Latest / Crime and Horror / This birthday surprise went horribly wrong - MrBallen

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This birthday surprise went horribly wrong - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you two stories about people
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Speaker 1: who wanted to do something very impressive and came up
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Speaker 1: with a pretty ambitious plan to do it. But they
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Speaker 1: overlooked one crucial detail that became the difference between life
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Speaker 1: and death. But before we get into today's story, if
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Speaker 1: you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered
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Speaker 1: in story format, then you've come to the right place
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Speaker 1: because that's all we do. and we upload two, three,
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Speaker 1: even four times a week. So if that's of interest
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Speaker 1: to you, please offer to take the like button out
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Speaker 1: on a whale watching cruise. But once you're out on
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Speaker 1: the water, just throw them overboard and leave. Also, please
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Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's
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Speaker 1: get into today's stories. On the night of August 25th, 2011,
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Speaker 1: a 23-year-old woman named Risa Demura, along with her husband
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Speaker 1: Hiroki Demura, were sitting on their couch in their apartment
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Speaker 1: in Kanazawa City, Japan, watching TV. And as they sat there,
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Speaker 1: they both found themselves laughing hysterically at the screen. They
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Speaker 1: were watching their favorite show. It was this hidden camera
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Speaker 1: comedy prank show. And this was like the highlight of
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Speaker 1: their day, sitting here together on the couch, watching TV.
1:31
Speaker 1: and just laughing their heads off. Risa and Hiroki had
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Speaker 1: been married for just four months, and so they were
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Speaker 1: still very much living in that newlywed bliss period, where
1:40
Speaker 1: they basically spent every second they could together. When Hiroki
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Speaker 1: wasn't working, the two of them would go out to eat,
1:46
Speaker 1: they would go to the movies together, or take trips
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Speaker 1: to the beach, since Kanazawa City was right on the coast.
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Speaker 1: And whenever they were out, they were always talking about
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Speaker 1: how lucky they felt that they had found each other,
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Speaker 1: and that they were married, and that the rest of
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Speaker 1: their lives were going to look like this. Like, how
2:02
Speaker 1: lucky were they? Risa and Hiroki had actually met when
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Speaker 1: they were young kids in middle school, but Hiroki was
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Speaker 1: very shy and really didn't speak to Risa at all
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Speaker 1: at the time. But then later, as adults after college,
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Speaker 1: they ran into each other, and Hiroki, he told Risa
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Speaker 1: the truth, that he actually had always loved her, and
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Speaker 1: he still did. And Risa really had been shocked by
2:25
Speaker 1: this because she had always felt a type of way
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Speaker 1: about him, but it really didn't seem like he was
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Speaker 1: interested in her. So this was like this amazing revelation.
2:32
Speaker 1: But more than that, it was also just incredibly romantic
2:35
Speaker 1: to her, like a classic Hollywood love story. And so
2:38
Speaker 1: when he had confessed his love to her, she had
2:41
Speaker 1: pretty much immediately said, oh my gosh, let's go on
2:43
Speaker 1: a date. This is awesome. Let's do it. And from there,
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Speaker 1: it had just been a whirlwind. You know, they had
2:47
Speaker 1: just fallen completely in love. And then within the year,
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Speaker 1: they had gotten married. Now, the reason they had ultimately
2:54
Speaker 1: settled in Kanazawa City was mostly just because of Hiroki's job.
2:57
Speaker 1: He worked at a company that was in the city.
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Speaker 1: And he was also kind of a rising star there.
3:02
Speaker 1: Every time Risa met one of his co-workers, they would
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Speaker 1: talk about how, you know, he was such a hard
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Speaker 1: worker and what a natural-born leader he was. And so
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Speaker 1: Risa was very proud of him. But more than that,
3:12
Speaker 1: she felt inspired by Hiroki. And so she found herself
3:16
Speaker 1: wanting to find a really fulfilling job herself. And so
3:18
Speaker 1: she was on the hunt for, you know, her career.
3:21
Speaker 1: But for right now, Risa was very much still in
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Speaker 1: the sort of identifying what she wanted to do phase.
3:27
Speaker 1: And it was because she was just kind of always
3:29
Speaker 1: going from one interest to another because she just had
3:31
Speaker 1: this huge, insatiable curiosity and loved trying new things, which
3:37
Speaker 1: made it hard to choose just one thing to do
3:39
Speaker 1: with her life. But Hiroki was incredibly supportive of this.
3:42
Speaker 1: I mean, he treated Risa like she was royalty. And
3:45
Speaker 1: he always said that whatever she wanted to do was
3:48
Speaker 1: completely fine by him as long as she was happy.
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Speaker 1: But for right now, as Risa sat on the couch
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Speaker 1: next to Hiroki watching this funny show, she found her
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Speaker 1: mind wandering away from the show and away from her
4:00
Speaker 1: ongoing job search to Hiroki's birthday. It was coming up
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Speaker 1: and she just felt like there was a lot of
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Speaker 1: pressure on her to do something really special for him.
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Speaker 1: Mostly because Hiroki always did something really thoughtful and really
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Speaker 1: incredible for her. Like he really celebrated her really well.
4:18
Speaker 1: And she didn't want to kind of underwhelm him. And
4:21
Speaker 1: this was also going to be the first time one
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Speaker 1: of them was having a birthday now that they were
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Speaker 1: officially married. So Risa really wanted to go all out
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Speaker 1: and plan something really great that Hiroki would never forget.
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Speaker 1: But as Risa sat on the couch next to her
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Speaker 1: husband trying to come up with the perfect birthday celebration idea,
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Speaker 1: she just kept drawing a blank. It's like the only
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Speaker 1: thing she could think of that really she and her
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Speaker 1: husband shared was they both were very romantic people. And
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Speaker 1: so This would have to be romantic in some way,
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Speaker 1: but how, she didn't know. And in many ways, she
4:55
Speaker 1: and her husband were very different in how they showed
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Speaker 1: affection or how they showed romance. Hiroki was still a
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Speaker 1: very quiet and reserved person, so his displays of affection
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Speaker 1: to his wife were reserved and private. But Risa, on
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Speaker 1: the other hand, was massively extroverted, full of energy, and
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Speaker 1: so her displays of affection... We're sort of over the
5:15
Speaker 1: top and big and boisterous. And so Risa is just
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Speaker 1: really struggling, trying to think, like, how can I do this?
5:21
Speaker 1: And it was like all of a sudden she has
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Speaker 1: this epiphany and she sees in her mind's eye the
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Speaker 1: perfect way to celebrate his birthday. She didn't even know
5:30
Speaker 1: what inspired it, but it just it came to her.
5:33
Speaker 1: She would take her husband out on a on a
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Speaker 1: very romantic beach walk. But then at the end of
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Speaker 1: the beach walk, there would be this surprise over-the-top fireworks display.
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Speaker 1: It was exactly what she needed. It was romantic and crazy,
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Speaker 1: just like her. Two days later, on Saturday afternoon, Risa,
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Speaker 1: along with six of her friends, were at Osaki Beach,
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Speaker 1: which is the beach where the big birthday was going
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Speaker 1: to take place. And the birthday was going to be
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Speaker 1: that night. But now that Risa had planned out the
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Speaker 1: big party, she had done that the day before while
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Speaker 1: Hiroki was at work, Now, on the day of, she
6:09
Speaker 1: actually had some setup, some physical setup to do because
6:12
Speaker 1: this was not just going to be a walk on
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Speaker 1: the beach. There was also going to be fireworks. And
6:16
Speaker 1: so she needed her friends for that. And so what
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Speaker 1: they were doing on this day is they were walking
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Speaker 1: along the beach looking for the perfect spot that would
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Speaker 1: afford Risa and her husband some privacy on the beach.
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Speaker 1: So it was very romantic but also had like a
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Speaker 1: vantage point. for the friends where they could basically hide
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Speaker 1: and watch the couple and look for the signal to
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Speaker 1: then light off the fireworks when it was the right time.
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Speaker 1: And so Risa and her friends, they're walking along the
6:41
Speaker 1: beach and then they see it. There's this kind of
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Speaker 1: private sort of secluded section of the beach that had
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Speaker 1: this row of shrubbery kind of lining the backside of it.
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Speaker 1: That would be a perfect spot for the friends to hide.
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Speaker 1: And then also down on the beach, it'd be nice
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Speaker 1: and private and peaceful. And they thought that was the
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Speaker 1: best spot to have this big party. And so over
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Speaker 1: there they go, the friends go up into the bushes
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Speaker 1: and they get their fireworks ready. And then Risa, she
7:05
Speaker 1: went down to the sand section of the beach and
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Speaker 1: she kind of prepped the area where she and Hiroki
7:09
Speaker 1: would be. And then ultimately she laid out this blue sheet.
7:13
Speaker 1: And then once that was in place, she walked back
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Speaker 1: up to her friends and they said, okay, we're ready
7:17
Speaker 1: to go. And so Risa told her friends her plan
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Speaker 1: was to be there that night at 10 p.m. with
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Speaker 1: her husband and that the friends should actually get there
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Speaker 1: a little bit earlier to be all set up. And
7:27
Speaker 1: they agreed. And then they all left. As Risa left
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Speaker 1: the beach, she found herself feeling incredibly antsy. I mean,
7:33
Speaker 1: she was so excited about this big surprise party that night,
7:37
Speaker 1: and she just wanted it to be 10 p.m. so
7:39
Speaker 1: she could finally reveal what she had in store for Hiroki.
7:43
Speaker 1: But she also knew she couldn't give away that she
7:45
Speaker 1: had this big surprise. And so when she got home
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Speaker 1: where Hiroki was, she acted like everything was totally normal.
7:52
Speaker 1: And so when she walked inside, she quickly sent Hiroki
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Speaker 1: to the couch to go relax and while she made
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Speaker 1: them both a very nice dinner. And then when she
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Speaker 1: was done, the two of them sat down at the
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Speaker 1: table and Risa kind of pretended like she had nothing planned.
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Speaker 1: And she was like, hey, what should we do this
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Speaker 1: weekend to celebrate your birthday? And they talked about, you know,
8:09
Speaker 1: going and seeing friends and, you know, going out, whatever
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Speaker 1: they were going to do. But it was all a
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Speaker 1: big ruse. You know, Risa had her big plan for
8:16
Speaker 1: the night. And then at some point when it was
8:18
Speaker 1: getting kind of late and it seemed like Hiroki was
8:20
Speaker 1: maybe thinking about going to bed, Risa said, well, wait
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Speaker 1: a minute. You know, it's your birthday weekend. Let's not
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Speaker 1: go to bed right now. Let's go on a beach walk.
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Speaker 1: What a great idea that would be. And Hiroki was
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Speaker 1: kind of surprised, but he's like, actually, yeah, that sounds great.
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Speaker 1: Let's go for it. And as soon as he said that,
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Speaker 1: Risa could barely contain her excitement because she knew she
8:41
Speaker 1: had this awesome thing planned for him down at the beach.
8:44
Speaker 1: And it was about to happen. Like this was going
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Speaker 1: to be awesome. And so she and her husband quickly
8:48
Speaker 1: cleaned up. And then just before 10 p.m., they left
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Speaker 1: their apartment and got in the car and headed to
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Speaker 1: the beach. About 10 minutes later, they parked at the
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Speaker 1: end of this dead-end road right near the beach. And
9:01
Speaker 1: when they got out, there was basically bushes on all
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Speaker 1: sides of the road, but there was this little path
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Speaker 1: that cut through the bushes that led down to the sand.
9:09
Speaker 1: But as Risa led Hiroki down this path, she quickly
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Speaker 1: realized she had a big problem. There was virtually no moonlight.
9:17
Speaker 1: It's like basically pitch black on the beach. And remember,
9:21
Speaker 1: she had put out that blue blanket to signify where
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Speaker 1: she and Hiroki would be, you know, in position so
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Speaker 1: that her friends who were nearby in the bushes could
9:28
Speaker 1: light off the fireworks. You know, it was all contingent
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Speaker 1: on getting to that blue blanket. And it's so dark
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Speaker 1: that not only was Risa unable to see this blue blanket,
9:37
Speaker 1: certainly not from a distance, but I mean, she could
9:40
Speaker 1: barely see the sand. I mean, it's so dark. It's
9:43
Speaker 1: like eerie out on the beach. And this is in
9:46
Speaker 1: 2011 when you couldn't just pull out your cell phone
9:48
Speaker 1: and turn on your flashlight. There was no flashlight feature.
9:51
Speaker 1: And so the best they could do was basically pull
9:53
Speaker 1: out their phone, tap on the screen, and use the
9:55
Speaker 1: little bit of light coming from that to guide their way.
9:58
Speaker 1: But after walking on the beach just a short ways
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Speaker 1: Hiroki actually stopped Risa and said hey like I don't
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Speaker 1: think it's safe to be walking on the beach we
10:06
Speaker 1: really can't see where we're going like let's go back
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Speaker 1: and get a flashlight but Risa knows her friends are
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Speaker 1: already in position in those shrubs down the beach ready
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Speaker 1: to light off those fireworks and they likely can't see
10:18
Speaker 1: very well and And so she's like worried that if
10:20
Speaker 1: she doesn't get there soon, that somehow her friends are
10:23
Speaker 1: going to panic and light off the fireworks prematurely. Like
10:26
Speaker 1: she doesn't know what's going to happen here, but she's
10:28
Speaker 1: starting to get worried that everything's falling apart and she
10:31
Speaker 1: can't afford to be late. And so she tells her husband, no,
10:34
Speaker 1: let's not go back and get flashlights. Let's just walk
10:37
Speaker 1: on the dark sand. It's no big deal. And so
10:40
Speaker 1: the two of them are walking along the beach using
10:42
Speaker 1: their cell phone screens to guide them. But pretty quickly,
10:47
Speaker 1: Hiroki started to notice that Risa seemed really anxious and
10:50
Speaker 1: was walking really too fast. I mean, this is meant
10:53
Speaker 1: to be a peaceful walk on the beach. And Risa
10:56
Speaker 1: is like a woman on a mission here trying to
10:58
Speaker 1: go somewhere. But he doesn't understand where she's trying to go.
11:02
Speaker 1: She's just walking really quickly ahead of him. And finally,
11:05
Speaker 1: he said to her, like, hey, what's going on? Like,
11:08
Speaker 1: why are you trying to walk so quickly? Like, what
11:10
Speaker 1: are we doing out here? And so finally, she just
11:12
Speaker 1: stops walking. And she looks at her husband and she's
11:15
Speaker 1: about to tell him what's actually going on. Because she
11:17
Speaker 1: feels like, you know, the surprise at this point is ruined.
11:20
Speaker 1: And she basically needs his help if they're going to
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Speaker 1: find this blanket and figure out where they need to be.
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Speaker 1: But right as Risa is about to tell her husband
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Speaker 1: what's going on, suddenly it was like the whole world
11:32
Speaker 1: went completely black. No more ambient light from cell phones.
11:37
Speaker 1: No more minimal moonlight. Nothing. Absolute blackness and silence. At
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Speaker 1: the same time, Risa's friends were actually not that far
11:53
Speaker 1: away up in the bushes. But much like Risa and Hiroki,
11:57
Speaker 1: they had also been dealing with the issue that they
12:00
Speaker 1: basically couldn't see anything. It was so dark. And so
12:03
Speaker 1: they got in position, but they basically couldn't even see
12:06
Speaker 1: the sand. I mean, they had no idea if Risa
12:09
Speaker 1: and Hiroki were in position or not, but they could
12:13
Speaker 1: hear Risa and Hiroki talking. They could hear them sort
12:16
Speaker 1: of out there somewhere on the sand. And the friends
12:19
Speaker 1: were kind of whispering back and forth, like, how are
12:21
Speaker 1: we going to know when they're actually in position to
12:24
Speaker 1: light off the fireworks? How are we going to get
12:26
Speaker 1: the signal? We can't see them. And so the friends
12:28
Speaker 1: are sort of like unsure what to do. And they're
12:31
Speaker 1: straining their eyes out onto the sand, trying to see Risa,
12:34
Speaker 1: trying to see Hiroki. But again, they can't see them.
12:37
Speaker 1: They can't see the blue blanket, even though it's not
12:40
Speaker 1: that far away. And so they're just like looking and listening.
12:43
Speaker 1: And they can kind of tell that Risa and Hiroki
12:45
Speaker 1: are probably the voices they're hearing and They appear to
12:48
Speaker 1: be moving in this direction. But then suddenly they start
12:52
Speaker 1: hearing these screams coming from the same direction they were
12:56
Speaker 1: hearing voices that they believed were their friends. And at
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Speaker 1: first they thought the screams might actually be the signal,
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Speaker 1: like light off the fireworks. But the screams, they sounded
13:05
Speaker 1: like somebody was in trouble. And critically, as soon as
13:09
Speaker 1: the screaming started, it abruptly stopped. It was like high-pitched,
13:14
Speaker 1: just awful screams and then silence. Absolute, total silence on
13:19
Speaker 1: the beach. And again, they can't see anything. So they
13:23
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on. They don't even know if
13:24
Speaker 1: that's actually Risa and Hiroki, but they think something's wrong here.
13:28
Speaker 1: So they abandon the fireworks, they leave their hiding spot,
13:31
Speaker 1: and they charge out onto the beach, and they're looking
13:34
Speaker 1: all around, but they really can't see anything. They can't
13:37
Speaker 1: even find the blue blanket, and they knew roughly where
13:39
Speaker 1: it was. They couldn't even find that. And so they're
13:42
Speaker 1: running around the beach, they're calling out to Hiroki and
13:45
Speaker 1: to Risa, but they're not hearing anything back. And for
13:48
Speaker 1: 30 minutes, they're just running around, looking for their friends,
13:51
Speaker 1: just knowing like something bad has happened here. And then
13:55
Speaker 1: at some point, one of the friends doubles back And
13:58
Speaker 1: they go roughly to the area where, you know, Risa
14:01
Speaker 1: and Hiroki were supposed to be, near that blue blanket.
14:04
Speaker 1: And they make a discovery. It would turn out, when
14:09
Speaker 1: Risa and Hiroki were out on that beach walking around
14:12
Speaker 1: in the darkness, Risa actually did find that blue sheet
14:16
Speaker 1: that she'd set up in preparation for this big birthday surprise.
14:20
Speaker 1: Except it was so dark that even though they were
14:23
Speaker 1: literally at this point standing on the blanket... She and
14:27
Speaker 1: Hiroki couldn't tell it was that dark. Now, that doesn't
14:30
Speaker 1: seem like that would be catastrophic until you consider what
14:34
Speaker 1: was underneath that blanket. So two days earlier, when Risa
14:40
Speaker 1: had that epiphany of how she could have the best
14:43
Speaker 1: birthday ever for Hiroki, she had had that epiphany in
14:46
Speaker 1: part because of the show they were watching on TV,
14:49
Speaker 1: the hidden camera comedy show that she and Hiroki both loved.
14:53
Speaker 1: The show was called Arashi's Big Secret, And its comedy
14:57
Speaker 1: really came from the over-the-top pranks that the show's hosts
15:01
Speaker 1: would pull on Japanese celebrities. And one of those pranks
15:05
Speaker 1: was to dig a large hole on the beach that
15:07
Speaker 1: somebody would accidentally fall into. And so Risa thought, what
15:11
Speaker 1: a great idea! What if I dig a hole on
15:14
Speaker 1: the beach, cover it up, and then after our romantic
15:18
Speaker 1: walk on the beach for his birthday, I'll have Hiroki
15:21
Speaker 1: fall into the hole... And then my friends will fire
15:24
Speaker 1: off those fireworks and it'll be sort of like he's
15:27
Speaker 1: on the game show that we love so much. It'll
15:29
Speaker 1: basically be like a combination of a romantic fun time
15:33
Speaker 1: on the beach and a prank and a big birthday
15:35
Speaker 1: celebration afterwards. It was perfect. However, Risa made a terrible miscalculation.
15:43
Speaker 1: So on the game show, when they would dig these
15:46
Speaker 1: holes in the beach, they would cover them with basically
15:49
Speaker 1: dried foam, like think styrofoam. that the instant one of
15:53
Speaker 1: their contestants or their celebrities stepped directly on the foam,
15:57
Speaker 1: the foam would break and they would fall feet first
16:00
Speaker 1: into the hole. What Risa did is after she dug
16:03
Speaker 1: this deep hole along with her friends, you know, getting
16:05
Speaker 1: ready for this big party, she covered the hole first
16:09
Speaker 1: with a thick piece of plastic, like almost like plywood,
16:13
Speaker 1: but plastic, like rigid plastic. And so she covered the
16:16
Speaker 1: hole with that. That was like the platform. And then
16:18
Speaker 1: she covered that with the blue sheet. so that to
16:21
Speaker 1: the naked eye, it looked like the ground was level
16:24
Speaker 1: underneath the blue sheet. In Reese's mind, this rigid plastic
16:29
Speaker 1: would break the instant her husband stepped on it. Like,
16:31
Speaker 1: it wasn't that strong. It was maybe strong enough to
16:34
Speaker 1: hold him for a second, but it would definitely snap
16:36
Speaker 1: in the middle, and he would fall in, just like
16:38
Speaker 1: on the game show. But, in reality, when she and
16:42
Speaker 1: her husband inadvertently walked onto that blue sheet without realizing it,
16:48
Speaker 1: because it was so dark... that piece of plastic didn't break.
16:52
Speaker 1: It was too rigid. The plastic, instead of breaking, just
16:55
Speaker 1: kind of tilted suddenly to one side, causing Risa and
16:59
Speaker 1: her husband to suddenly tumble basically forward, both of them
17:03
Speaker 1: head first into this hole and caused this massive avalanche
17:08
Speaker 1: of sand to come into the hole and completely cover
17:11
Speaker 1: the two of them up. And so Risa and Hiroki,
17:14
Speaker 1: they screamed for a second as they began to fall
17:17
Speaker 1: into the ground. And then suddenly they're upside down and
17:20
Speaker 1: completely covered all the way to the top by heavy,
17:23
Speaker 1: wet sand. That's why it went silent after the screams,
17:27
Speaker 1: because they were completely buried alive. Risa's friends ultimately, after
17:33
Speaker 1: walking around the beach, after hearing those screams, they would
17:36
Speaker 1: find the blue blanket and it was partially submerged in
17:39
Speaker 1: the sand. And so they really didn't know what had happened,
17:42
Speaker 1: but because of the screams and what they were seeing,
17:44
Speaker 1: they just called the authorities and they came out to
17:47
Speaker 1: the beach and it would take them like 30 minutes
17:49
Speaker 1: to finally dig out Risa and Turoki from this hole.
17:53
Speaker 1: but by that point it was too late. They both
17:56
Speaker 1: had suffocated to death. One morning in the winter of 1856,
18:16
Speaker 1: a 27-year-old explorer named Dr. Edward Fogel sat down for
18:20
Speaker 1: breakfast at the home where he was staying and in
18:22
Speaker 1: the city of Abashir, which was in a kingdom called
18:25
Speaker 1: Wadai in Central Africa. Edward poured himself a cup of milk,
18:30
Speaker 1: and then, even though the table was full of warm
18:33
Speaker 1: breads and cakes and porridge, Edward called a servant over
18:37
Speaker 1: and asked her to get him a plate of boiled eggs.
18:40
Speaker 1: But the servant just apologized and said, I'm sorry, but
18:43
Speaker 1: we don't have any eggs this morning. We're all out.
18:46
Speaker 1: Edward was disappointed, but he thanked the servant anyways. So
18:50
Speaker 1: Edward was visiting Africa from Germany on a map-making expedition.
18:54
Speaker 1: And he'd been there for the past two weeks. And
18:57
Speaker 1: so far, all the local food really upset his stomach.
19:00
Speaker 1: Except for eggs. So for literally every single meal, the
19:05
Speaker 1: only thing he ate was eggs. And now, because they
19:08
Speaker 1: were out of eggs, despite there being all this other
19:10
Speaker 1: food to choose from, he knew he couldn't eat it
19:13
Speaker 1: without getting sick, and so he would just have to
19:15
Speaker 1: go hungry. But outside of the food, overall, you know,
19:19
Speaker 1: Edward thought the city of Abishir was, eh, it was okay.
19:22
Speaker 1: He had gotten to meet the king, who had arranged
19:24
Speaker 1: for him to stay here in this very nice home
19:26
Speaker 1: that was owned by a noble family. And the area
19:30
Speaker 1: itself was extremely beautiful. And Edward was actually going to
19:33
Speaker 1: be the very first European to successfully make a map
19:36
Speaker 1: of it, which meant that he'd be essentially creating history.
19:40
Speaker 1: But Edward just really was not getting along with the locals.
19:45
Speaker 1: they just seemed kind of overall pretty suspicious of him. And,
19:49
Speaker 1: you know, Edward Cooper... believe it, but, you know, they
19:51
Speaker 1: didn't seem to care at all that he was this...
19:54
Speaker 1: famous map maker who had come all the way there
19:57
Speaker 1: from Germany to literally put their kind of insignificant city
20:02
Speaker 1: onto the map of the whole world. Like, why didn't
20:04
Speaker 1: they appreciate that? He couldn't believe it. And now, adding
20:07
Speaker 1: insult to injury, Edward also couldn't even eat any breakfast.
20:12
Speaker 1: And so feeling pretty annoyed, despite all the effort clearly
20:15
Speaker 1: people had made to feed him that morning, Edward stood
20:18
Speaker 1: up from the table and he left to go spend
20:20
Speaker 1: the day exploring. He walked into the front courtyard where
20:25
Speaker 1: another servant was waiting with Edward's horse. Edward spent most
20:28
Speaker 1: of his days in the city just kind of riding
20:30
Speaker 1: around and drawing maps of streets and alleyways. But today,
20:35
Speaker 1: this servant warned Edward that he really ought to stay
20:38
Speaker 1: inside because it was not safe for him to go
20:40
Speaker 1: out into the city. So at this point in time,
20:43
Speaker 1: the kingdom that Abishir was a part of was at
20:46
Speaker 1: war with several nations. And so as a result, everybody
20:50
Speaker 1: in the city was very worried about spies, which meant
20:54
Speaker 1: they were very suspicious of foreigners like Edward. Now, for
21:00
Speaker 1: the most part, locals had sort of put up with
21:02
Speaker 1: his presence so far. But to them, it just sort
21:05
Speaker 1: of seemed like he was always watching them without ever
21:08
Speaker 1: talking to anyone. And so they had started to gossip.
21:11
Speaker 1: But Edward, after being given this warning by the servant,
21:15
Speaker 1: did not take it seriously. Instead, he kind of scoffed
21:18
Speaker 1: and said, nah, it's no big deal. Like, I'm not
21:20
Speaker 1: going to be out there for very long anyways. Nothing's
21:22
Speaker 1: going to happen. He said he had another plan for today.
21:25
Speaker 1: His big plan was he would leave the city of
21:27
Speaker 1: Abishir and he would go to this nearby mountain. And
21:29
Speaker 1: he wanted to climb up it and get a bird's
21:32
Speaker 1: eye view of the city from the mountaintop to help
21:34
Speaker 1: him finish up his map. But when Edward said that,
21:37
Speaker 1: the servant looked truly horrified and told Edward that he
21:41
Speaker 1: simply could not do that. Because the mountain Edward was
21:44
Speaker 1: clearly talking about was sacred, and nobody was allowed to
21:48
Speaker 1: climb it. Like, that was really important to the people
21:51
Speaker 1: who lived here. But to Edward, you know, this warning
21:54
Speaker 1: really did not land. Instead, he just looked at it
21:57
Speaker 1: as more evidence that the locals just didn't appreciate what
22:01
Speaker 1: he was doing for them. Like, he was on a
22:03
Speaker 1: very important mission that was far more important than anything
22:07
Speaker 1: sacred to them. And so Edward, you know, he thanked
22:09
Speaker 1: the servant for his warning, but also said, like, look,
22:13
Speaker 1: I'm going to do what I'm going to do because
22:15
Speaker 1: this is really important. And so I'm going to go
22:17
Speaker 1: hike that mountain and I'll see you tonight when I
22:19
Speaker 1: drop off the horse. And then Edward climbed onto the
22:22
Speaker 1: horse and he rode off. But Edward didn't come back.
22:29
Speaker 1: He didn't come back that night or the day after
22:31
Speaker 1: or the day after. And pretty soon it was clear
22:34
Speaker 1: that Edward was missing. Word of Edward's disappearance ultimately made
22:39
Speaker 1: it back to Germany pretty quickly, specifically to the Geography
22:42
Speaker 1: Society that had sent him to Africa on this map-making
22:45
Speaker 1: mission in the first place. So the Geography Society and
22:49
Speaker 1: the German public sent several search parties to Africa to
22:53
Speaker 1: go look for Edward. But despite multiple serious attempts over
22:59
Speaker 1: several years, nobody ever found him or figured out what
23:03
Speaker 1: happened to him. And because of this, Edward sort of
23:06
Speaker 1: became famous in Germany. People began to see him as
23:09
Speaker 1: like this brave explorer who thirsted for knowledge and went
23:13
Speaker 1: daringly into the unknown. They imagined dramatic and tragic things
23:18
Speaker 1: that might have happened to him, like maybe he had
23:20
Speaker 1: been assassinated or taken prisoner, or maybe he discovered something
23:24
Speaker 1: holy or ancient that he wasn't supposed to see. And
23:27
Speaker 1: so in time, the story of Edward got bigger and
23:31
Speaker 1: bigger and And he became like a symbol of, you know,
23:34
Speaker 1: German pride. I mean, this was our explorer. He had
23:37
Speaker 1: done something amazing, clearly. Also, adding intrigue to this already
23:42
Speaker 1: very bizarre mystery was the fact that all the people
23:45
Speaker 1: who actually went to Africa to look for Edward, the
23:48
Speaker 1: search parties over the years, literally everybody who went died. Now,
23:54
Speaker 1: all those searchers, like, they know how they died. It
23:56
Speaker 1: was local violence or disease or just plain bad luck.
24:00
Speaker 1: But it sort of added intrigue to this mystery. Like,
24:03
Speaker 1: everybody who went looking for Edward didn't come back. Like,
24:07
Speaker 1: that became part of the lore. And so this mystery
24:09
Speaker 1: just continued to grow and grow and get passed around
24:12
Speaker 1: and things were embellished and things were fictionalized until finally,
24:17
Speaker 1: almost 20 years after Edward disappeared... another explorer named Gustav
24:23
Speaker 1: Nachtigall decided he was going to be the one who
24:26
Speaker 1: finally figured out once and for all what actually happened
24:30
Speaker 1: to this guy. And so in the early winter of 1874,
24:38
Speaker 1: Gustav is now in the courtyard outside of his apartment
24:42
Speaker 1: in Abashir, because he had actually gone to Africa to
24:45
Speaker 1: begin his search for, you know, the answer here, what
24:47
Speaker 1: happened to Edwards. And he's standing in this courtyard along
24:50
Speaker 1: with his translator, whose name was Ahmed. And the two
24:53
Speaker 1: of them were sitting across from an elderly man who
24:55
Speaker 1: was friends with the current king of Abishir. And this
24:59
Speaker 1: elderly man had at one point lived in one of
25:02
Speaker 1: the apartments across the courtyard. And so Gustav asked this
25:05
Speaker 1: old man if he had ever met with a European
25:08
Speaker 1: man about 17 years earlier. And Ahmed translated the question
25:12
Speaker 1: to him. And the old man said, yes, he had.
25:15
Speaker 1: that one European man had come to meet with the
25:18
Speaker 1: king around that time, and he had always been writing
25:20
Speaker 1: in this notebook, but he had never seemed to want
25:23
Speaker 1: to speak to anybody and had for the most part
25:25
Speaker 1: kept to himself. But the old man said, you know,
25:28
Speaker 1: beyond his impression of this guy, he really didn't know
25:30
Speaker 1: anything about him. He had no idea, you know, what
25:32
Speaker 1: he was doing or what happened to him. So at
25:36
Speaker 1: this point, both Gustav and Ahmed had been in Abashir
25:39
Speaker 1: for two months now. And in that time, they had
25:42
Speaker 1: been trying to ask around and see if anybody remembered Edward.
25:47
Speaker 1: And so far, they had run into a few people
25:49
Speaker 1: who seemed to remember him, like this older man, because
25:53
Speaker 1: it was pretty rare to see a European person in
25:55
Speaker 1: the city. But unfortunately, nobody had any information on how
26:00
Speaker 1: or when Edward disappeared. Or in the rare case that
26:03
Speaker 1: they did seem to know more, they refused to talk
26:06
Speaker 1: about it. And so for Gustav, you know, on the
26:08
Speaker 1: one hand, this was incredibly frustrating because all he wanted
26:11
Speaker 1: was just the truth here. But on the other hand,
26:14
Speaker 1: you know, as he ran into more and more people
26:16
Speaker 1: that did seem apprehensive to talk about Edward at all,
26:21
Speaker 1: that sort of seemed to suggest that maybe something really
26:24
Speaker 1: bad did happen to Edward when he was in Abishir.
26:28
Speaker 1: And if that was the case, if some horrible fate
26:30
Speaker 1: befell him, Gustav knew there was one person in this
26:34
Speaker 1: city who almost certainly would know the truth. But Gustav
26:39
Speaker 1: basically couldn't ask this one person anything. any questions about
26:44
Speaker 1: Edward without being incredibly offensive. Because this one person was
26:50
Speaker 1: the current king of Abashir, King Ali. And it would
26:53
Speaker 1: have been his father who had met Edward and arranged
26:56
Speaker 1: for him to stay with that noble family when he
26:58
Speaker 1: was doing his map-making thing. And so for Edward to
27:01
Speaker 1: have been killed or captured or if something horrible happened
27:04
Speaker 1: to him while he was in Abashir, well, King Ali's
27:08
Speaker 1: father would have had to have given the okay, or
27:11
Speaker 1: would have at least known about it and maybe been
27:13
Speaker 1: okay with it. Like he would have known something making
27:16
Speaker 1: him complicit in some way with whatever happened to Edward.
27:20
Speaker 1: And so to ask King Ali, you know, what do
27:22
Speaker 1: you think happened to Edward? You could be potentially suggesting
27:26
Speaker 1: that his dad did something terrible. But more than that,
27:29
Speaker 1: what Ahmed had told Gustav was that you don't just
27:31
Speaker 1: risk offending the king by asking those questions. You might
27:35
Speaker 1: actually be executed for offending the king. And so what
27:39
Speaker 1: Gustav decided he needed to do here, because he was
27:41
Speaker 1: so dead set on trying to figure out this mystery,
27:44
Speaker 1: is he still needed to find a way to talk
27:47
Speaker 1: to King Ali about Edward, but without losing his life.
27:51
Speaker 1: He had to come up with a clever way to
27:54
Speaker 1: get this information out of the king. A few weeks later,
27:58
Speaker 1: and Gustav and Ahmed had still not yet come up
28:01
Speaker 1: with the clever way to speak to the king yet.
28:04
Speaker 1: Like they didn't have... a way to approach the subject
28:07
Speaker 1: without horribly offending the king. And so the two of
28:10
Speaker 1: them were in Gustav's apartment eating lunch when suddenly there
28:14
Speaker 1: was a knock at the door. And so Gustav got up,
28:16
Speaker 1: he went to the door, and when he opened it up,
28:18
Speaker 1: it was this courier who told Gustav that he was
28:21
Speaker 1: part of a caravan that had just arrived here from
28:23
Speaker 1: North Africa, and he had some mail for Gustav from
28:26
Speaker 1: back home, so letters from Germany. And he just handed
28:29
Speaker 1: the bundle of mail to Gustav. And Gustav, who did
28:32
Speaker 1: not get mail very often, was very excited. And he said, oh,
28:34
Speaker 1: thank you. You know, he took the mail, thanked the guy,
28:37
Speaker 1: shut the door, and he went back into the common room.
28:39
Speaker 1: And he just began going through the mail and just
28:41
Speaker 1: looking to see who had sent him something. And as
28:44
Speaker 1: he was doing it, he suddenly had this great idea.
28:47
Speaker 1: It had nothing to do with what was written in
28:49
Speaker 1: the letters. It was just the concept of receiving mail
28:54
Speaker 1: suddenly gave him this great way to talk to the king.
28:59
Speaker 1: The very next day, Gustav and Ahmed walked into the
29:02
Speaker 1: royal palace in Abashir. And when they walked in, they
29:06
Speaker 1: eventually made their way into this bright and airy courtroom.
29:09
Speaker 1: And in this courtroom, on the other end against the wall,
29:12
Speaker 1: was King Ali sitting on a throne. And so Gustav
29:17
Speaker 1: and Ahmed immediately go over to the king and they
29:19
Speaker 1: greet him and they exchange some pleasantries. And As they're
29:23
Speaker 1: doing that, Gustav, he knew that that caravan that had
29:26
Speaker 1: come through the day before from North Africa with, you know,
29:29
Speaker 1: Gustav's mail had also made a stop at the palace
29:32
Speaker 1: and presented the king with all these gifts like a
29:35
Speaker 1: silver tea set and gold watches and all this luxurious fabric.
29:39
Speaker 1: And so Gustav... was really hoping that those gifts had
29:42
Speaker 1: put the king in a really good mood because that
29:45
Speaker 1: was a big part of his plan here. At some
29:48
Speaker 1: point after the pleasantries had stopped, Gustav actually referenced the
29:52
Speaker 1: caravan and told the king that In fact, they had
29:55
Speaker 1: also swung by his place and dropped off this big
29:58
Speaker 1: bundle of letters from back home. And he said he
30:00
Speaker 1: was really happy about it. And the king kind of
30:02
Speaker 1: seconded that and said, oh, yeah, they gave me all
30:04
Speaker 1: these great gifts. Like, yeah, it's so wonderful. And so
30:06
Speaker 1: they're kind of talking back and forth about how great
30:09
Speaker 1: this mail delivery was when Gustav tells this incredible lie
30:15
Speaker 1: to the king. He tells the king, he goes, you know,
30:17
Speaker 1: all those letters, it was really great to hear from home,
30:20
Speaker 1: from my friends, from my family. But there was this
30:23
Speaker 1: one really weird letter in there that I didn't even
30:25
Speaker 1: know who it was from. Now, this letter didn't exist.
30:29
Speaker 1: This was a total fabrication. But he told the king
30:32
Speaker 1: that this weird letter, it was from this elderly man
30:35
Speaker 1: who had written to Gustav to tell him that his
30:38
Speaker 1: son had gone to Abishir many years ago and not
30:42
Speaker 1: come home again. And so now the elderly man, he
30:45
Speaker 1: knew his son was probably not alive at this point.
30:48
Speaker 1: But in this letter to Gustav, this fictional letter to Gustav,
30:52
Speaker 1: He told Gustav that his son had done a lot
30:54
Speaker 1: of writing in notebooks, and he was hopeful that maybe
30:58
Speaker 1: someone in Abashir had these notebooks, and could Gustav get
31:03
Speaker 1: the notebooks and return them to the old man to
31:05
Speaker 1: give him some comfort about, you know, what his son
31:08
Speaker 1: had been doing and saying and thinking before he disappeared.
31:12
Speaker 1: As soon as Gustav said this, he could actually feel
31:14
Speaker 1: the mood in the throne room shift, and he could
31:17
Speaker 1: tell that King Ali was very much on edge about
31:20
Speaker 1: what Gustav might say next. But Gustav had planned for this,
31:24
Speaker 1: and he told the king that, you know, just so
31:26
Speaker 1: you know, all throughout Europe, people think of you as
31:28
Speaker 1: a wise and just king. And so if by chance
31:33
Speaker 1: you have these notebooks and you were to give them
31:36
Speaker 1: to me so I can give them to this elderly
31:38
Speaker 1: man in his old age so he can have some
31:41
Speaker 1: comfort before he dies, if you would do that, the
31:44
Speaker 1: people of Europe would love you even more for that
31:47
Speaker 1: simple act of kindness. Then Gustav went quiet. And there
31:51
Speaker 1: was really intense silence in the throne room. But then
31:55
Speaker 1: the king just kind of sat back in his throne
31:58
Speaker 1: and he smiled at Gustav. And as soon as Gustav
32:01
Speaker 1: saw that smile on the king's face, he decided he's
32:04
Speaker 1: just got to do it. And he said to the king,
32:07
Speaker 1: the son's name is Dr. Edward Fogel. And then after that,
32:12
Speaker 1: Gustav just went silent. Because he knew at this point,
32:15
Speaker 1: if the king thought he was lying, he could easily
32:17
Speaker 1: be executed right now. But... King Ali just kept on
32:22
Speaker 1: smiling at Gustav and just said, you know what? I'll
32:25
Speaker 1: think about it. Gustav quickly thanked the king and hurried
32:28
Speaker 1: out of the throne room. And then he went back
32:30
Speaker 1: to his apartment and spent the entire night just pacing
32:33
Speaker 1: around his room, wondering what was going to happen. Part
32:36
Speaker 1: of Gustav was optimistic that maybe the king would come
32:38
Speaker 1: through here and hand over these notebooks if he really
32:41
Speaker 1: did have them. But the other part of Gustav, the
32:43
Speaker 1: more realistic side, is... Maybe what he had just done
32:47
Speaker 1: is effectively signed his own death warrant, and that soon
32:50
Speaker 1: he'd become one of the many travelers who came to
32:52
Speaker 1: Abashir and never went home. A few days later, a
32:57
Speaker 1: very nervous Gustav followed a palace guard back into the
33:01
Speaker 1: throne room. And when he got in there, he immediately
33:04
Speaker 1: saw King Ali sitting on his throne. And Gustav really
33:07
Speaker 1: couldn't read his expression, so he didn't know if the
33:10
Speaker 1: king was mad at him, if he was going to
33:12
Speaker 1: be conciliatory, if he was going to help him. He
33:14
Speaker 1: had no idea. And so Gustav just walked into the
33:17
Speaker 1: room and kind of held his breath. King Ali broke
33:20
Speaker 1: the silence. And when he did, it was clear he
33:22
Speaker 1: was not angry. He was just kind of even keel.
33:25
Speaker 1: And he told Gustav that after their conversation, he had
33:28
Speaker 1: gone and spoken to the noble family that Edward had
33:31
Speaker 1: stayed with when he was here. But they told him
33:34
Speaker 1: they couldn't find any of Dr. Edward's writings. And so
33:37
Speaker 1: they had either been thrown away or lost. And so unfortunately,
33:41
Speaker 1: there was nothing to send back to Edward's elderly father. Now,
33:44
Speaker 1: Gustav did not believe this, because at this time, paper
33:48
Speaker 1: was very scarce. So there was no way they would
33:51
Speaker 1: have been throwing it away or destroying it. I mean,
33:53
Speaker 1: paper was pretty valuable. But he couldn't say that to
33:56
Speaker 1: the king, so he just swallowed his disappointment and thanked
33:59
Speaker 1: the king for asking about the notebooks. And then Gustav
34:02
Speaker 1: hoped that at this point, he'd be allowed to leave.
34:05
Speaker 1: But one of the guards put their hand on Gustav's shoulder.
34:09
Speaker 1: and said he needed to follow him. And at this point,
34:11
Speaker 1: Gustav's stomach dropped because he assumed he was about to
34:14
Speaker 1: go be punished for asking about Edward in the first place.
34:18
Speaker 1: And so Gustav's hands were shaking and his heart was
34:20
Speaker 1: racing as he followed the guard out of the palace
34:23
Speaker 1: and out into the courtyard, where there were some horses
34:26
Speaker 1: tied up and waiting for them. Gustav felt nauseous as
34:30
Speaker 1: he followed the guard through the city streets, and he
34:33
Speaker 1: wondered if he should just try to make a break
34:34
Speaker 1: for it and try to escape. but he looked down
34:37
Speaker 1: different streets and alleys and realized that would be totally
34:40
Speaker 1: useless because the palace guards would find him, so there
34:43
Speaker 1: was nowhere for him to go. And so Gustav had
34:46
Speaker 1: no choice but to just keep on following this guard.
34:49
Speaker 1: And so through the city they went, and then eventually
34:51
Speaker 1: they got to the city gates, and Gustav was horrified
34:55
Speaker 1: as they left the city and just began riding out
34:58
Speaker 1: into the wilderness over towards this huge mountain in the distance.
35:02
Speaker 1: And as they're making their way towards this mountain, all
35:05
Speaker 1: Gustav is thinking is, at any moment here, they're going
35:07
Speaker 1: to just dump me here to die, or they're going
35:09
Speaker 1: to ambush me, or something bad's going to happen to me.
35:14
Speaker 1: At some point, the guard led Gustav all the way
35:16
Speaker 1: to the foot of that mountain. And there, the guard
35:19
Speaker 1: abruptly stopped and climbed off his horse and just turned
35:22
Speaker 1: around and faced Gustav. And he says, I'm going to
35:26
Speaker 1: tell you exactly what happened to Edward. And Gustav was
35:30
Speaker 1: kind of shocked by this. He really didn't know what
35:32
Speaker 1: was going to happen here. Again, he doesn't even know
35:34
Speaker 1: if he's in danger at this point. But now he's
35:37
Speaker 1: just holding his breath, you know, waiting for potentially this
35:40
Speaker 1: mystery to finally be solved. And so the guard, he
35:44
Speaker 1: looked at Gustav and he said, Edward committed an unforgivable crime.
35:48
Speaker 1: And he was punished for that crime. Now, at this point,
35:52
Speaker 1: Gustav was shocked because Edward was like this very well-traveled
35:57
Speaker 1: and highly respected guy. And it didn't make sense that
36:00
Speaker 1: he would commit any crime, let alone an unforgivable one
36:03
Speaker 1: that apparently cost him his life. And so Gustav kind
36:06
Speaker 1: of blurted out, like, what crime? What did he do?
36:10
Speaker 1: The guard explained that from day one, Edward had made
36:13
Speaker 1: lots of enemies in Abashir. He basically spent his days
36:17
Speaker 1: riding all around the city and staring at everybody and
36:20
Speaker 1: writing in his notebooks, but never talking to anybody. And
36:23
Speaker 1: so people began to gossip that maybe he was a spy.
36:26
Speaker 1: And then also the guard said Edward had climbed their
36:29
Speaker 1: sacred mountain despite being told not to, the mountain that
36:32
Speaker 1: was literally right behind them. And then also the guard
36:35
Speaker 1: said Edward was just totally unpleasant and just kind of
36:37
Speaker 1: a snobby person that nobody liked. But the guard said,
36:41
Speaker 1: you know, none of that is actually what caused Edward
36:44
Speaker 1: to be punished. Edward's unforgivable crime, the one that caused
36:49
Speaker 1: his downfall, was his insatiable hunger for eggs. At every
36:56
Speaker 1: single meal, he refused all the food his noble host
37:00
Speaker 1: prepared for him and demanded eggs. In Abishir, eggs were
37:05
Speaker 1: quite rare and considered a precious gift. And Edward demanded
37:10
Speaker 1: them every single meal, and he ate all of that
37:13
Speaker 1: noble family's eggs. And so eventually, the nobles, they could
37:17
Speaker 1: not stand Edward's disrespect, and so they went to the king.
37:22
Speaker 1: And the king, who agreed this was just awful what
37:25
Speaker 1: Edward had done, decided the only appropriate punishment was to
37:29
Speaker 1: take Edward and drag him out to the base of
37:32
Speaker 1: that sacred mountain and literally beat him to death. Dr.
37:37
Speaker 1: Edward Fogel, the proud symbol of Germany's exploring spirit, was
37:42
Speaker 1: executed because he ate an offensive number of eggs. Gustav
37:47
Speaker 1: was unharmed. He, unlike Edward, had actually bothered to learn
37:50
Speaker 1: the local customs and was highly respectful, and so he
37:53
Speaker 1: was allowed to leave the city, even after being told
37:56
Speaker 1: what happened to Edward. And he would become the first
37:59
Speaker 1: European ever to leave Abashir alive. As for Edward's notebooks
38:04
Speaker 1: and maps, they were never found. Thank you so much
38:13
Speaker 1: for watching today's episode. Let me know what you thought
38:16
Speaker 1: of it in the comments below. And remember, we have
38:18
Speaker 1: a whole playlist of Places You Can't Go episodes ready
38:22
Speaker 1: for you to binge right now. So go ahead and
38:24
Speaker 1: click here and give them a watch. All right, until
38:27
Speaker 1: next time, see ya.