The Puppet In The Tree | CreepCast

31:57I told myself these things, but still ran to the bathroom when the bell rang. I threw up and sat in the stall until a teacher, summoned no doubt by a tattletale, came and told me I had to go outside. I dithered in the corner by the tetherball court as far from the oak tree as I could get. Even from a distance, I thought I caught glimpses of bright firs slithering through the branches. I decided I was seeing things. When the days finally got warmer, steel skies softening to rich blue in the daytime and easter egg colors at night bare branches sprouting buds flowers growing in the planter boxes all around the school i resume my recess ritual of reading under the tree i understand thinking that you're seeing things but uh i'm not going back under the tree you know yeah maybe another tree but not that tree i was cautious at first but determined every adult in my life had me convinced that i was hallucinating.

32:52Every kid in the school knew I had a breakdown about Muppet Man. The taunts alone were enough to steal my resolve. Before I knew it, I was reading under the tree like always, the glassy winter horror barely more than a memory. One afternoon in April, something pulled me out of my book. I didn't know what it was at first. Maybe the kids screaming on the jungle gym. Maybe the fifth grade girls gossiping a few yards away. Maybe the warm breeze wrestling the leaves. i looked down and gasped larva crawled along my arms yellow white caterpillar worms that lived in the bark the kind all the kids said muppet man loved to eat maybe maybe with the larva you are right maybe it is like i just i don't know why i just feel like it keeps reading as like an infection or something or like i don't i i just don't know why it just keeps feeling like it's there's pieces of this too that almost feel like it's rep like muppet man's representative of an actual tragedy yeah yeah kind of like how you were talking about like you talking about the kid you knew you know choking when you were in the eighth grade and it's like yeah but the eighth graders think about like oh lego tires like that's the part that sticks out to you it's like this kid had the legend of muppet man there was a tragedy a kid was abducted or killed um and it's almost like they're rational especially the part where they said that they were mean to them so now they read almost as a penance um i mean it does feel like almost like a folklore kind of legend it almost feels like an anti-bullying kind of like tale you know what i mean yeah yeah yeah it's almost like this person is rationalizing the bad thing that happened because it was muppet man that did it yeah yeah actually putting like a monster like manifesting a monster for bad actions yeah yeah not to not to draw a connection between muppet man and anton chigur but it's almost like the no country for old men thing where it's like it's easier to create a monster rather than to be like yeah this just happens sometimes yeah it just works that way almost trying to like find a rationale for how like horrible things can randomly happen yeah kids don't just go missing and terrible things happen to them the muppet man did it you know the monster in the tree yeah i ran to the tetherball court and lingered until the bell rang When I got home that afternoon, I found clusters of neon fur all over my bedroom.

35:15I ran to my mother. She lost her temper, marched me into the backyard, and told me to stay until she was done cleaning up after me. When I finished crying, I settled myself under the apricot tree and got lost in my book. As the afternoon light deepened, rich daylight giving way to copper, something snapped me out of my reverie. I looked down and saw white worms. soft and tiny, and somehow wet, inching over my arms. Hello? Whispered an unpleasantly friendly voice. Sorry it's been so long. I guess I've been a bad friend. I'm crazy. I whispered, snapped my book shut, and closed my eyes. Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.

36:02Scratchy polyester fur crumbled against my skin. Not crazy, Puppet Man said. Just really like me and Jason Hughes. What are you reading? He reached out, blinding multicolor fur blazing in the dappled sunlight, and flipped the book over. Black Beauty, is it good? It's great. I wanted to leap to my feet, wanted to run screaming into the house, but my bones felt watery and frozen at once. I wouldn't be able to stand up, let alone run. Muppet Man brushed the worms off my arm and settled down beside me. His fur made me feel itchy. I didn't look up. I already knew what I would see. That slothy dinosaur face dominated by glassy eyes that would blaze in the dying sun.

36:56I didn't want to see it. I was afraid of what would happen if I did. My mom will see you. You should read to me. Tears flooded my eyes. No. Strong, fuzzy fingers wrapped my wrist. I want you to read to me. No. If you read to me, I'll take you to Jason Hughes. I almost scoffed. Jason Hughes with the giant glasses and the keening voice. Anxious Jason Hughes who stole all the art paper in the classroom just to draw stupid fish and stupid beetles. Jason Hughes had been reduced to bloody, shit-stained clothes at the base of the schoolyard tree. Why? Because we're lonely. Glanced at the house, praying my mother would look out and see us.

37:44If he's lonely, he should go home. He can't. His mom doesn't like him. I pondered this briefly. I thought of my dad my poor dad who worked himself to death with overtime my poor dad who couldn't catch a break at work but what if I could help him what if I could find Jason Hughes give my dad all the credit when will I see Jason it depends on how well you read oh gosh I mean the pedophilia undertones are very present right like I'm not imagining that yeah i mean it's it's seems uh very predatory in that way or just very uh yeah but i but i you know anything involving a child in the ground told it's going to read that way in my opinion yeah that being said that being said in your original pennywise what was that like like the original pennywise like the tim curry one yeah there's much more like child predator like i'm your friend aren't I kind of thing yeah yeah I think um I don't know the whole thing that you were saying where it feels like it's a manifestation of like kids like the way that even it reinforces a bit when he's just like you know stupid Jason Hughes who drew his stupid birds or you know did that kind of stuff it just feels like it's um that manifestation thing feels more and more akin to what's happening here yeah yeah yeah I think so it's like an imaginary friend almost an imaginary foe yeah an evil uh an evil thing responsibility for the bad stuff an evil thing born from yeah like shitty things that people did yeah well especially the part dying especially the part about like oh well maybe i can help my dad you know maybe if i go with muppet man it'll help out dad you could equate to a kid feeling like maybe because they were mean to jason that's part of the reason he disappeared and now your dad's suffering for it so maybe if i can help jason i can help my dad and undo the wrong yeah multiple it's like it's like a child manifesting guilt i was gonna say multiple guilt factors yeah yeah i opened my book to the very first page and began to read aloud the scrape of the sliding glass door broke my concentration shortly after i looked up and saw my mom my heart leapt to my throat i spun around hopefully but Muppet Man was gone.

40:12The next morning, I found clumps of neon fur in my dresser drawers. I clung to my pants and shirts like lint. At the end of May, I found a note on my windowsill. Neatly folded construction paper printed with a brightly colored marker. Come to the school tree tonight at 11. Your friend, Muppet Man. Coarse strands of yellow, pink, and blue hair sprinkled the note. I brushed them off and tucked the paper in my pocket. I wasn't stupid I knew I couldn't go alone I was terrified of Muppet Man and almost as terrified of what my parents would do to me if they caught me sneaking out so I went to my father I showed him the note and begged until I wept he accused me of making it all up for a while but in the end he agreed to take me to the school at the appointed time what?

41:00it's gotta be helpful for an investigation otherwise what the fuck are you talking about alright fine well it's talking about like she he he thinks that his daughter is making all this up because of the trauma of losing a kid in her grade right so then the daughter's like no he left this in my room it's like very clear to the father that his daughter made all this up right but she's so desperate to go that the father's like if this helps her get over this if this helps her you know get past it maybe to realize it's not really there the Muppet man's not real I'll go with her so that she can you know get past the phase of trauma if that's the intention I think that should be clarified more because at the moment it just sounds like alright fine whatever god just stop bitching her dad clearly doesn't believe in the Muppet man well no I don't think that it's not necessarily about whether they believe it but it does to me that reads more like him just being like oh my god stop complaining fine no I don't think he's like fine go be with the pedophile rainbow color uniform man i think instead it's just like if this is the only thing that's going to keep my daughter you know that may help her get past this then i'm going to go with her so she can realize this isn't real if in her psychosis she's written a letter to herself from the muppet man then maybe i should uh be with her i know i never raised or i never i guess i never came to that conclusion that the dad was like that because so far all they've done is yell at them being like, why would you put this everywhere?

42:34That's all they've done. I wouldn't have guessed the dad being that earnest or I guess like that caring. Well, the mom's been described that way. The dad's been kind of earnest with the investigation. All he did was just tell her that the clothes were covered in blood, shit, and piss. That's all he's done. He's giving her details. Maybe to me that's what love is. Maybe to me it's like, okay, dad. Don't forget the hookah lounge. Yeah, homeless man's butthole. I got it. Thank you. Yeah, I got it. Aladdin's a dirty hippie. Understood. Yeah, Prince Ali. I mean, yeah, I got it. Yeah, he's homeless, but also a people.

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44:24That's right, the trial set for only$10. The set includes the all-new Harry's Plus Razor, one refined five-blade cartridge, two ounces of foaming shave gel, and a travel cover to protect your blades on the go. Once again, just head over to the link in the description at harrys.com slash creekcast to claim this offer, and after your purchase, if you could let them know that we sent you, it would mean a lot. Thank you to Harry's for sponsoring the show. Their link will be in the description, and we are now back to the episode. We lived only a few blocks away, so we walked. The evening was unseasonably cold, almost as cold as the day I first met Muppet Man.

44:59I fought back tears the entire way, clutching my father's hand with both of my own. The school gates were locked, of course, but there was a small gate hidden in a passage behind the cafeteria. It had nothing but a simple latch. Kids all knew about it, but the adults never did anything. I led my father around the perimeter of the playground, keeping close to the buildings in order to hide in the shadows. Wait here. He obliged, looking tired even in the darkness. I looked at the tree. It didn't look sick anymore. Leaves through the mistletoe infestation. It looked full and healthy. The eternal sentry once more.

45:36I stood by the trunk and whispered, Hello? Something rustled among the leaves overhead. Hello? Came up at Man's warm, full voice. Where's Jason? The branches rattled and a dark, furry shape slithered down the tree. The glassy eyes caught the light of the moon and blazed. He's inside me? Muppet Man twisted and stretched down the tree until his eyes were level with mine. No longer was he vibrant or bright. His fur was filthy, caked with mud and sand and bare. Dirty canvas replaced large swaths of the once lush neon coat. Of course he was missing fur. I'd been leaving clumps of it all over my room for months.

46:20It was a wonder he had any hair left. What do you mean? My voice issued in a thin, wheezy whine. But the man crept closer, holding me captive with his glassy eyes. His long, thin fingers touched his chin, pushed, sliding into his face and pulling it up like a child removing a Halloween mask. My heart thudded, heavy and horrid as a war drum. Enormous glasses glinted at the moonlight, tragically outsized for the decayed little face underneath. Jason Hughes' rotted head was gray and so very fragile, gleaming like clouded glass under the moon. If I touched him, he would shatter. The absurd costume fell to the ground with a whisper, dull and faded.

47:09Even the eyes were dead now. The costume was dead. It had never been alive. Jason's empty sockets bulged, then broke and split apart with a series of soft, papery pops. Something roiled inside, thick and dark and gleaming with a thousand dim lights and colors I couldn't name. The world flipped and the cold playground sand dug into my face. My dad's scream shattered the glassy silence. Perhaps it shattered Jason's poor dead face, too. I curled up and lay still as my dad screamed and sirens welled in the distance. The ruined costume went into an evidence locker. Jason himself was laid to rest several weeks later.

47:50They held onto the body as long as they did in order to find out what happened to him. I asked my father about it, but he refused to tell me. I was disappointed, yet relieved, and I never tried to find out on my own. I did my best to forget everything, and actually came close. I might have managed had my father kept his mouth shut. He has a habit of telling me things I shouldn't know. Things nobody should know. I guess it's a personal exorcism. Freeing demons that haunt you. It's just that the problem with freeing demons is that demons usually go on to haunt someone else. My dad retired a few years ago, but he still has friends on the force.

48:32They get together and talk every once in a while. They had one of their visits last night, and one of his friends brought up Jason Hughes. Did they find the guy who did it? My dad asked. No. But the costume, that weird puppet costume, it's not in evidence anymore. It's gone. Did someone take it? Did they accidentally toss it or? We don't know. That alone was enough to haunt me forever. But it didn't stop it enough. Demons never stop it enough. They ever stop it all. I know this because when I got up this morning, I found dirty tufts of neon fur scattered all across my bedroom floor. That's a fun way to end it.

49:13You know, I think that like, uh, that's the end of this one. We have, we'll do a, I know that was really short. We can do another one. Um, I think that like, you know, this is one of those, this is one of those stories where it's like, I like the kind of, I like ambiguity in stories, but I do wish that there was a bit more of like, why do you think, let me ask you this then. Why do you think that the monster chose our protagonist? Especially cause do you think that it just feeds on guilt? I think our protagonist was the only one who had anything for Jason Hughes other than like a mocking tone because everyone else would make jokes about him or like the Muppet Man be brought up.

49:53They'd be like, oh, yeah, Jason's he has Jason's ghost. I like that. Our protagonist would sit under the tree and read to Jason. yeah I mean I like that idea of a monster that like feeds on guilt or is drawn in or almost seduced by guilt and like playing into that idea that literally by showing compassion for Jason and like reading to him was a literal calling card for this thing to come and like target the main protagonist yeah yeah so I thought that was pretty interesting I um what do you think of the creature as a whole I really I think the Muppet Man's interest uh i do to me it works best as kind of the metaphor thing i think especially at the end where it's like he goes to or our protagonist goes to meet the muppet man and then the muppet man shows him the body of jason that crumbles so all everyone else sees is just the suit with the body in it right yeah um it's almost like if you wanted to make it literal you could imagine like maybe jason is the one who stole the costume and ran into the woods and then both these legends came off each other and then they just found the body one day you know maybe jason took off his clothes yeah i was in there you know whatever i was kind of wondering if the tree's life had anything to indicate that like at first i thought it was when jason so at first i was reading that like oh jason got got uh abducted right and that the like the feeding off of jason gave the tree like a life force like it was that it gave it that much life and then that way the tree was dying because it had like digested him it had like used whatever he wanted from jason so it was looking for another host or like another kind of um meal to satiate it for the time being but i do think this idea of uh it just being this i mean it's just a way of like passing on guilt in these different ways i mean it's it's it's really interesting um thinking of like a creature that that feeds on that because i think that like one that's kind of overplayed is like you know something that feeds on fear or something but guilt is really interesting because i feel like children feel guilty a lot i feel like the over like very small things or they don't know like i feel like you know there's so many things where i think guilt hits children in an interesting way yeah yeah i think guilt's fun especially with childhood fear it's also an interesting like it's like a punishment almost like not not in the sense that like a punishment for feeling bad but it's punishing it's like oh this one child already feels bad well watch how they feel now and like it it preys upon that to make everything worse when they were already bad off um leaving these to me muppet man i i think because muppet man is bright and vibrant within tree is dime but when the tree is alive he's how he probably would look living out in the woods for days and days on end decrepit old dirty um so to me that's kind of like with the inference i made earlier that the tree is kind of like referencing the mortality of childhood like oh the great century the tree i love so much isn't going to be around forever and when you have that dread that's when the muppet man shows up in full force but when the tree's alive and when there may be answers to questions you have like what happened to Jason and when there may be closure for the family and stuff like that, that's when Muppet Man is real.

53:16And what Muppet Man actually is, is a decayed husk with another decaying husk inside of him. Um, so to me, it's almost like the two are inverse because they represent opposite things. The tree is the protection of childhood while the dead tree and Muppet Man is the erasure of it, the death of it. Um, so I don't know. It feels like, again, I think it works best as a metaphor for grief or guilt. The, um, the element of, uh, just in terms of like guilt of hat, like harbinging guilt or shame or something, having something. I thought the one thing that was kind of interesting too, is the, uh, having bright rainbow colored fur everywhere is just like a giant sign for something you're trying to hide or something that feels like it's like, it's obvious.

54:04You know what I mean? Like it's, it's so abundantly clear that like, it's so noticeable, I guess it feels like when you're holding onto guilt, shame, or like a secret or something that it feels like everyone knows that they can like read it. Like they can easily see it past you and they can see it and having these bundles of fur or something and like having to explain that to other people. And you know, these things, these remnants leftover that are kind of being left and you're being blamed for it as well as I just thought that that was kind of cool. Like that's an interesting visual. um yeah it's similar i mean we made the bridge to terabithia reference earlier but whereas terabithia was kind of reminiscent of his childhood wanderlust and then when the girl dies he starts to see like monsters over there and scary things because now the world's soured um i feel like this is kind of similar to that right the tree was the safe place you know the the century of the playground but then when james hughes goes missing well now or jason hughes goes missing well now it's scary now it holds the mystery of the monster the muppet man in the suit um but then you grow up a little bit some time goes by and then it's just a skeleton and it's just a tree you know do you think that the do you think that the adults know about this kind of well do you think the adults know about this creature do you think it's a known secret well they know to view the story literally like it is a monster in a tree and then it goes into police lockup and the suit's kind of alive like the suit itself is a creature yeah then yeah uh i would say some adults probably know about it or there's some legend behind it um but for the sake of the metaphor that i'm into i think that a lot of this is just kind of within the mind of a child right like a lot of it's the way you view things like you remember did you um that 4chan post i sent you the other night about the the dog yeah eating cereal did you so that kind of thing always freaks me out which will we may cover in an episode eventually but that kind of thing always freaks me out like the way dogs perceive or dogs the way children perceive things that they shouldn't be able to grasp yet.

56:22Yeah. You know, trauma, like traumatic things like trauma. Yeah. Like a kid your age dying. It's like that's a lot for a lot of concepts, a lot of grief, a lot of heavy stuff for a kid to put up with. So it's like the way their brains make sense of it is odd. I think there's some really good stories that prey on that. And I think this is part of it. Like it's easier to think the Muppet Man did it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that Children will find, I think a lot of people will find any way to rationalize or be able to articulate it so they can process it to their brain, which is either through, sometimes it's through joking about it.

57:02Sometimes it's like literally manifesting something that like might be similar to something that like you're like a show or something, right? Like if you watch horror films or something, you might manifest this idea that it's like, oh, it's a creature. or so i think that you just however your brain is able to articulate these things that are so uh uncommon i think is yeah but there was a this this is super graphic so like uh you know trigger warning whatever uh it's a scary story podcast um there's a story i read about one time i can't remember i'm pretty sure it was it was posted as if it was real if it's real or not i don't know but I remember reading about a mother who was at home when someone broke into the house and she shot, he came into the bedroom and she shot him in the head with a shotgun.

57:49So, you know, pretty brutal. Right. Um, and then she had like a five or six year old son who walked into the room as she was calling the police and, uh, looked at the guy that was shot and then looked at her, uh, his mom and said, are you going to finish that? the mom didn't know what he was talking about or what's going on well later the police are talking to the boy and they're like what did you see happen uh and the boy's like i heard an out a loud noise and i walked into mom's room and she was with the guy who threw spaghetti at the wall oh man wow like the kid cannot the kid has no process no concept of what's happened but he can use the pieces of what he does now you know that looks like spaghetti as gross as it is so it's like here that's a lot to talk about a kid being abducted you know someone your age being abducted by the kind of person who would keep them for days and they would soil themselves over and over and then all their clothes are found it's easier if the muppet man who lives in the trees the one that did it yeah no no i think that makes sense i uh very quick story too it was like definitely like a rip of the band-aid kind of story like damn kind of in and out i mean like start off with such a crazy starting your story off with being like, yeah, there's a middle-aged man in the tree is quite the, is, is quite the bold move.

59:13And I think it, uh, yeah, it definitely fucking hooked us pretty good. I think we got time for another one, like another short one. There's another short one. I think we do. There's another short one that got recommended called if you meet me, please kill me. I thought that was an interesting title. Yeah. And it's also by, uh, someone who I think has made some bangers that we've covered on the show before. but we only covered them in one multi-episode and we haven't given them a look again so i'd like to give them a look again uh the author her name's gabby but she goes by e-a-p-a-t-b-p and i think i remember what that stands for it's like e pad anyway um they wrote the stories about hold on i got the list pulled up they wrote the sugar daddy story uh my sugar daddy asked me for weird favors uh the one about every month there's a parade in our town which is a part of their point pine uh story series and uh the man who follows me around and narrates my life um which all three of those i thought were great do you remember those hunter yeah no i also to the the sugar daddy one i'm pretty sure that's the most upvoted story ever on r slash no sleep right yes yeah at least when we covered it when we covered it it was yeah it was the number one voted story of all time i'm pretty sure it still is yeah and then oh yeah i remember we went through this list and then the second most upvoted one is my wife's been peeking at me from around corners yeah a banger as well um but so ea has written three great stories that we've read and a ton of people recommend them all the time it feels like we get recommendations constantly to be like oh they wrote this cover they wrote this cover they wrote it uh and we enjoyed it the first time And then EA actually came to the subreddit a few months ago when people were discussing the sugar daddy story.

1:01:02And she seemed super cool with it and was glad that it was covered. So, you know, why not check her out again? And Harry recommended this story to read with the previous one. So, yeah, I'm curious. This one is so this is another short one, but I'm wondering how it fits in as well with these kind of with this other digestible story, too. So let's jump in. Yeah. Let's jump into it. And again, of course, as with Dopamine EA's information, their subreddit links to some of their other socials. I'll ask what all they want us to include, but I'll be in the description as well. Be sure to show them some love.

1:01:39She's a fantastic author. So that out of the way, if this was uploaded about a year ago, if you meet me, please kill me. My friends won't believe me. My family thinks I'm crazy. and if I keep trying to convince them, they're probably just going to lock me up. But I need help, and I think that strangers online are my last hope. So I'm begging. If you meet me, if you see me walking down the street and I say hello, if you meet me in a bar and feel inclined to buy me a drink, or if you match with me on a dating app and make plans, kill me. End it. I don't care how it's done. I prefer it to be as painful as possible, but I know that's probably a lot to ask.

1:02:22It's already a lot to ask someone who doesn't know me to commit murder on my behalf, and I'm sorry to put such a burden on you, but I truly can't do this any longer. Let me provide you with some context. I might have gotten ahead of myself, but I came on too strong. Don't leave yet, please. Please let me explain to you what's been going on. maybe hopefully once you hear this you'll be on my side maybe you'll believe me hell maybe you've experienced this too i can't be the only one who's experienced this it started two months ago at mitch's mitch's is a small bar that my friends and i used to go to every friday night they had karaoke night and everyone got free nachos with the purchase of a drink it was a routine we had been sticking to for almost a year now ever since Mellie moved into the apartment complex down the street and found the place anyway it was a Friday night probably around 10 p.m because I remember that Jonas had just arrived he got off his shift at the hospital at nine on those days Mellie and I had just performed a tipsy version of Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon and we were giggling and stumbling back to our booth when he intercepted our path he said his name was Tony short for Antonio.

1:03:38He said he was new in the city and had just moved here from Idaho or Iowa. I don't really remember. He wanted to talk to me. He said I had a nice voice and he enjoyed my performance and he would like to get to know me a bit better. I agreed because he was my type. Dark hair, green eyes, stubble on his jawline. He smelled like tied laundry detergent and something else that reminded me and my childhood friend Isra's house. Felt familiar to me. And so I followed him to a booth near my friends. We talked for the entire night. Have you ever like smelled someone or something and you're immediately like, oh yes, summer, seventh grade, so-and-so's house.

1:04:18Yeah, sometimes it's uncanny. It brings in a very, like a deja vu or sometimes I almost think that like I'm, it almost makes you think that I'm like, I feel like we've met before, you know, like this very uncanny connection. Yeah. Yeah. the green eyes thing though in combination with that i feel like this is going to be like a shape shifter or something that pretends to be them or whatever yeah that's my bear trap laying it out now our first date was dinner in a movie classic first date we watched hard eyes which he loved but i said wasn't my style we went to this expensive french restaurant after a small place that was almost an hour away and we had wine and ate our dinner while a woman sat in the corner of the room and sang la via and rose it was romantic it was romantic it was a great date what uh what was your first date hunter my first date with allison oh with allison i took her to a hockey game that's cool that's a good date yeah no we went we went to a hibachi place and me kale and i me and allison went to a hibachi place uh dude what kale and i went there and then yeah sorry but sorry but the nerd gets the girl uh and then we saw what uh bohemian rhapsody which was kind of whatever what a painful first date movie yeah well i mean it was like oh queen i like queen it's like you know it's just i mean at the time i liked it because i like uh rami malek and stuff but in hindsight it's just kind of like yeah that is the band it's a pretty shit yeah that's the the song i know yeah it's kind of like it felt the more i thought about the more it felt like a marvel movie where it's like hey do you get that reference it's that song you know yeah you know the song queen yeah all the music biops have been pretty shit as like i didn't i don't know yeah it doesn't matter i heard i heard that um the weird al one was funny because it was a spoof yeah yeah the weird the weird al one was really funny yeah the first bad sign didn't feel like a bad sign when it happened.

1:06:25You know what they say about hindsight. It started with him going by his full name instead of Tony. He said he had always gone by Tony because he preferred it. He thought Antonio was a mouthful. That Tony made him sound like a fun, easygoing guy, while Antonio made him sound like the opposite. And then that day, he changed his mind. You've never gone by Ella or Stell? He asked me one evening as we were walking through a small street fair that the city put on every year. Nope, just Stella. I've always been completely Stella. I replied as I took a sip of my soda. Really? You've never gone by a nickname, not even as a child?

1:07:04Shook my head no again. I remember this conversation vividly now. I'd forgotten about it soon after it happened because it seemed irrelevant at the time, but as soon as I realized what was going on, popped back into my mind like someone had dug into my subconscious and pulled it out, projecting it onto a big screen right in my face. After that, he decided he wanted to be Antonio. He wanted to be completely Antonio. After that step was done, the rest came quicker and quicker, like an avalanche headed downhill until it spiraled out of control. He changed his hair, dyed it a lighter brown, like mine.

1:07:41His eyes, which I swear to all of the gods were green when I met him, were now dark brown, like mine. He got slimmer, losing his broad shoulders almost overnight. His face got rounder, softer, and less angular. He shrank three inches. Jesus. Then he took my jokes, stole my bets, started saying things that only I would say. Even my friends would comment on it, albeit in an innocent way. Oh my God, that's such a Stella thing to say. Oh, that's so cute. You guys are becoming like the same person. I love when people start to adapt each other's mannerisms. okay first off if anyone ever said to me i'm like they shrunk three inches and they're becoming a woman they're shorter now hello what are you talking about this is clearly a fucking demon that's around me what is happening not not only that but like they're now your hair color your hair length you're like what exactly it's like what are you talking he's becoming me fucking so cute when you have each other's mannerisms hello we're the same person now I'm you and you're me oh isn't that adorable look at you two kids yeah exactly oh look he even got eye surgery to change his eye colors that's so romantic so we've been dating for three weeks this is a three week mark you two are the same cup size now bra besties dude me and Allison same cup size rules love wearing her love wearing her bras I feel so comfy I feel so you know what we were this is a this is a embarrassing story to say well that's not really because it was a joke but Kayla and I were walking through Knoxville one night and what oh I had left my gun at the house and Kayla was like here just carry mine so I put her gun in my pocket and I'd also I was we were driving her car and I couldn't find a t-shirt or I accidentally grabbed her t-shirt so we get out of the car and we go she's like look at us you're carrying my gun driving my car wearing my shirt and then I go yeah wearing your underwear and right as I said that an old Chinese man who was on a phone and stepped out right by us and all that he caught was me going yeah I'm wearing your underwear and he puts the phone down and just makes eye contact with me and watches me the whole way around the corner well Isaiah were you wearing underwear no no it was it was a joke would you ever would you ever wear your wife's underwear no no no I'm gonna definitively on the record no that would not happen that was a joke that was it was funny like ha ha And what if I'll tell you this thing.

1:10:37I'll tell you this. And then I tell you this much that that guy and you are taking it too seriously. What if I tell you this much? If my wife came to me and she said, Hunter, I want you to wear one of my thongs. I would do it in a heartbeat. No. In a heartbeat. It's too weird. In an absolute heartbeat. I would. It's also weird because it feels like you're trying to get me on board right now. No, no, no. I don't give a shit what you do. I'm saying that. If I was approached, I would put it on record. I'm setting the record straight. If someone said, here, wear my thong, I would say absolutely. Someone, not even your wife, just anyone?

1:11:12You know what? Fuck it. Anyone. That's weird. I would split the red sea. I would never wear underwear. I'd pop one of the boys out on each side and I'd have it curl up like a little garden stake. Okay, okay, okay. And I'd start flossing. Okay. No, no, no. Look, all that description you gave, I figured that's where that would be going. We don't need it. Maybe I want to be one of the Victoria's Secret dudes, man. Why don't you even tell the story? I should have known that passing this off to you is too close. Maybe I'm jealous that girl's going to go to Victoria's Secret and they get to dig through all those drawers full of fucking different colored panties.

1:11:50And all they have is Fruit of Loom. Fruit of Loom. And Allison and maybe a pastor or therapist to discuss. This is not for me. Grayscale underwear. I am your business partner. It's boring. This is a joint business endeavor. We do not need to be. Fuck it. I'm going to start wearing thong. in this. I'm doing it. Next time you see, I'm not even joking, and I want you to keep this on record because we're meeting again soon. When you literally see me, I'm going to be wearing a thong, and I'm going to show you. Okay, I'm going to mentally block that, and I'm not going to think about that. I don't know how you're going to mentally block it.

1:12:18It's going to be a flashbang. You are going to see it. Alright, you give our audience too much to work with. They say the most obscene things about this podcast anyway. You don't need to make it easier for them. anyway what the important thing i need to make note of is bear trap by the way i was right i said he's gonna like he's gonna start chameleoning her and lizard man mimic or whatever so i was correct so that's what's important except we weren't doing that he was stealing all of my jokes he was taking all of my catchphrases he would use my references that he didn't even know previously He stole my style, swapping out his vans, jeans, and button-up shirts for thrifted boots and band tees.

1:13:03He got glasses even though he didn't need them. And he went vegetarian. The worst part about this, the part that pissed me off the most as this was taking place, was the fact that everyone, everyone acted like I was insane. They acted like he had always been like that. He never went by Tony, Stella. What are you talking about? Oh, his eyes were never green. I think you're misremembering. Maybe it was the lighting in the bar that night. He's always been the exact same height as you. It's impossible for someone to just shrink. It was such bullshit. It's making me mad all over again to think about it now.

1:13:39Nobody believed me. I tried showing them photos where you could clearly see the differences, and it was like they didn't notice them. Like I was the only one who could see the photo as is. I need to calm down. I'm not finished telling you my story, and I worry about you getting bored. I need you to believe me. So would you believe me when I tell you that about two weeks ago, he became me? I mean, he literally became me. He morphed into a clone of me. He goes by my name. He wears my face and hangs out with my friends. I almost had a heart attack when I saw it the first time. It was like I was looking in a mirror, a screwed up mirror who had taken over my life.

1:14:22My friends acted like nothing was wrong, like he had always looked like that. They didn't think we looked alike at all. They didn't think it was weird that we had the same name. Everything was just a big, fat, stupid coincidence to them. It's so infuriating, it almost makes me laugh. So that's where we are now. He or I don't know, it? It can't be human, can it? Whatever it is has become me, and it's ruining my life. He picks up my medications, takes my esthetician appointments, takes my Pilates classes, hangs out with my family, everything. I need you to kill him. It, me. Something needs to die.

1:15:02Please. His name is Stella Kobe. I'm five feet, five inches. Short brown hair, curly collarbone length. Brown eyes, big glasses with thick red frames. I've got a tattoo of a skull on the inside of my right wrist and a four inch long scar that runs down the back of my right arm down my elbow It's from when I fell off horse as a child I'm 156 pounds and I'm a big fan of rock music, specifically Blondie I love action movies and I'm allergic to cinnamon You might meet me out in public, in the produce section of your local supermarket Maybe on Bumble or Hinge or Grindr I'm in thrift stores a lot maybe watch out for me there you'll know it's not the real me because I haven't left my apartment in over a week and I have no plans of doing so I want that thing gone I want it gone from this world before I ever step foot outside again I don't know how it picks its victims but it's quite charming just be careful you can try to avoid it if you want but your best bet is to just kill it and put an end to this thing so please if you meet me if you meet it as me please kill it and that's the end I will say that I don't know why but I don't know why but at the end it started this is fucked up because I feel like I'm doing what she's complaining about why does it feel it feels like almost like a schizophrenic person being like someone is there's someone that's pretending to be me out there walking around yeah babe you're just crazy no no you're making it up it's not you I don't know why it's because there was this Cronenberg short film that was on YouTube a long time ago I don't know if it's there but it was called the nest or something but it was about a woman who goes to a doctor's appointment and she says that there's like insects in her breast and she wants them removed she wants her she wants the doctor to remove her breasts and it's like you never see any of the breasts she just says they're there and it's like you just can't really tell if she's telling the truth or not is it real like it's very interesting and i don't know why but this for some reason is posted so casually and it's so informal that it almost feels like a post of like somebody who has like almost mentally deteriorated that being said the fact that like the people have met antonio before and stuff makes it seem like it probably is a monster but i do like this idea of someone being like i went on a date and now the person's trying to be me you're like what really i don't know i to me it feels kind of to tie it into like the first episode's theme of like manifesting something this almost feels like a literalized version of when people talk about in relationships that like they break up with someone and the person just keeps all their traits you know yeah yeah or it's like yeah they you know they got the shows they watch for me and the music they listen to for me and blah blah blah and the person is only who they are because of me yeah yeah it almost feels like that but drawn out to a very literal position where it's like he's literally skinwalking me and I'm left over here almost again like a breakup.

1:18:07I'm over here a shamble, hiding in my apartment and they're still out there doing things that I taught them, learning things that I showed them and stuff like that. Which is a fun feels like a take a concert degree yeah like a mimic. That's a fun horror story concept of like a breakup that leads to being like the person that they are has been transformed because of me. Like I do actually like that and then people like and it is funny if people being like siding against her and being like what are you talking about he's always been that way like what the fuck are you talking about because it's like because you have the actual intimate relationship with that person and the other people can't see you know what's on the inside so i i do like that as like a fun comparison i think that's a good read that you had yeah because it feels like there's so many uh times like that where after a breakup someone's like oh well no well i mean they got some stuff from you but it's like they always did that they were like it's like people gaslight you as if you weren't the one in the relationship friend groups have a phenomenal way of doing that yeah yeah it's like oh it's not that bad oh you're being you're being dramatic or whatever yeah yeah it feels like that but literal yeah especially whenever your friends become their friends too the worst the worst yeah then it's like okay well now we're now we have a civil war of sorts there's going to be a great divide i'm telling you well shit guys those are both our stories today i think they're both a lot of fun i'd like that i like whenever we get these options whenever there's a couple quick ones it's always just kind of fun to see these both these ideas just felt like a fun like uh just like a it's like dipping your toe into a premise that could be fun to dive deeper into which is i think always a fun read it's really easy relax and i hope that it was a good listen as well i really uh i really enjoyed both of these and I do think I see Harry's vision well I don't even know if Harry thought this but the connection I made was that both of these are kind of like metaphors for manifestations that really happens yeah yeah manifestations yeah thank you so much to anyone who's listening on Apple podcast or Spotify anywhere you can listen to a podcast we appreciate you and thank you for giving us a nice rating if you have and also be sure to check out the Patreon if you want some extra content we have some more extra bonus episodes there where we talk about movies and read stories and stuff like that so be sure to check it out and until next time guys stay creeped stay creeped be sure to check out the authors in the description and um if hunter and allison never break up i'm gonna gaslight everyone into believing and Allison actually started the channel.

1:20:34I think that's the metaphor for this one. Bye.

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