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00:00:00,420 --> 00:00:05,300
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Speaker 1: them? Outlet covers, kitchen cabinet
locks, baby gates. Where do you even start?

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7
00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:36,220
Speaker 1: Progressive Casualty Insurance
Company, affiliates, and other insurers. Not

8
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Speaker 1: available in all states. [phone
ringing] [suspenseful music] This is a horror

9
00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:47,940
Speaker 1: storytelling podcast. Our tales are
dark and disturbing, intended

10
00:00:47,980 --> 00:00:51,960
Speaker 1: to shake you up. Listen at your own
risk.

11
00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:59,140
Speaker 1: They are all around you. And tonight,
there will be no sleep.

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00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:06,240
Speaker 1: [suspenseful music]

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00:01:06,300 --> 00:01:09,980
Speaker 1: Brace yourself for the No Sleep
Podcast.

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00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:18,720
Speaker 1: For the dark hours when you dare not
close your eyes. Tales of

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00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:24,700
Speaker 1: horror to frighten and disturb. Join

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00:01:24,780 --> 00:01:28,960
Speaker 1: us as the sleepless hours tick past.

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00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:53,640
Speaker 1: [suspenseful music]

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Speaker 1: It's the No Sleep Podcast. I'm David
Cummings. Thanks for joining us. On this week's

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00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:04,940
Speaker 1: show, we have five tales about
confined kids, striking storms, and

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00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:10,820
Speaker 1: freaky forests. It's my pleasure to
welcome two new voice actors to the show.

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00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:16,400
Speaker 1: Wafia White is a trained actor with a
BA in drama from the University of North

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00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:21,780
Speaker 1: Carolina. She has a number of stage
and film credits and is branching out into voice

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Speaker 1: acting. We're glad you're sharing
your voice with us, Wafia. Also joining us is

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00:02:27,620 --> 00:02:33,560
Speaker 1: Erin Lillis. Erin is a writer, voice
actor, podcaster, and artist with a BFA in

25
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Speaker 1: film from Emerson College. She's an
experienced voice actor with numerous

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Speaker 1: audiobooks, narrations, and
commercial roles to her credit. Thank you for
being a

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Speaker 1: part of our team, Erin. We welcome
both of these talented women to the show. Check

28
00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:54,300
Speaker 1: the show notes to learn more about
them. Longtime listeners may be familiar with

29
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Speaker 1: some of our regular authors. We have
the pleasure of collaborating with some of the

30
00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:03,320
Speaker 1: best writers on the No Sleep
subreddit. And occasionally, the No Sleep
writing

31
00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:08,860
Speaker 1: community holds a competition called
No Sleep Teams, where authors are put in groups

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Speaker 1: and each group creates a single
story. We're pleased to be doing one such No
Sleep

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Speaker 1: Team story on this episode, and I
think you'll recognize most of the authors in
that

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Speaker 1: team. It's always good to see such
fine talent collaborate. And before

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Speaker 1: we begin, I want to wish our Canadian
and American listeners both a happy Canada Day

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Speaker 1: and Happy Independence Day. Canada
turns 150 years old this weekend,

37
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Speaker 1: so we're pretty flippin' stoked about
that, eh? And of course, a happy red, white,

38
00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:47,380
Speaker 1: and blue Fourth of July to our
neighbors to the south. May all the fireworks,
hot

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00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:53,120
Speaker 1: dogs, and maple syrup-flavored
poutine, in which we Canadians indulge, be
enjoyed in

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Speaker 1: abundance and safety this week. So
this episode is really about people teaming up,

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Speaker 1: collaborating, and uniting in the
spirit of writing, acting, and patriotism.

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00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:10,380
Speaker 1: Let's raise the No Sleep Podcast
flag, salute, and start this week's show.

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Speaker 1: [fire crackling]

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Speaker 1: In our first tale, we meet a young
man who just can't figure out his parents. As

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Speaker 1: explained by author Jared Roberts,
his folks seem to be treating him differently

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Speaker 1: lately. Perhaps their obsession with
an old David Lynch film has something to do

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Speaker 1: with it. Performing this tale are
Matthew Bradford and Erin Lillis.

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Speaker 1: So enjoy sci-fi epics all you want,
just make sure you're fully aware of the

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Speaker 1: Secrets Inside Dune.

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Speaker 2: This happened a long time ago. I've
been thinking of it a lot lately because I've

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Speaker 2: been going through my old stuff, and
I found something I never wanted to see again.

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Speaker 2: This definitely feels like something
I appropriate for here. When I was a teenager,

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Speaker 2: I started noticing my parents
behaving kind of strange. Like they were
different

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Speaker 2: around me. Not let's treat our son
like an adult different, or he's a grouchy teen,

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Speaker 2: let's ignore him different. It was
almost like they were afraid of me, wanted to

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Speaker 2: keep a distance. They were nicer in a
way because they wouldn't ask me to do chores

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Speaker 2: or anything, but not as nice because
they wouldn't ask me to come watch movies with

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Speaker 2: them, go places with them, and that
sort of thing. I never thought I'd miss those

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Speaker 2: things.

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Speaker 2: One of the strangest moments early
on, I walked in on Dad sobbing. He'd been

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Speaker 2: drinking a lot, that much I could
tell. I came up to him and placed a hand on his

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Speaker 2: shoulder. He leaned away from me and
spoke in a whisper

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Speaker 3: She just needs to know Bobby is okay.

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Speaker 2: That made my skin crawl because the
thing is, I'm Bobby.

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Speaker 2: I said I'm fine, nothing to worry
about.

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Speaker 3: Where'd you come from?

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Speaker 2: He was still leaning away. He looked
into my eyes like I was some mutant that just

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Speaker 2: appeared in his den. I told myself he
was just really drunk and went to my room.

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Speaker 2: Now, I was a pretty average teen.
When I hit puberty, I filled out good.

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Speaker 2: I liked playing sports, hockey in
particular. I had some girls, nothing serious,
had

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Speaker 2: a good number of friends, and I
enjoyed parties. I was a C student for the most

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Speaker 2: part. I did a little better in
English lit because my parents were both big
into

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Speaker 2: reading. I was easy to get along
with. I didn't have all the angst the less

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Speaker 2: popular or more popular teens had. I
was comfortable in the middle. I'm

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Speaker 2: sure I could be a handful to my
parents sometimes. I didn't think I was a bad
kid.

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Speaker 2: The way they were treating me,
though, had me thinking I'd messed up. I was

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Speaker 2: thinking, "Did I scratch Dad's car by
accident? Did I say something shitty?" I knew

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Speaker 2: I'd missed my chores a few times, and
Mom just did them herself, so I started making

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Speaker 2: sure all my regular chores were done
right when they should be. They thanked me like

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Speaker 2: I'd just installed their satellite
television, then went back to what they were

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Speaker 2: doing. So after a while of this, I
decided to ask, "Hey,

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Speaker 2: did I do something wrong?" They
looked at each other, looked back at me, and

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Speaker 2: shook their heads.

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Speaker 3: You're doing great, son.

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Speaker 2: Which was really, really weird. My
dad never called me son before all this.

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Speaker 2: After that, I started sitting with
them in the evening when I had the time, just

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Speaker 2: spending quality time together. I
thought, "If this is reverse psychology, it's

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Speaker 2: working." Dad squirmed a little when
I sat next to him. I'd never seen Dad squirm in

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Speaker 2: my life. "Do I stink or something?"

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Speaker 3: No, you're zestfully clean.

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Speaker 2: He wore an uncomfortable smile.
Sitting with them every so often, I noticed

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Speaker 2: something. They only ever watched one
movie anymore. It was all Dune,

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Speaker 2: the 1980s movie with Kyle MacLachlan,
where he's this royal kid who goes to a desert

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Speaker 2: planet and rides sandworms. I'd seen
it when I was a kid. It was okay.

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Speaker 2: I didn't think it was good enough to
watch over and over, but every time I sat with

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Speaker 2: them, that's what they had on. "You
guys sure like Dune lately."

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Speaker 2: My mom gave an odd reason.

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Speaker 4: We bought the VHS. Might as well get
our money's worth.

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Speaker 2: One night, I told them I was heading
out with some friends. Then I snuck back into

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Speaker 2: my room through the window. I know,
most teens do the opposite, right? So

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Speaker 2: I sneak back in and just lay back on
my bed listening. I can hear them watching Dune

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Speaker 2: again. They're at the part where he's
training the desert people to fight with their

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00:09:34,784 --> 00:09:40,344
Speaker 2: voices, and I hear them talking. Not
like they're talking to each other, but to

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Speaker 2: someone else. So I sneak out to the
living room and look in. Mom and Dad are up

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Speaker 2: close to the TV screen. There's no
one else in the room. Then they start talking

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Speaker 2: again. They're talking to the movie.

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Speaker 3: No, no, no, we're okay.

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Speaker 4: We love you, and we miss you.

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00:10:02,164 --> 00:10:07,504
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
What was going on? It was like my family had

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00:10:07,544 --> 00:10:13,364
Speaker 2: been replaced by aliens. It didn't
make any sense. Then Dad really started to

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00:10:13,444 --> 00:10:13,864
Speaker 2: scare me.

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00:10:14,804 --> 00:10:18,504
Speaker 3: What? No, no, he left. We saw him
leave.

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00:10:19,544 --> 00:10:24,984
Speaker 2: Who are they talking to? They both
turned around and saw me watching them. I'm sure

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00:10:25,023 --> 00:10:29,643
Speaker 2: it was less than a second, but the
looks on their faces was just pure, stunned

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Speaker 2: terror.

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00:10:31,464 --> 00:10:32,204
Speaker 4: Take it out of here.

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00:10:33,184 --> 00:10:38,944
Speaker 2: I thought she meant me, but she said
it and not him. Dad turned off the movie and

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00:10:39,004 --> 00:10:43,884
Speaker 2: ejected the tape. He put it in the
sleeve and went into the basement with it. Mom

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00:10:43,924 --> 00:10:47,984
Speaker 2: looked nervous the whole time he was
doing this. "What's going on?"

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00:10:48,284 --> 00:10:51,684
Speaker 4: A surprise. So what happened to make
you come home so soon?

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00:10:52,284 --> 00:10:58,204
Speaker 2: I didn't feel well, so I went back
upstairs. She bought my lie. Dad came

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00:10:58,244 --> 00:10:59,124
Speaker 2: back into the room.

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00:11:00,144 --> 00:11:05,044
Speaker 3: Sorry, son. We were just embarrassed,
you know, because of your comment about us

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00:11:05,084 --> 00:11:10,024
Speaker 3: watching Dune. It's a good movie. You
learn more about it every time you see it.

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00:11:10,764 --> 00:11:15,444
Speaker 3: Just think about it, how these people
are thrown into the desert planet and lose

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00:11:15,524 --> 00:11:21,164
Speaker 3: everything, but there's a secret
inside. Do you know about the

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00:11:21,244 --> 00:11:22,124
Speaker 3: secret inside?

128
00:11:22,644 --> 00:11:28,244
Speaker 2: Of course. The way he said it was
very unnerving. I wasn't about to

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00:11:28,324 --> 00:11:33,744
Speaker 2: argue. I went up to my room. I heard
them whispering as I left. I didn't want to

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00:11:33,824 --> 00:11:38,824
Speaker 2: know what they were saying. While I
moped in my room, I decided to look on the

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00:11:38,884 --> 00:11:44,424
Speaker 2: internet for Dune making people
behave strange. Like, remember that movie In the

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00:11:44,484 --> 00:11:49,444
Speaker 2: Mouth of Madness, where that guy's
writings make people crazy? I couldn't find

133
00:11:49,504 --> 00:11:55,424
Speaker 2: anything, mostly just complaints
about David Lynch going commercial. So I went

134
00:11:55,484 --> 00:12:00,064
Speaker 2: on IMDb and put on the Dune forum,
parents acting strange, or something in the

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00:12:00,124 --> 00:12:04,924
Speaker 2: subject, and I asked if anyone else
had noticed someone talking to the movie or

136
00:12:05,004 --> 00:12:10,504
Speaker 2: watching it over and over and over. I
got a reply almost right away.

137
00:12:11,404 --> 00:12:16,396
Speaker 2: The guy sent it as a private message.
He told me he doesn't know anything more than

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00:12:16,516 --> 00:12:21,616
Speaker 2: I do. All he knows is his son got
obsessed with a movie before he committed
suicide.

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00:12:22,496 --> 00:12:28,016
Speaker 2: He watched it over and over, drew
scenes from the movie, said things like, "Kyle's

140
00:12:28,076 --> 00:12:33,736
Speaker 2: desert trek and strange powers have
captured me." He thought it was a phase. It was

141
00:12:33,796 --> 00:12:39,576
Speaker 2: something else. He knows that now. He
said his son left this suicide

142
00:12:39,636 --> 00:12:45,176
Speaker 2: note, if you can call it that.
"Brought to this planet of worms, only betrayed
and

143
00:12:45,236 --> 00:12:49,276
Speaker 2: desecrated, but I've tasted the spice
and seen things I shouldn't see. But I've

144
00:12:49,356 --> 00:12:54,416
Speaker 2: tasted the spice and see the secrets
that are inside. You can't imagine. Dune is

145
00:12:54,496 --> 00:13:00,156
Speaker 2: me." Huh. I gave the man my
condolences and thanked him for

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00:13:00,236 --> 00:13:05,996
Speaker 2: sharing with me. I didn't feel any
further ahead, just a little more scared. The

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00:13:06,096 --> 00:13:11,436
Speaker 2: suicide note obviously overlaps with
what my dad said to me. It just confirmed that

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00:13:11,496 --> 00:13:17,016
Speaker 2: Dune seems to mess with some people's
heads. It's just we'd watched Dune before,

149
00:13:17,596 --> 00:13:23,456
Speaker 2: rented it from Club Videotek. It
wasn't a big deal. I knew that I had to get

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00:13:23,516 --> 00:13:28,896
Speaker 2: rid of that damn tape though. If it
could make some boy kill himself, maybe it could

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00:13:28,956 --> 00:13:34,256
Speaker 2: do that to my parents. So that night,
I pretended to be asleep for a while.

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00:13:34,916 --> 00:13:40,376
Speaker 2: I know that sounds silly. Like, were
my parents really watching me that close? It

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00:13:40,416 --> 00:13:46,336
Speaker 2: was just a gut feeling, and it paid
off. After about an hour, when I'd figured

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00:13:46,376 --> 00:13:50,316
Speaker 2: the coast was clear, a shadow under
the door frame that I figured was just an

155
00:13:50,376 --> 00:13:55,416
Speaker 2: obstruction moved away with a
shuffle. That shuffle was my mom's slippers.

156
00:13:56,276 --> 00:14:01,676
Speaker 2: She'd been standing there at my door
for an hour. I waited another thirty minutes

157
00:14:01,736 --> 00:14:07,456
Speaker 2: before sneaking out of my room. I
moved quietly because I wasn't sure how

158
00:14:07,536 --> 00:14:13,336
Speaker 2: asleep they were. They were so cagey
lately. I was freaking thorough.

159
00:14:14,136 --> 00:14:18,636
Speaker 2: To let you know how much this was
getting to me, I grabbed the WD-40 from under
the

160
00:14:18,716 --> 00:14:23,976
Speaker 2: sink and greased the basement door
hinges because I knew they normally squeak. Yep.

161
00:14:24,636 --> 00:14:29,576
Speaker 2: I snuck down and started hunting in
any hiding place I could think of. The lights

162
00:14:29,616 --> 00:14:33,796
Speaker 2: flicked on, and Mom and Dad both came
rushing down, shouting.

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00:14:34,696 --> 00:14:37,596
Speaker 5: Get away from here, you miserable
monster!

164
00:14:37,976 --> 00:14:42,676
Speaker 2: What the hell is the matter with you
two? That movie is driving you crazy. You know

165
00:14:42,736 --> 00:14:44,996
Speaker 2: some kid committed suicide because of
that movie?

166
00:14:46,516 --> 00:14:50,496
Speaker 2: I don't know if those were my exact
words, but I basically spewed the stuff out I'd

167
00:14:50,516 --> 00:14:51,376
Speaker 2: been bottling up.

168
00:14:52,316 --> 00:14:56,796
Speaker 5: Isn't it enough you took our Bobby
away from us once? You have to do it again?

169
00:14:57,336 --> 00:14:57,656
Speaker 2: What?

170
00:14:58,176 --> 00:15:03,456
Speaker 5: You disgusting thing, living and
breathing in our house for all these weeks,

171
00:15:04,056 --> 00:15:09,716
Speaker 5: and you have the gall to look like
our son. What do you want from us? How

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00:15:09,776 --> 00:15:11,516
Speaker 5: much more can we take?

173
00:15:11,896 --> 00:15:17,416
Speaker 2: Is this a joke? I'm your son. They
looked at me, and I saw the revulsion in their

174
00:15:17,496 --> 00:15:23,396
Speaker 2: eyes. Now it made some awful sense.
They really believed I wasn't

175
00:15:23,436 --> 00:15:27,036
Speaker 2: their son. All this time, that's what
it was.

176
00:15:28,516 --> 00:15:33,916
Speaker 4: We knew the very day it happened that
you were something different. You sound,

177
00:15:34,636 --> 00:15:40,136
Speaker 4: smell, you look the same, but we
loved Bobby. We know.

178
00:15:40,776 --> 00:15:41,616
Speaker 4: We know.

179
00:15:42,676 --> 00:15:46,996
Speaker 2: I didn't know what to do. I didn't
know how to prove to them the obvious fact that
I

180
00:15:47,036 --> 00:15:52,556
Speaker 2: was the same person. They already
acknowledged that I was exactly the same. I

181
00:15:52,656 --> 00:15:58,576
Speaker 2: started crying, more with frustration
than hurt, I think. I happened to look up

182
00:15:58,976 --> 00:16:03,716
Speaker 2: and saw the copy of Dune resting on
the ceiling rafters. I grabbed it, and I was

183
00:16:03,816 --> 00:16:09,096
Speaker 2: just about to smash it. That's when
they started wailing. Not crying,

184
00:16:09,616 --> 00:16:14,976
Speaker 2: just like loud sounds coming out of
their mouths. It was like a car alarm.

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00:16:15,756 --> 00:16:16,836
Speaker 2: I stopped right away.

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Speaker 4: Please, please, please don't. That's
our boy in there. Bobby went into Dune when you

187
00:16:23,496 --> 00:16:27,856
Speaker 4: took him away from us. Show some
mercy, whatever you are.

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00:16:29,056 --> 00:16:34,715
Speaker 2: I took the tape. I didn't smash it. I
just took it, packed my bags,

189
00:16:34,975 --> 00:16:40,136
Speaker 2: and left. Never went back home. I put
that tape away somewhere,

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00:16:41,056 --> 00:16:46,916
Speaker 2: tried never to think of it. I lost
track of my parents over the years. I've tried
to

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00:16:46,976 --> 00:16:52,536
Speaker 2: find them on a few occasions. They
never reached out to me. I have not been hiding

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00:16:53,376 --> 00:16:54,616
Speaker 2: almost twenty years.

193
00:17:01,816 --> 00:17:07,196
Speaker 2: Last week, I went looking for
something in my stuff, and I found that damn
tape.

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00:17:08,236 --> 00:17:13,576
Speaker 2: I couldn't bring myself to destroy it
still. Instead, I decided to watch it.

195
00:17:14,516 --> 00:17:20,336
Speaker 2: I thought it might do me good. I
thought. I got to the scene where Leto

196
00:17:20,396 --> 00:17:25,776
Speaker 2: dies. I swear I heard someone
whisper, "Come on in,

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00:17:26,096 --> 00:17:26,776
Speaker 2: Bobby."

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00:17:28,516 --> 00:17:33,976
Speaker 2: I rewound and played the part a few
times, but it never happened again. I put the

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Speaker 2: tape away. Maybe in another twenty
years, I'll try again.

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Speaker 1: We all know how children are prone to
do some very foolhardy things, things which

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Speaker 1: can do irreparable harm Just ask
author Olivia White. She shares the

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00:18:22,312 --> 00:18:26,872
Speaker 1: tale of a man who suffered a
traumatic event in his childhood, but made a
full

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00:18:26,932 --> 00:18:32,552
Speaker 1: recovery with no lingering effects,
or so he thought. Performing this

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00:18:32,612 --> 00:18:38,612
Speaker 1: tale are James Cleveland, Erika
Sanderson, and Andy Cresswell. So don't let

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00:18:38,652 --> 00:18:44,492
Speaker 1: the man confuse you when he tells us
I Bought the House I Died In as a Child.

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Speaker 6: I was six when I died. I lived in an
old detached house in Surrey.

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00:19:05,432 --> 00:19:11,092
Speaker 6: Southwick House it was called. It was
a Victorian property. My parents bought it

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Speaker 6: from a very old couple who hadn't
lived in it for decades. And as such, it had a
lot

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00:19:16,852 --> 00:19:20,492
Speaker 6: of old furniture they'd kept that had
been present in the house since it had been

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00:19:20,552 --> 00:19:25,732
Speaker 6: built. My dad was a leading heart
surgeon based out of London, so my parents were

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Speaker 6: pretty wealthy, and our house
reflected that. It wasn't a mansion or anything.

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00:19:31,732 --> 00:19:36,192
Speaker 6: It was modest compared to other
properties in the county, but it was a very nice

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Speaker 6: house. Big gardens, a fountain out
back that rose out of an obsidian

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Speaker 6: pond in which my mom kept a few koi.
I'd stand there for hours as a kid, just

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00:19:48,332 --> 00:19:53,272
Speaker 6: staring into the black mirrored
surface, looking for golden glimpses of those

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00:19:53,332 --> 00:19:58,852
Speaker 6: marvelous fish. I'd explore the rest
of the garden too, endlessly creeping through

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00:19:58,872 --> 00:20:03,912
Speaker 6: the flower beds, playing in the woods
that bordered the property. Summers filled

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00:20:03,952 --> 00:20:08,572
Speaker 6: with scraped knees and dirty clothes.
Myself and my friends building forts and

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00:20:08,612 --> 00:20:14,432
Speaker 6: exploring our own little world. It
wasn't the grounds or the pond that killed

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00:20:14,492 --> 00:20:20,212
Speaker 6: me, but it was my inquisitiveness.
Much like many old

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Speaker 6: English properties of its type,
Southwick House had two main living floors and
an

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Speaker 6: attic. Unlike many English
properties, it also had a cellar. Dad used to

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00:20:31,352 --> 00:20:36,792
Speaker 6: store wine at the start of the
cellar, which was made up of a few roughly hewn
rooms

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Speaker 6: that smelled of earth and roots.
Beyond his wine rack, however, the cellar was

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00:20:42,012 --> 00:20:47,732
Speaker 6: basically unused, except for storing
the kind of detritus that a family acquires

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00:20:47,792 --> 00:20:53,252
Speaker 6: and never has any need for, but
doesn't want to dispose of anyway. I was

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00:20:53,372 --> 00:20:58,672
Speaker 6: alone the day I decided to explore
the cellar. It was one of dad's rare days off
and

228
00:20:58,752 --> 00:21:03,992
Speaker 6: he and my mom were out in the garden
sunning themselves and reading. I came inside

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00:21:04,032 --> 00:21:09,072
Speaker 6: to escape the heat, and soon the
typical six-year-old boy boredom kicked in.

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Speaker 6: So I decided to explore the cellar.
It wasn't that I was scared of the cellar or

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Speaker 6: anything. I just didn't like the
smell, and I kept away from going down there

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Speaker 6: knowing that the contents were
largely boring, and I'd be met with little more
than

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00:21:25,832 --> 00:21:31,472
Speaker 6: empty rooms. I don't know what
possessed me to change my mind that day, but

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00:21:31,552 --> 00:21:37,052
Speaker 6: change my mind I did. As I'd
expected, there was really

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00:21:37,132 --> 00:21:42,912
Speaker 6: nothing of interest in the cellar.
Even my family's old possessions were just
broken

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00:21:42,972 --> 00:21:47,532
Speaker 6: bits of furniture and clothes that my
older sister had grown out of and mom hadn't

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00:21:47,612 --> 00:21:53,172
Speaker 6: yet donated to Oxfam. I was about to
leave the cellar and return to my room and my

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00:21:53,232 --> 00:21:59,232
Speaker 6: toys when something on the wall
caught my eye. It was a square metal door

239
00:22:00,052 --> 00:22:05,932
Speaker 6: too high for me to reach, but to my
good fortune, a broken chair was nearby, so

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00:22:06,092 --> 00:22:11,672
Speaker 6: I dragged it across to this
mysterious hatch, climbed up, and opened it to
see what

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00:22:11,752 --> 00:22:17,392
Speaker 6: treasures awaited inside. As you can
imagine, it was nothing

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00:22:17,472 --> 00:22:23,452
Speaker 6: exciting. It was, in fact, a fuse
box. A very old,

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00:22:24,172 --> 00:22:29,972
Speaker 6: very poorly maintained fuse box. A
fuse box that I, a

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00:22:30,052 --> 00:22:35,691
Speaker 6: curious child, began to meddle with.
I don't know what I did exactly,

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00:22:36,371 --> 00:22:41,672
Speaker 6: what wire I touched or connection I
shorted to cause the jolt of electricity to flow

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00:22:41,692 --> 00:22:47,592
Speaker 6: through my body. All I can remember
is suddenly feeling a white, hot, tingling

247
00:22:47,692 --> 00:22:53,632
Speaker 6: pain unlike anything I'd ever felt
before. I felt my body being thrust

248
00:22:53,692 --> 00:22:57,672
Speaker 6: backwards as if an unseen force had
shoved me hard.

249
00:23:00,552 --> 00:23:06,172
Speaker 6: I felt my spine hit the uneven
concrete floor and the breath shoot out of me.
Then I

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00:23:06,232 --> 00:23:11,792
Speaker 6: felt something I can only describe as
a burning hand gripping my heart. That's when

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00:23:11,872 --> 00:23:12,612
Speaker 6: I blacked out.

252
00:23:14,552 --> 00:23:20,152
Speaker 6: I died. I was clinically dead for
twenty minutes. The

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00:23:20,212 --> 00:23:25,892
Speaker 6: electrocution shorted out my heart,
and I lay there actually dead for a few

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00:23:25,952 --> 00:23:31,752
Speaker 6: minutes before my dad even found me.
He could never explain why he came searching

255
00:23:31,792 --> 00:23:37,732
Speaker 6: for me that day. All he ever told me
was that he knew he had to check on me, and if

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00:23:37,752 --> 00:23:43,332
Speaker 6: he hadn't, I don't think I'd be alive
today. My dad, the heart

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00:23:43,412 --> 00:23:48,872
Speaker 6: surgeon, began attempts to revive me
while my mom called the paramedics. After

258
00:23:48,932 --> 00:23:53,272
Speaker 6: another fifteen minutes, which I'm
sure must have felt like an eternity to my dad,

259
00:23:54,132 --> 00:24:00,052
Speaker 6: the paramedics were able to
successfully restart my heart. I woke up in
hospital,

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00:24:01,232 --> 00:24:06,992
Speaker 6: painful burns covering a large
portion of my body. My first thought was fear,

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00:24:08,112 --> 00:24:13,072
Speaker 6: that I'd get in trouble for touching
the thing in the cellar. And I was scolded, of

262
00:24:13,152 --> 00:24:18,992
Speaker 6: course, but gently, and alongside
gradual explanation of what happened to

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00:24:19,032 --> 00:24:24,860
Speaker 6: me. At six years old, I don't think I
fully grasped the severity of it But two

264
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:30,880
Speaker 6: things I did understand. One, I was
lucky to be alive, and two,

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Speaker 6: I had died and come back. It was a
miracle. I'd died

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Speaker 6: for twenty minutes, and frankly, that
made me feel a little bit of a

267
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:49,260
Speaker 6: badass. I'd like to say I had some
kind of experience during the twenty minutes I

268
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 6: died, but the truth is I didn't, or
if I did, I don't remember it.

269
00:24:55,800 --> 00:25:01,640
Speaker 6: No light at the end of the tunnel, no
out-of-body experience. One minute I was

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Speaker 6: dying, and the next minute I was
alive again. In time, the whole event became

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Speaker 6: something I told friends as a point
of interest. The burns healed, and other than

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00:25:13,360 --> 00:25:19,040
Speaker 6: having regular heart monitoring, life
went back to normal. When I was twelve,

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Speaker 6: Dad got a job working at a private
hospital in the Southwest, and we moved. It was

274
00:25:25,380 --> 00:25:28,300
Speaker 6: twenty-two years until I thought
about that house again.

275
00:25:30,900 --> 00:25:35,960
Speaker 6: It was a month after I'd turned
thirty-four. I'd followed my father into
medicine

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Speaker 6: and become a GP in Reading, near
where I'd grown up as a child. I alternated
between

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Speaker 6: running NHS and private clinics. On
the day in question, I'd worked particularly

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00:25:47,020 --> 00:25:52,340
Speaker 6: late at my NHS practice. When I got
home, my girlfriend was waiting with a glass of

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Speaker 6: wine and that look on her face that
let me know she had something interesting to

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Speaker 6: tell me. She was practically bursting
to speak before I'd even taken my jacket off

281
00:26:02,020 --> 00:26:03,120
Speaker 6: and loosened my tie.

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Speaker 7: I got the weirdest call today.

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00:26:06,420 --> 00:26:10,680
Speaker 6: I kissed her on the cheek and took
her proffered glass of wine. "Oh, yeah?"

284
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Speaker 7: Yeah, some guy in Sussex. Said his
family lives in your old house.

285
00:26:16,660 --> 00:26:22,540
Speaker 6: I frowned. "What? Southwick?"
Madeline nodded. I could see

286
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 6: she had more to tell. "What did he
want?"

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00:26:26,660 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 7: He's been trying to track you down,
apparently. Was trying to get a hold of your

288
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,220
Speaker 7: parents and obviously eventually
found you.

289
00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:38,100
Speaker 6: Both of my parents had died when I
was in my twenties. They were old when they had

290
00:26:38,140 --> 00:26:43,360
Speaker 6: me. Mum died of cancer. Dad,
ironically, of a heart attack.

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00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 6: My sister had long since emigrated to
Canada, so it made sense that this guy had

292
00:26:49,140 --> 00:26:54,640
Speaker 6: found me as the next port of call.
But why? I asked Madeline as much.

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00:26:55,920 --> 00:27:01,020
Speaker 7: Okay, so this is the interesting
part. He wanted to know if anything weird
happened

294
00:27:01,060 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 7: to you when you lived at Southwick.
Anything supernatural.

295
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 6: My eyes widened. It most certainly
had not, but my interest was piqued.

296
00:27:12,860 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 6: I was a horror aficionado and a firm
atheist, but I guess working as a GP

297
00:27:18,660 --> 00:27:23,560
Speaker 6: particularly, I'd often said that I'd
love to be proven wrong about the existence of

298
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:29,540
Speaker 6: an afterlife. Of course, I expected
nothing of the sort from this guy, but I

299
00:27:29,580 --> 00:27:34,360
Speaker 6: was intrigued nonetheless. I called
the number Madeline had taken down.

300
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:41,380
Speaker 6: When Giles Robertson answered, his
voice gave me pause. The man sounded exhausted,

301
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:47,740
Speaker 6: scared even. When I told him who I
was, he let out an audible sigh of relief.

302
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 8: I just need to know, did you ever
have any untoward experiences in that house?

303
00:27:55,200 --> 00:28:00,780
Speaker 6: I told him that I hadn't. Nothing
even remotely supernatural in feel had happened

304
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:06,340
Speaker 6: during my twelve years there. When I
finished, Giles Robertson sounded disappointed.

305
00:28:06,340 --> 00:28:08,840
Speaker 6: "May I ask why?"

306
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:11,580
Speaker 8: You're going to think I'm crazy.

307
00:28:12,460 --> 00:28:18,220
Speaker 6: It was an unusual, candid thing for a
stranger to say, especially a

308
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 6: man who sounded rather well-to-do. I
assured him that as a doctor, I knew the

309
00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:26,820
Speaker 6: benefits of listening to and
believing people.

310
00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:33,820
Speaker 8: We moved in a year ago. It's been
happening nonstop ever since. My wife and I,
we'd

311
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:39,260
Speaker 8: never seen anything, never heard
anything. But we have two kids, Moira, she's
six,

312
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 8: and William, he's eight. About a
month after we moved in, they started talking
about

313
00:28:44,299 --> 00:28:49,900
Speaker 8: the burning boy, a boy who'd come
into their room, and well, at first, he'd play

314
00:28:49,940 --> 00:28:55,040
Speaker 8: with them. We thought it was an
imaginary friend. Siblings can sometimes share

315
00:28:55,100 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 8: imaginary friends. It's not unusual.

316
00:28:57,660 --> 00:28:58,060
Speaker 6: Indeed.

317
00:28:59,060 --> 00:29:03,460
Speaker 8: I mean, I thought the name The
Burning Boy was unusual, but hey, kids have

318
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:09,060
Speaker 8: interesting imaginations. So for
months, everything was fine. We listened to
their

319
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:14,680
Speaker 8: stories of the boy with polite smiles
and nods. But lately, things have escalated.

320
00:29:15,460 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 8: My children keep sleepwalking. We
find them in the cellar standing in front of the

321
00:29:19,700 --> 00:29:24,940
Speaker 8: old fuse box. When we wake them, they
claim to have no memory of how they got there

322
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:30,180
Speaker 8: other than the burning boy led them
there. We tried locking the cellar door, but

323
00:29:30,780 --> 00:29:32,140
Speaker 8: somehow they still get in.

324
00:29:33,180 --> 00:29:38,500
Speaker 6: I was beginning to feel concerned
now. A burning boy, a fuse box?

325
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 6: This was horribly personal.

326
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:48,160
Speaker 8: Now, my wife and I, we can feel him
too. The whole house smells of burning flesh

327
00:29:48,180 --> 00:29:53,420
Speaker 8: and electricity. Just being inside
the property makes our skin tingle. There's an

328
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 8: inescapable atmosphere. It's like
just walking through the door instills an

329
00:29:57,980 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 8: unspeakable terror, and my children,
they're afraid of the burning boy now.

330
00:30:04,740 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 8: They say he wants them to do
something, but they won't tell us what. We've
sealed up

331
00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 8: the fuse box, but every night now we
find them in front of it, and last week, my

332
00:30:13,900 --> 00:30:17,860
Speaker 8: wife and I woke up down in the cellar
with them. We've put the property on the

333
00:30:17,900 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 8: market, but as soon as anyone comes
to view it, they leave and never call back. I

334
00:30:22,940 --> 00:30:28,780
Speaker 8: don't know what to do. I don't want
my family to stay here. I'm scared. I was hoping

335
00:30:28,900 --> 00:30:29,480
Speaker 8: you could help.

336
00:30:30,508 --> 00:30:30,928
Speaker 9: I was wondering-

337
00:30:30,948 --> 00:30:36,708
Speaker 6: But what could I do or say? How would
explaining my own childhood electrocution

338
00:30:36,768 --> 00:30:42,468
Speaker 6: help this man? If what he said was
true and I was haunting this house, what on

339
00:30:42,548 --> 00:30:48,248
Speaker 6: earth could he do about it? Hell,
even I had no idea what it could really be.

340
00:30:48,948 --> 00:30:53,508
Speaker 6: Nothing about it made sense or
correlated with anything I knew about how ghosts

341
00:30:53,568 --> 00:30:59,148
Speaker 6: should work. Then I looked at the
property listing. I saw how, in their

342
00:30:59,208 --> 00:31:03,548
Speaker 6: desperation, the Robertson family had
listed the house for so much cheaper than the

343
00:31:03,588 --> 00:31:09,408
Speaker 6: house was worth, and that's how I
helped. I bought my childhood home.

344
00:31:10,928 --> 00:31:15,588
Speaker 6: The chances of this being some weird
scam were minimal. The Robertsons stood to lose

345
00:31:15,648 --> 00:31:20,928
Speaker 6: a good few grand on the sale. I even
gave them slightly more than the asking price.

346
00:31:21,628 --> 00:31:27,548
Speaker 6: I could afford it. I guess I felt
partly responsible, too, and I suppose my

347
00:31:27,628 --> 00:31:31,748
Speaker 6: skepticism and nostalgia for the old
house trumped any concern about it being

348
00:31:31,808 --> 00:31:37,288
Speaker 6: haunted by, what, a specter of my
very much

349
00:31:37,448 --> 00:31:43,028
Speaker 6: living self? I was a fool. I don't
know what it is

350
00:31:43,828 --> 00:31:49,708
Speaker 6: or how it is, but there's something
in this house. I persuaded Madeline

351
00:31:49,768 --> 00:31:54,248
Speaker 6: to stay back at our apartment while I
checked out the house for a few days. I don't

352
00:31:54,268 --> 00:31:59,588
Speaker 6: know why I wanted to be alone there.
I told her it was the memories.

353
00:32:00,628 --> 00:32:06,428
Speaker 6: I think, deep down, I knew there was
a reason to be afraid. On the

354
00:32:06,508 --> 00:32:12,108
Speaker 6: first night, nothing happened.
Everything was fine, and the next morning, I
lamented

355
00:32:12,148 --> 00:32:16,788
Speaker 6: the Robertsons' loss and celebrated
my acquisition of the house I'd so loved growing

356
00:32:16,868 --> 00:32:22,328
Speaker 6: up in. The next night, I awoke in my
childhood bedroom to the

357
00:32:22,428 --> 00:32:27,388
Speaker 6: smell of singed flesh and hair. The
atmosphere was electric,

358
00:32:28,208 --> 00:32:33,208
Speaker 6: tingling through my body as a muggy,
oppressive heat caused sweat to form on my

359
00:32:33,268 --> 00:32:39,247
Speaker 6: brow. I sat up, ambiguously afraid of
nothing in particular,

360
00:32:40,068 --> 00:32:44,128
Speaker 6: until exhaustion took me a few hours
later and I drifted back off.

361
00:32:45,648 --> 00:32:51,388
Speaker 6: On the third night, I saw him. I
awoke with a jolt to much the

362
00:32:51,448 --> 00:32:57,328
Speaker 6: same smell and sensation, only this
time it was considerably stronger. And there,

363
00:32:58,088 --> 00:33:03,948
Speaker 6: at the foot of my bed, stood the
burning boy. It was me. There was

364
00:33:04,008 --> 00:33:09,908
Speaker 6: no doubt about that, but the burns
which covered his body were far worse than I

365
00:33:09,948 --> 00:33:15,228
Speaker 6: had ever suffered. Smoke drifted from
his pallid frame as he watched me with

366
00:33:15,288 --> 00:33:20,848
Speaker 6: accusing eyes. There was no question
that this specter had my face,

367
00:33:21,628 --> 00:33:27,308
Speaker 6: but he was no ghost. How could he be?
I was the man this

368
00:33:27,388 --> 00:33:33,288
Speaker 6: child had grown up to become, sitting
there, shivering in bed, a man of

369
00:33:33,368 --> 00:33:39,268
Speaker 6: flesh and blood and very much living.
The burning boy opened his mouth

370
00:33:39,328 --> 00:33:45,308
Speaker 6: to reveal coal-black teeth and a
rotten, stumpy tongue that twitched as he tried
to

371
00:33:45,428 --> 00:33:50,448
Speaker 6: speak. A foul miasma wafted towards
me, that of

372
00:33:51,068 --> 00:33:56,828
Speaker 6: electrical death, years-long decay. I
gagged,

373
00:33:57,728 --> 00:34:03,148
Speaker 6: too frozen with fear to leave my bed,
too terrified to approach this phantom.

374
00:34:04,328 --> 00:34:10,328
Speaker 6: There, paralyzed with dread, I could
only watch and listen as the boy struggled to

375
00:34:10,408 --> 00:34:12,488
Speaker 6: force words out of his destroyed
mouth.

376
00:34:14,268 --> 00:34:20,128
Speaker 6: At first, they sounded like a hiss, a
low, monotone whisper

377
00:34:20,188 --> 00:34:26,188
Speaker 6: that set my teeth on edge. As I
listened, the noise grew louder. The flat,

378
00:34:26,488 --> 00:34:32,348
Speaker 6: low hum made way for staccato crests,
the boy's tongue vibrating against his

379
00:34:32,428 --> 00:34:38,288
Speaker 6: teeth as his lips moved uselessly.
The sound grew louder, pitching up

380
00:34:38,328 --> 00:34:43,568
Speaker 6: at intervals. It passed through me,
deep into my bones. I could

381
00:34:44,148 --> 00:34:49,268
Speaker 6: feel it traveling up my spine,
vibrating my back teeth.

382
00:34:50,128 --> 00:34:55,288
Speaker 6: All at once, it became a familiar
sensation. It was electricity.

383
00:34:56,248 --> 00:35:01,768
Speaker 6: It was the sound of an electrical
current. I could see the child's throat

384
00:35:01,988 --> 00:35:07,888
Speaker 6: shifting up and down as the sound
droned from his mouth. It filled my ears

385
00:35:07,948 --> 00:35:13,828
Speaker 6: until it became unbearable, and then,
only then, did I hear

386
00:35:13,868 --> 00:35:19,628
Speaker 6: the words hidden within the hum,
rasping, clicking jolts of speech. The

387
00:35:19,688 --> 00:35:21,808
Speaker 6: taste of copper flooded my mouth.

388
00:35:26,828 --> 00:35:27,228
Speaker 6: I am.

389
00:35:29,568 --> 00:35:29,588
Speaker 6: I

390
00:35:32,148 --> 00:35:37,808
Speaker 6: am. I am. I am. I am. I am live. I

391
00:35:37,988 --> 00:35:43,768
Speaker 6: am live. The boy repeated this simple

392
00:35:43,828 --> 00:35:49,248
Speaker 6: phrase over and over again until it
felt like the words themselves were coursing

393
00:35:49,308 --> 00:35:54,708
Speaker 6: through my body, crackling with
energy as they ricocheted around my brain. I am.
I

394
00:35:54,708 --> 00:36:00,528
Speaker 6: am. And then, just as it felt it had
become too much, that I could no longer listen,

395
00:36:01,088 --> 00:36:06,068
Speaker 6: the words faded into that low,
indecipherable hum, until

396
00:36:06,148 --> 00:36:11,788
Speaker 6: eventually the note ended, the final
fermata passing between the boy's charred

397
00:36:11,868 --> 00:36:13,368
Speaker 6: lips like a wisp of smoke.

398
00:36:15,428 --> 00:36:21,428
Speaker 6: In the silence, our eyes were locked.
I could not look away. I don't know

399
00:36:21,508 --> 00:36:27,388
Speaker 6: how long we held that staring
contest. I don't know at what point I drifted
off to

400
00:36:27,468 --> 00:36:33,168
Speaker 6: sleep. All I remember is waking up
the next morning, my sheets drenched with sweat,

401
00:36:33,808 --> 00:36:39,516
Speaker 6: and the faint smell of electricity
searing the air On the fourth night, I

402
00:36:39,596 --> 00:36:45,416
Speaker 6: awoke in the cellar. My eyes snapped
awake just in time to see my hand reaching

403
00:36:45,496 --> 00:36:51,416
Speaker 6: out for the fuse box. At some point,
the Robertsons had padlocked it, but

404
00:36:51,476 --> 00:36:57,256
Speaker 6: now the padlock lay unlocked and
discarded on the floor. I hadn't even been given

405
00:36:57,296 --> 00:37:03,016
Speaker 6: the key. I couldn't see the Burning
Boy, but I knew he was there

406
00:37:03,096 --> 00:37:08,296
Speaker 6: behind me. I could sense him, smell
him,

407
00:37:09,096 --> 00:37:15,016
Speaker 6: could feel the electrical discharge
coming off his terrifying, tiny

408
00:37:15,236 --> 00:37:20,416
Speaker 6: form, urging me forward. I could hear
him snuffling and

409
00:37:20,616 --> 00:37:26,356
Speaker 6: snorting. [laughs] Laughter, I
thought. With a cry, I snatched my hand

410
00:37:26,416 --> 00:37:31,876
Speaker 6: away from that dreaded fuse box, ran
upstairs, gathered some things, and drove to a

411
00:37:31,916 --> 00:37:37,696
Speaker 6: nearby hotel. The next day, I
returned to the apartment I share with Madeline.

412
00:37:38,736 --> 00:37:44,156
Speaker 6: I gave her some story about how
living in the house would be too painful due to

413
00:37:44,216 --> 00:37:50,196
Speaker 6: memories of my parents. I'm not sure
if she believed me, but bless

414
00:37:50,236 --> 00:37:55,636
Speaker 6: her, she let it go. I told her I
planned to flip the property,

415
00:37:56,276 --> 00:38:01,116
Speaker 6: knowing I never could. I could never
willingly allow anyone,

416
00:38:01,756 --> 00:38:07,676
Speaker 6: family or not, to be exposed to the
Burning Boy. My plan was

417
00:38:07,716 --> 00:38:12,976
Speaker 6: to keep the property empty and maybe
one day bring myself to have it demolished and

418
00:38:13,056 --> 00:38:17,776
Speaker 6: sell off the land. My plan isn't
going to work.

419
00:38:19,156 --> 00:38:24,836
Speaker 6: At first, I started smelling his
electric stench around the apartment. Madeline

420
00:38:24,876 --> 00:38:30,856
Speaker 6: could smell it, too, although not as
strongly as I claimed to. Initially, this

421
00:38:30,916 --> 00:38:36,256
Speaker 6: gave me hope. If we could both smell
it, then maybe it was something tangible,

422
00:38:36,976 --> 00:38:41,916
Speaker 6: corporeal, genuine faulty wiring. Who
knows?

423
00:38:43,116 --> 00:38:48,456
Speaker 6: I was naive. It was wishful thinking.
Deep down, I knew that.

424
00:38:49,636 --> 00:38:55,236
Speaker 6: Nonetheless, the first time I saw him
in my own apartment, I thought I was dreaming.

425
00:38:56,296 --> 00:39:02,216
Speaker 6: Despite all I'd seen, all I'd
experienced, I thought it had to be a nightmare.

426
00:39:03,156 --> 00:39:08,756
Speaker 6: The house was haunted, not me. He
couldn't be here. He couldn't.

427
00:39:10,256 --> 00:39:15,896
Speaker 6: But he was. He stood in the corner
staring at me as if he wanted something.

428
00:39:16,836 --> 00:39:22,636
Speaker 6: At first, that's all he did. On the
first few nights I saw him, he simply stared.

429
00:39:23,596 --> 00:39:28,976
Speaker 6: When he eventually began his horrible
electric symphony, that's when I knew I'd

430
00:39:29,036 --> 00:39:34,836
Speaker 6: never escape the Burning Boy. As
before, his lament buried its way into

431
00:39:34,896 --> 00:39:40,476
Speaker 6: my bones, my head, not as strongly as
that night in Southwick House,

432
00:39:41,176 --> 00:39:46,776
Speaker 6: not quite as powerful, but it was
building and building and

433
00:39:47,296 --> 00:39:53,116
Speaker 6: building. One night, in
sleep-deprived desperation, I even spoke to

434
00:39:53,176 --> 00:39:58,976
Speaker 6: him. Whispering so as not to wake
Madeline, I reached out to this wraith of my

435
00:39:59,056 --> 00:40:04,596
Speaker 6: childhood self. The very effort of
moving my lips felt Herculean, bordering on the

436
00:40:04,656 --> 00:40:10,656
Speaker 6: impossible. I croaked out the words
I'd longed to ask. Why?

437
00:40:11,956 --> 00:40:17,836
Speaker 6: What do you want? [moans] Beside me,
Madeline stirred in her sleep,

438
00:40:17,916 --> 00:40:23,336
Speaker 6: letting out a small moan. The boy
regarded me with a stare that spoke volumes.

439
00:40:24,116 --> 00:40:29,396
Speaker 6: Sparks danced behind his eyes, which
twinkled cruelly in the darkness. He opened his

440
00:40:29,456 --> 00:40:35,456
Speaker 6: mouth, a yawning abyss behind
soot-stained teeth. His ragged tongue

441
00:40:35,556 --> 00:40:40,356
Speaker 6: flicked, and the sound that emerged
was that of a switch being thrown, [clunk] a

442
00:40:40,436 --> 00:40:46,236
Speaker 6: heavy mechanical clunk that was
immediately followed by those same familiar
buzzing

443
00:40:46,296 --> 00:40:51,656
Speaker 6: words, as loud as they had ever been,
a live current of my own making.

444
00:40:52,036 --> 00:40:55,416
Speaker 10: I am live.

445
00:40:57,176 --> 00:41:02,856
Speaker 6: I didn't try to speak to the boy
again after that. Regardless, I knew what he

446
00:41:02,896 --> 00:41:08,776
Speaker 6: wanted. It was pretty obvious, and
when one night I woke up in the

447
00:41:08,856 --> 00:41:14,636
Speaker 6: cellar of Southwick again, over two
hours from the bed I'd fallen asleep in, I

448
00:41:14,716 --> 00:41:20,636
Speaker 6: knew that the Burning Boy wouldn't
stop until he got what he sought. Mercifully,

449
00:41:20,876 --> 00:41:25,896
Speaker 6: it doesn't happen every night.
Sometimes I have a week's reprieve,

450
00:41:26,656 --> 00:41:32,316
Speaker 6: two if I'm lucky, but eventually the
Burning Boy returns, and

451
00:41:32,376 --> 00:41:38,256
Speaker 6: eventually I wake up in that basement
with no memory of how I got there, no

452
00:41:38,336 --> 00:41:41,076
Speaker 6: memory of making the drive across the
county.

453
00:41:42,616 --> 00:41:48,476
Speaker 6: I don't know how to rid myself of
him. I can't find a single thing in any

454
00:41:48,576 --> 00:41:54,496
Speaker 6: paranormal literature that could help
me. I can't turn to religion. I doubt

455
00:41:54,556 --> 00:42:00,276
Speaker 6: he can be exorcized. He's not a
ghost. I'm still alive. He

456
00:42:00,336 --> 00:42:05,956
Speaker 6: shouldn't exist. Did a part of me die
and come back? Could

457
00:42:06,376 --> 00:42:12,116
Speaker 6: I ever have that kind of malevolence
inside me that spawned this thing?

458
00:42:13,516 --> 00:42:18,776
Speaker 6: I know he wants me to finish the job,
to grip the fuse box and let the current take

459
00:42:18,856 --> 00:42:24,316
Speaker 6: me, and I won't lie, I've thought
about doing just that

460
00:42:25,296 --> 00:42:31,016
Speaker 6: every time I wake up in the cellar of
that accursed house, but I have a

461
00:42:31,136 --> 00:42:36,716
Speaker 6: horrible feeling about that, too. You
see, it clearly wasn't

462
00:42:36,836 --> 00:42:42,416
Speaker 6: just me that the Burning Boy wanted.
He was after the Robertsons, too, after all.

463
00:42:43,616 --> 00:42:49,356
Speaker 6: And here's the thing I found out last
weekend that the entire Robertson family was

464
00:42:49,436 --> 00:42:55,436
Speaker 6: killed in their new home. I don't
know how they died, not yet, but

465
00:42:55,496 --> 00:43:00,216
Speaker 6: I do know it was a freak accident. I
can hazard a guess at the nature of that

466
00:43:00,316 --> 00:43:06,196
Speaker 6: accident. And the day they died? It
was the day before the burning boy began

467
00:43:06,256 --> 00:43:12,216
Speaker 6: appearing in my apartment, far from
Southwick House. So here's my problem.

468
00:43:13,196 --> 00:43:18,356
Speaker 6: I think if I ever do reach out for
the fuse box and finish what I started when I
was

469
00:43:18,416 --> 00:43:24,416
Speaker 6: six years old, I won't be freeing the
burning boy. I think I'd be

470
00:43:24,536 --> 00:43:29,856
Speaker 6: strengthening him. I think I'd be
joining him.

471
00:44:03,516 --> 00:44:08,436
Speaker 1: When sharing manly tales with a group
of friends at a bar one night, a man recalls

472
00:44:08,476 --> 00:44:13,696
Speaker 1: an experience he had, which his
friends have trouble believing. But we believe

473
00:44:13,776 --> 00:44:18,176
Speaker 1: author Steven Schrembeck when he
shares this tale about how the man discovered

474
00:44:18,256 --> 00:44:23,896
Speaker 1: something very odd indeed deep inside
a forest in his home state of Alaska.

475
00:44:25,036 --> 00:44:30,916
Speaker 1: Performing this tale are Peter Lewis,
Jessica McAvoy, Jesse Cornett, and Dan

476
00:44:30,996 --> 00:44:36,716
Speaker 1: Zappula. So when telling a story,
remember, sometimes you have an

477
00:44:36,816 --> 00:44:38,416
Speaker 1: unwelcome audience.

478
00:44:54,216 --> 00:44:59,396
Speaker 10: I've always had a weird group of
friends. They all went into

479
00:44:59,616 --> 00:45:05,036
Speaker 10: manly careers like logging, oil rig
work, construction.

480
00:45:06,056 --> 00:45:11,956
Speaker 10: I'm the black sheep of our little
group of high school buddies. I went into IT.

481
00:45:12,896 --> 00:45:18,456
Speaker 10: They give me shit all the time about
working on nerd stuff, and I give

482
00:45:18,536 --> 00:45:23,576
Speaker 10: them shit back. Me no likey
computer. Me dig holes.

483
00:45:24,696 --> 00:45:30,116
Speaker 10: I'm an unlikely addition to their
group of friends, but it works somehow.

484
00:45:31,036 --> 00:45:36,716
Speaker 10: So there we are in a bar. This is
one of those rare occasions when everyone's back

485
00:45:36,756 --> 00:45:42,016
Speaker 10: in town together, and we're getting
drunk, swapping stories about horrors on the

486
00:45:42,096 --> 00:45:47,776
Speaker 10: job. Someone talks about when part
of their oil rig blew up,

487
00:45:48,076 --> 00:45:53,296
Speaker 10: killing three people a few years
ago. Danny, an actual

488
00:45:53,456 --> 00:45:59,376
Speaker 10: lumberjack, talks about seeing a guy
working not ten feet from him get his arm

489
00:45:59,456 --> 00:46:05,116
Speaker 10: torn clean off by a log line. Just a
quick zip, and a

490
00:46:05,196 --> 00:46:11,136
Speaker 10: limb went flying. He held a shirt to
the wound as the man bled

491
00:46:11,256 --> 00:46:16,956
Speaker 10: out, babbling and whining in agony
until a life flight came

492
00:46:17,376 --> 00:46:22,536
Speaker 10: two hours too late. All the while,
I'm sitting there knowing

493
00:46:23,256 --> 00:46:29,116
Speaker 10: I've got a story, but it's not the
kind of story I'd usually bring up to a bunch

494
00:46:29,196 --> 00:46:34,896
Speaker 10: of drunk sort-of friends. Not the
kind of story I

495
00:46:34,976 --> 00:46:39,416
Speaker 10: tell anybody. It's the kind of truly

496
00:46:39,996 --> 00:46:45,376
Speaker 10: unsettling memory that you worry
should you tell it.

497
00:46:46,516 --> 00:46:52,496
Speaker 10: You might give it life. You might
feed it somehow, make it more

498
00:46:53,096 --> 00:46:58,976
Speaker 10: real. I carry it around in the back
of my mind like a caged,

499
00:46:59,356 --> 00:47:04,856
Speaker 10: dangerous animal, not considering
letting it out until

500
00:47:05,296 --> 00:47:05,716
Speaker 10: now.

501
00:47:07,515 --> 00:47:13,156
Speaker 10: Everyone's said something already,
and I'm just sitting there looking sheltered,

502
00:47:13,456 --> 00:47:18,956
Speaker 10: looking obvious. So I ignore that
voice in my

503
00:47:19,036 --> 00:47:24,216
Speaker 10: head that says, "Don't." I ignore my
dry,

504
00:47:24,496 --> 00:47:29,336
Speaker 10: tightening throat. Don't. I've got
one.

505
00:47:30,596 --> 00:47:35,596
Speaker 10: My voice cracks, and they look
surprised. I'm

506
00:47:36,176 --> 00:47:41,876
Speaker 10: surprised. They all give me
doubtful, amused looks.

507
00:47:42,196 --> 00:47:47,956
Speaker 10: Go on then, the looks say. And so

508
00:47:48,216 --> 00:47:54,056
Speaker 10: I do. I work from home on our thirty
acres outside of a

509
00:47:54,136 --> 00:47:59,576
Speaker 10: small town in Alaska. I live alone.
No kids.

510
00:48:00,256 --> 00:48:06,256
Speaker 10: It's a college town, just a small
liberal arts college of a few hundred, but it's

511
00:48:06,336 --> 00:48:12,056
Speaker 10: the heart of the town. The campus is
huge, with the natural beauty of the area

512
00:48:12,116 --> 00:48:17,696
Speaker 10: being a big draw. Reservation land
neighbors the campus, and the tribe

513
00:48:17,956 --> 00:48:23,456
Speaker 10: sort of acts like park rangers for
the hundreds of miles of forest trails.

514
00:48:24,336 --> 00:48:30,156
Speaker 10: My own land borders part of the
campus on the other side. One day, I'm

515
00:48:30,296 --> 00:48:35,236
Speaker 10: out at the edge of the cleared part
of my property right behind my house. It's

516
00:48:35,296 --> 00:48:41,276
Speaker 10: probably about two hundred yards
from the house. I'm watering a set of raised

517
00:48:41,356 --> 00:48:46,936
Speaker 10: beds I have right near the tree
line, just enjoying the scorching sunny day.

518
00:48:47,956 --> 00:48:52,496
Speaker 10: And that's when something weird
happens.

519
00:48:54,080 --> 00:49:00,080
Speaker 10: There's this sound like a record of
someone speaking coming from

520
00:49:00,180 --> 00:49:06,020
Speaker 10: a few hundred feet into the woods.
It's like someone talking to you through

521
00:49:06,140 --> 00:49:11,980
Speaker 10: a bad cell connection where only
parts of the words are coming through, and it's

522
00:49:12,060 --> 00:49:15,500
Speaker 10: just noise. But you can tell it's
supposed to be words.

523
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 10: [static]

524
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:29,820
Speaker 10: I just stood there listening to the
noise, curious but not afraid.

525
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:36,800
Speaker 10: I didn't even turn the hose off. I
think looking back, that's why it took me so

526
00:49:36,860 --> 00:49:42,720
Speaker 10: long to get freaked out, to start
taking it seriously. Weird

527
00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:48,880
Speaker 10: things like that, supernatural
things happen at night, at deep in the woods,

528
00:49:49,380 --> 00:49:55,260
Speaker 10: not at one o'clock in the afternoon
while standing right in your backyard. After

529
00:49:55,340 --> 00:50:01,000
Speaker 10: about 30 seconds, it just stops. I
turn the water

530
00:50:01,140 --> 00:50:06,900
Speaker 10: off then to figure out if it
actually stopped or just got quieter. Nothing.

531
00:50:08,080 --> 00:50:14,060
Speaker 10: I file it away as a minor oddity.
Something to be brought up later as a casual

532
00:50:14,140 --> 00:50:19,640
Speaker 10: conversation token, or more likely
forgotten. That was my

533
00:50:19,740 --> 00:50:25,660
Speaker 10: first regret. Fast-forward a couple
of weeks. I'm on a hike at

534
00:50:25,700 --> 00:50:30,640
Speaker 10: the back of my property on one of
the trails I started last summer, which is
pretty

535
00:50:30,820 --> 00:50:36,440
Speaker 10: overgrown at this point. I'm
strolling, lost in thought beneath

536
00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:42,180
Speaker 10: tree cover, simply enjoying the
gorgeous midsummer weather. I'm pulled

537
00:50:42,380 --> 00:50:47,080
Speaker 10: from my thoughts when I hear that
odd sound in the woods.

538
00:50:48,380 --> 00:50:54,320
Speaker 10: Far in the distance, there's the
sound of garbled human speech. The

539
00:50:54,420 --> 00:51:00,220
Speaker 10: forest around me, though, is oddly
quiet. Now, I'm not much of a

540
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:06,000
Speaker 10: risk-taker, and I generally prefer
looking irrational to looking dead.

541
00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:12,920
Speaker 10: I casually turn and walk back
towards the trail entrance, not wanting to
encourage

542
00:51:12,980 --> 00:51:18,980
Speaker 10: any large predators by fleeing
suddenly. What the hell is making that

543
00:51:19,060 --> 00:51:19,960
Speaker 10: sound anyway?

544
00:51:21,580 --> 00:51:26,320
Speaker 10: I resolve to bring Danny along to
check it out when he comes to visit in two
weeks.

545
00:51:27,300 --> 00:51:33,300
Speaker 10: Two weeks later, I'm back at the
trailhead alone because Danny bailed on

546
00:51:33,380 --> 00:51:39,080
Speaker 10: me. I told him that if I died, I
would be coming straight to his apartment to

547
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:44,300
Speaker 10: haunt the shit out of him. Now I'm
looking down the seemingly

548
00:51:44,420 --> 00:51:50,060
Speaker 10: innocuous forest trail. I steel
myself. I check my

549
00:51:50,160 --> 00:51:56,000
Speaker 10: pack, bear spray, and brand-new
bowie knife, which I have no idea how to

550
00:51:56,120 --> 00:52:01,880
Speaker 10: use. [deep breath] All right. It's

551
00:52:01,980 --> 00:52:03,420
Speaker 10: just a sound.

552
00:52:05,380 --> 00:52:11,140
Speaker 10: I start down the path. A few miles
and about an hour in, I

553
00:52:11,220 --> 00:52:17,220
Speaker 10: hear the first signs of that odd
sound in the distance. It's maybe

554
00:52:17,460 --> 00:52:23,080
Speaker 10: 100 yards ahead and just off the
side of the trail. The forest,

555
00:52:23,180 --> 00:52:28,060
Speaker 10: however, moves and rustles with life
in that familiar,

556
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:34,100
Speaker 10: reassuring way. I carry on. As I
approach the

557
00:52:34,200 --> 00:52:40,200
Speaker 10: origin of the sound, I put my hand
to the hilt of my bowie knife. The source

558
00:52:40,280 --> 00:52:45,540
Speaker 10: of the sound, now within 20 feet or
so, is not immediately apparent.

559
00:52:46,140 --> 00:52:51,700
Speaker 10: It's the same stream of incoherent
babble, but with a distinct

560
00:52:51,780 --> 00:52:57,120
Speaker 10: crackling sound to it. Looking up, I
see a small

561
00:52:57,400 --> 00:53:02,880
Speaker 10: black speaker fixed to a tree about
ten feet from the ground.

562
00:53:03,820 --> 00:53:09,600
Speaker 10: Fairly confident the speaker poses
no threat, I take my hand from my knife and

563
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:15,740
Speaker 10: inspect it. Written on the side of
the speaker in white paint is the name of the

564
00:53:15,780 --> 00:53:21,500
Speaker 10: local college and the words Forestry
Department. Ah, a

565
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:27,140
Speaker 10: clue and a reasonable explanation.
Go figure, you jumpy prick.

566
00:53:28,260 --> 00:53:34,060
Speaker 10: Content that I won't have to stab
anything or haunt any apartments this day,

567
00:53:34,380 --> 00:53:35,720
Speaker 10: I head back home.

568
00:53:37,420 --> 00:53:41,960
Speaker 10: During a slow day the next week, I
call the forestry department of the college.

569
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:48,680
Speaker 10: Yes, I'd, uh, like to speak to the
dean. Uh, no, I'm not a student.

570
00:53:50,100 --> 00:53:56,100
Speaker 10: No, they don't know I'm calling. The
dean answered in a bored voice,

571
00:53:56,200 --> 00:54:02,140
Speaker 10: but seemed eager to answer my
questions as if I were the highlight of an
otherwise

572
00:54:02,220 --> 00:54:07,540
Speaker 10: mundane day. As it turns out, the
speaker is or

573
00:54:07,840 --> 00:54:13,760
Speaker 10: [chuckles] was a sort of live art
project in which students could write and

574
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:18,760
Speaker 10: record poems to be spoken aloud in
the forest. It's

575
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:24,140
Speaker 10: solar-powered, but he suspected that
the connection to the speaker I found had gone

576
00:54:24,220 --> 00:54:29,340
Speaker 10: bad. Once per semester, someone was
supposed to come out and upload new

577
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:35,300
Speaker 10: MP3s to a waterproof MP3 player near
the base of each tree. He went on to

578
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:40,520
Speaker 10: say that they discontinued the
project due to outcry from the nearby tribe.

579
00:54:41,460 --> 00:54:45,660
Speaker 10: Initially, he ignored their requests
to take down the speakers, but the vice

580
00:54:45,720 --> 00:54:51,080
Speaker 10: president of the college eventually
stepped in when complaints persisted. Worried

581
00:54:51,140 --> 00:54:56,940
Speaker 10: about souring good relations with
the tribe. They'd probably missed my station
when

582
00:54:56,980 --> 00:55:02,900
Speaker 10: they went to take them all down,
he'd said. Mystery solved. [laughs]

583
00:55:03,020 --> 00:55:05,900
Speaker 10: Hiking season passes without
incident.

584
00:55:13,580 --> 00:55:19,100
Speaker 10: About a month after the snows
finally melt, I decide to take another hike on
the

585
00:55:19,160 --> 00:55:25,000
Speaker 10: trail with the speaker. I've got
some overnight camping gear with me, and I plan
to

586
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:30,540
Speaker 10: camp out near my turnaround point a
few hours away. I almost miss the

587
00:55:30,640 --> 00:55:36,080
Speaker 10: speaker when I'm about an hour in.
It's completely silent now.

588
00:55:37,020 --> 00:55:42,020
Speaker 10: I stop to poke at the electronics a
bit, but there's nothing obviously wrong with

589
00:55:42,100 --> 00:55:47,460
Speaker 10: it. The fraying connections appear
to have finally worn out over the winter.

590
00:55:48,320 --> 00:55:54,240
Speaker 10: I continue down the trail. About two
hours later, I've set up my tent and prepared a

591
00:55:54,340 --> 00:56:00,260
Speaker 10: simple camp. It's late afternoon,
but I'm restless, and with a few hours

592
00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:06,320
Speaker 10: of daylight left, I decide to walk
ahead of my turnaround point for a little bit. I

593
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:11,320
Speaker 10: pick a little offshoot trail that
leads upward, perhaps with the promise of a nice

594
00:56:11,400 --> 00:56:17,360
Speaker 10: view. Just a few minutes into the
walk, my mind is drifting. I'm

595
00:56:17,420 --> 00:56:22,400
Speaker 10: just soaking up the late afternoon
sun and basking in the first good weather of the

596
00:56:22,500 --> 00:56:28,360
Speaker 10: season. I've picked the perfect time
to explore. [laughs] "Damn, this

597
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:34,480
Speaker 10: is nice," I think to myself. And a
moment later, I hear

598
00:56:34,540 --> 00:56:40,040
Speaker 10: that familiar unsettling sound of
speaking in the

599
00:56:40,080 --> 00:56:46,080
Speaker 10: distance. I pause on the trail, my
brain still registering

600
00:56:46,120 --> 00:56:51,620
Speaker 10: the noise as something innocuous.
This sound is a

601
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:57,260
Speaker 10: little different, and even so far
away I can tell that it's a higher quality than

602
00:56:57,300 --> 00:57:03,280
Speaker 10: the first speaker. I get closer and
have to go a little off the trail to

603
00:57:03,340 --> 00:57:09,200
Speaker 10: make out the words. It's definitely
missing that crackly sound, so I can easily

604
00:57:09,279 --> 00:57:15,140
Speaker 10: make out the words. It's the sound
of a woman reading poems,

605
00:57:15,340 --> 00:57:21,120
Speaker 10: just as the dean said. Less
perturbed than I once was, I decide to sit on a

606
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:27,140
Speaker 10: rock near the speaker, pull out my
water, and take a little break. I'm sitting
there

607
00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:32,940
Speaker 10: listening to the sounds of the
forest and the voice reading the familiar poems.

608
00:57:33,820 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 10: It still feels a little eerie,
though, and after just a few minutes, I decide
it's

609
00:57:39,060 --> 00:57:44,380
Speaker 10: time to get going again. I toss my
water bottle into my pack and

610
00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:50,200
Speaker 10: stand to leave, and that's when I
hear the

611
00:57:50,340 --> 00:57:51,360
Speaker 10: other voice.

612
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:58,640
Speaker 10: Someone nearby is babbling these
crazy nonsense words.

613
00:57:59,860 --> 00:58:05,320
Speaker 10: I perk up, curious but not yet
afraid. It has this

614
00:58:05,580 --> 00:58:11,580
Speaker 10: strange warbling sound like the
natural rise and fall of pitch in a

615
00:58:11,660 --> 00:58:17,280
Speaker 10: sentence, but in all of the wrong
places, like someone turning random

616
00:58:17,360 --> 00:58:22,780
Speaker 10: words in a sentence into questions.
It, it's the kind of sound you'd laugh at

617
00:58:24,240 --> 00:58:28,940
Speaker 10: if you weren't alone in a forest
miles and miles from help.

618
00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:35,840
Speaker 10: The forest goes dead silent around
me as if flipping a switch.

619
00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:42,760
Speaker 10: The sound begins trailing close
through some thick brush in front of me. I'm

620
00:58:42,860 --> 00:58:47,940
Speaker 10: totally frozen in place just
listening to this ridiculous noise like a

621
00:58:48,300 --> 00:58:53,840
Speaker 10: giant basso baby voice. What the
fuck?

622
00:58:55,380 --> 00:59:00,580
Speaker 10: I see just a glimpse of something
coming through the brush, and then my trance is

623
00:59:00,660 --> 00:59:06,500
Speaker 10: broken. My conscious mind is slammed
into the backseat as my animal instincts

624
00:59:06,600 --> 00:59:12,280
Speaker 10: send me sprinting back toward the
trail. I'm already careening back down the trail

625
00:59:12,320 --> 00:59:18,039
Speaker 10: before I even realize what I was
running from, and then it hits me,

626
00:59:19,180 --> 00:59:24,880
Speaker 10: a wall of realization, a great
towering cloud of

627
00:59:25,000 --> 00:59:30,820
Speaker 10: cold, crippling realization. I
actually stumble.

628
00:59:32,220 --> 00:59:38,200
Speaker 10: My neurons fire in slow motion. The
implications are forming in my

629
00:59:38,280 --> 00:59:43,840
Speaker 10: mind like a slowly condensing water
droplet just before the release,

630
00:59:45,140 --> 00:59:51,060
Speaker 10: and then the fall. My chest
tightens, and

631
00:59:51,220 --> 00:59:56,240
Speaker 10: I take a sudden sharp breath. It was
a hand.

632
00:59:57,240 --> 01:00:02,780
Speaker 10: Some sort of elongated, grotesque
hand reaching through the

633
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:08,800
Speaker 10: brush. A body to match that
distorted voice. It's then

634
01:00:08,860 --> 01:00:13,440
Speaker 10: that I hear it again on the path
right behind me.

635
01:00:13,460 --> 01:00:21,520
Speaker 10: [warbling]

636
01:00:21,640 --> 01:00:26,860
Speaker 10: [sighs] Like it's learned a phrase
for the first time, and it's trying it out,

637
01:00:27,620 --> 01:00:33,300
Speaker 10: only it has this odd pleading
quality to it. So

638
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:40,000
Speaker 10: fuck, I'm running. I'm barely
touching the ground, feet flying down the tight

639
01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:46,000
Speaker 10: forest trail in the late afternoon
sun. Tree branches are slapping at me as I

640
01:00:46,080 --> 01:00:51,540
Speaker 10: barrel down the path, careless,
mindless. My nerves are on a

641
01:00:51,660 --> 01:00:56,980
Speaker 10: knife's edge for the entire sprint
back to camp. Ears pricked,

642
01:00:57,240 --> 01:01:02,960
Speaker 10: skin covered in goosebumps. I enter
a clearing and slow to

643
01:01:03,040 --> 01:01:08,760
Speaker 10: walk cautiously into camp, my hand
hovering lightly over my bowie knife

644
01:01:09,764 --> 01:01:14,844
Speaker 10: I see my tent in the small clearing
where the main trail splits into these smaller

645
01:01:14,904 --> 01:01:20,404
Speaker 10: tributaries. The tent sits in the
shade, flap partially

646
01:01:20,524 --> 01:01:26,404
Speaker 10: open. I stop, staring at it. It
would take about

647
01:01:26,484 --> 01:01:32,404
Speaker 10: ten minutes to pack it up. I
contemplate it for about half a second.

648
01:01:33,024 --> 01:01:38,784
Speaker 10: Nope. I'm moving again, back on the
main trail now. I'm holding a sustainable

649
01:01:38,884 --> 01:01:44,544
Speaker 10: jog, but after about thirty seconds,
I slide to stop because I hear

650
01:01:44,644 --> 01:01:49,344
Speaker 10: something new. I hear nothing.

651
01:01:50,964 --> 01:01:56,744
Speaker 10: A quiet deeper than anything before.
No distant birds,

652
01:01:57,044 --> 01:02:02,244
Speaker 10: no rustling leaves, no quiet breeze
or chirping insect.

653
01:02:03,084 --> 01:02:08,224
Speaker 10: There is only complete and unnatural
silence,

654
01:02:09,204 --> 01:02:14,944
Speaker 10: almost suffocating. It's like having
a giant glass

655
01:02:15,064 --> 01:02:21,064
Speaker 10: jar dropped around me. One second
there's a rich blanket of forest

656
01:02:21,144 --> 01:02:26,964
Speaker 10: sounds, and then the next I'm in a
vacuum. I freeze. I can feel

657
01:02:27,024 --> 01:02:32,904
Speaker 10: my heart pounding out of my chest,
but otherwise I am as silent and still

658
01:02:33,044 --> 01:02:38,964
Speaker 10: as the forest around me. The air is
hot, still, and dead

659
01:02:39,064 --> 01:02:44,924
Speaker 10: on my sweaty skin, like standing in
a silent summer attic. An

660
01:02:45,064 --> 01:02:51,064
Speaker 10: odd thought occurs to me, an
intuition that I shouldn't move.

661
01:02:52,124 --> 01:02:57,664
Speaker 10: People always get that feeling like
they're being watched, but this isn't

662
01:02:57,764 --> 01:03:03,644
Speaker 10: quite like that. It's not like being
watched, it's, it's

663
01:03:03,744 --> 01:03:09,504
Speaker 10: like being examined. And my gut is
telling me to

664
01:03:09,684 --> 01:03:15,464
Speaker 10: blend in, to do what the bugs and
the birds and the trees

665
01:03:15,564 --> 01:03:21,184
Speaker 10: are doing. Sit the fuck still and
wait.

666
01:03:22,464 --> 01:03:28,004
Speaker 10: Do as they do. This isn't something
you run from.

667
01:03:28,664 --> 01:03:32,884
Speaker 10: Do as they do and survive.

668
01:03:34,344 --> 01:03:40,004
Speaker 10: So I wait, frozen in an awkward
position, mid-stride,

669
01:03:40,184 --> 01:03:45,764
Speaker 10: mid-breath, refusing to even blink
or look around. I

670
01:03:45,904 --> 01:03:51,224
Speaker 10: stand there like a store mannequin
in the closet, watching through wooden slats as

671
01:03:51,304 --> 01:03:56,304
Speaker 10: something very bad looks back
through the slats at me,

672
01:03:57,244 --> 01:04:02,904
Speaker 10: trying to figure out if I am
actually a mannequin or

673
01:04:02,984 --> 01:04:08,624
Speaker 10: just something pretending. We look
at each other like that,

674
01:04:08,884 --> 01:04:14,564
Speaker 10: this force and I, for ten seconds.
My

675
01:04:14,644 --> 01:04:19,944
Speaker 10: head is swimming with terror. Twenty

676
01:04:20,184 --> 01:04:26,164
Speaker 10: seconds. My lungs are screaming for
air, and my heart is pounding

677
01:04:26,244 --> 01:04:31,964
Speaker 10: a frantic drum. Still it examines
me, and

678
01:04:32,264 --> 01:04:37,764
Speaker 10: suddenly the gaze is broken, its
focus on something else.

679
01:04:38,804 --> 01:04:44,324
Speaker 10: My vision narrows to a pinpoint
because my brain is clamoring for oxygen.

680
01:04:45,304 --> 01:04:50,684
Speaker 10: Far off there I hear a rustle of
leaves. So

681
01:04:51,044 --> 01:04:56,544
Speaker 10: slowly it comes my way. Not the
rustle of a creature, but a

682
01:04:56,624 --> 01:05:02,504
Speaker 10: great collective exhale from the
forest. The sound of

683
01:05:02,544 --> 01:05:08,044
Speaker 10: the forest returns in a great sweep
past me. I bend,

684
01:05:08,424 --> 01:05:13,424
Speaker 10: put my hands to my knees, and join
in with a heaving gasp of my own.

685
01:05:14,504 --> 01:05:20,404
Speaker 10: The rest of the walk is calm but
cautious, a steady hike for two

686
01:05:20,544 --> 01:05:26,124
Speaker 10: hours into the early evening. It's
getting dark by the time I get back to my

687
01:05:26,184 --> 01:05:26,644
Speaker 10: car.

688
01:05:33,404 --> 01:05:39,264
Speaker 10: In the bar, my friends are all
statue still, faces slack. No

689
01:05:39,364 --> 01:05:45,184
Speaker 10: one has touched their drink in five
minutes. My whole body is shaking as I

690
01:05:45,384 --> 01:05:51,284
Speaker 10: absentmindedly run the fingers of
both hands up through my hair. It

691
01:05:51,324 --> 01:05:56,524
Speaker 10: was like, it was like I was staring
down the barrel of a gun.

692
01:05:57,624 --> 01:06:03,304
Speaker 10: A gun I couldn't see, but I knew
that if I had so much as twitched,

693
01:06:04,544 --> 01:06:10,364
Speaker 10: I wouldn't be here right now. It
would've known I was there. It would've known I

694
01:06:10,444 --> 01:06:16,264
Speaker 10: was real. And I never went back for
that

695
01:06:16,564 --> 01:06:16,984
Speaker 10: tent.

696
01:06:18,504 --> 01:06:24,324
Speaker 10: I took a sip of my beer and a little
grim satisfaction in my friends' stunned,

697
01:06:24,524 --> 01:06:30,464
Speaker 10: distant faces. They let out a few
half-hearted nervous chuckles at

698
01:06:30,544 --> 01:06:36,524
Speaker 10: my attempt to lighten the mood. But
otherwise everyone seems intensely

699
01:06:36,604 --> 01:06:42,444
Speaker 10: interested in their drinks, the
table, or the floor. Shit, man.

700
01:06:42,824 --> 01:06:43,164
Speaker 10: Yeah.

701
01:06:45,024 --> 01:06:51,024
Speaker 10: Yeah. We're all pretty quiet and
unusually pensive until we pay our

702
01:06:51,104 --> 01:06:57,044
Speaker 10: tabs and leave the bar. On the way
out, one of my buddies pulls me aside and

703
01:06:57,204 --> 01:07:03,164
Speaker 10: asks... Dang, uh, was that really
true? All of it, I

704
01:07:03,224 --> 01:07:09,164
Speaker 10: mean. I just sort of squint and look
up at the star-strewn

705
01:07:09,264 --> 01:07:15,172
Speaker 10: Alaskan sky Eventually, the words
I'm looking for come to

706
01:07:15,232 --> 01:07:20,932
Speaker 10: me. "There's [laughs]

707
01:07:21,012 --> 01:07:26,692
Speaker 10: there's shit out there that no one
can explain. Things that don't have

708
01:07:26,772 --> 01:07:32,412
Speaker 10: names, and I think every now and
then someone will come across one. The

709
01:07:32,912 --> 01:07:38,612
Speaker 10: smart people, the lucky people like
me, are the ones who get to

710
01:07:38,692 --> 01:07:44,092
Speaker 10: tell their stories." He looks at me
for a moment longer, then

711
01:07:44,212 --> 01:07:48,952
Speaker 10: seemingly content with my answer, he
nods and walks to his car.

712
01:07:48,952 --> 01:07:54,872
Speaker 10: "Night." "Night." Of course, I don't
tell him there's

713
01:07:54,952 --> 01:08:00,232
Speaker 10: more. I don't tell him that it
wasn't some ethereal,

714
01:08:00,332 --> 01:08:05,412
Speaker 10: invisible force staring me down in
the woods. It was a

715
01:08:05,752 --> 01:08:06,392
Speaker 10: monster.

716
01:08:07,992 --> 01:08:13,412
Speaker 10: A lanky, horrid, yet somehow human
thing.

717
01:08:14,332 --> 01:08:18,892
Speaker 10: It was in the shape of a man, but it
was no man.

718
01:08:20,492 --> 01:08:26,472
Speaker 10: God gave me two gifts that day. The
first was sparing my

719
01:08:26,532 --> 01:08:32,452
Speaker 10: life, and the other was keeping that
creature in the periphery of my

720
01:08:32,512 --> 01:08:37,832
Speaker 10: vision. I did tireless research
after that incident in the forest.

721
01:08:38,792 --> 01:08:44,592
Speaker 10: I found out about a missing homeless
man and the dismembered corpse the cops

722
01:08:44,672 --> 01:08:50,092
Speaker 10: found in the woods. Uh, parts of a
corpse anyway.

723
01:08:50,992 --> 01:08:56,832
Speaker 10: And I found out about something
called the Ekatiksidi. A

724
01:08:56,932 --> 01:09:02,232
Speaker 10: follow-up call to the professor from
the nearby university got me that, and it got

725
01:09:02,272 --> 01:09:07,112
Speaker 10: me a meeting with the grandson of
the shaman who asked the university to take the

726
01:09:07,192 --> 01:09:13,032
Speaker 10: speakers down. I met with him the
very next day. "I don't

727
01:09:13,072 --> 01:09:17,852
Speaker 10: know how well I can explain it. I
don't think of it the same way my grandfather

728
01:09:17,892 --> 01:09:23,852
Speaker 10: does." I follow up immediately,
eager. "Try me." "You

729
01:09:23,912 --> 01:09:29,312
Speaker 10: know how everything that's alive
today has some of the same DNA? Like, if you go

730
01:09:29,352 --> 01:09:34,532
Speaker 10: back far enough, we all have a
common ancestor. Even really different things
like

731
01:09:34,612 --> 01:09:39,712
Speaker 10: germs. Well, I don't think the
Ekatiksidi are in that family tree.

732
01:09:40,632 --> 01:09:43,152
Speaker 10: I think they come from something
else."

733
01:09:44,692 --> 01:09:50,452
Speaker 10: He sort of trails off, perhaps
expecting skepticism from me. Two

734
01:09:50,512 --> 01:09:56,412
Speaker 10: days ago, maybe, but he doesn't know
that I have good reason not to be a skeptic.

735
01:09:56,412 --> 01:10:02,292
Speaker 10: "These things aren't a joke, you
know. People at the college think my grandfather
is

736
01:10:02,372 --> 01:10:07,892
Speaker 10: crazy. They only listen to him
because he's respected in the tribe. But even
though

737
01:10:07,932 --> 01:10:13,792
Speaker 10: they respect him, most of the tribe
thinks he's crazy too." "Do you think he's

738
01:10:13,832 --> 01:10:19,692
Speaker 10: crazy?" "About the Ekatiksidi?" He
looks grave, and the sudden

739
01:10:19,792 --> 01:10:25,472
Speaker 10: seriousness from such a young man
surprises me. The weight of his stare

740
01:10:25,552 --> 01:10:30,912
Speaker 10: hints at a wisdom beyond his
apparent age and somewhat flippant appearance.

741
01:10:30,912 --> 01:10:36,872
Speaker 10: "No, he's not crazy. He's not crazy
because

742
01:10:37,032 --> 01:10:42,972
Speaker 10: I saw one. This was like five or six
years ago, and I was maybe thirteen.

743
01:10:43,992 --> 01:10:49,092
Speaker 10: I was out in the woods on my ATV,
just weaving through the trees and going too
fast.

744
01:10:50,012 --> 01:10:55,972
Speaker 10: I was a stupid kid then. I did a lot
of stupid shit. Anyway, I'm in some pretty

745
01:10:56,112 --> 01:11:01,272
Speaker 10: sparse woods, so it's easy to see
far off, and I see this animal laying down in
the

746
01:11:01,312 --> 01:11:06,652
Speaker 10: distance. I turn my ATV to get
closer, and I can tell it's a deer.

747
01:11:07,692 --> 01:11:12,612
Speaker 10: As I'm pulling up to it, I cut the
engine and just roll to a stop about twenty feet

748
01:11:12,672 --> 01:11:17,952
Speaker 10: from the thing. I think it must be
hurt or something because its back legs aren't

749
01:11:18,012 --> 01:11:23,872
Speaker 10: working, and it's pulling itself
along by its front legs. Thinking I'll need to
kill

750
01:11:23,932 --> 01:11:29,872
Speaker 10: it, I go to pull out my knife. As
soon as I reach down, this thing's head just

751
01:11:30,011 --> 01:11:35,672
Speaker 10: snaps towards me, and I don't mean
it heard a sound and sort of looked around then

752
01:11:35,772 --> 01:11:41,752
Speaker 10: saw me. It just immediately jerked
its head right towards me. It,

753
01:11:42,512 --> 01:11:48,092
Speaker 10: it didn't look right. It was like
someone tried to make a deer but didn't have all

754
01:11:48,132 --> 01:11:53,952
Speaker 10: the right parts. It was all twisted
and gangly with these nasty, swollen

755
01:11:54,052 --> 01:12:00,012
Speaker 10: eyes just staring at me. And I got
this feeling like it was trying to figure me
out,

756
01:12:00,432 --> 01:12:06,252
Speaker 10: trying to figure out what I was,
completely still. And then a

757
01:12:06,312 --> 01:12:11,112
Speaker 10: couple seconds later, it just turned
and kept dragging itself away."

758
01:12:11,392 --> 01:12:16,432
Speaker 10: "Whoa." "I pushed my ATV as fast as
it would go back to the house.

759
01:12:17,212 --> 01:12:22,612
Speaker 10: That's when my grandfather told me
about the Ekatiksidi. He said they were bad

760
01:12:22,772 --> 01:12:28,712
Speaker 10: spirits that spawn deep in the
forest. They're attracted to signs of life,
noise,

761
01:12:28,952 --> 01:12:34,652
Speaker 10: sight, stuff like that. And when
they find something alive, they sort of copy it,

762
01:12:35,212 --> 01:12:40,992
Speaker 10: but they disassemble it first. Once
they've copied something, they try and find more

763
01:12:41,052 --> 01:12:46,452
Speaker 10: of it to make a better copy. I don't
really know why. This is just what he told me.

764
01:12:47,352 --> 01:12:52,492
Speaker 10: Most of the time they're harmless.
Every now and then, one shows up in the shape of

765
01:12:52,552 --> 01:12:57,652
Speaker 10: a deer or dog or something, and then
the shaman go out and take care of it."

766
01:12:57,652 --> 01:13:03,132
Speaker 10: "So what did they do about the one
you saw?"

767
01:13:03,532 --> 01:13:08,572
Speaker 10: "They went out to find a deer, a
real deer. When they caught one, they brought it
to

768
01:13:08,612 --> 01:13:14,112
Speaker 10: the Ekatiksidi. The only way to kill
them is to make them copy something already

769
01:13:14,172 --> 01:13:19,484
Speaker 10: dying." We sat in silence there for
a moment, drinks

770
01:13:19,924 --> 01:13:20,424
Speaker 10: forgotten.

771
01:13:22,544 --> 01:13:28,064
Speaker 10: I saw one. What? And I think I know
why your grandfather wanted the

772
01:13:28,164 --> 01:13:29,624
Speaker 10: speakers taken down.

773
01:13:31,384 --> 01:13:37,344
Speaker 10: What he was afraid of, it happened.
Wait, slow down. What

774
01:13:37,364 --> 01:13:43,104
Speaker 10: are you talking about? There's a
human Akatic city out

775
01:13:43,164 --> 01:13:43,464
Speaker 10: there.

776
01:13:54,204 --> 01:13:59,264
Speaker 10: A few hours later, we're standing at
the trailhead behind my property. It's turning

777
01:13:59,324 --> 01:14:05,204
Speaker 10: into evening now, with only about an
hour of real daylight left. There is a group

778
01:14:05,264 --> 01:14:11,164
Speaker 10: of men nearby from Ida's tribe,
shaman, talking to each other in hushed voices.

779
01:14:11,984 --> 01:14:16,944
Speaker 10: Behind them are a dozen or so women
and children, and some of the women are crying.

780
01:14:18,084 --> 01:14:24,024
Speaker 10: Ida, what's going on? He motions for
me to wait as the circle of shaman

781
01:14:24,084 --> 01:14:29,764
Speaker 10: breaks up. An older man in his early
60s, who I assume

782
01:14:29,844 --> 01:14:35,604
Speaker 10: is Ida's grandfather, walks over to
us at the entrance to the trail. He doesn't stop

783
01:14:35,664 --> 01:14:41,004
Speaker 10: to talk to us, but just nods his
head in our direction and continues past us down

784
01:14:41,044 --> 01:14:46,944
Speaker 10: the trail. He has a wiry sort of
strength to him despite his age,

785
01:14:47,204 --> 01:14:52,964
Speaker 10: and the feathered garb and war paint
on his body lend him an air of danger. I

786
01:14:53,024 --> 01:14:57,544
Speaker 10: can see an ornate stone dagger on
his belt as he goes.

787
01:14:58,704 --> 01:15:03,424
Speaker 10: Eventually, I speak. When is he
coming back?

788
01:15:04,844 --> 01:15:10,504
Speaker 10: Ida just gives me this flat,
mournful look. He

789
01:15:10,584 --> 01:15:16,444
Speaker 10: isn't coming back. And then Ida's
words from before

790
01:15:16,564 --> 01:15:22,504
Speaker 10: ring in my ear. The only way to kill
them is to make them copy

791
01:15:22,584 --> 01:15:24,504
Speaker 10: something already dying.

792
01:16:14,504 --> 01:16:20,004
Speaker 11: And so, another episode has drawn to
a close, and our nightmares dissolve

793
01:16:20,384 --> 01:16:25,364
Speaker 11: into the ether. If you would like to
find out how you can hear the full-length

794
01:16:25,444 --> 01:16:31,004
Speaker 11: versions of our audio program,
please visit thenosleeppodcast.com to learn
about our

795
01:16:31,104 --> 01:16:36,684
Speaker 11: Season Pass program. 25 episodes,
each over two hours long, and three

796
01:16:36,744 --> 01:16:42,504
Speaker 11: exclusive bonus episodes, all for
only $19.99. On behalf of

797
01:16:42,564 --> 01:16:47,464
Speaker 11: everyone at the No Sleep Podcast, we
thank you for listening. Join us again next

798
01:16:47,524 --> 01:16:52,504
Speaker 11: week when our dark tales will
envelop you in a nightmarish, swirling

799
01:16:52,824 --> 01:16:58,084
Speaker 11: fog. This audio production is
copyright

800
01:16:58,284 --> 01:17:04,284
Speaker 11: 2017 by Creative Reason Media, Inc.
All rights reserved. The copyrights for each

801
01:17:04,344 --> 01:17:08,884
Speaker 11: story are held by the respective
authors. No duplication or reproduction of this

802
01:17:08,964 --> 01:17:13,384
Speaker 11: audio program is permitted without
the written consent of Creative Reason Media,

803
01:17:13,604 --> 01:17:13,904
Speaker 11: Inc.