I Clean Hoarder Houses For A Living | CreepCast

33:04The towering forest spilled into a field of boulders, almost eclipsing them. The trees and enormous tingled roots in the foreground framed the landscape strangely. Based in that cold, hazy moonlight, it all looked like something out of a fever dream. Excitement coursed through me, overtaking my fear. I could barely wait for him to get back. I waited to go in there more than I'd wanted anything in my life. I wanted to go in there more than I'd wanted anything in my life. he finally emerged shivering and immediately reached for a water bottle mud leaves and a delicate webbing of moss coated his gloves it's cold in there i can't believe how fucking cold i can't believe it's fucking real clips my harness in we switch places second i stepped across the frame i gasped the chill was so powerfully shocking i felt like had been punched.

33:56I tried catching my breath, but the stunning alien beauty of the scenery made it impossible. Everything was so much faster inside. The boulders in the near distance were at least the size of houses. Trees easily ten times my height towered on all sides. Enormous nets of moss hung from the branches, drifting dreamily in the wind. The thought of entering the ancient force made me shudder, so I veered to the right instead. Snowy landscape extended several hundred yards, terminating in what looked like a ridge. I walked briskly, trying to ignore a highly uncomfortable, unnerving sensation. It felt like my muscles weren't contracting correctly.

34:38It's hard to explain, but you know how whenever you breathe or take a step, everything contracts then expands. It's like I was stuck in that expanded state, like my body couldn't tighten up again, leaving everything unnaturally loose. Winds strengthened dangerously as I tromped towards the ridge. The snow seemed odd, possibly refrozen, crunchy, thin, and deceptively slippery. I moved carefully, steering clear of crystalline rocks and the occasional struggling sprig of greenery. I searched the sky for stars, but the dreamy haze created by the moon reflecting off gauzy clouds obliterated whatever constellations there might have been steadfastly ignoring the unsettlingly boneless quality of my movements i made it to the ridge straight down a sheer rocky slope glittering with ice and deep blue veins of crystals set a dark valley nestled in the center were labyrinth ruins dominated by a looming black pyramid arranged and weathered steps it looked both inexpressibly ancient and eerily futuristic The side facing me reflected the sky like a hallucinatory collection of enormous silver mirrors.

35:49The rest of it was indistinct shadow. It looked alive somehow, like sentient darkness masking itself in a facade of light. At the very top of the pyramid stood a tall, thin figure. Face turned to the sky. Long hair whipped wildly in the wind, bright and filmy as the clouds overhead. A heavy gust of wind shrieked past, buffeting me dangerous to close to the edge. I turned sharply and hunched down, hurrying back to the house. Temperatures dropped as the winds grew, and soon enough I was shaking. Ice and moon and bright snow mingled together, creating a glistening, dreamy atmosphere. Tree branches groaned as the wind tore their delicate nets of moss away.

36:32Somewhere in the distance, opposite the pyramid, that strange, atonal song echoed. My bones and muscles felt looser than ever. The vibrations from that voice coursed painfully through my body, and for a few delirious moments, I was afraid the frequency would rupture my insides. Finally, the warm, mundane glow of the taxidermy room appeared among the trees. I got a glimpse of Kurt's face peering around the edge, and I rushed inside. After the bitter chill of the painting, the room felt dangerously, impressively hot. What did you see? I described the pyramid as best I could, as well as a slender, long-haired giant gazing at the clouds.

37:11What about the thing making the sound? The song continued to echo in the distance, priming with emotion. I felt too insignificant to comprehend. Did you see it? No. Kurt started pacing, all the while staring nervously at the painting all the while. Have you put all these things on the manifest? Yeah. Redo it. Take it all off. Kurt, I... What? What's your solution? Do you really want to put this shit up for auction? Don't know about you, but I don't want to end up shot by a fucking men in black or something. Pause, took a deep, shaky breath. Tell you what, I'll take care of the manifest. That way nothing's on you.

37:49All you have to do is just keep your mouth shut. We're done with this house in a couple days. You don't have to worry about it anymore. Panic and anger exploded. No, you don't get to take it. His eyebrows crawled all the way up to his hair. my insides instantly withered but I held my ground. I found this painting. I could have stolen the damn thing and he wouldn't have been any the wiser. He didn't get to steal it from me. Kurt's expression smoothed and to my surprise I saw a hint of relief. Not like I want to do it alone kiddo. You look scared there for a minute but you didn't want anything to do with it that's all.

38:25Well I do. Good. He peeled his gloves off and absently scratched his palms. We'll leave it here till we clear out on Thursday. Give ourselves some time to figure out what to do with it. Sound good? Yeah. I answered because there was nothing else to say. We spent the rest of the day pulling up the carpets downstairs. He wasn't scheduled to help me today, but he understandably wants the house clear as soon as possible. I'm not complaining. At this point, it looks like I'll be getting paid to explore an alien world. Kirk cut the day short after developing a pretty ugly allergic reaction to the filth under the carpet.

39:00even with the hazmat suit he ended up with huge hives spreading from his fingers all the way to his elbows i wanted to stay and finish it but he didn't want me alone with the painting it's fair enough i think on the way out i asked to spread fresh sauce along the stairs and sheepishly told him why he made fun of me for believing superstitious bullshit but let me do it okay honestly i'm glad do what i just said okay it's like you went into a fucking painting world yeah I guess that's okay if you want to put your precious salt down it's like what the fuck man is that kind of weird yeah you saw the seven foot tall thin guy that was echoing and made your bones feel loose yeah go ahead and put your salt down there it's like okay man alright Kurt cool oh what you believe in ghosts or something but this guy believes in angels too what a loser what a fucking idiot this guy's an idiot Yeah.

39:59Anyways, I'm going to crawl back to that painting where my, where my bones feel like marshmallows. I'll be back back. Do you, do you hear that unspeakable paint demon? This guy believes in ghost. Yeah, exactly. Silly man. Yeah. All right. Salt circle. It is. That's a funny kind of guy who like see something supernatural and he's like, what do you want me to do? Let's go in. And he's immediately like exploring, but then he hears about something that's like adjacent, if not more believable and he's like okay you believe in spirits dude you believe in anything don't you as he's crawling through a painting anyway yeah he's yelling this from the painting world honestly i'm glad kurt knows and i'm relieved he's taking the lead it's oh hold on before i read that line it reminds me of like in that tv show supernatural i feel like i remember there being some conversation early on keep in mind the show's about like vampire hunters and demon hunters and stuff like they've been fighting demons for seasons and then i think there's a conversation where one of them around season three is like what you don't believe in angels do you it's like yes yeah why this time yeah i do the other ones came from like what are you talking about yeah yeah honestly i'm glad kurt knows and i'm relieved he's taking the lead having someone else in charge makes this less frightening and more exhilarating i'm scared don't get me wrong for the first time in my life i can't wait to see what happens tomorrow i mean i can understand being like part two i can understand it being like something where it's like this is crazy like and i'm like there's a bit of a rush for looking at it but at what point they actually would do they like i know he's saying listen i i'm scared are you you kind of like i mean like just because you say you're scared you're doing everything in your power to not show that you're scared at all i want to know what needs to happen for them to actually be like okay yeah maybe we don't maybe we call quits on the painting kurt they come to the house the next day and there's like a 20 foot like face in the window and it's like all right kurt maybe we leave this one to the auction house kurt did you forget to cover the painting again because there's a 12 foot tall troll walking around the backyard i do like the uh the weird like the the visual of the labyrinth and there's like a black pyramid just kind of a weird like sci-fi fantasy makes me think of like a old magic card art or something you know like weird retro sci-fi art high fantasy sci-fi art shit to where uh then you have like this weird nomadic like fucking wizard on top who's just like singing and you make sure make sure uh like basically your muscles your muscles are are are unable to, what is it, contract?

42:43Is that what it was? I know they're loose. But yeah, just kind of weird. But that person has to be the one that he saw the day prior, correct? Yes. Yeah. And also, let's keep in mind that this person looks like famous baseball player Mark McGuire. I legitimately, when I'm reading this, I'm telling you right now, it's not even a conscious effort anymore. When he's like, I saw him on top of the Black Pyramid. I legitimately saw the sleeveless Mark McGuire guy. He still has the milk mustache and he has the baseball bat on his shoulder. And I'm like, is that not actually just fucking horrifying? Thinking that Mark McGuire's in this painting.

43:23That's where he's been. Yep, that's where he's been. He's been waiting for you, Hunter. And now he's here. All right, you're starting to scare me. We don't need to bring in Mark McGuire. What's Mark McGuire sound like? Hey, y 'all. Hey, how you doing? Mark McGuire. hey Mark McGuire here you're just gonna be chilling out and then in that little like window behind you it's just hey kids Mark McGuire here hey kids you wanna do some steroids with me this is a hypodermic needle did he do steroids or are you just saying that because he's a baseball player there is there is no fathomable way that Mark McGuire did not do steroids Mark McGuire was possibly the king of steroids at that time.

44:09Hey, kids. So if you keep doing this, your heart's going to explode. Listen to me, Mark. I thought it was the milk. Yeah, exactly. Drink this milk and also here's seven cc's of bull testosterone. Give me your arm. All right. Anyway, that'd be kind of a scary monster, though, huh? Somebody that forcibly gives you steroids. You just get bigger and bigger. I never wanted to. You're like super fucking jacked. I never wanted to be this big. But Mark McGuire keeps sneaking into my house and... Isn't that your Sam Selleck cartoon? I guess a little bit. But the whole thing is that Sam just touches you and your fucking muscles get huge.

44:49That's true. Yeah. This is like him actually sneaking in and being like, Jessica A., Dennis. There's like a little kid. Yeah. He's like in the shadow of his room. Dennis, it's me, Mark. Yeah. I just got back from Tijuana and I have a bunch of bull testosterone. own just wanted to make sure i came by and gave you your fix no i'm good yeah he's he's like no come on we made that pact when you were younger right he's like i'm four yeah come on let's do it that kind of thing that that's a horror film that's like a horror story right there old old baseball players that did steroids back in the day are uh trying to get little kids to do steroids so it becomes normalized so that it fixes the reputation as players.

45:38Try to tell me that's not a good idea for a story. That would be an idea, certainly. Sitting there and he says, it would be an idea. I don't really know, Mark McGuire, if I want to do that. Come on, man. Who are you? It's Barry Bond, steps out of the shadows. Come on, kid. Just a couple cc's, a couple more cc's of bull testosterone. run you're really good at scenarios of like adult men like trying to coerce young men into doing to do dangerous things is this like related to anything that you had growing up anything you want this is legitimately the nightmare i had i when i'm telling you i had to take the milk poster off my wall is i like i because it was on the back of my door so i'd look at it why did you have it there in the first place he was hitting tons of home runs he was a great player great hitter so I was like sitting there but then it's just him with his arm out and I just kept like looking at it like you know like the little kid in The Shining he's like he sits there and his Danny like his eyes are open and he like shakes when he's like using the Shining ability it was like that except it was me thinking that like Mark McGuire was going to crawl through the fucking poster and be like come on this is a hypodermic needle he's like flicking the tip of the needle yeah do you think yeah Yeah, do you think that maybe you had a different man in your life come through your window and try to coerce you to something?

47:07And now your brain's just filtered in as a got milk poster that was on your wall. Yeah, I was required asking you to do testosterone. Is that like indicative of something? Yeah, it was Sammy Sosa crawling through my window every night. And he was the one who was he was the one actually visiting me. And I put it all on Mark. Sammy Sosa, Sammy Sosa and Jason Giambi used to crawl through my. you are making up words these are all players you know what it's okay there's going to be like one guy who's like hell yeah dude there's going to be one other 39 year old man like yeah brother that's awesome also sitting on his couch hitting a bong eating chips for the fourth time this week this one guy gets me he's like my best friend and he's still doing steroids too that's such a power move if a guy is just like a fat piece of shit and he's like ripping bongs.

48:01Bong hits, you know? But he also shoots up roids. He also is just like, guess what? Bold testosterone time. Fucking jabs it in his arm. Oh, I'm huge. I'm big, is what he says. I'm huge. Anyways, part three. Yeah, part three. Did you see while we were talking about your cartoons, did you see the pirate software made his profile picture you were drawing of him? Really? That's awesome. Yeah, on Twitter. It's pretty funny. anyway part three i did appreciate the uzumaki reference in that cartoon by the way that was good yeah the little deal yeah i thought it'd be fun to have the aura is it aura boros the fuck is the snake boris yeah the snake eating itself yeah yeah that was the whole thing but i was like man it'd be cool to uh reference that uh the little uzumaki dude who's like when the his wife and daughter whatever opened up the thing and in the basket yeah yeah yeah that was pretty cool that's a good cartoon good job thanks isaiah last night i had strange nightmares thank you i'll get men with decayed faces and beautiful women and jewel-encrusted bull headdresses towering horn shadows and spidery monstrosities with wet rotten flesh swinging from their bones yeah crazy opening my gosh i was gonna say hey so uh hey so maybe the painting maybe we don't Go back in the fading.

49:27I've had the dreams of the bullheaded spider women with the rotting faces. Maybe we don't do that again. I just want to say, just want to reiterate to the audience too. This man cleans up literal murder and suicide scenes every day. And then just now he's having these nightmares. Okay. So maybe let's not go back in. All right. Just want to put that up. By 4 a.m. I was trapped in that dreamy high alert state of paranoia, peculiar to exhaustion. sleep wasn't a possibility and it's not like i was eager to welcome more nightmares anyway so i got ready for work suited up and drove to the suicide house just as the sun rose i ripped up the last of the downstairs carpet and hauled it outside struggling to ignore a sense of feverish almost overpowering excitement terrified as i was i couldn't wait to re-enter the portal man after the nightmare delusions i can't wait he's a psychopath this might be the actual first psychopath that we've ever met we've ever read about i mean the anticipation was almost painful the only thing keeping me from hurtling in there on my own was a cowardice kurt still hadn't arrived by the time i finished the carpet so mindful of the squatter issue from yesterday i checked the upstairs bedrooms one was normal as expected heart lurching i tentatively opened the second room and froze tangles of vines draped the walls and clotted the bed A cool, earthy scent permeated the air, reminding me of wet woods after a winter's rainstorm.

50:55Morning light filtered through the leaf-covered window, infusing the room with an eerie green radiance. In the corners and under the bed, clusters of half-open blossoms glowed faintly in the dim. I'm wondering how... Sorry to interrupt. Because it just made me think, obviously the bugs are coming from the painting area. I wonder how many times the person who ended up committing suicide went in or if they really did drive themselves to suicide or if the thing just murdered her. Right. Curious. I think I think either is possible. I also think that there's some kind of infection or something because he says he found a jacket that had these green sprouts growing from it and then on the plate he saw dirt and greenery and then there's the spider wing things in it.

51:44So I think there's like the painting grows outwards like now since it's upstairs it's infected maybe all the trash was like a barrier trying to keep it yeah that's what that's what I'm trying to kind of get at too with it is like was the hoarding actually like a defense mechanism against this thing yeah yeah and now it's like when it infects the room the room becomes overgrown and rotted but now I think Kurt has become infected because he has the quote unquote allergies to make him all itchy and covered in hives yeah he blamed it on that but yeah blame it on the things now he's not there now he's late yeah for some reason so yeah i think it might be infected but yeah it seems to spread out i'm not sure about the bugs though maybe those are people maybe people turn into the bugs we'll see that's a humanoid face i stepped inside jumping when something crunched underfoot a vine had snapped i kneeled down to have a look the dark stem burst with leaves furled blossoms and long wicked thorns silvery drops of resin seeped from the broken stalk.

52:44Carefully, avoiding the thorns lest I tear my suit, I strode to the window. Greenery coated everything, masking all but the faintest hints of furniture. Unbidden, I thought of where the wild things are. That brought to mind the furry, sprout-covered coat I'd seen yesterday. Founded by the bed, covered in a mound of greenery, I gingerly tore vines away, grimacing as clumps of filth-caked fur came up too. Pretty soon the coat was in tatters. The vines had wormed through and separated it to the point of ruin. Before long, I found myself holding patches of fur and tanned, brittle hide. I pulled up the last few pieces, working it free of stems and thorns.

53:24When something shifted, it rolled under the vines, rustling and leaves and flowers as it went. I reached for it. I was so short, my fingertips barely grazed the hard, rounded surface. With a careful, calculated strain, I hooked it with my thumb pulled it out for inspection it was a skull brown and uncomfortably soft with a massive snout and no eye sockets wait like a human skull with the massive snout no eye sockets that's what i'm that's what i think like i can't tell if it's like an uncanny surrealist thing it gives an actual pig skull or like you're saying is it a human skull with a like a snout but no eye sockets kind of weird yeah disgust and panic subsumed me before i could think i tossed it into the corner and stood it took all my willpower to leave the room slowly the only thing keeping me in check was the certainty that the thorns would shred my suit if i wasn't careful i finally decided to check the taxidermy room i pushed the door open half expecting a pile of thorny plants to tumble out the window here faced away from the sun leaving everything shrouded in shadow even in the darkness something felt terribly wrong.

54:37I studied the room for several tense moments before it hit me. The taxidermy animals. Yesterday and the day before, they'd been neatly arranged against the north side of the room. Now they stood around the portal facing the door. The five-eyed humanoid with the wide mouth took pride of place, positioned directly before the painting. The long-haired figure had returned to the frame, rested on its haunches, poised like a sprinter about to take off. Shit. I slammed the door and ran downstairs, struggling not to hyperventilate. Salt crunched unpleasantly under my feet. The way the house trapped the thick, syrupy morning light reminded me of my nightmares.

55:14All shades of orange and gold and red. I ran outside. The door clattered loudly behind me. Across the street, a blonde neighbor lady stopped and stared. I avoided eye contact and pretended to busy myself with the equipment in the van. My hands shook as I struggled to calm myself. It was 7.30. Kurt would be here any minute. He'd sort shit out, one way or the other. Just a few more minutes and... Excuse me. I whirled around. The neighbor woman reared back nervously. I'm sorry to bother you. I just got back into town. Her gaze drifted curiously over my shoulder and snapped back to me when she noticed me watching.

55:52I was wondering, with the suit and whatnot, is everything okay? I shrugged and gave the party line. I'm with a cleaning company, ma 'am. I don't own anything about the situation. Oh. Oh. Her tone turned mildly aggressive. It's just that I spoke with my neighbor about a week ago. I just thought that he would have mentioned a cleaning company. She looked my hazmat suit up and down with a tight, meaningful smile. Especially a serious one like yours. A week? Kurt said the occupant had been dead for almost a month before anyone found her. This lady had spoken to her a week ago? And what was this about a male neighbor?

56:33Ma 'am, I'm sorry. I'm just an employee. I can show you my credentials, give you my boss's number, but... She backed off immediately. No, no, it's fine. No worries. Just a little concerned. We're tightening it around here. I waited until she crossed the street, then called Kurt. He didn't answer. Maybe he was driving, and he only lived 15, maybe 20 minutes away. He'd arrive any second. Half an hour passed before I gave up and went to his house. Oh, God. When I got there, both his vehicles were in the driveway. He didn't answer the door, so I tried the knob. Locked, of course. Kurt! Fighting a surge of panic, I felt around for a spare key.

57:12I found one tucked into a crack in the doorframe. Took a minute to pry out, but it fit the lock just fine. Kurt, it's just me, I... He sat naked and cross-legged in the living room floor. right in the middle of the light streaming through the window. He looked up at me. Sunlight threw his features into sharp relief and turned the beads of sweat on his face to diamonds. Stay there and shut up. I looked him over, horror building in my chest. My gorge rose. Holes. A hideous, trypophobic nightmare spreading from his biceps to fingertips. Hundreds of them. small and dark and round like termite burrows all rimmed in red vaulted flesh they don't like the sun they think it kills them my stomach heaved kill what look brusy bags puffed out under his eyes making him look 20 years older and terribly sick keep your suit on penel beside him and forced myself to look.

58:18Sunlight bounced off the bottom of the holes, revealing soft, glistening white flesh. First, I thought they were deep boils. Then I noticed they were quivering. Finally, I saw the eyes, tiny and fish-like, flitting wildly to and fro. I emitted a low whine that made me want to shoot myself. Don't! Look! Some are already dead. He rolled one of his wrists. Sure enough, a few of the holes had bubbled over with jelly. Two of those goldfish eyes were suspended in the murk, glinting like tiny coins. I tried to call 911, but Kurt threatened to attack and infect me. Thing is, he's four times my size. He'd have no trouble hurting me in the short interval between the phone call and the ambulance's arrival.

59:06I'm pretty tough, but the thought of these holes, of those quivering jelly worms burrowing in my skin, no. I'd let him die before letting him pass those to me. Every once in a while, I'd hear a small pop. Then he'd gasp as a geyser of translucent ichor bubbled out of the holes. After a while, that viscous gel covered his arms. Shining with an iridescence that made my stomach churn, I swam in the gunk, slowly dripping onto the carpet. You caught them inside the painting. He released a shaky breath. In those woods, there was something like a weird giant skeleton. I tripped and went down under the ribs into a patch of thistles.

59:49It looked like I poked a few holes in my gloves. I punched your gloves and you came back through? What? What, was I supposed to fucking stay in there? I heard another low, wet pop. Kurt hissed as a tiny volcano of pale gel oozed over his left wrist, obscuring several holes. They made me sick and panicky, but I could barely look away. Well, there are plants in one of the bedrooms now. I explained everything as quickly as I could, from the flower vines and soft eyeless skull to the ominous rearrangement of the taxidermy animals. He tried to interrupt, but I kept going. What do you know about the lady who lived there?

1:00:27Nothing. He answered calmly, but for just an instant his face flickered. Really? Because a lady from across the street came over and told me her neighbor is very much alive. I stood up. He followed suit, grimacing only slightly. Where are you going? To the office. I'm going to find her brother's information. Without thinking, I bolted for the door. He caught me easily. Hand tied as a vice around my elbow. Jelly and glittering eyes smeared my suit. You're not going to tell anyone anything. Tell me what's going on. Okay. He dragged me back to the living room and threw me on the sofa. That house is mine.

1:01:04A thousand horrifying conclusions ran through my head. but the lady who lived there was my wife so this is more or less what he said okay so basically Kurt that was his wife so okay so that explains why he was so chill with the painting in the first place yeah because he knew about all this stuff beforehand right kurt's wife evie has been missing a lot longer than four weeks their relationship was fraught and they'd separated though not divorced six years ago damn checked in periodically always hoping for the possibility of reconciliation but that never happened he last spoke to her over a year ago she sounded terrified kurt didn't think much of it zivi was prone to hysteria not mentally or emotionally well After that, she stopped taking his calls.

1:01:53About four months ago, she knocked on his front door, but it couldn't have been her. Evie was 56 years old. The girl on the porch would have been a dead ringer, except she was 30 years too young. She was giggling and excited and uttered endless strings of gibberish. When he freaked out, she shoved him into a wall with enough force to knock him out. When he came to, she was gone. And as he shortly found out, so was Evie's house. now a house was always on the property but it was never the right house every day kurt saw a different structure and a different occupant he saw everything from tacky tudor style condos to low slung sprawlers to wood cottages and once a turdid blue monstrosity finally just a couple weeks ago the house reverted to the neat little two-story he'd bought for her after their separation he broke in and immediately reared back gagging from the overpowering stench he found her sprawled on the living room liquefying corpse slowly bonded into the carpet when he checked the house afterward even going so far as to use the ladder to peer into the upstairs window he found nothing strange certainly no taxidermy monstrosities or transdimensional portals the house hadn't changed since but the weird specimens and awful painting appeared recently He's afraid this means the house is about to disappear again.

1:03:21Fine. Just fucking dandy. Why the goddamn hell would you involve me? I couldn't go in there after seeing her like that. I sensed deception here. Maybe an omission. Maybe an outright lie. I couldn't tell and didn't have the presence of mind to pin him down on it. Instead, I angrily blurted, Why'd you tell me she worked for the circus? She did. The house is the circus. What? so i oh well he's being he's like kurt's being cute yeah he's like he did that house is a circus yeah it's like oh well you're full of bugs now idiot you're full of giant glass worm bugs and i'm standing here in a hazmat suit why don't i shoot you in the head and then burn that house down that sounds like the best outcome for any of us well at least i don't put salt circles on the floor okay all right all right well yeah yeah big talk coming from the guy who probably killed his wife and needs me to think it's a suicide.

1:04:16No, at least I don't. Never mind. Okay, you hear that? You hear that? That's the worms in your skin. Idiot. I think there's butterflies growing in my brain. What's that? Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the worms in your mouth. I hate you. That's the honest reaction. That's the actual honest reaction between it. I don't like you a lot. I'm glad this is happening to you. Yeah, worms. Worms. So I don't know if you know this, but circus has a definition other than the clowns and elephants variety. Circus is a sort of open public space where several avenues converge. Circuses, I mean, I would describe that as like an intersection, not really a circus, but sure.

1:05:04Circuses have been the crux of his last phone conversation with Evie. She saw that she was tired of the circus, that the circus wanted too much, that she no longer knew what to do with the circus. So what's the goal here? I made my voice deliberately callous. You own the house. Why don't you just burn it all down? Because! He cut off, hissing. A series of unwholesome pops filled the room. Fluid erupted from a dozen holes in his arms. He grimaced. Because that girl, whatever she was, wasn't my wife. She was too young. I think Evie might be alive. In the painting? Through the portal. He corrected.

1:05:45He spread his arms. A rain of jelly pattered to the floor. I didn't want to involve you, but I can't do this alone. Sure you can, I thought bitterly, but I didn't say it because you know what? I can't get the idea of the circus out of my head. An untold number of avenues from different dimensions and realities converging on a single unremarkable spot in the west coast grossest mid-sized city. In that bitterly cold, beautiful world full of luminescent moonflowers and trees, strapped in breathtakingly intricate nets of moss, and the labyrinth, of course. A dark labyrinth with a black pyramid at its center.

1:06:21I will never have a chance like this again. Never in my life. Okay. What do you want me to do? Lay in the yard for a while. In the sun. Just in case these sayings are on your suit. Then go home. I'll call you when the infestation's dead. I did as he said, linkering in his yard till sunset. I checked on him one more time, still stretched on his living room carpet, squeezing fluid from the sickening holes, and went home. I've been waiting for him to call ever since. I hope his infestation's done. I know I have a lot of other things to worry about, but I can't stop thinking about the holes in Kurt's skin.

1:06:56It's great that sunlight kills them, but I'm scared of what will happen in the dark. Margaret? End of part three. Margaret? Yes? Do you see that man in the hazmat suit Laying down flat in the yard Across the street what is he doing Just like a giant Just a man in a hazmat suit I'm not sure should we take on him No just Let's just lock the door So the pops were the worms Exploding periodically Like the little gel things And popping out Like the pressure boiling Right right um so i don't know if i didn't catch this but who was the younger person then is that just a random body or do we know who the younger person so so his wife was his age like 50 something and then like a 20s version of his wife shows up and it's super he gets weirded out and she's strong and then runs back he follows her to the house that's now normal and she's dead on the floor right but which i think he actually killed her not dead on the floor but you think so well yeah i mean so there's two options.

1:08:03Yeah. Either his wife is the giant in the painting somehow changed or his wife went into the painting, got younger, whatever. And, uh, or even if she didn't go to the painting, got young, he didn't find her dead. He killed that woman in the house. That or she is that, or could the man in the painting be Kurt, but older.

1:08:27Cause the giant in the painting, they've, I think they've made pretty clear as a man, right? Yeah. Could the man be older? Yes. Could be. Just something of if, yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to think here because there's a couple of different things. But right now, essentially, the halfway through, because now we're on part four. So the halfway point is then basically being like, I think my wife's still alive in there. We need to go in and get her out, whatever. And now our main character is even just like, well, I'm just going to help. Not really because I give a shit about the wife, but I just want to see this like kind of astonishing thing.

1:09:02just again and again. He's becoming obsessed. Kind of drawn in just like this weird fantasy grim obsession forming from that black pyramid. Yeah. Yeah, it's fascinating. I like the premise so far. Very fantasy, very cool. Kurt's kind of a douche. He is, but now he's full of worms. I think he gets it. Is the popping sound the worms popping randomly? I think that... No, I think it's like the gel or like whatever goo is in the deal like popping out like is what i thought it was i see i got you okay cool all right well you ready for part four part four by midnight i still hadn't heard from kurt which was surprising i've been doing extremely well for a man whose arms look like fleshy honeycombs and i expected him to check in periodically telling to let me know he was still alive it occurred to me that i was expecting too much under the circumstances it's been easy to forget that I'm his employee, not his friend or anything else.

1:10:03My impatience probably seemed ridiculous, but the drive to learn, know, understand, seek is all-consuming. The prospect of exploring a new world is overwhelming. I want an adventure so much. That's what I've wanted my entire life. Then there's Kurt. He's a good guy, and I care about him probably more than I should. I want to help him, and feelings aside, I have no way to explore this new world if Kurt dies. So around 11.30... Do you believe that the protagonist actually cares about Kurt? No, I think he's obsessed with the painting. He just wants to go back. He's just lying and telling himself, I mean, I care about Kurt.

1:10:41Yeah, okay. Just making sure. I care about Kurt. Conveniently, only when I found this multidimensional painting he had. Right. So around 1130 on Tuesday night, I decided to go check on him. Opened my door, only to find myself face-to-face with a stranger. It was a woman. copper-eyed and terribly pale with a choppy tangled mess of black hair chris yes church of the circus you need your help i trusted her for a second before every alarm in my body went off i tried to slam the door but she struck forward and wrapped cold fingers around my wrist second she touched me her pallor warmed into a heartbreaking peaches and cream complexion dull eyes brightened and dirty hair turned smooth and thick my own fear and panic evaporated replaced with a single-minded objective.

1:11:28Help Kurt. I drove to the house with the stranger. The car didn't agree with her. Within moments, she was whimpering and vomiting, but I was so focused on my goal that she barely registered. When we got there, she grabbed my hand and walked me to the second floor. You're the only one allowed inside. Strings of vomit glistened on her chin. She pointed to the vine-choked bedroom. In there. She retreated as I threw open the door. Even in my mesmerized state, the room shocked me. It's nothing but a lush grove of vines Strided leaves and soft luminescent flowers Okay, hold on Who's this woman? That's what I was going to say I don't fucking know It just introduced her It's like a woman came up and said You have to help Kurt Am I to assume this is a woman from the painting?

1:12:14I'm trying to assume What I'm wondering is Is this his wife? Is this actually his wife? Yeah Maybe maybe but we haven't got a description of her that that matches to know that yeah i was very lost i was just kind of hoping you know what was going on well i don't know i've i was like what woman i guess it's his wife or the younger version of his wife maybe i'm thinking that it's his wife and that she's throwing up just because i'm guessing that she's just as like sick or infected as he is from being in there potentially maybe or maybe she's like hasn't been in a car for a long time doesn't agree with her i get motion sickness real bad now yes just unrelated to anything is also motion sick yeah sorry this has nothing to do with the painting i swear to god also what's that whole part about like she okay so she has copper eyes she's pale massive massive black hair for one i don't know what this works like that's a bad thing sounds like my type but then she touches him and says she becomes she gets a warm complexion her eyes bright and her hair smooth so like she's touching him and gets like she gets like he ossified yeah exactly it's like she gets just like a chinese snapchat filter like goes over or something like that she's like oh you're the only one allowed in now yeah i'm getting so i'm guessing because she has been devoid of life, I'm guessing, from being in the painting.

1:13:39And now she is back and then she touches life. I mean, I don't fucking know. I'm sure it'll explain more, but still, I'm glad you're lost because I was like, I have no idea what the fuck is happening right now. Okay. I entered. Kurt? Vines crunched under my feet. I went only slightly as a thorn tore through the sole of my shoe, punched a hole in my heel. Jesus. Blood gushed, soaking the sock and tripping through the hole i shook it irritably vaguely satisfied as drops pattered against the leaves and petals flowers flared brightly where the blood hit the light swiftly spread from flower to flower a multi-colored chain reaction of bright blossoms a shadow shifted in the corner relief flooded me and i ran over kurt are you okay the figure reared up glowing flowers illuminated an eyeless head that might have been bovine were it not for the teeth i thought of the coat strange fur coat full of dirt and sprouts not a coat a skin but it had been dead i'd seen and touched its skull i'd pulled its hide to pieces how is it alive the creature lurched forward woody vine snapped under massive paws long lupine teeth reflected the eerie light of the flowers i turned and ran slamming the door just as the creature pounced it hit the door with a bone shaking crack i darted towards the stairs stopping when i saw the girl no longer whole and healthy not even human leathery skin cascaded from her limbs lumping and folding over itself her head was wide and flat with three enormous eyes and a superating snub nose i spun around and ran to the other room it was locked to my shock voices and music issued from behind it i pounded on the door screaming but no one responded if anything the music soft playful piping got louder the eyeless monster tore a hole in the other door and started to squeeze through once again i lunged for the stairwell but the girl warped growing into a multi-limbed monstrosity i screamed and dashed to the taxidermy room locking the door behind me is there any way this could be the sounds of music yeah yes he could be the guy from the ship story i had the same thought or no no he screamed and ran no no no i was also sorry for over i'm i know i keep talking over you the uh no you're good uh i'm wondering if it's the neighbor the girl yeah i'm wondering just because the the whole thing of like we're a tight-knit community or like we're we're tight-knit around here i'm wondering if these people it could be but he also described her as uh blonde oh that's true so no you're always like well unless she can can like cover up her looks yeah maybe she can cover her looks yeah i don't know what it is there's also like the monster like werewolf eyeless plant thing that's tearing through the door right now i will say the the flower kind of imagery pretty sick it's it's very it feels like last of us like the mold how it grows over the infected in that game it's like that but with the vines.

1:16:45I was thinking my mind immediately went to like Annihilation. Yeah, that's what I thought too, when it's like the eyeless thing stepping forward. Yeah, I love Annihilation, dude. That's an awesome movie. Great. So many good visuals in that, dude. Yeah. The muffled sounds of music and laughter permeated the room, punctuated by the frantic snarling of the eyeless monster. Taxidermy animals had changed position yet again, flanking the painting like an honor guard. Somehow the painting's perspective had changed. Instead of the stunning Sylvie landscape of trees and glowing flower vines it displayed a breathtaking vista of the labyrinth valley the pyramid loomed to the left cube steps flashing silver in the moonlight a warm breeze drifted from the painting carrying strains of that alien song in the wet green scent peculiar to lush summers summertime but yesterday that land had been in the throes of winter what was going on The monster crashed into the door, breaking my reverie while sending an explosion of splinters across the room.

1:17:49Without thinking, I ran into the portal. Humid, sweet-smelling air enveloped me. Soft tangles of grass and wildflowers carpeted the ground. Finally, I noticed the pain radiating from my punctured foot. My entire shoes squelched with every step, making my stomach churn. The pyramid towered in nearby, reamed on all sides by a maze of massive walls. awestruck i started to slow down just as i heard a heavy thudding gallop i looked over my shoulder and saw the eyeless creature tearing through the grass it ran low to the ground long snout stretched outward i sprinted toward the labyrinth and veered wildly to the right an unbroken expanse of wall curved as far as i could see even through my fear i marveled at it the walls were smooth and richly dark carvings covered every surface a mixture of unrecognizable characters and hieroglyphs finally i saw a light ahead soft and soothing green it reflected off the walls like a beacon grimly ignoring the galloping monstrosity behind me i put on a final burst of speed and read into the entrance the eyeless thing caught me just as i crossed the threshold batting me down i squirmed away heedless of the sharp undergrowth prickling my skin it caught me easily and swiped burning pain subsumed my wrist followed by a cascade of slick wet heat light erupted all around me flowers again blazing alive all around me i cradled my injured wrist shivering as blood streamed over my fingers the monster thrust its snout against my throat for a terrible instant its teeth pressed into the soft skin then it pulled back leaving a cluster of fur and sprouts in the hollow of my throat.

1:19:31I crawled to my knees, sobbing. It scuttled away. So I think it just infected him. Whatever it was, right? Also, it seems like wherever his blood, either wherever he touches or wherever his blood is landing, it's like bringing things to life. Yeah, it's like the flowers are bioluminescent, but they need blood to clothe. Yeah. Which is a cool idea. That's a cool visual. No, it's super sick. Very surreal. And like I said, too, even from the thing earlier of like the weird black pyramid, like just this like weird fantasy like high high fantasy sci-fi type shit makes me think of that very much just the the annihilation thing basically but yeah i know it's yeah yeah it feels very other earth maybe it's like uh you know the whole old hg wells story the time machine yeah it's like they go to so far future it's like a different planet people aren't maybe it's something like that the painting takes you to like a far future just like that's why there's like a different dimension or reality or something yeah yeah it's like it's so it's so impossibly far forward or backward that it's not even decipherable as earth that'd be kind of sick also you remember the what you're about to say i was just saying i just also i love a nice like just pyramid visuals when people like just like the black pyramid there's just something so sick about like just the pyramid uh visual and stories i don't know i'm always stoked on them i've never wanted ever since i there at one point in time i was like oh i want to go visit the pyramids right but ever since i've seen i've seen so many different videos of like it looks like hell like going there looks like for a couple reasons one you're continuously harassed and like potentially scammed by people being like oh this way this way trying to get you to come in but also my fat ass trying to go into that tiny ass like claustrophobic halls about pyramid no fucking way dude no way i couldn't do it it's a lot of cope from someone who really likes pyramids they've got a few over there god you know what i'm gonna do it i'm gonna do it for me the pale light illuminated it fully a broad bony crest lay atop its long snout creating a sharp angle that somehow looked inorganic thin brittle skin stretched painfully over its skull splitting apart in several places to reveal the bone beneath.

1:21:46It didn't have enough flesh to cover its teeth or gums, resulting in a perpetual snarl. Its head was enormous, far too large for its low, muscular body. It tried to raise its head, but couldn't. The snout lifted several inches before plummeting back into the earth. That's sick. The monstrosity, that is pretty cool. It's like a giant bull head put onto a person. Yeah, it's like a, it's like a, yeah, exactly. Almost like a fucking zombie minotaur is kind of how I'm reading it. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty sick. The monstrosity retreated suddenly, disappearing into the tall grass as a shadow swept across me.

1:22:18I turned around, already knowing what I would see. Sleek, long hair shone like glass. Inhumanly sharp planes created an angular, hypnotic face that was equal parts breathtaking and horrifying. He knelt in front of me. I kicked away, feet tangling in the long grass, but grabbed my hands and pulled me close. His skin glimmered strangely, moon-wide and iridescent, comprised of a delicate, overlapping pattern that reminded me of scales. He inspected my wound, iron grip pressing down to the bone. Then he pressed my wrist to his forehead, smearing my blood all over his face. Somewhere in the labyrinth, a throaty, atonal song began to echo.

1:23:02Finally, he brought the gas to his mouth and sucked. Agony immediately exploded. I thought of poison, of venom, acid eating me down to the bone. This was it. This was it. Dying outside an alien pyramid in a shitty painting while a half-starved reptilian dissolved me with his tongue. I whited out. Sometime later, I woke, propped against the labyrinth. I shot up and scanned my surroundings. Nothing. No lights, no monsters, just bramby flower fields and the endless curve of the wall. I retraced my path and soon found the portal to the taxidermy room. I entered anxiously. Everything was still and silent, with no music or laughter to be heard.

1:23:45I hurried into the hallway. No eyeless monsters or warped multi-limbed girls waited on the stairs. I sobbed with relief and ran downstairs, but stopped when I saw the front door. The five-eyed taxidermy monstrosity sat just to the side. glass irises glittered over its unsettling wraparound smile it looked for all the world like i'd caught it in the act of blocking the door those relieved sobs morphed into a frightened crying but what was i supposed to do go to the backyard taking my eyes off this thing in the process no fighting a surge of panic i tiptoe to the door staying as far away from the creature as I could.

1:24:27It towered over me. The top of its head grazed the door frame. Had it been that big before? I couldn't remember. With a choked gasp, I opened the door and ran out into the night. I expected it to follow, but reached my car safely. Okay, hold on. Things happen in this story really fast. Okay. Yeah, it's hard to kind of keep up. Yeah, so, hold on. He gets bit by the werewolf and then the giant thing seems to help him by sucking on it right and then he wakes up propped against the labyrinth shot up scan my surroundings everything's fine I retraced my path and then found the portal okay so he wakes up outside the labyrinth walk straight back home everything's silent and then he goes down those stairs and then the taxidermy things now big the one earlier he described as being in a 12 by 12 inch case right yeah but but now it's huge there was no just like it feels so weird too because there's no like there's not enough description of what's going on to where like i mean you're right it's like things are happening fast but also there's just no it's just like even even if it was just something minor where it's like him traversing back through the painting and kind of like putting us back to understand where we are because like it's like half a sentence yeah it's like the rider knows what they're talking about so that's fine uh so it's just like well yeah i woke up in the labyrinth anyway i'm back in the house i'm going down the stairs it's like whoa whoa whoa that's like someone who is a big process to get there it's a conversation where someone's like rehashing an episode to you and they're skipped like they're kind of like they've seen it so they know but they're just like kind of giving you like bullet points of something even though you're kind of lost on where you're at that kind of idea yeah and also it's like these are cool concepts like all the all the themes and like yeah yeah they're really cool i'm enjoying it um but it just it it needs a bit more fleshing out in those scenes along with that and some of the spelling and grammar mistakes well not spelling just grammar mistakes i feel like this is the first draft of a really good story you know yeah well yeah yeah it just feels like uh very very which is weird i wonder how much of this too which actually i'll let's finish this part and then i can go into it okay i thought immediately of kurt the warped girl had used him to lure me away maybe this man he was dead maybe it meant something even worse i had to know either way so I drove to his house, struggling to suppress visions of limbs so full of holes they split apart.

1:27:19When I pulled up, I saw all the lights were on. I got out of the car, almost laughing with relief. That relief soured when Kurt opened the front door. I stopped in my tracks. He looked unwell. His hair lay slicked against his scalp and his skin glistened under the porch light. My stomach clenched, but I approached anyway. Kurt? Sorry for stopping by this late. I just shh. shushed me and beckoned its movements were slow almost clumsy where have you been? I've been trying to call you all fucking day my skin prickled why? are you okay? just come inside now an imaginary itch dirty and pervasive dreamed its way across my skin but it wasn't enough to stop me none of it was not the portal or the pyramid not the eyeless monster the long haired man certainly not Kurt or the deep burrowing holes in his arms.

1:28:13So I went to him. Up close, Kurt's wet skin looked painfully weird. Far too smooth and almost slimy, like he coated himself in a thin layer of Vaseline. In his arms, the holes were gone. Whole, unblemished flesh not only healed, but completely regenerated. Weird. I slowed to a halt, unwilling to march up those steps. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Instead of the usual brown, his eyes look coppery and somehow multifaceted they weren't kurt's eyes or i realized they weren't even human eyes a hundred tiny shimmering discs composed each iris the eyes of the parasites that have burrowed into his skin okay that's awesome that's super sick that is so cool see what i mean it's frustrating because this story has some insanely cool visuals like he realizes the eyes are just the worms inside of him bundled together to look like an eye and now they're like come inside i need to talk to you but he's like he's eaten out from the inside that's so cool such a cool visual parasite kurt smiled are you scared that's awesome that's great my knees felt watery and terribly weak my car was close but would i be able to outrun him would i be able to run it all kurt's shoulders heaved and he started to chuckle Then a voice, his voice, came both from inside the house and from the body in front of me.

1:29:42I'm scared too, but holy shit. Come have a look. Kurt, pale, sick, exhausted Kurt, appeared behind his shiny doppelganger. They laughed in tandem, then waved me inside. Shiny Kurt's movements were clumsier and lagged slightly, but there was no doubt about it. They were moving together. I tried to run, but my knees gave out and I fell instead. Shiny Kurt helped me up, the process leaving a glistening handprint of film on my arm. Come inside. Come inside. Come inside. One, Kurt is scary enough, but two, I had no chance of getting away. I followed his parasite doppelganger into the house. What is this?

1:30:24Kurt grinned with a surge of nausea. I noticed that his arms remained pocketed with dark, inflamed holes. The sunlight didn't kill them. it made them grow oh oh man an unsettling mixture of fear disbelief and irritation rattled my already shot nerves your parasites grew in a new you and you're happy I can control him Kurt threw his arms into the air fraction of a second later shiny Kurt followed suit I can speak through him I can see through his eyes he ran his hands through his hair laughing laughing triumphantly as this doppelganger did the same he's me another part of me okay kurt this this isn't what if there are more inside of you there aren't anymore his certainty gave me a chill for the first time since this started i wanted no part of it they're all him now oh man somehow i talked both kurt's into sleeping it's been several hours now worried about kurt Holes in his arms look infected.

1:31:33Even worse, I lost a lot of time. I last spoke to Kurt Tuesday afternoon. It's now Thursday evening. An entire day passed while I was in that portal. That doesn't make sense at all. According to the way the seasons change in the painting, time passes more quickly there than it does here. As for the injury inflicted by the eyeless thing, it looks alright. The edges are too pale with an iridescent sheen I can't think about for too long. I can't think about Kurt either, really. I've tried to sleep a few times, but whenever I drift off, I hear the faint sound of that piping combined with the atonal singing I heard in the labyrinth.

1:32:10Every time I wake up, I have to fight the urge to return to the house, to that portal. I'm finally afraid, finally seeing this entire situation for the horror show it is. Finally seeing this entire situation for the horror show it is, rather than the adventure I wanted it to be. Don't know what I'm going to do, though. They know my name and have my blood. I don't think I have a way out anymore. End of part four. So basically what? So what I was saying there basically is it seems like, and I'm curious what you think about this too, with a lot of these no sleep stories, it seems like somebody has an initial idea, you know, but they don't have something planned out along the way.

1:32:48So they kind of keep adding because it's popular. Seems like this person has an idea, but it seems like at least on the parts where it's like, well, I need him to go back into the portal and do something and then come back. It's like the current angle seems really flushed out and nice. Like all these visuals are inspired and stuff, but the pacing of back at the house that one time, it just seems so like, yeah, he goes in there and he comes out and then he goes, visits Kurt. You know what I mean? It just seems like really quick. So I'm wondering if it was maybe partially that it's just not really having a lot of like, and he just goes in and comes out.

1:33:23Yeah. It's like. the curt stuff it's like the worm stuff was what they wanted there's some different dimension than people get infected by worms and they change so it's like okay we need to sort out the dimension the creatures and stuff and the other stuff seems kind of short around it honestly think if you trimmed off a lot of the fat and just had the worm thing that would work i was gonna say it's just about man that got infected during a cleanup job i was yeah it doesn't need all the stuff same thing yeah if it was literally if it was something of like even if it was your co-worker gets infected with a parasite and is slowly being fucked up yeah like you lose the which don't be wrong i still like all of it like there's still there's still fun but it feels like two different stories you know kill kill your darlings thing again of get rid of that stuff and just focus on because the kurt thing is by far the strongest even the lines that he has it's like great little great little zingers.

1:34:17They're all him now or whatever. Really nice. But I feel like I'm curious how it's going to wrap it up because now we're on part five of six and we still like still the like cheeky bone person that we thought was a threat, but kind of saved them from being infected. You know, there's a lot of stuff still to be answered. And I'm worried that within two parts, can this all be wrapped up in a nice bow versus if it was something as simple as like, hey, my coworker is infected. I feel like you have a lot of room to play. you know, and build out from the simple premise, but we'll see. You could push it a far away and you could also have like, you could have more weird stuff with visiting the coworker and then the holes develop more and more and stuff like that.

1:34:59You could even do some of the, like, depending on where this infection goes, you could keep like, Oh, well, at the job we found a coat that was sprouted with like, you know, limbs and stuff and the blood flowers, like maybe those will tie into it and stuff. Again, it feels like two separate stories. One of them is like being more executed than the other so maybe just split them into two uh but again these are like this is such an interesting story and very different than a lot of the others we've read because there will be sentences where it's like well this is clearly like a problem there's a lot to be done here but then the next one will be like a banger yeah very so back and forth very elegant yeah i will say not you know we have there's still two parts there's still more of the story but i will say having it having your story be set up as like people who come in and clean up houses for people who recently have died are hoarders and they're thieves.

1:35:46They're kind of pieces of shit and they steal stuff and you get punished by stealing the wrong thing. Let's say it's the fur coat or something and that infects you. How sick is that? That'd be pretty cool. Part five. Part five. Kurt has a closet full of sprouts and human bones. I found it by accident the other night after he and his parasite doppelganger fell asleep. It looked like a shrine. tangles of also the younger version of his wife he saw was definitely his wife's parasite version right yeah definitely well i mean it was like even the way too of like it touching him and becoming more uh becoming more youthful just feels like it feeds off the energy the same way that like uh kurt's worms fed off him you know yeah yeah i think so tangles of vines coated the walls competing for space with glossy strided leaves and those luminescent night blossoms.

1:36:40The bones were suspended from the ceiling. Vines snaked through sockets and ribs, hoisting them up as effectively as a harness. Sprouts cover everything like confetti. Unlike the flowers, they're dead. Whole but dry, fragile and crumbling from root to ground. I reached out to touch them. I don't know why. I didn't want to. It was a numb, thoughtless compulsion, almost like a spell. The greenery enveloped my arm, gentle and cool like mist. My fingertips quivered a fraction of an inch from the sprouts, and one of them twitched. Dry matter plumped, darkened, growing into a rich, green shoot with lush leaves.

1:37:21The roots snaked upward. At the bottom, I saw an eye. Small, round, metallic, like that of a goldfish. I reared back and slammed the door, then obsessively scanned my skin for sprouts and eyes. I heard footsteps from the living room. What are you doing? Heard shadow preceding him, stretching over the wall. What's in there? Evie. He halted in the mouth of the hall. Bruzy shadows and painful hollows mowered his face, making him look horrifically sick. The real one. What do you mean, the real one? The body I found in the house wasn't her It was the younger copy The one I told you about He motioned vaguely to the living room To his parasite twin More like him than anything But not quite He rubbed his neck fretfully I'll tell you what I know Come to the kitchen I did as he said Set at the table while I clattered around Trembling He threw on a pair of yellow dishwashing gloves then brewed tea and put together a plate of cold leftovers.

1:38:30He sat both in front of me, took a seat at the opposite end of the table. Only when I started to eat and drink did he speak. Evie had a lot of problems. Actually, from what Kurt described, Evie was insane. She claimed to be the victim of an adoption gone wrong. A kid who'd slipped through the cracks and been sold to a new parent. The parent was a rich woman who supposedly ran a network of private schools for disadvantaged youth. if you told Kurt the schools were just front for a breeding program and I'll put a wall just dropping that on a from the top floor welcome to no sleep boys watch out watch out watch out

1:39:17it's the sheriff from Barosca in the ring yeah meeting Tommy Taffy and they duke it out for the championship Sam yeah yeah the bed is pedophile fight night pedophile fight night on WWE Raw

1:39:40which goes that you know that joke goes full circle because it goes back to your Randy Savage oh yeah yeah they did just comes in comes in with a chair just beats it over the back of his head

1:39:56That's the wrong answer brother Oh man A breeding program and a training regimen To create what she called obedient sociopaths According to Evie Oh wait so not actual breeding Breeding as in like breeding a perfect soldier Like I mean Listen we're on r slash no sleep We're doing our best The next sentence says according to Evie the babies were used in rituals. Okay, so there you go. Alright, so glad we cleared that up. Rituals for what? To create circuses. Among other things. Evie told Kurt all about circuses basically from day one. Circus is a locus, a place where several planes of reality converge.

1:40:43Circuses do not occur naturally. God, I cannot keep this up, dude. I keep thinking of like a fucking clown and like an elephant on a ball and stuff like that. I'm so fucking stupid. There's like Evie told Kurt about the circuses And I just think like hello there And he's like going around You know come inside look at the Whoosh like like an elephant And all kinds of like a bear on a ball Like rolling around to deal trap a trapeze Act yeah exactly It's it's it's funny to imagine That she's like well we were in the Breeding programs do you want me to tell you about It and then hunters just like talking to this Woman and then his mind's like Well I would just be would she be saying all this stuff it's like it's different planes of existence and then I look at her and I'm like I have like glasses on I take them off and I'm just like but what of the clowns no you have a clown nose on at any time that she says something dramatic you honk it

1:41:40that'd be a really fun grief counselor exactly like a girl like yeah and I never saw my dad after that my father he he drank and I just think that he'd come home and he hit me go on he's got like a he's got a sly whistle

1:42:10exactly and i didn't know how much her death affected me because i started drinking my hurt I started drinking myself and I just every time I look in the mirror all I do is I see him

1:42:25that must have been hard for you

1:42:32dude grief counselor the clown grief counselor is sick it's awesome that should be a real thing just talking about like her parents abuse and then

1:42:46when it's a good thing it goes up and when it's a bad thing you go down but then i met kyle

1:42:57he's got like he's got like blue hair off both sides of his head and when he gets happy it goes up when he gets sad it goes he has a bunch of theater masks that he puts on for happy and sad faces and stuff. My name's Chim Chim, the grief counselor. Please come in. My name's Boingo McBoingerton, the grief counselor. The last time you said Chim Chim in a story was related to a monkey. So now imagine he also has like a chimpanzee. Yeah, exactly. Mr. Banana, would you mind giving us our file?

1:43:33That's what it's like Patch Adams, but like the way the movie depicted him. Just like, oh, yeah, Robin Williams is a counselor.

1:43:46Your parents took advantage of you. Good morning, domestic abuse.

1:43:57You're free, genie. Robin Williams is swinging in a closet. No, I'm kidding. All right, let's go. Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I still cannot get over the fact that Robin Williams, he killed himself, and then people were posting images of Genie with Aladdin saying, you're free, Genie. That is actually insane to me. Is that a thing people did? Oh, dude. All over. You're free now, Genie. It's like, what are you talking about? The guy like... It's not like he was fucking battling... I don't know. It's whatever. I thought that was insane. Do you remember that tweet? I forget what YouTuber it was, but that tweet where Robin Williams daughter was talking about how hard it was for her to deal with like the passing of her father on its anniversary and how she never felt that she was allowed to grieve on her own.

1:44:56And then some YouTuber tweeted. What was it?

1:45:06Someone I forget who it was but some YouTuber Replied with a meme that said Calm thy tits God Good Was it Bozo McBoysington with his Chimp Mr. Bananas Calm thy tits

1:45:38Also check out my YouTube channel I do six hour documentaries On celebrities deaths So feel free to do that Evie told Kurt all about circuses Basically from day one Circus is a locust It's hard to get back into it Can you get it together I'm sorry at me too. God, okay. I'm actually... Okay. A circus is a locus, a place where several planes of reality converge. Circuses do not occur naturally. They have to be built, and building a circus is a horrifically violent process. Even worse, the builders have no say over which planes converge. More often than not, you end up with a circus you can't control, filled with beings and artifacts that actually use you, entities that possess the ability to manipulate or rewrite reality on a whim.

1:46:27We can't comprehend these beings because we exist on the most mundane of planes. Not due to chance, but because we, as a species, expect and require the mundane. We influence and shape our own reality to suit our comfort zone. Our collective will function as a creator force, but that collective will isn't enough to control these entities. Okay, hold on. So, again, a lot happening. Realities converge. I get that. building a circus you have to do a violent process which i imagine is the sacrifices that the children come from that was mentioned and the builders have no say on what happened so you it takes a bunch of sacrifices basically and then once you create it you it's like you are now the victim of it effectively it's like a it's like opening a portal to hell you don't decide what hell does once it comes out you just open the portal yeah um a proper circus acts as a cage like all cages the bars rust and the locks break if you aren't careful that was why evie left him her guardian old now on her deathbed ordered her to take care of the circus kurt was flabbergasted what kind of horror story fairy tale mk ultra shit was this i feel like mother horse eyes just like zipped by in an airplane real quick because I read that.

1:47:48Yeah.

1:47:52Flashing her faces. Yeah.

1:48:00Evie claimed they Thank you, doctor. Thank you, doctor. And Jim Jim.

1:48:13Evie claimed they kill him if she didn't do it. That his life was in danger. Sometimes you got to wake up and smell the roses. He has that fake plastic flower in his shirt pocket and squirts her in the face. Just kidding. Go ahead.

1:48:32That's a good. You put a whoopee cushion under the therapy chair. Oh.

1:48:46This coming from a grave counselor would be so funny. Here, have a seat. Oh, excuse you.

1:49:03The chimpanzee's in a cage. The chimps in a cage and he's like freaking the fuck out.

1:49:33And meanwhile Meanwhile Like there's just a girl Sitting there really Traumatized traumatized this guy's laughing

1:49:55and once it gets quiet she's just like so I still haven't heard from my dad there's another whoopee cushion whoa whoa and all starts again.

1:50:19After that second one's like, well, it looks like that's all the time we have for today. Yeah, he like cuts off as soon as the time hits. He's like, so actually, I guess we'll just schedule for next Thursday. Get out. Get out. Thank you so much for coming in, Rebecca. The monkey chills out too. Like, just immediately falls asleep.

1:50:52that would be that would be cushion say just really that really got me it was really good got me really good

1:51:02i mean just to say it's whoopee cushion in a grief counseling I like the thing that she walks into He's like already sitting there face painted Hair blue, giant red nose His legs crossed He's like go ahead and have a seat He's like playing it really straight Go ahead and have a seat And then yeah just a giant wet And it just Starts the chaos so good It's like the bizarre Version I'm sorry I can't quit life Thinking about the monkey just freaking

1:51:40don't get close to it he's actually has to break for a second don't get close to the cage rebecca back get back freaking out

1:51:55it's like the bizarro version of that like four cell baby shoes never worn it's like grief council chair with whoopee cushion that this is actually that you know what that is i said that's legitimately a good two-sentence horror

1:52:14it's a six-word story yeah it's so good um all right anyway evie claimed they'd kill him if she didn't do it that his life was in danger as well as the world itself when he tried to stop her she assaulted him and got her temporarily committed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold. When he went to see her the next day, she wasn't there. No one even confirmed that she'd been there at all. She disappeared. Two years later, he found her by accident. She looked awful and was desperately lonely. A bad guardian, she kept saying. I'm a bad guardian. Then she asked him to stay with her. He was happy to do it. He worried about her.

1:52:51He missed her. He loved her. Next day, he zipped back to his place to gather some belongings. When he returned to Evie's house, it was gone. In place of her charming little two-story, he sat a sprawling ranch house occupied by a couple with a kindergarten-age daughter and a newborn son. Kurt came back every day, and each time he saw a different house occupied by different people. No one noticed but him. After a couple more years of this, a young version of Evie came to his house, just like he'd said before. He followed her back to the circus house and made it inside where he found the real evie the wrong one got violent and knocked him out when he came to both were gone the wrong version returned to him several times after that even though he was afraid he always followed it every time because that was the only way to reliably find evie's house evie herself was never there he saw her in the painting once the side of the pale long-haired entity couldn't get inside though it was like staring through an unbreakable window.

1:53:52He saw them and they saw him, but they were trapped on opposite sides of the portal. Sometimes though, there'd be dry bundles of sprouts and vegetation on his side. Over time, the taxidermy animals and specimen cases appeared too. He assumed this meant he wasn't the only one using the circus, but as of now, he's never seen the other user. At some point, claims he doesn't remember, but I call bullshit, he found out the sprouts are regenerative. All the plans from the painting are, some form or another, to bring dead things back to life. Sometimes they create life from nothing. Sometimes they transfer life between creatures.

1:54:28On his very last visit with Rongivi, he once again saw the real Evie in the painting, dismembered and filleted to death, just beyond the threshold. The barrier was gone. He ran in and cradled her. She was still warm. Rongivi followed him in and laughed. And Arangi killed her left her in the house then he packed up the remains of real eevee and took her home coated her with sprouts and vines he's been waiting ever since okay so she dies in the painting he's trying to use the regenerative stuff to bring her back that's why her body's there and i was right about him killing the other eevee that was basically like the maggot or parasite form of eevee yeah right then why the hell do you think she's still in that painting because she is when When he went into the painting with me, he followed the song.

1:55:14That wordless, eerie, open-throated song all the way into the woods. Even though her bones were in his closet, Evie was there under a giant rib cage in a grove of thistles. He couldn't touch her if she could touch him. In fact, she gave him the parasites to show him what must be done, she said. Okay, I don't think that's your wife, dude. If she's under a rib cage and it's like, you have to do this, and it fills you full of worms, I don't think that's your wife, man. Yeah, no shit, man. She told him the secret of the god in the pyramid, that no dead thing resurrected unless it willed resurrection.

1:55:50It didn't want to resurrect her. It wanted to keep her. The only way to trick it is with the help of its guard, the pale, long-haired man with scales. He alone can override the will of the god, but he needs a worthy bribe. And that bribe is freedom. Why didn't you ever bring that painting here? because if it isn't at the circus, the thing in the pyramid escapes. That tracks because he said circuses are made to keep the things in that you want to summon the power of. Yeah. I stared down into my cup, trying to hide my anger from him. Tendrils of steam curled upward, warm and strangely soothing. I stirred the tea, taking savage pleasure in the obnoxious clink of silverware against ceramic.

1:56:32Crumbled leaves surfaced and spun into vortex. Why me? Why am I involved at all? The bribe is an escape. The guard can only leave if someone else takes his place. I need a body. Within the whirlpool of tea grit came a flash of gold. It spun around and floated to the surface, resolving into a small metallic eye. I couldn't inhale or exhale. The guards need a replacement, and the guard needs an offering. Then I'll get Evie back. I don't want to kill you. That's why Evie did this. To show me it's safe. You have to let them grow for a little bit. Then you pop them in the sun. When it's grown, give one to the jailer and one to the god.

1:57:15You don't even have to go through the portal. We can control them. We can make them do what we want. It's completely safe. Yours were only in your skin. You made me drink them. He stared at me with a sort of pain, guilty shock. The room was silent and deafening at once, and the air felt heavy. Terribly, terribly heavy. I bolted. He caught me before I reached the living room and lifted me off the ground. I flailed and kicked, driving him into the wall. His grip loosened and I squirmed away, only to slam into his parasite double. Together, they dragged me into the hall. Up close, Kurt's arms were a horror show.

1:57:50The inflamed flesh inside the holes bubbled up and spilled over his skin like burn scars. Parasite Kurt looked almost translucent, like a thin scrim of water was strapped between layers of flesh. In a panic, I bit down on Parasite Kurt's hands. A gush of thin, sweet liquid erupted from the puncture. I accidentally aspirated it. My entire mouth and throat went numb. While I struggled to breathe, they forced me into the closet and locked the door. I fell into the pile of bones, tangling in the vines and tearing blossoms apart. When I finally straightened up, the skull dangled inches from my face.

1:58:23Bright flowers glowed from each socket, equal parts horrifying and dreamily lovely. All around me, the dead sprouts came to life, golden eyes opening along the roots one by one. I tried to move but couldn't. The numbness had spread, overtaking my shoulders and chest. Sleepiness came with it. The thing I saw were the eyes, a hundred and a thousand sparkling like miniature searchlights in the dim glow of the flowers. As I drifted off, I became dimly aware of a maddening itch in my heel. I woke to a sensation of uncomfortable pressure and painful tugging. like something was pulling muscle out through my skin slowly turning inside out my throat hurt my arms hurt and my foot radiating a deep maddening itch everything flooded back and i opened my eyes long glistening larvae towered for dozens of holes in my right arm thick as tentacles covered in brown glittering eyes they stretched painfully straining toward the wall little pockets of my A swollen tissue stretched with them, tinting along the base of each larva.

1:59:30I threw up. Brackish fluid choked with plant matter and metallic eyes flooded my lap. I kicked away, then shrieked as something shifted inside my heel. It felt like a snake, coiling and sliding across itself. My shoe shifted as something pushed it off, tickling my arch as it fell away. The parasite snaked out of my foot, rough edges scraping the skin of my heel. A sparkling serpent reared up like a cobra. Rippling fins propelled its narrow body upward. Bright blue eyes glittered from its sides, glinting like crystal in the dimness. After regarding me curiously, it darted upward and wove itself into the ribcage.

2:00:10All of its eyes were fixed on my left arm. Quivering, I looked down at my arm, expecting the worst. Roots and sprouts dusted my skin, but the flesh was whole and unblemished. even the injury inflicted by the sprout beast the wound the guard had sucked clean was gone all that remained was a patch of strange white flesh that glimmered with an iridescent sheen i looked up at the larva they too were focused on that patch of skin that was why they were straining they were trying to get away from it on impulse i thrust my arm toward them with a volley of pain unlike anything i'd ever experienced they plunged down into my arm they were big much bigger than Kurt's and my skin bulged with the strain electric burst of pain shot through my body subsuming all my senses in a white nova of agony I screamed helplessly which quickly devolved into wet painful coughing another torrent of fluid came up to my horror tiny larva wriggled weakly in the puddle I sobbed and reached for the doorknob to my shock it turned spilling me out into kurt's hallway soft midday shadows cloaked the hall but i saw clear clean sunlight streaming into the living room straight ahead i tried to stand but my legs weren't strong enough sobbing weakly i crawled to the living room and collapsed in the light both kurt and his double were gone the house was quiet enveloped in that soft stuffy stillness peculiar to hot days i writhed miserably weeping and screaming as my larvae erupted they were easily five times the size of Kurtz, thick and rope-like and several inches tall.

2:01:46Even worse, they made noises, keening, high-pitched shrieks that seemed to slice through my head. I coughed helplessly the entire time, stomach and lungs expelling incredible amounts of dark fluid. Roots, sprouts, and weak parasites came with every expulsion. It smelled sweet, almost tropical, with hints of citrus and flowers and warm rain. The larvae were too large to simply explode. Instead, they ruptured, swelling and splitting like overcooked sausages and splattering everything with thick, translucent ichor. Had I been physically capable, I'd have crawled out of the light just to escape the pain, but between the endless coughing and weakness, I was as good as paralyzed.

2:02:27Eventually, I faded out. A sensation of warm heat and softness woke me up after sunset. I turned over. Something squelched under me, thick and damp like jelly. I sat up and found myself wallowing in a pool of exploded larvae. Strings of their tattered skin trailed from inflamed holes in my arm, reminding me absurdly of seaweed. Their eyes lay everywhere, glinting dully in the dying light. My foot twitched, whimpering. I looked up as the serpentine thing snaked out of my heel. The skin around it was baggy and pale like a blister. The serpent darted over the mass of jelly, picking out the eyes and eating them eagerly.

2:03:08Stomach lurching, I glanced at the holes in my arms. Pus rimmed the edges, paleness contrasting with the furious swollen red. Each pit bore downwards like a honeycomb cell. At the bottom of one, I saw a quivering mass of tissue set up with small eyes. Altogether, I counted ten. 10 ruined pits in my skin glittering with fresh larva They're growing back I tried to pull the rippling snake from my foot But before I could touch it, it burrowed deep I swear I could feel it curling around the bone Maybe that's why I'm weak It's damaged the tendons and muscles Breathing isn't easy Each inhaled is ragged, thick Soreness radiates from my ribs and down to my stomach It's more larva They're inside me, I know it I have to go back to the house because my only hope is the guard.

2:03:55Kurt said he needs a body as a bribe. That's fine. I've got my own slippery doppelganger growing. The larva jelly is bubbling up before my eyes, slowly resolving into a copy of me. If he doesn't want a doppelganger, I can always give it Kurt. Even now, after all the lies, I feel for him. I really do. But if he wants his wife back, he has to pay the price himself. End of part five. Man, that's sick. The descriptions of it are so unbelievable, man. That's why I'm like, I just want the larva. The larva stuff is my favorite. The larva is great. All the larva stuff is fantastic. Yeah, I'm curious to see how it pieces together.

2:04:32I like the whole motive of Kurt trying to revive his wife, basically. This kind of weird conspiracy he's been having. But I'm curious to see how it all wraps up because we are now on part six, the final part. We are on part six. I've always preferred pain to itching. Not that I enjoy either, but pain is straightforward. Even at its worst, pain is somehow clean. Pain also has the decency to kill you once it reaches a certain threshold. Itching, on the other hand, is filthy and consumptive. Itching can't kill you. It'll just drive you insane. In fact, if you could transform the essence of madness into sensation, that sensation would be itching.

2:05:10Itching was the only thing on my mind as the larva infestation worsened. Every breath produced a deep, explosive itch that wrapped over my ribs and organs. I saw vines in my mind's eye, thin and wet and tipped with golden eyes, winding their way through my body. By the time my parasitic doppelganger blinked awake, night had fallen and my larva had regrown. The new batch was small and stringy, ill-looking. They peeked out anxiously for the holes in my skin, quivering. My doppelganger was easy to control. Actually, there was nothing to it. When I moved, it moved. I was glad for this because I didn't have any energy left for conscious control.

2:05:51With a great deal of effort, I dressed it and together we hobbled out to my car. There was a moment of confusion when it tried to climb into the driver's seat with me. I repositioned it in the passenger seat, struggling as it mirrored my movements. The larva surfaced to watch, straining the tender flesh at the bottom of the holes. The drive to the suicide house, to the circus, was a hallucinatory nightmare. air. Things crept around inside me, prodding and squeezing tissues. The winged snake in my heel thrashed angrily, nipping my skin as it attempted to chew through my shoe. Worst of all, I couldn't stop coughing.

2:06:27Every fit inevitably ended in a torrent of vomit choked with leaves and tiny golden eyes. My doppelganger gagged with me, identical except for its eyes, flat and golden, comprised of a hundred parasite irises. After what felt like eternity, I reached the circus and led my doppelganger inside. The living room had transformed into a grove. Vines and glowing flowers covered every surface. In the corner, dimly illuminated by the blossoms, set the enormous anemone. Tentacles drifted dreamily, seemingly oblivious to the holes goring its flesh. The five-eyed monstrosity lay before it, half buried in vines.

2:07:06I shuddered and hobbled upstairs. My doppelganger followed hesitantly. Through my haze, I heard voices. immense laughter and a woman's playful sarcastic bite all underscored by tonal piping. One of the bedrooms was closed off. A bar of golden light flickered along the bottom of the door. The door to the other room was torn to pieces, drooping on a single hinge. My larva peeked out and pulled toward the open room. A mindless, blissfully calm compulsion overtook me. I followed their lead and ducked inside. A blanket of dead vines, curled leaves, and dry blossoms covered everything except a twisted figure on the bed.

2:07:47The larva strained forward, eyes glittering in the moonlight. It was the warped girl, unnaturally stretched across a blood-soaked quilt. Strangely, slates lay atop each of her hands. They were piled with hairy spider legs and bloated tentacles, garnished with sprouts and dead flowers. Grafic details resolved as I came close. From throat to thigh, she was a bloody ruin. Glistening guts cascaded from her butchered abdomen. Buried in the morose was a multi-limbed fetus with several eyes. Translucent hands clutched the gory remnant of a twin. The spell suddenly broke. The larva retracted, causing a nauseous explosion of itching that radiated in my shoulder.

2:08:30I turned, wretched, and found myself face-to-face with the five-eyed taxidermy monster. It loped past me and lunged, plunging long, thick fingers into my parasite doppelganger's throat. Thick icre spurted like blood from an artery, and it collapsed. The serpent in my heel quivered. My knees gave out. It slid helplessly to the floor. The five-eyed monstrosity approached and knelt before me. To my shock, it spoke. In all their forms, the parasites overtake the ruin of your mind. Its voice was low and liquid, almost childishly high. Lips rolled above its vast mouth the way grass rippled in the wind.

2:09:11Ruined minds make outdoors. It touched my intact arm, the one the long-haired guardian had sucked clean. Unusually pale skin glimmered faintly. But he closed the one you... Its cold, puffy fingers circled my head. The touch was sharp and oddly refreshing. My mind suddenly felt clear. The larva in my arm shuddered, producing a thrumming tickle that made me moan. I can't take it or clean you again. Find him. You just want me to trade places with it? Painful hysteria built in my chest. Is that him? That's like an accusation. That's him being like, you just want me to trade places with it, like angrily.

2:09:53But this is the monster of the larva, right? No, this is our protagonist. Something like pity crossed its face. The caretaker captures and releases charges at will. You are released once. You will be released again, though the vines will otherwise. So I skated over my honeycomb charm. Your friend, the madman, wants you to take the caretaker's place so that you will release his wife. he will confront you he surrendered to the vines you may not recognize him looked meaningfully at the warped woman she did not interesting okay so like again I go with you I agree that the larva is the strongest part of the story should just be that but there are things about this like mirror extra dimensional plot that I do like oh yeah that like uh yeah kurt threw himself to it became a monster now he's killed the other version of his wife or yeah definitely she was on the bed yeah no there's good shit in there for sure hysteria and horror continued to build twining together like the vines go i will make a door from you torn to the hall past the room where men laughed and pipes echoed into the taxidermy room the specimen cases were broken and empty no taxidermy creatures remained and the painting showed only empty backdrops forest and beaches rock canyons and golden fields luxurious bed chambers and blood-stained dungeons yeah the more i think about the more the cooler this idea is of like if you perform enough evil if you break the minds of enough people have enough sacrifices you create an intersection between all these different dimensions these creatures go through and the paintings are pictures of the different roadways.

2:11:46That's pretty cool. In the center hung the familiar moonlit landscape. I ran through, gasping as deep cold settled over me like a blanket. A familiar, wordless song, beautiful yet so very close to screaming, echoed over the plains. I veered toward the slope. The pyramid came into view, a cubist masterpiece of blinding silver and unfathomable darkness. Low veils of clouds clung to the top like a gathering storm, Itching ran along my bones as larva shifted. I hurtled toward the labyrinth, dodging thorny vines and treacherous burrows half hidden in the brittle grass. My attacked arm glimmered strangely on my periphery, milky and too smooth.

2:12:26It frightened me in a way even the larva could not. I sped up, grimly ignoring the serpent writhing in my foot. Pale light guided me to the labyrinth's entrance. As I approached, I heard a low, resounding thrum. The ground vibrated and a chorus of horns echoed through the night. To my shock, glittering beetles erupted near my feet and flooded across the grass. Other creatures followed. Antlered hogs and primordial cats, giant toads, tiny foxes with billowing clusters of tails and more. So much more. All running away from the pyramid. I reached the entrance just as a pack of long, low wolves with tusks and bulbous eyes bolted past.

2:13:06Six winding paths flanked a marble promenade that led directly to the pyramid. horns and wordless wailing echoed off the black walls the larvae in my arm peeked out of their burrows i fought the urge to rip them out the pain i knew would make me black out march forward more paths spun off the promenade narrow and impenetrably dark i hurried past refusing to look lest i find something staring back at me man again like there's so much cool stuff happening It's just so like there's the serpent in his foot and he walks into the labyrinth, glittering beetles. And then it's just quickly mentioned antlered hogs, primordial cats, giant toads, tiny foxes.

2:13:51It's like he's he's in another earth. It's so fascinating. It's just so quick. I think my biggest complaint with the story is there's so many cool things happening. They're all pulling away from other cool things. Well, the thing is it's two separate ideas. You know, like the painting idea is different than the idea of like the thing growing inside. It's just the worm. It's too much also for just a short story. Maybe if this was like a novel where you got to build up these things. Yeah. Maybe. But that being said, once again, as we said, like just two really cool things. But it's just which like which one do you want to actually commit to?

2:14:23Because these are two great ideas. And also to the way that he describes it. So colorful. And like it's just tasty. Like it's just every time you read it, you're like, oh, yes. I like that. Yeah, all the little paragraphs I reread, I'm like, that's pretty cool. I like that. A tall, perfectly rectangular opening loomed ahead. Glimmering steps led to the entrance. I slowed to a halt at the base of the stairs. For a paralyzing moment, I thought about turning back. This was, I thought, the very last thing I wanted to do. That moment, the serpent in my heel convulsed, sending bright electric pain coursing through my leg.

2:15:02it was an apt perfectly timed reminder that actually dying of an alien parasite infestation was the last thing i wanted to do so i went inside soft smoky incense enveloped me along with an almost debilitating heat vines and flowers crawled up the walls alongside veins of polished ore blossom and mineral glowed dimly illuminating a septet of enormous images on the antechamber wall. Five I recognized. A bull, a locust, a malformed wolf, a breathtakingly beautiful person that could have been man or woman, and a golden dragon. Two I had trouble with. A hideously proportioned human with wings, no eyes, and three mouths, and a creature with a shape I couldn't quite comprehend, whose flesh glimmered with mad arrays of stars.

2:15:52A sharp chorus of laughter echoed through the chamber, indulgent and somehow cruel, followed by a bone-rattling roar. I spun around anxiously, looking for a door, but only saw another set of seven images behind me. The laughter grew abruptly, both in volume and glee. My arm itched, my feet ached, and a terrible, pulsating pressure built on my chest. Breathing suddenly became impossible. A moment later, I felt it, long and wet, slithering up my throat. My gagged tongue rolling back and touching the tip of a vine those strange towering images swam before my eyes dreamily i realized it wasn't laughter i was hearing but screaming punctuated with a chilling inhuman bellow i collapsed painfully aware of the serpent shifting in my flesh everything blurred together soft and almost beautiful as vines and larva erupted from my throat tiny eyes and wet leaves glittered on my periphery it scared me so i closed them just as halting footsteps echoed through the chamber i felt hands on mine strong and cold i looked up and saw the caretaker's strange sharp face staring into mine one of its eyes had ruptured red swollen and unwholesomely bloated horror and hope suffocated me along with the vines as the guardian lowered its mouth to mine cold lips closed over my chin and cheeks itching abruptly disappeared and i felt a bare blissful instant of relief before an overwhelming ova of agony scorched me into unconsciousness.

2:17:25I surfaced to silence. So it bent down and like kissed him and effectively purified him the same way it had with his arm. Yeah. Gasping, I shot up. I was naked but could breathe just fine. No plant matter or worms choked my throat. I immediately looked at my arm. Pale, plump flesh peppered with half-heeled holes. I touched one experimentally. No itching. No larva. Just a dull, unremarkable ache. My heel was strangely horrifying, deflated and colorless like an enormous strained blister. The sunken hole reminded me of rotting pumpkins, but at least it was empty. No serpent, no larva, no vines. I climbed to my haunches.

2:18:09My hand fell into a soft pile of vegetation, and I almost screamed. It was the caretaker, shriveled and glimmering like moonlight, covered in tall, luminescent flowers that looked like lupines. Finding back tears, I inspected my skin for any scratch or puncture. There were none. The flowers had been soft, after all, softer than any I'd ever touched. Was that any guarantee? Just as I began to calm down, a low, wet rumble rumbled through the antechamber. i jumped up and saw the door where there hadn't been one before under the feet of the bowl low and glowing with rich golden light a hideous incomprehensible shadow filled that beautiful doorway and lumbered into the chamber seven enormous sinewy limbs exploded from a twisted torso four were vaguely human three were thick vines studded with glittering eyes sprouts and humming tangles a bright-eyed larva laced every inch of its raw flesh a human head crowned the monstrosity warmed and lumpy with clusters of subcutaneous vines a feathery anemone extended from its mouth straining the skin to such a degree that the flesh had split up to the eyes and ears blood sheeted past its cheekbones choked with vines and squirming with small worms dangling from a broken jaw was half an eerie translucent fetus but the twin i realized to the one at the suicide house so ah okay so i'm gonna guess this is kurt right yeah it's 100 % and he like the things grown in him to the point that he's like his skin is broken apart and the vines make up the most of the torso yeah and it went to that woman who was pregnant and then it seems to have eaten one of the twins or like hanging from its broken jaw maybe still alive but probably dead um it's like a resident evil villain it's such a cool description yeah it is really cool very uh yeah i agree just kind of like a weird like umbrella mutation kind of creature yeah like you can see where like the infection like took what pieces were there and just stretched them far past what they were supposed to be the anemone snaked forward and spun open barring a tangled spiral of teeth that made me think of sharks.

2:20:28In the center of that spiral, set into the throat like a gem, lay a massive cluster of golden eyes. The anemone shifted sharply, straining upward to offer full sight of the human head from which it sprouted. Kurt. Kurt's head, Kurt's body, Kurt's mind warped and erupted and overtaken by the vines. His right eye found the dead caretaker, buried in his corn of flowers, and spun towards me, radiating madness and triumph and i knew somehow what he was thinking he'd won i was a new guardian and i would now release his wife sadness and profound rage swept through me just as the caretaker shifted under his glowing lupines a deafening roar shook the pyramid the enemy stood at attention and kurt looked back at small door panic flickering across his ruined face then he lunged at me the caretaker exploded from his funeral grove in a tornado of stems and glittering petals launching himself at kurt he reached into that nightmare gullet ignoring the spiral teeth and plucked out the golden cluster of eyes that roar sounded again dust rained from the ceiling leaves and flower vines rattled as if in a wind the guardian ignored it and continued his methodical dismemberment of kurt a chorus of shrill screaming issued from kurt as larva squirmed and shot out of his flesh swaying several feet in the air before diving down to the guardian glistening bodies swarming over the guardian's snowy arms i turned and ran hurtling down the promenade oblivious to the numbing cold i don't know how i made it back to the suicide house but i did stumbled past empty paintings and taxidermy monsters who now breathed past the warp woman's corpse and the laughing men salt crunched under my feet as i tore down the stairs and out into the yard.

2:22:18It was dark and I was panicked, so my nakedness didn't matter to me. I slid into the front seat of my car and sped home where I inspected every inch of flesh. My hands are smooth and unmarked. My feet are not. Small scratches and punctures litter the skin, but I think I'm all right. They're already healing. The skin is smooth and unusually pale. Just in case, I drenched my feet in hydrogen peroxide, watched them, and sprayed them with cheap herbicide hurt like hell i could barely stand and i'll have scars but it's worth it then i showered in the hottest water i could stand and stumble to bed i woke this afternoon to a very familiar painting propped against my bedroom wall it's just a painting for now rich oils and silver tones depict the scene as i first saw it a crisp spring night with a tall and human figure framed by luminescent flowers and strange trees i left it there and went to the suicide house instead of evie's two-story house i saw a neat little bungalow with a breathtaking rose garden i drove by three times before going back home i haven't done anything with the painting but i need to soon i had a really good look at it just now and there's a problem in the distance behind the caretaker is another figure malformed and multi-limbed coated and vague suggestions of vines and worms i don't know what happens to doorways when you burn them but I'm about to find out man gosh dude that was great the ending that last part really cleared up a lot of the issues I had previously it felt like I was in another world and him getting out and the caretaker saving him then dying then burning it at the end that was all great I still think that the initial gut reaction at least how I see it I still feel the same way it's two very good concepts I almost wish that the painting was more focused than on like the body horror of the larvas growing inside.

2:24:20It feels like you could have taken that idea and just shifted it to like this obsession of going into this painting and exploring more of all these creatures in this world. Because it felt like it felt like with how simple the larva thing was, with how quick the story was, I was really able to sink in and get into this into this really uncomfortable setting of a guy transforming over, you know, this particular job or whatever. but then the the parallel sci-fi fantasy world was still super beautiful and descriptive and i felt like i wanted more like i feel like i i wanted and needed more information in that world to where even at the end still very quick very you know i mean even kurt's reveal all that stuff the the uh guardian kind of does his thing and then our guy is just able to be like oh shit and get up and run away i just would would have loved to play around in that because also that ending is awesome love love that it also answers well how the fuck are we getting these paintings and stuff it just shows up and then now you see kurt and like the the person that uh was in there and now it's looking at him and just that ominous ending of not sure what happens when you burn it but i'm gonna find out and we're just left with that i think is awesome really love that yeah i think uh i think the two options are either you have two separate stories that takes these two different designs you know or two different plot lines and then does their own thing flushes out each of them so they're not competing with each other uh or make this into a longer story where everything ties in and also there at the end i kind of changed my mind about some of the early stuff because we were harping a bit uh early on about like well the characters are kind of okay with this really quick and like i need to understand a bit more why they're just topped on board so much but at that end where we were like it seems like that ending's where they wanted to get to right of like this black pyramid and like a forest seen through a painting at the intersection of dimensions and as they're walking through there's these multi-creatures and it's like it reminds me of it's in completely different directions but like in mccarthy's work right a lot of the characters won't so much be characters in the sense of like why aren't why are why aren't they talking realistically or that's not how humans would speak a lot of them are almost symbols of things like they'll enter the picture and say like ye carry the mark of a dead man to a dead man's land or you know stuff like that uh and it fits because the world around it is so drenched in itself that it makes sense the people fall in line with it you can see in some of the writing of like coen brothers movies and stuff like that right um you're not really questioning why people speak the way they do it just feels correct for where they're at and the things we were complaining about in the beginning the way people act feel like they fit in that last part like i mean the lines and dialogue and all that felt like succinct in that moment when we got near the end i don't think that any of it was particularly i think that it's just with the pacing of which it's going of this being a short story and moving so fast i think that at first glance it's easy to be like well why the fuck would you care about this with the information that you're giving or like not that why would you care about this but like why aren't you freaking out you know once again if this was a longer which i think that like painting idea if given more time and more like brevity through the whole thing i don't i think that becomes a lot clearer like i I don't think I'm questioning anybody's actions as much as like we're moving along so quickly.

2:27:51And it's just one of those things of like, oh, it's a weird painting. I'd love to go back, which it's setting up the correct beats for me. And it makes sense, but it's just a thing of like, God damn, you're not freaked out by that. But once again, I think like if you get more time and more, like, I just think you get more, if there was just more information given. And also in the short form, in the short form of the story, with this short story format, sorry, I'm jumbled my thoughts. short story format i just think that sci-fi story doesn't get to shine nearly as bright as how simple these things of going back and checking on your friend and even the idea of like you know pitching like you go you clean up bodies and you steal something and because you steal that it's like a little it's like a curse or something that gets put on you those kinds of stories weave themselves together really nicely in a nice punchy way but the saying of exploring and there's a giant fucking pyramid and all this kind of stuff i just think you get more even if the characters are acting strange or acting weird i think that even in those works of like coen brothers and stuff you're still setting up the universe to play off them nicely and you're also getting information uh all the information to where nothing is like left up to chance it's just kind of like that's just the world that it is if that makes sense i can't tell if i'm rambling but anyways i it's it's not that i don't think even earlier that we were complaining i think it's just kind of jarring when you walk in you're just like yeah fucking weird you know it's not like it's a tv or something that's just on it's a fucking oil painting that's alive so it's almost like and it goes back to what you were talking about uh or what we've been talking about with it it needs to be there be two separate stories or longer because i feel like if this was longer and imagine if there was like kind of like an intro area where it set up the world and it talked about you know or maybe this main character is on depression or something like it kind of like built up the mental image then some of that dialogue would make more sense as things happen because when we got to that ending i'm like i could read another story twice this length from here like keep going yeah the payoff it has me in a great direction yeah yeah just some of the beats absolutely very very fast very fast yeah i think i think again a lot of the problems comes like this this can be more and the writer has certainly has potential to make it more which is why now thinking about it the their um the north american pantheon the thing that they seem to be the most famous for is like a multi-part series about like monsters kept in like of a uh sort of prison or penitentiary so to speak uh that's pretty cool and i could see how if you give this author a lot of time they can do something cool with it so i understand why it has fans so yeah yeah it just felt like a case um if i'm just wondering if it felt like a case of an idea that submits a story it does very well because even on reddit it has like a lot of upvotes and stuff to where now you're quickly trying to make post for you know trying to follow up with it and stuff and you're kind of playing it by ear versus uh this pantheon kind of story i'd love to read that one and see and just especially if that's the thing where it's like it feels like a more curated story that's something he's been working on for a long time I think that'd be really sick because this was this was a great like and the things I say with this he's like criticisms or whatever the first off they're subjective to where it's like it's just my opinion but then also it in no way reflects that like I think the story sucks or is like you know faulted in any way I just just simple thoughts of when you get through a story and you read it you're like fuck and you kind of just like simmer with it these are just first gut reaction kind of responses to it But in all honesty, it was awesome.

2:31:28Like, I think that like so many stories. This story went very big, very, very big, you know, but it was able to be confined in a way that felt believable. I wanted to be there. There's so many of these stories where it's like, I don't know, I dared my best friend ruin my life where it's like I'm going big by. But it's just in a very dumb kind of way. And it doesn't make a lot of sense. And you're kind of like you're stuck in the short horror. like you're stuck in this Reddit format. And now this idea is getting too big when it should have just been much tighter, much more consolidated. And now I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum where I'm just like, I would love more.

2:32:07Cause this feels realized. This person is like taking us through the story in this beautiful way. And he's doing this large, big idea in a way that is nice because God damn, we read so many stories where it's like, you know, the world's going to end. And you're like, Oh my God. Like, here we go kind of idea so yeah I don't know it was awesome I'm really glad that we read this one they killed it check out dopamine also I should mention this story was written 7 years ago so if this is them 7 years ago I can only imagine how good their stuff is now so check them out be sure to show them some love they certainly deserve it and just want to say real quick thank you so much to our Patreon supporters over there on Patreon we appreciate you I don't know I love you I was just telling you it's fucking awesome we have extra episodes up right now so if you enjoyed listening to this maybe consider supporting the channel and just get free extra content over there and also thank you to all of our audio listeners who are listening right now over the airwaves on Spotify and Apple Podcast we appreciate you be sure to give us a nice rating it helps us out but until next time everyone we will see you in the next one stay creeped bye bye stay creeped and And if someone convinces you to once again run a breeding operation, that's crazy.

2:33:23And sacrifice a bunch of kids to open up something called a circus. Don't. Thank you for watching. Bye.

2:33:51you you

2:34:05you're not worried about hosting for the holidays oh wayfair's got me covered with holiday decor extra dining chairs and guest bedding all with tons of five-star reviews so there's no surprises Unless Uncle Matt brings his dogs again. For worry-free hosting, Wayfair delivers.