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Speaker 1: Story one. I'm justin. I live in Stockton, California, with

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my dad. It's just the two of us in a

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two story house on a quiet street that always feels

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like it's holding its breath. This happened a year ago,

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one incident. One minute, everything made sense, the next I

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don't know anymore. It was around twelve thirty am and

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I was headed downstairs to grab something sweet before going

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to bed. The hallway light was off and the staircase

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creaked like it always does when you try to move quiet.

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Speaker 2: The house was still.

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Speaker 1: I thought my dad had passed out on the couch

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like usual after coming home from the late shift. But

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when I hit the bottom step, I saw him standing

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near the entertainment center, looking kind of irritated. Hey, he said,

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without looking up, you seen the remote. I blinked. I

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thought you were asleep. He shook his head. Nah, got

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up to watch something, and it's gone. I've been looking

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for it for like half an hour. I even checked

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the kitchen and under the rug. It's not here. That

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wasn't strange in itself. The remote disappears all the time.

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But what caught me off guard was what he said next.

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Can you go get the one from your room, the

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universal one just for tonight. I nodded and went to

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head upstairs, But then I paused. I felt guilty watching

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him move the couch cushions like he was on the

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verge of losing it, so I said, hold on, let

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me help look a bit more before I go grab mine.

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We turned the place inside out, sofa cushions off, pulled

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out the TV stand, shook out blankets, even checked the

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bathroom for no good reason. We tore that living room

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apart nothing whatever, he muttered. Finally, just get yours. So

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I grabbed my remote for my nightstand, same place it

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always is, came back downstairs, handed it to him and

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said this will do right. He nodded, thanks and dropped

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onto the couch with that heavy sigh he always makes

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after work. I went back upstairs, got in bed, and

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set my foe alarm. I remember this part clearly. I

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put my remote back on the nightstand right there. I

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was just about to plug in my phone when I

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heard my dad call me again. Justin, he said from downstairs,

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voice normal, not urgent. I groaned, got out of bed

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and walked to the top of the stairs. What I

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shouted down you left your remote down here, he said.

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Speaker 2: I froze.

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Speaker 1: No I didn't, I said, I brought it back up.

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I'm looking at it. Then, what's this, he asked. I

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heard the couch creak and then a beat of silence.

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I came down. He was sitting there staring at something

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on the cushion next to him. It was my remote,

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the exact one, same scratches on the battery cover, same

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little white sticker on the back that says Jay. I

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stared at it like it might vanish. I thought you

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said you brought it upstairs, he said slowly.

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Speaker 2: I did.

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Speaker 1: I said, I put it on my nightstand. He laughed once,

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a short, confused sound, and handed it to me. I

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turned it over. It was mine, not just a similar one,

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my remote. I walked back upstairs, and there it was,

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still sitting on my nightstand. I picked it up. Now

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I had two identical remotes in my hands. I stood

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there for what had to be a full minute, just

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holding them both, blinking like that would explain it. I

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went back down. He was still sitting there, staring at

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the screen. I held them up. Okay, look, He turned

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and looked at me, then looked at my hands. What

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the hell he said, I don't know. I told him,

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I swear to God, I only have one of these,

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always have. I grabbed it, brought it to you, came

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back upstairs, put it down, and now there's one up

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there and one down here.

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Speaker 2: He stood up.

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Speaker 1: You're messing with me, he said, I'm not. I snapped.

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Are you messing with me? He didn't answer. We both

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walked upstairs. I handed him one of them. He followed

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me into my room. We looked at the one on

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the night stand again, still there. So now we had three, three,

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three remotes, all identical, all physically there. He sat down

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on my bed. Okay, okay, this is I don't get it.

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Are you pranking me? I asked again. This time's sharper,

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like some kind of joke. He looked at me and

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he was pale. My dad doesn't get rattled easily, but

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he wasn't playing. I know what his jokes look like.

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This wasn't it. I held both remotes out and told

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him look, try both, see which one works.

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Speaker 2: He did.

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Speaker 1: They both worked, both controlled the TV downstairs. I brought

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the third one down. That one worked. Two three identical

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universal remotes, all fully functional, all physically real, all here,

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I tried to make sense of it, like maybe we

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had another backup one we forgot about.

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Speaker 2: But I know we didn't. We only he.

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Speaker 1: Ever had one universal remote, and I kept it in

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my room. He'd always borrow it when the living room

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one disappeared. That's what started this whole thing. I stood

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there in the middle of the living room holding one remote,

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my dad holding another, the third one sitting on the

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coffee table between us. You think maybe we just missed

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one earlier, I asked, voice tight, No, he said, without

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looking up.

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Speaker 2: We checked everything. He was right.

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Speaker 1: We had flipped that room upside down. The couch cushions

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were still tossed on the floor. There was no remote

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there before that third one appeared out of nowhere. And

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the worst part, the next morning, there were only two.

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The one on the coffee table was gone. Dad said

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he didn't touch it. I didn't touch it, but it vanished.

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I still have mine. He still has his, but I

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don't use it much anymore. Just seeing it makes me

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uneasy because for one brief moment, the rules of reality

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didn't add up. Something doubled, something showed up where it

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shouldn't have, and then disappeared again. There's no reasonable explanation.

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We both saw it. We both held them. Three real

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solid working remotes, then two story two. You ever hear

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your dad say something so random and off the wall,

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it sticks with you for life. When I was nine,

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mine told me, if you're going to sleep outside, don't

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ever sleep with your mouth open.

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Speaker 2: Spiders will crawl in.

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Speaker 1: That was the one rule he had when I started

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dragging blankets out onto our trampoline in the backyard. Didn't

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care about mountain lions, didn't care about frostbite, just spiders.

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I live in a small town outside Durango, Colorado, forests mountains.

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Speaker 2: The whole postcard scene.

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Speaker 1: Our house backs up to about two hundred yards of

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pine before the land starts to rise into rocky slopes.

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I was always an outdoor kid. I hated walls, hated

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the feeling of air conditioning. Summers, I'd sleep out back

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almost every night, flat on my back, staring at the

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stars from the middle of our trampoline. My parents gave

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up trying to drag me back in after the first

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few weeks. That's why I remember the night so clearly,

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not because anything strange led up to it. It was

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the opposite. Everything was normal, No bad dream, no creepy noise.

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I wasn't even cold. I just remember waking up with

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this awful pressure on my neck. Not the kind you

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get from rolling over onto your pillow weird. This was

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pulling me up, not down. My first instinct was that

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I'd wrapped myself up in a blanket and twisted it

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around my throat. I jerked forward, choking a little, and

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my arms went up on instinct. That's when I felt rope,

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actual rope, rough, dry hemp, frayed at the ends. And

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then this is the part that makes my stomach flip

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every time I think about it.

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Speaker 2: I felt a knot a noose.

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Speaker 1: I shot upright air rushed in, but it burned going down,

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started clawing at it, and when I finally got it off,

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I fell sideways off the trampoline and hit the grass hard.

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I remember spitting in the dirt and trying not to

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throw up. My eyes were watering, I could barely breathe.

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The rope was still hanging from my neck. It was short,

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less than a foot from the loop to the end,

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the kind of length you'd get if someone had cut it,

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not frayed by age, not snapped, clean cut. I stared

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at it, lying in the grass, dumb as a rock.

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It didn't make sense. I hadn't tied anything like that.

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We didn't have ropes like that around the house. This

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thing looked like it came out of a barn from

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eighteen oh two. I ran back inside carrying it. I

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don't remember what time. It was, probably just before sunrise.

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My dad was already up making coffee. I stood in

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the doorway of the kitchen and dropped the rope on

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the tile. He stared at it, then looked at me,

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Where the hell do you get that? I woke up

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with it around my neck like I was kidding. Then

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he saw the burn. My neck was red, not bruised,

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not gashed, but raw and irritated all the way around,

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like I'd been yanked up by it like a leash.

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His face changed fast. He asked me again, quieter this time,

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where'd you get that? I don't know. I started crying.

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I didn't even feel scared at first. I felt confused

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and embarrassed and cold, like I'd done something wrong and

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didn't know what. He touched the rope, turned it over,

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then handed it back like it was diseased. We don't

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have this kind of rope, He said, I haven't seen

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this kind of weave in thirty years. He had that

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look like when a parent wants to fix something but

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knows they can't. He didn't ask if I made it.

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He didn't even accuse me of lying. That said more

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than anything. I ended up lying on the couch for

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the rest of the day. He didn't make me go

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to school. I kept the rope with me, just staring

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at it, turning it over and over, trying to see

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a trick in the knot or some tag that would

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tell me it was from a store, something manufactured. But

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it wasn't. This was hand twisted. The noose was old school,

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perfect practiced, meant for one purpose. That night, I asked

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him if anyone had ever died back in those woods

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behind our house. He didn't answer it first, then he said,

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I don't know. I don't ask questions like that. I

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never slept on the trampoline again. We left it out

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there for years, but I wouldn't even step on it. Eventually,

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the snow rusted out the springs and we cut it

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up for scrap. I kept the rope, though for years

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it sat in a shoe box under my bed. I

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think part of me hoped I'd figure it out, like

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it was some kind of prank I didn't understand yet.

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But it never unraveled, never changed. It stayed dry and

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stiff and smelled like dirt in old wood, like a

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barnbeam or a coffin. I finally threw it into a

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fire pit during a camping trip with friends when I

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was sixteen. I didn't tell them what it was. I

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just watched it burn and felt sick until the last

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ember died. Even now, I don't have an explanation. No

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one could have gotten back there without making noise. Our

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dogs would have heard. There was no ladder, no sign

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anyone had been near the trampoline, no tracks. The gate

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was locked, and I checked every rope in our garage

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and shed nothing matched.

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Speaker 2: The only thing I can think, if.

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Speaker 1: I let my brain go there, is that I woke

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up after it happened, like maybe whatever or whoever put

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that noose around my neck had already done what they

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meant to do, but something stopped it, or someone or

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maybe I did die. Maybe I was dead for a

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few seconds. Maybe that short rope meant someone had cut

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me down just in time. I don't know, and I'm

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not sure I want to Story three. I'm not the

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type to believe in signs or spirits or anything you

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can't see, touch or prove. I was raised in Anaheim, California,

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in a tiny two story house built in the eighties

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with paper thin walls and carpet that never quite stopped

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smelling like dog. Nothing special about the house, just like

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there was nothing special about us. My brother Jason was

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the only one who ever seemed like he might get

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out and do something different. He was eighteen, healthy, sharp,

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bit of a screw up sometimes, but nothing serious. Then

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one morning he just didn't wake up. It was two

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days before his high school graduation. The coroner's van came

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and went. They didn't say much. The cops showed up

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because of his age. They kept asking about pills, substances,

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things like that my mom was a wreck. My sister

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and I had been at a friend's house for the

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weekend and we got the call in the middle of

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a movie. When we got back home, the place was

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swarming with police. They tore through his room for hours

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looking for his phone. They said they wanted to check

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texts calls, see who he'd been talking to, maybe someone

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had sold him something, maybe he'd said something before it happened,

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but the phone was gone completely. They flipped the mattress,

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empty drawers, even pulled the vent cover off the wall

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like they thought he'd hidden it.

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Speaker 2: Nothing.

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Speaker 1: Eventually they gave up, said they'd check again later. That

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night was quiet, too quiet, the kind of quiet that

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doesn't feel peaceful, it just makes your ears ring. I

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slept on the couch. My sister was upstairs in our

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shared room. My mom hadn't gone up there, since she

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wouldn't even go near the steps. She just sat at

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the kitchen table in the same clothes, nursing a mug

250
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of cold tea and staring out the sliding glass door

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like something might show up out there. Three days passed,

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the grief wasn't fading, it was just turning heavy and strange,

253
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like the air itself had changed. Then that night, God,

254
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I still don't.

255
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Speaker 2: Know what made her do it. It was around three am.

256
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Speaker 1: I was half asleep on the couch with the TV

257
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on mute when I heard the stairs creak. I sat up, startled,

258
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and saw my mom going up slowly, barefoot, her hand

259
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trailing the wall like she was half blind. She didn't

260
00:14:08,639 --> 00:14:11,399
look at me, just move like she wasn't fully there.

261
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I followed her without saying anything. She reached the landing,

262
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paused outside our room and said, why is the light on?

263
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I frowned. It shouldn't have been. She pushed the door

264
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open and just stood there. I stepped in beside her.

265
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There at the end of my sister's bed was one

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of Jason's pillows, folded over it like something someone had

267
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:36,679
placed neatly. Was his phone and his charger, the cord

268
00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:39,759
wrapped the way he always did it tight and tucked in.

269
00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,559
It was just sitting there. Is this some kind of

270
00:14:43,639 --> 00:14:47,440
sick joke? My mom asked, barely above a whisper. She

271
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reached for the phone like she didn't want to touch it,

272
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like she expected it to vanish. But she picked it up,

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held it, flipped it around. It was off. He never

274
00:14:57,279 --> 00:15:01,879
turned it off, I said, My voice cracked never. I

275
00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:05,240
turned and looked at my sister's face. She was dead asleep,

276
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mouth open, sprawled sideways like she always slept. She hadn't

277
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,519
put it there, she couldn't have. We were at Jenna's

278
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house when the call came. The police were already in

279
00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:18,720
the house by the time we got back. No one

280
00:15:18,759 --> 00:15:22,200
had been allowed upstairs alone. I turned the pillow over.

281
00:15:22,399 --> 00:15:26,000
It was his navy blue with tiny red checkers. It

282
00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:28,519
matched his sheets, not the bright pink comforter it was

283
00:15:28,519 --> 00:15:31,360
sitting on. My Mom sat on the edge of the bed,

284
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phone in her lap, staring at nothing. Maybe maybe the

285
00:15:35,559 --> 00:15:38,679
cops missed it, I said, even though I didn't believe it.

286
00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:42,720
Maybe it got kicked into the hall. She didn't respond.

287
00:15:43,159 --> 00:15:45,159
Her hand reached out and touched the pillow like she

288
00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:47,519
was checking to see if it was warm. And then

289
00:15:47,559 --> 00:15:52,120
the phone buzzed. It vibrated once, screens still black, no light,

290
00:15:52,279 --> 00:15:55,840
no display, just the buzz, like a dying breath. I

291
00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:59,279
swear to God, we both jumped. My mom stood up

292
00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:01,960
so fast the pillow slid to the floor. The charger

293
00:16:02,039 --> 00:16:04,840
uncoiled and thudded next to it. I picked up the phone,

294
00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:09,279
pressed the power button. Nothing. I tried again and again.

295
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:13,399
It was off, fully dead, but it had just buzzed.

296
00:16:13,559 --> 00:16:16,039
I know it did. And this is the part I

297
00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:18,919
can't explain, the one thing that has kept me up

298
00:16:18,919 --> 00:16:21,600
for the last two years. The light in the hallway,

299
00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:25,639
the one right outside the door. It flickered right as

300
00:16:25,679 --> 00:16:28,080
I stepped into the hall to get away from the silence.

301
00:16:28,759 --> 00:16:33,279
Just once pop, like it blew out, and then Jason's door,

302
00:16:33,759 --> 00:16:37,480
his room directly across from ours, slowly, slowly creaked open,

303
00:16:38,279 --> 00:16:41,759
just a few inches we had left it shut. I'm

304
00:16:41,799 --> 00:16:44,840
going downstairs, my mom said, suddenly, clutching her arms like

305
00:16:44,879 --> 00:16:45,519
she was freezing.

306
00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:46,440
Speaker 2: Now.

307
00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:49,960
Speaker 1: I didn't argue. We never found out how the phone

308
00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,960
got there. None of the cops had it. They asked

309
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:56,200
about it when we returned it later said they checked everywhere,

310
00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:59,360
asked if we'd had it all along. They were sure

311
00:16:59,399 --> 00:17:02,639
it hadn't been the room. I asked my sister once

312
00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:07,160
weeks later. She swore up and down she hadn't touched anything.

313
00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,880
But she said something that still gives me chills. She said,

314
00:17:11,599 --> 00:17:14,599
I remember having a dream that night. I was asleep

315
00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:17,400
and Jason came in the room, but he didn't look

316
00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:19,400
at me. He walked to the end of the bed

317
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:22,839
and was just holding his pillow. Then he tucked me in.

318
00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:27,200
She laughed like it was silly. He said, don't lose

319
00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:30,799
this and put something under the pillow. She said it

320
00:17:30,839 --> 00:17:33,319
like it was comforting. I've never told her we found

321
00:17:33,319 --> 00:17:36,519
the phone exactly where she said he put it. Sometimes

322
00:17:36,559 --> 00:17:38,880
I wonder if whatever brought it back didn't want to

323
00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:42,400
scare us, just wanted us to know something that he

324
00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:45,440
wasn't gone all the way, or maybe that we missed

325
00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:48,799
something important. But that phone had been gone. It was

326
00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:52,559
nowhere in that house until it wasn't, and whatever moved it,

327
00:17:53,079 --> 00:17:56,880
whatever opened that door. I don't go upstairs at night anymore.

328
00:17:57,799 --> 00:18:01,079
Story four. I live in Tacoma, WA, Washington, and at

329
00:18:01,079 --> 00:18:03,960
the time this happened, I was renting a studio above

330
00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:07,200
a Vietnamese bakery on thirty eighth. It smelled like sweet

331
00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:10,200
dough and old grease every morning, which I didn't mind.

332
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:12,680
I was working a temp job at a mid sized

333
00:18:12,759 --> 00:18:16,440
logistics company's regional office. You wouldn't know the name unless

334
00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:20,960
you've shipped refrigerated pharmaceuticals. My job was glorified data entry,

335
00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:25,039
mostly filing scanned contracts and updating spreadsheets. No one checked

336
00:18:25,319 --> 00:18:29,680
unless something went wrong. Eight to five, badge in, badge out.

337
00:18:30,519 --> 00:18:32,839
I liked the rhythm. No one really talked to me,

338
00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:36,880
except for one woman at corporate, Melanie. Melanie worked out

339
00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:40,039
of the East Coast hub. I'd never seen her, never

340
00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:41,799
even heard her voice.

341
00:18:41,839 --> 00:18:42,599
Speaker 2: We just I.

342
00:18:42,759 --> 00:18:46,160
Speaker 1: Amed and emailed constantly. She had a biting sense of

343
00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:50,119
humor and knew the HRIS system better than anyone. We

344
00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:53,480
were constantly fixing garbage data together and joking around to

345
00:18:53,519 --> 00:18:57,160
stay sane. She started calling me her West Coast clone,

346
00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:01,880
and I called her the voice of Compliance. One morning, Tuesday,

347
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:05,160
late March, I badge in at seven forty two am.

348
00:19:05,559 --> 00:19:08,079
I remember, because the wind nearly tore my id off

349
00:19:08,079 --> 00:19:11,559
its clip. Right after I logged in, a company wide

350
00:19:11,559 --> 00:19:15,279
alert hit everyone's inboxes. A major piece of federal labor

351
00:19:15,319 --> 00:19:18,160
law had just passed overnight, and we had twenty four

352
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:21,200
hours to submit compliance proof not prepare.

353
00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:22,119
Speaker 2: Submit.

354
00:19:22,839 --> 00:19:27,400
Speaker 1: That meant immediate training modules, rewriting hiring policy, auditing the

355
00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:32,279
employee database for specific criteria, and documenting it all. My

356
00:19:32,359 --> 00:19:35,359
supervisor was out that morning for a medical appointment, and

357
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,359
I knew she'd be blindsided when she got back. So

358
00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:41,440
I did what made sense. I reached out to Melanie.

359
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:44,880
I I amed her first, guess who gets to panic

360
00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:48,599
on behalf of HR today. A few seconds later, she

361
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:51,920
popped up, already read the memo call me, we need

362
00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:55,680
to move now. I'd never heard her voice before. It

363
00:19:55,759 --> 00:20:00,000
was calm, a little gravelly, She talked fast but never stumbled.

364
00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:03,039
For the next five hours, we were locked in me

365
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:06,599
and my tiny office, her on speaker, both of us

366
00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:08,920
drafting and coordinating like maniacs.

367
00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:11,839
Speaker 2: We pulled in two IT guys and someone from legal.

368
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:12,400
On our end.

369
00:20:12,799 --> 00:20:17,200
Speaker 1: I was typing, tracking tasks, building an audit report, writing

370
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:20,759
a policy draft, and formatting the new employee training module

371
00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:24,680
all at once. We communicated through IM the whole time,

372
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:27,640
like a side channel where we could toss snippets and

373
00:20:27,759 --> 00:20:31,720
jokes and short links. She'd write things like good phrasing

374
00:20:32,279 --> 00:20:35,839
or ad to section three while I hammered out paragraphs.

375
00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:38,599
It was one of the most productive sessions I'd ever

376
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,839
had in my life. At around twelve to fifty PM,

377
00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:45,160
I heard the distinctive clack of my supervisor's heels in

378
00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:48,319
the hallway. She walked fast, and when she opened my door,

379
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:50,480
she looked genuinely freaked out.

380
00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:52,079
Speaker 2: Did you see the.

381
00:20:52,039 --> 00:20:55,799
Speaker 1: Memo about the legislative change, she asked, eyes wide. I

382
00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:58,960
smiled and pointed to my screen. Already taken care of.

383
00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:02,559
We drafted everything. Just need your final approval before we

384
00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,240
launched the module and send the documentation package. It's all

385
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:09,720
in the email I sent around noon. She blinked, what email?

386
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:14,400
I opened my Outlook, nothing in sent. Confused, I looked

387
00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:18,400
in drafts nothing. I checked the im chat with Melanie

388
00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:21,640
to grab the backup links. The entire conversation was gone,

389
00:21:22,319 --> 00:21:23,119
not archived.

390
00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:24,079
Speaker 2: Gone.

391
00:21:25,079 --> 00:21:28,480
Speaker 1: Worse, my Outlook calendar showed I hadn't attended any meetings

392
00:21:28,519 --> 00:21:32,039
that day. My activity log was empty after seven forty

393
00:21:32,039 --> 00:21:35,920
two am. I hadn't opened the HRIS system, hadn't pulled

394
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:38,480
any employee data, hadn't sent a single file.

395
00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:39,839
Speaker 2: It looked like I just.

396
00:21:39,839 --> 00:21:45,319
Speaker 1: Logged in and then done absolutely nothing. I started to sweat. No, no,

397
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,319
that's not right. I've been working all morning. We had

398
00:21:48,319 --> 00:21:50,599
five people in here. I was on the phone with

399
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:54,599
Melanie for hours. We even printed. I reached for the

400
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,359
stack of papers I'd printed and organized during the call.

401
00:21:58,039 --> 00:22:01,960
They weren't there, like they never existed. She looked at

402
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,039
me like I was either lying or about to cry,

403
00:22:04,759 --> 00:22:08,400
maybe both. I couldn't even find you earlier, she said,

404
00:22:08,839 --> 00:22:11,240
I came by like six times before lunch and your

405
00:22:11,279 --> 00:22:15,200
door was closed, lights off. What are you talking about.

406
00:22:15,319 --> 00:22:18,920
I've been in here all morning. You didn't knock. She

407
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:23,240
didn't argue, just slowly backed out. Saying, okay, just forward

408
00:22:23,279 --> 00:22:26,920
me whatever you've got. I scrambled, I rewrote what I

409
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:30,839
could from memory, less coherent, more rushed, and I ce

410
00:22:30,839 --> 00:22:34,559
seed Melanie again with an apology in the body, sorry

411
00:22:34,599 --> 00:22:38,079
about the weirdness earlier. Hope the dental appointment wasn't too bad.

412
00:22:38,799 --> 00:22:42,319
That's when I got her reply, a single sentence. I

413
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:46,160
was out all day, dude, Dennis ran late, no laptop,

414
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,359
didn't talk to anyone, But thanks for naming me on

415
00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:49,920
the draft.

416
00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:52,960
Speaker 2: I owe you. I stared at the screen for a

417
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,559
long time. My heart did that thing.

418
00:22:55,599 --> 00:22:58,440
Speaker 1: Where it feels like it drops three floors and then

419
00:22:58,519 --> 00:23:01,599
starts running in the wrong direction. I looked at my

420
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:05,960
phone log no outgoing calls, nothing to her number, no

421
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,880
conference software logs either, And yet I could still remember

422
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:12,839
the rasp in her voice, the way she laughed when

423
00:23:12,839 --> 00:23:17,599
I misspelled mandatory as mandraatory, the exact wording of her

424
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:24,440
suggested paragraph about termination procedures. I remembered typing fast, furious,

425
00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:30,599
back and forth, laughing, solving, working, I remembered printing it

426
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:34,200
all out. I remembered the paper cuts. But according to

427
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:36,880
every system we had, I had been sitting alone in

428
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:40,400
a dark office doing nothing for five hours, no ims,

429
00:23:40,599 --> 00:23:44,759
no emails, no phone calls, just logged in. I didn't

430
00:23:44,799 --> 00:23:48,319
sleep that night. I just lay in bed thinking where

431
00:23:48,319 --> 00:23:51,079
the hell did those five hours go? Who did I

432
00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:54,000
talk to? Who typed with me? Who knew the new

433
00:23:54,079 --> 00:23:57,880
policy language before it even existed? And most disturbing of all,

434
00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:00,680
why did that version of the day feel more real

435
00:24:00,759 --> 00:24:03,319
than the one I was left with. I never told

436
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:07,240
Melanie what really happened? What could I say? Hey, I

437
00:24:07,319 --> 00:24:10,839
had a shared hallucination of us fixing everything while you

438
00:24:10,839 --> 00:24:14,799
were under anesthesia. I still see the folder I labeled

439
00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:20,440
Emergency Compliance Update in the share drive. It's empty, created

440
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:24,559
at seven forty three am and untouched since I didn't

441
00:24:24,559 --> 00:24:27,759
make it, but somehow I remember making it.

442
00:24:28,799 --> 00:24:29,640
Speaker 2: Story five.

443
00:24:29,799 --> 00:24:33,079
Speaker 1: I live in Bakersfield, California, about ten minutes from my

444
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:36,400
best friend Gabe's house. This happened two years ago, and

445
00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:39,440
I still haven't made sense of it. I've told maybe

446
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:42,200
three people. The ones who believe me don't talk about

447
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:46,000
it anymore. It was a Friday night, early October. Gabe

448
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,519
had just gotten the new FIFA and invited me to

449
00:24:48,519 --> 00:24:51,559
crash at his place. No school the next day, so

450
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,480
we figured we'd stay up late. I got there around

451
00:24:54,559 --> 00:24:58,279
six pm. We ate, junk, laughed, and played for hours.

452
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:03,839
Around nine to fifteen, I started feeling off, not sick exactly,

453
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,799
but dizzy, foggy, like my ears were stuffed with cotton

454
00:25:08,079 --> 00:25:11,720
and the world was two steps behind me. Dude, you good,

455
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:14,039
Gabe asked, when I stood up to pee and almost

456
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:14,920
lost my balance.

457
00:25:15,559 --> 00:25:15,799
Speaker 2: Yeah.

458
00:25:16,039 --> 00:25:19,519
Speaker 1: Just tired, I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. Might head home

459
00:25:19,559 --> 00:25:22,799
and just sleep in my own bed. He looked surprised.

460
00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:27,279
I thought you were crashing here. Let's do tomorrow night instead,

461
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:30,400
I said. He walked me to the door, gave me

462
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:33,559
crap for being an old man, and I left. It

463
00:25:33,599 --> 00:25:37,599
was cold for October, quiet too. I remember thinking it

464
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,759
felt more like midnight than nine pin forty. No traffic,

465
00:25:41,039 --> 00:25:44,720
no wind, just that eerie, heavy silence that makes you

466
00:25:44,839 --> 00:25:47,920
hyper aware of your own breathing. The walk home is

467
00:25:48,039 --> 00:25:52,039
usually uneventful. Two turns and I'm on my street. I

468
00:25:52,079 --> 00:25:55,759
remember passing the same houses, the same dim porch lights.

469
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:58,839
I checked my phone once. It was nine forty six

470
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,480
pm and I was walking up my driveway. I didn't

471
00:26:02,519 --> 00:26:06,279
register anything weird. At first. I was still foggy, like

472
00:26:06,319 --> 00:26:08,960
I had a low grade fever. But the porch light

473
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:11,920
was on, which was weird because we never left it

474
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,920
on unless someone was coming late. And the front door

475
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:19,640
was wide open. I froze, mom, I called out, stepping inside.

476
00:26:20,279 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 2: The living room. Lights were on.

477
00:26:22,079 --> 00:26:25,039
Speaker 1: My mom rushed toward me from the hallway, face pale,

478
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:29,319
eyes wide, and she just grabbed me, like full body,

479
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:33,640
grabbed me and started sobbing into my shoulder. Where were you,

480
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,400
she gasped. We thought, Oh my god, what are you

481
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:40,279
talking about? I asked, confused, I told you I was

482
00:26:40,319 --> 00:26:43,400
at Gabes. She pulled back and stared at me like

483
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:47,640
I'd just spoken another language. That was yesterday, She said, no,

484
00:26:47,799 --> 00:26:51,279
it wasn't. I laughed nervously. I just left, like ten

485
00:26:51,319 --> 00:26:56,000
minutes ago. She blinked. It's Sunday night. I stood there.

486
00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:59,640
My legs felt wrong. My heart was pounding, but slow,

487
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:04,319
like underwater thuds. No, it's Friday, I said. My mom

488
00:27:04,319 --> 00:27:07,319
turned to the kitchen clock. Ten oh one pm. I

489
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:10,079
pulled my phone out of my pocket. Sunday, ten oh

490
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:14,200
one pm. I couldn't move. My body was there, but

491
00:27:14,319 --> 00:27:19,240
something deeper in me broke. You were missing, she whispered.

492
00:27:19,599 --> 00:27:22,799
We called the police. Gabe's parents said, you left Friday

493
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:26,720
night and didn't come back. We thought she couldn't finish.

494
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:30,440
I stumbled backward and collapsed on the couch. My backpack

495
00:27:30,519 --> 00:27:33,559
was still slung over one shoulder. My socks were damp,

496
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,759
like I had just walked through the cold. My phone

497
00:27:36,839 --> 00:27:39,720
still had seventy three percent battery, just like when I

498
00:27:39,839 --> 00:27:44,200
left Gabes. Check the security camera, I mumbled, we have

499
00:27:44,279 --> 00:27:46,079
a motion camera facing the driveway.

500
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 2: She pulled it up on her phone and scrolled.

501
00:27:48,599 --> 00:27:52,559
Speaker 1: Her hands were shaking there, She said, Finally, Friday, nine

502
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:57,279
thirty eight pm, you leaving. She scrolled nothing, no clips,

503
00:27:57,759 --> 00:28:01,720
nothing triggered the camera for the next two days. Then Sunday,

504
00:28:02,279 --> 00:28:06,680
nine fifty eight pm, me walking up the driveway, Where

505
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:11,759
were you? She asked again, not angry, terrified. I don't know,

506
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,519
I said, and I meant it. We went to the

507
00:28:14,759 --> 00:28:18,319
er that night. They ran everything, talk, screens, CT scan,

508
00:28:18,759 --> 00:28:23,400
blood work, psychoval nothing, no signs of drugs, no trauma,

509
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:28,519
no sleep deprivation, no seizures, no explanation. I saw two

510
00:28:28,599 --> 00:28:31,480
neurologists after that. One of them actually asked if I

511
00:28:31,559 --> 00:28:34,000
was pranking him. The other one asked if I had

512
00:28:34,039 --> 00:28:39,039
any history of dissociation or sleepwalking number nothing. I didn't

513
00:28:39,039 --> 00:28:41,720
sleep the first two nights after it happened. I just

514
00:28:41,799 --> 00:28:45,400
lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, heart racing, listening

515
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:50,079
for something, anything. There was nothing. But here's what haunts me.

516
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,559
I didn't pass out. I didn't black out. There was

517
00:28:53,599 --> 00:28:56,839
no gap. One second I was walking home from Gabes

518
00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,079
on a Friday night, and the next I was home

519
00:28:59,079 --> 00:28:59,759
on Sunday night.

520
00:29:00,519 --> 00:29:01,519
Speaker 2: It was seamless.

521
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,279
Speaker 1: It was like someone clipped out twenty four hours of

522
00:29:04,279 --> 00:29:07,880
my life and pasted the ends back together. But my body,

523
00:29:08,519 --> 00:29:12,519
my body must have been somewhere right. I keep thinking

524
00:29:12,519 --> 00:29:16,359
about my shoes. They weren't muddy or torn, just cold

525
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,240
and a little damp, like I'd walked on dewy grass.

526
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:21,880
So where the hell was I walking? For two days?

527
00:29:22,759 --> 00:29:25,519
I asked Gabe if he saw me leave. He said yeah.

528
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:28,039
I shut the gate behind me and walked down the street.

529
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:30,960
But I never walked into my house. That was the

530
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,920
part that chilled me the most. How quiet that camera

531
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,599
feed was, like I had blinked out of existence. I

532
00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:39,880
still wonder what would have happened if I looked back

533
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:42,079
at the street before I opened the door. Sunday night,

534
00:29:42,799 --> 00:29:47,640
if I had turned around and seen something Story six.

535
00:29:48,279 --> 00:29:50,680
I wasn't even supposed to be home that night. My

536
00:29:50,759 --> 00:29:53,599
sister had flown in from Denver for Christmas, and since

537
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:56,759
her kids needed the warmer guest room downstairs, I offered

538
00:29:56,759 --> 00:29:59,960
to take the couch. Our old bedrooms upstairs were two

539
00:30:00,079 --> 00:30:02,720
cold in winter, and we always just sealed them off

540
00:30:02,759 --> 00:30:06,079
once it dropped below freezing. That second floor hadn't seen

541
00:30:06,119 --> 00:30:09,519
anyone in weeks. It was around one thirty AM, and

542
00:30:09,599 --> 00:30:13,359
I couldn't sleep. Everyone was knocked out, my parents in

543
00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:15,880
their room down the hall, my sister and her kids

544
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:18,920
across from them. I had the living room to myself,

545
00:30:19,359 --> 00:30:22,119
just me and my phone, flipping through a webcomic with

546
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:25,279
the TV on mute for light. That's when I heard it.

547
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:27,920
At first, I thought it was the heater kicking on,

548
00:30:28,559 --> 00:30:32,000
that dull, rattling groan that old pipes make. But then

549
00:30:32,039 --> 00:30:36,119
it changed sharp thuds, like someone sprinting across the floor

550
00:30:36,119 --> 00:30:39,440
above me. Then a second set of steps, faster, like

551
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:43,039
they were being chased back and forth room to room.

552
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:47,319
I froze. It wasn't subtle. It wasn't one creek or

553
00:30:47,359 --> 00:30:52,279
some settling wood. These were hard, fast footfalls, small light feet.

554
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:55,519
They had that distinct weight of children, the way kids

555
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:59,599
run with everything they've got. I recognized the pattern. It

556
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:01,839
was the zach sound me and my sister used to

557
00:31:01,839 --> 00:31:04,400
make when we chase each other around up there after school.

558
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:09,079
Carpeted floor, but still loud through the ceiling. I sat

559
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:12,400
up slowly and muted the TV. The steps didn't stop.

560
00:31:12,839 --> 00:31:16,039
They looped again, bedroom to hallway, across the other room,

561
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:20,640
back again, ten maybe fifteen seconds total, but it felt

562
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:24,359
like forever. Nobody was supposed to be up there. I

563
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,319
didn't move, I just sat there, waiting for it to stop.

564
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:31,279
When it finally did, the silence was unbearable. I stared

565
00:31:31,319 --> 00:31:33,720
at the ceiling like I could see through it. I

566
00:31:33,759 --> 00:31:38,440
whispered hello, but my voice cracked and it sounded ridiculous.

567
00:31:39,079 --> 00:31:42,599
Then my sister's door creaked open behind me. She stepped out,

568
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:43,599
wrapped in a blanket.

569
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 2: Did you hear that?

570
00:31:45,839 --> 00:31:48,519
Speaker 1: Her face told me she'd heard it too, that dead

571
00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:51,960
pale look, no sleep in her eyes. She didn't even

572
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,720
finish stepping out of the room, just hovered by the door,

573
00:31:54,759 --> 00:31:58,359
like she was afraid the sound would start again. I said, upstairs,

574
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:00,000
it was upstairs right.

575
00:32:00,559 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 2: She nodded.

576
00:32:01,559 --> 00:32:06,359
Speaker 1: It sounded like she stopped, like kids. We didn't say

577
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:11,119
anything else. We just stood there, listening, waiting. My dad

578
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:14,720
came out a few minutes later, groggy, annoyed, what are

579
00:32:14,759 --> 00:32:17,839
you two doing up? I didn't want to sound crazy.

580
00:32:18,079 --> 00:32:21,960
I just said we heard something upstairs. He blinked like

581
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:26,640
it hadn't processed. No one's up there, I know. He

582
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,440
stood there staring toward the stairs. You want me to

583
00:32:29,519 --> 00:32:32,960
check it out, but he didn't move. Neither of us answered.

584
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:37,240
That second floor was empty, completely empty and sealed off.

585
00:32:37,759 --> 00:32:39,680
My mom even packed the vents so we didn't waste

586
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:42,960
heat on it. The doors were shut, the windows locked.

587
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:45,759
We were the only ones in the house. I never

588
00:32:45,759 --> 00:32:49,799
went up there to check. I couldn't something about that sound,

589
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,880
the way it echoed, the familiarity of it. It wasn't

590
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:58,759
just footsteps. It felt like a recording, almost like someone

591
00:32:58,839 --> 00:33:01,799
hit rewind on our childhood and played a loop the

592
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,279
exact way we used to run, the same rooms, the

593
00:33:05,319 --> 00:33:06,559
same rhythm.

594
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 2: It was us.

595
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 1: It was me and my sister, only we were both

596
00:33:11,079 --> 00:33:13,960
right there on the ground floor, wide awake and scared

597
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:17,319
out of our minds. I didn't sleep that night. My

598
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,240
sister didn't either. We just sat in the kitchen drinking

599
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:22,720
tea until the sun came up. No one brought it

600
00:33:22,799 --> 00:33:25,799
up again. My dad laughed it off the next day,

601
00:33:26,599 --> 00:33:29,559
said the cold probably shifted the boards or something. But

602
00:33:29,599 --> 00:33:33,319
my sister avoids the topic completely. She won't even let

603
00:33:33,359 --> 00:33:36,039
her kids go near the stairs now, told them it's

604
00:33:36,079 --> 00:33:40,240
too cold, too dangerous, which it isn't. I don't believe

605
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:45,119
in ghosts. I still don't even after that. Nothing ever

606
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:50,400
felt evil, just wrong, like time bent in the smallest

607
00:33:50,599 --> 00:33:51,480
scariest way.

608
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:52,839
Speaker 2: That night.

609
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:57,839
Speaker 1: Didn't feel haunted, it felt broken. Story seven. I wasn't sick,

610
00:33:58,279 --> 00:34:01,319
I didn't feel tired. Some thing about that day hinted

611
00:34:01,319 --> 00:34:05,680
that something was wrong. It was a Wednesday, March seventeenth,

612
00:34:06,079 --> 00:34:07,720
twenty twenty one.

613
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 2: I remember that.

614
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:11,320
Speaker 1: Because it was the last normal day I've ever trusted.

615
00:34:12,079 --> 00:34:15,840
I lived at home in Mission Viejo, California. I was nineteen,

616
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,440
taking community college classes and staying out of the way.

617
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:21,639
Around five point thirty pm, I was in my bedroom,

618
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:24,719
sitting cross legged on my carpet, trying to finish a

619
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:26,280
stats assignment on my laptop.

620
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:29,599
Speaker 2: There was nothing unusual, just a stale.

621
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,880
Speaker 1: Bag of tortilla chips, spotify low in the background, sun

622
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:38,840
leaking through the blinds, and then everything started bending. At first,

623
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:41,679
I thought I was just zoning out, you know when

624
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:44,239
you stare at a screen too long and your eyes

625
00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:49,159
play tricks on you. That but worse. I looked up

626
00:34:49,159 --> 00:34:51,440
from the screen and realized the corners of my room

627
00:34:51,519 --> 00:34:55,400
looked smudged, like someone was rubbing the edges of my

628
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,840
vision with their thumb. I blinked, rubbed my eyes and

629
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:03,280
tried to focus. Still there, I turned my head slowly.

630
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:07,320
The left and right edges of everything were disappearing, No,

631
00:35:07,639 --> 00:35:13,360
not disappearing, melting, blurring together like wet paint. My peripheral

632
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,760
vision was being erased, like someone had taken an eraser

633
00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:20,320
to the edges of my reality. Mom I called out,

634
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,039
even though I knew she wasn't home. I stood up.

635
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,760
My legs felt light. I walked into the hallway, then

636
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:29,920
into the kitchen. Every step I took made things worse.

637
00:35:30,559 --> 00:35:34,800
The walls warped slightly, like they were breathing, expanding, contracting.

638
00:35:35,559 --> 00:35:38,880
The kitchen table wasn't solid anymore. It rippled like a

639
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:42,639
reflection on water. I looked down at my hands. They

640
00:35:42,679 --> 00:35:46,119
looked distant, like I was seeing them through a warped

641
00:35:46,159 --> 00:35:50,360
glass bottle. I whispered, what the hell is happening to me?

642
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,239
I pressed my palms to my eyes and breathed hard.

643
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:57,840
I thought, maybe it's a panic attack, Maybe I was dehydrated.

644
00:35:58,519 --> 00:36:00,840
I grabbed a glass from the cabin and it felt

645
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:04,239
wrong in my hand. The shape was off. I couldn't

646
00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:07,119
explain how. I just knew the glass felt like it

647
00:36:07,199 --> 00:36:11,159
wasn't real, like it was being simulated poorly. That's when

648
00:36:11,159 --> 00:36:14,079
I saw something in the corner of the room, not someone,

649
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:17,719
something a dark patch in the shape of a person,

650
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:23,159
but no features, no face, no movement. It stood just

651
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:27,519
beyond the smudged edges of my vision, not quite inside

652
00:36:27,519 --> 00:36:30,239
the real world, not quite outside of it either.

653
00:36:31,159 --> 00:36:33,840
Speaker 2: I turned to look directly at it. Gone.

654
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 1: I spun around. No, no, no, I whispered, that didn't

655
00:36:39,079 --> 00:36:43,480
just happen. I stumbled into the bathroom, splashed cold water

656
00:36:43,559 --> 00:36:46,039
on my face, and looked at myself in the mirror.

657
00:36:46,519 --> 00:36:50,519
Except it wasn't me. My face was there, sure, but

658
00:36:50,639 --> 00:36:54,760
the proportions were off. My right eye was slightly too high,

659
00:36:55,079 --> 00:36:57,360
my mouth didn't match the way I felt it moving

660
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:01,519
The reflection was delayed by half a se just enough

661
00:37:01,519 --> 00:37:06,000
to register that something was deeply, deeply broken. I backed away,

662
00:37:06,079 --> 00:37:09,639
heart pounding. I wanted to call someone, but I didn't

663
00:37:09,639 --> 00:37:12,280
trust my hands to use the phone. I didn't trust

664
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:14,960
the phone to be real. I walked back to my room,

665
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:18,480
stepping carefully around furniture. I suddenly wasn't sure it was

666
00:37:18,519 --> 00:37:22,280
even solid, and my vision was collapsing in. I don't

667
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:24,679
know how to explain this. It was like a tunnel

668
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:27,760
was closing in from all directions. My entire field of

669
00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:31,519
view narrowed to a small circular hole, like looking through

670
00:37:31,559 --> 00:37:34,679
the end of a funnel. Everything outside that tiny center

671
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:39,000
was gray, static, not blackness, static like a broken television feed.

672
00:37:39,639 --> 00:37:42,119
I couldn't see the floor under my feet anymore. I

673
00:37:42,159 --> 00:37:45,320
couldn't see the walls, just that one clear hole of

674
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:50,000
vision in the center. Everything else corrupted. I dropped to

675
00:37:50,039 --> 00:37:51,400
my knees and closed my eyes.

676
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:52,599
Speaker 2: I was shaking.

677
00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:57,159
Speaker 1: Something felt fundamentally wrong, not just with my body, but

678
00:37:57,199 --> 00:38:00,840
with the world. Like reality itself had suffered a glitch,

679
00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:04,639
a real one, not a figure of speech. Now I

680
00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:08,159
felt weird. I mean, the actual fabric of my world

681
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:10,639
had a tear in it, and I was falling through.

682
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:15,679
I curled up, my head pounding, and I whispered, please stop,

683
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:22,039
please stop a please stop. Then silence, total terrifying silence.

684
00:38:22,679 --> 00:38:25,639
No sounds from the street, no hum from the fridge,

685
00:38:26,159 --> 00:38:30,880
no birds, no cars, nothing, just a blank, dead silence

686
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:34,280
that made my skin crawl. I opened my eyes again.

687
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:39,440
Everything had stopped, literally frozen my room. What I could

688
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:43,119
still see looked paused. A strand of my hair was

689
00:38:43,159 --> 00:38:47,159
suspended in mid air like a screenshot. The light outside

690
00:38:47,159 --> 00:38:50,239
had halted mid flicker. The dust in the air hung

691
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:54,360
like glitter, unmoving, And in that moment, I realized I

692
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:57,480
wasn't breathing. I wasn't even sure I had lungs anymore.

693
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,400
I couldn't feel my chest, rise, couldn't feel my heart.

694
00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:03,199
I set out loud, though I don't know if I

695
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:07,519
really spoke it am I dead? That's when the headache hit.

696
00:39:08,039 --> 00:39:11,280
It didn't build up. It detonated like a spike through

697
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:14,480
the base of my skull, a white hot pressure that

698
00:39:14,599 --> 00:39:16,760
felt like my brain was trying to push out through

699
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:20,840
my eyes. I screamed, or thought I screamed. The sound

700
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:25,159
didn't happen. I collapsed onto my side. Everything was flashing,

701
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:28,920
like being inside a strobe light behind my eyes. Then

702
00:39:29,519 --> 00:39:32,480
one more blink and the tunnel vision started to clear.

703
00:39:33,039 --> 00:39:37,280
It pulled back slowly. My peripheral returned in chunks, like

704
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:42,400
loading a glitchy video game. The static faded colors returned wrong,

705
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:46,480
at first too bright, then too dull, until they evened out.

706
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:50,119
I could breathe again. I could hear the clock ticking

707
00:39:50,119 --> 00:39:53,360
in the kitchen. A car drove past. The hum of

708
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:59,000
life returned slowly, cruelly. I opened my eyes wide. Everything

709
00:39:59,079 --> 00:40:01,360
was back, and I lay there in the middle of

710
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:05,360
my room with blood crusted under one nostril, shaking like

711
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:09,079
I'd survived in exorcism. I didn't move for another hour.

712
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:11,840
I was terrified that moving would break the world again.

713
00:40:12,639 --> 00:40:15,039
Later that night, I got the worst headache I've ever

714
00:40:15,079 --> 00:40:17,760
had in my life, like my skull had been hollowed

715
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:18,480
out with a spoon.

716
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:19,920
Speaker 2: I threw up twice.

717
00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:23,199
Speaker 1: The er doctor said it was a severe migraine with aura,

718
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,159
gave me anti nause of pills and sent me home.

719
00:40:26,679 --> 00:40:29,719
But I've had migraines since, and none of them, not

720
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:32,639
a single one, felt like that. None of them made

721
00:40:32,679 --> 00:40:36,480
the world pixelate. None of them froze time. None of

722
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:39,119
them felt like the simulation glitched and tried to kick

723
00:40:39,159 --> 00:40:42,440
me out. I still don't know what happened, but I

724
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,760
don't think it was medical. I think just for a second,

725
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,440
something broke and I was awake for it.

726
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:50,320
Speaker 2: Story eight. I'm Jake.

727
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:53,880
Speaker 1: I live about an hour outside Helsinki in Finland, in

728
00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:57,199
this dead, silent area where the forest starts right past

729
00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:00,719
the backyard. No neighbors close enough to hear of something happens.

730
00:41:01,159 --> 00:41:03,119
It's quiet out here in a way that messes with

731
00:41:03,159 --> 00:41:06,360
your head. Sometimes you can hear your own thoughts echo,

732
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:11,719
or things you think are your thoughts. It was January, cold, dry,

733
00:41:12,559 --> 00:41:17,159
dark nights stretch forever that time of year. I'd been

734
00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:20,599
up late texting my ex Ella. We were still talking

735
00:41:20,639 --> 00:41:23,960
most nights, just as friends, even though things had ended

736
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:28,760
months ago. Nothing heavy, just random memes, occasional dumb arguments

737
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:32,000
about movies. That night, we were going back and forth

738
00:41:32,039 --> 00:41:34,840
about some horror film she liked that I said was garbage,

739
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:36,039
pretty normal.

740
00:41:36,519 --> 00:41:38,880
Speaker 2: It was around two thirty am when I heard it.

741
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:41,400
Speaker 1: Now, I don't know how to describe this in a

742
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:44,320
way that doesn't sound ridiculous, but it sounded like an

743
00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:48,119
ice cream truck. That weird high pitched music box jingle,

744
00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:51,840
you know, that tiny melody. They all play kind of playful,

745
00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:54,840
but always just slightly off key, like it's trying to

746
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:59,039
sound cheerful but never quite gets there. Except we don't

747
00:41:59,079 --> 00:42:02,800
have ice cream trucks in Finland, not out here, especially

748
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:05,159
not in the middle of the goddamn woods in January.

749
00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:08,159
There was snow on the ground. Who the hell would

750
00:42:08,159 --> 00:42:11,000
even be driving one. At first, I thought maybe it

751
00:42:11,079 --> 00:42:14,320
was some weird ring tone on my phone. I paused

752
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,840
and looked at it. No calls, no alerts. I asked

753
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:20,199
Ella if she heard anything on her end, like if

754
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:22,960
maybe she accidentally sent a video or audio or something.

755
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,559
She texted back, no, what are you talking about. I

756
00:42:27,599 --> 00:42:30,920
didn't even answer that. I just froze and listened. The

757
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:33,280
sound was faint at first, like it was far off,

758
00:42:33,679 --> 00:42:37,440
but it was definitely outside, not from a screen, not

759
00:42:37,559 --> 00:42:41,320
from any electronic It was in the air. I moved

760
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:43,320
toward the window that faces the back of the house.

761
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:47,519
It's just dense woods out there, trees packed tight together,

762
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:52,119
no paths, no roads, just forest. But the sound was

763
00:42:52,159 --> 00:42:56,280
louder now, the melody repeating, slowing down a little like

764
00:42:56,320 --> 00:43:00,880
it was dragging, almost struggling to play, and it was

765
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:04,199
getting closer. I didn't even realize i'd stopped breathing until

766
00:43:04,199 --> 00:43:05,840
I felt my chest ache.

767
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 2: I texted Ella again, Just one.

768
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:14,480
Speaker 1: Word, dude, she replied immediately, what there's something outside?

769
00:43:14,519 --> 00:43:17,360
Speaker 2: Like what? I didn't know how to answer that.

770
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:20,440
Speaker 1: I was still staring out the window, waiting to see

771
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:23,639
something move, but the sound it wasn't moving left or right.

772
00:43:24,119 --> 00:43:27,840
It was moving forward through the trees, straight toward my house.

773
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:32,760
That's when the music just cut off, sharp, instant, no

774
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:37,360
fade out, just gone dead silence. I stepped away from

775
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:39,320
the window and stood there, not knowing what to do.

776
00:43:40,039 --> 00:43:42,360
I didn't want to open the door. I didn't want

777
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:45,360
to even look again. I felt like whatever it was

778
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:48,000
had stopped just at the edge of the trees waiting.

779
00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:53,679
Ella called me, I answered, whispering, don't talk, just listen.

780
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:57,400
She went quiet Immediately. I moved to the front door

781
00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:01,360
and listened. Still nothing, the sound of my breath and

782
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:04,760
a faint hum in my ears. Then there was this soft,

783
00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:09,639
metallic chime. Not the music again, just a single ding,

784
00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:12,920
like a tiny bell. It came from the side of

785
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,159
the house. This time like someone walking past my wall,

786
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:19,840
holding a bell and letting it ring once. Ella, Sushiro,

787
00:44:20,639 --> 00:44:24,679
Jake kiss hiss, so I couldn't answer. I was gripping

788
00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:27,360
the phone so hard it hurt. I moved slowly to

789
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:31,119
the kitchen window, which faces the sideyard. There's a light there,

790
00:44:31,559 --> 00:44:35,119
one of those motion sensor ones. It was on, but

791
00:44:35,199 --> 00:44:39,840
nothing was there. No wind, no animals, no person, just

792
00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:45,079
snow on the ground, totally untouched. Then something knocked once

793
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:48,159
from the back of the house. I swear to god,

794
00:44:48,199 --> 00:44:51,679
I jumped and nearly dropped the phone. Ella heard it too.

795
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:53,599
What the hell was that?

796
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:56,679
Speaker 2: She said? I didn't answer. I couldn't.

797
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:01,519
Speaker 1: The knock was slow, deliberate, someone who knew I was listening.

798
00:45:02,079 --> 00:45:04,639
And then this is the part I still can't explain.

799
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:10,960
My phone glitched, not froze, glitched. Ella's voice warped mid sentence.

800
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:15,320
It stretched out like a tape being pulled too slow, Jock,

801
00:45:16,199 --> 00:45:22,920
can you hear? Then silence? Phone still on, still connected,

802
00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:27,880
timer still counting, but no sound. Then my lights flickered,

803
00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:33,639
all of them once fast. I bolted. I didn't grab anything,

804
00:45:34,119 --> 00:45:37,159
didn't put on shoes, just ran to the front door,

805
00:45:37,639 --> 00:45:40,760
yanked it open and sprinted outside into the snow.

806
00:45:41,519 --> 00:45:42,880
Speaker 2: I didn't even feel the cold.

807
00:45:43,559 --> 00:45:45,480
Speaker 1: I made it to the edge of the driveway before

808
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:49,840
I turned around just once. Nothing behind me, nothing in

809
00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:53,440
the windows. House was still. I stood there for what

810
00:45:53,559 --> 00:45:58,719
felt like forever, shaking. The phone call dropped. I called

811
00:45:58,719 --> 00:46:03,239
Ella back when straight to voicemail. Tried again, same thing.

812
00:46:04,199 --> 00:46:06,920
I didn't go back inside for hours. I stayed in

813
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:09,519
my car with the engine running and every door locked.

814
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:13,400
Ella finally texted around four am. She said her phone

815
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:16,199
had shut off by itself and wouldn't turn back on

816
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:19,519
for nearly thirty minutes. When it did, she had three

817
00:46:19,559 --> 00:46:22,239
missed calls from me, even though I only tried twice.

818
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:25,039
One of the calls was over an hour long. She

819
00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:28,000
swears she never picked up. I checked my call log.

820
00:46:28,159 --> 00:46:31,880
It was there one hour, twelve minutes, and the time

821
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:36,079
matched when everything went silent. I've got no explanation. I've

822
00:46:36,079 --> 00:46:39,000
lived here my whole life. Never heard anything like that

823
00:46:39,119 --> 00:46:43,800
before or since. Nothing in the local news, no weird reports,

824
00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:46,199
nothing on the neighborhood Facebook group.

825
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:51,199
Speaker 2: Just me and that damn music story. Nine.

826
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:53,440
Speaker 1: I never liked that house, not from the day we

827
00:46:53,519 --> 00:46:56,840
moved in. It was this towering century old brick place

828
00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:59,639
on Maple Street in upstate New York, cold even in

829
00:46:59,679 --> 00:47:02,639
the summer, the kind of house where sound traveled too well.

830
00:47:03,559 --> 00:47:06,639
My name's Evan, and back then I was sixteen, living

831
00:47:06,679 --> 00:47:09,960
with my parents and our golden retriever Max. We just

832
00:47:10,039 --> 00:47:11,280
moved in a few months earlier.

833
00:47:11,719 --> 00:47:12,440
Speaker 2: My parents were.

834
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:16,199
Speaker 1: Obsessed with the place character they called it. I thought

835
00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:18,719
it felt like a coffin with too many doors. The

836
00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:22,960
layout was weird, three floors, each feeling more isolated than

837
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:26,079
the last. My room was on the second floor. The

838
00:47:26,199 --> 00:47:28,679
kitchen was below me, and my parents had taken the

839
00:47:28,679 --> 00:47:31,320
converted attic as their room. There was a door in

840
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:34,159
the kitchen that led directly to the basement, and that

841
00:47:34,239 --> 00:47:38,199
door had a specific awful sound when it shut, not

842
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:42,039
just the slam, but the creak and heavy latch, no

843
00:47:42,199 --> 00:47:45,440
mistaking it for anything else. It was around midnight when

844
00:47:45,519 --> 00:47:48,320
it happened. I was just getting into bed, scrolling on

845
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:51,239
my phone like every other night. Max was curled up

846
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:53,800
on the floor next to my bed, dead asleep. The

847
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:58,079
house was completely still, no wind, no movement, no noise

848
00:47:58,119 --> 00:48:02,920
from outside. Then I heard that door in the kitchen slam.

849
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:06,400
Not a creek, not a bump. That door slam shut,

850
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:09,320
like someone had yanked it from wide open and thrown

851
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:13,440
their whole body into it. I sat bolt upright. Max

852
00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:16,719
didn't even flinch. That was the first thing that made

853
00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:20,039
my skin crawl. That dog barked at squirrels in the

854
00:48:20,079 --> 00:48:24,719
backyard like they were burglars, but he just stayed there asleep,

855
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:26,039
like nothing had happened.

856
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 2: I didn't move, I didn't call out.

857
00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:32,119
Speaker 1: I just stared at my door, trying to listen for

858
00:48:32,159 --> 00:48:33,559
footsteps or anything else.

859
00:48:34,199 --> 00:48:34,559
Speaker 2: Nothing.

860
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:38,440
Speaker 1: The air felt heavy, like the house was holding its breath.

861
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:42,119
Now here's the thing. There's no way that door could

862
00:48:42,119 --> 00:48:45,559
have slammed by itself. All the windows were shut, no

863
00:48:45,719 --> 00:48:49,079
fans on, and like I said, it was heavy. You

864
00:48:49,159 --> 00:48:51,760
had to pull hard to close it properly. And I

865
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:54,480
was the only one on the second floor. My parents

866
00:48:54,519 --> 00:48:56,920
were upstairs in the attic and they wouldn't have heard

867
00:48:56,960 --> 00:49:00,000
it even if they were awake. I sat there frozen

868
00:49:00,119 --> 00:49:03,239
for maybe a full minute before grabbing the pocket knife

869
00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:06,599
from my nightstand. Stupid, I know, but it felt better

870
00:49:06,639 --> 00:49:09,840
than going down empty handed. I slipped out of bed,

871
00:49:10,159 --> 00:49:13,679
careful not to wake Max. He still didn't stir, which

872
00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:17,079
really unnerved me and started down the stairs. The house

873
00:49:17,159 --> 00:49:22,079
was silent, too silent. Every step I took creaked louder

874
00:49:22,119 --> 00:49:24,679
than it should have. I flicked on the hall light,

875
00:49:25,239 --> 00:49:28,920
then the second floor landing, then the stairs. Every light

876
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:31,519
I could reach I turned on. I didn't care about

877
00:49:31,559 --> 00:49:35,360
waking anyone up. I just wanted that place lit. I

878
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:38,639
reached the kitchen, heart pounding, and there it was. The

879
00:49:38,679 --> 00:49:43,599
basement door was wide open, like completely open. I just

880
00:49:43,679 --> 00:49:47,599
stood there staring at it. It wasn't creaking, it wasn't swinging,

881
00:49:48,079 --> 00:49:52,400
it was just open. That door had slammed seconds ago,

882
00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:55,239
and now it looked like it hadn't moved in hours.

883
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:58,599
I don't know what I expected, but that wasn't it.

884
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:02,679
I just stared into that black rectangle leading down into nothing.

885
00:50:03,159 --> 00:50:05,599
The light switch for the basement was inside the stairwell,

886
00:50:05,920 --> 00:50:07,719
so I wasn't about to go in just to flick

887
00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:12,360
it on. Then something even worse happened. As I stood there, paralyzed,

888
00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:15,519
I heard a sound from the basement. Not footsteps, not

889
00:50:15,639 --> 00:50:19,199
a thud. It was a voice, a whisper coming from

890
00:50:19,199 --> 00:50:27,000
the darkness. Sh okay okay, software fast, like someone trying

891
00:50:27,039 --> 00:50:30,000
to calm someone else down. I couldn't tell if it

892
00:50:30,039 --> 00:50:33,719
was one person or two. It didn't even sound angry.

893
00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:38,000
It sounded deliberate, like they knew I was there. I

894
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:41,760
didn't even scream. I just backed up slowly until I

895
00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:44,840
hit the hallway wall. Then I turned and ran. I

896
00:50:44,920 --> 00:50:47,679
left all the lights on and sprinted back to my room.

897
00:50:48,119 --> 00:50:51,360
Max was still asleep, still in the exact same position.

898
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:54,599
I locked my door, not that it would have helped.

899
00:50:55,400 --> 00:50:58,079
I climbed back into bed, knife clutched in my hand,

900
00:50:58,599 --> 00:51:01,159
staring at the door until my eyes felt like sandpaper.

901
00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:04,840
I didn't sleep, but at some point the sun started

902
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:07,599
coming through the blinds. When I finally worked up the

903
00:51:07,639 --> 00:51:10,320
nerve to go back down, I was the first one awake.

904
00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:14,039
My parents were still out cold upstairs, and Max finally

905
00:51:14,119 --> 00:51:18,199
yawned and stretched like nothing happened. I went down slowly,

906
00:51:18,239 --> 00:51:22,159
this time, hearts still pounding. The lights were off, all

907
00:51:22,199 --> 00:51:24,880
of them. Every light I had turned on was off,

908
00:51:25,639 --> 00:51:30,320
and the basement door shut, not a jar, not slightly cracked,

909
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:35,920
completely closed, latched. I checked the windows, still shut, no

910
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:39,039
sign anyone had been up. I asked my parents later

911
00:51:39,079 --> 00:51:41,679
that morning if either of them had come down. They

912
00:51:41,679 --> 00:51:44,239
looked at me like I was insane, said they'd both

913
00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:47,199
slept straight through the night. I even asked if Max

914
00:51:47,199 --> 00:51:51,320
had gone downstairs. They laughed, he didn't move all night.

915
00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:53,880
My dad said, I didn't tell them what I heard.

916
00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:56,719
I didn't want to deal with the whole Maybe you

917
00:51:56,800 --> 00:51:59,400
were dreaming talk, but I wasn't dreaming.

918
00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:02,760
Speaker 2: I was awake. I heard it. I saw it.

919
00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:05,880
Speaker 1: And I never heard that door slam again, not once,

920
00:52:06,599 --> 00:52:10,159
never even creaked after that. But I'll never forget those words,

921
00:52:10,960 --> 00:52:16,440
sh okay, okay, like I had just interrupted something that

922
00:52:16,559 --> 00:52:19,760
wasn't meant to be seen, something that wasn't supposed to

923
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:20,239
be heard.

924
00:52:21,079 --> 00:52:23,480
Speaker 2: I moved out two years later when I went to college.

925
00:52:24,039 --> 00:52:24,639
Story ten.

926
00:52:25,159 --> 00:52:28,119
Speaker 1: I live alone in a basement apartment in Scarborough, just

927
00:52:28,239 --> 00:52:33,000
east of Toronto. Nothing fancy, bare concrete walls painted white,

928
00:52:33,480 --> 00:52:36,079
one small window above the desk that barely lets in

929
00:52:36,119 --> 00:52:40,920
any light, and my setup a basic PC, second hand chair,

930
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,079
and an old lamp that flickers sometimes when the heat

931
00:52:44,159 --> 00:52:48,079
kicks in. I'm not really a spiritual or superstitious guy.

932
00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:51,960
I work in it. I troubleshoot routers and talk people

933
00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:54,639
through driver updates all day, so I don't jump to

934
00:52:54,639 --> 00:52:57,280
ghosts or anything like that, But I swear to you

935
00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:00,360
what happened one night around two years ago. I don't

936
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:02,440
know how to explain it, and it's messed with my

937
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:06,239
head ever since. It was late, around one thirty am.

938
00:53:06,400 --> 00:53:08,440
I had just finished a long discord call with a

939
00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:12,920
friend from the UK. We'd been talking about simulation theory. Yeah,

940
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:15,239
the irony, I know. We went off on one of

941
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:17,760
those rabbit hole tangents about how we might be living

942
00:53:17,760 --> 00:53:23,039
in a computer generated reality, typical Internet conspiracy nonsense. I

943
00:53:23,079 --> 00:53:26,360
remember joking and saying, if the world glitches on me tonight,

944
00:53:26,559 --> 00:53:30,039
I'm blaming you. He laughed, logged off, and I got

945
00:53:30,119 --> 00:53:32,840
up to grab some water. Here's where things start to

946
00:53:32,880 --> 00:53:37,679
get weird. I came back, sat down, and I remember

947
00:53:37,719 --> 00:53:41,079
clearly I turned on a video about the Matrix, not

948
00:53:41,199 --> 00:53:44,639
the movie, but one of those deep dive philosophy videos

949
00:53:44,639 --> 00:53:49,880
on YouTube, analyzing simulation theory in the Nature of consciousness.

950
00:53:50,039 --> 00:53:52,719
I watched maybe ten minutes. Then my eyes drifted over

951
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:55,760
to the little window beside my desk. It was pitch

952
00:53:55,800 --> 00:53:59,519
black outside. I couldn't see anything, not even street lights,

953
00:54:00,119 --> 00:54:03,840
and then it was like something just snapped. I was

954
00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:08,519
suddenly back, same chair, same position, but my monitor was

955
00:54:08,559 --> 00:54:12,199
completely black. The room was dead silent. I didn't remember

956
00:54:12,239 --> 00:54:15,719
the video ending or even feeling tired. I thought maybe

957
00:54:15,719 --> 00:54:19,320
I'd knotted off for a second microsleep or whatever. But

958
00:54:19,400 --> 00:54:22,880
then I moved the mouse, nothing happened. I pressed the keyboard,

959
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:28,199
still nothing. The tower wasn't making any noise either, dead silent.

960
00:54:29,079 --> 00:54:32,159
That's when I noticed something really off. The led on

961
00:54:32,239 --> 00:54:35,599
the power button wasn't lit. That didn't make sense. I

962
00:54:35,679 --> 00:54:37,880
leaned down under the desk and checked the power strip.

963
00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:46,360
It wasn't plugged in the entire surge bar, power strip, tower, monitor, router, lamp,

964
00:54:46,559 --> 00:54:48,920
all of it. The plug was sitting on the floor,

965
00:54:49,519 --> 00:54:54,000
not loose, unplugged, like completely out of the wall. That

966
00:54:54,039 --> 00:54:56,920
didn't compute. There was no way I could have watched

967
00:54:56,920 --> 00:55:00,519
a video, browse the web, talk to my friend if

968
00:55:00,519 --> 00:55:03,639
the strip was never plugged in. I sat there staring

969
00:55:03,679 --> 00:55:06,440
at the cord for maybe a minute, trying to recall

970
00:55:06,599 --> 00:55:07,320
unplugging it.

971
00:55:08,039 --> 00:55:10,920
Speaker 2: I hadn't. I hadn't even been near that side of

972
00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:11,599
the wall all day.

973
00:55:12,519 --> 00:55:15,119
Speaker 1: I actually laughed out loud, like one of those dry,

974
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:19,719
confused laughs. Then I thought, okay, maybe the power flicked

975
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:23,119
and I pulled it out somehow and forgot number. I'm

976
00:55:23,119 --> 00:55:26,400
not that careless to double check. I reached over and

977
00:55:26,440 --> 00:55:30,360
grabbed my phone. It was dead. That made no sense either.

978
00:55:30,840 --> 00:55:33,880
It had been charging during my call at eighty percent.

979
00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:36,960
When I checked LASS, Suddenly I got this weird feeling

980
00:55:37,039 --> 00:55:39,400
in my gut, like when you walk into a room

981
00:55:39,440 --> 00:55:42,719
and forget why you're there. But worse, it was like

982
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:45,760
I wasn't alone anymore, like someone had just been there

983
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:49,400
a second ago. Not a presence exactly, but this echo

984
00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:53,599
of movement, like reality had hiccuped. I stood up, and

985
00:55:53,679 --> 00:55:56,039
I swear to God, the hairs on my arms lifted,

986
00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:59,760
my skin went cold. I walked over to the power strip,

987
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:02,840
plugged it in, hit the switch. The fan in the

988
00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:07,079
PC tower spun up. Monitor flickered back to life. Everything

989
00:56:07,119 --> 00:56:10,880
booted like normal. I checked the history. No record of

990
00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:14,039
the video I was watching, no trace of the discord call,

991
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:17,840
no Internet tabs open, no log of anything I had done.

992
00:56:18,599 --> 00:56:22,320
Even the system time was off, like the bios had reset.

993
00:56:22,519 --> 00:56:26,360
It was showing three six am. Then something else hit me.

994
00:56:27,039 --> 00:56:29,880
The clock on the wall, a cheap analog one with

995
00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:34,400
a loud tick, was stuck. The second hand had stopped moving.

996
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:39,960
It was stuck at exactly two seventeen frozen. That's when

997
00:56:39,960 --> 00:56:42,719
the real fear started to set in. I stood in

998
00:56:42,760 --> 00:56:45,760
the center of my room, turning in place, checking everything.

999
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:49,639
My microwave clock was also blank. My phone wouldn't power

1000
00:56:49,719 --> 00:56:52,440
on even after I plugged it in. And the worst

1001
00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:56,840
part the window. I looked again outside was still pitch black.

1002
00:56:57,400 --> 00:57:00,599
But this time it wasn't just dark. It was nothing like,

1003
00:57:00,679 --> 00:57:03,800
no sky, no faint outlines of trees or fences or

1004
00:57:03,800 --> 00:57:08,559
street lights, just a flat, absolute void. Imagine a black

1005
00:57:08,599 --> 00:57:11,679
sheet of paper two inches from your face. That kind

1006
00:57:11,679 --> 00:57:15,159
of black. Like the world stopped rendering outside my apartment.

1007
00:57:15,880 --> 00:57:19,079
I stepped back. Something was wrong with the air too.

1008
00:57:19,599 --> 00:57:23,039
The room didn't feel still, it felt paused, like the

1009
00:57:23,079 --> 00:57:26,639
air wasn't moving. No humming from the fridge upstairs, no

1010
00:57:26,800 --> 00:57:32,559
pipes groaning, just this pressure, almost like being underwater. Not

1011
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:37,559
soundless but muted, artificial. Then I heard it a clicking,

1012
00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:41,639
A slow, deliberate clicking noise coming from behind me, like

1013
00:57:41,719 --> 00:57:46,079
someone tapping plastic. I turned around, fast, heart pounding. Nothing

1014
00:57:46,159 --> 00:57:49,679
was there, but the clicking continued. It was coming from

1015
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:54,119
the mouse. The mouse on my desk was clicking by itself. Single,

1016
00:57:54,199 --> 00:57:59,719
soft clicks every few seconds, not rapid, not random, patterned,

1017
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:03,519
almost like morse code.

1018
00:58:03,599 --> 00:58:05,800
Speaker 2: I backed up. I couldn't move toward it.

1019
00:58:06,199 --> 00:58:10,519
Speaker 1: Something in me refused, every instinct screamed not to touch anything,

1020
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:13,719
not to interact with it, like I'd break something if

1021
00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:16,599
I did. I picked up my keys, still staring at

1022
00:58:16,599 --> 00:58:19,320
the mouse as it clicked, and I bolted. Didn't even

1023
00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:21,880
put on shoes, just ran up the stairs, out the

1024
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:25,000
side door, and into the night air. When I got outside,

1025
00:58:25,039 --> 00:58:27,239
it was morning. I swear it was middle of the

1026
00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:31,400
night seconds ago. Now the sun was rising, birds chirping,

1027
00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:35,320
cars moving. I pulled out my phone. It powered on,

1028
00:58:35,800 --> 00:58:39,760
battery at seventy six percent. Everything worked again. I went

1029
00:58:39,800 --> 00:58:42,199
back inside after an hour of standing in the driveway,

1030
00:58:42,599 --> 00:58:45,840
unsure what to do. When I got down to my apartment,

1031
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:48,800
the clock on the wall was ticking again. Power was on,

1032
00:58:49,440 --> 00:58:53,079
Internet worked, the mouse wasn't clicking. But nothing in the

1033
00:58:53,119 --> 00:58:56,599
browser history had changed. No log of the discord call,

1034
00:58:57,199 --> 00:59:00,519
no matrix video in the watch history, no system of

1035
00:59:00,599 --> 00:59:04,119
time logs, nothing an event viewer. It's like the entire thing,

1036
00:59:04,639 --> 00:59:08,000
everything from the moment I sat down, never happened, but

1037
00:59:08,119 --> 00:59:11,400
I remember all of it. Too clearly, and I don't

1038
00:59:11,480 --> 00:59:14,840
use that computer anymore. I got a new laptop. I

1039
00:59:14,880 --> 00:59:18,280
even moved apartments. I've never told anyone in person about

1040
00:59:18,280 --> 00:59:22,679
this because it sounds insane, but I swear it happened.