Latest / Dr. NoSleep Animations / 12 Horror Stories Animated (Compilation of July 2023)

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12 Horror Stories Animated (Compilation of July 2023) · Dr. NoSleep Animations

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Talk to nicely. We'd been walking for two days, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: my legs felt numb, like blocks of wood. My knees
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: wobbled and shook. My feet were blistered and aching. And
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: there was no end in sight to the miles of
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: abandoned wasteland all around us. Collapsed barns and farmhouses left
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: in disrepair, shutters hanging off their hinges, banging in the wind.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: But at least there weren't many zombies. That was a
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: nice change of pace. Why'd the damn helicopter have to
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: go down out here in the middle of nowhere? Ray
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: was asking, after shaking the last few drops of water
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: from the canteen. Couldn't have crashed on a nice beach somewhere,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: you know? We could just sit back, drink rum from
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: coconuts and chill, waiting to be rescued. Man. Ain't no
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: coconuts around here, that's for sure. And definitely no rum.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: We need water, though, and soon. It'll be dark out
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: in an hour or two. Let's hit this next farm
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and see what we can find. We went up the
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: next long gravel driveway, heading towards a two-story farmhouse surrounded
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: by overgrown fields. The surrounding plant life had taken over
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: parts of the house. It was being reclaimed by overgrown brush,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: creeping vines, and a giant, sagging willow tree which stood
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: out back. concealing its features like a funeral veil. Let's
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: check inside. Maybe the taps still work. The houses around
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: here were too far from the city to be on
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a municipal water supply. They all had indoor plumbing hooked
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: straight into the wells, which fed off the groundwater. These
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: systems used pumps which relied on electricity to function, but
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: most had a 10 to 50-gallon reservoir. As long as
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: it hadn't been completely depleted, it would still be usable.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Hopefully this house would give us what we needed, and
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: maybe a few other supplies too. Front or back? I asked.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I picked last time. Let's go in the back. I
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: always was an ass man. You're an ass, that's what
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: you are. But okay, you got it, ass man. Back
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: door it is. The gravel driveway crunched beneath our feet
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: as we crept around to the rear of the old farmhouse.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: It was quiet inside, at least. That was a good sign.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Ghouls tended to perk up at the sounds of nearby movement,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and despite our best efforts, it was impossible to stay
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: completely silent while moving, especially for me, a six and
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: a half foot tall man. I tripped over a garbage
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: can as we rounded the corner at the back of
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the house, as if to emphasize this point. The ruckus
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: it stirred up was painfully loud in the dead silence
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: of the rural landscape. I noticed that no birds were chirping,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: There were no squirrels or mice to be seen anywhere.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: This place had been abandoned by the world. I think
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: we're okay, I said, regaining my balance and looking around nervously.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: If there were any ghouls around here, we'd have seen
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: them by now. Just watch your step, Ray said. If
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: there were any of them within a mile, they're headed
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: this way now. I looked at my feet and apologized.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I'd always been clumsy. If it got me killed, I
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: could live with that. but I couldn't bear the thought
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: of someone else dying because of my idiocy. We broke
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: down the back door of the house, kicking it in
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: and destroying the lock in the process. The old wooden
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: door was splintered down the side and wouldn't stay closed.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: So we pushed a piece of heavy furniture in front
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: of it to provide some security. The wardrobe was large
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: and strong and looked capable of preventing a handful of
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: zombies from entering. Next, we set about clearing the farmhouse.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: The last thing you want is to get surprised by
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: lurking household zombies when you pick a place to crash
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: for the night. It's best to deal with these things
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: right away. A stitch in time saves nine, as they say.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And stitches don't do shit for zombie bites anyways. Actually,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: by this point in the zombie apocalypse, the most terrifying
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: prospect was no longer the idea of stumbling across a
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: zombie in one of these closed rooms, but finding a
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: living person. We knew what zombies would do, And to
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a certain extent, they were predictable. They see you, they
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: try to eat you. We cut off their heads and repeat,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: over and over and over again. People are far less predictable.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Where a zombie will make noise at your approach, clumsy
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and stupid, a person will wait quietly in the shadows.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: They may act as a friend, claiming to be hurt
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: or innocent, just searching for a party to join. And
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: we do look for those types of survivors. but they
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: might also be pretending, waiting for you to turn your
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: back before cutting your throat right after shaking your hand
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and becoming your ally. We'd seen it all before, so
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: we weren't as trusting these days. The house was dark.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: All of the curtains were drawn. We pulled out our
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: flashlights and began to move from the back door in
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the kitchen towards the front of the house to what
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: appeared to be the living room. Wooden floorboards creaked beneath
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: our boots as we stepped carefully into the next room
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: There was no indication of recent life here, and I
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: guessed that the owners had been gone for quite some time.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: The front foyer was similarly empty, as was the bathroom
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and a small sewing room and office on the main level.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Despite the quiet ambiance and the appearance of abandonment, the
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: house had an eerie feeling I didn't like much. It
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: was like we weren't entirely alone there, but the source
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: of that sensation was one I couldn't place. Still, I
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: knew better than to ignore that feeling. My spidey sense
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: is tingling, I said to Ray. Stay frosty. F *
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: * * it, he muttered. Alright, thanks for the heads up.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: He knew I had a sixth sense for these things.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: We crept up the stairs to the second floor, keeping
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: our voices low and our weapons ready. I carried a
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: razor-sharp machete, while Ray had a small hand axe and
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: wore a katana, a Japanese antique he'd found in a
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: pawn shop. He had it strapped to his back for
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: as long as I could remember. Anything? He asked. I
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: don't hear a peep. Could be a sleeper, though. Okay,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: right side first. He kicked in the door to the
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: right at the top of the stairs. Dark and empty.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: A boy's room. There were three others. A master bedroom,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: a bathroom, and one more smaller bedroom, which looked like
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: it had once belonged to a young girl. The walls
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: were painted powder pink, and there were posters and drawings
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: of horses, rainbows, castles, and fairy princesses. All of these
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: rooms were empty. An eerie sound came from outside, as
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the wind chime on the front porch was blown in
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the breeze. I shuddered, thinking of what else might have
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: caused its sudden movement. Basement? Gotta check. Who knows? Maybe
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I'm losing it. Maybe we're in the clear and I'm
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: just getting paranoid. Ray's face told me he wished this
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: were true. but previous experience suggested otherwise. The two of
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: us went back down to the main level and stood
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: in front of the door leading to the basement. I
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: put my ear to the wood and waited, listening. It
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: was quiet and still as far as I could tell,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: but something told me we weren't alone in this place.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I felt as if I was being watched. I held
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: up my left hand and counted down on my fingers. Three, two,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I whispered. Pushing open the door, I cast the beam
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of my flashlight down into the darkness. Dust motes hovered
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and danced in the air before us. Taking a hesitant step,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I began to descend. The stairs groaned and creaked loudly
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: beneath my feet, and I winced with each step as
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the old wood bent with my weight. Once at the bottom,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I cast the flashlight beam around to survey the cement-floored basement.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: It was cluttered with junk— electronics, toys— and stacked boxes. There
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: were cases of empty beer bottles and heaped piles of
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: moldy clothing. A rat scurried past our feet, ducking beneath
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the stairs and disappearing into a gap that looked far
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: too narrow for its girth. I hate rats, Ray muttered.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Stinks down here. Let's check this dump out quickly and
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: get back upstairs. Quick but careful, okay? I still got
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the feeling. Would you relax? It's empty. Nobody pitches a
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: perfect game every time, dude. It's alright if you're wrong
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: every once in a while. Ray was meandering into the
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: darker section of the basement with his hands held outwards
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: like a showman when he stopped speaking abruptly. What? A
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: dark shape suddenly appeared from nowhere. It pounced, appearing from
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the shadows like a jaguar that had been lying in
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: wait for its meal. Ray's screams rose higher and higher
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: as he thrashed and pushed at the scrawny girl attacking him.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: He stuck his hands out defensively and two of his
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: fingers were quickly bitten off. Then, while he was distracted,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: the kid jumped up on his back and began to
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: choke him with her legs in a triangle hold while
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: tearing at his face with her nails. Eventually, he toppled
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: to the floor, his face turning blue from lack of air.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Despite the size difference, the feral nature of the teenage
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: girl was too much for him to handle. She was
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: like a cornered rat, biting and scratching at him viciously.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I shone my flashlight, moving towards him from the other
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: end of the basement, but all I could see at
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: first was a blur of movement and blood being sprayed
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: and splashed in the air. As I got closer, I
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: saw what looked to be a girl in her mid-teens,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: moving animalistically and dressed in tattered pink rags that might
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: have once been pajamas. Her hair was black and greasy,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: covering her features as she tore at my friend's throat
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: with her teeth, swallowing down pieces of flesh and making wet,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: sloppy sounds as she chewed. Ray's cries for help turned
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: to gurgling croaks and crackling wheezes as he began to
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: choke on his own blood. A dark puddle spread across
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the floor, pooling around my feet as I slowly approached
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and drew closer. As I held up my machete with
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: a trembling hand, I prepared to swing it at the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: young girl's head. She may not have been a zombie,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: but she sure did act like one, Hunger changes people.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I'd seen it before, and more than once. It makes
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: them desperate, turns them into animals of instinct and need.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Dead rat carcasses littered the floor, many of them half-eaten
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: with the remaining flesh mummified. Others were just the heads
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and tails, with skeletal remains attached in between, like a
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: drumstick picked clean. What's your name, little girl? I asked,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: my voice trembling. Lowering my weapon, and hoping she had
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: some morsel of humanity left inside of her. Her eyes
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: glanced up from my friend's bloody, gasping body, then back
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: down again a moment later. She ripped another strip of
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: flesh from his midsection with her sharp, blackened nails, and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: he convulsed in agony. Her fingernails were several inches long,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: resembling talons. My name's Henry. It looks like you've been
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: down here by yourself for a long time. Where did
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: your parents go? Again, she looked up at me for
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: a split second before staring down at the body beneath her.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Her face twitched and she paused what she was doing
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: for a second, but then went back to consuming the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: bloody pieces of skin. Ray gurgled once more and his
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: eyes rolled back. I couldn't tell if he was breathing anymore,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: but it didn't look like he was. Listen, I know
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: this isn't you. I can get you some help. What's
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: your name? She swallowed the piece of skin that was
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: in her mouth. and spoke softly, saying, Tabitha. Well, Tabitha,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: that's my friend Ray you're eating. Now I know you're hungry,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: but we don't eat people, okay? She growled like a
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: dog whose bone was being taken away. Ah, none of that.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Now if you can behave yourself, you can come back
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to the Igor home base with me, and we can
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: get you some real food. But you can't be doing
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: this sort of thing, okay? No more eating people. We're
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: not zombies. We're better than that. Ighor? Really? You're a
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: part of Ighor? She thought about it another moment, before
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: nodding reluctantly, and I stuck out my hand for her
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: to take. After a moment's hesitation, she stood up on
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: shaking legs and walked over to me. She took my hand,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and I thought maybe she'd let me lead her away
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: from that place, up the stairs, and away from that
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: bloody basement. But instead … She immediately took a huge
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: bite from my arm, as if it were a turkey leg,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: her jaw snapping down on my wrist with surprising force.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: I went to my knees as the pain racked through me. Frozen,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I watched in terror as another figure in ragged scraps
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: of clothing emerged from the shadows, just a silhouette visible
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: at first. A teenage boy. Her brother, I guessed. He
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: was moving on all fours like a dog, sniffing at
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the air.' Oh, Bobby!' she called out into the darkness.'
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: It' s your turn!' Dinner time. I directed my big brown
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: box truck up the driveway, branches scraping along the top
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and sides as I went. It was two days after
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: * * * * Day, so I was out late
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: delivering packages well after dark, and the house at the
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: end of the driveway was my least favorite stop. Pretty
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: much every single time I delivered to them, which was
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: several times a week usually, I heard screaming and shouting
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: coming from the old mansion. The place was tucked back
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: on a wooded property a good half mile from the road.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I could tell that it had been a nice place
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: at one time, but it certainly wasn't anymore. The entire
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: front yard was choked with old cars and various states
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: of disrepair, along with decrepit washing machines, dead dryers, broken
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: plumbing fixtures, and a thousand other pieces of garbage. that
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: had been tossed there. Walking up the cluttered stone steps
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to the door was always an exercise in agility. I
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: tried my best not to trip and break my neck,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: especially at night. As I rounded the final bend in
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: the driveway, headlights sweeping over the maze of junk in
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the yard, I thought I saw movement behind a couple
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: of discarded appliances. Just a quick blur, like a large
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: animal fleeing or someone ducking down to hide. I didn't
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: think much of it, having seen deer and raccoons among
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: the debris many times, apparently drawn there by food scraps.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: There was just enough room at the end of the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: driveway for me to turn around. We were always supposed
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to turn around before delivering at a stop instead of after,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: so that's what I did. Once I had the truck
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: positioned facing out, I shut off the engine and opened
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: up the door to the cargo area. I only had
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: about 20 stops to go, so finding the package wasn't
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: hard As I shut the door and stepped out of
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the vehicle, I realized there was no screaming coming from
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the house. Even at almost 10 o'clock at night, this
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: was a rarity. I'd been delivering to the two men
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: who lived in the house for the better part of
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a year. They both had the same last name and
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: looked very similar. So I figured they were brothers. One
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: was Timothy and the other was Martin. Heading up the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: stairs to the front door, I kept my eyes on
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: my feet so I wouldn't trip on anything. At the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: top of the stairs, I set the box down and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: pulled out my scanner. As I scanned the barcode, I
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: noticed that the front door was open a crack. Something
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: moved out in the yard, thumping against a metal appliance.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I spun around, looking out at the dark shapes on
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: both sides of the driveway. With my truck's headlights off,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see much of anything. Shaking my head, I
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: pressed a couple of buttons on my scanner to complete
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the delivery, then started the treacherous journey down the stairs.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: There were soda bottles, action figures, loose nails, and even
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: marbles on the stairs, like they wanted people to trip
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and fall. I made it to the bottom safely and
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: moved up the driver's side of the truck, jumping into
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: the seat, before I saw the person sitting in the
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: jump seat on the other side. Launching myself out of
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the truck, I turned around and looked inside, my pulse thrumming.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: It was one of the brothers, Martin. He hadn't moved
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: at all, but he looked wrong. He was kind of
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: bloody around the ears and the forehead, but he didn't
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: seem to be actively bleeding. It was almost as if
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: he had superficial cuts along his hairline. It was so dark,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see clearly. Martin? I said. You okay? He
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: didn't answer. His eyes were closed. Looking around the yard,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I felt like I was being watched. Moving around the truck,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I came to the passenger side. The door stayed open
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: while I was delivering, so I was able to go
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: right up to him. I stuck my hand out and
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: touched his shoulder. He slumped down, falling off the seat
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: and into the footwell. Acting on reflex, I reached forward
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: and caught him before he fell all the way out
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: of the truck. He was still warm, so I didn't
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: think he was dead. I got him out of the
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: truck and laid him on the driveway before kneeling next
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: to him and pulling out my phone. I reached under
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: his chin to feel for a pulse, and that's when
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: the skin on his face shifted with a wet, sucking sound.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I pulled my hand away just as the man sat up,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: like he was yanked on a string. He reached up
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and grabbed his face, pulling it off completely. With a
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: jolt of terror, I realized it was the other brother, Timothy.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: He'd been wearing Martin's face. As he pulled the skin
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: off his own face, he revealed wild eyes and a
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: sickly grin. He cocked his head sideways as he looked
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: at me, then belted out shrieking laughter. I bolted away
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: from him, straight into the yard. I ran down the
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: side of the driveway, dodging around all the junk. But
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: when I came to the place where I thought I'd
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: seen movement earlier, I tripped over something. My phone flew
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: out of my hands as I hit the ground. Looking back,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I saw that I had tripped over Martin. Not only
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: was the skin of his face gone, but the skin
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: of his entire upper body was in the process of
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: being removed. My stomach revolted, and I puked, even as
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I was getting up to run again. After making it
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: a few feet, I came to my senses, ducking down
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: behind the shell of an old Camaro. I looked and listened,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: but there was no sign of the crazed man. I
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: peered at my truck, knowing it was my best bet
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: for getting to safety. If I could just get to it,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I could start it up in a matter of seconds
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and be on my way. It was better than running
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the half mile to the road. I'd been working for
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: nearly 10 hours and my legs were heavy with fatigue.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I couldn't make it to the road without the truck,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: but I could put everything I had into a mad
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: dash to the vehicle. Taking a deep breath, I bolted
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: from my hiding place, running straight down the driveway, feeling
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: like an Olympic sprinter. I heard Timothy's shrieking laughter nearby
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: as I threw myself into the truck. Four seconds later,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I jammed down on the gas pedal and lurched down
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the road. Up ahead, Timothy darted out onto the driveway,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: knife in hand. He laughed, probably thinking I would stop.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: At the last moment, he dove to the left, but
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I was ready for it. I jerked the wheel that way,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: smashing him against the very same Camaro I hid behind.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: As the truck continued on, he was dragged along between
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the two vehicles before he fell. My back left tire
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: bumped over him as I pulled the truck back onto
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the driveway. When I got to the road, I turned
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: and went down to the nearest house. I'd lost my
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: phone when I tripped over Martin, so I had to
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: wake someone to have them call the police. As I
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: got out of the truck, I walked down the side,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: seeing the damage I'd done. There were dents and scrapes
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: all along the side of the vehicle, but no blood.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: As I moved down past the rear wheel, a hand
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: shot out from under the truck and grabbed my ankle.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I tried to run away, but he wouldn't let go.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I tripped and fell. The last thing I saw was
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: his insane grin and the glint of his knife in
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the moonlight. I'm turning off the lights in the house
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: when I hear the noise. It's a giggle, and it's
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: coming from Layla's room. At first, I'm ready to just
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: let it go. But then I think about the last
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: time I heard her giggling. I had ducked my head
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: inside the room with a smile on my face to
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: look at my niece, hoping she was finally coming out
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of her shell. But what I saw made me think
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: just the opposite. She was sitting on her bed, her
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: back to me, and hugging her doll tightly. The doll's
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: appearance made me step back from the door. I still
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: hadn't gotten used to it. Its eyes were completely white,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: its face cracked and distorted at the mouth, giving it
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: a lopsided grin. And as I stepped into the room,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I noticed that Layla wasn't just hugging the doll. She
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: was squeezing it with all her might, her little body
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: shaking as if she were trying to suffocate the thing.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: When she saw I was in the room, she stopped,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: putting the doll down and looking mutely up at me.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I asked if she was okay, but she didn't answer.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: She hadn't spoken a word to me since her parents,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: my sister and brother-in-law, were killed in a car accident.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: But even before that, my sister had told me she
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: thought something was wrong with Layla. Poor girl. She's at
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: it hard. And she's my responsibility now. As I move
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: up the stairs after turning off the lights, I'm not
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: sure if I should peek into the room or not.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Maybe the doll is some sort of coping mechanism. Maybe
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: I should let it run its course. I tell myself
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: if the creepy doll is getting her to giggle, it's
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: a good thing. But I'm not so sure. It's been
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: only a week since the accident. An accident Layla was
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: there for. It's a miracle she survived, given that both
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: her parents died in the car crash. The child psychologist
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I contacted told me it takes time. We have an
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: appointment to see her tomorrow. So I stop outside her door,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: which is cracked open a couple of inches, and peer inside.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I can see Layla sitting on the side of the bed,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: her back to me. She's looking across to the other
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: side of the room. I can't see what she's looking at,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: but Layla seems to be having a good time. She's
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: kicking her little legs and making humming sounds. There's a
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: noise like a book falling to the ground from inside
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the room. My heart goes double time because I've been
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: watching Layla the whole time. She hasn't moved. Suddenly, I'm
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: certain someone's in the room with her. I shove the
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: door open to reveal the strange doll staring at me
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: with its blank white eyes. It's sitting on the little
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: rocking chair next to the window. There's a picture book
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: on the floor in front of the rocking chair. Layla
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: moves her head slowly, turning to look at me. Her
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: eyes are slitted, her lips pressed together. Stepping into the room,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: I look around for signs of anyone else. Is someone
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: in here with you? Layla crosses her chubby little arms
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: and looks away, blonde hair whipping over her shoulder. I
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: fix my gaze on the doll. It still seems to
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: be looking at me, like its head has turned to
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: follow me as I move around the room. But that
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: can't be possible. A sudden rush of anger crashes against
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: the inside of my skull. Rushing forward, I reach out
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: to grab the damn doll, to throw it into a
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: corner so it's not looking at me anymore. But before
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I can touch it, Layla releases a high-pitched scream from
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: the bed. As soon as I turn to look at her,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: she stops, staring up at me. What? I say. What's wrong?
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: There's a thump, and I look over to see the
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: doll on the floor next to the picture book. As
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I reach down to pick both items up, Layla screams again.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Clenching my teeth, I grab the book and the doll and...
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: A blast of frigid air runs up my arm from
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the doll. My spine crackles as I wrench my head back,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: eyes rolling up into my skull as the world around
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: me rushes away in a whoosh of schizophrenic colors. I
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: find myself in the back of a car, a familiar car,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: my sister Jenny's sedan. My brother-in-law Mike is driving, and
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: my sister sits in the front passenger seat, looking down
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: at her phone. Layla sits in a toddler car seat
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: in the back. The doll is in her lap. looking
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: like a normal toy without the white eyes or the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: creepy grin. I'm here, but not here. I have no form.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: I'm not sitting. Instead, I seem to be floating above
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the scene as the car drives along a two-lane highway.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Layla looks at her doll, then up at her father,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: and then out the windshield. The road ahead seems clear.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: There are several driveways leading to homes on either side
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: of the small highway, but no cars for the time being.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Then I see a truck up ahead, backing out of
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: one of the driveways on the right side of the road. Daddy?
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Layla says. Yes? Mike says, looking up into the rearview mirror. Look!
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: She says, holding up the doll and making it dance.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Mike's eyes start to go back to the road, but
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Layla screams. Look! The truck in the driveway isn't slowing.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: I want to scream, to tell Mike to stop or
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: to pay attention. Layla throws the doll at the side
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: of her father's head. He wrenches his head away, jerking
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the wheel slightly, but not nearly enough to get out
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: of the lane. Up ahead, the truck's back tires bump
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: onto the highway. Jenny looks up from her phone and screams,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: but it's too late. The sedan hits it going 60
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: miles an hour. Glass flies as the sedan skids sideways
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: and flips, rolling twice before coming to rest upside down
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: in a ditch on the other side of the road.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Jenny is clearly dead. The side of her skull bashed in,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: but Mike is still alive. He gasps, hanging upside down
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: in his seat. Layla, who seems unfazed and untouched, releases
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: herself from the car seat and grabs a piece of
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: broken glass. She crouches behind her father and uses the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: glass to open up his carotid artery. Blood pours out
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: onto the doll, which came to rest below him on
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the overturned roof of the car. Layla quickly grabs the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: blood-covered doll and moves out of the car. As the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: vision fades, I can hear Mike and Jenny screaming, pleading
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: for my help. I realize with sickening clarity that they're
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: stuck in the doll, stuck there until the terrible wrong
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: inflicted upon them is made right. My legs give and
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: I sit down hard in Layla's room, letting go of
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the doll. Chest heaving, I look up at the bed,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: but Layla's gone. I turn my head, seeing her step
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: into the doorway from the hall, a terrible grin on
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: her little face. She has a knife in her hand,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: and I know she plans to use it. The rain
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: came down in curtains, turning the city streets into rivers
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and the towering buildings into canyon walls. Lightning flashed occasionally
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: through the darkness, reflecting off windows and briefly illuminating the
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: cityscape in sickly hues. The thunderclaps that followed shook the
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: ground under my feet as I trudged back to my
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: unmarked squad car. As I walked, my baseball cap keeping
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the rain out of my eyes, I paid close attention
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: to the storm drains. They were struggling to funnel all
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the rain down off the streets, given the immensity of
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the downpour. I don't know what drew my attention to
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the alley as I passed. Maybe it was the flash
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: of lightning at the perfect moment. Maybe it was a
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: flash of movement I saw out of the corner of
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: my eye. Whatever it was, I found myself peering at
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: a huge figure cloaked in black. He was hunched over,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: a petite woman held in his hands, her feet a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: full foot off the ground. She was limp, head lolling.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: It was as if she weighed nothing at all. The
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: man wore a hood, and his eyes seemed to glow
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: as they stared at me from that dark oval. the
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: rest of his face obscured by rain and darkness. I
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: froze in mid-step as the gears groaned in my overworked mind.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Don't move! I shouted. The man dropped the woman and
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: bolted away from me down the alley. I was running
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: before the woman's body came to rest on the soaking
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: alley floor. As I ran after him, I pulled my
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: pistol out from my hip holster, shouting again for him
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: to stop. Police! I yelled as he turned the corner
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: on the next block. He moved with a natural fluidity
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: that reminded me of a talented athlete, but I was
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: a runner too. I had the medals from college to
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: show for it. He led me into a part of
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the city populated by warehouses and old tenements. I kept
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: up with him, not gaining and not falling behind. I
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: watched him turn into an abandoned tenement. By the time
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: I made it through the boarded-up door, I saw an
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: interior doorway just ahead falling closed on its own. Bolting
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: through that door and then down a set of stairs,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: I soon found myself in a basement, surrounded by impenetrable darkness.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Stopping at the bottom of the stairwell, I reached into
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the pocket of my raincoat and found my flashlight. The
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: only sound other than rainwater dripping off my clothes was
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: my heavy breathing. I clicked on my flashlight and shone
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: it around. The light revealed brick walls and scraps of
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: trash here and there. Next to an archway on the
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: opposite side of the room, there was a piece of
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: an old wooden headboard propped against the wall. I turned
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: my attention to the archway. As I shone the light through,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: the dark, hulking figure rushed past, caught in my light
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: for the briefest of moments. Come out here now with
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: your hands up, I called. The basement reeked of death.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: I knew without a doubt that this was the man
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I'd been looking for. He was the reason I'd been
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: out in the rain at such a late hour. He'd
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: been killing people all across the city, leaving them drained
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: of blood. A few of my co-workers joked that I
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: was looking for a vampire. I knew better. I had
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: no doubt that this person wanted to be a vampire.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Maybe he even drank the blood when he got it
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: out of them. But I was sure he wasn't sticking
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: fangs into their necks to drink their blood. I didn't
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: know how he was getting it out of his victim's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: but I would find out soon enough. The idiot had
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: cornered himself in a basement, and the rotting smell told
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: me he likely had some victim's bodies down here. Edging
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: toward the doorway, I called out again. Give it up.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I'm not in the mood for this shit. Not tonight, asshole.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: As I got closer, I could see that the room
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: beyond the archway was slightly wider than the one I
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: was in. When I was six feet away from the entrance,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: the figure stepped into my flashlight beam, back near the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: far wall. His head was down, the hood obscuring his face. Good,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I said. Now put your hands- Another dark figure stepped
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: into the light, and then another, and another. There were
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: four of them, and they were all identically dressed, all
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: wearing large black cloaks. The words stuck in my throat.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I realized I hadn't used my rover to call for backup. Stupid.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: As I was regaining my ability to speak, All four
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: figures snapped their heads up in unison, revealing gruesomely elongated
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: and pale faces with faintly glowing red eyes. They smiled
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: at me, fangs unmistakable even from this distance. They rushed
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: forward all at once. I hesitated only a moment before
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: firing at them, shooting them each in the chest twice,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: just like I'd been taught. They went down in a
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: ragged line, stretched out from the back wall to the archway.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: I breathed heavily. The loud reports of the gunfire echoing
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: in my ears. The first one I'd shot stirred, pushing
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: himself off the dirty floor. I gaped, watching idiotically as
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: the second one did the same. And then the third.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: I had no time for disbelief, no room for doubt.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Looking down at my gun, I thought about running. Then
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: I remembered the piece of broken headboard next to the archway.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: I raised the gun and fired twice more at each
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: of the creatures. hoping it would slow them down as
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: much as the first shots had. I only had one
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: round left in the gun, so I ejected the magazine
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: and exchanged it with my spare. Moving toward the piece
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: of furniture, I holstered my gun and stuck my flashlight
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: between my teeth. I grabbed the piece of wood, snapping
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: it in half on my knee. I now had a
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: wooden stake in each hand. I stepped back to the archway,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: shining my light at the floor. The creatures were gone,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: In their place were only small splotches of blood. Something
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: moved over my head and I looked up, illuminating one
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: of the gruesome faces just as the creature dropped on
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: me from the ceiling. I let myself fall, sticking one
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: of the stakes up. As we hit the ground, the
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: creature impaled himself on it, red eyes wide. He screeched
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: before exploding into smoldering ash. Another creature was on me
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: immediately too, wide mouth open, fangs glinting as it went
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: for my neck. I dropped the stake in my left
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: hand and used the appendage to stop the creature. My
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: pinky and ring fingers accidentally slipped into his mouth, and
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: he bit down on them, severing them like they were
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: nothing more than carrots. I had no time to consider
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: what had happened. I jammed the other stake into his
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: chest and burst into ash. A third vampire grabbed me
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: by the collar and threw me into the wall. I
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: smashed into the brick structure face first. the flashlight in
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: my mouth, breaking a couple of teeth out before falling
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: to the floor, but I managed to hold onto the stake.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: The remaining two vampires rushed me, one after the other.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Although the flashlight had broken a couple of my teeth,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: it was still working fine. The device provided enough illumination
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: for me to see the attack coming. I lunged up
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: from the ground and jammed the stake through the first
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: one's chest, then changed directions. and hit the lone remaining
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: creature with the tip of the stake that was sticking
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: out of his comrade's back. They both burst into glowing ash.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Knowing time was of the essence, I quickly grabbed the
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: flashlight back up and swept it along the ground, hoping
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: to see two things that belonged to me. Sure enough,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: there they were, around the area where I had killed
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the second vampire, my pinky and ring fingers. They hadn't
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: turned to ash, despite being inside the vampire's body when
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: I'd killed them. I swiped the fingers up with my
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: good hand while holding the flashlight with the remaining fingers
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: of my other. Upon stepping outside, I found that the
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: rain had let up. I managed a crooked and bloody
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: smile as I headed for the nearest hospital. My two
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: fingers gripped gently in my hand. It takes a special
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: kind of person to become an exterminator. I was reminded
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: of this again. As I stared into the pitch black
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: basement tunnel, dusty cobwebs hung down from the ceiling. The
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: darkness was so thick I could taste it. Or maybe
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: that was the asbestos. Typically the asylum maintenance people took
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: care of pest control for the old mental hospital on
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: their own. It was unusual for them to call in
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: outside help. The problem must have been beyond their abilities,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I thought to myself. They've been coming from down that way.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: The big ones are almost the size of cats. I've
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: never seen anything like it. The young, pimple-faced security guard
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: was just exaggerating, I thought. I'm gonna need you to
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: come down there with me. I don't have a key
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: for the doors. Nuh-uh. I'm not going in there. Not
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: with all those rats running around. You don't have a choice.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: I need to get inside. You're the security guard. You
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: want me to tell your boss that you're refusing to
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: do your job? Guy... I get paid $ 8 an hour,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: he said, pulling a key off the big ring he
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: had attached to his belt. Here's the Grandmaster key. Give
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: it back to me when you're done. I'll be upstairs
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: in the office. Thanks a lot. He walked off, ignoring
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: my sarcasm, leaving me alone in the dark, mildew-stinking basement.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: I turned on my flashlight and began to venture down
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the ancient corridor. Pushing my way past the curtains of cobwebs,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: I walked deeper, and deeper into the darkness, the smell
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: getting worse with each step. What was that stench? I wondered.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Spiders were soon crawling on my skin and in my hair,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: up my sleeves and down my back. I tried to
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: contain my terror and brush them off of me as
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: best as I could, but there were always more. Soon
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I felt them biting me beneath my clothes as I
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: invaded deeper and deeper into their territory. The spiders were
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: so distracting, that I didn't even notice at first when
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: the rats started swarming past. Just a couple at the start,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: then a half dozen at a time. Soon they were
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: moving around me in a fleshy, airy herd. The warmth
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: of them radiated from the floor, and I moved as
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: quickly as I could through the swelling midst of them.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of rats. I'd never seen
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: so many in one place. The door up ahead was
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: locked with a thick steel chain and a padlock from
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: a century ago, but that wasn't stopping the rats. In
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the glow of my flashlight, I saw them moving through
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: a hole they had made in the baseboards after chewing
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: through it like acid. They streamed through this gap like
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: flowing water. With shaking hands, I pulled out the key
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: which I had tucked into my front pocket. I inserted
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: it into the lock and turned it with effort. The
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: lock was rusted to the point of almost being seized.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: After a great deal of jiggling and desperate pounding against
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: the door of my shoulder, it creaked open. Inside was
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: another long corridor, stretching off into the darkness. Rats were
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: squeaking and fighting amongst themselves, running around on the floor,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: and I saw that the security guard had been telling
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: the truth. Some of them were the size of small cats.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: I just hoped they weren't hungry enough to take a
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: bite of me. This hallway stretched mind-bendingly off into the
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: far distance. I couldn't believe how big this place was.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: The old mental hospital had been built nearly 200 years prior,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: and it was massive. It was also rumored to be haunted,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: but I had more tangible things to worry about than
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: ghosts at that moment. The rats were a constant presence
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: as I forced myself to go deeper into the darkness.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: A large part of me wanted to go back, to
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: say this was too much for me. But another part
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: said no. This was my job, and it was up
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: to me to get this done. I could only imagine
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: the Yelp reviews and what they would say about an
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: exterminator too scared of rats to exterminate them. But the smell...
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: The smell was almost too much to bear as I
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: trudged closer and closer to the unknown source of it.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Something told me if I could find the source of
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: that smell, I'd find what was causing the rat problem.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: I anticipated a leak leading into the municipal sewer system,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: but I never expected what I ended up discovering. I
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: noticed there was a small gap in the left side
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: of the tunnel up ahead. Rats were pouring out of
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: this space, and into the larger corridor where I was standing.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: I tried to push against the side of the gap
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: and found it slid open further. It was a secret doorway.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: The sliding door was covered in textured paint, which matched
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: the walls around it. I pushed it open and stepped inside.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Rats were nearly up to my knees at this point,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: many of them climbing on top of one another. I
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: used my flashlight to bat them off of me as
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: some tried to crawl up my legs, one getting almost
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: to my neck. I tried to stop myself from panicking,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: but I could feel my heart pounding, and I was
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: beginning to wonder what the hell I'd been thinking, going
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: down there alone. The tunnel led downwards, heading deeper and
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: deeper below ground. It appeared to be crude and dug
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: by hand, without the use of sophisticated equipment. There was
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: no lighting, and the ground was filled with potholes and ruts,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: which I repeatedly tripped over. I imagined falling face down
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: in the midst of all those rats and squirmed at
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the thought. Eventually, after several long minutes of descending deeper
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: and deeper downwards, the space opened up before me, and
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: I saw I was in a large hidden cave system
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: beneath the hospital. I braced myself as I followed the
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: trail of rats and saw a cluster of them in
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: the darkness up ahead. I went forward to examine the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: source of the asylum's rat problems. I couldn't help but
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: wonder if the management of the hospital knew about this
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: underground cave system beneath the place, or if it was
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: a secret even to them. But one thing was for sure,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: somebody had made this secret tunnel leading down to this cavern,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: and the person using the hidden passage these days was
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: doing so with some terrible purposes in mind. As I
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: drew closer to the horde of rats... The terrible smell
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: I had noticed earlier began to grow stronger, to the
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: point of being almost unbearable. I pulled up my shirt
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: over my face and pointed the flashlight beam towards the
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: source of that horrible odor. There was a pit with
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: at least a dozen dead bodies in it, each of
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: them in varying states of decomposition. The rats were crawling
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: over the faces of men and women, eating their skin
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: and pulling off scraps of flesh from their necks and ears,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: lips and eyelids. The eyeballs were already missing from each
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: of the bodies, as if those were the tastiest, and
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: the rats had decided to eat them first. With growing concern,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: I saw a few of them were wearing service uniforms.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: There were plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and more than one exterminator.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: I spun around just as the familiar security guard was
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: sneaking up behind me with a hammer. He swung it
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: hard at my face, but he wasn't anticipating my quick response.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Dodging out of the way, I saw his eyes were
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: full of rage, focused intently on me. He looked savage
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: and angry as he took a swing at me with
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: his hammer, then another, and another, each time just barely
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: missing as I ducked out of the way. He grazed
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: me once on the shoulder, though, nearly crippling me despite
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: the fleeting impact. The kid was young and he was quick,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: but he was filled with anger, and it was making
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: him sloppy and careless. Each time he missed, I could
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: see his rage growing, his face getting redder, his eyes
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: more and more manic. And with that came a lack
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: of focus as he fell further and further away with
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: each strike. I realized I only had one chance to
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: fight back since I was without a weapon. My mind
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: formulated a plan as I circled back around towards the
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: pit filled with dead bodies. With my back to it,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: I slowed down, acting tired. Then, as he came at me,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: I pretended to be surprised at having backed myself into
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: a corner. He attacked, and at the very last second
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I dodged away, kicking him in the back as he
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: went off balance. His eyes went wide with surprise, having
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: missed wildly with his attack. The security guard who had
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: lured me down there went flying into the pit of
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: rats and dead bodies, spinning and turning in the air
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: as he landed so that he was looking up at me.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: A moment later, the vermin swarmed him. It was like
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: piranha smelling blood in the water. As soon as they
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: saw the fresh meat, they began to feast on his
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: flesh as he screamed. I slowly backed away, watching carefully
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: to make sure he didn't chase after me. But within
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: a few moments, the screams began to turn into bubbling
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: gurgles and a wheezing death rattle. Soon after that, I
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: heard nothing at all, and it was silent except for
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the sounds of rats eating the man as I retreated
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: back the way I'd entered. The rats were swarming back
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: towards the caverns. I saw with pleasant surprise as I
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: made my way up towards the entrance of the caves.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Finally back in the basement, I stood watching as the
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: rats' numbers began to thin, their masses returning to their
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: home in the cave system after smelling the fresh meat.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: After the last ones had gone back through the secret door,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: I closed it shut and heard it lock securely in place.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: The hidden tunnel was once again disguised to blend in
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: perfectly with the basement wall, tucked away in the derelict
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: hallway that no one ever visits anymore. Not only that,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: but I had solved the rat problem. Like I said before,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: it takes a special kind of person to be an exterminator.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: It's not for everyone. And some people just don't have
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: what it takes. When I was a kid, I lived
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: across the street from a family with a little girl.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Her name was Emily. And our parents used to get
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: us together for playdates because we were around the same age.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: This started when we were really young, like three or four.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: By the time we were eight years old, we were
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: nearly inseparable. But then one summer, Emily came home from
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: a family trip with a doll. When you're eight years old,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: you don't really know fear. Not unless you've experienced something terrible.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: And if you're lucky, terrible doesn't happen to you until
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: much later in life. Emily and I weren't lucky. She
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: called the doll Daisy. It was one of those with
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: stiff arms and legs made out of plastic, attached to
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: a soft fabric body filled with stuffing. It had a
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: pink dress with white flowers printed on it. Daisy's. This
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: was right around the time Tickle Me Elmo was a
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: huge hit, and the makers of the doll were apparently
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: trying to cash in on the concept. Daisy had a
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: voice box in her head, and when Emily pressed on
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: her chest, she would talk or giggle. Unlike Elmo, she
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: wouldn't vibrate or squirm, though. She had shimmery blonde hair
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: and blue eyes over a button nose and a smiling mouth.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: Daisy looked like a normal doll, but, for some reason,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: she creeped me out from the first time I saw her.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: And not a day after she brought the doll home,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: strange things started happening at Emily's house. I remember knocking
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: on the door that day to see if Emily could play.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: I know you wrote it. Emily's mother shouted inside the house.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: How could you say those things to me? I didn't
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: write anything. Her father shouted. I don't know where that
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: note came from. Her mother answered the door, tears streaming
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: down her face. She barely looked at me before turning
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: away and shouting up the stairs for Emily. When my
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: friend came out, she looked sullen. She stepped out the
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: front door and then stopped, as if someone had called
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: her name. But all I could hear was her mother
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: crying inside. I'll be right back, Emily said. She went
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: inside and came back out with Daisy a minute later.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: The doll sat nearby as we played in her front yard.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Emily kept glancing at it, but they weren't happy glances.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: It was like she was suspicious of the thing. A
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: couple of days later, I was shooting hoops in my
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: driveway when I heard shouting from Emily's house. Her father
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: burst out onto the porch with the doll in his hand,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: tossing it into the front yard before going back into
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: the house. I watched the doll for a long time
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: before I went back to shooting hoops. And when I
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: glanced back over at the yard, it was gone. A
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: couple of minutes later, I heard Emily's father yelling about
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: the doll. I don't want that thing in my house!
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: He shouted. What did I tell you? I didn't do it!
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Emily screamed. I hate it! Later that night, I heard
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: screaming and glass breaking from across the street. It was late,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: and I was supposed to be in bed. but I
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: went downstairs and found my mom and dad on the
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: phone with 911 while they paced in the living room
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: and looked out the window. I moved up between them
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: and peered out the window, looking at my friend's house.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: The front door came open and Emily ran out, tripping
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: and falling down the porch steps. I ran to my
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: door and outside, quickly looking both ways before I crossed
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: the street. Both my parents were shouting as they ran
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: after me. Emily was in pink pajamas that were stained
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: crimson with fresh blood. It was on her face and
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: in her hair. She was bawling as she ran up
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: to my mom. who picked her up and hugged her.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: My dad had a strange look on his face that
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize until later was fear. I'd never seen
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: my dad terrified before, but he was that night as
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: he moved up to the porch and peered through the
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: door Emily had left open. I moved up behind him,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: unable to stop myself and not knowing just how bad
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: things were inside the house. Before I could get much
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: more than a glimpse of Emily's parents, my dad realized
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: I was behind him. He turned around and scooped me up,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: getting me away from the bloody sight of the two
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: hacked up bodies in the house. I just remember thinking
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: that every knife in the house must have been sticking
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: out of Emily's parents. We went across the street to
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: my house while we waited for the police. My dad
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: called 911 again and gave them the update. He stayed
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: on the phone with them until the police got there.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: All the while, Emily was bawling. Most of her words
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: I couldn't make out, but there was one that rang
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: as clear as a church bell inside my head. Daisy.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: It was an accusatory cry, as if she was trying
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: to convince us, and herself, that Daisy, the doll, had
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: killed her parents. It took several hours for the police
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: to sort everything out. As much as they could, anyway.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: They searched the neighborhood for the killer, but never found anyone.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: I overheard one of the police officers and a child
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: services person talking to Emily in our kitchen after they
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: got her cleaned up and calmed down. Emily kept saying
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: that her doll did it, that she saw the doll
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: do it. She described Daisy to them over and over.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: But the cops said there was no doll in the
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: house matching that description. When I heard that, I went
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: around the house and made sure every door and window
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: was locked. I was the only one who believed Emily.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: But no one listens to kids about this kind of stuff.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: My parents offered to keep Emily until the social services
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: people figured out what to do with her. But they
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: said it was against the law. So we all went outside.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: It must have been one in the morning by that
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: time to see Emily off. She gave me a hug
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: before she got into the back of the car. I
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: watched as the car started up and pulled away from
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: the curb in front of my house. And as it
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: moved off down the street, I heard Emily scream, even
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: though all the windows were up. Then I saw a
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: familiar face pop up in the back window. Daisy, the
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: doll's face. It was dusk when I decided to use
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: the internet cafe. The sun was low and the buildings
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: of Tokyo were illuminated in shades of a rich, blood-like red.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: I only needed about ten minutes. I only had one
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: document to print. I suppose it could have waited until
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: the next morning, but for my own peace of mind,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: I just wanted it done. I entered that particular lonely
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: cafe right at the day's end. I was tired, stressed,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: and just wanted to go to bed. But duty called.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: I removed my glasses and rubbed away a smudge on
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: the right-hand lens, nodding politely to the man behind the
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: desk towards the back of the room. I slid my
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: glasses back up my nose as I slumped down into
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: a chair, squinting at the screen before me and dropping
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: my briefcase by my feet. Thudded a tall, softly glowing
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: server tower at the side of the room. I glanced
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: over at it. I wasn't sure what a lone server
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: would be doing in the main computer room. I thought
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: at first that it might just be an unusual decoration,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: a centerpiece. But no. The flashing red lights and the
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: wires connecting the tower to the ceilings implied that it
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: was in use. Whatever, I don't know much about computers.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it had a good reason for being there.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: It thudded again loudly, whirring and grinding. I glanced at
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: my neighbor. Well, relative neighbor at least. A man hunched
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: over his computer at the end of my row, several
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: desks away. He paid the server tower no mind, and
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: so I chose to do the same. I returned to
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: my screen. navigating to the browser, and then to my email,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: tapping away at the keys. The email site tried to buffer,
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: and then failed. I tried it a second time, but again,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: it failed to load. Irritated, I attempted the site for
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: a third time, and the screen simply froze on the
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: buffering icon. A maddening red circle, slowly spinning around and around,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: around and around, With a sigh, I opened another browser
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and tried again. I saw an interesting article pop up
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: as I did so and found myself intrigued. Shooting a
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: look down to the clock in the lower right corner
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: of the screen, I decided I had a few minutes
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: to spare. So I opened the article and began to read,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: passing the time and quickly losing myself to the interesting words.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: I clicked from this article to the next, adjusting my
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: collar and clearing my throat as the temperature began to rise.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: I returned to the email site and tried again. It
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: loaded at last, though I was met with another frustrating
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: buffer when I searched for the email in question, the
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: one with all my documents. Hey, no matter. I just
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: jumped back to the articles, reading and reading. And it's funny.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: At the time, they were so fascinating, so engrossing. But
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: right now, I couldn't tell you what a single one
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: was even about. I don't remember a damn word. I
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: felt myself beginning to sweat. I wiped a thin layer
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: from my forehead and rubbed my palm against my pants
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: before placing it back onto the mouse. Not particularly sanitary,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: but hey, perhaps the owner could consider investing in some
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: air conditioning. The server tower over to my left glistened
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: in the dim red light. Had it always been so
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: gloomy in here? I looked over to it. It appeared
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: slick and shiny too, just like myself. Then again, Perhaps
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: it was just a trick of the light. I tried
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: the email again, inching closer and closer to my goal,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: splitting my attention between the site in question and the
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: pages upon pages of tantalizing, curious content. Content that now
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: eludes me. But I remember the feeling. The feeling of
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: delving deeper and deeper. Of learning. Of discovering truths. Truths
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: long hidden away. I felt something stick to one of
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: my fingers as I typed. still searching my glitching inbox
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: for the documents. I didn't even look down at the keyboard.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: I just tried to flick the stickiness away before continuing.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: There it was again, something sticky connecting to my forefinger
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: to one of the keys. I glanced down to see
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: a smear of some unknown, disgusting liquid, and in revulsion
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: I wiped it on a tissue in my pocket. This
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: is revolting, I thought to myself, sweat beginning to leak
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: from my back and into my shirt. I just need
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: these things printed and then I'm out of here. This
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: is insane. My glasses were beginning to fog. I removed
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: them to wipe down the lenses. My throat was also
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: deathly dry. I don't quite know why it took me
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: so long to realize, but it was at this moment
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: that I became aware of just how wrong my surrounding
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: atmosphere really was. The last time I removed my glasses,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: the light in the room wasn't quite so red. The
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: shadows weren't quite so deep. And that humming, that background beat,
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: that pounding, it wasn't quite so regular. Screw this, I
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: thought to myself. I tore my attention away from the
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: computer's tempting, cryptic passages and articles. I tried the email
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: site just one more time and searched for the docs,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: but the screen froze. Pixels appeared and disappeared at random.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: I looked down to the lower right-hand corner. I tried
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: to lift my wrist and look at my watch. and
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: by doing so I realized two things in very quick succession. First,
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: the timer on the computer was incorrect. Far more time
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: had passed in actuality than the built-in computer's clock would suggest.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: And second, my hands were now connected to the keyboard.
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: I considered this development with outright dismay. Long, red, wet
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: strands of an unknown mucus connected my fingertips to the keys.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: The letters oozed and bulged with a thick, reddish gunk,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: leaking out disturbingly from beneath the keys and across the keyboard.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: I cried out in alarm, panicking, trying to stand up,
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: to pull myself free from the computer. But I found
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: myself unable to do so. The same gunk across my
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: hands had seeped to the chair and into my clothes,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: binding me to the seat. Hey! I called out to
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: my neighbor, the man at the end of the row.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: What's happening? But the man did not respond. Hey, please!
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: I called out to him, but the man sat motionless.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: I raised my hands with the keyboard attached and slammed
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: them down in frustration. The man across from me tipped
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: forwards ever so slightly. As he began to droop, his
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: head turned to mine, and to my horror I saw
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: that he was entirely faceless. The man was a fake,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: a dummy, dressed up in a suit and a wig.
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: I stared at the dummy in a panic, and after
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: a moment he simply slumped to the floor. taking his
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: chair with him which was attached by a fleshy, reddish goo.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: I turned to the man behind the desk, the man
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: who'd been standing in the shadows since the beginning. I
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: looked at him. I really looked at him. And it
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: became apparent that he too was a fake, a faceless,
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: soulless dummy. I tried to spin around, to look at
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: the others in this humid, darkening room. The walls were damp,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: streaked with moisture. Wildly, I turned this way and that,
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: staring at the others in the building. But all of them,
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: all of them were fakes. I'd been sitting here this
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: whole time with a and that beating, that rhythmic pounding.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: My eyes fell upon the tower server, the lone server,
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: right there against the slick, sticky wall. A black beacon
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: with thin, red beams glowing from the inside. With a
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: sudden shout and a rush of force, I tore my
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: hands from the keyboard and staggered up and out of
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: the chair. It disconnected from my back with a wet pop.
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: I still had one problem. My legs were still attached
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: to the lower half of the chair. With all the
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: strength I had left, I pushed the chair from my legs,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: losing much of the fabric of my clothes in the process.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: What the hell is this place? What is happening? I
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: shouted out into the gloom, but I was answered with
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: nothing but that pounding of the server and a rumbling
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: from the walls. I marched over to the server with
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: wet footsteps. I had to know. I just had to know.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: And so with trembling hands, I reached up for a panel,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: hooked my fingers through the gap, and I tore it
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: from the body of the tower. It fell from my grip,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: clattering off a nearby desk and landing with a sick
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: wet slap against the ground. And behind the panel, illuminated
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: in that soft, pulsating red, was nothing but leaking flesh.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: Intricate red tendrils, coiled and throbbing. Black-red ooze, leaking down
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: the plastic and the metal. And in the very center
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: was a beating heart, bloated and blackened and overgrown, pounding
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: and beating in its repetitive rhythm. I recoiled in terror,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: struggling to contain the contents of my stomach as I
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: felt bile rise up and into my throat. I spun
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: around on the spot, reaching down and grabbing my briefcase
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: as I made my escape, hauling it from the floor
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: with a grunt of effort, watching as spurts of blood
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: and thick, dark, fleshy tendrils were snapped in the process.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: I could feel myself sinking deeper and deeper into the
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: floor with every step. I reached out for the front door,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: painfully aware of the walls that were now hungrily closing in.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: The ever-present, growing rumble and the fevered beating of the
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: twisted heart sounded louder than ever. No! I screamed. Please!
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Using the last of my strength, I body-slammed through the door,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: tumbling chaotically out and into the street, collapsing to my side.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: A man on a bike had to swerve to avoid me,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: and he swore as I landed with a painful thud.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: I groaned and shot a look back to the cafe,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: but there was nothing out of the ordinary to see.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: A closed sign hung on the front door. The window
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: was pitch black and all the lights were off. No red,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: no moisture. Just dark and empty. I awkwardly clambered to
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: my feet. My clothes were ruined. And my hands. My
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: hands were stained with that thick red viscous fluid. I
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: could hold it no longer. I vomited violently onto the
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: sidewalk before turning and running, swearing never, ever to return.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: Passing through the cemetery allowed me to get home about
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: five minutes faster. The bus stop was just a block over,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: and the cemetery took up an entire block to itself.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: So instead of walking down and around it to my house,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: I'd gotten into the habit of cutting through, Granted, every
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: other time I'd pass through, it was early evening. Tonight,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: it was a few minutes until midnight. So when I
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: started hearing strange noises from one of the mausoleums, I
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: first attributed it to the late hour and my overworked mind.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: I had worked a double at the restaurant after one
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: of the other servers called in sick at the last minute.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: Now I smelled like Tex-Mex, sweat, and grease as I
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: paused and looked toward the distant mausoleum. It was one
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: I had passed many times, but I'd never heard anything
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: like this before. The sound was a low murmur of voices,
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: as if a group of people were praying inside the
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: stone building. It was one of the larger buildings on
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: the grounds, so I figured it was meant for an
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: entire family. It looked like a miniature Roman temple, with
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: white columns flanking the entrance and a peaked roof with
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: the family name carved under it. As with all the
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: other mausoleums and graves I passed, I often wondered who
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: the people inside had been in life. The name was Blackburn.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: I imagined they were high society members from the early 1900s.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: I pictured the men in the family wearing suits and fedoras,
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: the women dressing like flappers with high heels and sparkly dresses.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: I heard something move in the darkness behind me. I
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: glanced in that direction, seeing nothing but gravestones. It was
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: probably a cat or a rabbit. The noise had broken
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: my trance, and I continued on my way, keeping to
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: the path I always took through the graveyard. It would
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: bring me within a few yards of the Blackburn Mausoleum.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: I didn't think much of it. If people wanted to
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: come and pray for their loved ones in the middle
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: of the night, who was I to judge? But as
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: I approached the structure, I slowed involuntarily, almost not even
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: realizing I was doing it a relaxing feeling came over me,
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: almost like the feeling you get when listening to good ASMR.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: The skin on the back of my head and neck
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: buzzed comfortably, and my eyelids drooped halfway down. Something about
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: that murmuring was so nice. I turned toward the Blackburn Mausoleum,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: my legs moving again. I noticed with a smile that
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: the door was cracked, revealing a shaft of pale light
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: coming from inside. The murmuring grew in intensity, and it
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: sounded like the people talking were saying my name, although
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: it wasn't really my name. The sounds didn't match, but
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: I had the unmistakable feeling that they were talking to me.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: I reached out and grabbed the door, pushing it open,
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: peering inside. A man and a woman were kneeling on
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: the stone floor of the mausoleum, with their backs to me.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: I could tell that they were older because they both
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: had wavy white hair cascading down the backs of their necks.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: The woman's hair was longer than the man's, but even
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: his was long enough to cover his collar. The woman
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: wore a tasteful white gown, and the man wore a suit.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see their faces, or any part of them
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: not covered by clothing, but they were both rocking back
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: and forth, and I could tell that the pleasant murmuring
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: was coming from them. Some small part of me said
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: that there were too many voices in the murmurs for
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: just two people, but I couldn't worry about such silly things.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: Not when I knew these two nice old people needed
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: my help. As I stepped into the Blackburn mausoleum, both
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: of them stopped their rocking, although the murmuring continued. I'm here,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: I said, smiling. There was a crunching, creaking sound as
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: the man nodded. He stood up, still with his back
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: to me. He was about four inches shorter than me.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: His thin, bony shoulders made it look as if his
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: suit jacket were hanging on a clothes hanger. He turned
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: toward me, revealing a rotting, skeletal face with a permanent,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: lipless grin. His eyes were nothing but shriveled orbs held
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: tentatively in place by cracking eyelids. That small part of
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: me that knew something was wrong suddenly screamed out, breaking
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: me out of my trance. My heavy eyelids snapped open
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: as I inhaled a sharp breath. I stepped back just
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: as the man reached a skeletal hand out and grabbed
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: my wrist. The immensity of the sudden pain made me
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: cry out and look down at my wrist. The dried,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: nearly gone skin of the man's hand was growing back
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: before my very eyes. Muscles and veins appeared on his
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: fingers in the back of his hand, while my own
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: hand and wrist withered in a matter of moments. Panic-stricken,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: I grabbed his forearm with my free hand. The transformation
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: apparently hadn't reached so far up his arm, because the
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: brittle bones inside the suit sleeve crunched under my grip.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: A dry scream erupted from somewhere in the man as
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: he reached for my neck. I felt his scratchy fingers
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: scrape across the soft skin of my neck, the touch
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: tightening my skin as he tried to steal my life.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: I flinched back, yanking on his arm as I went.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: The bones inside his suit sleeve separated, and I stumbled
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: out of the building. His right hand was still fastened
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: to my arm, but now that it was severed from him,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: the sickening effect seemed to have mostly reversed itself. Turning
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: to run, I pulled the hand off with some effort,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: tossing it to the ground. As I ran, I glanced
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: back over my shoulder to see his figure backlit in
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: the mausoleum doorway. I ran all the way back to
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: my house, fear like I'd never known following me the
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: whole way. Although I made it out with my life,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: I still have the marks to show from that night.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: The skin of my left wrist is discolored and wrinkled,
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: and my hand is noticeably weaker than it was before.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: and on my neck, three narrow, discolored marks reminded me
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: of where the fingers of his other hand touched me
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: for no more than a moment. Needless to say, I
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: no longer cut through the cemetery on my way home,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: not at any time of day. I was eating breakfast
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: in the little kitchen of my college house when I
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: heard the voices coming from the basement again. It was strange,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: because that part of the house was unoccupied, and yet
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: I'd heard the voices coming from down there time and
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: time again. Each time it was a man and a woman,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: their bickering carrying through the vents to my ears. My friend, Ted,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: was living with me at the time, going to school
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: for music theory. He came downstairs just at that moment
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: to eat a bowl of cereal. I put my finger
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: to my lips and pointed down as he entered the room.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: Are that right? I whispered. He raised his eyebrows and listened.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: The voices continued arguing bitterly. Who the hell is that?
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: It had happened a few days prior as well. We
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: had only recently moved into the house, and the landlord
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: was a bit eccentric, but he'd assured us that we
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: were alone when we asked him about it. I heard
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: the front door open suddenly. Hello, guys! Our landlord shouted
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: in his deeply accented voice as he entered, unannounced, just
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: as I was thinking of him. The man consistently barged
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: into the house without knocking, despite tenant rights laws which
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: prohibited such things. He also liked to hook up the
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: adjacent houses, which he also owned, with Ethernet cables running
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: out through the back door, thus providing cheap and painfully
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: slow Internet access for us and the entire neighborhood. A
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: couple days prior, Ted and I had begun to call
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: the landlord Dragon, mostly due to his Machiavellian nature and
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: because he told us he lived on a street called
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: Stone Ridge. Also, his last name was Dragovic or something similar.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: We didn't dare call him dragon to his face, though. Although,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: in retrospect, he probably would have taken it as a compliment. Hey,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: I said as he entered the kitchen. Could you give
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: us a call next time you want to come over?
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: Even just knocking would be a big improvement. You guys
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: are so funny, he said, sitting down and pouring himself
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: a bowl of cereal. Wild college party, guys. I love it. So,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: what are we doing today? Playing a prank on the
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: dean like in the movies? Ted and I looked at
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: each other awkwardly, unsure how to get him to leave
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: and understand this was not okay. He couldn't just come
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: in uninvited and eat our cinnamon toast crunch. But at
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: the same time, there was the matter of the basement. Actually,
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: we're mostly just doing homework today. Very busy with homework.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: But we were wondering about the basement. We heard voices
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: from down there, just now. A man and a woman talking.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: Dragon poured some milk in his bowl and ate a
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: large bite, speaking with his mouth full. There's nobody in
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: the basement, guys. We've been over this. You want me
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: to show you? Come, I'll show you. We'll go see
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: the basement together. He led us down the stairs into
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: the basement with the bowl in his hand, sloshing milk everywhere.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: and showed us the small apartment down there. To his credit,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: it was completely empty. See? No voices to make talk talk.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: You boys are hearing things. And there's no other rooms
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: down here? I asked. None. Like I say, you imagine this.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: These old houses, they make weird sounds sometimes. He led
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: us back upstairs, and sat back down to finish his cereal. So,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: you guys liking this place so far, right? Pretty nice.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: You have the whole house to yourselves. It's your bachelor bag.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: You party it up. Just make sure you invite me, okay?
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: And don't wreck the place. Actually, on second thought, no parties.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: He stood up after finishing his cereal and puttered around
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: the kitchen for a few seconds, then blurted out, Oh,
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: by the way, you have my rent money? It's only
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: the 15th of the month. We don't have to pay
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: you for another two weeks. Okay, okay. If you don't
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: have it right now, no problem. All right, I better
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: get going. You guys have a good one. Dragon went
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: out the front door and the two of us were
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: left alone again, wondering what the hell we'd gotten ourselves
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: into with this awful low-budget house we'd rented. Little did
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: we know, it was about to get much, much worse.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: That night, I was in my bed sleeping when I
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: woke up shivering. It was freezing cold in my bedroom
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: and when I opened my eyes and exhaled, I realized
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: I could see my breath. What the hell? I considered
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: just wrapping myself up in another blanket but then decided
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: against it. The thermostat had to be malfunctioning or it
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: was just adjusted wrong. It was dangerously cold in the
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: house and if I didn't do something fast, it would
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: only get colder. Sure enough, When I got downstairs, the
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: digital thermostat showed the temperature was 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: pressed the arrow buttons at the side and watched the
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: temperature increase until it read 72. Then I bumped it
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: up a couple degrees more, just for good measure. The
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: heating vents kicked on, and I held my hand up
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: to the one in the kitchen to warm my numb fingers.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: I went back up the stairs to my bedroom and
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: laid down, closing my eyes and drifting back to sleep.
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: But an hour later, I woke up shivering again, my
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: breath a frosty plume each time I exhaled. This time
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: I stomped down the stairs and over to the thermostat,
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: where I saw it read 45 degrees. I couldn't understand
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: why it would be doing this. So I looked at
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: the settings on the thermostat and played with it, trying
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: to figure out what was causing the issue. Everything looked normal,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: and this hadn't happened on previous nights. It didn't make
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: any sense. So I decided to go down to the
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: basement to take a look at the furnace for myself.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: I opened the door leading down the stairs and began
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: to walk slowly down the steps to the lower level
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: of the house. It was dark and silent. I tried
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: to turn on a light, but none of them seemed
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: to work. Once I got down to the basement, I
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: realized it was much warmer down there. It was actually
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: very hot. I was quickly sweating as I made my
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: way over to the furnace. Something was definitely wrong with
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: the heating in the house, since it was freezing on
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: the second floor, but it was an oven down in
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: the basement. But that didn't explain why the thermostat kept
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: changing on its own. The furnace offered no clues, mostly
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: since I had no idea what I was looking for.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: Everything seemed to be in good working order, at least
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: as far as I could tell in the dim light.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: The big steel beast rumbled and groaned to life suddenly.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: startling me as it kicked in to meet the demands
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: of the thermostat upstairs. Hot air began to fill the room,
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: and I started to sweat even more. Giving up on
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: trying to fix it, I went for the exit instead.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: Just as I reached the door, it slammed shut in
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: my face. I felt as if I was going to
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: have a panic attack as I stumbled backwards. For a moment,
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: I was too terrified to try and open it again,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: but the temperature was rising quickly in the furnace room,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: and I needed to get out fast. Hello? I called
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: out softly, but no one answered. Pulling on the door handle,
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: I found it wouldn't open. I threw my shoulder against it,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: but the thing wouldn't budge. Looking around the room, I
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: saw a small window set high in the wall. I
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: moved a nearby milk crate to stand on it and
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: slid the window open. It would only open a few inches.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: The child's safety lock was stuck, so I couldn't get
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: it to go any wider. There was no chance of
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: squeezing my bulk through that crack, I thought. But at
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: least the open window was allowing a breeze to waft in,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: cooling my sweat-dampened face as I stood pacing, trying to
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: figure out a plan. The room was small and devoid
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: of any useful items. The more I looked, the hotter
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: it started to feel in there, the small window making
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: little difference. I felt like some terrible dog trapped in
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: a parked car on a hot summer day, sniffing at
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: that small gap of freedom and fresh air offered by
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: a narrowly opened window, panting as my oxygen ran out.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: I was beginning to look at the furnace again, trying
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: desperately to find a way to turn the temperature down
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: when I heard the voices again, this time more distinctly. Okay, gentlemen,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: this is a young one. You've seen her pictures. Need
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: I say more? We'll start the bidding at 10,000. A
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: soft whimpering sound came as well, and I realized there
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: was a tiny crack of light in the wall to
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: the left of the furnace. Looking through the gap, couldn't
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: see much. I needed to get closer. Pushing against the panel,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: it began to slide forward. It appeared there was a
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: secret room beside this one. That was where the voices
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: had been coming from all along. The secret door revealed
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: a winding staircase leading down. I followed it, taking my
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: steps slowly and carefully, being as quiet as I could.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: As I drew closer to the hidden area of the basement,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: the voice became louder and could be heard more clearly.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: I hear 20. Do we have 25? 25. I see
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: you're 25. Do we have 30? Ah, very good, sir.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: You won't regret that. The gentleman has made it 40,000.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: Do we have 45? Good. 45. Do we have 50?
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: The auctioneer's voice was practiced, and I could tell he
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: had done this many times before. He was focused. so
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: intently on the screen that he didn't even see me
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: sneaking up on him with a hammer in my hand.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: It was the first item I'd seen on a desk
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: upon entering the room. 50,000! That's the highest bid of
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: the night. Very good, sir. We'll have her sent over immediately.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: His voice cut out as a wet, bone-crunching sound echoed
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: throughout the room. Panting, I dropped the bloody hammer to
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: the floor where it landed with a loud clomp. The
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: young woman was blindfolded and whimpering beside me. A camera
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: mounted on a tripod was pointed at her, surrounded by
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: stage lights. Her wrists were bound with duct tape, and
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: her skin was red and irritated around that area. I
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: untied her and took the blindfold off. You're safe, I said.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get you out of here. Thank you.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: the girl said in broken English, the look of gratitude
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: on her face unmistakable. On the enormous computer screens, a
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: dozen different windows containing shadowed faces suddenly began closing one
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: by one, the visages rapidly disappearing before I could register
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: who they were. But a few did look vaguely familiar,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: oligarchs and rich people I had seen on TV or
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: in magazines, perhaps. It was impossible to be certain from
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: such a brief glimpse. As I grabbed the girl's hand
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: to take her out of the basement... Another pair of
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: voices came from ahead. This time, there was no way out.
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: We were trapped. You have to do something about this heat,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: a woman's voice was saying. I'll show you what I mean.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: Raymond is getting older. He can't be working in these conditions.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: Did you adjust the thermostat? I did, but one of
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: your tenants kept changing it back. We're right beneath the furnace, Dragovic.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: If they turn the heat up by one degree, we
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: get blasted with hot air. It's impossible to work down
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: here since you monkeyed with the HVAC system the other day.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: I'll have a chat with the tenants, our landlord answered.
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: We'll lock out the thermostat too. That way they can't
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: play with it. Wait, what's this? Did you leave this open?
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: The two voices paused, and then a rustling sound of
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: movement came hurrying towards us. I backed away. holding the
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: girl's hand tightly. She squeezed mine back as Dragon entered
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: the room with a woman I didn't recognize. I did, however,
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: recognize her voice. It was the same one I had
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: heard coming through the vent from upstairs. Speaking of the devil,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: Dragon said, his tone darker and angrier than I'd ever
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: heard it before. He produced a pistol from his waist
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: at the back. I see you've been poking around where
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: you shouldn't have been looking. He turned to look at
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: the woman he was with. Get on the phone with
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: the clients. Tell them everything is secure. She nodded and
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: went over to a nearby landline. The phone was red
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: and old, like the one on the president's desk. And
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: let them know we have another item up for sale
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: on the auction block, Dragon said. A young man, tall,
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: with broad shoulders. He'll be a great worker. We'll start
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: the bidding at twenty thousand. Darkness is just setting on
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: the landscape as I drive up a winding road to
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: deliver a bunch of Thai food to someone in a
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: nice neighborhood. I have the two front windows down, enjoying
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: the cool night air. I've delivered up here many times before,
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: so I know the area pretty well. A lot of
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: the houses are propped on the hillside, overlooking the city below.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: Most of them are worth well over a million dollars,
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: which is why the two people walking down the road
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: catch my attention. Not only are the roads dangerous to
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: walk on because of all the turns, but there's no
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: sidewalk either. And I've never seen anyone on foot in
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: this neighborhood. Not unless it's someone checking the mail or
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: bringing their trash barrel up the driveway. My GPS tells
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: me that the house is just on the left, so
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: I slow down and swing in. The people, a man
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: and a woman, if I'm seeing right, are heading down
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: the road toward me. walking along the edge of a
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: wooded area between houses. I glance at them but don't
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: think much else of it as I bring the several
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: bags of food up to the house. The lady answers
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: the door and takes the stuff, smiling politely. I smile back,
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: telepathically telling her that she should give me a fat tip.
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: The whole thing takes about a minute. With that done,
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: I head back to my car, glancing around for the
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: man and woman. I don't see them. It's dark and
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: my back windows are tinted, so I don't notice anything
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: wrong until I sit in the driver's seat and see
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: a pair of crazed eyes staring at me in the
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: rear view mirror. I start to spin around in my
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: seat to verify that I'm not seeing things. But before
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: I can get all the way around, the man says,
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: turn around and face front. He sounds raspy and weak,
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: like he's on his last legs. But I do what
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: he says because he also sounds a little nuts. And
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: as soon as I look into the rear view mirror again,
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: I'm glad I listened to him, because he's holding a
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: big hunting knife up for me to see. Shifting my head,
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: I also see that the woman is in the backseat
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: as well. Our eyes meet. She looks petrified. I can
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: see her shaking in the mirror, and I can also
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: see that she's young. She's still in her teens. The
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: man leans forward, and I feel the blade press against
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: my neck, directly under my right ear. Drive, he says.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid talking will cause him to cut me. whether
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: intentionally or not, so I don't speak. Instead, I start
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: the car and reverse out of the driveway. We start
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: down the winding road. I drive slowly, afraid a bump
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: will open my neck up. After a moment, the guy says,
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: drive normal. I swallow and get up to the posted
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: speed limit. As we're getting to the bottom of the mountain,
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: I finally risk a question. Where do you want me
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: to take you? He's thinking about this as we approach
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: an intersection with a red light. Turn left, he says.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: I get into the left turn lane and look at
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: him in the mirror. Then I see something that makes
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: my eyes bulge. There's a cop car coming up behind us.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: The guy sees my eyes go wide and turns to
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: look over his shoulder, nicking me with the knife as
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: he does it. I wince, feeling the blood welling up
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: and dripping slowly down my neck. Just be f *
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: * * ing cool, the guy says, taking the knife
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: away from my neck and putting it up to the girls.
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: She yelps in fear. I'll slit her throat if you
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: do anything stupid. Then I'll jam this blade into your ear.
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: I'm fast enough to do it. I nod once, still
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: watching the cop. It's soon clear that the cruiser isn't
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: going to turn left, but that means it's going to
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: stay in the right lane, which means it will stop
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: directly beside us. The guy in the back seems to
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: realize this at the same time I do. Roll up
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: your window, he says. The right window. He's thinking about
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: the blood on my neck, if the cop sees it.
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: But it's too late now anyway. The cruiser is pulling
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: up next to us. It'll draw their attention if I
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: do it now, I say. Just don't f * *
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: * ing move, he whispers. I stare dead ahead, trying
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: to see if the cop is looking this way, using
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: only my peripheral vision. Don't you do it, pig, the
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: guy says in back. Don't you f * * *
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: ing do it. I can feel the blood sliding down
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: toward my shirt collar. I wonder if it's noticeable in
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: the backsplash from my dashboard. The smell in the car
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: is that of fear, sweat, and fresh urine. I think
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: the girl has let her bladder go. I don't blame her.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: I see movement out of the corner of my eye,
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: but stay perfectly still. Then the cop speaks. Hey, you're bleeding.
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: he says. Unsure what else to do, I turn my
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: head to tell him some bullshit story and how I
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: cut myself. But as I do, I hear the sound
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: of a sharp blade slicing through me. The girl's blood
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: splashes against my face as the guy opens her throat.
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: Knowing he aims to make good on his threat, I
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: throw myself against the steering wheel just as he moves
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: the blade toward me. I feel the tip of it
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: slice through my shirt and into my back, opening me up.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: As he pulls it back again to get ready for
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: another slice, I reach down with my left hand and
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: gank on the seat back release lever, throwing myself into
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: the seat back and sending it flying toward him. The
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: blade sinks into the seat back from the other side
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: as it comes down, but then the hilt is pressed
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: against his leg, making it impossible for him to get
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: it out again. The girl flails beside him, one hand
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: to her wound while the other reaches for the man's face.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: I realize she's trying to claw his eyes out. I
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: throw my car in park and then open the door,
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: launching myself out and landing halfway in the oncoming traffic lane.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: A car comes to a screeching halt about a foot
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: from running me over. Inside the car, the man screams.
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: The sound of a gunshot gets me to my feet again.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: I look over my car to see the cop standing
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: at my passenger side window. His gun pointed into the
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: vehicle at an angle. I lean down and look inside,
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: seeing the two dead people in my backseat, one of
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: them killed by a bullet, the other by a knife wound.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: It doesn't take the cops long to find out that
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: it was a kidnapping gone wrong. The girl was some
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: guy's rich daughter. The kidnapper was some strung-out addict whose
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: car wouldn't start after he broke into the girl's house
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: and forced her out at knife point. Me? I was
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: just a delivery driver in the wrong place at the
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: wrong time. Now I'm a delivery driver with over 40
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: stitches in his back and a massive car cleaning bill.
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: When you're young, death seems almost impossible. You laugh in
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: its face because that's the only thing you know how
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: to do. It's the only way the young can deal
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: with the inevitable truth we all must face. The truth that,
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: one day, will be nothing but a memory. This tendency
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: was what brought me and my friends to the Old Graveyard.
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: on the outskirts of our small Vermont town one crisp
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: fall evening. It was boredom mixed with that indefinable urge
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: to prove to each other that we didn't fear death.
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: It was the sure knowledge that we would find nothing
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: but silent gravestones and scattered leaves on the hallowed ground.
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: But I knew my friends well enough to know that
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: we were all looking forward to creeping each other out
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: just a little bit to pass the time. Jason, Samantha,
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: and I got out of the car outside the main
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: entrance to the graveyard. There was an old wooden church there,
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: which was still in use by a dozen or so
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: old-timers who lived outside of town. But as far as
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: I knew, the graveyard was no longer accepting new dead.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: The old black wrought iron fence surrounding the considerable lot
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: had probably been there for over 100 years. We moved
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: through the archway, joking and giggling like the teenagers we
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: were Clouds slowly passed the sliver of moon in the sky,
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: providing little light for us to see by. This was
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: in the time before cell phones, so we had no
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: convenient way to light our path. None of us had
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: thought to bring a flashlight. Indeed, it would have spoiled
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: the fun. So we had to wait as our eyes
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: adjusted to the dim surroundings. As we crested a rolling
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: hill among the tilted and fading gravestones, I heard a
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: distant giggle. As if from a child. I turned toward Jason,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: our resident prankster, and asked, How did you do that?
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: He smiled but shook his head. What? That giggle. I
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: heard it too, Samantha said in a spooky voice. I
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: don't think it was Jason. It was probably the Protectors
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: of the Dead. I scrunched my face up. Protectors of
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: the Dead? Is it ghost story time now? You haven't
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: heard the stories about this graveyard? Samantha asked, wide-eyed. I
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: thought that was the whole reason for coming here. You're kidding, right?
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: I asked. You know what she's talking about, Jason? My
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: friend nodded. Oh, sure. You gotta be careful out here.
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: Don't disturb anything. Like this. Jason moved to the nearest
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: gravestone and kicked it with the flat of his foot.
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: The thing tilted slightly, the ground around its base bulging.
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: Don't do that! Samantha said. I'm serious. They're real. My
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: grandma told me so. Just a bunch of old person nonsense,
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: Jason said. If you believe that stuff, you're... A dark
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: shape dotted toward us before disappearing behind a gravestone. I pointed.
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: What the hell was that? Just a cat or something,
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: Jason said, ever the macho man. That'd be the biggest
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: cat I've ever seen, I said. Maybe we should go.
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: Without a word, Jason stalked forward toward the gravestone behind
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: which the dark shape had disappeared. He moved fast, looking
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: behind it. Nothing here. He smiled and sat on top
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: of the gravestone, crossing his arms, looking smug. With his
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: weight on the old stone, it tilted, the grass at
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: its base bulging, much like the other one had. Only
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: this time, it wasn't just the gravestone that was moving
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: the ground. A hand-shaped smudge of darkness burst from the
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: ground and grabbed Jason by the ankle. Although it looked
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: like a constantly shifting formation of black smoke, it was
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: clearly real enough to touch him. Jason shouted and stood
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: up to run, but the hand held fast. Help me!
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: He screamed. Dark, child-sized figures appeared all around us, rushing
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: forward with glowing yellow eyes and hungry mouths with bright
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: white teeth. They converged on Jason, who was now screaming
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: in pain. Some of them grabbed hold of his arms
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: and legs, while others plunged their shimmering dark hands into
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: his chest and his head, as if his skin and
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: bone were no more a barrier than the chilly night air.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: I moved forward to help my friend, but Samantha grabbed
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: my arm. I looked back at her, and she shook
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: her head, wide, frightened eyes pleading with me. Yanking my
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: arm from her grasp, I moved toward my screaming friend
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: and went to grab one of the strange, childlike creatures.
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: As soon as my fingers touched the smoky skin, a
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: shotgun blast of visions hit me. I experienced the death
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: of every single person buried in that graveyard as if
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: it were my own. I found myself screaming in pain
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: on a Civil War battlefield as a surgeon sawed my
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: leg off just before darkness took me. I was an
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: old woman, alone in my house, when a tremendous pain
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: gripped me by the chest. My breathing suddenly stopped as
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: I fell to the floor, gripped by panic for the
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: final moments of my life. I was shot, stabbed, and
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: trampled by horses. I died on a battlefield somewhere in
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: Europe when poison gas rolled toward the American trench and
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: I couldn't find my gas mask. I took my own
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: life half a dozen times and I died in my
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: sleep a dozen more. I was riddled with disease and
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: consumed by cancer. And once, as a black man, I
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: was hung from a tree by a mob of white
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: people for some imagined insult. And I could do nothing
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: to stop any of it. Nothing at all. just as
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: I knew I could do nothing to stop my own
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: eventual demise. The only deaths I did not experience were
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: those of the children buried in the graveyard, because their
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: spirits were otherwise occupied. They were the protectors of the dead.
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: Gasping for air, I found myself on the ground in
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: the graveyard. Samantha was trying to pull me up, to
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: get me away from the furious assault still happening to
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: chase a mere feet away. Scrambling, I ran away with Samantha,
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: only slowing to vomit along the way. Samantha drove to
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: her grandmother's house, waking the old woman up and telling
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: her what had happened. Take me there at once, the
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: woman said, still in her nightgown. I was there for
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: all this, but I was still reliving all those deaths
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: I had experienced. The swirl of emotions inside overwhelming my
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: adolescent mind. When we returned to the graveyard, Samantha and
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: her grandmother found Jason wandering among the gravestones with a
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: blank look on his face. Jason never was the same
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: after that. The doctors couldn't figure out what had happened,
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: and Samantha's grandmother told us not to tell what we'd seen.
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: She said we'd be social outcasts if we told the truth.
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: So we did as she said. Jason eventually came around
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: after many years. He was able to get a job
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: and support himself, but he always had that blank look
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: in his eyes, and he barely said a word to
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: anyone unless he had to. If I experienced what I
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: did from only touching one of those things, I can't
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: imagine what Jason went through. As for me, I still
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: dream about all those deaths I experienced, but for all
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: the fear and terror and dread, I think it's made
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: me a better man. Because I know there's no stopping death.
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: I've seen what it's like. I felt its icy grip
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: on my heart. But a funny thing happened many years
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: after that night. I realized I was no longer afraid
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: of death. I accepted it. I respected it. And it
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: freed me to live the life that very few people
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: get to live. A life of constant gratitude and awe.
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: A life I know will most likely come to an
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: unpleasant end, and that's okay. I can't do this no more,
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: the man shouted. I heard him clearly through the closed
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: office door as I sat in the waiting area outside.
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: The woman who answered wasn't loud enough for me to
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: hear her words. She spoke in low, soothing tones. I can't.
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: You'll finish out your shift, or I will deny your unemployment,
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: the woman shouted. There was the clatter of a chair,
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: and then the door flew open. A man with flaky
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: skin on his face and arms stormed out, moving past
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: me without a glance. His haunted eyes seemed lost in
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: their own turmoil. He moved down the hall and around
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: the corner, out of my vision. A moment later, a
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: plump and pleasant-looking woman appeared in the office doorway and
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: smiled at me.' Sorry about that, Mr. Harris,' I'm afraid
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: our current maintenance worker is having a bit of trouble. Please,
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: come in. It's no problem, I said, grabbing the folder
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: with all my personal information in it. I spent the
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: next two hours filling out paperwork and letting Mrs. Cooper
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: copy my license and social security card and all the
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: other legally required stuff for employment. By the time we
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: stepped outside, the sun was beyond the western horizons. leaving
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: only dying light to illuminate the sprawling graveyard. Mrs. Cooper
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: radioed the maintenance man I'd seen storming out of the office.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: She said his name was Barnes. She wanted him to
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: show me around before he left. But after three tries
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: to alert him over the radio, she threw her hands up.
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe he actually left already, she said. If you don't
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: mind me asking, what's wrong with him? Mrs. Cooper flapped
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: a hand. Oh. He says he's been having nightmares about
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: dead people. He's only been working here for two years,
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: but for the last few months, he's been struggling. I'm
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: sure you saw his skin. Well, that's new too. Apparently,
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: his doctor says it's stress-related. I guess some people just
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: aren't cut out for this kind of work. I nodded,
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: feeling sorry for the guy. But you've been in this
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: business for a while now, right? Mrs. Cooper asked. Four years?
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: I nodded. That's right. Good. So if I leave you
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: to look around, you shouldn't have too much trouble getting
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: the lay of the land, right? I have some paperwork
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: I need to do before I call it a day.
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: I think I'll manage, I said. Great. Mrs. Cooper produced
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: a key ring from her pocket and handed it to me.
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: If you walk that way, you'll see the maintenance building
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: just over that hill. You can get in the truck
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: and drive around if you like. Sounds good. I said,
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: taking the keys. We parted ways, Mrs. Cooper going back
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: inside and me heading the way she pointed. As I
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: walked along, I saw a backhoe parked next to a
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: couple of dug-up graves. Dirt was piled haphazardly on another grave.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: This wasn't the way things were supposed to be done.
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: The dirt was supposed to be put into a truck
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: and moved out of sight until the ceremony was over.
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: But as I got closer, I realized the dates on
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: both the dug-up graves were from years past. I approached warily,
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: looking into the first grave. The casket was open at
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the hole, but there was no body
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: in it. Swallowing, I moved to the next grave and
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: saw the same thing. Telling myself there was some logical explanation,
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: I resumed my journey toward the maintenance building. I saw
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: the building just like she said, but the garage door
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: was open. and there was no truck parked inside. As
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: I got closer, I saw something on the ground in
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: the garage. It looked like a pile of skin flakes
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: mixed with a small amount of blood. Glancing around, I
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: looked for any sign of Barnes. There was no one around.
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: The place was as silent as any graveyard just after dusk,
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: preternaturally silent. I moved through the maintenance building, noting the
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: location of tools and bags of grass seeds and maintenance schedules.
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: There was one empty slot on the tool wall. I
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: didn't know what had been there, but I knew from
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: the empty space it was a tool with a long handle,
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: maybe an axe or a pickaxe. I stared at that
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: empty space for a long time, a bad feeling humming
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: through me. Finally, I headed back to the admin building
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: to tell Mrs. Cooper I was done looking around, at
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: least until I could find the truck. But as I
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: came over the low hill and brought the building into view,
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: I saw the maintenance truck parked in front of the building.
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: Its headlights were on and the driver's door was open.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: From behind the vehicle, I could see that someone was
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: sitting in the passenger seat. I wondered if it was Barnes,
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: waiting for me to come back so he could show
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: me the grounds. Picking up the pace, I moved up
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: the driver's side and glanced in, freezing as I saw
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: the decomposing corpse sitting in the passenger seat. Its dark
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: eye sockets stared accusingly at me. Then I saw the
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: blood on the steering wheel and the door handle. Without
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: thinking clearly, I ran into the building and straight to Mrs.
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: Cooper's office, coming to an abrupt stop in the doorway.
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: Barnes was standing next to the desk, breathing heavily and
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: holding a bloody pickaxe in his hands. The skin of
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: his arms and face had been rubbed raw. Rivulets of
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: blood streamed from the wounds, dripping here and there. There
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: was blood splashed on the walls, and I could see Mrs.
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: Cooper's feet sticking beyond the edge of the desk. The
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: rest of her was obscured by the furniture. From the
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: blood and the way those feet weren't moving, I had
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: a feeling she was dead. Barnes turned toward me, his
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: eyes fiery. He stalked over to me, pickaxe held before him.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: I found myself frozen with fear as the man came
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: toward me. My legs would not move. My arms were
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: stuck at my sides. My mind stuttered, failing me at
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: the time when I needed it most. Barnes raised the
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: pickaxe to strike me, and just before he swung it down,
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: the words came out of my mouth, seemingly out of nowhere.
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: You can go on home, I said in a voice
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: that was impossibly calm. I'll take care of the burial.
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: Barnes froze. Pickaxe held aloft, confusion swarming his face. You're done,
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: I said. I've got this. You don't have to do
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: it anymore. Barnes lowered the tool, the fire in his
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: eyes dying down to glowing embers. He stepped forward and
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: handed me the pickaxe. Then he nodded once and walked
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: past me. I watched him turn the corner and lost
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: him from sight. The police later found him at home,
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: watching television. One of the officers later told me that
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: he looked through the window and saw Barnes. The man
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: had tears streaming down his face even before he knew
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: the police were there. He just wanted to go away
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: from the dead. And I guess, in the end, he did.
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: Thanks for watching. Be sure to subscribe and smash that
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: like button to get notified every time I upload a
• 1:43:43
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• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: my animated horror stories right here.