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My Job Is Watching A Woman Trapped In A Room · INSPIRE STORY

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Creepcast. Today, we have this is. This is.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: This is a bit of a salty title, if I
• 0:17
  do say so much. But the only way I can
• 0:18
  say is it's a little salty that the story we're
• 0:22
  reading today is my job is watching a woman trapped
• 0:26
  in a room, which is Isaiah's Isaiah's day job.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, no no no. All I'll say is
• 0:35
  A hunter was like, Hey, the story we're reading today
• 0:39
  is my job is watching a woman trapped in a room.
• 0:43
  And I said, okay, okay, that's thanks for thanks for that.
• 0:51
  I can't wait to read it with you, my friend,
• 0:55
  on our show. So that's what we're doing now, right now,
• 0:58
  and I definitely I'm so happy about it.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: It has a very captivating title, and I'm curious to
• 1:06
  see what goes captivating captivating. Yes, it is. It was
• 1:11
  uploaded five years ago, so it's not one of the
• 1:14
  older ones. Little twenty nineteen story meme here by Veristall
• 1:20
  Vera Stall. So we will be putting links up to
• 1:24
  other stuff if we find out that this author has
• 1:25
  any other kinds of published work or any books that
• 1:29
  you can read, if you so choose, we'll make sure
• 1:31
  in link it below so you can go grab them.
• 1:33
  I do love seeing all the people, by the way,
• 1:35
  on the reddit, in online purchasing, like stolen tongues and
• 1:39
  pen Pal and all that stuff. It's really cool to
• 1:41
  see people actually going out and getting the physical copies.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Said, I've had a ton of people come up to
• 1:47
  me at shows and had me at the live shows
• 1:50
  and they've had me signed copies of pin Pal, stolen tongues,
• 1:57
  stuff like that. Like a bunch of people have like
• 1:59
  brought books from the show and uh, it's been cool
• 2:03
  enough to have my signature in them, which is really
• 2:05
  weird and definitely doesn't give me a complex about things.
• 2:09
  But it's cool that people are buying the books and
• 2:11
  end the stories and stuff. So that's awesome to see. Yeah,
• 2:14
  pen Pals especially, I've signed a bunch of pen Pals.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: It's the best one. What can I say, it's the
• 2:19
  best one. I'll say it. Hunting Hunty likes pin Pal
• 2:24
  the most.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: So I'm looking at Varistahl's reddit right now. He has
• 2:30
  a ton of stories, a lot a lot of stories. Yeah,
• 2:35
  he's got a bunch of stories that are like multi parts,
• 2:39
  and then he has a bunch of single part stories.
• 2:42
  I'm trying to see if I recognize him, the old
• 2:44
  mister horse hair. I feel like I've heard of that
• 2:47
  one before. Tickhead. No one believes I have a twin
• 2:53
  knife control. There's a bunch of these. There's so many
• 2:55
  stories these.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: Guys I have a twin. It's a pretty fun time,
• 2:58
  pretty well established. So if this, if this is good,
• 3:02
  then similar to last week's episode, this may be a
• 3:05
  honey hole, maybe a content farm for you and I,
• 3:08
  if you get what I mean.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I also like the term honey hole.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: You like the word honey hole, I do.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Is it two words or is it
• 3:16
  one word?
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: You never heard that before? Honey hole?
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I've never heard honey hole in my life.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: The heck, where is Kansas?
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: You said?
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: You said you said it last week too, and I
• 3:25
  was like, that's just that's diabolical, a honey hole. Look
• 3:28
  at honey hole.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: Well, no, not stop. I don't like the way you're
• 3:32
  phrasing it.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Right. He's talking about sweet stuff.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: It it is a place that has a lot of
• 3:40
  good stuff, like you can't harm it for good.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, without further ado, let's start reading. My job is
• 3:48
  watching a woman trapped in a room.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: This is a Now, hey, now that you're done talking
• 3:54
  about your job, can we get onto the story.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: This is a this is my job. This is from
• 4:01
  the perspective of me. So it's just I'm very excited
• 4:04
  for you all to be able to get a glimpse
• 4:06
  into my life and my job.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course. Uh so, before we get into it,
• 4:11
  thank you so much everyone for the support on everything.
• 4:13
  It means the world. Continue to like and watch and
• 4:16
  do stuff on Spotify and Apple. Again, I don't know
• 4:19
  what it means, but there is a number next to
• 4:21
  our name on the Spotify charts, and I want to
• 4:23
  see that number go up.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: So that's that's the biggest reason. I saw a guy today.
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: He was like, stop shilling Spotify.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: And I was like, I said, I DM them. I said, listen, here,
• 4:34
  you a little bitch, as I said, don't ever fucking
• 4:36
  comment on my show like that. No, I said, uh,
• 4:39
  you know.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Docs. Also, here's your address. The police are five minutes.
• 4:44
  I've told them you have a bomb and our threat.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I told I told the I called the cops
• 4:48
  and said that you have a bomb, you have a
• 4:49
  bomb attached your chest, and that you have a gun
• 4:52
  point at the back of your grandma's head and they're
• 4:53
  coming right now.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: No, the.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: But people, I we we like seeing we apparently it
• 5:00
  helps us when we're high up in the charts. So
• 5:01
  we do like to push that us. If you do
• 5:03
  want to help us, just give us a listen on
• 5:05
  Spotify and Apple and all this stuff. It just helps
• 5:07
  us out. So, without further ado, let's get into it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Yes, let's get into it. I will quickly mention Bearstall.
• 5:13
  It seems his real name is Brandon Faircloth, and he
• 5:15
  has a book published called Roadside Sarcophagus, which is a
• 5:19
  very fun title.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: With that title, can we get there on let's see it?
• 5:22
  Can we get that on Amazon? Roadside sarcast say, it
• 5:26
  looks like it's just available on Kindle.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: No, I see it on Amazon. It may just be
• 5:30
  a digital book.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah maybe, but it has four and a half stars,
• 5:34
  not a bad rating, not a bad bad rating.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Hopefully this story's cool, and if it is cool, you
• 5:38
  all check out his stuff. Brandon Faircloth fairweth So, without
• 5:44
  further ado, let's get into the story.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Let's get into the story.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: My job is watching a woman trapped in a room.
• 5:53
  Three years ago, I was looking at the local job
• 5:55
  classifieds online when one of the ads caught my eye,
• 5:59
  not because of what it said, but because it said
• 6:02
  so little best I remember. The ID just read job available,
• 6:07
  good pay, no benefits, discrete it required. It then listed
• 6:13
  an email address, and that was all. At the time,
• 6:16
  I was managing a music store, but I had already
• 6:19
  started here in rumors we would be shutting down within
• 6:21
  the next year, and the likelihood of a transfer to
• 6:23
  another store was slim. I'd been morosely looking at job
• 6:28
  listings for the last few days, but this was the
• 6:31
  first one that stood out, if only because I was
• 6:33
  bored and it was weird. So I sent an email.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, actually, do you see that it has the email here?
• 6:41
  What the emails actually listened windagoon at YouTube dot com.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Oh okay, yep, yeah, that's how emails work. I put
• 6:49
  I at YouTube dot com. When everyone knows when you
• 6:53
  make a YouTube account, you just go ahead and make
• 6:55
  your domain YouTube dot com. It's true. Yeah, oh oh, oh,
• 6:58
  what's this?
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Hold on?
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: Hold on? We yeah, we have the name of the
• 7:00
  woman who's trapped in a room. It is Hunter Handcock.
• 7:04
  And this isn't that strange?
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: That's a weird Winter Handcock's horror mother right at gmail
• 7:08
  dot com.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Every time I'm at a level, you're like five levels
• 7:14
  past me and not in a good way. That's not
• 7:19
  you should be worried.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Mom. Why is your email on this website?
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: She's like, it's called LinkedIn.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Your entire this story is about you, but there's no
• 7:30
  job and you just trap your mom in a room
• 7:32
  for no reason.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Paint butter saying, which is all for the rest of
• 7:35
  your life?
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: Is there some kind of thing between you and your mom?
• 7:40
  Because last episode you were like burning hell you old
• 7:44
  goat or whatever? Like, is there something you want to
• 7:47
  talk about?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Or you know what, dud Me and my mom we
• 7:51
  just have a silly relationship. Is that what they call it?
• 7:54
  I think that's what they refer to it. Is it
• 7:55
  as yes?
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: Okay? All right? Half an hour later I had a
• 7:59
  response telling me to go to a particular office building
• 8:02
  in an upscale part of the city at a precise
• 8:04
  time for my screening. I went, and after waiting for
• 8:08
  a few minutes in the lobby, I was taken into
• 8:10
  an office where I was given a series of forms
• 8:12
  and questionnaires to fill out. They collected them and told
• 8:16
  me they would be in touch. I'd almost forgotten about
• 8:19
  the whole thing until a month later I got a
• 8:21
  call saying I had moved on to the second stage
• 8:23
  of the hiring process. I was again given an address
• 8:27
  and time, and when I arrived, this time it was
• 8:30
  a different nice office part twenty miles away from the
• 8:33
  first one. I was met by a man who introduced
• 8:35
  himself as mister Solomon. That's a don't trust that guy.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Gosh, yeah, what am I think?
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Solomon Grundy?
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Born on a Monday, married on Yeah. He
• 8:49
  escorted me into a large room that contained a chair
• 8:52
  and a desk. On the desk were two large green monitors,
• 8:56
  a keyboard and a mouse, and a bolted down metal
• 8:59
  box with two oversize buttons on it, one red and
• 9:03
  one green. He told me this room was a model
• 9:05
  for the place I would be working if I took
• 9:07
  the job. He described the job as follows. I would
• 9:11
  be working seven shifts of six hours every week. My
• 9:16
  job would be simple. I would arrive at work ten
• 9:19
  minutes early and enter an outer area that was like
• 9:22
  a locker room. I would have my own personal locker.
• 9:25
  I'd store all my belongings in the locker and change
• 9:28
  into the provided work clothes. I was never under any
• 9:32
  circumstances to carry any item of my own into the
• 9:35
  surveillance room. I was never under any circumstances to take
• 9:39
  any item with me from the surveillance room. As for
• 9:43
  what I was to do in the surveillance room, I
• 9:45
  was told that the monitor on the left would constantly
• 9:47
  show a live stream of a high definition camera in
• 9:50
  a remote location. My job was simply to watch the camera.
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  Once an hour, I would get onto the computer attached
• 9:59
  to the right monitor under a brief log describing anything
• 10:01
  interesting that occurred in the last hour. I would have
• 10:04
  no pins or pencils or paper, and I should never
• 10:08
  try to take any kind of written notes about the work.
• 10:12
  As for the red and green buttons, the red button
• 10:14
  was only to be used if there was an emergency.
• 10:17
  This meant something on the video or in my workspace
• 10:19
  that required outside help. The green button was to be
• 10:22
  hit if I saw something on the video feed that
• 10:25
  was particularly noteworthy. It would tell other people somewhere that,
• 10:30
  at least in my opinion, something interesting was going on.
• 10:34
  Salmon stressed that while I was given discretion on when
• 10:37
  to use this button, I should err on the side
• 10:40
  of only using it if and when something of real
• 10:43
  significance occurred. He pointed out the camera on the ceiling
• 10:48
  of the room we were in. He said the real
• 10:50
  room would be the same, My work would be observed,
• 10:53
  and other people were watching the room on the video
• 10:56
  feed as well. He said, I was only a redundancy
• 10:59
  in case other systems failed. He then smirked an asked
• 11:02
  if I knew what he meant by redundancy. I nodded,
• 11:06
  trying not to show my irritation. I don't talk that
• 11:09
  good to people, so sometimes I think I'm dumb. That's okay,
• 11:13
  let him think that if he paid me good enough.
• 11:16
  The pay was very good, thirty five dollars an hour.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: These are two Samsung OLED computer monitors with two hundred
• 11:26
  and forty four refresh rate.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Do you know what that means? Son?
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Do you know what that means? He's like, yeah, And
• 11:31
  this is a creamy keyboard, so it sounds so refreshing
• 11:35
  to the ears. So you're gonna load up Apex Legends
• 11:38
  and you have two buttons.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: He's like, you're going to load up Apex Legends.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: And if this woman in this room moves it all
• 11:46
  you start one of the games and you don't stop
• 11:47
  playing until she sits back down. That would be a
• 11:51
  real horse story right there.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: That's that's seventy six grand a year. That's good money,
• 11:58
  not bad. Not had money to just set in a room.
• 12:01
  It's at work, but there are yeah no benefits, sure,
• 12:05
  but and it's monotonous or whatever, but it is way
• 12:09
  better than manual labor that has much worse pay. So
• 12:13
  soft hand, you got soft? Did I tell you? First
• 12:17
  time I ever met my wife's dad, I like, so
• 12:22
  we met in college. I go home with her for Christmas.
• 12:25
  I meet her dad, say hi, am Isaiah, nice to
• 12:26
  meet you, shake his hand, and he goes, you've got
• 12:29
  soft hands, BOYD.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Say thank you?
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I was like, I was confiding a story in you
• 12:35
  that I thought was funny to kind of like get
• 12:37
  it because like we're married now, so it's like, oh,
• 12:38
  it all turned out happy in the end. But then
• 12:40
  you bring it back to like my voice and me
• 12:42
  being like pathetic and stuff, and now it's funny.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: You know, I should say you should have just been
• 12:45
  like you should have been like, uh, yeah, I soft hands.
• 12:48
  Because I'm a coder. What do you do you work
• 12:50
  manual labor. Okay, so you're dumb. You're dummy. You should
• 12:53
  have said to.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Him, ye too, Yeah, that's what you say to your
• 12:57
  girlfriend's dad.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: And well, if he's trying to be an alpha, you
• 13:00
  have to be an alpha back. You have to say.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: Your girlfriend's father exactly.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Great. You puff out your chest, you say, you don't
• 13:06
  even realize the fucking wolf pack you just brought in
• 13:09
  on your buddy. As we say, I go to his ear,
• 13:11
  I go to his ear level. But I do just
• 13:14
  like that. You want to take this outside. You'll see
• 13:18
  how You'll see how soft these hands when they're fucking
• 13:20
  meeting your face, asshole. That's what you should have said.
• 13:23
  The very first time I met my dad, my uh
• 13:25
  my wife's dad. He got up and he shake my
• 13:28
  head and I said, sit back down. I said, sit
• 13:31
  back down, old man, let me get a look at you.
• 13:34
  That is what I said. I'm like, I scoffed that
• 13:36
  it did. Yeah, that'll do. So I said, I walked off.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: And did did you ever see him again? Or did
• 13:43
  you kidnap your wife? Or how did how did that work?
• 13:45
  Speaker 6: Oh?
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, we're really good buddies. Now he'd learned his place.
• 13:47
  He learned his place in the wolf pack. He's my pupple. Yeah,
• 13:54
  he's one of my pups.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: I cannot wait to meet your parents and in laws.
• 13:58
  I have so much to tell them.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, they're gonna be like, oh you mean they
• 14:02
  call them. They're like, you know, you mean Ezekiel because
• 14:04
  that's my dog name. They're like, what about dog name? Yeah,
• 14:07
  that's my pup name. It's my alpha Ezekiel. You better
• 14:17
  not catch me on a full moon, dude, until I gotta.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Say, I'm going to keep reading.
• 14:21
  Speaker 7: Now.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: This worried me. I was already thinking this was some
• 14:25
  kind of psychic experiment or secret government job, which I
• 14:28
  was okay with, but the kind of money to sit
• 14:31
  and watch a screen. My mom always told me that
• 14:34
  if something seems too good to be true, probably is,
• 14:37
  and this was seeming too good to be true. I
• 14:39
  asked if I was going to be doing anything illegal.
• 14:43
  Sal then laughed and said no. I asked if anyone
• 14:46
  was going to get hurt again, he sugar said no.
• 14:49
  He said the reason they were paying so much was
• 14:51
  because they need employees that were motivated to be professional
• 14:54
  and discreet. The work they were doing was important and
• 14:58
  for various reasons it couldn't be discuss If I took
• 15:01
  the job, I would have to sign papers promising I
• 15:03
  would never discuss my work there, or I could be
• 15:06
  sued or locked up. I'm only breaking that now because
• 15:10
  of everything that's happened. So I took the job, and
• 15:15
  because they wanted me to start straight right away, I
• 15:18
  had to quit the store with no notice. I felt
• 15:21
  bad about that, but I was excited about the new
• 15:23
  job too. It was a lot of money and seemed
• 15:26
  like easy enough work, if a bit boring. I was
• 15:29
  nervous that there was something more to it, but I
• 15:32
  told myself I would just have to see no point
• 15:35
  in chickening out and wasting a good chance because I
• 15:38
  let my imagination go crazy. I was given the location
• 15:41
  of the job itself, and when I went there, I
• 15:43
  was amazed that it really was just like the model
• 15:46
  room I had been shown, with only a few differences.
• 15:49
  There was a locker room you had to pass through
• 15:51
  to enter the surveillance room, and there was a small
• 15:53
  bathroom attached to the real surveillance room. Also, the real
• 15:56
  room had a small water cooler in the corner. But
• 15:59
  because I wasn't allowed to bring anything in with me.
• 16:02
  I had to eat before or after every shift. The
• 16:05
  biggest difference, of course, was the monitors were turned on.
• 16:11
  The right monitor was just a black and white terminal
• 16:13
  like you see in movie. Sometimes I could type in
• 16:16
  my logs, but no internet to look at anything. Wait,
• 16:20
  no internet to look at or anything like that. The
• 16:23
  left monitor, well, it was a video from a room.
• 16:28
  You call it a bedroom, I guess, because it had
• 16:30
  a bed in it, but it had lots of other
• 16:32
  stuff too, a TV, a sofa and chairs, a couple
• 16:38
  of tables, and plenty of empty space in between. This
• 16:42
  camera must be high up in a corner, because I
• 16:44
  could see pretty much everything except for the far side
• 16:47
  of furniture. At first, though I did notice any of
• 16:51
  that stuff. All I saw was her. I have the
• 16:57
  story's getting good, but I have to mention where it
• 16:59
  said TV, a sofa, chairs.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I read that TV.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Has a ramp, and that was.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Like, there's a woman in Travis Prishtana doing backflips on
• 17:17
  a four wheeler in the room into a giant foam pit,
• 17:22
  and it was pretty awesome.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: It's like she she's like does a jump and he
• 17:26
  hits the green button and then they call in and
• 17:28
  they're like, only hit the button if she does a
• 17:30
  can can.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: I hit the green button and see there came out
• 17:33
  and started playing.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: All I saw was her. She looked to be a
• 17:41
  little older than me and was very pretty. When I
• 17:44
  first saw her, she was laying on her plates when
• 17:49
  I first when I first saw she was laying on
• 17:52
  her side on the sofa that was the part of
• 17:55
  the room farthest from the camera, but the picture was
• 17:58
  very clear and I could tell that she was sleep.
• 18:00
  I found myself leaning into the monitor more so I
• 18:03
  could see her better. And then I thought about what
• 18:06
  I was doing and felt embarrassed. It's like I was
• 18:08
  fine on her a peeping tom. My mom used to
• 18:11
  call it. I didn't want to be a peeping tom,
• 18:14
  but I didn't want to be silly either. I needed
• 18:16
  to think about it slow. It was a good job,
• 18:19
  and I wasn't doing anything wrong right. I wasn't hurting anybody.
• 18:24
  The woman looked fine, and the room was nice. She
• 18:28
  probably agreed to be there, and it's all some experiment
• 18:30
  or something. I was just overreacting, so I sat down
• 18:34
  in the chair and began my work.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Don't know about that one buddy.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Don't know about that one, dude, I'm probably just overreacting.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: This is a full dining room table set, the girl's
• 18:49
  sleeping in a locked up room, and I got big
• 18:52
  goofy cartoon buttons in front of me. This is fine. Well,
• 18:55
  I'm gonna be in such a weird negative nancy about
• 18:58
  all of this. Also, I want to say, too, just
• 19:00
  a little gripe so far bringing up his mom too much.
• 19:02
  My mom used to say this, well, okay, so.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: Yes, but he's mentioned it twice, and I have a
• 19:09
  feeling that the mother may come into the story later,
• 19:12
  which is reaction I agree? If not, I agree.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: What my gut reaction so far is. I think he's
• 19:18
  the experiment dude.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. The red button or the green button?
• 19:23
  For sure? That sounds very What's that one experiment where
• 19:27
  they like told the in real life where they told
• 19:30
  the participants to electrocute someone? Oh what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 19:37
  I forget the name of it, but basically it was like,
• 19:39
  how long will a person electrocute someone if a researcher
• 19:42
  tells him to? Yeah? I think it's Yeah, I think
• 19:45
  it's going to be a situation similar to that like,
• 19:47
  how long he'll let this go on? For?
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: That is my theory, And my theory is that, uh oh,
• 19:52
  our protagonist is the experiment. If I'm fucking right, y'o
• 19:56
  meet one hundred dollars.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: Okay here, and if you're wrong, you owe me five
• 20:02
  thousand dollars.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: That that that doesn't seem that doesn't seem equally fair.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: But that's I think it's a fifty to one on
• 20:09
  I think forty to one, four thousand dollars okay. It
• 20:13
  didn't take long before I understood more. The woman I
• 20:17
  took to calling her Rachel wasn't there of her free will?
• 20:21
  I never saw her.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: What wait tie out? It didn't take long before I
• 20:26
  understood more. The woman I took to calling her Rachel
• 20:29
  wasn't there of her free will?
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: I didn't even process that because I'm so brain rauded.
• 20:36
  The moment he said Rachel, all I could think of
• 20:38
  was Rachel.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: From the dark, Rachel, Rachel.
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: Where are they going?
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Rachel?
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Rachel? Where is she? Like the next line, He's just like, well,
• 20:56
  the reason I'm stopping we need to stop because people
• 20:58
  want to start bitching you. I already know it.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: But the reason I want to stop. Is he's just like,
• 21:03
  grow up. I was just overreacting that.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Now make jam became my work. The next line, he
• 21:09
  didn't take on her should more the woman I took
• 21:12
  calling Rachel? Was it there for free will? Okay, so
• 21:16
  you weren't overreacting, you were you were being completely you. You
• 21:21
  are peeping Tom and you should.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Know also that the house psychopathic is that I took
• 21:28
  to calling her Rachel. That's thought her name.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: You just made it like Rachel.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the way she peed and farted in the polls
• 21:35
  porcelain bowl.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Maybe okay, maybe this guy is like a Lenny from
• 21:41
  of Mice and Men type because he says earlier, I
• 21:44
  don't talk real good, right, although talk real good? Yeah,
• 21:48
  And now he's like, oh, well I call her Rachel.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: I took to callin her Rachel.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe he's like a bit slow. And that's why.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: I'm not a he's not like, I'm not going to
• 22:01
  speculate on this man being slow.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Not why.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: When we're not even through part on.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: I'm just saying I'm going to speculated on his mom
• 22:15
  coming in the story. I'll speculate that he does. Okay,
• 22:17
  I'm saying that's the one saving grace he could have
• 22:20
  if he's not mentally capable of recognizing how wrong this is.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: What mister hawkings.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: I hear your theories, my friend, I hear your theories.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: All right, Okay, I never saw her hurt, but it
• 22:38
  was clear that she never left that room except to
• 22:40
  go into what I think as a bathroom area that
• 22:43
  my camera couldn't see. Well, she never left the room
• 22:46
  on her own. Periodically, usually a couple of times a
• 22:50
  week during my shifts, men and women in strange looking
• 22:53
  outfits would come in and take her from the room.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: So he's like, that's kind of peculiar. It's a guy
• 23:02
  in a chunky cheese out But he says he can
• 23:05
  kind of have her go to her boom boom room again.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: What has gone on with that? Oh my god?
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: The next line, Oh my gosh, you're right about the
• 23:15
  deck line. Sometimes she would struggle, but usually she would
• 23:19
  just go along with her head hung low.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: What a job is going?
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: Okay, all right, I'm watching locking in.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: I'm watching this woman get periodically kidnapped in this trapped
• 23:31
  room every day. It's like, oh, that's kind of funny.
• 23:34
  That's a little weird.
• 23:35
  Speaker 7: Yeah, a guy dressed up like Chuck E Cheese and
• 23:38
  a guy dressed up like market player would come in
• 23:40
  and take her off, and sometimes she looked pretty bum
• 23:42
  about it.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: They would always bring her back. That's very so funny.
• 23:49
  Well she wouldn't stay God, they would bring.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Her back and she came back as fine.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we watched she got she would sleep on the couch.
• 23:56
  What you want me to do? Tell him to stop?
• 23:58
  Oh great idea? Why did I thing of that?
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: Though?
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: The times when she wasn't brought back during by shift
• 24:04
  were always the worst for me. I would worry about
• 24:09
  her until I got to work the next day and
• 24:11
  saw her in the room watching TV or painting. She
• 24:14
  never looked hurt or even that upset except for when
• 24:17
  they took her, and even when she fought, they were
• 24:20
  always gentle with her. I doubt that. Uh still I
• 24:25
  knew something. Okay, hold on, all right, I'm being a
• 24:27
  bit too goofy of the story early on. I'm trying
• 24:29
  to walk if Yeah, yeah, let's look in what if
• 24:33
  this is maybe someone who like, let's think of a
• 24:36
  real world scenario. What if he's watching like a mental
• 24:38
  health facility? Right, maybe this is someone who like has
• 24:42
  harmed himself or something. So it's like a wellness thing
• 24:45
  and he's just watching to make sure she doesn't hurt
• 24:47
  herself or something like that.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Then that could be, you know, right, may probably Yeah,
• 24:54
  I'm trying to. I'm trying to. I'm still in there.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: The impression that he I'm gonna wait till they'm finished
• 25:00
  party speculated. Still, I knew something was wrong. I consider
• 25:06
  quitting the job, or hitting the red button.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: And getting someone to come so I could get some answers,
• 25:11
  or calling the police and showing them what the camera
• 25:13
  was showing me. Except I was scared, scared of losing
• 25:17
  my job and scared of what these people might do
• 25:20
  to me if I quit or told on them. Solomon
• 25:23
  had told me when I took the job the part
• 25:25
  of being discreet was not asking questions. I would never
• 25:28
  be asked to do more than I had already been told.
• 25:31
  But I can never tell anyone what I did or saw,
• 25:35
  and I could never ask questions about what I was
• 25:37
  doing or why, so I made excuses. It was all
• 25:42
  on experiment. She was crazy or sick and they were
• 25:44
  trying to help her.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: She was doing a.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Job just like I was, or if she really was
• 25:50
  a prisoner somewhere at least. I was watching to make
• 25:52
  sure that she was okay. If they ever tried to
• 25:56
  hurt her, or I saw that she really didn't want
• 25:59
  to be there for sure, I could get help. Then,
• 26:02
  in a way, I told myself I was helping to
• 26:06
  protect her by watching. I don't expect you to think
• 26:10
  much of my excuses. I don't think much of them myself,
• 26:14
  especially now. But in my defense, when things changed, I
• 26:19
  didn't ignore it or try to explain it away. I
• 26:22
  knew something had to be done. I uh, yeah, I can.
• 26:26
  I can believe this so far, like the level of
• 26:28
  what he's seeing that you could rationalize it in your head.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Bruh, thirty five dollars an hour. First off, here's here's
• 26:35
  the thing. Thirty five dollars an hour. Okay, no internet
• 26:38
  in that room. I'm just watching this chick paint and
• 26:42
  go take a shit for six hours, seven days a week.
• 26:46
  And then also, I mean like she's like fighting them sometimes.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's no way.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: This is also the moral after we're done with the pay, which,
• 26:55
  lets be clear, is the biggest part of it. The
• 26:57
  moral implications are also a problem.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: What I mean is like even for thirty five dollars
• 27:02
  an hour, and I feel like i'd beat they'd be
• 27:05
  hunting my dreams. I don't.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: I don't know how can an What about fifty dollars
• 27:11
  an hour?
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Well, we don't need to. We know what the price
• 27:14
  limit is. I won't. I won't. You're not going to
• 27:16
  find out what I would be paid to do such
• 27:18
  said work.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: But I would. I would be against it.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I would be against this, and I don't have a
• 27:24
  lot of respect for our protagonist. I'll say that much.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: One thousand dollars an hour. No, I literally don't believe you.
• 27:35
  Rachel would usually paint for an hour or two every day,
• 27:38
  and it seemed to always be during my afternoon shifts.
• 27:41
  The room had no windows as far as I could tell,
• 27:44
  but I guess she either used to clock or her
• 27:46
  own body's time to keep to a kind of schedule.
• 27:49
  I always like to watch her paint. The thing she
• 27:52
  was painting was always facing the wrong way for me
• 27:54
  to see it, but I could see her face as
• 27:56
  she worked. She always looked peaceful and happy when she
• 27:59
  was paying and seeing her that way, smiling serenely from
• 28:03
  time to time as she got something. The way she
• 28:06
  wanted it. It always made my day.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: She is totally gonna paint something like help me.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, it's gonna be like a bloody face
• 28:14
  or something like that, or like.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: That's whenever she told me her name was Jeff red
• 28:21
  Red Red, Red Red Bred.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Where's the kill agent? Where do I fill the chamber
• 28:26
  with nerve gas? Goad?
• 28:34
  Speaker 7: I guess I'm just a little cuckoo for cocoa puffs, just.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: Like the lady just looks at you who's watching, and
• 28:40
  it's like, oh, what if I'm painting Jeff? What if
• 28:43
  it's chef? Uh? What you think I forgot? You think
• 28:49
  I forgot about Jeff. I'm just waiting. I don't even
• 28:54
  remember where we were at there, Okay. I first noticed
• 28:57
  something was wrong when she started painting more frequently a
• 29:00
  few weeks ago. Her expression was more focused and serious,
• 29:04
  and there was attention to her movements that I wasn't
• 29:06
  used to seeing. At first, I thought she was just
• 29:09
  really trying to work out on something, and I wanted
• 29:12
  to tell her not to worry. Every few weeks the
• 29:15
  others would come in and take the old paintings out anyway,
• 29:17
  bringing in a new stack of I think the word
• 29:20
  is canvas. Okay, I have to be right about my theory.
• 29:25
  Maybe not slow, but uneducated, right, there's too much infamous. Yeah,
• 29:29
  there's too much emphasis given to like well Mama used
• 29:32
  to say, and I think the word is canvas instead.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: They're building their building here to be naive as what
• 29:37
  they're doing.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: Yes, correct, correct, Yeah, but maybe maybe slow is the
• 29:40
  wrong word for it. But definitely unaware.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: But it was more than her being focused. Something was wrong.
• 29:49
  She didn't look happy, and she was going for hours
• 29:52
  at a time. In the span of three days, she
• 29:54
  had finished four paintings. I had been growing more and
• 29:58
  more worried watching her work, and when she finished the
• 30:01
  fourth found myself telling her to just stop and rest
• 30:04
  a while. I had grown accustomed to talking to the monitor,
• 30:08
  talking to her in my own way, but she didn't stop. Instead,
• 30:13
  she began moving the paintings, arranging them on the back
• 30:16
  and seat of the long sofa at the far end
• 30:18
  of the room. This was the first time I had
• 30:20
  gotten to see any of the paintings. Even when the
• 30:23
  others were taking them out, they always seemed to be
• 30:26
  turned away from the camera. I was still worried about her,
• 30:29
  but I was also happy to finally see what she
• 30:32
  had worked on, happy in a maze. They were beautiful.
• 30:37
  One was a beautiful green forest, another was an old
• 30:41
  stone well. A third was a house sitting alone on
• 30:45
  a small island. The last was an old fashioned looking
• 30:49
  movie theater. All of them looked like something out of
• 30:51
  a dream, with trailing lines of color mixing in the
• 30:54
  air around them, like leaves caught in the wind. It
• 30:58
  was only when I looked close and I realized the
• 31:00
  lines of color weren't random. They were words, easy to
• 31:05
  miss if you weren't looking close, and by themselves, they
• 31:08
  didn't seem to mean much, just a ghost of a
• 31:11
  word somewhere in each of the paintings, easy to lose,
• 31:14
  and everything else of its being shown. I leaned into
• 31:17
  the monitor and squinted, trying to read the words. Then
• 31:21
  my heart started thudding as I made them out, blinking
• 31:24
  and rubbing my eyes. I looked again, reading them out
• 31:27
  loud in order, left to right, top pair, then bottom.
• 31:33
  Please help me, Thomas, push back from the monitor, my
• 31:39
  hand over my mouth. I didn't know what to do.
• 31:42
  I didn't know how any of this could be happening.
• 31:45
  It wasn't just she was asking for help. That that
• 31:47
  was a big part of it. It was that my
• 31:50
  name is Thomas. Ah, that's a fun Okay, that's a
• 31:54
  fun end to part one. I like that.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Mah, shut up.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Well what do you mean, man?
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm not I'm not totally bought in yet.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: Dude, hate fun.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: I don't hate fun. I don't hate fun. I just
• 32:10
  I'm I feel like it's the if. He feels like
• 32:13
  he's a part. He's the experiment.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: What is actually kind of remind me a little bit
• 32:16
  of is uh that movie x Makia.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: I like the idea. I think it's got legs. I'm
• 32:21
  certainly there conceptually. I want to see where he takes it.
• 32:24
  Now that he's laid out the puzzle.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Pieces, I'm I'm walking in. I will say. The only
• 32:29
  thing is, uh, dude creeps me out. He's a weirdo.
• 32:33
  Don't like him. I'm I'm hoping he's next part.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: I think he's just kind of dumb. That's my He's
• 32:40
  having conversations with the monitor.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: He's like, it's a beautiful painting, Rachel.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: Haven't we I'm having a conversation with my monitor right now.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, But you're you're taught. You you're talking to somebody,
• 32:50
  you're having a conversation. Am I'm sitting in a quiet room,
• 32:53
  proven right.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: Now, head proved to me, you're real, proved to me.
• 32:57
  Any of this is real.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Sitting in a quiet room.
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: And he's just like, you're like very pretty today, Rachel.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: That's what I do to you. That's why I do
• 33:05
  every time I watch a pop and meat video.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Well that's fine, and you know what, you text me
• 33:09
  about it and I say, keep going, buddy.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: So I said, I sat there and you're Rachel and
• 33:15
  like going, and I'm like, you're so funny. Hunter. I
• 33:20
  can't wait for us to talk together again. I can't
• 33:23
  wait again.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: I would say, oh my god, thank you.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: We're supposed to you. I get it. I get where
• 33:29
  Thomas is coming from.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: All right, So Part two, let's let's just die.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: I need to lock in.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: I need to get sucked in the story, dude, because
• 33:36
  a lot of the viewers do. They're like me. They
• 33:37
  they're they're getting sucked out. I can feel it.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: What can you grow up? Can you be an adult?
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: I am an adult. I'm seventy three years old.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: All right. Anyway, Yeah, Part two two.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Wait, I want to think today's sponsor suck doc. I
• 33:52
  am an old, I am decrepit and die am.
• 33:56
  Speaker 8: Dying, and I'm probably in need of desperate medical attention.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: I help, I need help my foot.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: I got bad diabetes. I got bad diabetes. It makes
• 34:08
  my leg get all swollen and I can't feel nothing.
• 34:11
  All the nerve endings are dead because of all of
• 34:13
  my eating habits. As I take a swig in my
• 34:15
  Baja blast, I can't stop.
• 34:19
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• 34:22
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• 34:55
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• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you zuck doc for sponsoring this episode.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: At back to the episode.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: I thought about the camera above me and took my
• 35:32
  hand away from my face, rolled back to the desk
• 35:35
  and sat there trying to stop from shaking, trying to
• 35:37
  make myself take a breath, think about it slow. The
• 35:40
  first thing was should I hit a button? Yeah, the
• 35:44
  red button was for an emergency. If she was a
• 35:47
  prisoner or something she was trying to escape, they might
• 35:50
  think that was an emergency, but no one had been
• 35:53
  hurt that I knew of. And I think mister Salmon
• 35:56
  met save that for something that was like a pull
• 36:00
  east or ambulance emergency, not something like this. What about
• 36:04
  the green button? This was definitely something noteworthy, not only
• 36:09
  that she was asking for help, but that she was
• 36:11
  asking me for help. I made myself stop for a moment.
• 36:16
  I couldn't know for sure what she was asking me.
• 36:19
  I had gone to school with several boys named Thomas.
• 36:22
  It was a common name. God, yeah, bro, I'm sure, well.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: It could be.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: It's probably a coincidence.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: I don't say. Hold on, let me call mom.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Oh guys, second, baba, my mom said that Thomas Thomas.
• 36:37
  If a girl says Dave Thomas, if I get she's
• 36:39
  an angel.
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: I think I watched it an angel, But the chances
• 36:48
  of her painting that name when I was working here,
• 36:51
  I didn't want to be silly, but I wasn't trying
• 36:53
  to be too. What's that word? Mom used to say? Okay,
• 36:58
  oh god, no, Mom used to say it when she
• 37:01
  read her angel books.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Whoa?
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: What the fuck?
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: Whoa?
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: That was actually not planned? And that is so fucking weird?
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: That is what whoa?
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: That was so yo?
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: That was wild?
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: You Okay, we made the joke.
• 37:16
  Speaker 7: Haha.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: Mom said it was an angel, and then the story says,
• 37:19
  quote Mom used to say it when she read her
• 37:22
  angel books skeptics. Yeah, that's so. I don't even think
• 37:27
  it was the same joke we were making. No, that's such.
• 37:30
  That's weird that it's Mom an angel in the same like,
• 37:32
  what are the okay whatever. I didn't want to be silly,
• 37:35
  but I wasn't trying to be too. What's the word
• 37:39
  Mom used to say it when she read her angel books, skeptics.
• 37:42
  I didn't want to be a skeptic either. I had
• 37:45
  to believe it was probably meant for me and that
• 37:48
  was something they would want to know. Okay, so he's
• 37:51
  definitely like not well off. We get that. Man, that
• 37:55
  was weird. That was so strange.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie that fucking me up a little bit.
• 37:58
  But I also I just want to say too that
• 38:02
  we're definitely getting like I'm kind of buying into the
• 38:05
  slow southern drawl that you're talking about him being simple,
• 38:08
  a simpleton, kind of simple.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: I mean Mom used to say it was she read
• 38:12
  her angel books.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I did it.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Won't be a skeptic either.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, maybe I should throw some more drawl into it,
• 38:20
  but yeah, yeah, you get the vibe that he's Uh,
• 38:23
  he's not that well off, which is why he's someone
• 38:25
  who can be manipulated by people around him. Yeah, yeah, there,
• 38:29
  But should I hit the green button? My hands were
• 38:32
  drifting towards the metal box on the desk, but I hesitated.
• 38:35
  I didn't like breaking rules, and I was scared of
• 38:38
  what would happen if I broke these If they really
• 38:41
  were holding her prisoner, they were probably very bad people,
• 38:46
  but I didn't know that. Maybe they were good and
• 38:49
  she was bad, but I just I looked back at
• 38:53
  the monitor for the first time since reading the words.
• 38:55
  Rachel was already moving the paintings back off the sofa,
• 38:58
  as though she knew the message had been eat canvas
• 39:01
  in each hand. She lamped up at the camera as
• 39:03
  she moved across the room, and it felt like she
• 39:05
  was looking right at me. My chest tightened as my
• 39:09
  hands moved away from the buttons. No, I didn't think
• 39:12
  she was bad. I watched her for years. Years.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: He's been on the job for years. At this point,
• 39:19
  I had watched her for years. When the fuck did
• 39:21
  that happen?
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: I thought this had been like a couple of weeks.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: I thought this was like a day, fucking one or two.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: Oh. I knew it was longer than that, because he
• 39:30
  was like, I only talk about now because of what
• 39:32
  happened after a while. But years I didn't realize it
• 39:35
  was that long, my word, I'd watched her for years.
• 39:40
  I felt like I knew her, would know if she
• 39:42
  was bad. Strange as it seemed, in a way, she
• 39:46
  was my friend and I was going to try and
• 39:48
  help her. Spent the rest of my shift trying to
• 39:52
  act normal and think of what to do. I knew
• 39:54
  whoever else was watching might have noticed the paintings or
• 39:57
  seen how I acted, but I couldn't worry about that.
• 40:00
  I would try to play it cool and try to
• 40:02
  think how I could help her. The only people I'd
• 40:05
  actually met connected to this job were a couple of
• 40:07
  people when I filled out the papers, and then mister
• 40:10
  Solomon when he showed me the model room and told
• 40:12
  me the job. I had no way of contacting any
• 40:15
  of them except through the buttons. My checks were deposited electronically,
• 40:19
  and I had never run into anyone else who worked
• 40:21
  at the surveillance room. The thought made me stop a second.
• 40:26
  I'd always thought it was weird that I never ran
• 40:28
  into someone when I was coming or going the person
• 40:32
  I was taking over for or the person who was
• 40:34
  taking over for me. I'd always figured there must be
• 40:38
  other people other surveillance rooms, even and they just scheduled
• 40:43
  us so we didn't run into each other, and I
• 40:45
  still thought there were others. Part of why I told
• 40:49
  that was because it seemed like I wasn't the only
• 40:52
  person who used my surveillance room. The water cooler, the toilet,
• 40:57
  the soap, It all seemed go down faster than I
• 41:01
  think I was using it by myself. If that was true,
• 41:06
  maybe I could figure out who they were, and maybe
• 41:09
  they would be safer to talk to than whoever it
• 41:11
  was that I worked for. I got off work at
• 41:15
  eight that night. Instead of grabbing some food and going home,
• 41:19
  I drove my car around the block and then part
• 41:21
  down the street from the building where I worked. Nothing
• 41:24
  had changed while I drove around for a minute, no
• 41:27
  new cars had parked or anything, and if I was right,
• 41:30
  they didn't send anyone to replace me until they were
• 41:32
  sure I was gone anyhow, so I sat and waited.
• 41:37
  I was for one. By the way, I really liked
• 41:39
  this idea, like the concept of you can't talk to
• 41:41
  the higher ups, you try to communicate with the people
• 41:45
  at the location, because you've noticed that, like supplies in
• 41:48
  the room are going down quicker than just you using it.
• 41:52
  What could be interesting if say, well, I don't I
• 41:56
  want Tom.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: I'll wait.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: I don't want to talk about stuff I would have
• 42:00
  I've done differently. While the story's still going on, I'll
• 42:02
  let the story run its course. I was tired and
• 42:05
  the street was pretty empty and boring, but I was
• 42:08
  too excited and scared to fall asleep. Every time a
• 42:11
  car passed or someone walked down the sidewalk, I tensed.
• 42:15
  I come of imagining an suv or van pulling up
• 42:17
  behind me, men getting out and pulling me from the car,
• 42:20
  taking me somewhere like where they had Rachel to kill
• 42:22
  or torture me. Half a dozen times, almost cranked up
• 42:25
  and drove away, but every time I would think of
• 42:27
  her a loan in that room. She had no one
• 42:30
  but me to help her, and I had to try.
• 42:34
  Two hours later, a fat, balding man parked started heading
• 42:37
  for the building. As soon as I saw he was
• 42:40
  able to unlock the door and enter, opened my car
• 42:43
  door to go talk to him. Then I stopped. I
• 42:46
  needed to be smart, I didn't know where they were,
• 42:50
  but I was sure they were hidden cameras in the
• 42:53
  locker room and outside the building. If I go running
• 42:56
  in there and confront that guy, I'll know for sure
• 42:59
  that I'm up to something. Signed with frustration, I shut
• 43:03
  the door back and waited until his shift was over.
• 43:05
  I considered tailing him like in the movies, but I
• 43:08
  was scared I would just lose them or he would
• 43:10
  call someone for help. So I waited until he was
• 43:13
  walking back to his car after a six hour shift,
• 43:16
  hopefully far enough away that the cameras wouldn't see that.
• 43:20
  I met the man I came to know as Charles Jeffries.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Hey, hey, man, can I talk to you for a minute.
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: His back was to me, and he just waved his
• 43:29
  hand absently without looking up.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: Sorry, I don't have any money.
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: Have a good he froze as he glanced back at
• 43:36
  me while talking.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: Oh God, no, no, you needn't get out of your kid.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: We aren't allowed to talk.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: I could tell he was scared, but I couldn't risk
• 43:47
  letting him go yet, not after all this. I stepped
• 43:50
  up and pushed the doorback shut as he was trying
• 43:52
  to get into the car.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: So you know who I am.
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: I tried to not sound mean, but I could hear
• 43:59
  how mad I was my voice. He yanked at the
• 44:03
  door again, but I was still holding it and I
• 44:05
  was stronger than he was. After a second weaker tug,
• 44:09
  he turned around, his face strained and tired, looking.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know who you are. You work here just
• 44:16
  like me, and I'm telling you we aren't supposed to
• 44:20
  be talking. We aren't supposed to.
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: Meet ever, I frowned.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: Mister Solomon never told me that. He never said it
• 44:30
  was one of the rules.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: Man shook his head.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: Mister Solomon, Yeah, well, there are plenty of rules they
• 44:38
  don't tell you. But they didn't tell you you were
• 44:40
  going to be watching before you started, did they.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: When I just lowered my eyes, he went on.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, me either. I've been at this job for ten years.
• 44:50
  I've seen other people come and go, usually because they
• 44:53
  broke one of the rules they never mentioned. The only
• 44:56
  reason I'm here is because I keep my head down
• 44:59
  and my mouth shut. You should do the same. If
• 45:03
  it's not already too late.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: I felt my stomach curling into a cold nod.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: Too late.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: The man rubbed his face again.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: Do you think they don't know we're talking. Do you
• 45:17
  think anything happens that they don't know about?
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: He looked back towards the building, look up sad as
• 45:22
  a fear in his eyes.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: Well, for all I know, you've already killed You've already
• 45:26
  killed us both. Start that fuck, For all I know,
• 45:31
  you've already killed both of us. I've already fucked it
• 45:35
  up again. For all I know, you've already killed us both.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Fuck, God, damn it. There. My eyes are so shit,
• 45:45
  I can't read anything.
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: Hunter's adapted the role of the aging bald man, so
• 45:54
  his eyes is glaucoma's.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: I need weed, lots of it.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: All right, keep going? And he stayed locked.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: In, shaking his head. He pushed me back and started
• 46:06
  opening the door.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: Either way, I'm done risking it. You don't need to
• 46:11
  stop asking questions and just do your job. It's a
• 46:14
  lot healthier.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: With that.
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: He got into his car and shut the door. I
• 46:19
  didn't try to stop him this time, even though I'd
• 46:22
  already been worried about what he was telling me. Hearing
• 46:25
  it confirmed was paralyzing. What exactly was my plan? He
• 46:30
  probably didn't know any more than I did, And even
• 46:32
  if he did, what can I do? With anything. He
• 46:34
  told me walk back to my car with a heavy heart.
• 46:38
  I'm still afraid, but more than that, I was sad
• 46:42
  and ashamed. I wanted to help Rachel, but I wasn't
• 46:46
  sure how. I wasn't giving up, but as I drove
• 46:50
  back to my apartment, I couldn't think of what I
• 46:53
  should do next. This wasn't a movie. I wasn't a hero,
• 46:58
  and the only ideas I had left were either go
• 47:00
  to the police, who might be controlled by whoever I
• 47:02
  worked for, or try to get proof of her being
• 47:04
  held prisoner myself. As I parked my car and walked
• 47:08
  into the apartment building, I made a decision. Unless I
• 47:12
  thought of something better overnight, I would do both ideas. Tomorrow.
• 47:17
  I would break the rule about carrying anything in I'd
• 47:20
  use my phone to record a video of the surveillance room,
• 47:23
  of Rachel and how she was trapped somewhere, and of
• 47:27
  me telling everything else. I knew that I would email
• 47:30
  it to every newspaper, website and internet channel I could
• 47:33
  think of. I then go to the police and give
• 47:36
  them a copy too. If I could make it that
• 47:38
  long without getting caught. Maybe if I did all that,
• 47:42
  even if they got me someone would help Rachel. I will.
• 47:46
  I will say this further backs my theory of him
• 47:49
  being dumb, because that's a very dumb plan.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: Very very dumb. You'd have to assume, too, if they're
• 47:54
  doing a public posting like that, that they that like
• 47:57
  the government somehow is involved, or like there's no way
• 47:59
  to do anything, like they're for sure. Yeah.
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I was filled with worry and dread at the
• 48:07
  idea of being herd or killed.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Pardon me.
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: Kept saying I should just do as I was told
• 48:12
  and hope that it all went away. But I couldn't
• 48:17
  live with myself if I did that, even if I
• 48:20
  messed up, I felt like I had to try. I
• 48:23
  was so preoccupied that I didn't hear the person coming
• 48:25
  up behind me as I unlocked my apartment door.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Pomise.
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: I turned around and felt my legs weaken as I
• 48:34
  stumbled back against my door. I had to be dreaming
• 48:37
  or crazy. I grabbed the door knobed for support as
• 48:40
  I looked at the woman in front of me. Couldn't
• 48:42
  be her, but somehow it was.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: Rachel.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: I'm interested in where it's going from here. I feel
• 48:51
  like they're.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: Gonna get a little bit more to the dynamic. The
• 48:54
  only problem is he just seems really dumb, like this
• 48:56
  idea seems dumb.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: The idea too is here's.
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: What He's not gonna na the idea anymore because obviously
• 49:01
  plans have changed.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: If she's right in front of the plans have changed
• 49:05
  somehow she's there. I still am like totally under the
• 49:07
  idea that this guy is in some kind of experiment.
• 49:10
  I don't know what it is exactly. I think even
• 49:12
  the interaction she had with the man in the parking lot,
• 49:16
  I think the guy was surprised because he's just like, fuck,
• 49:18
  we're not supposed to talk here. A part like he
• 49:20
  I think even he knows that he's a part of
• 49:22
  an experiment or something like that.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: I'm it was better than part one. I'm a little
• 49:29
  more intrigued, I will say that, but I'm still I'm
• 49:31
  still I don't know.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: I am going to make our protagonist though a dumb
• 49:35
  redneck guy though for now on so.
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: Okay, there's that's fine as as a redneck myself, I
• 49:42
  don't support the stereotype of redneck accents equating to dumbness,
• 49:46
  but I'm willing to accept that he is a dumb
• 49:48
  guy that is also a redneck.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, as long as that's you know, as long
• 49:52
  as we can put that on the docket and move
• 49:53
  it forward.
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: And yeah, yeah he got my got my my seal
• 49:57
  of approval on it.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: I mean all in also far, I'm like, this is
• 50:00
  like I'm I feel like I'm like a it feels
• 50:03
  like seven where it's like an electric current. I'm not
• 50:04
  trying to push myself for lilo it, but the current
• 50:06
  keeps getting broken.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: A little bit like us.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: I wanted. Okay, well, I'll say now what I was
• 50:12
  gonna say. I thought the way it was going is
• 50:15
  he's like, I can't talk to other people. I have
• 50:17
  to talk to whoever else is in this room. So
• 50:19
  I thought maybe like under the toilet seat or under
• 50:22
  the soap dispenser, he was going to leave a note. Yeah,
• 50:25
  like he was going to find a way. And then
• 50:27
  it's like I wait for my next shift and we're
• 50:30
  corresponding one sentence at a time about what's going on
• 50:33
  or what Rachel is or something like that. And I
• 50:36
  was hyped for that. That felt like it'd be pretty cool.
• 50:39
  But then he just like waits for the guy to
• 50:40
  come out part three.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: I'm curious Part three, we'll see how she even got out.
• 50:45
  The thing is, I'm like, it feels like almost like
• 50:46
  a Truman show thing.
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's where That's where I think he knows he's
• 50:53
  being watched. I think the point is how he reacts
• 50:56
  to all of this rather than Rachel. Right, I feel
• 51:02
  like I don't know. We'll see part three. She hesitated
• 51:06
  a moment before breaking into a smile.
• 51:09
  Speaker 5: Is that what you call me?
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: I like it?
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: My name is actually Melanie though.
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: Is that what you called me that you watched me
• 51:19
  through my.
• 51:21
  Speaker 9: Camera when I was trapped and I was shooting in
• 51:23
  a bull Yeah? I like it, But my name is
• 51:25
  actually Melanie though.
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: It's like, what who are you? Why are you reacting
• 51:29
  like that?
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: It's odd?
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I felt my face read a name. Of course,
• 51:34
  her name wasn't actually Rachel. That's just something I made
• 51:37
  up in my head. How you read that line?
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: It's just something I made up in my head, Well,
• 51:45
  because of my head.
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: It's like, if you, dear reader, will recall Rachel was
• 51:50
  the name that I made up, but in reality her
• 51:53
  name is likely not Rachel. Yeah, like, okay, all right,
• 51:59
  it's still my aritess was going to keep up with
• 52:02
  my confusion and joy.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: Is it really you?
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: She nodded, Yeah, it's me. I can tell. I can
• 52:13
  tell where you're at mentally with these stories based on cartoonish.
• 52:18
  I won't do it.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: I know people get upset about that too. I'll stop.
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: Well, it depends on the story, like if you go
• 52:23
  cartoonish on like Jeff the Killer or like something. Yeah, fine,
• 52:27
  but it depends.
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: Well, this is just getting so I'm like, I need
• 52:30
  it to I need it to do something for me quick.
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: It's getting that. It's getting a bit outlandish between like
• 52:34
  she shows up as that it's like they they have
• 52:37
  great ideas.
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: Bro, this is feeling so reminiscent of the thing in
• 52:41
  the basement thing.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you it's not there yet.
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: It's not there.
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, I'm saying it's reminiscent of it when we
• 52:47
  were like, oh, this is kind of an interesting idea
• 52:49
  and then all of a sudden, it just fucking hits
• 52:50
  you in the face with a brick.
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: Plus okay, plus this story it has like I was
• 52:59
  so hyped for the like, oh, there's someone else in
• 53:01
  this office with me. I need to communicate with him,
• 53:04
  and then it's like, I'll do that by talking to
• 53:06
  them like okay, well there was a cool concept. Then
• 53:08
  you kind of stepped over it.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: We'll see.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to really, I'm trying to read it all
• 53:12
  the way through, because people also bitch that we let's
• 53:16
  just keep going.
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: I don't care. It's hard. Start your own podcast about it.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: I get so mad at me.
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: Where was I there? We are okay, Rachel, Rachel. Melanie
• 53:31
  grunted as I stepped forward and started hugging her.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: What the fuck?
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: Whoa why didn't you do that?
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: What the fuck?
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: So he's just like he's like, oh, you've been stalking
• 53:42
  forever and you're like, oh uh, like okay, okay.
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, keep going,
• 53:46
  hold on.
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: He's a guy who has been worried about her safety
• 53:50
  and he has a parasocial relationship watching her through a
• 53:53
  screen much like several of you, if I had to say,
• 53:56
  and he like now sees that she's okay and he's
• 54:00
  relieved over it. Sure yep.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: So this is this is Isaiah saying, whenever you guys
• 54:04
  are on the tour or whenever we meet, just hug him,
• 54:07
  hug him with that permission.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, people.
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: People hug me at the shows all the time. It's fine.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: There you go, or even don you know what?
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: You know what, hug Hunter. Give him a big old
• 54:16
  bear hug. He'll love it. I'm not get all up
• 54:18
  in there all of it.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: I'm not doing it.
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: Absolutely do it laughing. She hugged me back for a moment,
• 54:27
  but then she whispered in my ear.
• 54:32
  Speaker 7: Thomas, we need to talk and not out here.
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: Can we go inside?
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: I didn't like how close you were to the mic
• 54:43
  and that like that was in my brain. Ear Thomas,
• 54:48
  stop stop. I hate it.
• 54:51
  Speaker 5: Stinks out in the way because I farted.
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: Oh god. She had Taiwanese food for the first.
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: Eight years, so much, so much.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: This is so gross.
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: What are you doing, Quinn? I can't stand it anymore.
• 55:15
  I can't take the show. Ah, I shut Can I
• 55:21
  read the story? Yeah, go ahead, your son, you can
• 55:24
  plain about sidetracking it and who you are talking about Taiwan.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was bad. That was bad. I know that.
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm played for five minutes about how I like.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: Before we get back to the show, I want to
• 55:40
  take a moment to think Today's sponsor Manscape, where precision,
• 55:43
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• 57:05
  I broke away and nodded, wiping up my eyes as
• 57:08
  I tried to finish shed locking the door with shaking hand.
• 57:12
  My heart was pounding, and I still felt like I
• 57:14
  was in a strange and wonderful dream. But when we
• 57:16
  had gotten inside and sat down in my living room sofa,
• 57:19
  I forced myself to focus on the biggest question I
• 57:22
  had hew. Melanie had still been smiling as we sat down,
• 57:28
  but now she looked worried and sad.
• 57:32
  Speaker 7: Thomas, That's what I'm here to tell you. Things aren't
• 57:37
  like you think they are.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: They never have been.
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: I need you to tone down the valley girl accent
• 57:45
  by like two notches. Okay, little man, because I could tell,
• 57:49
  I could tell I know you. I can tell that
• 57:52
  you are trying to drive this into the realm of parody,
• 57:56
  and we're not there yet.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, all right, I.
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: Frowned, a new light of fear cutting through my happy haze.
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: What do you mean?
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: She held the bridge of her nose for a moment,
• 58:08
  looking down like she was trying to figure out how
• 58:10
  to say whatever it was she had to say.
• 58:14
  Speaker 5: Thomas, you're part of a psychological experiment.
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: Okay, all right, you can bring back the Valley girl accent.
• 58:19
  Speaker 7: I pought of it for longer than you have, and
• 58:23
  longer than you have as one of the actors.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: And I still don't know all the details.
• 58:29
  Speaker 7: I'm pretty sure it's run by some government agency, and
• 58:33
  I know they're investigating there.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: I know they're investing.
• 58:36
  Speaker 7: Fuck, I know they're investing a lot of money and
• 58:39
  time into it.
• 58:40
  Speaker 5: But for what reasons that I'm not so sure.
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: Why would they choose Thomas? I guess that's probably the mystery, now,
• 58:46
  Why him?
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: But still I know, I fucking I can't fucking read
• 58:52
  for shit.
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: God damn it, dude, I'm so fucking mad about this
• 58:55
  so much.
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: You said that was like it was in character, Like
• 59:00
  she got stumbled and like transformed into a grown man
• 59:04
  for a second and then went back.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I need to take some kind of class to
• 59:10
  help with us. This is fucked.
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: I realized I was wringing my hands. No, that wasn't right,
• 59:18
  couldn't be right. This is some kind of trick. Melanie
• 59:22
  went on.
• 59:23
  Speaker 7: What I do know is that you're being watched as
• 59:26
  a long term subject. They have constructed this whole scenario
• 59:30
  where you do a secret job watching someone me who
• 59:34
  looks like they might be trapped. They give you instructions
• 59:38
  in a way of making choices. You've got You've got
• 59:41
  buttons or something you can choose between.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: Anodded weakly, my tongue thick in my throat.
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a red one and a green one.
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: She sighed and nodded.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 7: I think they're testing how much he'll obey, what choices
• 1:00:05
  you'll make based off your morals, your intelligence, and your fear.
• 1:00:10
  It's interesting, or at least I thought so when I
• 1:00:13
  first joined up six years ago. They've never officially given
• 1:00:17
  me any details, just the overall gist that people talk.
• 1:00:22
  The other actors and me sometimes we hear things and
• 1:00:26
  we gossip. That's what caused me to start feeling bad.
• 1:00:34
  I started feeling really bad. Six years in.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: I knew we were like, I knew we were psychologically
• 1:00:44
  torturing you for this while. But after six years it
• 1:00:47
  was kind of bad.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 7: Me and the actors got together and it started getting
• 1:00:51
  kind of depressing.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: Six years the actors got together and we realized, yeah,
• 1:00:57
  this is bad, this is not good.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, then he interrupts other actors.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: Melanie's eyes widened.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 7: Uh shit, yeah, sorry. I think they still call him
• 1:01:10
  mister Solomon, and there are others too.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: When I just stared at her, she went on.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: Anyway.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 7: For a long time, it was just a normal job, right.
• 1:01:22
  I spent six hours a day acting like I'm this
• 1:01:24
  trapped girl, mainly faking painting or watching TV, you know,
• 1:01:29
  boring stuff.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: You fake the painting. That's the way it's upset about.
• 1:01:36
  You fake the painting.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: You aren't really paying those wonderful pictures.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: Don't lie.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: Dude's painting those beautiful pictures. I think about them daily.
• 1:01:56
  Oh God, you fake the painting.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: You are really painting those wonderful pictures.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: He has to be mentally gone.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. I think I
• 1:02:09
  think if someone that wasn't me, and more specifically me
• 1:02:15
  with you in the room was reading this, maybe that
• 1:02:19
  would hit as like, oh, he's he's not mentally well,
• 1:02:23
  and that's why that's why the test is around him,
• 1:02:26
  because it's about someone with like mental deficiency.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: I am, I'm afraid for Melanie.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: She's in danger. Hold on, but I can't. I can't
• 1:02:37
  just take that phrase seriously with like you here and
• 1:02:42
  like the stuff we've already said up, I do fear
• 1:02:44
  it's lost on me a bit. But just that you
• 1:02:47
  weren't really painting those wonderful pictures. It's like, are you?
• 1:02:50
  Are you serious? That is your problem? Is psychological experiment, Melanie.
• 1:02:58
  She has spent six years acting for some reason.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: Melanie is in a gorilla pit right now and she
• 1:03:05
  needs to leave.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: This apartment immediately.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: She is the four year old to.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: His pretty picture.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: She's like that, you're no paint printly picture.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: This is a pretty picture.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: This is a Travis the Chimp situation getting ready to happen,
• 1:03:23
  and I am so scared for Melanie. If anything, it
• 1:03:26
  reincited the horror in this story, at least for me. Okay,
• 1:03:29
  why did she say help me, Travis or help because
• 1:03:32
  that's probably they're probably saying, hey, you need to show
• 1:03:35
  this to them.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 3: They're yeah, that's right, act like you're act like you
• 1:03:39
  need to help out or whatever.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: And they probably have a camera on Travis or Thomas
• 1:03:44
  in the Travis the Chimp, they have a they have
• 1:03:48
  a picture, they have like a camera on Thomas. So
• 1:03:50
  then they could probably like communicate with her like, hey, okay,
• 1:03:52
  you could take the paintings now, now or whatever.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: Now Melanie looks embarrassed.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 7: No, sorry, I can't paint a bit. I'm a pretty
• 1:04:01
  good singer, though.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: She tried to smile, but faltered. Reaching forward, she touched
• 1:04:07
  my arm.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 7: That's why they always have the paintings turned where you
• 1:04:10
  can't see them. They're already done beforehand. All you ever
• 1:04:15
  see is some blank canvases and well, when they want
• 1:04:18
  me to show you something.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: Her expression darkened as she went on.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: That's why I had to break the rules and contact you.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 7: When I started doing this hidden message mind game bullshit,
• 1:04:30
  I got worried, worried you would take it too serious,
• 1:04:35
  that you could get hurt or even hurt yourself. As
• 1:04:39
  soon as you left your shift tonight, I talked to
• 1:04:42
  one of the guys in the video department. He told
• 1:04:45
  me about how you had. He told me about how
• 1:04:47
  you reacted, showed me how you were still parked on
• 1:04:50
  the street from the building.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: I drove over. The bedroom set is in the building
• 1:04:55
  outside of town.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 7: I saw you sitting in your car, and I almost
• 1:04:59
  approached you then, but I was scared of getting caught
• 1:05:01
  and fired, so I parked and waited until I could
• 1:05:04
  follow you somewhere else and let you know I was okay.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: She blinked back tears.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 7: I'm ashamed to say I almost left a couple of times.
• 1:05:15
  I don't want to lose this job, and I tried
• 1:05:17
  to tell myself you'd be okay after a day or two.
• 1:05:21
  I couldn't get them to change the script enough that
• 1:05:23
  you felt like I was okay and I wouldn't worry
• 1:05:26
  too much.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: Felt an angry heat growing in my chest.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: Well that's nice of you.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 3: You were right about the Travis hip thing, by the way,
• 1:05:41
  he was about to go but listening, Well, that's nice
• 1:05:45
  of you. Now I imagine now I'm literally imagining Heath
• 1:05:49
  Leather's joker and Rachel why father was a drinking man.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: That's nice of you.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 3: She looked up her eyes red.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 5: I know I was shit.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 7: And I was being selfish and cowardly, but I didn't
• 1:06:08
  actually leave. And then when I saw Charlie leaving the building,
• 1:06:12
  saw you running over to talk to him, I knew
• 1:06:14
  they were escalating it even further.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: Charlie Beloany rolled her eyes in frustration.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 7: Shit, yeah, sorry, Charlie Jeffries, he's another actor.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: What did I say?
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 7: In an early version of the experiment, he actually played
• 1:06:31
  mister Solomon, but they decided he wasn't scary enough, so
• 1:06:35
  now he usually in one of one of his suits.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: Sorry, the snort got me.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 7: I left my own job, but they decided he wasn't
• 1:06:43
  scary enough it so now he's usually in one of
• 1:06:46
  the suits. He's actually done that for your version. A
• 1:06:49
  lot can't recognize him under all that get up they wear.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 3: What experiment has been going on for six years that
• 1:06:57
  they just have just for this one guy who's kind
• 1:07:00
  of dumb, and they have like eight hundred actors as
• 1:07:04
  they they have all facilities all over the city for
• 1:07:08
  one guy.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: Pay Thomas. They're paying Thomas over the course of two years.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 7: I've given this man like one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: To be like, oh atil my beautiful vibe. How do
• 1:07:24
  you look at this one actor?
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: And now she was concious Rachel, you love.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: You, and now she grows a conscience am For six
• 1:07:39
  years she waits them.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: And she's like, okay, hold on, now this is just
• 1:07:42
  kind of screwy.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, pretending to emotionally manipulated someone in experiment. But the
• 1:07:48
  hidden message for you, she.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: Has consciously known that she is like acting like a
• 1:07:56
  victim in a jail cell.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah, she knows that she split this way.
• 1:08:00
  And for years it's been fine, but the messages, that's
• 1:08:03
  too much. I have to break everything now. Well, surely
• 1:08:05
  they won't fire me over this.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: Like what yeah?
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 3: And also like okay, I'm saving it, like just she
• 1:08:14
  has explained so much to him that didn't need explain,
• 1:08:17
  like that's why I followed you and got your cards,
• 1:08:19
  Like yeah, we get that you're at the house now
• 1:08:21
  that you tailed him, right, like it's just like okay whatever.
• 1:08:27
  I kept curling and uncurling my hands on my lap.
• 1:08:30
  It was all too much. I felt like a pinball,
• 1:08:32
  going between anger and relief and embarrassment and confusion.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 7: So all that stuff he told me, that was all
• 1:08:40
  just to scare me. See, how i'd react.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: She nodded as she sniffed. You're already She sniffled and
• 1:08:57
  wiped her nose with the back of her hands.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 7: Yes, I'm sorry, that's why I do. I couldn't wait
• 1:09:03
  any longer to tell you. I could see how worried
• 1:09:06
  and scared you were going back to your car.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 3: I pulled my arm back from her touch.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 7: Well, thanks, I guess at least you stopped me before
• 1:09:16
  I went to the police and looked like a joke
• 1:09:19
  in front of them too.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 3: I just wanted her gone, her sympathetic, pitying eyes off
• 1:09:23
  of me.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Thanks for stopping by and letting me in on it.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: I tried to make my voice sound hard and unfeeling,
• 1:09:31
  but it came out watery instead. Standing up, I turned
• 1:09:34
  away from her so she couldn't see as I started
• 1:09:36
  to cry.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: If you don't mind, I I knew time to think
• 1:09:44
  about everything.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: It's a lot.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 3: A moment passed, and then her hand was on my shoulder.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 5: Thomas, you don't have anything to be embarrassed about.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: They aren't very good at what they do.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 7: All you did was what you thought was right, because
• 1:10:02
  you're a good man.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 3: I shrugged.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: I thought that you were in trouble and I wanted
• 1:10:16
  to help.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 3: She gently turned me toward her. When I looked up,
• 1:10:21
  she smiled and stiffed again.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 9: I know, but you need to realize most people wouldn't
• 1:10:31
  have tried to help, not women, men killing up their
• 1:10:35
  job or rising themselves like that, not for a stranger.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 3: I wiped up my face as I looked away.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 6: Well, I still feel dumb. I'm glad it's not real.
• 1:10:48
  I'm glad you're okay, that we both are.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 3: I paused and caught her eye again.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: We are, aren't we safe?
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, I imagine that, I imagine where this is going.
• 1:11:04
  By the way, is that she this is part of
• 1:11:06
  the experiment as well, and saying it exactly, She hesitated before.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: Nodding, Yeah, they may think so. Like I said, they
• 1:11:16
  have a lot of it.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 7: They have a lot invested in whatever this is, and
• 1:11:19
  the fact that they're willing to go as far as
• 1:11:21
  they have with.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 9: You makes me wonder. But I've never seen any signs
• 1:11:25
  of anyone getting hurt. I think the worst that could
• 1:11:28
  happen is one of us gets fired.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 3: Do you think it's like, oh she gets fired, They
• 1:11:32
  put a new one in there and pretend like he
• 1:11:33
  doesn't know, like what it like. I guess I'll sit
• 1:11:37
  down at my job. Girl, A girl isn't in trouble.
• 1:11:47
  I felt my face getting read again.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: Don't worry about that.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna quit tomorrow.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 2: I'll finally get to hit their damn buttons, maybe both
• 1:12:00
  of them.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 3: I started a smile, but then I saw the look
• 1:12:04
  on Melanie's face.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 7: Thomas, Please don't do that. I don't think they would
• 1:12:10
  hurt us, but if you up and quit, they'll figure out.
• 1:12:15
  I've talked to you, and I don't think they'll They
• 1:12:18
  watch us all the time, but I don't know what
• 1:12:21
  they can find out, you know, tracking sell tens, spy
• 1:12:25
  satellites whatever.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: Spy satellites.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 7: I'm taking a big risk just being here, and I
• 1:12:33
  want them catching on.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 3: Okay, so everything she just said was really stupid, But
• 1:12:37
  I imagine this is a script given to her by the
• 1:12:39
  facility to manipulate him, who is stupid.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: Once again, stupid guy, spy satellites.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 3: That makes sense. Also, just the idea of like, they
• 1:12:48
  don't watch us all the time. So anyway, let's go
• 1:12:50
  back to our job where they've invested ten years and
• 1:12:53
  millions and millions of dollars into figuring out if you'll
• 1:12:55
  press a button or not, if you Thomas will press
• 1:12:57
  a button or not. I took a step back from her.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: So you want to keep getting paid to trick people
• 1:13:04
  like me?
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 3: She reached out and grabbed my right hand. I've been
• 1:13:08
  clenching it unconsciously, and it relaxed her touch.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 7: No, I don't want to, but I wasn't expecting this.
• 1:13:16
  How the experiment has changed. He need to actually meet you.
• 1:13:20
  I can't do it long term, but another month or
• 1:13:23
  two to save up money.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 9: Now that you're in on it, it won't be scared
• 1:13:27
  or hurt buy anymore.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: That I can do that we can both do.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 9: We can keep going like normal, take some more of
• 1:13:37
  their money, and then one of us can quit the
• 1:13:40
  next month the other one can.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 2: How does that sound?
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 3: This is really funny. The funniest outcome would be if
• 1:13:48
  they slept together, Like if that would be the most
• 1:13:53
  eighties action movie thing ever of Like I was, I
• 1:13:56
  was hired to trick you, and then they like they
• 1:13:58
  like make out and there's like a man scene and
• 1:14:01
  then afterwards he's like, you tricked me?
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: Like that would be the you tricked me? You that.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 3: I shrugged uncertainly. It made some sense, and once I
• 1:14:15
  had calmed down, it would probably make more. She gave
• 1:14:18
  my hand a squeeze.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 5: And this is all over. I want to get to
• 1:14:23
  know you better.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I was right.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: I was right.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: I was right. Oh my gosh.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: I know I've been playing a role for the most part.
• 1:14:32
  That's been me. You've been watching all this time.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 7: I think it's only fair I get to see more
• 1:14:37
  of you two, assuming you're interest in that.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 3: I joked about. Well, that's what I'm saying. I joked
• 1:14:47
  about them. But sure enough that Thomas is hard and
• 1:14:53
  he doesn't he's confused. He's hard and confused. That's what
• 1:14:55
  APES don't like that he is. He is a classic
• 1:14:58
  James Bond ductress.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: I couldn't have with you, only to.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: Find out that she's a spy for the Chinese government.
• 1:15:08
  I felt my hand growing clammy in hers as my
• 1:15:11
  stomach fluttered.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, yeah, yeah, I'd really like that.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, baby, swallowing, I added a gulp.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: How long do we have to wait to see each
• 1:15:27
  other again?
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 3: Melanie grinned at me.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 7: Work another month or so, see what you can and
• 1:15:34
  then quit. I'll wait another two or three weeks, and
• 1:15:38
  then I'll do the same.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: And then she.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 3: Looked up at the ceiling fan as she pondered it
• 1:15:43
  for a moment, and I was struck again by how
• 1:15:45
  beautiful she was. Oh my god, even if she was
• 1:15:49
  a little different in person than I had imagined, she's.
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: Not as hot as I thought, but it's still pretty good.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 3: I mean it my head, she was like I died
• 1:15:58
  out of the ten, but after seeing her, she's more
• 1:16:00
  like a chevin.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 7: I guess, three months from tonight, we'll meet right here.
• 1:16:06
  I'll come over and we get start getting to know
• 1:16:08
  each other better.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 3: How's that sound, Returning her smile, I nodded.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 2: That sounds great.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 3: That's just really funny. Like the three months, I'll come
• 1:16:23
  over and we'll make out well, cocky on the.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: Couch, cocky want boying boying.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 3: Pretty much well. She left a couple of minutes later.
• 1:16:35
  Part of me hated to see her go, but another
• 1:16:38
  part was relieved. I was so exhausted. While I was
• 1:16:41
  so happy she was okay and we had finally met,
• 1:16:44
  I felt like the burned up, wired and old light bulb.
• 1:16:47
  I needed time alone, time to think and calmed down.
• 1:16:51
  Most of all time to rest. I didn't really even
• 1:16:55
  remember falling asleep. When I woke up, I realized my
• 1:16:59
  alarm had been for over thirty minutes. I jumped up
• 1:17:02
  a brace to get to my shift at work. She
• 1:17:05
  had been leaving. Melanie had stressed again how we needed
• 1:17:08
  to act completely the same that man not freaking out,
• 1:17:12
  But it also meant not acting like everything was okay either.
• 1:17:16
  If I suddenly showed no signs of being worried about her,
• 1:17:19
  that would tip them off too. I promised, and she
• 1:17:22
  left after a brief hugging kiss, remembering that now through
• 1:17:26
  the haze of my tiredness, the night before felt like
• 1:17:28
  a dream. I will say I have zero confidence in Thomas.
• 1:17:32
  I fully imagine him to walk in there like whistling like,
• 1:17:37
  oh look, time to go to my job. I'm so
• 1:17:39
  worried about this woman. Oh no, I'm going.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: Also, I won't.
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 3: Have a definitely not me. Can I put in a
• 1:17:52
  vote here? Yeah?
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: Or can I put in a guess? I think when
• 1:17:54
  he goes in it's gonna be a different woman.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 3: Uh yeah, probably, I guess. Still, I went into the
• 1:18:03
  surveillance room with a much lighter heart. I didn't have
• 1:18:07
  to worry or feel guilty anymore about not helping her,
• 1:18:10
  and there was Yeah, that was a real drain day.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 2: Waking up, waking up and having to wash this.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: This broad all locked up.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 3: In some room kind of made it hard to enjoy
• 1:18:24
  my morning coffee. But thank god that's over.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's done, Thank God, And.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 3: There was some satisfaction finally pulling one over on the
• 1:18:34
  people that had tricked to me for so long. Besides
• 1:18:38
  three months, I would be done with this place. Get
• 1:18:40
  to see raw Melanie again. I hate the way that's
• 1:18:46
  worthed in person, at least because I got to watch
• 1:18:50
  her on the video feed as soon as I came
• 1:18:52
  into work. She was asleep when I first got there.
• 1:18:55
  I found myself wondering if she was as tired as
• 1:18:58
  I still felt. I hate the way he talks. When
• 1:19:01
  she woke up later and started reading a book, I
• 1:19:03
  found myself beginning to smile, and how to stop myself.
• 1:19:07
  You old dog, I should still be worried acting not's
• 1:19:11
  smiling like I had a crush. I had to do
• 1:19:14
  better so Melanie didn't get in trouble. An hour or
• 1:19:17
  so later, she started working on another of her painting.
• 1:19:21
  I hate these winks at the audience like the ah
• 1:19:24
  her quote unquote, because I now know, if you'll recall
• 1:19:27
  from a few paragraphs above, she's not actually not painting them,
• 1:19:30
  dear reader, working on another of her paintings. Watching her work,
• 1:19:36
  I was amazed at how real it all looked. It
• 1:19:39
  was hard to see everything from my angle, but I
• 1:19:41
  would have sworn she had pain on those brushes and
• 1:19:44
  was really painting whatever was on the canvas. I found
• 1:19:48
  myself feeling proud of her. She really was a great actress.
• 1:19:52
  Not only didn't I see her giving any clues that
• 1:19:55
  we had met her talked, but she really did seem
• 1:19:58
  different in the room than she had in my artman,
• 1:20:01
  I suppose that was what she had met by playing
• 1:20:04
  a role, So.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: She meant by acting playing a role.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 3: A phrase, dear reader, you may not be familiar with,
• 1:20:13
  but it implies that one being an actor is playing
• 1:20:17
  or performing in a role. This effectively means that the
• 1:20:20
  actor is being someone that they normally aren't also known
• 1:20:24
  as actor. Oh okay, I was almost I'm being I'm
• 1:20:28
  being I'm being way too, I'm being little little spiteful.
• 1:20:33
  I'm being a bit spiteful. You're right, I need. I
• 1:20:35
  need to calm down. I don't. I'm not again. It's
• 1:20:38
  just because I'm in a room with you, and you
• 1:20:40
  make sure you make me a worse person. I was
• 1:20:45
  almost at the end of my shift, and while I
• 1:20:47
  hated to leave her, I had to admit that I
• 1:20:50
  was ready for some more sleep. Trying to guard my
• 1:20:52
  reactions all day had been exhausting, and I was dreading
• 1:20:56
  the next few weeks. But then I realized she was
• 1:20:59
  done painting. Expectally, I heard, you just go and do
• 1:21:02
  something else, but instead she picked up the canvas at
• 1:21:05
  its edges and carefully walked it over to the sofa.
• 1:21:08
  Her body was blocking it at first, then she stepped aside.
• 1:21:12
  It was a painting of a massive tree. Bark was
• 1:21:16
  a dark red with a huge, twisting trunk that broke
• 1:21:19
  off into a dozen branches. Those branches were covered in
• 1:21:22
  leaves that were so deep green they almost reminded me
• 1:21:25
  of storm clouds board the top of a tree. Like
• 1:21:29
  all the paintings, I felt touched by it, even now
• 1:21:32
  that Melania told me she didn't paint them. The images themselves,
• 1:21:36
  combined with the colors and the small details, were really amazing,
• 1:21:41
  Just like this one. If you look close enough, I
• 1:21:44
  could see that there were several small blackbirds in the
• 1:21:46
  branches of the tree. It's funny, but they almost looked
• 1:21:50
  like they were It almost looked like they were made
• 1:21:54
  out of words. Felt my heart start to hammer, and
• 1:21:58
  I forced myself to stay calm. No point of being silly.
• 1:22:03
  It was all a game now, and I just had
• 1:22:06
  to play my part a little while longer. Still, the
• 1:22:10
  worried me would want to know what the words said,
• 1:22:13
  so I might as well try to read them. I squinted,
• 1:22:16
  following the birds right to left and top to bottom.
• 1:22:21
  That girl isn't me. I looked away from the paintings
• 1:22:27
  to see Rachel staring up at me. She looked terrified.
• 1:22:31
  Oh would you look at that. It's a clone or something.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 2: Oh no, all.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 3: Right, I got I gotta get, I gotta get.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: We're locked back in. Walk it in, all right. So
• 1:22:45
  now we figured.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 2: Out that he was. It's a double ruse.
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 3: It's a double, and it's a double on taut. It's
• 1:22:51
  a scare, some would say. Part four, Part four. I
• 1:22:55
  had to do something, and I had to do it
• 1:22:57
  right now. If Melody was somehow a fake, that meant
• 1:23:01
  they must have sent her. Then. If they sent her,
• 1:23:04
  that meant they knew. They knew about the messages and
• 1:23:07
  her painting, they knew about me asking questions, and they
• 1:23:10
  knew I didn't hit a button during any of it.
• 1:23:13
  I felt panic and fear crawling up my chest, making
• 1:23:16
  it hard to breathe. Standing up, I started pacing periodically,
• 1:23:20
  glancing back at the monitor to see if Rachel could
• 1:23:22
  help me tell me what I needed to do next,
• 1:23:25
  but she had laid down on her bed. It was
• 1:23:28
  hard to tell for sure with her back to the camera,
• 1:23:30
  but I think she was crying. No. I needed to
• 1:23:33
  fix this, get her out of there, and if I
• 1:23:36
  didn't have a better plan, I just have to go
• 1:23:38
  with the one I already had. Feeling the hard eye
• 1:23:41
  of the ceiling camera on me, I went to the
• 1:23:43
  door and stepped back into the locker room. My phone
• 1:23:46
  was in my locker, and after messing up the combination
• 1:23:49
  the first time, I got the door open and got
• 1:23:52
  it out, gripping it tightly. I tried to hold it
• 1:23:56
  by my side casually, but I knew there was a
• 1:23:58
  little point. If they knew everything, I wasn't going to
• 1:24:01
  be able to hide anything. I just had to try
• 1:24:04
  and be fast, get some kind of message out to
• 1:24:06
  people that could help Rachel before they got to me.
• 1:24:10
  I opened the camera on my phone as I re
• 1:24:12
  entered the surveillance room and hit record. Made a small
• 1:24:15
  beeping noise, and once I was sure it was recording,
• 1:24:18
  I turned the camera on myself.
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: My name, My name is Tommy Thomas Calhoun.
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 2: If my job is watching women trapped in a room,
• 1:24:28
  this is not a joke or a movie or whatever.
• 1:24:31
  This is real. For three years, my job is to
• 1:24:34
  sit in this room.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 3: I moved the gamera slowly around the room, taking in
• 1:24:38
  the door to the bathroom, the water cooler, the desk
• 1:24:40
  with the monitors, keyboard, and button box.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 2: I watch a video feed of a woman locked up
• 1:24:46
  in a bedroom somewhere.
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 3: I stepped closer to the desk and made sure the
• 1:24:50
  monitor showing Rachel was clear and in focus.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 2: I didn't know this woman was a prisoner at first,
• 1:24:56
  or tricked myself into thinking she wasn't because the money
• 1:24:59
  was good. Either way, I know she is now She's
• 1:25:03
  in danger, and so am I.
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 3: Rachel. The day before, beat chill and don't do anything weird.
• 1:25:10
  John at the job him the next day attention, gamers,
• 1:25:16
  a woman has tried to talk to me.
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: SOS.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 3: After lingering on video of her for a few more
• 1:25:26
  seconds to make sure every detail could be seen, I
• 1:25:29
  turned the camera back on myself. I had to hurry
• 1:25:32
  or the video might be too big to sing quickly.
• 1:25:35
  I was trying to stay calm, but I felt myself
• 1:25:37
  tearing up as I went on, and I did my
• 1:25:39
  best to keep my words clear.
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 2: Please hope her. I don't know where she is. I
• 1:25:45
  don't know who has her because I don't know who
• 1:25:48
  I really work for. But they are bad people. She
• 1:25:51
  is not safe.
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: All I know is that.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 2: I'm work at a building at blank right outside of
• 1:25:59
  San Antonio. I only know the names that two other
• 1:26:02
  people connected to this place, the man who hired me,
• 1:26:05
  mister Solomon, and a man who might have a job
• 1:26:08
  who might have a job like me, Charlie Jeffers. No
• 1:26:11
  Jeffreys Jeffers. I think I don't know if these are
• 1:26:16
  real people. I mean, I don't know if that this
• 1:26:19
  is the real names. Please, I'm not crazy. I know
• 1:26:22
  how the cell sounds. Just come here, see the room,
• 1:26:26
  figure out where she is and help her.
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 3: And I heard the muffled sound of the outer door
• 1:26:31
  opening into the locker room, and I frantically fumbled with
• 1:26:33
  the phone to stop the recording. How do I send?
• 1:26:37
  Oh't no? How do I there?
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 2: It is?
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 3: I hit the button a sheer and felt a new
• 1:26:41
  panic rising. Who should I send it to? Had only
• 1:26:45
  a handful of contacts, and I just selected them all.
• 1:26:48
  Maybe at least one of them would take its here's lane,
• 1:26:50
  get help. So I heard the door to the surveillance
• 1:26:52
  room opening behind me. I hit send. Not connected to
• 1:26:56
  data service or Wi Fi? Please send again when connected?
• 1:27:00
  What no, no, no no. I turned to see mister
• 1:27:04
  Solomon entering the room. He was flanked by two large
• 1:27:07
  men in dark suits, look like bodyguards or something. Raising
• 1:27:10
  a finger, he wagged it at me.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 2: No service in here, Thomas, But then you should never
• 1:27:16
  meet service in here, so long as you followed the rules.
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 3: They took me easily. I tried to make it to
• 1:27:23
  the bathroom.
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 2: They took me easily.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: They took me easily.
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 3: I've never I've never heard that one before, the pretty buddy.
• 1:27:32
  It's always that I put up a fight or I
• 1:27:35
  went down swinging.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 2: I've never heard more easy for him.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 3: I've never heard someone describing taken to their death. This
• 1:27:44
  quote easily. I tried to make it to the bathroom
• 1:27:49
  and closed the door, but the two guards stopped me
• 1:27:51
  and pulled me down. They put the what do you
• 1:27:54
  call them? Zip ties on my hands? Okay, so god whatever,
• 1:27:58
  zip ties on my hand and feet, and pulled a
• 1:28:00
  black bag over my head. Then I was being carried
• 1:28:04
  out of the room, and it felt like they must
• 1:28:07
  have put me in the back of a van that
• 1:28:09
  was pulled right up to the building. I was laying
• 1:28:11
  on what felt like thin, weird smelling carpet that covered
• 1:28:14
  a hard metal layer underneath. Heard someone get into the
• 1:28:17
  van with me, and I asked where we were going,
• 1:28:20
  if they would just take me and let Rachel go.
• 1:28:24
  There's a short laugh overheard, and then mister Solomon's voice
• 1:28:27
  as he told me that he would explain everything when
• 1:28:29
  we got where we were going. For now, he said
• 1:28:32
  I needed to relax. It's a long drive and I
• 1:28:35
  would need the rest. I went to say more, but
• 1:28:38
  then I felt a sharp pain in my neck. They
• 1:28:40
  had stabbed me, or know, they injected me with something.
• 1:28:45
  I was feeling so strange now that I had to
• 1:28:48
  stay awake. I had to try to get away. I
• 1:28:51
  had to also, I know, like a lot the writing
• 1:28:54
  does this a lot where it mimics how he was
• 1:28:55
  feeling in the moment. But the opening of this says
• 1:28:58
  he is now riding in hinds about everything that happened.
• 1:29:01
  So why is he writing here like it's happening in
• 1:29:05
  time that he's falling asleep from the drug? I had
• 1:29:08
  to dot when this is all like a text post
• 1:29:12
  retroactively whatever anyways matter?
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: Hello again, Thomas.
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 3: I blinked as I began looking around. My mouth was
• 1:29:20
  dry and my head hurt, but otherwise I felt okay.
• 1:29:23
  I wasn't tied up anymore. Instead, I was laying back
• 1:29:26
  on a padded table like I'd seen when I went
• 1:29:28
  to the doctor. But this wasn't a doctor's office, oh really.
• 1:29:34
  The room was large, and aside from the padded table,
• 1:29:37
  it held a small bed, a desk with a computer
• 1:29:40
  monitor on it, and a couple of chairs. Sitting in
• 1:29:43
  one of those chairs was mister Solomon. Raced up, slowly
• 1:29:47
  blinking at him.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: Where is she is? Rachel? Okay, where is she?
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 2: Rachel?
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: Where is she?
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 3: Where is she? The man smiled.
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 2: You really are something, Thomas, trying to be the hero,
• 1:30:04
  even if you don't quite know how I respect that.
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 3: Licking his lips, he leaned forward slightly.
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 2: In fact, I respect so much that I'd decided to
• 1:30:16
  start our new relationship with a mutch with as much
• 1:30:19
  honesty as I'm allowed. Some of my colleagues disagree with
• 1:30:22
  this approach, but you know what, fuck him. This is
• 1:30:26
  my project, and I think you deserve to know what's
• 1:30:28
  going on.
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 3: Looking more serious, he stood up, lifting the gun he
• 1:30:33
  had been holding casually in his lap.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: But before we go into details, would you like to
• 1:30:39
  see Rachel?
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 3: I slid off the table and nodded as I caught
• 1:30:42
  myself from falling. My legs were so wobbly from whatever
• 1:30:45
  they had given me, but I barely noticed.
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, please let me see her, the real her.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 3: Mister Solomon gave a small laugh a gestured towards the
• 1:30:56
  nearby door.
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: Yes, reality has always bad. She's just there in the
• 1:31:01
  next room.
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 3: I've stumbled my way forward, my legs getting better as
• 1:31:07
  I walked. When I grabbed the doorknob turned easily. I
• 1:31:11
  expected the door to lead to her bedroom, but instead
• 1:31:14
  it opened it to another room, a lot like the
• 1:31:15
  one I had been in, though the stuff in it
• 1:31:18
  was different. Strange machines filled the walls, and in the
• 1:31:21
  back of the room was a large aquarium. It didn't know.
• 1:31:26
  It was a big cylinder, taller than I was, and
• 1:31:28
  it was filled with some kind of gray liquid. There
• 1:31:30
  was a shape in that liquid.
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 2: Go ahead, Thomas, feel free to go. Have a good look.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 3: You've earned it, felt my stomach, clinching tighter as mister
• 1:31:40
  Solomon's words and the meanness in them. My legs felt
• 1:31:44
  heavy again now, but it wasn't from the drugs this time.
• 1:31:48
  Shuffling forward, I could see the shape was a person.
• 1:31:52
  Oh no, or at least a body, because it was
• 1:31:55
  clear from just looking at it that the person was dead.
• 1:31:58
  It was very well preserved, but I could see how
• 1:32:00
  the skin hung wrong and looked bloated in spots. Oh no, no, no,
• 1:32:06
  it's hair, which has been floating like seaweed in front
• 1:32:09
  of its face. Drifted away. As I reached the class,
• 1:32:12
  and I could see Rachel staring out at me. It's
• 1:32:17
  just like you have this is now a super villain
• 1:32:20
  movie where it's like there were clones or whatever, because
• 1:32:24
  and you had spoken to this girl who you found
• 1:32:26
  out was a clone, and now you have Solomon holding
• 1:32:29
  a gun, swinging it around like if you ever want
• 1:32:32
  to see your precious Rachel. I turned on Solomon started
• 1:32:38
  to run towards him when he shot me. Suddenly, O's
• 1:32:41
  on the ground, convulsiness. That would have been just ended.
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: There?
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 3: What is that would have been just ended? That'd be great?
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: And there it is all right.
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 3: Suddenly I was on the ground convulsi as he stepped closer.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 2: Don't worry, Thomas, it won't kill you, just make you
• 1:32:59
  unable to move much for a bit.
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 3: I heard more footfalls as my body began to still.
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: Get them up, take them to the other room.
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 3: I could barely feel anything as I was carried back
• 1:33:10
  to the padded table and propped up into a sitting position.
• 1:33:15
  This time I was strapped down, but I guessed it
• 1:33:17
  was more so I didn't fall off because I couldn't
• 1:33:19
  move anything other than my head, and even that just
• 1:33:21
  a little. I could hardly see at all for crime,
• 1:33:24
  but I recognized the blurry shape of Solomon sitting back
• 1:33:27
  down in front of me.
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 2: Before you ask, well, when you're able to ask anything again, Yes,
• 1:33:33
  that is Rachel. Not a fake Rachel, not a dummy,
• 1:33:37
  and not some kind of trick. As I said, the
• 1:33:41
  time for tricks is past. Now is the time for truth.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 3: Frowning slightly, he went.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 2: On, Thomas, I understand that's showing you that showing you
• 1:33:50
  her body that way might seem very cruel. You may
• 1:33:54
  hate me for it right now. I would understand if
• 1:33:57
  you did. But you cold a murderer, and at least
• 1:34:02
  in this specific context, I think that is unfair because
• 1:34:06
  I didn't kill Rachel. In truth, I've I've been with
• 1:34:11
  this aspect of the project for only seven years.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 3: He's estured back to the door behind him.
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 2: And Rachel has been dead for over eight.
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 3: Felt my eyes widened, as though they belonged to someone
• 1:34:25
  else's body. There's more lies, more tricks, all of it.
• 1:34:30
  God had to be me.
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 2: Do you know what remote viewing is? Sorry? Right, you
• 1:34:37
  can't talk right now. I just assume you don't. Remote
• 1:34:40
  Viewing is a broad term for the ability to see
• 1:34:43
  things that are far away from you physically. You know
• 1:34:46
  things you shouldn't be able to know through your normal
• 1:34:48
  five senses. Some describe it as a physical or some
• 1:34:52
  describe it as a psychic ability, though there are several
• 1:34:55
  schools of thought as how or why it works.
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 3: Okay, I was gonna say this earlier, but I didn't
• 1:35:01
  want to sound dumb. Now I really wish I said it.
• 1:35:03
  I had the thought, what if Rachel is like a
• 1:35:06
  supernatural person or has some supernatural capability and she can
• 1:35:10
  see through the camera to see Thomas, and that's how
• 1:35:13
  she knew stuff about him.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 2: Are you saying that she's like a ghost?
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 3: No, No, Rachel, that she has like I mean, maybe
• 1:35:20
  you'll be a clone or something like that. That she
• 1:35:21
  has like esp like she has like psychic abilities basically.
• 1:35:27
  And now I wish I said that earlier because it would.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 2: Have been cool. But oh, will.
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 3: His eyes fixed on mine intently?
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 2: Because it does work, Thomas, Various governments and private organizations
• 1:35:38
  have studied it for a very long time, and while
• 1:35:41
  publicly it is always ridiculed as pseudoscience and foolish superstition,
• 1:35:46
  the reality is that some people have the innate ability
• 1:35:50
  that means becomes naturally to somehow see other places. Rachel
• 1:35:55
  was one of those people. She came into the program
• 1:35:58
  when she was seventeen, having been identified via a front
• 1:36:01
  facing screening process that was rans as a psychological test
• 1:36:05
  that paid subjects well at the time. When Rachel was
• 1:36:08
  looking to make some good money. Three months after being
• 1:36:12
  identified as a good candidate, she was taken, and after
• 1:36:15
  the initial adjustment period, she became a largely compliant asset
• 1:36:19
  that quickly rose to the top of our talent pool.
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 3: Were you thinking the same thing? I was that like?
• 1:36:23
  That was all just a bunch of like fluff.
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't even fucking know anymore. We're getting
• 1:36:33
  into some like X Men origin shit, like a superhero.
• 1:36:37
  I am folding in like a Neutron star and myself
• 1:36:40
  now I'm.
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 3: Solomon folded his hands on his knee.
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 2: I know' you care for her, Thomas, so I think
• 1:36:48
  this is worth sharing. Rachel was never treated badly other
• 1:36:51
  than her confinement and the occasional test that was mildly unpleasant. No,
• 1:36:57
  we all treasured her.
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: She was a normous.
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 2: Talented not just as a remote viewer, but as an artist.
• 1:37:04
  That's how she would convey what she saw. You understand,
• 1:37:08
  she would enter into an almost translax state when she painted,
• 1:37:13
  and when she was done, she would have given us
• 1:37:15
  paintings of images and words that provided well, it was
• 1:37:18
  very valuable information if you ever wondered. That's why there
• 1:37:23
  was always such care that the paintings were never shown
• 1:37:25
  to the camera.
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 3: Picking out his pants, he went on.
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 2: Rachel was so talented that she selected us for a
• 1:37:31
  new program that we thought might greatly enhance or alter
• 1:37:35
  her ability. We introduced something foreign into her body. At first,
• 1:37:40
  nothing seemed to change. If anything, the accuracy of her
• 1:37:44
  remote viewing was declining, which was a problem for us,
• 1:37:47
  then for her. But then we realized we were reading
• 1:37:49
  the new paintings wrong. She was able to see more
• 1:37:52
  clearly than ever. She just was no longer bound to
• 1:37:56
  only current events. Now her sight transcended time.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 3: Oh my god, he paused, and I realized he was
• 1:38:05
  enjoying telling the story. The bastard was having a gun.
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 2: The bastard was having a good time.
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 3: Bastard was having a good Tom pausing to make it
• 1:38:14
  more dramatic, I would kill him.
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 2: While this made some of her paintings less immediately useful,
• 1:38:22
  it became much more valuable as we were able to
• 1:38:25
  decipher them. For a time, it looked as though everything
• 1:38:28
  was working better than we had ever hoped. And then
• 1:38:32
  one day she showed a painting to the camera. It said,
• 1:38:37
  please help me, Thomas. This immediately sent up all the
• 1:38:40
  kinds of red flags. She knew not to show the
• 1:38:43
  paintings to the camera, and now she was trying to
• 1:38:45
  communicate with someone. We didn't disrupt her routine, but an
• 1:38:50
  intensive investigative investigation began into who she was talking to.
• 1:38:55
  Was it one of her handlers, one of the technicians,
• 1:38:58
  someone from her his life, but nothing checked out.
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 3: Leaning back in his chair, a look of pride grown
• 1:39:04
  Solomon's face as he continued.
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 2: I was the one that first suggested the idea that
• 1:39:09
  she was intentionally or not knowingly or not seeing and
• 1:39:14
  talking to someone in the future.
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 3: I was immediately fired from the project. Said thing I've
• 1:39:22
  ever heard.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 2: I was also a ketamine addict for six years. I
• 1:39:27
  was still an outside consultant at the time, but by
• 1:39:31
  that point we had more strange behaviors from her, including
• 1:39:34
  the second messaging message painting that girl isn't me. My
• 1:39:39
  theory made some sense, but it very quickly ran into
• 1:39:42
  a greater obstacle. My God, the introduction of the form
• 1:39:45
  material had not been as seamless as we'd hoped, despite
• 1:39:49
  her having been stable for almost three years since it
• 1:39:52
  was implanted whether it was due to her increasing emotional upset,
• 1:39:55
  increasing emotional upset and stress, or simply the passage of time.
• 1:40:00
  She suddenly began to deteriorate it. Her work became more
• 1:40:03
  erratic and hard to understand as her body began to decline.
• 1:40:06
  We were monitoring her health closely, but didn't matter. Five
• 1:40:10
  days after she painted that girls at Me, she suddenly
• 1:40:14
  went into cardiac arrest and died, somewhat inexplicably. We weren't
• 1:40:20
  able to resuscitate her. This was a great loss, and
• 1:40:26
  it required the adjustment of my theory. Based on everything
• 1:40:29
  we knew, still made sense that she wasn't talking to
• 1:40:32
  someone someone with access to the camera feed, and very
• 1:40:35
  likely someone named Thomas. If Thomas was viewing that camera
• 1:40:39
  footage in the future, as I believed, then he must
• 1:40:42
  be working for us in the future. And whether you
• 1:40:46
  believe that the future is set in stone or not,
• 1:40:49
  I'm all forgiving it a helping hand. Seven years ago
• 1:40:53
  I began the Thomas product. Oh my God, dude, fucking
• 1:40:57
  fucking kill me.
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: Jesus.
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 2: Seven years ago. God, seven years ago I began the
• 1:41:03
  Thomas project. Over the course of that time, I had
• 1:41:06
  overseen the screening and hiring a forty three men named
• 1:41:09
  Thomas and different sites.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: All was one very very.
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 2: Specific job to watch the videos of Rachel from just
• 1:41:16
  before her implant at the time of her death.
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 3: I tried to speak from my mouth, still wouldn't work.
• 1:41:20
  I wanted to say he was lying, that it didn't
• 1:41:23
  make sense, that it was another trick, but I think
• 1:41:26
  I wanted to hear it more for myself because I
• 1:41:28
  didn't think he was lying. I didn't think it was
• 1:41:31
  a trick, and I thought I was starting to understand.
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 2: The point wasn't really them watching the videos, of course,
• 1:41:38
  was how they reacted to watching the videos, what they did,
• 1:41:42
  and how they matched up with what Rachel had done
• 1:41:44
  in response in the past.
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 3: I'll also say this, it is very funny how all
• 1:41:51
  the stuff about like he's just explained a book's worth
• 1:41:54
  of information, and then Thomas is like, I think I'm
• 1:41:59
  starting to understand.
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 2: I think I'm getting it now.
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 3: I think Rachel is dead.
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 2: Like thirteen percent quit after the first day, thirty eight
• 1:42:15
  percent hit either the red or green button after the
• 1:42:17
  first message, asking for help and saying their name. Twenty
• 1:42:20
  two percent attempted to contact the authorities before reaching the
• 1:42:23
  stage where Melanie was introduced. I wish i'd I wish
• 1:42:26
  I could take credit for her introduction, but it wasn't
• 1:42:29
  my suggestion. We assume from that the girl Isn't Me
• 1:42:33
  message that there was a double of Rachel introduced to
• 1:42:36
  you at some point, perhaps to kill you or dissuade you,
• 1:42:39
  or find out what you knew. But it took a
• 1:42:42
  few tries until he felt it was well refined. And
• 1:42:45
  then I've pointed out only twenty seven percent made it
• 1:42:48
  that far, and all of them failed the next test.
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: Her name.
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 3: I'm just just the insanity of like all of that, Like, well,
• 1:43:00
  we assume that that girl isn't Me that they had
• 1:43:04
  the idea could be a clone of Rachel. So we
• 1:43:07
  set one of those up and sent it towards you,
• 1:43:09
  and twenty seven percent made it that far.
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 9: Like, what what is going on?
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 3: What are we talking about? I feel like I'm watching
• 1:43:16
  a word salad right now.
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 2: You see the girl you've been watching, That talented, wonderful
• 1:43:22
  girl whose body is preserved in the next room.
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: Her name was Rachel Donovan.
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 2: I had always wondered if Rachel was merely seeing you,
• 1:43:30
  or if there was some kind of connection between the
• 1:43:32
  two of you. When you called Melanie Rachel. I knew
• 1:43:36
  that we had finally found the right Thomas, the distant
• 1:43:39
  point of light that our Rachel was looking at across
• 1:43:41
  space and time.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 3: I swallowed thickly and found I could feel my tongue
• 1:43:46
  only a little slower and badly. I pushed out a
• 1:43:49
  single word why. Solomon looked surprised.
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 2: I have thought that'd be clear by now. You're only
• 1:43:59
  remaining link to one of the greatest treasures. Perhaps you
• 1:44:02
  have a similar ability, or maybe that she forgot the
• 1:44:05
  link purely through her own talent and will.
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: Either way, you are important and you have more work
• 1:44:11
  to do.
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 3: He stood up and moved over to the table, where
• 1:44:15
  he turned on the monitor. As he came to life,
• 1:44:17
  I saw it was a frozen image of Rachel's room,
• 1:44:20
  tape paused where I had left off watching. Turning back
• 1:44:23
  to me, the man looked solemn.
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 2: You have to watch the rest of it, because Rachel
• 1:44:28
  painted you more pictures before she died. We have to
• 1:44:31
  know what they mean.
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 3: Okay. For one, it's really funny to imagine that, like
• 1:44:38
  it's just clearly says on there like that isn't me,
• 1:44:41
  and they're sitting there like what could it mean? And
• 1:44:43
  then he looks at it, he's like, it means it's
• 1:44:45
  not Rachel. And they're like, of.
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 2: Course, oh my god, are you serious? I did?
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 3: Why didn't we think of it that way?
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: Write dick down.
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 3: Some would write that it'd be really, I'm say it
• 1:44:55
  right out. This would be the funniest ending ever. If
• 1:44:58
  he reads the last one and he's like, there is
• 1:45:04
  a bomb.
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: Just oh my god, it's going to kill the president.
• 1:45:10
  We have to go.
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 3: It guess to the last one and the message is
• 1:45:14
  like September eleventh, two thousand and one, a plane.
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: Well we have to go, we have to fly.
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 2: All right, Let's just please God, let's just finish this
• 1:45:24
  last part.
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 3: Okay, part five. I spent the next five days watching
• 1:45:30
  Rachel die from the outside, just watching the monitor. It
• 1:45:34
  didn't seem that different than what I had been watching
• 1:45:36
  for the past three years. Rachel slept, she watched TV,
• 1:45:40
  she read, and she painted. But there were signs if
• 1:45:44
  you were looking for them. She seemed tired and tense,
• 1:45:47
  and she had taken a sleeping more and occasionally she
• 1:45:51
  every once in a while, she would glance up at
• 1:45:53
  the camera at me. It was then that I could
• 1:45:56
  see the fear and sadness in her eyes. Well inside
• 1:46:02
  I felt like a burned out house collapsing in on itself.
• 1:46:05
  At first, I refused to watch, to do anything they
• 1:46:08
  wanted me to do. Solomon didn't get mad at me,
• 1:46:11
  but just shrugged. He said. While cooperation was preferred and
• 1:46:14
  could go a long way towards making my stay with
• 1:46:16
  him more comfortable, it wasn't required. If he was right,
• 1:46:20
  Solomon said, with a thin smile, things would play out
• 1:46:23
  as they were meant to, regardless of what I wanted
• 1:46:26
  or thought. I'd chose either way. He added, the video
• 1:46:30
  was about to start back playing and would not stop
• 1:46:32
  for another five days. Whether I wanted to spend that
• 1:46:35
  time again to see her again was entirely up to me. Okay,
• 1:46:38
  hold On was the Rachel that showed up to his
• 1:46:42
  house a clone?
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 2: They made I think it was an actor?
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 3: Okay, it was an actor who looked just like her
• 1:46:47
  and was supposed to like seduce him or whatever to
• 1:46:50
  convince him to go back to work.
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, yeah, okay.
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 3: I tried to not watch, but a part of me
• 1:46:57
  knew from the start I was going to Maybe I
• 1:47:00
  would find some clue that they were lying about her.
• 1:47:02
  Being dead, or Rachel could give me some advice or
• 1:47:05
  warning about what I needed to do next. I didn't know.
• 1:47:09
  What I did know is that I couldn't miss the
• 1:47:12
  chance to see her again. And despite knowing in my
• 1:47:15
  heart she was dead and everything on the video had
• 1:47:17
  happened a long time ago, I still felt that by
• 1:47:19
  watching I was with her. Somehow. She had been taken
• 1:47:23
  away from everything she knew when she was barely grown,
• 1:47:27
  trapped for years just for being special, experimented on, treated
• 1:47:32
  like property, kept from ever having friends or family or life.
• 1:47:37
  And yet through all that, she was still beautiful, not
• 1:47:41
  just on the outside. But this guy is a one
• 1:47:43
  tracked mind, not just on the outside, but on the
• 1:47:46
  inside too. I'd spent years watching her, getting to know
• 1:47:50
  her in a thousand tiny ways that so few people
• 1:47:53
  ever truly know each other. I'd seen her kindness at
• 1:47:56
  grace in her actions even when she was fighting against
• 1:47:59
  the people. I'd watched her strength when she woke up
• 1:48:03
  day after day in her prison and never gave up.
• 1:48:06
  I saw the beauty of her soul and her paintings
• 1:48:08
  full of swirling colors, And what was the word wonder?
• 1:48:13
  It was with these word searches. I don't understand she
• 1:48:17
  was able to paint these things she saw with such
• 1:48:20
  care and love, despite living in a world that had
• 1:48:23
  abandoned her so completely. Well, I wasn't abandoning her. I
• 1:48:28
  would watch every bit of the video I could manage,
• 1:48:31
  try to burn into my memory, every frame of her
• 1:48:33
  I saw, not for them in their stupid project, but
• 1:48:37
  for me and for her. I may not have much
• 1:48:41
  left to do in my life before they locked me
• 1:48:43
  away somewhere to kill me, but I could do this
• 1:48:45
  one last thing. Rachel wouldn't die alone. I watched nearly
• 1:48:52
  all of it, stopping only to eat quickly and use
• 1:48:54
  the bathroom. Until the last two days. I would ask
• 1:48:57
  the guards to pause it, but they would only shake
• 1:49:00
  their heads and say saw him, and said it had
• 1:49:01
  to play normally until it was finished. By the fourth day,
• 1:49:04
  I was in a super I had already dozed some
• 1:49:08
  of the first three days. When I woke up on
• 1:49:10
  the fourth day, I could tell a few hours had passed.
• 1:49:13
  There were two trays of food on the bed, one
• 1:49:16
  breakfast and another lunch. I looked back at the screen
• 1:49:19
  at a panic whorrey, and I'd missed something. But Rachel
• 1:49:21
  seemed to be just waking up too, and I was
• 1:49:24
  for putting her hand to her stomach as she got
• 1:49:26
  out of bed, and fill to my own stomach twist
• 1:49:29
  she was already hurting. Rachel glanced at the camera and
• 1:49:32
  tried to smile before moving to set up a new
• 1:49:33
  canvas for painting. This was the second of three paintings
• 1:49:37
  she did in those last days. The first had been
• 1:49:40
  the inside of an old fashioned movie theater. From the
• 1:49:43
  viewpoint of someone sitting in a back row. On the
• 1:49:46
  movie screen was just the image of a sledgehammer propped
• 1:49:48
  against a brick wall. I didn't understand what it meant,
• 1:49:52
  and I found myself scanning the picture for some message
• 1:49:55
  or other clue. Eventually I found what might be one,
• 1:49:59
  though I didn't understand it either. It was the album
• 1:50:03
  The Wall by Pink Floyd. That's right, Rachel must have
• 1:50:09
  come to understand. They knew what she was doing with
• 1:50:13
  the paintings and didn't want to stop her, because these
• 1:50:15
  last three she set up much closer to the camera.
• 1:50:19
  I was still squinting and studying the painting closely when
• 1:50:22
  I realized the flipped up seats in the next row
• 1:50:25
  up had brass number plates along the front edges of
• 1:50:28
  the seats. Though they were upside down from the viewpoint
• 1:50:31
  of the painting, angle was good enough that once I
• 1:50:34
  noticed them, I was able to read them. Two forty
• 1:50:38
  three twenty six eighty nine. I like how this super
• 1:50:42
  high tech laboratory was like full government access, you know,
• 1:50:47
  above the law and millions of dollars can't see four
• 1:50:52
  golden numbers drawn onto a painting. They won't do anything
• 1:50:57
  with that. You're the only one. You're the only one
• 1:50:59
  who knows what numbers are. We're completely illiterated.
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 2: I can read the golden numbers.
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 3: Not a single one of us can read. Actually, in
• 1:51:07
  all of our experiments, no Thomas's can read, and none
• 1:51:09
  of us can't either. It's the darkness.
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 2: My name is Hunter Hancock. I'm illiterate. I can't read.
• 1:51:14
  That's what it feels like.
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 3: I didn't understand any of it, but I committed it
• 1:51:19
  all to memory, focusing on my attention on the painting
• 1:51:21
  until she finally took it away. Even that early on,
• 1:51:25
  I could tell painting was taking a lot out of
• 1:51:27
  her now, and like I had for so long, I
• 1:51:31
  found myself talking to her, telling her to go rest
• 1:51:34
  before I remembered her body in the next room. I
• 1:51:37
  almost stopped then, but no, maybe she couldn't tell I
• 1:51:41
  was talking to her. Maybe she could. Either way, me
• 1:51:44
  talking to her couldn't hurt. Made me feel a bit
• 1:51:47
  less lonely sad as I watched her second painting, the
• 1:51:51
  one she started after I woke up from falling asleep
• 1:51:53
  for a few hours, stranger than the rest. It looked
• 1:51:57
  like it was in a room with curved walls made
• 1:51:59
  of tree room, and in the center of the room
• 1:52:01
  was a little table made of the same stuff. Some
• 1:52:04
  of the roots around the room were deep red, but
• 1:52:06
  other parts, including the table thing looked burned in black.
• 1:52:11
  Looked closer and saw that I could see a person
• 1:52:13
  shadow over the table, hands holding some long, oval shaped bundle.
• 1:52:19
  I studied it for a long time, going over it
• 1:52:21
  again and again in my mind after she took it away.
• 1:52:25
  Couldn't make sense of it, of any of it. I
• 1:52:27
  wasn't smart enough, and I was failing her. Rachel slept
• 1:52:31
  for a long time after that painting that she got
• 1:52:34
  up on the fifth day, her last day, and immediately
• 1:52:37
  started working again. This time, she was painting faster, and
• 1:52:40
  while I saw her WinCE occasionally, she never lost her
• 1:52:43
  look at determination as she slashed lines of colors across
• 1:52:46
  the canvas. She was done. Rachel picked up the painting
• 1:52:49
  and turned it towards the camera, giving me a small,
• 1:52:52
  tired smile as she was blocked from view. It was
• 1:52:54
  looking out from the front porch of a house somewhere.
• 1:52:57
  It was out in the country, and the morning view
• 1:53:00
  of the yard and the land beyond were wonderful. But
• 1:53:03
  closer up, the painting was of two hands holding on
• 1:53:06
  to each other tightly. Their interlocked fingers seemed to glow
• 1:53:10
  red in origin the light of the rising sun. Feuld
• 1:53:12
  myself crying as I looked at it. Part of it
• 1:53:15
  was because I didn't know what it meant, and I
• 1:53:17
  felt a growing sense of desperation of the thought that
• 1:53:19
  Rachel's last works might be wasted on me. Part was
• 1:53:23
  because I knew it had been five days since I
• 1:53:25
  was close to the end. To her, there's something more
• 1:53:30
  to it than all that, too. The last painting, even
• 1:53:32
  with everything else in my head and my heart pulling
• 1:53:34
  me down, gave me hope, hope of what I didn't know.
• 1:53:38
  I started to think that maybe the only message Rachel
• 1:53:41
  had for me, and that last painting was it somehow,
• 1:53:43
  somewhere everything would be okay. Outside the edge of the painting,
• 1:53:47
  I could see motion in the room. People heard the
• 1:53:50
  coming in with some kind of medical equipment, and then
• 1:53:52
  the monitor went black.
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: You've done well, Thomas, very very well.
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 2: Five days of the video, we had charted one thousand
• 1:54:02
  and forty seven micro variations in Rachel's behavior.
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 3: We can't cut four numbers on a series of chairs.
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, for one and forty seven micro variations
• 1:54:14
  in Rachel's behavior that we believed my correspond to your behavior,
• 1:54:17
  your reactions, and your emotional states. While watching the video,
• 1:54:22
  like before, the two of you remained in sync as
• 1:54:25
  though you were in the same room. It really is remarkable.
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 3: I sat staring at Solomon. I listened to what he said,
• 1:54:33
  but I didn't care. I just wanted it over, whatever
• 1:54:36
  this was, I just wanted it over. Clearing his throat,
• 1:54:40
  he went on.
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 2: Ah, that's why I've decided to move the implant for
• 1:54:44
  Rachel's body to your own.
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: That's one of the many reasons we preserved her. So
• 1:54:50
  the foreign body was still showing signs of life.
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 2: All this time, but just barely. We're afraid to attempt
• 1:54:57
  the removal. Oh hope, is it given you a connection
• 1:54:59
  to Rake? It will accept you, perhaps even thriving you
• 1:55:03
  more than it ever did.
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 3: Oh girl, what is this foreign body? They still have?
• 1:55:08
  It said?
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: Right, foreign body?
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 3: Are they gonna make him pregnant? Is it a baby?
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 2: Yes? I'm going to put a baby in you, Thomas?
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 3: Really yes, I was suddenly on my feet, and I was,
• 1:55:24
  and it was only the raising of Solomon's gun that
• 1:55:27
  stopped me from attacking him. That that region, Just like
• 1:55:30
  those guys who were like I couldn't be in the army.
• 1:55:32
  I would have punched that drill sergeant he got him
• 1:55:34
  in my face, and would have fought him.
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 7: Like yeah, but he had a gun, so I stopped.
• 1:55:39
  Don't you fucking talk about her like that? Like if
• 1:55:42
  you gave a shit about her, I'll.
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: Fucking kill you.
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 3: Leans into Rachel's body. I'm sorry. Are these guys bothering you?
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 2: Hey?
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: Sweetheart?
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 2: Do I need to take care of this bozo?
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 3: Solomon's face dark and slightly as his lips thinned.
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 2: No, you won't. But if idol threats make you feel better,
• 1:56:00
  go ahead. It won't make things harder, not easier.
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 3: Feeling a stab of painting fear. I sat back down.
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: What is this thing? You're going to put me in?
• 1:56:11
  Or put in me?
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 3: The man looked at me for several seconds before responding.
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 2: I'm timpted not to tell you after your stupid and
• 1:56:20
  frankly hurtful outburst.
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 1: What is this?
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 3: Man?
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: What is this like burst? I'll I'll be the bigger person.
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 3: Let it have a small sigh?
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 2: He went on, Thomas, Somewhere there is a tree, a
• 1:56:37
  very special tree. We suspect it's the same tree that
• 1:56:40
  Rachel painted for you that time. No, we cannot say
• 1:56:44
  for sure, as we have never been able to find it.
• 1:56:47
  It is it hidden away very well, or it is
• 1:56:50
  able to hide itself from those it wishes.
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 3: Okay, I just looked at him, trying to kill him.
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 7: But what is this?
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 3: I just looked at him, trying to kill him by
• 1:57:03
  just wanting it to be so.
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 2: In any case, we had the next best thing, an
• 1:57:09
  ancient clipping from the tree.
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 3: Of what oh my, that was about a tree that?
• 1:57:17
  But there they have an ancient artifact from the.
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 2: True the tree. The tree secured a great cost and
• 1:57:26
  sacrifice and studied.
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: For a long time without much success.
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 2: We have, however, in recent years, been given advice that
• 1:57:37
  this clipping could be grown in the right soil.
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 3: That soil is a human body. That's what the foreign body.
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 2: We thought the soil was Rachel. But while it did
• 1:57:47
  develop further inside of her, she died before necessary growth
• 1:57:51
  was finished.
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 3: We're trying to make you into a tree.
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 2: That's welcome to the tree.
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 3: Leaning forward, he smiled at me.
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 2: We we have it unfairly good authority, however, that you
• 1:58:03
  might succeed where she failed.
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 3: I fought them when they came, but it didn't matter.
• 1:58:09
  I woke up sometime later with a dull ache in
• 1:58:11
  my chest and yeah, because there's a tree in your chest.
• 1:58:13
  With a dull ache in my chest and a small,
• 1:58:15
  already healing scar on my upper stomach, I didn't really
• 1:58:19
  feel that different, other than a little bit of pain,
• 1:58:21
  but I knew that would change with time. Maybe I
• 1:58:24
  had more time than Rachel, or maybe I had less.
• 1:58:27
  It didn't matter. I just wait, what was that? There
• 1:58:32
  was some kind of soft voice. I'm gonna guess it's
• 1:58:35
  Rachel coming from where It wasn't in the room, it
• 1:58:39
  was in my head. I felt a thrill of excitement.
• 1:58:42
  Maybe this was Rachel's voice. She had somehow stayed in
• 1:58:45
  the tree thing they had put inside. What am I reader?
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 2: I'm in hell.
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 3: Maybe Rachel's in the tree thing inside of me? But no,
• 1:58:57
  I had never heard Rachel's voice, but I sent this
• 1:59:00
  wasn't it. This voice was too delicate to really be
• 1:59:04
  heard or understood, and it reminded me of music coming
• 1:59:07
  from a distant room that you felt in the back
• 1:59:09
  of your mind without realizing it, as we all do.
• 1:59:13
  It was a melody kind of song, but it wasn't
• 1:59:18
  Rachel's song. I realized with the shiver that it was
• 1:59:21
  the song of the thing inside of me.
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 2: Whoa Black Betty bound down? Whoa down Black Betty had
• 1:59:28
  a chime, damn it down?
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: And then dang oh wow.
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like he listens really closely. He's like shot
• 1:59:33
  through the heart.
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: A bad name or what if it's the world is
• 1:59:49
  mad to drey a game.
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 3: That's going to bring it back. I appreciate that. At
• 1:59:58
  first I was afraid, but that didn't like I was petrified.
• 2:00:06
  It wasn't trying to hurt me. It was trapped here
• 2:00:08
  just like I was. But it started to sing it
• 2:00:13
  was time for us to be free.
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 3: I stood up and walked to the door, and as
• 2:00:18
  I did so, the lights went out. The door in
• 2:00:21
  front of me clicked, and when I reached out and
• 2:00:23
  turned the knob in the dark, it opened easily. How
• 2:00:26
  is this possible? If it could do this, why hadn't
• 2:00:29
  it helped Rachel get out? There was no answer, but
• 2:00:32
  there was also no time. Could already hear boots around
• 2:00:35
  the corner as the glow from flashlights began to light
• 2:00:38
  up the far end of the hall.
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna guess that's she painted his escape.
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what it is. It's gonna be Those numbers
• 2:00:46
  are gonna be the code to something or something like that,
• 2:00:48
  and it's like the series of events for him to
• 2:00:50
  get out or something. Rather if I I.
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: Could, I'm a good deal with God. I'm just walp.
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 2: Please fucking hated that in Stranger Things, Jeez, they would
• 2:01:04
  bring up that.
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: Road be running up that?
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 3: What did they play that in Stranger Things? I've only
• 2:01:10
  seen the first season.
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's the newest season. That's the whole thing. She
• 2:01:13
  like listens to it when she's being possessed by like
• 2:01:15
  a burnt hot dog man.
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 3: Oh, I only watched the first season, and I was like,
• 2:01:19
  that was good. I don't need to see anymore.
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 2: So that's the perfect plan. That's exactly what I should
• 2:01:24
  have done.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 3: They would dragged me back in there, shame me up,
• 2:01:27
  or take this thing back out of me before we
• 2:01:29
  could get away. If I was ever going to get out,
• 2:01:32
  it had to be now. The voice was singing again,
• 2:01:35
  pushing me to go further into the dark, to run
• 2:01:37
  until we were safe. So I listened and I ran
• 2:01:42
  Every door unlocked for me. Every turn kept me barely
• 2:01:44
  out of sight. The people looking for me were barking
• 2:01:47
  orders over a radio, asking someone what was the hold
• 2:01:51
  up on the generator? Kicking on? Whatever the response. The
• 2:01:55
  hallway stayed dark as I drifted through them, blind but
• 2:01:57
  not falling, lost but not being found when I reached.
• 2:02:02
  When I reached the final door, I opened it into
• 2:02:06
  a brief afternoon, a bright afternoon. My lungs burned a
• 2:02:10
  little at the first fresh, unrecycled air I had breezed
• 2:02:13
  in a week. Blinking, I waited for the voice to
• 2:02:17
  tell me where to go, but it had fallen silent,
• 2:02:20
  closed the doors. Panic began to rise in my chest.
• 2:02:23
  All this and I would get caught because I didn't
• 2:02:24
  know where to go. I was outside a plain brown
• 2:02:27
  building in the middle of nowhere. There was a road
• 2:02:30
  going off to the right, and to the left there
• 2:02:32
  was Rachel's forest from her first painting. To me, I'm
• 2:02:41
  also thinking now that the researchers are also stupid for
• 2:02:44
  being like, so, we're going to take this person who
• 2:02:47
  has a psychological link to our immortal dead body, and
• 2:02:51
  we're going to put the ancient tree relic in it
• 2:02:53
  to see if it gives it some kind of crazy power. No,
• 2:02:56
  I don't see how that could backfire.
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 2: Pomis, despite your rage, you were just a rat.
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 3: You are still just a rat in the cage. I
• 2:03:06
  knew it was the same forest immediately, and not just
• 2:03:09
  because of it matching the paintings so closely. I had
• 2:03:12
  some strange sense that felt like kind of magnetism.
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 2: So the painting's unnecessary.
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 3: The paintings are no longer needed because you don't need.
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 2: A visual I just feel it from the corner.
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 3: From the a corn in your chest. But read how
• 2:03:29
  funny this line is. I had some strange sense that
• 2:03:31
  felt like a kind of magnetism, or how birds know which.
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 1: Way to apply.
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 3: It's like, all right, those are two different things. No,
• 2:03:40
  I don't think birds run on magnets. Looking around for
• 2:03:46
  a second, I felt like I was being pulled. When
• 2:03:48
  I looked again at those woods, this was right. Somehow
• 2:03:52
  I knew this was the way I needed to go. Okay,
• 2:03:54
  you knew it was the way you need to go
• 2:03:55
  because of magnets and birds and the painting. And then
• 2:03:58
  he's like, I looked the other way. No, this was right.
• 2:04:01
  I imagine if all that and he goes the other direction.
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, But I went the other way because I was scared.
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 3: So I went. I'd made it to the edge of
• 2:04:11
  the forest and I heard the noise of men coming
• 2:04:12
  outside the building. I thought about hiding, but I knew
• 2:04:15
  it was a bad idea. They would just catch me,
• 2:04:18
  and I felt a drive to go deeper into the woods.
• 2:04:21
  I plunged ahead, running it close to a reckless speed,
• 2:04:24
  not a reckless speed, but close to a reckless speed,
• 2:04:26
  but ever tripping or stumbling as I went. I would
• 2:04:29
  occasionally hear a noise behind me is they spread out
• 2:04:32
  to search, but the sound grew fainter as I ran.
• 2:04:35
  I almost thought I had lost them for good. When
• 2:04:37
  I heard a short cough that was quickly muffled off
• 2:04:40
  to my left. So when I got close without me
• 2:04:42
  knowing it, panicking, I looked for any places I could hide.
• 2:04:48
  There were only bushes and trees, and over there a well,
• 2:04:52
  not just a well, but Rachel's well, but the same
• 2:04:55
  worn gray stone walls kept with a weathered wooden lid.
• 2:04:59
  And let me go. There's just like chamber, and you
• 2:05:00
  have to break it. I felt a moment of happy recognition,
• 2:05:03
  but then it faded away. How did that help? They
• 2:05:07
  checked the well? If they they checked the well, if
• 2:05:11
  they found it and I didn't have any way to
• 2:05:14
  get down in it without getting hurt or stuck, then
• 2:05:17
  an idea of stuck me crouching low and staying to
• 2:05:20
  the brush. I moved to the well and gingerly pushed
• 2:05:22
  on the lid. At first it resisted, but when I
• 2:05:25
  pushed a bit harder, the wooden circles slid aside enough
• 2:05:28
  that you could clearly see someone moved it. Glancing around,
• 2:05:33
  I eased back into the bushes as I heard soft
• 2:05:35
  foot falls approaching.
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: We need to check this out.
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 2: You'd think he went down the well, but rope not.
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: He brought it broken the nut if he didn't, and.
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 3: Then it's our asses. I could see the two men approaching.
• 2:05:49
  Both of them were wearing dark body armor and carried
• 2:05:51
  assault rifles. But why is everything happening happening so quick
• 2:05:58
  you could deal with gold? Strange of The elder of
• 2:06:04
  the two shriked back at the other one.
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: Better than he was hiding in there, and we didn't check.
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 3: Looking irritated, the younger man nodded, I'll look. He went
• 2:06:15
  over to the well and shoved the wooden lit aside,
• 2:06:17
  causing it to clad into the ground, hitting a button
• 2:06:20
  on his rifle. A flashlight sprang to life on the barrel.
• 2:06:23
  He started to shine it down into the well as
• 2:06:25
  the other continued to look at it in every direction.
• 2:06:27
  I was worried he would see me if I moved,
• 2:06:29
  but I couldn't wait. Just had to stay calm, thinks slow,
• 2:06:32
  and move fast. Kept expecting to hear them yell or
• 2:06:36
  feel something or someone strike me in the back, but
• 2:06:38
  nothing came. As the afternoon light began to dim, I
• 2:06:41
  saw the trees standing ahead. I was approaching a road.
• 2:06:45
  He looked like a normal public road, too, several cars
• 2:06:48
  passing one way or the other As I walked out
• 2:06:50
  of the forest and up the hill to the asphalt. Yeah,
• 2:06:53
  he have hitchhiking, especially this close to where they held me.
• 2:06:56
  It was frightening. I saw a little choice. I was
• 2:06:59
  wearing swa pants, had a T shirt they had given
• 2:07:01
  me in my own shoes, but I had no money
• 2:07:03
  or ida or phone. The only chance was to get
• 2:07:06
  far enough away that I could try and get help.
• 2:07:09
  I jumped slightly at the hiss of hydraulic blakes as
• 2:07:11
  a large semi rolled to a stop next to me.
• 2:07:14
  Passenger window rolled down, and an older man with a
• 2:07:16
  white hair and a gray mustache leaned over and peered
• 2:07:19
  down at me.
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: It looked last them hit me in a ride.
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 3: I looked down at the door of the truck and
• 2:07:26
  had a logo that said Martinez and Sons Construction and Hauling.
• 2:07:31
  Below it was a cartoon man hitting a wall with
• 2:07:33
  a sledgehammer.
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 6: Oo.
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 3: Looking back up, I smiled at.
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: Him, Yes, sir, I do.
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 3: I woke up five hours later as we pulled into
• 2:07:42
  a truck stop somewhere in Nevada. I'd planned on saying
• 2:07:46
  awake the entire trip, but that had only lasted a
• 2:07:49
  few minutes before exhaustion overtook me. I glanced over at
• 2:07:53
  Oliver Martinez and he gave me a toothy grin.
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 2: I'm tired, but you were plumped.
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 7: Tuck, dad, I've got a few limp shower up and
• 2:08:02
  get some grib I'm.
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: Going on to California after that.
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 2: If you wanna ride further, just be back here in
• 2:08:09
  an hour.
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: Sound good?
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 3: I nodded and thanked him again for the ride. As
• 2:08:13
  I got out, I felt groggy from sleeping, but otherwise okay.
• 2:08:18
  I just needed to decide whether this was a good
• 2:08:21
  spot to ask for help or if I should ride
• 2:08:23
  with Martinez further. He seemed like a very nice guy
• 2:08:27
  and he would probably try to help if he could,
• 2:08:29
  but I wanted to avoid putting more people in danger
• 2:08:31
  if I can help it. Looking around, I saw we
• 2:08:34
  were in a fairly nice little town. I decided I
• 2:08:36
  would go look around for a few minutes and then
• 2:08:39
  decide what to do. It's only three blocks down the street.
• 2:08:42
  When I saw the flickering lights in the distance, it
• 2:08:45
  was a movie theater. As it got closer, I felt
• 2:08:48
  my chest tightening. It was the one from Rachel's painting.
• 2:08:52
  I looked at the man. He then continued Hi. My
• 2:08:55
  name's Rob and this is Bristol. Would you like to
• 2:08:57
  get in? We're playing a game. The guy standing at
• 2:09:00
  the candy counter of the theater looked like a little
• 2:09:02
  younger than me. While he seemed friendly enough, he looked
• 2:09:05
  he also looked slightly concerned.
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 2: If you're here for the horror double feature, I'm afraid
• 2:09:10
  the second movie is about thirty minute ten. I can
• 2:09:12
  give you half rate if you want to see it, though.
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 3: I shook my head and tried to not look at
• 2:09:16
  strange and crazy as I felt.
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: No, that's okay, I will.
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 7: I recognize his placement picture of for End of Mine painted,
• 2:09:25
  so I came in to ask if you knew anything about.
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 3: Her, raised his eyebrows and shrugged.
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, weird, weird but interesting? Who is she?
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 3: Swallowed?
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: Her name is Will?
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 5: He was Rachel.
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 3: Donovan expected him to look surprised or excited or angry.
• 2:09:44
  I could see right away the name meant nothing. In
• 2:09:46
  shaking his head, he shrugged again.
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 1: Sorry, that doesn't ring a bell.
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 2: I say you could ask the owner, but he's on
• 2:09:53
  vacation this week.
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 3: Nodding, I searched my mind for something else to ask,
• 2:09:58
  some way to make this place matter, they her other
• 2:10:00
  paintings had.
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 7: Is there anything unique about this place, then it's history
• 2:10:05
  or something.
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 2: The man grinned, buddy, you're clearly not from here. This
• 2:10:11
  place is super boring, not just a theater, but the
• 2:10:14
  whole town.
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 3: Frowning and thought, he added, the only.
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 2: Thing I knew about the history of this place is
• 2:10:20
  that there used to be a house here that burned down.
• 2:10:22
  This is like in the nineteen twenties or thirties, when
• 2:10:25
  this wasn't even a part of the town. I couldn't
• 2:10:27
  tell you the first thing about it beyond that, but
• 2:10:30
  I still bet it's the most interesting thing that's ever
• 2:10:32
  happened here.
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 3: Do you know anything get interesting about the town? No, well,
• 2:10:36
  there was the ghost fire of the nineteen twenties, but.
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: That probably is unrelated to anything you have to talk about.
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 3: Because the author have mentioned it, it certainly won't come
• 2:10:46
  up later in the story, perhaps right now. I let
• 2:10:50
  out a disappointed sigh.
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, thanks.
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 3: I turned to leave when the guy called out again.
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 2: Hey man, sorry, I couldn't help more. If you come back,
• 2:11:01
  I'll get you a discount on a movie half off.
• 2:11:04
  If not working, tell them. Marshall said it was okay.
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 3: I waved and tried to smile as I headed for
• 2:11:10
  the door with a heavy heart. Why did you leave
• 2:11:13
  me here, Rachel? What's here that will help? I was
• 2:11:16
  outside again, staring up at the theater's bright, blinking signs,
• 2:11:20
  as though they were going to give me some kind
• 2:11:22
  of secret signal. I mean, I noticed movement out of
• 2:11:25
  the corner of my eye. There's an alley that ran
• 2:11:28
  along the side of the theater and went behind it
• 2:11:29
  to something. Whenever it was back there, the light of
• 2:11:34
  a distant security lamp cast shadows along the wall of
• 2:11:36
  the alley, and those shadows were moving. Instead of feeling afraid,
• 2:11:41
  felt excited as I started down the alley. Rachel had
• 2:11:44
  led me here, and I just had to trust that
• 2:11:46
  there was a reason for it, keep looking until I
• 2:11:50
  was suddenly mugged and beaten.
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 2: The I was shot in the stomach three times.
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 3: The shadows were made by leaves blowing in some wind
• 2:12:02
  I couldn't feel. As I got to the far end
• 2:12:05
  of the alley, I saw there was a small backyard
• 2:12:08
  behind the theater, surrounded by a chain link fence. On
• 2:12:11
  the other side of that fence was the tree from
• 2:12:13
  Rachel's painting with a steep, red, twisting bark in the
• 2:12:16
  foam of green leaves, waving to and fro in the
• 2:12:18
  night air. I felt a surge of warmth in my
• 2:12:21
  chest as the distance singing began again. This was the place,
• 2:12:26
  the special tree that could not be found unless it
• 2:12:28
  wanted you to find it, I said, at the edge
• 2:12:30
  of a small overgrown lot, surrounded on all sides by
• 2:12:33
  buildings and yards, somehow forgotten when whatever this land had
• 2:12:38
  once spin was divided up, And despite its location, I
• 2:12:42
  had a strong sense that I was the first to
• 2:12:44
  see it in a very long time. Climbing the fence,
• 2:12:47
  I felt a jagged wire dick into my leg and
• 2:12:49
  rip my pants as I fell over the top. I
• 2:12:52
  was bleeding a little, but I hardly noticed.
• 2:12:55
  Speaker 2: I got my asshole and my balls and dick were
• 2:12:57
  now exposed.
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 3: Climbing the fence, I was played a little, but I
• 2:13:02
  hardly noticed. I could smell the tree now, and it
• 2:13:06
  was a rich, good smell, unlike any eyes smelled. Before
• 2:13:10
  reaching out to it, I felt the singing grow louder
• 2:13:12
  as I touched it. I felt stronger and less afraid
• 2:13:15
  than and when I saw the light opening up at
• 2:13:17
  its fruits. I didn't tremble. I smiled. There's a hidden
• 2:13:22
  tunnel under the tree.
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, yeah, the pans laborns. You imagine that music.
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 3: Like, oh yeah, in my head, it's like it, oh
• 2:13:36
  couzie food. You remember, you remember in the original Grinch cartoon,
• 2:13:42
  the way the who vills saying yeah that one, That's
• 2:13:48
  what it is in my head, like and all the
• 2:13:51
  wo's doubted who vill.
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 2: I like to think that there's like also the witch
• 2:13:54
  in there where it's like the and they had like
• 2:13:56
  start having like the voices that are kind of like
• 2:13:58
  wiry through it whatever you play through that.
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 3: There's a hidden tunnel under the tree, a tunnel filled
• 2:14:06
  with sweet smelling air that was like the tree smell
• 2:14:08
  but also different.
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 2: If he meets like a squirrel person that he talks with,
• 2:14:13
  I'm fucking dumb.
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 1: Squirrel.
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 2: If he fucking meets a squirrel with a vest and
• 2:14:21
  he's like I knew it was going to be some time,
• 2:14:23
  but not so soon or whatever.
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 3: Take to Rachel, imagine like the way that's the way
• 2:14:30
  he described stuff to kills me, or the way the
• 2:14:32
  author describes him. For it's like a tunnel filled with
• 2:14:34
  sweet smelling air that was like the tree, but also different.
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 2: God kill me.
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 3: And the tunnel wasn't dark, no, not at all. It
• 2:14:42
  glowed with its own golden light that called to me,
• 2:14:45
  urged me.
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 2: God damn it.
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 3: Right was beginning to fall. As I looked around the
• 2:14:49
  dark lot, I had the thought that I was leaving
• 2:14:52
  this world behind, and I found I didn't mind that
• 2:14:55
  much at all. Don't like continue to grow? Slanting down
• 2:14:59
  gently and to enough that I walked in without stooping.
• 2:15:02
  The roots of the tree went on and on, woven
• 2:15:05
  through the dirt walls. As I went deeper, I looked
• 2:15:07
  back and saw the tunnel close behind me, but I
• 2:15:10
  wasn't surprised. The way forward was the only way that mattered.
• 2:15:13
  I walked for what might have been hours, but I
• 2:15:15
  never felt tired or hungry, and I never worried I
• 2:15:18
  was lost. Though I had no idea where I was
• 2:15:21
  or where I was going. Still, I felt the surge
• 2:15:23
  of happiness and excitement when I turned a corner and
• 2:15:26
  saw something in the tunnel ahead. As I got closer,
• 2:15:28
  I realized it was a brick wall. Just as I
• 2:15:31
  began to think I'd found a dead end, the wall
• 2:15:33
  faded away, revealing a dark room. Why was there a
• 2:15:35
  brick wall?
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 2: Why was there a brick wall?
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 3: Why was there a brick wall? If it disappeared, no
• 2:15:39
  one else is in this tunnel. No one else is
• 2:15:41
  in this secret underground tree tunnel.
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 1: Sorry about that.
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 2: Didn't mean to put that illusion there.
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 3: Oh oh my bad. That was for a different part
• 2:15:48
  of the story. Anyway. I paused at the edge of
• 2:15:51
  the tunnel, looking out at the floor of what looked
• 2:15:54
  like a basement. It was empty, but in the light
• 2:15:57
  from the tree, I could make out something scratched into
• 2:15:59
  the floor. It was the number two, and then it
• 2:16:05
  was the number two. I felt my pulse thicket quickened
• 2:16:08
  as I thought back to Rachel's painting with the theater seats.
• 2:16:11
  And then I stepped out in another room. Thanks for
• 2:16:14
  explaining it again, I fucking know. It was the empty
• 2:16:18
  basement of a house. And I went up the stairs
• 2:16:21
  and opened the door. Guess what it's going to be?
• 2:16:23
  The room that he saw in the tree branch room earlier.
• 2:16:26
  I saw the rest of the house was empty as well.
• 2:16:29
  No lights were on, but bright sunlight poured in through
• 2:16:32
  every window, and in the distance I could hear what
• 2:16:34
  sounded like small waves crashing on a beach. I wanted
• 2:16:38
  to go out and see where I was. Yeah, it's
• 2:16:40
  going to get to the ending where he's holding her
• 2:16:41
  hand in the sunlight. I wanted to go out and
• 2:16:43
  see where I was, but I forced myself to check
• 2:16:46
  the house first for any people or clues. But there
• 2:16:48
  were none. The house was utterly bare of any sign
• 2:16:51
  of people other than the number scratched into the floor
• 2:16:53
  below My nose tingled with salty are as. I stepped outside.
• 2:16:58
  The house was near the beach and what I soon
• 2:17:00
  figured out was a small deserted island and what is happening?
• 2:17:05
  And I realized with little surprise that I recognized the
• 2:17:08
  house from Rachel's paintings. As I stepped off the porch,
• 2:17:12
  I saw no signs of people, but I wasn't entirely alone,
• 2:17:17
  because sitting some distance from the house was the tree.
• 2:17:21
  I knew it couldn't be the same tree as in
• 2:17:23
  the abandoned lot, but at the same time I knew
• 2:17:26
  that it was or lace, a different part of the
• 2:17:30
  same tree that made the tunnels and appeared in my
• 2:17:33
  old world. And whatever place this was, why is everything?
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: Explained?
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 3: Four times?
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: Because I started hell this is this is so done.
• 2:17:46
  I'm so dune this story. Dude.
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 7: Oh god, I feel bad for our listeners. Get click off,
• 2:17:54
  click off the fucking video.
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 3: If you're still listening, goddamn next week. It's just, it's
• 2:17:59
  just it will be four paragraphs to say it was
• 2:18:03
  the same tree, like because I started the number forty
• 2:18:08
  three years is gonna show up in a second, because
• 2:18:11
  I had started having that thought as soon as I
• 2:18:13
  stepped out of the house. I didn't think this was
• 2:18:17
  my world.
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 2: Really, I'm gonna punch a fucking hole through one of my.
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: Monitors, dude, Not exactly.
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 3: I could see a larger island some distance away, and
• 2:18:28
  it might have people on it, hotels and cars and planes,
• 2:18:32
  or it might not, as those things might not exist here.
• 2:18:40
  Either way, my new found intuition was growing stronger, and
• 2:18:44
  I could tell that the what was it called the
• 2:18:49
  con No?
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: What was it called?
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 8: Stop fucking just remember words, I'm gonna stop writing it.
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 3: What is the it's like the stupid? What my little
• 2:19:05
  mermaid song? What is fire in mine?
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 7: Is it?
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 3: What's the word burn? What was it called the con No?
• 2:19:18
  The texture of things was different somehow, if only a
• 2:19:22
  little not bad or scary, just different. Still, After a
• 2:19:28
  couple of hours exploring the island and checking the house,
• 2:19:31
  I began to feel terribly lonely. Even with the tree nearby,
• 2:19:36
  I decided to go back into the tunnel and keep going.
• 2:19:40
  The basement wall faded away as I walked up to it,
• 2:19:42
  and I entered the tunnels again. It was only a
• 2:19:45
  short time later that I found my second version of
• 2:19:48
  the house. Much like the first, the wall faded away
• 2:19:52
  into a basement, but this one was far from empty.
• 2:19:56
  It was a workshop of some kind, full of tools
• 2:19:59
  I wasn't familiar with. I glanced down and saw forty
• 2:20:02
  three scratched onto the floor. Who was doing that?
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: And why?
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 3: I was going to explore the house more carefully this time,
• 2:20:10
  as it looked like there were people here, But then
• 2:20:13
  I froze. Propped against the brick wall next to his
• 2:20:16
  small stack of boards was a slangehammer. Oh look at that,
• 2:20:19
  there it is again. Trying to be quiet, I crept
• 2:20:21
  over and picked it up before heading back into the tunnel.
• 2:20:24
  When I was little before Daddy died, what'd I walked away?
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: And that's the first thing I came back to. Fucking
• 2:20:36
  how fucking much longer? Is this. I'm actually getting mad.
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 3: It's got like five paragraphs left. Oh my god, five
• 2:20:43
  little sections. You didn't hear any of that, Okay, all
• 2:20:45
  that description about the tree and the beach. He just
• 2:20:48
  goes back into the tunnel. He was ently just inside.
• 2:20:53
  He sees everything, He's like, this is weird, and then
• 2:20:55
  goes back into the tunnel and then finds another house.
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 2: Please put me on my misery.
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 3: When I was little, before Daddy died, he loved to hunt.
• 2:21:04
  I never went with him and didn't remember much of
• 2:21:06
  what he hunted. But I do know he had an
• 2:21:08
  old hound he'd had since before I was born. The
• 2:21:11
  dog had only loved it. Why are we still getting
• 2:21:13
  introductions to stuff two paragraphs before the story's over. The
• 2:21:17
  dog had only loved him. Well him and being on
• 2:21:19
  the trail of something. When Rocker his name was Rockefeller,
• 2:21:23
  I'm gonna stop over explaining stuff. His name was Rockefeller,
• 2:21:28
  I don't care call the dog. Rocker got a sin.
• 2:21:32
  It was like he was in a trance. He would
• 2:21:35
  go and go this way and that, and to look
• 2:21:37
  at him, it looked like he was having a fit.
• 2:21:40
  Both lost inserted at the same time, but whenever Rocker
• 2:21:44
  knew or did it though he always found what he
• 2:21:46
  was looking for. Great, but now I felt like Rocker.
• 2:21:51
  Now I was moving faster and faster as I went
• 2:21:54
  down this turn in that I felt like I was
• 2:21:56
  on the trail of something, or traveling on memories I
• 2:21:58
  didn't have. Gripping the sledgehammer tightly, I could hear the
• 2:22:02
  rising hum of the distant music in my head as
• 2:22:04
  I turned the last quarter, and then it fell silent.
• 2:22:07
  There was another brick wall, and as I approached it,
• 2:22:10
  it fell away. Are you there, Hunter, Yeah, you need
• 2:22:15
  to be here for the ending of this I am.
• 2:22:18
  It was another basement room, but this one was much smaller.
• 2:22:21
  It contained a table, closed chest, and an old metal
• 2:22:24
  bed that had been broken apart. At the far brick wall.
• 2:22:28
  A woman was using one of the metal legs from
• 2:22:30
  the bed to attack the wall and whatever lay behind it.
• 2:22:33
  I felt my head began to swim as I looked
• 2:22:35
  at her from behind, and as she turned to look
• 2:22:37
  at me, eyes wide with surprise and fear. I felt
• 2:22:40
  the sledgehammer slip from my grip. As I stumbled back
• 2:22:42
  against the now solid wall. I could barely breathe it all,
• 2:22:45
  but I managed to get out a single word, Rachel. I,
• 2:22:50
  if I'm reading this, you got to give it some
• 2:22:51
  more emphasis. Rachel, thank you. The woman looked at me,
• 2:22:56
  her expression less fearful but still guarded. She had the
• 2:22:58
  bed like partially raised.
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: And warning, yeah, do I know you?
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 3: It was her, but it wasn't much like the tree
• 2:23:07
  on the island. This Rachel looked a few days older,
• 2:23:11
  and while she looked distressed and confused at the moment,
• 2:23:13
  her eyes didn't seem weighted down by the same quiet
• 2:23:16
  sadness I had come to recognize watching the other Rachel
• 2:23:19
  for all that time. Still, I didn't know how to
• 2:23:21
  answer her question and not sound creepy or crazy. I
• 2:23:24
  stared at her for a second, floundering. When she asked another.
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: You came out of the tree tunnel, right.
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 3: I nodded, grateful for something I could answer easily. Studying me,
• 2:23:36
  she said.
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 5: Where'd you come from before the tunnel?
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 9: Might mean?
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 3: I flushed as I tried to think of the right words.
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 2: Well, I came from Texas originally.
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 3: Maybe I'm gonna I'm gonna hope, I hope, I hope
• 2:23:48
  the story ends with him getting his eyes gouged out
• 2:23:50
  by crows. She grened at me for a second before
• 2:23:54
  catching herself and trying to look serious again.
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, but like, do you know how to works?
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 1: How do you find out about the tunnel?
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 2: How did you get here side?
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 3: I rubbed my head and just started into it. Oh cool,
• 2:24:07
  we get, we get everything that just happened to explain,
• 2:24:09
  Go ahead, hunter.
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 10: Look, I know this all will sound crazy, but I
• 2:24:14
  had a job watching a woman trapped in a room
• 2:24:17
  and that woman was you, or another version of you,
• 2:24:20
  and she asked me for help and I couldn't help her.
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 2: And then they took me and I found out she
• 2:24:26
  was she had been dead for a long time, but
• 2:24:30
  to see me in the future. And then they put
• 2:24:33
  something from the tree in me that had been in
• 2:24:36
  her that killed her.
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 11: And then I escaped, and then I figured out where
• 2:24:41
  to go to find the tree from the sun for
• 2:24:44
  the things she had painted, And somehow I knew how
• 2:24:47
  to go in the tunnels to find different spots.
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure the tunnels led to different worlds, and
• 2:24:53
  I got this sledgehammer.
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 3: In the night.
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 2: Hold up, goddamn, take a breath, you're going to pass out.
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 3: Okay, hold on. That paragraph was actually funny because like
• 2:25:04
  this has been so up seriously, Well, there was a
• 2:25:06
  woman and that one was you. Anyway, I found out
• 2:25:10
  it was about me, and they put the tree that
• 2:25:12
  was in her its and me, now I've got a hammer.
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 2: Like, oh my god.
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 3: She was smiling to get it this time. She did
• 2:25:18
  try to hide it. She looked over what was left
• 2:25:21
  of the beds where the sledgehammer was laying on the floor.
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: And did you say sledgehammer?
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 3: And ierm, it's right behind me, isn't it the sledge hammer?
• 2:25:31
  Because I dropped it on the floor.
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 1: Whack, So yeah, I believe you. Whack.
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 7: I've been in those tonnels too. My ex boyfriend tricked
• 2:25:42
  me into moving here so he could tie me to
• 2:25:43
  the tree in this place. What's what to a tree
• 2:25:47
  in his place?
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 3: With the ex boyfriend tricked me to move in to
• 2:25:50
  the hyperdimensional tree so he could tie me to it.
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 2: Whack, Well, not tie me to the tree, literally take
• 2:25:58
  the take his plays what the trees buddy or something.
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 1: I don't really know. It's all pretty fucked up and
• 2:26:05
  don't really understand.
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 2: It all of it, whack.
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 1: But what I do understand is that the fucker walled
• 2:26:11
  me up in here.
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 2: At first, I thought I could just probably lose some
• 2:26:15
  bricks over time, but nope, you put a layer of
• 2:26:17
  concrete on the other side of this time, on the
• 2:26:19
  outside this time, I've been good old Phil or Justin
• 2:26:22
  or whatever I meany think of him as fuck face
• 2:26:24
  now I.
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 3: This in any other situation, this would make me furious,
• 2:26:29
  Like the story, like just getting to the tone of like,
• 2:26:32
  oh me, I'm a bit of a punk. I'm a
• 2:26:34
  little different. Oh Phil, Justin whatever his name was, my
• 2:26:38
  ex boyfriend tied me up in here like all of
• 2:26:40
  a sudden, adopting like a Scott Pilgrim attitude to everything.
• 2:26:44
  But I'm honestly over it in every way, So sure.
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: Whack this is taking forever you and kidding.
• 2:26:51
  Speaker 3: I stepped up and put my head on the slangehammer.
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 1: Let me do it for a bit. We can take tunes.
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 3: We had cleared away even more brick than she had
• 2:27:00
  already managed, but the concrete wall was only starting to
• 2:27:02
  show small cracks. I want to just keep looking at her,
• 2:27:05
  have her talk to me, but I knew she was tired.
• 2:27:09
  She nodded reluctantly and let go of the hammer before
• 2:27:12
  I swung. I looked back at.
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 1: Her how long have you been here like this back.
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 3: Er?
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 1: It's hard to say for sure, but I think about
• 2:27:20
  eight months.
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 3: I let the hammer drop down again as my eyes
• 2:27:24
  wide And.
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: How did you survive all that time?
• 2:27:27
  Speaker 3: Her scal deepened.
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: It's the tree. It won't let me die.
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 7: I just dip into the tunnel every day for a
• 2:27:34
  bit and never get that hungry or thirsty.
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 3: A thought occurred to me, Then.
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 1: Why didn't you just escape through the tunnels?
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 3: She quickly shook her head.
• 2:27:44
  Speaker 1: No, thank you.
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 2: I had enough of seeing other worlds. Some of them
• 2:27:47
  aren't so nice, and I don't want to be more
• 2:27:50
  tied to the tree than I already am. I just
• 2:27:52
  went out of here into my own world, and then
• 2:27:55
  I can try and figure out how to get free
• 2:27:56
  of my connection to get to the tree for good.
• 2:28:01
  I would have done it eventually with the stupid bed parts,
• 2:28:04
  but who knows how long it would have taken. I'm
• 2:28:07
  very happy you came to help and brought a sledgehammer
• 2:28:09
  with you.
• 2:28:11
  Speaker 3: Returning her smile, I nodded as I lifted the hammer again.
• 2:28:14
  Speaker 1: Me too.
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 3: We were oh, this is the final one, okay. We
• 2:28:19
  were both ringing with sweat when we crawled through the
• 2:28:22
  hole we'd made in the outer wall. Rachel told me
• 2:28:25
  that she thought her ex boyfriend was long gone, but
• 2:28:27
  she couldn't be sure, so we had to be careful.
• 2:28:29
  Grabbing the sledgehammer from inside the room, we had our
• 2:28:32
  way towards the stairs as her ex boyfriend Solomon or something,
• 2:28:34
  I don't know. The house was decorated but quiet, and
• 2:28:38
  we saw no sign of anyone as we walked to
• 2:28:40
  the front door and opened it. Outside, the sun was
• 2:28:42
  coming up on a new day, and as we walked
• 2:28:44
  out onto the porch, I jumped a little as Rachel
• 2:28:46
  took my hand and gave it a squeeze. I looked
• 2:28:48
  over at her. I had been able to help the
• 2:28:51
  other Rachel, but maybe that had never been the point
• 2:28:54
  at all, because I thought now she had been able
• 2:28:56
  to see more than just other places or the future.
• 2:28:59
  She had been able to see into other worlds and
• 2:29:01
  possibilities like this one where another version of her was
• 2:29:05
  trapped and needed help, a place where I wouldn't be
• 2:29:08
  hunted and she could be free. In the end, even
• 2:29:11
  when she knew she was dying, Rachel had been determined
• 2:29:14
  to help us be together and happy. The morning sun
• 2:29:18
  painted beautiful colors on Rachel's face, and looking into her eyes,
• 2:29:21
  I saw how much she was like the woman I
• 2:29:23
  had watched and cared about and tried to save, the
• 2:29:26
  woman who in the end had saved me. Instead. I
• 2:29:28
  wanted to tell Rachel so many things, ask her so
• 2:29:30
  many questions, but all that could come later. Squeezing her handback,
• 2:29:34
  I walked with her away from the house. For now.
• 2:29:36
  This was enough.
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 2: In terms of like, it's not the worst written thing.
• 2:29:40
  It was just it was so draining, Like I had
• 2:29:43
  almost no fun reading this, And I feel horrible saying that,
• 2:29:47
  because I feel like that's rude.
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 3: So when we got to that one line from Rachel,
• 2:29:53
  it branched off to another story called Come Live in
• 2:29:55
  the Ashes of My Heart that's four parts and is
• 2:29:58
  about Rachel. I assume that story ends the same place
• 2:30:02
  this one did, with her in the tree trying to
• 2:30:05
  break out. It probably has to do with her ex
• 2:30:07
  boyfriend and all that, so it's probably how Rachel wound
• 2:30:11
  up there. So there is a second part to it.
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing. This could be somebody's cup of tea.
• 2:30:19
  It just wasn't mine.
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 3: It's all so someone could enjoy it, for sure, this
• 2:30:24
  story very well might be a crowd pleaser. People might
• 2:30:26
  like the turning doors and stuff like that. I'm I
• 2:30:29
  should also mention I'm just poisoned because mainstream media does
• 2:30:32
  it so much now about stories actually being revealed to
• 2:30:36
  be some super cosmic, extra dimensional multi time travel whatever
• 2:30:41
  that I'm over it for me. It kills the stakes
• 2:30:42
  in a story. It makes it less interesting. But again,
• 2:30:46
  that's just me.
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 2: You said up so that the I just was just
• 2:30:52
  not even lost.
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 3: I just okay. Let me also say this about it, right,
• 2:30:56
  It seems that just looking this was one of the
• 2:31:00
  author's first stories, okay, and it's six years ago, and
• 2:31:07
  since it looks like he's posting stories like every single
• 2:31:11
  month for the past six years and then putting out
• 2:31:13
  books that are compilations of them, so I would be
• 2:31:17
  happy to give another story a shake in the future
• 2:31:19
  and see it. It's very possible this might have just
• 2:31:22
  been an early story, had a lot of ideas, wanted
• 2:31:24
  to make them all fit together, even if in my opinion,
• 2:31:27
  they didn't necessarily all need to fit together. But there's
• 2:31:31
  literally hundreds of stories across the past six years, and
• 2:31:34
  I think that's awesome, and I want to see this
• 2:31:38
  author get some love, because there's a lot of really
• 2:31:41
  cool ideas there. That opening, when it was the it
• 2:31:45
  was him watching her through a monitor and he starts
• 2:31:47
  to figure out, Okay, there's other people in the building,
• 2:31:49
  maybe I can talk to them. Like that was all
• 2:31:51
  really cool and exciting. But I feel like there was
• 2:31:54
  one story that was about that, the woman and the monitor,
• 2:31:57
  and then there was this other story about out a
• 2:32:02
  multi dimensional girl who is talking to a man through
• 2:32:07
  paintings and she's actually in the past and getting him
• 2:32:10
  to change his future and stuff that maybe was its
• 2:32:13
  own thing. I think both of them could have worked
• 2:32:15
  as long as they were separate, and I don't think
• 2:32:17
  either of them really had a place on No Sleep
• 2:32:20
  at least in my opinion, there wasn't really any like
• 2:32:22
  horror thread to them. But another thing I'll say is,
• 2:32:28
  whenever you reveal something in a story, the rule of
• 2:32:31
  thumb is it needs to be more interesting than what
• 2:32:34
  the audience previously thought it was. It needs to be
• 2:32:37
  a satisfying reveal. And I feel like with every reveal
• 2:32:40
  in the story, the stakes got lowered for me and
• 2:32:42
  I become more disinterested again. Part of that's just because,
• 2:32:45
  like I mentioned these grand, super multi dimensional stakes kill
• 2:32:49
  a story for me, but I'm sure there's someone out
• 2:32:53
  there that could enjoy it. That maybe those twists worked
• 2:32:55
  for that. Maybe some of the suspense was scary, maybe
• 2:32:57
  the early parts about the camera were terrifying or something.
• 2:33:00
  So it's not like lost. There were pieces there that
• 2:33:02
  I would love to see an author work on. And
• 2:33:04
  considering he's been writing for years since this story, and
• 2:33:10
  like apparently good enough to have multiple published works, it
• 2:33:13
  looks like that one, the Sarcophagus one, isn't the only
• 2:33:17
  published work he has. Probably has some really cool stuff,
• 2:33:20
  and we're probably viewing an early one. But yeah, judging
• 2:33:23
  the story solely on its own merits, that was rough.
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I thank you saiding it perfectly.
• 2:33:30
  Speaker 3: I have found stories that I wrote years ago, because
• 2:33:33
  like what, let's say, I'm twenty five now, eight years ago,
• 2:33:37
  I was in high school, right, eight nine years ago.
• 2:33:40
  I have found stuff I written in high school that
• 2:33:43
  makes me cringe so hard that my blood turns cold,
• 2:33:47
  right about like just how poor the writing style was,
• 2:33:50
  how stuff stuff way worse than what we read today, right,
• 2:33:53
  And I'd like to think I've become a more apt
• 2:33:55
  writer in the time since. So I don't feel judging
• 2:34:01
  an entire author by that one story, but judging that
• 2:34:04
  one story in a vacuum not a fan, just like
• 2:34:08
  I wouldn't expect people to be a fan of my
• 2:34:10
  early work. Like that's just that's just how it goes.
• 2:34:12
  You get better as time goes on. Look at my
• 2:34:14
  earliest YouTube videos and compare them to now. I like
• 2:34:17
  to think there's a difference. But yeah, it's just that
• 2:34:22
  that was rough. It going from like creepy. I think
• 2:34:25
  I'm a part of an experiment too. We're traveling through
• 2:34:29
  the movie theater tunnel to get to the island where
• 2:34:32
  the tree is, and yeah, it just became a slog
• 2:34:36
  to get through because I wasn't interested in mistakes. And
• 2:34:38
  that's why I had such a negative reaction to the story,
• 2:34:42
  kind of drawing itself out, because it had me and
• 2:34:44
  it lost me.
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't think it ever had me.
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 3: It had me at the very beginning. I like the
• 2:34:51
  premise Part one had me.
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 2: I think, I just I think it felt kind of
• 2:34:56
  I guess obviously, I feel like I kept calling everything.
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you about this, I thought.
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 2: Also, I think the biggest problem besides it being disjointed,
• 2:35:04
  was I had no sympathy or understanding or care for
• 2:35:09
  the main character at all.
• 2:35:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's also stuff like him being uneducated or kind
• 2:35:15
  of strange that never went anywhere, even though I've thought
• 2:35:17
  that's what the story was setting up.
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 2: It's just like a bunch of quirks, like a bunch
• 2:35:20
  of like stuff of like why you have to keep
• 2:35:22
  saying what's that word again? But like why are you
• 2:35:25
  typing that? Also, if this is supposed to be something
• 2:35:28
  where it's like him or calling this after the fact,
• 2:35:32
  like where and why is he recalling it? Especially to
• 2:35:35
  the end of this story is to where we're at now,
• 2:35:38
  doesn't really lead us to why he.
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 1: Wrote about this.
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 2: It's just him still walking through Narnia. Think, Yeah, I
• 2:35:45
  just I just for me personally, I just didn't care
• 2:35:48
  for the story.
• 2:35:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, not really up my alli. But put it this way,
• 2:35:52
  what if there was a story where a guy is
• 2:35:54
  at a ignore the part about it being an experiment
• 2:35:58
  or like a psychological study or whatever. Take that element
• 2:36:00
  out of it. A guy has a job where he
• 2:36:03
  goes to You could even make it more literal. Maybe
• 2:36:05
  he's a prison guard or something. Right, and he has
• 2:36:09
  to watch a prisoner like day in day out, and
• 2:36:14
  he starts to get weird vibes about what's happening in
• 2:36:16
  the cell, but he can't communicate anyone, so he starts
• 2:36:19
  leaving messages for the other guards at his post, and
• 2:36:22
  then there's communication that way, and then ultimately there's a
• 2:36:25
  reveal at the end of the story that this happened
• 2:36:27
  years ago, that none of this matters, so that's old.
• 2:36:30
  I think you could get a pretty interesting story out
• 2:36:32
  of that.
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 2: Previously, I think you can get an interesting story of anything.
• 2:36:36
  This isn't even like I'm not even trying to necessarily
• 2:36:38
  shit on this person or like discourage anybody from doing anything.
• 2:36:42
  I'm just saying that this iteration of what I just
• 2:36:45
  read I personally didn't connect with. I think that there
• 2:36:49
  was just a lot. That doesn't mean that the idea
• 2:36:51
  or the core structure of the idea couldn't have been there,
• 2:36:53
  but it felt too disjointed. It dipped into fantasy, which
• 2:36:57
  also just felt it just felt radic and random. There's
• 2:37:01
  too many loose ends that didn't tie up. And then
• 2:37:02
  also it could be a matter of you have to
• 2:37:05
  read all of these different stories to have this thing connect.
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I'm never a fan of to read and
• 2:37:10
  I just don't like that understand something that just feels
• 2:37:13
  where it links off. I'm not not a huge fan.
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I almost want to say sorry.
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 1: I do I do feel Look my first, my mood
• 2:37:21
  is ruined.
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 2: At the end, I'm like, I'm not either, like I
• 2:37:24
  I understand, my demeanor has completely shifted.
• 2:37:28
  Speaker 1: I want I want it. It's late in the day.
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 2: I'm tired. I just spent three hours. I just spent
• 2:37:34
  three hours reporting this after we all both just did
• 2:37:36
  a work day, just recording this to you know, cap
• 2:37:39
  the day off, and it ended with this Narnia thing.
• 2:37:43
  I feel like I'm just I'm frustrated. Maybe I'm a
• 2:37:45
  little hungry, right, A little hungry.
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm a little I'm a little miffed. I'll give
• 2:37:49
  you that. So that not a great situation to get into. Admittedly,
• 2:37:54
  like I said, at one point, I needed a caffeine
• 2:37:56
  to keep me going. I'm a little tired. I get that.
• 2:37:58
  I apologize for being like angry. At some parts it
• 2:38:01
  was frustration because for me, at least I was in
• 2:38:03
  at the beginning, and then every reveal made me less
• 2:38:07
  in so I was like frustrated because I wanted to
• 2:38:10
  like the story. I wanted again in the premise, I
• 2:38:11
  just wasn't happy with the weight went. But hey, I'm
• 2:38:13
  just one guy. Maybe this story kills I'm reading through
• 2:38:16
  the comments right now on the No Sleep post and
• 2:38:19
  people seem to like it. People seem to be a fan.
• 2:38:21
  So people aren't connecting it. Yeah, people are looking at symbolism.
• 2:38:25
  They're they're connecting it to jig Jersil, you know, the
• 2:38:28
  tree from Norse mythology and stuff like that. Good for you.
• 2:38:31
  If people enjoy it, then people enjoy it. We're just
• 2:38:33
  two guys on the internet. What do we matter? But
• 2:38:35
  for me personally, this wasn't it?
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 1: There it is?
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 2: There's your creep cast episode. Show up next week. We
• 2:38:44
  promised there.
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 1: You know, show up next week.
• 2:38:48
  Speaker 3: Thanks sho show up next week. We promise you you'll
• 2:38:51
  have shown up next week. Thanks for beader, Thanks for
• 2:38:54
  watching this song. If you have, you guys are great.
• 2:38:57
  I'm gonna go eat something and cry.
• 2:39:00
  Speaker 1: Five