1
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I wouldn't have believed he was cheating
if it wasn't for the pictures. I've

2
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,759
been cheating on before, and I
think the number one tell is that cheaters

3
00:00:12,839 --> 00:00:18,000
like to spread the guilt around.
They make mountains up every little mole hill

4
00:00:18,559 --> 00:00:22,719
because they want to feel like the
relationship was doomed and that's why they cheated,

5
00:00:23,559 --> 00:00:28,199
not the other way around. They
find all sorts of silly reasons to

6
00:00:28,239 --> 00:00:33,039
fight you because it's better to tell
people, oh, we were arguing and

7
00:00:33,119 --> 00:00:39,119
communication broke down instead of the truth, which is often I screwed a stranger.

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That's my experience of being cheated on. Anyway. I had one boyfriend

9
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who lost his mind because they didn't
answer my phone while on a night out.

10
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What would have been a small deal
just a few weeks before was suddenly

11
00:00:55,799 --> 00:01:00,880
proved that I was sneaking around and
couldn't be trusted. Just a few days

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later, I caught him at a
Starbucks with some girl he'd met online.

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Do you think he told his parents
I left him because he had his hands

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up another woman's skirt. Nope.
He said, we've been distant for a

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while and arguing lots, and in
a moment of weakness, he found solace

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and another woman. He just left
out the part where he initiated all those

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arguments. But my husband never changed, not one bit. Didn't kiss me

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different, didn't look at me different, didn't change his habits, not in

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any way at all. Wasn't like
he started randomly showering when he got home,

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or going to the gym at night
instead of in the morning. My

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mother said she knew my father had
started seeing someone else when she went to

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take his plate away and there was
food left behind, and soon after she

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caught him looking in the mirror and
sucking in his gut. I guess my

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00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:04,760
point is a lot of the time, when you realize you've been cheated on,

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you look back and see all sorts
of little clues. But I never

26
00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:17,400
felt that way with my husband.
It was just out of the blue.

27
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The envelope arrived, thick as a
pack of cards, red lipstick on the

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back, reading, you need to
see what your man is up to.

29
00:02:28,719 --> 00:02:34,639
Inside were half a dozen polaroids of
my husband sleeping with another woman. Her

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face was obscured, but his.
He had a strange look about him,

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blank eyes, a strange expression,
but it was so clearly him. I

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remember feeling so shocked that everything took
on a hint of the surreal. Sounds

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00:02:53,719 --> 00:02:58,479
stupid, but for the first few
seconds I stared at the photos, dumbfounded

34
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and just thought, good God,
where does he find the time? Domb

35
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Here I was facing proof of the
ultimate betrayal, and I was trying to

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00:03:12,039 --> 00:03:15,439
figure out the logistics. It was
a good point, though in a weird

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kind of way. He worked nine
hours a day and only two days a

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00:03:21,479 --> 00:03:25,520
week in the office, and that
was a ninety minute commute. His morning

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00:03:25,599 --> 00:03:29,719
routine was to wake up at six
a m. Go for a run,

40
00:03:29,879 --> 00:03:32,759
cook breakfast, shower, shave,
do the cross word, drive to work.

41
00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,400
I mean, really, there wasn't
a lot of time where I thought

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00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:42,560
he could even meet another woman,
let alone build a whole new relationship.

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I didn't say anything when he got
home. If it was such a good

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actor, I wanted to be one
too, at least in the short term.

45
00:03:53,319 --> 00:03:59,719
I wanted control of the situation,
and most importantly, I wanted control

46
00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:05,560
of myself. Didn't want to burst
into tears the second I challenged them.

47
00:04:05,599 --> 00:04:11,479
Still, I barely slept that night. I stayed up going through the mechanisms

48
00:04:11,479 --> 00:04:15,279
of it all. Was she and
escort. I thought that might explain the

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00:04:15,319 --> 00:04:20,560
time constraints. A man could get
one of those off the internet real easy.

50
00:04:21,519 --> 00:04:26,639
He wouldn't have to wine and dine
anyone. Then what would he need,

51
00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:30,519
really? Some cash and half an
hour somewhere private. And let's be

52
00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:35,600
honest with ourselves, men and women
both, half hour is a bit of

53
00:04:35,639 --> 00:04:41,560
an overestimate. For most guys I've
been with, it's closer to a commercial

54
00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:47,240
break. I studied the pictures very
closely, looking for answers to these weird

55
00:04:47,319 --> 00:04:51,839
questions. From the looks of it, they were going at it in someone's

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00:04:51,879 --> 00:04:57,279
living room. I figured he might
have found a prostitute with her own place

57
00:04:57,319 --> 00:05:02,720
nearby, although I wasn't necess necessarily
married to that idea. Really, my

58
00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:09,079
theory was that whoever he found,
they had to be pretty comfortable with no

59
00:05:09,319 --> 00:05:13,720
romance in and out. You know, he was only out of the house

60
00:05:13,759 --> 00:05:16,959
two days a week, and I
knew he really did go to the office

61
00:05:17,399 --> 00:05:21,399
because he was once late due to
traffic and his boss called up furious,

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00:05:21,759 --> 00:05:27,959
and I had to offer up all
sorts of excuses. Still, just to

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00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:32,160
be sure, I started testing him
in the following days. I'd call this

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desk phone at random, and he
was always there. I even called up

65
00:05:36,399 --> 00:05:40,959
the receptionist and I said, I
wanted to send him some flowers for our

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anniversary. So was there a specific
time I should avoid having the delivery guy

67
00:05:45,959 --> 00:05:49,600
turn up? And she said no. He was pretty much always at his

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00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:56,920
desk except for maybe twenty minutes at
lunch. That meant whoever he was carrying

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on with, they had to be
meeting up at lunch, doing it all

70
00:06:00,759 --> 00:06:04,920
in record time, which was pretty
odd if you ask me. I mean,

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00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:09,120
I had hard proof in my hands, so I couldn't doubt it.

72
00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:13,879
But yeah, it was hard to
think of him sprinting out to some random

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00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,759
woman's house. If this was an
affair, how did it start, what

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00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:23,480
were the terms? What did they
both get out of it? I mean,

75
00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:27,399
it wasn't like he had stopped showing
affection to me. Don't get me

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00:06:27,439 --> 00:06:32,759
wrong, after the first picture,
I immediately withdrew all intimacy. But what

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00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:36,720
I'm saying is, in the run
up to me finding out, it wasn't

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like we stopped doing it or even
reduced the amount. I suppose he'd always

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00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:46,959
had a bit of a high drive
we both had. I just found it

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00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:51,240
strange. Whatever this affair was it
pretty much had to be only sleeping with

81
00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:58,240
each other and nothing else. But
at the same time, why not just

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00:06:58,319 --> 00:07:02,439
get a little more from me in
the scheme of things he was ruining our

83
00:07:02,439 --> 00:07:09,120
marriage for? Like what twenty five
percent more? That struck me as weird

84
00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:14,519
too. In my head, I
kept going over the whole scenario again and

85
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:18,959
again. If it was just more
he wanted, why not just have it

86
00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:24,920
with me? I did this when
my dad left, by the way,

87
00:07:25,399 --> 00:07:29,319
tried to rationalize it, made it
into a kind of mystery that had to

88
00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:33,480
be solved. Why weren't we enough? Was it because he wanted a son,

89
00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:38,920
or because my mother and I were
too close and had nothing in common

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00:07:38,959 --> 00:07:43,399
with him. The other woman he
left us for wasn't some young bimbo either.

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She was my mother's age, So
what was different about her? What

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00:07:48,279 --> 00:07:54,839
did this woman give him that his
home life couldn't I remember I saw her

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00:07:54,879 --> 00:07:58,439
in the car once, sitting there
while he came to the door to see

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00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:01,639
me for an hour or two.
Or Mom went around back because she couldn't

95
00:08:01,639 --> 00:08:05,480
stand the sight of him. And
I'd expected some done up blonde bimbo,

96
00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:11,680
but no, just another middle aged
woman who even looked a bit like my

97
00:08:11,759 --> 00:08:20,959
mom. Did they say history repeats
itself? The woman in those polaroids looked

98
00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:26,360
like me too, hardly some young
model. I couldn't see her face,

99
00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:31,560
it was always something blocking it,
but she had long brown hair, similar

100
00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:35,440
build, similar age. Sounds weird, but I think it would have hurt

101
00:08:35,519 --> 00:08:41,600
less if he'd been screwing some blonde
and a cheerleader outfit. As it was.

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00:08:41,799 --> 00:08:45,759
Every time I looked at those photos, I couldn't escape the feeling that

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something very specific must be wrong with
me. And it couldn't be some shallow

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00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:56,320
physical thing. It was deeper than
that, something he realized only after spending

105
00:08:56,399 --> 00:09:01,799
ten years with me. I annoy
him on a personal level. Did you

106
00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:05,679
just look at me one day while
I shaved my legs and think? Gross?

107
00:09:05,919 --> 00:09:11,879
And that was that he got the
ick? He didn't get an upgrade,

108
00:09:11,399 --> 00:09:18,720
just a replacement, and somehow it
just, I don't know, it

109
00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:26,919
felt worse. I considered revenge,
but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

110
00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:31,399
So weird, I put him an
Instagram picture that wasn't like the usual

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00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:35,399
ones. Geez men online don't need
a lot to get going, do they?

112
00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:41,000
You go to idul sites and see
the things women do there, and

113
00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:43,600
you figure men must really need some
mess up stuff to get turned on.

114
00:09:45,639 --> 00:09:50,360
But it turns out there's always some
guy waiting to slide into your dms because

115
00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:54,000
you wore one jeans or ankle socks. All it took for me was a

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00:09:54,039 --> 00:10:00,639
picture in an oversized T shirt with
my legs tucked underneath. You hardly saw

117
00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:07,080
any skin. I've seen more revealing
adverts didn't stop the messages coming in from

118
00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:13,000
total strangers and more than a few
good friends and old flames. I responded

119
00:10:13,399 --> 00:10:18,440
to none of them, not a
single one. They were flattering, but

120
00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:26,639
I didn't once feel the urge to
reach out. It's just well, it

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00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:30,639
reminded me of the fact I wasn't
starved for attention in the first place.

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I wasn't unhappy with my relationship.
The polaroids told me I was in enough,

123
00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:41,240
but I never once felt like it. A part of me wanted to

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00:10:41,279 --> 00:10:46,480
bulldoze over this obstacle in our relationship, fill in the pothole, lay new

125
00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:52,000
tarmac, and just keep on using
the road like nothing had changed. But

126
00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:58,759
I didn't have it in me.
Very little time had passed and I already

127
00:10:58,759 --> 00:11:01,200
felt like I was going mad,
ad like I needed to know why the

128
00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:09,159
hell he'd done this. Every day
was spent oscillating between gut churning sadness and

129
00:11:09,279 --> 00:11:15,360
read out fury at the betrayal.
Couldn't keep the act of forever. Sooner

130
00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:22,120
or later I'd break the performance wasn't
perfect. He'd notice the distance between us,

131
00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:26,879
kept asking if I was okay.
Sooner or later the answer was going

132
00:11:26,919 --> 00:11:31,039
to be a swift kick to the
balls. Hadn't the whole point of biding

133
00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:35,360
my time been to get a handle
of myself, to not lose control and

134
00:11:35,399 --> 00:11:39,679
give him the upper hand That had
been moot if I ended up charged with

135
00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:48,039
the salt in the end, I
decided on a simpler solution. I was

136
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:54,799
going to speak to this other woman, Maybe not head on. My life

137
00:11:54,799 --> 00:11:58,320
isn't Jerry Springer. Wasn't going to
kick the door down and scream you took

138
00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:03,960
my man. But maybe I could
just bump into her, just have a

139
00:12:05,039 --> 00:12:07,279
chat, like, oh hey,
nice shoes? Where to get them?

140
00:12:07,639 --> 00:12:11,159
What kind of work are you in? Do you have some kind of nimble

141
00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:18,080
super technique to end marriages? I
joke, It's what I do when I

142
00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:22,639
feel uncomfortable. And I felt very
uncomfortable at the thought of finding this woman

143
00:12:22,759 --> 00:12:28,759
and talking to her. I'm no
spy. Talking to strangers makes me anxious

144
00:12:28,879 --> 00:12:33,240
enough, let alone when the whole
encounter is a ruse because of some hitchcock

145
00:12:33,279 --> 00:12:39,480
in a fair Good news was I
didn't have to look far. One of

146
00:12:39,519 --> 00:12:43,399
the polaroids had a house number and
a few buildings in the background that I

147
00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:48,960
recognized. Took maybe twenty minutes on
Google Maps to pin it down, nothing

148
00:12:50,039 --> 00:12:54,240
difficult. I soon had an address, and it wasn't long before my husband

149
00:12:54,360 --> 00:13:01,399
had an inn office day and I
could go investigate. First thing I thought

150
00:13:01,519 --> 00:13:07,679
up on seeing the house. Her
house looked like a crack. Then one

151
00:13:07,679 --> 00:13:11,480
of the windows on the top floor
had been broken and boarded up. The

152
00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:15,600
door was wide open in the middle
of the day. The garden was an

153
00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:20,559
absolute mess of overgrown weeds, a
random crap that looked like passers by had

154
00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:24,080
tossed over the wall, but the
owners had never cleaned up. It was

155
00:13:24,159 --> 00:13:28,840
just all very gray and dingy.
It really did look like the kind of

156
00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:33,399
place drug dealers with squat. I
even checked the telephone poles for a pair

157
00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:39,879
of shoes hanging off the wires.
I felt pretty sketchy waiting in my car,

158
00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:43,639
but it seemed to beat getting out
for a walk. I kept thinking

159
00:13:43,759 --> 00:13:48,600
I was going to see her come
or go, but it just never happened.

160
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:54,360
All I managed was to waste a
few hours. I did take some

161
00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:58,799
time to compare the polaroids to the
living room window, and it was definitely

162
00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:05,720
the same room. Unfortunately, staring
at those pictures riled me up. There

163
00:14:05,799 --> 00:14:09,320
she was on the sofa, bent
over, hair hanging over her face,

164
00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:16,600
and there he was behind her,
and here I was in my car,

165
00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:22,720
meekly staring at the exact spot I'd
been betrayed. He wound me up so

166
00:14:22,879 --> 00:14:26,600
bad that I got out of the
car and felt a little closer to that

167
00:14:26,799 --> 00:14:31,919
Jerry Spring, a moment I always
told myself I'd never have. I think

168
00:14:31,039 --> 00:14:35,000
all the weeks of stress and wondering
had started to wear me a bit thin,

169
00:14:35,759 --> 00:14:41,799
because I was already teary eyed before
I'd passed the garden gate, and

170
00:14:41,919 --> 00:14:46,559
my husband, who'd gotten home by
now, was texting me wondering where I

171
00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:52,320
was, and I kept ignoring him. Time was passing too quickly when I

172
00:14:52,519 --> 00:14:56,559
just wanted it to stand still for
a little longer. It felt like now

173
00:14:56,799 --> 00:15:03,120
or never. This was breaking point. I had to know if she was

174
00:15:03,159 --> 00:15:07,960
in there, or if there was
some proof he'd been in there. I

175
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:16,879
had to know. I knocked,
but got no answer. Since the door

176
00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:20,639
was open, I leaned around and
had a little peek inside, but ended

177
00:15:20,679 --> 00:15:26,080
up nudging it with my elbow and
pushed it open even further. The hinges

178
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:31,720
let out a terrible screech, like
they've been standing still for weeks or even

179
00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:37,120
months. If someone wasn't there,
they should have come running at the sound,

180
00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:43,519
but nothing. Once I was sure
I was alone, I stepped inside

181
00:15:43,639 --> 00:15:50,960
and revised my earlier opinion. It
wasn't a crack then. It was more

182
00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:58,279
like a crime scene. Everything was
well, sort of clean, not destitute.

183
00:16:00,519 --> 00:16:03,679
There were one or two paintings in
the wall, but the glass was

184
00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:08,039
so covered in dust I couldn't see
anything of the actual images, and the

185
00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:15,879
carpet looked filthy but not gross.
Just abandoned and left the festa. There

186
00:16:15,879 --> 00:16:19,720
went cigarette butts everywhere and needles strewn
over the place. It was like a

187
00:16:19,799 --> 00:16:26,399
normal house that had just been left
behind. The main thing I could smell

188
00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,799
was mold and damp, probably because
rain had gotten in through the open door,

189
00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:37,519
not really able to help myself.
I went deeper into the house.

190
00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:42,159
I logged in the living room,
the very same one in those photos,

191
00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:48,600
and saw the same thing I had
before, a relatively neat room with a

192
00:16:48,679 --> 00:16:55,200
sofa and a TV that was covered
in dust. Some of it had been

193
00:16:55,200 --> 00:17:02,080
disturbed in places, but not enough
to suggest regular use. In the polaroids

194
00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:07,920
it had looked normal, but in
person it was clear to me it hadn't

195
00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:14,920
been lived in for years. Sheeees. I wondered, did they actually find

196
00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:18,880
an abandoned house to use? It
was the only thing that made sense to

197
00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:23,319
me. Maybe the woman knew about
it because she passed it on the way

198
00:17:23,319 --> 00:17:29,160
to work or something. But still
I had to wonder how a house could

199
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:33,039
stay empty long enough for moulder settling, not for kids or junkies to move

200
00:17:33,079 --> 00:17:40,720
into. There was no graffiti some
letter outside I mentioned that, but no

201
00:17:40,839 --> 00:17:45,079
use condoms or broken bottles or anything
like that. The kitchen was more of

202
00:17:45,119 --> 00:17:52,240
the same. So I went upstairs
and soon had my suspicions confirmed. First

203
00:17:52,279 --> 00:18:00,240
bedroom on the right, yellow police
tape all over the doorframe. Although it's

204
00:18:00,279 --> 00:18:04,720
been torn down now, it just
hung there like old streamers from a party

205
00:18:04,799 --> 00:18:11,599
that had gone wrong. My god, I realized it actually is a crime

206
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:19,160
scene. Obviously, I looked inside. I think up until then i'd fixated

207
00:18:19,279 --> 00:18:23,920
a little too much and my social
anxiety. I kept expecting to bump into

208
00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:30,720
this woman and have some awkward conversation, either about her screwing my husband or

209
00:18:30,799 --> 00:18:37,200
me breaking into a home. But
leaning into that room made me feel genuine

210
00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:44,279
fear. It was the sight of
blood, even old, dried brown blood

211
00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:51,200
soaked into an ancient bedspread. I'd
never seen anything like it, not in

212
00:18:51,279 --> 00:18:56,440
that quantity, and not strewn around
so violently. The bed itself had been

213
00:18:56,480 --> 00:19:03,400
massacred, gore soaked foam and feathers
and caked all around the stab marks in

214
00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:07,960
the mattress, and there was blood
all up the walls and ceiling. Looking

215
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:12,799
at it gave me an immediate sense
of what had happened. Someone had laid

216
00:19:12,799 --> 00:19:18,200
there and another person had gone at
them with a big knife, maybe kneeling

217
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:23,839
over them. Just bang, bang, bang, one vicious downward thrust after

218
00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:30,519
another. I can't really put into
words just how vivid it felt, one

219
00:19:30,519 --> 00:19:38,240
of those scenes of brains can't help
but put back together. Now, Who

220
00:19:38,279 --> 00:19:41,839
the hell will want to sleep with
someone in a house where that happened.

221
00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:48,880
Wherever this woman was, I decided
she was a freak. I decided any

222
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:53,200
confrontation I was going to have about
this affair could be between my husband and

223
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:56,559
me, in the safety of my
own home, where I could lock all

224
00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:03,240
the doors. I turned and left. Left hurried down the stairs, but

225
00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:08,680
only got halfway when I heard something
strange coming from behind, a giggle that

226
00:20:08,799 --> 00:20:15,319
cut through the ambient sounds of my
quiet footsteps and the distant traffic. Something

227
00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:19,720
about it made me freeze on the
spot. It wasn't the laugh of the

228
00:20:19,759 --> 00:20:25,799
sane person. I already figured that
if this woman lived here, she must

229
00:20:25,839 --> 00:20:30,039
ever screw loose, but hearing her
chuckle behind me like that made my skin

230
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:37,119
crawl. A part of me wanted
to avoid turning around, partly because it

231
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:41,200
felt like I'd be coming face to
face with a woman who destroyed my marriage,

232
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:48,240
but also because I was starting to
feel genuinely afraid what the hell was

233
00:20:48,279 --> 00:20:55,519
this place and who the hell would
live here in these conditions. I don't

234
00:20:55,559 --> 00:21:00,240
know what got me to turn around
in the end, Courage maybe, or

235
00:21:00,319 --> 00:21:04,440
just the desire to get it over
with more likely. When I finally turned,

236
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:10,240
I saw a skinny woman standing on
the top of the stairs, hair

237
00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:15,079
draped over her face. She certainly
resembled the woman in the photos. Then

238
00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:21,920
again, what had I really seen
of her face? Hair? And that's

239
00:21:22,039 --> 00:21:26,480
largely what I could see of the
woman in front of me, hair wet

240
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:33,920
and greasy, dripping down over a
face to cover just about everything except a

241
00:21:33,039 --> 00:21:40,160
blood red grin and a dirts made
neck. Beneath that was a body right

242
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:47,359
out of Oliver twist thin and scraggly
clothes hanging loose, bare feet poking out

243
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:52,119
over the top step. It's weird, but it was a toes that made

244
00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:56,240
me feel so uneasy. I don't
like feet, and hers were like something

245
00:21:56,359 --> 00:22:00,519
straight out of the Hobbit, like
she'd spent a whole life living in a

246
00:22:00,599 --> 00:22:07,680
ditch off the motorway and eating rode
kill. We must have looked at each

247
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:11,559
other for a whole minute before I
worked up the courage to do something.

248
00:22:11,799 --> 00:22:17,720
She certainly didn't seem bothered at all. With the silence, I half suspected

249
00:22:17,759 --> 00:22:21,640
she would have stayed there all night, looking at me atop of the stairs.

250
00:22:22,799 --> 00:22:30,079
Excuse me, she squealed in a
girlish imitation, her voice like nails

251
00:22:30,079 --> 00:22:33,799
and a chalkboard had an almost physical
presence to it that pushed me down one

252
00:22:33,839 --> 00:22:41,039
step without missing a beat, Moving
after me like a mirrored reflection, she

253
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:48,079
followed down the stairs one step.
Also I didn't I didn't realize. She

254
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:52,799
crooned while tilting her head left and
right. The impression I got right there

255
00:22:53,400 --> 00:23:00,279
was of a crow imitating speech.
I'll just grinned, and I got a

256
00:23:00,279 --> 00:23:07,039
glimpse of blooded teeth. I could
feel it, the tension, the palpable

257
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:12,559
capacity for violence that lurked in the
air. She oozed it out of every

258
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:18,200
cell in her body, the promise
of a thumbtack in a mouthful of blood.

259
00:23:18,519 --> 00:23:22,960
Any second now, I told myself, And she's going to leap down

260
00:23:22,039 --> 00:23:27,559
onto me and bang, bang bang
bang, one vicious down with thrust after

261
00:23:27,599 --> 00:23:34,359
another, just like that bed.
Her hands were behind her back, and

262
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:41,559
I had no doubt they were clutching
something sharp. Screw this, I cried,

263
00:23:41,759 --> 00:23:45,759
and turned, making for the door. It wasn't far, maybe five

264
00:23:45,839 --> 00:23:51,799
meters at most, but every single
step felt like an eternity as I kept

265
00:23:51,799 --> 00:23:56,519
waiting to feel something at my back, the blade slicing between my shoulder blades,

266
00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:00,160
her hand latching onto my jacket and
dragging me backwards. The sheriff of

267
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:04,400
a body leaping up onto my back, slid my hands reaching out to slip

268
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:11,279
my throat, while a weight forced
me to my knees. But I made

269
00:24:11,279 --> 00:24:14,559
it to the door, free and
clear, and ran straight to my car.

270
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,480
I didn't stop until I'd gotten in
and locked all the doors. Even

271
00:24:19,559 --> 00:24:26,119
then, I only risked one brief
glance up at the doorway and saw that

272
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:32,759
it was empty, before I turned
the ignition and slammed my foot down on

273
00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:44,680
the gas. I was crying as
I stumbled through the front door, unsure

274
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:48,440
of what had happened, but terrified
all the same. I wanted to know

275
00:24:48,599 --> 00:24:53,079
that I wasn't alone, and cried
out. But the house was quiet and

276
00:24:53,119 --> 00:25:00,480
empty, lights off, no TV, no husband. I went looking and

277
00:25:00,519 --> 00:25:06,880
found only a letter waiting for me
on the kitchen island. Nothing elaborate,

278
00:25:07,839 --> 00:25:12,680
certainly not the confession I initially expected
upon seeing it. It was simple,

279
00:25:14,799 --> 00:25:18,440
scrawled on a piece of a four
torn out of the home office printer.

280
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:25,680
He didn't sign it. He didn't
need to. I need a few days

281
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:30,079
to process this. Please don't look
for me. We can talk when I

282
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:34,440
come home. Next to the letter, was a bundle of polaroids and an

283
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:40,880
opened envelope. You need to see
what your wife is up to had been

284
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:45,559
written on the back, and it
was nearly identical to the one I'd received

285
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:51,599
weeks ago. The photos were much
the same, too, only this time

286
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:59,880
the man's face was obscured and the
woman's clearly visible. She looked exactly like

287
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:06,480
me. Not a matter of sisters, but twins, a doppelganger, even

288
00:26:07,279 --> 00:26:11,799
although something behind the eyes felt out
a place. This was my own face

289
00:26:12,319 --> 00:26:18,559
after a night of meth or heroine
maybe, and yet still unmistakably mine.

290
00:26:21,319 --> 00:26:26,640
Of course, she was familiar for
another reason too. There was no mistaking

291
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:33,839
that eerie grin and greasy hair.
I'd met her that afternoon. I'd seen

292
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,119
her standing at the top of the
stairs, crowing my words back at me

293
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:42,559
like some puppet. I couldn't begin
to fathom what sick game was being played.

294
00:26:44,599 --> 00:26:47,680
I just knew that I had to
get in contact with my husband.

295
00:26:48,039 --> 00:26:52,559
I tried his number, but it
was hardly a surprise when he didn't pick

296
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:57,759
up. I tried again and again
and again, until well it must have

297
00:26:57,759 --> 00:27:03,599
been the fifteenth try when he finally
responded. He didn't answer my cause directly.

298
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:11,799
I wasn't lucky, but he did
send a voice note. Looking back,

299
00:27:12,039 --> 00:27:15,759
it seemed so obvious. I assume
this started a few weeks ago.

300
00:27:17,039 --> 00:27:21,400
Yeah, that's when you withdrew.
At first, I thought maybe I'd done

301
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:25,400
something wrong, But as the days
wore on, it became clear to me

302
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:29,799
that something deeper is at play.
Never in a million years did I expect

303
00:27:29,839 --> 00:27:34,119
this, though, I mean maybe, I don't know. There were times

304
00:27:34,759 --> 00:27:41,039
I thought maybe you were pregnant,
afraid after what happened last time. Jeez,

305
00:27:41,519 --> 00:27:45,039
I thought it could have been anything, but not this. I need

306
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:49,720
time, a day at least,
before I even speak to you. This

307
00:27:49,839 --> 00:27:53,960
is the last you'll hear of me
until I unblock you. Please don't keep

308
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,599
reaching out to me. I don't
know if you want forgiveness or just to

309
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:02,680
blame me or try it lie your
way out of it. But before any

310
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:07,759
of that can happen, I need
a day to gather myself. I'll speak

311
00:28:07,799 --> 00:28:12,960
to you when I want to speak
to you, not before then. I

312
00:28:14,079 --> 00:28:17,720
was so frustrated with this, I
whipped my phone at the wall and began

313
00:28:17,839 --> 00:28:22,400
to cry, mewing the words stupid
and myself over and over again. As

314
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:29,680
I realized just how badly I'd been
played in hindsight, Who was so obvious?

315
00:28:29,839 --> 00:28:33,480
I could claw off my own skin
with anger? Yes, I'd pulled

316
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:38,440
away, Yes, my behavior changed. Yes, I'd become irritable and prone

317
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:44,359
to arguing over the silliest little things. This whole thing had been a set

318
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:48,240
up from the start by that crazy
woman, and I'd walked right into it.

319
00:28:49,319 --> 00:28:53,119
Who's to say there was even my
husband in those photos? I mean,

320
00:28:53,319 --> 00:28:57,759
if I had a look alike,
why not him? If I just

321
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:03,039
confronted him on day one, maybe
we could have made sense of it.

322
00:29:03,119 --> 00:29:07,000
But as it was, I looked
guilty as sin from where he was standing.

323
00:29:08,079 --> 00:29:12,400
Jeez, I'd even lied to him
about taking time off work. My

324
00:29:12,519 --> 00:29:18,839
behavior was practically the poster child for
a cheating spouse. I don't know what

325
00:29:18,039 --> 00:29:22,960
was being planned here, but I
knew something was deeply, profoundly wrong with

326
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:29,200
it all. What the hell was
the endgame for these sick freaks to ruin

327
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:33,960
my marriage? What the hell am
I going to do now? I whispered

328
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:41,480
in despair, What the hell am
I going to do now? The words

329
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:45,240
were so gentle, I wondered for
a moment if they'd come from my own

330
00:29:45,279 --> 00:29:51,599
mouth, an echo, maybe even
my own thoughts, mistaken for actual words.

331
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:56,240
But none of that was right,
and I knew it. The words

332
00:29:56,279 --> 00:30:03,599
had presents in the world more than
that, they had a location. Behind

333
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:12,359
me. Slowly, desperately hoping that
I shouldn't have to trust my own senses,

334
00:30:14,119 --> 00:30:19,400
I turned to face the hallway i'd
just come from empty. And yet

335
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:26,880
why did I get the feeling it
had been occupied only a few seconds ago?

336
00:30:26,359 --> 00:30:33,039
Some sixth sense, perhaps the knowledge
that just because something looks safe doesn't

337
00:30:33,119 --> 00:30:37,400
mean it is. Something had just
ducked back out of sight as I turned,

338
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:45,880
I was sure of it. But
where our cozy little home suddenly seemed

339
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:49,240
far too big for comfort? A
doorway here, a stairway, there,

340
00:30:51,119 --> 00:30:53,880
no lights aside from what I turned
on in the kitchen when I'd rushed in.

341
00:30:56,319 --> 00:30:59,599
Was this really the place where my
husband had held my hand every time

342
00:30:59,599 --> 00:31:03,599
we waited for the doctor to call, or where we sat and cuddled as

343
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:11,440
I read and he played games?
It was wrong, all wrong? Hello,

344
00:31:11,599 --> 00:31:17,759
I cried out, desperately, hoping
that reality might suddenly snap back into

345
00:31:17,839 --> 00:31:25,359
place. But there was nothing,
no echo, just me. But could

346
00:31:25,359 --> 00:31:30,920
I trust that I was alone?
My God? Said no. There it

347
00:31:30,039 --> 00:31:37,319
was again that itch between my shoulder
blades, the same crawling terror I'd felt

348
00:31:37,319 --> 00:31:41,880
in that house, knowing that woman
might jump at me at any moment from

349
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:45,880
a place atop the stairs. I
tried to tell myself the paranoid thoughts should

350
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:51,839
be ignored, but I still reached
for a nearby knife and cried out once

351
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:57,200
more, if only to break the
silence that felt painfully heavy. Hello,

352
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:05,480
is anyone there? Quietly, I
went out into the hallway and switched on

353
00:32:05,559 --> 00:32:12,720
the lights. They helped a little, but not enough. From upstairs,

354
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:21,720
a quiet thump, the muffled sound
of something moving. I wanted to leave,

355
00:32:22,319 --> 00:32:27,119
but go where and to what end? I told myself it could only

356
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:30,960
really be her, couldn't it?
And she was, after all just a

357
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:37,640
person, a thinner, scragglier looking
version of myself. I may have spent

358
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:42,480
the last few weeks getting led around
by the nose, but I wasn't some

359
00:32:42,599 --> 00:32:46,599
docile pet. I was a person. I had agency, and I didn't

360
00:32:46,599 --> 00:32:52,160
want to be afraid anymore, not
in my own home. I gripped the

361
00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:57,920
knife harder, watched the light glint
off its edge, then turned to face

362
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:05,079
the stairs. I was frozen in
time, unable to move towards the sound,

363
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:09,759
but unwilling to just leave it all
behind. Finally, I worked with

364
00:33:09,759 --> 00:33:16,039
the courage to speak, to force
out a few shaky and uncertain words,

365
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:24,359
I know you're up there. No
response, at least not verbal. The

366
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:31,319
seconds ticked on and slowly, almost
as if she was relishing it for corpse.

367
00:33:31,359 --> 00:33:37,640
Pale fingers curled themselves around the top
step. I tried to picture the

368
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:44,039
scene at large, the fact that
for the last few minutes, me at

369
00:33:44,039 --> 00:33:47,559
the bottom of the stairs, her
at the top. She had been lying

370
00:33:47,839 --> 00:33:52,960
with the whole body pressed flush to
the floor like some kind of spider,

371
00:33:54,279 --> 00:34:01,960
waiting, just waiting. Thought made
me feel sick, like this was far

372
00:34:02,039 --> 00:34:09,440
worse than a simple home invasion.
And then came her face, my face,

373
00:34:10,519 --> 00:34:15,239
and I felt like this was just
the beginning of some kind of waking

374
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:21,559
nightmare. It came peering out over
the top, a grin as wide as

375
00:34:21,559 --> 00:34:25,159
my whole head, with her head
cocked to one side like a disappointed puppy.

376
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:32,119
She stared at me with this distorted
expression, and then in one fluid

377
00:34:32,159 --> 00:34:38,440
motion, she lifted the rest of
her body into sight. What the hell

378
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:45,960
are you, she hissed, back, her mouth didn't move an inch.

379
00:34:46,199 --> 00:34:52,920
Something behind that horrible smile, something
dark, wet and glistening, seemed to

380
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:58,480
vibrate. I felt lightheaded as I
processed this, felt my nerves turned to

381
00:34:58,559 --> 00:35:04,000
water. My hand and involuntarily loosen, and the knife clatter to the floor.

382
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:10,880
Iran, I'm not sure there was
any conscious thought behind it, any

383
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:17,639
decision rational or otherwise. The same
heady punch of terror that propelled me is

384
00:35:17,679 --> 00:35:22,360
the same force that made me pee
myself when I heard her feet scurrying after

385
00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,519
me, the same that made me
cry out like a damn child as she

386
00:35:25,599 --> 00:35:30,400
bore to the floor. It was
only the pain of smashing my face into

387
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:37,079
the cold tile that brought me out
of the hysterical fear. Looking back,

388
00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:43,199
I think into what saved my life, A bright red splash of blood,

389
00:35:44,119 --> 00:35:49,360
a single tooth scent scattering across the
floor, my tongue probing the empty space

390
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:53,480
of a missing incisor The pain caused
the kind of knee jerk reaction, and

391
00:35:53,519 --> 00:35:59,679
I kicked back as hard as I
could. I made some contact, not

392
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:02,440
mine, but it was enough to
let me claw my way back onto my

393
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:10,320
feet and run towards the door.
History repeated itself. It seemed her behind

394
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:15,639
me as I raced towards the nearest
exit. But this time it was different.

395
00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:22,559
This time she didn't let me get
away unharmed. This time she drove

396
00:36:22,599 --> 00:36:25,920
a kitchen knife into the meat of
my calf, and it hurt like nothing

397
00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:31,199
else I'd ever felt. It sent
me toppling over as I screamed in pain,

398
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:36,639
turned my legs to jelly. A
bit of luck meant that I managed

399
00:36:36,639 --> 00:36:39,239
to reach out and grab the door
handle to stop myself going down all the

400
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:45,280
way, but it took every ounce
of willpower I had to hold myself there

401
00:36:45,639 --> 00:36:50,480
as I vented the pain in a
gut wrenching cry. With one hand,

402
00:36:50,639 --> 00:36:53,119
I tried to stem the bleeding in
my leg, while with the other I

403
00:36:53,159 --> 00:36:59,519
fumbled around to open the door.
It took a good few seconds longer than

404
00:36:59,519 --> 00:37:04,440
I wanted. It too long enough
for me to glance over and see her

405
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:10,159
standing there, breathing so heavily her
whole body shook. She might have been

406
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:16,800
laughing, or maybe this was her
imitating my cries of pain. I couldn't

407
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:22,880
be sure, but I found myself
hoping that I was going to wake up

408
00:37:22,039 --> 00:37:29,000
any second now that this was a
nightmare, a gross perversion of my imagination

409
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:37,039
cranked up to eleven, but time
just kept going. One hand desperately trying

410
00:37:37,039 --> 00:37:39,800
to work the key in the lock, the other clutching a lump of muscle

411
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:45,960
that throbbed in pain. My skin
slick with hot blood, wet socks,

412
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:51,360
slippery floor. Am I going to
pass out? I wondered? What is

413
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:55,119
she going to do to me if
I do? She took a step towards

414
00:37:55,199 --> 00:38:00,480
me, savoring my weakness. I
sobbed out with my one good leg.

415
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:06,280
With this sad gesture meant I lost
my footing and slid down to the floor,

416
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:13,280
where I sat back against the door
and watched helplessly as she stalked closer.

417
00:38:15,079 --> 00:38:20,000
What do you want? I sobbed, What do you want? She

418
00:38:20,119 --> 00:38:24,480
choked back at me from a frozen
mouth. God, whatever was moving behind

419
00:38:24,519 --> 00:38:31,880
those awful teeth, it looked almost
insectile. The last thing I remember before

420
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:38,920
the pain became too much was her
face, closer than it should be and

421
00:38:39,039 --> 00:38:45,719
all lit up impossibly bright by a
swelling cascade of blues and red. That

422
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:53,000
face of hers, my face,
it was haunting, bloodshot eyes that darted

423
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:59,320
over my features like a predator.
Savoring its kill, and that mouth,

424
00:39:00,159 --> 00:39:09,719
and a kiteeness thing that swelled within, slowly opening wider and wider. I

425
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:17,679
awoke screaming, several orderlies, big
men pinning me down as panicked nurses and

426
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:22,559
doctors worked away at my leg.
One of them told me I was safe,

427
00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:27,639
but he took an age for the
words to sink in. It was

428
00:39:27,679 --> 00:39:34,400
only when I remembered the lights that
I began to calm. Red and blue.

429
00:39:35,079 --> 00:39:38,440
A neighbor had called the police in
response to all the noise. When

430
00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:45,039
the nurses explained what had happened,
I cried with relief. Who would have

431
00:39:45,119 --> 00:39:49,960
thought I'd be so thankful for nosy
neighbors. They figured it might have been

432
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:53,239
a domestic situation gone wrong. For
when the cops turned up and found me

433
00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:58,320
bleeding all over the floor with a
six inch carbon knife jotting out of my

434
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:05,000
leg, they knew it was much
much worse a home invasion. They told

435
00:40:05,039 --> 00:40:08,960
me. I wanted to correct them. I stammered out a kind of forward

436
00:40:09,039 --> 00:40:14,199
response about a woman in my home, and they nodded. But how could

437
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:19,159
I explain to them the madness of
the last few weeks. When they told

438
00:40:19,159 --> 00:40:22,719
me about my missing clothes and jewelry
about the way. Someone had clearly ransacked

439
00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:28,079
the home for valuables. It was
clear as day they made up their mind

440
00:40:28,079 --> 00:40:34,079
about it being a burglary gone wrong. The thought of her rummaging through my

441
00:40:34,159 --> 00:40:38,559
things disgusted me. The notion that
she had gone rifling through my things.

442
00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:45,320
Of course, my clothes and jewelry
were missing. That nightmare of a woman

443
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:49,639
seemed to get a kick out of
imitating me. Did this mean the next

444
00:40:49,639 --> 00:40:52,960
time she appeared, jumping out of
some dark closet or unfolding herself from the

445
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:58,440
back seat of my car, she
be dressed in my clothes, clothes I'd

446
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:04,559
once loved, blooded and filthy jewelry
my mother and father had given me draped

447
00:41:04,599 --> 00:41:10,199
around her neck my husband, I
asked the nearest policeman. Once he was

448
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:15,599
done with the questions, notebook folded, standing up, he was getting ready

449
00:41:15,639 --> 00:41:21,960
to leave. Have you heard from
my husband? He's on his way.

450
00:41:24,199 --> 00:41:30,719
Tired beyond belief, I fell backwards
and began to cry. The policeman,

451
00:41:31,079 --> 00:41:36,840
clearly aware of what I'd been through, let himself out without another word,

452
00:41:37,239 --> 00:41:40,840
and I lay there alone for what
must have been hours. I think I

453
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:49,320
passed out again. I just fell
into a very deep sleep. When I

454
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:54,039
awoke, it was through the feeling
of cold morning light filtering through the half

455
00:41:54,079 --> 00:42:00,920
closed blinds. Slowly I realized that
I stirred to the and reassuring sound of

456
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:08,840
my husband's voice. Hello. I
smiled at the realization he had come,

457
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:15,119
and the familiarity that the sound of
his voice brought. The feeling of safety

458
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:21,920
after everything I'd gone through, meant
the world to me to have him so

459
00:42:22,159 --> 00:42:29,199
close again. I turned over and
saw him standing there, facing away from

460
00:42:29,199 --> 00:42:36,920
me. Daniel. I tried to
keep my voice clear. We got less

461
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:43,159
than halfway through his name before it
turned into a great big sob Oh,

462
00:42:43,199 --> 00:42:52,880
thank God you're here. Who are
you? I frowned. The choice of

463
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:57,599
words confused me, but my husband
didn't move or turned to face me.

464
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:04,719
That in itself was enough to make
me sit upright. Daniel, I repeated,

465
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:07,480
what are you doing in my room? Get the hell out of here,

466
00:43:09,039 --> 00:43:15,519
Dan, Jeez. The sudden exclamation
made me jump. My heart rate

467
00:43:15,599 --> 00:43:22,800
spiked. Some machine close by began
to screech, but still my husband did

468
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:28,119
not move. Jeez, what the
hell are you? He continued, Oh

469
00:43:28,159 --> 00:43:34,480
my god. He began to scream, while remaining perfectly still, with his

470
00:43:34,599 --> 00:43:39,840
hands behind his back, head tilted
to one side. Just as suddenly as

471
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:45,559
the crying out had begun, it
stopped, and several medics began to race

472
00:43:45,599 --> 00:43:50,079
into the room to check on me. My head grew light, the world

473
00:43:50,119 --> 00:43:55,280
began to spin slowly. At last, my husband turned to face me as

474
00:43:55,320 --> 00:44:01,199
the nurses crowded around, asking a
dozen questions, none of which I seemed

475
00:44:01,199 --> 00:44:12,719
to hear. I saw his face. God, his face, a grin

476
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:17,480
as wide as his head, world
shot eyes, greasy hair, and a

477
00:44:17,519 --> 00:44:23,119
sort of dazed, drug addled lock. When he spoke one final time,

478
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:30,519
his lips did not move, but
behind that strange and warped mouth there was

479
00:44:30,559 --> 00:44:38,639
the barely visible glint of vibrating black
carapace. What are you? He said,

480
00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:45,800
a dying rattle, one last exclamation
before he turned to leave. The

481
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:51,440
others in the room were oblivious to
him, focused as they were entirely on

482
00:44:51,559 --> 00:44:57,920
me. As a dozen alarms went
off as I watched him leave, a

483
00:44:58,079 --> 00:45:02,760
sickening realization dawned on me, one
that threatened a crowd out, the last

484
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:15,280
vestige of consciousness. That thing was
his doppelganger, and he had been repeating

485
00:45:15,679 --> 00:45:20,400
my husband's dying words right back at
me,