We Used To Live Here | CreepCast

30:57I mean, this situation is such a nightmare, awkward scenario already and like uncomfortable. I'd also just be like, what the fuck do you mean full on hide mode? I'm like, why don't you just yell for her to come out? I don't know. This whole... I'd be pissed. I would be royally pissed. Of course. All are going to be in the walls in the next headman. Yeah, 100%. They all disappear and Charlie gets there. Hey, Charlie, so the whole family living in the walls now? Yeah. I furrowed my brow. Skeptical. You have to be quiet. Thomas pushed off his knees to stand. If you see Jenny, try and grab her or she'll just run away and hide again she's fast do they have like a like a savannah cat for a daughter his voice strained with the exhaustion of having done this one too many times you sure just grab her that's fine all part of the game looking to his right he whispered i'll go this way you go that way he nodded to the left sure i replied still unsure of the plan he turned and disappeared around the corner.

32:02I moved left and was greeted by a long, empty hallway. Creepy. I trudged forward. This sucked. Charlie was right. The basement was screwy. All sorts of nooks and pockets. Rounding the next corner, I shone light into a garage-like room, mostly empty, save for a row of metal shelves. And sitting in the far corner, a coat rack. coat rack coat racks also exist outside of the story no i don't nope okay coat rack beside a dozen or so empty picture frames cold draft pushed through me shivering i stepped forward and 100 though it's the basement he made sure to include that for that oh yeah yeah something clattered against the concrete startled i turned to look and across the room tin can rolled over the floor.

32:52A mess of nails and screws. Great. Now the stupid kid's going to step on a rusty nail, get tetanus, and the parents are going to sue us. Strolled over, set the flashlight down, and used my hand to sweep nails back into the tin can. As I swept, the flashlight started to roll away. Uneven floors. Nice. I set my foot out to block it, and something in the beam of light It caught my eye. Or rather, hundreds of somethings. Ants. A trail of black ants marching along the bottom of the far wall. Fantastic. Add pest control to the unexpected expenses list. Frustrated, I grabbed my flashlight and slogged over.

33:32The ants led around the corner, deeper into the basement, all marching in the same direction. Is that normal ant behavior? Am I supposed to march both ways? Vague memories from a Nat Geo documentary echoed in my head. shrugging it off i followed the trail i rounded the corner into another long uninviting corridor the ants trooped into receding darkness i almost hear their little feet tapping against the concrete where were they going curiosity building i crept forward halfway down the hallway they took a hard turn into a makeshift wine cellar i stepped inside stone floor arched spray ceilings old empty barrel racks this room almost looked medieval the ants ran in a straight line towards the furthest back corner disappearing out of sight i crossed over and hunched down they filed into a crack at the bottom of the wall what's on the other side i raised my flashlight and behind me two quick footsteps scraped over concrete i spun around about 20 feet away in the room's entrance stood the father, back turned.

34:40His posture was strange, almost rigid, arms straight into sides, flashlight aiming at the floor, motionless. Hey. No response. I stood up and glanced around the room. It was blocking the only way in or out. Thomas? Silence. That was his name, right? Clearing my throat, I stepped forward. a growing pit of dread in my stomach. I was about to call out again, but he started whispering, talking to the blank space in front of him. What are you doing down here, Abby? We've been looking everywhere for you. Thomas! I said louder now. No response. He just kept talking to dead air, exasperated. I'm not sure how much we can do this.

35:25I thought you said. I thought you were on board. I moved closer, reached out, touched the back of his shoulder, in holy christ thomas spun around setting a hand against his chest oh you're you're a quiet one he exhaled catching his breath i i stammered still in a bit of shock collecting himself he chuckled he almost gave me a heart attack i called for you like three times who are you talking to he stared at me sincerely confused come again you were whispering you shrugged unsure what i meant

36:05listen lady i'm not gonna ask you about your lifestyle don't ask about mine i'd be i'd be like you know who can find your daughter the police as a matter of fact i'll call them right now you know what maybe she's upstairs i'd go upstairs lock the door down there and we call police be like yeah so i don't know this family is trying to live in my walls they're trying to kill me and take the house he shrugged unsure what i meant disturbed i looked back over my shoulder just in time to glimpse the last of the ants receding into the wall any luck turning back i shook my head he nodded yeah me neither caught the gifts of her but she slipped away anyway we should head up junior will get spooked down here soon enough put up the white flag just leave my daughter in your basement i agreed besides now i just wanted to get out of this basement upstairs it's the rest of the family set around the living room fireplace comfortable battle of the wills now i'd be like get the out of my house she's my daughter now all right your fault for having she's dead having a freak daughter that loves to play spontaneous hide and seek sorry she actually place spontaneous combustion his wife gave a slight nod still unsettled i wandered off into the foyer by myself why weren't they more concerned about their missing kid what just happened in the basement and more importantly where was charlie she should have been here like an hour ago pulled out my phone and the front door swung open charlie stepped through i'm late Roads are shit.

37:45Getting shittier. She said, shaking off snow. What's up with the moving truck? The what? There's a one-ton parked... Oh my god. They brought their shit. There's no way. The what? There's a one-ton parked in the end of the... As if to answer her question, the father stepped into the foyer. Charlie shot him a puzzled look. This is Thomas. He grew up here as a kid. He was just showing his family around and... and now our daughter is playing solo hide-and-seek in the basement. He said apologetically. Oh, yeah? My brother used to do that. She shot out her hand for a shake. Name's Charlie. Charlie Bashan.

38:24I shook hands, firm, single shake. Charlie was my emotional polar opposite. Chill with everybody. Confident, extroverted, trusting, and erect. Good at setting boundaries, too. Any hidden rooms or ghost stories we should know about? She asked, hanging up her jacket. Thomas cleared his throat. It's a ghost-free house. Anyway, don't let us spoil your night. She'll give up any minute now and never seen her hold out too long. We can go sit in the truck if you want some space. Charlie scoffed. Sit in the truck? You might as well join us for dinner. I think we'll be all right. I mean, we had a big lunch.

39:03Lunch? Come join us, please. Eve always makes more than enough. Yeah, you know, Eve Classic Eve makes food for two Winds up being food for seven, you know You know how it is Also, stuffing your one-ton pickup Or your one-ton U-Haul You want to live here? Bring it in! Just move on in? Fuck it Thomas smiled tepidly Looking like he didn't want to impose Part of me wanted to grab Charlie by the arm Neck Tell her to drop it But I didn't What part of that was you saying was Nick? Drop by the arm and I was like, neck I'd be like I thought you said Nick No no no This is a Nick interaction This is Nick You know I used to live here right She hadn't seen She hadn't seen Thomas' whispering episode In that basement That being said Maybe I was overreacting Had a bit of a reputation for that Sure But only if it's not a problem Glanced over at me as if checking for my approval But I just shrugged looking away wouldn't be offering if it was thank you charlie the fireplace crackled went outside billowed creaks and groans of the old house filled the silence minus the daughter we're all seated around the dinner table now it's just like hours i mean i would be like why are you not checking your daughter are we waiting in the basement go get her yeah the fireplace crackled went outside billowed all right we're there charlie reached across and grabbed a wine corkscrew Maybe the kid will smell the food and give up.

40:36Juckling softly, Thomas picked up his fork and... Thomas! Missed Paige, his wife. He set down the fork, cleared his throat. Would it be alright if we said a quick prayer before eating? Charlie shot me a look. Not wanting to oppose. This is your house, after all. Yeah, it's okay. Grateful, he smiled. Bowing their heads, they shut their eyes. I never had a problem with prayer. Grew up in a religious household myself. I still value some of the lessons, but for every great lesson, there was something that made me question who I was. Paige cleared her throat. We'd like to thank Eve and Charlie, the host of this house, for allowing us to eat with them.

41:17Considering how traditional this family appeared, I would have expected Thomas to lead the prayer. But as Paige prayed, I glanced over at Thomas. His eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the tablecloth in front of him. He looked distant, almost out of place. Was he even religious? I mean, down in the basement, he took the precious Lord's name in vain, so. Page continued. We'd like to thank God for our health, our family, and our friends. We thank you for allowing us to have a fresh start as we move cross-country. Amen. Amen. I mumbled, an old reflex back from the dead. Charlie shot me another look, just done with a playful smirk.

41:57I glanced away embarrassed that look you just gave me was not a playful smirk imagine yeah you're like amen you look up and the first thing you see is this

42:11you're putting some stink on Charlie I don't think she deserves I think she's being a little too friendly oh so I thought that was Thomas no I thought it was gonna be a creepy thing no no no no yeah so she looked up and she was just like yeah because Eve said amen Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Charlie's like, oh, like there's the old Christian. I thought it was Thomas being weird. No, no, that was just Charlie being like, ha ha, you did the thing. Right. So, you're moving, huh? Twisting the cork out of a red wine bottle, Charlie poured herself a glass. What prompted that? I needed a fresh start. Where to?

42:46Oh, downstate. This is delicious, by the way. Paige cut in, looking at Charlie. It's really appreciated. Don't thank me. that's eve the master cook tonight charlie held up the bottle wine thomas shook his head we don't drink very wise said charlie she glanced at the two boys listen to your parents kiddos page smiled opened her mouth to speak but the techno cover of beethoven's fifth cut in

43:19charlie pulled out her phone my bad she muted it she went to put it away the screen caught her eye Oh, shit. She held it up for me to see. Notification. Dangerous driving conditions along the number five connector. Winter tires recommended. Hmm? Said Thomas. Oh, they're going to get stuck there. Roads are getting worse. Charlie tucked her phone away. Hopefully the kid shows up soon, huh? Hopefully the kid will show up soon, huh? Oh, she will. Just give her space. Charlie glanced at the time. Looks like she's going for the hide-and-seek record tonight. You guys got winter tires, or... I used to drive long-haul trucks year-round.

44:01We'll be fine. Charlie grabbed the salt. There's some tire chains up in the attic. We'll be fine. Paige looked at him, concerned. You sure it's worth risking? Mouthful of food, he half shrugged. Paige, deflecting Thomas' indifference, shifted topic. Are you married? Us? I asked. She nodded. Charlie almost scoffed. Nope. Paige, there's some animosity underneath that note for sure. Yeah, she's just like, dang, fucking put a ring on it yet. Fucking Eve, what the fuck's up with that? Paige nodded again, as if to say, I expected as much. Are you religious? She asked, looking directly at me now. What, me?

44:46Oh, no, not really. I mean, I used to be. Well, yes, because I noticed a Bible in the living room. Oh, that was a gift from my parents. We used to go to church together. Smiling tight, Paged chapter fork into the roast and started sawing with a steak knife. What about them? Who? I was starting to feel interrogated. Your parents? Do they still go to church? Yeah. What denomination? Lutheran? Are they where? Her eyes flicked Charlie. Then back to him. Immediately. Couldn't go five seconds. Of your disease? do they know that you're a sinner do they know that have you told them her eyes flicked to charlie then back to me aware of what page glanced at her children as if the following words might be too much for their innocent ears of wearing you and your friends lifestyle choices well to be to be in this situation i'd be like dude get your rat fucking kid out of my house and leave.

45:51In the basement? Yeah. I don't give a fuck if it's a terrestrial winter outside. You are fucking leaving. Go. Yeah. Get out. They are lifestyle choices. And they accept it? Uncomfortable. I open my mouth to respond, but Charlie cut in, chewing on a mouthful of roast. What about yours? Pidge looked at her. Your parents, they know about your lifestyle choices? Pidge for odor brow. I don't really understand what you're getting at she said pointedly page thomas intervened that's enough page shared to charlie for a long moment charlie didn't break eye contact finally page looked away and returned to eating you're you're in their house eating their food and you're like no i'm gonna regardless of the food your your child has been in the house for what i can only assume has been hours outside of the objective here.

46:46To have the audacity to just be like, they know you're sick in the head, right? Or no. You like girls? It's so insulting. I mean, I would seriously just be like, I'd be like, you have 10 minutes or else. I would just be like, cool, I'm going to call the cops that can help you find your kid. Because it's too, I'm like, give your kid space. You're in my home. Yeah. You fucking unbelievably disrespectful toad. Oh, we have to wait for her to come out. I don't actually. It's my house. I can actually do whatever I want. I'd never want it if I took this. In your house, you can wait. You're technically a trespasser.

47:17There's actually no record of you, you know, being allowed into the house. I don't have a ring doorbell. It'd be funny if Charlie was just like, well, they do understand our life choices, and I can also take this crowbar, put it in the roof of your mouth, and eve up as hard as I possibly could. You'd be my new little Pez dispenser. This episode is sponsored by Warby Parker. Buying glasses does not have to be so complicated, But so often it is. It's hard to tell if the glasses are going to fit your face, and it can be hard to tell if you're being charged a fair price. It's hard! That's why I'm in love with Warby Parker.

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51:13Page shared at Charlie for a long moment. but Charlie didn't break eye contact. Finally, Paige looked away and returned to eating. As a chronic conflict avoider, I was actually relieved when Thomas stepped in. But Charlie, she was chomping at the bit, ready to battle. Had I not been there, she would have gone at it until Mary Magdalene started crying. I was only curious. Right then, a blistering gust of wind slammed against the windows. House lights flickered. Thomas looked over his shoulder. But the power holds out. Turned back to the table. Went down all the time when I lived. here he said trying his best to change the topic the rest of the meal dragged on in tedious silence the table had been cleared the kitchen had been cleaned now i was leaning over setting kindling into the fireplace outside it was a full-on blizzard when whipped the quick piling snow into a frenzy thomas had already gone down to the basement several more times but still no jenny was in sight i still couldn't shake how calm he and page were about it call might be an understatement It was bordering on apathetic.

52:18Eve? Said Thomas, stepping into the living room. Yeah? I replied, crumbling a ball of newspaper kindling. No any nearby motels by chance? Hmm. Nothing close by that I can think of. Silence hung in the air, almost like he expected me to say something more. I continued. I mean, worst case scenario, you guys can crash here for the night. My God. What? no you got a u-haul light a fire in there keep yourself warm you'll be all right and crash here for the night there's probably a 24 7 walmart or mcdonald's nearby have fun you can also get some mars bars if these were like if the okay yeah you know what you know why this bothers me because i could 100 see my if kayla was not with me i would talk myself into this situation that's why i was gonna ask you i was like could you see you getting the situation not this far but inviting them in if i was definitely if i if i was without kayla i would be the just stay the night look at the cover tops and the backsplash this table looks so good i'm bewildered i say and i know it'd be the wrong decision but i couldn't i could now if kayla was there you're going to make a fine a very fine skin lamp when you get murdered i like okay i would a million percent do the oh come in right yeah a hundred percent um the dinner thing i would be like i would probably do the dinner thing it'd be a little reluctant now with the whole added layer of like oh she's in she's in the basement somewhere i i would not quit doing that i would be like we have to find the child yeah the child the level of like oh it's a game i mean i'd be like i mean that's fun and everything for you that's not a game that's fun for nine there is a there is a child in this fixer upper that we do not know where is yeah yeah there's a child running around the basement right now um i would be like we're not leaving that but even like remove the child thing from the scenario it's just a family sticking around i think that they could get you to do it i would definitely invite them to dinner um if you would have forgot about the kid because you know the thing about you is someone could like i love that shirt you'd be like oh my god thank you and you'd get you'd get caught up in that would be a little harsh i have got mad at people before really yeah oh yeah oh okay yeah rarely rarely i've got screaming mad at people before really yeah i would not have expected that yeah yeah uh it's rare but it can and have but it takes a lot it takes so much to me this is a lot this would be at my to me this is still like entryway to me they're not even aside from the daughter getting lost the daughter getting lost thing and their behavior around that yes but if the daughter was not lost if a family's like oh i used to live here i'd be like come in and then i'd invite them to dinner and then if it was snowing i would invite them to stay well here's the thing follow the question though so you get the girl out of the walls so they're all seated out having dinner but then they start making passive aggressive comments towards your religion about your religion do they get to save the night because that's the thing too is like it's so much beyond that but it's also like now they're now it's like the most condescending conversation of like looking at your lifestyle and judging you all right all right as the snow is hold on hold on there's layers to this so if i'm by myself and they were making you're gonna hate this if i was by myself and they're making passive aggressive comments about my religion right and then the uh it's like after dinner or whatever in my head again by myself i'd be like i'm gonna win them over i'm gonna show them just how kind a christian man can be you're so dead what a million percent i would be like y 'all should stay the night all your kids and stuff i'll make breakfast like i would be like there's that skin lamp coming skin lamp you know what if we were gay together i would be the voice of reason i would say yeah you'd be my kayla no yeah i gotta take his ass so so for your what please that's like harry sauna don't look to him like he's delegate this he did would you tell him to stop no i'm talking about because i can't stop you but he can in the edit every please i need to i think you should just like we can also keep reading no hold on hold on we need to get the bottom the point i was trying to get to is kayla would have said no at the door right so everything afterwards she would be enraged about and if we were if we were sending at dinner and like like kayla's tattoos for example say the wife was like oh do your parents are your parents religious they know they have those that would be the like um it's getting pretty late y 'all should probably go thing right um but like kayla would have been like uh no you can't come inside like there would have been no further steps or things like that that that renovation video is so illustrative now of both of yours dynamics with the outside world.

57:38Yeah, because I'm very like, ha ha, little blah, blah, blah, blah. And she's like... And she was like, yeah, looks good. We have a joke between the friend group back home, the Kayla face, right? Like anyone who isn't someone we know approaches us or whatever. And someone just... Something as mundane as like, oh, what food did you order? I want to get that. Or like, oh, I like your shirt. She'll always go... like just immediate, like, who's this stranger? I don't like you go away, blah, blah, blah. So I would be there like, yeah, of course you guys can come in and Kayla would be over my shoulder.

58:13Like Batman, like, so Isaiah, don't, don't check your phone right now. I don't like that.

58:28Hunter, the amount you've sent me gay porn. Okay. Well, we're using the word porn loosely here. One of them shirtless. This is a still image. The implications there. Okay. I didn't read the, I didn't read the title. Yeah. The caption is

58:57I'm just saying that you plan.

59:01That could be us right now, man. We need an HR department that I can go to. I got a couple of Bic razors. No, you don't want Allison as HR. All right. She'd be like, do it.

59:20point being point being a million percent i would find myself in this situation i think so too i regretted the words the second i spoke them but in my defense their daughter was still missing what was i gonna do send them off into a blizzard one kid short yes yeah yeah that's fun. Are you sure? We wouldn't want to impose. We can sleep in the truck too. I mean, you've already done so much. No, it's fine. Oh, thank you, Eve. I'm sure Jenny will show up soon, but just in case she doesn't, that really means a lot to us. We can compensate you financially for the trouble too. That's okay. But sure enough, Jenny remained a no-show.

1:00:04About another hour clocked by until the family finally retired for the night i mean bro how are the cops not been called yeah yeah call the police fire department anybody the the actual response to this situation assuming you let them in the daughter's missing is to look hard for like 20 minutes and being like we should call someone you know i yeah i'd be freaking out we're not having dinner we're calling someone right now yeah but sure enough jenny remained a no-show about another hour clocked by until the family finally retired for the night two boys into an upstairs guest room thomas and page into adjacent bedrooms despite being married they didn't sleep in the same room yikes almost felt bad for him god that'd be heaven i thought about implementing that god that would be i wanted i wanted a two bed set up for a while why I like you know why I run hot me too and then I wake up and I'm in a fucking pool of sweat because she's sweating I'm fucking sweating and I have to have a giant fan on me but it can't be at a certain angle because then she gets upset because it's like the wind or like the like wind will like wake her up if it's blowing her face but I like it when it's just like all in my face it's two different setups right and if anything too i can go in there and play legos she has her boyfriend show up i just hate being in the room while it happens i guess it's the biggest thing yeah it's too loud a chair is fine but in the bed easy with her that's what i say hey pal that's my wife she's not supposed to been like that that's a that's a really that's a good bit the dude in the chair like hey pal that's my wife yeah careful hey buddy watch it honey you're right she's like shut the fuck up it's all put on my mind because of the cookies thing that's all that's that's all that's on my mind you know that's my wife about it even she knew about it i was like how the fuck did i miss this dude it was so funny because it was like like dropping information that should be a creep cast episode we read the entire transcript alone at last charlie and i shared a blanket on the living room couch The warmth of the fireplace filled the room.

1:02:16Charlie leaned forward, grabbed a bottle of wine off the coffee table, noticing the hammer and bent nails from before. Took out the nails. She looked up at the empty wall. From above the fireplace? Yeah. What? That's where I was going to hang our crucifix. Stop. Leaning back, she twisted the bottle opener into the cork. You see on edge tonight. Something up? I mean, besides our new roomies? I just... something feels off about them. Yeah, agreed. But something feels off about everyone to you. She popped the cork out and started pouring herself a glass. I know, I just... I need specifics. Before you got back, Thomas and I were in the basement looking for the kid and...

1:03:00Charlie finished pouring, set the bottle down, and looked at me attentively. She used to say I overreacted to things, but lately she'd been working on her empathy and active listening skills. The effort was appreciated. In the wine cellar, I heard footsteps, and when I looked back at the dad, Thomas, he was just standing there. Back turn, blocking the entrance. I called out like three times, but he didn't respond. He just kept whispering to somebody named Abby. I think that was his sister's name. But there was nobody there. And then he just snapped out of it. So he was standing in the doorway whispering?

1:03:38Was he talking to the daughter, maybe? no her name is jenny i don't know maybe i'm overreacting what do you think about the family yeah charlie took a long sip to me casual bigotry bigotry aside she handed me the glass of wine they seem pretty unremarkable or at the very least i thought they're gonna murder us in our sleep don't speak too soon charlie exactly charlie shifted her weight a shiny glint caught my eye I turned to look. She's wearing a new necklace, thin silver chain with an oval locket. What's that? It's a necklace. I rolled my eyes. Charlie reached down, popped open the locket, and held it up.

1:04:21Inside was a photo. A blurry picture of me hiding my face behind a single hand. I remembered the moment instantly. When we first started dating, Charlie always joked about how less than zero photos of me existed. I was notoriously camera shy. Still am. So one day, Charlie, 35mm Pentax in hand, snuck up from behind me. I saw it at the last second, turned away, held up my hand, and hid my face. Close call. Charlie clicked the locket shut. It's the only known photo of Eve Palmer. When did you get it made? Today, in town. A little cheesy, huh? No, I think it's sweet. Charlie was never the sentimental type, but I was a big sap, so the locket was a welcome surprise.

1:05:04stared into each other's eyes for a long moment and then behind us Thomas stepped into the living room groggy rubbing his eyes glanced down surprised to see us there hey said Charlie mind if I sit sure dude we all getting ready to les out uh oh Charlie and Eve getting busy So is this where the scissoring thing happens? Thomas. He just starts having a really Reddit conversation. So tell me, how does this actually work?

1:05:49The moment his wife's away, he reverts to that voice. Yeah, exactly. I know something of ladies myself. Exactly. What is it? Menage a trois. 100 % that whole interaction about the necklace and everything is very like one week to retirement coded. You know? Oh, like one last job and then I'm out? Yeah, like in every horror movie, it's like, oh, the young couple in love and everything. It's like that is who's going to die. Yeah, 100%. Charlie ain't making it out of the store. Well, at first I thought I was going to say that the locket was something that she found in the house, and she's like, I've just been wearing it.

1:06:28And I was like, well, that's not good. but yeah it definitely is going to be something where it breaks off or she's going to find it later or something you know it's going to have some significance i think in the story so i know this is hard for you to imagine a situation where you're being this hospitable but if you were to imagine you're in the same circumstance dudes in the house you know been kind enough or whatever in the middle of night he's like can i sit and talk right i would almost say you would let him because there's clearly weird stuff going on and you want to learn what you can't even that comment he made in the kitchen like have you noticed anything strange i would want elaboration on that right so i would talk with him to be extremely passive aggressive okay i don't think you would be passive aggressive i think you'd be aggressive aggressive i would definitely be passive aggressive to make him feel uncomfortable that i was really it wouldn't be i'd be like hmm your kid's really good hide and seek huh i'd like i'd guilt trip him to not sleeping and being like probably should probably get looking for your daughter right she's probably scared right now a lot of rusty nails down there.

1:07:29Bet it's cold. Yeah, it'd be a shame if I went downstairs with a ball-pin hammer and started swinging violently. I set up all those bear traps earlier. Oops. Exactly. There's about 600 rat traps downstairs. There's also all that water I pour next to that open electrical current. I was going to start putting buckets of bleach around the entire house. Did I mention there's a boiler down there that's about to blow? It's a bad gas leak down there it's like a willy wonka death factory down there yawning he wandered over to an armchair beside the fireplace and slumped down flickering shadow stanced on his face as he looked around the room as i have seemed to fill with memories after a long ponderous silence he finally spoke my parents they used to make us stand in that corner over there cool he pointed across the room Called it the quiet corner.

1:08:27Chuckling, he leaned back in his chair. His eyes cut the bottle of wine. May I? Go for it. Said Charlie. He leaned forward, grabbed the spare glass, and poured. So much for not drinking. Trouble sleeping? Setting the bottle down, he nodded and took a sip. Your kid should give up soon enough. Charlie reassured him. He nodded again, detached. They're not even ours. He said, looking into the fire now. They're my wife's deadbeat brother-in-law's kids. We adopted them. God, this guy's in hell. Yeah. God, he's just like, she's like, we don't drink, do we, Thomas? Nope. 100 % of the motherfuckers going down to the bar every night.

1:09:07He immediately tries to pick a fight with the lesbian homeowners, and he's just like, oh, my God. He's just like, yeah, it's the deadbeat brother-in-law's kids. Yeah. Doesn't sleep in the same bed as her. I mean, I'm a farmer who's playing nightcrawlers every night, hiding and shit. He's just like, holy fuck. I will say, I mean, it could all be a lie, right? But him showing some level of discomfort. Well, there's a facade for sure. He's playing a character in front of the family. But seeing that facade drop some here makes me feel a bit better about him not being a monster or killer. Oh, I disagree entirely.

1:09:46I think it's something to do with his sister because he's like, this used to be Aunt Abigail's room. and he was talking to abby in the basement maybe like she died here and her spirit haunts the house or something i don't know i mean fuck man he's gonna get a little dionysus in his belly and fucking start getting a little loose lip probably you know i think that the alcohol's gonna probably unlock some demons as i assume i will say this kind of like cabin fever setup is a real not locked in a cabin uh setup has been so far a very cool way to like unfurl this story you know like they have to be stuck there for a reason.

1:10:21It's a little creepy, but kids do weird things, I guess. And now, like, up late at night, he's talking, stuff like that. It's a very interesting narrative. Uncomfortable silence. That's good of you. I offered. I guess. Didn't have much of a say in it, though. Taking another sip, he turned away from the fire. Sorry about my wife's comments earlier at the dinner table. I never got the obsession with people's personal lives. pretty sure Jesus has more important things to worry about. Charlie and I nodded, appreciating his effort, at the very least. He seemed well-meaning. He chucked the rest of his wine and set the glass down.

1:10:58Anyway, I'll let you be. He started to say, okay, that, that was the whole interaction you want to come down and apologize for that and stuff. It's a very human, normal thing. What have you said there, man? Skin, skin lamp is all I gotta say. Probably.

1:11:18Would it be my face or would it just be like the Ed Gein patchwork? It'd be a bit of all of it, but I think those fucking lips would definitely be covering up the entire top of that. I knew he would get to the lips. Okay. Every time. Small miniature Isaiah lamp that you could have on your desk. Like instead of the leg, it's just the lips. And there's a little. Yeah, like the Christmas story thing. Old man in the future takes out. Mama Mia! It's their giant puffy lips.

1:11:48wrapped in lace yeah alright I'll like I don't know about the lace

1:11:58he started to stand but earlier you wanted to tell me something Thomas stared at me puzzled before your daughter started hiding you asked if I had ever noticed anything clarified oh he said understand you know it's stupid it's nothing Nothing. He turned to leave, but... Wait, said Charlie. No, I'm curious. He sighed. It's just... Weird things happened here when I was a kid, as well. What kind of weird things? Charlie never believed in ghosts, but she sure as hell loved hearing stories. So did I. I mean, I don't think it's haunted. Thomas paused, debating whether to share more. Relenting, he sat back down.

1:12:42Let out a long sigh, and then... We've been living here for about three years when my sister started to believe the house was changing. She'd wake up not recognizing her own room. Said weird things like, the walls were a different color now. The furniture was getting swapped out, but she was the only one who could see it. To everyone else, myself included, it was just the same house like it always was. Paused, rubbing his square chin with a knuckle. Mom and Dad told her it was just nightmares. delusions but then she started forgetting faces people she'd known her whole life became strangers our parents never took her to the doctors they didn't believe in that they believed in prayer so we tried that for about half a year or so and then she just vanished she just vanished and now the fucking her his weird half daughter yeah is also gone not even half it's her it's his wife's brother no biological relation to the child's man that's a cool premise i thought it'd be like ghosts or spirits or something but like uh like a uh not i know i bring it up every five minutes but like a house of leaves kind of like shifting room geometry well it also makes the initial uh walk through the house a little more interesting because he's even just like questioning himself like oh is this here i think he's like trying to find that like relation with his sister trying to like get on her level but then it's like brought back to them being like oh no we painted the wall he's like oh there's even that comment earlier where it's like this room used to be blue you know and then he's like since painted green like he shakes it off almost yeah i mean it's it's interesting from a flipping house standpoint of having that kind of weird backstory it's very fun yeah yeah thomas went silent eyes flicking back and forth across the far wall one winner she just disappeared in the middle of the night.

1:14:38Police did a three-day search, and nothing ever showed up. He shook his head again. But about one week later, a witness came forward. Said he saw a young girl down by the river that night, standing on the Kettle Bridge. Cop said she probably jumped. Case closed, right? Made sense to my parents, but I just... Furt his brow, weighing his next words carefully. It's strange, but part of me wondered if she ever even... I was paused for a moment. Despite all the searching, all the diamond teams, they never found anything. They just... Stopped himself again, looked towards us. Anyway, that's about it.

1:15:19He said with somber finality, I was apologizing for the dark story. I'm really sorry to hear that, said Charlie. He gave a slight shrug and turned towards the fire. Guess I thought coming back here would bring some sort of closure, but... Trailed into silence. muffled wind aching creaks and groans from the house filled the empty space i didn't know what to say thomas's gaze drifted up to the blank paintingless wall above the fireplace mantle his face twitched ever so slightly anyway i should get back to sleep pushed up to stand in good night night drifted out of the room and went back upstairs charlie waited a moment to be sure he was gone what the fuck fair enough we went to bed shortly after charlie was out in five minutes flat but after hearing that story i lay wide awake staring up at the stucco ceiling considering what happened why would anyone bring their family back here how was he even sleeping while his daughter was still missing i couldn't shake any of this finally after two hours or so somehow managed to fall asleep um i wonder how much of that if any is a lie because there was that thing he said in the basement where it sounded like he was talking to abby and what was it he said you uh i thought you wanted this or whatever it's almost like he planned to do something here maybe he knows that his sister's still in the house somehow you know a distant clang snapped me awake i sat up listened carefully wind outside clock ticking charlie breathing okay you're fine climbing from bed i stretched up my arms and shook out my hands maybe the dad's story was getting to me either way i needed a glass of water downstairs in the kitchen i sip lukewarm tap water from a tall glass ruminating on the strangeness of everything when will that stupid kid finally show up across the living room the basement door was wide open maybe the kid finally caved sitting down the glass i crossed to the top of the steps and peered down uninviting darkness no thank you i was about to close the door when at the bottom of the stairs a small silhouette motionless child-sized enveloped by shadow jenny missing kid squatted down to appear less intimidating same way one does when trying to coax an unfamiliar cat hey jenny i said almost whispering your parents are really worried about you So, do you think it would be a good time to come back upstairs?

1:18:03Her head tilted, but otherwise, she remained motionless. Now I could see the slightest glimmer in her eyes, reflecting the moonlight. A long silence dragged by until... I realized something else. She wasn't blinking. Ten, maybe twenty seconds had gone by, and she hadn't blinked. Not even once. what the hell and then as if reacting to my realization figure slowly rose to stand it wasn't child size after all it was only hunched down now standing at their full height the person at the bottom of the stairs must have been six feet tall in one quick motion I jumped upright and slammed the door shut Then I scrambled upstairs with record-breaking speed No, thank you I shook Charlie awake What?

1:19:05There's something in the basement There's someone in the basement Charlie blinked at me Yeah, the kid No, an adult Charlie shook her head and reluctantly pushed up to sitting How do you know? I saw them on the stairs They were tall Charlie sighed I could tell part of her wanted to believe me but mostly she was just tired. In her defense, I had a long history of freaking out over things that turned out to be nothing. Was it dark? She asked, trying and failing to sound patient. Yeah, but Eve, I'm exhausted and still a little drunk. Can we figure this out in the morning? Charlie, I know what I saw.

1:19:41I know, I believe you, but not enough to look around the basement at three in the morning. Didn't want to let it go, but Charlie was close to her breaking point and barely awake on top of it. Okay. maybe she was right maybe it was just a trick of the light maybe my paranoia was getting the better of me once again but Charlie rolled away and goes back to sleep so beside her in bed staring at the cracked open door until finally I fell asleep too I don't care how much of a nuisance I am you're checking on the so foot tall shadow figure yeah I've seen stuff before them like I almost look like a person but I shake it off but if I had that like I'm staring and I'm blinking and it's still there and it's not if you feel like you caught something in the corner of your eye maybe but a full-on when she was there for a minute yeah yeah also i was almost thinking at first i thought it was gonna be the dad i thought it was thomas and he was down there and all of a sudden he like stood up could be or i was actually thinking page well they said she was small and petite but still i mean she's some supernatural thing she can grow or whatever um but if i was like i mean there's been times before where i thought i've heard someone in the house or thought i've like saw someone in the house and stuff like that do you go check yeah with a gun i'm not just like is anybody there sometimes i feel like i hear stuff and i just i like i'm too lazy and too fat to do anything about it so i'm just like if you're gonna get me you're gonna get me there ain't no ifs ands or buts about it there's not gonna be a struggle what's your procedure if like someone breaks in to do you harm i'm they're going to do harm they're gonna get what they want it might be about it i might tell us and be like you better fucking skedaddle i'm gonna sit there i'm gonna lean back into my my my king-sized bed

1:21:33so it comes in to kill you i look at the guy holding the knife or gun i just say not the face and then not even an attempt to leave I'm done yeah there's not a lot that can't be done I mean you can shoot them I can't be bothered I'm going to make Allison a zipline from her window to some escape route she can just slide her happy ass down that thing a zipline from her separate bedroom yeah from her bedroom. That's true. Yeah. Actually, if anything, you know, I do, I lock the door and I, I'm, uh, I set up a speaker system. So all the sounds coming from her room and it diverts you hear someone break in and you just like, yeah, you see my fat ass running down the long driveway.

1:22:28You have a sign on your door. That's like, she's that way. Yeah, exactly. It just says utility closet on the front of my door. There's a bunch of mops and shit outside of it. Allison's, why are you decorating me like that? Mm-mm.

1:22:44No idea. Are you and your boyfriend getting along? I was just saying, maybe her boyfriend could defend her. I wait till, I stay outside, I look at the windows until I hear pop-pop. And then Allison's just like, Hunter, are you out there? And I'm like, oh, thank God, her boyfriend. Let her boyfriend take care of it. what's uh what's that name you always say your son you have some fictional name for like a child you have the baby doll oh modine modine that's it yeah so where does modine stack into this say you have like five modines modines been dead for like a year no i'm saying like in this scenario imagine you have kids okay where where does the order of priority go between like allison the kids and stuff.

1:23:27Oh, like what am I doing with Modine? Yeah. Please. Who's me and Allison? First off, too, this is horrible. I don't know if I'm going to say this. Never mind. Go ahead. If there was a life or death situation, if there was a life or death situation and it was a thing where it was like we had a baby that had no idea of the world, I'd be like, Allison, we can make a fucking other one. Okay. That little motherfucker ain't going to even know what's going on. if anything i probably take the kid that's what i'd say child adam yeah no integrity i mean it's horrible so would you the secret deer exactly it is would you point the arrow to the uh to the child's room instead of allison's where do you want the intruder to go uh anywhere i'm not

1:24:22and if they're with me and here's the thing if they're with me i could potentially help them but like I'm not going to go out of my way I guess like I'm not going to be crossing hallways you know like I got my escape I'm not going to leave the room no no exactly if you're in the room with me and I have my zip line set up and you have the deal you can come with me that's probably about it I plan on dying alone in this lifetime I mean you're with this defense description you're working your way towards it so oh yeah yeah yeah you're taking all the right steps oh well yes yeah yeah

1:25:06warm beam of sunlight raves me awake i looked to my side charlie wasn't there stretching my arms i climbed out of bed and yawned all the strangeness of yesterday felt smaller in the morning light like a fading nightmare as i stepped out into the hallway the smell of breakfast filled the air eggs bacon coffee the only meal Charlie knew how to make downstairs I wandered into the kitchen Charlie was nowhere to be seen instead Thomas stood over the stove humming a happy tune making scrambled eggs his family might have seen my kid sit at the table and lingered on the edge of the kitchen at a loss Thomas looked towards me and smiled Morning.

1:25:50How do you like your eggs? Where's Charlie? Who? My girlfriend. Oh, she mentioned something about picking up a generator from town for the basement.

1:26:07Raised an eyebrow. Leaving without telling me? I wasn't like Charlie. She didn't want to wake you. Everything okay? Yeah, I'm good. Unsettled? Stepped around the corner and pulled out my phone. Time to call Charlie. Tapped the screen and... Nothing. I held down the power button. Nothing. Dead battery. Paced up to the bedroom and plugged it in. Still nothing. I blew in the socket. Nope. Factory reset. Nada. I definitely charged this thing last night. Charlie unplugged it and put hers on? Maybe. Regardless, I kept my phone plugged in just in case it started working again. I returned downstairs. Back in the kitchen, Thomas had joined the rest of his family at the table.

1:26:55Can I borrow your phone? He looked at me, chewing a mouthful of eggs. He swallowed. Don't have one. I blinked in disbelief and looked at Paige. Can I borrow yours? She shook her head. We don't have phones. Modern family without cell phones. Might be the strangest thing to happen yet. You think he's going to try to gaslight her into thinking that she's the sister?

1:27:23interesting it's not a bad idea will a fucking shutter island kind of meme could be could be that um could also be the like they're disabling the phone and she disappeared in the house just like jenny did or something like that i just wonder who the one in the basement was because they said abigail died when she disappeared when they were uh kids right that's the implication i got yeah well i think the whole thing was that she ran away and then supposedly they saw her jump off a bridge but no one saw the body no one covered yeah yeah so she got lost in the house the house yeah what was going on here frustrated getting more weirded out with each exchange i turned for the foyer just borrow the neighbor's phone halfway across the living room i stopped short above the fireplace where I'd removed the nails, an unfamiliar painting now hung.

1:28:22A large painting of a tree line, the edge of a dark, green forest. Vaguely familiar, looked old, almost menacing. I glanced towards the living room coffee table. The hammer was gone. Did Charlie put it up to troll me? Maybe, but it seemed a bit much, even for her. Thrown, I continued for the front door. I need to phone Charlie now. Dressed for winter, I stepped down onto the driveway and my heel crunched against something. Looking down, I lifted my foot. Buried in the snow was a small, shiny object. Charlie's locket. End of part one. Holy shit. Oh, boy. Guess what else we have? Guess what else we have?

1:29:16The Marcus Klewer special. oh is this uh is there code it says where where okay like w-h-e-r-e w-h-e-r-e okay all right part two get to the neighbor's house pushing forward down the driveway i tucked charlie's necklace into my back pocket maybe she dropped it by accident doubtful regardless my goal didn't change get to the neighbor's house call charlie find out where she is, why she left without telling me. At this point, I was even considering calling the police, but what would I tell them? I'll let a family of five into my house. I think they put up a painting. Not exactly police priority. Call Charlie first.

1:30:02Evaluate from there. The storm was getting worse. As I drudged down the road, freezing winds swept through me. Down into the forest at the end of the street, my face stung. Teeth chattered. Eyes burned. Fun. Finally, I reached Harpita Miguel's place, a mint green bungalow with a meticulous but snow-covered Japanese garden out front. I gave three sharp knocks and waited. Nothing. As I reached for the bell, the door swung open. Harpita answered. Hello? Dressed in a housecoat, her eyes were tired and her hair was tousled. Wait, what time was it? I checked my wristwatch. 6.58 on a Saturday morning.

1:30:45yikes hey apreet sorry to bother you so early she looked at me a little confused almost like she didn't know who i was fair enough we'd only met once before but it's eve just moved in up the street we're gonna do a game night together she smiled oh right eve but it almost felt like she still didn't recognize me and was just being polite that or my social anxiety was yet again taking the reins can i use your phone mine's dead sure she reached into her pocket and handed me her cell phone thanks punched in charlie's number three tones rang out but no answer i went to dial again when charlie called back thank god hello she said i exhaled relief just hearing her voice felt like a big warm hug charlie who where are you who's this raised an eyebrow then remembered I wasn't using my phone.

1:31:42It's Eve. My phone's dead. I'm using the neighbors. Oh, hey, Eve. It's pretty loud in here. You'll have to speak up. In the background, barcode scanners beeping, muffled voices, cars. Sounded like she was lined up in a grocery store. A thousand questions passed through my head, but I settled on... When are you coming back? Long, drawn-out silence. Eve, I... I can't talk right now. Can we do this later? Charlie, I just... Why did you leave without... Beep. Oof. She hung up on me. That or the call dropped. Yeah, the call must have dropped. The store messed with the signal. That's all. No way, Charlie, hung up on you.

1:32:24Stop catastrophicizing everything. Rapreet glanced over his shoulder, the back to me, restless. Smiling apologetically, I redialed Charlie, but this time I went straight to voicemail. Hey, Charlie, I think our signal dropped. I found your lock on the driveway and this feeling is just really weirding me out. Come back as soon as you can, okay? Ending the call, I handed back the phone. Rapreet studied me with a subtle concern in her eyes. Is everything okay? Yeah, I'm good. Thanks. Part of me wanted to tell her what was going on, wait here until Charlie got back, until his creepy family was gone, but Rapreet wasn't exactly rolling out the welcome mat.

1:33:03I couldn't blame her, because people with healthy boundaries don't just let random strangers into their house. Go figure.

1:33:13Maybe I feel like there's a time thing happening, you know, between like Abigail being in the house, disappearing, and now him talking to her in the basement. And then the like, I can't do this right now felt weirdly like. Well, that's what, that's my favorite part so far is that we've gotten a couple things with their dynamic, which is Eve seems to be somebody who emotionally maybe is, I hate to use the word immature, but someone who like, I don't know, like goes to the worst place always, you know, like almost feels like she needs her. She needs her handheld with a lot of stuff. So this whole thing of like, even her last night being woken up, she's like, dude, what?

1:33:56There's been a history of her already freaking out about that. And then now in this case, Charlie being gone the day before also sets a precedence, dude or it's like i'll just go i see what you're saying so the i can't do this right now when more so charlie like quit freaking out yeah yeah that almost gave me a rap of like uh like time had passed and charlie had been gone or so or like like it's almost like or not charlie eve had been gone and eve's almost like skipping to the future or something you know uh but yeah i could see that it's just like just shut up for a second yeah the uh the the story's doing a good thing though too with the locket dropping and stuff i feel like it's like you're wanting you're wanting to figure out where this not necessarily threat but like these negative things i keep assuming the worst so then it was kind of interesting that charlie did answer because when she called i was gonna be like there's not gonna be an answer she's that's what i thought yeah but i like that little misdirect of her answering and being like dude fuck it because it puts me in the same mindset that maybe i'm on the same kind of like am i overthinking things as well so I feel a lot of sympathy for her character too but if you're jumping to conclusions so quick of course characters gonna be like dude what the fuck like it's building paranoia very well once again though a child be gone overnight and still that's insane to where that's why I'm also thinking that like not necessarily is this in her head but like is this like an orchestrated fucking shutter island kind of thing yeah it seems like she's being gas lit in a way yeah like with the painting going back up Does it seem like she is in the know and everyone else is kind of just like, oh, yeah, I don't know.

1:35:32It feels a little too, like, I feel like any other rational person would be like the fire department. And I bet you maybe that comes soon, but still, like how it hasn't happened yet is absurd. Yeah. Your comment about time passing, Isaiah, and kind of your comment, Hunter, about the suspension of, like, belief or the suspension of memory kind of makes me think of, I'm thinking of ending things. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Charlie Coughlin, maybe. It's like jumping around. Yeah. It feels like it's sequential, but it's also like this was a big future. Yeah, I agree. A big past element. I don't know if it's going that way.

1:36:04For people that didn't hear it, Harry said that it's making me think of, I'm thinking of anythings, which is like a Charlie Kaufman movie. I think it was a book too, though. But it's like, yeah, very dreamlike, and it's like a passage of time, but it's all from like an almost like it's an entire narrative taking place in like a janitor's mind of like how his life could have gone or something but the the the story presents itself as like the uh through the lens of a woman gonna break also a wintry storm yeah yeah and the exactly yeah but what a great set piece in that movie too like the milkshake stand or whatever i that's ian reed is the author he's really good at like building dread i really if we get to read books like one of the books i really want to read is this book his book called though it's really cool but published but yeah so marched back home i kept playing the phone call through my head something seemed off with charlie she sounded distant standoffish even maybe it was something i said last night maybe it's something i did last weekend stop stop spiraling stop mind reading focus if something was bothering charlie she would have told you she's probably just hung over preoccupied i took a deep breath and exhaled what would charlie do charlie would go home tell these creeps to get out of her house i sympathize with this eve so much that insecurity of like i feel like i do that all the time roll through your head and you're just like oh my god like i'm you just start stacking every like a plate of like catastrophic things of like did i up are they mad at me what did i do wrong or like just being like people this is terrible whatever and then you have just a stack of plates that you're carrying or whatever and they have to be like oh my god just like fucking give yourself a break which is impossible she can say stop all she wants but it's like it's it's that that within itself is the biggest front and biggest like lie that she's taught herself stop it's fine that's the most like yeah that's the most damaging thing is her coming up be like no no it's fine because she like i think is consciously she's it's that fucking horrible thing when you are consciously able to understand that you're like spiraling yeah is a fucking i think i like it's it's a shitty place to be in yeah you know i think so too because i think kayla feels a similar way but on the other end of the spectrum i can't if i'm being honest i don't know aside from really weird social interactions when was the last time i've thought about in a negative way my relationship with someone you know i guess less relationship and more so i mean like with me or something it's more like i don't know like a social interaction or like uh i don't know like that's what i'm that's that i don't mean in a relationship oh yeah like uh conversational social stuff like oh sure almost never like second guess myself yeah i feel like maybe i should more but i don't know i mean i i think that's a blessing i just think what's interesting coming from that is i think like because of that a lot of times too sometimes i like will play like almost a catch-up game where you were like trying to like if he's like not that if you think someone's mad at you but like maybe you're overly friendly or like you're just trying to like test or feel out that water because you are really unsure of how this person's feeling or like how you're standing in this social interaction so like i the only thing i the only reason i thought that was interesting is that i wonder when she's like charlie would say get the fuck out of the house and i think that she's having this a negative like negative reaction being like i bet you charlie's mad that like these people are here at the house and i'm like causing a big stink and i'm whatever so now she's gonna have this emotional reaction of being like get the fuck out of the house and be like yeah a little more standoffish and dickheadish to these people and does that just like put her up shit creek a bit yeah yep with renewed focus i slogged back through the snow halfway across the road i noticed a figure obscured by the snow a person standing at the end of the street on the edge of the forest back turned unmoving dressed in a white gown or at least that's what it looked like from this distance gown in the middle of a winter storm maybe it was the hiding kid jenny called out the shrieking wind swallowed my voice i tried again louder no response then the figure withdrew into the woods disappearing from sight a little bitch is gonna jump off a bridge i can tell you that right now i glanced down the street towards my house go back inside or go after the kid it's freezing out here even with my whole winter get up on in a gown she might catch hypothermia or worse took a step forward and an image flashed through my head an image from last night the hunched figure on the stairs slowly rising to stand the memory was so sudden so vivid i could almost see it projected onto the snow in front of me my eyes drifted back towards the house then back to the dark forest last night was just a trick of the light i told myself you've got this eve go find the kid besides i'll get this family out of your house reluctantly i headed towards the tree line the old forest swayed and groaned as i tracked the faint trail of footsteps up ahead the kids slipped behind a gnarled tree was her hair black all the kids were blonde maybe it was the light again picking up the pace i trailed the winding footprints as they led deeper into the woods over a bank to a small crevice and banished trail just ended hard stop as if the person i was following just ceased to exist I paused, looked around the trees branches, snow and more trees I called out again but only the dim echo of my voice responded great my skin tightened as the wind needled through me somewhere close a heavy crack followed by a thundering boom is that a tree falling over?

1:42:10this was getting dangerous left with little choice turned back for the house sorry kid in the foyer i shook off snow the uncanny strangeness of everything still clouding my thoughts thomas stepped around the corner any luck blinked at him sure of what he meant getting a hold of charlie oh i had to leave a message he nodded i was just about to mention the kid in the woods when behind him his daughter jenny stepped into the room i stared at her lost for words. Thomas claims to back. Oh, she finally surrendered. Jenny wore a white t-shirt and blue corduroy overalls. Not a gown. It's raised an obvious question.

1:42:55Who was the person outside? I almost brought it up, but again, something told me keep it to yourself. My distrust in this family, and even my own judgment, was growing by the second. Anyway, we're heading out as soon as the storm clears up. I think it's safer now. I know, but without winter tires, my wife was a little paranoid. Don't care. I do not care. Yeah, well, next line. Surprising myself, I pushed more. I'll get the tire changed from the attic. He smiled grimly. Not sure they fit our truck. They're universal. Thomas paused ever so slightly and then perfect that'll work he excelled with seemingly genuine relief we'll start packing up our stuff right away check out times 11 right he smiled at me expecting a laugh i gave him a blank stare his dumb smile evaporated page he called out it disappeared in the living room but jenny lingered behind looking up at me there's a deep sadness in her eyes almost like she didn't want to leave poor kid this is my brief time around her parents i didn't blame her i would have hit in the basement too i smiled sympathetically but she just looked down at the floor and jane page's voice snapped from the living room help us tidy up now jenny looked up at me turned away slipped out of view tire chains eve tire chains i turned to head upstairs but there was a jagged fist-sized hole in the drywall wait was that there before i left the movers do it last week i didn't notice until now no that doesn't make sense i would have seen that better yet charlie would have a hundred percent caught a hole in the wall and called them out i'll come back to that later i was about to step away when i noticed an ant crawl out from the hole bloated as hell a fat fucker with surprising speed zigzagged down the wall, slipped, and dropped right to the floor.

1:45:07Without missing a beat, it scurried across the hardwood and slipped into a crack beneath the front door. Okay. Almost felt like it was running from something. What was that about? Focus Eve. Universal Tire Chains. Standing at the top of a pull-down ceiling ladder, I poked my head into the attic. Hobbled wooden floors. No windows. everything covered in dust this'll be fun flashlight in hand i hoisted myself up i peeked my head in here once before but never got the whole tour slanted boards low ceilings narrow hallways weird attic i eased my way in it was quite up here too save for the muffled sounds of the family downstairs according to charlie the tire chains were in the last room on the left stepping deeper into the attic i entered a long shoulder-width passage claustrophobic up here the house's time-warm innards were exposed reddish pink insulation rusting pipes frayed wires looked like a botched surgery curving through the corridor i came upon a gap in the wall a three foot by three foot square at stomach height an entrance appeared inside it was the dumbwaiter shoot why would it go up to the attic i beam light down a long narrow shaft led all the way to the basement the elevator cart was at the bottom three stories that's a long drop suddenly the hair on the back of my neck stood up memories of the basement twisted through my head and was coming up here such a good idea maybe i should have stayed with the neighbors maybe i I should have.

1:46:52Doesn't matter now, Eve. Tire chains. You know, the I'm thinking of ending things. Parallel seems right, too, because she's so like, it's like a lot of inner dialogue, too, of like talking to herself. Of like this whole thing of just like, is this right? Is this like kind of like always questioning yourself and kind of moving through? There's like so much self-introspection like happening in real time. I have like second guessing and questioning everything. it's really putting a lot of like i really like the i like the way that the story keeps tapping that because it makes me so suspicious of everything yeah and but very rarely am i ever like what is she on about like it's always directed at something else and i think that's always a sign of a strong stories whenever you're just like in the pilot seat with the main character because you're just like you're kind of like looking at it i'm looking at through her lens versus just like continuously questioning the main character or anything like that.

1:47:50I feel like I'm, yeah, just sympathetic to, I don't know, that kind of like uncertainty that she feels that kind of giving more and more into that insecurity and shit and just kind of like the ever growing kind of tension that's building between her and this family. Yeah, I can see that. It's like the self-doubt that sometimes will get grading in a lesser story is very applicable here as stuff happens. Finally, I reached the end of the hallway, rounded the corner and a door wooden covered in peeling olive green paint adorned with three locks unlatched an attic with deadbolts on its doors any other time this would have sent me running pulled it open in blinding light from the far wall glaring sunlight shone through a porthole window I flicked off the flashlight stepped forward looked around found.

1:48:45This room was barely bigger than your average walk-in closet. Random junk crowded up against the walls, a motley crew of thrift store rejects, bald tires, old books, more empty picture frames, a fish tank and turtle pellet food. Behind that, a dusty watercolor painting of a bright green, smiling turtle. Guess the previous owners really liked turtles. I mean, turtles are pretty cool, but why didn't Charlie mention any of this stuff? behind the turtle tank was a file box written on its side in black sharpie charlie's stuff donate leaning forward i hoisted the box up onto the turtle tank inside were a few camera lenses a bunch of film rolls and an old 35 millimeter pentax charlie's camera photography used to be a passion of hers still remember the day she had her own gallery showing it was a rain-soaked day in downtown Seattle, but I'd never seen her happier.

1:49:43She even put up the blurry photo of me, the one from the locket. I was flattered, despite the fact you could barely see my face in it. Charlie always wanted to start a photography side business, but three years back, after her father passed, Charlie put away the camera and never took it out again. Her dad was the one that got her into photography to begin with. I asked her about it once, but she just shrugged, said she didn't have time for it anymore it was so unlike charlie for that she never walked away from anything that said i was in no position to judge the type of person who gives up on projects i don't even start an example i dropped out of art school three months before the first semester setting the lid back onto the box i turned the survey the room and in the far corner a pile of tire chains.

1:50:33Finally. I crossed over, bent down, and... Outside the house, a door slammed shut. I tilted my head. Silence. Then, muffled, heavy footfalls crunched against gravel and snow. Charlie? I stepped over to the porthole window. Down on the driveway, Thomas marched towards the street got about 10 yards from the house then lurched to a stop and let out a primal scream of rage what what the hell he went quiet and glanced around looking embarrassed then he shook out his hands did he and page just have a fight maybe but what about who i'm sure it's some supernatural means or something but who in a fight is like one one minute please oh you know i don't think it's totally i don't think it's totally crazy i think also we we see him living a facade in front of page and then whenever she's gone he's a completely different person so i imagine that she was probably just like i don't know being like maybe being overbearing or something or you could tell that she was snapping with the kids maybe she snapped at him to where he's just like all right sweet just one second aggressive the truck goes outside ah he's just like whatever this guy's like textbook family annihilator what is that guys that killed their whole family oh yeah i think like just a i don't know just a fucking i'm just i'm just saying this is this kind of guy over the course of 20 years and then one day she's like i don't like it when you take out the trash like that he's like okay um in here one second just the last straw

1:52:28is that too harsh to read i think that's a fair it's only hard because it's not even fully like he is saddled with a tough bag like it's not even fully his family but as soon as he's away from the family he's like oh don't be wrong i think if i was going to kill any of my family and they're weren't even mine it'd be a lot easier of a cell well i mean like him between like that he doesn't sleep with his wife and the kids aren't even his and the moment he's away from him he's like i'm sorry about my wife is that a drink thank god like you know he's there's already signs of the misery yeah they're demons reaching into his coat pocket he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and glanced back towards the house all clear lit up took a long drag and relaxed a bit secret nicotine addiction pressed anger issues two more points against this picture perfect family maybe he punched that hole in the wall too he continued down the driveway onto the street and disappeared beyond the tree line along the forest surrounding my house from this angle the trees were eerily familiar old, almost menacing this is the tree line from the painting?

1:53:34behind me a labored metallic rasping sound I turned, listened, around the corner, dissonant grating, like overgrown fingernails scraping against rusting metal. Tedious, guttural, growing, growing louder and louder with each passing second. Disturbed, I crept over to investigate. But before I could even get there, the sound rattled to a sudden stop, a halting noise that made me realize what it was. The dumbwaiter. Flashlight in hand, I peeked around the corner. Nothing. Just a long, empty hallway. Maybe it's the kid again. Maybe she's coming up here to hide. I glanced at the tire chains. Come back for those later.

1:54:25I eased forward, one step at a time. From this angle, I couldn't see into the dumbwaiter's chute. Yet. But part of me worried something terrible was waiting inside. Something waiting to pull me down into the basement, and drag me into who knows where and stop. Don't spiral. Take a deep breath. Excel. It's just the kid, Eve. Everything that's happened so far has a reasonable explanation. Really? What about the dad's whispering freak out in the basement? Yes, even that. The painting above the fireplace? Yes, that too. The figure on the stairs? Yeah, I think. Mildly emboldened, I stepped forward to look and the elevator cart was empty.

1:55:13Joy, somebody must have pulled it up here from below. Of course, you can pulley a dumb waiter's shoe without being inside it. That's actually how they're meant to be used. Excelling relief, I turned away and footprints. So pretty much what that's saying is that like somebody was up there and grabbed the thing that was in the dumb waiter, right? Fun. Good. Great. Awesome. Footprints in the dust. Long, narrow, well, I think the implication is, because you can, depending on the dumbwaiter, you can also move them from the inside if, like, the rope is in there next to it. So someone pulled themselves up to the attic and the stopping was them getting out and now hiding.

1:55:58Oh, so you're saying that someone was inside all the way up. I see. Starting at the dumbwaiter entrance and leading off down the hallway, away from me, down through the attic towards the only way out not good thank you eve for that for that commentary they sure as hell didn't look like kid footprints maybe i wasn't thinking clearly but they almost didn't look human womp womp okay no more attic i took a deep breath pointed my flashlight and headed for the ladder at the end of the hallway i quick step into an open area and swivel checked the corners like a wannabe marine. All clear, we're good, just get to the exit.

1:56:39The flashlight dimmed into darkness. Seriously? I smacked it. Flickering light. Shit. I've watched enough horror movies to know. Nothing good follows a randomly dying flashlight. I smacked it again. Harder. I flicked the on and off switch. Nothing. Smacked it again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. In a fit of stupid rage, I hurled it into the dark. clattered off a wall and fell to the floor with a hollow thud. Silence. A growing sense of panic swelled with me. Whoever brought the chute up here was still in the attic, and I was seriously starting to doubt it was one of the kids. Was it the figure on the stairs?

1:57:22What if it was... My tailspin was saved by a literal ray of hope. About 40 feet away, the still-open attic door. Just follow the line. Moving one foot at a time, using the distant glow to guide me, I focused on my breath. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Be careful, don't trip on the notched floor. Behind me, something moved. A skittering, almost fragile sound. Now, completely terrified, I hauled ass towards the light and my foot snagged on a floorboard. I staggered forward, nearly biting it. Close call. scrambling i sprinted towards the exit almost there almost free and the stairs slammed shut with an authoritative wham darkness i yelled for whoever was down there to open it no response the stairs slammed shut doesn't mean the door slammed shut you think yeah the door to the stairway all right no response collapsing onto the hatch i frantically searched for the handle sliding my hands over the splinter infested floor hunting for something anything cold sweat That trail down my forehead.

1:58:31My heart thumped. Breath gasped. I stopped myself again. Calm down. Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out. Ground yourself. Focus on your surroundings. Your senses. Sight. Pitch dark. Smell. Musty air. Rotting wood. Touch. Cold wet hair. Coarse hardwood. Sound. your own breathing when gusting outside, creaks and groans of the old house, and a rolling sound behind me, like a metallic cylinder against hardwood. I gazed back over my shoulder, only darkness, but then light flickered to life, a flashlight about 30 feet away, rolling in a lazy arc beaming through stagnant clouds of dust i watched hypnotized the rolling flashlight slowly scanned over the walls the reddish pink insulation and then it settled to a stop shining into the narrow hallway at an angle it almost felt as if this light was trying to show me something but nothing was there just a dark empty hallway i squinted and then i saw it a figure standing in the darkness just outside the light's edge a person cast in shadow i stopped breathing slowly the figure became more defined it was a woman wearing an off-white hospital gown tall her head was shaved down to thin black roots bluish veins pulsated beneath pale skin her face was concealed behind peekaboo hands like a child playing a game motionless the breathless moment seemed to stretch on for eternity and then Then she took a sudden shuffling step forward, frozen place.

2:00:45Now the front of her bare feet stood in the light, overgrown, dirt-stained toenails, and then another quick step forward. The flashlight snapped off. Darkness returned. Slow, monotonous footsteps followed like a lumbering metronome speeding up bit by bit. bottomless dread pushed up from my stomach into my throat but only a gasping wheeze escaped i couldn't even scream so i spun around and pounded on the floor hitting harder and harder all the while footfalls getting closer and closer one short step at a time finally i managed to scream scream louder than i'd ever screamed before i screamed for help but no one responded only the sound of footsteps getting closer closer they were nearly upon me and then the stairway swung open i tumbled downward and slammed into the hardwood floor headfirst darkness is this leaning itself do you think into a ghost story now or do you think these are actual physical people that are actually there um that's what i'm trying to decide i have an assumption with the whole thing about abigail seeing the house change that the house is kind of like a uh do you think people have gotten stuck in there and they've just like the house changes whatever and then you're trapped i think it's a time thing i think the house is a uh what's the word i'm looking for like a focus point in time where uh it's kind of like all the moments of different people being there kind of collapsing and on itself or at least the same kind of thing is that like a different take on like i mean like what do they say about ghosts or spirits or something they say that they're in an infinite time loop where they think that they're like living in the same spot i mean that's one idea that spirits are like uh that ghosts are not our it's not a dead person who's like still like wandering the earth or whatever it's us seeing through the bridge of time so like people in a location like you hear stories about like a gettysburg people will step into the basement and then see like a whole room of people like treating the sick and all that then they blink and they're gone it's like for a minute for whatever reason i see like the barrier of time is snapped so we could see them and they could see us kind of thing um so i think this house may be an example of that that's why the walls change colors because different tenants have painted them different colors the child like uh the child like game the person played made me think it was like an infantile person that has grown i think it's like i think because abigail could see it she became trapped in it somehow she got too close to it and kind of fell in which is going to which is you're alluring to the fact that eve might be trapped in it could be trapped in as well she can see it eve and experience that that's where i was also going with the call earlier and so that creates a perfect uh setup too with somebody who's like paranoid and people don't believe her and all of a sudden now she's like by the way different points of time are happening at once like i thought i took down that painting why is that painting still hanging up you know stuff like that yeah um and then this could be abigail and abigail still has the mind of a child right she's still a little girl but it's her body even at different points in time right but she's still present it's like the house is a uh like a fulcrum that a lot of this stuff's converging at and you can kind of see off all sides of it in a sense that also explained the cover of the book how it's like uh the segmented house you know oh sure We used to live here but I don't know I really do love this story.

2:04:18I think it's been a ton of fun so far. Oh, I'm super hooked. It's been really fun so far. With a sharp gasp, I snapped awake. Where was I? Slept on the living room couch with a nasty headache. Thank God. I've expected to be tied up in an underground torture chamber. Next to the fireplace, Paige sat in a chair, knitting. Her kids played with Lincoln Logs on the floor. It was still daytime, but slowly getting darker. You okay? That's Thomas, stepping into view. Uh. I didn't know what to say. I'm still processing everything. There, there's somebody in the attic. He nodded considerably. The kids looked up at me on edge.

2:04:56Glanced towards them. Why don't you go upstairs? Collecting their toys, they filed out. Holding a smile, he waited for them to leave and sat down across from me. Tell me what happened. He asked thoughtfully. There, there was a person, they were. I trailed off trying to make sense of it. I think I saw them in the basement too last night on the stairs, but... Wait this for a moment. Before you moved in, how long was the house sitting empty? Huh? When did the previous owners move out? Oh, about a half a year ago, I think. He smiled grimly. Sitting empty that long? Could be a squatter. Happens more often than you think, especially out here.

2:05:35I don't know. Well, did she seem dangerous? The bizarre image of the one... Wait, did she even say it was a woman? No.

2:05:48Can't get nothing by me. Too fast, I catch it. Skin lamp still. Skin lamp. As much as you're catching, you're still winding up. Hard cut to me. You're catching an axe to the face. Can't get nothing by me.

2:06:08the bizarre image of the woman hiding behind peekaboo hands flashed through my head it was almost as if she were taunting me we i should call the police he shook his head no reason to escalate things until we know what we're really dealing with you we gotta call him now i was barely even listening my thoughts were still in trapped in the attic circling around something that I couldn't quite place yet. Cleared his throat. I'll go up and take a look, alright? I don't think it's safe. I'll be fine. Pushing up to Stan, he strode towards the foyer. Page chimed in. Don't forget the tire chains. She said, not even looking up from her knitting.

2:06:47Grunting noncommittally, Thomas disappeared around the corner. She! Five minutes had passed and Thomas was still upstairs investigating the attic. What was taking him so long? Who was that up there? Could it be his sister, Abby? Rhythmic creaking interrupted my train of thought. I looked up. Paige was rocking back and forth in a chair, knitting. An unfamiliar red rocking chair. Catching my gaze, she stopped moving. A few awkward seconds of silence went by. Nice chair, said pointedly. She offered a meek smile. Thomas grabbed it from the truck. It's good for my spine. When I was younger, I hurt my back in an accident and used to ride horses.

2:07:32Almost qualified for regionals. Read that line. Who gives a fuck? That wasn't said by her, but... Leaning back across my arms, the fire crackled and hissed, slowly dying into fading embers. That series of events is 100 % the kind of thing that's totally reasonable for Thomas to scream outside and have a cigarette. but like Thomas clearly is like uncomfortable. I mean, he probably has something malicious going on, but on the surface, he's uncomfortable. We've overstayed our welcome. We need to go. And then your wife's like, go grab the 15th century rocking chair. Go get the rocking chair from the moving van.

2:08:09It's like, we're about to leave. I don't care. Go get it. I totally get the,

2:08:16she went back to knitting, unfazed by my lack of response. Considering the peekaboo lady up in the attic, part of me was actually glad for the family's presence. But now I had less than zero faith in them. Worse still, I didn't even fully know why. Sorry about last night. Said Paige, almost blurting it out. Raising an eyebrow, I looked towards her. She continued. What I said at the dinner table wasn't appropriate. I stared at her, surprised, but not invested. I just... I'm not used to how fast the world's changing these days. She tapered off, I was scanning the floor. Same here. Dead quiet and then Thomas stepped into the room.

2:08:58Okay, so I was thinking about if it is a time fulcrum thing, then them looking like they're from the 1950s and Paige's comment like I'm surprised with how fast the world's changing. They may straight up be from the 50s, you know, like straight brought over. Explains to no cell phones too and stuff like that. Kids playing with Lincoln logs like old toys, not a batman or something yeah um also the she the word she in all caps i don't think she said that and she hasn't realized that yeah i think that was the narrative kind of you know i think that was her saying it she i think yeah maybe not yeah i don't know because she did it she's not acting like she's put that together yet i set up awaiting his report but he just looked at me and shrugged.

2:09:48Didn't see anything. Said almost apologetically. Found this, though. He handed me my flashlight. No footprints? Hmm. Footprints. Nope. Impossible. I rose to stand, but he pressed his hand against my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks. Eve? His eyes filled with the type of concern that makes one feel pathetic. Is everything okay? I didn't respond. I didn't know how. He continued. I know you barely know us, but you can be open here. Maybe we can help. What was this guy up to? I shrugged his hand away and stepped towards the kitchen, pulling a cup from a cabinet, filled it at the sink, gulped it down, and slammed it onto the counter like a shot glass.

2:10:29You should leave. Thomas' face twitched like something did not compute, and then he snapped back to his pseudo-charming self. Why don't we wait until Charlie gets back? Ready to rip, I opened my mouth to respond, but then I noticed a cup on the counter, the one i just sat down it was an unfamiliar red plastic kids cup they're bringing their shit into the house i think that's thomas's thing from inside the chair and now it's gonna be it could be their stuff from inside the house but it could also be the house shifting again times different stuff different owners have had their stuff yeah like the whole thing about like oh he went and got it from the truck for the rocking chair i don't know i think that may have been like another shift yeah you know like like several events have happened in the house different people have had different stories and then like the symptoms almost like the skin of the house rotates through and through like that hole in the wall with the ant going through it may have been from someone punching a hole in the wall in the 80s somewhere in time and it just appears and then yeah it was an unfamiliar red plastic kids cup on its side pale blue moon with gentle shut eyes smiling a toothy smile.

2:11:37Whose cup was this? More importantly, what was it doing in my cupboard? Something wrong? S. Thomas. How long was I out? He studied me, unsure. I locked onto his eyes. After I hit my head. Oh, 10, 15 minutes. He broke eye contact. Tops. Clearing his throat, he tried his pitch yet again. We'll stay with you until Charlie gets home. then we can use our phone to call the police and after that we'll finally get out of your hair sound good uh-huh i would go across the street to call the cops just be like hey remember earlier i said everything's cool nope you know i muttered only half listening now i was staring at the creepy moon cup searching for something something just out of reach in my mind something that she minutes earlier when he asked me about the attic person thomas said did she seem dangerous but I never mentioned.

2:12:31The blaring ring of a cell phone cut into my concentration. Repetitive. Monotone. Beeping. I looked around. Bewildered. Sound was coming from Paige. Fumbling in her pocket. She yanked... Oh my gosh. Goddamn bitch. She yanked out a flip phone and switched it off. What did you say? It said lying fucks. Yeah. Deafening silence filled every corner of the room. No, I guarantee you this is Paige's phone. No, that's what I'm saying. Or not Paige's phone. Or you think it's Claire's? Charlie's phone. Or Charlie's phone, yeah. Definite silence filled every corner of the room. I looked at Thomas, but he looked away, embarrassed, so much for not having phones.

2:13:14Let me use that. Oh, it's not. The surface out here is, and I just. Midway through her sentence, I marched over and snatched the phone away. Paige shot to her feet, trying to grab it back, but Thomas spoke up. It's okay, Paige. Let her use it. She paused, staring at him for an uncertain moment, sat back down. Smart move, Paige. I was about to break your jaw, despite the fact I didn't have the slightest idea of how to do that. Dialing Charlie's number, stepped back into the kitchen. Three tones rang out, and then, faintly, threw a vent in the floor. A muffled synth cover of Beethoven's Fifth played out from the basement.

2:13:51Charlie's ringtone. End of part two. Holy shit. because also that's the thing too that they've been doing well once again like i said earlier is setting up this idea of like maybe i'm being paranoid she answers the phone okay so she's still alive okay well whatever and then the whole time you're like i kept thinking where the why the fuck is she not back yet and then all of a sudden oh nope she probably did come back at some point and what happened to her i don't know again it could be the time thing could be like different people like maybe Charlie just blinked to a different point in the house and something like that you know the only thing that makes me unsure about that is just why is the family then so consistent I think the dad may be aware of it they may have just knows how to navigate around without getting zapped uh getting caught caught into like oh yeah yeah or something like that like he like he grew up with it and he witnessed it happen to his sister so maybe he's left and become obsessed with it over the years now he's come back I don't trust Thomas no of course not absolutely not um and i was wrong about i thought but yeah the ringtone she would recognize the ringtone because it was mentioned earlier but like um i was thinking oh maybe page has charlie's phone but no the phone's under the floor no they're just trying to weasel their way in i still think that i'm still i know you have your time theory i'm still in this like weird i'm still in this weird mindset that like they're trying to like move themselves back in or there's like something like trying to like I mean that like infect themselves into that could also be true what makes me think the time theory is the stuff Abigail said when she was a kid about the walls keep changing colors and the furniture keeps me I think that yeah there's definitely something weird happening I just I still think Thomas though is like like the fucking you know I want to die here kind of thing almost or something like refusing to leave you know all right fine we're out of your hair but things keep trickling down yeah yeah part three there's morse code oh let's do what the first one was where right yes this one is it's only two letters two dots and then three dots i think three dots is t where is maybe charlie s where is abby maybe where's charlie where's that where is that this one is just is where's eve part three thomas and page stared at me both playing dumb pretending they couldn't hear charlie's ringtone oscar worthy but i didn't have to appreciate the performance if charlie was somehow in the basement then she might be hurt or worse i need to get down there call the police and find her now tucking away page's phone i started out of the kitchen eve where are you going ignoring him i hauled across the room snagged the flashlight from the couch and eve you could talk to us he grabbed me by the arm don't fucking touch me i wrenched free stepped back silence they just stared at me wide-eyed scared even good it should be eve what's wrong stammered still giving a top-notch performance Bravo.

2:16:58Flashlight clenched to my hands like a weapon. I eased back towards the basement door. Slipping inside, I slammed it shut. Darkness. With both hands grasped around the knob, I braced for Thomas to follow, but he didn't. I listened for a moment. No footsteps, only muffled voices. I pressed my ear to the door. What if she finds? Said Paige, but I couldn't make out the rest. It doesn't matter now. Thomas muttered a barely audible response. What were they talking about? Who knows? probably some death cult stuff just find Charlie convinced Thomas wouldn't follow I crept back then spun around and hurried downward at the base of the stairs I pulled out Paige's flip phone and punched in 911 two ringtones a young woman answered 911 operator what is your emergency?

2:17:43home invasion if you can get outside or barricade yourself in a room sure after I find Charlie name? Eve Eve Palmer Eve, are you hurt? No. Is the intruder still in your house? Yes. There's more than one, actually. Can you describe them? A man, a woman, and... I trailed off. Can you just send help? And? Three kids. Three kids? Yes, they're a family. And they've threatened you? Yes, well, not the kids, but the parents did. Technically a lie. Assume me. Are they armed? Possibly. I think they hurt my girlfriend or they're holding her hostage. There's another woman in the attic, too. She might be the guy's sister.

2:18:27I don't know. Just send help now. Address? 3719 Heritage Lane. Ma 'am, a car has already been dispatched to your location. Great. Thank you. No. What I mean is someone from the address has already called in to disturbance. A disturbance? Yes, a 5150. Was that you? No. Let me guess. Thomas called it in. worthless piece of shit. Ma 'am? Did I say that last part out loud? Eve, I'd like you to stay on the line until police arrive. You should know. The storm has delayed response time and - That's when I noticed the blood. A trail of tiny red dots spattered on the ground. I lowered the phone to inspect and - Upstairs, a sudden crash, followed by heavy scraping across the floor.

2:19:14A flood of footsteps, like dozens of people marching around. Puffs of dust wheezed from straining floorboards above me. What the hell was going on up there? Focus Eve. I think again, these are time points in time culminating, but the, um, I really admire Eve right now from like, as soon as like her girlfriend's in trouble being like, all right, I'm doing everything at once. Don't touch me. Get out of my house. I'm calling the police. I'm going to the basement. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like I keep having this hearkening that Eve is, uh, like Abby or whatever. Like I, I just had this thing of like Paige being like, well, what if she finds this?

2:19:52Ah, well, it's not even my. Like there's something of like Eve is not. I don't know. I just keep on this feeling like it's leading us towards something weird is going on for sure. But I just mean, my mind keeps. Yeah. Yeah. My mind just keeps going to the spot where it's like, oh, well, like fucking Thomas is like, yeah, he seems weird. He's overbearing. but it also almost reads like visiting a fucking nut in the nut house and then being like hey you know you know am i going home today well you're home or like that kind of yeah you know i'm so locked in right now i flipped the phone shut authorities were on route it's all that mattered even if thomas called them in first what would he say when they get here um it's actually my house because i put a rocking chair in the living room i could look with that one buddy following the trail of blood i entered a long narrow hallway doors on either side symmetrical numbered it almost looked like a prison what the hell flashlight in hand i pushed forward the scattered line of blood led straight ahead past several doorways and curved into an open room a musty brick wall nook so she's never seen this hallway before right well no because it seems like even what we were experience in the attic is it seems like it seemed we haven't really even heard exactly what she does in the renovation process because it seems like so far charlie does all of the work basically of like well she's the one it seems like they're in business together flipping houses but it's like oh well charlie never told me that this happened yeah whatever if anything maybe she does like more of the like face like the face the selling and the you know like oh like yeah like makes it look presentable to me so but it seems like charlie's the one who maybe does all of the like actual construction in the basement yeah exactly and also it seems like they're it's been relatively like they're very fresh to this building continuing into the back corner the blood ran over a pile of abandoned clutter i beamed light through the mess behind it a block doorway i started grabbing debris and tossing it aside up above the scraping and footsteps grew louder.

2:21:58A rickety, percussive drone. Finally, I cleared away the old trash and opened the door. A long and even staircase receded downward into a darkened void. A basement within a basement. Come on. Suddenly, the sounds from upstairs cut short. Silence. Behind me, two quick shuffling scrapes. I spun around, aimed light into the doorway. Empty. Uneasy. I turned back and redialed Charlie's phone. Two tones rang out. In the darkness beyond the bottom of the stairs, Ludwig's classic rift chimed alive. Okay, creepy sub-basement, here I come. At the bottom of the steps, the trail of blood ended. Hard stop.

2:22:41Did it start or finish here? I stepped forward into a vast, shadowy room. Down here, Charlie's ringtone pinged off the walls, echoing from every direction. Worry, I struggled to get my bearings. The circular glow from my flashlight revealed the room bit by bit. It almost looked like an abandoned mine. Cave-like, makeshift, bizarre. Strained wooden beams struggled to keep the earth at bay. The room itself was filled with paintings. Stacks and stacks of paintings, but none of them were hanging. They were just strewn on the ground, leaning against the dirt walls, piled up at the corners. Charlie's ringtone stopped, and for a moment, its echo lingered in the stagnant air.

2:23:23Silence. I redialed, but this time, calling from down here, it didn't ring. I checked the screen. No service. Charlie? I called out. Nothing. Determined, I wandered deeper. Maybe there was something here, something that would make sense of all this insanity, but there were only paintings, and every single one was more or less the same. Depictions of this house in different contexts, half built, fully renovated. Abandoned, burnt down to a crisp, an exceptionally odd one portrayed the windows and doors swarmed with tiny black dots. Ants? Who painted these? Was it Abigail? Did she make the one above the fireplace too?

2:24:06Smiling turtle in the attic? As I crept forward, my light swept across a painting with people in it. I crouched down for a closer look. It was a family. Standing in front of the house, a rock-willing couple with two children, boy and girl. The father was nearly the spitting image of Thomas, right down to his perfect teeth. The young girl looked sad, despondent. The boy had Thomas' eyes. This had to be his family, painted when he lived here as a kid. Thomas, his sister Abigail, and their parents. They looked so traditional, so serious. It almost made the family upstairs look fun in comparison. Almost.

2:24:44I was about to step away, but I squinted. In this painting, young Thomas looked out of place. Like, he was put there after the fact by a lesser artist. His dimensions weren't quite right. His arms were just the slightest bit too long, his mouth the slightest bit too wide. Even his texture looked off. I pressed my thumbtip against his face. The paint for him felt different from the rest. Cheap, acrylic, cold. Unnerved, I pulled away my hand, leaving behind a pinkish smear where young Thomas's jaw used to be. Gleam caught my eye. I swiveled to look, but it was just an unlit oil lamp. It sat atop a cramped desk covered in stacks of black leather journals, and above the desk across a horizontal support beam a message scrawled in olive green paint thomas foster is not my brother

2:25:44oh boy i'm in hell so with all the olive green paint it seems like maybe a girl was kept up in that fucking attic room back in the day because olive green door in the attic so i'm like i mean like fucking the harry potter ass and keep her up there while thomas the basement the shoot oh yeah that's why they covered it up yeah yeah she would go between the attic and the basement but she's been down here painting and writing these things over and over she sees the house at every point in time every destruction he really is too yes exactly okay i crossed over the desk lamp still that oil and beside it lay an old pack of matches i struck one and held it to the lamp until a dim flickering glow stammered alive shaking out the match i looked around absorbing the room in all its weirdness distorted jittery shadows cast over precarious picture frame towers in the far corner lay a dirt stained mattress overgrown with roots covered in dust hadn't been touched in years is abigail sleeping down here above the bed hung a rope ladder leading up to a hole in the ceiling that connect to the dumbwaiter turning back to the desk i grabbed a journal from the nearest stack maybe this would explain what was going on here i flipped through but every single page was filled to the margins with thomas foster is not my brother thomas foster is not my brother thomas foster is i'm useless i tossed it aside grabbed another one you are part of the house you are part of you are part of the house you are worthless i snagged the next one you are not useless just like please read this note and listen to my warnings or just being like whoever reads this for the love of god heed my warning yeah you know well i mean she's established that some weird stuff's going down right yeah well yeah thomas that big fucking slim jim son of a bitch is gonna be lurking around there for too long i snagged the next one you are not who they say you are you are not who they say you are you are nothing nothing but the meaningless ramblings of a seriously unstable person i bet a thousand bucks the next one said all work no play makes abigail a dull girl but what did she mean thomas wasn't her brother i was about to turn away when i noticed a solitary deep red journal tucked away at the bottom of the furthest stack i shimmied out cracked it open and skimmed through entry after entry of young abigail talking about moving into the new house her aspirations to become a painter how she felt at a place in her own skin yeah we had that note earlier that she dropped out of art school yeah i mean i'm telling you i feel like abigail seems like it's eve or it's something there's some parallelism between them yeah i kept flipping through glimpsing handwritten moments of abigail's tragic life all the while looking for something anything that would help me she wrote about the kids in school how they torment her for being too tall how they called her drabby abby drabby abby drabby abby she wrote about the time she shaved her head how her parents as punishment locked her up in the attic until all her hair grew back how they sent her food rations up through the dumb waiter's chute how on the first night locked away up there she awoke covered in ants swarm from head to toe she wrote about how she hated being an only child an only child then she wrote about how thomas was not her brother how he came from the woods in the light of day how he lived here before the house was even built before the trees before that time so oh I'm in my element before the trees were planted how he was trying to drive her mad and nobody believed her not even her parents how he was trying to turn her into something caught my periphery I looked up ants above the desk from a crack in the wooden beam a trail of ants crawled out onto the olive green oh and Thomas okay slipping the red journal into my back pocket i followed the trail as it disappeared behind a stack of rotting picture frames they rounded a corner and stretched down an ever-narrowing passage receding into darkness i raised the flashlight flicked it on and a woman standing at the edge of a dead end passage with her back turned not charlie too tall it was abigail had to be wearing an off-white hospital gown just like in the attic but somehow it looked like she'd been standing there for years almost rooted to the ground like she'd become a part of the room itself paralyzed looming arms hanging limp clutched in her left hand a small hammer the same one i'd used to pry nails out from above the fireplace, but now it was covered in red blood.

2:30:47Then she started shaking. A strange, soundless movement, somewhere between weeping and laughter. I stepped backward, and she looked over her shoulder towards me. Her face was pale, sunken cheeks. Her eyes were gently shut. With surprising speed, the trail of ants climbed up the side of her leg onto her back over her shoulders and began to circle around her neck an unearthly choker her mouth twisted into a pained toothy grimace and then the ants started swarming her face crawling into her nostrils her mouth writhing ants frantically forcing their way between the cracks of her gums her teeth but she remained unfazed unmoving the sight was so terrible so incomprehensible i question if it was even real then the ants began to recede disappearing into her face until there was only one ant left wriggling its way between her blood red gums writhing until finally it slipped through her teeth with an almost audible schlick abigail's eyes snapped open cold and blue wide mystified she looked down at the blood-drenched hammer in her hand face filling with a horrific mixture of terror and unimaginable guilt she whispered my name is I took a slow step backward my name is Eve

2:32:18brother from the tightrope from the watch out watch out watch out oh my gosh i'm hanging it up the jerseys and the rafters i'm hanging it up it's not retiring the number it's i'm retiring the number it's up there with mother horse size dead girl in my yard uh here give me some other what's i know there's more pin pal that's it's it's up there right now let's put it on the mount rushmore oh gosh it's so good i love i love weird houses i love weird stuff i love weird stuff so much that's what you know if i if i got if i got a bajillion dollars right just unlimited money i would i would use a lot of it to help people sure use a lot of it take care of people sure whatever but i'd use i'd use a lot of it to to make to make a do you think the winchester house is weird this thing this thing wouldn't even make sense i'd have i'd have different teams of contractors so no one knew what each other was building ever been a winchester escape room house that someone's built as like because it's escape room still big there or is that kind of like a dead meme now they're still out they're just less big than i think themed ones are still pretty big like horror escape rooms well in fucking vegas when we went to vegas there's like a huge john wick escape room that's like actors in it that's like pretty fucking crazy yeah kind of like interesting i mean you know regardless if you like the movies or not it was like pretty it was a crazy experience i would love like a like a back rooms or like some liminal space you know what i'm wondering is like with the winchester thing because in that area of the winchester it's such a huge part of their economy like the tour like people who go and show up whatever i'm surprised i mean i can't even imagine that how expensive it would be but like it doesn't need to be a mansion scale, but I'm surprised there isn't a thing where, an escape room where things move or you get like, you know, you're like, this doesn't make any sense.

2:34:19Like, I'd be surprised if there wasn't. Dude, there's something so interesting about this to me because like, House of Leaves, I think, was kind of the inception of this idea, at least in a physical form of like a house with a hallway. In House of Leaves does the character, like, is there something where it's like you've been living here or is there something with the characters like this so far? Because what's happening right now is this is trickling into, like, a psychological horror where I think she's going to start believing that she is this person. I think it's going to be unveiling where she's going to, like, psych herself out so much that there's going to be a revelation where Thomas is like, you're very sick.

2:35:01You know, we came here to check on you, blah, blah, blah. Charlie isn't even real. that's your alter ego or something so in house of leaves it's almost the reverse in house of leaves it's there's the house and there's the story of the house and people who come across the story begin to become obsessed with it and almost like possessed by the presence of it and the knowledge it's like forbidden knowledge once it gets into their head it like starts to consume them this is almost the other way around where the people in the house are the ones who are like experiencing and like these lost memories new knowledge and stuff like that so it's almost like imagine if like everyone who knew of this house had those like gaps in memory see i feel like i'm deciphering it a different way of like i feel like this is just a literal this like the house has nothing to do with it the house like to me i'm almost reading it in a way where it's slowly becoming a thing where it's like this is a character study of eve who is like maybe not going insane but it's something where her psychosis or something is enveloping these things i would agree if it were not for the fact that the first thing he said is abigail saw the rooms changing and the walls changing and stuff like that well what i'm saying is that i feel like eve or abigail if she is this character is experiencing that kind of psychosis and she's saying that she's seeing those things and it's like it's a character it's like it's a part of her uh her loop or whatever with each maybe thing that she's manifesting but then there's also the element that thomas is some kind of supernatural thing he was here before the trees were you know yeah well i mean you know Once again, I'm still like my money or at least so far how I'm deciphering it is.

2:36:36Well, one, I don't know if I believe Thomas is an entity versus someone who is. Is it going to be someone who is trying to like if there was a person who was in like a deep psychosis or something and they're like, you need help or whatever. Are they manifesting that person to be something they're not? Yeah. You know, I don't know. There's so many different avenues, you know. I mean, there's still so much to be discovered, but it's fun to think about. Yeah. It's fun to say what if forever, but yeah, we'll keep reading and keep reading. My name isn't Eve. She spun around and took a sudden step towards me, a sudden unbalanced movement as if puppeteered from above.

2:37:09Staggering forward, she raised the hammer back, wound up to strike, and I turned and hauled it out of there. Abigail in pursuit, I barreled up the stairs, out of the empty room, into the hallway, and ran faster than I'd ever run in my entire damn life. Before me, her bare feet slapped against concrete, gaining. Wait! scrambling forward i slid around a corner doors on either side blurred past numbered symmetrical wait wasn't i already here ahead of me a dead end above me the ominous drones returned with a vengeance behind me footfalls getting closer left with no choice i shoved into the nearest room pulled the door shut and reached for the no lock damn i scanned around hunting for a weapon something to bar the door a place to hide anything but there wasn't wait in the far corner a shutter door wardrobe without thinking i hurtled over whipped inside yanked the door shut and held it there all the while the scraping sounds from upstairs grew louder my heart pumped with short stuttering sprints damn damn shut shut up calm down just just calm down it's only one person yeah yeah but she's armed with a hammer and ants crawled into her face and she's probably going stop just stop first off turn the flashlight off it's lighting you up like a billboard minor voice was starting to sound weirdly similar to a frustrated charlie i don't know if that's a good thing but i switched off the flashlight okay it's off yeah okay good now breathe inhale slowly through your nostrils hold it and then exhale through your mouth does this not read almost like the way that she has conversations with charlie the way that she talks with charlie and stuff the same way that Charlie says, like, don't do this now.

2:38:53Is that not the same way that she's been referring to herself, you know? Or that she's been talking with herself? Yeah. That's the thing that draws the suspicion is they've done this great, there's been this great dynamic between Charlie and, you know, well, Charlie's basically the polar opposite of me or whatever. It's like it's your conscious or your, like, rationalization that is, like, now almost manifested itself. It's why I keep thinking it's leaning that way where Charlie might be a manifestation, whatever. These big laps of time and like, you know, whatever. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah, no. You don't need to theorize, but.

2:39:29No, no, no. I think that's certainly possible. It could be that Charlie's kind of like a manifestation. I would also say that.

2:39:40What was I going to say? oh yeah this reads very similar to because it's not it's not a connected story directly but there's a lot of similarities between this and the thing and my basement takes a step closer between the house and like the the basements and stuff there's a lot of similar also the deception and the deception of everything that's one thing that i feel like marcus is very good at oh yeah setting up things and making you think one way and then just being like are you sure you're confused in a good way yeah uh but that whole the talking to yourself thing and even you remember in um the thing in my basement he kept doing the what's three things you can see three things you can smell sure that's i got to the burnt hair and gasoline over and over um she did that exact thing earlier when she's naming stuff she can see it here and smell so yeah it's like uh it could just be a thing he likes to use the dynamic he likes to use in stories but I almost feel I'll save it for the end but I almost feel there's like a a thematic connection between Eve and that protagonist in a way of the other story yes yeah we could see it we see it all the time with creepypastas that's like a huge thing yeah are such no sleep those intertwining and not not even that they're like literally connected but like the theme of what they're going through feels very similar oh sure and i think that sometimes too i mean it like just i mean you get it too i think like people like to people like to splash around the puddles they like to splash creatively right so it could be a thing where he's just like i like doing this and the whole thing of like listing things off might be something he does in his real life and that just translates into the stories too i breathed in through my nose held it and exiled through my mouth did that help my heart still thump like a stampede do it again dipshit okay maybe my inner voice was a little meaner than charlie but it was actually helping my heart was slowing down continuing to focus on my breath i peered out through the wardrobe shutters into the dark room now the sounds from upstairs were unbearably loud an ever-rising earthquake getting stronger and stronger then the door to the room swung open instant silence there she stood bloody hammer in hand abigail deeply regretting my choice of a hiding spot i sucked in a spurt of air and held my breath be quiet epigel loomed into the room almost bending over as she passed through the door frame oh my god she was tall hammer at the ready she crept deeper i'm sorry she trailed off she started circling the room like a caged animal i'm sorry about charlie she's still alive but Thomas said it was the only way I could leave.

2:42:23What did she mean? What happened to Charlie? Was that Charlie's blood on the hammer? Questions raced through me, but my survival instinct pushed them back. Escape. Survive. Figure this out later. All the while, I was holding my breath, still desperately trying not to make a sound. Pins and needles pricked across my face, lungs growing tighter. Abigail wandered around the room for what felt like an eternity. Then she lurched to a stop, sighed, turned for the door, and drifted away. One painfully slow step at a time. Every fiber of my being screamed, Don't breathe, don't you breathe, just hang on a little longer.

2:43:02But my lungs forced me to gasp in air. Abigail froze in the doorframe, peered back over her shoulder, and looked directly at the wardrobe. Then, she tilted her head, the exact same way the shadowy figure on the basement steps did. Head still cocked, she stepped back into the room, and out from her ear, down onto her neck, crawled a thin trail of ants. Oh my god. She took a step closer, and another one. Eve, is that you? She whispered, edging forward. her voice was tinged with repressed excitement now like she was about to pull off a horrific prank

2:43:52your charlie i can help you find your charlie interesting and i can help you find your charlie interesting lips quivering she stood right in front of the wardrobe now staring at me through the shutters. Her eyes were empty, like a doll's. Her cold breath brushed against my face, frigid. Slowly raising her hand, she slid her long fingers into the shutters, reaching for me. I leaned back as far as I could, but her jagged, overgrown fingernails scratched against my cheek. It's okay, Eve. The ants were now flooding off her hand, rushing down from her fingers onto her nails and onto my face. Swarming ants crept over my skin towards my mouth, towards...

2:44:34Enough. In one quick motion, I pressed my palm up against her outstretched fingers until they snapped back with a sickening crack. I drop kicked the door open and Abby wrenched to the side, shrieking bloody murder. Her mangled fingers still caught between the shutters, trapped. The hammer flew from her hand and slid to a stop in the doorway. Shooting across the room, I snagged the hammer and kept running frantically spitting ants out of my mouth all the while behind me Abigail screeched and wailed struggling to yank her twisted hand out from the shutters good luck doors blurred past as I darted down the hallway hunting for the stairs escape just escape behind me her warbled screams echoed getting louder closer she was already free damn she was gaining on me this time she was vengeful part of me wanted to turn around and smash her skull in but I doubted I could bring myself to do it even in self-defense plus i wasn't sure if she was even human so i just kept running until finally i came upon the stairs still highlighted with a trail of blood sorry charlie but if i don't get out of here now we're both dead i bounded upwards until behind me abigail's cold writhing hands grasped at my heels reaching for my ankles trying to pull me back in a darkness but the door was just inside i was almost there almost free and i burst into the living room spun around, shoulder slammed the door shut, expecting to struggle, but there was nothing.

2:45:57No more footsteps. No more screaming. Only silence. Deafening silence. What's wrong? Thomas's bewildered voice called out from behind, but I didn't look. I was so intent on holding the door shut, I almost forgot the family was even there. Sure, they were god awful, but at least ants weren't crawling out of their ears. Behind me, I could hear Thomas rise to a stand and march across the room. I didn't look back. I kept holding the door. Suddenly, he jerked me away. What is going on? He blinked at me, stunned. Then I realized what he was looking at. The blood-soaked hammer in my hand. Reaching down, he yanked it away.

2:46:36Where did you find this? He held it up, but it was no longer covered in blood. It was spotless. Inexplicably spotless. He tossed it across the room, hitting the floor, slid to a stop in the quiet corner. I was too shocked to even respond, too exhausted to even fight back. It felt like the entire universe was slowly turning upside down. Were you hurting yourself again? His voice was filled with distress, concern even. He began patting his hands over my neck, my shoulder, searching for injuries. Thomas. Paige called from across the room, but he ignored her, still checking to make sure I wasn't hurt.

2:47:11Talk to me, what happened down there? Thomas! Paige snapped so loud he almost jumped. He looked back. She stirred him down with a vicious glare. Take her upstairs. You're scaring the children. The kids were sitting in front of the fireplace, gaping at me with shock, and that's when it finally hit me. Everything was different. Completely different. The furniture, the rug on the floor, the candles on the tables, the paintings on the walls, everything. The house was now decorated like a throwback American dream home. I opened my mouth to speak, but only a sputtering wheeze escaped. What was happening?

2:47:47sign thomas tied into script pulled me away and pushed me into the foyer i don't know what happened down there but i need you to listen to me he stared in my eyes deadly serious you have to get yourself together or i'm calling the ward do you understand abby the kids have had their aunt running around the house like a lunatic i stared up at him blankly abby their aunt was this really his plan was he really going to try and convince me i was his sister all along How stupid did he think I was? That dumb shit might have worked on a 12-year-old Abigail, but not on me. It would take a lot more than a redecorated house to make me believe I was a completely different person.

2:48:24I cleared my throat. What? What did you do to my house? Ignoring that question, he took a new tact, smiling sadly. You're my sister. I'd do anything to help you. But I can't put my family's safety at risk any longer. Do you understand? For a moment, part of me wondered if I was truly insane. if I might actually be a sister, but none of that made any sense. Not how hallucinations work. Not how insanity works, right? Besides, everything that happened so far was technically inside the realm of plausibility. Insanely screwed up, yes, but not impossible. Maybe they were working with other people. Maybe they moved all the furniture inside while I was downstairs.

2:49:06Maybe they drugged me with hallucinogens after I hit my head, or maybe Abigail's journal was right. Maybe Thomas really did live here before the house was even built, before the trees were even planted. Maybe he came from the woods in the light of Eve. Those were just the ramblings of an unwell mind. He's only a person, a psychopath, but a person nonetheless. I refocused. Play along until the police show up, or until you find the right moment to escape. Come back with help and save Charlie. Don't escalate things, yet. Smiling back, I nodded gently. Good. Now. He continued. We were just about to have dinner.

2:49:46I'd love for you to join us. Show the kids everything's okay. Tell them their aunt was just looking for something down in the basement and got lost, alright? Okay. We love you, Abby. You're a part of this family. He reached out and touched my shoulder gently. I shuddered, but he didn't seem to notice or care. Don't get through this. You've gotten through worse. Thanks, Thomas. Smiling warmly, he turned back for the kitchen. Lingering behind, I watched him go, wait until he disappeared around the corner, and then I dashed to the front door, grabbed the handle, and locked from the outside. I went for the window, barred.

2:50:25The adjacent room, every single window was barred. My house was like a prison now. How did they pull all this off so quickly? Abby? Called out from the kitchen. You ready for dinner? I stopped, took a deep breath, collected myself. Eve, you're outnumbered. Play along until help shows up. If help doesn't show, do whatever it takes to find Charlie, even if you have to burn this house to the ground. End of part three. And the worst code here is Abigail, so where is Abigail? Is what it is so far.

2:50:59Part four. I'm guessing part four is the last part. Yeah, I mean, there's 14 pages left, so I assume. Part four. the family was seated around my dinner table like it was their own eating laughing living it up without a care to be had but as soon as i entered the party stopped just sat there staring at me as if i was the one who didn't belong thomas filled the dead air abigail there you are wiping his mouth with red handkerchief that matched his shirt you were going to share with us what happened in the basement yes keep playing along eve don't escalate wait for help to show up Why do they all look so calm?

2:51:35I was looking for tools and got lost in the dark. It reminded me of an old memory, a scary one, and I let my imagination get the better of me. But I'm okay now, and it was all in my head. Thomas gave a slight nod. Good work. Kids nodded to Paige. She just stared at me, eyes narrowing. A sharp gust of wind slammed against the windows. The house lights flickered. The family jumped. Thomas looked outside, shaking his head. These storms get worse every year. Hopefully the power holds out. He motioned for me to take a seat. Hesitating, I stepped forward, pulled back an empty chair, and sat. Paige wrapped her fingers around the handle of a serrated steak knife.

2:52:16Your auntie's going to be moving out soon, kids. She said, cutting into her steak, blood oozing from the veins of the dead meat. Jenny, the hide-and-seeker, just sat there, watching me. Only now her previous gloom was gone. She looked content, cheerful almost. I stared back, searching for cracks in the performance But there were none Abby? I looked up He blinked at me, expecting an answer to a question I didn't even hear You're going to explain your reasoning? For moving out? Oh I just think it's time for me to be on my own Feels like the right time The kids nodded in unison Well, you sure will be missed but I think we can all agree it's time for a change.

2:53:02I managed to fake another smile. Didn't know how many more I had left in me. So? Said Thomas, turning towards his daughter. How was school today? Jenny smiled, sheepish. I don't know. You don't know? That's a first. Jenny gave a little shrug and smiled wider. Thomas leaned forward. You gotta tell me one thing that happened. Just one thing. That's all I ask. Jenny laughed a bit. Okay, um, there There was a dog in class today A dog? What's a dog doing in a school? It It was a seeing eye dog She squirmed in her seat, shy Thomas sprinkled salt onto his steak An eye-seeing dog? What's that? It's a dog that It helps blind people walking around Wow, a professional dog What's that?

2:53:58Thomas raised an eyebrow. Professional? Mm-hmm. It's when you get paid for your work. Oh, I don't think the dog's getting paid. Well, he should. Maybe with treats? Thomas John Golden glanced over at me the way a proud parent does, his eyes filled with, isn't she cute? For a moment, I almost forgot everything else that was going on. It was just a typical family dinner, but then... What about your friend in the city? S. Page, killing the mirage, right on cue. He stepped back into the screwed-up present. What? She gulped down another mouthful of steak. Your friend in the city, does she still have that spare room?

2:54:35I shook my head, not sure how to respond. Paige sighed. Your friend Charlie. Gosh, my stomach twisted. Oh, I don't know if she still lives there. I replied, continuing to play along, barely. Hmm. Said Thomas, dousing his mashed potatoes with gravy. We'll figure something out. But don't feel rushed. You can always stay longer if needed. One week is just ideal for us. Page shot him a disapproving look. Wow, a whole week to move out of my own house. Thanks, Thomas. Very generous. He said, sounding a little more sarcastic than intended. Page huffed and rose from the table. She strode to the cupboard and grabbed a bottle of Charlie's favorite red wine.

2:55:20Perusing for an extra moment, she grabbed the corkscrew, eyes locked onto mine. she sat back down twisted the corkscrew into the wine cork and another ruthless blast of wind pushed through the house the lights flickered on and off until darkness power outage off the orange glow of the living room fireplace it would have been pitch dark thomas let out an exasperated sigh great don't get the candles pushing up from the table he stepped out of the kitchen it's not my chance what do i do the front door is locked the windows are barred abigail queen of the ants is down in the basement. Couldn't even hear myself think.

2:55:57Paige kept cranking on that corkscrew, staring at me the whole time. She had to be doing it on purpose now. Then, finally, she popped out the cork and poured until her glass was nearly full. Right to the brim. Classy. But then, that's when I noticed the necklace. Around Paige's neck. Charlie's necklace. I checked my back pocket. Empty. A flood of emotions followed. grief, fear, confusion, rage. It started in my temples, pushed to my hands, my feet, every single part of me like an uncontrollable wildfire. Until now, I'd been in denial about what happened downstairs. Charlie wasn't hiding. Charlie wasn't being held captive.

2:56:40Charlie was dead. She must be. Yeah, Abigail said Charlie was alive, but I saw that hammer. It was covered in blood, and now Paige Foster was wearing Charlie's locket like it was her own. Where did you find I said, almost blurting it out. Hmm? Said Paige, slowly looking towards me, sipping from her wine. The necklace. Where'd you find it? Oh, just a store. I rose to a stand. The kids tensed up, weary. Paige stared at me, confused. I moved closer. Wait, what was I doing here? What was my plan? Abigail? Said Paige, nervous. She kept blathering on, but I wasn't there anymore. I was in the past. Memories were playing out of my head.

2:57:23Those strange little moments that stand out more and more as time goes on. The way Charlie snorted when she laughed sometimes. I laughed even harder out of embarrassment. The way her face lit up every time she saw a dog stick its head out of a car window the way she wrapped her arms around me from behind nuzzled her chin up to my neck as we fell asleep all these memories played out of my head like they were happening right now and then before i even knew what i was doing i grabbed page with one hand and the corkscrew with the other arms gripped around her i pulled back and her chair fell to the floor with a crash time slow to a near stop as i held the corkscrew to the side of her throat her children screamed the fireplace crackled the wind outside howled the page she was silent for the first time in her life she didn't have a thing to say not one word only quick terrified little breaths music whoa now said thomas treading into the dining room cell phone in hand cell phone see that's the thing she can't just be crazy because she remembers the present she remembers things like phones and stuff like that right um i mean sure it's the 50s but they wouldn't have or 70s or they wouldn't have cell phones right so there's some disparity happening with that other than just her being crazy i think i've been spun around a million times i have no idea okay i'm so scared right now i spun page around to face him where is charlie kids go to your rooms lock the doors but they didn't respond they just sat there paralyzed no he boomed and they scrambled out of the kitchen abigail he spoke as calmly as possible You have to let her go What the fuck happened to Charlie?

2:59:02Took a deep breath and excelled She's living in the city now You told us yourself Abby, you - Thomas, stop My name isn't Abby I'm fucking done with this Just tell me where Charlie is right now Thomas, Thomas, please Paige's voice quivered, petrified Paige, don't worry, she's not gonna do anything Abby, listen to me Charlie's okay We can call her right now She didn't explain everything and the medications. I know you've been missing your doses. That's what's happening here. Your mind is going through withdrawal, playing tricks on you. Your sponsor, they're on their way right now. They're going to try to help you and...

2:59:37He yelled up his phone. Look, I mean, I just called him and... Thomas! He yelled so loud it shook the floorboards. I lowered my voice. Thomas, I need you to listen to me. Listen carefully. If you don't tell me where Charlie is, something really, really bad is going to happen. Paige wince as the corkscrew pricked against her skin. Thomas, just tell her. She quivered again, riddled with fear. Thomas took another small step forward. Abby, listen to me. I need you to ground yourself. Focus on your senses. Focus on... Wait, how did he know about that? Focus on... Sight. Paige's blonde hair. Thomas's dumbstruck face.

3:00:18The glow of the fireplace. Sound. Heart thumping. Panicked breath. Howling wind. Smell. Red wine. Blood. Desperation. Touch. touch. My hand gripped tightly around the corkscrew and… A sudden clawing pain shot through my right thigh. My whole body tensed up in a spasm. I staggered backward, let go of Paige and looked down. She stabbed a steak knife right into my thigh. Then I realized… My hands were empty. The corkscrew was gone. Paige toppled to the floor like a bowling pin. The bloody knife was still in her hand. She hit the ground, choking, gargling. What just happened? My eyes darted around for an answer until finally i saw the corkscrew was lodged handled deep into the side of page's throat oh shit i i must have i i didn't mean to a thin line of blood trailed down her neck onto the hardwood floor her mouth slowly opened and closed open and closed like she was trying to speak trying to breathe page thomas whispered stunned i stumbled backward into the kitchen snapping from his daze thomas collapsed the floor over page he held her neck trying to stop the bleeding page he stared into her eyes, but her gaze just flicked side to side, empty, desperation growing.

3:01:26Thomas pressed harder, trying to stop the bleeding, mind spinning, leg throbbing. I limped out of the kitchen and into the hallway. Paige wasn't human, I told myself. She wasn't even real. None of this is real, but it felt real, more real than anything I'd ever felt. Every memory I ever had, good or bad, it didn't matter. Everything drowned in the present. Staggering into the moonlit foyer, I went for the door. Locked. Already knew that. Damn, I needed to get out of here. I looked down. A dark circle of warm blood seeped through my jeans. Deal with that later. Just get outside. I turned around and remembered the hammer.

3:02:00I could use it to pry open the door. Paige! Thomas whimpered from the kitchen. I'm here. I'm here, Paige. I'm not leaving. Focus, Eve. I swept back into the living room, trudged up to the so-called quiet corner, snatched up the hammer, and scrambled back to the foyer. Wasting no time, I shimmied at pry bar first into the doorframe and wrenched back. The wood splintered and strained. I kept prying, kept pulling, but it seemed hopeless. It seemed. Thomas screamed. Animalistic, filled with unimaginable grief, rage, and I knew exactly what it meant. Page was dead. He trailed off into a strange guttural moan.

3:02:37Tragic and terrifying all at once. He clenched his fist thud against the floor an impact so heavy i could hear the hardwood crack more screaming thrashing now he was breaking things tearing apart the kitchen wrathful i pried on the door harder and harder but it was no use it wouldn't budge he screamed his voice filled with murder screw the door hammer still in hand i scrambled upstairs thomas charged into the foyer just in time to see me disappear at the top of the steps right leg going numb i pushed off the wall and staggered down the hallway. Behind me, footsteps thundered up the stairs like an ever-rising war drum.

3:03:16I tried the first door, locked. The next one, locked. My eyes shot down to the end of the hall, Abigail's bedroom. Screw it. I burst inside, slammed the door shut, spinning around. I pressed my back up against it. I scanned the room, searching for somewhere to hide, somewhere to - Abigail. She was standing in the far corner of her room, back turned, head slumped, shaking, sobbing weeping i didn't know i didn't know i'm so sorry i'm sorry she whimpered again and again sorry about what behind me the door burst open and thomas slammed into me like a freight train pinning me against a barred window he jammed his forearm against my throat crushing it he stared into my eyes silent possessed by rage sorrow as i gasped for air i looked to the far corner empty abigail was gone was she even there to begin with i looked back to thomas before this i thought maybe he'd been putting on a show but now i could finally see it in his eyes he actually believed he lived in this house he actually believed i was his sister but we did so much for you he snarled spit spray in my face we gave you everything with his free hand he clutched me by the hair jerked my head forward and smashed it back into the wall throbbing pain He slammed my head back again, harder this time, each impact heavier than the last, pain radiated, vision grew blurry, this was it, I was going to die, this was, might as well fight back dipshit.

3:04:47With my left leg and all my remaining strength, I kneed him in the stomach, winded, he staggered backward, crumpled to his knees, I gasped in air, barely conscious, he looked up, readied himself to lunge and I swung the hammer claw in first into the side of his face a sickening crack filled the room as it lodged into his jaw still on his knees Thomas stared up at me in disbelief he didn't think I was capable of this neither did I our eyes locked for a strange quiet moment and then I pressed my foot onto his stomach pushed it forward and with both arms all my strength wrenched back the hammer tore open his face with a sickening wet sound his perfect teeth ripped out and clattered to the floor in a bloody mess he crumpled over blood trailing down his jaw over his neck the torn flap of his cheek hung open dangling horrific but slowly i raised the hammer tensed up and thomas started sobbing his pitiful rising whimpers filled abigail's room like a noxious cloud he was holding his face now as if trying to put himself back together blood seeped through his fingers and his whimpering grew more panicked more desperate but please please don't abby please he sputtered drooling ropes of blood onto the floor all the while i just stood there hammer raised readying myself to finish the job but i i couldn't despite all my fear all my hatred i couldn't bring myself to do it page was an accident i'm not a killer i lowered my arm the blood-soaked hammer slipped from my hand and fell to the floor i staggered back towards the hallway stepped out and started to pull the door shut but at the last second thomas's eyes snapped up and his face twisted into a mangled grin where are you going eve oh brother i yanked the door shut and held it why the hell did he just call me that hold that thought i grabbed a red chair from the hallway and wedged it under the door handle focus but what was he smiling at me stop he focus help isn't coming they would have been here by now get outside get to the neighbors but the front door was locked all the windows were barred maybe there was something attic the porthole window there's no way that's barred just get up there onto the roof find a way down jump in a snowbank if you have to i yanked down the attic staircase and climbed wincing pain throbbed with every step all the while not a peep from abigail's bedroom not a bang on the door not a whimper not even a footstep only silence terrifying silence hoisting myself up i ran down the narrow hallway ignore the pain keep moving lightheaded i stumbled into the corner room to the porthole window and pushed it open i shimmied myself up and through a tight fit wriggling my way out a hand clutched around my ankle and yanked me back inside i slammed into the splinter ridden floor chin first and spun around just in time to see the moonlight glisten off Thomas's torn open face.

3:08:06How'd he get up here so quickly? He lunged onto me, wrapped his hands around my throat, and started to squeeze. We built this house. He boomed like a mad apostle, slobbering blood onto my face. I reached up, grabbed his wrist, tried to pull them away, but it was no use. He squeezed tighter, a lump formed in my throat, like an ever-expanding cyst. I couldn't breathe. I was fading. shadows crawled from the corners of my eyes everything was becoming nothing he lowered his voice to a spitting whisper we sowed the forest great I get to die listening to a psychotic maniac right then a shiny glint caught the corner of my eye I looked over universal tire chains thanks Charlie with a final push of resistance I reached wrapped the tips of my fingers around the chains and we give left i swung the chains cracked into his temple and his head twisted to the side a red curtain of blood whipped onto the floor the wall the turtle painting slowly he turned back to me but now his gaze was empty vacant blood trailed from his cracked temple into his twitching eye and dripped onto my cheek his grip loosened we weren't here before you before them trailed off into incoherent mumbles tire chain still in hand i shoved him off me and pushed up to standing thomas tried to stand too but he couldn't he fell back to his knees and looked up at me barely conscious he kept trying to talk only to mutter incoherently kept trying to stand only to fall back down i stepped around faced him from behind where is charlie Thomas only responded with more meaningless mumbles Enough I breathed in and on my exhale Wrapped the chains around his neck I pulled back He reached up, pawing, trying to tear them away Futile, weak Pulling tighter I pressed my knee into his back and pushed He gasped, choking, wheezing I pulled back even harder He coughed a spatter of blood His efforts to fight were fading with each passing second Until finally Stop!

3:10:20I looked up. In the doorway, eyes wide with terror, stood Charlie. I froze in shock, released Thomas and staggered back. He fell forward, gasping for breath, barely alive. Charlie? But Charlie was looking down, absorbing the sight of a devastated Thomas. Then she looked up at me. Questions shuffled through my head so rapidly I couldn't even speak. What about her phone in the basement? How is she okay? hey, how is she alive? All the while, Charlie didn't say a word. She just stood there, eyes filled with growing fear, but she wasn't scared of Thomas. She was scared of me. Charlie, wait. I finally managed.

3:11:02Lowering the chains, I took a step forward, but she stepped back. Eyes flicking down to the blood-slicked weapon in my hand, I dropped the chains and took another step. Charlie kept backing away, shaking her head, on the verge of tears devastated downstairs the front door burst open heavy footsteps clambered through the foyer up the stairs sirens charlie i can explain i stammered voice cracking she looked into my eyes one last time then turned away disappearing down the hallway she's up here said charlie wait i stepped over thomas into the hallway and two police officers grabbed me by the arms shoved me into the wall face first pink insulation sliced my skin like paper cuts i clasped handcuffs around my wrist and yanked me back i didn't fight i didn't even speak i just stared ahead blankly as they tugged me through the attic now from exhaustion and blood loss i was slipping in and out of consciousness as they dragged me down the upstairs hallway a few paramedics rushed into the attic my gauge drifted across the wall the dumbwaiter chute was once again covered up as if it were never even there to begin with they pulled me around a corner my eyes landed on a cracked bedroom door from behind it jenny peered out face filled with inconsolable dread they pulled me down the stairs into the foyer towards the front door just as they pulled me outside i looked back and saw a painting on the foyer wall a painting of the house covered up the jagged hole thomas's family was in it could also just make a note too earlier whenever that she said that she's like there was Thomas and he looked fucked whatever not like hers she touched his jaw and moved the paint out of the way from his oh yeah yeah that's right like it was covered up like the facade was put back up yeah but yeah the painting the cheap material whatever when she touched it she moved the jaw that's a good call I forgot about that yeah Thomas's family was in it Paige and three kids all of them standing out front happy smiling but behind them peering out through the porthole window a hazy solitary figure eternally trapped outside the storm was over now snow was melting as the sun crept up over distant mountains the sky split down the middle half night half day on the ground commotion everywhere fire trucks cop cars ambulances neighbors crowding on the street our freedom Miguel among them Maya started around looking for charlie but she was nowhere to be seen the cops dragged me down the driveway past the yellow tape through the crowds onto the street and then i saw standing at the edge of the forest hands once again covering her face like a peekaboo abigail but slowly she started to pull her hands apart revealing her face bit by bit till finally showing herself fully this time in the early morning light her once dull eyes were now permeating with life vitality her once sunken face was full again red-cheeked she looked straight into my terror-stricken soul and smiled serene a look of pure contented peace grateful grateful for what then she turned around withdrew into the darkened woods away from the crowds the chaos the house before i could even process what this meant i was thrown into the back of a van and the door slammed shut darkness everyone keeps calling me abigail but my name is eve i was born on october 3rd 1987 at 2 56 in the morning my current residence is 3719 heritage lane my partner the love of my life is charlie bastion we renovate old houses and flip them for profit we've been together for the last seven years my name is eve palmer but everyone keeps calling me abigail foster now even according to my official documents the family owns the house and they've been living there for years all my neighbors vouch for them even her pre-da miguel nobody recognizes me even more not even charlie i still look the way i always have but everyone treats to me like i'm a completely different person you know what's fucked up is like in her mind i bet you fucking anything abigail was the person who went up to their house and did i used to live here yeah or something and they're like oh i guess you could come in and they took her in or something you know what i mean yeah i don't know it's like a cyclic thing happened it's almost like abigail switched places with her because she's like it's the only way i could she i think she did what she thought they did to her is what it's like a cycle of people new come to this house and it just repeats and repeats and repeats yeah so now beyond all reason all justice i'm locked away in a criminal psych ward charged with one count of homicide and one count of attempted locked away in a room no bigger than a walk-in closet white walls rickety bed cold fluorescent light i'm not sure how long it's been anymore it could be months could be years according to the lead doctor here i've been and out of mental wards my whole life they tell me i've got a laundry list of psychotic delusions they say my version of events story above is nothing but an elaborate hallucination mixed in with little bits of reality complete bullshit complete fucking bullshit which also would explain her delusions of being like i flip houses i'm in and out of wards all the time is what i think is why she's like i flip houses i bet you fucking do where for that long exactly i've done enough reading to know that psychotic delusions and hallucinations don't work that way they don't work like they do in stories with continuity and tied up loose ends these weren't hallucinations these weren't delusions somehow thomas foster bent reality around me like a frayed wire yep this is a sane person talking for sure well i mean she's she's got got she's screwed there is no way she is going to be able to talk her way out of what happened like thomas gotter right oh do you believe that she's not crazy yeah with the woman in the attic and the peekaboo and the running through the forest and all that yeah i think that she's completely fucking delusional no i think there's some weird i think him getting think about it so thomas whipped in the face thomas fabricated documents that had records of her in a in a psych ward in and out of psych she switched places with abigail abigail said this was the only way i'm sorry yeah thomas is something else why would charlie not why did why is charlie turning on her then because like you said the reality wrapped around her right wrapped around the house oh man i i feel like we have completely different okay well we'll get Thomas Foster bent reality around me like a frayed wire.

3:18:02And I'm pretty sure his sister Abigail was in on it too. I'm still putting it all together, but I think she took me down in exchange for her freedom. I think she replaced me. As for the rest of his family, I don't know if they were in on it, held captive, or something in between. I'm still figuring that one out. What about Charlie? According to so-called officials, Charlie was nothing more than my part-time sponsor for the last six months. basically a volunteer caretaker maybe that's what she is now maybe that's what she is in this reality at first i thought everyone was pulling some horrific stunt on me even the doctors like i said neighbors friends even my own parents nobody recognizes me anymore it's like thomas foster pushed me into a completely different reality so what do i turn to charlie i've tried contact her dozens of times email phone even letters but she never responded not even once the only good thing about this place is the library i mean don't get me wrong i'm sure this facility helps people who actually need it but i don't need it i'm not psychotic thomas foster is that said if this place didn't have a library there's a good chance i would have actually lost my mind they've got computers with internet too slow internet but still that's where i've been doing my research writing the real version of events putting together my case i still have abigail's journal too so i'm threading together pieces from that oh so this is how they connect the r slash no sleep thing is that she's she's at the story yeah throwing together pieces from that figuring out what thomas is i'm stopping i'm not going to share everything until my case is air type, but you just wait.

3:19:48Soon enough, the whole world will know what Thomas Foster did to me. Either way, I don't care if you believe me or not. Even if I had all the evidence in the world, it wouldn't matter to some of you. I just need to convince the few people I still care about first, then I'll worry about everything else. But despite all this, I feel hopeful. As long as I can stay stable, play along with the doctors, if nothing sets me off, then I can finally get out of here. Then I can finally talk to Charlie in person and explain what happened. Find a way to make everything go back to how it was before. At least, that's how I felt up until a week ago.

3:20:27I was lying on my bed when... My eyes caught something. Up on the white stucco ceiling. A solitary aunt, endlessly wandering in circles. Abigail? A voice snapped me out of a daze. I turned. Standing in the doorway, a nurse. Two security guards behind her. You have a visitor. A flickering cold fluorescent light cast over the visiting room, faded brick walls, spaced apart tables, guards standing at attention in every doorway. Finally, the door buzzed open, and in walked Thomas Foster. The father, I suppose a brother. A sickening chill crawled down my spine. Caught my eyes from across the room and gave me a lopsided smile.

3:21:10The side of his face was scarred, but considering the injury, surprisingly well healed, his eyes were bright. Present. I looked down at the table, staring at my handcuffed wrist. Part of me was expecting the visitor to be Charlie. I don't know why. Still holding out hope, I guess. Thomas sat down across from me. A long silence passed. Buzzing lights. From somewhere deep within the ward, muffled, hysterical laughter. Laughter that slowly turned sorrowful weeping. Abigail? Said Thomas, finally breaking the silence. I didn't look up. My eyes traced back and forth along the handcuffs' chains. He cleared his throat.

3:21:51It's okay if you're still not ready to talk. I mean, I understand. I just wanted to share a few things. Thomas waited for me to acknowledge him. I didn't, so he just kept going. This is kind of odd, but... Do you remember Walter? Nope. He continued. Walter, my pet tortoise. You actually made me a painting of him for my fifth birthday. Still up in my office. I must have been six, maybe seven when he died. Even little things can be pretty world-ending when you're a kid. Everyone kept trying to make me feel better, except Dad. He said I needed to get over it by the end of the day. Mom said it was normal.

3:22:28Tommy, she told me, pets die all the time. Part of life. Walter's up in heaven now. I don't know if you remember this, but you're the only one who actually made me feel any better. I looked up. He was looking down at the table now. You just sat beside me, wrapped an arm around my shoulder and let me cry. That's it. No lessons, no advice, no ultimatums. Just sat there quietly and let me know it's okay to feel like crap sometimes. Even if it was just a stupid turtle. He sniffed a little, eyes starting to water. Gosh, Abby, I don't know. I've been thinking a lot about you lately. He looked right at me, and I looked away.

3:23:13It's okay if you don't want to talk. I get it. I just want to let you know that... Paused a moment, thinking over his next words carefully. I've been working on myself a lot, and through all this, your relapse, my injuries, pages passing, I've rejoined the church. Don't know if you knew, but I'd lost my faith, but... Paused again, expecting me to say something, but I remained silent. Cleared his throat. I've been talking with doctors here, and they said you've made a lot of progress. They said as long as you keep at it, keep improving, following their guidance, as long as nothing unexpected happens, you could be out of probation sooner than you think.

3:23:53I remained quiet. Look, I've come to accept that you weren't in control of your actions. You have a condition. A condition you're getting treated for, and I just want to let you know that... Abby? He leaned in slightly. Abby, look at me. Slowly, I turned and stared blankly into his eyes. He stared back for a sullen moment. I forgive you. The words hung in the air like a rotting stench, but my face remained neutral. I looked away. Thomas kept hovering, waiting for a response, but again, I gave him nothing. That was a plainest make-believe game. Not anymore. A few tense seconds went by until he nodded slowly.

3:24:35I understand. We can talk when you're ready. He stood up, turned to leave, and froze. Oh, I almost forgot. Pivoting back, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a manila envelope. The guard said I could leave this here. He placed it on the table. I know it meant a lot to you and Charlie. Finally, I looked up at him. For the briefest of moments, his face twitched. Then he smiled sadly, turned around, went for the exit. Footsteps punctuated the silence. The door buzzed shut as he left the room. i just sat there staring at the envelope i already knew what was inside but i couldn't bring myself to look seconds dragged by like minutes until finally i reached forward opened it looked in and aching sorrow filled every part of me inside just as i expected was the locket charlie's locket pulled it out flicked it opened and there it was the photo of me the one charlie took when we first started dating the one she put up in her gallery on that rainy seattle day the one which at the last second i turned away held up my hand and hid my face the only known photo of eve palmer

3:26:00How was that as a fucking payoff? Holy shit, the only known photo of Eve Palmer Her alter ego, whatever And then the Morse code there is going So where is Abigail going? Question mark Oh Gosh Where is Abigail going? Where is she going into the woods?

3:26:27that was uh truly remarkable for first first off i mean i feel like do you still believe that the fucking house is like this weird is like changing things yeah absolutely you think so yeah at the at the end okay if you think it's all a delusion then how at the end is there a locket from when the two of them started dating if charlie's just her caretaker i don't know it's like i think i maybe just read that as a thing of did he did she take a photo of her as a caretaker and just give it to her wear it on a locket yeah like charlie wear it on a locket i don't know if charlie would wear it on a locket or something i don't know if i i mean it's a very unreliable narrator thing i really don't by the end of this i definitely don't trust i don't think i don't know if i can trust anybody but i mean at least how i read it this first time through i'd be curious if i read it again if there'd be a different feel but unless we're delusion unless we're assuming she's delusional to the point of like full like hallucinations which is what i believe okay because there's stuff like she hits him with the hammer and he's like where are you going eve or he's like we built these woods we've been here for this long we blah blah blah if you think all those are hallucinations then sure but i think that he is something older some puppet master that we built this house right whatever these things are and i think that people keep showing up to the house and then as soon as someone shows up to this house before they're even moved in the family shows up thomas shows up and then they all come back to his own remember how she's running through the basement and like a prison there's numbered doors they're running past and stuff like that and they keep repeating over and over i think that's all the people who are in the psych ward and stuff like that i read that as like that's just their that's her perception of the the psych ward that she's familiarized with and it's like leaking into the house i think the the house is like i don't even know what the house is the the way that it's bleeding in through each other's or the way the house is like manufacturing or changing is like taking segmented parts of your psyche or your mind and stitching them together.

3:28:30Uh, whether that be through memories or through, uh, like things that are happening to her in the moment or in the now, I think that the delusion or like him being like, where are you going? Whatever I think is like the fabricated, like she's like hoisting that onto him. Like that, that's like her perception of him. I think this whole thing too, of even how she's talking to him or how he's talking to her is like this delicate kind of phrasing. And I think like, like the, the biggest thing here I keep trying to go back to is his first conversation. When page is gone, it seems like she's like, you know, I don't like, why are you like, what are you trying to do?

3:29:08Or like, well, not like, why are you talking to her? But I think it's like, I think that he knows it seems like from, sorry, collect my thoughts. It seems like she got out of the psych ward. He took her in and he's been living with them and she's been freaking the fucking kids out doing whatever. Now the whole thing with her being like, is she hiding from him? The context of the story. Now I'm almost wondering if a Jenny's just like, I'm going to hide and I'm not going to show myself in front of this girl. Where is she? Why, why she keeps going? It's like the girl is probably freaked the fuck out and he's like, Oh, she's probably going to show up eventually.

3:29:40And that's why they're also not so worried. is this nonchalant feeling of being like well she's hiding in a room because you scared the living fuck out of her would you even see that when she's leaving there's like that dread on her face or whatever i think that again unless you're assuming she's hallucinating which i understand you are i think that it has to be a supernatural or a time issue with the house because of the way physical items keep jumping or things keep moving so for example you have jenny who's a bright bubbly kid the facade's gone but then terrified at the end of the night obviously after her mom dies that same jenny is the one that hides in the house and is depressed at the beginning of the story but you have that happening with objects too you have the dumb waiter which is covered in wallpaper then they rip it down and then it's covered again you have the furniture physically moving just like abigail said the rooms keep changing the colors are changing the furniture moving stuff like that this house seems to be a rotary door that you can move through different points in time at the same place and they all kind of converge at this one moment and for whatever reason if thomas he said we built the house at the very least thomas can manipulate it he can change time he can bring people in and he can effectively trap them in the spiral of it i think your mind is in the right spot with that the house is a rotary door but i think it's literally her mind i just the one thing that i don't that's not connecting me with your theory is just the idea of like besides fucking with people what does the what would a thomas entity have on new people moving in versus uh this thing of like abigail or like an abigail person or somebody saying like the house is changing or moving i do think it's something where it's like things are manipulating and covering things back up and it's like some it's also through we're going through the guys potentially at least on the surface level of the story that it's through the eyes of an unreliable narrator so like things are patched up but is she seeing that correctly i think she's unreliable because she's made to be unreliable because reality is shifting around her what's interesting about both of our takes is these are both the correct takes of the story because the story is very clearly supposed to say she's either being gaslit into being crazy or these are her crazy thoughts right i think you could take it either way i think you take it either way i also think that on multiple readings i'm also 100 curious what this this so that translation fired up about this i am 100 we should definitely read this and talk about it because also just to just to reiterate too when we we were talking about the story there was morse code inside the book that led to hold on real quick before we get to that because i have a lot to say about that uh the reddit story we just read was 57 pages typed out on google this is a pdf 312 yeah so what do you do when you take that story and make it 312 pages well that's what i'm curious to even ask marcus about is be like which because i think he's going to lean heavier into a certain direction of either what you're saying of because i i'm one because here's the other thing too isaiah at the beginning of this you said you saw this thing there's new you saw the title page and you made you think of house of leaves or whatever yeah hold on that stuff i'm about to get fired up about that well let me just yeah yeah sorry go ahead yeah you're you're talking about house of leaves thing which i think is leaning you towards more of a house of leaves response probably i read this story so much in the vein of shutter island of leo and that the and it's like a thing of a man who has been And, like, it is that, like, ultimate deep psychosis of whatever issue it is.

3:33:22And at the end, it's, like, kind of that big reveal. And I kept just picturing, like, a Shutter Island kind of feel. Yeah. Harry, what do you think? Which way are you leaning? Yeah. I was split going to the end. I was leaning more towards Isaiah's take on it going in. But I do agree the weird. You're letting Thomas win. You're letting him get to. I think the tortoise painting thing, too, also felt like a full circle moment. The very last meeting of Thomas and them, because you can read it one way of, like, there needs, if he's going to meet and also reveal himself as the trickster, there needs to be a wing, which you could say is the locket of, like, I'm the only one that also knows and owns this photo of you as the actual you, and I'm gifting it back to you because we both know that I fucked you.

3:34:11but I do agree like hunters it's very interesting because the the way he speaks to her at the end to me very genuinely reads as as a brother who is grappled with that's right because he's good at it there are just like I don't know it's a really fun way of being able to do both I just think for me personally, the story is at its most effective and I was like, oh, that last line of the last known photo of Eve Palmer, which Charlie says to her, is almost something where if it is a caretaker or something, and I would assume that Abigail in the sense, or Eve, is saying like, oh, I'm Eve Palmer. And I don't see a world where the caretaker's like, no.

3:34:56I don't think that she's trying to neglect her fantasy, but I do think it's like, when she took a photo, she's been very hesitant to take any photos or whatever. it is like a fun thing of like that's the only photo of eve palmer because that is her alter ego or whatever and that's like such to me i was like oh come everywhere like i was like that's amazing such a payoff such a fun payoff and on the because again wait sorry sorry i zoned out for a second second what part did you say was such a fun payoff for me if it is the translation that that eve palmer was a alter ego yeah that the end part where she reiterates the line that charlie said the only known photo the only known photo of eve palmer is such a i mean that's a such a banger line at the end because if you think of it from this is reality warping and she's been tricked or whatever the eve palmer is somewhere else like a different dimension she's she's she's gone this is the only photo of eve palmer in this reality the way that you take it it is a thing of like that she's gone yeah like yeah yeah and i for me and i think that this also could be a way of, once again, such an awesome, I legitimately am going to jump into, this is going to be a fun thing of knowing the story now and then going in and being like, oh, that's a fun way of turning left and this way.

3:36:09I opened it and started looking, there's new character names, there's segments that have Morse code throughout them, and there's also part, oh. They did the House of Leafs thing, where midway through the narrative, it stops and gives like, like a note says if someone else is reading this book and then typing amendings and stuff like that because in house of leaves there's the narrative and then the the editor chimes in and is like this book they were talking about doesn't exist we have no idea what i think there could be a world too isaiah i'm curious is the r slash no sleep version from the from the perspective of a psychiatric person in a ward listing out what to stay in the confines of that narrative where it's like i don't know this is docket 19 interrogation and it's like a description of two characters in the story like it could be a thing where then in the book version maybe it plays more into like some kind of different house of leaves eve palmer calling except decline like there's a bunch of visual stuff i don't mean to keep cutting you off no no it's fine but all i know is it's it's it's one of those things where and i love stories that do this it's uh it's gonna of benefit from multiple readings of like how you read it each time that's like some of my favorite parts of even watching fucking movies you go through and you get something new out of each time it's like that's like that my love of like the thing the fascination with the thing is just kind of like have a fun interpretation of it but i mean legitimately though marcus thank you so much for these books to me and i'm so excited bro look at this giant letter scratch don't forget what house you're in like so there's uh new character names there's new segments and stuff i am so excited to see what this looks like as a as a novel length story man can you get this anywhere i know that i i know i've seen people posting on the subreddit right now they picked up a copy i saw people picking up at like barnes and noble i would assume that their stuff if you don't have a barnes and noble by you that there might be like i'm sure it's on amazon or anywhere that you could get a book gosh this is so cool and then is there but the the morse code thing so yeah he sent us two books so this is like his bestseller big deal that came out and then i think this is his most recent one it's called the caretaker uh another book that also has a house on the cover uh and looks creepy and then he marcus is that the from the fucking perspective of charlie no i opened it up and it says macy mullins can't say why the job posting grabbed her attention but i'm sure it's another house weird scenario that goes down it probably is because the morse code thing led us to he he gave us these things so here so course code and that translated to 258 we turned to 252 we turned to page 258 and then there was a tiny piece of paper let me let me pull it out so also just uh the the non-euclidean cardinal directions map and stuff like that what a doll yeah right here on 258 i turned here and then there was a little piece of paper on the inside which which had a thing here that said r slash old house archive which isaiah pointed out and the house is in red the same way that in house of leaves you see that on the camera in uh we'll put a photo up of it so in house of leaves uh anytime the word house appears in the book the word house regardless of the context is written in blue um so here at on the copies he sent us he gave us morse code which led us to a page which gives us the snippet that says r slash old house archive so then hunter looked it up our our slash old house archive is a collection of stories between himself about this like uh um i don't think it's just him i think there's other writers of all but there's a website called old house archive.net that is a collection of stories and like patient interviews it almost seems like the same way that like fucking lovecraft did stuff like building a universe with other writers we we just found out about this during a bathroom break so there we don't have everything up but i just it looks like and there's a the subreddit looks like it's active and people are adding stuff to it or like just someone someone posted something a few hours ago like and on the website there's all these logs with like these like weird directional um like i said like cardinal direction symbols but they're like carved off and strange and stuff and then as hunter pointed out in the front of the look at the cover of the caretaker that's so cool in the front of uh we used to live here there's all the drawings and schematics like a house of leaves thing like someone's trying to chart the impossible infrastructure of the house yeah um yeah that's in the open of uh we used to live here so it looks like marcus is either part of or founded this large universe of like a house of leaves-esque weird impossible structures and non-euclidean spaces and time shifting and there's the potential at all that in this universe it's all from the same house no because so on that website we were just we just scrolled through the logs and the title of one of the logs was um coat rack tulpa which is the thing in my basement and i don't think this house would be the thing in my basement house now i would say they all exist in the same universe you know you can imagine like a world where like these things continue to crop up over and over again for whatever reason um but i would say that but i don't think it's the same name of that her address didn't that sound familiar though 3719 heritage lane the heritage lane thing i don't know why i i'd have to go back through and see but i unless it's just something but i'm gaslighting house of house of leaves is ashtree lane well i guess more so i was thinking about the coat rack I just I don't know I don't know if they ever said the address there but it I'd be curious to see oh I know like very very fun and I will say Marcus incredible work I can't wait to dive into this I'm fired up man that story what like I said in the rafters this is this is I'm putting it I'll definitively say top five of the show for me it would be one two that I think it's going to be there's going to be a lot of discussion about like on rereads or like I'm curious if people I mean like because i believe that people have talked about this but have recommended this before but it's been gone and luckily like i said marcus gave us the pdf to read the no sleep version which 100 is going to be different than the thing you can get here so i'm curious too to where even in the future once we both have read this if we just have a little segment just talking about it yeah or discussing on like patreon or something where it can be it's well i want to i'm actually considering so the only other time i've ever done this on the show was mother horse eyes uh which i mean to me that's still my favorite thing we've run the show just because it was so it just hit every niche interest there was giants and cia and mk alder and all that um but after we did mother horse eyes i went and i i went through all of like uh the different reddit theories around it and all the posts and i made a video on my own channel i'm thinking because at some point i will make a house of leaves video but honestly i want to get like people on site and do like some clever because house of leaves is such a clever book i don't want to do it the disservice of just talking about it i want to do some fun stuff with the edit and visuals and whatnot sure so eventually i will make a video on that but it looks like marcus with with this and honestly also with the thing in my basement um it seems like he has begun to create an expanded universe or at least be a part of it around a spiritual successor to house of leaves or like successors and all these stories and like the website and the different patient logs and interviews.

3:43:52And there was like MP3 files on there to like listen to audio recordings of stuff. So I'm thinking I'm going to read these books and I'm going to dive the website and I'm, I'm feeling pretty heavy. I want to make a video about it. This, uh, and this, I mean, just, it's cool seeing something from an author that's still so active. I mean, like this, I looked on the back here, it says 2024 as the copyright. I mean, like, it's just cool. I'm very curious to see uh what else he does next with it it's so cool we talk about this a lot how like there's so many great authors like you know you're talking about arkham house and lovecraft and stuff like that uh but it's so cool it's like right now people are still you know making stories in these interconnected worlds and things like that i mean the more that i even think about us reading this show and stuff a lot of it just comes from like did a title grab you did we i mean we had luckily we have an audience that helps us recommend stuff and everything and point us in a direction but i I can't even imagine being an author in the history of, I mean, all of literature with just the sheer amount of volume of stuff that's still being made and stuff.

3:44:50It would be a fucking crazy to be able to rise to the top like this is insane. And I'm, I just feel lucky enough that we get to like read cool shit like this. Yeah. As mentioned before, huge, huge, thank you to Marcus and Simon and Schuster. Yeah. Simon and Schuster. Thanks for letting us read the. Yeah. Because the original Reddit, you know, it's got the copyright stuff, but they're like, no, go ahead with it. And now we've read a 57 page Reddit. story that I'm fired up to read like a thousand pages coming up about the rest of Marcus. I mean, and like I said, if you did like the story, please consider going out and picking up the book.

3:45:21They were very cool and let us read this. Otherwise we, we wouldn't have been able to touch it. So very, very cool. And also it's awesome that it's always satisfying at the end of an episode when you can say, if you like that, there's an updated version that the author is also like got to fine tune and stuff, which very rarely in any kind of creative circle can you experience, I mean, like what, the Snyder cut? That's about it. The V2. Very, very cool. Thank you so much, guys, for watching this episode. If you were listening to this on audio platforms, consider us giving us a nice rating there.

3:45:54And then also consider going to the Patreon for extra content and to support the channel. We thank you so much, y 'all. Stay creeped. Stay creeped. And because I hope this story sparks a civil war in the comments section, all of us... eve truthers are need to wage war against the um um the thomas what's what's the word for someone who's like complicit evangelicals bro the tom truthers what what is the uh what what is the uh the word for someone who's complicit in something accomplice the tom complices the evangelicals need to defeat the tom complices over here as they perpetuate the gaslighting against our very righteous and correct eve palmer don't let eve palmer's name die say her name um evangelicals for the win

3:47:01All right.

3:47:42I'll see you next time.