Latest / Dr. NoSleep Animations / 10 Terrifying Horror Stories Animated (Compilation of January – June 2021)

Transcript

10 Terrifying Horror Stories Animated (Compilation of January – June 2021) · Dr. NoSleep Animations

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Talk to nicely this will be my last transmission if
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: you're hearing this please know that I did my best
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: to save you all I've run out of food and
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: there's just no cure to this plague when I die
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: my body will be located at please burn the place
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: to the ground and pour concrete atop of the remains
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: there's no solution please do not open the door I'm
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: so sorry for what we have created but as long
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: as I die inside this building, it means you all
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: get to live. In the beginning of 2012, I joined
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: a group called Sano Project, a bunch of scientists funded
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: by an unknown prospector. Our goal was simple in concept only,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to produce a vaccine that would immunize people via aerosol droplets.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: We'd been given a heap of different substances and pathogens
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to achieve the desired effect. We'd be using mice for
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the experiments, But due to the high risk of accidental contagion,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: we were put into lockdown for the duration of the experiment,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: which was only supposed to last six months. Food and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: supplies would be delivered using an isolated lift, taking everything
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: we needed underground into an airlock. When we started, there
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: were six of us, with Professor Jenkins in the lead.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: He was an old and equally odd fellow, but he
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: was the top in his field. There was no one
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: more suited for the job, and the five of us
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: that worked under him greatly admired the man. Still, outside
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: of work hours, he confined himself to his room with
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: lab reports and an endless pile of books about exotic infectology. Honestly,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: as much as I enjoyed working under such a great mind,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: he scared me at times. He seemed overly enthusiastic about
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the experiment part, and less so about saving lives. For
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the first five months... Work went on as normal. We
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: combined different pathogens and tried to create harmless fragments from
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: their protein capsule, aerosolizing them as a vaccine, hoping the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: mice's bodies would absorb them. It was an endless stream
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of disappointment, as the poor animals kept dying. Then, at
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the end of the six-month contract, Professor Jenkins created something
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: new entirely. While it wasn't anything near what we wished,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: he'd managed to invent something no one thought possible. He'd
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: mixed a strain of highly infectious virus with a bacteria.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: It was a miracle with limitless harmful potential. And it
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: terrified us. Still, his explanation somewhat lulled half the staff
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: into a false sense of security. His idea was that
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the right mix of pathogens, he could invent a virus
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: that integrated itself into the human genome, which then started
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: producing a new type of defense mechanism entirely, something separate
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to the immune system. To us, it sounded like a
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: ludicrous fever dream, but the higher-ups were convinced by his ramble,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: basically forcing us to stay under lockdown for another six
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: months as we worked on Professor Jenkins' new personal pet project.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: We followed orders, making countless hybrid pathogens, all in the
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: hopes that it might lead to a cure for all infections.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I repeatedly voiced my concerns, but the rest were too
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: afraid of reprisals to take my side. Then, halfway into
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the second term, The professor called me into his office.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: He looked unbelievably tired, as if he'd been awake for days.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I hadn't seen him much lately, as he'd always confined
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: himself to his office while he did grunt work. I've
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: finally done it, Carl, he said ecstatically. A vaccine? But
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: we haven't even started the aerosolized trials yet? I asked, confused.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: He chuckled. We won't need trials. Not for this. What
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: are you talking about? I thought you would get it, Carl.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Have you even looked around the world lately? We create
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: cures for everything from basic infections to cancer and genetic mutations.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: We keep people alive decades past their supposed lifespan. And
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: for what? To finally destroy the planet? To let our
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: sheer numbers be the inevitable downfall of mankind? He went
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: to the door, locking it before removing the key. I
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: felt adrenaline surge through my body. And though I knew
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: something horrible would come next, I hadn't the faintest clue what.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I've created something that will save us all, but I
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: need someone to start it all. Someone younger, healthier than myself.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: With that, he plunged a syringe into my neck before
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I could react. I pulled it out as fast as
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I could, but whatever its contents, it had been injected
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: into my bloodstream. What the hell? I started to say
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: before the world went black before me. As I was
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: left unconscious... I couldn't tell whether I had died or
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: if I was just sleeping. It all felt so quiet
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: around me, but also warm. It was an odd sensation,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: almost as if pressure was building up within me, getting
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: ready to explode. Then, as if no time had passed
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: at all, I awoke once more, lying on the cold
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: floor of Professor Jenkins' floor. He was sitting behind his
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: desk with labored breathing. Ah, you're finally awake. That means
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: it has finally begun. He struggled to get out between breaths.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I sat myself up and looked over at the professor.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: His skin looked oddly red, with flakes forming from ruptured
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: blisters all over his body. What did you do?
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: I gave you the cure. The only thing that can
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: destroy humanity.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: My creation.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: It'll save this planet from us.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: His head started sinking as more blisters formed on his body.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: On his arm, chunks of flesh had rotted straight off.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: He was infected with something, the same thing he'd given me.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Don't worry, Carl.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: You're the only one that can withstand this disease. That's
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: why you're special. Because you'll be the one that is
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: remembered as Patient Zero. He passed out on his desk,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: barely breathing. Then I heard knocks on the door as
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: the rest of the crew were starting to get concerned.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: No, wait! I tried to yell, but it was too late.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: They'd already barged in. What the hell happened to the professor?
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: One of them asked as they went to check on him.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: It was too late. They'd already breathed the same air
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: as us, which meant they would be dead in a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: couple of hours at most. Only a minute after they
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: touched him, the first crewman started coughing violently. Then the second, third,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and before the hour had passed, they were all dying.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: They called for help. No one came. because they didn't
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: want to release the contagion. I was the only healthy one,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: which led the administration to believe that there might be
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a cure in my blood. They demanded blood samples be
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: taken from me. But as the crew fell unconscious, I
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: had to make a decision. If I let any sample
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: escape this lab, the pathogen would be out there. So
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I did the only right thing. I disabled the only
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: entrance into the lab, putting myself into eternal lockdown. What
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: are you doing, Carl? One of the security guards said
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: over the loudspeakers. We're sending in a hazmat team to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: save your sorry ass. Open the damn door. I can't.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: You'll get infected, he said. No, I won't. I'm not
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: going to die from this. But everyone that gets near
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: me will. If I open this door, I'll start the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: spread to the outside world. There's no other way. But
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: then I heard him cough through the radio, which is
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: when it hit me that the professor had opened up
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the vents. allowing the toxic air within to mix with theirs.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: What the hell is happening to me? The security guard
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: said over the radio. He was dead, just like everyone
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: else within the building. Listen, you need to seal down
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the building.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: No, I can't.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: If you don't do it now, everyone is going to die.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: He left the radio, and I could only pray that
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: we weren't too late. Even the hazmat team was coughing
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: their lungs out. They'd been infected before they even came
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: down here. The only one immune was myself, because I
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: was the ultimate carrier. I locked it down. I, I...
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: The security guard said over the radio with his last breath.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Everyone died shortly after that. With the building on permanent lockdown,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: I was alone. That was seven months ago. Since then,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I've been working on finding a cure for myself, but
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: I'm just not smart enough. Supplies have run out, and
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: as I'm typing this, My vision has gone blurry with
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: hunger and thirst. I'm going to die soon. But as
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: long as the contagion remains within this building, it will
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: have been worth it. The loudspeaker came on. We are
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: on lockdown until further notice. Lock your doors. There is
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: an imminent threat on the loose. I was in a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: classroom all by myself. I thought to myself, where is everyone?
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Where is the teacher? What danger could there possibly be?
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I got up from my desk and went over to
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: the door. Looking through the glass panel in the door,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see anyone outside in the hallway. I opened
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the door and walked out into the hallway. It was
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: dark and eerie looking. I looked left and looked right.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: In both directions, the hallway didn't seem to end. It
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: went on for what seemed into an eternity and looked
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: like a dark abyss. I decided to turn right and
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: started walking forward. After walking about 10 feet, there was
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: another hallway. It also seemed to go on for what
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: seemed forever. Not wanting to change directions, I decided to
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: keep proceeding forward on the same hallway. Every 10 feet
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: there were other hallways all intersecting the main hallway I
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: was on. What the hell is this? I thought to myself.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I saw a shadow quickly dart across the main hallway.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I yelled, Who are you? I ran to the spot
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: it looked like he crossed over it. I turned left
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: and decided to pursue whoever this was. The hallway was
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: just like the others, seemingly going on forever, never ending
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: for what my eyes could see. After walking for about
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: five minutes, I saw red glowing eyes that stood out
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: from the darkness. I yelled, Who are you and what
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: is this place? I received no response from the man.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: As I continued my trek forward, the red eyes I
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: saw faded into the darkness. After five minutes of walking,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: a classroom door appeared on the left side. I peered
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: into the glass. There was a creepy guy at the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: front of the class dressed in a lab coat. I
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: figured this had to be the teacher. All the desks
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: were also filled with students. The students looked to be
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: older though, probably in their mid to late twenties. They
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: were also wearing similar medical outfits as the teacher. I
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: knocked on the door. The teacher stopped his lecture, turned
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: and looked at me. He had a shocked look on
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: his face. Next thing I knew, he ran towards the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: door and locked it. I pleaded to him, let me in.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: How do I get out of this place? Please help me.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: He was expressionless. gazing into my eyes. I saw him
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: back up from the door and reach for a telephone
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: connected to the wall. I banged on the door some more. Nothing.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: No reaction. I kept moving, swiftly down the hallway. After
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: what seemed like an hour of walking, another door appeared.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: This time it was on the right side of the corridor.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I peered into the door. This time the room looked
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: like a bounce house. A man in the middle was
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: in a white straight jacket, As soon as he saw me,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: he ran towards the door. He screamed, help, help me
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: get out of here. I tried to open the door.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: It was locked even from the outside. I yelled back,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I will go and get help. We will get out
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: of here. I continued my endless walk down the hallway.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I thought to myself, what the hell kind of school
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: is this? All of a sudden, a voice yelled out
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: behind me. Hey, kid, come here. I turned around. In
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: front of me was what looked to be a doctor.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: He was holding a syringe. I yelled out, who are
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: you and what is this place? He replied, you are
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: asking too many questions. Just stay there. I'm coming over
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: to you. I ran in the other direction. Out of nowhere,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: another doctor sidelined me. He pushed me to the ground.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: A syringe plunged into my shoulder. I awoke in a
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: hospital bed, restrained. A doctor stood over me. He said, Frank,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: You forgot to take your morning meds again. Or did
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: you forget to take them on purpose? I asked. Where
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the hell am I? I was just in school and
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: it was on lockdown. The school went on forever and
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I couldn't escape the building. He replied. School? On lockdown?
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: That's a good one, Frank. I haven't heard that one before.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: You had the whole facility worried sick about you. I replied.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: You can't keep us trapped here forever. You are a
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: sick man. He replied, I will let you out when
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you start taking your meds again. Other than that, I
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: have to run to another patient. Oh, by the way,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: here is your pill. He placed it in my mouth
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: for me and gave me water. I pretended to swallow
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the pill. As soon as the doctor left the room,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I spit the water and pill out on the floor.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: After about 10 minutes, I closed my eyes and opened them.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I was now sitting in the same empty classroom as before.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: The loudspeaker came on We are on lockdown until further notice.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Lock your doors. There is an imminent threat on the loose.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I thought to myself, where is everyone? Where is the teacher?
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: What danger could there possibly be? Also, it turns out
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: that most of you guys who watch me aren't actually subscribed.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: So if you like the content and want to support
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: the channel, go ahead and hit the bell. It's free
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and you can always change your mind later. I don't
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: know how you'll receive this message. but you need to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: wake up. Those were the words I found plastered on
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: my television screen. I was mere moments from drifting off
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: to sleep. My wife lay peacefully in my lap. She'd
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: already fallen into a peaceful slumber as we watched an
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: old gangster movie that had dragged on for a bit
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: too long. Still, the words alone were enough to jolt
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: me back to attention. They just lingered there on a
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: plain black screen. After a few seconds of staring, the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: text changed. Please, wake up, Screen said. It was just
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: past midnight, which was an issue all on its own
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: as I had work in the morning. But on the
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: other hand, I wasn't entirely convinced I hadn't fallen asleep.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: It might just have been an odd dream, but then
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: the text changed again. Wake up, Devin Larson. That wasn't
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: my name, nor was it the name of anyone I knew.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: It was just a random bunch of letters thrown at
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: my screen, interrupting my leisure time. I looked over at
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the time, an old grandpa clock with hand-carved symbols I'd
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: never been able to decipher. It read 2.54 a.m., meaning
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: almost three hours had passed since the first message popped
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: up on the television. Yet to me, only a single
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: moment had gone by. By then, panic had started to
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: rise within my body. I gently shook my wife, trying
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to wake her up. Mary, please look at this, I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: almost begged. She let out a quiet groan of resistance.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: but didn't wake up. As I stared at her peacefully
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: lying there, my mind started to drift back to our
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: first date. We'd met on the pier at the beach.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Her hat had blown into the water, and in a
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: futile attempt at impressing her, I dove in after it.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: On my way back, I slipped on the rocks, and
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: she laughed as I tried to get back up. She
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: thanked me, and we had an ice cream cone together.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: It was a perfect day, almost unreal. Why that thought
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: intruded my distressed mind, I didn't know. In a way,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: it felt as if my mind was trying to repress
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: what I'd just seen. Then I heard the sounds of
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: men talking, which snapped my attention back to the television,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: which was playing a documentary of sorts. I could just
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: barely pay attention to what the men were talking about. 100,000
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: people in a world full of lies, all trying to
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: find their way out, the voice said. Had it all
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: just been a dream? Had my tired mind partially drifted
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: off to sleep, causing me to hallucinate? Whatever the case...
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I decided it was time for bed. No sooner had
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the thought struck my mind before I found myself halfway
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: up the stairs, walking towards my bedroom. I glanced down
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: at my watch. It read 3.42 a.m. Another hour had
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: passed in the blink of an eye. Lars, what are
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: you doing up? Heard Mary say from the top of
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the stairs. What, what happened? I asked. I don't know.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I just woke up and you weren't there. Are you okay?
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: She asked. I'm not sure. I said as I shook
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: my head to wake up. I think I... The words
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: froze in my throat, because as I looked up again,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: my wife was gone. The hallway at the top of
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the stairs was empty, as if she'd never stood there. Mary?
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: I called out meekly. No response. I was just left
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: alone in the darkness, not knowing what had just happened.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I could feel the adrenaline and fear rush through my veins,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: yet whether I was dreaming or not, I still couldn't tell.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Then I heard a loud, static sound coming from the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: living room. I turned around to see the television turning
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: back on by itself. That time there wasn't any text,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: just a quiet, muffled voice trying to break through the
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: mess of static noise. Devin, please, wake up, the voice said.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I walked with trepidant steps back to the living room,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: trying to listen to the voice. The world is a lie.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: You have to listen. They're coming for you. Who are
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: you talking about? Who are you? I screamed at the television.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Then my mind drifted back to the grandfather clock. I
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: couldn't put my finger on exactly what was bothering me
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: about it, but it just felt out of place, as
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: if it didn't really exist. By then, the static had
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: turned incomprehensible. Whatever voice was hidden within it had long
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: since vanished. There I stood, before an innocent clock that
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: was scaring me half to death. Thinking back, I couldn't
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: explain where it had come from, whether it had been
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: in the house as we moved in, or if it
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: belonged to my wife. It had just been an ever-present object,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: never letting anyone pay too close attention to it. I
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: brushed my hand against it, feeling its oddly smooth, unnatural surface.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: While it had looked like wood, the feel of it
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: told an entirely different story. As I reached the face
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: of the clock itself, I felt a shock urge through
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: my body. Within a second, I'd been slammed towards the ground,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: my body freezing in place as the world vanished around me.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: For a moment, I fell through an infinite black void,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: feeling my body disintegrate with each passing second. No sooner
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: had every atom of my being been stripped from my
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: own flesh before I was shocked back to life. My
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: eyes shot open, but the world ahead was nothing but
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: a blurry mess. I was lying in some kind of fluid.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I realized that much, but somehow I was still breathing.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I tried to move around, but my body was too
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: weak to form effective movement. I just kind of floated
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: in the solution, confused and afraid. Then I noticed a
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: tube dug into my throat. It pumped air into my
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: lungs and sucked it back out. It was a sort
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: of life support system, making sure I didn't suffocate or drown.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I tried to scream, but how could I with a
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: piece of plastic? shoved inside me? I reached out my hand,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: touching a glass container that was keeping me trapped inside
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the fluid. A hand slammed against the glass on the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: other side, accompanied by a voice. Devin! It screamed, before
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the world around me faded to black once more. Lars,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: wake up! I heard Mary call out as I slowly
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: faded back to the world I knew. She'd called my name,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: but it felt all too unfamiliar, almost wrong. What happened?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I asked. I just found you lying on the floor.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Are you okay? The images I'd seen were still stuck
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: in my mind, as were the cryptic messages I'd heard.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: The world is a lie, kept repeating inside my head.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: I then stared up at my perfect, concerned wife. I
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: knew that she wasn't real, nor were any of the
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: experiences we'd had together. My false image of reality had
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: been shattered, and I finally realized that I needed to
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: wake up, that I had a real life to get
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: back to. That's why I'm here now, telling this story.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I figured out that among the 7 billion people on
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the planet, only approximately 100,000 of us are real. Those
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: of us who are, will have gotten the same message
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: I did in one way or another. Be it a
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: text message, a song, or a YouTube video shared by
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: a channel specializing in animation. If you are seeing this,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: you need to wake up. The world you live in
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: is a lie. Please, just wake up. I fell in
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: love with Margot the first time I tried to kill her.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I placed a gun to the crease in her forehead
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: and pulled the trigger. Did it work? Margot asked me. Clearly,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: her response told me that it did not. I opened
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: my eyes and found the bullet had flattened against her skull.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Margo had a condition, one that I don't think any
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: medical book known to man can possibly explain. She was immortal.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Of course, before that moment, I doubted her. For three months,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: she had insisted that she could not die. And for
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: three months, I was sure I was talking to a
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: crazy woman. Noose? Tried that. Knife? All the time. Pills? Absolutely.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Nothing worked. When Margo reached out to me, I was
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: admittedly baffled by the matter. I don't want to tell
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: you what my trade is, but people don't seek me
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: out because I sell kittens. Margo had found me in
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the deep recesses of the dark web and her message
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: was desperate. I'm seeking a way to end my life.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I have tried to do this alone, but it seems
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: impossible to do so. I am willing to pay the
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: person responsible for my death a sum of $ 100, 000 that
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: can be changed into any currency they wish. Please contact
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: me at margo53 at gmail.com. My first instinct was to
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: assume that this was some kind of sting operation, an
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: attempt to lure me or one of my colleagues out
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: so that we could be caught in the act and
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: thrown in jail. But for that amount of money, it
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: was too easy to say yes, especially whenever Margo made
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: certain that my identity would be protected. She provided me
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: documents and money before even meeting me, all of which
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: was legal tender. I had the opportunity to leave, but
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: this entire matter intrigued me to no end. She had
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: money apparently from the long life she had endured, and
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: she wired it to an account I had set up
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: in the Caymans. Even after that first attempt, she insisted
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I should take it and run. She didn't expect me
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: to stick around and figure out her problems. Margot fascinated
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: me though. The moment that bullet fell to the floor,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I found myself asking a hundred questions. How long had
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: she been like this? Her whole life. How long was that?
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Margot claimed she had stopped counting after year 703. Then
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: I came to the question that probably mattered the most.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Why did she want to die? When you've lived as
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: long as I have, seen the things that I have seen,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: witnessed the deaths of thousands, kingdoms and nations rise and fall, everything,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and I mean everything becomes meaningless. You're powerless. You lose
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: everything that means being human. Death is the only thing
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: you have any control over anymore. And with that gone,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: what can you accomplish in life? She told me about
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: how she had seen children die more times than I
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: could count. about events in history that no person living
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: could ever get correctly. I discovered as we connected that
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I was developing a liking for this woman. She was
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the one thing in the world that was an anomaly,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: a window into the soul of humanity. So I made
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: her a promise. I would help her die. We started small.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I bought a few firecrackers and had her try to
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: set them off directly in her face. She wasn't even
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: mildly burnt. Then we moved to the tub. I had
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: her undress and start the water. Then I brought in
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the toaster. I made certain the water was almost completely
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: covering her body before dropping it in. She came out
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: of the tub a few minutes later. This went on
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: for almost the next five weeks. Each day, a different test.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Car accident, nothing. Jumping from a building, nothing. stabbing her
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: in the face, the eyes. Again, it all seemed pointless.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: At one point, I got her to drink poison and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: she acted a little sick. But then the next day,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: she admitted she was faking. I'm sorry. It's just, I
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: felt like you were going to give up soon, Margot
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: answered whenever I asked her why she pretended. I won't.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: I can't. This defies everything you can ever believe in.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: It's beyond understanding, I told her. After that, We developed
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: a closer bond as we started looking into more extreme methods.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I managed to have her see one of my friends
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: that works as an open-heart surgeon in a shady clinic
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: for abortions. I recommended trying to put her in a
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: coma and then taking out vital organs. The propofol did
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the trick to knock her out, but any instrument to
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: cut her only bended and broke. I suggested placing an
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: explosion in a tube down her throat. The surgeons got
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to work on preparing the device and then sliding it
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: straight down her esophagus and into her stomach. I lit
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the fuse and waited. Her body jumped and rumbled a bit,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: but nothing more. Margo was a goddess. Every extreme we
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: tried only resulted in more failures. Finally, she admitted that
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: she decided to accept her fate. If I have to
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: keep on living, then so be it. At least I
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: will be happy knowing that I have tried all possibilities,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: she said as we got back home. I've wasted more
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: of your time than ever necessary, she added as she
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: passed me a briefcase with well over $ 2 million in it.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: This is everything I have. I want you to take it.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: You've been so kind, so patient, she told me. I
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: tossed it aside and made love to her that night.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: In the morning, I told her I wasn't planning on
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: leaving her, that in the months we had spent together,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: I grew to love her more than life itself, more
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: than death could ever separate us. So we married. We
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: had a child. I forgot my old life. I made
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: her smile again. So did our son. Out of all
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: the times I have been with anyone, You have been
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: my favorite, she told me. But still, I could tell
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: behind all of this, her desire hadn't faded. She was
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: still curious. Sometimes when I came home, I found dozens
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: of pill bottles scattered across the floor. Other times she
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: had ruined knives and caused house fires, desperate to end
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: her life. She wasn't happy. I could see that now.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: She knew that no matter what, one day we would
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: be gone and she would still remain. On our one-year anniversary,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I surprised her and took her paragliding. I told her
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: it might be the solution she was looking for. I
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: made certain that she didn't have the equipment necessary to
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: prevent her from experiencing the full brunt of the impact.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I love you, she told me as our plane reached
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: the proper altitude. I promised her I would never tell
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: our son and said my goodbyes, then watched as she
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: plummeted to the ground below. Once she was out of
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: my line of vision, I told the pilot to touch
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: down and I ran to where she had hit the pavement.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: She was standing there waiting for me with tears in
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: her eyes. This is torture. I can't do this. I can't. Why?
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Why is this happening? She screamed. I held her close
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: and looked up at the heavens. Did God even have
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: an answer for this? I thought there was nothing else
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: that could be done, and I was certain that her
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: depression would soon swallow me and our son whole. I
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: begged her to forget this dark dream. So what if
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: we die? At least you have us now, I shouted
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: one day. You don't know how many times I've heard
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: that before, she moaned angrily. That was when I knew
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: there was nothing I could say that would stop her
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: from trying. I worried for our safety, my son and I.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: I knew that in her attempts to take her own life,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: she might hurt us, even if she didn't mean to.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: One time she came close to drowning him in the
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: tub while trying to end herself. Another time it was
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: a knife and he almost cut his finger off. Something
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: had to be done. I reached out to my colleagues
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: from the old days when I was the one that
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: was seeking to exploit suicidal cash cows. I told them
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: everything and asked for advice. Some took it as a joke,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: but one man had a solution that I had never
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: considered before. Take her out to sea and dump her
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: with stone weights on her legs. She may not die,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: but she'll never bother you again. I showed Margo. She
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: said it was worth a try. We got a babysitter
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and set out for the coast a few weeks after that.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: As we moved toward the open ocean and I got
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: things ready, I asked her if she was sure this
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: was what she wanted. It's the only way, right? She
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: said as she hugged my neck. We said our goodbyes
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and I watched her sink into the darkness below. I
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: thought that was the end of it, that Margo was
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: gone forever. But then she came to my door again,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: sobbing like an infant. She was covered in wet seagrass
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and moss. A tangled mess of barnacles covered her skin.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: The current had swept her along and the ropes that
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: had tied her down had eroded. Water had filled her
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: lungs for days on end. By all accounts, she should
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: have been dead. Margo felt everything, though. It's hopeless! This
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: is punishment! I just know it! She screamed. I comforted
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: her as our son watched on in wide-eyed confusion. I
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: told her that we would think of something. But years
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: went by and nothing came of it. Our son grew
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: up and learned of his mother's condition and the sadness
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: that crept into our lives because of it. Why does
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: mom not want us? Why can't she just be happy?
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: He asked. It wasn't something I could explain. Margo isolated
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: herself from us. going on trips for days to find
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: doctors or get high on drugs or even terrorists. Absolutely
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: nothing seemed to work though. Then one day after dinner,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: she tried to choke on some food and our son
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: jumped up and tried to help her cough it up.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Get away from me, just get away. She screamed as
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: he performed the Heimlich maneuver. She slapped him across the face.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I stared in shock as she sobbed and ran off
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: to our bedroom. My son only stormed out, angry and confused.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: This had gone on too long. I knew that if
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: it continued, her curse would destroy our lives altogether. So
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I consulted the dark web again and looked into the
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: mystic arts, spells, and tomes that no man dared read.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I found one that I felt would fit the bill
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and I bought it during a Christmas sale. When I
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: showed Margo, she seemed hesitant to even give it a try.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: But since it was the last resort, she eventually conceded.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: We placed the goat's blood around our bed in a
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: circle like the ritual implied. then chanted the phrase six times.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: We walked around the bed counterclockwise. Then I took her
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: hand and we both fell asleep. When I woke up
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: the next day, I was staring at my wife and
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: she at me, but our souls had transferred into each
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: other's bodies. She was mortal and I was immune. The
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: spell had worked. She reached into her drawer and pulled
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: out a gun, meekly passing it to me. Do it,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I'm ready, she said. I pressed it toward her skull,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: closed my eyes and finished the job. As the life
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: drained from my body, I caressed her forehead and watched
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: her breathe her last. She said two words, thank you,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: and then she was gone. That was so long ago
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: when I watched my only body fall into a grave,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: when I explained to my son that now the curse
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: was upon me. He will be on his deathbed and
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: I will only watch in horror as he slips away.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Margot was right about this curse and it's one I
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: carry now. one that holds a further curse upon me.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: For the spell said one thing that I never told Margo,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: that I could never go back to the way it
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: had been or transfer again. But, now that I have
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: seen through her eyes what the hell is like, perhaps
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: it is time that I start to explore this world
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: and discover exactly what it means to die. And maybe
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: along the way, I can learn to live. There I
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: lay frozen in bed, as I had a hundred times before.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: What had started out as a waking nightmare had become
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: little more than a mild annoyance. Sleep paralysis, always occurring
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: as I awoke from a bad dream. I darted my
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: eyes around the dark room, trying to figure out what
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: time it was, wondering if I should try to move
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: my body or make a futile attempt to return to sleep.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Then I felt the pressure build up within my chest,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: as if someone was crushing it with their own weight.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: I knew it to be little more than my imagination,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: so it didn't particularly scare me. but it felt uncomfortable nonetheless.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: But on that night in particular, the sleep paralysis simply
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: wouldn't fade. I was trapped within my limp body, unable
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: to even call out for help, as the words I
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: produced merely formed whispers. Then I noticed something I hadn't
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: seen before, a strange shadow standing in the corner of
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: my room. I tried to figure out whether it came
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: from a lamp casting a strange shadow, but if that
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: were the case, why hadn't I seen it before? Then
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: the shadow moved ever so slightly, What had been a
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: projection on the wall was then a figure standing in
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: my room. I felt adrenaline build up in my blood.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: The hallucinations weren't unheard of during episodes of sleep paralysis,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: but I'd never experienced them myself. I tried to wriggle
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: my body around, but it wouldn't respond. The shadow took
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: a step in my direction, and mild fear had turned
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: to mind-shattering panic. I forced as much air out of
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: my lungs, calling out for help. Next thing I know,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: the lights turn on and my parents come rushing in
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: to check on me. Eric, what is going on? My
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: mother screamed, my dad standing next to her with a
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: baseball bat. I sat up in bed, finally freed, and
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: observed the suddenly empty corner. Had it all been a dream? I, I,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I just had a bad dream, I think. I thought
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: I saw something standing in the corner, I said as
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: I tried to catch my breath. My bed was soaked
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: and what I could only pray was sweat, but in
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: the grand scheme of what I'd just experienced, it didn't
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: really matter. The nightmares are getting worse, my mom asked.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I nodded. They were always the same, Always the car
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: crashed with my grandparents. Their blood splattered upon my face
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: as I cried. I had caused the accident, not on purpose,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: but I'd cried enough to distract them. At the age
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: of four, I just didn't know any better. There they lay,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: bleeding out, but still trying to comfort me because I
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: was scared. Those were the images haunting me in my
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: dreams each and every night. Those were the nightmares that
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: forced my body to stop functioning. My mom sighed. I
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: think we need to schedule another appointment with Dr. Burke.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: I agreed. He'd been able to help me through the trauma,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: though only to a certain degree. With his help, I'd
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: been able to get back in a car without having
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: a mental breakdown. I'd known him for the better part
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: of my life, and though I'd just turned 18, technically
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: not within his scope of therapy, I wouldn't have accepted
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: help from anyone else.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Hello, Eric.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: It has been a while since we last saw each other.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: How's it going? He greeted me as I entered his office.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: At that moment, it seemed so childish. He was a
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: psychiatrist both for children and teenagers. And though I technically
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: fit within that realm, I wanted to be treated as
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: an adult. Still, I sat down and talked to him,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: going over the nightmares as I had so many times before.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Back as a kid, he'd mainly been treating my post-traumatic
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: stress disorder with the idea that the nightmares would vanish
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: alongside my anxiety. He wasn't a particularly big fan of
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: medications for kids, so we'd been working under the theory
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: of cognitive behavioral theory. Despite all that, the nightmares persisted.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I know I've told you we'd stay away from medications
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: for as long as possible, but now that you're an adult,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: it might be time to take the next step. I
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: was skeptical, but in the end, I did trust the man.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: What kind of drugs? I asked. Just a mild antidepressant.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: If we can get your sleep under control, I'm hoping
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the sleep paralysis will vanish alongside the nightmares. I'll give
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: them a shot, I guess, I said, still not convinced.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: The thing about SSRIs is that they might need some
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: time to work, Typically, you'll notice an improvement within a
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks, but until then, you need to keep
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: taking them, as long as you're not experiencing any side effects,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: of course. He wrote me a prescription and sent me
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: on my way. A mild glimmer of hope had been
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: ignited within me, though it remained overshadowed by my lack
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: of belief in medication. But I knew he was an
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: educated man with years of experience. I diligently take my
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: pills and pray for a good night's sleep. That night,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: I took my first pill and slipped into a deep sleep. Coincidentally,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: not only would the antidepressant help with my nightmares, but
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: as a side effect, it would make me tired, which
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: meant it kind of doubles a sleeping tablet. I felt
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: myself fade into a dreamless darkness. It was a void
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: where I was rid of any weight, floating in nothing
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: except for infinite peace. I remained extraordinarily lucid throughout the experience,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: never once forgetting the fact that I was indeed sleeping.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I just felt calm, content with my own existence. and
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: so I would remain until my body finally landed back
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: in bed, and I opened my eyes. I was paralyzed,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: my mind frozen inside my useless body. Not that it
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: bothered me too much, though. Just having a peaceful moment
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: of sleep was worth the paralysis. I looked around the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: room as usual, trying to figure out the time. Then
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: I saw it again, the shadow standing in the corner.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: But it was closer than last time. I could even
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: make out its basic humanoid silhouette. Help! I let out
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: with merely a whisper. but there was no one there
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: to listen. My parents were fast asleep, and I was
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: alone with a strange shadow that was moving just slightly
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: closer than it had last time. Then I shot up
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: in bed. The room suddenly cleared of all malicious entities.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: I could move, but that time at least I hadn't screamed.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: I peeked over at the time. It had just passed
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: three in the morning, which meant I had a long
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: night ahead of me. Despite the horrific experience with the creature,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: I was content that the nightmares had vanished, and if
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the medication still needed time to function... I felt confident
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: that the paralysis would be removed too. How did you sleep?
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: My mom asked as I came down for breakfast. I
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: slept all right. Still had sleep paralysis. Saw some weird things,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: but no nightmares. That's great, she exclaimed in joy. Why
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: aren't you happy? It's just that thing. It was the
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: same as last night, I said. A monster? She asked.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I think so. I'm not sure. Eric. You know your
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: mind can play tricks on you when you're tired. Hallucinations
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: are normal with sleep paralysis. We went over it all together.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: I knew she was right, but it felt all too real. Still,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I was almost excited to sleep. So when nightfall washed
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: away the blinding rays of sunlight, I took my medication
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: and headed back to bed. Once again, I slipped into
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the empty void. It was just me and my thoughts.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: All the horrors of the world didn't matter, as long
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: as I could just stay in that blissful place. Just
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: like last night, I was free from the nightmares. But
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: once my body regained consciousness, I paralyzed back in my bed.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: I immediately glimpsed over at the corner, and sure enough
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: the creature was there, closer than ever before. The being
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: that had once been a mere silhouette suddenly had more
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: human features, though twisted, wrong. It was unnaturally tall, slim
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: with twisted fingers containing far too many joints. It took
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: a step closer, and I could hear its raspy voice
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and putrid breath fill the room. I put every ounce
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: of willpower into moving a finger, then my arm. With
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: a few excruciatingly challenging movements, I was finally able to
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: sit up, and with that, the monster was gone. It's
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: just a hallucination. I kept telling myself as I inspected
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the empty room, it's still better than the nightmares. So
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: I diligently went on with the therapy. And each night,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: I'd slip into the same unconscious void, drifting further and
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: further into the darkness. But no matter how far I sank,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I would always awake paralyzed with the creature getting closer
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: each night. Before long, I could feel its humid breath
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: on my face and the sound of its creaking fingers
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: stretch out as if trying to reach me. Its face
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: was still shrouded in the darkness, Only its hands were
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: close enough for me to make out any specific details.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: The skin was charred with deep fissures that were actively bleeding,
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: drops falling onto the floor below. His hand was just
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: a few inches away from my face, and its stench
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: immediately assaulted my nostrils. With that, I shot up in bed,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: and the creature had once again vanished. But despite being safe,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: my body remained in panic mode. I jumped out of
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: bed and pulled open each and every door, curtains, cupboards.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Then I checked under the bed, and as I kneeled down,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: I felt something wet brush against my foot. It was blood,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: just a few drops of the putrid liquid that had
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: poured out from the monster's hand. It was all real.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: I tried to tell my parents, begged to visit my
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: grandparents for just a couple of days to escape the entity,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: but they refused. They saw the blood, but it didn't
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: exactly look normal. It was too thick and lumpy, so
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: they figured I'd just spilled something. Instead of helping, they
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: just booked me another appointment with Dr. Burke. I knew
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: I sounded insane, but it was real. So I decided
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: to stay awake until I could come up with a plan.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't have any close enough friends I could sneak
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: over to, but of course, that wasn't a permanent solution.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: While the first day went fine, I was still no
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: closer to finding a plan. And as the 72nd hour
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: rolled around, I drifted off to sleep, sitting on a
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: chair in the kitchen with a cup of poorly made
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: coffee in my hand. As always, I drifted through the
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: dreamless void before being shoved back into physical existence. I
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: was lying on the floor in the kitchen after having
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: fallen off the chair. I was paralyzed, and the being
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: was standing closer than ever before. His face was finally visible,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: and it was little more than a solid block of
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: meat with sharp teeth sticking out here and there. There
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: were multiple small holes on its head, each containing a
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: tiny tendril that wriggled around like a trapped worm. It
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: whispered with a harsh, broken voice, That was last night.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: And though I fear for my life, I'm still dead tired.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: I can't stay awake much longer. Even if I do,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's enough to hold back the monster anymore.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: By this time tomorrow, I will be dead. And once
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: I'm gone, the creature will just latch onto someone else.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: So if you wake up paralyzed, just keep your eyes closed.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Pretend there's nothing there until it gets bored and leaves.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: It's your only chance. I was framed. I don't know
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: by who or how he did it, but I am innocent.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: I promise. It was my senior year. Graduation day was
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: quickly approaching. My stress levels were high because I was
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: in charge of designing the school's yearbook. Looking back, I
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: was dumb for accepting the task. It was a lot
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: more work than what I bargained for, especially since I
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: was a serial procrastinator. I had two more weeks to
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: finish the book. Luckily, I only had two classes on Fridays,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: so most of my day could be spent working on
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: the book. This particular Friday I am about to describe
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: will haunt me for the rest of my life. After
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: my second class ended, I booked it to the computer lab.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: The room was pretty high tech. You needed a key
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: card to get into the room. After scanning my key card,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: I sat down at one of the computers and got started.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: I opened up the editing software. As the program was loading,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: my computer suddenly powered down. I tried turning the computer
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: back on, but nothing happened. Just when I was about
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: to switch computers, the lights in the room went off.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: I got up from my chair and decided to get
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: an IT guy to help me out. I tried to
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: open the door, but it wouldn't budge. I pushed my
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: body weight into it, but it was locked shut. I
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: thought this was bizarre because you only needed the key
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: card to get in, not out. The door was always
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: unlocked from the inside. I peered out of the small
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: rectangular window in the door. There was no one. Class
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: was in session, so all the students and teachers were
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: in their rooms. In every classroom, my school had these
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: black landline phones. They had quick dial functions for all
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: the main offices. I made my way over to the phone,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: picked it up, and placed it to my ear. No
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: dial tone. Well, this is weird, I thought to myself.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. I
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: glanced down at my phone. In the upper right-hand corner,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: It said no signal. This was getting a little ridiculous.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: I've always had perfect cellular signal at my school, especially
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: since there was a radio tower nearby. Now I was
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: getting angry. I had all this work to get done
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: and couldn't do a single thing. I can't even get
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: out of the damn room or call anybody for help.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: As time went on, my anger turned to rage. I
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: banged on the wall, hoping to get the attention of
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: an adjacent class. But nobody responded. I sat myself down
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: at the computer again. The only thing I could do
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: was wait for the period to be over and get
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: the attention of a passerby. In frustration, I pressed the
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: power button of the computer again. Nothing happened. I sat there,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: contemplating my next move. All of a sudden, all the
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: computers in the lab turned on. They didn't boot up
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: like normal, though. A white screen popped up on every monitor.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Then a logo appeared. The image looked to be a
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: diamond inside of a pitchfork. I didn't know what to think.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Was this a glitch? It couldn't be. This had to
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: be a deliberate action by somebody. Maybe somebody hacked into
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: the school system. One by one, the computer started shutting
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: off around me. Every computer monitor went dark, besides the
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: one right in front of me. The white screen with
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: the creepy logo still appeared on my screen. Randomly black
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: text appeared below the logo. Please click to continue. Well,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: I had nothing better going on. Intrigued, I clicked on
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: the logo. A screen popped up. It was a live
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: video of me. I slowly turned around. Behind me, in
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: the corner of the ceiling, was a security camera. A
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: red light was blinking on it, showing that it was recording.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: I turned back and faced the screen. I said aloud,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Nice joke, whoever you are. Then, what looked to be
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: a live video of the front of the school loaded,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden a man holding a gun entered
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: into view. As the man became clearer, I realized it
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: was me. How, how did you... Before I could finish speaking,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: gunshots rang out. The gunshots corresponded to me on the
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: video opening fire. How the hell did you do this?
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I asked. More gunshots rang out. The gunshots didn't seem
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: entirely real. It sounded as if they were coming over
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: the PA system. I could hear the yells and screams
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: of students in nearby classrooms. The loudspeaker sounded. It was
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: the principal. Code red, code red. Active shooter on the premises.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: I repeat, there is a gunman on campus. The live
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: stream on my screen switched to a view of my room.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Even though I was still seated in my chair, the
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: video showed me by the door. I was pointing a
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: rifle out of the rectangular window in the door. The
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: video froze. An email screen popped up. The image of
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: me holding the gun by the door was sent as
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: an email attachment. The email recipient was the principal. The
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: subject said, I am not going down without a fight.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: I yelled at the screen. Who the hell are you?
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: And what do you want from me? Poor gunshots rang
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: out over the PA system. Stop this sick joke right now.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: I screamed. I got up from the computer and looked
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: out the window. Across the way was the principal's office.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: I could see him talking on the phone and pointing
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: in my direction. I whispered under my breath. This is
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: not good. I went back over to the computer. This
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: time the screen was completely white. Then a creepy clown
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: face popped up on the screen. It was laughing uncontrollably.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: The creepy laughs boomed over the loudspeaker in the room.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: My heart was racing. I thought to myself, why is
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: this happening to me? The clown face disappeared. Now the
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: screen went back to the front of the school. SWAT
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: cars pulled up. Faculty were pointing them in the direction
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: of my room. Now the reality hit me. They might
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: actually kill me by mistake. I hid under the desk.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: I could hear the SWAT team getting closer and closer.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: They were right in front of the door. All of
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: a sudden, gunshots rang across the loudspeaker. The SWAT team
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: immediately returned fire. Bullets whizzed across my head. The door
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: got kicked down. Flashbangs flew in and I became gazed.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Next thing I knew, I was in an interrogation room.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: I told them everything that happened. They confiscated the computers
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: and found nothing on them. They were convinced I was
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: the one who orchestrated the whole prank. Since there was
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: no evidence, I was never charged. That didn't matter though.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: All my classmates thought I planned the sick prank. The
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: whole ordeal trashed my reputation and my senior year was ruined.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: The school is in lockdown. Rumor has it that Alexis
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: is on a rampage and I know why. This thing,
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: it has taken over Alexis's body. She has no control
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: over herself. Alexis, she is not capable of this. She
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: is the sweetest girl. I need to put an end
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: to this before she hurts more people. It was the
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: first day of my sophomore year in high school. Most
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: of my class remained the same, for the exception of
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: a few transfer students. While walking to my locker, one
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: student in particular caught my attention. She was stunning, Beautiful
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: blonde hair, blue eyes. Basically everything I'd imagined in my
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: dream girl. She looked a bit on the older side,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: so I thought she had to be a junior or senior.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: I tried to refocus on the task at hand. I
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: grabbed my books and headed to my next class, which
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: was photography. It was in one of those computer labs
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: with computers next to each other. To my surprise, the
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: beautiful girl was in the photography class with me. It
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: was a small class with only 12 of us. I
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: only knew one guy out of the whole class. Since
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: the class was an elective, it also had juniors and
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: seniors in it that I didn't recognize. The teacher had
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: us all stand up in front of the class and
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: do the usual icebreaker routine. One by one, the teacher
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: asked us our names, where we were from, and one
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: cool fact about us. I was the second to last
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: to introduce myself. My name is Dylan Freeze. I am
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: from Michigan. I can play the piano. The last in
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: line was this stunning girl. She introduced herself.
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: My name is Alexis. I am originally from the United
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: Kingdom and moved to North Carolina. My fun fact is
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: that my family moved out of North Carolina because of
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: a haunted house.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: Everyone in the class started laughing. Even the teacher couldn't
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: contain himself. The teacher said, wow, that's the best one
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: I've heard all day. The weird thing was Alexis looked
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: dead serious. Before Alexis could interrupt him, the teacher started talking.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: Okay class, take your seats. Since this is a small class,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: you can sit where you'd like. Alexis took her seat
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: across the classroom. I followed in close pursuit. I had
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: to know if she was just joking about the whole
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: haunted house thing. And of course, I was really attracted
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: to her. After taking our seats, the teacher instructed us
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: to log into the computers and into our school email.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: He announced, Click on your class, go to assignments, and
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: click the top one. You will be given a list
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: of photos, and you need to make notes about what
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: is wrong with each one. There is no right or
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: wrong answer, and this will not be graded. Feel free
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: to work with a partner next to you. I finally
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: have the chance to talk to Alexis. Hey, I'm Dylan.
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, dummy. You said your name to the whole
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: class in the introduction.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: Well, if you're so good, what was my fun fact?
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: Well, you can play the piano. How good you can
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: play remains to be seen.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: Maybe I can show you some time.
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: That would be great, actually.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: A date it is, then. Changing topics, I wanted to
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: ask you in all seriousness. Was your house really haunted? Yes,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: it was.
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: We moved into this, like, really old house in North
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: Carolina when we first got to the States. It just
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: had that, you know, heavy feeling the moment you stepped in.
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: At night, I would hear things move around and demonic voices.
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: My parents heard them, too. One night I was asleep
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: in my bed. Something jolted me awake. When my eyes opened,
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: I saw this demon child hovering above me. It was
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: the scariest thing I ever saw in my life. I
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: blinked and it was gone. My parents had similar experiences. Finally,
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: we couldn't take it anymore and sold the house. Now
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: I'm here.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Wow, that is quite the story. Before I could ask
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: Alexis more stories, the teacher interrupted. Okay class, save your work.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: We are going out into the courtyard to take some pictures.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: I assume most of you have phones with cameras. Those
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: that don't group up with someone that does. We went
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: outside the classroom into the courtyard. The teacher continued. Okay
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: now with your partner or group, each take five different
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: photos of each other. Please change up the camera angles
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: and poses. This is just a test run. The school
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: will issue us the good cameras tomorrow. The class started
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: socializing and taking photos. I took out my phone. Okay, Alexis, smile,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: I said. I held up the phone and snapped the photo.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: I glanced down at the photo. My heart fell through
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: the floor. Right next to Alexis was a demonic-looking child,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: its long jet-black hair covering most of its face.
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: Is everything alright?
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, everything is totally fine. You know what? The sun
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: washed out the whole photo. Let's take a new one.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: I quickly deleted the photo and held my phone up
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: once again to take another photo. I snapped the next photo.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: I held my breath as I glanced back down at
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: my phone. The demon child was there again. This time
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: closer to Alexis. Right up against her. This has to
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: be some sick joke I thought to myself. This can't
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: be real. She must have messed with my phone.
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: Is there something wrong?
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: No, my phone is just glitching a bit. Let me
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: reset it. I quickly deleted the photo and restarted my phone. Okay.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Let's try this again, I said. I picked up the
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: phone again, hesitant to even take the picture. I pointed
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: the phone at Alexis. Before snapping the photo, I glanced
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: at the screen. Nothing was there. I took the photo.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: As soon as I took the photo, Alexis called. I
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: ran over to her. Are you okay? I asked. She
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: slowly looked up at me and I felt my bones shiver.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: It felt as if there was a demonic presence right
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: in front of me. Get out. Leave me alone. All
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, Alexis' head went limp to one side
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: and raised again.
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: Hey, what just happened? I feel really lightheaded.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: I think you need to get some water and sit down.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: The teacher finally said, Alright students, time to get your
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: things and move on to your next period. We went
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: back inside the classroom. I gave Alexis my water bottle.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: She seemed completely fine now. The whole situation freaked me out.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: I arrived at my next class. I wanted to erase
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: that bizarre situation out of my mind. What the hell
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: happened back there? It hit me like a ton of bricks,
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: the last photo. I never looked at the last photo.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I went
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: to my photos app. I tapped on the photo. It
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: was even worse than before. The demon child looked like
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: she was inside Alexis, like a spirit going inside of
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: a body. Is this even real life? Before I could
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: even think, an announcement was made over the PA system.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Lock down, lock down, code black, code black. The teacher, Mr. Blackwell,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: immediately locked the classroom door. He told us to hide
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: under our desks. Most of the students did not take
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: it seriously. Some even had their smartphones out playing games.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden, a loud yell came from outside
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: the door. Help! Somebody help me! Mr. Blackwell peeked out
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: the door. His face lost all color. He whispered under
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: his breath. Oh, my God. I couldn't help myself. I
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: got up from under my desk and approached the door. Mr.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Blackwell yelled, Get back under the desk. What do you
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: think you're doing? I ignored him and looked out the
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: glass window of the door. In the hallway was Alexis.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Her back was turned to me. She was holding onto
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: a bloody kitchen knife. As if sensing my presence, she
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: slowly turned around to face me. She barely looked like
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: her former self, and looked more like the devil child
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: in the pictures. On the ground was the principal, Mr. White.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Alexis had these crazed eyes and a devilish smile. I
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: had this intense feeling that I needed to stop this.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: I unlocked the door and sprinted at Alexis. I tackled her.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: The knife flew out of her hands. The injured principal
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: got up and ran away. Alexis, snap out of it!
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: I yelled.
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: I need to kill you.
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: Alexis, you are not a killer. You need to fight
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: whatever is inside of you. For a brief second, Alexis
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: seemed to relax and talk normal. Where am I? Oh
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: my gosh. Why is there blood all over my hands? Alexis,
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: you need to listen to me. There is an entity
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: inside of you. You need to fight it with all
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: your power and strength. What have I done?
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: Get out of my body, whatever you are!
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden, Alexis closed her eyes and passed out.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: The police came and I told them everything. I still
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: had the last picture I took of her with the
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: demon child, but they weren't interested. Alexis was admitted to
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: a mental health facility, and that was the last I
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: heard about it. The school brushed everything under the rug.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: and most students never knew what actually happened that day.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: We were just chilling in front of the television, idly
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: watching the colorful images without thinking too much about its
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: actual content. That had always been our usual routine, to
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: get home, not speak, and just turn our brains off
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: for the evening. But on that night in particular, all
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: of our phones went off within 15 seconds of each other,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: We all jumped to attention in confusion, checking our phones simultaneously.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: All it had been was a simple message, but one
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: carrying a crystal clear meaning. Emergency alert. This is a
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: message to the citizens of Newport. Do not leave your homes.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: Stay inside and don't open the door to anyone, not
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: even your own family or friends. This is not a test.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: Stay inside. Turn off the lights. Our minds raced, but
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: none of us were able to speak a single word.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: I looked over at my dad, who'd put on his
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: glasses to make sure he read the message correctly. My
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: mother seemed worried, her eyes filled to the brim with panic.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: What is this? My dad finally asked. While the message
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: was clear, it didn't really explain the situation. It was
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: the first and only emergency alert we'd ever received in
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: our small town, apart from the occasional test message. It
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: was real, Something dangerous was on its way, and we
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: hadn't the faintest idea what. I went over to the window,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: only to see each and every one of our neighbors
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: begin to turn the lights off. Within a couple of minutes,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: the entire neighborhood had turned dark, leaving us confused in
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: a haze of ignorance. I'm calling the police, Dad said
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: as he dialed the number. It started to ring, and
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: Dad put the phone on speaker. But, Instead of a
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: person picking up, he just received an automated message.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: We're experiencing heavy call volumes at this time.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: Please, do not hang up. You will be redirected to
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: one of our dispatchers shortly. What is going on? Mom asked.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know. This is... Dad said before trailing off.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: I still stood by the window, watching the empty neighborhood,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: wondering if anyone would defy the message and go outside.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: In the meantime... Dad was trying to call the police again.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: After the third attempt, he tried to reach his co-worker instead,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: who lived further downtown. Hey, David, did you get the
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: same message as us? Dad asked. Yeah, it's bizarre. Most
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: people are staying inside, though. A few went out on
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: the street to mess around. Those idiots. They seem fine.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: But I don't know. Wait, what's that? Dad waited patiently
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: as David went silent on the other end of the line.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: I think the military is out on the street. but
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: they look odd. They're all wearing gas masks, but they
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: have three eyes. I don't even know what kind of
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: weapons they're carrying. Can you take a picture and send
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: it to us? I'll try. Hold on. A few seconds passed,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: and another beep could be heard from my dad's phone,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: signifying that we'd received a picture. My dad quickly opened it,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: but what greeted us was little more than a tangled
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: mess of colors from a clearly corrupt photograph. David, the
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: picture isn't showing up. Try again.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't work.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: The camera won't save the pictures correctly. Aloud, Screech took
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: over the line, shoving us all to the ground as
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: we held our hands tightly over our ears. Though it
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: came from the phone, it was an impossible sound that
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: should have blown the speakers to smithereens in a second.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: Once the sound had subsided, we could still hear someone
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: frantically breathing on the other end. David, what happened? They
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: killed them all. They shot them with these weapons, just
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: shredded them to pieces. All that's is... He stuttered. David,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: you need to hide. Dad yelled. But they're just standing there.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: It's like they're frozen in place.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: I don't understand. Why are they doing this?
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: Why are they... His words froze in his throat. Oh,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: my God. They saw me. They're coming towards me. They're...
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: Dad tried to call David back, but no one responded.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: Our house felt dead silent, only interrupted by the intermittent
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: beeps produced by the calling phone. My mom wandered nervously
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: around the house, and I just stared at the window,
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: paranoid that something might break through the door. He's gone. David,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: pick up the damn phone. Dad mumbled to himself. That's
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: when I saw them. walking down the street. They weren't
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: moving normally, and their steps were too quick, each movement
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: snapping into place. They were wearing strange uniforms that might
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: have looked like military uniforms in the dark, but once
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: they got closer, it was clear they weren't even human.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: One of the neighbor's doors shut open. and the Johnsons
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: came running towards the military, thinking they were finally safe.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: But no sooner had they been spotted by the marching
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: creatures before they lifted their weapons. The same screech filled
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood, almost knocking me to the ground as the
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: air literally started to vibrate. The family screamed in agony
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: for a moment, but within seconds, their bodies just started
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: disintegrating until all that was left was a pile of
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: flesh that resembled minced meat I wanted to scream, but
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: before I got the chance, my dad put his hand
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: over my mouth. Do you want to die? Keep your
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: mouth shut, he whispered. Just that mere sound briefly turned
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: the creature's attention in our direction. But once we fell silent,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: they just stopped. There they stood, as if frozen in time.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: For minutes, all we could do was stare at them
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: in shock. Then, One of the neighbor's automatic lights turned on,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: triggered by the cat returning home. The same second, the
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: creatures all turned to the house, raising their weapons and firing.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: As the loud sound rang through the house, my dad
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: grabbed me and my mom. We were taking the opportunity
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: to flee to the basement, but we prayed we might
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: be safe at least for a while. We never even
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: saw what happened to the neighbor's house. We just heard
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: the screams of agony as they all fell to pieces.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: Now we're just hiding down here, without food, without water.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: We've tried to call for help, but no one is
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: picking up. Whether it's because they're dead or hiding, we
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: don't know. So I'm sending this, a hopeless call for help.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: If anyone out there receives this, please save us. We
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: don't have much time left. It happened as the bell rang.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: finally signaling a long-awaited recess. But, as we got to
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: our feet, another message played over the speaker system. Students
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: of Recall Hall, please remain seated. The school has been
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: put on lockdown. No one is allowed to leave under
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: any circumstances. We all groaned in annoyance, hardly a soul
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: taking the message seriously. Whatever drill we assumed the school
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: was putting us through, none of us were having it.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: Only then, that I glanced outside to see three armored
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: military vehicles approaching the school at high speeds. Within a minute,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: dozens of soldiers poured out with heavy equipment and metal plates,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: running up to our windows. One by one, they started
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: boarding them up, drilling the plates in front of our windows,
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: making any thought of escape impossible. What's happening? Leo asked
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: from the back of the class. The teacher didn't answer.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: He looked just as confused as the rest of us,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: He went to his desk and pulled out a phone,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: calling the principal, but he didn't answer. We're just going
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: to stay here, alright? Let them deal with the situation,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: then we can leave. I dug my mobile phone out
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: from my bag, only to find that I didn't have
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: any signal. While the school always had crappy service, it
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: had never been left without the possibility to call out.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: Whatever the soldiers had done, it had blocked off our
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: only means of contacting the outside world. I can't call anyone,
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: I said, holding up my phone. The other students, even Mr. Morgans,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: pulled out their phones, each of them with the same result.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: Everybody keep calm. It'll be all right, Mr. Morgan said unconvincingly.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: We just need to wait here for them to help.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: His words were interrupted by frantic screaming coming from the
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: hallway and heavy footsteps running just outside the door. We
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: all sat in silence, listening intently to the commotion going
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: on outside. Then, one by one, the screams were silenced
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: replaced by distant gurgles. By then, some of my classmates
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: had started crying, while others sat frozen in fear. Fuck
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: this shit, I'm leaving, one of the students said. It
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: was Jack, the class has had. He'd always been a daredevil,
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: claiming nothing could scare him. But even for him, this
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: was ridiculous beyond belief. He ran for the door, pulled
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: it open, and started running down the hall. Mr. Morgans
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: was too slow to stop him. He just rushed over
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: to pull the door closed. We all sat back, ready
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: for another bout of screams, but they never came. By
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: all means, it seemed like Jack had made it to safety.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: But how he'd possibly leave the school, we didn't know.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: He made it? Leo called from the back. I don't know.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: It sounds like he's fine. Another one chimed in. As
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: the news of his escape hit us, more of the
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: students started feeling confident we could get out with him.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: Whatever the military had blocked the school for, it wasn't
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: to keep us safe, so staying in one place might
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: end up getting us all killed. While Mr. Morgans demanded
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: we stay back, he couldn't fight us all, so a
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: group consisting of four students, including myself, decided to leave.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: Leo took the lead, sticking his head outside the door
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: and signaling that it was all clear. We ducked into
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: the hallway in silence, making sure it was empty. The
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: place was eerily quiet. a stark contrast to both its
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: usual self and the screaming we'd heard moments earlier. We
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: unanimously decided to head in the opposite direction of the sound,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: which also went towards the main exit. While we all
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: figured the main exit was blocked, we were hoping one
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: of the ventilation shafts had been forgotten, and the only
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: vent entrance we knew about was situated near the main doors.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: If Jack had made it outside, that would be the
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: only way. As we walked down the hall, the lights
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: suddenly went out. It appeared that the electricity had been cut,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: because even the ventilation system fell silent, meaning the whole
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: building had lost power. The only light we had then
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: came from our mobile phones. but it hardly provided any comfort. Then,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: I slipped and hit my head on the ground. It hurt,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: and as I went to rub the back of my head,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: it felt wet. At first, I was worried I might
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: have cracked my head open, but then I realized that
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: my entire back was wet. Leo shined his flashlight at
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: my back, immediately gasped as he realized I was covered
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: in blood. The only issue was, it didn't belong to me.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: The entire hallway was covered in blood. The floor, the
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: walls and the ceiling. Maybe we should turn back, Lee said. No,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: we need to get out, Tyler argued back. We kept going,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: slowly moving forward in silence until we finally saw the exit.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: As suspected, the doors had been sealed shut by the
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: same metal plates, but next to the door stood a
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: ladder leading up to the vent, probably the one Jack
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: had used to escape. Tyler rushed to the front and
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: started ascending the ladder. As he got to the vent,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: He froze in place. Jack? He said quietly. He's in there?
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: I asked. Yeah, but he's not moving. Then Tyler started
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: tugging on Jack's legs and tumbled back as he pulled
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: half his body out of the vent, falling onto the
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: ground and knocking himself out for a moment. Jack was dead,
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: which meant that the monster had either climbed inside the
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: vents or there were several of them. We should go
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: back to the classroom and wait for help. Elise suggested
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: as she stared at what was left of Jack. None
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: of us could disagree, so we got Tyler back on
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: his feet and started quietly walking back, praying not to
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: garner the attention of whatever monstrosity had been unleashed within
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: our school. When we finally got back, we found the
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: door to our classroom broken and smashed to pieces. We
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: stood frozen outside until I finally got the guts to
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: check inside. holding the other back to protect them from
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: what I knew was coming. The entire room was smeared
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: with blood, with chunks of flesh lying on the floor.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: Every single person in the classroom had been killed, torn
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: to shreds by an unknown entity. Had we not left
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: to look for a way out, we'd all be dead too.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: What are we going to do? Elise asked. I don't know.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: We just have to keep looking for a way out.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: We can't stay here. We turned to walk in the
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: opposite direction, hoping to find shelter, or maybe even an
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: escape through the basement. But as we turned to run,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: we heard a bizarre sound shatter the silence around us.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: What was that? Tyler asked with a shaky voice. It
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: was the thing. It has to be. The darkness felt
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: more overwhelming than ever, but we had to keep going.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: We ran through the halls, occasionally coming across streaks of blood.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: As we turned a corner, we heard Elise scream for
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: her life. No! Help me! She'd been snatched by a
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: mangled appendage that wrapped itself around her leg. It stretched
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: endlessly far into the darkness, belonging to a being that
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: was too far away to see. We tried to grab
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: onto her, but she was slipping away too fast. We
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: could hear the bone within her leg get crushed to
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: pieces as she slipped away from our grasp.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: Elise!
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: Tyler yelled as he started to run after her. Leo
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: tried to follow, but I pulled him back. Don't do it.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: We can't help her. Tyler! Leo yelled, hoping to bring
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: him back to us. It was too late. He too
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: got entangled in the many dark appendages, his body being
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: crushed almost instantly under the pressure. They were dead, and
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: there was nothing me and Leo could do about it.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: So we kept running, turning around corners blindly in an
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: aimless attempt at escape. We'd gotten lost in the vast
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: hallways of the school, and there were no obvious ways out.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: At least, we came to another set of doors that
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: led out into freedom. But they were locked. Defeated, I
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: just collapsed onto the ground. But Leo wasn't ready to
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: give up. He kept hammering on the boarded-up windows, and
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: in the distance, we could hear the monster come closer.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: Within minutes, he'd be dead. Then, as he hammered for
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: the last time, The metal panel suddenly vanished, letting light
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: in for the first time. The doors blew open, and
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: a team of heavily armed soldiers came running into the building.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: They threw something I could only describe as military-grade molotovs
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: before one of them turned to us. Is there anyone
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: else left? No, they're all dead, I stuttered. With that,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: they pulled us out and sealed the doors back up.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: That was pretty much it. They loaded us into a vehicle.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: and drove us to an isolated field hospital set up
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: inside some warehouse. Once they'd confirmed we didn't carry any
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: strange infections, we were put through a series of interviews.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: But nothing came of it, because the school was gone
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: the next day, burned to the ground, and removed as
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: if it never existed. And the hundreds of deaths were
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: claimed to be caused by a crazy fire. All of
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: it got brushed under the rug. But I can't hide
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: the truth anymore, even if they kill me. I need
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: to get this story out. People deserve to know. I
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: violently gasped for air as I was jolted back to consciousness.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: My neck ached, and my mouth felt like sandpaper from
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: the unnaturally dry air around me. At first, everything was blurry,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: a curse brought upon me by genetically poor eyesight. I
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: fumbled around for my glasses, only to accidentally step on
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: them as I tried to get to my feet. To
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: my luck, they didn't break. I croaked out as I
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: put the glasses on. That's when I realized I was
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: in a classroom, but not just any random one. It
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: was the place I'd suffered through countless math lessons throughout
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: my short tenure at high school. Is there anyone there?
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: I asked again. I tried to figure out what had
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: happened prior to my strange slumber, but my memory remained hazy.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: It felt as if I'd slept for days, snatched out
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: from my day-to-day life to be thrust into some kind
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: of bizarre nightmare. The door that led into the hallway
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: stood slightly open. allowing flickering light to slip in from
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: the other side. I carefully walked over, fear rising through
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: my body without any reasonable explanation. As I put my
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: hand on the door handle, it just shot open. I
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: fell to the ground, letting out a quick yell as
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: a dark figure towered above me. Greg? The voice said.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: It was Brian, one of my closest friends from early childhood.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: Just the sight of him gave me a brief moment
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: of relief. The lonely surroundings suddenly seemed less threatening. He
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: reached out a hand and pulled me to my feet.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: What are you doing here? What's going on? I asked.
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: We just woke up around the school. Something's wrong, he
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: said with a trembling voice. What is? He just stared
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: over my shoulder towards the closed windows. The blinds were
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: blocking out what little light could possibly exist on the outside,
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: but that wasn't the reason why Brian seemed worried. Oh no,
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: we're too late, he said. I turned around to see
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: a strange, black fog seeping in through the curtains, forming
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: a thick layer along the floor. It moved slowly towards us,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: bringing with it a sense of impending doom. As it
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: passed the desks on the ground, the metal seemed to rust.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: The wood rotted before our eyes, and the paint immediately
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: peeled off. It was as if the fog was aging
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: everything rapidly, spinning time forward unhinged from the rest of reality.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: What the- I tried to get out before Brian grabbed
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: my arm and pulled me into the hallway, shutting the
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: door behind him. We have to get back to the
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: principal's office. That's where the rest of the students are,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: he said. The rest of the students? I asked. About
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: a dozen of us woke up here. We've been looking
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: for a way out while we searched for others. But
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: every exit is covered by that fucking fog. What is
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: the fog? I asked. I... I don't know. But you'll
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: die if it touches you. Only light keeps it away.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: With that, he handed me a flashlight. Don't use it
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: until you absolutely have to. The fog eats off the
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: battery quicker than you can run through it. Doug already tried. He's...
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: He trailed off. He ushered me along before I could
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: ask any further questions. Truth be told, I was too
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: confused and panicked to dig into what exactly was going on.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: My main priority was to get out of there. Only
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: then I could figure out exactly how I'd been trapped
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: inside my own school. We crossed an intersecting hallway. I
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: took a brief pause to glance into each of the
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: branching off parts. There were walls of darkness blocking off
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: each way, funneling us towards the principal's office. The fog
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: itself was dangling around a flickering light, seeming to feed
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: off its warmth. For each passing second, the light grew dimmer,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: before darkening completely. Then, it started seeping towards the hallway.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: Come on, we don't have much time, Brian yelled. But
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: we were too late. The bulb at the end of
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: our destination shattered into a million pieces, causing glass to
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: rain down onto the floor. A flicker of light was
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: all that remained before the fog overtook the path ahead.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: The door to the principal's office was just visible around
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: the corner, but without the light, it quickly got consumed
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: by the fog. No! Ryan screamed in defeat. On the
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: other side of the door, we could hear a few
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: panicked screams. At first, they were filled with agony, but
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: as their flesh was stripped off the student's bone by
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: the rapid passage of time itself, the screams turned to
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: dry groans. The voices that cried out were aging, fading
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: away in the vast darkness. We turned around and ran
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: in the opposite direction, just barely able to avoid the
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: fog eating up the intersection. With each and every path gone,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: we had no choice but to return to the mathematics classroom.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: The paint on the walls was peeling. The pictures had
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: long since faded, leaving little rotten husks of frames that
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: used to carry school memories. Then we passed the classroom,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: which was filled to the brim with black fog that
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: got pushed out under the edge of the door. We
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: didn't stop. We just kept running in the general direction
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: of the cafeteria, praying to find refuge. Oh my god,
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: there's someone out there! A voice called out from the cafeteria,
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: but it didn't matter, because a wall of black fog
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: was blocking our way. Though not as thick as the
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: rest of them, it would kill us unless we kept
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: the darkness at bay. Our flashlights won't work. We have
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: to try, I told Brian. He stared at me for
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: a moment, before realizing the hopelessness of our situation. He
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: nodded in hesitated agreement. as the other students were calling
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: us from the other side, telling us to hurry up.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: Then we turned our flashlights on, an action that immediately
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: started pulling the fog towards us. It swirled around the light,
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: heating it up. At the same time, the most minute
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: gap formed in the wall of darkness, just large enough
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: for us to pass through. That time, we didn't hesitate.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: We rushed into the darkness, praying it wouldn't consume us.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: Then I heard a shattering sound as Brian's flashlight got
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: crushed beneath the pressure of the fog. No sooner had
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: the light flickered out than the fog wrapped around him.
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: He let out a scream as his skin started to
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: dry out. His face formed wrinkles, and his back arched
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: as if the vertebrae within had collapsed. Within the span
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: of three seconds, he had died from what could only
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: be excruciating pain and unnatural old age. I dove through,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: feeling glass shards hit my face as my own flashlight shattered.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: The fog reached out for me, but one of the
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: other students snatched me away just in time to save
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: my life. Brian! I cried out in disbelief, but it
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: was too late. Three students greeted me on the other side,
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: two guys and a girl, all of them seniors I'd
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: only known in passing. They looked emaciated, starved, as if
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: they'd been there for weeks. I can't believe you made it,
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: the girl said, yet her voice wasn't filled with amazement,
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: but rather apathy. She seemed older than I remember her.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: She must have noticed me staring, because she put on
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: a clearly fake smile and brushed her graying hair away. Yeah,
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: I've had better days, she joked without a hint of
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: emotion in her voice. This place eats you up even
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: if you're not touching the fog. Just being near it
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: will eventually kill you. How long have you been here?
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: I asked, still in shock from watching my friend die. Months,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: the girl said. How? How the hell did you survive?
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: I went on. Cafeteria food. The fog wasn't very big
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: at first, just blocking the exits. There were so many
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: of us. But now, she trailed off. Why hasn't anyone
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: come for us? We heard voices through the fog at first, but...
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: But what? I asked. We haven't heard from the outside
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: world in weeks. That's if it's even out. She was
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: cut off by the fog leaking into the cafeteria. The
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: doors aged enough to just break under its pressure. Oh god,
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: one of the guys let out. This is it. The
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: fog washed in over the students. They didn't even try
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: to fight it anymore. They'd given up weeks ago, just
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: waiting to die. But I wasn't ready yet. I crawled
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: on my back away from the incoming wave of darkness.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: The girl let out a final sigh as her lungs
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: got too dried out to hold in any air. Despite
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: the obvious agony, she almost sounded relieved to finally be free.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: Within a few seconds I was surrounded, meaning any chance
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: of survival was a hopeless fever dream. I curled up
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: into a ball, still not ready to accept my fate.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: I could feel my skin dry out and wrinkle up
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: as the fog neared. But just as I thought my
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: time on this planet had come to an end, I
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: saw an infinitely bright light penetrate the darkness. The light
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: wasn't like anything I'd ever seen before. It was pale blue,
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: almost turquoise. Unlike the rest of the lights, the fog
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: seemed repelled by it, disintegrating into nothing. Another beam of
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: light shot through the fog, then a third, and a fourth.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: Before long, the entire cafeteria was lit up. A bunch
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: of uniformed men stormed in, killing the darkness before dragging
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: my weak body outside. Then I just blacked out. I
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: spent the next month in the hospital. Parts of my
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: body have aged 30 years, while others remain untouched. No
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: one can explain what happened inside the school, nor is
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: there any way to find out. The building has long
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: since been demolished, covered up to pretend nothing ever happened there.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure what haunts me the most, the fact
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: that my friends are all dead, or that most of
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: them were mere minutes away from survival. I'm so sorry.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks for watching, and don't forget to check out the Dr.
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: No Sleep podcast available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and many more.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: There you will find a plethora of bone-chilling horror stories
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: to listen to. Also, be sure to subscribe and turn
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: notifications on to stay tuned for new videos.