strike. I

351
00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:49,920
told myself that I was freaking out
over nothing, but I couldn't stop intermittently

352
00:33:50,079 --> 00:33:54,920
peeking into the shadow veiled trees behind
us. I was seriously beginning to regret

353
00:33:55,079 --> 00:34:01,200
leaving the safety of my home.
So, Sarah, is it just me?

354
00:34:02,039 --> 00:34:07,960
Or is this place, this town? Does it feel like there's a

355
00:34:08,039 --> 00:34:14,760
presence, you know, like we're
not the only ones out here? He

356
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,519
kept his voice hushed, like he
was afraid that someone else would hear him.

357
00:34:19,639 --> 00:34:23,840
Yeah, I feel it too.
It's really creepy, I said,

358
00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:30,159
sensing the oppressive way to that feeling
slightly lift from my shoulders. It was

359
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:37,679
nice to know a Christian felt it
too. Christian stared off into the mulch

360
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:42,400
at our feet. He looked lost
and thought as if his body was there,

361
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:47,159
but his mind was in some far
off dimension. You know, I

362
00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:52,480
wasn't originally planning to come with you. There's a reason I chose to come

363
00:34:52,480 --> 00:35:00,599
out tonight, he sighed, and
very ambition written across his features. There

364
00:35:00,639 --> 00:35:04,760
was something who was hiding from me, but I cood sense that he was

365
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:09,639
slowly mustering up the courage to tell
me what it was. So, I

366
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:14,639
know you've all heard the stories about
the ice cream truck that went around abducting

367
00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:17,519
kids in the seventies, and I
know that you'd think it's all a pile

368
00:35:17,559 --> 00:35:27,079
of steaming nonsense. But it's not. He paused, searching my face for

369
00:35:27,119 --> 00:35:31,159
a reaction. How can you be
so sure we went a life back then.

370
00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:37,960
So my uncle was one of the
children who were kidnapped. My heart

371
00:35:38,039 --> 00:35:43,840
plummeted into my gut, not for
the fact that Christian was related to some

372
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:52,079
one who was taken, but that
the stories were true. Christian, I'm

373
00:35:52,119 --> 00:35:55,280
so sorry. I I didn't know. I it's okay, he said,

374
00:35:55,480 --> 00:36:00,440
interrupting me again. Here was three
when it happened. It's been decades,

375
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:06,199
but I don't think Dad ever really
forgave himself. He was only five at

376
00:36:06,199 --> 00:36:09,559
the time, but he feels like
he should have done more. He won't

377
00:36:09,559 --> 00:36:14,519
tell me that, but I know
I can see it in his eyes.

378
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:22,320
It still tears him up even now. The tear began to trickle down Christian's

379
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:28,119
cheek, but he quickly swiped it
away. I know it's stupid of me,

380
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,440
but I just had to know if
it was true, if that thing

381
00:36:31,559 --> 00:36:36,199
was still around. I was honestly
sort of hoping that it would be.

382
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:39,519
I know I don't stand much of
a chance of killing whoever's behind it,

383
00:36:39,599 --> 00:36:46,679
but this might help a bit,
right, He gragged a smile and flashed

384
00:36:46,679 --> 00:36:52,920
the sharp black switchblade. Yeah,
I think that would help your chances a

385
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,760
bit, I juckled. You know
I wouldn't let you fight alone either.

386
00:36:57,559 --> 00:37:00,039
Hate the bursty bubble, though I
don't think we will run into that thing

387
00:37:00,079 --> 00:37:07,519
tonight. Yeah, you're probably right. Christian said, standing from his swing,

388
00:37:07,679 --> 00:37:16,159
Let's go home works for me.
I've seen enough. I joined him

389
00:37:16,519 --> 00:37:22,239
and we began to make our way
back towards our houses. We'd only made

390
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:30,360
it to the street when I heard
it, a jingle. The sounds sliced

391
00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:36,599
through the silence like a rusty knife. It was slow, melodic, but

392
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:45,280
something about it was wrong. Christian
and I glanced at each other, eyes

393
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:50,719
wide as saucers. My heart thumped
furiously against my chest as it grew closer.

394
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:55,639
It blared, the tune of London
bridges falling down, intertwined with the

395
00:37:55,639 --> 00:38:00,599
sound of a jack in the box
cranking up, sending waves of panic rippling

396
00:38:00,639 --> 00:38:08,639
through me at every interval. And
then it slowly rolled into view. A

397
00:38:08,679 --> 00:38:14,639
white truck rounded the corner to the
street where were standing. On a comically

398
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:19,760
large pink ice cream cone was perched
to the top it, facing the sky

399
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,960
like a rocket ready for left off. The windows were tinted to the point

400
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:30,719
that I couldn't see who or what
was behind the wheel. I wanted to

401
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:37,679
run, to scream, to hide
anything, but I was paralyzed with fear.

402
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:45,320
The truck crept closer and closer.
Dread seaped into my bones. I

403
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:52,119
didn't know what to do. Eventually
it passed. I guked at it,

404
00:38:52,920 --> 00:39:00,000
drinking in all the different selections pasted
on the side, and then it stopped

405
00:39:00,039 --> 00:39:06,559
directly in front of us. The
music cut out, bathing the night,

406
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:12,559
and that all encompassing silence. My
breath hitched in my throat, waiting for

407
00:39:12,599 --> 00:39:16,800
something to happen. Without warning,
the back doors of the ice cream truck

408
00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:24,119
swung open. I looked at Christian. His horrified expression had melted into one

409
00:39:24,159 --> 00:39:30,800
of curiosity. He began to make
his way toward the open truck. His

410
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:35,320
legs moved like they had a mind
of the roan, dragging himself closer and

411
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:40,639
closer. To this day, I
don't know why, but I didn't even

412
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:51,280
try to stop him. Now I
joined him. I can't explain it,

413
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:57,320
but there was something alluring about that
truck, something that effortlessly took hold of

414
00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:02,440
me and pulled me in, and
I was powerless to stop it. We

415
00:40:02,519 --> 00:40:08,719
both tentatively walked closer, coming to
a halt directly behind it. I paid

416
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:16,320
inside, my mouth agape. It
was spotless, a sparkling white interior with

417
00:40:16,599 --> 00:40:22,800
rows upon rows of freezers shined inside. You boasted every flavor of ice cream.

418
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:30,039
You could imagine at that moment,
I wanted nothing more than to step

419
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:34,880
into the back of that truck and
try every variation of ice cream had had

420
00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:39,159
to offer. Nothing bad would happen. It was just an ice cream truck,

421
00:40:39,199 --> 00:40:45,760
after all. Christians stepped in before
I could react. He turned back

422
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:52,800
to me, out stretching a hand
to hoist me up. I didn't even

423
00:40:52,880 --> 00:41:00,960
have a chance to take it.
The doors suddenly slam shut, locking Christian

424
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:06,760
inside. I'll never forget the lock
of abject fear on his face In that

425
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:12,519
split second before the doors closed,
I was ripped from my stupor as the

426
00:41:12,559 --> 00:41:16,119
ice cream truck flowed it down the
road. Its tires squealed as it went,

427
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:22,840
leaving me standing alone under a street
lamp. I broke down, fat

428
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:29,280
tears streaming down my cheeks as I
bolted home. I couldn't lose Christian.

429
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:35,000
It was the only real friend I'd
ever had. I burst through my front

430
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,000
door, spewing nonsense to my parents
as I crumbled to the ground of their

431
00:41:38,039 --> 00:41:43,840
feet. I didn't care if I'd
get in trouble anymore. I just wanted

432
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:49,599
to find a way to bring my
friend back. The police were called,

433
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:57,400
Christian's parents were notified and a search
party was assembled. I don't think I

434
00:41:57,480 --> 00:42:01,559
need to tell you, but they
didn't find them. Christian is still missing

435
00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:09,039
to this day. I was never
the same after that. It didn't matter

436
00:42:09,159 --> 00:42:15,559
how much time passed, how many
therapy sessions I attended, how hard I

437
00:42:15,679 --> 00:42:22,559
tried to forget. That image of
Christian's terrified face is still burned into my

438
00:42:22,679 --> 00:42:29,440
memory. But there's something that chills
me even more than that look of pure

439
00:42:29,559 --> 00:42:35,960
dread scrawled across my best friend's countenance. Something that I still can't comprehend.

440
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:44,719
When I peered into the back of
that ice cream truck, there was no

441
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:52,679
one behind the wheel. So why
am I telling you this? Why?

442
00:42:52,760 --> 00:43:00,679
Now? Well, my son went
missing last night. I awoke with a

443
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:05,880
start next to my snoring husband.
A sinking pit of dread sank into my

444
00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:13,159
stomach. When that horrible tune met
my ears, London Bridge is falling down.

445
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:20,960
I raced to the front door.
It was wide open. I watched

446
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:27,400
helplessly as my baby boy climbed into
the back of that truck. I couldn't

447
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:31,280
even scream. I was rooted in
fear, just like I had been on

448
00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:37,360
that night two decades ago. A
surge of panic coursed through my veins like

449
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:45,119
venom. Because as the ice cream
truck sped away with my child, I

450
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:51,400
noticed that the window was rolled down, and I swear, for a split

451
00:43:51,519 --> 00:44:09,440
second I saw Christian wink at me
from the driver's seat. I've always preferred

452
00:44:09,559 --> 00:44:15,840
nights. Something about being up while
everyone else is asleep feels great. That

453
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:23,360
and I can't sleep. Ever since
my fiance passed away, sleeping became a

454
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:29,639
luxury I couldn't afford. I used
to lay in bed, tossing and turning

455
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:35,519
the entire night. My eyes would
be bloodshot. When sunlight peeked through my

456
00:44:35,599 --> 00:44:40,320
blinds, I rose up and off
my bed like a zombie. Melatonin never

457
00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:45,480
helped. I guess my body grew
an immunity to it over time. I

458
00:44:45,519 --> 00:44:51,039
mean, why wouldn't it. I'm
surprised they'd did an overdose taking ten pills

459
00:44:51,079 --> 00:44:58,599
a night. Herbal teas that help
you sleep are rubbish, nothing but a

460
00:44:58,639 --> 00:45:02,239
waste of money. Don't even get
me started on those intense sleep routines.

461
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:07,519
Shut off all the electronics, slash
artificial light thirty minutes before bed, don't

462
00:45:07,559 --> 00:45:12,360
eat an hour before bed, read
a book, and whatever nonsense they have

463
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:16,320
you do. That may work for
some people, sure as hell didn't work

464
00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:23,559
for me. I even resorted to
counting sheep well, my version of counting

465
00:45:23,639 --> 00:45:31,119
cheap imagine millions of alternative realities.
With Vanat was still alive, I laid

466
00:45:31,159 --> 00:45:37,719
awake, smiling like a fool up
of the popcorn ceiling. My imagination got

467
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:40,400
so vivid that I would see a
silhouette in a corner of my room for

468
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:45,400
seconds at a time. I wanted
nothing else but to believe it was really

469
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:52,119
her, to believe she came back
just to say one last proper farewell.

470
00:45:52,679 --> 00:45:59,039
The logical part of me knew that
what's dead will always stay dead. The

471
00:45:59,119 --> 00:46:02,960
other part of me found loopholes in
that saying what's dead may never truly die.

472
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:09,280
In my mind, the sleepless nights
and hallucinations took a toll on my

473
00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:16,000
mental health. I contemplated ending things
many many times. Maybe I'll be with

474
00:46:16,079 --> 00:46:22,400
her in the afterlife. I thought, she's waiting for me. Thankfully,

475
00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:30,719
the logical side of me one and
I attended therapy. My therapist was and

476
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:36,320
still is the kindest woman I've ever
met. At first, I thought she

477
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:40,119
was getting paid to act nice to
me, pretending to care about my feelings.

478
00:46:40,599 --> 00:46:46,519
But no, she truly listened and
understood. When I told her about

479
00:46:46,519 --> 00:46:52,159
my sleep problems. She recommended that
I get a graveyard shift job. It

480
00:46:52,239 --> 00:46:57,719
never occurred to me. I live
in a big city, the city that

481
00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:05,079
never sleeps. There are over night
jobs everywhere, the perfect solution. I

482
00:47:05,119 --> 00:47:09,760
could just sleep throughout the day.
I applied to every graveyard job I could

483
00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:15,280
find online. Some rejected me,
saying my work experience at a grocery store

484
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:20,960
wasn't enough. Have you called me
in for interviews? Which went bad?

485
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:27,119
I guess since I never got a
reply. Only one job was willing to

486
00:47:27,159 --> 00:47:31,800
take on an inexperienced employee. It
was a warehouse job for a well known

487
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:37,119
grocery store in my area. The
pay wasn't too bad, Plus I just

488
00:47:37,159 --> 00:47:44,679
started getting experienced. Somewhere, I
got word from my new boss that two

489
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:50,119
other people were starting on the same
night as me. That was somewhat relieving.

490
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:55,159
I wouldn't be the only new guy. I always got stupidly nervous before

491
00:47:55,199 --> 00:48:01,280
starting new things, a job,
college, the gym, everything. I

492
00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:08,400
feared the unknown. My mind would
cope by imagining every possible scenario by the

493
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:13,400
time I pulled into the parking lot
of the warehouse, I thought of one

494
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:19,440
hundred and seventy five scenarios that could
go down. Blue moonlight shone down on

495
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:23,440
the warehouse. It had a gray
steel exterior with a ton of light poles

496
00:48:23,559 --> 00:48:29,239
lining the sidewalk. It was as
if they wanted to recreate the sun with

497
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:34,280
how many light poles there were.
Just thinking of the electricity bill made my

498
00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:38,119
head ache. Maybe the absurd amount
of black coffee I drank played a part

499
00:48:38,159 --> 00:48:45,880
in that. I glanced at my
malfunctioning radio, which displayed the time eleven

500
00:48:46,039 --> 00:48:52,480
forty five. The closer got to
twelve, the faster my heart beat it.

501
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:58,159
I pulled down my car's sun visor
and looked in the mirror. Only

502
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:04,440
then did I realize what that late
my pupils were. Damn, I drank

503
00:49:04,519 --> 00:49:09,760
too much coffee. They're gonna think
among drugs and fire me, my overthinking

504
00:49:10,119 --> 00:49:15,079
God. Interrupted by a sudden knock
at the window, I jumped at the

505
00:49:15,159 --> 00:49:20,320
sound, nearly jumped out of my
own skin. My head hit the car

506
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:25,960
ceiling with a thud. To my
left, I heard some giggling. I

507
00:49:27,039 --> 00:49:31,280
turned to see a woman's face smiling, her eyes were caramel colored and hinted

508
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:37,559
at joyfulness. She had thick eyebrows
like mine, yet hers were well lined.

509
00:49:37,599 --> 00:49:43,360
She wore the yellow company polo,
also like mine, but hers fitter

510
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:49,840
bodied perfectly. Mine was baggy since
they didn't have a men's medium size.

511
00:49:50,199 --> 00:49:57,239
Bracelets rattled on a wrist as she
waved. I felt extremely bad. How

512
00:49:57,239 --> 00:50:01,039
did someone as beautiful as her end
up homeless? I cranked down the window

513
00:50:01,119 --> 00:50:07,079
of my beat up car and gave
her an awkward little smile. Ah,

514
00:50:07,119 --> 00:50:09,840
hey, sorry, I have no
money. This is literally my first day.

515
00:50:12,119 --> 00:50:15,199
Huh. She tilted her head at
me and looked around as if I

516
00:50:15,239 --> 00:50:20,639
were talking to some one else.
She looked back at me and smiled with

517
00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:25,559
realization. Please just some change would
suffice, sweet sir. She giggled.

518
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:32,960
My cheeks burned up, and I
stammered, I'm so sorry. I smiled

519
00:50:34,039 --> 00:50:37,760
and scratched the back of my head. I even noticed her yellow polo.

520
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:45,159
Gee, I'm stupid. I take
that as a compliment. She backed up,

521
00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:50,320
giving room to open the door and
get out. Being mistaken for a

522
00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:54,960
homeless person is a compliment. I
stuttered, like a fool. This was

523
00:50:55,039 --> 00:51:00,679
not one of the scenarios I expected
on my ride here. Of course,

524
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:06,840
She balanced herself on a concrete planter. I leaned against my car, struggling

525
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:12,800
to find where my hand should go
in my pockets crossed. Homeless people are

526
00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:16,199
the freest of all, but they
don't really have anywhere to settle down,

527
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:23,000
I said, look around. She
spun ahead exaggeratedly, like a pirate ship

528
00:51:23,079 --> 00:51:28,519
navigator. They can settle down anywhere, as long as they don't get kicked

529
00:51:28,559 --> 00:51:32,480
out. Of course, She hopped
down and stared me in the eyes.

530
00:51:34,719 --> 00:51:40,519
I yeah. My eyes started back
and forth, averting eye contact. Hmm,

531
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:46,360
are you Refrayel or Remy? I'm
wait, let me guess. Hmm.

532
00:51:47,679 --> 00:51:53,079
She shrugged a chin. Raphael,
and that's me. Let's go,

533
00:51:53,760 --> 00:51:58,920
she celebrated, as if she had
won the World Cup. I knew it.

534
00:51:59,519 --> 00:52:04,719
You don't look like a Remy,
how so I don't know the curly

535
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:09,280
hair suits. Someone named Raffa.
As soon as she said Raffa, I

536
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:15,000
wasn't there anymore. In my mind. I was running through an open flower

537
00:52:15,079 --> 00:52:20,920
field with v neat being back lit
by the rising sun. Raffa, she

538
00:52:21,039 --> 00:52:27,480
called out, sounding close yet so
far. Rafa. Her voice was as

539
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:32,280
soothing as a warm blanket fresh out
of the dryer. Rafa. Her voice

540
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:38,519
sounded like a million screeching insects.
Raffa, she said the woman in front

541
00:52:38,559 --> 00:52:44,280
of me. She glanced at a
watch. Shall we get going? It's

542
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:49,960
eleven fifty. Don't call me raffa. I turned to walk to the warehouse.

543
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:54,400
She jogged to catch up, bracelets
jingling, and walked next to me.

544
00:52:55,519 --> 00:53:05,199
Why just don't, I looked down
at our shadows. We approached the

545
00:53:05,280 --> 00:53:09,159
huge metal doors. Two cameras glared
down at us, red lights blinking.

546
00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:15,519
The woman next to me waved the
camera and yelled out, Hi, we're

547
00:53:15,519 --> 00:53:21,039
the new people. I'm Karen.
Here's raffa. The metal doors clicked and

548
00:53:21,119 --> 00:53:27,079
unlocked. Karen skipped forward, pushing
it with all her might. She held

549
00:53:27,079 --> 00:53:31,559
her back against it and waved me
ahead, Thanks, I said. The

550
00:53:31,599 --> 00:53:37,679
door shut behind us. The warehouse
was lit up like a fire. Numerous

551
00:53:37,719 --> 00:53:45,519
fluorescent lights hung overhead, buzzing like
millions of invisible flies. Looking around,

552
00:53:45,199 --> 00:53:52,320
there didn't seem to be any shadows. Tall shadowless shelves lying the entire interior,

553
00:53:52,119 --> 00:53:59,360
resembling a maze. Two shadowless people
walked around this maze, hulling electric

554
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:06,400
jacks with loaded palettes. The beeping
of forglyphs reverberated through the warehouse, overpowering

555
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:10,800
the lo fi music playing in the
intercoms. No one paid us attention,

556
00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:16,679
except for a big board guy marching
towards us with a clipboard under his armpit.

557
00:54:19,079 --> 00:54:22,800
He wore a yellow company pollo,
same as everyone, but his was

558
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:29,159
stretched to its last string because of
his muscles. Go ahead, clock in,

559
00:54:29,519 --> 00:54:32,639
then follow me, he said,
as kindly as his deep voice allowed

560
00:54:32,719 --> 00:54:39,199
him. He pointed at the wall
where we had just ended from. There

561
00:54:39,239 --> 00:54:45,400
was a wall mounted tablet awaiting us. Karen skipped towards it and punched in

562
00:54:45,440 --> 00:54:50,119
her employee number from the card they
gave us new people. I punched mine

563
00:54:50,159 --> 00:54:54,719
in out of memory. We followed
her new boss, navigating through the maze

564
00:54:54,800 --> 00:55:00,159
like aisles. You two work in
the far corner helping hands stack pallets since

565
00:55:00,159 --> 00:55:05,159
you haven't taken the test for the
electric jack usage. God damn o sha,

566
00:55:05,679 --> 00:55:09,840
he grunted. We arrived at the
far right corner, where a tall,

567
00:55:09,920 --> 00:55:15,360
lanky man with bowl cut hair was
already stacking boxes. Here you are,

568
00:55:16,400 --> 00:55:21,079
he pointed at the two empty pallets
next to the ball cut guy's pallette.

569
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:23,920
If you have any questions, feel
free to call me on that intercom.

570
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:30,199
There. He pointed the wall behind
the pallets and towers of boxes where

571
00:55:30,199 --> 00:55:34,760
a landfhone was mounted. If you
need to use the restroom, it's located

572
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:38,280
on the far left. If you
do use the restroom, never, and

573
00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:44,079
I mean never, turn off the
lights. Got it, yes, sir,

574
00:55:44,519 --> 00:55:49,280
said Karen, standing with his shoulders
pin back like a cadet. I

575
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:55,920
nodded very well. He said,
off you go. We walked to our

576
00:55:55,960 --> 00:56:00,960
pallettes. Karen took the middle one
hight, the one to the right,

577
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:07,400
furthest from the bowl cut dude.
Stocking boxes left and right. Got tiring

578
00:56:07,440 --> 00:56:10,599
for my back. Just a few
minutes in. I looked at Karen and

579
00:56:10,639 --> 00:56:15,119
the bowl cut dude, who I
assumed was Remy. They were quick to

580
00:56:15,159 --> 00:56:20,840
stack. Karen stacked a palette neatly, putting the bigger ones to the bottom

581
00:56:20,880 --> 00:56:25,760
for support and the smaller ones to
the top. Remy valued speed over neatness.

582
00:56:27,360 --> 00:56:31,719
He was on his second pallette.
I copy Karen neat and quick.

583
00:56:34,360 --> 00:56:37,360
When Karen finished the first palette and
it was taken away by someone with an

584
00:56:37,400 --> 00:56:45,880
electric jack, she decided to make
small talk. Remy right right, he

585
00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:51,199
said, not once looking up from
his palette. Nice to meet youa I'm

586
00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:55,639
Karen and he's Raffer. She pointed
at me. Nice to meet you,

587
00:56:55,840 --> 00:57:01,920
co workers, said remy. Karen
took the hint and looked at me with

588
00:57:02,039 --> 00:57:08,159
eyes that said he's a jerk.
I smiled, reassuring her I knew what

589
00:57:08,199 --> 00:57:15,440
she meant. Time passed slower then
a sloth walking under water. When my

590
00:57:15,519 --> 00:57:21,480
second pallette was stacked, I got
the sudden urge to pee the absurd amount

591
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:25,159
of coffee wanted out of my bladder. I'll be back, I told Karen.

592
00:57:25,679 --> 00:57:29,199
If the boss stops by, let
him know him in the bathroom.

593
00:57:29,239 --> 00:57:32,599
Please, got it. You won't
turn off the light romy cut off,

594
00:57:32,639 --> 00:57:38,199
Karen? You won't, of course
I won't. I looked at him,

595
00:57:38,239 --> 00:57:45,360
confused. I knew you were was? He shrugged. I played along with

596
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:51,360
his little game. Curiosity killed the
cat, I replied, good thing.

597
00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:54,360
I ain't no cat, he said, finally, looking up from his palette.

598
00:57:55,639 --> 00:58:00,920
He had a deep scar across his
fright eye. Straightening up his body,

599
00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:05,760
he was even taller than I imagined, at least six feet three inches.

600
00:58:06,960 --> 00:58:10,159
He towed over my five feet nine
inches self. He sure has helld

601
00:58:10,239 --> 00:58:15,960
toued over Karen, whatever you are, curiosity will kill that as well.

602
00:58:19,199 --> 00:58:25,280
His eyebrows forehead gotcha, I thought. His expression turned straight and he went

603
00:58:25,320 --> 00:58:31,280
back to work on his palette.
I felt a presence behind me, knowing

604
00:58:31,360 --> 00:58:37,639
full well it was the boss.
Based on Karen's smirk, I turned around.

605
00:58:37,320 --> 00:58:42,559
The Boss glared down at me.
His resting face gave the impression of

606
00:58:42,639 --> 00:58:46,639
being mad all the time. Off
somewhere. I suppose, bathroom, sir,

607
00:58:47,480 --> 00:58:53,440
restroom? He corrected, Yeah,
that very well, he said,

608
00:58:53,880 --> 00:59:00,400
stepping aside to let me pass.
I walked away, feeling his stare dig

609
00:59:00,519 --> 00:59:04,400
into the back of my neck.
Chills shot up all over my body.

610
00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:09,239
I entered the bright and narrow hallway
in the far corner of the building.

611
00:59:10,480 --> 00:59:15,960
There was only one unisex bathroom,
hard for a building of this size.

612
00:59:16,280 --> 00:59:24,840
I twisted the doorknob, pushing the
door open and stepping in. It was

613
00:59:24,880 --> 00:59:31,480
the cleanest bathroom I've ever seen.
The chessboard looking floor reflected light as if

614
00:59:31,519 --> 00:59:37,039
it had been freshly waxed. The
two mirrors reflected a four K like image

615
00:59:37,039 --> 00:59:40,480
of myself, maybe even eight K. It was as if there was another

616
00:59:40,599 --> 00:59:45,880
me staring back intoad of a reflection. I quickly did my business and washed

617
00:59:45,880 --> 00:59:53,400
my hands. The soap dispensers actually
worked. It amazed me. As I

618
00:59:53,440 --> 00:59:57,760
was on my way out, I
reached the light switch out of instinct,

619
00:59:58,920 --> 01:00:02,480
I stopped myself, remembering this wasn't
my apartment and I didn't have to worry

620
01:00:02,480 --> 01:00:08,800
about the electricity bill. The thought
occurred to me at that moment hard.

621
01:00:09,199 --> 01:00:14,760
I thought, if they didn't want
anyone turning off the lights, why not

622
01:00:14,840 --> 01:00:21,320
remove the lights which completely It sounded
like common sense to me. Maybe they

623
01:00:21,400 --> 01:00:24,519
never thought of it, or maybe
they have but decided against it for some

624
01:00:24,559 --> 01:00:31,280
odd reason. I shrugged and continued
to the door. The door swung open.

625
01:00:32,039 --> 01:00:37,519
It banged against the wall. The
thought reverberated in the small bathroom.

626
01:00:37,199 --> 01:00:44,599
The floor rumbled with angry footsteps.
I locked up. It was Remy.

627
01:00:45,320 --> 01:00:50,840
He marched right up to me,
grabbing my shirt and twisting it. You

628
01:00:50,920 --> 01:00:55,760
think you're funnier, smart ass.
The door shut behind him. The stitching

629
01:00:55,800 --> 01:01:00,000
of my polo shirt teared slowly.
The ripping sound was the only thing I

630
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:07,280
could hear. It infuriated me.
My blood boiled. I grabbed his wrist,

631
01:01:07,440 --> 01:01:12,159
digging my fingernails into it. He
let go of his grip and let

632
01:01:12,159 --> 01:01:15,280
out a grunt. With my other
hand, I grabbed his palm and bent

633
01:01:15,320 --> 01:01:21,800
it back. He squirmed around.
Don't move, I said, I'll break

634
01:01:21,840 --> 01:01:27,440
it. With his free hand,
he swung. It was a haymaker,

635
01:01:27,840 --> 01:01:31,679
a sloppy punch. I had plenty
of time to dock. I dogged,

636
01:01:31,800 --> 01:01:36,320
letting over his wrist for a second, encountering the left hook to his liver.

637
01:01:37,519 --> 01:01:42,119
He grunted and his body struggled to
stay upright. I grabbed his wrist

638
01:01:42,119 --> 01:01:45,960
again, bending it back even further. Don't test me, I'll break it.

639
01:01:49,079 --> 01:01:52,400
He let out a yelp. Looking
around for an escape, there wasn't

640
01:01:52,440 --> 01:02:00,360
any I could break his wrist at
any He reached for the light, managed

641
01:02:00,400 --> 01:02:06,599
to flick the switch, but the
lights stayed on. The buzzing of the

642
01:02:06,639 --> 01:02:10,920
fluorescent light grew loud, as loud
as a boiling teapot, louder than that.

643
01:02:13,199 --> 01:02:15,960
I let go of his wrist and
clamped my hands over my ears.

644
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:22,559
It was a poor attempt at blocking
out that deafening screech. The lights flickered

645
01:02:22,800 --> 01:02:28,440
slowly. The rhythm they had resembled
laughter. How in the world there were

646
01:02:28,519 --> 01:02:35,000
lights laughing at us, mocking us. The screech grew even louder. I

647
01:02:35,039 --> 01:02:39,519
felt paralyzed. I wanted to dash
for the light switch. I couldn't.

648
01:02:40,880 --> 01:02:45,840
Somehow I knew if I let go
of covering my ears, I'd be deaf

649
01:02:45,880 --> 01:02:51,239
for the rest of my life.
I groaned and yelled. Either me or

650
01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:55,280
Remy called out for help. Maybe
it was both of us. I couldn't

651
01:02:55,280 --> 01:03:00,480
even hear my own voice over the
sound. Eyes started left and right,

652
01:03:02,119 --> 01:03:07,760
and I froze. My gaze on
the mirror. It was warping, rippling,

653
01:03:07,880 --> 01:03:12,960
like a portal from a game.
He called out to me, called

654
01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:20,480
out to us. She called out
to me for neat. I felt a

655
01:03:20,559 --> 01:03:24,679
presence in the rippling mirror. A
voice overpowered the screeching, offering me an

656
01:03:24,760 --> 01:03:31,199
end to all my pain, present
and past. Yes, I thought I

657
01:03:31,320 --> 01:03:38,119
want it. I judged the mirror, hands still clasped over my ears.

658
01:03:38,719 --> 01:03:43,880
It felt as if I was knee
deep in quicksand my bones were stiff.

659
01:03:44,960 --> 01:03:47,960
The only way I could continue forward
was as if I waddled, so I

660
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:54,079
did. I stood in front of
the mirror. My reflection and I were

661
01:03:54,119 --> 01:04:00,880
the only ones in the world.
It or I smiled. My reflection rippled

662
01:04:00,920 --> 01:04:10,760
and morphed into something else, some
one else. Vneat her sky blue eyes

663
01:04:10,800 --> 01:04:14,920
stared at me, full of life. Her thin eyebrows scrunched together as she

664
01:04:14,960 --> 01:04:19,639
smiled, the face she always made. She could never truly be mad at

665
01:04:19,639 --> 01:04:24,960
me. She had a smile.
On the rare occasion she was mad.

666
01:04:25,760 --> 01:04:29,280
She wore a heavy eye lin her. When she used to cry, the

667
01:04:29,400 --> 01:04:34,800
tears left black streaks. I remember
that was the cutest thing ever. Vinie

668
01:04:34,880 --> 01:04:42,800
was so sensitive. I didn't deserve
her the stubborn man like me. Out

669
01:04:42,840 --> 01:04:48,239
of instinct, I reached out to
touch her cheek. I stopped. I

670
01:04:48,280 --> 01:04:53,480
heard faint voices calling out to me, but I wasn't there any more.

671
01:04:54,599 --> 01:04:59,079
I was in an open flower field, and Vinite was close, now closer

672
01:04:59,119 --> 01:05:04,039
than ever. All logic escaped to
my grasp at that moment. Or was

673
01:05:04,119 --> 01:05:11,679
logic worth compared to the neat She
was priceless. My fingers were within an

674
01:05:11,679 --> 01:05:15,280
inch from her cheek. She blushed, hocking her lips to the side,

675
01:05:15,719 --> 01:05:23,360
as she did when I would caress
her hair. I felt a heavy hand

676
01:05:23,400 --> 01:05:28,280
on my shoulder, two heavy hands. They climbed down like a vice grip

677
01:05:28,360 --> 01:05:32,320
and yanked me back. I fell
down, head banged against the floor.

678
01:05:33,440 --> 01:05:39,280
My vision was hazy. I laid
against the cold, tard floor, staring

679
01:05:39,320 --> 01:05:45,920
at the flat ceiling. Where was
I Not my apartment, not my popcorn

680
01:05:45,000 --> 01:05:53,119
ceiling. Blurred faces hovered over me. Faint voices called out my name.

681
01:05:54,039 --> 01:05:58,760
A bald headed man waved frantically.
Bracelet covered arms halved over my eyes.

682
01:05:59,559 --> 01:06:05,119
I tracked them back and forth for
neat. I murmured, Karen. A

683
01:06:05,239 --> 01:06:12,039
faint voice said, Karen, you
new coworker. The blurred face smiled.

684
01:06:14,400 --> 01:06:17,719
My body got lifted up and placed
on a soft, thin bed. My

685
01:06:17,800 --> 01:06:23,800
eyes were fixated on the blood figure
who said her name was Karen. I

686
01:06:23,880 --> 01:06:33,000
smiled. My vision went dark.
When I awoke, I found myself staring

687
01:06:33,079 --> 01:06:39,840
up at some blinding lights. Four
still wards surrounded me. This isn't a

688
01:06:39,920 --> 01:06:45,519
hospital, I thought. Voices spoke
and hushed whispers. I heard my name

689
01:06:45,559 --> 01:06:49,920
a few times. He's awake,
said Karen. He survived the test.

690
01:06:50,599 --> 01:06:58,079
Can we keep him? Keep me? What? Hmmm? Said a deep

691
01:06:58,159 --> 01:07:02,639
voice. Very well, I suppose
he did prove himself worthy. Yes,

692
01:07:03,400 --> 01:07:10,239
Karen celebrated. She came into view, looking down at me with caring eyes.

693
01:07:11,679 --> 01:07:15,159
Okay, things are going to get
real crazy now. She smoked.

694
01:07:15,639 --> 01:07:23,519
What I murmured, Can I tell
him Dean? Please? Karen looked back

695
01:07:23,559 --> 01:07:28,360
at the boss for approval. He
nodded. We're fighting a war against the

696
01:07:28,400 --> 01:07:32,840
Mirror Dimension, and you're a part
of it now. She grinned. Oh

697
01:07:33,000 --> 01:07:41,000
damn, I said, I need
some sleep. Dean and Karen laughed a

698
01:07:41,119 --> 01:07:48,119
contagious laugh. I couldn't help but
laugh myself. Dean's smile vanished. No,

699
01:07:48,360 --> 01:07:55,559
but seriously, we need your help. My eyes rolled back and my

700
01:07:55,679 --> 01:08:02,360
vision went dark again. And that's
my story how I came to fight for

701
01:08:02,480 --> 01:08:11,360
our reality against the mirror dimension.
Karen was right, things got crazy real

702
01:08:11,480 --> 01:08:15,760
fast. We're on a break from
fighting now, so I figured I might

703
01:08:15,800 --> 01:08:23,199
as well share my story, our
story. I never truly forgot about Vanite.

704
01:08:23,960 --> 01:08:29,600
That's a fight I don't think i'll
ever beat. Fighting helps me postpone

705
01:08:29,600 --> 01:08:33,680
those emotions, but they're bottled up, ready to burst at any moment.

706
01:08:35,479 --> 01:08:41,680
Karen, she helps me out a
lot. I'm truly grateful for her,

707
01:08:42,760 --> 01:08:47,640
even for our boss, Dean.
I guess you're wondering what happened to Remy

708
01:08:49,199 --> 01:08:56,319
Well, he got swallowed up whatever
he saw in that mirror managed to lure

709
01:08:56,359 --> 01:09:02,840
him in. I don't blame him
venit almost succeeded in luring me. I

710
01:09:02,920 --> 01:09:08,600
dread the day I have to face
her again. But with Dean, Karen

711
01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:13,479
and the other coworkers at my side, I have a better chance of beating

712
01:09:13,520 --> 01:09:19,880
it. Until next time, make
sure to stay away from mirrors in the

713
01:09:20,000 --> 01:09:36,720
dark. I have a better chance
of beating it. It was supposed to

714
01:09:36,760 --> 01:09:46,399
be an opportunity for science. Instead
it brought us an unspeakable horror. Everything

715
01:09:46,439 --> 01:09:53,199
started out perfectly normal, with a
capsule detaching from the spacecraft exactly on schedule,

716
01:09:54,119 --> 01:09:59,359
tracking its progress as it entered the
atmosphere. We watched through infrared cameras

717
01:09:59,640 --> 01:10:03,640
as its streaked through the sky over
the West Coast at twenty seven thousand miles

718
01:10:03,680 --> 01:10:09,720
per hour. With its heat shield
keeping the payloads safe from the heated plasma

719
01:10:10,000 --> 01:10:15,000
created by its re entry, the
capsule was able to safely descend back to

720
01:10:15,119 --> 01:10:20,039
Earth. After two minutes of falling, the atmosphere managed to slow down the

721
01:10:20,079 --> 01:10:26,159
capsule to one thousand, seventy four
miles per hour. At that point,

722
01:10:26,319 --> 01:10:31,439
the capsule deployed its drogue parachute to
further reduce its speed, entering a special

723
01:10:31,560 --> 01:10:38,239
use airspace over Utah. We kept
track of the capsule and triangulated his position

724
01:10:38,439 --> 01:10:45,039
using radar. Sitting in a helicopter
that circled the landing ellipse, I tried

725
01:10:45,039 --> 01:10:48,760
my best to scan the skies for
any sign of the capsule. To say

726
01:10:48,800 --> 01:10:56,039
that I was excited was an understatement. This mission had been years in the

727
01:10:56,079 --> 01:11:00,760
making, and now two years,
eleven minle months and four days after collecting

728
01:11:00,800 --> 01:11:05,560
samples from an asteroid, we would
see the return of the capsule and its

729
01:11:05,640 --> 01:11:13,760
precious payload. As a member of
the ricovery team, I would be among

730
01:11:13,800 --> 01:11:17,079
the first people to see and touch
the capsule after its return to Earth.

731
01:11:18,560 --> 01:11:24,079
It was a great honor, and
although my role was small, I knew

732
01:11:24,279 --> 01:11:30,159
I was playing my part in a
larger system. Main chute deployed the spacecraft.

733
01:11:30,159 --> 01:11:35,279
Comman team called out on the radio. Looking out of the window of

734
01:11:35,319 --> 01:11:42,760
the helicopter, I began searching for
the chute and smiled when I spotted it.

735
01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:45,920
It's there, just to our east, I called out to my team

736
01:11:45,039 --> 01:11:51,680
leader. Descending and eleven miles per
hour, the capsule hung under its main

737
01:11:51,760 --> 01:11:59,439
parachute as it went through the final
moments of its journey, moving closer towards

738
01:11:59,439 --> 01:12:03,520
it. We circled the descending capsule
and watched as it made a touchdown.

739
01:12:05,720 --> 01:12:11,399
Once the capsule was firmly on the
ground, we then descended and landed a

740
01:12:11,439 --> 01:12:15,960
few yards away from it. We
were joined on the ground by three other

741
01:12:15,000 --> 01:12:21,520
helicopters, which contained the safety team
and the environmental sampling team. The first

742
01:12:21,520 --> 01:12:28,359
person to approach the capsule was a
military officer. Since the landing zone was

743
01:12:28,399 --> 01:12:31,640
in the middle of the Department of
Defense Test and Training range, there was

744
01:12:31,680 --> 01:12:39,319
a small possibility that there were unexploded
ordnance on the location. Luckily for us,

745
01:12:39,640 --> 01:12:45,560
none were detected and we were given
the green signal to approach. Following

746
01:12:45,760 --> 01:12:50,920
our carefully rehearsed procedure, the environmental
team moved towards the capsule and began testing

747
01:12:50,960 --> 01:12:56,680
the air around it, as well
as marking and taking samples of the ground.

748
01:12:57,880 --> 01:13:02,079
Meanwhile, us in the recovery brought
a mittle crate and placed it on

749
01:13:02,119 --> 01:13:06,640
top of a cargo net that was
connected to a nearby helicopter thanks to a

750
01:13:06,720 --> 01:13:12,680
long line, the crate will act
as a cradle for the capsule during its

751
01:13:12,720 --> 01:13:18,119
aerial transport back to the airfield,
where our temporary clean room was Once in

752
01:13:18,199 --> 01:13:23,640
the clean room, the capsule would
be dusted off, this assembled, and

753
01:13:23,720 --> 01:13:29,279
the sample canister removed and placed into
a nitrogen glove box for nitrogen purging.

754
01:13:30,079 --> 01:13:35,560
Getting close to the capsule and looking
down on it, I couldn't help but

755
01:13:35,800 --> 01:13:44,279
smile. This object had traveled billions
of miles in space, saw things humans

756
01:13:44,359 --> 01:13:49,119
can only dream of seeing, took
samples from an asteroid, and now it

757
01:13:49,279 --> 01:13:55,880
was back on Earth. It truly
was a marvel and a great accomplishment for

758
01:13:56,000 --> 01:14:01,880
space exploration. However, I didn't
let my owe an admiration distract me from

759
01:14:01,880 --> 01:14:08,880
my task. Following procedure, Dan
and I, my partner for this part

760
01:14:08,920 --> 01:14:14,000
of the recovery, moved to stand
next to the capsule before gently lifting up

761
01:14:14,039 --> 01:14:18,399
the one hundred pound object, making
sure not to drop it. We took

762
01:14:18,439 --> 01:14:27,520
our time carrying it towards the crate. It was at this point I noticed

763
01:14:27,520 --> 01:14:33,319
something strange. While lifting the capsule, I thought I heard a tapping sound

764
01:14:33,479 --> 01:14:39,960
coming from inside it. This surprised
me, since I knew that it wasn't

765
01:14:40,000 --> 01:14:45,479
supposed to be making such noise.
However, as suddenly as it started,

766
01:14:45,000 --> 01:14:51,039
the ticking noise immediately stopped, making
me wonder if it really happened or if

767
01:14:51,079 --> 01:14:57,000
it was just my imagination. Seeing
that Dan didn't react to the sound,

768
01:14:57,760 --> 01:15:03,239
I decided that it was most likely
my imagination. Keeping quiet about it so

769
01:15:03,279 --> 01:15:09,319
that I won't embarrass myself, I
returned my focus to my job and slowly

770
01:15:09,359 --> 01:15:14,520
lowered the capsule to its crate.
Once it was secure, we then began

771
01:15:14,680 --> 01:15:18,720
tightly wrapping a tarp around the capsule
and sealing it with tape. With that

772
01:15:18,880 --> 01:15:24,640
done, we secured the cargo net
and signaled that the capsule was now ready

773
01:15:24,640 --> 01:15:30,680
for transport. Within a few minutes, the helicopter took off and slowly lifted

774
01:15:30,720 --> 01:15:36,560
the capsule into the air. We
watched as the capsule and his precious cargo

775
01:15:36,800 --> 01:15:42,479
hung under a long line as the
helicopter carried it back to the airfield.

776
01:15:44,000 --> 01:15:47,079
With our job done, we began
packing our gear and heading back to our

777
01:15:47,159 --> 01:15:53,960
chopper, leaving behind the environmental team
to continue the job of Clayton ground samples

778
01:15:54,199 --> 01:16:00,439
around the landing zone. By the
time we arrived to the airfield, the

779
01:16:00,520 --> 01:16:05,680
capsule was already inside the clean room. My technicians were clean and open up

780
01:16:05,720 --> 01:16:11,520
the capsule so that the curation team
can purge it with nitrogen and protect the

781
01:16:11,560 --> 01:16:17,039
sample canister from possible contamination. With
nothing more to do, us in the

782
01:16:17,119 --> 01:16:23,159
recovery team moved to one of the
nearby hangers that was temporarily converted to act

783
01:16:23,159 --> 01:16:27,840
as our breakroom, grabbing food and
taking a seat next to the Dan.

784
01:16:28,520 --> 01:16:32,319
I gave him a quick pat on
the back and congratulated him for our successful

785
01:16:32,399 --> 01:16:39,560
recovery. Just like the rehearsals,
I told him with a smile. Yeah,

786
01:16:40,079 --> 01:16:45,760
he said, cheerfully, before suddenly
frowning. There is something bothering me

787
01:16:45,840 --> 01:16:51,840
though. This speaked my interest as
I raised an eyebrow and stared at him.

788
01:16:53,479 --> 01:16:59,279
What is it. It's the capsule, he said. I'm not sure,

789
01:16:59,319 --> 01:17:03,560
but I thought I heard something from
it. I heard something, I

790
01:17:03,640 --> 01:17:12,800
muttered. Was it a tapping sound? Dan's eyes immediately widened as he nodded,

791
01:17:13,680 --> 01:17:17,399
Yeah, you heard it too.
I did, I told him,

792
01:17:17,760 --> 01:17:24,239
but I shrugged it off when it
stopped. I ignored it too. At

793
01:17:24,239 --> 01:17:27,760
first I thought it might have been
loose samples within the canister shaking as we

794
01:17:27,880 --> 01:17:32,319
moved it. But then I heard
it again after we wrapped the capsule and

795
01:17:32,319 --> 01:17:35,920
got it to cure on the cargo
net. I swear I heard the tapping

796
01:17:35,960 --> 01:17:41,119
again. I don't know if you
heard that too, you were busy going

797
01:17:41,159 --> 01:17:45,520
through the checklist at the time,
but I heard it. I don't know.

798
01:17:45,239 --> 01:17:49,640
I'm not sure if it's anything of
concern, but it just seems odd.

799
01:17:50,279 --> 01:17:56,439
Maybe I'm just overthinking. But the
rest of what Dan was about to

800
01:17:56,479 --> 01:18:00,239
say was cut off when the sound
of a sudden commotion curred on the other

801
01:18:00,359 --> 01:18:05,239
side of the hangar. Turning around, I saw that one of our team

802
01:18:05,279 --> 01:18:11,600
members was being tackled by a man
who wore a white BioSuit. Seeing the

803
01:18:11,600 --> 01:18:15,920
protective equipment on the man, I
quickly realized that he was from the curation

804
01:18:15,119 --> 01:18:21,720
team. But what he was doing
here and why was a mystery. Getting

805
01:18:21,800 --> 01:18:27,560
up and moving towards the scene,
I saw our team member frantically attempt to

806
01:18:27,600 --> 01:18:31,319
get the other man off of him, but to no avail. The other

807
01:18:31,359 --> 01:18:36,319
man seemed to be stronger and kept
him pinned. Reaching the two first,

808
01:18:36,760 --> 01:18:41,680
then quickly grabbed the man from behind
and lifted him off our team member.

809
01:18:42,960 --> 01:18:46,279
As he did so, the other
man struggled and flailed his arms as he

810
01:18:46,319 --> 01:18:51,159
gave out a hiss. And he
never thought a person could ever make Wrapping

811
01:18:51,159 --> 01:18:56,600
his hands around the man. Dan
did his best to keep him restrained as

812
01:18:56,600 --> 01:19:01,359
I moved forward to help him.
However, I suddenly stopped in my tracks

813
01:19:01,760 --> 01:19:12,520
when I saw the man's face.
The man's eyes were wrong and they were

814
01:19:12,560 --> 01:19:16,079
bulging out of his sockets. In
fact, his eyes looked too big to

815
01:19:16,119 --> 01:19:20,399
fit in his eye sockets as they
were stretching them to the point of tearing.

816
01:19:21,840 --> 01:19:27,720
Standing there, frozen in sudden fear, I looked on with horror as

817
01:19:27,760 --> 01:19:32,840
these unnaturally large eyes stared at me. I was only snapped out of my

818
01:19:32,920 --> 01:19:39,239
catatonic state when I heard Dan's struggle
and call out for help. We need

819
01:19:39,239 --> 01:19:42,640
to pin him on the ground.
Dan said, he's fighting harder than I

820
01:19:42,680 --> 01:19:46,359
expected, and I don't know if
I can keep this up. Returning my

821
01:19:46,399 --> 01:19:51,680
attention back to the situation, I
nodded my head and moved towards them.

822
01:19:53,279 --> 01:19:57,439
By that point, the other members
of the team had arrived, as two

823
01:19:57,479 --> 01:20:01,119
of them began helping the man who
was attacked. Meanwhile, another one was

824
01:20:01,199 --> 01:20:06,960
rushing towards a nearby exit, shouting
that they'll call the security team. Broke

825
01:20:08,039 --> 01:20:12,000
us in my attention on the attacker, I took a step forward and prepared

826
01:20:12,039 --> 01:20:16,760
to grab the man's arms, which
continued to fly around. However, before

827
01:20:16,760 --> 01:20:21,079
I could put my hands on him, I suddenly jerked back when I saw

828
01:20:21,119 --> 01:20:27,640
a spider like legs sprouting out of
his eye sockets. These legs then helped

829
01:20:27,760 --> 01:20:30,960
each eye pop out of its sockets, allowing it to crawl on the man's

830
01:20:30,960 --> 01:20:36,720
face, letting out a curse.
I stared in disbelief as his eyes crawled

831
01:20:36,760 --> 01:20:43,520
away, leaving behind a deep empty
void where they used to be. However,

832
01:20:44,319 --> 01:20:47,680
they did not remain empty for long
as a new pair of eyes crawled

833
01:20:47,680 --> 01:20:53,800
out of its depths. This pair
soon exited the eye sockets too, and

834
01:20:53,880 --> 01:20:59,720
crawled down his face as they followed
the path the previous two took. Meanwhile,

835
01:21:00,079 --> 01:21:03,279
the initial two pairs crawled down the
man and were now moving to Dan's

836
01:21:03,359 --> 01:21:09,119
arms, which was still wrapped around
him. At that point, the man

837
01:21:09,239 --> 01:21:14,920
was still flailing his arms and struggling
from Dan's grip. However, the moment

838
01:21:14,960 --> 01:21:18,199
he felt the eyes crawl up one
of his exposed arms, he immediately let

839
01:21:18,279 --> 01:21:24,199
go. What the hell, Dan
remarked as he saw the two eyes that

840
01:21:24,319 --> 01:21:29,199
managed to get on his arm as
they crawled. I couldn't help but notice

841
01:21:29,279 --> 01:21:34,439
Dan wincing in pain as they moved
on his skin. In an attempt to

842
01:21:34,479 --> 01:21:39,399
get them off, he used this
free arm to swat away the pair going

843
01:21:39,520 --> 01:21:44,199
up. However, this only resulted
in him letting out a hiss of pain.

844
01:21:44,720 --> 01:21:48,479
As the eyes remained on his arms. It seemed like their long spider

845
01:21:48,600 --> 01:21:53,880
like legs was stabbing the skin of
his arm, making it difficult to get

846
01:21:53,880 --> 01:21:58,720
them off. Seeing him struggle,
I moved up to try to help him,

847
01:21:59,199 --> 01:22:02,600
who was immediately blocked by the man, whose eyes still released these unnatural

848
01:22:02,680 --> 01:22:09,159
little horrors. Standing in front of
me and with eyes crawling all over his

849
01:22:09,239 --> 01:22:14,079
body and staring at me, I
felt frightened and unsure what to do.

850
01:22:15,680 --> 01:22:19,039
Then, without warning, a couple
of the eyes leaped from the man and

851
01:22:19,159 --> 01:22:24,439
headed straight towards me. I was
lucky enough to react quickly to this,

852
01:22:25,079 --> 01:22:30,640
resulting in the eyes landing on the
concrete floor. However, these little creatures

853
01:22:30,640 --> 01:22:36,279
were persistent and quickly turned the gaze
back towards me. Slowly backing away,

854
01:22:38,199 --> 01:22:43,439
I felt that there were only moments
away to make another leap, but before

855
01:22:43,479 --> 01:22:47,000
they could do so, John,
another member of the team, rushed forward

856
01:22:47,399 --> 01:22:51,680
and began stomping on the eyes.
As he did this, though, the

857
01:22:51,720 --> 01:22:56,640
remaining eyes that were still crawling on
the man leapt on him, landing right

858
01:22:56,680 --> 01:23:00,000
on his head. Moving his hands
on his head, he tried his best

859
01:23:00,000 --> 01:23:03,920
to pull them off, but their
legs had dug into his skin, making

860
01:23:03,960 --> 01:23:10,960
it impossible. Screaming in pain,
John was helpless as the eyes began crawling

861
01:23:11,000 --> 01:23:17,840
down his face before settling on his
eyes, borrowing themselves in. They broke

862
01:23:17,880 --> 01:23:24,800
through his pupils and planted themselves inside
his socket. It was a terrible sight,

863
01:23:25,319 --> 01:23:30,039
which was only made worse by John's
screams, They're in my head,

864
01:23:30,199 --> 01:23:35,079
They're borrowing into my brain. This
was mixed with dance screams who I heard

865
01:23:35,199 --> 01:23:45,119
calling out for help. At that
point, I ran, I feel ashamed

866
01:23:45,119 --> 01:23:49,199
for abandoning them, But what could
I have done? Those creatures were too

867
01:23:49,279 --> 01:23:56,600
deadly and too horrific. I wouldn't
have been able to help. Heading towards

868
01:23:56,640 --> 01:24:00,560
the nearest exit, I ran as
fast as I could, praying that the

869
01:24:00,600 --> 01:24:03,960
eyes wouldn't catch up to me.
By then, most members of the team

870
01:24:04,000 --> 01:24:10,199
were running away also, and some
having already fled, including the first one

871
01:24:10,199 --> 01:24:15,520
who was attacked. Reaching the door, I allowed myself to make one last

872
01:24:15,520 --> 01:24:24,000
glance towards the horrors behind me.
I wish I hadn't on the floor with

873
01:24:24,159 --> 01:24:28,399
Dan and John, both of whom
had their faces covered by their eyes.

874
01:24:29,520 --> 01:24:32,640
John was still screaming in pain as
a stream of them forced their way into

875
01:24:32,640 --> 01:24:39,840
his eye sockets or Dan was silent
and unmoving, not wanting to see any

876
01:24:39,880 --> 01:24:45,439
more of it. I turned around
and ran. I wasn't sure where I

877
01:24:45,439 --> 01:24:49,119
was supposed to go, but I
followed the other members of the team who

878
01:24:49,119 --> 01:24:55,159
were fleeing the scene. Eventually we
met up with the military security of the

879
01:24:55,199 --> 01:25:01,279
airfield and informed them about the situation. In respond they quickly dispatched teams to

880
01:25:01,359 --> 01:25:06,079
search the various facilities all over the
airfield, while ordering us to stay in

881
01:25:06,159 --> 01:25:13,159
the security building. As time passed
on, more people from around the airfield

882
01:25:13,199 --> 01:25:17,560
were gathering into the building. Talking
to some technicians who arrived after us,

883
01:25:18,199 --> 01:25:24,279
I learned from them that the clean
room was a bloody mess. Passing by

884
01:25:24,319 --> 01:25:28,199
it and their way to the security
building, they saw the large bay doors

885
01:25:28,239 --> 01:25:31,920
open and various parts of the capsule, including the sample canister, on the

886
01:25:32,000 --> 01:25:39,760
floor. This brought to chill of
fear through me, as I realized that

887
01:25:39,840 --> 01:25:44,479
something must have came out of it. I then remembered the tapping sound that

888
01:25:44,560 --> 01:25:49,920
Dan and I heard. Once military
security was certain they got everyone they could

889
01:25:50,000 --> 01:25:56,760
find, they then did a headcount
to see who was missing. Among those

890
01:25:56,800 --> 01:26:01,359
who weren't there was Dan, John
and the high curation team, as well

891
01:26:01,439 --> 01:26:06,439
as five other personnel. We were
then held in the building for a while

892
01:26:06,920 --> 01:26:14,000
as military and NASA personnel from other
facilities were discreetly sent into the airfield so

893
01:26:14,039 --> 01:26:18,520
that they wouldn't attract outside attention.
As far as everyone in the public knows,

894
01:26:19,319 --> 01:26:24,479
the transport aircraft that arrived was part
of the team that was tasked with

895
01:26:24,600 --> 01:26:30,079
transporting the sample canisters that Texas.
One by one, all of us who

896
01:26:30,159 --> 01:26:35,039
had been in the airfield were examined
by a team of medical professionals, stripped

897
01:26:35,039 --> 01:26:40,960
of our clothes and checked thoroughly.
They wanted to make sure that none of

898
01:26:41,039 --> 01:26:45,920
us had those parasitic eye creatures on
us. After we were cleared, we

899
01:26:45,960 --> 01:26:51,239
were forced to sign an NDA.
I say forced because we were threatened by

900
01:26:51,319 --> 01:26:57,840
government officials to do so. If
we didn't sign, or if we revealed

901
01:26:58,000 --> 01:27:01,359
anything we encountered that day, they
said that they will make sure we will

902
01:27:01,399 --> 01:27:09,600
lose our jobs and any credibility we
have in society. I signed it because

903
01:27:09,640 --> 01:27:15,000
I knew they wouldn't let me out
if I didn't. However, I'm not

904
01:27:15,079 --> 01:27:21,680
keeping my silence. NASA says that
the recovery of the capsule was successful and

905
01:27:21,720 --> 01:27:29,000
that the samples are secure and safe
within their nitrogen filled boxes. But this

906
01:27:30,279 --> 01:27:35,800
is a lie. They're trying to
cover up the truth. What really happened

907
01:27:36,800 --> 01:27:45,279
was a disaster out there. There
are dozens of individuals walking around filled with

908
01:27:45,399 --> 01:27:53,600
parasites. So if you see someone
with bulging eyes walking towards you, you

909
01:27:53,720 --> 01:28:08,600
must run the other way. I'm
never quite sure if I was just stupid

910
01:28:08,720 --> 01:28:14,159
when I missed the signs, or
if I'm just a normal person. Sarah

911
01:28:14,399 --> 01:28:18,359
was very sweet on the surface.
She ticked all the boxes, even if

912
01:28:18,399 --> 01:28:25,760
she was a bit awkward, But
so what people are awkward? I tried

913
01:28:25,760 --> 01:28:29,199
to look past the little things.
I mean, we can all be a

914
01:28:29,239 --> 01:28:34,319
bit weird, can't we, especially
when we get nervous. But Sarah was

915
01:28:34,359 --> 01:28:39,960
odd in a way that, in
hindsight, maybe I should have taken more

916
01:28:40,039 --> 01:28:46,640
seriously on their own. All the
little signs seemed quite innocuous at the start.

917
01:28:46,760 --> 01:28:53,479
She was very hands on during dates
pinching and grabbing and winking. She'd

918
01:28:53,520 --> 01:28:59,159
make these hilarious innuendos and constantly towed
the line of what was and wasn't appropriate.

919
01:29:00,880 --> 01:29:03,279
I like a woman with a dark
sense of humor, and she had

920
01:29:03,319 --> 01:29:10,560
that in spades. But she pulled
away if I tried to reciprocate. And

921
01:29:10,640 --> 01:29:15,720
I realized early on that intimacy wouldn't
be on the cards for a long time.

922
01:29:16,039 --> 01:29:21,319
And I was fine with that.
I wasn't in a hurry. And

923
01:29:21,439 --> 01:29:28,720
yet she continued to send mixed signals. She'd asked for photos almost every night.

924
01:29:30,439 --> 01:29:34,479
Girls don't normally ask for full length. It was weird, and taking

925
01:29:34,560 --> 01:29:39,840
a good picture wasn't as easy as
I thought it would be. I always

926
01:29:39,840 --> 01:29:44,479
thought I looked weird in that kind
of full body, vertical picture, but

927
01:29:45,000 --> 01:29:48,720
she was always happy with what I
sent. She had a lot of requests.

928
01:29:49,199 --> 01:29:54,079
One was to see me lying on
the floor, eyes closed, arms

929
01:29:54,119 --> 01:29:59,600
to either side of my back.
She liked that. One one time she

930
01:29:59,640 --> 01:30:03,039
made me stripped tease with a white
sheet, slowly pulling it down in one

931
01:30:03,079 --> 01:30:09,119
picture after the other. This went
on for the first month. I'd say

932
01:30:10,199 --> 01:30:14,439
I sent her pictures, she sent
me some. We talked a lot about

933
01:30:14,439 --> 01:30:18,439
what we each wanted. It was
kind of fun and kinky, like we

934
01:30:18,439 --> 01:30:24,039
were taking turns being each other's long
distance model. And as a guy,

935
01:30:24,279 --> 01:30:29,000
I don't usually get to enjoy the
feeling of being a promiscuous object. I

936
01:30:29,079 --> 01:30:32,720
normally feel like my sexiness is tied
to some kind of performance. It was

937
01:30:32,800 --> 01:30:39,760
novel and exciting to be valued as
just a physical being. We never really

938
01:30:39,760 --> 01:30:44,039
figured I had an exhibition hist streak, or that that was something that women

939
01:30:44,119 --> 01:30:50,640
wanted much of, but she did
and I didn't dislike it. Sharing all

940
01:30:50,680 --> 01:30:55,000
this, we continued to meet up
once or twice a week for food.

941
01:30:56,119 --> 01:31:00,520
It seemed like we had a little
thing going that might one day become something

942
01:31:00,600 --> 01:31:06,159
real. We never did spend the
night together. First time I thought it

943
01:31:06,239 --> 01:31:10,319
was going to happen was after I
sent a photo of me lying on my

944
01:31:10,439 --> 01:31:15,840
kitchen floor, the white towels freezing
my ass the whole time. An hour

945
01:31:15,880 --> 01:31:18,840
after I sent the photo, she
appeared on my doorstep without warning, hair

946
01:31:19,000 --> 01:31:24,439
soaking, wet and smelling of booze. As soon as she saw me,

947
01:31:24,760 --> 01:31:29,359
she grabbed me, guided me to
the sofa, then climbed on top and

948
01:31:29,439 --> 01:31:35,279
started kissing me hard. She was
handsy, but it never went past over

949
01:31:35,319 --> 01:31:44,960
the clothes stuff, just hot,
heavy and well, not all that good.

950
01:31:45,319 --> 01:31:48,319
Do you ever wonder if some people
are bad at intimacy stuff because no

951
01:31:48,319 --> 01:31:53,119
one tells them the truth. It
was like she was trying to suck the

952
01:31:53,159 --> 01:31:58,359
air out of my lungs. I've
had better kisses off my dog. She

953
01:31:58,439 --> 01:32:01,439
got a lot of points for enthusiasm, and don't get me wrong, I've

954
01:32:01,479 --> 01:32:06,720
never had anyone grote me and touch
me with such raw passion before. But

955
01:32:08,159 --> 01:32:12,319
whenever I tried to match her energy, I got the sense she didn't really

956
01:32:12,319 --> 01:32:16,760
care for it. She never reacted
or moaned or gave off nonverbal cues to

957
01:32:16,800 --> 01:32:24,039
be like do that more. It
was all about her touching me, never

958
01:32:24,239 --> 01:32:30,319
vice versa. After maybe twenty minutes
of this over the clothes fumbling, she

959
01:32:30,359 --> 01:32:33,199
asked me to lie down on the
floor. I had no idea where this

960
01:32:33,359 --> 01:32:40,840
was going, so I did.
Can you hold your breath, she asked

961
01:32:41,000 --> 01:32:45,359
as she looked down at me.
All of a sudden, I felt very

962
01:32:45,399 --> 01:32:49,239
small, and there were lots of
thoughts going through my head. I'm pretty

963
01:32:49,279 --> 01:32:54,000
sure there was nothing I wouldn't have
done for her in that moment, Although

964
01:32:54,039 --> 01:32:59,239
not necessarily because I wanted to.
There was just an intensity to us there

965
01:33:00,000 --> 01:33:05,520
shrunk me down until I was the
size of an ant. So I held

966
01:33:05,520 --> 01:33:11,720
my breath. I held it so
long my lungs burned and my head swam

967
01:33:11,840 --> 01:33:16,000
until I couldn't do it any longer. When I opened my eyes, she

968
01:33:16,119 --> 01:33:20,399
was looking down at me with so
much hunger in her eyes. I actually

969
01:33:20,439 --> 01:33:29,399
got a little scared. Admittedly,
I sort of liked it. She paused

970
01:33:29,399 --> 01:33:32,960
for a moment, drinking me in, and then said she had better get

971
01:33:33,000 --> 01:33:39,600
going, she had work in the
morning. Rekissed at the door, and

972
01:33:39,640 --> 01:33:44,319
her hand roamed all over my back. I was called by that point,

973
01:33:44,680 --> 01:33:48,720
and her hands felt so warm.
I swore something was about to happen,

974
01:33:49,680 --> 01:33:58,920
but she simply left me standing there. It was confusing and frustrating so much

975
01:33:58,960 --> 01:34:03,920
so didn't call her back. But
she had a kind of commanding energy about

976
01:34:03,920 --> 01:34:10,479
her, a deep awareness of what
she did and didn't want. That It

977
01:34:10,560 --> 01:34:15,640
was just enough for me to keep
replying to her text after that night.

978
01:34:15,079 --> 01:34:19,000
I always laid on my kitchen floor
when she asked for a photo, but

979
01:34:19,079 --> 01:34:25,079
it never really had the same effect
of getting her to my doorstep. Still,

980
01:34:25,399 --> 01:34:29,119
she became a regular fixture in my
life, and pretty soon I hoped

981
01:34:29,439 --> 01:34:33,520
we might get close to something a
bit more serious. I looked for signs

982
01:34:33,560 --> 01:34:40,199
that she thought the same thing,
but the going was damn slow. By

983
01:34:40,239 --> 01:34:44,279
the time winter rolled around, we'd
been on and off for six months,

984
01:34:44,680 --> 01:34:47,640
and just about the only thing that
actually changed was the way she kept holding

985
01:34:47,680 --> 01:34:53,640
my hand. She'd take my cold
hands between her own and hold them against

986
01:34:53,640 --> 01:34:59,439
her cheek and neck, maybe even
a chest at times. It was quite

987
01:34:59,560 --> 01:35:03,239
nice. It took a while,
but I managed to swing her around into

988
01:35:03,279 --> 01:35:09,960
another home visit. You can guess
what I was hoping for, but she

989
01:35:10,039 --> 01:35:14,000
actually made us spend most of our
time out on the balcony watching the stars,

990
01:35:14,560 --> 01:35:18,319
cuddling together in the freezing cold.
She made me give her my jacket

991
01:35:18,359 --> 01:35:24,000
as well, even when I offered
to get a one from inside, it

992
01:35:24,079 --> 01:35:28,079
had to be the one I was
wearing, and she wouldn't let me replace

993
01:35:28,119 --> 01:35:31,960
it. By the time we went
back in, I felt like I was

994
01:35:32,039 --> 01:35:36,800
close to getting pneumonia, and the
shock of the warm air left me feeling

995
01:35:36,840 --> 01:35:43,039
dizzy. Lie down, she begged
me, lie in the floor. I

996
01:35:43,039 --> 01:35:46,880
have an idea. I was shaking
by this point, the tips of my

997
01:35:46,960 --> 01:35:51,960
fingers ice blue. When she came
back over, she had a glass of

998
01:35:53,000 --> 01:35:58,199
red wine. She stood over me, warming the glass in her hands before

999
01:35:58,199 --> 01:36:02,920
giving me clear instruction. Sip some, she said, and keep it in

1000
01:36:02,960 --> 01:36:08,159
your mouth. Close your eyes,
don't open them, and don't swallow the

1001
01:36:08,199 --> 01:36:14,760
wine. I don't even like wine, and I was pretty irritated by the

1002
01:36:14,800 --> 01:36:18,399
whole thing. But there was a
tension in the air, something about her

1003
01:36:18,439 --> 01:36:25,640
electric anticipation that infected me. I
didn't know what was happening, and in

1004
01:36:25,680 --> 01:36:29,680
the past, when I felt that
way, it sometimes led to me having

1005
01:36:29,800 --> 01:36:38,439
new and exciting experiences out of nowhere. She kissed me, pushing her tongue

1006
01:36:38,479 --> 01:36:44,199
into the lukewarm wine until it dribbled
messily out of the corners of my lips.

1007
01:36:45,359 --> 01:36:48,000
At the same time, and in
one swift motion, she pressed the

1008
01:36:48,039 --> 01:36:53,399
heel of her hand into my diaphragm
and pushed so hard that the wine gushed

1009
01:36:53,399 --> 01:36:59,399
out of my mouth and into hers. I started coughing. She did too.

1010
01:37:00,399 --> 01:37:04,960
Reaction was that kind of irritation you
can't hide. It actually ticked me

1011
01:37:05,039 --> 01:37:11,880
off. It was surprising in all
the wrong ways, and given what I

1012
01:37:11,920 --> 01:37:16,760
may be hoped was coming, it
just meant all the disappointment turned into outright

1013
01:37:16,800 --> 01:37:24,479
frustration. All I'd wanted was a
normal kiss, some sign of basic normal

1014
01:37:24,479 --> 01:37:29,079
affection. Did she even realize how
terrible I felt? Have to freeze my

1015
01:37:29,119 --> 01:37:31,439
ass off on the balcony so she
could feel like some gentlemen was given her

1016
01:37:31,439 --> 01:37:38,279
my jacket. I pushed her off, me gently but firm. Let's not

1017
01:37:38,399 --> 01:37:42,520
do that again, I said,
choking at the words, what were you

1018
01:37:42,600 --> 01:37:46,600
trying to do? Nothing? She
cried, It was nothing, just something

1019
01:37:46,640 --> 01:37:54,840
different. She seemed sincerely, regretful
and sorry, but I was half naked,

1020
01:37:55,159 --> 01:38:00,399
horny, irritated, and freezing cold. I didn't ask her to leave,

1021
01:38:00,920 --> 01:38:05,159
but she clearly sensed the change in
atmosphere and made some excuse. I

1022
01:38:05,199 --> 01:38:10,479
wiped myself down while she went to
the toilet, and when she emerged,

1023
01:38:11,199 --> 01:38:15,279
I greeted her with a handbag and
keys. I didn't even walk her to

1024
01:38:15,359 --> 01:38:20,279
the door instead, and she looked
at me with a sort of sad power

1025
01:38:20,359 --> 01:38:25,960
from the door. I simply ignored
her and began to mop the kitchen floor.

1026
01:38:27,560 --> 01:38:32,279
Looks like a damn murder scene,
I grumbled. She may have said

1027
01:38:32,279 --> 01:38:36,640
something before she left, but I
didn't look up until I heard the door

1028
01:38:36,720 --> 01:38:45,399
close. After that, we didn't
speak for a while. Now, this

1029
01:38:45,479 --> 01:38:48,000
is a very typical thing for me
to do, but over the next few

1030
01:38:48,039 --> 01:38:54,359
days I did a little retrospective on
our dates and realized I'd been the one

1031
01:38:54,399 --> 01:38:59,520
putting in all the work. It
was always me escalating, asking for dates,

1032
01:39:00,159 --> 01:39:03,880
calls, trying to move things between
us forward. I figured if there

1033
01:39:03,920 --> 01:39:09,560
was any chance of a real relationship, then she'd have to just come back

1034
01:39:09,640 --> 01:39:14,520
and apologize and explain her behavior and
be the one to reach out for once.

1035
01:39:15,960 --> 01:39:19,119
Of course, at the exact same
time, I couldn't get her out

1036
01:39:19,159 --> 01:39:25,520
of my head. Maybe she'd just
been clumsy. I thought maybe she was

1037
01:39:25,560 --> 01:39:30,880
nervous. I couldn't get my head
around the wine thing. It seems so

1038
01:39:30,000 --> 01:39:35,800
random. I'm more familiar with the
usual BDSM stuff people like. If I

1039
01:39:35,800 --> 01:39:40,520
could have pinned her actions down to
some specific kink, I could have more

1040
01:39:40,520 --> 01:39:45,600
confidently figured if we were compatible or
not. But without more information, I

1041
01:39:45,720 --> 01:39:51,560
was just well and truly confused.
I wanted to like her, but if

1042
01:39:51,600 --> 01:39:56,600
there was no chance of us working
out, if we were just incompatible,

1043
01:39:57,239 --> 01:40:01,800
then I wanted closure. As it
was, I didn't have a clue what

1044
01:40:01,840 --> 01:40:08,680
we were, but what the hell
we've been doing either way. When she

1045
01:40:08,840 --> 01:40:13,479
finally text asking if I'd like to
pick her up after work, I agreed.

1046
01:40:14,760 --> 01:40:18,039
I wanted closure, and maybe I
imagined it, but something about her

1047
01:40:18,039 --> 01:40:24,880
tone seemed a little contrite. Her
feeling was reinforced when I met her in

1048
01:40:24,920 --> 01:40:29,399
the parking lot of the hospital where
she worked, and I found her sitting

1049
01:40:29,399 --> 01:40:33,680
on the hood of her car in
a breath taking red dress. As soon

1050
01:40:33,720 --> 01:40:38,039
as I was out of the car, she took my hand and told me

1051
01:40:38,199 --> 01:40:42,479
she'd set up a little date for
us, something special, and that she'd

1052
01:40:42,479 --> 01:40:46,079
finally make it all up to me. The way she kissed me, the

1053
01:40:46,119 --> 01:40:51,000
way she guided my hand along a
waist, there was something so utterly different

1054
01:40:51,039 --> 01:40:56,960
about it, so committed, that
I immediately knew she wanted to go the

1055
01:40:56,960 --> 01:41:02,079
whole way. I could just tell
she finally made a decision, a threshold

1056
01:41:02,119 --> 01:41:06,920
had been crossed, and I wanted
to go see where this would lead.

1057
01:41:08,880 --> 01:41:12,800
She didn't work at the hospital itself, but rather took me off to a

1058
01:41:12,840 --> 01:41:16,159
building on the same ground. It
was a quiet, little red brick thing,

1059
01:41:16,960 --> 01:41:21,159
just two floors from the outside,
and I wondered what it was exactly

1060
01:41:21,199 --> 01:41:27,640
that she did. Inside there was
a chemical smell I was pretty overwhelming,

1061
01:41:28,560 --> 01:41:32,199
but at first glance it seemed like
a simple GP office. There was a

1062
01:41:32,239 --> 01:41:38,199
little reception area with one or two
chairs, a small countertop with some computers,

1063
01:41:38,319 --> 01:41:42,720
and a bunch of back offices.
This was after ours, so no

1064
01:41:42,760 --> 01:41:47,359
one else was there only a few
dim lights in the reception area. Everywhere

1065
01:41:47,359 --> 01:41:54,039
else was dark. She quickly disappeared
upstairs, telling me she was going to

1066
01:41:54,079 --> 01:41:58,039
slip into something more comfortable, and
I settled down for a short wait.

1067
01:42:00,279 --> 01:42:03,199
She locked the door behind us so
no one else could come in. I

1068
01:42:03,319 --> 01:42:10,680
took that as a good sign,
but I still felt pretty uncertain. Where

1069
01:42:10,840 --> 01:42:14,439
were we and why the hell did
she pick this place for our date.

1070
01:42:15,199 --> 01:42:19,000
I tried to sit down, but
it felt too strange, like waiting for

1071
01:42:19,039 --> 01:42:25,319
the dentist, so I stood and
shoveled around a bit instead, listening to

1072
01:42:25,359 --> 01:42:30,199
the muffled dumps of whatever the hell
she was doing upstairs. Outside, it

1073
01:42:30,359 --> 01:42:35,680
was starting to get dark, Fewer
and fewer cars were going past, and

1074
01:42:35,920 --> 01:42:41,760
it was raining heavily, all of
which made that little room feel even like

1075
01:42:41,800 --> 01:42:46,319
a lonely little corner of the world, well hidden and out of the way,

1076
01:42:46,520 --> 01:42:51,159
even though the hospital was clearly visible. With heavy traffic not far behind

1077
01:42:51,199 --> 01:42:58,720
it, there wasn't much else to
do except snoop, and I quickly noticed

1078
01:42:58,760 --> 01:43:01,960
the door had been left ajar,
like someone had forgotten to shut it.

1079
01:43:03,600 --> 01:43:10,479
It was the only door I could
reach without climbing over something, so my

1080
01:43:10,560 --> 01:43:15,039
curiosity got the better of me.
I approached it and got maybe two feet

1081
01:43:15,079 --> 01:43:21,720
away before I realized it was the
source of that damn chemical smell. Once

1082
01:43:21,760 --> 01:43:27,079
I realized that I had to take
a look inside, just so I could

1083
01:43:27,199 --> 01:43:31,159
know for sure what the hell it
was, I tried pushing it open an

1084
01:43:31,199 --> 01:43:36,000
inch or two and peeking inside,
but it was pitch black in there.

1085
01:43:36,800 --> 01:43:41,399
So I pushed it open a little
further, and using my phone light,

1086
01:43:42,159 --> 01:43:45,039
I saw that there were a set
of stairs going down into a basement.

1087
01:43:47,439 --> 01:43:53,039
More thumps from upstairs told me she
wasn't going to come down anytime soon.

1088
01:43:54,119 --> 01:43:58,720
I had time to check, so
I went down a step and tried seeing

1089
01:43:58,760 --> 01:44:03,640
if that helped, but there was
nothing. So I went down another and

1090
01:44:03,680 --> 01:44:09,920
then another, until suddenly a set
of automatic lights came on, with a

1091
01:44:09,960 --> 01:44:16,039
loud thunk and the rising whine of
fluorescence coming to life. I'm not sure

1092
01:44:16,039 --> 01:44:21,920
what I expected for what I saw. At first it left me dumb struck,

1093
01:44:23,800 --> 01:44:30,319
but then I dun'no. It was
a sterile room with white speckled tiles,

1094
01:44:31,079 --> 01:44:36,319
a few countertops running along the walls
covered in silver instruments I didn't recognize.

1095
01:44:38,640 --> 01:44:43,319
One wall covered in a regular grid
of metal cupboard doors, and three

1096
01:44:43,359 --> 01:44:48,800
steel slabs in the center of the
room. One of them was occupied a

1097
01:44:48,920 --> 01:44:55,079
vaguely human shape covered by a white
shroud a lone foot of a man sticking

1098
01:44:55,079 --> 01:44:59,640
out of the bottom. Something about
the strange coloring and texture of the skin

1099
01:45:00,199 --> 01:45:05,319
immediately let me know he wasn't having
a nap. That and the toe tag

1100
01:45:05,560 --> 01:45:13,880
was a pretty obvious clue. It
was a morgue. She worked in the

1101
01:45:13,920 --> 01:45:17,199
morgue, and it was here,
of all places, she'd decided to set

1102
01:45:17,279 --> 01:45:25,039
our final date. My initial reaction
was to want to go upstairs and confront

1103
01:45:25,079 --> 01:45:29,600
her, get angry, let it
out, and just leave after making her

1104
01:45:29,680 --> 01:45:35,279
unlock the door. But something stopped
me. I can't say for sure what.

1105
01:45:36,720 --> 01:45:41,319
As quickly as it came, the
anger left me, and I was

1106
01:45:41,399 --> 01:45:45,760
left with a kind of horrified curiosity, an idea I couldn't even put to

1107
01:45:45,880 --> 01:45:51,399
words in the privacy of my own
head. Instead of turning around and leaving,

1108
01:45:53,439 --> 01:45:57,760
I waited a few seconds to make
sure she wasn't coming down right behind

1109
01:45:57,840 --> 01:46:03,359
me, and I began to descend
the rest of the way. The walk

1110
01:46:03,399 --> 01:46:09,079
to the body felt like a ten
mile hike. Every step was too loud,

1111
01:46:09,840 --> 01:46:15,399
every breath a nervous shivering exhulation.
The velicant might burst into a gasp

1112
01:46:15,399 --> 01:46:20,960
at any moment. I was terrified. I couldn't help but imagine that faceless

1113
01:46:20,960 --> 01:46:28,239
shape turning to look at me was
sitting upright in one smooth motion. I

1114
01:46:28,319 --> 01:46:33,399
quickly realized why ghosts I stereotypically portrayed
his walking sheets. Some one must have

1115
01:46:33,439 --> 01:46:40,000
had the same thought. I had
the imagined scene of a shroud covered body

1116
01:46:40,039 --> 01:46:44,760
moving swiftly towards you in the dark. Hell of a time for my brain

1117
01:46:44,800 --> 01:46:48,960
to play those kinds of games with
me, But that curiosity drove me on.

1118
01:46:50,119 --> 01:46:56,079
I couldn't walk away, not now. Before I knew it, I

1119
01:46:56,159 --> 01:47:00,319
was stood by the body, and
with a shaking hand, I pulled back

1120
01:47:00,520 --> 01:47:11,359
the sheet. He looked like me
vaguely. I think we would have probably

1121
01:47:11,399 --> 01:47:15,239
been a close match before the bloating
same hair, collar, same face,

1122
01:47:15,279 --> 01:47:20,479
shape, same ethnicity, age,
so on. For a moment, I

1123
01:47:20,560 --> 01:47:27,680
considered the idea that maybe Sarah was
just a very weird woman. People get

1124
01:47:27,680 --> 01:47:31,000
desensitized to this kind of stuff all
the time, and to her, the

1125
01:47:31,039 --> 01:47:34,720
building Brewin might just be a nice, empty place to bring a date.

1126
01:47:36,319 --> 01:47:41,960
But that body on that slab,
I don't know how to describe it,

1127
01:47:42,039 --> 01:47:47,399
but it set something off in me, a kind of slow rising dread.

1128
01:47:48,119 --> 01:47:53,159
I'm not sure why I did what
I did next, but I couldn't stop

1129
01:47:53,199 --> 01:47:58,520
thinking of that strange night when she
pushed against my chest and sent wine dribbling

1130
01:47:58,520 --> 01:48:06,199
out my mouth, so utterly bizarre. But maybe I placed my hand against

1131
01:48:06,199 --> 01:48:15,279
the man's cold flesh, healed to
the diaphragm and applied pressure. He animated

1132
01:48:15,359 --> 01:48:19,319
like a puppet, a brief gasp
of air, followed by curdled blood flowing

1133
01:48:19,359 --> 01:48:26,640
out of his mouth. Black and
yellow and red halletts, platelets, and

1134
01:48:26,680 --> 01:48:30,760
plasmas separated with time into a thick
soup. When the smell hit me,

1135
01:48:31,479 --> 01:48:36,359
I couldn't help but be sick,
and as I hunched over the nearby drain

1136
01:48:36,439 --> 01:48:41,640
and emptied my body of all my
vomit and bile, images of my time

1137
01:48:41,680 --> 01:48:45,760
with Sarah flashed through my mind,
the photos of me nude lying on the

1138
01:48:45,760 --> 01:48:50,079
white tail floor, the use of
the blanket to cover my chest, her

1139
01:48:50,159 --> 01:48:55,479
vexation, and my cold hands.
A night spent freezing in my balcony,

1140
01:48:55,960 --> 01:48:59,680
filling my mouth with wine and forcing
it back out with a shove to the

1141
01:48:59,760 --> 01:49:05,520
chair. I looked at the body
and quickly understood how and why she discovered

1142
01:49:05,760 --> 01:49:12,359
what happens when you apply pressure to
the chest. The image was crystal clear

1143
01:49:12,399 --> 01:49:16,439
in my mind. The mental image
of her slender frame straddling the bloated man

1144
01:49:16,479 --> 01:49:24,880
before me was as unpleasant and inescapable
as nails on a chalkboard. Unable to

1145
01:49:24,920 --> 01:49:30,039
shake it, I hunched over once
more and was sick again, this time

1146
01:49:30,319 --> 01:49:36,840
until my eyes watered and there was
nothing left but saliva and bile. I

1147
01:49:36,960 --> 01:49:45,479
felt violated. I wanted to leave. I no longer felt angry or confused.

1148
01:49:45,520 --> 01:49:49,800
Instead, every moment of the last
six months fell into place, and

1149
01:49:49,880 --> 01:49:57,439
a pattern emerged that terrified me.
She wasn't meandering or clueless. Everything she'd

1150
01:49:57,479 --> 01:50:00,760
done had been moving towards this one
night, with me here, locked in

1151
01:50:00,800 --> 01:50:05,199
this place, with no one to
call for help, I'd blundered into what

1152
01:50:05,359 --> 01:50:11,880
might just be the most dangerous situation
of my life. And now I was

1153
01:50:11,960 --> 01:50:16,640
too deep into the trap to just
blindly panic under ground and inner room with

1154
01:50:16,720 --> 01:50:23,960
only one exit. I had to
be careful. She was up there somewhere,

1155
01:50:24,920 --> 01:50:30,720
maybe clueless about what I'd realized,
maybe not. She seemed small enough,

1156
01:50:30,319 --> 01:50:33,640
but a cursory glance at some of
the glinting blades on the nearby work

1157
01:50:33,680 --> 01:50:40,399
surface told me she didn't have to
be a bodybuilder to hurt me. Any

1158
01:50:40,479 --> 01:50:44,560
One of those razor sharp instruments could
work its way into the meat of my

1159
01:50:44,680 --> 01:50:50,119
neck with very little effort. Sooner
or later she'd realize where I was.

1160
01:50:51,119 --> 01:50:57,079
Sooner or later, this plan of
hers had to have an endgame. I

1161
01:50:57,119 --> 01:51:00,920
looked up the stairs. If she
came down from the top floor, she'd

1162
01:51:00,960 --> 01:51:04,680
see the lights from this room,
and it would be obvious to anyone where

1163
01:51:04,720 --> 01:51:11,640
I'd gone. I was torn.
Do I go up and pretend I saw

1164
01:51:11,720 --> 01:51:15,399
nothing? I thought about having to
go up there and lie my way through

1165
01:51:15,439 --> 01:51:20,199
some awkward encounter. Oh, I'm
feeling a little unwell. I have to

1166
01:51:20,319 --> 01:51:29,000
skip polite smile nod. Could I
stomach even that brief exchange? And that's

1167
01:51:29,039 --> 01:51:31,840
if she bought it, and it
required that the next step of a planet

1168
01:51:31,880 --> 01:51:38,479
involved me conscious or alive. I
thought of her attacking me out of nowhere

1169
01:51:38,520 --> 01:51:44,119
with a scalpel, silently dragging it
across my throat, letting that surgical blade

1170
01:51:44,159 --> 01:51:49,279
bite into cartilage. She was small, but so what. I had no

1171
01:51:49,359 --> 01:51:55,560
idea what she was planning or where
she was lurking. Walking into an ambush

1172
01:51:55,720 --> 01:52:00,680
and toughing it out didn't seem like
the best of plans. What I wanted

1173
01:52:00,399 --> 01:52:06,159
was distant. I just needed a
door or a window. I just had

1174
01:52:06,159 --> 01:52:12,720
to avoid her. My first instinct
had been to get out of the basement,

1175
01:52:13,479 --> 01:52:16,119
and I wanted to go with it, but the strange sounds coming from

1176
01:52:16,239 --> 01:52:23,560
upstairs made me think she might have
finally come to find reception empty. Terrified,

1177
01:52:24,039 --> 01:52:27,720
I looked around, desperate for some
way out or maybe even a good

1178
01:52:27,760 --> 01:52:31,760
hiding spot. Just about every bad
idea you can think of went through my

1179
01:52:31,840 --> 01:52:38,319
head, including swapping myself out for
the corpse. I nearly laughed at the

1180
01:52:38,359 --> 01:52:42,359
stupidity of it, for my attention
had been pulled to the mog drawers,

1181
01:52:43,119 --> 01:52:47,479
and with a sinking feeling in my
gut, I slowly realized there was nowhere

1182
01:52:47,520 --> 01:52:56,720
else in that room large enough to
hide a person, Michael. The voice

1183
01:52:56,800 --> 01:53:00,039
was muffled and distant, but I
could tell she was finally looking for me.

1184
01:53:01,319 --> 01:53:08,079
This was really fast becoming a now
or never moment. With a deep

1185
01:53:08,119 --> 01:53:12,720
breath, I pulled at the first
draw I saw and felt bittersweet relief that

1186
01:53:12,800 --> 01:53:16,159
it was empty. I wasn't sure
I could go through with this, but

1187
01:53:16,279 --> 01:53:23,359
at least it hadn't been already occupied
with a rising gorge. I climbed inside

1188
01:53:23,399 --> 01:53:28,039
feet first, slid myself back into
the darkness, try my best not to

1189
01:53:28,079 --> 01:53:31,239
think of a pair of cold hands
snatching my ankles, and then quickly pulled

1190
01:53:31,279 --> 01:53:36,479
the door shut. I'd barely heard
a click when there came the sound of

1191
01:53:36,520 --> 01:53:43,560
footsteps down the stairs. They stopped
halfway, and I clearly heard a hiss

1192
01:53:44,199 --> 01:53:49,840
damn under a breath before turning back
around and returning upstairs. She must have

1193
01:53:49,920 --> 01:53:55,520
figured I'd seen the bodies and run
off somewhere else. Wherever that might take

1194
01:53:55,560 --> 01:54:00,239
her, it had at least brought
me time. I opened the door using

1195
01:54:00,279 --> 01:54:05,399
the internal latch, while pushing aside
more bequestions of why that feature was even

1196
01:54:05,439 --> 01:54:11,800
necessary, and stepped out as quietly
as I could onto the tile steps.

1197
01:54:12,680 --> 01:54:15,840
After that, I scaled the stairs
as silently as I could manage, and

1198
01:54:15,880 --> 01:54:19,880
made my way to the door at
the top of the basement. She had

1199
01:54:19,880 --> 01:54:25,159
thankfully left it a char once again, bit of a habit of hers,

1200
01:54:25,199 --> 01:54:31,159
I assumed, and peeped through into
the darkness beyond. In the time I'd

1201
01:54:31,199 --> 01:54:35,920
been in the basement, the sun
had fully set, and now there were

1202
01:54:36,000 --> 01:54:42,640
only the lights of passing cars to
illuminate reception. Bright and ber light with

1203
01:54:42,760 --> 01:54:47,640
hard edges swept across the room,
one after the other with strange irregularity.

1204
01:54:49,199 --> 01:54:55,920
They made for an unpredictable insight into
the room's components, a chair, a

1205
01:54:56,000 --> 01:55:00,159
computer, a countertop. I had
to squint and wait patiently for a few

1206
01:55:00,199 --> 01:55:04,800
of them to go by before I
realized one of the back office's doors were

1207
01:55:04,880 --> 01:55:11,840
open, and there was the sound
of frustrated footsteps coming from within. She

1208
01:55:12,000 --> 01:55:18,159
was distracted, and this was my
best chance of getting out. I tiptoed

1209
01:55:18,279 --> 01:55:25,199
out of the basement and listened carefully. She occasionally hissed an angry refrain to

1210
01:55:25,239 --> 01:55:30,399
herself, opening what sounded like cabinet
doors. Why doing this, Michael,

1211
01:55:31,039 --> 01:55:38,680
she whined, and I was surprised
that she sounded not malevolent but sad and

1212
01:55:38,760 --> 01:55:45,079
pitiful, like an upset teenager.
She was genuinely confused by my reaction.

1213
01:55:45,680 --> 01:55:49,720
For a brief moment, I dared
to wonder if my imagination had gotten the

1214
01:55:49,760 --> 01:55:56,000
better of me. Right there on
the counter was a bottle of wine and

1215
01:55:56,039 --> 01:56:01,239
two glasses. Maybe she really was
just into a normal date and I'd made

1216
01:56:01,239 --> 01:56:06,760
connections that were never really there.
But in my mind I saw that corpse

1217
01:56:06,840 --> 01:56:14,000
bloated and bloody once again, and
ultimately decided I was better safe than sorry.

1218
01:56:15,079 --> 01:56:19,079
A quick check of the front door
showed who was still locked, and

1219
01:56:19,159 --> 01:56:25,279
so with nowhere else to go,
I went off another floor, careful to

1220
01:56:25,319 --> 01:56:30,760
stop every step or two and listen
for signs she had changed course. Thankfully,

1221
01:56:31,039 --> 01:56:33,479
I was at the top step by
the time I heard her leave the

1222
01:56:33,520 --> 01:56:40,680
office and enter another Come on,
she cried, why are you being like

1223
01:56:40,760 --> 01:56:46,399
this? I wasn't sure what my
game plan was. I figured my best

1224
01:56:46,479 --> 01:56:50,199
chance was a window. I was
already trying to start tearing the top floor

1225
01:56:50,239 --> 01:56:57,039
apart when I was stopped dead in
my tracks by what I saw. There

1226
01:56:57,039 --> 01:57:00,439
were a few rooms in the top
floor, but only one one of them

1227
01:57:00,560 --> 01:57:04,439
had an open door, and the
lights turned on. What I saw inside

1228
01:57:04,560 --> 01:57:10,640
hit me so hard I stopped dead
in my tracks and led out a gasp.

1229
01:57:12,439 --> 01:57:16,880
It was covered in plastic crap top
to bottom, floors, walls,

1230
01:57:16,880 --> 01:57:21,239
and ceiling. The small white table
had been set up in one corner,

1231
01:57:21,840 --> 01:57:27,119
and on it lay three open pill
bottles, a hack saw, and several

1232
01:57:27,159 --> 01:57:31,880
scalpels. Seeing all that stuff,
getting such an unfront sight into what she

1233
01:57:31,920 --> 01:57:38,800
had planned, it all made my
damn skin crawl. That and the bottle

1234
01:57:38,840 --> 01:57:43,800
of lotion made me want to be
sick. Suppressing the urge to gag,

1235
01:57:44,439 --> 01:57:48,079
I decided none of that really mattered, because and this wasn't a great surprise.

1236
01:57:48,840 --> 01:57:53,439
She had picked a room with a
large and easy to open window.

1237
01:57:54,760 --> 01:57:58,800
I pushed the side the plastic sheeting
and opened it to find the drop below

1238
01:57:59,239 --> 01:58:02,079
was in anywhere near as bad as
the thought of spending another second in that

1239
01:58:02,239 --> 01:58:09,279
damn room. I began to climb
out, got one leg through, carefully

1240
01:58:09,319 --> 01:58:14,920
balancing so that if I fell,
I'd minimize injury. When I heard a

1241
01:58:15,000 --> 01:58:20,720
sound by the door, the crinkling
of plastic, the gentle glide over door.

1242
01:58:24,239 --> 01:58:29,039
I turned and saw her standing in
the dark hallway beyond. It was

1243
01:58:29,039 --> 01:58:31,800
hard to see, but she wasn't
grinning like a maniac or waiting with a

1244
01:58:31,880 --> 01:58:40,319
knife. More than anything, she
just looked disappointed, maybe even frustrated.

1245
01:58:42,159 --> 01:58:45,960
In hindsight, it made sense she'd
spent a long time setting this up,

1246
01:58:46,640 --> 01:58:50,800
not just the room with a plastic
sheeting, but the entire relationship had been

1247
01:58:50,800 --> 01:58:57,800
built carefully around that night. I
expected her to crack break, come at

1248
01:58:57,800 --> 01:59:02,239
me, screaming and slashing with some
hidden black but she only shook her head

1249
01:59:02,600 --> 01:59:11,760
and quietly mewed, It's not my
fault. I considered her reply, but

1250
01:59:11,800 --> 01:59:16,600
found none to be fitting. I
jumped and landed safely below with a bit

1251
01:59:16,640 --> 01:59:21,399
of a knee shaking thumb, nowhere
near as bad as the shin splintering worst

1252
01:59:21,439 --> 01:59:27,880
case scenario I kept imagining. Then, with a deep breath, relishing with

1253
01:59:27,920 --> 01:59:31,920
the smell of fresh air, I
ran as quickly as I could towards the

1254
01:59:31,960 --> 01:59:39,840
hospital and the lot where my car
waited. You know, you might not

1255
01:59:39,960 --> 01:59:44,079
be too surprised to learn this,
but there wasn't actually much I could prove

1256
01:59:44,119 --> 01:59:47,479
when it was all over. By
the time the police visited the morgue,

1257
01:59:47,800 --> 01:59:53,159
it was apparently back to normal.
Her side of the story was that I'd

1258
01:59:53,159 --> 01:59:57,800
insisted on visiting the morgue out of
curiosity and got upset when she didn't want

1259
01:59:57,840 --> 02:00:02,239
to stick around. It was kind
of hard to prove anything else. I

1260
02:00:02,279 --> 02:00:06,600
had no injuries, no evidence of
intent, or anything else other than a

1261
02:00:06,640 --> 02:00:13,720
suspicion of some pretty mess behavior.
In the end, the best the police

1262
02:00:13,760 --> 02:00:16,359
were willing to do was hook me
up with a lawyer who dealt with restraining

1263
02:00:16,439 --> 02:00:23,439
orders, and he told me I
need some evidence of actual harassment. Well

1264
02:00:23,640 --> 02:00:28,000
that and the main gist of his
advice was actually for me to stay away

1265
02:00:28,000 --> 02:00:31,039
from her, because, if anything, it'd be a hell of a lot

1266
02:00:31,079 --> 02:00:35,319
easier for her to convince people I
was the problem and not the other way

1267
02:00:35,319 --> 02:00:41,800
around. I didn't have much choice
in the end except to move on,

1268
02:00:43,279 --> 02:00:45,760
and all told, I was just
happy to have made it out alive,

1269
02:00:46,800 --> 02:00:51,960
even if the thought of her out
there made me deeply anxious. I had

1270
02:00:51,960 --> 02:00:58,159
to assume she'd go looking for another
target since I'd wised up, although I

1271
02:00:58,199 --> 02:01:01,399
hoped that maybe the close encounter with
me would stop her from trying again.

1272
02:01:03,399 --> 02:01:10,000
As for me, I deleted my
Tinder profile, having decided that internet dating

1273
02:01:10,159 --> 02:01:17,520
would never be a thing for me
again. But the nightmares persist and I

1274
02:01:17,560 --> 02:01:23,520
often think of her standing there in
the doorway. She didn't look half as

1275
02:01:23,600 --> 02:01:28,399
upset as I might have thought.
The whole thing was like I'd been a

1276
02:01:28,399 --> 02:01:33,399
bit naughty. There she was an
aspiring murder, moments away from executing a

1277
02:01:33,439 --> 02:01:39,920
plan that had been months in the
making, and she'd stood there like it

1278
02:01:39,960 --> 02:01:44,760
was all nothing but a minor set
back. It just didn't make sense,

1279
02:01:45,399 --> 02:01:50,760
and like everything with Sarah, I
struggled to move on from this peculiar behavior

1280
02:01:53,439 --> 02:02:00,800
until I got an answer. Well, today, I finally got it when

1281
02:02:00,840 --> 02:02:04,920
I woke up and felt something strange
by my feet. I pulled back the

1282
02:02:04,960 --> 02:02:12,399
sheets and saw something that made my
heart sink and a cold sweat form on

1283
02:02:12,439 --> 02:02:20,319
the back of my neck. I
was wearing a toe tag. I think

1284
02:02:20,479 --> 02:02:27,279
I might have underestimated her patience,
and I am starting to appreciate just why

1285
02:02:27,319 --> 02:02:30,680
she found that night in the morgue
to be a little more than a set

1286
02:02:30,760 --> 02:02:35,319
back. On the tag itself,
my name is scrawled on one line,

1287
02:02:36,720 --> 02:02:44,680
and on the date of death below, she had simply written in just a

1288
02:02:44,760 --> 02:03:00,279
few days, Jackie was a werewolf, Pete was a vampire. Oh he

1289
02:03:00,359 --> 02:03:04,560
kept referring to himself as a Dracula
just to annoy me, and I was

1290
02:03:04,560 --> 02:03:10,439
a witch. Ooh. Admittedly the
outfit was just a half ass modification from

1291
02:03:10,439 --> 02:03:15,399
my initial idea of girl Gandalf after
my older brother Kevin set fire to my

1292
02:03:15,479 --> 02:03:21,520
beard the week before. We were
too old for drucker treating and we knew

1293
02:03:21,520 --> 02:03:28,439
it, but that was part of
the point. After a five year hiatus

1294
02:03:28,479 --> 02:03:32,479
on free candy because Halloween was for
babies, we'd come back around to the

1295
02:03:32,520 --> 02:03:38,119
idea that so long as we leaned
into it being a prank slash game slash

1296
02:03:38,159 --> 02:03:43,039
social experiment instead of just teenagers begging
for candy, that we could just drive

1297
02:03:43,079 --> 02:03:48,039
to the store and buy it was
cool again. The idea was this,

1298
02:03:49,119 --> 02:03:53,960
we would drive up to every house, not hiding the fact that we were

1299
02:03:54,000 --> 02:03:58,680
old enough to do so. Beat
and I were seniors, and Jackie was

1300
02:03:58,720 --> 02:04:02,319
home from a first year of car
and between his beard hurt it to my

1301
02:04:02,479 --> 02:04:09,399
height, no one was mistaking any
of us for children. That being said,

1302
02:04:10,079 --> 02:04:13,840
we had a rule that we had
to dress up in legit costumes and

1303
02:04:13,880 --> 02:04:17,840
couldn't act weird or ass wholey when
we went up together. Candy just polite

1304
02:04:17,840 --> 02:04:24,960
trigger treating there as to do anything
else. It would affect the bet because

1305
02:04:25,039 --> 02:04:30,239
this is where the game park came
in. Before we got out of the

1306
02:04:30,279 --> 02:04:33,520
car, At each house, we
would each bet whether that house would give

1307
02:04:33,560 --> 02:04:40,159
us candy or not. The odds
were always in favor of yes. Most

1308
02:04:40,159 --> 02:04:44,720
people might get irritated and all the
teenagers coming for candy, but so long

1309
02:04:44,760 --> 02:04:47,199
as we were polite about it,
it was hard for them to get past

1310
02:04:47,239 --> 02:04:54,880
their default position of honoring hallowing customs. So the scoring work like this.

1311
02:04:56,279 --> 02:04:59,840
If you bet a house would give
us candy, you got one point.

1312
02:05:00,880 --> 02:05:03,119
If you bet that a house wouldn't
give candy and you were wrong, you

1313
02:05:03,239 --> 02:05:08,840
lost one point. But if you
bet a house wouldn't give us candy and

1314
02:05:08,920 --> 02:05:14,439
you were right, that was worth
five points. So long as he didn't

1315
02:05:14,479 --> 02:05:20,199
do anything overtly rude or whatever to
make sure things went your way. Sarcastic

1316
02:05:20,279 --> 02:05:26,479
tone of voice was okay, so
were fake accents. But you couldn't say

1317
02:05:26,720 --> 02:05:31,199
or do anything that was really impolite
or highlighted our age beyond our obvious appearance

1318
02:05:31,520 --> 02:05:36,279
and ability to drive up in the
first place. No thanks, dude,

1319
02:05:36,479 --> 02:05:40,199
got to get back to the wife
and kids now, or any kind of

1320
02:05:40,239 --> 02:05:45,479
thing. In other words, reasonable
lying was fine so long as it was

1321
02:05:45,520 --> 02:05:50,600
done courteously. When we were done
for the night, whoever had the most

1322
02:05:50,640 --> 02:05:56,039
points got to divide up all the
candy, and best of all, they

1323
02:05:56,079 --> 02:06:00,640
got to pick the first three things. The other two eight didn't matter how

1324
02:06:00,720 --> 02:06:03,800
gross or sketchy. They had to
eat it if someone gave it to one

1325
02:06:03,840 --> 02:06:11,000
of us during the night had to
have high stakes after all. So far,

1326
02:06:11,640 --> 02:06:15,800
Pete was somehow ahead. He was
a good guesser, he always had

1327
02:06:15,840 --> 02:06:21,359
been, and it was irritating.
I was only two points behind, but

1328
02:06:21,439 --> 02:06:26,439
it felt like we were running out
of houses as we moved further and further

1329
02:06:26,560 --> 02:06:32,079
out into the dark countryside. That
had been part of our plan go out

1330
02:06:32,119 --> 02:06:38,079
to places that had lights on but
were more remote, as they were less

1331
02:06:38,159 --> 02:06:42,920
likely to have many Trugger treaters.
They'd also be less likely to have candy

1332
02:06:42,960 --> 02:06:46,920
at all. But most of the
houses with decorations and lights on gave up

1333
02:06:46,960 --> 02:06:54,119
something, even if it was from
their own private stash. Jackie was one

1334
02:06:54,159 --> 02:06:59,840
point behind me, though I still
thought her strategy for the evening was done.

1335
02:07:00,279 --> 02:07:03,359
She was voting no candy on every
house, based on the idea that

1336
02:07:03,439 --> 02:07:08,600
five points when she was right,
would override the one point losses. The

1337
02:07:08,600 --> 02:07:12,920
rest of the time. I tried
to point out that we were only stopping

1338
02:07:12,960 --> 02:07:16,560
at a house that looked like decent
candidates to begin with, and that always

1339
02:07:16,680 --> 02:07:24,239
voting the same wasn't really playing the
game. But she wouldn't budge, and

1340
02:07:24,319 --> 02:07:28,880
I hate to admit it, but
her strategy hadn't totally sucked so far,

1341
02:07:30,039 --> 02:07:33,760
and one no candy house would put
her back in the lead. That's why

1342
02:07:33,800 --> 02:07:38,560
I complained. When she started turning
on to the driveway at the end of

1343
02:07:38,640 --> 02:07:43,920
c R thirteen, she giggled as
she completed the turn and gave me a

1344
02:07:43,960 --> 02:07:48,079
grin. Her fur covered face green
and sinister in the meager light of the

1345
02:07:48,159 --> 02:07:54,720
dashboard. It has jack a lantern's
out the fence gate with burning candles in

1346
02:07:54,800 --> 02:08:01,840
them that count as decorations and light. Pete gave a groan, Damn Whinnie,

1347
02:08:01,079 --> 02:08:07,560
she's right. Jackie had started down
the driveway that was paved, but

1348
02:08:07,760 --> 02:08:13,600
with thick hardwoods on both sides that
obscured the way forward as the path curved

1349
02:08:13,640 --> 02:08:18,199
to the right. Irritated, I
shook my head. It's supposed to be

1350
02:08:18,239 --> 02:08:22,520
decorations in the house not a mile
away at the road. This doesn't count.

1351
02:08:24,199 --> 02:08:28,279
Jackie shrugged. Well, we'll see
then. If the house is dark

1352
02:08:28,359 --> 02:08:33,239
or has no decorations, then we'll
turn around and leave. I'm not trying

1353
02:08:33,279 --> 02:08:37,680
to cheat, but I'm not turning
down a good prospect either. Sighing,

1354
02:08:37,880 --> 02:08:43,680
I slumped back in my seat.
Fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if

1355
02:08:43,680 --> 02:08:48,359
there's not even a house back.
Oh my god, that last comment had

1356
02:08:48,359 --> 02:08:54,279
been from Pete, and I didn't
have to ask what it meant. We

1357
02:08:54,640 --> 02:08:58,199
just rounded the last corner, and
instead of more woods were just an empty,

1358
02:08:58,359 --> 02:09:05,239
overgrown there was a large Antebellum mansion
with brick walls of dark gray and

1359
02:09:05,319 --> 02:09:11,880
tall white columns that line the front
like long teeth. We saw most of

1360
02:09:11,880 --> 02:09:16,159
this from the sweeping light of Jackie's
head lights, but they weren't the only

1361
02:09:16,199 --> 02:09:20,760
things lighting up the night. Behind
the hulking shadow of the house, I

1362
02:09:20,800 --> 02:09:26,359
could make out the shifting orange glow
of a fire, and up on the

1363
02:09:26,399 --> 02:09:30,800
porch there were four more jack O
lanterns to match the ones out on the

1364
02:09:30,880 --> 02:09:37,399
road. Jackie turned and gave me
a satisfied smile as she pointed first to

1365
02:09:37,479 --> 02:09:41,640
the glow of the firelight behind the
house light, and then the pumpkins and

1366
02:09:41,680 --> 02:09:50,680
the porch and decorations. I sniffed. I mean, technically, yeah,

1367
02:09:50,680 --> 02:09:54,079
but does this place look like somewhere
we want stuff from. It's dark and

1368
02:09:54,159 --> 02:10:01,079
creepy. They probably have a bucket
of razor blay candy in there. Pete

1369
02:10:01,159 --> 02:10:05,640
laughed. It's Halloween. This is
the kind of house we should be visiting,

1370
02:10:05,159 --> 02:10:11,000
and it's in the razor blade thing
more of an urban legend. Jackie

1371
02:10:11,000 --> 02:10:15,000
shook her head. No, that
happened to my cousin once. But it's

1372
02:10:15,039 --> 02:10:20,600
okay because I confidently bet we will
get no candy here. I rolled my

1373
02:10:20,640 --> 02:10:26,680
eyes. What a shocker, What
old strategy there? She squinted at me.

1374
02:10:28,600 --> 02:10:33,560
If you're scared, just say you're
scared. I floated my middle finger

1375
02:10:33,600 --> 02:10:37,600
around in front of her as I
did a wave in ghost voice. Screw

1376
02:10:39,039 --> 02:10:43,279
you, just don't come crying to
me when I give you a poison candy

1377
02:10:43,279 --> 02:10:48,880
bar covered in rat turts to eat. Snorting, Jackie turned off the car

1378
02:10:48,960 --> 02:10:52,319
and got out, Come on,
sure, losers, it's Jackie's tying to

1379
02:10:52,359 --> 02:11:00,479
shine. I bet no candy too. I couldn't see her face as we

1380
02:11:00,520 --> 02:11:05,760
approached the house, but I could
still hear Jackie's smirking, decided to back

1381
02:11:05,800 --> 02:11:09,439
a winner. Huh, smart play
won't help you in the end, but

1382
02:11:09,840 --> 02:11:15,880
I respect you for acknowledging my awesomeness. Ah whatever, Pete, what's your

1383
02:11:15,880 --> 02:11:22,000
bet? Hmmm, candy? These
people have to be loaded, right if

1384
02:11:22,000 --> 02:11:28,000
there even the porch like came on
as we started up the steps home,

1385
02:11:30,520 --> 02:11:35,399
and then under my breath, damn, Pete was already on the porch,

1386
02:11:35,720 --> 02:11:43,359
grinning back down at us, always
bet on the dracula turning, He walked

1387
02:11:43,359 --> 02:11:48,399
over and rang on the ornate doorbell
next to the equally intrigly carved black door.

1388
02:11:48,600 --> 02:11:54,680
Far away, we heard a small
bell chime. This was a weird

1389
02:11:54,720 --> 02:12:01,239
house. Everything about this felt weird. Why couldn't they see that? I

1390
02:12:01,279 --> 02:12:05,159
was about to suggest you just give
up the game and declare Pete the winner.

1391
02:12:05,920 --> 02:12:11,600
When the door's locked clicked and it
swung open. On the other side,

1392
02:12:13,920 --> 02:12:18,640
a dead woman stood smiling at us. Pete must have been right.

1393
02:12:20,439 --> 02:12:24,640
Whoever these people were, they had
to be kind of loaded because her costume

1394
02:12:24,880 --> 02:12:30,960
was movie quality, not because it
was over the top or really elaborate,

1395
02:12:31,720 --> 02:12:37,000
but because it was so subtle.
The blue dress she wore was faded and

1396
02:12:37,079 --> 02:12:41,600
curled at the edges with what could
have been age or rot, and her

1397
02:12:41,640 --> 02:12:45,960
skin had a faint blue tinge that
stood out in the porches overhead light,

1398
02:12:46,640 --> 02:12:50,840
but wasn't cartoonish or overdone. The
only other sign that she wasn't just an

1399
02:12:50,880 --> 02:12:58,000
attractive middle aged soccer mom was a
left ear. Her long, dull brown

1400
02:12:58,000 --> 02:13:03,000
hair was artfully pulled over on that
side, revealing a gnawed stop instead of

1401
02:13:03,079 --> 02:13:11,239
whole flesh. Damn, you look
awesome. Pete was right, though it

1402
02:13:11,319 --> 02:13:16,279
was hard to tell from his lingering
gaze on her breast if he was talking

1403
02:13:16,279 --> 02:13:22,520
more about a zombie outfit or her
generally being kind of heart. Jackie apparently

1404
02:13:22,560 --> 02:13:26,039
thought it was the latter, as
she nudged him in the ribs and stepped

1405
02:13:26,039 --> 02:13:35,119
forward, holding out her open briefcase
shrike or treat Oh. I stifled a

1406
02:13:35,159 --> 02:13:41,840
sudden nervous laugh the briefcase thing.
Jackie had brought a briefcase instead of a

1407
02:13:41,920 --> 02:13:46,479
normal trick or treat bag. At
first, Pete and I hadn't understood why,

1408
02:13:46,399 --> 02:13:50,720
but once I saw how she was
betting against candy every time, it

1409
02:13:50,800 --> 02:13:56,960
made more sense. She thought using
something that wasn't halloweeny or immature would tilt

1410
02:13:56,960 --> 02:14:03,399
the scales towards annoying someone, so
they wouldn't give us anything. I couldn't

1411
02:14:03,439 --> 02:14:05,960
say for sure if it had worked. But at the two houses that had

1412
02:14:07,000 --> 02:14:09,520
told us we were too old,
they both looked at that damn thing.

1413
02:14:11,960 --> 02:14:16,439
Still, it didn't seem to matter
as to this lady. She just gave

1414
02:14:16,479 --> 02:14:20,840
a soft laugh as she looked at
each of us in turn. Well,

1415
02:14:20,880 --> 02:14:26,199
well, I appreciate the compliment,
and I accept the commencement of bargaining as

1416
02:14:26,239 --> 02:14:31,800
well. Still chuckling, she took
a step back. I have all manner

1417
02:14:31,800 --> 02:14:35,960
of treat in the kitchen, and
will brook no tricks on this holy night.

1418
02:14:37,039 --> 02:14:41,560
All I ask is that you tell
me what you are before you pass

1419
02:14:41,640 --> 02:14:46,159
my door, suggested back down the
hallway to a kitchen. I was dancing

1420
02:14:46,199 --> 02:14:54,439
with yellow candlelight, I shot Pete
concerned. Look, ma'am, we don't

1421
02:14:54,439 --> 02:15:01,039
normally go into people's houses. She
nodded. I understand, but I just

1422
02:15:01,079 --> 02:15:05,039
finished cooking, and I'm afraid I
have too large a variety to bring out

1423
02:15:05,079 --> 02:15:11,239
here. Shrugging, she started to
close the door. But if you refuse

1424
02:15:11,319 --> 02:15:16,159
the offered treats, we can close
the back. Pete stepped forward. No,

1425
02:15:16,159 --> 02:15:18,600
no, ma'am, we're happy to
come in. He glared at me.

1426
02:15:20,199 --> 02:15:24,880
Forgive my friend, She's just the
sore loser. The woman smiled wildly

1427
02:15:24,920 --> 02:15:31,479
at him as she moved the hair
behind the other perfect dear so glad to

1428
02:15:31,560 --> 02:15:37,640
hear it. Her face suddenly became
more serious. Now, what are you?

1429
02:15:41,680 --> 02:15:46,039
Pete hesitated a moment, and then
bared his plastic fangs. To be

1430
02:15:46,119 --> 02:15:50,680
fair, they were expensive and looked
good other than being a different shade than

1431
02:15:50,680 --> 02:15:58,640
his actual teeth. I, madame, I'm a dracula. I expected the

1432
02:15:58,640 --> 02:16:05,720
woman to laugh or look angry,
but instead she just nodded, very well,

1433
02:16:05,279 --> 02:16:11,439
you may enter our home. Pete
stepped in as she turned to look

1434
02:16:11,479 --> 02:16:16,680
at Jackie, and what are you? Jackie had lowered a briefcase again,

1435
02:16:18,399 --> 02:16:22,279
and even through the tufts of fake
brown hair glued to her cheeks and forehead,

1436
02:16:22,000 --> 02:16:28,239
I could tell she was worried too. Still, she wouldn't quit playing

1437
02:16:28,520 --> 02:16:31,799
so long as one of us kept
going either, so, giving another small

1438
02:16:31,840 --> 02:16:39,760
howl, she stepped closer to the
door. I'm awarewolf, ma'am, very

1439
02:16:39,760 --> 02:16:46,159
well, you may enter our home. The woman looked at me and you.

1440
02:16:48,879 --> 02:16:54,639
I started to speak, but something
held me back. This woman wasn't

1441
02:16:54,760 --> 02:17:00,559
right. I couldn't say what the
problem was with her, and I didn't

1442
02:17:00,600 --> 02:17:03,639
know enough to make the others leave. But there was a weight to everything

1443
02:17:03,680 --> 02:17:09,479
the woman was saying and doing,
as though this wasn't some kind of campy

1444
02:17:09,600 --> 02:17:15,319
Halloween role play but part of something
real and serious. And she was still

1445
02:17:15,360 --> 02:17:22,520
staring expectantly at me, heart hammering, I stepped forward. I am I'm

1446
02:17:22,559 --> 02:17:26,319
a girl dressed up as a witch. I was supposed to be female Gandalf,

1447
02:17:26,319 --> 02:17:31,559
but my jerk brother burnt my beard. The woman stooded me for several

1448
02:17:31,600 --> 02:17:41,280
moments before smiling again, very well, you may enter our home. Closing

1449
02:17:41,319 --> 02:17:45,920
the door behind me, the woman
led us back to the kitchen. It

1450
02:17:46,000 --> 02:17:50,840
was massive, eight burners set into
a large wooden island, and a long

1451
02:17:50,920 --> 02:17:54,680
table along one end, filled with
a variety of cookies and candies and muffins

1452
02:17:54,680 --> 02:18:00,920
and cakes, along with candied apples
and punkin tarts and others that I didn't

1453
02:18:00,959 --> 02:18:07,159
recognize. Holy crap, I mean, dang, you've got quite the spread

1454
02:18:07,159 --> 02:18:13,399
in here, the woman chuckled.
Thank you. We don't get many visitors

1455
02:18:13,440 --> 02:18:16,719
out here, and my boy is
a finigy diet, so I always wind

1456
02:18:16,799 --> 02:18:22,200
up overdoing it. But it is
Halloween, after all, Please take what

1457
02:18:22,280 --> 02:18:28,840
you'd like. I felt a stab
of panic and leaned into Jack's ear.

1458
02:18:28,879 --> 02:18:31,920
None of this stuff is wrapped up, you good of anything in it?

1459
02:18:33,360 --> 02:18:37,239
You can't eat this stuff? Calling
back, she gave me a frown.

1460
02:18:39,239 --> 02:18:43,159
How's that different to anything else?
You think? Someone can't rewrap candy or

1461
02:18:43,159 --> 02:18:46,000
incheck something through a wrapper? And
how often do you get to try fancy

1462
02:18:46,040 --> 02:18:52,280
stuff like this? Pete leaned into
the conversation. I don't think I didn't

1463
02:18:52,319 --> 02:18:56,159
notice your whole I'm a girl dressed
like a witch. Thing you've lost.

1464
02:18:56,520 --> 02:19:01,319
Give it up, don't mess up
the best meal I've had him like ever,

1465
02:19:03,280 --> 02:19:07,159
he grinned at our host, So
like, how much is okay for

1466
02:19:07,239 --> 02:19:11,280
us to take? It? All
looks so good? She beamed at him.

1467
02:19:13,159 --> 02:19:16,520
As much as you want, of
course, there are plates and balls

1468
02:19:16,520 --> 02:19:20,479
at the end, so feel fear
to semple here, and I can make

1469
02:19:20,479 --> 02:19:24,440
you bags to take with you as
well. As I said, I have

1470
02:19:24,639 --> 02:19:28,799
far too much. The woman frowned
as Pete reached towards some kind of potato

1471
02:19:28,840 --> 02:19:33,760
fritter piled on a platter at the
table's edge. Oh no, that's not

1472
02:19:33,799 --> 02:19:39,920
for you, though, Pete pulled
his hand back and looked at her questioningly.

1473
02:19:39,879 --> 02:19:46,159
Oh sorry, she waved her hand. Not at all. It's just

1474
02:19:46,200 --> 02:19:50,920
that I prepared those with garlic,
and I wouldn't want you to get sick.

1475
02:19:52,360 --> 02:19:56,719
Pete stared at her blankly for a
moment, and then let out a

1476
02:19:56,799 --> 02:20:01,879
loud laugh. Oh right, yeah, I guess I should have a selective

1477
02:20:01,920 --> 02:20:07,799
diet. He picked up a small
crystal glass containing what looked like dark layers

1478
02:20:07,000 --> 02:20:13,200
topped with whipped cream. Is this
okay for me, you think? The

1479
02:20:13,239 --> 02:20:18,479
woman nodded. Yes, of course, blood moose with a bit of caramelized

1480
02:20:18,479 --> 02:20:22,200
baby fat for texture. She picked
one up and handed it to Jackie.

1481
02:20:24,159 --> 02:20:30,360
This should be good for you as
well. Glancing between us, Jackie picked

1482
02:20:30,399 --> 02:20:37,399
up a spoon. Sure, thanks, it looks delicious. The woman turned

1483
02:20:37,479 --> 02:20:41,520
and patted my arm. All the
food on the left side of the table

1484
02:20:41,680 --> 02:20:46,159
is meat free, my dear,
I gave a slow nod. Well,

1485
02:20:46,239 --> 02:20:50,360
I mean, I'm not a vegetarian, but the cookies and muffins look great,

1486
02:20:52,680 --> 02:20:56,719
I pointed toward Pete as he was
eating the first bite of his moose.

1487
02:20:56,680 --> 02:21:01,520
But those don't really have some kind
of meat in Pete spat a dark

1488
02:21:01,559 --> 02:21:07,239
wad on to the floor as he
began to wretch, lady, what the

1489
02:21:07,280 --> 02:21:11,719
hell is in that? When he
looked up, he didn't look at her

1490
02:21:11,879 --> 02:21:18,239
but me, his eyes watery and
fearful. She frowned, just as I've

1491
02:21:18,280 --> 02:21:26,040
said, congeal blood quite the favorite
of your kind. He was hardly listening,

1492
02:21:26,559 --> 02:21:31,079
hocking and spitting as he tried to
get the taste out of his mouth

1493
02:21:31,479 --> 02:21:35,559
without trusting any of the various drinks
on offer as a way to clean his

1494
02:21:35,680 --> 02:21:39,680
palate. On his fourth spit,
one of his fangs flew out and landed

1495
02:21:39,760 --> 02:21:46,120
in the middle of a plate filled
with bat sugar cookies. What is that?

1496
02:21:46,840 --> 02:21:52,000
The woman's tone was icy, Look
at me, show me your mouth.

1497
02:21:54,479 --> 02:21:58,559
Pete stared at her slight George,
his lone fang still dangling there.

1498
02:22:00,200 --> 02:22:05,040
What the hell are you talking about? The woman's expression darkened as she turned

1499
02:22:05,040 --> 02:22:09,200
to Jackie, who would set her
own moose back down. And what about

1500
02:22:09,239 --> 02:22:13,879
you? The treat not to your
liking, ma'am, This isn't funny.

1501
02:22:15,680 --> 02:22:20,600
We're just going to go out.
Let go, our host that grabbed Jackie's

1502
02:22:20,680 --> 02:22:26,719
arm, gripping it hard as she
pulled her closer. You answer me now,

1503
02:22:26,440 --> 02:22:33,719
are you truly aware wolf stepping forward. I tried to shove her away

1504
02:22:33,719 --> 02:22:37,000
from Jackie, but she didn't budge
or even look my way as she held

1505
02:22:37,000 --> 02:22:43,520
my friend tight. Jackie was crying
a little now as she shook her head.

1506
02:22:43,200 --> 02:22:46,879
Of course not, it's a costume. It's not even a good one.

1507
02:22:48,239 --> 02:22:50,200
And where wolves aren't real? You
crazy woman? Let me go.

1508
02:22:52,200 --> 02:22:58,000
The woman did as she was asked, after a fashion, slinging Jackie in

1509
02:22:58,079 --> 02:23:03,680
Pete's direction and sending them both careening
into the nearby wall before tumbling to the

1510
02:23:03,719 --> 02:23:07,959
floor. I moved to help them, but then the woman was in my

1511
02:23:07,079 --> 02:23:13,879
path. And you are you a
girl dressed as a witch. I could

1512
02:23:13,920 --> 02:23:20,280
barely breathe as I squeaked my words
out. Why why are you doing this?

1513
02:23:20,520 --> 02:23:24,319
And to me? Now? Yes, yes, I'm just the girl

1514
02:23:24,399 --> 02:23:31,120
dressed as a witch. She nodded, giving me a satisfied smile. Very

1515
02:23:31,120 --> 02:23:37,200
well, you have maintained the covenant
that your companions have broken. You may

1516
02:23:37,200 --> 02:23:43,040
pick any treats you like from the
banquet table. We just don't want to

1517
02:23:43,040 --> 02:23:48,319
go. Go. They can't go. They've broken covenant. And on a

1518
02:23:48,399 --> 02:23:52,280
holy night, no less, there
would be no falsehoods in this house or

1519
02:23:52,319 --> 02:23:58,239
in my family's bargaining. Her eyes
went to jack in Pete even as shadowy

1520
02:23:58,280 --> 02:24:03,399
figures began to approach between the flickers
of candlelight. One looked like a dragon,

1521
02:24:03,879 --> 02:24:09,879
another a twisted skeleton, while the
third was a ruby mass thick with

1522
02:24:09,000 --> 02:24:15,799
clawed tentacles. The woman looked at
them lovingly before giving me a warm glance.

1523
02:24:16,959 --> 02:24:22,639
My boys. The glow behind the
house had been a large autumn bonfire,

1524
02:24:22,319 --> 02:24:28,399
stacked high with wood and mounds of
colored leaves that somehow never fully burned.

1525
02:24:28,600 --> 02:24:33,399
More long timbers of wood lay to
one side, and it was two

1526
02:24:33,399 --> 02:24:37,879
of these that the monsters bound Pete
and Jackie as they thrashed and screamed.

1527
02:24:39,120 --> 02:24:43,040
I think I could have left before
then, but I couldn't abandon my friends,

1528
02:24:43,799 --> 02:24:48,440
even if the woman wouldn't let me
intervene to save them. I did

1529
02:24:48,479 --> 02:24:52,360
try once, but after that a
firm but gentle grip bore down on me

1530
02:24:52,520 --> 02:24:58,280
heavily enough that I knew there was
little I could do but shake and cry

1531
02:24:58,799 --> 02:25:03,600
and tell them I was sorry.
This seemed to trouble the woman somewhat,

1532
02:25:03,280 --> 02:25:09,040
and as a monstrous offspring finished lashing
my friends down, she spoke to me

1533
02:25:09,079 --> 02:25:13,680
again. I hope this doesn't seem
cruel to you. My family passed through

1534
02:25:13,719 --> 02:25:18,399
the Omago some time ago, but
we are still old fashioned. We keep

1535
02:25:18,440 --> 02:25:24,920
to the ways of bargain and pilava, and we especially revere Halloween as it's

1536
02:25:24,959 --> 02:25:30,200
one of the few times the world
drops some of its pretenses. I had

1537
02:25:30,200 --> 02:25:33,280
no idea what she was talking about, but maybe if I talked to her,

1538
02:25:33,760 --> 02:25:41,520
I could convince her to let us
all go pretenses. She nodded that

1539
02:25:41,600 --> 02:25:46,000
the world is safe, that monsters
aren't real, and that the truth that

1540
02:25:46,159 --> 02:25:52,520
lay in the dark can't hurt you. Despite my plan to calm down,

1541
02:25:52,200 --> 02:25:58,399
I could hear the angry panic in
my voice. We were just wearing costumes.

1542
02:25:58,920 --> 02:26:03,120
That's what Halloween is a Why are
you punishing us for it, she

1543
02:26:03,239 --> 02:26:09,440
frowned. Not you, just them, You are honest and lying. It's

1544
02:26:09,520 --> 02:26:16,280
certainly not what Halloween is about.
That's just what fearful people have told themselves

1545
02:26:16,399 --> 02:26:22,360
and taught their children another lie.
Her lip curled, the gums around her

1546
02:26:22,360 --> 02:26:28,120
teeth dark and withered in the bonfire's
light. And we always burn liars.

1547
02:26:28,159 --> 02:26:35,440
Here, I turned as I heard
a fresh set of screams. The horrors

1548
02:26:35,440 --> 02:26:39,879
of the bonfire had picked up the
timbers, Pete and Jackie were tied to,

1549
02:26:39,959 --> 02:26:46,200
effortlessly swinging them up into the dark
October sky before pitching them down into

1550
02:26:46,200 --> 02:26:52,360
the roaring heat of the flames.
I let out one last scream, letting

1551
02:26:52,360 --> 02:26:56,360
my painful cry fill the void left
by the fading of their dying breaths.

1552
02:26:58,120 --> 02:27:03,879
I squeezed tight to the ground,
wanting darkness to take me, begging to

1553
02:27:03,920 --> 02:27:09,719
wake up and realize this was all
some terrible nightmare. I felt something shift,

1554
02:27:11,360 --> 02:27:16,360
both in my head and the world
around me, and when I opened

1555
02:27:16,360 --> 02:27:22,360
my eyes, the night had turned
a day. The remnants of the bonfire

1556
02:27:22,479 --> 02:27:28,239
was still there, but no sign
of any bones or bodies, and when

1557
02:27:28,239 --> 02:27:33,440
I turned around, I saw the
house was gone as well. Instead,

1558
02:27:33,959 --> 02:27:39,120
it was just a large clearing,
empty except for the large pile of smoldering

1559
02:27:39,159 --> 02:27:45,760
wood, and next to me a
large jacker lantern, painted black and made

1560
02:27:45,920 --> 02:27:52,239
of some kind of red fired earth. Choking back a fresh sob, I

1561
02:27:52,319 --> 02:27:58,520
reached over and pulled off the stem
lid and looked down inside. It was

1562
02:27:58,600 --> 02:28:03,360
halfway filled with candy, corn and
chocolates, and resting on top of the

1563
02:28:03,399 --> 02:28:11,600
suite was a small note on orange
paper. Pulling it out, I read

1564
02:28:11,959 --> 02:28:30,799
what was written there, don't forget
your treats. Happy Halloween. I woke

1565
02:28:30,879 --> 02:28:35,559
up at the sound of a woman's
voice asking me a question. The voice

1566
02:28:35,639 --> 02:28:41,840
was familiar, but only a little
had I just met her? Where were

1567
02:28:41,879 --> 02:28:48,079
we at? I was on a
bed, wasn't I? Had we screwed

1568
02:28:48,120 --> 02:28:52,280
everything up when the railroad closed down
the line through Tulsen. I don't know

1569
02:28:52,399 --> 02:28:56,639
if that was true or not.
Other than big shipments, they were too

1570
02:28:56,680 --> 02:29:03,399
heavy for planes or trucks. Did
anyone used trains anymore? Either way?

1571
02:29:03,920 --> 02:29:07,440
It was five years to the day
that they ran the last train down the

1572
02:29:07,520 --> 02:29:13,120
track that the killing started, and
no one could leave town anymore. They

1573
02:29:13,159 --> 02:29:18,079
called it the death train, which
made no sense for a number of reasons.

1574
02:29:18,920 --> 02:29:24,120
First of all, it wasn't a
train. It was Harvey Stark in

1575
02:29:24,159 --> 02:29:30,200
his old conductor's outfit riding around and
Jeff Humboldt like it was a prize bull.

1576
02:29:31,680 --> 02:29:35,079
Stark was a little guy, sure, and Jeff was built like a

1577
02:29:35,120 --> 02:29:39,079
brick house, so he could tote
Stark around on his shoulders with no problem.

1578
02:29:39,719 --> 02:29:43,639
If that was all it was,
people would have giggled and went about

1579
02:29:43,639 --> 02:29:48,520
their day. But Jeff had on
one of those strap on headlamps, and

1580
02:29:48,600 --> 02:29:52,639
Stark had that whistle he would start
blowing when he felt the need to warn

1581
02:29:52,719 --> 02:29:58,360
someone that the train was coming.
Except instead of a train, it was

1582
02:29:58,399 --> 02:30:03,840
a four hundred pound naked man shaved
clean and slick with sweat, a machette

1583
02:30:03,840 --> 02:30:09,719
in each hand and hard on him
between making goddamn train noises while a little

1584
02:30:09,719 --> 02:30:13,920
assole on his back two to the
horn and spurred him on like a prize

1585
02:30:13,959 --> 02:30:20,200
stallion. You'd think people would see
it coming and run away, but no.

1586
02:30:22,799 --> 02:30:26,239
The first three or four just stood
there, staring in confusion as the

1587
02:30:26,319 --> 02:30:33,159
pair master blasted their way toward them
and started hacking them to bits. By

1588
02:30:33,200 --> 02:30:37,399
that point, the police had tried
to stop them, but nothing put them

1589
02:30:37,440 --> 02:30:41,559
down or even seemed to hurt them
for long. The cops had fired until

1590
02:30:41,600 --> 02:30:46,440
the train turned its glowing iron them, and then even the ones that tried

1591
02:30:46,479 --> 02:30:52,280
to run got run down. The
next day we found forty or so bloody

1592
02:30:52,399 --> 02:30:56,840
and deformed bullets in the street,
like the old death train had just crabbed

1593
02:30:56,840 --> 02:31:03,479
them back out. Maybe it had, but none of this made sense,

1594
02:31:03,639 --> 02:31:09,319
did it. I didn't live in
this place, and yeah I knew and

1595
02:31:09,440 --> 02:31:13,840
remembered all this stuff. But what
kind of nonsense was it? And had

1596
02:31:13,840 --> 02:31:18,000
it really happened to me? What
was it all just a dream? I

1597
02:31:18,040 --> 02:31:22,040
needed to wake up, man,
I'm trying to give you a chance.

1598
02:31:22,079 --> 02:31:28,760
Here, I gasped as a small
hand slapped me across my face. Why

1599
02:31:28,200 --> 02:31:33,760
jeez, what's going on? The
small lamp turned on next to me,

1600
02:31:35,520 --> 02:31:39,520
and I saw the girl sitting on
the edge of the bed. Her eyes

1601
02:31:39,600 --> 02:31:43,959
narrowed as she stared at me.
I remembered her. She was cute.

1602
02:31:45,879 --> 02:31:48,840
I had met her at the bar
and snap out of it. Okay,

1603
02:31:48,319 --> 02:31:54,360
you awake, you with me?
I felt myself, wanting to go back

1604
02:31:54,399 --> 02:32:01,079
to sleep, but fought the urge
she might slap me again. You hit

1605
02:32:01,159 --> 02:32:05,719
me. Rolling her eyes, she
let out a sigh. Do you feel

1606
02:32:05,760 --> 02:32:13,319
something crawling on you? My eyes
widened as I realized I did. Panicking,

1607
02:32:13,680 --> 02:32:18,319
I began frantically brushing off my chest. What is it? Get it

1608
02:32:18,360 --> 02:32:24,079
off me? I don't see anything. She nodded, Oh, it's there,

1609
02:32:24,760 --> 02:32:28,239
we just can't see it or touch
it this early. But you've got

1610
02:32:28,280 --> 02:32:33,799
bigger issues what you were just in. It's called a hatter's dream. It's

1611
02:32:33,840 --> 02:32:37,360
not a normal dream. And if
you let yourself you can get trapped there,

1612
02:32:37,840 --> 02:32:45,840
lose your mind there. I stared
at her. What how why?

1613
02:32:46,559 --> 02:32:50,920
She started to speak, and then
lowered her gaze before she went on.

1614
02:32:52,360 --> 02:32:56,840
The short version is that I roofed
you. We didn't do anything. I

1615
02:32:56,040 --> 02:33:01,799
just drew on you gesture to a
spot in my arm. There was a

1616
02:33:01,840 --> 02:33:07,360
small black circle connected to a black
rectangle that flared out at the bottom.

1617
02:33:07,719 --> 02:33:15,719
What you drew? What is that? The woman gave a little laugh as

1618
02:33:15,719 --> 02:33:18,879
she held up her hand to show
a similar, more refined tattoo on the

1619
02:33:18,920 --> 02:33:26,360
back. It's a keyhole. I'm
not much of an artist. Just made

1620
02:33:26,360 --> 02:33:31,319
it with a marker and well,
a bit of my blood and spit mixed

1621
02:33:31,360 --> 02:33:35,479
in. I pushed away from her
as I sat up more in the bed.

1622
02:33:37,680 --> 02:33:43,559
What the hell, what are you
sick with? Her expression was unreadable

1623
02:33:43,879 --> 02:33:48,600
as she met my eyes. Me
nothing now, I mean thanks to you.

1624
02:33:50,719 --> 02:33:54,079
It's not like a normal disease.
It moves around but doesn't leave anything

1625
02:33:54,120 --> 02:34:00,399
behind. You give it with a
keyhole and the spit and black thing.

1626
02:34:01,959 --> 02:34:09,200
I started shaking my head. You're
crazy, she laughed again. No,

1627
02:34:09,000 --> 02:34:13,600
I don't think so, not anymore. It stopped crawling on me as soon

1628
02:34:13,639 --> 02:34:18,239
as I put myself into the drawing. But my father was crazy. He

1629
02:34:18,399 --> 02:34:24,319
was crazy for nearly two years before
i'd listened to him. I saw she

1630
02:34:24,440 --> 02:34:28,760
was crying now. He told me
these stories about a madness he'd found,

1631
02:34:30,680 --> 02:34:33,920
not a problem with the brain or
the mind, but a living thing that

1632
02:34:35,120 --> 02:34:41,120
hunted and crawled from person to person
until they were drained dry. When I

1633
02:34:41,200 --> 02:34:45,440
finally got desperate enough to have him
back, I started to pay attention,

1634
02:34:46,719 --> 02:34:52,079
and it didn't take long before I
believed he wanted me to help him escape

1635
02:34:52,079 --> 02:34:56,399
the hospital so we could find someone
to give it to. But I knew

1636
02:34:56,440 --> 02:35:01,479
that would never work, and I
I could see his grip was slipping.

1637
02:35:03,680 --> 02:35:07,159
She wiped out her eyes, So
I finally convinced him to teach me what

1638
02:35:07,280 --> 02:35:11,079
needed to be done and give it
to me, just for a little while.

1639
02:35:13,159 --> 02:35:16,479
He made me promise to find someone
cruel and evil that deserved it.

1640
02:35:16,559 --> 02:35:20,200
But how do I know? And
I couldn't stand feeling it on me,

1641
02:35:20,879 --> 02:35:28,000
knowing that it was boring into my
brain. I shuddered. She was right.

1642
02:35:30,079 --> 02:35:33,600
I could feel it still, like
a faint breeze that wasn't there,

1643
02:35:33,719 --> 02:35:37,239
not just on my chest, but
in the dark, behind my eyes,

1644
02:35:39,120 --> 02:35:46,040
rustling around, feeling for cracks and
wounds to exploit. Geez, stop,

1645
02:35:46,360 --> 02:35:50,360
she grabbed my hand. No,
I need you to understand, so you

1646
02:35:50,399 --> 02:35:54,360
have a chance. I didn't do
this to mess up or ruin your life.

1647
02:35:56,000 --> 02:35:58,159
It's not personal. I did it
to save me and my dad,

1648
02:35:58,760 --> 02:36:01,879
and you can do the same thing
that I did, and maybe you can

1649
02:36:01,879 --> 02:36:07,680
find someone that actually deserves it.
Just stay awake, get tons of caffeine

1650
02:36:07,799 --> 02:36:13,760
or pills or whatever. I grabbed
around back, clenched my teeth. Why

1651
02:36:13,799 --> 02:36:18,280
don't I just put it back in
you? She shook her head and she

1652
02:36:18,360 --> 02:36:22,399
waved her other hand again. It
won't work, Dad says, it won't

1653
02:36:22,440 --> 02:36:28,360
take the same keyhole twice. Standing
up, she pulled away and stepped to

1654
02:36:28,440 --> 02:36:33,239
the other side of the room.
Still. I figured you'd be mad.

1655
02:36:33,760 --> 02:36:37,000
That's why I'm going to leave before
the drugs were off enough for you to

1656
02:36:37,079 --> 02:36:43,040
chase me. I tried to move
my legs, and she was right.

1657
02:36:43,239 --> 02:36:48,479
They were there and I could feel
them, but everything still felt loose and

1658
02:36:48,600 --> 02:36:56,120
liquid below my waist, You asshole. The woman nodded, yeah, I

1659
02:36:56,120 --> 02:37:05,120
guess I am, and I am
sorry. Good luck, and then she

1660
02:37:05,319 --> 02:37:09,040
was gone. It was another thirty
minutes before I could get up and walk

1661
02:37:09,079 --> 02:37:13,440
to the door. We'd been in
a cheap motel room not far from the

1662
02:37:13,479 --> 02:37:18,399
bar I remembered going to. But
this late, all the bosses were gone

1663
02:37:18,799 --> 02:37:24,879
and taxis were few and far between. I wound up sitting on a bench

1664
02:37:24,079 --> 02:37:28,719
for nearly an hour waiting for a
ride chair to come, dipping in and

1665
02:37:28,799 --> 02:37:35,559
out of strange dreams the entire time. I debated calling the police, but

1666
02:37:35,639 --> 02:37:43,639
I wasn't sure what to tell them, and it was embarrassing drugged by some

1667
02:37:43,760 --> 02:37:48,079
cute but insane woman that drwun me
and made up some bizarre story. I

1668
02:37:48,159 --> 02:37:52,680
decided to just get home, get
some sleep, and decide what to do

1669
02:37:52,760 --> 02:38:01,360
the next morning. Except I didn't
wake up the next morning. Instead,

1670
02:38:01,920 --> 02:38:07,920
it was three days later. I
was laying in a bed covered with dried

1671
02:38:07,959 --> 02:38:11,319
pea and feces, and I was
so dehydrated that I had to crawl to

1672
02:38:11,399 --> 02:38:16,360
the bathroom to drink out of the
toilet because I couldn't reach the sink.

1673
02:38:16,840 --> 02:38:22,840
I remembered where I'd been. It
wasn't just one place. Some other time

1674
02:38:24,040 --> 02:38:26,280
I was back in the town that
was being terrorized by the death train.

1675
02:38:28,200 --> 02:38:33,479
Other times I was underground somewhere crawling
through a tunnel littered with wrappers and bits

1676
02:38:33,479 --> 02:38:37,639
of candy. I spent several hours
in a building with fleshy walls that bled

1677
02:38:37,719 --> 02:38:43,319
when you touched them and groaned with
every step you tuque, something lived in

1678
02:38:43,360 --> 02:38:48,719
those walls and was after me.
So I had to keep moving, despite

1679
02:38:48,719 --> 02:38:52,799
the stink and the noise and the
blood, on and on through one terrible

1680
02:38:52,799 --> 02:39:00,319
thing and then another, and the
entire time my unseen invader was crawling all

1681
02:39:00,360 --> 02:39:05,799
over me, probing me and lightly
biting, as though testing the flavor of

1682
02:39:05,840 --> 02:39:11,760
its new found meat. I say
all of this because I want you to

1683
02:39:11,840 --> 02:39:16,760
understand that I believe you now,
and I want you to know that,

1684
02:39:18,280 --> 02:39:24,079
like you said, it's not personal, it's not going to work. I

1685
02:39:24,120 --> 02:39:31,000
already told you. I laughed a
little, turning on the headlamp so I

1686
02:39:31,040 --> 02:39:35,760
could see better in the darkened room. I finally found her hold up in

1687
02:39:35,120 --> 02:39:41,040
after weeks of tracking her down.
I disagree. I've given it a lot

1688
02:39:41,079 --> 02:39:46,360
of thought. I can still give
it to you. I just need to

1689
02:39:46,399 --> 02:39:50,760
get rid of your little keyhole.
She was crying hard now as she tried

1690
02:39:50,799 --> 02:39:56,040
to pull free from her restraints.
It's a tattoo, he made me.

1691
02:39:56,040 --> 02:39:58,760
Get a tattoo, so I couldn't
get it back. After I got rid

1692
02:39:58,760 --> 02:40:03,959
of it, I grinded her,
stinging, sweat streaming into my eyes,

1693
02:40:05,280 --> 02:40:13,319
but that was okay. The pain
made everything sharper, just like the machette.

1694
02:40:13,559 --> 02:40:18,639
I made it extra sharp for a
clean cut. I pulled the blade

1695
02:40:18,639 --> 02:40:24,920
out from my rucksack and she began
to struggle harder. Then he should have

1696
02:40:24,959 --> 02:40:31,079
told you to put it somewhere less
expendable. No, no, no.

1697
02:40:33,239 --> 02:40:37,760
I could hardly hear her screaming as
a piercing whistle filled my ears. Raising

1698
02:40:37,760 --> 02:40:43,440
the blade in both hands, I
took a small practice chop before lining up

1699
02:40:43,479 --> 02:40:48,360
the final cut. It would all
be over soon, and would I miss

1700
02:40:48,399 --> 02:40:56,159
it? I'd be lying if I
said there wasn't two minds about it.

1701
02:40:56,200 --> 02:41:00,799
Tightening my grip on the sweat slicked
handle, I let out all as I

1702
02:41:00,879 --> 02:41:07,440
brought it down. Wasn't as terrible
and musical as the high pitched thrilling in

1703
02:41:07,479 --> 02:41:15,200
my ears, but it still felt
right. Chew, chew, cheo.

1704
02:41:24,200 --> 02:41:30,799
The walls shake, The secretive mechanisms
of the machine rattle all around us,

1705
02:41:31,600 --> 02:41:37,239
muted like distant thunder. The six
of us are gently rocked, highly conscious

1706
02:41:37,280 --> 02:41:43,959
of the reverberations. It sounds so
far away, Zeemon matters in his thick

1707
02:41:45,040 --> 02:41:50,719
polish accent. I lock up at
him. Kim responds with an uneasy chuckle.

1708
02:41:52,959 --> 02:41:56,840
I was just thinking the same thing. The two smile at each other

1709
02:41:58,920 --> 02:42:05,360
reassurance. I think she glances at
me, then adjusts her weapon. I

1710
02:42:05,440 --> 02:42:09,120
reach a hand to my forehead to
rub away a thin sheen of sweat.

1711
02:42:11,399 --> 02:42:16,200
Before embarking on this particular mission,
I did not admit to the others the

1712
02:42:16,239 --> 02:42:24,360
intensity of my claustrophobia. I grimace
and look around at the windowless inner walls

1713
02:42:24,360 --> 02:42:28,959
of the submarine, and I try
not to think about the enormity of the

1714
02:42:28,000 --> 02:42:33,319
weight of the water above our heads, the weight growing heavier and heavier by

1715
02:42:33,360 --> 02:42:39,360
the minute as we sink deeper and
deeper into the depths of the Atlantic.

1716
02:42:39,799 --> 02:42:46,040
Ten minutes still docking wobbles a distorted
voice through the overhead speaker, accompanied by

1717
02:42:46,040 --> 02:42:52,200
a dim red light. An unseen
cloud of anxiety flows through the cabin like

1718
02:42:52,319 --> 02:43:00,840
gas, and I scratch my jaw, discomfited and unsettled. It reeks in

1719
02:43:00,879 --> 02:43:05,959
here. It smells like rank,
stale pool water and sweat, sweat with

1720
02:43:07,120 --> 02:43:13,799
metallic undertones. Simon slides off his
glasses, then rubs them on the material

1721
02:43:13,879 --> 02:43:20,639
of his military fatigues to little success. He mutters something to himself and polish

1722
02:43:20,000 --> 02:43:26,840
as he pushes them back up onto
his nose. The six of us have

1723
02:43:26,120 --> 02:43:33,799
very different backgrounds, but what we
share is our common station and NATO barracks

1724
02:43:33,879 --> 02:43:39,000
at the edge of Germany nearly time. Now, says the man to my

1725
02:43:39,120 --> 02:43:43,719
left, Blaine, a Scotsman who
lives in my quarters. I let's get

1726
02:43:43,719 --> 02:43:48,360
the show on the road, shall
we. I raise my eyebrows at him

1727
02:43:48,639 --> 02:43:54,879
and give him a grim half smile, but no one replies. Directly to

1728
02:43:56,000 --> 02:44:00,920
his left is Rudy, an American
keen to tell anyone who will about his

1729
02:44:01,040 --> 02:44:07,319
German heritage, despite having O'Reilly as
a last name, which I get some

1730
02:44:07,399 --> 02:44:13,479
personal amusement from. I'm married to
a German myself, a wonderful woman called

1731
02:44:13,559 --> 02:44:18,239
Nina, but the only actual German
natives amongst us this evening are Kim and

1732
02:44:18,399 --> 02:44:24,719
Manny. Kim's a good friend of
Nina's, though we're not actually particularly well

1733
02:44:24,760 --> 02:44:30,399
acquainted. I see her around the
barracks, but we don't have much in

1734
02:44:30,479 --> 02:44:35,559
common. When we speak, we
tend to speak about my wife, which,

1735
02:44:35,600 --> 02:44:39,399
aside from the army, is our
only real point of shared investment.

1736
02:44:39,920 --> 02:44:46,520
Kim sometimes jokes that she knows Nina
better than I do. I'm not sure

1737
02:44:46,520 --> 02:44:52,959
how I feel about such jokes,
but she's nice enough. Beside her is

1738
02:44:54,000 --> 02:45:00,520
the other German, born and bred, and that's Manny, currently snoozing.

1739
02:45:01,079 --> 02:45:05,600
Manny's an old boy, a grandson
in fact, of one of the men

1740
02:45:05,639 --> 02:45:13,120
who helped from the installations we're about
to visit. He's sleeping for now.

1741
02:45:13,799 --> 02:45:18,159
Not sure how he manages it,
but he's a trooper. I look down

1742
02:45:18,200 --> 02:45:24,079
at my boots and reflect on the
objectives at hand. Exit the submarine,

1743
02:45:24,600 --> 02:45:31,680
enter into the bunker, gather intel, report back. Simple enough, I

1744
02:45:31,680 --> 02:45:39,040
suppose. But the bunker is one
of several a relic from the Second World

1745
02:45:39,079 --> 02:45:43,399
War and kindly left behind by the
Germans, near unreachable at the bottom of

1746
02:45:43,440 --> 02:45:50,200
the Atlantic Ocean. There aren't many
pictures of these bunkers, and of the

1747
02:45:50,200 --> 02:45:56,559
pictures that do exist, it's difficult
to determine scale horse eyes, but by

1748
02:45:56,600 --> 02:46:03,040
all accounts, the bunkers on monstrous
things, massive installations of concrete and metal

1749
02:46:03,520 --> 02:46:07,120
and god knows what else, spread
in a rough half circle around the entrance

1750
02:46:07,159 --> 02:46:13,399
to the Mediterranean. Earlier to day, the six of US flew out from

1751
02:46:13,399 --> 02:46:18,079
gailic Kershen transferred to submarine at the
lease On Naval Base, and it's been

1752
02:46:18,120 --> 02:46:24,000
a long, miserable rout west from
there. Every team that goes to the

1753
02:46:24,000 --> 02:46:31,399
bunkers reports back the same thing,
that there are no major threats, there's

1754
02:46:31,440 --> 02:46:35,360
nothing to be found of interest,
and since they're causing no environmental damage,

1755
02:46:35,639 --> 02:46:43,639
impose no strategic threat, NATO might
as well leave them be. Operations out

1756
02:46:43,760 --> 02:46:48,600
into the ocean to destroy and clean
up the wreckage are expensive and time consuming,

1757
02:46:48,760 --> 02:46:52,639
and let's face it, there's always
something more important to deal with.

1758
02:46:54,040 --> 02:46:58,360
And some forgotten concrete halls at the
bottom of the sea. Some busy,

1759
02:46:58,360 --> 02:47:03,280
buzzy native no pen pusher must have
noticed the bunkers were years overdue a visit,

1760
02:47:03,399 --> 02:47:07,520
and I guess kicked up a fuss, and so the papers were shuffled

1761
02:47:07,680 --> 02:47:13,879
and pawns moved around the board.
And here we are, on the way

1762
02:47:13,920 --> 02:47:22,600
down, down into the deep.
I try not to think about the tight

1763
02:47:22,879 --> 02:47:26,559
metal confines of the submarine. I
pray that I will be afforded more space

1764
02:47:26,600 --> 02:47:31,719
to move and think and breathe.
When were actually inside the bunker. The

1765
02:47:31,799 --> 02:47:37,239
little red light by the speaker flicks
back into life, and the jumbled voice

1766
02:47:37,319 --> 02:47:43,000
comes through once again, this time
louder, with a whiplike electronic crackling.

1767
02:47:43,559 --> 02:47:50,200
Five minutes to go, it says, as I start with alarm. Manny

1768
02:47:50,440 --> 02:47:54,040
is frightened out of his sleep.
With a gasp and a raspy exclamation,

1769
02:47:56,479 --> 02:48:01,120
he splutters out a name that I
do not recognize, that means nothing to

1770
02:48:01,120 --> 02:48:05,040
me, Friedrich, he calls out
into the gloom, jumping to his feet

1771
02:48:05,079 --> 02:48:09,959
in panic. I hear some of
the bones in his legs click as he

1772
02:48:09,000 --> 02:48:16,120
does so. Jesus Zeemon mutters,
reaching a hand to his chest, scare

1773
02:48:16,159 --> 02:48:22,000
the life out of me. The
eyes in the submarine regard Manny warily,

1774
02:48:22,719 --> 02:48:30,239
this is not the first time he
has had such an outburst. Friedrich Many

1775
02:48:30,280 --> 02:48:35,639
mumbles again, looking around the vessel
at his fellow passengers, expression glazed confusion

1776
02:48:35,920 --> 02:48:43,440
marked across his face. Kim reaches
up for his arm. The dreams again,

1777
02:48:43,479 --> 02:48:48,479
Many, she asks, gently,
beckoning him back down, and he

1778
02:48:48,600 --> 02:48:52,360
just stares at her for a moment, then relents, slowly sinking back onto

1779
02:48:52,399 --> 02:48:58,840
the bench, rubbing at the gray
around his temples. Warily yes, apologies.

1780
02:49:00,559 --> 02:49:03,959
I don't know what comes over me. They have been getting worse.

1781
02:49:05,440 --> 02:49:11,159
What was it this time, Kimmie
asks him. He shakes his head.

1782
02:49:11,879 --> 02:49:16,479
It's already fading, but I believe
it was similar to before. The people

1783
02:49:16,479 --> 02:49:20,399
I saw in the dreamscape were none
that I have actually met. I do

1784
02:49:20,520 --> 02:49:26,120
not recall having ever seen them,
not in his life. In my dream,

1785
02:49:26,159 --> 02:49:31,840
however, I knew them. I
knew them all. They were important

1786
02:49:31,840 --> 02:49:35,319
to me. We were in a
field of long grass and there was a

1787
02:49:35,319 --> 02:49:43,120
young man, Frederic. He was
going to war. Kim choose her cheek

1788
02:49:43,159 --> 02:49:48,159
a little as she considers this.
I don't think I expected him to come

1789
02:49:48,200 --> 02:49:54,440
back, Manny says quietly, as
the submarine rumbles. I knew that he

1790
02:49:54,559 --> 02:50:00,840
was being sent to his death.
They're connected to your grandfather, Kim says,

1791
02:50:00,920 --> 02:50:05,719
with self imposed certainty. I'm sure
of it. That's why they're getting

1792
02:50:05,760 --> 02:50:09,680
worse. Ever since you volunteered to
come on the mission, your subconscious and

1793
02:50:09,760 --> 02:50:15,120
knew you'd be getting closer to him, to his place of work. Lord

1794
02:50:15,159 --> 02:50:18,879
of bull Crap, Rudy chimes in, his hair flopping as he leaned forward

1795
02:50:18,959 --> 02:50:24,399
over his gun. Kim, you
got to stop with this supernatural nonsense.

1796
02:50:24,959 --> 02:50:28,719
It's all in your mind. Many. In fact, Kim, you hit

1797
02:50:28,719 --> 02:50:31,399
the nail on the head just now. It's all in your subconscious manner.

1798
02:50:33,200 --> 02:50:37,600
Just let it go. It'll be
some repressed German guilt or something. He

1799
02:50:37,680 --> 02:50:43,239
chaps a finger towards Manny and forows
his brow. I've said it before,

1800
02:50:43,319 --> 02:50:46,840
and i'll say it again. You
aren't guilty of any kind of World War

1801
02:50:46,879 --> 02:50:52,319
II crimes just because his granddaddy was
an SS officer or whatever. Many sighs

1802
02:50:52,360 --> 02:50:58,440
warily. He reaches his hand into
a pocket and produces a handkerchief, which

1803
02:50:58,479 --> 02:51:03,440
he used the ab his forehead.
I'm well aware of this, he responds

1804
02:51:03,520 --> 02:51:09,479
dryly. My grandfather was not in
the SS. But I appreciate your passion

1805
02:51:09,520 --> 02:51:15,239
on this matter. Damn straight,
Rudy replies, leaning back in his seat.

1806
02:51:16,799 --> 02:51:22,479
Plaine and I exchange a look.
I can empathize at least a little

1807
02:51:22,520 --> 02:51:28,799
with Manny's internal struggle regarding his German
grandfather. I mean, my wife shares

1808
02:51:28,799 --> 02:51:33,840
his burden. That's her own great
grandfather. What was a colleague of his?

1809
02:51:35,360 --> 02:51:39,159
They both work together in a close
capacity, I am told, or

1810
02:51:39,200 --> 02:51:46,120
at least that's what the records indicate. Prepare for docking crackles the voice through

1811
02:51:46,120 --> 02:51:50,559
the speaker, and for a second
or two, the light in the submarine

1812
02:51:50,600 --> 02:51:58,440
falters, shrouding us all in temporary
sickly darkness. I suppress a shudder as

1813
02:51:58,440 --> 02:52:03,719
we get ready to disembark, and
the rumbling all around us wave us intermittently

1814
02:52:03,879 --> 02:52:11,440
between louder and quieter, louder and
quieter. The sounds of the engine rise

1815
02:52:11,520 --> 02:52:16,959
to the greatest volume since we left
the port at Lisbon, then fade to

1816
02:52:16,000 --> 02:52:22,959
a soft and steady background. Murmur. Plane rises to his feet. Let's

1817
02:52:24,040 --> 02:52:28,000
check this place out, then the
first bunker reckon. We'll find anything fun,

1818
02:52:31,040 --> 02:52:35,639
semon joins him, stretching as he
does so. I doubt it.

1819
02:52:35,319 --> 02:52:39,360
They reac on this place every one
ten or so years, and they've never

1820
02:52:39,399 --> 02:52:45,159
brought back anything interesting. I doubt
we'll see any more than a collection of

1821
02:52:45,280 --> 02:52:50,360
dusty World War two ruins. You
don't find that interesting, I ask,

1822
02:52:50,680 --> 02:52:56,719
as I prepared to disembark. More
bit sure, but not even a little

1823
02:52:56,760 --> 02:53:03,559
interesting. Makes a noise of disgust
and mutters something to himself. I find

1824
02:53:03,600 --> 02:53:09,000
no interest in the droppings of vermin, he says, and turns away.

1825
02:53:09,799 --> 02:53:13,879
The cynic in me sees Semen shoots
a quick glance at Manny before he does

1826
02:53:13,879 --> 02:53:18,680
so, and this cynical part of
me is keen to interpret it with dark

1827
02:53:18,719 --> 02:53:24,680
thoughts, but that would do the
man a disservice. Semon is a good

1828
02:53:24,680 --> 02:53:31,239
fellow, hard working. Plane heads
through the narrow inner body of the submarine

1829
02:53:31,239 --> 02:53:37,079
towards the ladders, and Semen follows
on. Behind Behind him goes Rudy,

1830
02:53:37,520 --> 02:53:41,639
flicking his hair from his face,
and he's followed by Kim and Manny.

1831
02:53:43,159 --> 02:53:48,079
Manny places a hand on my shoulder
and gives me a tired smile as he

1832
02:53:48,120 --> 02:53:52,399
passes me by. I return it. Then, with a deep sigh of

1833
02:53:52,440 --> 02:53:58,159
relief, I say goodbye to this
room in the submarine. For now I'm

1834
02:53:58,200 --> 02:54:03,639
looking forward to a little more space
to breathe. One by one, we

1835
02:54:03,680 --> 02:54:11,360
ascend the ladders and out through the
circular hatch in the submarine's roof. I

1836
02:54:11,479 --> 02:54:15,680
allow in a great lungful of air
as I do so, squinting through the

1837
02:54:15,799 --> 02:54:20,399
darkness. As I fumble for my
torch, switching it on and joining its

1838
02:54:20,479 --> 02:54:24,840
yellow gold beam with the others.
We stand on the cold metal roof of

1839
02:54:24,879 --> 02:54:31,040
the submarine, half visible, protruding
like an iron whale. From the black

1840
02:54:31,079 --> 02:54:37,479
waters below, lapping hungrily at its
sides. Ahead of us is a steel

1841
02:54:37,600 --> 02:54:43,680
rail and a vast concrete platform that
extends into shadow. The bunker from the

1842
02:54:43,719 --> 02:54:50,239
inside has the look of an enormous
hangar. Kim taps my shoulder, then

1843
02:54:50,319 --> 02:54:54,920
gestures up towards the back of the
hall, closer to the ceiling, and

1844
02:54:56,159 --> 02:55:01,000
I follow her gaze and raise my
light. Our beams fall upon a colossal

1845
02:55:01,079 --> 02:55:07,719
eagle carved into a sheet of rock, itself embedded in concrete. The eagle

1846
02:55:07,879 --> 02:55:16,440
is angular and cold as it sits
proudly upon its logo. Seamen crosses himself

1847
02:55:16,520 --> 02:55:20,479
and spits into the water, before
taking a few long steps and leaping from

1848
02:55:20,479 --> 02:55:26,479
the edge of the submarine's roof to
the concrete platform, his boots scraping against

1849
02:55:26,520 --> 02:55:31,319
the side. He hauls himself up
with the aid of the steel rail,

1850
02:55:31,040 --> 02:55:35,079
and we listen to the sounds of
his boots against the ground as he looks

1851
02:55:35,079 --> 02:55:41,920
for the mechanism which will release a
bridge for safer passage. He was in

1852
02:55:41,959 --> 02:55:46,360
the file, so it shouldn't be
too hard to find. I glanced down

1853
02:55:46,479 --> 02:55:50,239
into the water below. The smell
of salt is thick in the air.

1854
02:55:52,600 --> 02:55:56,719
I am unable to keep from my
head the fleeting thought of a sudden slip,

1855
02:55:56,440 --> 02:56:03,000
of tumbling down into that dark and
rightly rippling water, its softness,

1856
02:56:03,159 --> 02:56:07,200
a dark mass to conceal the terror
of its icy depths, an unforgiving pull

1857
02:56:07,479 --> 02:56:16,280
hidden away beneath. I shiver and
look away. A few cold moments pass,

1858
02:56:16,239 --> 02:56:20,440
and with the eventual rattling of gears
and springs, a bridge begins to

1859
02:56:20,479 --> 02:56:26,600
extend from the side of the concrete
out towards our spot on the sub plane

1860
02:56:26,639 --> 02:56:33,680
tests it first, and then one
by one we cross, joining Simon and

1861
02:56:33,719 --> 02:56:39,639
the platform proper. We begin to
cross the floor, making our way towards

1862
02:56:39,680 --> 02:56:45,280
the gritted double doors at the hall's
far end, At present, only gloomy

1863
02:56:45,360 --> 02:56:52,479
rectangles in the distance. I feel
very small in here, even as a

1864
02:56:52,520 --> 02:57:01,040
part of a team of six.
I can't help but feel insignificant, dwarfed

1865
02:57:01,079 --> 02:57:07,559
by the intensity of this deserted lair. This is a sick place, Many

1866
02:57:07,600 --> 02:57:13,280
says in a low voice, his
eyes flashed momentarily as a straight beam of

1867
02:57:13,360 --> 02:57:20,879
light passes across his face. Do
you feel it, Oliver? After a

1868
02:57:20,920 --> 02:57:26,920
beat, I nod in agreement.
There is something wrong here, something on

1869
02:57:26,000 --> 02:57:33,360
a level. I can't quite grasp
just yet. I glance up to the

1870
02:57:33,399 --> 02:57:37,920
Eagle as we walk beneath it.
This is no passing fancy historical sight.

1871
02:57:39,639 --> 02:57:46,000
Are you are right, I ask
him, yes, he replies, for

1872
02:57:46,159 --> 02:57:52,079
now, I don't know exactly why
many volunteered for this mission. He's the

1873
02:57:52,159 --> 02:57:56,799
only one who volunteered for one thing. The rest of us was simply ordered.

1874
02:57:58,520 --> 02:58:03,520
I think he hold some strings and
cashed in some favors, convinced the

1875
02:58:03,520 --> 02:58:09,920
brass he'd be of use given his
knowledge of an experience in decommissioning warmer German

1876
02:58:09,000 --> 02:58:18,200
World War Two sites and places of
relevance. It's true what Kim was saying

1877
02:58:18,239 --> 02:58:24,319
earlier as well. His grandfather was
prominent in World War II, vanished without

1878
02:58:24,360 --> 02:58:28,239
a trace one day. There's no
record of his death, but he did

1879
02:58:28,280 --> 02:58:33,159
work down here, at least for
a time. That much is known.

1880
02:58:35,079 --> 02:58:39,040
One of the first reacon teams down
to this bunker recovered some old files.

1881
02:58:41,120 --> 02:58:46,520
Manny's grandfather was one of the listed
names found within. You reckon we'll find

1882
02:58:46,559 --> 02:58:50,559
any bodies playing, calls back over
his shoulder, just a little too loud

1883
02:58:50,600 --> 02:58:58,040
for the environment. I cringe,
but Rudy replies, undeterred, I should

1884
02:58:58,079 --> 02:59:01,879
think, so I find myself and
skull to take home as a souvenir.

1885
02:59:03,239 --> 02:59:07,040
We reached the metal double doors at
the end of the hall, and with

1886
02:59:07,120 --> 02:59:11,159
a look round the group, Plane
presses his shoulder against them and forces one

1887
02:59:11,200 --> 02:59:16,799
open. We slipped through the gap
in formation, checking down the long,

1888
02:59:18,079 --> 02:59:22,959
dark corridors that branch out before us
and beside us, disappearing into the void

1889
02:59:24,040 --> 02:59:30,040
on our left and to our right. No Manny, says, his voice

1890
02:59:30,079 --> 02:59:33,479
echoing down between the walls. The
reports made no notes of any bodies found,

1891
02:59:33,920 --> 02:59:39,520
German or otherwise. Whatever they were
doing here, they didn't stick around.

1892
02:59:41,879 --> 02:59:46,719
So then where did they go?
Simon ponders aloud, arking his weapon

1893
02:59:46,840 --> 02:59:52,719
around as he steps into a deserted
room nearby, perhaps once used for briefings

1894
02:59:52,799 --> 02:59:58,719
or meetings. They wouldn't have just
vanished into thin air. We might see

1895
02:59:58,719 --> 03:00:05,239
a body, says The group looks
at her. A man was killed during

1896
03:00:05,239 --> 03:00:11,840
the last expedition, a soldier French. I think, oh yeah, Rudy

1897
03:00:11,920 --> 03:00:16,079
mutters, rubbing his nose. How'd
that happen again? Freak accident? Right,

1898
03:00:18,200 --> 03:00:22,440
that's right, Plaine says, That's
what I was talking about. Really,

1899
03:00:22,040 --> 03:00:28,079
Apparently the poor bugger got knocked clean
cold by a falling pipe. Might

1900
03:00:28,120 --> 03:00:33,079
have been a ceiling panel or something
actually, but whatever. The report read

1901
03:00:33,159 --> 03:00:35,879
that he was face down and drowned
in a puddle. When the rest of

1902
03:00:35,879 --> 03:00:41,000
his team found him. They didn't
have the capacity to remove the fallen material,

1903
03:00:41,639 --> 03:00:45,200
so they were forced to just leave
him down here. Don't believe he's

1904
03:00:45,239 --> 03:00:48,639
ever recovered, since we're the first
guys to walk these corridors in over a

1905
03:00:48,680 --> 03:00:56,280
decade, so they just left him
down here. Seemon asks, that's cold,

1906
03:00:56,760 --> 03:01:03,239
inhumane or most I don't think they
had a choice. Sigh, Kim

1907
03:01:03,319 --> 03:01:07,280
says, nudging his arm. Maybe
we'll have to leave you down here.

1908
03:01:07,360 --> 03:01:11,520
Hey, not funny, he says, but he chuckles as he does so.

1909
03:01:13,920 --> 03:01:20,600
I'm not particularly amused myself, to
tell the truth, I feel sick.

1910
03:01:22,159 --> 03:01:26,600
Unless they're hiding it better than we
are. It's possible that only Manny

1911
03:01:26,719 --> 03:01:31,760
and myself are actually comprehending the weight
of the monstrosity of this place. The

1912
03:01:31,799 --> 03:01:37,840
others haven't really thought about it,
I don't think. But we're in one

1913
03:01:37,959 --> 03:01:43,079
of six bunkers, this particular one
it is the easiest to reach, supposedly,

1914
03:01:43,799 --> 03:01:48,719
so it's the one that commands keeps
sending their teams too, But something

1915
03:01:48,760 --> 03:01:54,040
of the size, something as massive
as this, hidden away in the darkness

1916
03:01:54,159 --> 03:01:58,840
at the bottom of the ocean.
It's hiding a secret, a terrible,

1917
03:02:00,239 --> 03:02:05,719
frightening secret, and I don't even
know what it is. The place is

1918
03:02:05,760 --> 03:02:11,479
cold, and chills ripple across my
exposed skin as I glanced from left to

1919
03:02:11,559 --> 03:02:16,120
right, peering into the shadows of
the open doorways. As we walk the

1920
03:02:16,200 --> 03:02:22,399
length of the central corridor, deeper
into the middle of the complex. Strategically,

1921
03:02:22,840 --> 03:02:26,360
a bunkle like this would be better
off in the Mediterranean, surely,

1922
03:02:28,239 --> 03:02:33,319
shallower waters, for easier construction,
position between Italy and Libya, for instance,

1923
03:02:33,639 --> 03:02:39,200
for maximum tactical value. But the
Germans took the time and trolled constructed

1924
03:02:39,280 --> 03:02:46,639
out here in the Atlantic. And
for what Why would they do this?

1925
03:02:46,319 --> 03:02:56,639
Where did they go and what exactly
did they leave behind? Silence falls across

1926
03:02:56,639 --> 03:03:01,040
the group. There is no sound
but the clamping of boots, the long,

1927
03:03:01,159 --> 03:03:07,239
low breaths of my comrades echoes round
the walls. At the very edge

1928
03:03:07,239 --> 03:03:11,920
of my hearing, a noise shivers
fast down the length of the hall.

1929
03:03:13,239 --> 03:03:18,280
My heart rate quickens and my ears
sharpen. The simple creak of an old

1930
03:03:18,319 --> 03:03:28,040
structure, I should think, but
it almost sounds like whispering, an almost

1931
03:03:28,200 --> 03:03:33,680
imperceptible whisper at the very threshold of
sound. It's so faint, however,

1932
03:03:35,280 --> 03:03:39,559
that I decided not to bring it
up for fear of looking like an idiot.

1933
03:03:39,600 --> 03:03:46,000
But I share another pointed look with
Kim just beside me. She heard

1934
03:03:46,040 --> 03:03:52,040
it too, Maybe the others did
as well. I glanced to my left

1935
03:03:52,200 --> 03:03:58,799
as Blaine pulls his mask up and
around his nose and mouth. Simon crosses

1936
03:03:58,840 --> 03:04:03,840
himself and he rubs his forehead.
I see that it is covered in beads

1937
03:04:03,840 --> 03:04:11,360
of sweat. We press on.
We'll head to the central room. Then

1938
03:04:11,399 --> 03:04:16,760
we'll split into two teams. Blaine
says through his mask. We get this

1939
03:04:16,840 --> 03:04:22,120
bunger checked out. We reconvene.
He's met with murmurs of ascent. As

1940
03:04:22,159 --> 03:04:28,559
we push through another set of double
doors, smaller this time, and step

1941
03:04:28,719 --> 03:04:33,319
into some kind of lobby, Manny
produces a map and unfolds it, and

1942
03:04:33,399 --> 03:04:39,239
it becomes clear that this lobby will
if we continue head through the complex is

1943
03:04:39,280 --> 03:04:45,600
center. We are halted, however, by the strength of our own sudden

1944
03:04:45,680 --> 03:04:52,319
awe. We stand in the entrance
to a wide room with a high doned

1945
03:04:52,360 --> 03:04:56,559
ceiling. The walls around us are
covered, much to our surprise, in

1946
03:04:56,680 --> 03:05:03,399
plaques and paintings, and in the
room's middle is a now dead fountain,

1947
03:05:03,440 --> 03:05:09,239
the centerpiece of which is a colossal
statue or series of statues, depending on

1948
03:05:09,319 --> 03:05:18,479
your perspective. I crane my neck, struck with disbelief. The statue depicts

1949
03:05:18,520 --> 03:05:24,799
three men of varying age, with
expressions solemn and eyes pure white. A

1950
03:05:24,879 --> 03:05:31,079
long and fish like serpent, carved
from the same foundation, winds itself between

1951
03:05:31,159 --> 03:05:35,520
and around them, way up towards
the ceiling, its straws wide and teeth

1952
03:05:35,559 --> 03:05:41,079
sharp. A dark circular symbol can
be seen on the foreheads of each of

1953
03:05:41,120 --> 03:05:48,719
the three men, stark against the
relative paleness of their stone skin. Disht

1954
03:05:48,920 --> 03:05:56,959
Sony many mutters, taking a step
towards the shadow. He is hauntingly small

1955
03:05:56,000 --> 03:06:03,920
by comparison the Black Sun. Simon
repeats, staring up at the centerpiece with

1956
03:06:03,040 --> 03:06:09,319
horror. What does it mean?
Rudy asks, glancing around the group,

1957
03:06:09,079 --> 03:06:13,280
and what the hell is this thing? Anyway, it ain't in the damn

1958
03:06:13,319 --> 03:06:16,079
report. You'd think at least one
of the teams would have mentioned seeing something

1959
03:06:16,159 --> 03:06:22,159
like this. The Black Son was
one of the many symbols utilized by the

1960
03:06:22,280 --> 03:06:28,440
s s many replies, still staring
up at the great statues. It has

1961
03:06:28,479 --> 03:06:33,079
been employed by many cultures, but
in this instance it was the symbol of

1962
03:06:33,120 --> 03:06:37,920
the Vivelsburg Castle. He turns to
us, the dark home of the German

1963
03:06:37,959 --> 03:06:43,719
World War two foray into the occult
led by none other than Heinrich Himmler,

1964
03:06:43,959 --> 03:06:50,040
German occultists. Rudy responds. Then
he puts out a hand and makes a

1965
03:06:50,079 --> 03:06:54,799
dismissive gesture. No, no,
come on, don't messing with me with

1966
03:06:54,840 --> 03:07:00,959
that summer natural nonsense. Again.
We're dealing with people here, just ordinary

1967
03:07:01,159 --> 03:07:05,760
evil people. He shoots another lock
up to the statue of the three men

1968
03:07:07,680 --> 03:07:15,159
and the creature. Well, he
falters, maybe not that ordinary, but

1969
03:07:15,280 --> 03:07:22,719
you catch my drift seemen grunts and
shakes his head. Not ordinary and not

1970
03:07:22,879 --> 03:07:26,239
people. This place is the husk
for a den of long dead rats.

1971
03:07:28,079 --> 03:07:31,399
Look, come on, man,
I get your hatum. You are alone

1972
03:07:31,399 --> 03:07:35,319
in this, but open your eyes. Rudy throws an arm out to the

1973
03:07:35,360 --> 03:07:41,959
statues beside him. You aren't even
a little impressed or released, I don't

1974
03:07:41,000 --> 03:07:48,079
know. Curious semen scars, then
walks away. Turning his back to the

1975
03:07:48,079 --> 03:07:54,120
statue as he continues his passage around
the perimeter of the room. I take

1976
03:07:54,280 --> 03:07:58,959
another long look at the statue,
then head around on its left hand side,

1977
03:08:00,639 --> 03:08:05,840
the opposite to Seamon. I come
up alongside Blaine, admiring a painting,

1978
03:08:07,559 --> 03:08:11,799
and I stand beside him. I
read a little plaque on the wall,

1979
03:08:13,520 --> 03:08:16,680
one celebrating a visit made this bunker
by Himmler in nineteen forty one,

1980
03:08:18,600 --> 03:08:22,920
and then I consider the painting.
It is housed in a frame of dark,

1981
03:08:24,239 --> 03:08:28,879
rich wood, which is comprised of
a host of grim, swirling colors.

1982
03:08:30,319 --> 03:08:33,840
The scene, despite its lack of
vibrancy, is vivid and powerful.

1983
03:08:35,120 --> 03:08:41,479
It depicts a churning sea and enormous
feels as if I am there myself.

1984
03:08:41,959 --> 03:08:48,840
In a way, I suppose I
am here in this bunker, at the

1985
03:08:48,840 --> 03:08:54,200
bottom of the ocean. The waves
are gray and black and tinged with the

1986
03:08:54,280 --> 03:09:01,680
darkest of blues, frothing angrily as
they crash and cascade into and over each

1987
03:09:01,719 --> 03:09:07,360
other. At the paintings far left
is the silhouette of a shadowed city of

1988
03:09:07,440 --> 03:09:13,040
ruins, protruding faintly from the surging
sea and lost behind the spiraling clouds overhead.

1989
03:09:16,000 --> 03:09:20,399
I am vaguely aware of a low
conversation taking place between Siemon and Kim

1990
03:09:20,840 --> 03:09:26,120
somewhere far behind me, but in
the moment they are overwhelmed by the impossible

1991
03:09:26,200 --> 03:09:33,399
roars of these silent waves. A
lighthouse stands at the far right of the

1992
03:09:33,399 --> 03:09:39,959
painting. Its beacon and eye and
the flash of painted gold looks out over

1993
03:09:39,040 --> 03:09:46,120
the storm and cast alone, solemn
beamed towards the fallen city. The lighthouse,

1994
03:09:46,399 --> 03:09:52,799
upon a closer inspection, is comprised
of bodies, hundreds and hundreds of

1995
03:09:52,840 --> 03:10:01,479
broken bodies intertwined with torturous new purpose. It's awful, isn't it, Plaining

1996
03:10:01,559 --> 03:10:07,920
murmurs, and I'm snapped back to
reality with a blink. Yes, I

1997
03:10:09,040 --> 03:10:15,079
reply, after a beat, glancing
down to the little silver tag embedded in

1998
03:10:15,159 --> 03:10:22,200
the painting's frame, the nine thousand, it's called, or in English a

1999
03:10:22,360 --> 03:10:31,440
thousand awful, I repeat, but
still Aye, Blain grunts. It's a

2000
03:10:31,559 --> 03:10:37,680
quality painting. There's a pause,
not something I'd ever hang up in my

2001
03:10:37,680 --> 03:10:45,040
bloody bedroom, though personally, I
chuckled dryly, and we move on.

2002
03:10:46,840 --> 03:10:52,399
Our footsteps are heavy against the concrete
below. Rudy made a point just now,

2003
03:10:52,879 --> 03:10:56,319
I say out loud as we walk. Blaine waits for me to continue.

2004
03:10:58,280 --> 03:11:01,959
He said that the statue room,
actually, it's entirely omitted in the

2005
03:11:03,040 --> 03:11:09,079
report. This is meant to be
an uninteresting, unassuming lobby. Instead it's

2006
03:11:09,120 --> 03:11:13,559
filled with the intricate paintings and giant
statues. Why wouldn't this have been mentioned?

2007
03:11:16,040 --> 03:11:20,799
Seems obvious to me, mate,
Blaine replies, because despite what Simon

2008
03:11:20,879 --> 03:11:26,840
says, this stuff is interesting,
and when somebody finds something mysterious and interesting,

2009
03:11:26,360 --> 03:11:31,639
everyone in their grandma wants to come
and have a lock. He hoists

2010
03:11:31,639 --> 03:11:35,399
his gun a little higher, clears
his throat. I'm guessing that this was

2011
03:11:35,440 --> 03:11:41,559
all omitted because the recon teams decided
they didn't want people coming down here.

2012
03:11:43,719 --> 03:11:48,479
I swallow. And why would they
do that, hum, I asked him

2013
03:11:48,559 --> 03:11:52,479
rhetorically. Why wouldn't they want anyone
else coming down? Why keep it all

2014
03:11:52,520 --> 03:12:01,680
so cryptic and silent? Plaine shrugs. Couldn't say. There's something wrong down

2015
03:12:01,719 --> 03:12:05,920
here, I mutter. I'm sure
of it, something very very wrong,

2016
03:12:07,000 --> 03:12:13,159
and every part of me hates this
place. Aye Blaine says, I've started

2017
03:12:13,159 --> 03:12:18,719
feeling a little like that myself.
It's getting worse. Actually, the deeper

2018
03:12:18,760 --> 03:12:24,399
in we go, I nod.
We're going to find something terrible down here.

2019
03:12:24,040 --> 03:12:31,879
I finish. But to this Blaine
says nothing, leaving the statues and

2020
03:12:31,959 --> 03:12:37,719
the defunct fountain behind. We push
through the doors at the hall's opposite end

2021
03:12:37,360 --> 03:12:43,200
and head through into a long,
wide room with two simple doors. We

2022
03:12:43,239 --> 03:12:48,520
are joined by the others. The
door on the left has a plaque that

2023
03:12:48,600 --> 03:12:52,639
reads their control Ram, and the
door on the right is marked only with

2024
03:12:52,760 --> 03:12:58,600
the same symbol. On the foreheads
of the stone giants, the black sun

2025
03:13:00,879 --> 03:13:03,760
my stomach turns, has a look
upon it, and a wave of cold

2026
03:13:03,840 --> 03:13:09,479
nausea passes through me. My heart
rate quickens and I roll my shoulders,

2027
03:13:11,040 --> 03:13:16,440
attempting to release some built up tension. Mannie brings a hand up to his

2028
03:13:16,520 --> 03:13:22,040
head and gasps, and the group
turns to him. Manny Kim says,

2029
03:13:22,040 --> 03:13:26,920
with concern, are you all right? Mannie pats her hand, then steps

2030
03:13:26,959 --> 03:13:35,680
away a little closer to the control
rum. I keep seeing, he falters.

2031
03:13:35,639 --> 03:13:41,079
I'm seeing in my head what I
can only describe as flashes of memory.

2032
03:13:41,920 --> 03:13:48,639
But the memories are not mine.
He gestures to the control raum door.

2033
03:13:50,760 --> 03:13:54,000
There is a man in there,
he says, simply, then looks

2034
03:13:54,000 --> 03:14:01,280
back at us A dead man,
I believe, he rubs the side of

2035
03:14:01,319 --> 03:14:05,719
his forehead. And I've also come
to believe that I was wrong earlier.

2036
03:14:07,719 --> 03:14:13,879
I no longer think this place is
entirely deserted. He points to the door.

2037
03:14:13,959 --> 03:14:20,840
A man's last memories are held behind
that door. Then he strides towards

2038
03:14:20,840 --> 03:14:26,879
it. Manny. Rudy calls out, wait, but the man does not.

2039
03:14:28,440 --> 03:14:33,440
He approaches and grabs the handle,
swinging the door outwards into our corridor

2040
03:14:33,040 --> 03:14:39,600
and shines inside his beam of light. He steps into the room and we

2041
03:14:39,680 --> 03:14:45,760
follow him inside. Christ Explain mutters
as we enter, I guess you found

2042
03:14:45,760 --> 03:14:48,000
your German skull, Rudy, Why
didn't you go and grab it up?

2043
03:14:50,879 --> 03:14:56,399
Rudy doesn't respond. He simply looks
down at the sight before us, a

2044
03:14:56,479 --> 03:15:01,799
skeleton surrounded by dust and empty cans, slumped back in a chair against the

2045
03:15:01,840 --> 03:15:07,799
wall. The bones are wrapped up
in the threads of an old German World

2046
03:15:07,840 --> 03:15:13,319
War II uniform. None of this
is supposed to be down here, Rudy

2047
03:15:13,360 --> 03:15:16,760
says, eventually, why do you
commn keep all this stuff from us?

2048
03:15:18,120 --> 03:15:24,479
It's not command, Blaine replies,
echoing our earlier conversation. It's the recon

2049
03:15:24,559 --> 03:15:28,719
teams. The recon teams write the
reports. So why amid all this?

2050
03:15:30,559 --> 03:15:33,920
Rudy says, as he throws up
his hands. I don't get it.

2051
03:15:33,319 --> 03:15:37,719
This is ain't no ordinary bunker,
and I think we've all realized that by

2052
03:15:37,760 --> 03:15:43,520
now. Kim ignores him. What
is it, Manny, she asks.

2053
03:15:43,760 --> 03:15:50,120
As the man crouches down beside the
skeleton. Manny regards the remains of the

2054
03:15:50,159 --> 03:15:54,719
skeleton. He looks down to the
brown banded book on the desk beside him,

2055
03:15:54,879 --> 03:16:00,280
and he considers the iron cross on
the front of the uniform. A

2056
03:16:00,399 --> 03:16:03,840
hint of a chain can be seen
spilling from one of the front pockets,

2057
03:16:03,520 --> 03:16:07,920
and Manny reaches over to take hold
of it. Hey, should you be

2058
03:16:07,959 --> 03:16:15,280
doing that, Rudy asks, But
Mannie continues and slowly draws from the uniform

2059
03:16:15,559 --> 03:16:20,879
a golden locket in the shape of
an oak leaf. He turns it over

2060
03:16:20,000 --> 03:16:26,319
in his hands. I know this
man, he says, simply, what

2061
03:16:26,520 --> 03:16:31,879
you mean, Kim asks. His
name is Hands. He has a wife

2062
03:16:31,920 --> 03:16:37,239
and a young son, A son
who is no older than eleven or twelve

2063
03:16:37,239 --> 03:16:43,000
at his death. I don't suppose
he'll be that young anymore. Manny playing

2064
03:16:43,040 --> 03:16:48,319
grunts, giving the skeleton's boot a
light kick. A cloud of fine white

2065
03:16:48,440 --> 03:16:52,040
dust bursts out into the room.
I imagine he looks like his father.

2066
03:16:52,159 --> 03:16:58,760
Ere Manny sits the locket on the
desk and Kim reaches out to open it

2067
03:16:58,840 --> 03:17:05,920
up. Inside it's a picture of
a square gewed soldier with closely cropped hair.

2068
03:17:07,280 --> 03:17:11,520
Beside him is a woman dressed in
the style of the nineteen thirties.

2069
03:17:13,840 --> 03:17:18,399
The picture in the locket's other half
is of a young boy, the couple's

2070
03:17:18,440 --> 03:17:24,040
son by the look of him.
Geez Rudy murmurs with dismay, looking from

2071
03:17:24,040 --> 03:17:31,239
the picture to Mannie and back Mannie, Mannie, how did you know that?

2072
03:17:33,319 --> 03:17:37,559
Mannie stands back up with a small
grunt, his legs creaking as he

2073
03:17:37,639 --> 03:17:41,920
does, and he takes the journal
and the desk up into his hands and

2074
03:17:41,000 --> 03:17:48,159
begins to carefully leaf through the pages, even though it likely belonged to a

2075
03:17:48,239 --> 03:17:52,959
monster of a man. He begins, I can never bring myself to be

2076
03:17:52,079 --> 03:17:56,280
anything but gentle when it comes to
the box. I was instilled into me

2077
03:17:56,639 --> 03:18:03,680
a deep respect for the written word. He cautiously turns to the first page

2078
03:18:05,280 --> 03:18:11,319
and points to the name that has
been written in the front margins hands it

2079
03:18:11,399 --> 03:18:18,520
read, yes, Manny says,
quietly, this is him. Sieman and

2080
03:18:18,559 --> 03:18:24,440
Blaine have begun to rummage to the
room, searching through papers and charts and

2081
03:18:24,559 --> 03:18:30,200
various records. Most of the files
have been emptied, and those that remain

2082
03:18:30,479 --> 03:18:35,000
seem to detail only the structural side
of the complex, aspects of the engineering

2083
03:18:35,399 --> 03:18:41,760
and the architecture, though nothing can
be found about the purpose of or meaning

2084
03:18:41,799 --> 03:18:48,639
behind the intricate statues in the central
lobby. As Kim and Rudy and I

2085
03:18:48,040 --> 03:18:52,559
talk slowly amongst ourselves, and as
Manny begins to read through the journal,

2086
03:18:54,280 --> 03:18:58,360
Sieman takes a little time to skim
through a letter he finds amongst the others

2087
03:18:58,000 --> 03:19:03,399
dugged away on a sh shelf.
He snorts and shakes his head, then

2088
03:19:03,440 --> 03:19:09,559
holds the paper up for us look. Take a look at this, he

2089
03:19:09,639 --> 03:19:13,799
says, slapping the paper down under
the desk beside the skeleton. Have a

2090
03:19:13,920 --> 03:19:18,760
read, he says, before jabbing
his finger onto a couple of choice lines.

2091
03:19:20,479 --> 03:19:24,959
This was written by the German commander
of the bunker, he says,

2092
03:19:24,840 --> 03:19:31,239
by my guess, and it's directed
and our little rat hands here. What

2093
03:19:31,440 --> 03:19:35,360
is it? Asks Kim, as
she leans over to read. It's a

2094
03:19:35,440 --> 03:19:41,319
promise, a false promise that they
will return for him. Simon mutters,

2095
03:19:41,000 --> 03:19:45,000
a promised that his comrades will come
back for him when they are able.

2096
03:19:46,600 --> 03:19:52,399
From where Blaine asks and Simon shrugs. It does not say, does it

2097
03:19:52,520 --> 03:19:58,000
matter? It was clearly a lie. He kicks the legs of the skeleton

2098
03:19:58,120 --> 03:20:03,319
a little harder than and the skeleton
slumps lower down in its chair, with

2099
03:20:03,440 --> 03:20:09,959
another accompanying cloud of dust. They
clearly lied to him. He did his

2100
03:20:09,040 --> 03:20:13,680
duty like a good little soldier and
stayed behind us who god knows what,

2101
03:20:13,559 --> 03:20:18,239
And they forgot all about him,
and he died alone in his chair at

2102
03:20:18,280 --> 03:20:24,399
the bottom of the sea. He
got off, lightly, seeming grimaces,

2103
03:20:24,680 --> 03:20:28,399
and kicks the thigh of the skeleton
as hard as he can, and with

2104
03:20:28,440 --> 03:20:33,319
a shower of white mist, the
skeleton crumbles and collapses into a pile on

2105
03:20:33,360 --> 03:20:37,239
the floor. For goodness sake,
what do you do that for? Rudy

2106
03:20:37,280 --> 03:20:43,200
splutters and coughs idiot, don't talk
to me like that, Simmons retorts,

2107
03:20:43,639 --> 03:20:48,559
then leaves the room, shaking his
head, and he waves a hand around

2108
03:20:48,600 --> 03:20:54,520
his face, dispersing the dust,
squinting as he scans the pages of the

2109
03:20:54,600 --> 03:21:01,159
mysterious journal. Simons's guess seems to
be right, he says, as he

2110
03:21:01,200 --> 03:21:05,639
turns the pages of the journal.
This man's job was to keep the power

2111
03:21:05,719 --> 03:21:11,120
running. He was an engineer and
was, it would seem, tasked with

2112
03:21:11,280 --> 03:21:16,920
repairing and maintaining the system, to
prioritize where the energy should go. He

2113
03:21:16,000 --> 03:21:20,280
points to a passage written near the
bottom of one of the pages. You

2114
03:21:20,360 --> 03:21:26,040
can read this, many, Rudy
asks. To his credit, the journal

2115
03:21:26,200 --> 03:21:31,559
is written not only in German,
but in intricate cursive. Many nods,

2116
03:21:33,280 --> 03:21:37,440
of course. He points again to
the passage, and I do my best

2117
03:21:37,479 --> 03:21:43,840
to read what is written. As
Many continues. Here, he begins speaking

2118
03:21:43,840 --> 03:21:48,479
about a necessary diversion of power and
how he dislikes how cold the bunker has

2119
03:21:48,520 --> 03:21:54,440
become. He also makes references to
fixing and repairing. What kind of guy

2120
03:21:54,639 --> 03:21:58,719
was he, Rudy asks. He
was full of pride, Many says,

2121
03:22:00,079 --> 03:22:05,239
as he carefully turns the pages.
It says he was one of several volunteers

2122
03:22:05,319 --> 03:22:09,840
for this role. He was happy
to do his duty. He gave him

2123
03:22:09,879 --> 03:22:16,680
purpose. We are quiet for a
moment as Manny turns the pages. Hans

2124
03:22:16,719 --> 03:22:22,360
expressed in this journal, his excitement
at being reunited with comrades. But despite

2125
03:22:22,399 --> 03:22:26,159
the loneliness, he knew that they
would return for him when Haure was ready,

2126
03:22:28,120 --> 03:22:31,719
that he too would see the truth, that he would keep the power

2127
03:22:31,760 --> 03:22:35,920
going for as long as they needed. Wait, hang on, Bayine interrupts.

2128
03:22:35,559 --> 03:22:39,319
This guy kept the power on for
how long? And for what?

2129
03:22:41,280 --> 03:22:46,239
Why exactly was he keeping this place
active? There is a pause, and

2130
03:22:46,319 --> 03:22:54,639
Blaine looks around the room. Is
it still active? To this? Of

2131
03:22:54,760 --> 03:23:00,680
course we have no answer. That's
a good point, though, says Kim.

2132
03:23:01,520 --> 03:23:03,280
Does it say what the purpose of
the bonker is in there? Many?

2133
03:23:03,920 --> 03:23:09,079
Does hands write about why he had
to keep the power on? Many

2134
03:23:09,159 --> 03:23:16,280
chooses tongue in thought. He flicks
to another couple of pages. His writing

2135
03:23:16,360 --> 03:23:20,920
is somewhat cryptic in that regard.
Perhaps he feared that the journal with angry

2136
03:23:20,000 --> 03:23:26,719
superiors a potential breach of state secrets. He writes only that his work ongoing

2137
03:23:28,040 --> 03:23:35,760
was to protect He points to a
sentence at the bottom of a paragraph.

2138
03:23:35,879 --> 03:23:46,200
Despite the calligraphy, the words are
quite clear. The nine thousand, Many

2139
03:23:46,360 --> 03:24:00,920
reads aloud, and a chill shivers
across my body. I made cold eye

2140
03:24:01,000 --> 03:24:07,719
contact with Blaine Manny I begin,
but the man continues. He grew angry,

2141
03:24:09,399 --> 03:24:13,840
many mutters, turning page after page, scanning them as quickly as he

2142
03:24:13,920 --> 03:24:20,319
can hands. He grows impatient and
becomes guilty because of his impatience, He's

2143
03:24:20,360 --> 03:24:26,799
frustrated, anxious. Yes, here
he notices fear. He expresses true worry

2144
03:24:26,840 --> 03:24:31,000
for the first time, worry that
they will not return for him before his

2145
03:24:31,040 --> 03:24:35,959
supplies are exhausted. Manny's eyes dart
from left to right across the page.

2146
03:24:37,120 --> 03:24:41,600
We watch him do so. I
find that my heart has begun to pound,

2147
03:24:41,360 --> 03:24:48,440
And eventually Manny turns to the final
entry. Many regards us one by

2148
03:24:48,440 --> 03:24:54,600
one, then reads the passage aloud. I resent what I have done,

2149
03:24:54,760 --> 03:25:00,120
many reads, and I now question
if I have been made a fool,

2150
03:25:00,520 --> 03:25:05,799
and if my superiors were either unable
or unwilling to return. It matters not

2151
03:25:05,920 --> 03:25:11,120
which is the truth, for they
demonstrate the same ends. And besides,

2152
03:25:11,600 --> 03:25:16,959
it is too late. This is
likely to be my last entry. What

2153
03:25:18,040 --> 03:25:22,360
could have happened? If, as
promised, my life was destined to be

2154
03:25:22,440 --> 03:25:26,360
part of something truly greater, then
I would have not been left behind like

2155
03:25:26,399 --> 03:25:31,600
this and forgotten. I have given
everything to the cause, and now the

2156
03:25:31,680 --> 03:25:37,920
end approaches. I will not be
granted a passage to the truth. Maybe

2157
03:25:37,959 --> 03:25:43,639
I deserve this fate. I once
considered D ten thousand to be animals.

2158
03:25:43,360 --> 03:25:50,559
Perhaps they still are vermine and of
a lower standing than myself. But even

2159
03:25:50,600 --> 03:25:54,239
if this were true, to do
what we have done, even to animals,

2160
03:25:54,799 --> 03:26:01,680
no animal deserves such torment, surely
human or otherwise. I cannot shut

2161
03:26:01,719 --> 03:26:07,959
the project down, even though it
might force my comrades return. I do

2162
03:26:07,079 --> 03:26:13,159
not know what they face. I
cannot betray them, not now. I

2163
03:26:13,239 --> 03:26:18,799
have come too far, and so
as this is the path I have chosen,

2164
03:26:18,639 --> 03:26:24,639
I don't doubt I'll be made accountable
for my crimes, not in this

2165
03:26:24,840 --> 03:26:30,639
life. If not in this life, then the next to shut the project

2166
03:26:30,639 --> 03:26:35,159
down would be to admit that it
was all for nothing. And I cannot

2167
03:26:35,159 --> 03:26:41,040
do this. I must do what
I believe to be right. Manny finishes,

2168
03:26:41,079 --> 03:26:46,600
reading aloud, then closes the journal
with a dull thoud, placing it

2169
03:26:46,680 --> 03:26:52,680
back on the desk. Dean thousand
Kim repeats aloud, what could it be?

2170
03:26:54,159 --> 03:26:58,719
I have a theory or two?
Many begins, but he is again

2171
03:26:58,799 --> 03:27:05,920
interrupted. Siemon leans around the open
doorway, his expression dark. No need

2172
03:27:05,959 --> 03:27:11,920
Many He says, I believe that
I have found it. He disappears,

2173
03:27:13,360 --> 03:27:18,479
and hurriedly we follow on, leaving
the control room behind, and catches him

2174
03:27:18,559 --> 03:27:22,559
on up. As he passes through
the second door, the one marked with

2175
03:27:22,639 --> 03:27:28,479
the black sun, we step into
an enormous room, shrouded and flickering green

2176
03:27:28,600 --> 03:27:35,799
and watery light. Simon strides to
the room's middle, and his shadow is

2177
03:27:35,840 --> 03:27:41,760
thrown out long behind him and across
the floor. Oh Kim, murmurs,

2178
03:27:41,280 --> 03:27:46,440
a breathing growing shallower and shallower beside
me. Oh no, oh no.

2179
03:27:48,639 --> 03:27:54,959
My eyes widen, and I take
a step forwards, caught in the clutches

2180
03:27:54,959 --> 03:28:01,120
of terror. Wayne swears, and
Rudy does likewise, across the room to

2181
03:28:01,120 --> 03:28:05,840
catch up with Zimon. Despite the
cold, Manny is now sweating profusely,

2182
03:28:07,600 --> 03:28:11,600
and I can seem shaking in the
corner of my field of vision. But

2183
03:28:11,760 --> 03:28:16,239
each and every one of us stairs
at the towering centerpiece of the hall,

2184
03:28:18,440 --> 03:28:26,319
there is no statue. We stare
at a monstrous translucent box of thick glass,

2185
03:28:26,360 --> 03:28:31,840
refracting it's green in a light across
our faces, across the walls,

2186
03:28:31,440 --> 03:28:37,760
bizarre and ever shifting shapes and shards. It bubbles softly. It whirs,

2187
03:28:39,200 --> 03:28:45,440
and pipes overhead creak warily in the
darkness. It is a tank of sorts,

2188
03:28:46,040 --> 03:28:52,040
filled to the brim with an unknown
green liquid, and inside, drifting

2189
03:28:52,239 --> 03:29:01,079
like wraiths as if caught in the
wind, are hundreds and hundreds of body

2190
03:29:01,680 --> 03:29:07,959
their nude warped. Their eyes are
completely blank, shimmering green through the liquid

2191
03:29:09,360 --> 03:29:13,799
through the light, their mouths hung
open, and figs with expressions of shock

2192
03:29:13,559 --> 03:29:20,440
or of silent horror. Perhaps bubbles
form across their skin. Many of the

2193
03:29:20,520 --> 03:29:24,360
drifters have developed tendrils or frills that
float behind them, like the arms of

2194
03:29:24,360 --> 03:29:33,639
a jellyfish. I look at their
faces behind the glass. It's difficult to

2195
03:29:33,680 --> 03:29:37,559
make them all out, but I
get the strong impression that some are old

2196
03:29:39,040 --> 03:29:43,680
and some are young, Some are
male and some are female. These are

2197
03:29:43,719 --> 03:29:50,360
people from all walks of life.
And here they are drifting in the shimmering

2198
03:29:50,399 --> 03:29:56,799
green light of the tank, way
down here with us beneath the waves.

2199
03:29:58,079 --> 03:30:05,760
The in thousand whispers, the tank
thrumbs and whirs. The bodies within drift

2200
03:30:05,840 --> 03:30:11,159
aimlessly across and around in the fractal
grin light of the water. Although it

2201
03:30:11,200 --> 03:30:16,680
won't be water, of course,
it'll be something else, some other substance.

2202
03:30:18,280 --> 03:30:24,239
I step closer to the glass,
my heart hammering. I've never seen

2203
03:30:24,360 --> 03:30:28,879
anything like this before, of course, none of us have. I peer

2204
03:30:30,000 --> 03:30:33,639
into the tank. I study as
best I can the phases of the corpses

2205
03:30:33,639 --> 03:30:45,280
within, or are they corpses?
I squint. They make me feel ill.

2206
03:30:46,200 --> 03:30:50,879
The distortion of the glass and the
light and the liquid makes it difficult

2207
03:30:50,920 --> 03:30:56,719
to tell if the people inside are
breathing, But they certainly don't appear alive

2208
03:30:58,479 --> 03:31:05,319
in the traditional sense. Their expressions
are fixed in place. Dark veins have

2209
03:31:05,440 --> 03:31:11,360
crept up their host's neck and have
begun to streak across their faces. Whenever

2210
03:31:11,399 --> 03:31:13,760
I think I can see a twitch
and a muscle or in one of those

2211
03:31:13,840 --> 03:31:20,239
mutated veins, I am met with
a doubt that it was perhaps nothing more

2212
03:31:20,280 --> 03:31:24,840
than trickery. In the light,
watching them all drift by, it makes

2213
03:31:24,840 --> 03:31:30,719
my head spin, a release of
breath i'd forgotten I was holding, and

2214
03:31:30,840 --> 03:31:35,760
retreat with a hand on my forehead. This is it, right, Rudy

2215
03:31:35,799 --> 03:31:41,440
says, turning back to face the
group looking rapidly between us. This is

2216
03:31:41,559 --> 03:31:48,879
the thousand, the thousand. I
think about the painting I saw back in

2217
03:31:48,920 --> 03:31:52,920
the lobby, and I meet the
gaze of blame beside me. It's clear

2218
03:31:54,159 --> 03:31:58,600
his thinking about the same thing.
Rudy swears and runs his hand through his

2219
03:31:58,680 --> 03:32:05,120
hair. I didn't sign up for
this, man see Man unclasps and raises

2220
03:32:05,120 --> 03:32:11,600
his weapon. He takes a step
forward. Hey, hey, Rudy calls,

2221
03:32:11,680 --> 03:32:16,639
as voices rise around the group.
Wait, Many bellows, his voice

2222
03:32:16,680 --> 03:32:20,840
cutting through the clamor. An uneasy
quiet holds the group and check for a

2223
03:32:20,879 --> 03:32:26,680
moment, and Manny speaks, let's
all just calm down. We are trained

2224
03:32:26,719 --> 03:32:35,040
professionals. Act accordingly, and frown
flickers across his face and he winces,

2225
03:32:35,639 --> 03:32:39,479
furrowing his brow. A sweat begins
to leak down past his hair line.

2226
03:32:41,079 --> 03:32:46,239
Many Kim says, reaching out,
but Manny gently shakes his head, walking

2227
03:32:46,280 --> 03:32:54,239
towards the tank. What does it
do, Kim ponders aloud, her eyes

2228
03:32:54,280 --> 03:33:00,600
wide. I mean, what's it
for. There was a painting in the

2229
03:33:00,680 --> 03:33:05,479
room with the statues, I say
to her and the group. It was

2230
03:33:05,559 --> 03:33:09,879
called the Thousand. It showed a
lighthouse made of people looking out over a

2231
03:33:09,959 --> 03:33:16,319
storm, and there was a city. Blaine ads as we approached the nearest

2232
03:33:16,360 --> 03:33:20,120
glass wall of the tank, or
at least I think it was hard to

2233
03:33:20,159 --> 03:33:28,200
tell ruins really dark and broken spires. There was a painting with the same

2234
03:33:28,280 --> 03:33:31,399
name on the other side of the
hall to see my nads. It showed

2235
03:33:31,399 --> 03:33:35,959
a ruin from above, and the
layout of the ruin was the same as

2236
03:33:35,000 --> 03:33:41,959
the black sun. The alien green
light reflects off his glasses and obscures his

2237
03:33:41,000 --> 03:33:50,840
eyes. The shape was surrounded by
six golden eyes. We reached the edge

2238
03:33:50,879 --> 03:33:56,479
of the glass. A large metal
panel had been embedded here, easily taller

2239
03:33:56,520 --> 03:34:01,159
than myself, and is connected to
a series of pipes some mechanisms, many

2240
03:34:01,200 --> 03:34:07,239
of which feed through the floor.
A plaque of gold and black has been

2241
03:34:07,239 --> 03:34:13,680
screwed into the panel. It depicts
a faded brown photograph alongside a name and

2242
03:34:13,760 --> 03:34:20,559
what appears to be a handprint,
alongside a list of details written in German.

2243
03:34:22,879 --> 03:34:30,959
The name is that of Manny's grandfather, and he reveals this to the

2244
03:34:31,000 --> 03:34:39,719
group. Damn. Rudy mutters,
this is insane. Plain grunts. I

2245
03:34:39,760 --> 03:34:46,399
see some resemblance Manny, perhaps a
little Manny, says, his eyes scanning

2246
03:34:46,399 --> 03:34:50,639
the information recorded here, though personally
I've always felt I take more after my

2247
03:34:50,760 --> 03:34:56,120
mother's side of the family. He
reaches up a hand and places it against

2248
03:34:56,120 --> 03:35:03,079
the handprint of his grandfather and instantly
recoils with a gasp. Clutching his head,

2249
03:35:03,280 --> 03:35:07,639
he catches his breath, then fourws
his brow, looking up at the

2250
03:35:07,680 --> 03:35:13,920
tank. This thing is an insult
to humanity, he grunts, a tumor.

2251
03:35:15,760 --> 03:35:20,920
Almost every fiber of my being wants
to see it destroyed. But yet

2252
03:35:22,559 --> 03:35:28,280
there is something else as well.
What came? Asks? What is it?

2253
03:35:28,719 --> 03:35:35,680
I keep seeing, Many begins,
then falters. I keep seeing glimpses

2254
03:35:35,879 --> 03:35:41,920
of the water, as if I
am in there amongst them. I see

2255
03:35:41,959 --> 03:35:50,159
myself through the glass, distorted,
just quick flashes. Seeman sucks some air

2256
03:35:50,200 --> 03:35:54,239
in through his teeth. I think
we shut this down. I don't know

2257
03:35:54,280 --> 03:35:58,520
why it has been kept active for
so long, this disgusting secret. What

2258
03:35:58,559 --> 03:36:01,840
do we even suggesting? Here?
Is many able to see through the eyes

2259
03:36:01,879 --> 03:36:09,799
of these bodies in the water.
Are they alive? His final word echoes

2260
03:36:09,840 --> 03:36:16,479
around the room and his loss to
the thrum of the old machinery. He

2261
03:36:16,520 --> 03:36:20,479
clinches his jaw, then repeats himself. I say we shut it down,

2262
03:36:20,840 --> 03:36:24,120
and I say we shut it down. Now. The tank was built by

2263
03:36:24,120 --> 03:36:28,040
the enemies. What more do your
people need? You think it's something to

2264
03:36:28,040 --> 03:36:33,319
be preserved? He turns and begins
to stride around the side of the tank

2265
03:36:33,840 --> 03:36:41,000
into the watery shadows thrown by the
structure's eerie light. Kim hurries after him.

2266
03:36:41,879 --> 03:36:43,760
Wait, Eman, don't you think
we should wait and try to work

2267
03:36:43,799 --> 03:36:48,879
out what it's for or why it
was built? Blaine turns to us.

2268
03:36:50,959 --> 03:36:54,479
I think I might go back and
grab that journal. Couldn't make much sense

2269
03:36:54,520 --> 03:36:58,200
of it myself, but Manny can
read it. He might have missed something

2270
03:36:58,239 --> 03:37:03,159
important. But as he makes the
leave, we hears him and call his

2271
03:37:03,280 --> 03:37:09,000
name, Blaine. He shouts back
through the darkness. God, another skeleton.

2272
03:37:09,040 --> 03:37:15,399
Are I think it's the one you
were talking about? We head over

2273
03:37:16,399 --> 03:37:22,040
ask tiny specks in the glow of
the green tank, and as we approached

2274
03:37:22,159 --> 03:37:26,239
Siemen and Kim we find them standing
by the side of a skeleton, a

2275
03:37:26,360 --> 03:37:33,799
skeleton adorned in western military fatigues and
sprawled across the floor. We consider it

2276
03:37:33,840 --> 03:37:39,120
for a moment. They sent one
of them, obviously, Rudy murmurs,

2277
03:37:39,360 --> 03:37:45,200
crouching down and running his finger around
the collar. He lifts an arm to

2278
03:37:45,200 --> 03:37:50,600
look at the sleeve. French.
He says, this will be the guy

2279
03:37:50,639 --> 03:37:56,399
from the report. Wait. Kim
mutters, no, that can't be right.

2280
03:37:56,159 --> 03:38:01,040
The report read that he was killed
by fallen pipewright, drowned in a

2281
03:38:01,079 --> 03:38:07,879
puddle. Wayne and I take a
step back, and we cast the beams

2282
03:38:07,920 --> 03:38:11,799
of our torches around the surrounding area. A few of the beams are raised

2283
03:38:11,799 --> 03:38:20,399
to the high ceiling above. There
is no sign above of any disconnected piping

2284
03:38:20,760 --> 03:38:26,040
or paneling, nor is there any
sign of something having fallen. Aside from

2285
03:38:26,079 --> 03:38:33,719
the skeleton itself, the ground is
unmarked. There is also no logical place

2286
03:38:33,799 --> 03:38:39,000
from which a puddle might have formed, or from where such a puddle might

2287
03:38:39,040 --> 03:38:43,959
have leaked. This guy wasn't killed
by no falling debris, Rudy says,

2288
03:38:45,680 --> 03:38:50,040
Take a look at this guy's He
lifts his torch and the light falls across

2289
03:38:50,079 --> 03:38:58,399
the skeleton's head. It illuminates a
single hole the size of a bullet in

2290
03:38:58,440 --> 03:39:03,399
the back of the skeleton skull.
Shot in the back of the head.

2291
03:39:03,760 --> 03:39:09,680
Seeman murmurs, anger rising in the
back of his voice. All right,

2292
03:39:09,200 --> 03:39:13,799
enough of this, he shouts,
standing straight up. Enough enough of this

2293
03:39:13,959 --> 03:39:20,200
ridiculous murder mystery. He chaps a
finger towards the tank. That thing makes

2294
03:39:20,200 --> 03:39:26,600
me sick, and I'm shutting it
down now. He takes his weapon in

2295
03:39:26,680 --> 03:39:31,159
hand and strides past the skeleton back
towards the tank. Hey hold on,

2296
03:39:31,840 --> 03:39:35,319
Kim says, reaching out for a
sleeve, but he shrugs her off.

2297
03:39:37,600 --> 03:39:41,840
Rudy positions himself in the man's way. For God's sake, Man, just

2298
03:39:41,040 --> 03:39:45,799
calm down. What the hell's the
matter with you? Got a screw loose

2299
03:39:45,879 --> 03:39:50,159
or something? What would you know
of this? Seman snorts, trying to

2300
03:39:50,200 --> 03:39:52,920
shove his way past. You don't
understand a thing, no matter how much

2301
03:39:52,920 --> 03:39:56,520
you try to pretend to. And
what exactly is that supposed to mean?

2302
03:39:56,719 --> 03:40:03,239
Huh? Rudy challenges, voice raising. Wayne attempts to get between them as

2303
03:40:03,239 --> 03:40:09,319
an argument breaks out, leaving Manny
and myself beside the skeleton. We look

2304
03:40:09,360 --> 03:40:15,200
at each other. They are all
manners of curiosity. In that plaque,

2305
03:40:15,719 --> 03:40:20,639
he says to me, after a
beat, alongside my grandfather's picture and his

2306
03:40:20,799 --> 03:40:26,120
name, it listed his blood type, other statistics that I cannot discern the

2307
03:40:26,159 --> 03:40:33,319
meaning of relating I believe to activity
in different parts of the brain, Manny,

2308
03:40:35,079 --> 03:40:39,319
I say to him, rubbing my
jaw. Please be frank with me.

2309
03:40:39,200 --> 03:40:43,440
Do you know what this is?
Do you know what these bonkers are

2310
03:40:43,479 --> 03:40:50,000
for? Manny shakes his head.
I do not, but I am grown

2311
03:40:50,040 --> 03:40:54,040
in confidence that the people inside the
tank are alive. I believe that the

2312
03:40:54,120 --> 03:40:58,680
dreams of which I'm cursed, well, this might be a long shot,

2313
03:40:58,680 --> 03:41:07,200
but I think they might come from
the drifters inside the tank. Goose bumps

2314
03:41:07,440 --> 03:41:13,319
ripple across my skin. So what
do we do? I ask? Is

2315
03:41:13,319 --> 03:41:16,879
seemun right? Do we try shut
it down? I think we have no

2316
03:41:18,040 --> 03:41:22,440
choice? Many replies, So how
do we do it? I ask him?

2317
03:41:22,799 --> 03:41:28,000
The guy who wrote the journal said
even he couldn't do it. I

2318
03:41:28,079 --> 03:41:33,479
believe that the fellow in the control
room was constrained mentally. Oliver Manny says

2319
03:41:33,479 --> 03:41:37,920
to me, not physically, And
we have access to technology. They did

2320
03:41:37,959 --> 03:41:43,719
not controlled explosives, for one thing. We can't use an explosive. Many,

2321
03:41:43,159 --> 03:41:46,959
I tell him, we have no
idea what the stuff in the tank

2322
03:41:46,000 --> 03:41:50,079
even is. If we use too
much and we break the glass, of

2323
03:41:50,159 --> 03:41:54,920
course, of course, many interrupts. I'm not a fool. There will

2324
03:41:54,959 --> 03:41:58,959
be a way to open the paneling. There is a power keeping them locked.

2325
03:42:00,239 --> 03:42:05,120
Shot, how can you tell there
was a light coming through the cracks,

2326
03:42:05,879 --> 03:42:11,399
but there was no keyhole nor slots
for screws. I think there may

2327
03:42:11,440 --> 03:42:15,000
be some kind of magnet keeping the
panel connected to the body of the tank

2328
03:42:15,879 --> 03:42:20,520
and released something on the inside.
So all we need is a way to

2329
03:42:20,600 --> 03:42:26,079
open the panel have a look inside. And even as I say the words,

2330
03:42:26,639 --> 03:42:31,639
I notice for the first time the
position that the skeleton beneath us is

2331
03:42:31,680 --> 03:42:39,440
actually in. He sprawled across the
ground, yes, but he was clearly

2332
03:42:39,520 --> 03:42:45,280
heading in a certain direction after the
side, towards the great pipes at the

2333
03:42:45,360 --> 03:42:50,040
room's edge. I raise my torch
and I step around the poor for garden

2334
03:42:50,079 --> 03:42:58,360
soldier, walking in the direction that
he'd been heading before he was before he

2335
03:42:58,479 --> 03:43:05,959
was shot. Manny accompanies me,
and at the very edges of the room,

2336
03:43:05,200 --> 03:43:11,920
nestle between two enormous pipes and rattling
with a faint whir is some kind

2337
03:43:11,959 --> 03:43:18,159
of ancient power box, the generator
of swords. And this thing actually has

2338
03:43:18,200 --> 03:43:24,159
a door locked up tight. I
look at Mannie, and he nods and

2339
03:43:24,280 --> 03:43:31,120
takes a step back. I raised
my weapon and fired two quick, careful

2340
03:43:31,200 --> 03:43:35,559
shots into the door side. It
cracks open, and the sounds of the

2341
03:43:35,680 --> 03:43:41,040
argument behind us cease at once.
The hell are you guys doing? Rudy

2342
03:43:41,079 --> 03:43:48,159
calls over and After a smattering of
boots and cold concrete, we are joined

2343
03:43:48,159 --> 03:43:52,239
by some of the others. All
right, good, now, hold on

2344
03:43:52,319 --> 03:43:56,479
a moment, Many says, as
he pulls open the busted door with a

2345
03:43:56,479 --> 03:44:01,520
clank, examining the inside of the
generator. I've seen machines like this before

2346
03:44:01,559 --> 03:44:07,920
in my career. Not identical,
of course, but similar enough. Just

2347
03:44:07,159 --> 03:44:13,280
give me a moment. We're shooting
these things now, Seeman shouts over.

2348
03:44:13,399 --> 03:44:18,840
He remains across the hall bathed in
green as he stands by the tank.

2349
03:44:18,760 --> 03:44:22,159
So much for waiting and using caution. I guess why don't we just blow

2350
03:44:22,200 --> 03:44:26,680
the hell out of this thing?
Look, perhaps we're all getting carried away.

2351
03:44:28,239 --> 03:44:33,040
Wayne cuts in. Are we actually
considering destroying the tank? We don't

2352
03:44:33,159 --> 03:44:37,959
know what it is now. I
don't know why the previous reco teams decided

2353
03:44:37,000 --> 03:44:41,840
to keep it a secret, but
they obviously knew something we didn't. Perhaps

2354
03:44:41,920 --> 03:44:46,200
we spend a little more time looking
around. At least we should report this,

2355
03:44:46,959 --> 03:44:50,319
Kim says. Let's just get the
hell out of here and tell command

2356
03:44:50,399 --> 03:44:56,559
everything we know. Got it,
Manny mutters to himself as he makes a

2357
03:44:56,600 --> 03:45:01,200
decision, then reaches out and flicks
a switch. He unplugs a cord,

2358
03:45:01,719 --> 03:45:07,760
then pulls down on a lever on
the right hand side. There is a

2359
03:45:07,799 --> 03:45:15,760
low groan that rumbles throughout the bunker. The green light flickers momentarily and with

2360
03:45:15,840 --> 03:45:20,879
a cloud of dust and a metallic
clattering. I see the silhouettes of several

2361
03:45:20,920 --> 03:45:26,959
panels falling from the side of the
tank. Now, Manny says, rubbing

2362
03:45:26,079 --> 03:45:31,040
some dark grease from his hands,
Let's take a look at what we're working

2363
03:45:31,040 --> 03:45:35,719
with here. As Blaine suggests,
there is clearly more to learn about this

2364
03:45:35,840 --> 03:45:39,159
place. We take a slow and
measured approach to this. We have no

2365
03:45:39,239 --> 03:45:45,440
idea what we're working with, so
we consider every juncture with caution. We

2366
03:45:45,479 --> 03:45:48,719
cannot rule out simply giving a full
report to command. But there must be

2367
03:45:48,760 --> 03:45:54,040
a reason as to why we've never
heard about all this before. He looks

2368
03:45:54,079 --> 03:46:00,559
between us, from Playing to Kim, to Rudy and myself. Oh,

2369
03:46:00,760 --> 03:46:05,239
I have some theories regarding the people
in the tank. I catch a movement

2370
03:46:05,319 --> 03:46:09,280
in the corner of my eye,
and I see the silhouette of semen working

2371
03:46:09,360 --> 03:46:15,799
hurriedly away in the freshly exposed inner
mechanisms of the great green tank, formally

2372
03:46:15,879 --> 03:46:20,000
hidden behind the panel. Hey,
I mutter, then a little louder,

2373
03:46:20,680 --> 03:46:26,520
Hey, Ziman, what are you
doing? Simon does not respond. He

2374
03:46:26,639 --> 03:46:33,200
simply slams something into place and then
makes a break for it. He hurries

2375
03:46:33,239 --> 03:46:39,600
over to us, his expression hidden
in shadow. Simon kin begins as a

2376
03:46:39,600 --> 03:46:45,280
low beeping becomes suddenly audible. Simon, she repeats, a little more urgently,

2377
03:46:46,159 --> 03:46:50,600
what have you done? The man
comes into view, and as the

2378
03:46:50,639 --> 03:46:56,079
shadows swim across his face and the
reflected green flashes over his eyes, I

2379
03:46:56,159 --> 03:47:03,360
catch a glimpse of his expression,
a wide, manic grin, eyes wide

2380
03:47:03,360 --> 03:47:09,000
and fierce. He tilts his head
as he runs and presses a finger against

2381
03:47:09,040 --> 03:47:15,360
the ear closest to the tank.
What follows is the sound of an explosion,

2382
03:47:16,319 --> 03:47:20,680
loud and sharp and clear, cutting
through the murmur and whir of the

2383
03:47:20,680 --> 03:47:24,719
bunker like a blade. Shadows of
metal and rubber, and god knows what

2384
03:47:24,799 --> 03:47:30,600
else burst with a sudden force from
the place that Simon was tinkering, and

2385
03:47:30,680 --> 03:47:35,280
the green of the tank begins.
The falter a grimace and WinCE as a

2386
03:47:35,360 --> 03:47:39,760
low ring begins the chime in my
ears. I bushed my way past the

2387
03:47:39,799 --> 03:47:46,920
man and run towards the front of
the tank. The entire panel with the

2388
03:47:46,959 --> 03:47:52,879
picture of Manny's grandfather and the information
alongside, has been blown to shreds.

2389
03:47:54,680 --> 03:47:58,760
Staring into the dark hole that Zimon
has blown in the mechanism of the tanks

2390
03:48:00,239 --> 03:48:05,680
filter, I'm not sure what it
is, but looking inside, at the

2391
03:48:05,719 --> 03:48:09,879
steadily grinding gears, the deflating pumps, and the leaking ooze and grease and

2392
03:48:09,959 --> 03:48:16,280
fluid, it's like looking into the
open wound of a monstrous, dying animal.

2393
03:48:18,280 --> 03:48:24,799
I retreat, looking up in shock
as from this fresh wound, a

2394
03:48:24,920 --> 03:48:31,760
dark, thick sludge begins to leak
into the glowing green waters. Manny gasps

2395
03:48:31,799 --> 03:48:37,040
aloud and collapses to his knees,
holding his head. Kim rushes to his

2396
03:48:37,200 --> 03:48:41,879
side as the rest of us watch
the sludge disperse and billow out like a

2397
03:48:41,000 --> 03:48:48,600
slow toxic cloud throughout the water.
The drifting souls, it seems to me

2398
03:48:48,959 --> 03:48:52,000
that they try their best to avoid
it for as long as they can,

2399
03:48:52,079 --> 03:48:56,040
in the manner that a jellyfish might
try to avoid a beam of light in

2400
03:48:56,120 --> 03:49:03,440
its slow and meandering way. For
one by one they are enveloped, and

2401
03:49:03,520 --> 03:49:11,639
the green liquid turns steadily gray and
then black. I watch in horror as

2402
03:49:11,680 --> 03:49:20,239
the hundreds upon, hundreds of bodies
begin to melt. They lose whatever sense

2403
03:49:20,239 --> 03:49:24,559
of orientation they might have once possessed. They are washed against each other,

2404
03:49:24,559 --> 03:49:30,440
and where they touch, they dissolve. There's no other word for it.

2405
03:49:31,520 --> 03:49:35,479
Pieces begin to break away, sinking
slowly and singing to the base of the

2406
03:49:35,559 --> 03:49:41,719
tank, where they are gradually lost
to the darkness. I air a scream,

2407
03:49:43,120 --> 03:49:48,079
and I wheel around. Kim clutches
the manny as the guy begins to

2408
03:49:48,120 --> 03:49:56,159
shake, Manny Blaine asks, squatting
down to grab the man's shoulder. Manny

2409
03:49:56,799 --> 03:50:01,399
Simon watches on his grin now gone. He is paled, and I can

2410
03:50:01,399 --> 03:50:07,520
see his chest rising and falling as
he looks at our seasoned comrade. Mannie

2411
03:50:07,639 --> 03:50:13,079
opens his mouth as if to speak, but instead comes only a rasping breath.

2412
03:50:15,680 --> 03:50:20,879
Clear liquid begins to pour from his
eyes, liquid that turns quickly gray

2413
03:50:22,040 --> 03:50:26,879
then red. It pours over his
uniform, staining it and splashing across the

2414
03:50:26,920 --> 03:50:35,399
floor. His eyes roll up into
his head, and seconds later the seizing

2415
03:50:35,520 --> 03:50:43,120
stops. He slumps to the concrete
ground, utterly lifeless, and just like

2416
03:50:43,200 --> 03:51:00,719
that, he is gone. Manny
Manny Whine shakes the dead man's shoulder Rudy

2417
03:51:00,799 --> 03:51:05,239
crouches down behind him. They test
this breathing, but there is no response.

2418
03:51:07,680 --> 03:51:11,840
Damn, Rudy shouts, jumping to
his feet. What the hell have

2419
03:51:11,879 --> 03:51:16,079
you done? Sieman? What have
you done? Zimmun only shakes his head,

2420
03:51:16,360 --> 03:51:22,840
stuttering, No, that's not possible. How could these things be connected?

2421
03:51:22,559 --> 03:51:28,280
You acted too soon, idiot,
Plain barks, shoving Sieman in the

2422
03:51:28,399 --> 03:51:33,959
chest. What the hell are we
supposed to do now? Manny my mutter

2423
03:51:33,559 --> 03:51:39,040
looking down at the body of my
friend. One minute he was more or

2424
03:51:39,120 --> 03:51:45,239
less just fine, I guess,
And now he's dead. He's done.

2425
03:51:46,399 --> 03:51:52,520
A terrible groan rises from the black
sewage like tank before us, and the

2426
03:51:52,639 --> 03:51:56,000
hairs rise up across the back of
my neck. I look up to it

2427
03:51:56,479 --> 03:52:01,840
and realize that, despite the decay
that now seeps through the tank, the

2428
03:52:01,920 --> 03:52:09,879
glittering green light is not entirely gone. I can still see traces of it

2429
03:52:09,000 --> 03:52:15,399
above us, reflecting faintly against the
edges of some of the pipes. I

2430
03:52:15,440 --> 03:52:20,120
can see it tinging the edges of
the great steel girders and beams that support

2431
03:52:20,120 --> 03:52:24,719
the ceiling. I can still see
more light. I say to the group,

2432
03:52:24,520 --> 03:52:31,520
what if there's another tank, another
tank? Ruby splutters Oliver manny is

2433
03:52:31,600 --> 03:52:37,079
dead. Who gives a damn?
We gotta get out of here. But

2434
03:52:37,520 --> 03:52:43,479
I ignore him. Heart pounding,
I stride round the edge of the tank.

2435
03:52:43,440 --> 03:52:48,520
I ignore the cause of the others
as I head deeper and deeper into

2436
03:52:48,559 --> 03:52:54,360
the gloom, towards a slither of
that same green light spilling through a crack

2437
03:52:54,479 --> 03:53:00,200
in the far wall. This hall, it seems, goes further when we

2438
03:53:00,239 --> 03:53:07,040
had anticipated. The illusions formed by
the flickering shadows distorted our perceptions of the

2439
03:53:07,120 --> 03:53:11,840
distance. Hey, comes a voice
from behind me, along with quick,

2440
03:53:13,000 --> 03:53:20,360
heavy steps. Hey, it's Blain
and he takes a breath as he catches

2441
03:53:20,440 --> 03:53:26,440
up to me, striding alongside.
You're right, he asks, sure,

2442
03:53:26,079 --> 03:53:31,920
I replied, grimly, head spinning. Where are you going? He asks

2443
03:53:31,959 --> 03:53:35,639
me, and I gesture to the
slither of green light through the crack at

2444
03:53:35,639 --> 03:53:41,399
the room's opposite side. What there? He notices it for the first time.

2445
03:53:43,760 --> 03:53:48,239
Oh damn, what do you think
it is? I don't want to

2446
03:53:48,280 --> 03:53:52,200
think about it, I reply,
as I stride on, the shadows rippling

2447
03:53:52,280 --> 03:54:00,239
around me like the water of the
accursed tank. I clenched my fists to

2448
03:54:00,239 --> 03:54:03,879
see. I need to see it
for myself. I hear the pounding of

2449
03:54:03,920 --> 03:54:11,239
footsteps behind us. Rudy calls for
us, but still I march onwards through

2450
03:54:11,239 --> 03:54:15,479
the dark and secretive haze to the
crack at the back of the hall.

2451
03:54:16,040 --> 03:54:22,000
Another door, doors, doors,
doors. I shove right through it,

2452
03:54:22,520 --> 03:54:28,920
and the echo of the creaking metal
scratches painfully through the air. I step

2453
03:54:28,959 --> 03:54:33,760
out onto a gridded steel walkway suspended
high above a long, wide floor way

2454
03:54:33,840 --> 03:54:41,079
below. The floor extends into the
far distance, and I cannot see the

2455
03:54:41,120 --> 03:54:46,120
back wall. My boots clang against
the steel as I walk to the edge.

2456
03:54:48,200 --> 03:54:54,760
The fall to the floor below is
blocked by a sturdy guardrail. I

2457
03:54:54,879 --> 03:54:58,959
take in the view and with a
long, low breath, the cold,

2458
03:55:00,280 --> 03:55:07,280
stale air in my lungs is gradually
released to my left and embedded in the

2459
03:55:07,319 --> 03:55:13,200
concrete of the wall and very partially
obscured by enormous steel beams supporting the roof.

2460
03:55:13,559 --> 03:55:20,840
Is a colossal stone monolith. A
thing is ancient, cracked and heavily

2461
03:55:20,879 --> 03:55:28,000
water damaged. Across its body,
however, are visible a collection of long

2462
03:55:28,040 --> 03:55:35,120
forgotten glyphs and symbols. This thing
is far older than this bunker, far

2463
03:55:35,399 --> 03:55:41,639
far older that much is obvious.
Perhaps by hundreds or thousands of years.

2464
03:55:41,959 --> 03:55:50,360
I could not say for sure.
Was it transported here perhaps, or is

2465
03:55:50,399 --> 03:55:56,079
the bunker built around it? Six
enormous in disembodied eyes are carved under the

2466
03:55:56,079 --> 03:56:01,280
top of the monolith, and in
the middle, stacked almost like a totem

2467
03:56:01,280 --> 03:56:07,479
pole, are a series of crude
faces outlines really with eyes and mouths.

2468
03:56:09,639 --> 03:56:13,639
The only real additional features are lines
carved around the outside edges of their eyes,

2469
03:56:15,840 --> 03:56:20,000
wrinkles or crows feet, if you
will. The face at the top

2470
03:56:20,239 --> 03:56:26,959
has a multitude of wrinkles. Beneath
this face, a long series of markings

2471
03:56:26,280 --> 03:56:31,159
like veins or roots have been carved, and they creep down to connect to

2472
03:56:31,200 --> 03:56:37,200
the face below. This face is
more angular. The wrinkles beside the eyes

2473
03:56:37,239 --> 03:56:43,959
are fewer, and it too has
root like veins, and as with the

2474
03:56:43,959 --> 03:56:48,879
others, they slither down to the
face below. The lowermost face is the

2475
03:56:48,959 --> 03:56:56,719
roundest. It has no wrinkles besides
its eyes, and below this final face

2476
03:56:56,239 --> 03:57:01,319
are more incomprehensible glyphs, a series
of symbols that mean nothing to me,

2477
03:57:03,399 --> 03:57:09,639
unknown shapes, and twisted signs.
Blaine steps up to the railing and puts

2478
03:57:09,680 --> 03:57:16,280
a hand upon it. He gives
the monolith only a perfunctory glance. Geez,

2479
03:57:16,840 --> 03:57:20,639
he says, as he looks out
over the scene below. We are

2480
03:57:20,719 --> 03:57:28,680
joined by Rudy and Zimmun. Below
us, at regular intervals, and extending

2481
03:57:28,799 --> 03:57:33,680
her way into the gloom, are
more of the same tanks. Great green

2482
03:57:33,760 --> 03:57:39,079
glass boxes connected via pipes, all
whirring and hissing, fall to the brim

2483
03:57:39,239 --> 03:57:46,239
with drifting souls. There must be
hundreds, hundreds upon hundreds of these monstrous

2484
03:57:46,280 --> 03:57:54,799
devices, perhaps even one thousand,
Blaine mutters. He points to a plaque

2485
03:57:54,920 --> 03:58:03,879
embedded in a control panel to our
right. Eat the ten thousand, the

2486
03:58:03,920 --> 03:58:09,120
one thousand, Rudy repeats quietly.
So it didn't refer to the people in

2487
03:58:09,159 --> 03:58:18,079
the tank, He falters, and
Deemen finishes his sentence. It refers to

2488
03:58:18,120 --> 03:58:26,040
the tanks. We consider this in
silence, and a long low whisper echoes

2489
03:58:26,079 --> 03:58:31,799
from the tanks and down the hall
towards us. Below the plaque of the

2490
03:58:31,879 --> 03:58:37,360
end thousand, he is a passage
written in German. I take a step

2491
03:58:37,360 --> 03:58:45,680
towards it and scan my eyes across
the words from fattersom son blood for blood,

2492
03:58:46,440 --> 03:58:52,600
it reads, and I read it
aloud in English, from father to

2493
03:58:52,760 --> 03:58:58,399
son blood for blood. I pledge
my soul, and I will open the

2494
03:58:58,440 --> 03:59:03,360
eyes of the souls of my linen. We will guide the way for the

2495
03:59:03,440 --> 03:59:09,639
fatherland and our place in eternity.
As I read these words, it is

2496
03:59:09,680 --> 03:59:13,920
almost as if I can hear them
repeated back to me, spoken proudly from

2497
03:59:13,920 --> 03:59:18,879
the hearts of rows of devotees,
stark in their dark uniforms against the cold,

2498
03:59:20,239 --> 03:59:26,000
pale walls behind, standing tall in
the shadow of the trio statues ringed

2499
03:59:26,120 --> 03:59:33,319
by Leviathan himself. Vision is fleeting
and passes as quickly as it came.

2500
03:59:35,000 --> 03:59:39,639
There is a heavy silence that follows, the silence filled by the flow of

2501
03:59:39,680 --> 03:59:48,840
the groans and sighs of the tanks
below of nine thousand. Simon walks past

2502
03:59:48,879 --> 03:59:52,680
me, his boots clank against the
metal as he heads towards the console to

2503
03:59:52,719 --> 03:59:58,239
our right. I don't fail to
notice the presence of a large box similar

2504
03:59:58,280 --> 04:00:03,920
to the one that man he disabled, connected to the controls. Simon stop,

2505
04:00:05,680 --> 04:00:11,680
Blane orders, but Simon does not. He turns to us, and

2506
04:00:11,799 --> 04:00:18,040
I see his face is streaked with
tears. The atmosphere freezes around us into

2507
04:00:18,079 --> 04:00:26,520
my horror. He raises his gun. Please put your weapons down. He

2508
04:00:26,600 --> 04:00:31,920
says, what the sim and Blane
cuts in and just in his grip,

2509
04:00:33,120 --> 04:00:37,239
so it's the better take hold of
his gun, but Simon rattles his own

2510
04:00:37,360 --> 04:00:43,239
and suddenly shouts his voice like a
bell ringing through the darkness. Put your

2511
04:00:43,280 --> 04:00:48,920
weapons down, he bellows, now
slow any motion that I deem dangerous,

2512
04:00:50,040 --> 04:00:56,319
and I will fire. Rudy takes
a step forwards, Simen, what the

2513
04:00:56,360 --> 04:01:01,200
hell's gotten into you? Just?
Simon swings around his gun cocks it.

2514
04:01:01,079 --> 04:01:07,200
I will not ask again, Rudy
winces. He curses under his breath,

2515
04:01:09,079 --> 04:01:13,120
but he does as he is asked. As the rest of us remained motionless.

2516
04:01:13,799 --> 04:01:20,680
Rudy carefully unstrapped his weapon and slowly
lows it to the ground. Simon's

2517
04:01:20,680 --> 04:01:26,159
eyes are fixed on his every movement. Once he has done this, Simon

2518
04:01:26,280 --> 04:01:31,360
gestures the Blaine and then to myself, and the two of us do likewise

2519
04:01:31,799 --> 04:01:39,040
and place our weapons on the ground. I'm sorry, Simon mutters, before

2520
04:01:39,079 --> 04:01:43,440
stepping towards us, and with a
few sweeping motions with his feet, he

2521
04:01:43,559 --> 04:01:48,440
kicks the guns off the side of
the platform, where they fall into the

2522
04:01:48,479 --> 04:01:54,120
shadowed concrete far below with a clatter. What the hell's gotten into you,

2523
04:01:54,200 --> 04:01:58,440
Zimmon, Blaine asks, you couldn't
have known that what you were going to

2524
04:01:58,479 --> 04:02:01,440
do would kill many. You acted
bloody, recklessly. But it's not your

2525
04:02:01,440 --> 04:02:05,719
fault. Man is dead. But
we got to just stop for a second

2526
04:02:05,760 --> 04:02:09,399
to process this, all right,
mate, work out what it all means.

2527
04:02:09,120 --> 04:02:13,280
We're clearly dealing with something way beyond
our pay GRADEA. You're not thinking

2528
04:02:13,319 --> 04:02:20,760
straight. I have to shut this
thing down now, Simon tells us I

2529
04:02:20,840 --> 04:02:24,319
realized that this is something that I
must do the nine thousand. I need

2530
04:02:24,360 --> 04:02:30,600
to shut the whole thing down.
Rudy tries to the cut in again,

2531
04:02:31,040 --> 04:02:35,440
but Simon speaks over him. They
are alive in those tanks, the man

2532
04:02:35,479 --> 04:02:41,159
says, adjusting his glasses with shaking
hands. They're alive. Manny was connected

2533
04:02:41,200 --> 04:02:46,360
to them, right, He could
see their dreams. He was connected to

2534
04:02:46,440 --> 04:02:50,879
the tank through the sins of his
grandfather. His whole family line is cursed.

2535
04:02:50,280 --> 04:02:56,840
And that's not my fault. It's
not it's theirs. Simon throws out

2536
04:02:56,840 --> 04:03:01,920
a hand and gestures to the bunker
as he rubes a hand across his brow,

2537
04:03:03,760 --> 04:03:07,200
and in the corner of my eye, I see a small subtle motion

2538
04:03:07,479 --> 04:03:15,079
from Rudy without moving my head and
look his way, and following his deliberate

2539
04:03:15,079 --> 04:03:20,479
glances, I notice that the man
still has a pistol attached to the back

2540
04:03:20,520 --> 04:03:26,760
of his belt and out of Zimen's
direct line of sight. Rudy gives me

2541
04:03:26,799 --> 04:03:35,200
a pointed look, and I nod
almost imperceptibly. Just don't do anything stupid,

2542
04:03:35,719 --> 04:03:39,079
I tried to transmit to him.
Though whether he interprets this or not,

2543
04:03:39,600 --> 04:03:46,760
it is difficult to say. Simon
continues, these tanks are the products

2544
04:03:46,760 --> 04:03:52,920
of the enemy. What cruel promise
do They serve exactly nothing that will benefit

2545
04:03:52,000 --> 04:03:56,760
humanity. I am sure of it. The people are trapped, I have

2546
04:03:56,879 --> 04:04:01,120
no doubt in perpetual suffering. The
cages in which they are held need to

2547
04:04:01,120 --> 04:04:05,959
be shut down immediately, and this
is something I'm going to do. I

2548
04:04:07,000 --> 04:04:09,680
took a look in that box that
many disconnected. I can work out how

2549
04:04:09,719 --> 04:04:16,000
to finish this seemen, I chime
in, raising my head. The tank

2550
04:04:16,079 --> 04:04:20,040
you destroyed was, as you said
yourself, connected to many. There's something

2551
04:04:20,120 --> 04:04:28,319
horrible about the way these tanks work. This mantra, the connections I've heard

2552
04:04:28,360 --> 04:04:33,000
of. Various images flashed through my
head. Three statues, the Black Sun,

2553
04:04:33,639 --> 04:04:37,120
the terrible painting, and the concrete
hall. I see the ruined city

2554
04:04:37,280 --> 04:04:43,280
in the waves and the shining eye. I shoot a glance over the monolith

2555
04:04:43,600 --> 04:04:48,000
embedded in the wall to are left, at the veins and roots that connect

2556
04:04:48,000 --> 04:04:54,680
the vases. I repeat the words
and the plaque from father to son,

2557
04:04:54,360 --> 04:04:58,799
blood for blood, I pledge my
soul, and I'll open my eyes to

2558
04:04:58,840 --> 04:05:05,639
the solvels my lineage. We will
guide the way for the fatherland and our

2559
04:05:05,680 --> 04:05:13,239
place in eternity. My throat has
gone death dry, but I continue,

2560
04:05:13,440 --> 04:05:18,879
simon, what if what you did
killed Many's son as well? What about

2561
04:05:18,879 --> 04:05:22,440
his brother? Does the man have
any cousins? How far does this thing

2562
04:05:22,520 --> 04:05:31,479
go? And even as I speak, a terrible cold thoughts strikes deep into

2563
04:05:31,520 --> 04:05:37,639
my core. I think of Nina, my wife, and I think of

2564
04:05:37,680 --> 04:05:45,280
a heritage Manny walked alongside Nina's great
grandfather. Was he too involved in this

2565
04:05:45,360 --> 04:05:50,319
project? I turned to look out
over the rail and down at the tanks.

2566
04:05:50,360 --> 04:05:56,159
Below is a picture of Nina's great
grandfather marked into one of these tanks,

2567
04:05:56,840 --> 04:06:01,520
alongside a handprint and a blood sample. And god knows what else.

2568
04:06:03,840 --> 04:06:07,280
I feel the blood drained for my
face and my line of reasoning falters.

2569
04:06:09,399 --> 04:06:15,920
My words die in my mouth.
Semen scoffs, what are a few lives

2570
04:06:15,959 --> 04:06:20,440
when weighed against this? Oliver,
he shouts back, this is sick.

2571
04:06:20,840 --> 04:06:26,799
This is the work of rats.
Blaine tries to speak again. Just don't

2572
04:06:26,840 --> 04:06:30,959
be rash, Semen. The previous
Rican teams chose not to report on this.

2573
04:06:31,600 --> 04:06:35,000
They left the tanks unharmed. Shouldn't
we at least consider their reasoning,

2574
04:06:35,520 --> 04:06:39,440
take a little time to think as
a group. But you don't get it,

2575
04:06:39,520 --> 04:06:46,280
Blaine. Simon chokes, that's exactly
the point. He wandered quietly to

2576
04:06:46,360 --> 04:06:50,360
himself in Polish for a moment,
and wiped his eyes beneath his glasses.

2577
04:06:52,479 --> 04:06:56,559
If I dither and delay in my
mind might be changed. I might be

2578
04:06:56,600 --> 04:07:01,319
swayed to a decision that goes entirely
against my moral compass. If every single

2579
04:07:01,360 --> 04:07:05,920
Recontein before us left the thousand standing, then logic suggests will do the same,

2580
04:07:07,239 --> 04:07:13,799
right right, But but I can't. I just can't. It's not

2581
04:07:13,959 --> 04:07:18,280
right. So I have to shut
it all down before something changes my mind.

2582
04:07:18,799 --> 04:07:26,639
Once it's done, it's done,
Simon starts rambling. He pass up

2583
04:07:26,680 --> 04:07:31,319
and down. He spits over the
rail, The energy and his voice renewed

2584
04:07:31,319 --> 04:07:37,079
whatever it is, whatever it's for, it's done. It ends here,

2585
04:07:39,079 --> 04:07:43,920
and he spins on his heel and
strides to the master console. He fires

2586
04:07:43,959 --> 04:07:46,840
a series of bullets into the box
and tears the metal door from its hinges.

2587
04:07:48,920 --> 04:07:54,719
Simon wait Blaine roars as a ringing
echoes in our ears. There is

2588
04:07:54,719 --> 04:08:01,079
a sudden clamor, and then a
sharp, fiery burst. One final bullet

2589
04:08:01,479 --> 04:08:09,319
is released from its chamber. I
swear and jump and shock as a whole

2590
04:08:09,520 --> 04:08:13,760
appears in the back of Ziman's head, a cloud of blood who rubs through

2591
04:08:13,799 --> 04:08:20,159
his forehead and splatters across the console. He collapses at once, All motion

2592
04:08:20,319 --> 04:08:28,040
control instantly lost as he slumps against
the controls, collapsing ungracefully onto the ground,

2593
04:08:28,840 --> 04:08:33,639
where he twitches, then lays still
as blood pools steadily across the metal

2594
04:08:35,120 --> 04:08:43,120
and drips and leaks down through the
metal grates. My chest rises and falls,

2595
04:08:43,799 --> 04:08:50,879
adrenaline coursing through me. I turned
to Rudy in utter disbelief that he

2596
04:08:50,879 --> 04:08:56,079
would resort to such drastic measures so
recklessly. But I am shocked to see

2597
04:08:56,079 --> 04:09:01,040
that Rudy's pistol remains firmly in his
belt hand, poised beside it, as

2598
04:09:01,040 --> 04:09:09,879
if preparing to draw with a pistol
nonetheless remains affixed. Rudy looks at me,

2599
04:09:09,959 --> 04:09:16,440
then passed me, and I turn
around to follow his gaze, and

2600
04:09:16,520 --> 04:09:24,239
there in the doorway is Kim.
She stands, cold and silent in the

2601
04:09:24,319 --> 04:09:31,879
darkness, her features illuminated in that
ghostly green, jaw clenched, her eyes

2602
04:09:31,000 --> 04:09:37,959
fierce. In her hand is a
rifle. She slowly lows it back down,

2603
04:09:39,000 --> 04:09:43,639
and she releases a long, calm
breath, with clouds around her face

2604
04:09:45,440 --> 04:09:52,479
in the cold. Solemnly, we
retreat back to the main lobby. There

2605
04:09:52,559 --> 04:09:58,360
is a sickness here. That much
is plain. Our minds are not working

2606
04:09:58,440 --> 04:10:03,479
as they're supposed to. It is
as long as we can bear in the

2607
04:10:03,520 --> 04:10:09,319
shadows of such evil, and we
eventually decide as a group to leave the

2608
04:10:09,440 --> 04:10:15,040
nine thousand operational. We do not
know if this makes us heroes or villains

2609
04:10:15,559 --> 04:10:20,719
or neither. But we just don't
know the true extent to which these machines

2610
04:10:20,760 --> 04:10:24,719
are connected to the people back home. It is not a decision that fills

2611
04:10:24,760 --> 04:10:30,959
me with pride. We have no
idea to what purpose the tank's continued existence

2612
04:10:30,959 --> 04:10:37,120
supports, besides the hint given by
some vague and cryptic clues. We do

2613
04:10:37,159 --> 04:10:41,319
not know why they were built,
We do not know what happened to the

2614
04:10:41,360 --> 04:10:46,040
people who worked here, and we
do not know where they went, nor

2615
04:10:46,360 --> 04:10:54,360
how exactly we would find them if
we wanted to. But what we do

2616
04:10:54,520 --> 04:11:00,760
know is that both Manny and Simon
died the same way as the fallen French

2617
04:11:00,799 --> 04:11:07,959
soldier. The report will read that
they suffered tragic accidents, crushed by fallen

2618
04:11:07,040 --> 04:11:13,479
debris. We can't have command sending
sizeable task forces down here, not yet.

2619
04:11:15,520 --> 04:11:20,680
Anything could happen, and as it
has been proven, the balance is

2620
04:11:20,680 --> 04:11:26,159
the delicate one. If command learn
the truth, then the power is taken

2621
04:11:26,239 --> 04:11:31,040
resolutely out of our hands. We'll
have no say in what happens next,

2622
04:11:31,440 --> 04:11:37,799
and what happens next could be monstrous. Our official reports will note that the

2623
04:11:37,840 --> 04:11:43,799
bunker is dangerous when disturbed, that
lives will be put at risk if attempts

2624
04:11:43,799 --> 04:11:48,319
are made to formally decommission and deconstruct
it. But with that being said,

2625
04:11:48,760 --> 04:11:56,319
the bunker, as per our exploration, is otherwise a non threat and is

2626
04:11:56,360 --> 04:12:01,000
of no particular interest. No need
to send any more recon teams down anytime

2627
04:12:01,079 --> 04:12:09,959
soon, that's for sure. The
bunkers are better off left alone, we

2628
04:12:11,120 --> 04:12:16,360
trudge back to the dock of the
submarine in silence. To me, it

2629
04:12:16,440 --> 04:12:24,559
comes down to one simple fact.
I can't risk losing Nina. So the

2630
04:12:24,639 --> 04:12:33,200
machines will stay operational in the thousand, will continue to drift hidden away in

2631
04:12:33,280 --> 04:12:37,120
the dark at the bottom of the
sea.