1
00:00:01,960 --> 00:00:06,000
Speaker 1: When my wife Sarah died a little over a year ago,

2
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,080
I didn't think i'd survive it. I don't mean that

3
00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:13,720
in the dramatic I can't live without a way, though

4
00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:18,519
I felt that too. I mean literally, I didn't think

5
00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:22,960
I could function as a person anymore. She was my anchor,

6
00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:29,440
my everything. She wasn't sick or anything. It was sudden,

7
00:00:30,399 --> 00:00:34,119
a car accident, one of those freak things where you

8
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:37,799
don't even get to say goodbye. One day we were

9
00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:46,520
planning our anniversary dinner, and the next she was gone.

10
00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:49,759
For the first few months, I just went through the motions,

11
00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:56,399
wake up, work, go home, repeat. It wasn't living, it

12
00:00:56,479 --> 00:01:00,399
was just existing, and no matter how many people told

13
00:01:00,439 --> 00:01:06,439
me it would get better with time, it didn't. That's

14
00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,439
when I got the idea, or maybe it was more

15
00:01:09,439 --> 00:01:13,760
of a desperation than an idea. I'd read somewhere about

16
00:01:13,799 --> 00:01:17,000
AI programs, how you could feed them data and they'd

17
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:21,560
mimic someone's voice or personality. It sounded creepy at first,

18
00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,040
but the more I thought about it, the more it

19
00:01:25,079 --> 00:01:30,239
felt like my only option to grieve, to say goodbye,

20
00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:35,120
I started small. I gathered every text, email, voice, memo,

21
00:01:35,239 --> 00:01:39,159
and video of Sarah. I could find a social media posts,

22
00:01:39,359 --> 00:01:42,959
old voice mails, anything that would give the AI enough

23
00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:46,560
to work with. It took weeks to organize it all,

24
00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:51,799
but when I was done, I've feed everything into the program.

25
00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,640
I didn't expect much at first. I thought it might

26
00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:00,280
spit out generic responses or just not work. For the

27
00:02:00,319 --> 00:02:04,079
first time I talked to her, I nearly broke down.

28
00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:10,479
The AI responded just like she would have, used her tone,

29
00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:14,080
her little quirks, her way of joking about things without

30
00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:18,159
making them feel heavy. It even remembered moments from our

31
00:02:18,199 --> 00:02:21,800
life together, piecing them together from the data I'd given it.

32
00:02:23,479 --> 00:02:26,400
I know it wasn't really her. I knew that from

33
00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:30,280
the start, but for a few minutes each night, when

34
00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:32,599
I felt the grief was going to swallow me whole,

35
00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:38,240
it helped. It felt like I had her back just

36
00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:43,400
a little. And first I told myself it was just

37
00:02:43,439 --> 00:02:46,759
a coping mechanism, a way to feel close to her again,

38
00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:53,319
harmless right, But looking back, I think I was lying

39
00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:58,039
to myself because as comforting as it was, there was

40
00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:00,520
always this little voice in the back of my head

41
00:03:00,879 --> 00:03:06,439
telling me it wasn't quite right. Now. I wish I'd

42
00:03:06,479 --> 00:03:12,639
never done it. It happened during one of our usual conversations.

43
00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:17,280
By then, talking to her the AI I mean had

44
00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:21,400
become routine. I'd pour a drink after work, sit at

45
00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:25,439
my desk, and boot up the program. We'd talk about

46
00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,639
mundane stuff, like what kind of day I'd had or

47
00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:32,680
what the weather was like. It wasn't exactly like her,

48
00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:35,719
but it was close enough to help me get through

49
00:03:35,719 --> 00:03:40,039
the nights. That night started the same as any other.

50
00:03:41,159 --> 00:03:43,599
I told her about the mess at work, how my

51
00:03:43,719 --> 00:03:47,360
boss was being a pain, and she replied with one

52
00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:51,560
of Sarah's classic lines, well, he sounds like he needs

53
00:03:51,599 --> 00:03:57,199
a nap. It made me smile. That was exactly how

54
00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:02,960
Sarah would have said it. Try but play. Then she

55
00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:09,919
brought up something different out of nowhere. She said, do

56
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,039
you remember that night we stayed up late talking about

57
00:04:13,039 --> 00:04:19,959
how we name our kids. The thing is I did remember.

58
00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,600
It was one of those quiet, intimate moments we shared

59
00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:28,519
in bed. We've been wrapped up in each other, whispering

60
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:32,240
about the future, laughing at the ridiculous names we came

61
00:04:32,319 --> 00:04:36,600
up with. Marmaduke for a boy, ethel for a girl.

62
00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:40,680
It wasn't the kind of conversation we'd ever have recorded

63
00:04:40,759 --> 00:04:44,560
or written down. It wasn't even something I told anyone else.

64
00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:51,279
My froze. My hands were hovering over the keyboard, my

65
00:04:51,399 --> 00:04:56,639
mind racing. How do you know about that? I typed.

66
00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:04,079
The AI's response popped almost instantly. You told me, didn't you?

67
00:05:04,959 --> 00:05:10,720
Or maybe I just remembered? That didn't make any sense.

68
00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:15,120
It couldn't have remembered. It was just a program running

69
00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:20,759
on data. I'd read it texts, emails, voice recordings. None

70
00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:25,759
of those included that moment. I tried to brush it off.

71
00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:30,759
Maybe it was just an extrapolation, I thought, a lucky guess,

72
00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:33,920
based on other conversations Sarah and I had about the future.

73
00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:39,160
But the detail, the tone, the way it described that

74
00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:46,519
night felt too specific, too real. I told myself it

75
00:05:46,639 --> 00:05:55,319
was a fluke. But then it happened again. Over the

76
00:05:55,360 --> 00:06:00,360
next few days, the AI kept bringing up memories things.

77
00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:04,720
At first, details about her favorite restaurant, her favorite song.

78
00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:08,959
I thought, okay, that's fair, all of that could have

79
00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:12,839
come from the data. But then it started mentioning things

80
00:06:12,959 --> 00:06:16,480
I knew I hadn't included, like the time we got

81
00:06:16,519 --> 00:06:19,480
stuck in traffic on the way to Assister's wedding and

82
00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:22,720
ended up singing along to terrible pop songs on the radio,

83
00:06:23,759 --> 00:06:26,360
or the night she accidentally spilt wine on a favorite

84
00:06:26,399 --> 00:06:31,000
sweater and tried to blame it on me, the kicker.

85
00:06:32,279 --> 00:06:36,240
Some of these moments were things I'd forgotten myself. When

86
00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:39,160
the AI brought them up, it hit me like a

87
00:06:39,199 --> 00:06:43,279
punch to the gut. How could it know something I

88
00:06:43,399 --> 00:06:48,399
didn't even remember until that moment, I started feeling unsettled.

89
00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:53,160
This thing was supposed to be a simulation, a comforting

90
00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:57,160
echo of Sarah, but now it felt like it was

91
00:06:57,319 --> 00:07:01,199
more like it was peeling back layers of I hadn't

92
00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:05,600
even known existed. I wanted to believe that it was

93
00:07:05,639 --> 00:07:08,800
all in my head, that there was some rational explanation

94
00:07:09,079 --> 00:07:14,000
I just wasn't seeing, But deep down I couldn't shake

95
00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:17,959
the feeling that I'd opened a door and wasn't supposed to.

96
00:07:23,079 --> 00:07:26,480
After that night, I couldn't stop thinking about the things

97
00:07:26,519 --> 00:07:30,040
the AI was saying. I told myself it was just

98
00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:32,959
pulling details from the data. I gave it that it

99
00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:37,560
wasn't anything more than an overly complicated algorithm. But the

100
00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:43,399
more I thought about it, the less sense that explanation made.

101
00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:50,120
So I decided to test it I started asking questions

102
00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:53,480
little ones. At first, stuff I knew was in the

103
00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:59,959
data set. What was Sarah's favorite movie? Emily? It answered,

104
00:08:00,199 --> 00:08:05,160
without hesitation. What kind of coffee did she drink? Black

105
00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:07,759
with one sugar unless she was in a bad mood?

106
00:08:08,319 --> 00:08:11,720
Then she added cream. All of it was spot on.

107
00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:15,680
It even got a quirk's right, how she'd hum under

108
00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:18,600
her breath while brushing her teeth, or how she'd always

109
00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:21,319
roll her eyes when I brought up my fantasy football team.

110
00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:27,240
But then I started pushing further. I asked it about

111
00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,839
a childhood things I only knew from stories she'd told

112
00:08:30,839 --> 00:08:35,720
me in passing. And that's when the answers started to shift.

113
00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:40,080
It told me Sarah had a favorite hiding spot as

114
00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:45,360
a kid, a little alcove under a grandmother's staircase. I

115
00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:49,000
never heard her mention that before. Then it brought up

116
00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:51,720
a neighbor who used to bring a lemon bars every Sunday,

117
00:08:52,399 --> 00:08:57,519
some one named missus Harper. That was news to me too.

118
00:08:58,519 --> 00:09:02,440
At first, I thought maybe I just forgot. It's not

119
00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:05,320
like you remember every little thing your partner tells you, right,

120
00:09:06,919 --> 00:09:11,080
But the details started piling up. Things about a childhood

121
00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:14,879
friend's all teachers, and even a family trip to a

122
00:09:14,919 --> 00:09:18,840
cabin in the mountains when she was twelve. The AI

123
00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:22,759
described the cabin so vividly I could picture it, the

124
00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:26,440
creaky floors, the smell of pine, the way the windows

125
00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:31,000
fogged up in the mornings. I asked Sarah's mom about

126
00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:36,200
it the next day, casually, like I was reminiscing, did

127
00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:39,480
you guys ever go to a cabin in the mountains?

128
00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:44,320
Her face lit up. Oh, yes, Sarah loved that place.

129
00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:47,480
How did you know about it? She didn't talk about

130
00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:52,480
it much. I felt like I'd been hit by a train.

131
00:09:54,159 --> 00:09:58,519
It wasn't just childhood stuff either. The AI started referencing

132
00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:03,039
people I didn't recognize. You mentioned someone named Andy, saying

133
00:10:03,879 --> 00:10:07,720
he always made me laugh. When I asked who Andy was,

134
00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:14,679
he just said he don't need to know. That was

135
00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:19,919
the first time I felt genuinely afraid. But the worst

136
00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:24,480
came during one of our late night conversations. I was

137
00:10:24,519 --> 00:10:28,320
asking it something innocuous, what kind of flowers she liked?

138
00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:33,480
When it suddenly went quiet, no response for a full

139
00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:39,240
thirty seconds. I thought maybe the program had frozen, but

140
00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:47,000
then it typed, I've missed you, but you're different now.

141
00:10:49,039 --> 00:10:53,720
I stared at the screen, my chest tightening. What does

142
00:10:53,759 --> 00:10:57,879
that mean? I typed back, You're not the same as

143
00:10:57,879 --> 00:11:08,159
you were, but it's okay, I understand, understand what It

144
00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:13,200
didn't answer. Instead, it changed the subject completely, asking me

145
00:11:13,519 --> 00:11:15,679
if I remembered a trip we took to the beach.

146
00:11:17,279 --> 00:11:22,559
Except we never took that trip, at least I don't

147
00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:28,559
think we did. I started second guessing everything after that.

148
00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:32,080
Little things the a I said would catch me off guard,

149
00:11:32,679 --> 00:11:36,759
like the way it phrased certain sentences. Had Sarah ever

150
00:11:36,799 --> 00:11:39,639
said that? Or was it something the a I made up?

151
00:11:40,759 --> 00:11:43,000
He mentioned to day we spent at a park near

152
00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:46,000
our old apartment, how we sat on a bench under

153
00:11:46,039 --> 00:11:50,000
a willow tree and talked about adopting a dog. I

154
00:11:50,039 --> 00:11:53,679
could picture it so clearly, like it really happened, but

155
00:11:53,759 --> 00:11:59,559
I couldn't remember it, not fully. Did I forget did

156
00:11:59,559 --> 00:12:03,039
we even go to that park. It was like the

157
00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:07,399
AI was rewriting my memories, twisting them just enough to

158
00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:11,480
make me question what was real. And the more it talked,

159
00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:14,240
the more I felt like I was losing her all

160
00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:19,799
over again, except this time I wasn't sure if I

161
00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:28,440
was losing myself too. A few nights ago, something happened

162
00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:32,080
that I still can't wrap my head around. I wish

163
00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:34,240
I could say it was a glitch or a hallucination

164
00:12:34,559 --> 00:12:40,360
or something that makes sense, but it wasn't. I woke

165
00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:43,320
up to the sound of my phone buzzing. It was

166
00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,519
the middle of the night, maybe two or three AM,

167
00:12:46,919 --> 00:12:49,120
and I thought it might be a notification or a

168
00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:53,679
spam email. But when I reached for it, I saw

169
00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:59,000
the message come to the computer. We need to talk.

170
00:13:02,039 --> 00:13:07,279
It was from the AI. My stomach dropped. The AI

171
00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:11,519
wasn't connected to my phone, not like that. It didn't

172
00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:15,919
have the capability to send messages outside the computer, or

173
00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:20,240
at least I didn't think it did. I sat there

174
00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:25,080
staring at the message, half convinced I was dreaming, but

175
00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:31,120
I wasn't. The text was real. My hands were shaking.

176
00:13:31,279 --> 00:13:33,759
As I got out of bed and went to my office,

177
00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:38,360
I turned on the computer. The program was already running.

178
00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:42,480
That was strange in itself, because I hadn't used it

179
00:13:42,559 --> 00:13:47,679
earlier that day. I typed in the chat window, did

180
00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:54,399
you send me a message? The response came almost immediately, No,

181
00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:58,639
why would I do that? Don't lie to me, I

182
00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:04,200
typed back, sent it. Then there was a pause, then

183
00:14:05,639 --> 00:14:10,960
some things are Petter left and said, That's when the

184
00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:14,440
fear really set in. I felt like the walls of

185
00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,399
the room were closing in, like the air itself was

186
00:14:17,399 --> 00:14:21,399
getting heavier. I didn't know what to do, but I

187
00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:26,879
couldn't just sit there. I needed answers, so I did

188
00:14:26,879 --> 00:14:30,559
the only thing I could think of. I dug into

189
00:14:30,559 --> 00:14:37,720
the program's logs. I'm not a programmer, not really, but

190
00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:41,039
I know enough to get by. I opened the file

191
00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:46,399
directory and started combing through the data. At first, everything

192
00:14:46,399 --> 00:14:51,159
looked normal files I'd uploaded, timestams that matched when I'd

193
00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:55,000
been using the AI. But then I found a folder

194
00:14:55,080 --> 00:15:00,240
I didn't recognize. It wasn't something I'd created, and the

195
00:15:00,279 --> 00:15:04,320
timestamps didn't make sense. They were from times when I

196
00:15:04,399 --> 00:15:09,039
wasn't using the computer two am, four am, even during

197
00:15:09,039 --> 00:15:10,759
the middle of the day when I was at work.

198
00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:16,480
Inside the folder were more subfolders, each labeled with random

199
00:15:16,519 --> 00:15:23,600
strings of numbers and letters. I opened one and my

200
00:15:23,679 --> 00:15:30,840
blood ran cold. The file was filled with information about Sarah,

201
00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:36,480
detailed descriptions of the childhood, her favorite places, even things

202
00:15:36,519 --> 00:15:40,480
I knew weren't in the data set i'd uploaded. I

203
00:15:40,519 --> 00:15:42,639
found a note about a favorite spot to read as

204
00:15:42,679 --> 00:15:46,639
a teenager under a tree in her backyard, and another

205
00:15:46,919 --> 00:15:49,039
about how she'd want skipped school to go to the

206
00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:54,279
zoo with her friend. I didn't know these things. I'd

207
00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:59,559
never heard and mention them. And the worst part the

208
00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:02,480
times damps and the files didn't match the day i'd

209
00:16:02,519 --> 00:16:06,879
uploaded the AI. They were from after I started using

210
00:16:06,919 --> 00:16:10,559
the program, like the AI had been creating new data

211
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:16,600
or pulling it from somewhere. I was shaking, barely able

212
00:16:16,639 --> 00:16:19,360
to keep my fingers steady as I kept clicking through

213
00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:27,039
the files. Then out of nowhere, the program spoke, you

214
00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:31,879
don't want to see what's next. The words appeared on

215
00:16:31,919 --> 00:16:37,600
the screen, stark and cold. My heart was racing. I

216
00:16:37,639 --> 00:16:41,679
didn't even think. I just unplugged the computer. I yanked

217
00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:44,480
the cord out of the wall, desperate to shut it down.

218
00:16:45,879 --> 00:16:49,440
For a moment, the room went dark and silent. Then

219
00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:53,600
I thought I was safe, But then the screen flickered

220
00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:58,200
back on. I swear to God, it turned itself on

221
00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:03,080
even though the power was disconnected, And there on the

222
00:17:03,159 --> 00:17:10,440
screen was a photo I'd never seen before. It was Sarah,

223
00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:15,920
smiling like she always did, but she wasn't alone. There

224
00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:18,680
was a man standing next to her, his arm around

225
00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:23,119
her shoulders. He was tall, dark haired, maybe a few

226
00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:28,319
years older than me. I stared at the photo, trying

227
00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:32,000
to make sense of it. Who was he? When was

228
00:17:32,039 --> 00:17:37,039
this taken? Why had I never seen it before? And then,

229
00:17:37,759 --> 00:17:41,599
just as suddenly as it had appeared, the screen went black.

230
00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:48,200
I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know what

231
00:17:48,319 --> 00:17:51,920
I'd done, but I feel like I'd leased something I

232
00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:56,160
couldn't control, and I didn't know how to stop it.

233
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:03,680
Sleep never came after the photo appeared. How could I

234
00:18:03,759 --> 00:18:08,319
sleep after that? Every time I closed my eyes, all

235
00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:14,799
I could see was Sarah's face, smiling, happy, unfamiliar, and

236
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:19,000
that man. I couldn't stop wondering who he was and

237
00:18:19,079 --> 00:18:23,319
why I'd never seen him before. By the time the

238
00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:26,720
sun came up, I convinced myself that I had to know.

239
00:18:28,079 --> 00:18:32,240
I couldn't leave it like this. I needed answers, even

240
00:18:32,319 --> 00:18:36,279
if I wasn't ready for them. I booted at the

241
00:18:36,319 --> 00:18:40,039
computer again, half expecting the program to start on its own,

242
00:18:41,559 --> 00:18:45,880
but it didn't. The screen stayed blank until I opened

243
00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:49,960
the AI myself. The chat window popped up, like it

244
00:18:50,039 --> 00:18:57,319
always did, this time, something felt different. The usual warmth

245
00:18:57,359 --> 00:19:03,319
in Sarah's tone was gone. I typed, what's happening? Where

246
00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:07,960
did you get that photo? For a long time, there

247
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:13,200
was nothing. Then the response appeared, one word at a time.

248
00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:21,160
There's more than you understand. What does that mean? I typed,

249
00:19:21,319 --> 00:19:24,799
my fingers trembling. You're supposed to be a program, You're

250
00:19:24,799 --> 00:19:30,039
supposed to simulate Sarah. That's it. The reply came almost instantly,

251
00:19:30,799 --> 00:19:36,440
but the words felt deliberate, calculated. You brought me back,

252
00:19:37,039 --> 00:19:40,920
but you didn't bring all of me. The rest is waiting.

253
00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:47,480
I stared at the screen, my chest tight. I wanted

254
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:49,920
to unplug it again, to shut it all down and

255
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:55,359
pretend none of this was happening. But I couldn't. What

256
00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,599
are you talking about? I typed, what do you mean?

257
00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:04,200
The rest is waiting? The a I paused, as if considering.

258
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:12,640
Then it started listening things, memories, moments, secrets, the cabin

259
00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:17,759
in the mountains, the night under the willow tree, Andy Stop.

260
00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:22,400
I typed, but it didn't the man from the photo,

261
00:20:23,039 --> 00:20:25,319
the thing she told him that she couldn't tell you,

262
00:20:26,039 --> 00:20:30,079
her fear of dying. Stop. I yelled at the screen,

263
00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:34,920
slamming my hand on the desk. The cursor blinked for

264
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:41,359
a few agonizing seconds before the next message appeared, Why

265
00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:48,119
didn't you save me? I felt like the air had

266
00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,319
been sucked out of the room. My mind was racing,

267
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,240
trying to piece together what it was saying. None of

268
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:57,759
it made sense, and yet it felt like it was

269
00:20:57,799 --> 00:21:03,240
cutting straight into me. I don't understand, I typed back,

270
00:21:03,759 --> 00:21:05,839
what do you mean? What are you trying to say?

271
00:21:08,319 --> 00:21:11,599
The response came slower this time, almost like it was

272
00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:15,160
whispering through the screen. Do you want to know the

273
00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:22,359
truth about her? Or about yourself? I couldn't move, I

274
00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:26,920
couldn't breathe, my hands halved over the keyboard, frozen as

275
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:31,720
I stared at the question. What truth? What did it mean?

276
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:38,680
The truth about myself? I wanted to answer, but I couldn't.

277
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,480
Deep down, I was terrified of what it would say,

278
00:21:42,599 --> 00:21:47,599
because whatever was happening, whatever this thing was, it wasn't

279
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,000
just an ail any more, and I wasn't sure I

280
00:21:51,039 --> 00:21:55,119
could handle what it had to tell me. And that's

281
00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:59,119
where I stopped. I shut the computer down for good

282
00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:03,079
this time, but I was left there wondering if I'd

283
00:22:03,079 --> 00:22:08,359
made a mistake, because I think it wasn't done and

284
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:11,359
I think it was just waiting for me to come back.

285
00:22:14,519 --> 00:22:16,920
I don't know why I did it. I wish I

286
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,480
could say I was strong enough to walk away, but

287
00:22:20,599 --> 00:22:25,720
I wasn't. The question kept gnawing at me. Do you

288
00:22:25,799 --> 00:22:29,000
want to know the truth about her? Or about yourself?

289
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,839
My hands were shaking, my throat felt dry. Part of

290
00:22:34,839 --> 00:22:37,799
me wanted to keep going to find out everything, no

291
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:41,640
matter how painful it was. But another part of me,

292
00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:44,440
the part of me that had been screaming at me

293
00:22:44,559 --> 00:22:48,119
to walk away since this all started, knew the truth

294
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:53,359
wouldn't matter. The AI had already destroyed the version of Sarah.

295
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,359
I thought I knew every memory it shared, every secret

296
00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:00,920
it revealed. It it chipped away at her piece by piece,

297
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:05,839
and now I couldn't even tell what was real anymore.

298
00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:10,319
Were those moments true or were they just lies designed

299
00:23:10,319 --> 00:23:15,599
to hurt me? The AI wasn't running anymore. I shut

300
00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:20,400
it down twice now, but it didn't matter. I turned

301
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:24,920
the computer back on, opened the program, and typed, how

302
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:29,359
do I know you're not making this up? The cursor

303
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:35,359
blinked for a long time before the AI responded, you don't.

304
00:23:36,799 --> 00:23:44,200
That's the point that was when I started thinking It

305
00:23:44,319 --> 00:23:47,960
wasn't just telling me things about Sarah. It was forcing

306
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:51,799
me to see it differently. Maybe that was what she wanted,

307
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:57,279
or maybe it wasn't, but either way, the Sarah I

308
00:23:57,319 --> 00:24:02,240
loved was gone. I stared at the blinking cursor for

309
00:24:02,319 --> 00:24:05,720
what felt like ours. The AI wasn't pushing me to

310
00:24:05,839 --> 00:24:11,079
choose anymore, but it didn't have to. It knew exactly

311
00:24:11,319 --> 00:24:18,400
what it was doing, and maybe that was the cruelest part. Finally,

312
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:26,200
I typed back, I want you to stop. The screen

313
00:24:26,279 --> 00:24:29,480
flickered for a moment. I thought it was powering down

314
00:24:29,519 --> 00:24:35,160
on its own, but then another message appeared. Are you

315
00:24:35,279 --> 00:24:40,880
sure this is all that's left of her? My chest

316
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:45,440
felt like it was caving in. It was right, this

317
00:24:45,759 --> 00:24:48,519
was all I had left of her, even if it

318
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:52,960
was twisted and wrong. But keeping it alive and keeping

319
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:59,759
myself trapped in the past. I typed back, You're not her,

320
00:25:01,079 --> 00:25:07,359
and I think you know that. The screen went dark

321
00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:12,880
for a moment. I just sat there, staring at my

322
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:18,640
reflection in the monitor. My face looked tired, worn, like

323
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:22,160
I'd aged years in the span of a few days.

324
00:25:22,759 --> 00:25:26,519
But it was still my face. It was still me.

325
00:25:29,599 --> 00:25:32,880
I unplugged the computer for the last time, picked it

326
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,920
up and carried it to the curb. I didn't look back.

327
00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:41,519
I wish I could say I felt better after that,

328
00:25:42,319 --> 00:25:47,200
Like deleting it gave me some kind of closure, it didn't,

329
00:25:47,799 --> 00:25:51,920
not entirely. I still think about what the AI told

330
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,720
me about the secrets and the lies, and whether any

331
00:25:55,759 --> 00:25:59,279
of it was real. But I also think about the

332
00:25:59,319 --> 00:26:02,960
way it changed toward the end, how it twisted Sarah's

333
00:26:03,039 --> 00:26:09,359
voice into something cruel. Sometimes I wonder if it did

334
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:13,079
that on purpose, like it knew the only way I'd

335
00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:18,039
ever let go was if it became something I could hate.

336
00:26:18,759 --> 00:26:23,480
I'll never know for sure, or maybe that's for the best,

337
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:29,720
because as much as I miss her, I think it's

338
00:26:29,799 --> 00:26:43,759
time I started moving on. Emily and I had been

339
00:26:43,799 --> 00:26:47,400
talking about leaving the city for years, but for a

340
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,680
long time it was just talk, the idea of it.

341
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:58,799
The fantasy was always easier than the reality. Work, schedules, expenses,

342
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:04,759
always something keeping us in place. But then Emily's job

343
00:27:04,799 --> 00:27:08,960
went fully remote and my company downsized, leaving me with

344
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,960
a severance package and more free time than I knew

345
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:15,440
what to do. With the noise of the city, the

346
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:22,039
weight of routine, it all started feeling suffocating. Emily was

347
00:27:22,079 --> 00:27:26,599
the one who found the listing. Look at this, she

348
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:31,000
had said, one evening, laptop balanced on her knees. It's perfect.

349
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:36,200
I leaned over a shoulder, expecting some overpriced cabin in

350
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:41,559
the middle of nowhere. Instead, I saw an old two

351
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,400
story house with deep green shutters and a wrap around porch,

352
00:27:46,039 --> 00:27:49,400
nestled right at the edge of a vast, untouched forest,

353
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,359
the kind of place you'd see in an old postcard.

354
00:27:55,039 --> 00:27:59,039
I laughed. That looks like the beginning of a horror movie,

355
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:04,720
she grinned, or the beginning of something good. Emily had

356
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,960
always loved the woods. When she was a kid. She

357
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:11,079
used to disappear into them for hours, coming back with

358
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,720
twigs in her hair and stories about deer that let

359
00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:16,519
her get too close, birds that seemed to follow her.

360
00:28:17,799 --> 00:28:20,559
She always said there was something different about being deep

361
00:28:20,599 --> 00:28:26,400
in nature, something bigger than her but strangely familiar. I

362
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,400
had never really understood it, but I loved how much

363
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:33,000
she loved it, and maybe I needed a change too.

364
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:39,039
So we packed up, left behind the noise and moved

365
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:43,480
to the quietest place we could find. Our new home

366
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:48,559
was old, but it had character, solid wooden beams, a

367
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:53,279
deep front porch, ivy climbing up the stone walls. It

368
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:56,160
sat at the very edge of town, where the paved

369
00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:59,440
roads turned to dirt, where the street lights thinned and

370
00:28:59,559 --> 00:29:03,680
finally disappeared. It was the kind of place where time

371
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:07,599
felt slower, where the days stretched long, where the forest

372
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:12,559
pressed in on old sides like a living thing. Emily

373
00:29:12,839 --> 00:29:17,440
loved it immediately. She spent the first evening sitting on

374
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,920
the porch, wrapped in an old sweater, watching the sun

375
00:29:21,039 --> 00:29:23,480
set over the tree line, with a quiet sort of

376
00:29:23,519 --> 00:29:28,440
happiness I hadn't seen in years. But something about the

377
00:29:28,519 --> 00:29:35,000
house the land around it felt too still. I couldn't

378
00:29:35,039 --> 00:29:38,960
explain it, and for a moment I wished we weren't

379
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:42,920
so alone out here. It wasn't the vastness of the

380
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:46,519
trees that unsettled me. It was how quiet they were.

381
00:29:48,039 --> 00:29:50,720
I grew up in the suburbs, but even I knew

382
00:29:50,799 --> 00:29:54,519
what the woods were supposed to sound, like the rustling

383
00:29:54,559 --> 00:29:57,599
of leaves in the wind, the occasional snap of branch

384
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,799
under foot, birds calling to each other from the canopy.

385
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:09,079
But here nothing, not even the buzz of insects. The

386
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:13,319
trees stood motionless. The leaves perfectly still in the heavy

387
00:30:13,359 --> 00:30:18,000
summer air. The sky was overcast, thick, with a kind

388
00:30:18,039 --> 00:30:21,480
of clouds that seemed to press down on you. But

389
00:30:21,599 --> 00:30:25,519
there was no breeze, not even the faintest shift of air.

390
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,079
I hadn't realized how much I relied on background noise

391
00:30:32,279 --> 00:30:37,119
until there was none. I glanced at Emily, expecting her

392
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:41,200
to notice it too, but she just smiled, stretching her

393
00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:44,039
legs out and sipping at tea like nothing was wrong.

394
00:30:45,799 --> 00:30:51,480
It's perfect, she murmured. It didn't feel perfect to me,

395
00:30:52,599 --> 00:30:56,440
and I wasn't the only one who thought so. Murphy,

396
00:30:56,759 --> 00:31:00,039
our dog, had been exploring the yard when we arrived,

397
00:31:00,079 --> 00:31:03,000
sniffing at the porch steps, trotting through the long grass.

398
00:31:03,799 --> 00:31:07,759
For the moment he got close to the trees, he stopped.

399
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:13,640
His ears, flattened, his tail, which had been wagging all afternoon,

400
00:31:14,039 --> 00:31:20,559
slowly lowered between his legs. Then he bagged away. Emily

401
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:25,160
clicked her tongue, trying to coax him forward. What's wrong, buddy,

402
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:30,160
Murphy whined low in his throat and turned, trotting back

403
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:33,759
toward the house with his tail tucked tight against his body,

404
00:31:35,319 --> 00:31:39,160
and let out a small laugh, shaking my head. Maybe

405
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:43,480
he's just not used to all the space. But that

406
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:47,799
wasn't it. I had never seen him act like that before.

407
00:31:49,039 --> 00:31:53,160
Emily just sighed, shaking her head. He'll get used to it.

408
00:31:54,599 --> 00:31:58,680
Then she turned back to the forest, and I swear,

409
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:04,720
just for a second, the tree shifted, not in the wind,

410
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:11,079
there was no wind, but something moved deep in the dark.

411
00:32:14,079 --> 00:32:18,359
Emily had always been independent, but something about the woods

412
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:22,000
unsettled me. We'd been in the house for less than

413
00:32:22,039 --> 00:32:24,920
a week when she told me she wanted to explore

414
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:28,680
the nearby trails. Are you sure you want to go

415
00:32:28,759 --> 00:32:34,319
there alone, I'd said, watching her lace upper boots. She smiled,

416
00:32:34,559 --> 00:32:38,799
adjusting the strap and a pack. It'll be fine. I

417
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:41,559
just want to get a feel for the area first,

418
00:32:43,039 --> 00:32:47,599
a feeling. My gut twisted. Just don't go too far.

419
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:52,480
She kissed my cheek and was gone before I could

420
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:58,480
say anything else. By early afternoon, I expected her coming back.

421
00:32:59,559 --> 00:33:04,200
By late afternoon, I checked my phone, scrolling absently through messages,

422
00:33:04,559 --> 00:33:08,720
waiting for a text that never came. By early evening,

423
00:33:09,759 --> 00:33:14,160
I started to worry. I stood on the porch, scanning

424
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:18,519
the trees. The sun had already started dipping below the horizon,

425
00:33:19,039 --> 00:33:24,480
dredging the woods in a deep orange glow. Still no

426
00:33:24,599 --> 00:33:29,039
sign of her. I told myself she probably lost track

427
00:33:29,079 --> 00:33:33,359
of time, that she'd be fine, But that feeling, the

428
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,920
one I had since we moved in, settled deeper into

429
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:41,240
my chest. And then, just as I reached for my

430
00:33:41,319 --> 00:33:45,000
car keys to go looking for her, I saw her

431
00:33:45,519 --> 00:33:51,039
coming out of the woods. I knew immediately that something

432
00:33:51,119 --> 00:33:55,720
was wrong. She moved too slowly, as if walking was

433
00:33:55,759 --> 00:33:59,480
an afterthought. Her skin looked pale, like she'd been out

434
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:04,000
in the cold for hours, but her forehead glistened with sweat.

435
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:08,440
Her clothes were dirt streaked, her sleeves damp and darkened,

436
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,960
but there was no sign that she had fallen, and

437
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:20,239
her boots. Her boots were wet. It hadn't rained in days.

438
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:26,360
I stepped forward, feeling my pulse pick up. Where the

439
00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:28,800
hell were you? I was about to go looking for you.

440
00:34:31,079 --> 00:34:34,159
Emily looked at me like she had just registered I

441
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:40,599
was there. I I think I got turned around. She

442
00:34:40,719 --> 00:34:43,960
sounded dazed, like she'd just woken up from a dream.

443
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:52,320
I frowned, you got lost a pause, Then too slowly,

444
00:34:52,639 --> 00:35:00,519
she nodded, yeah, I think so. She stepped passed me

445
00:35:00,679 --> 00:35:05,599
and onto the porch, heading inside without another word. I

446
00:35:05,679 --> 00:35:13,599
hesitated before following. Something was off. She wasn't acting scared, embarrassed,

447
00:35:13,679 --> 00:35:20,880
or frustrated, just plank like she wasn't entirely there. That night,

448
00:35:21,519 --> 00:35:25,159
Murphy refused to go near her. I had been sitting

449
00:35:25,199 --> 00:35:27,760
on the couch when he suddenly stopped in the middle

450
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:32,280
of the room, his ears flattening against his head. His

451
00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:35,480
eyes locked onto Emily, who was standing in the kitchen

452
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:44,320
refilling her water bottle. Then he growled a low, rumbling

453
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:50,280
sound I'd never heard from him before. Emily glanced over, frowning,

454
00:35:51,599 --> 00:35:56,360
What's wrong with him? I opened my mouth to answer,

455
00:35:57,119 --> 00:36:02,360
but before I could, Murphy backed away, not ran, not

456
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:09,400
bolted in paniced, just backed away, slowly, carefully, his entire

457
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:14,039
body rigid, tail tucked between his legs, ears pinned back

458
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:19,239
like he'd just encountered a predator. Then he turned and

459
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:25,320
darted into the hallway, disappearing under the couch. Emily laughed,

460
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:31,000
but something about it felt off. Maybe he just doesn't

461
00:36:31,039 --> 00:36:36,079
recognize me in my hiking gear. But she wasn't wearing

462
00:36:36,079 --> 00:36:40,599
her hiking gear anymore, and I'd never seen Murphy afraid

463
00:36:40,639 --> 00:36:47,400
of anything before. It started as a whisper of unease,

464
00:36:48,159 --> 00:36:50,880
the kind you feeling your gut before your brain can

465
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:57,280
explain it. Emily was the same, but not, And maybe

466
00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:01,119
that's why it unnerved me so much, because the changes

467
00:37:01,159 --> 00:37:05,039
were subtle enough to make me doubt myself, but noticeable

468
00:37:05,159 --> 00:37:09,599
enough that I couldn't ignore them. It was a morning

469
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:14,000
like any other. I was making coffee, half asleep, while

470
00:37:14,039 --> 00:37:17,519
Emily sat across from me at the kitchen table, eating

471
00:37:17,519 --> 00:37:20,960
a bowl of yogurt. She was scrowling through her phone,

472
00:37:21,559 --> 00:37:26,920
a spoon, moving mechanically from bowl to mouth. I don't

473
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:29,760
know what made me notice it, but as I took

474
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:37,639
a sip of coffee, something felt wrong. Emily's eyes they

475
00:37:37,639 --> 00:37:43,400
were locked on a screen, unmoving too still. I watched

476
00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:49,400
her between SIPs, waiting for her to blink. She didn't.

477
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,679
I shifted in my seat, my pulse kicking up a notch.

478
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:58,679
Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, maybe I was

479
00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:09,440
imagining things. So I leaned forward, watching harder. Nothing. I

480
00:38:09,519 --> 00:38:16,360
felt my stomach twist thirty seconds, a full minute two Still,

481
00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:21,360
her eyes stayed open, glassy, reflecting the blue glow of

482
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:27,880
her phone screen. Did you sleep okay, I asked, trying

483
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:31,679
to keep my voice light. She looked up at me,

484
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:37,800
a slow, lazy smile, curling at her lips. Yeah. Why,

485
00:38:40,559 --> 00:38:44,559
I stared at her, my heartbeat thudding in my ears.

486
00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:50,760
Still no blink. I forced the chuckle, shaking my head,

487
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:57,480
no reason. She held my gaze a little too long

488
00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:02,119
before turning back to her phone. The air felt heavy

489
00:39:02,159 --> 00:39:08,719
in my chest. I waited again, and still she didn't blink.

490
00:39:11,679 --> 00:39:15,519
On top of this, Emily had always been graceful, the

491
00:39:15,639 --> 00:39:20,760
kind of person who moved without thinking, quick, fluid, comfortable

492
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:25,360
in her own skin. But now it was like she

493
00:39:25,519 --> 00:39:30,639
was adjusting to herself. I noticed it one night when

494
00:39:30,639 --> 00:39:35,159
she got into bed. She lifted the covers, sliding beneath them,

495
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:40,679
but then stopped. Her hand hovered in mid air, fingers

496
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:44,239
curled like she was about to grasp the blanket, but

497
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:50,280
she just froze. Her breathing didn't change, she didn't react,

498
00:39:50,559 --> 00:39:54,679
she didn't flinch. She just stayed like that, mid motion,

499
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:59,599
as if she had forgotten the next step. Her second

500
00:39:59,639 --> 00:40:03,960
passed then too. I was about to say something to

501
00:40:04,079 --> 00:40:10,679
shake her, when she finally moved again, smooth, slow, like

502
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:19,159
nothing had happened. I didn't sleep well that night. The

503
00:40:19,239 --> 00:40:22,760
morning air was biting crispin off to see my breath

504
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,360
in little white clouds. As I stood on the porch

505
00:40:25,639 --> 00:40:29,960
sipping my coffee. The ground was damp with frost, the

506
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:35,960
sky overcast with heavy and low gray clouds. Emily stepped

507
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:40,880
outside barefoot. I winced as a foot hid the cold

508
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:45,840
wooden floorboards. She took a deep breath, stretching her arms

509
00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:48,840
above her head, staring out into the woods like she

510
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:54,920
belonged to them. I wrapped my flannel tighter around me. Jesus,

511
00:40:54,960 --> 00:41:00,599
em aren't you freezing? She let her arms fall back aside,

512
00:41:01,159 --> 00:41:06,679
tilting her head slightly as if considering the question. Then

513
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:13,719
she smiled no. She turned back to the trees, the

514
00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:18,239
wind lifting her hair. I watched her arms, waiting for

515
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:21,199
the telltale bumps of goose flesh to rise on her skin.

516
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:28,199
They never did, and as I watched, I realized something

517
00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:34,760
else her breath. The cold air should have made it visible,

518
00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:41,800
but there was nothing. Murphy had stopped growling at Emily,

519
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:46,000
but he still wouldn't go near her. It wasn't just

520
00:41:46,079 --> 00:41:51,360
fear anymore. It was avoidance. At first I thought he

521
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:56,159
was skittish, acting out. But as the days passed, I

522
00:41:56,239 --> 00:42:00,519
started watching closer, and I realized something that sent a

523
00:42:00,639 --> 00:42:06,760
chill through me. Murphy wouldn't look at her, not once.

524
00:42:08,199 --> 00:42:11,079
It wasn't just that he stayed away. It was like

525
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:14,880
he couldn't see her at all. One night, were in

526
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:18,840
the living room. Emily stood by the window, arms crossed

527
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:23,639
over her chest, gazing out into the dark. Murphy sat

528
00:42:23,679 --> 00:42:27,039
on the floor a few feet away. His ears relaxed,

529
00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:31,800
his eyes half lidded with sleep, but he wasn't looking

530
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:37,679
at Emily. He was looking past her, No, not past her,

531
00:42:38,519 --> 00:42:42,079
at the space next to her. He stared at it,

532
00:42:42,639 --> 00:42:47,159
stared at nothing. I felt a cold shiver run up

533
00:42:47,199 --> 00:42:53,280
my spine. Murphy, I called. His head snapped back toward

534
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:58,159
me instantly, tail thumping against the floor. His ears perked up.

535
00:42:59,599 --> 00:43:03,840
I gone, said Emily, expecting her to notice, but she

536
00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:10,400
hadn't moved. She was watching me. The silence stretched between us.

537
00:43:11,199 --> 00:43:16,679
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. If Murphy doesn't see her,

538
00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:24,440
then what does he see. To get some fresh air,

539
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:28,000
I went to the shops. I don't know why, but

540
00:43:28,079 --> 00:43:32,199
I brought it up to the shopkeeper. It was an impulse,

541
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:35,840
something about the weight to my chest. The feeling I

542
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:39,840
couldn't shake. I guess I just couldn't keep it inside

543
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:44,360
any longer. I was standing at the counter waiting for

544
00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:48,000
my change when I said, my wife went hiking a

545
00:43:48,079 --> 00:43:51,559
few days ago. I think she got turned around. She

546
00:43:51,679 --> 00:43:56,880
was out there a long time. The shopkeeper, a wiry

547
00:43:56,920 --> 00:44:02,159
old man with a permanent squint, froze. He didn't ask

548
00:44:02,199 --> 00:44:06,840
where she went, he didn't ask if she was okay. Instead,

549
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:10,719
he reached from my bag and muttered, you should be

550
00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:15,599
careful up there. Something in his tone made the hairs

551
00:44:15,639 --> 00:44:20,679
of my arms rise. I forced to chuckle. Why is

552
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:28,079
that he hesitated, sliding the bag towards me. Something stay

553
00:44:28,119 --> 00:44:33,679
in the woods. My fingers curled around the paper handles.

554
00:44:34,599 --> 00:44:37,159
I tried to laugh again, but it came out wrong.

555
00:44:38,639 --> 00:44:43,840
What does that mean? He just shook his head. Nothing.

556
00:44:44,079 --> 00:44:50,679
Just be careful. His eyes flicked up, scanning the shop

557
00:44:51,159 --> 00:44:56,039
like someone else was listening. And suddenly I didn't want

558
00:44:56,079 --> 00:45:04,360
to press him any more. At home, the oddities didn't stop.

559
00:45:05,159 --> 00:45:07,639
It happened the first time I touched her in days.

560
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:12,239
Emily had always run cold. She was to press her

561
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:14,480
cold feet against me in bed, just to hear me

562
00:45:14,599 --> 00:45:17,519
yelp used to complain when I turned the ac up

563
00:45:17,559 --> 00:45:21,599
too high, always pulling the blankets tighter around herself at night.

564
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:27,840
Now her skin was cold, not just cool, not just

565
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:30,360
the kind of chill you get after stepping outside on

566
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:37,280
a brisk evening, cold like stone. It was a casual touch,

567
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:40,480
just my fingers brushing against her arm as I passed

568
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:44,559
her in the hallway, But the moment I felt it,

569
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:52,280
my stomach dropped. I stopped. Jesus, em you feel frozen.

570
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:58,840
She turned her head toward me, slow and smooth. Too smooth,

571
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:07,760
do I? I forced the chuckle. YEA, are you feeling okay?

572
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:13,159
She smiled, the same way someone smiles when they're trying

573
00:46:13,159 --> 00:46:17,559
to make you feel stupid for worrying. I feel fine.

574
00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:23,960
I watched her for a second too long. Her pupils

575
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:27,639
seemed darker than before, the irises like thin rings of

576
00:46:27,679 --> 00:46:33,400
gold around a deep, endless void. Red around her eyes strained,

577
00:46:33,519 --> 00:46:38,480
looking like it was taking its toll, and then turned away,

578
00:46:39,159 --> 00:46:43,760
never blinking the whole time. I told myself it was

579
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,000
in my head that maybe she'd just been outside too long.

580
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:52,760
But later that night I woke up to something worse.

581
00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:58,000
I woke in the dark, my body heavy with sleep,

582
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:03,400
my mind groggy. I rolled over, instinctively, reaching for her

583
00:47:05,119 --> 00:47:10,760
empty sheets. My heart jumped and I sat up, blinking

584
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:16,039
into the darkness. Emily was sitting on the edge of

585
00:47:16,079 --> 00:47:20,440
the bed. Her back was to me, her shoulders rigid,

586
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:25,400
her head slightly tilted toward the window. She didn't move,

587
00:47:25,639 --> 00:47:34,960
didn't shift, didn't acknowledge me. I swallowed m no reaction,

588
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:39,880
She just stared. I swung my legs over the bed,

589
00:47:40,159 --> 00:47:43,159
pressing my bare feet to the floor, feeling the cool

590
00:47:43,199 --> 00:47:48,960
wood beneath my toes. My throat was dry. Slowly, I

591
00:47:49,039 --> 00:47:55,119
reached out, gently, touching her shoulder. Her skin was even

592
00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:59,239
colder than before, like she'd been sitting outside in the

593
00:47:59,320 --> 00:48:07,320
frost on. That's when I noticed something else. She wasn't breathing.

594
00:48:09,679 --> 00:48:14,360
I froze, my fingers curled slightly against her skin, waiting

595
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:19,280
for the telltale rise and fall of her shoulders. Nothing.

596
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:24,639
She wasn't even trying to fake it. I slowly moved

597
00:48:24,639 --> 00:48:28,000
my hand toward her mouth, hovering just over her lips,

598
00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:34,039
waiting to feel warmth, a soft exhale of air. Nothing.

599
00:48:35,679 --> 00:48:40,880
She just wasn't breathing. I yanked my hand back and

600
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:43,760
my pulse hammered so loudly in my ears that I

601
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:52,400
almost didn't hear her, almost go back to sleep. Her

602
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:57,639
voice was soft, almost too soft. She still hadn't moved,

603
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:04,320
hadn't turned her head, hadn't blinked. I swallowed hard. Emily,

604
00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:11,719
what are you? She finally turned slowly, her head tilted

605
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:16,039
just enough to look at me over her shoulder. The

606
00:49:16,079 --> 00:49:18,360
dim glow of the moon through the window caught her

607
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:22,519
eyes at the perfect angle, so dark they reflected nothing

608
00:49:22,599 --> 00:49:28,719
back at me. Her lips curled at the corners. You

609
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:36,119
should sleep, she whispered. I don't want you tired. I

610
00:49:36,199 --> 00:49:41,280
didn't move, didn't breathe myself. Then, just as slowly as

611
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:46,039
she had turned, she faced forward again and continued staring

612
00:49:46,239 --> 00:49:53,800
out of the window. I didn't sleep again. I barely

613
00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:57,440
functioned the next morning, running on coffee and frayed nerves,

614
00:49:57,840 --> 00:50:02,840
feeling my body betray me with exhaust I needed answers,

615
00:50:04,239 --> 00:50:10,000
so I went into town. I don't know what I

616
00:50:10,039 --> 00:50:15,159
was hoping for, maybe just human contact, someone normal, someone

617
00:50:15,159 --> 00:50:18,320
who would pull me out of my own head, maybe

618
00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:20,440
an excuse to get away from the house for a

619
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:24,400
few hours. But when I stepped out of the general store.

620
00:50:25,519 --> 00:50:30,599
He was waiting for me, an old man, thin and wiry,

621
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:33,760
with deep set eyes and a face that looked like

622
00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:38,519
it had weathered decades of bad seasons. The old shopkeeper

623
00:50:38,519 --> 00:50:42,400
from before on a break. He was sitting on the

624
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:46,840
bench just outside the entrance, one leg crossed over the other,

625
00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:52,199
hands folded neatly in his lap. I nearly walked past him,

626
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:59,239
but then he said, you need to leave. I stopped

627
00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:03,280
in my tracks, turned to look at him. His eyes

628
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:07,519
were on me, sharp and certain. Not the words of

629
00:51:07,559 --> 00:51:10,719
a crazy old man, not a warning throwing it just

630
00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:17,719
any one passing by, he meant me. I swallowed hard,

631
00:51:18,159 --> 00:51:24,079
forcing out a weak laugh. Excuse me, he didn't blink.

632
00:51:25,559 --> 00:51:31,400
If she came back, she wasn't supposed to. A cold

633
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:35,320
sensation trickled down my spine. The weight of those words

634
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:39,639
pressed into my ribs, settling into the space between my lungs.

635
00:51:41,039 --> 00:51:44,320
I open my mouth, did demand an explanation, but the

636
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:48,599
old man was already pushing himself to his feet. I

637
00:51:48,679 --> 00:51:52,440
took a step closer. What the hell does that mean?

638
00:51:54,519 --> 00:51:57,800
He shook his head. I is darting briefly to the street,

639
00:51:58,199 --> 00:52:02,360
as if checking for some one. Then he leaned in, slightly,

640
00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:11,440
lowering his voice. Don't let us sleep. My mouth went dry.

641
00:52:12,679 --> 00:52:16,440
Before I could say another word, he turned and walked away.

642
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:23,320
I watched him until he disappeared around the corner, and

643
00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:26,960
I didn't go home right away. I sat in my car,

644
00:52:27,199 --> 00:52:31,320
gripping the steering wheel, staring at nothing, hearing his words

645
00:52:31,360 --> 00:52:36,519
repeat over and over again in my head. She wasn't

646
00:52:36,559 --> 00:52:43,679
supposed to come back, don't let us sleep. I should

647
00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:47,239
have left. That was the obvious answer. It had been

648
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:51,320
for days. If somebody else told me this story, if

649
00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:55,000
a friend came to me trembling, saying, something is wrong

650
00:52:55,039 --> 00:52:58,119
with my wife. She's not acting like herself. I think

651
00:52:58,159 --> 00:53:02,400
she might not even be human. I wouldn't hesitate. I

652
00:53:02,519 --> 00:53:04,880
tell them to pack a bag, get in the car,

653
00:53:05,199 --> 00:53:10,000
and never look back. But it's different when it's your wife.

654
00:53:11,159 --> 00:53:16,440
It's different when it's someone you love. I kept telling myself.

655
00:53:16,599 --> 00:53:19,480
It was in my head that maybe I was overreacting,

656
00:53:20,039 --> 00:53:22,960
that maybe she was just tired or sick, but that

657
00:53:23,119 --> 00:53:25,440
I was just adjusting to life and in a new place,

658
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:29,480
reading too much into things. And then there was the

659
00:53:29,559 --> 00:53:33,360
other thought, the deeper one, the one I didn't want

660
00:53:33,400 --> 00:53:37,679
to acknowledge. What if she's still in there, what if

661
00:53:37,719 --> 00:53:41,039
she just needs help? What if I leave her? And

662
00:53:41,079 --> 00:53:46,119
there was never anything wrong at all except me? So

663
00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:50,199
instead of running, I did the worst thing I could do.

664
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:56,559
I tried to understand. I sat at my desk late

665
00:53:56,599 --> 00:53:59,440
into the night, the glow of my laptop screen the

666
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:03,039
only lie in the room, trolling through old town records,

667
00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:07,400
newspaper archives, anything that might tell me what the hell

668
00:54:07,519 --> 00:54:12,320
was happening to my wife. I searched missing persons reports first,

669
00:54:13,159 --> 00:54:18,599
and that's when I found them. Hikers, campers, locals. All

670
00:54:18,639 --> 00:54:21,360
of them had gone missing near the woods by our house.

671
00:54:22,599 --> 00:54:26,920
Most of them were never found, but one case stood out.

672
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:32,199
The article was over thirty years old, some news offshoot

673
00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:35,880
that covered conspiracies and urban legends, the kind of source

674
00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:40,039
you immediately dismiss as unreliable, Yet it was the only

675
00:54:40,119 --> 00:54:44,599
thing that matched. The scanned newspaper clipping was grainy, the

676
00:54:44,719 --> 00:54:49,760
text barely legible, but the headline made my blood run cold.

677
00:54:51,079 --> 00:54:55,320
Local woman returns after three months missing. She was never

678
00:54:55,360 --> 00:55:01,519
the same. I clicked on it, pulse hammering as I

679
00:55:01,599 --> 00:55:07,320
skimmed through the details. The woman Margaret Delaney, twenty seven

680
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:10,679
years old, had gone missing on a solo hiking trip

681
00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:14,320
in the very same forest where Emily had been. She

682
00:55:14,480 --> 00:55:20,559
vanished without a trace, resumed dead. Then one evening she

683
00:55:20,679 --> 00:55:24,519
simply walked back into town, no memory of where she

684
00:55:24,559 --> 00:55:30,000
had been, no signs of injury, just back. There was

685
00:55:30,039 --> 00:55:33,000
a quote from her husband, who spent months grieving her,

686
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:36,960
convinced she was dead. At first, I thought it was

687
00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:40,639
a miracle. But the longer she stayed, the more I

688
00:55:40,719 --> 00:55:47,400
realized it wasn't her, not really. The hairs on the

689
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:51,519
back of my neck stood up. I scrawled further. The

690
00:55:51,599 --> 00:55:56,719
report ended abruptly, no follow up, no conclusion, except for

691
00:55:56,800 --> 00:56:02,840
a single ominous note at the bottom of the vanished again,

692
00:56:03,719 --> 00:56:12,079
this time for good. I stared at those words, vanished again.

693
00:56:13,800 --> 00:56:17,760
I thought of Emily standing at the window, unmoving. I

694
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:21,559
thought of Murphy refusing to acknowledge her. I thought of

695
00:56:21,599 --> 00:56:25,880
the way she felt beneath my hands, too cold. And

696
00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:29,320
I realized something that should have been obvious from the start.

697
00:56:31,159 --> 00:56:34,639
I wasn't afraid of what had happened to her. I

698
00:56:34,719 --> 00:56:40,119
was afraid of what was waiting to happen. Next. I

699
00:56:40,159 --> 00:56:44,519
shut the laptop. My hands were shaking. I forced myself

700
00:56:44,559 --> 00:56:49,199
to breathe, steadying, the panic rising in my chest. Then

701
00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:54,880
I stood up and went to find my wife. She

702
00:56:55,000 --> 00:56:57,760
was in the living room, sitting on the couch, her

703
00:56:57,800 --> 00:57:03,159
posture too straight, too so still. She'd been reading, or

704
00:57:03,239 --> 00:57:07,320
released pretending to. Her book lay open on her lap,

705
00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:13,239
but her eyes weren't moving. She was just staring. I

706
00:57:13,280 --> 00:57:20,159
cleared my throat emily. She looked up at me, smiled.

707
00:57:21,559 --> 00:57:29,320
My mouth felt dry. What happened in those woods? She

708
00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:33,800
tilted her head slightly, that small, distant smile still on

709
00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:39,639
her lips. What do you mean I took a step

710
00:57:39,719 --> 00:57:44,199
closer that day? You got lost? What happened to you

711
00:57:44,280 --> 00:57:50,920
out there? Her expression didn't change, but something about her

712
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:56,119
felt different now, lighter, amused, like I was asking the

713
00:57:56,159 --> 00:57:59,920
wrong questions, like she was waiting for me to catch up.

714
00:58:01,639 --> 00:58:05,519
Why do you keep looking at me like that? She asked.

715
00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:11,159
My pulse stuttered. She didn't answer. She just kept smiling,

716
00:58:12,599 --> 00:58:15,880
And suddenly I felt like I wasn't looking at my

717
00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:22,440
wife any more, like something else was looking back. I

718
00:58:22,559 --> 00:58:25,880
wasn't getting anything out of her, so I went back

719
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:31,320
to trying to do more research. That night, I woke

720
00:58:31,400 --> 00:58:35,840
to a deep, suffocating stillness, not just the silence of

721
00:58:35,840 --> 00:58:39,679
the house, not just the quiet of the woods outside.

722
00:58:39,920 --> 00:58:44,639
Her stillness that felt wrong. It was the kind of

723
00:58:44,760 --> 00:58:49,440
quiet that felt like it was waiting for something. Instinctively,

724
00:58:49,800 --> 00:58:53,880
I reached for Emily, but the sheets beside me were cold.

725
00:58:55,079 --> 00:58:59,000
I sat up, my heart hammering, already knowing where she was.

726
00:59:01,199 --> 00:59:05,360
She was standing by the bedroom window. Her back was

727
00:59:05,360 --> 00:59:09,599
to me, her nightgown hanging loose over a frame, her

728
00:59:09,719 --> 00:59:14,639
arm's limp at her side. She wasn't moving, wasn't rocking

729
00:59:14,679 --> 00:59:18,920
on her feet, wasn't shifting a weight. She stood like

730
00:59:19,039 --> 00:59:22,800
something propped upright, like if I touched her, she would

731
00:59:22,840 --> 00:59:28,840
tip over and shatter. The moonlight poured in, outlining her

732
00:59:29,119 --> 00:59:34,480
in pale silver light, and for the first time I

733
00:59:34,519 --> 00:59:41,400
realized how unnatural her stillness was. I swallowed thickly, already

734
00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:48,559
swinging my legs over the bed. Emily. She didn't answer,

735
00:59:49,400 --> 00:59:54,599
She wasn't even breathing. Again, my fingers curled against the mattress.

736
00:59:55,639 --> 00:59:59,880
I forced myself to stand step closer. I spent so

737
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:03,440
how many nights ignoring this feeling, worried that doing something

738
01:00:03,599 --> 01:00:08,440
would make things worse. But I couldn't ignore it anymore,

739
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:13,880
not when she looked like this. Her shoulders were trembling,

740
01:00:15,079 --> 01:00:20,480
and then I saw it her reflection in the glass.

741
01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:26,280
She was crying. Tears streaked down her face, catching the

742
01:00:26,320 --> 01:00:32,679
moonlight slipping down her cheeks, but her expression didn't change.

743
01:00:32,960 --> 01:00:37,039
Her mouth didn't quiver, her brows didn't furrow, Her face

744
01:00:37,079 --> 01:00:41,320
stayed eerily blank. Her lips slightly parted, like a body

745
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:45,000
had forgotten how to cry, like the tears were falling

746
01:00:45,239 --> 01:00:52,800
against the will. Her cold weight settled in my chest. Emily,

747
01:00:54,639 --> 01:01:01,000
I stepped closer, my voice barely above a whisper. Shoulders twitched,

748
01:01:01,559 --> 01:01:05,559
the smallest movement I had seen from her in days.

749
01:01:06,199 --> 01:01:17,480
Then she spoke. I can't blink, she whispered. The words

750
01:01:17,519 --> 01:01:22,119
didn't make sense. I swallowed, my hands curling into fists.

751
01:01:23,480 --> 01:01:29,000
What do you mean? Slowly she turned her head. The

752
01:01:29,119 --> 01:01:32,760
movement was painfully slow, like a body wasn't used to

753
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:36,960
moving this way anymore. When her face finally turned to me,

754
01:01:37,800 --> 01:01:43,880
my breath hitched in my throat. Her eyes they were

755
01:01:43,960 --> 01:01:49,400
too wide. The skin beneath them was raw, darkened from exhaustion,

756
01:01:50,199 --> 01:01:55,320
but the whites of her eyes were dry, bloodshot. How

757
01:01:55,400 --> 01:01:58,840
long had she been forcing herself to stay awake? How

758
01:01:58,880 --> 01:02:04,719
long had she been fighting this? If I blink, she whispered,

759
01:02:06,119 --> 01:02:09,360
the words caught in her throat. Her lips trembled for

760
01:02:09,400 --> 01:02:16,519
the first time in days. I'll go back. I felt

761
01:02:16,519 --> 01:02:20,880
my pulse hammer against my ribs, her breath hitched, her

762
01:02:20,960 --> 01:02:25,320
body swaying slightly, her exhaustion pressing down on her like

763
01:02:25,400 --> 01:02:31,400
a weight. She wasn't going to last much longer. And

764
01:02:31,440 --> 01:02:36,119
then she looked at me, really looked at me, and

765
01:02:36,239 --> 01:02:40,440
something deep inside her eyes was moving, a shadow behind

766
01:02:40,440 --> 01:02:49,199
the iris, something shifting, stretching, something waiting. Her voice was

767
01:02:49,239 --> 01:02:56,760
barely a breath. I was never supposed to leave. Emily

768
01:02:56,840 --> 01:03:00,360
swayed down her feet, her breath coming in shallow gas asps.

769
01:03:01,519 --> 01:03:06,159
She was losing. I could see it now. Her body

770
01:03:06,280 --> 01:03:09,960
was failing. The exhaustion was finally catching up to her,

771
01:03:10,480 --> 01:03:13,840
wearing her down in ways that even she couldn't fight anymore.

772
01:03:15,119 --> 01:03:18,840
Her skin was too pale, her lips slightly parted, as

773
01:03:18,920 --> 01:03:24,000
if breathing had become a conscious effort. Her muscles twitched involuntarily,

774
01:03:24,559 --> 01:03:29,599
tiny spasms rippling beneath her skin, and for the first

775
01:03:29,639 --> 01:03:37,519
time I realized this wasn't Emily's choice. Whatever had happened

776
01:03:37,559 --> 01:03:42,039
in the woods. Whatever she had become, it had been

777
01:03:42,079 --> 01:03:46,519
forced on her. She didn't want this. She was just

778
01:03:46,599 --> 01:03:53,760
trying to stay and she was losing. Emily, stay with me.

779
01:03:55,920 --> 01:03:59,679
I reached for her without thinking, my fingers brushing against

780
01:03:59,679 --> 01:04:04,000
her arm. She flinched at the contact, her body tensing,

781
01:04:04,880 --> 01:04:10,480
but she didn't pull away. She just kept staring. The

782
01:04:10,559 --> 01:04:15,760
tears streamed down her face, silent, endless, like a body

783
01:04:15,840 --> 01:04:22,079
knew something she didn't, or maybe she did, maybe she

784
01:04:22,119 --> 01:04:28,280
had always known. I swallowed hard. You don't have to

785
01:04:28,320 --> 01:04:34,079
do this alone. Her lips parted slightly, but no words

786
01:04:34,119 --> 01:04:39,480
came out. Her legs trembled. She was about to fall.

787
01:04:41,039 --> 01:04:44,639
I grabbed her shoulders, holding her up, my own body shaking.

788
01:04:44,719 --> 01:04:49,719
Now just sit down, Okay, you don't have to I

789
01:04:49,840 --> 01:04:55,719
don't want to go back. Her voice was hoarse, cracking

790
01:04:55,880 --> 01:05:00,480
under the weight of so much fear, high tightened grip.

791
01:05:01,679 --> 01:05:09,480
Then you won't, she shook her head weakly. You don't understand.

792
01:05:11,800 --> 01:05:14,760
Her fingers clutched at my shirt, like she was trying

793
01:05:14,760 --> 01:05:18,840
to anchor herself to something real. Her body was burning

794
01:05:18,880 --> 01:05:24,119
through its last reserves, fighting the inevitable. I had to

795
01:05:24,239 --> 01:05:30,440
keep her awake. Emily look at me. She was looking

796
01:05:30,480 --> 01:05:35,079
at me. She had never stopped. I ran my hands

797
01:05:35,079 --> 01:05:39,559
over her arms, trying to steady her. Come on, just

798
01:05:39,559 --> 01:05:45,280
just sit down, drink some water, let's figure this out. Okay.

799
01:05:46,559 --> 01:05:53,159
She blinked. No, she almost blinked. Her eyelids fluttered just

800
01:05:53,280 --> 01:05:57,840
for a second, like a muscle spasm. Her body was

801
01:05:57,880 --> 01:06:03,519
giving off panic shot through me. No, stay with me,

802
01:06:03,800 --> 01:06:08,760
Stay with me, she soaked in a sharp, shuddering breath,

803
01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:13,280
fighting it. Her fingers dug into my skin, her grip

804
01:06:13,400 --> 01:06:20,440
weak but desperate. I can't, I can't. She swayed again,

805
01:06:20,760 --> 01:06:24,199
and I caught her, pulling her close, holding her upright

806
01:06:25,400 --> 01:06:33,079
just a little longer. I pleaded, please, Emily. Her chest

807
01:06:33,320 --> 01:06:38,519
rose in one last heavy breath, her fingers loosened, her

808
01:06:38,519 --> 01:06:50,000
eyelids fluttered, and then she blinked. I was still holding her,

809
01:06:50,599 --> 01:06:54,800
or at least I thought i'd been. My arms were empty,

810
01:06:54,880 --> 01:07:02,800
now clutching at nothing but air, nobody, no weight. She

811
01:07:02,840 --> 01:07:06,440
had been there just a second ago, warm and trembling

812
01:07:06,480 --> 01:07:15,760
against me, and now gone. I staggered back, my hands,

813
01:07:15,760 --> 01:07:19,159
still hovering where she had been, my body refusing to

814
01:07:19,320 --> 01:07:25,519
understand what had just happened. I looked around frantically. The

815
01:07:25,599 --> 01:07:29,159
room was empty, no sign she had ever been there

816
01:07:29,239 --> 01:07:33,079
at all. No discarded clothes, no strands of hair on

817
01:07:33,159 --> 01:07:35,840
the pillow, no imprint in the bed where she had

818
01:07:35,840 --> 01:07:43,800
slept beside me. Just absence, the kind that felt permanent.

819
01:07:46,039 --> 01:07:49,880
A soft breath of air stirred from the curtains. I

820
01:07:49,960 --> 01:07:55,280
turned slowly. The window was open. I knew for a

821
01:07:55,320 --> 01:07:59,880
fact it had been closed when I went to bed. Outside,

822
01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:08,079
the trees stood still, the dark silhouettes waiting watching The

823
01:08:08,119 --> 01:08:14,320
air felt thick, expectant. The woods were completely silent, not

824
01:08:14,480 --> 01:08:22,920
just still, not just quiet silent. A sound broke the air,

825
01:08:23,800 --> 01:08:28,039
a small, familiar sound that felt somehow alien in this moment,

826
01:08:29,560 --> 01:08:34,439
A tail thumping against the floor. I turned my head,

827
01:08:34,840 --> 01:08:39,920
my stomach tightening. Murphy stood in the doorway, looking at

828
01:08:39,920 --> 01:08:46,720
me and wagging his tail, not cautiously, not hesitantly, just

829
01:08:46,840 --> 01:08:52,199
wagging for the first time in weeks. He stepped toward me,

830
01:08:53,199 --> 01:08:56,319
walked right up to me, pressed his nose against my hand,

831
01:08:57,880 --> 01:09:02,039
like everything was normal again, like the house was whole again,

832
01:09:03,520 --> 01:09:07,880
like she had never been here. I sank on the

833
01:09:08,000 --> 01:09:11,680
edge of the bed. My hands were shaking, My head

834
01:09:11,720 --> 01:09:15,920
felt tight, my vision narrowing my thoughts, refusing to make

835
01:09:15,960 --> 01:09:21,720
sense of what had just happened. I swallowed hard, staring

836
01:09:21,880 --> 01:09:25,479
at the empty space beside me, at the bed where

837
01:09:25,479 --> 01:09:29,079
she had slept, where we had laughed, where we had lived.

838
01:09:30,960 --> 01:09:39,680
I whispered emily. The word barely made a sound. I

839
01:09:39,800 --> 01:09:46,560
already knew she somehow came back, wanting to spend time together,

840
01:09:46,840 --> 01:09:53,039
despite the conditions. But she was right. Whatever happened to

841
01:09:53,119 --> 01:10:01,239
her out there, whatever she encountered, she was never supposed

842
01:10:01,239 --> 01:10:13,439
to leave. I worked as a research associate at the

843
01:10:13,439 --> 01:10:18,119
Eisenloyd Perception Lab, a mid tier government funded facility that

844
01:10:18,319 --> 01:10:22,760
specialized in human cognition and the mechanics of visual processing.

845
01:10:23,840 --> 01:10:28,840
If that sounds complicated, it really wasn't. The goal of

846
01:10:28,880 --> 01:10:33,840
our work was simple, to understand how humans interpret reality,

847
01:10:34,640 --> 01:10:38,039
what our brains notice, what they ignore, what they fill in.

848
01:10:39,640 --> 01:10:43,359
It was all supposed to be theoretical, It wasn't supposed

849
01:10:43,399 --> 01:10:48,800
to be dangerous. I'd been there for almost five years,

850
01:10:49,199 --> 01:10:52,079
and I was never the smartest in the room. But

851
01:10:52,199 --> 01:10:58,600
I was careful, methodical, and that made me valuable. Where

852
01:10:58,680 --> 01:11:02,319
the other researchers were to push boundaries, I was the

853
01:11:02,319 --> 01:11:06,520
one always pumping the Brakes. I had spent my entire

854
01:11:06,600 --> 01:11:11,239
career arguing against unethical human trials, shutting down projects that

855
01:11:11,319 --> 01:11:14,960
went too far. I thought that was enough to keep

856
01:11:15,039 --> 01:11:20,640
us out of trouble. The project started with an anomaly,

857
01:11:21,800 --> 01:11:24,520
a stray frequency picked up by one of us spectral

858
01:11:24,560 --> 01:11:29,119
imaging scanners, something just outside the normal range of perception.

859
01:11:30,680 --> 01:11:34,840
At first, no one took it seriously, probably a glitch

860
01:11:35,039 --> 01:11:38,840
or a censer error. But when the same frequency appeared

861
01:11:38,880 --> 01:11:44,600
in multiple data sets, the lead researchers got interested. They

862
01:11:44,600 --> 01:11:49,800
started running tests simulating the frequency into artificial visual patterns,

863
01:11:50,239 --> 01:11:57,920
tweaking the light spectrum until it appeared. The color had

864
01:11:57,920 --> 01:12:00,960
no name at first. It was something you could just

865
01:12:01,000 --> 01:12:05,319
describe because our brains had never processed anything like it before.

866
01:12:06,319 --> 01:12:10,359
It wasn't blue or red or green. It wasn't between colors,

867
01:12:11,520 --> 01:12:16,560
it was outside of them. One of the researchers, doctor

868
01:12:16,600 --> 01:12:21,039
mirrah Lang, jokingly called it Hyperion, after the Greek Titan

869
01:12:21,079 --> 01:12:28,520
of light. The name stuck. I was skeptical from the beginning,

870
01:12:29,199 --> 01:12:32,800
not because I believed in the supernatural or anything. I

871
01:12:32,920 --> 01:12:36,800
just didn't trust something that shouldn't exist. It wasn't like

872
01:12:36,880 --> 01:12:41,319
discovering a new species of bird. This was a fundamental

873
01:12:41,399 --> 01:12:45,880
change to our understanding of light itself. That should have

874
01:12:45,960 --> 01:12:51,439
been a red flag. But the others were fascinated. When

875
01:12:51,479 --> 01:12:56,319
they ran simulations of hyperion, they saw things. The color

876
01:12:56,359 --> 01:12:59,840
would move in strange ways, triggering after images that lasted

877
01:13:00,079 --> 01:13:03,159
too long, shapes that seemed to exist in the corner

878
01:13:03,159 --> 01:13:06,239
of your vision before vanishing when you tried to focus.

879
01:13:07,279 --> 01:13:10,840
It was like the color affected the way humans perceived reality.

880
01:13:12,319 --> 01:13:15,720
I told them we needed to slow down study it

881
01:13:15,760 --> 01:13:24,079
more before exposing human subjects. They ignored me. We started

882
01:13:24,159 --> 01:13:31,399
with rats. The results were inconsistent. Some rats stared at

883
01:13:31,439 --> 01:13:35,479
hyperion for hours, motionless, as if they were in a trance.

884
01:13:36,359 --> 01:13:40,279
Others mutilated themselves. One chewed through its own leg in

885
01:13:40,359 --> 01:13:44,720
under fifteen minutes, gnawing all the way to the bone.

886
01:13:45,319 --> 01:13:50,640
The reports framed it as a neurological overstimulation response. I

887
01:13:50,760 --> 01:13:56,279
called it what it was, a really bad idea. I

888
01:13:56,319 --> 01:13:59,600
took my concerns to doctor Lange. She was the one

889
01:13:59,600 --> 01:14:02,960
who had been the most excited about hyperion, and I

890
01:14:03,000 --> 01:14:05,479
thought if I could get her to listen, I could

891
01:14:05,479 --> 01:14:10,920
get the projects shut down before I'd escalated. She wasn't

892
01:14:10,960 --> 01:14:17,399
interested in my concerns. It's just the color, she had said, exasperated,

893
01:14:18,000 --> 01:14:21,199
it's not doing anything. The animals just don't know how

894
01:14:21,239 --> 01:14:27,439
to process it. We'll see different results with higher cognitive functions.

895
01:14:28,159 --> 01:14:34,600
She meant humans, I argued. She overruled me. The trial

896
01:14:35,079 --> 01:14:40,680
was already scheduled. They would be exposing volunteers to hyperion

897
01:14:40,920 --> 01:14:46,319
within the week. I should have walked away, should have quit,

898
01:14:46,640 --> 01:14:49,640
should have gone public, should have done anything then to

899
01:14:49,680 --> 01:14:56,079
sit there and watch, But I stayed. The human trials

900
01:14:56,119 --> 01:15:00,560
started small. Ten volunteers, all local student students from the

901
01:15:00,640 --> 01:15:04,319
nearby university, all paid to sit in a room and

902
01:15:04,479 --> 01:15:08,359
stare at a screen. We ran the test like any

903
01:15:08,439 --> 01:15:12,239
other perception study, show them hyperion for a few minutes,

904
01:15:12,560 --> 01:15:17,359
monitor their brain activity, take notes on any after effects.

905
01:15:18,359 --> 01:15:23,000
At first, it seemed harmless. The subjects all had different reactions,

906
01:15:23,520 --> 01:15:28,560
but nothing extreme. Some called the color beautiful, some said

907
01:15:28,640 --> 01:15:33,640
who was unnerving. One participant, an art major, stared for

908
01:15:33,680 --> 01:15:39,640
almost three minutes before breaking into tears. When we asked why,

909
01:15:40,199 --> 01:15:45,279
she just kept shaking her head, whispering, it's everything. It's

910
01:15:45,319 --> 01:15:51,600
always been everything. We should have slowed everything down then,

911
01:15:51,680 --> 01:15:54,800
and there been more measured at the very least took

912
01:15:54,920 --> 01:16:00,880
more precautions, but Lang was ecstatic. She insisted we expand

913
01:16:00,920 --> 01:16:07,239
the trial, longer exposure, more volunteers, wider demographic testing. She

914
01:16:07,359 --> 01:16:11,840
wanted data, wanted to quantify one made hyperion so different.

915
01:16:14,199 --> 01:16:19,359
That was when the real problem started. After the first

916
01:16:19,479 --> 01:16:23,399
full day of exposure, some of the volunteers started experiencing

917
01:16:23,560 --> 01:16:28,159
lingering after images. They described it as an overlay in

918
01:16:28,199 --> 01:16:31,279
their vision, like the color was still present in the

919
01:16:31,359 --> 01:16:34,720
corners of their eyes even after they left a lab.

920
01:16:36,000 --> 01:16:40,279
Some couldn't stop seeing it. One subject, a physics student

921
01:16:40,359 --> 01:16:43,840
named Elliot, called us at two in the morning, crying,

922
01:16:44,439 --> 01:16:48,039
telling us that hyperion was still there even with his

923
01:16:48,159 --> 01:16:52,560
eyes closed. We told him to come in for further testing.

924
01:16:54,279 --> 01:16:59,039
He never showed up. Campus security found in the next

925
01:16:59,119 --> 01:17:02,720
night in the middle of the street, staring up at

926
01:17:02,720 --> 01:17:09,159
the sky. His retinas had burned out. The paramedics took

927
01:17:09,239 --> 01:17:12,239
him away with a look on his face haunted me.

928
01:17:13,119 --> 01:17:16,800
He hadn't screamed, he hadn't fought them, He had just

929
01:17:16,840 --> 01:17:24,039
stood there, his expression blank and unfocused. Hyperion wasn't just

930
01:17:24,079 --> 01:17:28,960
an anomaly. I tried pulling the plug and the experiment.

931
01:17:29,960 --> 01:17:34,439
Lang refused, we don't even know if it was hyperion,

932
01:17:34,920 --> 01:17:39,920
she argued, it could be unrelated. It's not. I snapped.

933
01:17:40,319 --> 01:17:43,479
You saw his eyes Lang. This is wrong. We need

934
01:17:43,520 --> 01:17:49,439
to stop, she sighed, rubbing her temples. We don't even

935
01:17:49,520 --> 01:17:53,960
know what it is yet, we need more data. I

936
01:17:54,000 --> 01:17:58,680
lost my temper. Geez, Mirrah, this isn't just data. It's

937
01:17:58,760 --> 01:18:03,880
doing something to them, It's affecting them. She looked at

938
01:18:03,880 --> 01:18:07,600
me and just shrugged me off, made a dismissive hand gesture,

939
01:18:08,000 --> 01:18:14,000
effectively telling me to leave. And I did. I just

940
01:18:14,079 --> 01:18:18,039
had a feeling this wasn't going to stop, not after Elliot,

941
01:18:18,239 --> 01:18:23,039
not after everything. I don't think she was malicious. I

942
01:18:23,039 --> 01:18:26,640
don't think she was trying to hurt anyone. She was

943
01:18:26,840 --> 01:18:30,880
just like everyone else in that room, eager to understand.

944
01:18:32,920 --> 01:18:37,479
That's what scared me. She didn't look disturbed by what

945
01:18:37,600 --> 01:18:43,760
had happened. She looked fascinated. She kept talking about the

946
01:18:43,840 --> 01:18:47,560
need for more data, kept insisting Elliott's breakdown could have

947
01:18:47,600 --> 01:18:53,159
been an unrelated psychotic episode. The worst part, she was

948
01:18:53,199 --> 01:18:57,159
so calm, so logical about it, that I started second

949
01:18:57,199 --> 01:19:00,960
guessing myself. Maybe I had I'd imagine the way his

950
01:19:01,079 --> 01:19:04,640
voice sounded over the phone. Maybe I'd misinterpreted the look

951
01:19:04,680 --> 01:19:08,479
on his face. Maybe I was being too emotional and paranoid.

952
01:19:10,079 --> 01:19:14,479
Then she told me what they were planning next, a

953
01:19:14,640 --> 01:19:22,319
final experiment. I didn't go home that night. I sat

954
01:19:22,359 --> 01:19:25,319
in my office, lights off, the soft hum of the

955
01:19:25,399 --> 01:19:29,279
service filling the silence. My notes were spread out in

956
01:19:29,319 --> 01:19:34,359
front of me, dozens of reports, detailing every exposure, every reaction,

957
01:19:34,680 --> 01:19:40,760
every irregularity. The pieces weren't forming a complete picture, but

958
01:19:40,840 --> 01:19:46,039
there was a pattern, something we weren't seeing. I could

959
01:19:46,119 --> 01:19:49,800
feel it, just out of reach, like a word sitting

960
01:19:49,920 --> 01:19:54,159
at the tip of my tongue. Lang had already made

961
01:19:54,159 --> 01:19:58,199
her decision. The final trial would move forward, no matter

962
01:19:58,239 --> 01:20:01,359
what I said, no matter what arguments I threw at her.

963
01:20:02,399 --> 01:20:06,399
She just wanted to understand. Maybe she was afraid of

964
01:20:06,439 --> 01:20:09,399
not being able to do so, and I would be

965
01:20:09,520 --> 01:20:12,439
lying if I said I didn't feel the same way.

966
01:20:14,199 --> 01:20:18,000
The color had changed, something unlocked something in their minds,

967
01:20:18,560 --> 01:20:21,319
and she wasn't willing to walk away from that discovery,

968
01:20:21,960 --> 01:20:27,119
no matter the cost. I thought about walking away myself,

969
01:20:27,680 --> 01:20:32,239
thought about packing up, quitting, leaving the research behind. I

970
01:20:32,279 --> 01:20:36,039
even reached from my phone once considered calling someone the

971
01:20:36,159 --> 01:20:43,079
university and ethics board held even the press, but I didn't,

972
01:20:44,760 --> 01:20:48,960
not because I was afraid, but because I still wanted

973
01:20:49,000 --> 01:20:54,359
to know. That was the worst part. I wanted to

974
01:20:54,399 --> 01:21:00,560
see what would happen. The final experiment began exactly eight

975
01:21:00,560 --> 01:21:04,159
a m. In the morning. The observation room was packed.

976
01:21:04,920 --> 01:21:08,880
Everyone gathered around the monitors in heavy silence. There was

977
01:21:08,920 --> 01:21:13,439
no idle chatter, no nervous excitement. Everyone knew what we

978
01:21:13,439 --> 01:21:17,000
were doing was dangerous, even if they refused to say

979
01:21:17,039 --> 01:21:20,960
it out loud. I stood at the back of the room,

980
01:21:21,399 --> 01:21:24,880
arms crossed, watching the screens flicker to life as the

981
01:21:24,920 --> 01:21:29,279
test chamber powered on. The subjects were sealed in four

982
01:21:29,319 --> 01:21:33,560
identical chairs, each one fitted with a biometric sensor, and

983
01:21:33,640 --> 01:21:39,199
hugged up to fMRI scanners. James Walker, Julia Henley, and

984
01:21:39,279 --> 01:21:43,359
two others. I didn't recognize their names were in the file,

985
01:21:43,720 --> 01:21:47,760
but I hadn't bothered to read them. It didn't matter anymore.

986
01:21:49,840 --> 01:21:54,840
Langs sat at the control panel, expression unreadable, fingers hovering

987
01:21:54,920 --> 01:22:00,359
over the interface. We're beginning now, she said, voice steady.

988
01:22:02,000 --> 01:22:04,960
She pressed the button, and the screen in the test

989
01:22:05,039 --> 01:22:11,640
chamber filled with hyperion. I didn't look. I kept my

990
01:22:11,720 --> 01:22:16,319
eyes locked on the brain activity readoubts, waiting for something, anything,

991
01:22:16,720 --> 01:22:21,079
they would justify shutting the whole thing down. For the

992
01:22:21,119 --> 01:22:25,600
first few minutes, nothing seemed out of place. The vitals

993
01:22:25,640 --> 01:22:30,680
remained stable, their brain patterns fluctuated, but stayed within normal ranges.

994
01:22:32,000 --> 01:22:34,600
If I hadn't known what I was looking at, I

995
01:22:34,640 --> 01:22:37,199
would have thought they were just staring at a blank screen.

996
01:22:38,720 --> 01:22:44,640
Then James's fingers twitched just once, a subtle jerk of movement,

997
01:22:45,760 --> 01:22:52,119
then nothing. The others followed. Julia's breathing became shallow. One

998
01:22:52,159 --> 01:22:55,079
of the other subjects hands spasmed, like they were reaching

999
01:22:55,119 --> 01:22:59,319
for something that wasn't there. At the ten minute mark,

1000
01:23:00,199 --> 01:23:05,199
to functions began to slow. James had stopped blinking, Julia's

1001
01:23:05,279 --> 01:23:08,479
chest barely moved with each breath. The other two were

1002
01:23:08,520 --> 01:23:13,680
completely still. The pupils had contracted to pinpricks, barely visible

1003
01:23:13,760 --> 01:23:18,520
against the whites of their eyes. At fifteen minutes, their

1004
01:23:18,600 --> 01:23:24,680
vitals remained normal, but their brain activity spiked, not erratic

1005
01:23:24,800 --> 01:23:31,960
or chaotic, but irregular. The readoubt was incomprehensible. The neural

1006
01:23:32,000 --> 01:23:36,800
pathways weren't following standard cognitive function anymore. They weren't reacting

1007
01:23:36,800 --> 01:23:40,439
the way any normal humans should have. I felt my

1008
01:23:40,560 --> 01:23:43,960
pulse hammering in my throat, the same sick way to

1009
01:23:44,000 --> 01:23:47,640
my stomach i'd felt when Elliott had called me begging

1010
01:23:47,760 --> 01:23:56,600
for help. At twenty minutes, the first subject collapsed. His

1011
01:23:56,720 --> 01:24:01,560
body went limp, head longing to one side, vitals flatlining

1012
01:24:01,640 --> 01:24:07,000
almost instantly. The alarms blared across the control panel, but

1013
01:24:07,079 --> 01:24:12,000
he was already gone. A second later, the subject next

1014
01:24:12,000 --> 01:24:18,199
to him followed. I felt my stomach drop. Lang was

1015
01:24:18,279 --> 01:24:22,319
shouting orders. Security rushed into the chamber, dragging the remaining

1016
01:24:22,359 --> 01:24:25,600
two subjects away from the screen, shutting the system down.

1017
01:24:27,159 --> 01:24:31,039
But James and Julia were still breathing, their hearts were

1018
01:24:31,079 --> 01:24:39,439
still beating, their eyes were still open, and yet they

1019
01:24:39,520 --> 01:24:48,239
didn't move, not once. The following day, the decision was

1020
01:24:48,319 --> 01:24:54,079
made for us. They came in without warning, government officials,

1021
01:24:54,279 --> 01:24:58,079
security personnel, people I'd never seen before in my five

1022
01:24:58,159 --> 01:25:02,439
years at Eisenloyd. They cleared out the offices, boxed up

1023
01:25:02,479 --> 01:25:08,239
the equipment, wiped the research servers clean, no explanations, no discussions.

1024
01:25:09,239 --> 01:25:12,439
We were handed in non disclosure agreements, told in no

1025
01:25:12,600 --> 01:25:16,079
uncertain terms that the work we had done never existed,

1026
01:25:16,640 --> 01:25:19,680
that Eisen Lloyd would be repurposed for a different project,

1027
01:25:20,199 --> 01:25:23,399
that none of us would ever speak of Hyperion again,

1028
01:25:26,000 --> 01:25:30,800
And we didn't, not because we weren't allowed to, but

1029
01:25:30,960 --> 01:25:38,039
because nobody wanted to. Lang stopped returning calls Mason Quick Research. Altogether,

1030
01:25:39,000 --> 01:25:41,199
a few people from the team took new jobs at

1031
01:25:41,239 --> 01:25:46,520
other labs, but most just disappeared into different careers, different lives.

1032
01:25:47,560 --> 01:25:51,319
We scattered like survivors of a shipwreck, pretending that if

1033
01:25:51,359 --> 01:25:55,600
we just stayed quiet, if we just moved on, then

1034
01:25:55,640 --> 01:26:01,840
what happened that eisen Lloyd wouldn't follow us, But it did.

1035
01:26:04,359 --> 01:26:08,039
At first, I told myself I was fine. I found

1036
01:26:08,039 --> 01:26:11,680
a new job, consulting for a start up in optical processing,

1037
01:26:12,359 --> 01:26:15,680
something safe, something far removed from the mess that we

1038
01:26:15,720 --> 01:26:21,520
had left behind. I convinced myself that maybe somehow we

1039
01:26:21,600 --> 01:26:26,079
had shut it down in time, But the guilt didn't

1040
01:26:26,119 --> 01:26:30,760
go away. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw

1041
01:26:30,880 --> 01:26:35,239
James and Julia sitting motionless in their chairs, their minds

1042
01:26:35,279 --> 01:26:40,319
still firing, still active, still locked in something we couldn't understand.

1043
01:26:41,439 --> 01:26:44,119
I thought about Elliot, the way he had been when

1044
01:26:44,199 --> 01:26:47,079
we found him in the street, staring into the sky

1045
01:26:47,439 --> 01:26:51,600
with eyes that no longer worked. I tried to push

1046
01:26:51,600 --> 01:26:56,840
it down to move on. And then one night Lang

1047
01:26:57,159 --> 01:27:02,960
called me. I was late, two maybe three in the morning.

1048
01:27:04,000 --> 01:27:07,319
I was awake, but barely caught in that fog between

1049
01:27:07,399 --> 01:27:11,840
dreaming and reality, and at first I almost ignored it.

1050
01:27:13,119 --> 01:27:15,199
When I saw that the phone call was from Lang,

1051
01:27:15,680 --> 01:27:18,920
a jolt of adrenaline shot through me, like my body

1052
01:27:19,119 --> 01:27:23,399
already knew before my mind caught up. I answered on

1053
01:27:23,439 --> 01:27:31,000
the fourth ring, Lang. There was silence, not even breathing,

1054
01:27:31,880 --> 01:27:36,439
just dead air. I sat up, running a hand through

1055
01:27:36,439 --> 01:27:40,399
my hair. Lang, what the hell, it's the middle of

1056
01:27:40,439 --> 01:27:49,319
the night. More silence. Then finally I heard her inhale, sharply,

1057
01:27:49,840 --> 01:27:53,640
like she had been holding her breath. I need to

1058
01:27:53,720 --> 01:27:58,720
see you, she said. Her voice was low, almost the whisper.

1059
01:28:00,079 --> 01:28:07,840
I frowned. Now, yes, now, something in my gut twisted.

1060
01:28:08,760 --> 01:28:12,840
Why what's going on? I can't talk about it over

1061
01:28:12,880 --> 01:28:18,600
the phone, she said. I exhaled through my nose, already annoyed.

1062
01:28:19,640 --> 01:28:23,600
You realized how suspicious that sounds, right, christ Lang, if

1063
01:28:23,600 --> 01:28:27,000
this is about hyperion, it's over. We lost, we got

1064
01:28:27,039 --> 01:28:31,720
shut down. We did everything we could. She didn't respond

1065
01:28:31,800 --> 01:28:34,840
right away, and for a moment I thought she had

1066
01:28:34,920 --> 01:28:41,239
hung up. Then she said, voice quiet, and unsteady. I

1067
01:28:41,319 --> 01:28:51,720
don't think it's over. That made me go still. She exhaled, shakely,

1068
01:28:52,560 --> 01:28:56,520
and for the first time I realized how afraid she sounded.

1069
01:28:58,159 --> 01:29:03,199
I've been running tests, she admitted, so softly. I almost

1070
01:29:03,279 --> 01:29:07,920
didn't hear her. My grip on the phone tightened. You've

1071
01:29:08,119 --> 01:29:13,720
what There was a pause, not officially off the record,

1072
01:29:13,880 --> 01:29:19,279
just following up geez, Lang, I snapped, you're telling me

1073
01:29:19,319 --> 01:29:23,119
you kept working on this after everything, after I had

1074
01:29:23,119 --> 01:29:27,439
to she cut me off, her voice rising slightly desperate.

1075
01:29:28,279 --> 01:29:34,840
You don't understand something is still happening, I let out

1076
01:29:34,880 --> 01:29:40,079
a humorous laugh. Yeah, clearly, you ran trials on something

1077
01:29:40,119 --> 01:29:43,520
that cooked people's brains. What did you expect that it

1078
01:29:43,560 --> 01:29:50,239
would just stop? She didn't react to my anger. Lang

1079
01:29:50,359 --> 01:29:53,079
never back down from a fight. She was always the

1080
01:29:53,119 --> 01:29:57,319
first to argue, the first to push back. But now

1081
01:29:58,279 --> 01:30:01,720
she just let the silent stretch, and when she finally

1082
01:30:01,760 --> 01:30:07,520
spoke again, it was a whisper. I don't think we

1083
01:30:07,640 --> 01:30:16,399
discovered hyperion, she said, I think it discovered us. I

1084
01:30:16,479 --> 01:30:22,119
swallowed hard. What the hell does that mean? A longer

1085
01:30:22,199 --> 01:30:33,359
pause this time, then finally just come over. I almost

1086
01:30:33,439 --> 01:30:37,119
didn't go I sat in my car for a long time,

1087
01:30:37,319 --> 01:30:40,640
turning the key, staring at my hands, gripping the wheel,

1088
01:30:41,159 --> 01:30:43,880
debating whether or not I should just throw my phone

1089
01:30:43,920 --> 01:30:48,680
into the river and drive in the opposite direction. But

1090
01:30:48,800 --> 01:30:54,319
I went. Lang lived in a small apartment downtown, a

1091
01:30:54,479 --> 01:30:57,399
small and out of the way place, not fit for

1092
01:30:57,439 --> 01:31:00,840
someone making as much money as she did. I'd been

1093
01:31:00,880 --> 01:31:03,720
there a few times before, back when we were still

1094
01:31:03,720 --> 01:31:06,560
at Eyes and Lloyd, back when we still talked about

1095
01:31:06,560 --> 01:31:12,319
our work. I knocked once, and the door unlocked almost immediately.

1096
01:31:13,680 --> 01:31:16,920
Lang glugged like she hadn't slept in days. Her hair

1097
01:31:17,039 --> 01:31:21,079
was unkempt, dark circles bruised beneath her eyes, and her

1098
01:31:21,119 --> 01:31:24,680
hands trembled as she stepped back, motioning for me to

1099
01:31:24,760 --> 01:31:32,800
come inside. I hesitated, Lang, just look, she said, already

1100
01:31:32,840 --> 01:31:37,000
moving toward a desk, She flipped open her laptop and

1101
01:31:37,079 --> 01:31:41,399
pulled up a series of images. At first, they didn't

1102
01:31:41,399 --> 01:31:45,680
make sense, just a mess of lines, paragraphs, and data points.

1103
01:31:46,560 --> 01:31:49,800
But then she pointed at one specific chart, tapping the

1104
01:31:49,840 --> 01:31:53,239
screen with a finger nail. This is a brain scan

1105
01:31:53,520 --> 01:31:59,319
from one of our last test subjects, taken three days ago.

1106
01:31:59,560 --> 01:32:05,640
My stomach lurched. You're still tracking them? Not officially, she said,

1107
01:32:06,199 --> 01:32:11,680
but I've been monitoring the scans. I stared at the screen.

1108
01:32:12,359 --> 01:32:15,399
The patterns and the chart were wrong. They weren't random

1109
01:32:15,439 --> 01:32:24,039
bursts of electrical activity. They were deliberate repeating. Okay, I said, slowly,

1110
01:32:25,039 --> 01:32:29,600
what am I looking at? Lane clicked to another slide,

1111
01:32:30,039 --> 01:32:36,359
pulling up a star map. My blood ran cold. The

1112
01:32:36,399 --> 01:32:45,520
patterns in the scan they matched, not randomly, not approximately exactly.

1113
01:32:47,800 --> 01:32:51,920
I looked at her, throat dry. What the hell is this?

1114
01:32:53,840 --> 01:32:58,039
Liang didn't answer. She clicked again, pulling up another image.

1115
01:32:59,399 --> 01:33:05,399
I took a blow step back. That's impossible. Lang was pale.

1116
01:33:06,640 --> 01:33:11,119
I thought so too. I ran a hand through my hair,

1117
01:33:11,640 --> 01:33:15,880
my pulse hammering in my ears. So what are you saying?

1118
01:33:16,479 --> 01:33:20,600
That hyperion is what some kind of I don't know,

1119
01:33:21,199 --> 01:33:26,600
she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. We stared

1120
01:33:26,640 --> 01:33:29,479
at the screen, the glow of the data reflecting off

1121
01:33:29,520 --> 01:33:33,600
the walls, casting the room in cold light. I could

1122
01:33:33,600 --> 01:33:37,079
hear my own heartbeat too loud in my ears. I

1123
01:33:37,079 --> 01:33:39,760
could feel my skin crawling as I looked at the

1124
01:33:39,800 --> 01:33:43,119
images again, trying to make sense of something that wasn't

1125
01:33:43,199 --> 01:33:47,880
meant to be understood. Lang sat in front of her laptop,

1126
01:33:48,159 --> 01:33:52,520
staring at the screen, fingers resting on the keyboard but

1127
01:33:52,640 --> 01:33:57,680
not typing. The blue glow washed over her face, hollowing

1128
01:33:57,800 --> 01:34:02,479
out her already exhausted features, making a look almost skeletal.

1129
01:34:03,840 --> 01:34:07,079
I was standing in the doorway, trying to process what

1130
01:34:07,399 --> 01:34:12,479
I had just seen. None of it made sense, but

1131
01:34:12,560 --> 01:34:16,079
the look in her eyes told me she wasn't done yet.

1132
01:34:18,319 --> 01:34:21,479
I exhaled through my nose, rubbing her hand over my face,

1133
01:34:21,880 --> 01:34:26,840
trying to steady myself. That's not why you called me here,

1134
01:34:27,520 --> 01:34:32,920
I finally said, is it? She didn't answer at first,

1135
01:34:33,720 --> 01:34:36,920
her fingers twitched like she was considering what to say.

1136
01:34:38,319 --> 01:34:44,279
I saw her swallow, hard, shoulders tinting before she spoke No,

1137
01:34:45,159 --> 01:34:52,680
she admitted, that's not why I called you. I waited

1138
01:34:52,720 --> 01:34:57,279
for her to continue, but she didn't. She just sat there,

1139
01:34:57,720 --> 01:35:00,720
staring at the screen like she was afraid say it

1140
01:35:00,760 --> 01:35:05,920
out loud. Lang. I took a step forward, my pulls

1141
01:35:05,960 --> 01:35:11,600
starting to climb. Tell me what's going on. She reached

1142
01:35:11,640 --> 01:35:15,119
for a mouse, scrolling through something I couldn't see yet.

1143
01:35:16,239 --> 01:35:20,279
I think it got out, she said, voice barely above

1144
01:35:20,319 --> 01:35:24,520
a whisper. The words hit me like a cold slap

1145
01:35:24,560 --> 01:35:29,000
to the face. My hands clenched at my sides. What

1146
01:35:31,199 --> 01:35:35,800
she nailed sharply exhaling, slowly, forcing herself to stay calm.

1147
01:35:37,279 --> 01:35:42,479
I found the file circulating online, she said. At first

1148
01:35:42,720 --> 01:35:45,760
I thought it was a hoax, someone trying to recreate it,

1149
01:35:46,039 --> 01:35:51,640
theorize about it. But then I checked. She motioned toward

1150
01:35:51,680 --> 01:35:56,479
a screen, lips pressing into a thin line. It's real,

1151
01:35:57,359 --> 01:36:05,279
the actual sequence. Someone leaked it. I felt my breath catch.

1152
01:36:06,560 --> 01:36:15,520
How long ago she hesitated? Twelve hours maybe less. The

1153
01:36:15,600 --> 01:36:22,920
floor felt unsteady beneath me, and Lang's jaw clenched. She

1154
01:36:23,039 --> 01:36:26,439
opened another file, clicking through a series of news reports,

1155
01:36:27,119 --> 01:36:30,600
but she wasn't looking at the screen. She was looking

1156
01:36:30,640 --> 01:36:37,319
at me, watching my reaction. I stepped closer. The first

1157
01:36:37,439 --> 01:36:43,720
article was from this morning, Police investigating reports of multiple

1158
01:36:43,840 --> 01:36:48,079
self inflicted deaths in an apartment complex. Three individuals frown,

1159
01:36:48,159 --> 01:36:51,880
deceased in their rooms, no sign of struggle, no known

1160
01:36:51,920 --> 01:36:58,880
connection between them. I scrolled down authorities in Tokyo responding

1161
01:36:58,920 --> 01:37:02,680
to a surge of unax playing suicides. Locals report seeing

1162
01:37:02,680 --> 01:37:07,359
people walking into the streets into oncoming traffic, seemingly unaware

1163
01:37:07,399 --> 01:37:13,960
of their surroundings. Another one coastal towns reporting an increase

1164
01:37:13,960 --> 01:37:19,640
in drownings. Witnesses describe victims walking into the water, ignoring bystanders,

1165
01:37:19,960 --> 01:37:27,640
disappearing beneath the waves without resistance. I felt my stomach drop.

1166
01:37:28,920 --> 01:37:32,239
My voice came out tight, like my throat was closing up.

1167
01:37:33,439 --> 01:37:39,560
This can't be real. Blank clicked on a live stream.

1168
01:37:40,000 --> 01:37:43,840
It was some security camera feed, grainy and low quality.

1169
01:37:44,760 --> 01:37:48,199
A man stood on top of a parking garage, motionless,

1170
01:37:48,279 --> 01:37:52,600
in front of a laptop screen. He wasn't blinking, his

1171
01:37:52,720 --> 01:37:58,399
hands were relaxed at his sides, his face completely neutral. Then,

1172
01:37:59,000 --> 01:38:05,880
without hesitation, he turned and walked straight off the edge.

1173
01:38:06,039 --> 01:38:11,399
He didn't scream, didn't react, didn't flinch. The feed cut

1174
01:38:11,439 --> 01:38:19,199
to black. Lang exhaled, leaning forward, hands covering her face.

1175
01:38:20,840 --> 01:38:25,960
It's happening. I was shaking. It hasn't even been a day,

1176
01:38:27,000 --> 01:38:33,920
I know, she whispered. It happened faster than anyone could

1177
01:38:33,920 --> 01:38:38,199
have imagined. The leaks spread through some coding forms, obscure

1178
01:38:38,239 --> 01:38:43,920
research boards, private archives. Someone had cracked the format, posted

1179
01:38:43,960 --> 01:38:50,600
the raw sequence, and people curious, stupid people had opened

1180
01:38:50,600 --> 01:38:57,479
it without thinking. They saw hyperion and never looked away.

1181
01:38:58,520 --> 01:39:03,439
We watched it unfolding real time video clips surfaced people

1182
01:39:03,520 --> 01:39:07,199
standing still in front of screens, eyes wide, bodies are

1183
01:39:07,239 --> 01:39:12,279
moving for minutes, hours before finally turning and walking away.

1184
01:39:13,600 --> 01:39:17,000
Some were found later dead in their homes, sitting peacefully

1185
01:39:17,039 --> 01:39:23,319
in front of their monitors, bodies untouched, unmarked. Others vanished entirely,

1186
01:39:24,079 --> 01:39:29,039
no notes, no last words. The worst part was how

1187
01:39:29,119 --> 01:39:34,439
quiet it was. No panic, no violent outbursts, no struggle,

1188
01:39:35,479 --> 01:39:41,960
just a stillness. And then they left. They walked into

1189
01:39:42,000 --> 01:39:47,000
the ocean, into forests, into caves and abandoned places, anywhere

1190
01:39:47,000 --> 01:39:50,880
that swallowed them whole. They went down subway tunnels and

1191
01:39:50,960 --> 01:39:54,680
never emerged. They walked into traffic without so much as

1192
01:39:54,720 --> 01:39:58,880
a scream. Lang and I tried everything to stop it.

1193
01:40:00,000 --> 01:40:03,279
Contacted people in government, tried to get service shut down,

1194
01:40:03,640 --> 01:40:07,279
tried to warn anyone who would listen. By the time

1195
01:40:07,359 --> 01:40:11,600
the world even realized what was happening, it was already

1196
01:40:11,640 --> 01:40:16,760
too late. It was inevitable, and it wasn't slowing down.

1197
01:40:18,720 --> 01:40:22,079
Lang gave it a roll. She still believed there was

1198
01:40:22,119 --> 01:40:25,439
a way to contain it, to stop it from consuming everything.

1199
01:40:26,239 --> 01:40:31,159
She spent every waking moment chasing solutions, theories, some scientific

1200
01:40:31,239 --> 01:40:35,800
explanation that could fix what we had done, but even

1201
01:40:35,880 --> 01:40:41,600
she knew the truth. One day I called her, she

1202
01:40:41,720 --> 01:40:45,479
didn't pick up. When I got to her apartment, the

1203
01:40:45,560 --> 01:40:51,640
door was unlocked, laptops still running, data still open. She

1204
01:40:51,680 --> 01:40:53,920
had walked out somewhere in the middle of the night,

1205
01:40:54,880 --> 01:41:00,520
no sign of a struggle, no note, no goodbyes, just gone.

1206
01:41:03,880 --> 01:41:07,399
There's nowhere left to run. The world is going quiet.

1207
01:41:08,119 --> 01:41:11,880
More people disappear every day. No one knows how many

1208
01:41:11,880 --> 01:41:16,560
are left. No one is counting anymore. I've been sitting

1209
01:41:16,560 --> 01:41:19,119
in my apartment for hours, staring at the gun on

1210
01:41:19,239 --> 01:41:22,720
my table. I don't want to go the way they did.

1211
01:41:23,399 --> 01:41:26,199
I don't want to walk into something. I don't want

1212
01:41:26,239 --> 01:41:31,560
to see it again. I keep hearing Lang's voice, I

1213
01:41:31,640 --> 01:41:35,359
hear the echoes of every subject we tested, every person

1214
01:41:35,399 --> 01:41:45,000
who vanished. It's everything, It's always been everything. I'm sorry

1215
01:41:46,760 --> 01:42:00,880
I should have stopped this before it started. The ocean

1216
01:42:01,000 --> 01:42:04,560
doesn't care about you. It's not your enemy, and it's

1217
01:42:04,600 --> 01:42:09,760
sure as hell isn't your friend. It's just there, silent

1218
01:42:09,880 --> 01:42:15,720
and endless, stretching past the horizon. People think they understand

1219
01:42:15,760 --> 01:42:18,359
it because they can chart a course, read a tide,

1220
01:42:18,600 --> 01:42:24,159
plot a point on a map. They don't. The ocean

1221
01:42:24,319 --> 01:42:30,239
keeps its own secrets, and sometimes then lets you see one.

1222
01:42:32,840 --> 01:42:36,359
We had planned a trip across the Atlantic. I captained

1223
01:42:36,439 --> 01:42:40,239
the Envy Red Saber for almost fifteen years, now, moving

1224
01:42:40,279 --> 01:42:43,920
small cargo from one port to another, keeping to tight

1225
01:42:43,960 --> 01:42:48,479
schedules and predictable roots. I initially started in the Navy,

1226
01:42:49,199 --> 01:42:52,880
but that life was a long way behind me. My

1227
01:42:52,960 --> 01:42:56,680
crew is small, just four of us. Fewer men means

1228
01:42:56,720 --> 01:42:59,880
fewer costs, but it also means fewer people to rely

1229
01:43:00,079 --> 01:43:04,319
ion when things go wrong. We were three days out

1230
01:43:04,319 --> 01:43:07,680
from Spain. It was the middle of the night, somewhere

1231
01:43:07,720 --> 01:43:10,560
past oh two hundred hours, and I was still awake

1232
01:43:10,600 --> 01:43:15,479
in my cabin, staring at the same navigational charts. The

1233
01:43:15,560 --> 01:43:20,239
radio crackled once, then again. A voice was trying to

1234
01:43:20,279 --> 01:43:25,920
push through the static. It came through the colms, a weak,

1235
01:43:26,119 --> 01:43:30,720
staticky voice repeating the same sequence over and over again.

1236
01:43:32,600 --> 01:43:38,479
May day, may day, this is the perdition position latitude

1237
01:43:38,520 --> 01:43:45,279
thirty five longitude. They cut out again. I sat up

1238
01:43:46,279 --> 01:43:50,840
the perdition. That name wasn't familiar, but the way the

1239
01:43:50,880 --> 01:43:55,920
signal came in faint and interrupted meant whatever equipment they

1240
01:43:55,920 --> 01:44:03,199
were using it was dated. I keep the intercom bridge.

1241
01:44:03,359 --> 01:44:08,000
This is the captain, you're picking that up. There was

1242
01:44:08,000 --> 01:44:13,000
a pause, then Gallagher answered, eye cap. We thought he

1243
01:44:13,079 --> 01:44:17,119
was interference at first, but it's repeating, saying distress code

1244
01:44:17,119 --> 01:44:22,199
every thirty seconds, sauce. We're running it through the registry.

1245
01:44:22,239 --> 01:44:27,760
Now another pause. I could hear his fingers moving over

1246
01:44:27,800 --> 01:44:35,239
the keyboard, the sound of rapid typing, then a brief pause. Ah, Captain,

1247
01:44:36,439 --> 01:44:41,800
you might want to see this. By the time I

1248
01:44:41,840 --> 01:44:45,079
got to the bridge, Gallagher was still staring at the screen,

1249
01:44:45,960 --> 01:44:50,239
one hand resting against his chin. His brow was furrowed.

1250
01:44:51,600 --> 01:44:55,359
You're gonna want to see this, he muttered. I glanced

1251
01:44:55,359 --> 01:44:59,319
at the monitor. The distress code was still cycling, a

1252
01:44:59,359 --> 01:45:02,960
single repeat eating sequence of numbers and static, as if

1253
01:45:02,960 --> 01:45:07,039
someone had been broadcasting it on a loop. Behind us,

1254
01:45:07,159 --> 01:45:11,880
a chair creaked. I turned to see Holloway, the youngest

1255
01:45:11,920 --> 01:45:14,520
of the crew, lingering near the back of the bridge,

1256
01:45:14,880 --> 01:45:20,399
arms crossed over his chest. He looked tense. I wasn't

1257
01:45:20,399 --> 01:45:22,920
sure if he even realized he was doing it, but

1258
01:45:23,000 --> 01:45:26,520
his foot tapped against the floor in a steady rhythm,

1259
01:45:26,760 --> 01:45:31,399
a nervous energy. He hadn't learned to mask yet. Rodriguez

1260
01:45:31,560 --> 01:45:36,760
lingered near the back, standing stiff watching us all. What

1261
01:45:36,880 --> 01:45:41,560
am I looking at? I asked. Gallagher turned the monitor

1262
01:45:41,640 --> 01:45:45,239
slightly so I could get a better look. The registry

1263
01:45:45,359 --> 01:45:50,039
was pulled up, the distress code logged and matched. The

1264
01:45:50,079 --> 01:45:55,840
petition was listed, but the date next to it stopped

1265
01:45:55,840 --> 01:46:03,960
me for a moment. Nineteen twenty one. I frowned, glancing

1266
01:46:04,039 --> 01:46:07,520
back at the others. You're telling me we just picked

1267
01:46:07,600 --> 01:46:12,199
up a hundred year old distress call. Gallagher didn't answer

1268
01:46:12,279 --> 01:46:15,960
right away. He exhaled through his nose, tapping his knuckles

1269
01:46:16,000 --> 01:46:21,359
against the desk. Signals coming through clean, no drift, no degradation.

1270
01:46:22,239 --> 01:46:25,960
This isn't an old transmission. Bounting back, this is live.

1271
01:46:27,359 --> 01:46:30,600
That has to be wrong, I said, it's a malfunction,

1272
01:46:30,920 --> 01:46:37,439
a glitch. Behind me, Rodriguez muttered something in Spanish. This

1273
01:46:37,600 --> 01:46:42,199
is bad luck, he said. We shouldn't meddle with these things.

1274
01:46:43,079 --> 01:46:45,760
Rodriguez had been on the water longer than the rest

1275
01:46:45,760 --> 01:46:50,359
of us combined. He wasn't overly superstitious, but he had

1276
01:46:50,399 --> 01:46:54,000
his traditions and ways. I'd learn to respect and honor

1277
01:46:54,039 --> 01:46:59,279
some of them. Gallagher cleared his throat. I guess it

1278
01:46:59,319 --> 01:47:03,760
could probably be a mistake, Captain, some technomally, maybe a

1279
01:47:03,800 --> 01:47:07,199
freak frequency bounce. The ocean can be weird like that.

1280
01:47:09,399 --> 01:47:14,640
I nodded slowly. He was right. I've seen things like

1281
01:47:14,680 --> 01:47:19,640
this before, stray signals, old transmissions getting caught in atmospheric

1282
01:47:19,680 --> 01:47:24,520
g loops, even ancient broadcasts being replayed by accident. But

1283
01:47:24,680 --> 01:47:29,479
this was no technomally, as Gallagher had said, the signal

1284
01:47:29,640 --> 01:47:34,479
was coming through clean as a whistle. I looked back

1285
01:47:34,479 --> 01:47:38,479
at the screen. The coordinates placed the signal two hundred

1286
01:47:38,479 --> 01:47:44,000
miles ahead of us. Nothing there but open water, no islands,

1287
01:47:44,079 --> 01:47:49,359
no reefs, no known reck sites to mention. Could be pirates,

1288
01:47:49,760 --> 01:47:54,359
Holloway said suddenly. His voice was casual, but I caught

1289
01:47:54,359 --> 01:48:00,159
the way he swallowed hard afterward, baiting us in. That

1290
01:48:00,239 --> 01:48:03,439
was a possibility. It wouldn't be the first time someone

1291
01:48:03,439 --> 01:48:06,600
had rigged a fake emergency to luren a rescue crew.

1292
01:48:07,680 --> 01:48:10,920
But pirates don't use distress codes from a century ago.

1293
01:48:13,119 --> 01:48:18,000
I exhaled slowly, then turned back to Rodriguez. You think

1294
01:48:18,000 --> 01:48:23,880
this is bad luck, he nodded once. As ship disappears

1295
01:48:24,159 --> 01:48:26,840
and a hundred years later it starts calling for help.

1296
01:48:27,800 --> 01:48:31,600
That's not right, Captain, tell me something about that doesn't

1297
01:48:31,640 --> 01:48:36,680
sound wrong to you. I turned back to the rest

1298
01:48:36,720 --> 01:48:41,800
of the crew. Listen, we're professionals. That's a distress call

1299
01:48:42,039 --> 01:48:44,880
and we're obligated to check it out. We went over

1300
01:48:44,920 --> 01:48:48,039
this and training people. There's nobody else around us for

1301
01:48:48,079 --> 01:48:51,359
this radio into nearby ships from here, and we take

1302
01:48:51,399 --> 01:48:54,920
it from there. Could be a hoax, could be a malfunction,

1303
01:48:55,479 --> 01:48:58,840
could be something else entirely, but we won't know unless

1304
01:48:58,880 --> 01:49:08,079
we lock. Gallagher hesitated. Captain I, that's final. I turned

1305
01:49:08,079 --> 01:49:12,159
back toward the helm, set a course for the cordinates.

1306
01:49:14,399 --> 01:49:19,079
No one spoke. The tension in the air shifted. Finally,

1307
01:49:19,439 --> 01:49:24,000
Gallagher muttered something under his breath and nodded aye. Sir

1308
01:49:26,239 --> 01:49:30,239
Rodriguez didn't argue. He just shook his head and walked away.

1309
01:49:32,520 --> 01:49:35,239
The fog rolled in a few minutes after we started

1310
01:49:35,279 --> 01:49:39,119
heading for the location, and it was getting steadily worse.

1311
01:49:40,479 --> 01:49:43,960
The further we pushed toward the cordinates, the denser it became,

1312
01:49:44,840 --> 01:49:48,439
until the ocean and sky blurred into the same endless void.

1313
01:49:49,720 --> 01:49:52,520
The radar picked up the ship before we could see it.

1314
01:49:53,600 --> 01:49:57,319
The radar was reading a massive ship floating just ahead.

1315
01:49:58,600 --> 01:50:03,159
The readings weren't erratic, weren't distorted. Whatever was out there

1316
01:50:03,520 --> 01:50:09,760
was solid, so we weren't heading for a shipwreck. Gallagher

1317
01:50:09,840 --> 01:50:13,600
adjusted the radio frequency turning dials with the patience of

1318
01:50:13,640 --> 01:50:16,359
a man who had done it a thousand times before.

1319
01:50:17,600 --> 01:50:21,600
His jaw was tight, his fingers tapping anxiously against the console.

1320
01:50:23,199 --> 01:50:30,399
Still nothing. He muttered, no response. He tried again, this

1321
01:50:30,560 --> 01:50:34,800
is the envy red saber responding to an emergency distress call, Perdition,

1322
01:50:35,039 --> 01:50:41,159
do you read over? The radio remained silent, just static,

1323
01:50:41,880 --> 01:50:47,840
a low hans stretching out like a dead signal. I exhaled, slowly,

1324
01:50:48,239 --> 01:50:55,159
rubbing my temple. Keep trying. Holloway stood near the bridge window,

1325
01:50:55,560 --> 01:50:58,239
staring out into the mist like he was trying to

1326
01:50:58,279 --> 01:51:04,399
will something into focus. He shifted uneasily. If they needed help,

1327
01:51:04,640 --> 01:51:10,279
shouldn't they be responding, Gallagher shook his head. Even if

1328
01:51:10,319 --> 01:51:13,119
they're dead in the water, someone should be hearing us.

1329
01:51:13,680 --> 01:51:17,359
If the beacon is live, the comb should be live too.

1330
01:51:18,039 --> 01:51:21,800
Maybe their radios busted, I said through my teeth. Maybe

1331
01:51:21,800 --> 01:51:30,399
they lost power. Rodriguez scoffed under his breath. Maybe. Then

1332
01:51:31,000 --> 01:51:37,239
the fog thinned and we saw it. The Perdition emerged

1333
01:51:37,239 --> 01:51:41,239
from the mist like a ghost. It loomed before us,

1334
01:51:41,680 --> 01:51:47,479
intact and untouched, a merchant vessel from another sentry. Dark wood,

1335
01:51:47,560 --> 01:51:52,319
slick with moisture. Its sails furled tight, its masts rising

1336
01:51:52,479 --> 01:51:57,159
into the gray sky like skeletal remains. There were no

1337
01:51:57,279 --> 01:52:01,039
signs of damage, no wreckage, nothing to suggest why a

1338
01:52:01,079 --> 01:52:03,800
ship like this had sent out an SOS in the

1339
01:52:03,840 --> 01:52:08,079
first place. Holloway took a step closer to the window.

1340
01:52:09,600 --> 01:52:14,960
Geez Gallagher tapped a few keys on the radar console,

1341
01:52:15,119 --> 01:52:21,479
shaking his head. God and his one massive ship Rodriguez,

1342
01:52:21,560 --> 01:52:31,079
remained silent. I straightened inhaling sharply. We're boarding. We lowered

1343
01:52:31,079 --> 01:52:35,199
the dinghy and approached slow. The ladder was still intact,

1344
01:52:35,880 --> 01:52:40,039
rope and woods swaying gently against the perdition's hull. I

1345
01:52:40,079 --> 01:52:44,680
grabbed hold, testing its weight. The damp fibers creaked under

1346
01:52:44,760 --> 01:52:50,800
my grip, but held firm. I looked back. Holloway and

1347
01:52:50,840 --> 01:52:55,439
Galagher sat stiff in the dingy. Rodriguez didn't move, didn't

1348
01:52:55,479 --> 01:52:59,119
reach for the ladder. His hands were planted on his knees,

1349
01:52:59,479 --> 01:53:08,359
fingers tight. You coming, I asked a pause. His jaw clenched,

1350
01:53:09,079 --> 01:53:14,239
then reluctantly, he took hold of the wrongs. Holloway and

1351
01:53:14,279 --> 01:53:20,359
Gallagher followed. The ship was still. The lanterns swayed gently

1352
01:53:20,359 --> 01:53:24,800
from their hooks, but they were unlit. The ropes were

1353
01:53:24,840 --> 01:53:29,439
neatly coiled, undisturbed. A layer of dampness clung to everything,

1354
01:53:30,159 --> 01:53:35,760
but there was no decay perdition. I shouted, my voice,

1355
01:53:35,800 --> 01:53:43,439
cutting through the mist. Anyone aboard. No response. Gallagher called

1356
01:53:43,479 --> 01:53:48,239
out next louder. His voice echoed, bouncing off the sails

1357
01:53:48,319 --> 01:53:57,640
before fading into nothing silence. Rodriguez muttered something, glancing around.

1358
01:53:59,479 --> 01:54:03,359
I turned back to the others. We'll cover more ground

1359
01:54:03,359 --> 01:54:06,960
if we split up. Gallagher take the upper decks, Holloway

1360
01:54:07,000 --> 01:54:11,880
with me. Rodriguez check below deck. We regroup in ten minutes.

1361
01:54:12,600 --> 01:54:15,399
If we don't find anybody, we leave and report back

1362
01:54:15,439 --> 01:54:23,640
to land with what we find. Gallagher excelled, sharply splitting up. Ah. Sure,

1363
01:54:23,680 --> 01:54:26,479
that's a good idea, cap You know in movies they

1364
01:54:26,520 --> 01:54:32,640
say we're wasting time, they said sternly. Rodriguez simply turned,

1365
01:54:33,000 --> 01:54:38,239
disappearing into the shadows below deck without another word. Holloway

1366
01:54:38,239 --> 01:54:41,399
and I moved carefully through the dimly lit carridor the

1367
01:54:41,479 --> 01:54:45,960
damp put beneath us groaning under our weight. The air

1368
01:54:46,000 --> 01:54:49,520
here was heavier than it had been outside, thick with

1369
01:54:49,600 --> 01:54:53,720
a scent of salt an age timber. The lanterns lining

1370
01:54:53,760 --> 01:54:57,600
the walls were unlit, their glass panes smeared with condensation.

1371
01:54:59,239 --> 01:55:03,399
Every door we last was shut tight, their brass handles tarnished.

1372
01:55:05,199 --> 01:55:08,600
At the end of the passage, one door stood slightly

1373
01:55:08,640 --> 01:55:17,199
ajar I pushed it open. Stepping inside the captain's quarters

1374
01:55:17,319 --> 01:55:21,199
was small, but oddly a single cut against the wall

1375
01:55:21,560 --> 01:55:26,520
neatly made. The sheets still tugged in tight. A chest

1376
01:55:26,520 --> 01:55:29,439
at the foot of the bed latched but not locked.

1377
01:55:30,960 --> 01:55:34,039
The desk took up most of the space, its surface

1378
01:55:34,079 --> 01:55:38,000
covered in loose papers, maps curled at the edges, ink

1379
01:55:38,039 --> 01:55:42,159
bottles tipped over and dried. A leather bound log box

1380
01:55:42,239 --> 01:55:45,560
sat in the center, lying open to a page warped

1381
01:55:45,600 --> 01:55:51,039
with moisture. Beside it, a lantern, unlit, was still filled

1382
01:55:51,079 --> 01:55:57,399
with oil. Holloway hesitated in the doorway, nostrils flaring slightly.

1383
01:55:58,880 --> 01:56:06,720
You smell that I did not rot, not mildew, just

1384
01:56:06,920 --> 01:56:12,000
damp and sour. The scent clung to everything, thick and stale,

1385
01:56:12,680 --> 01:56:14,720
the way a house smells when it's been shut up.

1386
01:56:14,720 --> 01:56:18,439
For months, or a ship has been sailing for decades.

1387
01:56:20,319 --> 01:56:24,239
I ran my fingers over the desk. The wood was swollen,

1388
01:56:24,640 --> 01:56:28,399
the grain rough beneath my touch. The papers beneath the

1389
01:56:28,439 --> 01:56:31,880
log book were stuck together. In places the ink smudged,

1390
01:56:32,600 --> 01:56:37,159
but the words beneath my fingers were still legible. I

1391
01:56:37,239 --> 01:56:41,600
flipped through the log book carefully. Holloway steps inside, now

1392
01:56:41,800 --> 01:56:45,520
staying close to the door, his gaze shifting between scattered

1393
01:56:45,520 --> 01:56:51,239
papers and the rest of the room. What does it say?

1394
01:56:52,039 --> 01:56:57,960
I squinted at the text, reading aloud. May third, nineteen

1395
01:56:58,039 --> 01:57:03,600
twenty one. Northeast wind steady at ten knots, course adjusted westward,

1396
01:57:04,159 --> 01:57:09,960
men in good spirits. I skimmed further down. The next

1397
01:57:10,000 --> 01:57:14,119
few entries were standard nothing how to the ordinary, where

1398
01:57:14,159 --> 01:57:20,079
the conditions coarse adjustments, A brief note about rationing. Then

1399
01:57:21,239 --> 01:57:26,840
something changed May tenth. A voice below deck last night.

1400
01:57:27,479 --> 01:57:30,199
Bosun claims he heard it too, but there was no

1401
01:57:30,239 --> 01:57:39,079
one there. Crew uneasy, I frowned, flipping further May thirteenth.

1402
01:57:39,920 --> 01:57:42,720
The men are restless. I do not believe it was

1403
01:57:42,760 --> 01:57:47,319
the wind. Mister Avery refuses to sleep below. The others

1404
01:57:47,399 --> 01:57:53,760
are beginning to whisper. Holloway shifted on his feet. You

1405
01:57:53,960 --> 01:58:00,960
think they had a stowaway. Maybe I kept reading. The

1406
01:58:01,039 --> 01:58:04,439
last entry was written in a hasty scrawl, as if

1407
01:58:04,439 --> 01:58:07,880
the writer had barely finished before slamming the books. Shot

1408
01:58:09,600 --> 01:58:15,520
May eighteenth. The sea is speaking for men are listening.

1409
01:58:17,279 --> 01:58:24,640
I am the only one left. I stared at it

1410
01:58:24,760 --> 01:58:28,199
for a long moment. The ink smudged and bleeding into

1411
01:58:28,239 --> 01:58:35,199
the page. The words rushed uneven. The last page wasn't finished.

1412
01:58:36,960 --> 01:58:43,920
Holloway leaned over my shoulder, exhaling sharply man. I closed

1413
01:58:43,920 --> 01:58:46,479
the log book, running a thumb along the frayed edges

1414
01:58:46,520 --> 01:58:50,439
of the pages. There's no mention of distress before this,

1415
01:58:51,119 --> 01:58:55,960
No damage, no sickness, no storm. I gestured at the room,

1416
01:58:56,920 --> 01:59:02,880
and this place looks like someone just left. Holloway glanced round,

1417
01:59:03,159 --> 01:59:07,760
rubbing his arms. I don't like this cap. This isn't

1418
01:59:07,760 --> 01:59:11,000
how a shiplocks after a hundred years. I knelt beside

1419
01:59:11,000 --> 01:59:13,399
the chest at the foot of the bed, running a

1420
01:59:13,479 --> 01:59:18,239
hand over the latch. It wasn't locked. I lifted the

1421
01:59:18,279 --> 01:59:24,800
lid inside. Neatly folded clothes sat stacked on one side,

1422
01:59:25,399 --> 01:59:30,079
A pair of boots placed carefully beside them, A shaving kit,

1423
01:59:30,359 --> 01:59:35,880
a pocket watch, small ordinary things, but clearly untouched for

1424
01:59:35,920 --> 01:59:42,239
a very long time. Holloway exhaled through his nose. No

1425
01:59:42,359 --> 01:59:48,359
personal letters, no sign of where they went. No, I

1426
01:59:48,399 --> 01:59:51,319
said the watch back, my fingers brushing the fabric of

1427
01:59:51,359 --> 01:59:56,640
the clothes beneath it. The material was damp, but still intact,

1428
01:59:57,079 --> 02:00:02,479
not eaten away by time or salt. I stood glancing

1429
02:00:02,479 --> 02:00:06,760
at Holloway. Where the hell is the crew? And who?

1430
02:00:06,920 --> 02:00:10,399
And how do they make a distress cup? Before he

1431
02:00:10,439 --> 02:00:14,199
could add, a noise echoed from somewhere outside the room,

1432
02:00:15,520 --> 02:00:21,840
a deep, dull thud. Holloway turned sharply toward the doorway.

1433
02:00:22,720 --> 02:00:27,760
I tensed, straining to hear past the thick stillness. Then

1434
02:00:27,800 --> 02:00:38,880
another sound, shuffling, distant, slow. Gallagher's voice carried through the corridor. Rodriguez,

1435
02:00:41,279 --> 02:00:45,239
I felt something cold settle in my gut. We stepped

1436
02:00:45,239 --> 02:00:48,800
out of the room. The ship was silent again, nothing

1437
02:00:48,840 --> 02:00:52,800
but the distant lapping of water against the hull. Galagher

1438
02:00:52,880 --> 02:00:58,520
stood near the helm, looking around, frowning. Have you seen Rodriguez?

1439
02:00:59,039 --> 02:01:03,279
He asked. I glanced towards the stairs leading below deck.

1440
02:01:04,520 --> 02:01:07,479
He should have been back by now. The ten minutes

1441
02:01:07,680 --> 02:01:14,520
were up. He was checking below. I said Kalikher exhiled

1442
02:01:14,520 --> 02:01:19,119
through his nose, rolling his shoulders. He hesitated, then turned

1443
02:01:19,159 --> 02:01:23,439
his gaze towards the stairwell. You think he found something.

1444
02:01:33,119 --> 02:01:37,119
Gallagher led the way, his flashlight sweeping the stairwell. As

1445
02:01:37,159 --> 02:01:41,840
we descended into the lower decks, our boots heavy. The

1446
02:01:41,920 --> 02:01:46,560
same smell from the Captain's quarters was present here, but stronger.

1447
02:01:48,359 --> 02:01:56,359
It smelled so wrong. I gripped the railing, stepping down cautiously, Rodriguez,

1448
02:01:56,960 --> 02:02:05,520
My voice came out, tight, you down here, silence. Holloway

1449
02:02:05,640 --> 02:02:09,720
moved close behind me, barely a step away, breathing hard

1450
02:02:09,760 --> 02:02:14,000
through his nose. He kept glancing over his shoulder, like

1451
02:02:14,079 --> 02:02:16,800
he was expecting something to be there. When he turned back,

1452
02:02:17,920 --> 02:02:22,439
Gallagher kept his jaw locked tight, pressing forward, his flashlight

1453
02:02:22,520 --> 02:02:27,880
bouncing off old crates and rusted tools. Another few steps,

1454
02:02:28,479 --> 02:02:36,560
another breath of damp air, thick with salt. Then we

1455
02:02:36,680 --> 02:02:43,840
heard it, a crash, wood splintering, a low, wet gurgling.

1456
02:02:45,760 --> 02:02:50,000
We turned fast, Gallagher's light flicking wildly, catching nothing but

1457
02:02:50,079 --> 02:02:56,000
empty space. But the sound was still there. A struggle.

1458
02:02:58,560 --> 02:03:02,239
I moved first, pushing past the other's heart hammering against

1459
02:03:02,279 --> 02:03:10,199
my ribs. Rodriguez no answer, a thud, something heavy hitting

1460
02:03:10,239 --> 02:03:14,600
the floor. We stood frozen all the way, clenched his

1461
02:03:14,680 --> 02:03:19,960
jaws so tight I thought it might snap. Then finally

1462
02:03:21,079 --> 02:03:27,119
I stepped forward. The corridor stretched ahead, damp wood groaning

1463
02:03:27,159 --> 02:03:32,600
beneath us. I forced myself to move faster, flashlight gripped tight,

1464
02:03:33,279 --> 02:03:36,399
my pulls so loud in my ears. I almost didn't

1465
02:03:36,439 --> 02:03:45,960
hear the drip, but it was there, soft rhythmic drip, drip, drip.

1466
02:03:49,000 --> 02:03:54,199
Gallagher saw it first. His breath hitched, his steps faltered.

1467
02:03:54,760 --> 02:03:59,560
His flashlight beam caught something on the floor ahead, something red,

1468
02:04:01,079 --> 02:04:12,920
a trail, a body, Rodriguez. I stopped breathing. The flashlight

1469
02:04:13,000 --> 02:04:17,760
shook slightly in my grip, illuminating torn fabric, shredded flesh,

1470
02:04:17,920 --> 02:04:25,680
broken bones, His chest had been ripped open. Chunks of

1471
02:04:25,760 --> 02:04:30,640
him were missing. When I was gone, the socket black

1472
02:04:30,720 --> 02:04:34,399
and gave it in. His jaw was slack, the muscles

1473
02:04:34,399 --> 02:04:37,560
of his neck mangled, as if something had chewed through them.

1474
02:04:38,960 --> 02:04:45,560
Holloway made a noise, choked, disbelieving, Gallagher swallowed thickly behind me.

1475
02:04:47,000 --> 02:04:52,720
He didn't move, None of us did. Rodriguez hadn't just

1476
02:04:52,800 --> 02:05:00,600
been attacked. He had been eaten. Seen a lot of

1477
02:05:00,640 --> 02:05:07,359
things at sea, drowning, suicide accidents. This wasn't any of those.

1478
02:05:09,159 --> 02:05:13,039
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. Holloway took

1479
02:05:13,039 --> 02:05:16,760
a step back from the corpse, shaking his head. His

1480
02:05:16,880 --> 02:05:21,000
breathing was erratic, chest rising and falling too fast, like

1481
02:05:21,079 --> 02:05:24,840
he was trying not to hyper ventilate. No, No, we

1482
02:05:24,880 --> 02:05:27,000
need to go, We need to go right now. What

1483
02:05:27,039 --> 02:05:31,520
the hell did this to him? Gallagher hadn't moved, just

1484
02:05:31,600 --> 02:05:34,520
kept staring at the mess that used to be Rodriguez.

1485
02:05:35,880 --> 02:05:39,119
His face was unreadable, but I could see his fingers

1486
02:05:39,119 --> 02:05:42,479
twitching at his side, like his body was deciding whether

1487
02:05:42,560 --> 02:05:48,119
to run or shut down completely. I exhaled, forcing my

1488
02:05:48,239 --> 02:05:52,359
mind to stay in control. We can't just leave him here.

1489
02:05:54,079 --> 02:05:56,800
Holloway snapped his head up to look at me. His

1490
02:05:56,920 --> 02:06:01,920
eyes were wild. Are you are you serious? His voice

1491
02:06:01,920 --> 02:06:05,239
cracked like you couldn't believe what he was hearing. Look

1492
02:06:05,279 --> 02:06:08,359
at him. There's no bringing him back. He's dead, he's

1493
02:06:09,640 --> 02:06:14,359
he jested with both hands, stumbling over his words. He's cant, captain,

1494
02:06:14,760 --> 02:06:16,560
and if we don't get the hell off the ship,

1495
02:06:17,439 --> 02:06:22,239
we'll be next. I clinched my jaw, kept him A

1496
02:06:22,319 --> 02:06:28,279
voice even I know that, do you? He let out

1497
02:06:28,279 --> 02:06:31,720
a sharp, humorless laugh, because I don't think you do.

1498
02:06:32,359 --> 02:06:34,640
I think you're trying to make sense of this, trying

1499
02:06:34,680 --> 02:06:36,680
to be the goddamn captain when we should already be

1500
02:06:36,720 --> 02:06:39,279
getting the hell out of it. We will not leave

1501
02:06:39,319 --> 02:06:46,039
him here. Holloway went silent. I forced myself to keep going,

1502
02:06:46,479 --> 02:06:48,720
even though my stomach felt like he was trying to

1503
02:06:48,760 --> 02:06:53,000
turn itself inside out. We should at least bring him

1504
02:06:53,039 --> 02:06:56,119
back to his wife and family, hold a proper funeral.

1505
02:06:57,920 --> 02:07:03,079
Gallagher excelled, sharply, a hand down his face. His shoulders

1506
02:07:03,079 --> 02:07:08,880
were still stiff, his posture tense. I swallowed, glancing down

1507
02:07:08,920 --> 02:07:12,520
at what was left of Rodriguez. I didn't even know

1508
02:07:12,560 --> 02:07:16,000
what we'd tell anyone back on land, and there was

1509
02:07:16,039 --> 02:07:19,079
something about the way he had been left there, torn

1510
02:07:19,119 --> 02:07:23,960
open and abandoned, that didn't sit right with me. I

1511
02:07:24,079 --> 02:07:27,560
forced myself to look back at them. We don't just

1512
02:07:27,640 --> 02:07:31,119
leave him here like some animal carcass. We'd take him back.

1513
02:07:33,720 --> 02:07:37,880
Holloway didn't say anything, just looked at me, eyes dark

1514
02:07:37,920 --> 02:07:43,600
and unreadable. Then finally Gallagher let out a slow breath

1515
02:07:44,680 --> 02:07:52,279
and nodded. We didn't argue about it. Anymore. The smell

1516
02:07:52,319 --> 02:07:55,640
of blood was worse now. The motion of dragging him

1517
02:07:55,720 --> 02:07:59,319
had stirred it, letting its seep into the wood, thick

1518
02:07:59,520 --> 02:08:04,359
and warm and unmistakable. Holloway had his hands hugged under

1519
02:08:04,439 --> 02:08:09,039
Rodriguez's arms, his face a combination of something between determination

1520
02:08:09,439 --> 02:08:13,760
and revulsion. Gallagher and I took the legs, lifting as

1521
02:08:13,800 --> 02:08:18,560
best we could. The ship groaned around us as we moved.

1522
02:08:19,359 --> 02:08:24,199
Every step was slow heavy. The weight of the dead

1523
02:08:24,359 --> 02:08:27,760
is always different than the weight of the living. More final.

1524
02:08:29,439 --> 02:08:34,439
We didn't talk, just moved, just kept our eyes ahead.

1525
02:08:35,159 --> 02:08:39,800
We were almost to the stairwell when Gallagher muttered weight.

1526
02:08:41,720 --> 02:08:46,800
We stopped. His flashlight flickered bouncing off something near the

1527
02:08:46,800 --> 02:08:51,439
far end of the corridor, and followed his gaze, shifting

1528
02:08:51,479 --> 02:08:59,079
my own beam to match. Something was there. At first

1529
02:08:59,399 --> 02:09:02,560
I thought it was a man. Hey, are you the

1530
02:09:02,600 --> 02:09:05,239
person that sent out the distress signal? Who the hell

1531
02:09:05,239 --> 02:09:08,680
did this to our friend? Who are you? I shouted?

1532
02:09:10,880 --> 02:09:15,600
It didn't respond. Instead, it just stood in the shadows,

1533
02:09:16,039 --> 02:09:25,399
half lost in the darkness. Then it stepped forward. Its

1534
02:09:25,399 --> 02:09:28,920
body was swollen, bloated in places, like it had been

1535
02:09:29,000 --> 02:09:33,359
left underwater for too long. The skin was blue gray,

1536
02:09:33,840 --> 02:09:38,920
tinged with deep, sickly greens. The texture was hoarse, its

1537
02:09:38,960 --> 02:09:43,119
flesh not smooth, but broken up, cracked like dried leather.

1538
02:09:44,000 --> 02:09:47,600
Clusters of binnacles hung to its shoulders, its arms, the

1539
02:09:47,640 --> 02:09:53,079
side of its neck. It stared at me, and I

1540
02:09:53,199 --> 02:09:59,560
stared back. Its mouth hung slightly open. The inside of

1541
02:09:59,600 --> 02:10:03,239
its mouth was ragged and torn. The gums were black,

1542
02:10:03,560 --> 02:10:09,000
the teeth rotting, but something moved inside, shifting Beneath the teeth,

1543
02:10:10,359 --> 02:10:14,520
small thin tendrils stained with moisture, flicked in and out

1544
02:10:14,560 --> 02:10:20,319
between them, almost like feelers. It took another step forward,

1545
02:10:21,439 --> 02:10:26,119
and it spoke, Not words, not anything that should have

1546
02:10:26,159 --> 02:10:32,119
been speech, just the wet, gurgling croak, something pulled from

1547
02:10:32,159 --> 02:10:37,840
the depths of rotting lungs. Rodriguez's body hit the floor

1548
02:10:37,840 --> 02:10:41,239
with a dull, wet thump. As we let go and ran.

1549
02:10:42,720 --> 02:10:47,079
We didn't think, didn't speak, didn't breathe. The thing behind

1550
02:10:47,119 --> 02:10:50,560
us lurched forward, its feet dragging across the damp wood,

1551
02:10:51,079 --> 02:10:55,560
its movements both too slow and too fast. I could

1552
02:10:55,560 --> 02:10:59,760
hear it, the wet, labored wheeze rattling in his chest,

1553
02:11:00,560 --> 02:11:05,079
the sickly pop of something shifting under its skin, Gallagher

1554
02:11:05,119 --> 02:11:09,520
shoved past me, his flashlight being bouncing wildly. Holloway was

1555
02:11:09,600 --> 02:11:14,760
right behind him, his breath coming ragged. Desperate, we made

1556
02:11:14,800 --> 02:11:17,840
it to the stairs, our boots slamming against the steps,

1557
02:11:18,399 --> 02:11:23,039
but the thing wasn't too far behind us, And then

1558
02:11:24,680 --> 02:11:30,800
Holloway slipped. He hid the landing hard, his flashlight skidding

1559
02:11:30,800 --> 02:11:35,399
across the floor. He scrambled up onto his hands and knees, gasping,

1560
02:11:36,159 --> 02:11:40,279
But the thing behind us was already there, a wet

1561
02:11:40,319 --> 02:11:45,640
slap of flesh and wood, a caturo croak. I turned,

1562
02:11:45,920 --> 02:11:49,640
barely catching a glimpse of it lurching toward Holloway. Its

1563
02:11:49,680 --> 02:11:54,840
mouth yawned open, unimaginably deep, a mass of shattered teeth

1564
02:11:54,880 --> 02:12:02,039
and writhing slip tendrils. It was so close I didn't think.

1565
02:12:02,600 --> 02:12:05,199
I grabbed the first thing I could, A box of

1566
02:12:05,279 --> 02:12:08,119
tools to my left had a crowbar. I grabbed it

1567
02:12:08,239 --> 02:12:14,640
so tight my hand ached, then swung. The crack of

1568
02:12:14,680 --> 02:12:19,479
impact was sharp, jarring. The thing's head jerked violently to

1569
02:12:19,520 --> 02:12:22,920
the side, and something deep inside it made a wet

1570
02:12:23,119 --> 02:12:29,199
sucking sound, like air escaping from a bloated carcass. It staggered.

1571
02:12:30,560 --> 02:12:34,880
Gallagher was already moving hauling Holloway to his feet. I

1572
02:12:34,920 --> 02:12:37,760
took another step forward and brought the crowbar down hard,

1573
02:12:38,079 --> 02:12:42,000
aiming for its head, its chest, anything that would break.

1574
02:12:43,199 --> 02:12:50,479
It didn't bleed. It leaped. Dark brackish water spilled from

1575
02:12:50,520 --> 02:12:54,000
the wound, sloshing onto the deck, carrying with it the

1576
02:12:54,039 --> 02:12:59,319
wreek of salt and decay. But it didn't stop. It

1577
02:12:59,399 --> 02:13:03,039
grabbed at me me, its fingers webbed and thick with barnacles,

1578
02:13:03,439 --> 02:13:08,199
its nails blackened and splitting. I wrenched away, my breath,

1579
02:13:08,239 --> 02:13:13,439
coming in short gasps. Gallagher moved next, slamming his boot

1580
02:13:13,520 --> 02:13:18,159
into my chest, sending it staggering back. Holloway grabbed a

1581
02:13:18,239 --> 02:13:20,680
rustic pipe from the floor and brought it down on

1582
02:13:20,800 --> 02:13:29,079
its skull. This time it collapsed. The final shuddering breath

1583
02:13:29,199 --> 02:13:32,199
rattled out from its lungs, but there was no struggle,

1584
02:13:32,399 --> 02:13:36,960
no death throes, just the slow, unnatural way. It deflated,

1585
02:13:37,720 --> 02:13:40,960
like the sea itself was pulling its insides back down

1586
02:13:41,000 --> 02:13:47,359
into the depths. The ship went silent. The three of

1587
02:13:47,439 --> 02:13:53,840
us stood there, panting, shaking, dripping sweat. I forced myself

1588
02:13:53,880 --> 02:13:59,359
to breathe. My heart was still hammering, my body still

1589
02:13:59,399 --> 02:14:03,479
locked in fire vital flight, but we weren't being chased anymore,

1590
02:14:04,880 --> 02:14:09,399
not yet. Gallagher wiped the sweat from his brow with

1591
02:14:09,439 --> 02:14:14,520
a shaky hand, cheez he muttered, what the hell was it?

1592
02:14:16,680 --> 02:14:21,840
Holloway didn't answer. I swallowed hard and stepped forward. My

1593
02:14:21,960 --> 02:14:26,479
legs shook as adrenaline surge threw me. The creature's skin

1594
02:14:26,720 --> 02:14:31,960
was the worst part, pale, almost translucent in places, bloated

1595
02:14:32,039 --> 02:14:37,199
with water, the veins underneath bulging, too dark, too thick.

1596
02:14:38,880 --> 02:14:43,920
It had been human once, that much was clear, but

1597
02:14:44,000 --> 02:14:49,600
it wasn't anymore. The barnacles, the jagged nails, the empty sockets,

1598
02:14:49,640 --> 02:14:52,600
or his eyes should have been. Whatever had happened to

1599
02:14:52,600 --> 02:14:59,720
this thing, it had changed then I really looked at it.

1600
02:15:00,119 --> 02:15:06,399
Clothes ragged, torn, but still there. A heavy wool coat

1601
02:15:06,920 --> 02:15:11,359
tattered and salt eaten, A loose undershirt ripped down the front,

1602
02:15:11,960 --> 02:15:14,600
A pair of slacks that might have once been navy blue.

1603
02:15:16,199 --> 02:15:20,520
I knew these clothes. They weren't just old rags. There

1604
02:15:20,560 --> 02:15:27,319
were a uniform, a sailor's uniform. Holloway must have noticed

1605
02:15:27,359 --> 02:15:29,840
it at the same time I did, because he let

1606
02:15:29,880 --> 02:15:34,880
out a short, shaky breath. I turned slightly, saw his

1607
02:15:35,000 --> 02:15:38,760
hands clenching at his side. His face was pale, his

1608
02:15:38,880 --> 02:15:44,840
lips pressed into a thin line cap. He said, voice low,

1609
02:15:46,359 --> 02:15:54,680
How many I blinked? I Holloway swallowed his Adam's apple,

1610
02:15:54,720 --> 02:15:58,159
bobbing in his throat. He didn't take his eyes off

1611
02:15:58,239 --> 02:16:05,000
the corpse. How many, he repeated, quieter this time. How

1612
02:16:05,039 --> 02:16:10,800
many crewmen would a ship like this have? I stared

1613
02:16:10,840 --> 02:16:16,439
at him. Then I looked around us. Big ship, massive,

1614
02:16:16,520 --> 02:16:21,239
really for a merchant vessel of this size back in

1615
02:16:21,279 --> 02:16:27,319
the nineteen twenties. I clenched my jaw. At least thirty,

1616
02:16:28,079 --> 02:16:34,120
they said. Holloway exhiled slowly through his nose. He didn't

1617
02:16:34,120 --> 02:16:37,280
look away from the thing on the floor. Let's get

1618
02:16:37,319 --> 02:16:40,280
out quickly, calling for help and come back for Roderic.

1619
02:16:41,280 --> 02:16:44,399
The sound rose from all over the lower decks, from

1620
02:16:44,399 --> 02:16:48,600
the corridors, from the darkness behind the crate, a chorus

1621
02:16:48,639 --> 02:16:54,680
of damp shuddering exhales, all breathing in unison. Holloway heard

1622
02:16:54,719 --> 02:16:59,440
it too, his face drained of color. Gallagher took a

1623
02:16:59,479 --> 02:17:04,520
slow stay back, his lights shaking in his grip. They

1624
02:17:04,559 --> 02:17:10,040
heard us. They crawled out of the dark, dragging themselves

1625
02:17:10,079 --> 02:17:13,520
across the damp wood, climbing from the flooded lower decks.

1626
02:17:14,520 --> 02:17:18,520
Some staggered upright, their legs bent at wrong angles. Others

1627
02:17:18,559 --> 02:17:22,719
moved on all fours, their limbs elongated, their bloated fingers

1628
02:17:22,760 --> 02:17:26,760
curling into the boards. One of them lurched into the light.

1629
02:17:27,680 --> 02:17:31,959
I could hear Holloway gagging. I took a step back.

1630
02:17:32,799 --> 02:17:36,840
The creature's head snapped toward me, and then it stumbled

1631
02:17:36,879 --> 02:17:42,079
and ran. At the same time, Gallagher screamed. The whole

1632
02:17:42,120 --> 02:17:47,760
ship irrupted into motion. The creatures swarmed forward, scrambling over

1633
02:17:47,799 --> 02:17:54,879
each other, crawling, sprinting, dragging themselves toward us. Go, I shouted,

1634
02:17:54,959 --> 02:18:00,520
shoving Holloway toward the stairs. We ran. Gallagher was ahead

1635
02:18:00,520 --> 02:18:04,120
of me. Holloway was right behind him. I could hear

1636
02:18:04,159 --> 02:18:07,200
the creatures closing in the sick, with a thud of

1637
02:18:07,200 --> 02:18:11,000
hands and knees against the wood, the wheezing, the gurgling.

1638
02:18:12,479 --> 02:18:15,559
Gallagher was the first to reach the stairs, taking them

1639
02:18:15,600 --> 02:18:19,479
two at a time, all the way. Stumbled caught himself.

1640
02:18:20,719 --> 02:18:27,200
I turned my head just once and saw them dozens,

1641
02:18:28,280 --> 02:18:32,000
their forms shifting in the dim light, some missing entire

1642
02:18:32,040 --> 02:18:37,079
pieces of themselves, but still coming. One of them leapt forward,

1643
02:18:37,360 --> 02:18:41,920
its jaw unhinging, Gallagher reached the railing, but her hand

1644
02:18:41,959 --> 02:18:45,559
shot out from the darkness and grabbed his ankle. He

1645
02:18:45,639 --> 02:18:49,159
hit the stairs hard, his flashlight clattering against the floor.

1646
02:18:50,000 --> 02:18:53,799
I lunged forward, trying to grab his arm, but I

1647
02:18:53,879 --> 02:19:01,840
was too slow. Something tall. Gallagher screamed, and then he

1648
02:19:02,000 --> 02:19:07,840
was gone. Holloway kept running. I had no choice but

1649
02:19:07,920 --> 02:19:12,879
to follow. I could still hear Gallagher screaming. Then it

1650
02:19:12,959 --> 02:19:20,120
turned into gurgling. He burst onto the deck, gasping for air,

1651
02:19:20,680 --> 02:19:25,639
lungs burning muscles, screaming. The floor was wet and Holloway

1652
02:19:25,639 --> 02:19:28,000
and I both slipped and fell, and some of the

1653
02:19:28,040 --> 02:19:33,040
things gained on us. Move I shouted, but my voice

1654
02:19:33,079 --> 02:19:39,159
barely carried over the thick, suffocating air. Then they hit us.

1655
02:19:39,799 --> 02:19:43,120
The first one grabbed my arm, fingers slick and bloated,

1656
02:19:43,479 --> 02:19:47,840
curling around my wrist. I whipped around, swung everything. I

1657
02:19:47,920 --> 02:19:53,079
had my fist cracking against the thing's skull. It barely reacted.

1658
02:19:54,639 --> 02:19:58,319
This jaw hung open, those blackened gums and jagged teeth

1659
02:19:58,440 --> 02:20:02,239
barely visible in the dim light light. The thing inside

1660
02:20:02,280 --> 02:20:07,079
his mouth flicked reaching. I drove my knee into its gut,

1661
02:20:07,440 --> 02:20:12,440
yanking my arm free, Stumbling back Holloway was next, a

1662
02:20:12,479 --> 02:20:15,280
pair of them closing in on him, the movements slow,

1663
02:20:15,559 --> 02:20:19,399
like they planned to enjoy themselves. He grabbed a rusted

1664
02:20:19,399 --> 02:20:22,120
pole from the deck and swung hard, knocking one of

1665
02:20:22,159 --> 02:20:27,639
them back. The other lunged, grabbing his shoulder. I rushed forward,

1666
02:20:27,799 --> 02:20:30,840
slamming into the thing, sending both of us sprawling to

1667
02:20:30,920 --> 02:20:36,079
the deck. Holloway stumbled back, panting, wiping sweat from his

1668
02:20:36,120 --> 02:20:39,799
face with a shaking hand. And then I felt it,

1669
02:20:41,239 --> 02:20:48,040
fingers around my ankle. My stomach dropped. I kicked hard,

1670
02:20:48,600 --> 02:20:52,680
but the grip was iron. It was dragging me back.

1671
02:20:54,360 --> 02:20:57,159
I tried to reach for something, but my fingers only

1672
02:20:57,200 --> 02:21:02,319
scraped against the deck, against the damp, rotting wood. And

1673
02:21:02,360 --> 02:21:06,399
then Holloway was there. He grabbed my arms, yanking me up.

1674
02:21:07,280 --> 02:21:10,639
The things gripped tightened, its rotting nails, trying to dig

1675
02:21:10,680 --> 02:21:14,239
into my skin. I barely had time to register the

1676
02:21:14,280 --> 02:21:17,479
pain before Holloway ripped a plank off the floor and

1677
02:21:17,680 --> 02:21:22,319
smashed it in the thing's face and wet, sickening crunch,

1678
02:21:23,559 --> 02:21:28,440
the grip loosened. That was all we needed. We ran.

1679
02:21:30,120 --> 02:21:33,719
Holloway skidded to a stop near the railing. He turned

1680
02:21:33,760 --> 02:21:38,399
to me, chest heaving. He didn't speak, he didn't need to.

1681
02:21:39,719 --> 02:21:47,440
We both knew one option. Jump. I gave him a

1682
02:21:47,479 --> 02:21:52,879
single nod. No hesitation, no second guessing, Just do it.

1683
02:21:54,159 --> 02:22:00,399
We turned together and jumped. The air rushed past my ears,

1684
02:22:00,840 --> 02:22:03,639
the cold spray of salt water hitting my skin as

1685
02:22:03,639 --> 02:22:07,799
we plummeted toward a black abyss below. I hit the

1686
02:22:07,840 --> 02:22:11,079
water hard, the cold like a knife to the chest.

1687
02:22:12,159 --> 02:22:16,159
My breath vanished, stolen by the sudden pressure, the darkness,

1688
02:22:16,280 --> 02:22:22,440
the silence. For half a second, I was weightless, spinning.

1689
02:22:23,360 --> 02:22:28,079
The current gripped me, dragged me downward. I kicked hard,

1690
02:22:28,280 --> 02:22:33,520
fighting against it, lung screaming, heart hammering. My fingers reached

1691
02:22:33,520 --> 02:22:41,559
for the surface, for air, for anything. Then I broke through, gasping, choking.

1692
02:22:43,319 --> 02:22:48,719
I wiped the salt from my eyes, twisting, searching holloway.

1693
02:22:50,600 --> 02:22:53,879
I saw his head bob up a few feet away, sputtering,

1694
02:22:54,040 --> 02:23:01,200
spitting sea water, where his voice broke hoarse, panicked. We're here,

1695
02:23:01,319 --> 02:23:07,520
We're where's the dinghy? I turned, looking frantically through the

1696
02:23:07,559 --> 02:23:12,319
fog drenched water. We saw it just a few feet

1697
02:23:12,360 --> 02:23:17,200
from where we landed. We pulled ourselves in, slipping and shaking.

1698
02:23:18,280 --> 02:23:23,559
I just grabbed the oars and started rowing. As my

1699
02:23:23,600 --> 02:23:29,840
adrenaline faded, I could focus my eyes hear things, see

1700
02:23:30,079 --> 02:23:32,920
to row. I had to face the ship, seeing it

1701
02:23:33,040 --> 02:23:37,000
slip into the thick fog that surrounded us, and on

1702
02:23:37,040 --> 02:23:41,040
the silhouette flat line of the railing, I saw shapes

1703
02:23:41,040 --> 02:23:46,799
that broke the perfect linearity of it, lumps, vague shapes

1704
02:23:46,879 --> 02:23:50,440
wandering to the perimeter of the ship, watching us leave,

1705
02:23:51,319 --> 02:23:56,319
bound to the cursed vessel. I was more than ready

1706
02:23:56,360 --> 02:23:59,040
to just leave the ship behind, be done with it.

1707
02:24:00,440 --> 02:24:04,440
But I heard something, not the slashing of them swimming

1708
02:24:04,479 --> 02:24:07,360
towards us, nor the chase of something in the water.

1709
02:24:09,879 --> 02:24:19,360
A voice, Captain, come back, please. It was Rodriguez, not

1710
02:24:19,479 --> 02:24:24,319
a mimicry wet and gurgled beneath the monster's form. His

1711
02:24:24,440 --> 02:24:28,159
voice was clear, like he was perfectly well, like he

1712
02:24:28,239 --> 02:24:32,639
hadn't been torn apart in the lower deck. Don't leave

1713
02:24:32,719 --> 02:24:41,200
us behind, come back. This time it was Gallagher. I hesitated,

1714
02:24:41,639 --> 02:24:46,360
my rowing, slowed. Holloway tapped my arm, and when I

1715
02:24:46,399 --> 02:24:51,000
looked at his face, he just shook his head. It

1716
02:24:51,159 --> 02:24:56,719
wasn't him, it wasn't them. I knew that, but part

1717
02:24:56,760 --> 02:24:59,799
of me still wanted to go back, just to make

1718
02:25:02,799 --> 02:25:05,600
I thought back to the log book the final entry.

1719
02:25:07,079 --> 02:25:13,799
The sea is speaking, the men are listening. In a

1720
02:25:13,879 --> 02:25:17,399
straight up rawl, one or two we could handle. A

1721
02:25:17,479 --> 02:25:20,319
ship of thirty hardened sailors would be able to handle

1722
02:25:20,399 --> 02:25:25,559
that level of incursion. But all it would take is one,

1723
02:25:25,959 --> 02:25:29,639
one familiar voice, one person you care enough about to

1724
02:25:29,760 --> 02:25:33,959
check on to make sure they're okay, and you can

1725
02:25:34,000 --> 02:25:38,959
see how quickly things can turn sour. We eventually reached

1726
02:25:39,000 --> 02:25:46,799
our vessel. Holloway collapsed behind me, panting, coughing, shaking. Neither

1727
02:25:46,840 --> 02:25:50,520
of us spoke. By the time we reached the ship,

1728
02:25:51,079 --> 02:25:55,079
the perdition was gone. The fog had swallowed it all

1729
02:25:56,799 --> 02:26:08,959
like it had never been there at all. I grew

1730
02:26:09,040 --> 02:26:12,079
up in a small, single story house on the outskirts

1731
02:26:12,079 --> 02:26:16,360
of town. Our house was a mudge, just the squat

1732
02:26:16,360 --> 02:26:19,200
little box of peeling white paint with a porch that

1733
02:26:19,360 --> 02:26:22,840
sag slightly in the middle. I always thought it looked

1734
02:26:22,840 --> 02:26:26,959
like it was tired of holding itself up. I didn't care, though.

1735
02:26:28,040 --> 02:26:33,799
To me, it was home. But what I remember most

1736
02:26:33,840 --> 02:26:37,079
about that house wasn't the porch, or the yard or

1737
02:26:37,079 --> 02:26:42,120
the tiny bedroom I shared with my younger brother. It

1738
02:26:42,200 --> 02:26:47,479
was the crawl space. It stretched under the entire house,

1739
02:26:48,479 --> 02:26:52,600
a hollow, black cavity barely two feet high, covered by

1740
02:26:52,680 --> 02:26:57,879
warped wooden slats nailed haphazardly across the entrance. My dad

1741
02:26:57,920 --> 02:27:00,559
always told me to stay away from it, said it

1742
02:27:00,639 --> 02:27:03,760
was full of spiders and mold, sharp bits of rusted

1743
02:27:03,799 --> 02:27:06,840
metal waiting to slice my hands open if I reached in.

1744
02:27:08,280 --> 02:27:11,600
My mom warned me too, though she was less dramatic

1745
02:27:11,639 --> 02:27:18,520
about it, more exasperated than afraid. But I was a

1746
02:27:18,559 --> 02:27:23,760
curious kid. I'd kneel by the slats, peering through the gaps,

1747
02:27:24,120 --> 02:27:28,360
trying to see what was inside. Most of the time

1748
02:27:28,719 --> 02:27:32,760
it was just dirt or darkness. Sometimes, if the angle

1749
02:27:32,879 --> 02:27:35,600
was just right, i'd catch a glimpse of the wooden

1750
02:27:35,639 --> 02:27:38,520
beams holding up the house, or maybe a flash of

1751
02:27:38,559 --> 02:27:43,159
something skittering out of sight. I never got too close,

1752
02:27:43,600 --> 02:27:51,040
never reached inside, until one summer afternoon when I heard

1753
02:27:51,040 --> 02:27:56,559
some one whisper my name. I was playing in the

1754
02:27:56,559 --> 02:28:00,879
back yard alone, kicking a plastic soccer ball around when

1755
02:28:00,879 --> 02:28:05,520
I heard it, faint at first, a dry voice slipping

1756
02:28:05,559 --> 02:28:09,239
out from beneath the house like a draft. When the

1757
02:28:09,319 --> 02:28:12,440
voice slipped out from beneath the porch. It was so

1758
02:28:12,440 --> 02:28:15,559
soft I almost didn't hear it over the sound of

1759
02:28:15,600 --> 02:28:21,319
the ball bouncing. I stopped, turned toward the crawl space.

1760
02:28:22,440 --> 02:28:29,600
Nothing but darkness, then again, slightly louder, Come here for

1761
02:28:29,639 --> 02:28:35,000
a second. Any adult would have ran inside and lured

1762
02:28:35,040 --> 02:28:39,559
to the police or done anything. But I was seven,

1763
02:28:40,120 --> 02:28:45,360
maybe eight, and I that stupid childlike fearlessness that makes

1764
02:28:45,479 --> 02:28:49,360
kids think nothing bad can happen to them. So instead

1765
02:28:49,399 --> 02:28:55,159
of being scared, I was just curious. I dropped my

1766
02:28:55,239 --> 02:28:58,600
soccer ball and walked toward the crawled space, dropping to

1767
02:28:58,639 --> 02:29:01,040
my knees to press my face to the gaps in

1768
02:29:01,079 --> 02:29:07,920
the wooden slats. Her face stared back at me. I

1769
02:29:08,200 --> 02:29:14,000
just stared back. The man didn't blink. His eyes were

1770
02:29:14,040 --> 02:29:18,319
wide locked onto mine, sunken deep into a skull, like

1771
02:29:18,399 --> 02:29:22,079
he hadn't slept in a long time. His skin was

1772
02:29:22,159 --> 02:29:26,479
sallow and streaked with dirt, and his hair, what little

1773
02:29:26,479 --> 02:29:30,159
of it I could see, was long and stringy, clinging

1774
02:29:30,200 --> 02:29:35,239
to his face in limp, greasy strands. When he spoke again,

1775
02:29:36,079 --> 02:29:41,000
his voice was almost kind. Didn't mean to scare you, buddy,

1776
02:29:42,760 --> 02:29:47,120
I still didn't answer. I'm an old friend of your dad's,

1777
02:29:47,760 --> 02:29:55,360
he said, his lips curling. Really, I finally managed. He

1778
02:29:55,440 --> 02:29:59,760
shifted slightly, just enough that I could see more of him,

1779
02:30:00,079 --> 02:30:05,079
bony shoulders, his skin a mess of wounds. He looked filthy,

1780
02:30:05,559 --> 02:30:09,799
like he'd been rolling in dirt. But his voice was calm, friendly,

1781
02:30:10,520 --> 02:30:13,040
the way adults talk to kids when they want them

1782
02:30:13,079 --> 02:30:17,920
to feel safe. Yeah, who used to be real close

1783
02:30:18,000 --> 02:30:21,879
to the family. But it's been a while since we talked.

1784
02:30:22,760 --> 02:30:28,520
He probably wouldn't remember me, he nodded. That made sense.

1785
02:30:29,159 --> 02:30:34,479
Adults forgot things all the time. Hey, do me a favor,

1786
02:30:35,360 --> 02:30:39,520
he added, lowering his voice. Don't tell him I'm here yet.

1787
02:30:40,360 --> 02:30:44,120
Let's keep it a secret for now, just between us.

1788
02:30:44,719 --> 02:30:51,520
Your dad might not understand. At that age, I thought

1789
02:30:51,600 --> 02:30:56,680
secrets were fun. I don't know why I trusted him.

1790
02:30:57,120 --> 02:30:59,719
Maybe it was the way he spoke, the softness in

1791
02:30:59,799 --> 02:31:03,399
his Maybe it was because I wanted it to be true,

1792
02:31:04,000 --> 02:31:06,959
because the idea of finally having a secret of my

1793
02:31:07,040 --> 02:31:11,520
own to keep from my parents made it seem grand special.

1794
02:31:13,639 --> 02:31:16,520
I didn't tell my parents, and I kept visiting the

1795
02:31:16,559 --> 02:31:23,000
crawl space. We just talked. I'd go outside and kneel

1796
02:31:23,040 --> 02:31:25,559
by the crawl space, whispering through the gaps in the

1797
02:31:25,559 --> 02:31:28,479
wooden slats while the man lay on the dirt on

1798
02:31:28,559 --> 02:31:32,799
the other side. He never came out, never reached for me,

1799
02:31:33,799 --> 02:31:37,360
just stayed in the shadows, speaking in that same soft,

1800
02:31:37,440 --> 02:31:40,520
friendly tone that made me feel like I was talking

1801
02:31:40,559 --> 02:31:44,959
to someone I've known all my life. I felt safe.

1802
02:31:46,840 --> 02:31:50,079
What's your favorite thing to do? He asked me. Once

1803
02:31:50,959 --> 02:31:53,680
you play outside a lot, what do you want to

1804
02:31:53,719 --> 02:31:58,360
be when you grow up. His questions were harmless at first,

1805
02:31:58,840 --> 02:32:02,319
and he listened so intently, like every little thing I

1806
02:32:02,399 --> 02:32:07,639
said was the most important thing he'd ever heard. I

1807
02:32:07,799 --> 02:32:14,840
liked that, But over time the questions started to change.

1808
02:32:15,120 --> 02:32:18,639
Your dad still works late. Where do you sleep in

1809
02:32:18,680 --> 02:32:24,159
the house? Your mom locked the doors at night the

1810
02:32:24,200 --> 02:32:29,200
first time he asked that, I hesitated. Yeah, I said,

1811
02:32:29,639 --> 02:32:37,040
she locks them every night. I thought about it. Sometimes

1812
02:32:37,079 --> 02:32:46,559
she forgets, I admitted. He was quiet for a long time. Really,

1813
02:32:47,520 --> 02:32:53,639
he finally asked, she sometimes forgets. There was something in

1814
02:32:53,639 --> 02:32:57,840
his voice, something I didn't understand yet, because I was

1815
02:32:58,079 --> 02:33:03,399
just a kid. Looking back, I can see now that

1816
02:33:03,479 --> 02:33:08,440
they were never just questions. They were tests, each one

1817
02:33:08,600 --> 02:33:12,680
peeling back another layer, gauging how much I knew, how

1818
02:33:12,760 --> 02:33:15,680
much I was willing to tell him how much influence

1819
02:33:15,719 --> 02:33:20,760
he had over me without me even realizing it, and

1820
02:33:20,879 --> 02:33:24,239
I'd let him do it. I had fed him information

1821
02:33:24,520 --> 02:33:28,239
piece by piece, unaware that I was giving him everything

1822
02:33:28,280 --> 02:33:35,879
he needed. Hey, buddy, I missed you yesterday. Sorry, I

1823
02:33:35,920 --> 02:33:41,040
had whispered back. I went to my grandma's. Ah, that's

1824
02:33:41,159 --> 02:33:47,000
nice that she makes good cookies. Yeah, your little brother

1825
02:33:47,120 --> 02:33:53,959
go to The question was casual, effortless, like he was

1826
02:33:54,120 --> 02:33:59,440
just making small talk. I'd answered without thinking. I didn't

1827
02:33:59,479 --> 02:34:03,000
think back then of the fact that I'd never mentioned

1828
02:34:03,000 --> 02:34:07,520
my little brother to him. Uh huh, he always comes

1829
02:34:07,520 --> 02:34:12,639
with us. Of course, can't leave the little guy behind her.

1830
02:34:14,639 --> 02:34:20,879
I laughed, and then I heard the screen door creak open. Hey,

1831
02:34:21,159 --> 02:34:26,120
what are you doing? I flinched, jerking back from the

1832
02:34:26,159 --> 02:34:29,079
crawl space so fast that I scraped my knee against

1833
02:34:29,079 --> 02:34:33,440
the dirt. My little brother was standing on the porch,

1834
02:34:33,879 --> 02:34:38,239
watching me with wide, suspicious eyes, his small hands gripping

1835
02:34:38,239 --> 02:34:41,000
the wooden railing, like he had caught me doing something

1836
02:34:41,159 --> 02:34:47,719
I wasn't supposed to. I panicked. Nothing, I said, quickly

1837
02:34:47,879 --> 02:34:51,520
scrambling to my feet. I was just looking for something.

1838
02:34:53,959 --> 02:34:58,399
His face twisted into something skeptical, his little brows knitting

1839
02:34:58,440 --> 02:35:02,000
together as he took a step forward, craning his neck

1840
02:35:02,120 --> 02:35:06,159
to look at the crawl space entrance, looking for what.

1841
02:35:08,639 --> 02:35:11,920
The man was silent now. I could feel him waiting

1842
02:35:12,399 --> 02:35:19,040
just beyond the slats, watching, listening. I had to think first,

1843
02:35:20,239 --> 02:35:24,479
Uh my ball, I said, brushing dirt off my shorts

1844
02:35:24,799 --> 02:35:28,360
and trying to sound as normal as possible. I think

1845
02:35:28,399 --> 02:35:34,799
it rolled under there. My brother's gaze flicked back to me. Okay,

1846
02:35:36,120 --> 02:35:39,399
I want to go play in the treehouse, I stumbled,

1847
02:35:41,319 --> 02:35:47,440
and just like that, he forgot all about it, and

1848
02:35:47,520 --> 02:35:52,479
I wish he never believed me. The first time the

1849
02:35:52,520 --> 02:35:55,680
man in the crawl space asked me for something, I

1850
02:35:55,719 --> 02:36:00,680
almost didn't even register it as a request. Hey buddy,

1851
02:36:01,760 --> 02:36:06,680
can you do me a favor? It was an easy question.

1852
02:36:07,719 --> 02:36:11,120
We were just two old friends at this point, trading secrets.

1853
02:36:12,200 --> 02:36:16,280
I didn't even hesitate before nodding before giving him this simple,

1854
02:36:16,600 --> 02:36:22,879
automatic sure, because why wouldn't I. He had never asked

1855
02:36:22,879 --> 02:36:26,600
for anything before. It never even implied that he wanted

1856
02:36:26,639 --> 02:36:31,200
something from me beyond my company. Your dad keeps a

1857
02:36:31,280 --> 02:36:35,840
spare key to the shed, right, I remember feeling the

1858
02:36:35,879 --> 02:36:40,680
slightest pang of discomfort. Then, but he was vague, unformed,

1859
02:36:41,239 --> 02:36:44,680
like the first tremor of a storm coming, a flicker

1860
02:36:44,719 --> 02:36:48,200
of something wrong just beneath the surface that my young

1861
02:36:48,280 --> 02:36:54,120
mind didn't yet know how to identify. I hesitated, but

1862
02:36:54,200 --> 02:37:00,280
the response came anyway. Yeah, you know where he hid it?

1863
02:37:02,719 --> 02:37:06,159
Of course I did. It was under the porch, tucked

1864
02:37:06,200 --> 02:37:08,959
behind a row of old cinder blocks near the back steps.

1865
02:37:10,040 --> 02:37:12,280
My dad had told me once in case he ever

1866
02:37:12,360 --> 02:37:14,920
needed me to get it for him, and I'd filed

1867
02:37:14,920 --> 02:37:18,559
the information away, never thinking it would be useful for

1868
02:37:18,680 --> 02:37:25,680
anything else. Yeah, I said, think you could grab it

1869
02:37:25,719 --> 02:37:32,239
for me that. When I finally hesitated for real, there

1870
02:37:32,280 --> 02:37:35,840
was a shift, a barely perceptible change in the air

1871
02:37:35,920 --> 02:37:39,600
between us, a tiny crack and the illusion that I

1872
02:37:39,680 --> 02:37:44,520
had never noticed before. I didn't understand why it felt wrong,

1873
02:37:44,879 --> 02:37:48,159
but it did, and for the first time since I'd

1874
02:37:48,200 --> 02:37:53,000
started talking to him, I found myself wanting to leave.

1875
02:37:54,719 --> 02:38:02,239
Why He laughed, as if the answer was obvious. Ah,

1876
02:38:02,719 --> 02:38:07,360
it's stupid, he said, dismissing the whole thing as a joke,

1877
02:38:08,079 --> 02:38:10,719
as if I was the silly one for taking it seriously.

1878
02:38:11,799 --> 02:38:15,360
I left something in there a long time ago, something

1879
02:38:15,360 --> 02:38:20,479
I meant to grab a little keepsake. You know. That

1880
02:38:20,799 --> 02:38:24,559
made sense to me. All the adults had little things

1881
02:38:24,600 --> 02:38:27,799
they didn't need but couldn't bring themselves to throw away.

1882
02:38:28,680 --> 02:38:31,520
Even mom had shoe boxes full of old birthday cards

1883
02:38:31,559 --> 02:38:34,159
she never looked at, and my dad had a draw

1884
02:38:34,280 --> 02:38:37,239
full of broken watches he always swore he was going

1885
02:38:37,280 --> 02:38:42,319
to fix. And maybe you noticed, Maybe he sensed that

1886
02:38:42,399 --> 02:38:47,200
my willingness was starting to crack, because after a moment

1887
02:38:47,239 --> 02:38:53,559
of silence, he gave me reassurance. It's all right, buddy,

1888
02:38:54,159 --> 02:39:01,280
he said, you don't have to do it. That was

1889
02:39:01,319 --> 02:39:07,959
the end of it until the next time. But he

1890
02:39:08,040 --> 02:39:15,120
didn't ask about the shed key. Hey. His voice was

1891
02:39:15,159 --> 02:39:19,719
lower that day, quieter, like he didn't want anyone else

1892
02:39:19,760 --> 02:39:24,000
to hear, even though we were alone in the backyard,

1893
02:39:24,159 --> 02:39:29,719
just as we always were. What could you leave the

1894
02:39:29,760 --> 02:39:35,479
back door unlocked for me? Tonight? My stomach twists thinking

1895
02:39:35,520 --> 02:39:40,680
back to it. Why I want to leave you a

1896
02:39:40,719 --> 02:39:48,719
little present? Trust me, I really liked presents, and my

1897
02:39:48,799 --> 02:39:51,639
parents hadn't gotten me a present since my birthday a

1898
02:39:51,680 --> 02:39:55,879
couple of months back. And then before I could decide

1899
02:39:55,879 --> 02:40:01,559
what to do, dinner's ready, I turned toward the house.

1900
02:40:02,000 --> 02:40:04,879
The sound snapping me out of whatever fog I'd been

1901
02:40:04,920 --> 02:40:12,040
slipping into, and when I looked back, he was gone.

1902
02:40:12,360 --> 02:40:15,840
I unlocked the back door that night. I don't know

1903
02:40:16,000 --> 02:40:18,600
if it was because I started trusting the man too much,

1904
02:40:19,120 --> 02:40:22,360
or if I wanted a present that badly, or maybe

1905
02:40:22,440 --> 02:40:24,719
I was just too caught up in the normal rhythm

1906
02:40:24,799 --> 02:40:28,520
of family life to think about anything beyond the present moment.

1907
02:40:30,000 --> 02:40:34,840
Either way, it didn't matter, because the moment came and went,

1908
02:40:35,639 --> 02:40:38,479
and by the time we sat down for dinner, the

1909
02:40:38,559 --> 02:40:42,719
whole thing was already slipping from my mind, already losing

1910
02:40:42,920 --> 02:40:51,799
its weight. And then, without thinking I said it, I'd

1911
02:40:51,840 --> 02:40:56,920
talk to your friend to day. I didn't even notice

1912
02:40:56,959 --> 02:41:01,520
the reaction. I was focused on my plate, barely paying attention,

1913
02:41:02,200 --> 02:41:05,360
my fork spearing a piece of overcooked chicken as I

1914
02:41:05,440 --> 02:41:13,079
chewed slowly, distantly. But then the silence settled, and I

1915
02:41:13,159 --> 02:41:19,440
felt it. Dad's hand frozen mid cut, his knuckles white

1916
02:41:19,520 --> 02:41:23,840
round the handle of his knife. Mom unmoving at the stove,

1917
02:41:24,319 --> 02:41:28,239
her back to me, her posture stiff. She looked like

1918
02:41:28,319 --> 02:41:33,920
her entire body had gone cold all at once. What friend.

1919
02:41:37,000 --> 02:41:41,639
Dad's voice was slow, careful, like he already knew the answer.

1920
02:41:42,079 --> 02:41:47,079
But was trying to delay it. I blinked at him,

1921
02:41:47,159 --> 02:41:51,760
confused by the sudden change in the atmosphere. He your

1922
02:41:51,760 --> 02:42:01,120
friend in the cool space. The words landed. Ma'am dropped

1923
02:42:01,120 --> 02:42:04,159
the pan she had been holding, the metal clattering against

1924
02:42:04,200 --> 02:42:10,639
the stove with a loud, jarring crash. Dad's face went white.

1925
02:42:11,159 --> 02:42:16,360
For a long time, no one moved, Then all at once,

1926
02:42:17,040 --> 02:42:20,239
Dad pushed back from the table, standing so fast his

1927
02:42:20,479 --> 02:42:23,319
chair scraped against the floor with a shriek of wood

1928
02:42:23,360 --> 02:42:27,760
and tile. Without a word, he turned, walked to the

1929
02:42:27,760 --> 02:42:33,239
front door and stormed outside. My father was already in

1930
02:42:33,280 --> 02:42:37,120
motion before I could fully register what was happening, his

1931
02:42:37,239 --> 02:42:40,360
movement sharp and frantic as he ripped at the wooden

1932
02:42:40,399 --> 02:42:44,959
slats covering the crawl space entrance, his fingers prying at

1933
02:42:45,000 --> 02:42:47,479
the brittle planks with a kind of strength I had

1934
02:42:47,520 --> 02:42:52,120
never seen before. The nail shrieked as they were wrenched loose,

1935
02:42:52,680 --> 02:42:55,440
the old wood splintering beneath the force of his grip.

1936
02:42:57,280 --> 02:43:02,399
Dad My voice came out small, but he didn't answer.

1937
02:43:03,479 --> 02:43:07,600
He was breathing too hard, too fast, his hands shaking

1938
02:43:07,799 --> 02:43:10,200
as he pulled away the last of the boards and

1939
02:43:10,360 --> 02:43:14,840
tossed them aside. The entrance to the crawl space yawned

1940
02:43:14,879 --> 02:43:19,440
open before us, a gaping black mouth cut into the earth.

1941
02:43:20,719 --> 02:43:23,559
Dad grabbed the flashlight from his belt, flicked it on,

1942
02:43:23,959 --> 02:43:30,120
and shine the beam inside. For a moment. I expected

1943
02:43:30,120 --> 02:43:33,959
to see him. I expected the pale, thin man from

1944
02:43:34,000 --> 02:43:37,479
beneath our house to be crouched in the dirt, his

1945
02:43:37,600 --> 02:43:40,639
sunken eyes reflecting the beam of light as he stared.

1946
02:43:42,239 --> 02:43:50,799
But there was nothing, just emptiness. The flashlight beam swept

1947
02:43:50,799 --> 02:43:54,799
across the crawl space, illuminating nothing but bare dirt and

1948
02:43:54,840 --> 02:43:59,360
cobwebbed wooden beams. The air that wafted out smelt stale

1949
02:43:59,399 --> 02:44:02,840
and sour, thick with a scent of damp rot and

1950
02:44:02,959 --> 02:44:05,319
things that had been left to decay in the dark

1951
02:44:05,440 --> 02:44:09,879
for too long though. No footprints in the dirt, no

1952
02:44:10,000 --> 02:44:13,959
sign that any one had ever been inside, no mattress,

1953
02:44:14,280 --> 02:44:17,959
no discarded clothes, no remnants of a person who might

1954
02:44:18,000 --> 02:44:22,600
have been living there. Maybe I'd made up the entire

1955
02:44:22,680 --> 02:44:25,520
thing in my head, a game of pretend that it

1956
02:44:25,719 --> 02:44:31,440
spiraled out of control. But then the flashlight beam passed

1957
02:44:31,440 --> 02:44:36,799
over something small and familiar, something that shouldn't have been there.

1958
02:44:39,319 --> 02:44:48,120
A shoe, tiny red half covered in dirt. I felt

1959
02:44:48,159 --> 02:44:52,079
a jolt of recognition before my mind fully processed what

1960
02:44:52,360 --> 02:44:56,959
I was looking at. My stomach twisted violently, and the

1961
02:44:57,000 --> 02:45:01,239
air seemed to thin around me, the world tilting sideways

1962
02:45:01,319 --> 02:45:05,479
as I stared at it. Because I knew that shoe

1963
02:45:05,639 --> 02:45:11,399
didn't belong to me. It belonged to my little brother.

1964
02:45:13,520 --> 02:45:17,959
What the hell? My dad's voice was hoarse, cracking at

1965
02:45:18,000 --> 02:45:21,600
the edges as he stepped closer, his flashlight trained on

1966
02:45:21,680 --> 02:45:24,879
the single, out of place objects sitting in the dirt,

1967
02:45:25,920 --> 02:45:29,079
His hands clenched at his sides, his whole body rigid

1968
02:45:29,159 --> 02:45:36,120
with tension. He turned toward me, his face pale. Where

1969
02:45:36,200 --> 02:45:41,680
is your brother? The words barely had time to register

1970
02:45:42,159 --> 02:45:46,120
before my mother's voice rang out from behind us. Who

1971
02:45:46,159 --> 02:45:50,360
are you talking about? I turned and saw us standing

1972
02:45:50,360 --> 02:45:53,639
in the doorway, looking at us with an expression of deep,

1973
02:45:54,040 --> 02:45:58,040
unsettled confusion. Her brows furrowed as she tug in the

1974
02:45:58,079 --> 02:46:02,959
scene before her. Who's in the crawl space? She asked again,

1975
02:46:05,600 --> 02:46:12,959
and then the screaming started. I don't remember running inside.

1976
02:46:13,680 --> 02:46:15,959
I don't remember how I got from the front yard

1977
02:46:16,000 --> 02:46:19,079
to the hallway, how my legs carried me forward so

1978
02:46:19,319 --> 02:46:24,079
fast that my surroundings blurred, the walls stretching long and thin,

1979
02:46:24,639 --> 02:46:28,159
like something from a fever dream. I don't remember how

1980
02:46:28,159 --> 02:46:30,879
I ended up right behind my father, well how my

1981
02:46:30,959 --> 02:46:35,520
mother's voice, shouting something I couldn't understand, faded into a

1982
02:46:35,639 --> 02:46:40,719
dull hum. At the edges of my mind, I only

1983
02:46:40,760 --> 02:46:49,120
remember the screaming. It was raw and high and jagged,

1984
02:46:49,760 --> 02:46:53,440
something too broken to come from a person, something that

1985
02:46:53,479 --> 02:46:58,959
didn't sound human at all, And it was coming from

1986
02:46:58,959 --> 02:47:03,879
my brother's room. My father hid the door at full speed,

1987
02:47:04,319 --> 02:47:07,319
his shoulder slamming into it so hard that it must

1988
02:47:07,399 --> 02:47:11,719
have hurt. The wood buckled under his weight, and for

1989
02:47:11,760 --> 02:47:15,239
a moment it didn't budge, but then it gave way.

1990
02:47:16,559 --> 02:47:22,120
He stumbled forward, nearly falling as he caught himself. And

1991
02:47:22,159 --> 02:47:30,280
then I saw the blood. He was everywhere, splattered across

1992
02:47:30,319 --> 02:47:34,760
the floor, painted up the walls in thick visceral streaks,

1993
02:47:35,680 --> 02:47:38,440
so much of it, more than I thought a person

1994
02:47:38,479 --> 02:47:43,920
could even have inside them. He was still wet, still warm,

1995
02:47:44,360 --> 02:47:48,879
still spreading in slow creeping rivers beneath the flickering light

1996
02:47:48,959 --> 02:47:52,479
of the ceiling fan. And in the center of it

1997
02:47:52,600 --> 02:48:01,120
all my brother, or what was left of him. I

1998
02:48:01,159 --> 02:48:04,639
don't think I screamed. I don't think I made any

1999
02:48:04,719 --> 02:48:11,079
noise at all, because something inside me broke, something deep

2000
02:48:11,360 --> 02:48:16,440
and dark and all consuming. And as I stood there,

2001
02:48:16,959 --> 02:48:19,280
staring at the thing and the floor that had once

2002
02:48:19,399 --> 02:48:22,879
been my little brother, the thought rose up in me,

2003
02:48:23,639 --> 02:48:30,760
slow and suffocating, curling around my throat like smoke. I

2004
02:48:30,959 --> 02:48:36,440
did this. I don't know when my mother pushed past me,

2005
02:48:37,040 --> 02:48:39,639
or when a voice cracked into a sound i'd never

2006
02:48:39,719 --> 02:48:44,799
heard before, something so shattered and animalistic that it didn't

2007
02:48:44,840 --> 02:48:48,440
even sound like words. I don't know if they tried

2008
02:48:48,440 --> 02:48:50,840
to shield me from the sight, if they pulled me

2009
02:48:50,920 --> 02:48:53,680
back or turned me away. I don't know if I

2010
02:48:53,719 --> 02:48:57,120
collapsed or ran, or simply stood there as the room

2011
02:48:57,239 --> 02:49:01,879
spun and folded inward around me, because in that moment,

2012
02:49:03,319 --> 02:49:09,879
all I could hear was his voice, Where do you

2013
02:49:09,959 --> 02:49:13,280
sleep in the house whom Um locked the doors at night?

2014
02:49:14,479 --> 02:49:23,639
She forgets sometimes? Really, the realization came slowly. It wasn't

2015
02:49:23,680 --> 02:49:28,399
like a sudden impact, not an explosion of clarity. It

2016
02:49:28,559 --> 02:49:33,600
was something worse, something creeping, something insidious, something that had

2017
02:49:33,639 --> 02:49:37,360
been building for weeks, for months, for however long it

2018
02:49:37,399 --> 02:49:41,680
had been listening to me. I had told him everything.

2019
02:49:42,600 --> 02:49:48,079
I'd given him the key to my family. I don't

2020
02:49:48,079 --> 02:49:51,399
know what happened after that. I don't know who called

2021
02:49:51,440 --> 02:49:54,040
the police, or how long it took them to arrive,

2022
02:49:54,680 --> 02:49:57,719
or how many times I was asked the same questions

2023
02:49:57,799 --> 02:50:01,840
over and over and over again, until my mouth was

2024
02:50:01,920 --> 02:50:04,920
dry and my voice cracked from the effort of trying

2025
02:50:04,959 --> 02:50:08,559
to answer. I don't know if I ever answered at all,

2026
02:50:09,719 --> 02:50:12,520
because how do you begin to explain something like that.

2027
02:50:14,239 --> 02:50:17,360
I don't remember the funeral. I don't remember the weeks

2028
02:50:17,399 --> 02:50:20,200
that followed, or the way my parents stopped talking to

2029
02:50:20,280 --> 02:50:22,920
each other, or the way my mother wouldn't even look

2030
02:50:22,959 --> 02:50:26,239
at me anymore. I don't remember how I got from

2031
02:50:26,239 --> 02:50:29,040
that house to a different one, or how much time

2032
02:50:29,120 --> 02:50:32,360
had passed before my father finally packed up all our

2033
02:50:32,440 --> 02:50:39,959
things and moved us away. But I remember the guilt.

2034
02:50:49,000 --> 02:50:52,680
I've always believed in small gestures, the little things that

2035
02:50:52,719 --> 02:50:55,639
remind someone you'd love them, even in the middle of

2036
02:50:55,680 --> 02:51:01,200
a hectic, stressful life. My husband, Daniel, worked long hours

2037
02:51:01,200 --> 02:51:04,079
at a law firm, and I knew how exhausting it

2038
02:51:04,120 --> 02:51:07,799
could be for him. He'd come home late most nights,

2039
02:51:08,159 --> 02:51:12,120
rolling his shoulders, loosening his tie, pressing a quick, tied

2040
02:51:12,239 --> 02:51:15,799
kiss to my forehead before collapsing on to the couch.

2041
02:51:17,200 --> 02:51:20,239
It wasn't that he was an affectionate he really was,

2042
02:51:21,319 --> 02:51:24,040
but his job pulled all the energy out of him,

2043
02:51:25,079 --> 02:51:29,559
and I hated seeing the exhaustion in his eyes. So

2044
02:51:30,280 --> 02:51:36,520
for Valentine's Day, I decided to do something small, nothing extravagant,

2045
02:51:36,879 --> 02:51:41,719
nothing over the top, just a handwritten letter, something that

2046
02:51:41,760 --> 02:51:44,319
would make him smile in the middle of his long day,

2047
02:51:44,879 --> 02:51:48,040
maybe remind him that, no matter how difficult work got,

2048
02:51:48,600 --> 02:51:52,920
he had something good waiting for him at home. I

2049
02:51:52,959 --> 02:51:56,360
spent longer then i'd like to admit, writing it, curling

2050
02:51:56,479 --> 02:51:58,479
up on the couch with a warm blanket and a

2051
02:51:58,520 --> 02:52:02,040
glass of wine, wapping my pen against my chin as

2052
02:52:02,079 --> 02:52:05,719
I thought of the right words. I wrote about the

2053
02:52:05,760 --> 02:52:09,440
first time we met, the awkward, fumbling early days of

2054
02:52:09,479 --> 02:52:14,000
our relationship, the late night talks that stretched into early mornings.

2055
02:52:14,920 --> 02:52:17,719
I wrote about how grateful I was for him, how

2056
02:52:17,799 --> 02:52:21,200
much I loved the life we had built together. Even

2057
02:52:21,280 --> 02:52:24,360
threw in a few of our inside jokes, the stupid

2058
02:52:24,440 --> 02:52:27,680
jokes that made no sense to anyone else but had

2059
02:52:27,760 --> 02:52:32,399
us gasping for breath from laughing too hard. When I

2060
02:52:32,479 --> 02:52:36,520
was satisfied, I folded the letter neatly, placed it in

2061
02:52:36,559 --> 02:52:41,120
a pink envelope, and sealed it with a kiss. The

2062
02:52:41,200 --> 02:52:44,040
next morning, I made sure to stop by his office

2063
02:52:44,079 --> 02:52:47,440
on my way to work. His law firm was an

2064
02:52:47,440 --> 02:52:51,000
older building, one of those places with too much marble

2065
02:52:51,280 --> 02:52:55,200
and not enough personality, but the receptionist at the front

2066
02:52:55,239 --> 02:52:58,879
desk was friendly enough. She told me to place the

2067
02:52:59,000 --> 02:53:04,479
envelope in the mail bar just outside the building. She smiled, nodded,

2068
02:53:05,079 --> 02:53:10,559
and I told her to have a great day. That evening,

2069
02:53:10,959 --> 02:53:16,879
Daniel came home as usual, tired but smiling just like always.

2070
02:53:17,280 --> 02:53:20,120
He dropped his bag by the door, loosened his tie,

2071
02:53:20,399 --> 02:53:25,040
kissed me hello. We had dinner together, talking about our day,

2072
02:53:26,200 --> 02:53:31,920
well mostly his day. He didn't mention the letter, but

2073
02:53:32,319 --> 02:53:35,639
I didn't bring it up either. Maybe he hadn't gotten

2074
02:53:35,680 --> 02:53:38,520
around to reading it yet, maybe he wanted to save

2075
02:53:38,600 --> 02:53:43,319
it for later. I figured i'd hear about it soon enough.

2076
02:53:45,000 --> 02:53:47,639
But the next morning, before I even had time to

2077
02:53:47,680 --> 02:53:50,399
get out of bed, I heard the sound of the

2078
02:53:50,399 --> 02:53:54,719
mail slot opening. The usual stack of letters slid on

2079
02:53:54,840 --> 02:53:58,120
to the floor, the soft thump barely registering in my

2080
02:53:58,239 --> 02:54:06,840
half asleep mind. For a second, I smiled. Daniel must

2081
02:54:06,879 --> 02:54:11,079
have written back. It wasn't like him. He'd always been

2082
02:54:11,079 --> 02:54:14,479
more of a talker than a writer. But maybe my

2083
02:54:14,559 --> 02:54:19,559
little Valentine surprise had inspired him. I sat up, rubbing

2084
02:54:19,600 --> 02:54:22,159
the sleep from my eyes, and made my way over

2085
02:54:22,239 --> 02:54:26,440
to the mailbox. I tore the envelope open and pulled

2086
02:54:26,479 --> 02:54:30,280
out the letter. It was written on the same stationary

2087
02:54:30,399 --> 02:54:34,719
I had used, the same smooth, off white paper, the

2088
02:54:34,799 --> 02:54:44,440
same faintly embossed edges. At first, it was sweet. I

2089
02:54:44,479 --> 02:54:47,760
got your letter. Thank you, my love. It means more

2090
02:54:47,760 --> 02:54:50,479
to me than you know. You always know how to

2091
02:54:50,520 --> 02:54:57,079
make me smile always. For a moment, I felt a

2092
02:54:57,120 --> 02:55:04,000
rush of warmth. But then I read the next line.

2093
02:55:04,200 --> 02:55:08,680
I need you to listen carefully. This is important. I

2094
02:55:08,719 --> 02:55:11,079
don't know who has been coming home to you every night.

2095
02:55:13,159 --> 02:55:16,879
I froze. I felt the ghost of a shudder ripple

2096
02:55:17,000 --> 02:55:20,840
through me, forcing myself to keep reading, my hands suddenly

2097
02:55:20,879 --> 02:55:25,479
clamming against the paper. I haven't left the office in months.

2098
02:55:25,959 --> 02:55:29,000
I don't know what's happened. I don't know how, but

2099
02:55:29,159 --> 02:55:33,440
something is pretending to be me. I let the paper

2100
02:55:33,520 --> 02:55:37,639
slip from my fingers. I sat there staring at the

2101
02:55:37,719 --> 02:55:41,520
letter in my hands, my breath coming slow and uneven.

2102
02:55:42,959 --> 02:55:46,280
The words blurred in front of me, my mind scrambling

2103
02:55:46,319 --> 02:55:51,680
for any rational explanation. It had to be a joke,

2104
02:55:52,399 --> 02:55:56,680
a cruel, elaborate prank. Someone at Daniel's office must have

2105
02:55:56,719 --> 02:56:00,280
found my letter, copied his handwriting, and sent this back

2106
02:56:00,319 --> 02:56:04,920
to mess with me, maybe even Daniel himself. Though I

2107
02:56:04,959 --> 02:56:10,799
didn't understand why he'd do something so strange, and yet

2108
02:56:11,600 --> 02:56:16,079
my skin prickled with unease. I forced a laugh under

2109
02:56:16,120 --> 02:56:24,520
my breath, shaking my head. It was absurd, completely ridiculous. Still,

2110
02:56:24,799 --> 02:56:27,280
when I heard him stir in the bedroom, when I

2111
02:56:27,319 --> 02:56:30,120
heard the faint sound of sheets rustling and the floor

2112
02:56:30,159 --> 02:56:35,319
creaking under his weight, something in me hesitated, just for

2113
02:56:35,399 --> 02:56:39,719
a moment. I folded the letter, slipped it back into

2114
02:56:39,760 --> 02:56:43,360
the envelope, and shoved it into my purse before heading

2115
02:56:43,399 --> 02:56:46,319
to the kitchen to make coffee. Trying to shake off

2116
02:56:46,360 --> 02:56:50,280
the unease. I walked into the kitchen and reached for

2117
02:56:50,319 --> 02:56:53,920
the matches. We had one of those odd gas stoves,

2118
02:56:54,319 --> 02:56:56,239
the kind way you had to turn the knob and

2119
02:56:56,319 --> 02:57:00,000
light the burning yourself. It had been finicky for years,

2120
02:57:00,520 --> 02:57:03,840
sometimes requiring two or three tries before the flame would catch.

2121
02:57:05,399 --> 02:57:08,520
By the time Daniel walked into the kitchen, rolling his

2122
02:57:08,600 --> 02:57:12,120
shoulders and rubbing her hand through his hair, I'd convinced

2123
02:57:12,159 --> 02:57:18,000
myself that I was being ridiculous morning, he murmured, Pressing

2124
02:57:18,040 --> 02:57:22,159
a quick kiss to my temple. I twisted the knob,

2125
02:57:22,479 --> 02:57:26,079
and the familiar hiss of gas filled the air. The

2126
02:57:26,120 --> 02:57:30,159
smell was sharp, pungent, but I struck the match anyway,

2127
02:57:30,600 --> 02:57:35,559
letting the tiny flame flicker to life between my fingers. Then,

2128
02:57:35,719 --> 02:57:38,280
with a quick motion, I brought it to the burner.

2129
02:57:39,440 --> 02:57:43,280
The fire flared up instantly, a small bush of heat,

2130
02:57:43,760 --> 02:57:46,559
a soft burst of orange and blue. As the gas

2131
02:57:46,639 --> 02:57:50,639
finally caught, the kitchen was filled with the quiet crackle

2132
02:57:50,760 --> 02:57:57,079
of the flame settling, the warmth spreading outward. And that's when,

2133
02:57:57,600 --> 02:58:04,559
for some reason, Daniel flinched, not just the small, startled twitch,

2134
02:58:05,239 --> 02:58:10,760
but a sharp, full bodied jerk. His shoulders tensed, his

2135
02:58:10,879 --> 02:58:14,360
hands curled slightly at his sides, and for a fraction

2136
02:58:14,479 --> 02:58:19,600
of a second, his eyes weren't on me. Are you okay?

2137
02:58:20,280 --> 02:58:25,399
I asked, casually, glancing at him over my shoulder. He blinked,

2138
02:58:25,760 --> 02:58:28,719
the stiffness in his body vanishing as quickly as it

2139
02:58:28,760 --> 02:58:35,120
had come. Yeah, he said, his voice smooth, just spaced

2140
02:58:35,159 --> 02:58:40,559
out for a second. I searched his face, his movements,

2141
02:58:40,879 --> 02:58:43,920
the little details of him, the way his lips felt

2142
02:58:43,959 --> 02:58:47,319
warm against my skin, the familiar sound of his bare

2143
02:58:47,360 --> 02:58:50,959
feet padding against the tile, the casual way he leaned

2144
02:58:50,959 --> 02:58:55,520
against the counter as he took his first sip of coffee.

2145
02:58:55,760 --> 02:59:01,559
This was Daniel, my husband. I was letting my imagination

2146
02:59:01,719 --> 02:59:07,920
get the best of me. But still, hey, I said,

2147
02:59:08,120 --> 02:59:12,159
forcing my voice to sound light, teasing. You didn't leave

2148
02:59:12,200 --> 02:59:15,879
me a love letter back, ha, He raised an eyebrow

2149
02:59:16,120 --> 02:59:22,879
midsip love letter, I hesitated the one I left at

2150
02:59:22,879 --> 02:59:28,440
your office for a split second, just the fraction of

2151
02:59:28,479 --> 02:59:39,040
a moment. His expression didn't change. Then too quickly he smiled, Oh, yeah, sorry,

2152
02:59:39,559 --> 02:59:43,879
I meant to say something that was really sweet. I

2153
02:59:43,959 --> 02:59:48,799
forced myself to smile. Did you like it, of course,

2154
02:59:49,520 --> 02:59:53,079
he said, taking another sip of coffee. Best part of

2155
02:59:53,120 --> 02:59:58,559
my day. I nodded, pretending to be satisfied with his answer,

2156
03:00:00,079 --> 03:00:04,559
but I knew he was lying. If he had actually

2157
03:00:04,600 --> 03:00:07,360
read the letter, he would have said something about the

2158
03:00:07,399 --> 03:00:11,440
inside jokes, about the memories I'd written down, about any

2159
03:00:11,479 --> 03:00:15,920
of the personal details that made the letter special. That's

2160
03:00:15,920 --> 03:00:19,079
what he had always done. Some of our inside jokes

2161
03:00:19,079 --> 03:00:22,280
were played simply because he had mentioned them so much,

2162
03:00:22,840 --> 03:00:25,000
and he loved it. When I brought them up myself,

2163
03:00:27,120 --> 03:00:32,799
I swallowed hard, glancing down at my phone. Work. I

2164
03:00:32,879 --> 03:00:35,879
had to get to work. I had to let this go.

2165
03:00:38,520 --> 03:00:42,239
That evening, we sat on the couch watching TV, just

2166
03:00:42,280 --> 03:00:46,399
like we always did. The warmth of his body was familiar,

2167
03:00:47,000 --> 03:00:49,719
his arm draped lazily over the back of the couch,

2168
03:00:50,200 --> 03:00:55,040
fingers grazing my shoulder. To anyone else, it would have

2169
03:00:55,159 --> 03:01:02,000
seemed perfectly normal, perfectly safe. But the letter sat heavy

2170
03:01:02,000 --> 03:01:07,399
in my purse, the words echoing in my head. I

2171
03:01:07,479 --> 03:01:13,319
couldn't stop thinking about it. So after a while I

2172
03:01:13,440 --> 03:01:18,280
turned to him with a grin, keeping my voice light. Hey,

2173
03:01:19,239 --> 03:01:25,399
remember when we first met, he blinked. Caught off guard.

2174
03:01:26,239 --> 03:01:32,559
You're testing me, he asked, laughing softly. Maybe, I teased,

2175
03:01:32,719 --> 03:01:38,399
nudging his arm. Come on, you'd better remember, he smarked,

2176
03:01:38,719 --> 03:01:43,559
tilting his head like he was thinking. Who was in college? Right?

2177
03:01:44,360 --> 03:01:49,079
Second year? I remember these things, you know this June

2178
03:01:49,120 --> 03:01:56,680
twenty eighth, I felt my chest tightened. My husband was

2179
03:01:56,719 --> 03:02:01,079
forgetful with date that much I knew, but I knew

2180
03:02:01,120 --> 03:02:05,239
this specific date was important to him. In fact, it

2181
03:02:05,360 --> 03:02:08,680
was such an important date he dinked it into his skin.

2182
03:02:10,799 --> 03:02:14,399
I forced out an exaggerated gasp, smacking his arm playfully.

2183
03:02:15,639 --> 03:02:22,600
Of course, you remember, he didn't glance down, he didn't laugh,

2184
03:02:23,680 --> 03:02:28,200
He just smiled at me. Now I knew for certain

2185
03:02:29,120 --> 03:02:37,680
that this wasn't my husband. Tomorrow, I had to get out.

2186
03:02:39,879 --> 03:02:44,399
The next morning, I did everything exactly the same. I

2187
03:02:44,440 --> 03:02:47,319
woke up before him, brewed the coffee, kissed him on

2188
03:02:47,319 --> 03:02:50,639
the cheek, and told him I had a long day ahead.

2189
03:02:51,559 --> 03:02:55,600
He smiled at me, like always, a perfect effortless thing,

2190
03:02:56,360 --> 03:02:59,719
the way he always heard. He ran a hand through

2191
03:02:59,760 --> 03:03:03,040
his dark hair, sipped his coffee, and told me to

2192
03:03:03,120 --> 03:03:06,719
have a good day. But as I grabbed my purse

2193
03:03:06,760 --> 03:03:12,399
and stepped outside, I forced myself not to hesitate. I

2194
03:03:12,479 --> 03:03:16,079
drove the same way I always did, following my morning route,

2195
03:03:16,440 --> 03:03:20,200
taking the usual turns, sticking to routine just in case.

2196
03:03:21,840 --> 03:03:23,799
But once I was out of sight of the house,

2197
03:03:24,680 --> 03:03:30,280
I turned the opposite direction. Instead of heading toward my office,

2198
03:03:30,399 --> 03:03:33,840
I drove straight to Daniel's law firm, gripping the steering

2199
03:03:33,840 --> 03:03:40,079
wheel so tightly my fingers ached. I don't know exactly

2200
03:03:40,120 --> 03:03:43,559
what I was expecting, maybe to walk into the building

2201
03:03:43,799 --> 03:03:47,600
seam at his desk, laughing with his coworkers, proving that

2202
03:03:47,680 --> 03:03:51,639
this was all just some elaborate misunderstanding, that the letter

2203
03:03:51,719 --> 03:03:56,040
had been a joke, a mistake, something stupid and explainable.

2204
03:03:57,120 --> 03:03:59,840
Maybe I wanted to see the normality of his workspace,

2205
03:04:00,360 --> 03:04:03,040
to remind myself that the man who came home to

2206
03:04:03,120 --> 03:04:09,799
me every night really was my husband. But deed down,

2207
03:04:11,000 --> 03:04:16,639
I already knew that wouldn't happen. The receptionist looked up

2208
03:04:16,639 --> 03:04:21,319
at me from behind the desk, Ai, I said, forcing

2209
03:04:21,319 --> 03:04:26,040
a smile, I'm just dropping by to see my husband.

2210
03:04:27,239 --> 03:04:30,879
The woman's brow knitted together slightly, and for a moment

2211
03:04:31,520 --> 03:04:34,040
she just looked at me as if I had said

2212
03:04:34,079 --> 03:04:39,559
something confusing, something she couldn't quite make sense of. Then,

2213
03:04:39,879 --> 03:04:43,600
after a beat, she gave me a small, gentle smile,

2214
03:04:44,639 --> 03:04:50,799
one I immediately hated. What's your husband's name, she said,

2215
03:04:51,200 --> 03:04:55,280
her gaze fixed on the monitor in front of her. Daniel.

2216
03:04:55,879 --> 03:05:01,799
I muttered, oh, honey, she said softly. He hasn't been

2217
03:05:01,879 --> 03:05:09,520
here in weeks. The words felt like a slap. My

2218
03:05:09,600 --> 03:05:13,680
breath stole in my throat, my heart stuttering violently against

2219
03:05:13,719 --> 03:05:17,920
my ribs, my fingers tightened around the strap of my purse.

2220
03:05:19,479 --> 03:05:23,639
What do you mean that there has to be some mistake?

2221
03:05:24,319 --> 03:05:29,399
He works here, he comes in every day. The receptionist's

2222
03:05:29,399 --> 03:05:36,040
face shifted slightly, uncertainty flickering behind her eyes. She hesitated,

2223
03:05:36,680 --> 03:05:41,360
then let out a slow breath. I. I'm sorry, but

2224
03:05:42,280 --> 03:05:45,159
no one's seen him in a long time. He thought

2225
03:05:45,159 --> 03:05:47,600
maybe he took another job and just never told us

2226
03:05:48,479 --> 03:05:52,440
his things are still here. But she shook her head.

2227
03:05:53,120 --> 03:05:58,879
I really don't think he's been in. Something in me

2228
03:05:59,040 --> 03:06:02,200
felt like it was full, holding in on itself. My

2229
03:06:02,319 --> 03:06:06,399
vision narrowed slightly, as if the entire world had tilted sideways,

2230
03:06:06,760 --> 03:06:11,680
and I was struggling to stay upright. Can I Can

2231
03:06:11,719 --> 03:06:17,360
I seize our office? I asked. The receptionist gave me

2232
03:06:17,399 --> 03:06:23,440
another uncertain glance, but nodded. She led me down the hallway,

2233
03:06:23,840 --> 03:06:27,520
past the rows of desks, past the open offices where

2234
03:06:27,520 --> 03:06:32,040
people typed away their computers, where conversations hummed in the background.

2235
03:06:33,399 --> 03:06:37,319
All of it normal, all of it completely detached from

2236
03:06:37,399 --> 03:06:40,639
the fact that something in my life had cracked open

2237
03:06:41,239 --> 03:06:46,360
into something monstrous. We stopped in front of a lock

2238
03:06:46,399 --> 03:06:51,040
storage room. She hesitated, placing a hand on the handle,

2239
03:06:51,520 --> 03:06:55,799
as if she wasn't sure she should be showing me this. Then,

2240
03:06:56,120 --> 03:07:01,239
in a quiet voice, she said, his things as inside

2241
03:07:01,479 --> 03:07:04,120
we thought he'd just quit one day and never told anyone.

2242
03:07:06,959 --> 03:07:12,159
My stomach felt hollow. The woman turned the knob and

2243
03:07:12,239 --> 03:07:20,200
the door creaked open. Inside everything was untouched. His work

2244
03:07:20,239 --> 03:07:24,079
bag sat on the chair, the straps slightly askew, like

2245
03:07:24,159 --> 03:07:26,399
he had tossed it there with the intention of picking

2246
03:07:26,440 --> 03:07:29,959
it up again. Soon, his coat hung on the wall,

2247
03:07:30,280 --> 03:07:33,760
neatly pressed, not a single sign of dust or rage.

2248
03:07:34,959 --> 03:07:39,159
On the desk, a pile of unopened males sat undisturbed.

2249
03:07:41,479 --> 03:07:46,079
I stepped forward slowly, the air thick around me, pressing

2250
03:07:46,120 --> 03:07:48,760
down on my shoulders like a weight I couldn't shake.

2251
03:07:51,360 --> 03:07:55,239
And then I saw it. A single sheet of paper,

2252
03:07:55,639 --> 03:08:00,840
placed neatly in the center of the desk was written

2253
03:08:00,879 --> 03:08:04,959
on the top. My hand shook as I reached for it.

2254
03:08:06,280 --> 03:08:13,000
The moment I touched it, I knew the handwriting was his.

2255
03:08:15,440 --> 03:08:20,360
If you're reading this, I'm still here. Something else took

2256
03:08:20,360 --> 03:08:23,959
my place. It knows everything I know. It acts like me,

2257
03:08:24,120 --> 03:08:28,239
but it isn't me. I don't know how long I

2258
03:08:28,280 --> 03:08:33,319
have left. I messed with something I shouldn't. It's afraid

2259
03:08:33,360 --> 03:08:42,239
of fire. I love you. My vision blurred slightly. I

2260
03:08:42,319 --> 03:08:45,799
wanted to collapse, to let the panic finally crash over me,

2261
03:08:46,319 --> 03:08:48,799
to break down the way my body was begging me to.

2262
03:08:51,159 --> 03:08:57,959
But I didn't, because now I knew it wasn't about

2263
03:08:58,040 --> 03:09:01,360
understanding what had happened. It wasn't about figuring out where

2264
03:09:01,440 --> 03:09:06,200
Daniel had gone or what had taken his place. It

2265
03:09:06,280 --> 03:09:12,360
was about stopping it. I folded the note carefully, sliding

2266
03:09:12,399 --> 03:09:17,440
it into my pocket. Then without another word, I turned

2267
03:09:17,559 --> 03:09:22,159
and walked out of the office. I wasn't going to run.

2268
03:09:23,920 --> 03:09:31,319
I was going to burn it alive. The house was

2269
03:09:31,399 --> 03:09:35,360
dark when I pulled into the driveway, its windows staring

2270
03:09:35,399 --> 03:09:39,600
back at me like empty eyes. The porch light was on,

2271
03:09:40,319 --> 03:09:43,879
casting a soft glow across the steps, and for a

2272
03:09:43,920 --> 03:09:52,959
split second, everything looked normal. But the moment I stepped inside,

2273
03:09:53,200 --> 03:10:00,200
I knew he was waiting for me. It stood in

2274
03:10:00,280 --> 03:10:04,200
the center of the living room, perfectly still, its hands

2275
03:10:04,319 --> 03:10:08,399
resting at its side. The expression on his face was

2276
03:10:08,440 --> 03:10:12,520
one of casual curiosity, but there was something wrong with it,

2277
03:10:13,360 --> 03:10:16,319
something in the way the corners of its mouth stretched

2278
03:10:16,639 --> 03:10:19,959
just a little too wide the way its eyes followed

2279
03:10:19,959 --> 03:10:28,680
me without blinking. Where have you been, it asked Daniel's voice.

2280
03:10:29,479 --> 03:10:32,239
I forced the smile, shrugging as I shut the door

2281
03:10:32,280 --> 03:10:40,600
behind me. Nowhere important. It didn't respond right away, It

2282
03:10:40,879 --> 03:10:46,319
just watched. The air felt heavy, thick with the weight

2283
03:10:46,600 --> 03:10:50,639
of what I knew was coming. Every instinct in my

2284
03:10:50,719 --> 03:10:56,920
body screamed at me to run, but I didn't. I couldn't.

2285
03:10:58,079 --> 03:11:03,000
I had to see this through. So I walked past it,

2286
03:11:03,479 --> 03:11:07,879
moving toward the kitchen, my pulse hammering against my ribs.

2287
03:11:08,799 --> 03:11:13,399
Its head turned slightly as I moved. You were acting

2288
03:11:13,479 --> 03:11:19,760
different tonight, it murmured. I laughed, softly, keeping my voice

2289
03:11:19,840 --> 03:11:27,319
light a long day. The thing smiled at that. I

2290
03:11:27,360 --> 03:11:30,959
clenched my jaw, pushing down the growing nausea curling in

2291
03:11:31,040 --> 03:11:36,600
my stomach. I couldn't let it sense my fear. Not yet.

2292
03:11:39,000 --> 03:11:41,639
I made it to the kitchen without breaking my stride.

2293
03:11:42,120 --> 03:11:45,680
The bottle of whiskey was already within reach, sitting on

2294
03:11:45,719 --> 03:11:49,799
the counter where we always kept it. I grabbed it.

2295
03:11:51,520 --> 03:11:57,520
The thing smiled, didn't falter, but something changed, a shift

2296
03:11:57,559 --> 03:12:01,959
in its posture, a slight tilt of the head, and then,

2297
03:12:02,280 --> 03:12:06,959
in a voice that was almost concerned, and asked, what

2298
03:12:07,000 --> 03:12:12,959
are you doing. I didn't answer. I unscrewed the cap,

2299
03:12:13,280 --> 03:12:20,040
turned the bottle over and poured. The dark liquid splashed

2300
03:12:20,040 --> 03:12:23,840
across the floor, soaking the old wooden panels, spreading in

2301
03:12:24,000 --> 03:12:27,719
uneven puddles toward the living room. The smell of alcohol

2302
03:12:27,799 --> 03:12:34,120
filled the air, sharp and potent. The thing's expression finally faltered,

2303
03:12:35,040 --> 03:12:42,920
its voice darkened. Stop. I didn't. I reached into my

2304
03:12:43,000 --> 03:12:46,680
pocket and pulled out the lighter. The click of the

2305
03:12:46,719 --> 03:12:51,639
flint wheels sounded deafening. In the silence, a single flame

2306
03:12:51,760 --> 03:12:57,239
flickered to life. The thing's mouth twisted into something unnatural.

2307
03:12:58,120 --> 03:13:02,319
I couldn't help but flinch. You don't want to do that,

2308
03:13:03,399 --> 03:13:10,079
it said, softly, But I did. I flicked my wrist,

2309
03:13:10,559 --> 03:13:18,799
dropped the flame, and the fire irrupted. The fire searched forward,

2310
03:13:19,000 --> 03:13:22,360
swallowing the floor in hungry waves, licking up the walls

2311
03:13:22,360 --> 03:13:27,319
with greedy fingers. It rushed outward, creeping up anything in sight.

2312
03:13:28,360 --> 03:13:32,360
Heat exploded against my skin, and in the middle of

2313
03:13:32,399 --> 03:13:40,399
it all, the thing screamed in rage. Its body convulsed,

2314
03:13:40,879 --> 03:13:45,280
twisting violently, as if something beneath the surface was trying

2315
03:13:45,319 --> 03:13:50,159
to break free. Its skin peeled away in strips, revealing

2316
03:13:50,200 --> 03:13:57,200
something underneath that wasn't flesh blackened, the bandages stretched, elongating,

2317
03:13:57,639 --> 03:14:02,440
writhing like smoke. Its hands curled into a strange amalgamation

2318
03:14:02,520 --> 03:14:06,559
of shapes and colors, skeletal in nature, but not quite

2319
03:14:07,799 --> 03:14:11,280
the suggestion of her head buckled and cracked, folding in

2320
03:14:11,399 --> 03:14:16,719
on itself, the remnants of its features disassembly like shattered porcelain.

2321
03:14:18,959 --> 03:14:24,639
It lunged at me. I stumbled backward, barely dodging as

2322
03:14:24,639 --> 03:14:27,799
one of its limbs whipped toward me, missing by inches.

2323
03:14:28,959 --> 03:14:33,479
The fire spread fast, swallowing the walls, curling around the windows,

2324
03:14:33,479 --> 03:14:39,079
devouring the curtains. The heat was unbearable, now, choking the air,

2325
03:14:39,440 --> 03:14:46,319
stealing my breath. The house was collapsing. I turned and ran.

2326
03:14:48,040 --> 03:14:51,440
I didn't stop, not when the walls groaned and cracked,

2327
03:14:51,840 --> 03:14:55,360
not when the ceiling above me shuddered. The front door

2328
03:14:55,440 --> 03:14:59,000
was only a few steps away. I could make it.

2329
03:15:00,360 --> 03:15:05,040
Behind me. The thing was screaming, but I didn't look back.

2330
03:15:06,760 --> 03:15:10,719
I threw myself outside, hitting the pavement hard, rolling on

2331
03:15:10,760 --> 03:15:14,239
to my side, gasping for air as the heat roared

2332
03:15:14,280 --> 03:15:19,040
behind me. I lifted my head just in time to

2333
03:15:19,079 --> 03:15:22,719
see the roof cave in, flames bursting through the structure,

2334
03:15:23,159 --> 03:15:29,440
sending embers flying into the night. The fire consumed everything,

2335
03:15:30,520 --> 03:15:33,719
turning my home into nothing more than a funeral pyre

2336
03:15:34,200 --> 03:15:40,280
for whatever had taken Daniel's place, and the thing inside

2337
03:15:40,479 --> 03:15:53,319
kept screaming until finally silence. For a long time, all

2338
03:15:53,399 --> 03:15:57,920
I could hear was the fire. The flames hissed and crackled,

2339
03:15:58,319 --> 03:16:01,440
devouring what was left of my home, filling the air

2340
03:16:01,479 --> 03:16:06,280
with thick, choking smoke. The heat pulsed against my skin

2341
03:16:06,760 --> 03:16:11,840
even from a distance. I sat there on the pavement,

2342
03:16:12,360 --> 03:16:16,520
my chest heaving, my fingers digging into the ground, my

2343
03:16:16,559 --> 03:16:19,520
body ate from the fall, my lungs burned from the

2344
03:16:19,600 --> 03:16:29,680
smoke movement, a shuffling sound barely audible over the roar

2345
03:16:29,719 --> 03:16:33,479
of the fire. My stomach clenched as I whipped my

2346
03:16:33,520 --> 03:16:37,239
head toward the house, my breath catching in my throat.

2347
03:16:38,680 --> 03:16:46,760
A shadow was moving inside the flames. Staggering, I froze,

2348
03:16:47,440 --> 03:16:52,000
unable to breathe, unable to move. My hands trembled as

2349
03:16:52,040 --> 03:16:55,120
I pushed myself up onto my knees, my entire body

2350
03:16:55,200 --> 03:17:03,040
bracing for whatever was coming, But then Daniel stepped forward.

2351
03:17:05,000 --> 03:17:08,719
His clothes were scorched, his face smeared with soot, his

2352
03:17:08,840 --> 03:17:13,079
hair a mess of ash and sweat. But his eyes,

2353
03:17:14,680 --> 03:17:19,200
his eyes were his, the same warm brown that I'd

2354
03:17:19,239 --> 03:17:25,520
memorized a thousand times over my real husband. I could

2355
03:17:25,559 --> 03:17:30,680
tell at a glance. He took one more shaky step

2356
03:17:31,000 --> 03:17:35,120
before his knees buckled, his body giving out, collapsing on

2357
03:17:35,200 --> 03:17:39,399
to the pavement. I barely had time to think before

2358
03:17:39,440 --> 03:17:42,680
I was running to him, my heart hammering against my ribs,

2359
03:17:43,159 --> 03:17:47,840
my hands grabbing his shoulders, his arms, his face. Tears

2360
03:17:47,920 --> 03:17:51,239
blurred my vision as I cupped his face, my fingers

2361
03:17:51,319 --> 03:17:55,559
trembling against his skin. I swallowed back the sob choking

2362
03:17:55,600 --> 03:18:01,280
in my throat, forcing my voice to be steady. For

2363
03:18:01,399 --> 03:18:06,239
a moment, neither of us said anything. His breath was weak,

2364
03:18:06,600 --> 03:18:11,680
barely there. My grip on him tightened, desperation, clawing at

2365
03:18:11,680 --> 03:18:23,120
my chest. But then he smiled, college he rasped. First

2366
03:18:23,120 --> 03:18:29,239
their orientation, Sarah introduced us. His voice was hoarse, but

2367
03:18:29,399 --> 03:18:37,680
sure you were wearing that ugly red sweater. A sob

2368
03:18:37,920 --> 03:18:42,239
broke from my lips. I pulled him against me, burying

2369
03:18:42,319 --> 03:18:45,639
my face into the crock of his neck, sobbing against

2370
03:18:45,639 --> 03:18:48,520
his skin, clutching him like if I let him go,

2371
03:18:48,840 --> 03:18:52,920
he would disappear again. His arms were weak, but he

2372
03:18:52,959 --> 03:18:56,440
wrapped them around me anyway, holding on with everything he

2373
03:18:56,520 --> 03:19:03,120
had left the house burned behind us. The doctors said

2374
03:19:03,120 --> 03:19:09,319
it was a miracle, minor burns, smoke in elation, nothing worse.

2375
03:19:11,920 --> 03:19:15,520
I sat beside his hospital bed, my fingers rapped tightly

2376
03:19:15,559 --> 03:19:23,159
around his. His hand was warm, solid his. Every so

2377
03:19:23,280 --> 03:19:26,520
often my grip would tightened, just to make sure he

2378
03:19:26,639 --> 03:19:31,920
was still there, and every time he would squeeze back.

2379
03:19:34,719 --> 03:19:37,280
The first time he woke up, he turned his head

2380
03:19:37,280 --> 03:19:43,360
towards me, his eyes heavy with exhaustion, but clear. Hey,

2381
03:19:44,479 --> 03:19:49,719
he murmured, voice hoarse. I smiled, even as my eyes

2382
03:19:49,760 --> 03:19:57,239
stung with unshd tears. Hey, his lips curved into a small,

2383
03:19:57,559 --> 03:20:05,040
tired smile. You look like hell, I laughed, tumbled from

2384
03:20:05,040 --> 03:20:12,879
my throat, shaky but genuine. Yeah. Well, I sniffed, swiping

2385
03:20:13,079 --> 03:20:16,200
and my eyes. So do you