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I Pretended To Be A Missing Girl · INSPIRE STORY

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We don't come back to Creekcast today we are doing
• 0:18
  would you call this a Hollywood special? Now? With how
• 0:21
  with the recent news it's.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: A bit of a crossover, I'd say, yeah, sure, Yeah.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: We are reading a story from Back of the Day
• 0:28
  called I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl, which coincidentally,
• 0:32
  not coincidentally, because we're reading this because of this is
• 0:34
  it's the new movie Sidney Sweeney is doing. When we
• 0:37
  saw that there was a movie that is going to
• 0:40
  be about an r slash No Sleep story, we had
• 0:42
  to read it, and I'm excited. I'm excited to read
• 0:45
  this and then go see it when it comes out
• 0:47
  and then see like, you know, what do they keep?
• 0:49
  What do they change? All that kind of stuff?
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: I think this is interesting because I actually hadn't heard
• 0:55
  of this no Sleep story before, and it's only four
• 0:58
  years old, which for most no Sleep stories is pretty short.
• 1:01
  It's pretty recent.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Is it only? Is it only four years old or
• 1:04
  because sold we've seen that it was posted on multiple
• 1:09
  r slash websites. I think we're reading the version from
• 1:11
  r slash Short Stories, because I think it's the updated version. Yes.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: So the author is a guy named Joe Cote on
• 1:20
  joeko Sleep or on Reddit. His name is Jay cot twelve.
• 1:25
  He originally wrote the story to r slash No Sleep,
• 1:27
  and it was a shorter version that actually had a
• 1:30
  link at the end that made it seem like the
• 1:33
  ending of the story was in a newspaper, like it
• 1:36
  was a newspaper clipan, which is pretty cool. But then
• 1:38
  he decided to do a rewrite, add onto the story
• 1:41
  a bit more, and posted a second version of it
• 1:43
  in r slash Short Stories. So that's the version we're
• 1:45
  going to be reading today. But both of those say
• 1:47
  they were posted four years ago. So as far as
• 1:50
  like horror stories on Reddit goes, that's pretty recent from
• 1:54
  what we've seen.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, definitely usually. I mean, I if you would
• 1:57
  have told me it, like when I first I guess
• 2:00
  when I first heard about it, I was thinking of, oh,
• 2:02
  this is like a twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen story, you know,
• 2:06
  that kind of golden era of people posting in there.
• 2:09
  So they see that it's only four years old, something
• 2:11
  like maybe a COVID story. Probably maybe Joe was just
• 2:15
  you know, sitting at home, like not doing shit. Maybe
• 2:18
  that's what inspired something out of this. So pretty curious
• 2:21
  to see though. Sydney Sweeney. Yeah, you know, master of film,
• 2:25
  as Isaiah said, and the you know, I really appreciate
• 2:30
  her her ability to find intro like the immaculate movie
• 2:35
  that she I don't know if she directed it, but
• 2:37
  I think she produced it and started it. Yeah, but
• 2:41
  just still kind of weird, odd horror choice here, So
• 2:44
  I'm wondering where that hook is going to be in
• 2:47
  here as well. That maybe makes it kind of visually
• 2:50
  interesting to translate that to the screen. So I'm hoping
• 2:52
  that there's some goodies here.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Always cool to me whenever actors like develop a.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Kind of role of what's the word, I'm looking for
• 3:04
  an investment sort of in the projects are working on
• 3:06
  where she's like, this looks good, I'm gonna go in
• 3:08
  as a producer and as an actress. And also I
• 3:12
  believe Eric Roth is currently set to do the screenplay
• 3:15
  for it.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: And uh he did.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Dune.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I think he was a part of the writing team
• 3:21
  on Dune Less.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: I'm way off. So the guy who wrote the Dune movie,
• 3:26
  no no, no, the screenplay, the screenplay, the guy who wrote.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: It is no no, That's what I'm saying. The Dune movie.
• 3:31
  I'm saying the guy who wrote the the Dune movie,
• 3:34
  the screenplay for the movie is doing the r slash
• 3:37
  no sleep hooor film.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: If that's true, I'll make sure. Let me make sure.
• 3:40
  Hold on, am I talking? He did Forrest Gump? Apparently
• 3:45
  hold on?
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Wait the guy who did Dune?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: He did Dune. Yeah, wow, he did Dune and Forrest Gump.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Good for you, good for city suited forgetting that. That's
• 3:54
  fucking crazy. I like, go, the guy's just like Forrest Gump, Dune,
• 3:59
  and then now now I pretended to be a missing
• 4:02
  girl class.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: I'll say this is pretty stacked so far.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a fucking This is a killer This
• 4:13
  is a killer lineup. I said, would just fucking hop in.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Also, congratulations to Joe Cote for like writing a story
• 4:21
  on boyd Joe four years ago to get of this. Also,
• 4:24
  according to what I've seen online, uh, he is a
• 4:27
  high school English teacher. Uh so he's just like an
• 4:30
  English teacher who likes stories who wrote this and that
• 4:34
  it's got all distractions, So congratulations.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Be sure to check out on Reddit.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: I couldn't find any other definitive links to like his
• 4:41
  socials or stuff like that. But as this becomes more popular,
• 4:44
  like as the story gets made into a film, I'm
• 4:46
  sure it'll come out.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: But congrats Joe. That is very cool.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he seems, like you were saying, to be pretty
• 4:52
  active on Reddit. So go give him some support there.
• 4:54
  Go read some of his other stuff as well. And uh,
• 4:57
  you know, Joe, like you said, congratulations, man, the guy
• 4:59
  who fuck wrote Dune and Forrest Gump is writing the screenplay.
• 5:03
  That's pretty sick, pretty sick. Now here's the real kicker.
• 5:07
  Do I try to do a Sydney Sweeney impression for
• 5:10
  this episode?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: What does your Sydney Sweeney impression sound like?
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to think. I've seen her euphoria a lot,
• 5:19
  and it's like, oh no, it's not Valley Girl. It's
• 5:24
  more it's just kind of I guess, just I guess
• 5:26
  it's just be a regular.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: It's no, it's she's kind of got that. It's not southern,
• 5:32
  but it's like Wyoming sort of like the like, uh
• 5:36
  north West draw.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: You know, how does that going for you? What does
• 5:41
  that look like for you?
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: I I can't do impressions. I don't want to do
• 5:44
  that to myself right now. It's like like it's kind
• 5:49
  of Valley girl. I can't you know what whatever your
• 5:52
  heart thinks is the right move with this one. Okay,
• 5:55
  I'll trust you to it, all right, we'll see. Well,
• 5:58
  if it's horrible, I don't want to be judged.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, well you should be.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: I think also, if my voice is a little rough
• 6:06
  in this episode, I apologize. I was on a flight
• 6:08
  yesterday and there was a guy behind me who just
• 6:11
  had the wettest, like sickly cough. I think I've ever heard.
• 6:17
  It sounded like he was like gurgling as he was coughing.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I was sitting and I was like, where are you
• 6:22
  going with this?
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Like like as the cough was floating around me, like
• 6:27
  you could smell the pestilence in it.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: It was rough. So I feeled a little under the
• 6:32
  weather today. I think I caught whatever he has. I am.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: I'm once again a rat inside of God's hot car.
• 6:40
  H and I'm I'm pushing through. But if if I suffered,
• 6:46
  it's it's it's that guy's fault.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: But also Hunters somehow.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Channel channel Sydney Sweeney's vision for this movie, for the
• 6:56
  for this story to turn into a movie, and let
• 6:58
  that guide you to a listful reading experience that we're
• 7:01
  getting ready to endure.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Thank you, I appreciate that. Hunter.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Here we go.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: I pretended to be a missing girl. Mikayla Murray went
• 7:09
  missing twelve years ago on the eve of her eighteenth birthday.
• 7:13
  She didn't have any big plans or anything, but her
• 7:15
  friends described her as having been in a particularly good
• 7:19
  mood for what was an otherwise perfectly normal Friday. She
• 7:23
  gone to school, soccer practice, work, and then came home
• 7:27
  for a night of movies with her kid brother James.
• 7:30
  He was more excited for her birthday than she was,
• 7:33
  even wanted to stay awake with her until midnight, but
• 7:35
  of course had fallen asleep brought away. When he woke
• 7:38
  in the middle of the night, he saw her headlights
• 7:41
  shining through his window and watched as a rush down
• 7:44
  their country road, not knowing that it was the last
• 7:47
  he'd never see her. The poor kid was only five
• 7:50
  and would be forever tormented over why she'd left him
• 7:53
  or why she never come back. It wasn't until the
• 7:56
  sun came up on that cold Saturday morning that anyone
• 8:00
  realized something was wrong. Her parents entered her room to
• 8:03
  wish her a happy birthday, only to find her bed, empty,
• 8:07
  car gone, and phone off. They'd started their rounds of
• 8:10
  calls to all of Mikayla's friends, but nobody had seen
• 8:14
  or heard from her. Panic really started to set in
• 8:17
  when Michaela's car was found abandoned on the side of
• 8:19
  a heavily wooded road facing the wrong direction, practically in
• 8:23
  the middle of nowhere. There were no parks or hiking trails,
• 8:27
  nor were there any signs of a struggle or any
• 8:29
  evidence of where she might have gone next. Until Mikhaela's
• 8:33
  parents followed that road on a map. They knew she
• 8:35
  had a boyfriend, Tom. He was a year older and
• 8:39
  had just gone off to college. He'd been trying to
• 8:41
  get Michaela to come visit him, but her parents forbid it.
• 8:45
  But if they hadn't, this was the very road Michaela
• 8:48
  would have taken to get there. So while Linda Murray
• 8:51
  filed the missing person's report, Paul Murray sped on up
• 8:54
  that road all the way to Tom's university. Tom swore
• 8:58
  to him and later the investors that he hadn't seen
• 9:01
  her in weeks, that he had been in his room
• 9:04
  studying that night. His roommate confirmed to such with the
• 9:08
  added disclosure of having later gone home where he'd then
• 9:11
  spent that weekend. The rest was uncertain. The police looked
• 9:16
  deeper into Tom and found strands of Michaela's hair in
• 9:18
  his car, which proved nothing foul, but it spooked him
• 9:22
  enough into admitting that he'd seen Michaela more recently than
• 9:25
  he'd stated that he'd picked her up late the weekend
• 9:28
  prior for midnight drive. This added precisely like what had
• 9:31
  happened the night she'd gone missing, but police found nothing
• 9:35
  to substantiate it. Tom was eventually cleared as a suspect,
• 9:39
  and the Murrays would never let it go. They were
• 9:41
  certain he was involved in Michaela's disappearance, so certain that
• 9:45
  Paul Murray spent several nights sitting outside Tom's storm waiting
• 9:48
  to catch his daughter going in or out. Tom's family
• 9:51
  wanted to press charges, but Paul had friends in the
• 9:53
  Sheriff's office who assured the family that it would not
• 9:56
  happen again and left Paul with a very stern warning.
• 10:00
  But being friends with law enforcement only went so far,
• 10:03
  and the case would soon go cold, days, weeks and
• 10:06
  months passing by without any further updates. The public moved on,
• 10:11
  while the people in Mikayla's life were left with this
• 10:13
  dark cloud of uncertainty, wondering what had happened to her
• 10:17
  if she was out there somewhere alive. And she was,
• 10:21
  she was about to return home after more than a
• 10:23
  decade gone, because I'm Mikayla Murray and I ran away
• 10:28
  that night to start a new life. That's what I
• 10:31
  told the Murray's. Anyway, I had no idea what happened
• 10:34
  to that girl.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: It's a friend hook, Okay, that's a fun. However, I
• 10:38
  will say if I was the dad, and if I
• 10:40
  was Paul, I would just be like, dude, I'm sitting
• 10:43
  outside of a fucking dorm. Ill look, I'm It'd be
• 10:45
  different if every day he was beating the hell out
• 10:47
  of Tom.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: You know, a crime?
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Maybe it is, dude, you can't just sit out here
• 10:54
  and watching We's just like, I can't watch you going
• 10:56
  in and out of these buildings. It's weird.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: But is it?
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Is it illegal?
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Actually?
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: You're like, what's the problem is crime?
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: I do think it is illegal to set outside of
• 11:13
  a student's dorm, or at least like it's probably illegal
• 11:17
  at the campus, right I guess.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because well, I guess it would be because that's
• 11:22
  probably private property. I would assume they one hundred.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Percent would ask you to leave, and if you didn't leave,
• 11:28
  then you'd be trespassing.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: The problem is probably the problem is probably Paul's like, no,
• 11:34
  I'm not leaving here, and the security guards like, uh
• 11:39
  oh okay. Awkward.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: He's like, I don't get paid enough for this.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: But now we have we have a girl who was
• 11:48
  probably fucking murdered, and then for some reason, some person
• 11:52
  decided to capitalize on it over a decade later. What
• 11:55
  a psychopaths.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: I'm excited. Let's see where this goes. So I'm awful.
• 12:02
  I know, I'm not proud of myself. I was desperate,
• 12:06
  homeless and on the run, smoking a pack of day,
• 12:09
  sleeping with men from bars for money, only to spend
• 12:12
  it at another bar.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: And do it all over again, same, honey.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: I was stuck. And that's really funny to imagine you
• 12:22
  like going to bars and being like, hey, SUTs, you're
• 12:25
  looking for a Oh no, how you doing warm tonight?
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Are you doing? Sweetheart? What's your name? And the guy's
• 12:30
  like what I do? Like you ever see heaven? He said,
• 12:37
  what the hell are you talking about? He's like, let's
• 12:39
  go in the bathroom. I'll open the gates right now
• 12:41
  for you. So i'd say, and I have I have
• 12:44
  the cutest little red skirt on pleasure, whole outfit pleasure.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: You ever seen that? Just you just haven't shaved your
• 12:57
  hair is still like the same way, like nothing.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: It's kind of at first like the heavy seene Heaven thing.
• 13:01
  It's I say, poetic, it's it's a bit less on
• 13:05
  the nose. But then by the end of it, I'm
• 13:06
  just like, I'm gonna suck.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Your balls, Okay, I just.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Like all yous.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: The guy just like beats the ship on me.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: Damn.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: A simple note would have been fine.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: It's like you're like laying in the alley out bag, right,
• 13:25
  I'll see you around.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: You don't know what you've missed out on?
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Is that all you got?
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: You got?
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Spitting out teeth like a whistle.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: Better? Yeah, this is you. The story is about you. Actually,
• 13:45
  Sidney Sweeney's playing you in the movie.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, imagine the viewer listener, Now imagine that the the
• 13:52
  person that's doing this is just me, but I'm dressed
• 13:55
  up as Sidney Sweeney. I have a blonde wig on,
• 13:57
  and my tits are just as big as hers, except
• 14:00
  umbering to push up ron.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: So the recording has been going seventeen minutes and thirty
• 14:04
  one seconds. I was wondering how long it would take
• 14:07
  you to mention Sidney Swingy's chest. I was just I
• 14:10
  was proud of you for not doing it in the intro.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: But seventeen minutes, seventeen minutes, thirty one seconds. And to
• 14:15
  be fair, I said that I am emulating her large
• 14:18
  breast with my own large breast.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: Okay, but you still mention them. I just yeah, I
• 14:23
  just no, that's fair. Come up eventually, that's fair.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I was forcing all the blood to my face to
• 14:27
  not scream out it immediately. So I know, I know.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: I was proud of you for not bringing it up
• 14:32
  in the intro. That was a big step.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I know. I'm very proud of you. Hunter.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: I was stuck and needed a plan.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Then I saw her face, like Kayla Murray. It was
• 14:44
  on a bulletin board at some cheap motel I've been
• 14:46
  passing through. There were half a dozen girls out there,
• 14:49
  and Mikayla stood out, her blonde hair straight and pretty,
• 14:52
  her blue eyes as white as her smile stopped me
• 14:55
  doun in my tracks. Because she looked like me, exactly
• 14:59
  like me. I could have swapped in one of my
• 15:02
  old high school photos and nobody would have noticed. Not
• 15:05
  that anyone was paying attention to the sport or these
• 15:08
  girls anymore, even the lady at the motel who spotted
• 15:12
  me staring and said.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: They ain't going home, dear, But I don't got the
• 15:17
  heart to dag them down.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: I was curious enough to turn on the phone I'd
• 15:24
  kept in my bag just in case. My father had
• 15:27
  long stopped paying for it, but the motel offered free
• 15:29
  Wi Fi, and I'd used it to read more about Mikayla.
• 15:33
  I learned that she was only two years older than me,
• 15:36
  that the photo in the lobby wasn't just a one off.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: She resembled me in every other photo, of which there
• 15:42
  were many.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Along with theories about what had happened to her, I
• 15:46
  couldn't have given any.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Less of a shit about that rabbit hole.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: What got my interest were the earrings Mikayla wore in
• 15:52
  these photos, or the necklace her mother wore at the
• 15:55
  press conference, or the watch on her dad's wrist. So
• 15:58
  I dug deeper became clear that the Murray's had money,
• 16:02
  a fair good amount of it. After entering Jerry from the.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, I think I think. I didn't think Isah caught
• 16:15
  himself caught himself a fly. He's a little barfly as well.
• 16:20
  He's like, oh, someone's in my web. I said, knock, knock, Jerry,
• 16:25
  who's there?
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: I said that, and I'm like, all right, Well that
• 16:28
  that was like a trap card for Hunter.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it didn't feel like a pot of greed.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Hunter gets to draw three additional insults from his deck.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, your day, that's just not a great deal. I
• 16:50
  wish you said, drawing three cards, you could just call
• 16:52
  your opponent gay. That'd be funny.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: I mean you can from doing that. Half After entertaining
• 17:00
  Jerry from the bar and stealing his jacket, I ripped
• 17:04
  a butt. L like that.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: What I ripped a butt late that night? What does
• 17:12
  that mean?
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I think it means.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I think it means. I think it's a might be
• 17:19
  euphanism for weed, or I may me think of a
• 17:22
  cigarette butt. But it is funny. You entering it is
• 17:26
  funny if you're saying entering Jerry into Emilia, I ripped
• 17:29
  a butt I played pot of Greed or get.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: Any time I misspeak from here on out, I can
• 17:45
  just hear the sound of it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, let me just do this, and it's again.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: After entertaining Jerry from the bar and stealing his jacket,
• 17:59
  I ripped butt late that night and decided one of
• 18:02
  those girls was coming home and it was going to
• 18:04
  be me.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: I like the detail that, like looking at the press
• 18:09
  conference photos and stuff, she noticed how much money they had,
• 18:11
  by the jewelry they wore, and like the earrings she
• 18:13
  had in pictures and stuff.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Like I don't know why I made me think of
• 18:16
  a gone girl of like just the press conference thing.
• 18:21
  Just they're not related really, but just the way that
• 18:25
  how I guess crafty the main character is in that movie,
• 18:29
  and just like able to manipulate situations and stuff. It's
• 18:32
  just cool. And also, yeah, if you were sitting there,
• 18:34
  you're like, holy fuck, I look like this person. And
• 18:36
  it's been over ten years. I mean, I think plausibly
• 18:39
  you could be like I feel like I could just
• 18:40
  fucking get away with this. I don't know. I hate
• 18:43
  sleep at night, but you know, you do what you
• 18:45
  gotta do.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, yeah, it's like, well, you know, I mean,
• 18:49
  if she's already willing to like sell herself for money,
• 18:52
  then like lyne to a family is probably the better alternative, right.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I would much rather well, you know what,
• 18:59
  and this is not gonna honestly, prostitution is nowhere near
• 19:05
  as evil as going to a family, lying to them,
• 19:09
  giving them hope that their daughter is alive. And well,
• 19:12
  uh but I'll tell you.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: I thought it much as a wild take, But that's
• 19:17
  that was actually fine.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Continue, Yeah, I was gonna say, I just don't get
• 19:20
  me wrong. Probably if you were able to live with
• 19:24
  yourself for being a piece of shit, that's probably a
• 19:26
  much better life to live, for sure.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: But oh yeah, that's what I mean that like she
• 19:31
  one hundred percent is like this is gonna be far easier,
• 19:35
  Like I don't want to yeah, yeah.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, get the fuck out with these motels all that stuff. Yeah,
• 19:40
  it's time to talk about something scary. Your health. I
• 19:44
  know I don't go to the doctor as much as
• 19:45
  I should. I have a diabetic foot that's rotting off,
• 19:47
  but I ignore that every day of my life. If
• 19:50
  I'm bleeding or feeling sick, I'll just lie in bed
• 19:52
  and sleep it away. That's only because I don't want
• 19:54
  to deal with appointments and talking to insurance ladies, you know,
• 19:58
  That's why I use. ZocDoc is a free app and
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  website where you can search and compare high quality in
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  network doctors, choose the right one for your needs, and
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  click to instantly book and appointment. We're talking about in
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  network appointments with more than one hundred thousand healthcare providers
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  across every specialty from mental health to dental health, I
• 20:17
  care to skincare and much much more.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: And a nice thing about ZocDoc is that you can
• 20:21
  filter for doctors that take your insurance, are nearby, and
• 20:24
  are highly rated. It's super easy to use, and you
• 20:27
  can find an appointment time that works for you with
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  the right doctor that fits your needs pus ZocDoc appointments
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  happen fast, typically within just.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Twenty four to seventy two hours of booking. You can
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  even score same day appointments. Oh you don't want to
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  admit it, but you should probably see a doctor. So
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  stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to ZocDoc
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  dot com slash creepcast to find an instantly book a
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  top rated doctor Today. That's zoc doc dot com, slash
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  creepcastdoc dot com slash creepcast. Thank you ZocDoc for sponsoring
• 20:56
  the spooky episode. Uh oh, let's get scared again.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: The Murray still lived in the same house now west
• 21:05
  of the small Michigan towns I've been nesting in, which
• 21:08
  worked perfectly as I'd been toying with the idea of
• 21:10
  going back home to Chicago. It was a cheap way
• 21:13
  to justify the awful thing I was about to do,
• 21:16
  because in reality, there was no way I was actually
• 21:18
  going back home, even with Murray fortune in my pockets.
• 21:22
  It's frightening what we'll do to ensure were the good
• 21:24
  guys in our story. So dished out a small chunk
• 21:27
  of my arraining cash to hop on a bus. I
• 21:29
  felt no hesitation or fear. Sure it was risky, but
• 21:33
  I wasn't planning on being there for more than a night.
• 21:37
  I'd done enough research on Mikayla to get in, find
• 21:39
  what I could take, and get out. I was going
• 21:41
  to beg the family to give me one day before
• 21:43
  alerting anyone that I'd returned, to let me rest in
• 21:46
  my own bed before being formed by whatever media nowhere
• 21:49
  Indiana had to offer. After miles and miles of cornfields,
• 21:54
  I'd hoped to have plenty of time to escape that wave.
• 21:57
  When the bus arrived at the station, I couldn't help
• 22:00
  but notice how out of place it looked, like it
• 22:03
  had been copied and pasted from somewhere else. Standing out
• 22:06
  among the Rundown outlets, shops and restaurants, I spotted a
• 22:10
  seedy looking bar next to an even more questionable looking
• 22:13
  mechanic and thought about making a detour. I needed a drink,
• 22:17
  but I couldn't. I had to make sure not to
• 22:19
  talk to anyone. Couldn't risk being mistaken for the town's
• 22:23
  longest missing girl. Not here, not now. So when an
• 22:27
  older man approached me outside the station as I smoked
• 22:29
  one last cigarette, I panicked. He asked if I could
• 22:33
  bum him one, said that he really needed it, so
• 22:36
  I did, just to make him go away. He started
• 22:39
  rambling on about his car having broken down and the
• 22:41
  shithole and how he was stuck here until they fixed it.
• 22:45
  He told me his name and then asked me mine.
• 22:47
  Told him it was Abby, It's not he said. I
• 22:50
  reminded him of his niece back in Iowa. Something I
• 22:54
  pretended was interesting. Maybe I can pretend to be her too,
• 22:58
  I thought. When I Fini smoking, I wished him luck
• 23:01
  and set off for what I came here to do.
• 23:04
  I shot up the rest of my cigarettes and lighter
• 23:06
  deep into my backpack along with my real identity. When
• 23:09
  I turned down Lincoln Avenue, it was no longer me
• 23:12
  or Abby. I was Bekayla Murray. Yeah.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I was just thinking about what we see. We see
• 23:17
  missing reports sometimes. I'm sure that this happens sometimes, But
• 23:21
  what if Mikayla, Like what if there's something horrible at
• 23:24
  the house that she's that she escaped from that uh,
• 23:28
  that she was just like, I'm just gonna leave my
• 23:30
  life so my family can't find me, and that's you know,
• 23:32
  they're they're still looking for you know what I mean.
• 23:35
  It's almost like if you had some like you were
• 23:36
  living in some kind of hell and then the person
• 23:39
  left and it was like actually a good thing, just
• 23:41
  like a weird dest I don't know, my mind was
• 23:43
  thinking about that where when anytime you go to the Midwest,
• 23:47
  it's always just kind of this weird It's it's like
• 23:49
  a very like desolate feeling.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: I don't know, I kind of suspect that might be
• 23:55
  where the story's going. Maybe it's fun, Like yeah, yeah,
• 24:00
  I kind of get the vibe. It's like, well, because
• 24:03
  the story is not just going to be I stole
• 24:04
  stuff and I left, There's going to be something that happens,
• 24:07
  So that.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Might be where it goes.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Also, our fake MICHAELA. Murray also saying like, I wonder
• 24:11
  if I could be her too, has immediately made her
• 24:14
  made me not like this person, Like I'm like, I
• 24:16
  fucking hate this person so much.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: Well, she she's desperate for money and she's willing to
• 24:20
  do whatever it takes.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: There's desperation, but then there's also, uh, I don't know,
• 24:24
  she's a she's a snake for sure. I don't know.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, hold on, let me piss really quick.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Uh, whip your cock out and pisses on the keyboard.
• 24:37
  I said, I didn't hear my funny bit about whipping
• 24:41
  his dick out and pissing on his keyboard. I said
• 24:44
  it to no laughs, and I kind of looked like
• 24:47
  a jackass. How foolish I am. Yeah, it was so
• 24:54
  clever too, the absurdity of pissing on your own keyboard.
• 25:01
  I'll do better. I'll do better. It'd be kind of
• 25:05
  funny at the guy who's like, hey, I buy a cigarette,
• 25:07
  It's like, sure, he's like, yeah, I just playing on
• 25:09
  a ripping butt. If the author, if Joe just kept
• 25:13
  putting that in the story, It's like, what the fuck
• 25:15
  does that even means?
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: He's like, ripped a butt out of the case, like
• 25:20
  pull the cigarette butt. But I don't think I've ever
• 25:24
  heard that phrase.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I've never heard of ripping a butt.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: I've heard ripping a sig. I've heard of people saying
• 25:29
  ripping a cigarette, but I don't I just have not
• 25:32
  heard ripping a butt.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, don't mind me, Yeah, ribbing butt out here.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: She's gonna go back and they're gonna have a nice
• 25:43
  they're gonna have a nice dinner tonight. And the dad's
• 25:46
  and to be like, Mikayla, would you like to rip butt? Mikayla,
• 25:51
  would you like us to rip butt together? Sure? You
• 25:55
  know we did that as a family.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: The Mary's lived a pretty sick, included life.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: Their homes that alone in the middle of endless plains,
• 26:04
  their neighbors barely dots in the distance. I'm starting to
• 26:08
  understand why MICHAELA might have run away. Although the house
• 26:11
  itself was beautiful, with many protruding sections and gables wrapped
• 26:15
  around porch in a large two door garage. There was
• 26:19
  even an inground swimming pool out back, now covered and
• 26:22
  topped with autumn leaves, and a cute little gazebo further
• 26:25
  off in the field draped the numerous flags and dreamcatchers
• 26:28
  with flower pots lining the railings. Certainly didn't look like
• 26:32
  the kind of place tragedy had shruck. I stepped quietly
• 26:35
  up the stairs and was almost spooped by my own
• 26:37
  reflection in the glass at their front door. Nerves were
• 26:40
  definitely setting in now. I rang the bell and felt
• 26:43
  my stomach sink. What if my dirty blonde hair wasn't
• 26:47
  light enough, or if Mikayla had had some obvious birthmark
• 26:50
  I'd overlooked. I was sweating underneath my coat, unable to
• 26:54
  recall the name of the man I'd taken it from.
• 26:57
  When the door opened, my heart stopped. Linda Murray was
• 27:01
  standing there in her casual weekend where pleasantly confused hello,
• 27:08
  she agreed to me.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Then her face.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Went white in an instant, like her soul had left
• 27:13
  her body. She shrieked, and clasped her hands for her mouth,
• 27:16
  bursting into tearful exclamations.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, Oh my god.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: She kept repeating.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: She suddenly lunged forward and squeezed me tighter than I
• 27:24
  would have liked, her arms attempting to wrap all the
• 27:27
  way around my backpack. I stood there awkwardly, bracing all
• 27:30
  of her weight onto mine as she surely was about
• 27:33
  to collapse. The dog at her legs was barking madly,
• 27:36
  and as Linda's tears dropped onto my back, all I
• 27:39
  could think about was how pissed off i'd be had
• 27:42
  I gotten caught because the dog didn't recognize my set. Okay,
• 27:46
  I will say, I guess I wasn't processing how evil
• 27:51
  this is.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: It's horrible. It's horrible.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: But the mother cried and she's like, oh, the stupid dog,
• 27:58
  Like it's like super villain levels are bad because in
• 28:01
  my head I'm like, oh, she's gonna steal money, like
• 28:03
  that's bad. But I wasn't thinking about the trauma.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Goddamn, a goddamn lot lizard is infiltrating a family's home, dude,
• 28:12
  And she's like, oh, poochie here, doesn't you know you
• 28:16
  better not give the family any tips, It's like it's
• 28:18
  a dog idiot.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's like, she's like irredeemable.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what is it?
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Linda, Mikaela's dad called from somewhere inside. He soon appeared
• 28:27
  in the doorways, button up tucked into his jeans. When
• 28:29
  he saw my cold, pale face poking over Linda's shoulder,
• 28:32
  he stumbled back, What is this? He gasped, His eyes
• 28:37
  went wide, and his bushy gray mustache twitched. The dog
• 28:40
  was still barking, reminded me that I was, in fact
• 28:43
  a stranger in this house. I smiled and said, I'm hume, daddy.
• 28:48
  Oh man, she's evil, awful hungross. That accent you actually
• 28:55
  just did was a pretty good Sydney Sweeney.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I think I'm trying to I think maybe with longer
• 29:00
  it will be good. And if I don't have to
• 29:02
  continuously say daddy, that will be nice. Thank you.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think I hope that she keeps saying that'll
• 29:09
  be great. There you go. I was trying to make
• 29:12
  myself cry, and if Linda had squeezed me any harder,
• 29:15
  I just might have. She held on to my sleeve
• 29:18
  as we let go, so afraid her daughter would run
• 29:21
  off again. Paul Murray was still staring at me in
• 29:24
  disbelief when something shifted in his face and he stepped forward.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Come here, baby girl.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: Linda passed me off like a toy she didn't want
• 29:32
  to share. Paul pulled me into his arms and held
• 29:35
  even tighter than she had, rocks back and forth for
• 29:38
  a moment.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: I can't believe it's you.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: Linda rushed for the door and yelled inside, calling for
• 29:43
  her son James.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Come inside, baby, Paul.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: Beamed as he release me, keeping a hand on my
• 29:49
  back and back of a mean word.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: It's cold. Come come.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: Moved into the foyer, where Paul asked to take my coat,
• 29:55
  which I happily handed him. Now that I was inside,
• 29:58
  I could practically smell the bar on it. Your bag,
• 30:01
  Sweetie shook my head and said, no, that's okay. You
• 30:06
  made a face, and I worried it was suspicious, and
• 30:08
  then worried more that my worrying was the only thing suspicious.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: I had to settle down.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: I nearly jumped when Paul turned the locks and hit
• 30:16
  a button on the alarm system. Jesus chimed louder than
• 30:19
  I would have expected.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: See, that's what I'm that's what I'm saying, dude, I'm
• 30:24
  saying there's I think you're right. I just seeds are
• 30:26
  getting planned to do. They're just like baby girl, you
• 30:28
  ain't going to run away so easily. This term.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you get that vibe.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: And it's not to clarify for the audience, it's not
• 30:36
  a bear trap moment. It's not.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: No, that's.
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, it is it's not because that's what that's
• 30:44
  what the description said on the article. We looked at
• 30:47
  the beginning and said she breaks into someone's house only
• 30:49
  to regret it. So knew we knew that.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Now, what is that home noise you're making?
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: That's the bear getting hit?
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: Is that the noise of bear makes It's like it now,
• 31:00
  spie metal trap.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Do you think a bear is like a cow?
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Well, have you got a bear? Because I have many
• 31:08
  times my bear trap goes off quite a bit.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: You shoot bears on what kind of bears are there
• 31:17
  in Kansas City? By grizzly grits, both of them? Yeah, God,
• 31:25
  it's the only place. It's the crossover. That's why they
• 31:27
  call Missouri the Crossover states.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Bears there you just kill all of them.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Pass for bears to walk through the Saint Louis Arch.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: Its down out, say exactly, do bears have rides of passage?
• 31:48
  Is that a thing bears do?
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: That's one of them. That's one of them.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: What's another one?
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Uh? Eating fish mostly and sleeping kind So it's not
• 32:01
  really really just the most flavorful one all the other
• 32:05
  ones straight.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: To be a bear, to like earn your bear rides,
• 32:09
  you have to eat fish, sleep, pass through the Saint
• 32:13
  Louis arch.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well some bears also they getting caught in hunter's
• 32:17
  bear trap is also right a passenger?
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so your so your bear trap isn't just
• 32:22
  a mental thing.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: You have also to be.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Fair, we don't we don't even know yet.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: We don't know yet if the bear trap actually I
• 32:28
  think you're I think it's hit.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, first off, I said, finish with you said I
• 32:34
  think you're right. Is what you're going to say. That's
• 32:36
  what you're going to say. You backed up out and.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: You cut me off, and you cut me off. No,
• 32:39
  you cut me off. I didn't back out of it.
• 32:41
  You cut me off. So I'm not trying to card
• 32:43
  active fish. We say, so shut up. So I'm saying
• 32:47
  if I had a bear trap, I would coincidentally in
• 32:51
  this occasion set mine where yours is like, and that
• 32:54
  was a good leg to get as opposed to your
• 32:57
  seventeen other bear traps that are off in the brush somewhere,
• 33:00
  aren't even turned on, aren't even activated. They're just shut
• 33:02
  up and thrown into the weeds. This was a good
• 33:05
  place in this case.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: They'll be afraid of the of the screams in the
• 33:14
  night they are just passing through.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: Did you have you ever seen top gear?
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Well not, I mean, like not all of it,
• 33:27
  but I've seen that.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: Have you seen the clip where yeah, Jeremy sets up
• 33:34
  clay More's for alligators around their camp.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen that. My wife likes the Clark's farm
• 33:41
  or whatever. Yeah, that show too. Anyways, Well the.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Story anyway, Yeah, yeah, yeah, the story, the story which
• 33:48
  I'm louder than I would have expected. I wondered if
• 33:51
  all this had always existed, or if it was a
• 33:53
  result of their daughter having slipped out one night, never
• 33:55
  to be seen again. One of her coats still hung
• 33:58
  on a hook by the door, untouched after all these years.
• 34:02
  Now mine hung next to it, well, Danny's or whatever.
• 34:07
  As we moved even further inside. I was blown away
• 34:09
  by how nice this place was, so much so that
• 34:13
  I'd slipped and let it show. Nothing in this house
• 34:16
  was supposed to be surprising to me. It was hard
• 34:18
  not to be impressed by the high ceilings of bookshelves,
• 34:21
  or at the mini sofas beside a grand marble fireplace,
• 34:24
  or the fact that it was just the room that
• 34:27
  branched off to all the other rooms when they probably
• 34:29
  hardly ever used. So I continued to survey my surroundings.
• 34:33
  A figure high above caught my eye. It was James,
• 34:38
  looked down over the railing and looked more flabbergasted than
• 34:41
  anyone to have seen me. At seventeen, he was now
• 34:44
  the same age his sister was when she vanished, only
• 34:47
  much taller, with the same babyface.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Look, James, look who it is.
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: It's Sissy.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Come give her a hug.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: I wanted to puke. And she is awful.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Well, I think now she's like, uh, I think she's
• 35:03
  feeling nervous. Now, I think that it's I think she's maybe.
• 35:07
  I think they're trying to humanize her a bit. I
• 35:09
  think I think even Joe's just like Jesus Christ. Jesus sucks.
• 35:14
  All right, now she wants to puke.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: All right, there we go. James did it move right away,
• 35:19
  And when he did, it was this slow, cautious crawl.
• 35:23
  I figured, surely, of all people, I'd have been safest
• 35:26
  round James. After all, he'd hardly ever known as sister.
• 35:31
  That's the baby blue wives behind his jet black hair.
• 35:33
  We're piercing into mine, searching for the girl he so
• 35:36
  dearly missed. I can think of what to say to him.
• 35:39
  Was distracted by the field of the cigarettes in my bag.
• 35:41
  I needed one, It's all, he mustered, stopping at the
• 35:46
  foot of the stairs.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Hate guber.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: I had no idea if that was something that Kayla recalled.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she's just like dynamite, taking up pat names all
• 35:59
  the fly.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: Okay, where's his food? Where's the dinner at Mama Sita?
• 36:05
  Old Pops is too fair?
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: The mom and dads are throwing around pet names, lot,
• 36:08
  baby sissy, all that kind of shit.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's like goober, Yeah, I hate.
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: It's very funny. That's fine to imagine that, Like your
• 36:19
  sister runs away for like, what's it been six years?
• 36:22
  Seven years? No, you're like twelve twelve years, Like twelve years. Yeah,
• 36:26
  so now you're thirty and you're like goober.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, to be fair, that could be some nice
• 36:31
  millennial cringe, have you? Hey, goober?
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: Hey goober. I had no idea if this was something
• 36:38
  that Kayla ever called him, but neither had anyone else.
• 36:41
  James and I then did something resembling a hug and
• 36:44
  let go. Linda looked on face red, still overcome with emotion.
• 36:48
  Paul was smiling at us.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Let's go, shit, Yeah, you look exhausted.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: He wasn't wrong. I couldn't wait to sit down. There
• 36:56
  probably wasn't a piece of furniture in this place less
• 36:58
  comfortable than the mattress had been living on for the
• 37:00
  last decade. I hauled in my amazement as we marched
• 37:04
  from room to room, deeper and deeper into the house.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: Linda was still exhaling.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: This stuttered painful, sob kept reaching to touch me in
• 37:12
  any way and on the back or a light brush
• 37:14
  of the hair. It was annoying, but then again, I
• 37:17
  never learned how to have a mother.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: When I shrugged only the off, she looked heartbroken.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: Would you shrug her off? It was at that moment
• 37:25
  that I followly began to feel like the asshole I knew.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: I was okay, there you go. There's there it is.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: There's a little bit of like a human reaching out
• 37:34
  from deep down there. After passing through the kitchen and
• 37:37
  down another hall, we stopped in their second, larger living room.
• 37:42
  It was very open, the ceiling reaching all the way
• 37:44
  up to the third story, with photos lined as high
• 37:47
  as the ladder could reach. I followed Michaela's progression of
• 37:50
  school photos, remarking how early similar they were to mine
• 37:55
  and how they were one photo short. There was an
• 37:57
  upper level behind us, where a grand piano set in
• 37:59
  one corner and a bar in the other, separated by
• 38:02
  yet another fireplace.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: I imagined how nice.
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: A Christmas tree must have looked in here, even during
• 38:08
  the day, with the natural light coming in through the
• 38:10
  sliding glass doors to the back porch. Each Murray dropped
• 38:13
  onto a separate couch on the lower level. Paul gestured
• 38:17
  for me to sit next to Linda, who of course
• 38:19
  was eager to be next to me. James was slouched
• 38:22
  directly across, staring down at the ground. The rest of
• 38:25
  us were darting our eyes waiting for someone to begin.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Let me just start by saying that we're not mad.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: Linda was nodding feverishly in agreement. Paul went on, we
• 38:36
  just want to know what happened. Something inside my gut wrung.
• 38:40
  If my actual dad had showed even an ounce of
• 38:43
  this concern, I might not have run away myself. Stead
• 38:47
  he took his brother's side, my abuser. I dropped my head.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I needed to get out of here. I felt trapped,
• 38:53
  and I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I just didn't
• 38:56
  know what else to do. I'm really sorry.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: Certainly wasn't all worthy, but I wasn't playing the long con.
• 39:03
  I only needed to be passable long enough for me
• 39:05
  to swipe several of the items we'd passed along the
• 39:08
  journey to this room. Paul nodded, slowly, gazing off somewhere
• 39:11
  over my shoulder. Okay, yeah, what kind of an answer is?
• 39:16
  I just needed some air. That's why I was gone
• 39:19
  for twelve years.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I just needed to get out of here, alright.
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: But don't worry, Dad, It was your fault. That's why
• 39:25
  I felt like I needed to leave.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: You're just that terrible person.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: It's just awful, and I hated being around.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: I hated being your little sissy, little guy.
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: I'd preferred to start my entire life over at eighteen.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: It was new.
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: It was somehow worse than anything else he could have said.
• 39:40
  For all I knew, Mikayla had had a great life
• 39:43
  here with a loving family. Now I was making them
• 39:45
  feel responsible. Each of them was staring off somewhere, let
• 39:49
  my stories sink into their minds. I wanted to sink
• 39:51
  into the couch. Where did you go, Mikaela, Linda suddenly wondered,
• 39:56
  pauling forward.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: No, Linda, it's okay. She's not a little g anymore.
• 40:01
  That's her business. Listen, baby girl, we don't have to
• 40:05
  talk about if you don't want. All that matters now
• 40:08
  is that you're home and you're safe.
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: Funny enough, by the way, audience, that's just what Hunter
• 40:12
  sounds like when he's not recording videos, baby girl, That's
• 40:16
  exactly what it sounds like. It's it's his Midwest accent
• 40:19
  coming out. Like when we're like recording, he's like talking
• 40:22
  in his normal, like you know, kind of YouTube speak,
• 40:26
  just general American accent. And then the one we get off,
• 40:28
  he's like, oh right, are we looking to go?
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Also, I will say it's kind of fucked up that
• 40:36
  every time I read baby girl, I hear you when
• 40:38
  you say it. You say you say baby girl a lot.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: I say baby girl a lot. Yeah, I do say
• 40:45
  baby girl a lot.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Don't you do that in gamer?
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: I just does that bother you a lot?
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: Not really, it's just that's just we're talking about.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: Do do that a lot?
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Any time?
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: About? Like start talking to her of like, hey, Gamer,
• 40:59
  what's up?
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: I got that good.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: My friend Operator drew Ski, who's a YouTuber, says gamer
• 41:06
  all the time, and I started taking that from him
• 41:09
  because he'll always call me gamer. So I started calling
• 41:11
  everyone else gamer. The baby girl I think was my
• 41:14
  own invention. I always say sounds a good baby girl.
• 41:17
  That's very cute that when you hear baby girl you
• 41:19
  think of me. That's so cute.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: The fan man is that that.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: Editor is going to love that.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you seeing that a.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: Thirty year old man calls me baby girl. That's that's
• 41:32
  a great.
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: I'm twenty five round up?
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: We can round up.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: I think if I round it.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: Up for you, it'd be like seventy eight for one.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: We're splitting hairs at this point.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: But it doesn't matter anytime someone anytime here, you have
• 41:46
  a moment on the podcast where we say something slightly
• 41:49
  uh flirty or romantic all of the so someone will
• 41:53
  go post it on Reddit or TikTok, and all the
• 41:56
  comments will say do they know it's legal? Like do
• 41:59
  they know they don't have to hide it? Like that's
• 42:01
  what they're gonna say to those clip that.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm grossed out by it, but that's just me.
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: That's good. Whatever you say, baby girl. He reached for
• 42:09
  my hands and held on gently. It was strangely comforting.
• 42:13
  For the first time in my life, I'd felt cared for.
• 42:16
  It's safe. In my short time there, I'd completely flipped
• 42:20
  my thinking. What if Michaela was just another stupid teenager
• 42:24
  rebelling against her parents who were only trying to protect her.
• 42:26
  What if she'd sneaked out to celebrate her eighteenth birthday
• 42:29
  with her college boyfriend at some prat party, but if
• 42:32
  he slipped.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: Something into her drink, or if she got too experimental.
• 42:36
  What if someone offered.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: Her something she never tried before, and she took it
• 42:39
  to be cool show off in front of her college
• 42:42
  boyfriend's college friends.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: I spent my whole life wishing I had hers. What
• 42:46
  if she just left it?
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: What I have an idea, Paul said with a clap.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Linda, why don't you go out and get stuff for
• 42:54
  pork sandwiches and I'll cook up some tayor tosy.
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: He was looking at me with raised eyebrows like I
• 42:59
  was supposed to know what he was talking about. So
• 43:02
  I pretended to This must have been some sort of
• 43:05
  Murray tradition or Michaela's favorite meal.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: That sounds great.
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: I tried to smile at James, but it was clear
• 43:11
  he wasn't ready to forgive his sister for abandoning him.
• 43:14
  Linda hopped up, Mikaylas, sweetye, do you want to come
• 43:17
  with me? I hated how often she was saying her
• 43:19
  name and how she spoke to me like I was five.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: Before I got a chance to respond, Paul chimed in.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: Hun let her breathe run to the store and I'll
• 43:29
  get things started here and you, he said to me,
• 43:33
  go rest up. It's going to be crazy here by tomorrow.
• 43:37
  I just want to have one night as a family first.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: I could not have agreed more. Everything was going exactly
• 43:43
  as I'd planned, maybe better. There's a really shiny diamond
• 43:47
  studded base across the room, calling my name, right next
• 43:50
  to an autograph jersey of some football player I never
• 43:53
  heard of. It's gonna walk out with one while wearing
• 43:56
  the other.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Going up to your room. We'll come get you was ready.
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: Linda pulled me in for another hug and kissed me
• 44:03
  on the side of the head. She looked over at
• 44:05
  James and saw that he was looking rather lifeless. She
• 44:08
  got his attention and made a tipping motion toward her mouth,
• 44:12
  to which James replied, I tucked them already. Finally glanced
• 44:17
  my way, but it wasn't quite the look I wanted
• 44:19
  to see. There's more than just betrayal in his eyes.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's probably saying, why the fuck did you come
• 44:24
  back to this? Hell? Dude, gg I bet you're right
• 44:28
  way to go.
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: It's like, why would you come back?
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah? No, that wasn't you just said the thing be
• 44:35
  That's not what a bear sounds like when it gets
• 44:37
  hit in a bear trap. Okay, everyone broke at once
• 44:44
  and dispersed, Paul heading for the kitchen and Linda making
• 44:48
  her way out. I grabbed my backpack and followed a
• 44:50
  sluggish James up the stairs, feeling good about how things
• 44:53
  were going so far un till it occurred to me
• 44:56
  that I'd had no idea which room was Michaelo's. Wasn't
• 44:59
  so thing She'd never have forgotten, not even after twelve years.
• 45:04
  James and I ran to the corner and were faced
• 45:06
  with a long, narrow hallway with several doors. I feared
• 45:10
  I was gonna have to guess the right one when
• 45:12
  James threw me a lifeline.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: Hey he began. He stopped in front of his door
• 45:17
  and turned to me.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: You want to hang out, watch a movie or something?
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: Even this had come out tense, like he was being
• 45:23
  forced to ask. Then I remember that this had been
• 45:25
  the last thing Key and Michaela had done together.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, I don't think I'm ready to see my
• 45:31
  room yet.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: Anyway, James nodded, and the knot of my stomach and twisted.
• 45:36
  When we entered his room, I was surprised by how
• 45:38
  neat it was, so much so that it felt wrong
• 45:41
  laying my dirty bag down. James baggy jeans the MESSI
• 45:44
  hare gave me a totally different vibe. But his bed
• 45:46
  was made, the walls were bare, and the desk in
• 45:49
  the corner looked like it had hardly been used. The
• 45:52
  one window in the room had a perfect view of
• 45:54
  the setting sun beyond the fields. Shadow cast a line
• 45:57
  between the pool below and the gazebo. It was just
• 46:00
  barely visible from this vanish point. I heard a lock click.
• 46:04
  We need to go now, okay, all right, this is
• 46:08
  the noh, that's not this is what it's not making
• 46:12
  the bare noise. This is what the article said, and
• 46:16
  we clicked on the story. So we had for warning you.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: What I will give you a bear trap about. I'll
• 46:21
  give you a single bear pau is.
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: The reason James was so upset is that he was like,
• 46:26
  why did you come back for correct? Okay? He let
• 46:33
  his neutral expression drop into one of panic. I watched
• 46:36
  a confusion as he rushed over to his closet and
• 46:39
  threw on a sweater, cursing under his breath as he
• 46:41
  did so. When he looked up at me again, it
• 46:43
  was like he'd forgotten I was there.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: What are you talking about?
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: James shook his head.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: He knows, he knew the whole time.
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: My brain was automatically rattling off ways to salvage this,
• 46:54
  but there was no point. I was caught, and something
• 46:56
  other than my identity was bothering him. That made me nervous,
• 47:00
  gave it away. He looked at me like I was crazy.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: Do you have any idea what's going on here? He
• 47:06
  killed her, he buried her.
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: Oh whoa, yo? Okay, that's really cool. Okay, so think
• 47:19
  about it this way.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: They murdered their daughter, or he murdered the daughter and
• 47:25
  then buried her and then like to try to pass
• 47:28
  it off. They're like, oh, our daughter's gone missing, No,
• 47:30
  can anyone find her daughter? And then a girl shows
• 47:33
  up years later pretending to be and they immediately know,
• 47:36
  but go along with the facade to get her inside.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: That's so cool.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yo, yeah, And I'm wondering they're sitting there, everyone in
• 47:44
  the room knows that she's a fake, and she's try
• 47:48
  to pass it off. You do have to assume the
• 47:49
  mom knows too, right, Yes, almost certainly. Yeah, that's a
• 47:53
  good twist. This is fun. My heart stopped. What that
• 47:59
  was it in any of the theories I'd read online?
• 48:02
  Like everyone else, I'd been so sure it was the
• 48:04
  boyfriend Tom. It was obvious, but the look of fear
• 48:06
  washing over James's face was hitting me as well. How
• 48:09
  do you know that took me by the arm and
• 48:11
  dragged me to the window lock. He spat with an
• 48:13
  outward finger against the glass. Far beyond the covered pools
• 48:16
  at the gazebo, lifeless and weather borne, with noticeable chips
• 48:19
  in its white paint. Only its right side was visible
• 48:22
  from behind the rest of the house. I could see
• 48:24
  the flags and circling its beams, waving calmly above a
• 48:27
  row of gardening supplies. James was breathing heavily as he
• 48:31
  stared out at it, his eyes fixed even as he spoke.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: He built it right after she disappeared, and we're not
• 48:37
  allowed to use it. Calls it his garden. I claimed
• 48:40
  it once when I was tending, he beat the shit
• 48:42
  out of me. But I've seen him out there at
• 48:44
  night a couple times, spraying the plants, fixing the dirt
• 48:48
  and look.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: He hurried to his dresser and rummaged through before pulling
• 48:52
  something out and jaming it into my gut and reached down.
• 48:55
  It was a dirty purple bracelet, all stretchy and rubber
• 48:59
  and Michaela's name on it. I played with it in
• 49:01
  my hand.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Really dug that up last year, dropped it right at
• 49:05
  my feet, and I remember it. I remember her wearing
• 49:09
  it that night.
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: I stared at it and let it slide down onto
• 49:11
  my wrists, trying to find any counter to his theory.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: You saw her drive off, I reminded him. I saw
• 49:17
  her car drive off.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: There's a voice in the back of my mind telling
• 49:21
  me he was delusional, But the voice that believed him
• 49:24
  was louder and much more afraid. I watched mouth agape
• 49:27
  as he struggled to tie his shoes. He kept messing
• 49:30
  up and starting over, spitting more curses under his breath.
• 49:33
  My thoughts were swirling.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: James, why haven't you called the police because I can't.
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: It was louder than he'd intended. He stood up and
• 49:42
  recollected himself.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: My dad is friends with the sheriff. If the cop
• 49:46
  pulls up, he'll kill us. If I run, he'll he'll
• 49:50
  kill my mom. I don't even think she'd believe me.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: Okay, so the mom doesn't know.
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what my mom probably thinks, that she's actually disappeared.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yeah.
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: I put my hands up to him, but the fearful
• 50:00
  cry he'd been holding in had burst out. He covered
• 50:03
  his mouth to push it back in, along with the
• 50:05
  snot and tears that were oozing out of him. He
• 50:07
  rushed over to his bedside drawer and picked up a
• 50:09
  bottle of pills, swiftly popping a few into his mouth.
• 50:12
  My chest was getting tighter.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: Why can't we just play along a little longer. I'll
• 50:16
  leave tonight. If we go downstairs, we're dead. We were
• 50:19
  dead the second you got here. The police, the news,
• 50:22
  they'll all be here tomorrow, whether you're here or not.
• 50:24
  They could find her. I could tell them, but my
• 50:27
  dad might snap like he did on Mikayla. You don't understand.
• 50:31
  He'd rather die than get caught, and he'd take us
• 50:33
  with him. I know it. So we need to go
• 50:36
  out the window now. We'll just run.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: At that point, it no longer mattered to me if
• 50:40
  James was right or if he was out of his mind.
• 50:42
  I wanted to get out of there. I looked out
• 50:44
  the window again. It was starting to get dark. I
• 50:47
  would have preferred a more casual escape over jumping off
• 50:50
  the roof, but if what he was saying was true,
• 50:52
  then we had no choice. I was craving a cigarette
• 50:55
  more than ever, and that alone was almost enough to
• 50:57
  get me on that roof.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: We could take a bus. I got here, it's only
• 51:01
  a couple of miles that way. I know where it is.
• 51:03
  We should to stay off the roads. We can use
• 51:05
  the fields for cover, and then once weit.
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: There was the knock on the door.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: James, it was.
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: Paul tried turning the handle.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Everything all right in there.
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: Without hesitation, James ran for the window and opened it.
• 51:17
  I could hear the faint chime of the alarm from
• 51:18
  somewhere out in the hall. Paul's jiggling off the locked
• 51:21
  door grew more aggressive.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: Now what the hell's going on in there? Open the
• 51:25
  door and started pounding on it.
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: I threw on my bag and joined James, who was
• 51:29
  already halfway out the window. Together we scurried on the roof,
• 51:33
  hopped onto the back porch, and dropped down onto the
• 51:35
  rather large portico above the back door. I'd almost fallen
• 51:39
  down the side, but James held me up. A loud
• 51:42
  crash came booming from back up in his room. I
• 51:44
  looked up. Don't stop, James yelled. He jumped first onto
• 51:48
  the lawn and I followed. Both of my feet and
• 51:50
  knees took the impact hard. The ground underneath the autumn
• 51:53
  foliage deceptively solid. James held me up and we took off,
• 51:57
  running against his advice. I looked back and saw Paul
• 52:00
  peeking out james window. He shouted to us and then disappeared.
• 52:04
  James had already separated himself a good distance from me.
• 52:07
  I kept pushing my legs as he called back for
• 52:09
  me to do so, my backpack bouncing off My ass
• 52:11
  would each stride. There was a road in the distance,
• 52:14
  the same road I drudged along to get here. I
• 52:17
  could see where it met the orange and purple sky.
• 52:19
  It felt like it was never getting anything closer. Gunshot
• 52:23
  rang loud, ripping across the plains. Paul was now standing
• 52:26
  by the back door, aiming a rifle in our direction,
• 52:29
  his crimes chasing use behind the gunpowder mine word another
• 52:34
  bang in My legs buckled. When I reached the gazebo,
• 52:37
  I hid behind it to catch my breath.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: There was a sharp, debilitating pain in my side.
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: I held myself up one of those railings and thought
• 52:44
  I could feel my heart beat vibrating against the wood.
• 52:47
  I swore, if I'd survived this, I would quit smoking.
• 52:50
  Peached around the corner and saw Paul hurry into the garage,
• 52:53
  James calling out for me by the road. But as
• 52:55
  I stood there, frozen against the gazebo flags caressing my shoulder,
• 53:00
  I thought about the girl buried underneath. What if James
• 53:02
  was right? What if nobody ever found Mikaela's remains. What
• 53:06
  if we didn't make it out of there, nobody ever knew?
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: What are you talking about?
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: What if James's right? James is right?
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: Jordan, wake, no, no, no about about Like if we
• 53:17
  don't leave now, we're dead?
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: What if James is right about no one knows about this?
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: What's I mean? I'm like, of course he is, and
• 53:22
  Paul is shooting at it. Like I wouldn't even question
• 53:24
  that anymore.
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: I'd be like, you didn't get that, that's fair, that's fair,
• 53:28
  I guess, I guess she said, like, what if.
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: James is right that we're gonna die and no one
• 53:31
  will ever know?
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: Oh he's right, that's right, he's right, You're gonna die.
• 53:36
  I no one's ever gonna know. You know.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: I think it's interesting, which, you know, there's still more
• 53:41
  story obviously to go, But I like kind of how
• 53:44
  quickly the story ripped off the band aid, because at
• 53:46
  first I thought it was gonna be Okay, well, now
• 53:48
  I'm in a sticky situation where I have to go
• 53:49
  along with this plan and just like hope the dad,
• 53:52
  you know, or like maybe that's like the midpoint reveal
• 53:55
  of you know, him being like my sister died or
• 53:59
  he killed her whatever, and it's just like, oh, this
• 54:00
  whole time, you know, like more of a build, but
• 54:02
  it's just kind of like, you know, it's like almost
• 54:04
  like a fucking greyhound race. The things are just like
• 54:07
  dead sprinting. Now.
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: I thought for a while it would be like the
• 54:10
  whole liar revealed seting. Yeah, but it's like nope, Nope,
• 54:14
  that's not what we're doing here. It's like, okay, well
• 54:21
  here we are. What if we didn't make it out
• 54:22
  of there nobody ever knew. I thought of my own story,
• 54:25
  unheard and not believed. When I told my dad what
• 54:28
  my uncle had done all those years he hit me.
• 54:30
  Couldn't let the story stay buried, too. Took up my
• 54:33
  lighter and lit a flag, and then another fire burned, slowly,
• 54:37
  picking up quick as it caught onto more flags and
• 54:40
  dream catchers than down to the plants below. Some went
• 54:43
  back and watch the flames spread and dance along the
• 54:45
  darkening sky. I hoped at the very least it would
• 54:49
  be a distraction, and more so enough to attract law enforcement.
• 54:52
  I could hear linda shrill voice crying out at the
• 54:54
  side of it. She rushed around the side of the
• 54:56
  house with groceries in her hands, calling out for her husband,
• 54:59
  who had just sped off in his truck. He was coming.
• 55:02
  I made one last dash for James, who was impatiently
• 55:05
  waving me on, took my arm and led me across
• 55:07
  the road his father would soon be turning on to.
• 55:10
  He slipped into the corn field and kept going until
• 55:12
  we heard the war of an engine pass by broz
• 55:15
  until there was nothing but the wind, the pain in
• 55:17
  my side still nagging me. Stark as the sky had
• 55:20
  rapidly grown, it was even darker in that field, the
• 55:22
  corn towering over us, clinging to life as much as
• 55:25
  we were. Paul's headlights were shining through from not much
• 55:29
  farther ahead. He waited in tear for a crunch or
• 55:33
  a shout, or ideally for the truck to zoom off.
• 55:36
  Another gunshot rang high into the air. I gasped and
• 55:39
  had to cover my mouth to quiet my breathing. What
• 55:41
  do you do with my son, Paul called in a
• 55:44
  sing songy fashion. We could hear him walking about over
• 55:47
  the sound of his engine purring.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: Where the fuck are you?
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: His footsteps wandered around farther, closer than farther, again separated
• 55:56
  only by the sound of swishing corn, as he searched
• 55:59
  randomly along the end edge. There's a pause, followed by
• 56:02
  a door slam and shut. Ball struck world and sped
• 56:05
  back down the road. I exhaled as Shames tugged on
• 56:08
  my arm and instructed to keep going. He pushed through
• 56:11
  more corn and followed along the road as best as
• 56:13
  we could. I never would have imagined being in this
• 56:15
  situation when I walked down it earlier that day. Now
• 56:19
  I was wishing I never had. Siren suddenly wailed nearby
• 56:22
  and eventually rushed past us. The glow of the flames
• 56:25
  grow noticeably brighter in the distance, smoked visible high above
• 56:28
  the fields.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: Holy shit, come on, we need to keep moving. Are
• 56:32
  you okay? Yeah?
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: I wasn't. We shuffled farther through the corn, shoving it
• 56:38
  aside more aggressively as we went. I could hardly see
• 56:41
  more than a few feet in front of me. After
• 56:43
  a while, we could hear a steady buzz of passing vehicles,
• 56:46
  indicating that we'd reach the city, but also the end
• 56:49
  of the cornfields. We stepped out onto a road and
• 56:51
  into the glove streetlights. I felt like I could breathe
• 56:55
  again for just a moment.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: You ready, We gotta move quick, but we got to
• 56:59
  blend in.
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: I'd realized in that moment how truly young James was,
• 57:03
  and how insane I was for having put my life
• 57:06
  in his hands. I was twenty eight, but felt just
• 57:09
  like the same little girl I was all those years ago,
• 57:12
  hoping her father would protect her, only hope James was
• 57:14
  better at it. We dashed across an empty street and
• 57:18
  then slipped into the downtown area. I kept my head down.
• 57:21
  Most of the businesses on the strip were closed for
• 57:23
  the night, but the bar I'd seen earlier was now
• 57:26
  glowing in its knee on signs, which did a good
• 57:28
  job masking its otherwise unapproachable facade. There were locals standing
• 57:33
  outside having to smoke, drunkenly arguing about nothing. James and
• 57:37
  I cross the street. When we reached the bus station,
• 57:39
  I was relieved to see the lights were still on.
• 57:41
  This relief would not last.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: And coming only, folks, did I have to wait until morning? Sorry?
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: I was already making my way for the exit. James
• 57:50
  caught up with me.
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: What are you doing? I'm getting the fuck out of here?
• 57:53
  What am I supposed to do?
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: He followed alongside me, being more conspicuous than I would
• 57:58
  have liked, stopped and leaning close.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I don't fucking care. Come with me or don't. I'm leaving.
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: I was on the verge of crying, the lump of
• 58:07
  my throat growing larger. James stood there to complete loss.
• 58:11
  I looked at him and saw the five year old
• 58:12
  boy who woke up in the night all alone, the
• 58:14
  street lights above shining in his eyes like the headlights
• 58:17
  he'd watched disappear.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I just want to go home.
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: I couldn't believe I had said it and meant it.
• 58:25
  Then I realized James couldn't go home. My fire failed.
• 58:29
  He was going to be on his own, on the run,
• 58:31
  and homeless at seventeen, just like I was.
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: They're gonna find Mikaela, then you'll be safe.
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: He was trembling.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: What if they don't.
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: I had no answer, not one he would have liked anyway,
• 58:43
  Even if he made a call to the police. That
• 58:45
  very moment, I could already see Paul going home and
• 58:48
  putting the rifle to lend his head before putting it
• 58:50
  in his mouth. I wondered if he already had I
• 58:54
  think James did too. He leaned into me and started
• 58:57
  to cry. He was a whole foot taller than me
• 58:59
  and bony, but I held on to him, not like
• 59:02
  I had with Paul or Linda, but with ernest. Excuse me,
• 59:06
  A voice suddenly called out to us. I was about
• 59:08
  to run when I saw a familiar face. The old
• 59:11
  man I'd smoked with earlier was approaching us from the
• 59:13
  mechanic slot next to us. His face twisted when he
• 59:16
  recognized me.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: Back, Oh with you, abby, right? Everything all right over here?
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: James and I looked at each other but said nothing.
• 59:25
  Idea crossed my mind.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: Actually, no, sir, we're stuck here too.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: The man whose name I'd forgotten grinned.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Huh, well, cars fixed, I want to head out if
• 59:35
  you guys need a lift.
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: We added, anywhere. Smile faded right.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, sure, that's fine. I'm gonna be driving west down
• 59:44
  eighty for a while if that works, y'all. Yes, that's perfect.
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: James and I followed the man back to the lot
• 59:49
  and hopped into his old station wagon.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: I took the front. I think.
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: The old man repeatedly even offered him gas money, but
• 59:56
  he refused it, said he was happy to help. He
• 59:59
  introduced himself to to a catatonic James in back, reminding
• 1:00:02
  me his name was Frank. Eyes kept darting between Frank's
• 1:00:05
  and the rear view mirror he was periodically checking. James
• 1:00:09
  was huffing short painted breaths. Wondered if he needed his meds.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Drove in solnce for a while.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: You couldn't see anything beyond the headlight's path, just a deep,
• 1:00:17
  empty void. The old man tried to spark up conversation,
• 1:00:20
  but neither James nor I were up for it, as
• 1:00:23
  if we wanted the radio on or off, if we
• 1:00:25
  were hungry, if we were cold hot. Each time I
• 1:00:28
  told him we were fine, took the hint, and we
• 1:00:31
  drove for hours down the same stretch of highway, having
• 1:00:33
  barely spoken till James had fallen asleep.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: I know it ain't my business, young lady. Are you
• 1:00:38
  sure you and your friend were okay?
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: Frank kept his voice just above the hum of the radio.
• 1:00:43
  I assured him once more. We were fine, And even
• 1:00:45
  though my mind was still back on Lincoln Avenue, wondering
• 1:00:49
  what had been happening in that very moment at the
• 1:00:51
  Murray household, the flames revealed the truth below, or if
• 1:00:54
  they were extinguished before they got the chance. I played
• 1:00:57
  an imagined scene in my mind, over and over the
• 1:00:59
  fired trucks, the inspection of the damage, Paul watching eagerly nearby,
• 1:01:03
  ready to run, the discovery of bones, called at the sheriff,
• 1:01:07
  the arrest of the man he'd known and tried to
• 1:01:09
  help all those years ago, or whom he might now
• 1:01:12
  have to hunt down.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: Will at least tell me your real name.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: Frank ass bringing me back to reality. He had so
• 1:01:18
  clearly been with holding the truth from this poor man,
• 1:01:20
  Alli one was just a small piece of it, may
• 1:01:23
  so we could justify the crazy thing he had done
• 1:01:25
  that day. Looked down at my fidgeting hands and noticed
• 1:01:27
  the purple bracelets still tight on my wrists, the pink
• 1:01:30
  lettering of Mikayla's name flashing every passing street light.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: I'd forgotten that I was still wearing it.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: I thought about how badly I wanted to give her
• 1:01:40
  the ending she deserved the one she'd won for her self,
• 1:01:44
  an escape freedom. How easy it would have been to
• 1:01:47
  do it, to say your name, it's Rachel hundred. Instead,
• 1:01:51
  Frank smiled at.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: Me, Well, Rachel, it's nice to finally meet you.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: I'll let him drive us another hour. It was almost
• 1:01:58
  midnight when I woke James to get out. He jumped.
• 1:02:02
  I had Frank drop us off at a cheap bed
• 1:02:04
  and breakfast, something I'd grown quite accustomed to over the years.
• 1:02:07
  I tried once more to pay him, but he wound
• 1:02:10
  up giving me money instead. It wasn't much, but the
• 1:02:12
  gesture alone was beyond kind. In spite of everything I'd
• 1:02:15
  been through that day and all that came before it,
• 1:02:18
  it wasn't any less meaningful. Company crossed someone's genuinely good
• 1:02:21
  as that man. I felt bad that I lied to
• 1:02:24
  him about my name again.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: It's a fun little way to end that little section
• 1:02:28
  of the story. It was still an hour.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 3: This story has I'm like the emotion worked, you know,
• 1:02:35
  like the like her, like she she came from a
• 1:02:39
  troubled background and now she kind of sees James in
• 1:02:42
  the same position she was, So she feels like this
• 1:02:44
  kind of like duty to help him in spite of
• 1:02:47
  herself and stuff like that. Like even if it's kind
• 1:02:49
  of a kind of played out thing of like the
• 1:02:52
  person who went through trouble wanting to help someone else
• 1:02:54
  through the trouble. I like it.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: Well it's not it's not only James, but I mean
• 1:02:57
  it's stumbling across a different version of her own life
• 1:03:00
  of a man who was abusing this girl, or had
• 1:03:06
  been abusing, but basically murdered his daughter the same way
• 1:03:10
  that like her father neglected her. It's just like a
• 1:03:12
  different outcome. It's like reliving that basically, that past horrible
• 1:03:17
  experience and now kind of given the opportunity to right
• 1:03:20
  the wrongs of this girl and give her a proper
• 1:03:23
  send off, you know, right now. And I think that's
• 1:03:25
  where the direction is going to head, as her being
• 1:03:27
  like fuck this. They deserve like she deserves to have,
• 1:03:30
  like a that people deserve to know, you know, like
• 1:03:33
  to not have to you don't have to live in
• 1:03:35
  that lie of like oh she's missing, because that's the
• 1:03:37
  whole thing too, is that with her own thing of
• 1:03:39
  with her uncle doing the said things as well. That's
• 1:03:43
  something that no one ever believed or no one cared
• 1:03:45
  to believe. So now it's time to reveal that I
• 1:03:48
  think that's going to be the Redeye.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 3: Maybe I can't write what happened to me, but maybe
• 1:03:52
  I can write like the narrative around this girl. Yeah.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: James and I shared a bed, sleeping head to toe
• 1:03:57
  beside a rattling air conditioner. I wouldn't have slept anyway.
• 1:04:01
  I was plenty happy with the four hours I got.
• 1:04:04
  I woke early the following morning, I stepped outside for
• 1:04:07
  a cigarette and enjoyed every moment of it. I'd quit
• 1:04:10
  another day. James was sitting up in bed by the
• 1:04:13
  time I went back inside, his hair an awful mess,
• 1:04:15
  his tired eyes red.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: He'd asked me what our plan was.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: He was impatient, and I understood, but told him that
• 1:04:22
  we should eat breakfast first and figure it out from there.
• 1:04:26
  That it had almost been an entire day since i'd last Eden.
• 1:04:29
  When we entered the dining area, we saw that there
• 1:04:31
  was only a few other guests inside. I still wanted
• 1:04:35
  a table in back, but James insisted we sit by
• 1:04:37
  the bar, where a TV was playing the news. I
• 1:04:40
  gave it. He's worried about his mother, and I couldn't
• 1:04:42
  blame him for that. I'd have been worried about mine too,
• 1:04:45
  if she were still alive. I was really hoping this
• 1:04:48
  aspect of our lives remained different. James was glued to
• 1:04:50
  the TV even as the waitress came and took our order.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: You're gonna drive yourself crazy.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: Told him as she walked away. Shook his head at
• 1:04:57
  me and kept his eyes fixed. We said in silence,
• 1:05:00
  says we waited for our food. Potentially news your coat.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: You lift your coat at my house.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: I laughed, to which James blinked, it's not my coat.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Whose is it? Some guy named Scott? I think maybe Jordan.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: It wasn't long before the wags arrived with our meals.
• 1:05:15
  We were did the same thing, only my eggs were scrambled.
• 1:05:18
  There was something about the smell of bacon and home
• 1:05:20
  frize that brought comfort strong enough to make you forget
• 1:05:23
  that you were on the run. I moaned at the
• 1:05:26
  first bite. Probably could have eaten both plates. Even you
• 1:05:30
  didn't have to moan. I even thought I saw a
• 1:05:32
  moment of calm in James's face as he ate TV
• 1:05:34
  caught our attention.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you, John, authority said. They were responded early last
• 1:05:38
  night to a fire and one very familiar Indiana home,
• 1:05:41
  the home of Michaela Murray.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 3: James Stererley fell out of his seat, dropped my fork,
• 1:05:46
  home fry, fell on the floor.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: It's like since two thousand and eight. Michaela's disappearance is
• 1:05:50
  one that rocked the small town of Millersburg, Indiana, but
• 1:05:53
  left many hopeful that she was still out there listening.
• 1:05:56
  But when authorities found her car abandoned near Elkhart River,
• 1:05:59
  just miles from her home, friends and family began to
• 1:06:02
  fear the worst. Mikhaila was gone, her whereabouts never discovered
• 1:06:06
  until now.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: I wanted to turn back to James, but was afraid
• 1:06:09
  of the look on his face.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: When authorities cleared the scene last night at one one
• 1:06:13
  zero eight Lincoln Avenue, they made a shocking discovery that
• 1:06:16
  would answer a decade long mystery but spark a new one.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: It cut to the sheriff's press conference. He spoke matter
• 1:06:22
  of factly while camera was clicked all around him.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: The fire department responded to a nine one one call
• 1:06:27
  around five am last night. There was a gazebo on
• 1:06:31
  fire in the yard of the Murray residence, and when
• 1:06:33
  we assessed the damage, we discovered a bunker hidden underneath.
• 1:06:38
  Upon further inspection of the bunker, we found the body
• 1:06:40
  of a young woman and child. We need confirm the
• 1:06:43
  woman to be Mikayla Murray, but have no further information
• 1:06:46
  at this time.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: James quilled, it's Founder'm that is insane that that actually worked.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'll be honest.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I did not think that would happen. Yeah,
• 1:06:59
  I was like, hold on a young woman and child. No,
• 1:07:04
  there's a child's body down there.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: There's two bodies, but one of them they said they
• 1:07:07
  can't confirm is Michayla.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: So one of them is definitely Mikayla, but there's also
• 1:07:11
  a child down there.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: Well it could be. It almost sounds like it's the
• 1:07:13
  original wife and daughter. Maybe.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 3: Oh that's a good point, Okay, so well maybe but anyway,
• 1:07:20
  oh god, or it's.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: Mikayla and it doesn't. I'm not gonna good.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I know what you were thinking. I know where
• 1:07:28
  your brain because my brain also put that together. But
• 1:07:30
  I'm like, I'm not gonna entertain that out loud. Yeah,
• 1:07:33
  I ignored him my face. Sunken waitresses and patrons were
• 1:07:37
  noticing our panic state. Something wasn't right. She been buried
• 1:07:40
  under there for so long, there shouldn't have been much
• 1:07:43
  to find, and a child.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: It is believed that Mikaila had been held cappin inside
• 1:07:47
  the bunker since that faithful day twelve years ago, until
• 1:07:50
  last night, when tragically both she and the child suffered
• 1:07:53
  fatal smoke and all like.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, oh, my God.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 5: No, no, Rachel, he was in the bucker.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: No, oh, Jesus. It is believed that Michaela had been
• 1:08:13
  held cats inside the bunker since that faithful day twelve
• 1:08:15
  years ago and until last night, when tragically both she
• 1:08:19
  and the child suffered fatal smoke inhalation inhalation resulting from
• 1:08:24
  the fire. Authority said he had to confirm the identity
• 1:08:26
  of the child or who started the fire. Michaela's mother, Linda,
• 1:08:29
  is being questioned by police, while federal official search for
• 1:08:32
  father Paul and brother James, both of whom are now missing.
• 1:08:35
  Give any information on their whereabouts, please call this number
• 1:08:38
  and stay tuned for more on this story.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 5: My God, talk about it. Yo.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: Oh no, oh, the humanity. She was alive until last night.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: Wait what wait? What? Oh my god? Keep reading.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: I couldn't feel my body. I turned around and stared
• 1:09:05
  down at my shaking hands on the table. The world
• 1:09:07
  caven in on me.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: What happened?
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 3: James cried, his breathing was heavy, his eyes pulging out
• 1:09:13
  of their sockets, staring at me, bewildered. I finally looked
• 1:09:16
  at him. I killed Mikayla.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 5: She set the fire that killed that's your story.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: That's the whole thing.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: Depressing.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 5: Oh my, you find out, God, she's alive, this girl
• 1:09:38
  who the whole, the whole ethos has been like, I'm
• 1:09:40
  gonna make her truth know, and I'm gonna make her
• 1:09:42
  story known.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna do for her what no one did for me.
• 1:09:45
  And then did she don't killed her? She killed her.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: She was alive at the basement.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: So the implication is that the baby was like an
• 1:09:54
  incest baby.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, that's the idea.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, dude to a whole extra Yeah, sorry
• 1:10:04
  to add to add literal insult to injury like that's
• 1:10:08
  like unfucking real. Also, I'm guessing that there's there's no
• 1:10:14
  there's no shot that the mom does not know about this, right,
• 1:10:20
  I mean maybe she does.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 3: Maybe she doesn't know that her daughter isn't a bunker outside, you.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: Know, so the dad is buying the dad is buying
• 1:10:28
  baby clothes secretly and taking them.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: Babies was having like toys and babies are us back.
• 1:10:36
  This was sort of this is certainly like a fallout bunker.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: I don't think I think it's gonna be a he's
• 1:10:43
  like down there. That's so it's God, God, what God?
• 1:10:50
  What a bummer?
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: Ending Well she will, but we killed her.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: The story what the story is saying? The story just
• 1:10:58
  from your dad's going to like assault you. Like there's like,
• 1:11:03
  I don't even know what the fuck I'm trying to
• 1:11:05
  get out of this.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 3: She had more in common with Mikayla than she thought.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, well but well her life was like
• 1:11:13
  her choice to run away was apparently the correct correct option.
• 1:11:18
  You know who the michaela no nor away our main
• 1:11:24
  characters what I'm saying, yeah, yeah, So Mickayla gets kidnapped
• 1:11:28
  by her dad, thrown in the bunker. That explains why
• 1:11:32
  he suspects James of knowing something and then shoots at
• 1:11:34
  our protagonist as they're running away, because like he's trying
• 1:11:38
  to keep his like, uh, his daughter who he's holding
• 1:11:41
  is like a mother mother of skin.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 3: Like in the bunker and he's like shooting out him
• 1:11:46
  as they're running away.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, one hand, the fire worked by exposing what
• 1:11:53
  he was doing, but it also killed Michayla.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: That's such a crazy angle to take it. It is
• 1:12:00
  pretty awesome it has there's so many there's so many turns,
• 1:12:04
  so this is like this isn't a super.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 3: Fast twisted like five times honestly, Like you know, I
• 1:12:10
  was complimenting it earlier over the how fast.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: It was going. I really kind of wish that it
• 1:12:16
  was one of those things where because whenever, as soon
• 1:12:19
  as she said at the beginning, when she was like, oh,
• 1:12:21
  I'm only gonna be there for night, I'll be in
• 1:12:23
  and out, I was like, okay, well this is going
• 1:12:25
  to turn into something where it turns into a week
• 1:12:27
  or something or like months, right because at first thing
• 1:12:30
  when she walks in, she's like, this house is so nice,
• 1:12:35
  you know. It's it's this thing where it's like, why
• 1:12:36
  the fuck would I just steal this thing and go
• 1:12:38
  from motel motel again? I mean I could just like
• 1:12:40
  ride this gravy train for a bit or whatever. And
• 1:12:43
  I mean the most sinister thing the dad did obviously
• 1:12:48
  besides like shooting and whatever. I've just been like in
• 1:12:50
  terms of like the dialogue is like the the idea
• 1:12:52
  of being like I'm gonna make tater tots is like
• 1:12:55
  the most disturbing like threatening things, such a mindful I
• 1:13:02
  had more of that daughter, you know, or even something
• 1:13:04
  too where like you know, she's walking in the grounds
• 1:13:07
  or like she's doing this thing and the dad still
• 1:13:08
  isn't really sure what to do. Because I think that
• 1:13:10
  I read it now that the mom doesn't know, which
• 1:13:12
  feels a little weird, like almost I feel like it's
• 1:13:15
  kind of it would have been I don't know, cooler.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 3: Well I'm not cooler, but I just have more demented
• 1:13:21
  the dad's a psychopath and the mom like genuinely cares
• 1:13:24
  about her daughter and doesn't know that her husband is
• 1:13:27
  holding her daughter as like a slave wife.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, what I'm saying is it's it's even
• 1:13:33
  more demented and fucking creepy to me if it's like
• 1:13:37
  the family thing, like she knows, but she's just like, oh,
• 1:13:40
  you know, I don't know, like the mom not knowing.
• 1:13:43
  And then like, because I guess that's true if you
• 1:13:45
  have it to where the mom doesn't know. Then it
• 1:13:48
  makes it harder for the dad to like boot this
• 1:13:50
  kid out or like this new the daughter, like this
• 1:13:52
  person that's pretending to be the daughter, because.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because mom knows, she walks in and they just
• 1:13:57
  kill her.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you can have had some fun things
• 1:13:59
  where she's like walking around or like James is like
• 1:14:02
  this is where he buried her. But then you can
• 1:14:04
  like you know, she like goes back one night and
• 1:14:05
  you like hear like you know, like screaming or some
• 1:14:10
  kind of thing, like she's screaming for help. There could
• 1:14:12
  have been. There's a lot of different directions. I mean
• 1:14:14
  this first off, just gonna make fucking wild movie.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: I A wild movie, That's what That's what I was thinking.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 3: I'm like, this is a pretty short story compared to
• 1:14:21
  like how long you could take this idea, So making
• 1:14:24
  a film out of this, there are so there's so much.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: Potential to expand it. Right, there's no shot level, there's no.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: Shot that the movie can end with them at a
• 1:14:34
  waffle house and then like the news.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 3: Comes on and I would I would, I'd be down
• 1:14:39
  for it if it was satisfied up.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying that for a movie, I think that
• 1:14:42
  you get more out of like the reveal there, like
• 1:14:46
  the climax of the movie is the is kind of
• 1:14:48
  what we had here with like the chase scene, the
• 1:14:50
  cornfield running away, whatever. But then it's probably a thing
• 1:14:53
  where she's like, we have to go back and save her.
• 1:14:55
  This is prime, this is primed for, uh in terms
• 1:15:00
  of a movie and how it goes, or even in
• 1:15:02
  this story, what would have happened is our character, our
• 1:15:06
  nameless protagonist is finds out that she's alive, and she's
• 1:15:13
  also like, you know, not even that the abused thing whatever.
• 1:15:15
  She finds out that she's alive, and then she's like,
• 1:15:18
  I'm not I cannot leave her because she's been acting
• 1:15:21
  on selfish impulses this whole time to wear at the end,
• 1:15:23
  she's like, fuck that, I'm going to save this person
• 1:15:26
  the same way that I was never no one saved me.
• 1:15:28
  I'm going to save this person. And you go back
• 1:15:30
  and it's going to be kind of like a pull
• 1:15:32
  her out that kind of way, you know what I mean.
• 1:15:34
  But then that's what I'm saying is if the mom's
• 1:15:36
  in on it too, you think she's all sweet the
• 1:15:37
  whole time, and all of a sudden she's the one
• 1:15:39
  who like pulls a gun out too.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: It's just like there's so many different ways you could
• 1:15:43
  do it, but there are ways.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 3: You could take it. I think the way the setup
• 1:15:46
  work though the mom can't know, because I think it's
• 1:15:48
  stronger that way.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 3: And like if if this girl pretending to be Mikayla
• 1:15:54
  walks into the house and the dad knows and the
• 1:15:56
  mom knows and they can just like yeah and they
• 1:15:59
  and they both though that James is suspicious, they can
• 1:16:02
  do whatever they want.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 2: They can like kill they can kill this new girl
• 1:16:05
  or whatever.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 3: So I think that the way the story's written here,
• 1:16:10
  it has to go that direction. But I mean, Mayo
• 1:16:13
  du talk about a ride like going from oh, we're
• 1:16:15
  gonna manipulate this family into they know they're not missing
• 1:16:20
  because he killed her. Then they're shooting out of stuff,
• 1:16:21
  and then the end reveal that they killed her in
• 1:16:23
  the fire.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: Like dude, I uh, there was so much it was.
• 1:16:29
  It's just so weird because so many so fast paced,
• 1:16:33
  Like even the dad, which is kind of realistic if
• 1:16:36
  you think about, like you go to a cornfield, the
• 1:16:39
  people go, they're able to like skirt around things and
• 1:16:41
  they kind of like hide from him. And now the
• 1:16:43
  dad the house is on fire, he's like, fuck this,
• 1:16:45
  I'm leaving. You know, he's gonna be a fucking like
• 1:16:48
  a pussy and run whatever. It's like it all feels realistic,
• 1:16:52
  but it's one of those things where it's like you
• 1:16:54
  just I'm like, man, I'm man, I just wish there
• 1:16:57
  was just a so much more meat on the storage
• 1:17:00
  because it was so so fun.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 3: Well that's that's what that's what the potential it has
• 1:17:04
  when it goes into a film.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well I hope it'd be cool if Joe had
• 1:17:07
  some kind of input on that too, of like maybe
• 1:17:09
  their idea.
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 3: Is see I think I saw an article that said
• 1:17:12
  he did, or I saw something somewhere that's like he's
• 1:17:15
  being adapted with it, or he's a part of the
• 1:17:17
  writing team or something like.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: So crazy the dude that wrote Forrest Gump is doing
• 1:17:20
  this now. He's like he's going to sit there and
• 1:17:23
  he's going to write like interior rate bunker a woman.
• 1:17:29
  I mean, it's like he's it's just like the kind
• 1:17:31
  of like it's just such a polar opposite to like
• 1:17:34
  a fucking he's like all right. I'm usually have Neanderthals
• 1:17:39
  eating boxes of chocolate, but this time I guess I'll.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 3: Live to dude, that's h I was looking at Eric Roth.
• 1:17:45
  He also wrote like Killers of the Flower Moon. He
• 1:17:48
  has so many like he's maccolades. I'm curious to see
• 1:17:51
  what dramatic listen to listen to this Forrest Gump, Killers
• 1:17:56
  at the Flower Mune, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,
• 1:18:00
  The Curious Case of pet.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: But he comes out young but gets old like really quick,
• 1:18:05
  and then he starts getting young again. He's like, all right,
• 1:18:08
  and scene in scene Brad Older, Brad Pitt has sex
• 1:18:13
  with pretty hot woman exterior.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: Will say this. I think Sydney Sweeney is going to
• 1:18:23
  be a fun uh, a fun.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 3: Cast for this, a fun pick for the she.
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: I think she embodies the like that like kind of
• 1:18:31
  we were saying earlier, that valley girl vibe.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 2: But I think that she's also she's a great final
• 1:18:35
  girl type.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: Oh dude, and even euphoria. She has some fucking crazy
• 1:18:40
  moments of like she could be like a very unhilla
• 1:18:43
  kind of crazy character, like very very high strung, so
• 1:18:47
  having this kind of uh, I'm curious it's just gonna
• 1:18:50
  be a lot of fun to see who uh who
• 1:18:53
  they have. I really hope that they don't make the
• 1:18:54
  kid lanky and bony, like we were saying before. It
• 1:18:58
  would be so funny if James, I was kind of
• 1:19:00
  hoping James is like a like a fat neck beard,
• 1:19:03
  like rooms, like a net beer nest.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: I forget the actor's name.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 3: In my head, I imagined him as the guy who
• 1:19:09
  plays the zombie and warm Bodies James.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: Oh the fucking no, No, he's too handsome, and he's British.
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 3: That's true.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: I think what you have to do is you have
• 1:19:21
  to do you either have to do uh yeah, would
• 1:19:25
  be so funny, just like a British guy.
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 2: Hell uh, my sister's under the gazebo.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: My sister's under she's dead, but a girl and child
• 1:19:40
  are found. Oh god, it was much worse. It was
• 1:19:45
  much worse. Not MICHAELA. Yeah, I don't know. I'm this
• 1:19:52
  is man, what is it? Just a fun trip? I
• 1:19:54
  had just so much. I want to say so much
• 1:19:56
  different fucking things. I I want to uh.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: Well, same king, this is your podcast.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: Well I'm just saying there's just I mean, I could
• 1:20:03
  just you know, rant and rave about all the different
• 1:20:06
  things that you could do. But it was it's a
• 1:20:09
  fun story also just fucking bleak. God damn. I will
• 1:20:13
  say the ending rough like there's like there's just really
• 1:20:17
  no there's really no character arc in the story at all.
• 1:20:22
  It's just kind of something that's just like you're you're
• 1:20:25
  kind of like growing with this character. You're finding things,
• 1:20:28
  and then all of a sudden, it's like here's your
• 1:20:30
  giant bar of soap that you get a bite into.
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's a little bit of our main character
• 1:20:37
  being like I don't want him to be the way
• 1:20:40
  I was.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 3: Wanting to take him with her.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: That's not at that's not really a character arc, especially
• 1:20:47
  when the when she says to the kid like, uh
• 1:20:52
  like come with me or don't. I don't give a fuck,
• 1:20:53
  I'm leaving. Like she's pretty selfish all the way through.
• 1:20:57
  You know. Really, the the character that had the most
• 1:20:59
  gumption and like drive was the seventeen year old James.
• 1:21:05
  You know, we were at the part we were at
• 1:21:07
  the part in this story right here where non Mikayla.
• 1:21:10
  This is the part where she's like I'm turned, Like
• 1:21:13
  this is the turn, you know, this is the part.
• 1:21:15
  This is the part where you would find out that like, uh,
• 1:21:18
  there's not a news broadcast. That's just like an exposition
• 1:21:21
  dump of like this is what happened. Holy shit, By
• 1:21:24
  the way, did we tell you that there's a you know,
• 1:21:26
  you know, all this different stuff instead there's somebody in
• 1:21:29
  town or you know. She's like, we gotta go. We
• 1:21:32
  have to go back, like we have to. We need
• 1:21:34
  to like let people know about the Her body is
• 1:21:37
  there and they think that she's dead still, and when
• 1:21:40
  they go back, that's when you find out that she's like,
• 1:21:42
  oh no, she's a fucking prisoner inside this thing and
• 1:21:44
  it's a whole other can of worms, but she sticks
• 1:21:47
  with it. And that would be and like that's like
• 1:21:49
  the kind of like punchy like rally behind this character
• 1:21:53
  who you fucking hate so far, because I really just
• 1:21:54
  don't the non Mikayla character really not like like not
• 1:22:00
  a likable.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, of course, but she did have there
• 1:22:04
  and I think this is probably where the movie will go.
• 1:22:06
  She did have a tone midway through of like maybe
• 1:22:08
  I need to tell someone's story just because mine couldn't
• 1:22:11
  be told. Stuff. So there's like the story tries to
• 1:22:13
  set up an understanding of why she's the way that
• 1:22:15
  she is, with her previous abuse and stuff like that,
• 1:22:17
  and then it's like, maybe I don't have to be
• 1:22:20
  like this just because I grew up like this.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: Like the story starts to give her.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 3: An about face when it comes to her motivations and ethics,
• 1:22:27
  but then that's ripped away from her because it turns out, no,
• 1:22:29
  you killed the girl who you're trying to write the
• 1:22:30
  story of, which is brutal slap down.
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: Not intentional murder. But I mean that's like the uh.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, But it's just like I'm trying
• 1:22:39
  to tell the story for this girl.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: Oops, yeah, it is. It is a big bundle of
• 1:22:44
  oopsie daisies, for sure. It is a big bouquet of
• 1:22:47
  oopsie daisies, for sure. But the I think, uh, just
• 1:22:51
  just more of that, because I think you can have
• 1:22:52
  a character that's like I've been. I'm a victim of
• 1:22:56
  the circumstances that are fucking horrible, and I really enjoy that.
• 1:22:59
  It's like this girl is this, this person who was
• 1:23:02
  supposedly dead is a victim now of these circumstances as well,
• 1:23:06
  And it's a thing of being like I have the
• 1:23:07
  strength now and the courage now to step up and uh,
• 1:23:12
  you know right, like help somebody that I wish somebody
• 1:23:15
  would helped me with, like being that like guardian angel
• 1:23:17
  for somebody else. And it just gets like worse and worse.
• 1:23:21
  You know, it's a there's a lot there, but you know,
• 1:23:24
  as it is now, yeah, it does. It feels like
• 1:23:26
  I just got kicked in the face. I seriously felt
• 1:23:29
  like I got winded at the end of it, as
• 1:23:31
  soon as I heard, as soon as the whole thing
• 1:23:33
  of like I just finally looked at him and as
• 1:23:34
  I killed Mikaela and it's just like if you just
• 1:23:37
  see the down like the uh, the up boots and
• 1:23:39
  common numbers, I was like, are you fucking kidding me?
• 1:23:41
  That's it, that's it, that's for Yeah.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 3: What what's funny is I'm looking at the original version
• 1:23:48
  that was posted to No Sleep. So the original version
• 1:23:51
  ends with that conversation in the car where the guy's like,
• 1:23:54
  well you at least tell me your name, and she
• 1:23:55
  gets out, and then it ends and says, uh, I paused,
• 1:24:01
  I look down at my hands. I'd forgotten I was
• 1:24:03
  still wearing it, and then says relaxed. I didn't do
• 1:24:06
  what you think I did. That would have been a mistake.
• 1:24:08
  But when the old man dropped me off at the
• 1:24:09
  rest stop early the next morning, I saw that I'd
• 1:24:11
  already made a much bigger one. And then it links
• 1:24:14
  to a picture of a news article, a newspaper article
• 1:24:17
  that tells us the same thing that says missing girl's
• 1:24:20
  body found late last evening authorities responded to a house
• 1:24:24
  fire and Lincoln Avenue, and then we get the same
• 1:24:26
  breed out of what happened, And that's how the original one.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: There's interesting setups there too, with like this man that
• 1:24:33
  is kind of like a weird older guy who seems shady,
• 1:24:37
  and you know, we've done these. She's basically been prostituting
• 1:24:40
  herself out to other people. But then it's you have
• 1:24:44
  a character, this male character who is just helping her
• 1:24:47
  out of the kountess of her heart and does help
• 1:24:48
  her out, gives her money and there's no like sexual
• 1:24:50
  interaction or whatever. It's a nice it's a little seed
• 1:24:55
  that I think is a good plot motivator too, for
• 1:24:59
  a character to be like not everyone is horrible, Like
• 1:25:02
  I can't like let this thing define me whatever, and
• 1:25:05
  there's good people out there, right, that's like a.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: And James was a good person.
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: Yeahs and James was and James is cool too. It's
• 1:25:11
  it's one of those things where it's like you get
• 1:25:13
  to humanity can be shown that like lets you because
• 1:25:17
  her being a like, because she's like a selfish person.
• 1:25:21
  It's like that makes total sense that you were You've
• 1:25:24
  been on your own, You've had just like do horrible
• 1:25:27
  shit to survive. So yeah, you're gonna be jaded, you're
• 1:25:29
  gonna be bitter, and you're gonna be a character that's
• 1:25:31
  just like I don't give a fuck. I'm gonna focus
• 1:25:33
  on myself, but you can have that moment where little
• 1:25:37
  pieces of humanity are coming through. I kind of like this.
• 1:25:39
  This uh this comment, by the way, the top comment
• 1:25:42
  on this post is a girl Pringle six ninety seven says,
• 1:25:46
  I love this one. I thought she was gonna live
• 1:25:48
  with them for a while and drain their money. Nice twist,
• 1:25:50
  super sad and fucked up ending, very well written. And
• 1:25:53
  then our boy, our boy Joe comments and this is
• 1:25:55
  what he says, and this is I think this is
• 1:25:57
  kind of fucked He says, thank you, This one really
• 1:26:00
  kicked my butt, but I was super late. I was
• 1:26:02
  up super late almost every night trying to get it right.
• 1:26:04
  So seriously means a lot that you all enjoyed it.
• 1:26:06
  That's what it's all about. You're right though it was
• 1:26:09
  pretty fucked up. It was. It was a pretty fucked
• 1:26:11
  up in Huh. I feel bad even though it was
• 1:26:12
  under my control. Crying, laughing, like what a psycho path.
• 1:26:19
  He's like, yeah, it was fucked up, but it's just me.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 3: I had quirky You like that, you like caring about
• 1:26:26
  these characters.
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: Watch you like that? It's done. That's kind how it feel.
• 1:26:30
  It's just like done.
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 2: That's what you get.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: It's just like there it is bedtime.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 3: So it's interesting looking at the newspaper clipping ending, which
• 1:26:38
  I haven't read the entire version on No Sleep, but
• 1:26:40
  going off the newspaper clipping, it seems like in the
• 1:26:42
  original version she ran away on her own and James
• 1:26:45
  didn't go with her or got separated from James at
• 1:26:47
  some point, and there's no mention of Mikayla in the
• 1:26:52
  bunker having a child.
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 2: It just says she died in the fire, her body found, and.
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 3: Then it says, uh parents, Paul and Linda have been
• 1:26:59
  placed under a rest with their remaining child James now
• 1:27:02
  being questioned by the FBI. So in the original it
• 1:27:05
  was more ambiguous, like who was a part of it? Yeah,
• 1:27:07
  stuff like that. But I mean I like James.
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: I like James being the catalyst of basically telling our
• 1:27:16
  protagonists that his sister was murdered and that they need
• 1:27:20
  to get out of here. I really think that if
• 1:27:23
  we spend more time in the house, you could get
• 1:27:25
  more out of not only the awkward interaction, but I
• 1:27:28
  think there needs to be more development with James as well,
• 1:27:31
  like almost in a way of you have a character
• 1:27:35
  who we think is dead and is still being like
• 1:27:37
  two children that are being abused in a household. I
• 1:27:40
  don't think James, you don't need to have like be
• 1:27:42
  two fucking separate instances of assault in that way. But
• 1:27:45
  even just like the dad, like I don't know, like
• 1:27:48
  he slaps the back of his head, he's like, come on, man,
• 1:27:49
  you know, or like what like just kind of like
• 1:27:51
  a weird just some other kind of uh, I think,
• 1:27:57
  like some other kind of abuse or like you know,
• 1:27:58
  like kind of just a shitty how hold. And then
• 1:28:01
  I think that builds his character up to to where
• 1:28:03
  when he's taking action and doing things, it's also our
• 1:28:07
  protagonist being able to help him as well, and like
• 1:28:11
  as somebody who is alive and is going through some
• 1:28:14
  shit can be I don't know, yeah, just like a
• 1:28:18
  kind of like a beacon or like a guide for
• 1:28:20
  our character to also help out in that time too.
• 1:28:23
  But also the end of just like the child thing,
• 1:28:25
  that's just like a demented cherry on top of the story.
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think, I mean that was great. I
• 1:28:33
  really enjoyed that. That was a fun story. And also
• 1:28:36
  this is like primo material to get turned into a film,
• 1:28:40
  because yep, there is a lot of the time it
• 1:28:43
  bothers me when something takes like a whole novel and
• 1:28:46
  then adapts at one for one and doesn't make any changes,
• 1:28:48
  because sometimes it's like, well, for one, we already had
• 1:28:50
  the book for that, and two not everything translates perfectly
• 1:28:53
  from you know, page to screen.
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: Well, a whole novel, also a four hundred page book
• 1:28:58
  translating into a hour and a half very hard, you're.
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 3: Gonna lose so much. You're gonna lose so much, and
• 1:29:03
  like it becomes a different format. And there's certainly some
• 1:29:05
  things that do it right, but they have to understand
• 1:29:08
  what needs to be changed right. It's not an easy
• 1:29:10
  one for one. But this is the other way around,
• 1:29:12
  where you have this short, interesting idea with a lot
• 1:29:14
  of really cool plot moments, and you can band in places,
• 1:29:17
  you can add, you can change, Like I think this
• 1:29:20
  is This would be a great film. Sidney Sweeney's perfect
• 1:29:23
  to be a part of it. From the other projects
• 1:29:24
  she's been in, like Immaculate and stuff like.
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: That, Air Cross Saw Doggins screenwriter Walton Doggins would be
• 1:29:30
  a good Paul.
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be cool.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that'd be sick.
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 2: This is This is great.
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 3: So I'm excited to see this is becoming a film
• 1:29:38
  and I definitely get why it is. And I really
• 1:29:40
  enjoyed this story. That was fun.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it was a great little read.
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: Y'all, we appreciate you. Be sure to go give some
• 1:29:46
  love to Joe, maybe go congratulate him as well. It's
• 1:29:49
  pretty fucking huge to have a story of yours be
• 1:29:51
  adapted into a full blown movie. So that's fucking awesome, Joe.
• 1:29:54
  We appreciate you, man. Also, Joe was very active on Reddit.
• 1:29:57
  We'll have to check out some more of his works
• 1:29:58
  in the future as well, But go give some love guys.
• 1:30:01
  Until the meantime. As always, be sure to check us
• 1:30:03
  out on Spotify, Apple Podcast give us the nice ratings there.
• 1:30:06
  It really does mean a whole hell of a lot.
• 1:30:09
  Thank you so much for joining us this week, and
• 1:30:11
  we'll see you in the next one.
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 3: Bye bye, We'll see you in the next one. And
• 1:30:15
  don't forget about early in the episode of the mention
• 1:30:17
  of Hunter bar diving in a red pleather skirt. Okay, bye,
• 1:30:22
  thanks bye be any