The Thing in the Basement is Getting Better At Mimicking People | Creep Cast
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Welcome back to another enthralling episode of Creepcast. Today we're going to be talking about the thing in the basement is getting better at mimicking people. And before we get into this, I just wanted to say be sure and check us out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, all those other places. It helps us out a ton. And also, I like to think that I'm not the best looker, so I think I'm better to listen to, if I'm being honest.

Right? Little deal? I see all the people dreamboating over you, dude, but I don't get that kind of love. I've seen some people dreamboat over you. I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, whatever, dude. I sent you the fan that was talking about a certain kind of choo-choo train, if you know what I mean, that involved both of us. Okay, dude. All right.

This is a four-part series here. Just bring this past it. Completely zoom past it. Okay, go ahead. It's a four-part series here. Once again, as is tradition on the show, I have no idea about this story, but this is one that people have, I've seen, requested quite a

a bit and I'm pretty stoked. The title is so intriguing. I like it. Yeah. So this is one of those occasions. I think I may have to go back and look, but I had at least heard about everything that we've covered so far before the podcast, right? Maybe not read it, but I heard about it. This is the first one that the first time I ever heard about it was in comments for Creepcast. People were like, you should check this out. So yeah,

I'm completely blind. I'm as blind as you are on this one, so I'm excited to see how it goes. And if it's awful, it's your fault. Like, audience. It's your fault, audience. Well, okay. I was going to say, I thought I had to take the weight there. No, not you. I'll put it on the audience as well. This is written by ThatXOGuy, user ThatXOGuy. Oh, it was two years ago. I wonder if that's kind of why it was past years. Because I feel like a lot of the stuff that you know...

I feel like a lot of the stuff that you know is like, it was a little bit like maybe five to seven years ago is where you're most...

You know what I mean? It's stuff I had late high school, like college. That's like my area of expertise. But yeah, that's why this is off my radar. But that's not to say, you know, bad story. I mean, good stories can't come out since then. Not to say bad stories can't come out since then. Not to say good stuff can't come out since then. So I'll see what you kids are up to, what you Zoomers are up to.

have got in store i'm stoked i mean i'm ready to get into it so i mean i guess without further ado let's read the thing in the basement is getting better at mimicking people let's go for it same as always you you got quotes and i got the i got the uh the diet the other stuff

That is right. And I want to say that, you know, we don't have to be rocket scientists to know that there's going to be a lot of mimicking here. So if one if character sounds similar, I don't know what I'm supposed to tell you. All right. I'll have a slight deviation, but it's probably going to be a little bit of rough pumpkins throughout this deal. All right. That's all I got to say. If it becomes like an issue, I could take one maybe like I did left right game. But until then, I'm happy to see you like flail and suffer.

Yeah, well, that's fine. As long, you know, the cap apparently so far is, I think, left-right game was, what, seven characters? So I got six in the bag. As long as we can sit in six, I think we'll be alright. Yeah, as long as people start dying, you're good to go, right? We're perfect. We're gravy. Alright, cool, cool. Let's get into it. Let's do it. Part one.

I never had a close relationship with Sarah, my older half-sister. She was born out of my dad's earlier marriage, so by the time I came into the picture, she was already a teenager. We didn't argue or fight. We simply never spent time together. I was starting kindergarten when she moved out, and she wasn't thrilled about having a younger brother.

I barely saw her as I got older, meeting only occasionally during holiday get-togethers or in the once-in-a-blue-moon visits. But we were on good terms. So when the cops called us a few days ago to let us know they found her body, I was devastated. Some neighbors apparently called 911 when they heard screams and saw smoke coming out of the house.

Okay, first of all, out of the gate, this story's just, like, full throttle. Ha ha ha!

Like, I mean, I was like, good God. Yes. Second paragraph, we've got a charred body. Like, whoa. Yeah. You know what's kind of interesting is it kind of reminds me of Midsommar a bit whenever the girl unalives herself with her family in the house as well. And now we're kind of having this estranged relative as the sister in Midsommar as well, who's kind of picking up the pieces after the fact.

So I like that the similarity is fun, but this is, yeah, I mean, paragraph two, my God, we're just already in it. Just slap right to the face. Out of the gate. All right, let's go with it. They couldn't identify her given the body state, but all of the evidence pointed towards an accident. She didn't have a husband or kids, so the duty of burying her fell on us. The funeral is what you'd expect under such circumstances. Lots of crying and mourning around a closed casket.

But the deed was done. I was left an only child. And a few days later, we took to scouring her house and doing an inventory of her belongings. It was an all-around unpleasant experience on many levels. It felt so wrong to go through her things like that. But with her only living relatives being my father and I, we inherited her house and possessions. We decided we didn't want them, so we'd sell almost everything.

The plan was to only keep some of Sarah's stuff as mementos, things like pictures and whatnot. I went along with Dad to help, and we went room by room, cataloging items one by one. Given the small size of the house, it went pretty fast, but we started late into the day, and so we wouldn't be able to finish by nightfall.

One of the detectives wants to drop by later. Says he, oh, sorry. Says he has some, oh my God, let me restart that. One of the, okay, first line, Nari did great. One of the detectives wants to drop by later. Says he has some more investigating to do. God, I know, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that was the worst. No, what's funny was your recovery of it, because you're like, ah, stupid, stupid. Idiot, idiot.

You know what? So this is the dad. You know what? Fuck it. I'm giving him a bat. One of the detectives wants to drop by later. Says he has some more investigating to do. That's what you get. That's what you viewers get for making me feel so bad about messing up that first line. My first thing. Hunter, you are...

This hell you're in was constructed by you. No, no, no. That's forever the dad's voice. I don't care what it does to the story. That is the dad's voice moving forward. What if it becomes like a very dramatic, like serious character? Well, then it's going to get very awkward very quickly. One of the detectives wants to drop by later. Says he has some more investigating to do.

All I'm doing. Okay, the audience isn't here right now. This is a recording. All that I did was laugh at your recovery. You talked yourself into memeing the dad. I'm in my own hell. Okay. I'm in my own hell. All right, as long as we acknowledge who did it. Yes, I did it. I did it. Okay, so Bugman Dad says that. My dad said as we were getting ready to leave.

He asked for someone to stay here tonight, but work won't allow me. Could you do it, champ? Uh, sure. I mumbled, not in the least thrilled about the prospect. Dad packed a small box of trinkets in his trunk, and off he went home. The only room we hadn't gone into was the basement, and I wasn't about to do it by myself. The wooden door leading into it was wide open, charred by the fire and black with soot.

The basement itself was in similar condition, ravaged by the fire and by the fireman's attempts to put it out. It unnerved me to no end, so I dragged a chair out on the porch and spent the evening there. I smoked half a pack of cigarettes and drank some old beer left behind in the fridge, all while the neighbors regarded me with curiosity. A few of them even approached me, giving me their condolences when they found out I was Sarah's younger brother. The detective finally arrived at sundown, pulling onto the street in an old beater car.

He looked like your average guy when he stepped out, dressed in a cheap suit and a loose coat hanging on his shoulders. Hello, I'm Detective Marcus. He introduced himself. Clancy. Nice to meet you, Detective. Likewise. I'd offer you a beer, but I'm assuming you can't drink on duty. Might as well. Marcus said with a shrug of his shoulders. I'm off the clock and I'll be here all night. That took me by surprise, but who's I'd argue with the man?

I fetched him a chair and a beer, so he sat down and lit up a cigarette as well. We had some admittedly awkward small talk, but the subject quickly moved to Sarah and her death. Marcus asked the usual questions. Was she depressed? Did she go out or was she a shut-in? Did she have any friends or romantic partners he could question? All perfectly reasonable questions meant to dig up new leads, but I was the wrong person to try and answer them. I wasn't particularly close to Sarah, so I didn't know most of the answers that Marcus wanted.

He reassured me. It was getting late and darkness settled, so we went inside. I led Marcus to the living room and he shared some of the case details with me after we made ourselves comfortable.

The reason I wanted to stay in this house overnight is this. As he spoke, he pulled out a smartphone and browsed some files on it. I'll warn you, they're pretty... disturbing. If you want me to stop at any moment, just say so. He pressed play on an audio file and laid the phone down on the small table between us. We both leaned in as Sarah's voice resounded from the speakers. I'll do my best to write down what she said from memory, as I don't have access to the recordings. Recording 1.

Recording 2. Some breathing is heard in the background and the phone gets set down. Footsteps walk away from the microphone, then it's quiet for a long time.

Marcus skips through most of the recording, as it's nearly nine hours long. About two hours in, around midnight, the microphone catches a distant crash. Some skittering follows, sounding like a cat running around on bathroom tiles. It goes on for a few hours, with long pauses between bouts. A deep voice calls out weakly. "What the hell?" I let out. Marcus paused the recording and looked at me. "Do you want me to stop it?" he asked. I contemplated this offer.

On one hand, whatever followed had the potential to traumatize me for life. But on the other hand, the sheer curiosity would eat me up alive if I didn't find out more. So I gave in and told him to let it play. The voice calls again. This time sounded more human. Is... is it... is anyone... is anyone there? No one answers it. The voice falls silent and the skittering carries it away from the microphone. No more sounds are heard that night. Recording 3.

What the hell? What the hell? I knew it. Someone's living in my basement. Recording four. I calmed down a bit. I was terrified after I listened to the last recording, so I ran out of the house and called the cops. A squad car came after about half an hour, and the bastard took their sweet time. I showed them the recording. I went back inside, accompanied by a cop, and we checked out the basement. No one was there. We turned the place inside out, and we checked everything, but the room is small.

Recording 5. The sound of the phone being placed down is heard, and Sarah's footsteps follow.

She leaves, and the recording is silent for a few hours. Marcus skips ahead through it until another distant crash is caught. Skittering returns, stopping a few feet away from the microphone. The voice calls out. "Is... is anyone there?" It sounds more... feminine than the last time. Still inhuman, sort of like an artificially generated voice, but verging on crossing the uncanny valley into unnatural sounding territory.

It calls out a few more times over the span of a few hours, sounding more and more like a woman. When it becomes apparent that no one will answer its calls, the voice stops. The skittering takes it away from the microphone, and the rest of the recording is silent. This is getting all kinds of freaky. I mumbled. I know. Marcus admitted. Never seen anything like it before. Do you recognize the voice by any chance? Not a clue. I admitted.

"It doesn't sound familiar." "I was afraid that would be the case," Marcus said with a sigh. "Sarah confirms a possible identity to the voice later in the recording, but I wanted to double check." "Then maybe show it to Dad?" I provided a solution. "He was closer to Sarah than me. He might have an idea." Marcus fell silent for a long moment. He joined his hands beneath his chin and leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table. The look in his eyes turned grim and worried.

"I'm sorry, sonny." He said out of the blue. "For all you've heard so far, and for all that's to follow. But I'm glad it's not your father that decided to stay. These recordings might just break him." "What?" Aias dumbfounded. "What's that supposed to mean?" "It will all make sense if you keep listening." Marcus answered. The change in his demeanor was strange, and the night took an unnerving turn. I should have backed out. I should have kicked him out. I should have done a lot of things differently.

But my curiosity mounted to levels beyond my ability to rein it in. So I proceeded to listen further. Man. All right. So that's the ending of recording or that's the, the, before we get into recording six here, it's a pretty interesting buildup. I like that. It's, it's, it's building up that obviously something like pretty crazy happens, but even this Marcus guy, she kind of, or Sonny kind of alludes to the idea of I should have kicked him out. I should have done a lot of things differently. So I'm wondering what Marcus is thinking.

Getting ready to reveal. Or, I don't know, dare I say this early on, that Marcus could possibly be the creepy person in the basement? I don't know. I don't know. So, I'm very interested. It has me hooked. Great opener.

My curiosity, I'm saying this as a bit of a cynic, right? My curiosity is if it keeps this energy up, right? Because this is like a bat to the skull way to start a story, right? My sister's dead on fire. A cop pulls up. He gives me tapes. It's my sister. There's a thing in her basement. Like it's...

And you know what? If it builds off this, or if this is a cold open or something, that's the setup for the rest of the story. Stellar. I love it. This is so much fun. Because I'm already around the campfire in my head. It's already creepy. I'm already freaked out. And we're not even halfway through the first part. So I'm excited. This is good.

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Recording six, let us go on. That was mom? Sarah cries into the microphone for a few minutes before the recording ends. Oh, interesting. So recording six, she was...

So Sarah is thinking that the person in the basement is mimicking her mother at this point. Yeah. I wonder if... Does he mention his mom anywhere before? I don't think so, right? Does he say anything? I don't think so, because it seems like it's the... Also, I believe it's the mom from a different marriage? Early marriage. Yes. Right? Yeah. So it's like, I don't think that even Sonny knows what this is.

That also explains why the cop was like, I'm glad you're here. You know, because you never even knew this mom that she's talking about. Yeah, that makes sense. He's like, it's probably going to be a lot easier for you to know. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Right. This is pretty... Okay. All right. Recording seven. I don't know. Mom's dead. Yeah, I don't know how I like that.

You know what? Call me old-fashioned. Talking to dead ladies. Not my cup of tea. Well, I'm even just thinking about being down in my basement right now, and I think I hear my deceased mother, like... Oh, God. Well, also, she's doing a thing, too. It's weird. She's like... That was my mom calling out. I don't want to talk to her. She's been gone for so long. Like...

I feel like a lot of stories would take an angle about being like, oh, I want to, you know, I miss my mom. Like, that's a huge part of like, talk to me as a girl is trying to reach out to her deceased mom. So I don't know, just this thing of like, I don't want to talk to her. It's been so long. It's kind of the opposite. Uh,

uh the opposite reaction i would expect from either a deceased mom right i find myself as i get older i get more scared by like concepts of mimicry you know like family members and stuff like that because i i think it's just i was so desensitized to it as a kid because everything you read is like it was wearing my mom's face or it looked like my dad or you know whatever um but thinking about like

A literal scenario where an unexplainable thing looks like your parent or your loved one or something like that. And it's like trying to sound like them. The more I think about it, the more I don't like it. The more it bothers me. Well, this one's interesting too because she's not even seeing it. Yeah, it's just audio. It's just all sound. So in her head, it's like now she's visualizing that in her mind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Alright, so...

Recording 8. The recording is silent for a long time. It turns off abruptly about half an hour. I jumped back in my chair at the sudden interjection, completely absorbed by my thoughts. Marcus gave me a thoughtful nod of his head in answer, and he played the next recording, Recording 9.

I'll start another recording. Who are you? Who the hell are you? How do you have my mother's voice?

The voice repeats. Footsteps resound again, approaching the voice as it says the same line over and over. Sarah demands. Knocking is heard as if someone bashes a door with their fist. The voice coos. Voice lets out a few garbled words, but they are unintelligible. Its pitch and annotation adjust before it speaks again. Sarah, is that you? I was left stupefied.

The uncanny valley was finally crossed, and the voice sounded decidingly human for the first time. It held none of the animalistic traits from before. The subtle anger and malice in it was gone, replaced by a deep sense of compassion and worry. Haven't seen you in so long. Sarah weeps silently in the background, but she doesn't answer the voice again. It, however, keeps calling out. I've, I've missed, missed you.

Footsteps sound out as Sarah backs away, and the voice grows distant. It calls out over and over again, but the facade cracks. It can't maintain its grasp on the charade for long, and it devolves back into the uncanny valley slowly. The footsteps pick up speed until they turn into a run. After a few seconds, the voice becomes inaudible. A door is opened and closed shut with force, and Sarah starts crying uncontrollably.

The recording stops. Oof. I just want to say, we're not done with the recording, but I just want to say this is... That's... Oof.

That's pretty crazy. The Uncanny Valley aspect of it is really fun to read, by the way. It's really, really cool. Dude, your voice gave me chills. That's why I was giggling, because when you would go back and forth at the same time, that was hot. Jesus Christ, it's hot. All right, easy now. I'm thinking about that choo-choo train edit, my bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The so wait, just to clarify as well, because I don't know if I'm the only one. Usually I'm the only one thinking this. So apologies. But is Sarah. She's she can't see the thing. She can only hear the creature moving around or whatever. Like whatever kind of random entity this is. Right. Okay. So the way this reads to me is initially. Yes.

But in this recording nine, she's closer to it because it says her footsteps join the skittering. So it sounds like they're in the same position, you know, relative to the recorder. And then you hear, hello, who are you, mom? And then, what are you? Why do you have my mother's voice? Who are you? And then it says the footsteps resound again, approaching the voice. And then it says... You know what I'm thinking? Sorry to interrupt you. Is that...

It makes me think that, like, she's in a dark... Like, Sarah is in this dark basement. And, like, maybe she's, like, trying to, like, turn on the light, but can't turn it. Like, it's definitely a dark thing. So I'm just imagining, like, one burnt-out light bulb or, like, broken light bulb in the center. Yes, exactly. And just, like, that little chain... The little chain you have to turn on the light, it's just, like, barely swaying. So you, like, see that, like, the creature...

messed with it like in my mind's eye that's what i that's what i'm saying and even to do something where it's like you barely see something in the in the darkness of a room is so creepy yeah so i have the exact same idea i kind of imagine sarah is maybe in like a cone of light right and

And then there's something in like the shadow of the basement that's getting closer. And I think at the line after Sarah yells, answer me. And then the voice says, Sarah, my dear, is that you? Sarah doesn't speak after that here. And the last thing we see about her is it says she weeps silently and then says footsteps sound as Sarah backs away. So I think at that point she saw whatever it is.

I was wondering if she's, I'm wondering if, if she didn't see what it was, but she was like, this is not my mom. Well, I mean, look at this, this paragraph, the footsteps pick up speed until they turn into a run. After a few seconds, the voice becomes inaudible. The doors open and close shut with force. And Sarah starts crying uncontrollably. So she saw it turns around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Took off. Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah, I don't know. I mean, we still got to read on, but I almost see that she was so horrified by it. Because you know, the only light source I'm thinking is coming from into the basement is from, I would assume, the doorway that is opened up. Like the door leading into the basement, I assume that stayed open. And it's just like the small trickle of light to where there's a little bit of light coming down, but it's like the entire basement is shrouded in darkness. So yeah, I assume that she...

Saw something or maybe she saw the silhouette of something. It freaked her out or she came to terms with something and ran away and is just like totally in shambles. All right, let's keep going. I will say so my early like again, we're not even halfway through part one, but my initial thing is I think this would kill as an audio show.

Oh yeah, yeah. And I'm sure there's some out there and we'll... We'll do what we always do and look into it, you know, as we get into the course. Yeah, look into it and be sure and give a nice shout out at the end for some of the stuff that we found for sure. Absolutely, yeah. So let's keep going. The recordings are time stamped, Marcus said. After this one ended, Saren didn't make another one for a few days. Considering what I just heard, I didn't know what to answer. I kept silent, mulling over my own thoughts and feelings on the matter.

As intriguing as the situation was, I mostly felt horrified and sorry for Sarah. I couldn't even begin to imagine what must have gone through her head after living through that. "Why are you showing me all of this? If you really are a detective and part of the police force, you'd lock stuff like this away behind ten locks and keys."

What a weird thing to say. Why specifically 10 locks a game? How old is the kid here that's like a 12-year-old statement? You'd put, I don't know, 10 locks on that? Like a high number? You'd put this stuff in Diagon Alley. It just makes pop culture reference. You'd have to catch this with the Infinity Gauntlet. What is this place? What do you mean it's where wizards and wizards go? Oh, I've never heard of such a place.

Oh, Mark is you crazy little goose. What is this? Some kind of horcrux? Yeah, she's like, what is this, a horcrux you have here? Yeah, has like a Deathly Hallows ankle tattoo. This is actually a 32-year-old woman. Ha, I guess this creature sure was up to no good, huh? I bet he solemnly swore it. Ha, ha, ha.

Marcus is like, I'm begging you to please stop. I don't understand what you're doing, but I know it's a reference to something and I don't care. What the hell is a Hufflepuff? What the hell do you mean, Hufflepuff? Man, Marcus, whatever this thing was, it's a Slytherin for sure. Yeah, well, I better not. I hope Sarah didn't find the sorting hat down there. Who knows what house she would have been in.

Okay, well I'm going to keep playing the recordings of this crazy deity attacking your stepsister. The references don't even make sense. It's like, wow, I sure do feel like a Malfoy about this. Like, it's just...

Man, this sure is Hagrid. Marcus, you're giving off Hagrid energy. Did you know that? You're being so Hagrid right now. You better watch your tone, is what he says. Man, this is serious. So serious, it's black. Did you like that pun, Marcus? He's already gone. He's in his car driving away down the road.

The creature from the... The creature, like, crawls in the house and is just like, I was gonna do a bunch of stuff, but... I had, like, this whole four-part series planned out. That's so funny. I was gonna do a bunch of stuff. I was like, I had this whole thing planned with the lights. They were gonna go out and I was gonna pit her around. I was gonna do a bunch of stuff, but I can't be bothered.

Him and Marcus drive away together, the creature and Marcus. She was just driving me up a wall. Let's try that again. Let's start over. We'll have to burn another teenage woman. But no, you'd lock stuff like this away behind tin locks and keys. I'm not going to let that slow us down. Yeah, yeah, continue it. Marcus leaned back in his own chair, thinking my question over. He pulled out his crumpled up pack of cigarettes and retrieved one from it.

I pushed the ashtray closer to his side of the table as he lit it up, and he bellowed out a cloud of white smoke. All in due time. His eyes scanned me in a fashion completely different from before, with a cold and calculated look behind them. What do you think so far? I... fuck, I don't know. What the hell is going on? Answer me, Clancy, and be honest. Whether or not I'll show you more depends on it.

Yeah, that's kind of a weird thing. The kid's name's Clancy, though. I like that name, so I'll let it slide. Yeah, well, first he said Sonny, and now he says Clancy. Is Sonny just supposed to be like... Sonny's just like a boomer way to greet a kid. Well, hi, Sonny. So Clancy. So this isn't a 32-year-old woman. This is a 32-year-old man who's a Harry Potter fanatic. Clancy. Right? Clancy? Is Clancy a man or a girl? Clancy's a boy's name, yeah. Yeah, earlier in the story, he said he's the older brother.

Oh, that's right. Okay. Or younger brother. Younger brother, I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, you know that the boy's younger, right? Yeah. Like, lives with his parents. Yeah. He's not 32. No, but I like to imagine it. Oh, okay. In your head, canon. In my mind, I. I see. Okay. All right. I don't want to take that from you. Yeah, no. I imagine Clancy is, I'd say teens, right? Which is still kind of weird. I'm going to guess like 15, 16. Yeah.

I would say it's kind of weird that a detective is singling out a 15, 16-year-old kid. It's also illegal. And he's like, what do you think? Be serious. What do you think of this? He's like, ah, it's weird. I don't know. And he's like, okay, perfect. We'll keep going. What if he's like, I don't know, it's pretty normal? He's like, all right, good day. Get some leaves. I just want to freak you out. I know you can't tell me anything. All right, well, this is no fun. Goodbye. I racked my brain, but I was truly and utterly stumped.

The situation devolved too fast for me to keep up, and I didn't know what to think anymore. But I could tell that that wasn't the answer Marcus wanted. It's... I don't know. A ghost? A demon? A skinwalker? What is this? Some kind of creepcast? I've been listening to a lot of creepcasts, and these are just some suggestions that I have. What are we? Some kind of suicide squad? What?

Yeah, maybe the entity has a, I don't know, some kind of cave where he goes and impregnates tons of people? I don't know, right? Marcus is like, what the hell are you talking about?

You know what's funny? I didn't know what you were talking about for a second. I'm like, cave and pregnant. And I'm like, oh, wait, I did that. Yeah, that was me. And then a slight tumor grows in the back of your head, and it's just like, Boroska. Yeah, yeah, it just follows me around, yeah. See, now that I was able to pass on the curse to you all, and specifically you, Hunter, I just have pleasant memories of Boroska. What a nice little story. Psychopath. Yeah, psychopath, yeah. Marcus seems surprised by that.

He pushed the cigarette away from his... That's kind of funny. Marcus seems surprised by that. You mean by him saying a skinwalker? Marcus seems surprised. Yeah, the detective's like, what do you think happened to your sister? And the boy's like, I think a skinwalker caught her. Hmm. That's surprising. I don't know why you thought that, but...

I was just going to say someone, you know, pretended to be your mom. What are you talking about? I don't know. She's probably a guy broken to your house, but okay. Yeah, home invasions are pretty common. What is a skinwalker? I don't even know what the fuck a skinwalker is to be completely... I've only seen documentaries where it's like Skinwalker Ranch. No one ever really says what it is. Oh, you don't know what a skinwalker is? No, I have no idea. This is a safe space. The comments will bully you, but I won't. So...

A skinwalker is a creature from... It's a lot of, like, Western American, Native American mythology, but primarily, like, the Navajo. It's effectively...

was a shaman or like medicine man who became a witch doctor, began to practice in like, you know, darker sides of, you know, mysticism or tradition and stuff like that, and began to develop the qualities of dark spirits. So in a lot of renditions of the story, they either become a cannibal or they become some kind of killer or

And using the dark spirits that they've taken on, they can shapeshift into the forms of various animals that they kill. So if the shaman or if the witch doctor kills a coyote, he can wear the skin of the coyote and become one. But it's always implied that there's something a little off about it. Maybe their cry doesn't sound quite right. Maybe their legs don't move the way they're supposed to.

That's why when you see like uncanny animals, people will be like, is that a skinwalker? Okay. And like, that's the original story. It blends a lot with like Wendigo imagery where people say it's not really like a medicine man. It's kind of just like a monster that can shape shift. But yeah, skinwalker basically means a shape shifter.

Okay. It would be the same thing if they killed and ate a human being? Would they be able to take the likeness of that human? Yeah. It's not always they have to eat them. It's normally they have to wear the skin of them. But in some stories, they're cannibals too. Okay. But yeah, yeah. So say it killed someone you knew and pretended to be them. From a distance, it'd look fine. But then you got closer. Maybe they walk differently. Maybe their face looks a bit off. Maybe their speech is a bit different. That's like the idea. Yeah.

Okay, well, yeah, I sympathize with Marcus being slightly surprised then. Yeah, yeah, fair. He's like, go on. You were saying. You were saying. He pushed the cigarette away from his face, letting out another lungful of smoke. And you believe that? That it could be something supernatural? What the fuck else could it be? What do you think it is? What I think is irrelevant. I want to know what you believe.

God, dude, what is up with Marcus? This is like some weird... I don't know. Maybe Marcus isn't a cop, or maybe he is, but he's been chasing some supernatural angle for a while or something. Yeah, well, I don't know. That's what I believe. Maybe, hold on, maybe he's not a cop at all. Maybe he just... Because the only person who said he's a cop

is Clancy's dad. So maybe he has been following like supernatural leads. Thanks. Yeah. I mean, supernatural. And then it's like, Oh, I'm a cop. Can I talk to your son? Him being so hung up on that either makes you think that the dad is like very mental and well, or something, something that makes him be like the validity of, of, uh, Clancy's responses where he would need to be like, I need to know if you think this is supernatural or something that could actually happen or something. Like, I don't know. Um, Clancy says, that's what I believe.

Marcus said with a satisfied smirk. He put out the cigarette in the ashtray and leaned over the phone, placing a finger over its screen. I... yeah. Start the next one.

I don't know for sure why I decided that. We could sit here all day while I blame curiosity or, more likely, stupidity, but those answers would be half-truths at best. It didn't feel like a want at the time. It felt like a need. I needed to go through with it. I needed to hear all of it. The reasons I felt that way didn't matter at that moment. "I have a good feeling about you, kid." Marcus mumbled as his finger tapped the screen and started the next recording.

Recording 10. It's driving me nuts. Whoever's messing with me comes back. I hear them even now. The microphone picks up footsteps, and a door creaks open slowly. Faint mumbling comes from the distance, accompanied by the familiar skittering. It pauses for a brief moment before it speaks up. Sarah. The voice calls out, not entirely human. Please, just. The door closes shut with a loud thud, and Sarah retreats back into the room.

I tried a lot of things over the past few days. Balls from the basement. So I got locks and put... They're untouched. So whoever it is isn't coming from outside of the house. It hides in there somehow. I called the cops again while the thing was there, but... But it left when the cops arrived. The two officers asked me to unlock the door and they checked the basement again. But, Lone Bull, it's as empty as last time. I'm not sure what they think of me. Maybe they suspect I'm fucking with them. So... So I can't rely on their help. So she slept over yesterday. The thing somehow knew I wasn't alone because...

She offered a solution. Get a roommate or a boyfriend. Someone to live with me. Do you know this Amy? Marcus asked as the recording ended. I think Sarah mentioned her a few times, but I never met her. I looked over my shoulder as I answered. At the corridor leading to the kitchen. The basement door was on one of the walls there, and I could see the locks mentioned in the recording. They hung open on the door, but they were still intact.

Argus snapped his fingers to get my clearly distracted attention, and he pointed down at the phone. "Want to keep going?" "Yeah." "Before I hit play, I want to ask you something again. Did you by any chance suffer any mental trauma as a child, or even recently? Something that shook you to your core?" I raised an eyebrow at the strange question. "No. Why? You're taking all of this surprisingly well. Your mental fortitude is pretty high."

That's sometimes a sign of, never mind. He hit play before I could pry him for more details, so I fell silent to not miss it. But I made up my mind. When it was over, Marcus would have a lot of answering to do. Okay, so clearly Marcus is, like, putting together some, like, Avengers initiative, right? That whole, your mental fortitude's pretty high. It's a sign of, you know, clairvoyant children or whatever. Well, now I'm wondering if he's almost wondering if this thing is...

Is our main protagonist? Maybe. What do you think about that? I mean, you mean like, does he think Clancy is the creature?

Yeah, I don't know. That'd be a great mimic if it got him this far. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. I'm wondering where does Marcus come into this to where he's so knowledgeable about it? Because really the thing about it is, yes, it is creepy what we're hearing so far, but I don't think it's overtly disturbing. I mean, it is, but I just mean it's not like you're hearing Sarah get...

mauled to death or something like that one grizzly bear like the documentary about the grizzly man whatever and then the guy listens to the audio of him getting attacked like that would be shocking to be like well that's weird maybe he's a skinwalker you know like that would be odd

But so far, it's just people mimicking back and forth to a person that he kind of doesn't know very well. And now it is creepy because they're still in the house, right? They're in the house. He sees the locks over there. So I didn't know if Marcus is maybe suspicious. He's like, huh. You know, for hearing all this weird stuff, you're really not reacting the way that I thought you would. I can't tell if he's reading him or what. I see what you're saying. That might be...

I don't think it's correct. I'm just saying I'm trying to get a grip on what's happening. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Back here at the top, it says he goes with his dad and they go room by room. So as far as unless something changes later in the recording, the house has this mimic in it while Clancy and his dad are in there. They go room by room. Given the small size of the house, it went pretty fast. And then the dad says one of the detectives wants to drop by. He says he has some more investigating to do.

He asks for someone to stay here tonight, but work won't allow me. Could you do it, champ? And he says, sure.

So is I'm thinking maybe the dad was the thing you know oh Maybe I can't stay yeah, and he's just like the damage has been done in the dad line. We'll see I'm gonna see that too. Yeah, also. What kind of dad is just like hey You know this house that kind of like burnt down or whatever and some people died in here Hey, would you mind just staying for a bit? But I just I have such a busy night ahead at my job. Oh

Yeah, try not to think about the smell here. That's your sister's flesh. Don't worry about it. See that kind of stuff that's, you know, your feet are tracking all over the floor and stuff? You hear that sticky noise whenever you step? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, the ashes that are on your feet that you're tracking on the floor, that's actually your sister's burnt skin. It's the ash of her burnt skin, so don't worry about that. I have to go to my job. I have to. Totally metal, bro. All right, so you talk to the cops. I'm going to go get some roadies. We're going to take care of them. We're going to do what we got to do. Yeah, do a little booze cruising. Got to steady me for the road, son, you know? Yeah, have fun, 12-year-old child of mine.

Have fun talking to the cops, nerd! Idiot! Peace! Recording 11. I tried my best to ignore it. I slept at a friend's house some nights, but that's getting harder to pull off. I tried looking for roommates, but no one wants to share a small house with this stupid pandemic. And my search for a boyfriend is just fruitless. I'm old for the dating scene. I keep at it, but from the looks of things, everyone's mostly down to fuck and not much else.

Ah.

And I can't risk telling them. There's no chance in hell they'll take me if they think I'm crazy. Sorry, I did that because your theory right there was like, maybe I can move in with Dad. Dude, it's setting something up. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. Also, I know this is kind of a lame criticism for horror stories, I understand. But at the same time, leave.

You're in the house. The house is weird. Don't be in the house. Well, yeah. I mean, I was going to wait until we got done with our first recording here. Okay, yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah, I was just saying, I do have some criticism so far. Well, okay, hold on. Yeah, you're right. It can wait. We'll continue with the story. Hearing that, hearing her opinion of me and mom, it stung.

Sure, we weren't more than acquaintances, but we're not horrible people. We would have taken Sarah in if she reached out to us, so to know that her salvation was so close, kept at bay only by superficial assessments of us, it sucked, plain and simple. And if she would have showed us the recordings, we might have even believed her, especially Dad. "'Play the next one,' I demanded before Marcus had a chance to say anything. "'You sure? You sound a bit riled up. Maybe. Play it!'

Marcus sighed deeply, but he did as he was told. Recording 12. I've been almost a month now, but it's still here. It's going to drive me insane for real. Maybe I can find out what the fuck it wants. Get some answers. Recording 13. The recording starts and is quiet, safe, or static for a few moments. Sarah takes a deep breath and a barely audible step. Are you there? The skittering returns, coming closer to the microphone than ever before. It sounds more frantic than usual.

Of course, my dear. Always here. You stop that, you hear me? Stop using her voice! I said stop! The voice coughs loudly. It changes as it does, slowly morphing and growing deeper. When it stops, it sounds male. Sarah, honey. I paused hearing that. It was Dad's voice. No doubt about it. Although it sounded ever so slightly off, I could recognize it. Up to that point, my running theory was that the thing could mimic the dead.

But Dad is still very much alive, so that threw my theory under the bus. I didn't know what to believe anymore. "I want to see you." Sarah backs away as her breathing grows faster. "It's dark just-" "SHUT UP!" Sarah runs away from the door as the voice calls, continuing the background. "That was your father, correct?" Marcus asked when the recording ended. "Y-yeah." "And what does that tell us?" I pondered the question for a moment. "It's... not a skinwalker like I thought at first.

I don't know much about them, but like, skinwalkers need to kill their victims to copy them, right? Not necessarily. Wait, what? I knew it, I knew it. I knew it, Marcus is some kind of paranormal demon hunter guy. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Not necessarily. But they do need to hear the voice they're trying to copy. And anyways, the skinwalker could have broken down the door. So, it's something else? But what? I'm not sure yet.

He went to play the next recording, but I stopped him. Where do you know so much about skinwalkers from? Marcus chuckled dryly. All in due time, Clancy.

We still have a few recordings to go through. You know what? He hit play on the next recording, so he listened. So, I'm really not liking this thing where it's like, why did you just not tell him? Why would that... Like, I know it's probably something where it's like, oh, if he tells him, it might jeopardize him from wanting to listen on, but still, is that not just annoying? All in due time. It's like, dude, just fucking tell him why you know so much about Skinwalkers. Yeah, also, like...

Okay, so Marcus shows up and he's like, you know, Joey Badass, right? He knows all the stuff. And he was kind of presenting himself as a cop so he could get along with Clancy. I know Clancy's a kid, but there's still no level of Clancy. Like, there's the whole, wait, where do you know about skinwalkers or whatever?

But I mean, like, even when I was a kid, jumping to supernatural conclusions, if an adult went along with me, I'd be like, what? Yeah, yeah. I'd be like, what the fuck, really? I was talking about a movie I watched the other night. Oh, yeah, I'm Marcus. I'm Marcus, and yes, it is a ghost. Yes, Clancy. I'd be like, you seem like a very irresponsible adult.

I should have a parent right now. Where's my dad at? He's a werewolf. I should call the police. The police are zombies or something. They're all plant people. They're all plant people. It's just me and you, child. It's just me and you, Clancy. Against the world. Now, do you want me to show you where vampires come from? Uh, no. No?

All right, then. I guess I'll play the next recording. Or Clancy's like, you mean Transylvania? Marcus leans forward. He's like, now, how did you know? Where did you find out about them? Who the hell told you that? Clancy's like, this is just like Hogwarts. Marcus is like, dear God. Good God. You're not a wizard, are you?

Like what Marcus is just an equally delusional old man who like also thinks media is real. We're going to need to call Nick Fury on this one. We are, we are coming to the conclusion though, like just to get back, we are coming to the conclusion though, that we think Marcus is not a cop, right? Yeah, clearly. If he is, then he has a, he like a moonlight as a paranormal investigator, but no, I don't think he's a cop. Okay. All right.

Recording 14. It's not just mom and dad anymore. The damn thing has so many voices now. My ex-boyfriend Clinton. Random voices I can't place. Hell, it even used the voices of those two police officers that went down the basement looking for it. It keeps calling for me. Faying confusion. Asking to be let out. I won't open that damn door ever again. Fuck whatever I keep down there. It can have my stuff for all I care. I can't sleep because of it. It's getting so hard to do anything, I swear. Today almost got fired for mixing.

I can't tell them. They'll think I'm crazy.

I'm starting to think I might be crazy myself. I would just tell somebody. I feel like if it was messing you up that bad. I also know that this is a... So two years ago, so this is a COVID right as well. Yeah, the word pandemic took me out. I was like, whoa, okay. I was like, holy shit, yeah. So it would be a bit difficult to be like, hey, can I crash at your place? Because people would be like...

Like, no, I don't want to be mixing, you know, germs or anything like that. So I could see that. But still, it's, you know. Also, this is the second time this series. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. She's working at a restaurant? Yeah, mixing up customers' orders for the 20th time. Well, it's not super COVID. It's not.

It's not like the peak of it, right? Yeah. Well, I guess that's true. Maybe it's... Well, there were some places that did like a drive-thru and stuff like that. So maybe that's what... Who knows? I'm probably leaning too hard. We'll save it for the end of the part at least. I was just saying, it is literally part one of four. So we're... Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll see. Okay, yeah. We're taking up too much time making fun of the three... Our only three characters so far. And four counting the dad's voice at the beginning.

Recording 15. Sis? That's as far as I got into that particular recording. I slapped my hand over the phone with enough force to send cracks into the glass surface of the table. Marcus jumped back in his chair, taken by surprise. What the hell? That's my fucking voice! I knew this one would get you. Come on, dude. Come on. Marcus answered with a half grin. I knew this one would get you. What are you saying?

I imagine if I had Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, like, "Yes, use your hatred!" "I knew this one would get to you." "I knew this one would get to you." "Only fools are heroes, Clancy!" "I knew this one would get to you," Marcus answered with a half grin. "Or, well, get to you more than the others."

I just don't know why he's being so coy. He's being so coy. In spite of everything you've done for her, eventually she will hate you. Eventually she will hate you, Clancy. In this world, it's drip or drown, Spider-Man.

Oh, God. Okay. I have to keep the faith. I have to keep the faith. It hasn't lost me. It hasn't lost me. I just think Marcus's characterization is a bit cartoony is all. It is. It is. Well, even with Clancy a bit too. Clancy's fine. Clancy's a child, so he gets some bonus points for me. From this point on, dude, I'm wiping myself. I'm going in with full love here. I never visited Sarah here.

It couldn't have... It couldn't have heard my voice. So how the fuck did it copy me? Think, Clancy. Did it ever hear Sarah's dead mother? For how long has she been dead? Twenty years. So what does that tell you? It doesn't need to hear people's voices. Correct. So what? It can read minds? Maybe. At the very least, it can form a connection with people. But until we catch it and see for ourselves, I can't say for certain. Catch it...

Is that what this is all about? You want to catch it? Marcus wiped his smirk off his face and looked at me intently. Yes, Clancy. Either catch it or kill it and solve your sister's case. So what? So what are you? Marcus didn't let me finish. He pushed my hands away from the phone screen and hit play on the recording, interrupting me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

So what are you? And he like, quickly pushes his hands and he's like, all in due time, Peter, Peter, Niko. I know. Come on, dude. I was laughing when he's like, so what are you? In my head, he's got like, he's got like a duster on that's like flowing in the wind. Who am I? I'm a motherfucking angel. That's exactly what I was thinking. I am he who walks between the here and the there. I am like...

Like 2000s FX action movie dialogue, you know? Like Hellboy. Oh, God. All in due time, he repeated once more. Sorry, so we're getting back into the recording now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is presumably the... This is Clancy's voice talking in the recording. Sis, are you there? It repeats my own voice.

It's been some time since Sarah's first recording of the mysterious voice, and it sounds thoroughly human at this point. No more cracks in its facade can be gleamed. She sounds... different, somehow.

Worried. Tired. Manic. Please, sis. For fuck's sake, open the door and let me out! How would I do that? How'd you get down there anyway? I can't remember, but it's scary down here. Let me out, please. It copies your mannerisms well. It's spot on, actually. It does. I admitted feeling the color in my face draining little by little. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know, dude. No, no, no. No, no, no. It's just that, like...

The Marcus character is so fucking cheesy. Have you ever seen the fourth Alien movie? No, huh? Okay, there's a character in it who brought the aliens back to life who is fetishistically obsessed with them. He's like, "Look at the beautiful babies! They're so..." That whole character. Marcus struck me as that just then when he's like, "It copies your mannerisms well."

It's spot on, actually. Like, he's getting, like, flustered talking about it. Well, I keep going back and forth between it's, like, very in my mind's eye when I see Marcus saying this stuff and stopping it with, like, a cigarette in his mouth and the light on them. Makes me think of, like, a really cheesy noir, like, detective kind of thing. Like, it copies your mannerisms well. It's spot on, actually. And it's, like, these people just kind of sitting in this circle. But it's just, like, all these interruptions and him being just so...

kind of like I guess just cartoony and just not blatantly saying like hey this is what I think it is I think we should do this I almost wish it was that and then maybe even Clancy could be like you're a psycho yeah yeah you know what I mean and then Marcus has to convince the kid yeah yeah yeah

You know what? Let's lean into it a bit. It's striking like Saturday morning serial stuff, so you can do interesting horror things with that. Most of the schlocky horror films from the 80s I love so much are in that tone, right? Right. So let's see how it goes with that in mind. I'm imagining him in the duster in the fedora, and he won't come out of it, so we'll see how that goes.

Okay, alright, so I'll just proceed with the... It does. I admitted, feeling the color in my face draining little by little as I listened. Given enough time to learn, that thing could be a top predator. And let me guess, you can't let that happen. Oh my god. I... Dude. Dude.

This is bordering on like, do we even... I'm down to read until the end of part one, but this is getting unbelievable. This is tragic. Out of all the things we've read so far, this is... Come on. And we can't let that happen. And let me guess, you can't let that happen. Oh my god. We can't let that happen.

All in due time, I replied and pushed play on the recording. What is this? What is this? If this isn't, to those listening, if this doesn't, like, if you don't realize why this is so funny, the dialogue goes, it is a kid who just met this man who keeps saying stuff like, it's a predator, one that can't be stopped, one too powerful. And the guy goes, it could be a top predator. And the kid goes, and let me guess, it's a predator.

"You can't let that happen." And then the guy goes, "We can't let that happen." Like, it's the most, like... But you see here, Clancy is taking control and he says, "All in due time." No! And he's mimicking Marcus. The kid who just found out that his sister's... A full-grown detective... A full-grown X-Files detective man is having this kind of camaraderie with what we assume to be a 15 or 16 year old child.

All in due time. And he's like, huh? That's right. Clancy. Yeah. The kid, the kid, after hearing all this, hearing that his sister burned to death a few days ago, was killed by a skin Walker. The kid's like all in due time. Oh, it's, it's the most like Disney dialogue. Like, okay. And in a minute, in a minute, there's going to be like a thumping in the closet. And then Marcus is going to go Clancy. You're going to want to see this.

Clancy, it's right behind me. And you know what? Yeah, yeah. Dialogue, dialogue, very funny. I'm glad this is better to me than boring dialogue. I'll say that. Yeah. Because it's certainly memorable. But I still like the monster concept so far. It's just the dialogue.

I just want to get through this first part so fast. Okay, we'll keep going. I am almost in the fourth layer of hell. I need to... Alright, alright. So, Clancy... I'm having a great time. This is awesome. So, Clancy pushes play on the recording, and it goes, Sarah doesn't say anything else. Her footsteps carry her away from the basement door, and the voice pleads in the background. It shifts back and forth between different people, quick and almost seamless.

For short periods of time between the adjustments, glimpses of the animalistic nature make it through. The recording ends after Sarah closes the door to her bedroom. You know, and this is, and then before we get into recording 16, I just want to say, because of how much of a sour taste in my mouth right now, I'm now picturing Sarah's just like breathing heavily and we're just hearing footsteps. Like that's all we're hearing in the recording. We're just hearing like,

and just like, like patting around and then she shuts the door. Like I just, it's becoming even more comical in my head where they're like sitting around inquisitively looking at this, like this phone. And it's just like hearing someone like, like breathing heavily and walking around and they're just like, no, seriously, Clancy, listen to this part. It's crazy. Yeah.

I will say that one criticism I had is that Sarah goes from trying to find a way out of it to being like, if you're not gone tomorrow, I'm going to come down there. Like, what? Like, what?

What does she think she's going to do? You know? I don't know. I mean, she's gone down there with cops and everything else and it's not there. I mean, it just seems dumb. So she's going to go down there herself and show it to her boss. Just leave. Leave the home and don't go back. Go camping. I know it's COVID lockdown. Go sit in the woods. It's a better alternative. Literally, I feel like any other person, I feel like a lot of people would just be like, I'm just going to be in my car.

I'm just gonna... If I have nowhere to go, I will literally just sleep in my car. She has her mom, and she's like... Who has his wife and brother. Who, like... She's, like, on talking terms. Sure, she doesn't love them. I get it. But she thinks there's a thing in her basement that sounds like her dead mom. Yeah.

like that will negate some family you know discomfort or whatever i would i would go through i would go through the awkward interaction if i thought something was this tragic and i would be like also i hate that she keeps saying like well they're gonna think i'm crazy then let them think that who cares yeah try it let them think that you're having a psychotic breakdown and need 24 7 surveillance right but who hell even i'm starting to think i'm pretty crazy

How about you say that seven more times, Sarah? That sounds great. It's right behind me, isn't it? The only thing that is getting me through this first part, there is three more parts after this, dude, is that Sarah is going to be engulfed in flames at one second. That's the only thing pushing me forward. It doesn't with her catching on fire. You're right. We know that for sure, so I just want to see. All right, recording 16. You know what's going to happen. You already know what's going to happen. If it stays this tone...

The comments, they're gonna need a part two. I think you're stuck here. I don't know. Recording 16 is what I will say. Recording 16! Okay, so I can't get a firearm. I don't have the money for that. I don't even know how to handle one anyway. And fuck me, gasoline's getting pretty expensive too. Oh my god. I'm sorry. That just line is insane. And fuck me.

Gasoline is getting pretty expensive too, but I could afford a cashier, a canister's worth of a few gallons and a box of matches. The current plan is simple. I'll fuck that thing up if I hear it again. Also, just the amount of use of fuck is just really annoying too, but um... The current plan is simple. Stupid fucking thing up so fucking hard. If I hear it again, that stupid fuck. Pour gasoline into the fucking basement to the door. I'll light it on fire from up here.

My god, Sarah. Hold on, hold on. Give me a second, give me a second. I've never... You getting heated is so funny, for one. But her... Okay, the gas line was so funny, for one. Like, I can't afford... I...

I want to go get a firearm, and I don't have the $500 needed to buy one, sure, whatever. I also can't go buy a gallon of gasoline. No.

It's $3. It's $3. It's $3 and 20 cents. I can't do it. Siphon it out of your car that you drive to work in. My gosh. Go to your kitchen. Get any amount of the chemicals you use to clean stuff or do whatever. Throw that down there. That's flammable. Do whatever. I mean, like, go to the store. I mean, like, you

You don't have to just use gasoline. I mean, I don't know. It's just so stupid. To her credit, she does get it. I cannot wait to where she's like, she pours her, she's like, how am I going to kill this monster you're asking? Well, that's simple. I'm going to douse myself in chemicals and gasoline, light myself on fire, and tackle it. You're like, why would you do that? The way you said that, well, that's simple. Right?

Like, it's a TikTok DIY video. She literally begins her last thing she said with, the current plan is simple. I just like, I just like, it's like, so long as it dies here. And then even Clancy's like, my God, Sarah. Like, I mumbled as the recording ended. And it's like, okay. I'll say this. This story needed...

a a rewrite with the dialogue i think i still like the premise of like a girl dies unexpectedly and her brother goes through the recordings with the car let's talk about this when yeah okay at the end of part one part one part one okay yeah you're right you're right okay hearing her in that state of mind broke my heart no one deserves to go through what she did and the fact that we didn't help her sooner that none of us made an effort to be in her life it ate me up inside

We could have made a difference. I could have made a difference. Maybe then, this tragedy would have had a better ending. There's only one more to go. Thank God. He leaned over the table and slapped a hand down on my shoulder, giving me a tight squeeze. I nodded my head as I felt tears forming at the corner of my eyes and signaled for him to play it. What is... I mean, like, is it... Why is he... Are they suddenly, like, a father figure? What was that? Well, the weird... But, like, also, why is he crying? Like...

I understand that this is like, there's a lot going on. It's emotional, but 30 seconds ago he went all in due time. Like it's, well, they're just like, so what? And you can't let that happen. Well, it's just also, it's like, you don't know her that well. And these are also only audio recordings. And I'm sure that like,

It's still an emotional thing, but why now? If he was emotional through all of the tapes, that'd be fine. It makes sense. After the whole, like, we've got to stop it, and then it's... 16 recordings, and this is the first time where he's like, oh, shit, it's really hit me in the feels, Marcus. Yeah.

He didn't like how much she said the F word. Also, when you were doing that, when you kept dropping, like, F-bombs through that, in my head, Sarah became Joe Pesci from Goodfellas. We're gonna have to fucking kill this motherfucking police. Yep, yep, that's exactly. So what? So what do you want me to do? You want me to light the fucking house on fire, you stupid fuck? Funny, funny how? How about funny? Oh, God, here we go. Recording 17, and the first line is this. Still here.

Okay, I'm excited. I'm excited. Keep going. This is great. This is like football. Go. Fucker is still here. I warned it. I tried to be nice. I really did. A liquid sloshes around in the background. Presumably gasoline. Her breathing is strained and close to the microphone. Metal rings out as it hits the floor. Sarah? It calls out in the voice of her mother. I warned you!

Something topples to the floor and the sound of rushing liquid is heard. This is on you! It's not my fault! Sarah, please! The voice shouts more desperate than ever. What I said I would! You didn't listen! Didn't you listen? Please, Sarah, you don't have to do this. Just let me out, please! Boys! The thing falls silent. Sarah takes a deep breath and the sound of gasoline pouring out of the canister dies down as it presumably runs out.

You know what that is, don't you? I'm in hell. Imagine also, imagine, here's the thing too, dude.

Here's the thing, and I really want you to take this into consideration. They are not seeing any of this. They are hearing this on a recorder on a phone. So you just hear like, fuck! You know it's sad. That line actually worked a little bit. I was like, oh, that's good when she says stop using her voice. Like that feels, there's like a

A reckoning for that, almost. Kind of like, if Sarah hadn't showed any badassery in the story up until then, and that was her first resistance to it, it's so desperate, it's against her mother. Like, that works. But then, two lines later, they had to go back to her holding the match, like, you called down the thunder, well now you got it, you know? Yeah, I... Dude, I...

I don't know. I mean, it started with, I mean, we'll keep going. Keep going. Just part, part, end of part one at least and then we can talk about more of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah. The microphone doesn't pick up the lit match hitting the ground, but it picks up the gasoline igniting. Air rushes in as the flames begin to burn and Sarah lets out a yelp. The voice begins to scream loudly, rapidly, switching back and forth. Please! Let's out one final call for the first time using Sarah's voice.

The recording ended, leaving me wrapped up in a whirlwind of emotions. I was horrified, I was stupefied, I was strangely glad for it to finally be over. I was a mess, to put it bluntly. My body felt like it melted into the seat, but I quickly composed myself when I remembered that Marcus still had some questions to answer. Did Sarah kill it? Did we bury a monster instead of her? I don't know. It could very well be the case. But then... Then where is she? Exactly.

Yeah, they did! They did the whole "Are we some kind of suicides?" They did it! They literally did! Some kind of- what are you? Some kind of monster hunter? Yes! Oh!

Oh, gosh. This is the greatest... This is my favorite thing we've read on Creepcast. This is the best... This blows Pinpals out of the water. This blows Veross out of the water. I hate you so much. This is so good. I can't... Oh, my gosh. Oh, God. I'm... Oh, my God. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Look. I asked after a few moments of heavy silence. Pretty much. Marcus answered...

I'm the only one they call when shit gets spooky. And let me tell you, this shit is very fucking spooky. Oh, hold on, let me get back in my chair. Let me get back in my chair, hold on. Oh my god, dude, listen. Pretty much, Marcus answered, I'm the only one they call when shit gets spooky. And let me tell you- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, where are you at? Dude, I thought you were joking.

No! I wasn't looking at the screen, so when you said "I'm the one they call when shit gets spooky", I thought you were making- That is a legit- Dude! This is- this is quotes. Pretty much. Marcus answered. I'm the only- I'm the one they call when shit gets spooky. And let me tell you, this shit is very fucking spooky. Okay. But all of this still doesn't answer the most important thing. Why show me this? Any of this?

Okay, hold on, hold on. Let's do this. Let's play a game, okay? Right now, we're taking it seriously. Back to zero, right? And let's just see if we can get to the end, okay? Okay. Without, you know, let's just see, okay? All right, so Marcus lit up another cigarette and leaned back in his chair. For the first time since he entered the house, he seemed truly comfortable, like he had nothing left to hide. We're always on the lookout for new recruits.

So consider tonight your entry test. You're a bit rough around the edges, but you seem like a decent candidate to me. Me? A monster hunter? You can't be serious! Marcus just shrugged his shoulders. You never know unless you try. I sure as shit didn't. Never expected to hunt the things that go bump in the night before I tried. And what if I were to refuse?

Will you kill me? Or erase my memory or something? At that, Marcus just laughed out loud. If you don't want to, you don't want to, simple as. You can try to tell anyone, but who's going to believe you? I frowned, and Marcus caught on that he struck a nerve. So he composed himself and got up, taking the phone and stashing it in his pocket. Look, kid.

It's like I told you time and time again tonight. I can't force you to do anything, but consider it, okay? As he said that, no. No, don't make me read this next phrase. As he said that, he pulled out a bin. Oh my god! For the monsters! Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Maybe... Maybe what's happened. Just- just get- just get- just let's finish this deal. Please, God. It keeps going. Okay, we're almost there. We're almost there. He pulled out a business card that he tossed on the table in front of me. The world desperately needs more people like us. If there were more of us to go around, then maybe... Maybe what happened here wouldn't have been stopped sooner. They keep finishing each other's sentences! Yeah. Yeah.

It might be too late for your sister, but you can make the difference for someone else. If you can make up your mind, it doesn't matter if it's tomorrow or a year from now. Give me a call and take care. With that, Marcus left. I saw him to the door and closed it behind him. Then I went to crash into my bed. My entire worldview was shattered tonight. I decided...

to get some rest before I tried to make sense of the pieces. The following days were uneventful, but even so, the strain of that night hung over me. It permeated my thoughts at all times, permanently active in the background as it burrowed deeper and deeper. Dad returned. We finished clearing the house and he put it up for sale, but I couldn't focus on that.

Not when every other thought I had was about those damn recordings. In the end, I had to stay over for a little while longer despite my constant complaints because of the slummy neighborhood and sketchy neighbors. Dad didn't want the house to go unoccupied. That's basically asking for thieves and punks to break in. And it's gonna be hard to sell it if squatters make the nest here.

So just hang on for a little while longer, okay? I wanted to fight him on the matter, to tell him that he could stay over himself if he was that worried. But I didn't. I couldn't. Not when I knew the truth about what went down. He wouldn't be another death on my conscience. So I lived in the house for another week or so, helping out with renovations and whatnot. And truth be told...

It wasn't all that bad. It was a bit creepy. It was a bit creepy, sure, but the freedom of living... Sure, but the freedom of living on my own was oddly pleasant. One evening, after he went home and I was left all alone...

I heard a knock on the door. I slowly made my way over to answer, expecting either him or Marcus, but who I found on the other side left me terrified. It was Sarah! Dun dun dun! Hey Clancy! She greeted sounding almost casual.

"W-what? How?" I let out in a meek voice as my tears started to flow. "I have a lot of explaining to do, I know, but-" I didn't let her finish. I jumped her, latching my arms around her shoulders as I bawled my eyes out. She put her arms around me as well and we hugged for minutes in the doorway as I cried. "What happened? Where were you?"

We were... We buried you! We thought you were dead! I'm sorry. I had a lot happen, and I had some problems. I ended up running away to a friend for a while, and it's a long story, okay? And very crazy. Tell me about it. Call Dad and tell him to come over. He needs to know you're okay ASAP. Actually, it'd be better if you... for you to do it. I don't want to give him a heart attack. Good point.

We kinda got rid of most of the furniture, but make yourself comfortable. I'll call him and join you. Don't take long. She said and went inside to find somewhere to sit. I watched her walk down the corridor towards the kitchen, passing by the basement door. She looked at it for a long moment, then she continued on her way. I pulled out my phone and Marcus's card, unsure about what to do.

The thing's facade was good. Damn near perfect. But as it spoke, those last words in its voice cracked just a little. Dun, dun, dun! End of part one! And actually, wow, I can't believe we made it through all four parts of The Thing in the Basement.

Is getting better at mimicking people. What a story. Wow. Wow. Wow. I really... I'm at a loss for words. I really enjoyed all four parts of that. I'm glad that we got through the whole story. You know what? This first part took much longer than I expected. We're already at an hour and a half on the recording. I would be curious. We can ask...

the viewers and the listeners at home if they want us to continue this story. We still have three parts if you do. If not, for the love of God, request something that is of... I mean, dude, if you would have told me, it's insane. First off...

This is such a deceptively... This story is so deceptive. And also, I want to say that this is a bummer. This is two stories in a row where it's like, ooh, really, really great beginnings, right?

And then it just completely devolves into whatever the fuck this is supposed to be. If you told me that this was supposed to be about a monster hunter who is recruiting a, I mean, presumably a 14 to 16 year old guy. Why? This is leading me into Jeff the Killer territories where it's definitely a teenage kid writing this, right? About how cool it would be to be a part of a monster hunting situation. And the thing is, crazy good premise.

It could have been so good, but the interjections between Marcus and Clancy the entire time completely... It disrupts any win that was in the sails of being in the story, and it's a shame. Because it could have been so sick, but instead it goes into whatever the fuck territory this is. Whatever fucking territory this fucking story fucking... Fuck, fuck, fuck. Yeah.

To quote my, to quote this great author. So two things that I have two thoughts, right? Um, if we went into it under the, uh, I guess you could say notion that what we were about to get into was supposed to be like an old, like detective drama, right? Like, you know, you can hear jazz music, you know, you know, the type thing, right? Like it's purposely over the top. I think it would have the,

The reason it's so funny to me is because it was so unexpected. That's the... It's not really... It's not that the writing is, like, so horrifically awful that it's just hilarious. It's that it is, like I said, like Disney dialogue and stuff like that. That came out of left field, right? Like, it was the surprise nature of it. So if I went in expecting that, it wouldn't have been as funny. And also...

I'm looking at the writer's stuff now, and it looks like he wrote this story a couple years ago, and over time he's been writing more and more stories. And in a recent post, he talked about how he's wanting to get better as a writer and stuff like that. So like you said, this is almost definitely like a teenager or something like that, or just a new writer who's just, you know...

Writing, basically, none of the laughing we've done is a criticism towards him. We're saying that he can't get better or anything like that. Of course. That being said, oh my gosh. Just the monster hunter line. The unexpected. It was insane. It's insane that... The thing, too, is like, dude, you can just make some shitty stuff and you can grow better. I mean, the idea of this...

just crazy it's so unexpected you know what I'm going to throw a skeleton out there that I hope no one ever finds but to prove where it is when I was in my freshman year of high school or sophomore year of high school I swear I'm not kidding I wrote Doctor Who fan fiction not romantic fan fiction

It was like headcanons about maybe this character went and did this. Maybe this adventure happened, right? It would be miles worse than what we're reading right now, right? So everyone starts somewhere, you know, nothing against them. If they're showing me their skeletons, I'll show you mine. But my gosh, was it funny. The Monster Hunter line was so good. The turn was like that of...

It had as much grace and decorum as a car going 80 miles an hour and then taking a sharp left turn into a brick wall. I mean, it was like it was so unexpected and so funny. But I think like there's a lot of merit. I think that this will be very memorable. And like, you know, here's the thing, dude. Would you want to finish this? Well, OK, so here's what it is. I was thinking about this as we were reading and I'm like, man, our our comments suggested this.

And I, and after reading it, I think I know why they suggested it. I think they knew very well what our reaction would be. And they thought it would be funny. So there probably is an element of our audience who misses like what we did with the Jeff, the killer one. And they just want to see us hurt. They want to see us in pain. Right. So, um,

Maybe that's why. But the problem either, the biggest concern I have is that if we do read this moving forward, we should try to read it respectfully. We should make sure to show it respect. Well, now we know what we're getting into. Keep powering through. Now we know what we're getting into. But does that also take out the fun?

Well, see, no matter how much we know what we're getting into, if they say a line like, so what are you, some kind of monster hunter? It's not going to matter because we're going to be out. That's going to take us out. That's like a headshot. Just boom, boom, dead. I'm curious. I mean, we could try to push forward or we can see what the comments say. What do you think? I think what we should do, it's an hour 40, right? Part two looks the same length. Okay. Okay.

right what we can do is we will throw part one out there i'm sure someone will enjoy this and if they're like please for the love of god do the other parts we'll do the other parts um but i think i think what we got is because also where do you pick up from there because it ends with like that ended the way most like short micro horror creepypastas end with like

The thing said it was my sister. I knew it wasn't because of its voice, right? Like how many creepypastas in that way? So I don't know where it goes from there. Yeah. I mean, I'd be, I would be curious to see, I think that setting up the monster hunter organization really left some doors open. So I'm guessing now that it's, it's, it's Clancy going to have to convince Marcus to come back or maybe Clancy does end up joining the monster hunting thing. And then his first assignment is his now, uh,

to see Skinwalker's sister. And he has to, like, observe it and do whatever, and he has to go by, you know, the guidelines. There's probably some sorts, there's probably a set of rules that he has to follow and stuff, and, you know, maybe he gets into some trouble himself, and he probably also finds some situations where maybe even Marcus, you can't tell if Marcus is really who he is and all that kind of stuff, so. Or vice versa, Marcus is like, I can't tell if this is you or not.

or whatever so there's probably a lot of back and forth uh you know stuff like that deception that kind of stuff i would i would assume yeah this is crazy this is crazy i've never been i've never been so stoked on this creepy environment thing at the beginning like being so excited that's why that's why i found it so funny because i was locked into a horror story

Well, dude, this is also why I love these creepypastas. And the thing, too, is, like, I have been so... We ate way too good, you know, with Baraska and then Penpal and all that stuff, even Left Right Game. And you're gonna have to sift through the layers of these stories and stuff before you can get into these truly biblically epic, omnipresent,

stories that you know or you're so fascinated by but that's just that you know it's like horror movies I mean it's like there's some good horror movies and you have to give it's a part of the hunt you know and I like to be let me be clear I enjoyed that that was enjoyable oh yeah no I had a great time reason that we're not getting into that but I enjoyed it

Yeah. Yeah. I think that for part one thing, I don't know how, how much of an interest I have moving on to part two. Uh, if, if, if people are just absolutely enthralled by it, I'll consider it. But if, if people are also like, Hey, you know, let's move on to a different thing. I wouldn't be opposed to that either. So yeah.

You let us know down below. And once again, to guys, be sure to listen to us on Spotify and Apple podcast, all those places and give us a nice rating. It helps us out. And be sure to let us know like stories that you enjoy in the comments below. We do, as you can see, we read them. We try to make sure and take suggestions from the community as well. So we appreciate it. That was, that was awesome. Again, to the writer,

That story was enjoyable, but I mean, none of that as to say that you yourself are incompetent or whatever. Everyone grows, everyone starts somewhere. I'm glad that my first drafts of stuff isn't out there on the internet, but thank you for sharing with us. Thank you for the entertainment. I enjoyed it.

Yeah, dude. I mean, dude, like there's no... It was fun. If we laugh or do anything, it's... There's absurdity to things. Absolutely. I mean, like, you know, I think that you can... I think you can offer... You can be disappointed or offer criticism with things and not just, you know, be... We're not, like, saying that this person will never, you know, be able to do whatever. Absolutely. I've made plenty of things, and still even to this day, I make absolute dog shit. You know, I look at the progress I've made within the time I've been on YouTube, and it's been...

it's always cool to see. So if anything, the only thing I would say with this story as well is that like to put your stuff out there publicly to be ridiculed or to be loved is the first step of truly becoming a better artist, to being a better creative. You have to do it. So I think that this is just that initial step and I'm stoked to, you know, see what else comes out of it. Yeah, I agree 100%. I understand.

I enjoyed it. And I will say this. I think I can say definitively that was better written than Jeff the Killer. Oh, dude. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, 100%. Come on now. What are we doing here? Definitely. Yeah. All right, y'all. Well, that's all we have for this week. We will catch you on the next episode. Goodbye. Thank you all for watching.