WARNING: This episode is full of cusses and also (sometimes graphic) descriptions of murder. ALSO IF YOU DON'T SHARE WITH 10 PEOPLE YOU WILL RECEIVE DEEP LACERATIONS ON EACH.

It's our most favorite of holidays: Halloween. We're celebrating by talking about one of the earliest forms of online storytelling: the Creepypasta. Also, Corinne details some horrific true stories of authors who killed as well as true crime writers who got a little too close to their subjects.

That probably exists, right? I think probably, I don't

know it sounds what kind of metal would it be? Oh, sexually

transmitted metal. You mean, well, like,

or bands that are about, yeah, like, if it were called, if it

were called sexual disease, well, what's a good one?

Chlamydia, I don't know. Are there any ones that are, like,

good metal names? I can't think of it. I don't know scabies.

I mean, you would know more. Yes, I would. I mean, about the

medal, not about the sexual disease. To clarify, you

all right, listen

to our papers. Russell, we did a

lot of research. Yeah, this is the on internet.com,

listen to all of our papers bustling around because we're

professionals. That's right. No, if we were real professionals,

we'd have it like on a prompting screen. Oh my god. Podcast

goals, hashtag. Podcast

like big screen, okay, where we cannot see all of our notes. Oh

yeah, that would be handy. And you're listening to the hybrid

pub Scout podcast with me, Emily einerlander and me, Karin

kalasky.

We're mapping the frontier between traditional and indie

publishing. We are, yeah, and so today, we're both really

excited. We're both super excited

because we love Halloween. Yeah, that's holiday. Yeah, it's, it's

hand hands down, the best holiday, I agree with that. And

the best part of it is it lasts the entire month of October. It

does true. So this, this is an opportunity for us to go into a

lot of horror related story, it is, yes, yeah, I would say it's

even expected. Well, yeah, yeah, dated. Like, if you get through

October and you haven't been steeped in terrifying, yeah,

you're doing something wrong, you're gonna regret it later.

Exactly, gonna be really sad you are. It's a whole month of your

life, and then you have two months of Christmas bullshit to

put up with after the Halloween. So anyway, yeah, one thing I've

noticed is they're not as bad about putting up Christmas early

as they used to be. Yeah, it's probably that whole war on

Christmas. Oh, maybe,

well, and it's the satanists, because we love Halloween. Oh,

that's right. Wait, yes, they love Halloween. They love

Halloween. Yes. Excuse us. Anyone who loves Halloween, I

have to align myself with just kidding, Mom,

just kidding, dad. I'm not a Satanist. No, too much work.

Yeah, it is really a lot of work. Yeah, they do some good

work. Also, I'm embarrassed about being naked in front of

strangers, yeah, I think that's one of the rules for Satanism.

Oh, you have to be comfortable, yeah? Probably girls have to,

like, dance around naked, around fires. I mean, I Well, well, in

the in the you mean Ohio, in the Ohio hell hole or whatever? Oh,

the portal to hell in Ohio. Yeah, yeah, that's what they

were doing, yeah, yeah.

Anyway, we're off to a great start. We sure before we start

talking about today's main theme, though, and I will

elaborate upon it. I have to do a correction. A redacted, well,

it's not redacted because you all heard it already, so that's

not what that means.

An apology to Rosemary for saying that. Well, I'll just

read the email, but the subject line is somewhere in time,

really, it's almost like saying My favorite book is Twilight,

four exclamation points, and I just want you to know that was

the subject line of the email. Okay, so here we go. She, she

opens with dearest child.

I must respectfully ask, What the hell somewhere in time has

never been my favorite movie ever. I was four, five hours in

caps.

I did enjoy it, but honestly, give me some credit for

recognizing a mush out when I see it. Hell yeah. You remember?

She did. She knew I was gonna read this shit.

Oh, okay. Um, reasons I did enjoy somewhere in time one,

Christopher Reeve, two interesting time travel element

that sounds a little apologetic, yeah, a little bit that sounds

like selected, yeah, yeah. Three costumes, customers, costume

setting and costumes.

I get it. Okay. So then she includes a list of her 37

favorite movies,

which I'm going to read now, yes, please. Number one,

Moonstruck, for crying out loud. Two, waiting for Guffman and all

of Christopher guest's mockumentaries so far. Super

legit, yep. Three, A Fish Called Wanda, also super legit.

Chinatown.

Also great. Number five, almost any movie set in old Los

Angeles. Oh, all right, yeah. Six, Little Miss Sunshine, okay,

that's fine. Um, seven, oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?

Number eight, on the waterfront, which I'm just laughing because

Little Miss Sunshine beat Marlon.

Number nine, Hidden Figures, very woke. Number 10, Whiplash.

What is that? Oh, that was about the jazz drummer, kid and his

like, teacher who was really hard on him. I don't know. I

didn't see it, but it got really good reviews. It's from the guy

who's on law and order. I can't remember the actor's name. He's

bald anyway, but he's a very like he was a very intense

teacher, but it was about this guy who was a jazz drummer. I

think it was based on a true story. I don't know anyway, but

I didn't see it. I just got really good reviews. Well, I

believe rose. I believe that it's a good movie, okay, okay,

because I believe my mom, yeah. 11, Dirty Dancing classic, yes.

12, The Dark Knight. Oh, sounds good. 13, The Maltese Falcon.

Oh, that goes in the old Los Angeles category, though,

doesn't it? 14, Young Frankenstein, legit. 15,

dodgeball. Oh, I don't know. Well, okay. Well, you know, your

mom likes to laugh, so that's true. Yeah. Number 16, get out.

Uh huh. 17 scary movies without gore and slashing or Satan. Oh,

I like the conjuring and movies like most of the quote, unquote

scary movies we go to together. So you and my mom have something

in common. You don't like the Satan scary? Yeah, we're both

scared of it. That's good to know. Yeah. Well, Catholic,

yeah, that's what? Yeah, yep. Um, number 18. Get out again. I

number 19, Fargo, uh huh. 20 The Big Lebowski, yes, 21 Groundhog

Day, uh huh. 22 parisia tem Oh, cute. I went and saw that. I

didn't see that. It was really cute. A lot of short films. Oh,

okay. About Paris, Yeah, makes sense. So there's gets, there's

some good ones, okay, 23 Scrooged, yes, yeah. 24 a muppet

family Christmas Oh, yeah, you remember that one? Not Muppet do

Christmas Carol, but yes, it's different. Oh, my God, you're

like, one of the only people I know, yeah, and I can have, I

could only find it on YouTube. It is on YouTube. Oh, that's

good to know. Yeah. Okay. 25 money Python and the Holy Grail.

Sorry, Corinne, no comment. I'm so glad we're still

friends. 26 The Princess Bride. Number 27 Napoleon Dynamite. All

right, that's cute. Number 28 The Birdcage, yes. 29 A

Christmas Story before it was, quote, unquote, cool, really,

any gene Shepard movie, yep. 30 To Kill a Mockingbird. So shoot

me. There's just something about Gregory Peck in that role.

31 a Muppet Christmas Carol. 32 Scrooge. There's a lot of

Christmas movies. Yeah, there are and Muppets, yeah. 33

Midnight in Paris and Paris. Number 34 A Night at the Opera.

Shout out to Ryan. Most Marx brothers movies because of Marx

Brothers. Yes,

35 Amelie, 36 clue, oh, I hope these were in no particular

order, yes, Little Miss Sunshine should not be clue,

actually, most of these should not. I know

closer to the bottom, we have a bone to pick, mom, yeah and 37

Uh huh, Three Musketeers. Oh, nice. All right, yeah, yeah,

that's a pretty good list. See, I know there are more, but I

have to go to physical therapy. The

implication being, she would have done 100

I think this is a good sampling of what kind of movies I enjoy.

Note that somewhere in time is not there

anyway. Then she talks about how much she loved children's books,

how important they are to her. Yep. So Tara, good job. Yeah.

She loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and through the looking

glass as well. Yeah, and

I'm glad that young adult and children's books are dealing

with timely and what some people might think taboo subjects me

too, all right.

And then she said, PS, I read Flowers in the Attic when I was

visiting Aunt Susie when I was much younger, it was a good

book, but I was horrified that my big sister even owned

something so

racy. Yeah? That was, well, I mean, the incest part was

kind of racy, yeah? All right, so today we're going to have a

couple of sections Corinne is going to talk about, well, I'll

let her get to it. But later we're going to talk about

writers, first, yes and their connections with murder, yes.

And then I am going to talk a little bit about the phenomenon

of copy pasta and creepypasta, which is one of the oldest

forms.

Terms of internet self publishing, indeed it is, indeed

it is. All right, Corinne, I will take it away. Okay, so

first of all, did you know that there are a lot of writers who

killed people that was didn't have something I didn't know

before I Googled it, not really, but holy shit, there were a lot

of articles that came up. Whoa, I would say probably maybe he's

not the most famous, but he's definitely one of the most well

known people or authors who kill people. Was William S Burroughs,

who I also should have included in my important literary men

article. Oh, yeah. If you, if you do not subscribe to our

newsletter, you should go to hybridpubscot.com and get it,

because you'll be

reminded periodically of Corinth, wonderful new column.

Yes, well, the first one wasn't necessarily part of the column.

It was kind of the same flavor. It's called Corinne yells at

Cloud, yeah, and that's pretty much what I do. She just talks

about things she hates. Yeah, pretty much. And like every

installment and I hate, I mean, I don't think I hate a lot of

stuff, not really, but I mean, some of it's just really stupid.

And I feel like that needs to be called, you get worked up. And

it's, I do get worked up. Yeah, that happens pretty easily.

Anyway. I mean, this is yeah, all right, anyway, so yeah,

first on this list of important literary, oh, I wrote important

literary dunderheads.

I is

dunderhead is synonymous with murderer. Yes, in this case, is

one William S Burroughs, who wrote, of course, Naked Lunch

and during a drug and booze fueled game of William Tell with

his wife, whereby an object is shot off a person's head with a

handgun. Always better when you're drunk. Yeah, that's true.

He, you know, shot his wife in the head. So that was a

whoopsie. Great job, buddy. Yeah. So, you know, I don't know

she liked her. Maybe he wasn't that upset about it, but he did

murder her. What if he really liked her? Maybe he did, then he

would be I don't know, this guy's an idiot, though. I don't

I mean, I don't know I feel bad for, obviously, the dead lady,

but, I mean, which is really happy? What is she? That's what

I always say. Somebody says, like, I feel bad for the dead

person. What if they better off? Now, that's true. I mean, I

don't feel sorry for him at all because he became famous for a

shitty book. All right, moving on. The next one is, and this is

one that I did not know at all, actually, is this woman named

Anne Perry. So if you've seen the wonderful movie, Heavenly

Creatures, which was made by Peter Jackson in, like, I want

to say, like 94 or something like that, it's about her and

her childhood best friend, starring a young Kate Winslet,

yes, and I forget who played Anne Perry? Oh, God, I do too.

She's a good actress. So, oh shit, I feel bad I can't

remember her name. We're not gonna look it up. You can

Google, yeah, you can Google it anyway. So she is best known for

her historical detective fiction, and she had to change

her name to get this done because there to become a famous

author. Because in her previous life, she was known as her name

is Juliet Holm, and she was convicted, alongside her friend

Pauline Parker, of murdering Parker's mother in 1954

so she was only 16 at the time, and engaged in what Perry calls

a, quote, obsessive relationship with Parker, though she denies

any romantic feelings the Perry may have had for each other, as

is suggested in the film, which is definitely true, both she and

Parker have expressed significant remorse for their

crime and interviews, and Perry has stated, I was guilty and it

was the right place for me to be, which means in prison. So I

think she was only in there for five years. It wasn't very long

for like, a murder. I thought, I know they were 16 and they were

like, 12, oh, I think they were 16. That sounds they looked like

real children in the movie. Yeah? I guess they did, yeah,

yeah. They actually had people who looked like 16 year olds.

No God,

so anyway, that one was interesting. One, killing your

mom is not cool, guys, yeah, don't really, don't do it. I

mean, my Well, if we get morbid for my mom's dead. I did not

kill her, but I miss her a lot, and you would miss your mom too.

So, you know, don't you admit your wife too, my head, you

would miss any woman in your life, believe it, yeah, yeah.

Anyway,

even if you don't think so, yeah, you would Yeah. So just

don't play yeah, let's see. Here's another one. Okay, this

guy I have never heard of, but I assume maybe some people have.

His name is Kenneth Hallowell. He was a collage artist and

writer known for the novel The boy hairdresser, which he co

authored with his boyfriend and fellow writer slash playwright

Joe Orton. The book was published posthumously, however,

as Hallowell, in an apparent jealous rage, bludgeoned Orton

to death with a hammer and then kills himself with sleeping

pills, that's a little dramatic. I mean, you know, come on,

people get jealous, but there are better ways to, you know,

work through just slam a door, just slam a door, slam a door,

or like, go outside and go for a walk and cool down a little bit.

You don't need.

Kill anybody. Go scream. Why? Yeah, the moon or that. Let's

see what else. Oh, so this is a hometown girl, Portland, Oregon,

yeah, 68 years in Oregon. I love it. Deal with it. Yeah, yeah,

that's too bad, all right. 6868

year old Nancy Crampton Brophy, an Oregon novelist, killed

someone because her name sucks,

okay? Who wrote a book about a woman who spent every day of her

marriage fantasizing about killing her husband. And guess

what? She was arrested for allegedly murdering her husband.

That why she married him so she could fantasize about killing

him. No, it doesn't say, but I bet not, but maybe, yeah, this

just happened this year. It did. Yes, it's very recent. And I

remember when they reported the death without saying they didn't

know that she'd done it, yeah, and it was just like, it was by

the goose. They found him by the goose, hollow Max station. Oh, I

didn't know, because that's where the Culinary Institute was

and he was just like, outside the color culinary institute

early in the morning, and they just found him on the sidewalk,

or, yeah, way to go. I know that's not cool. Oh, she must

have, like, planned it so that it would look like just a random

person because he was outside, or whatever. Yep, but not that

smart. And that's also what happens when you leave a trail

and write a book about killing your husband. So if you are

planning on murdering someone, maybe don't write a book about

it. Write a book about other things. Yeah, write a children's

book. Throw them off your trail, you know, anyway. Oh, apparently

she also, in 2011 wrote an essay titled How to murder your

husband.

Clearly been on her mind for I mean, she could have just gotten

a divorce. I don't really know what was going on. What was he I

mean, he couldn't have been rich or anything. I don't think so.

And I don't think he, like, beat her. Did she take out an

insurance policy on him that doesn't say it in here? I don't

know. I don't know, because that's like, the only time I

hear people who like, couldn't have just gotten a divorce is

when they want the money, right? That's true, yeah, yeah, I don't

know. Maybe she just like hated him so much, maybe that they

were flames.

Call back to clue, all right.

Number five, yes. 36

my

let's see that's pretty much all there is about her. But that is

batshit crazy, you have to agree. All right. The next guy

this her mug shot is also gold. It really is. Yeah, she looks

pretty as well. She just looks really tired. She looks slightly

surprised. She does look surprised. She has pretty wide

eyes in it, yeah? So, I mean, I yeah, I don't know. I don't know

what her motives were, but I would carry, maybe she'll write

a book about it in prison. Who knows? Anyway, then she'll send

it to I'll

have to read.

So this next guy is named Liu Yang bio, and he is, I heard

about this Oh, you heard about this. Oh, you heard about this

one? Okay, yeah. So he's a Chinese writer who was working

on a book when he was arrested for four Cold Case murders that

happened more than two decades earlier.

The book called The beautiful writer who killed that's why I

remember,

was reportedly about a quote, female writer who has killed

many people. Oh, that'll it's remains on. So that'll fool him.

That'll throw him off. Okay? And according to Chinese website,

sixth tone, Liu was arrested at his home on Friday. I'm sorry,

not this Friday, obviously, whenever that? Whenever that

Friday?

Oh, my God.

Under suspicion that he and an accomplice were involved in a

gruesome botched robbery back in 1995 police believe that the two

suspects, Liu 53 and a man named Wang 65 initially went to a

hostel in the city of huzao to rob h u z, H O, U, Joe. Who?

Joe? Okay. Hujo, sorry. Hujo, thank you, Emily.

Uh, to rob. It's guests, but ended up beating a man to death

in the process. They then allegedly killed the owners and

their 13 year old grandson to cover it up. Uh, since then, the

case has gone cold, until new DNA evidence led police to lose

door when the officers apprehended him on that past

Friday, he reportedly told them, I've been waiting for you here

all this time. So he probably felt bad about it. It sounds

like he did. There's another quote from him too. So his

second to last novel was titled The guilty secret.

In a letter Lou reportedly wrote to his wife, where he confessed

to his crimes. He said, I lived in fear for 20 years. I knew the

day would come I can finally be free from the mental torment

I've endured for so long, which is torment that you brought upon

yourself. So you know, come on, bro, when they say that China's

a police state. Yeah, took them 20 years, 20 years she should a

police.

Youth force. You know they're doing that thing now, like, Did

you see that episode of Black Mirror with Bryce Dallas?

Howard? No, oh, it's this one where you get social credit,

where, like, people rate their interactions with you. Oh, whoa.

And if you don't

make people happy, then you can't, like, rent a car, you

can't get on a plane. They're doing that in China now.

Seriously, yeah, they've done a they're doing a pilot program

right now with certain people, and even the woman who, like,

works for the government, who's doing the

testing for it, like she can't even get 100% on it. Oh, my God,

yes. So we'll see how that goes. So what do you do if you're

just, like, naturally a sour pose, you, I guess you live in a

shack. Oh, with, like, literally, though, because,

like, people next to our apartment building, like, yeah,

lived in shack. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, wow. Okay, moving on.

Bummer. Sorry, people who don't live in shack, real life.

Horror, real life. Horror, that's true.

He's there another guy named Blake libel liebl, unfortunate

name. It's too bad. It's too bad.

So he was sentenced to life in prison for the torture and

murder of his girlfriend ianna Cassian, whose body was drained

of all her blood in a crime that a prosecutor said mirrored the

script of a graphic novel he co wrote, What the shit? Yeah. So

fuck this guy, the prosecuting attorney called labels brutal

torture and murder in 2016 a case of life imitating art,

noting that his 2015 graphic novel syndrome had depictions of

bloodletting. The cover of the book also depicts an image of a

baby doll being scalped, which resembled body parts found at

the crime scene. Wow, what an asshole. Yeah, pretty much. I

know this guy looks like an asshole, too. Anyway, okay, his

book probably sucked. I have no doubt. I wonder who published

it. I'm not buying it. Well, I'm not buying it either. I would

never buy this. I would never buy any one thing by someone

named Blake. I'm just putting that or libel or libel, that's

usually a bad sign anyway. All right, the next one is one that

Emily knows very well. Richard klinkhamer, yeah, well, I mean,

sad, yeah. It is sad that he sad, sad that you know him so

well. You mean, or, you know, I don't know.

Okay, thank you for clarifying. In this photo, he's standing, I

know this is terrible podcasting, describing a photo,

but he is wearing, like a white, a white cowboy hat, which is

strange because he's Dutch, and I don't know. I mean, I'm sure

people did Dutch people wear cowboy hats. I just thought that

was, like an American phenomenon. I think that it's an

affectation, oh, because, like, that crosses cultures. Well,

it's like, Oh, I'm gonna look American, yeah. Oh, okay. It's

like, guys who wear fedoras also the describe, the describing

photos thing is going to come into play. Oh, okay, good. I

yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's the only thing I can say

about him in this picture. Is just the white cowboy hats.

Pretty funny. All right, so here, here is a record of his

crime in 1992 a year after the wife of Dutch crime writer

Richard klinkamer disappeared, the author gave his publisher a

manuscript of a novel that, according to the Guardian, was a

grisly, detailed exploration of seven ways in which klinkamer

could conceivably have killed his wife, Hannah lore in one of

the scenarios set out in the book, he disposes of Her body by

pushing her flesh through a mincer and feeding it to the

pigeons. God. I mean, pigeons are like, I think, the most

disgusting birds, I would say. I mean, I don't like birds in

general. I mean, but pigeons are like the rats at the sky. But

what about seagulls? I don't mind seagulls. Kind of, I like

seagulls kind of, I know they're steal people's ice cream and

stuff. No. Okay, so they're like a menace. They're a menace,

okay? All right, I can understand that. Yeah, all

right,

okay, although clincommer was an immediate suspect in the police

inquiry into his wife's disappearance, they couldn't

proceed with their investigation because they didn't have a body

after the Dutch crime writer's grisly and seemingly

autobiographical manuscript was rejected by his publisher for

being too gruesome. Excerpts began popping up in the Dutch

underground press. He did, yeah, underground press guys,

I want to be in the underground.

Just all you have to do is call your wife. He then, I'll get on.

He then became a sort of literary celebrity, kind of,

Well, who else is a literary celebrity who killed? I mean,

William, these guy who murdered that French woman? Oh, Dutch

woman, yeah, what was his? I don't remember his name. I don't

know, but they sent him back to Japan, and he never served any

time. And everybody interviewed him all the time, and they made

a graphic novel about him, and he was like a fucking celebrity.

I think it was sakawa, disgusting. Yeah, look that one

up. Yeah. Sadly, that guy is not mentioned in this article. But

anyway, okay, there's more about Clint commerce, because I know

you're hungry for it. So let's see.

Right in one of the scenarios set out in the book, oh, wait,

we already read that. Sorry, yeah, the pigeons, right. So,

after he moved to Amsterdam, a family moved into the house that

Clint calmer formally shared with his wife while making home

renovations, they hired a digger who found a skull buried beneath

the concrete floor of a backyard shed, which belonged to Clint

commerce, wife in 2000 police finally arrested him for the

murder, and he confessed, and they threw him in the cling

I love it. All right. Very excited.

Here's another guy. I've never heard of. This guy. Christian

Bala, no, no. Okay. Um, all right. So novelist Christian

Bala might have gotten away with murdering a Polish businessman

in 2000 but three years later, he published a muck which told

the story of a Polish

of a Polish intellectual named Chris, the English version of

Christian who murders a female lover for no reason, and

conceals the act so well that he is never caught in amok. The

description of the woman's murder bound with her hands

behind her back with a cord that's also looped into a ruse

around a noose around her neck, was eerily similar to a murder

case that left investigators stumped a few years earlier. In

2000 cops found the body of Darius Janiszewski in a river

after having been starved and tortured, he was also tied up.

Blah, blah, blah, oh, part of the rope, which appeared to have

been cut with a knife, had once connected his hands to his neck,

binding the man in a backward cradle in excruciating position.

The slightest wiggle would have caused the news to tighten

further. That is some sadistic Yeah. That's really fucked up.

All right, but it ends happily because he does get caught. All

right, also, I would like to get cut. Yeah, I would like to pat

myself on the back for pronouncing all these Polish

names correctly. Well, I am how foolish I was gonna say you

better, yeah, I know that would be really embarrassing. All

right, when detective now I'm gonna pronounce this wrong. Jot

check. Roblesky, sounds good, yeah. Took over the case in 2003

he traced a suspicious call made to the victim's office right

before the murder to a cell phone purchased by Christian

Bala, which the author later sold on eBay. Idiot, arrogance.

It'll bring you to eBay. All right.

Robleski began researching Bala and read amok, per the New

Yorker, he was struck in particular by the killer's

method. Quote, I tightened the noose around her neck. The book

couldn't be used as evidence, but it led robleski to other

clues, and eventually Bala was sentenced to 25 years in prison

for his role in the murder. During his hearing, the judge

noted quote, there are certain shared characteristics between

the book's narrator and the author. Yeah, thanks. Good job.

Judge, a great judge. Yeah. And then I think that's it. Oh, I

have actually heard that one. There's a there's a podcast

called Once upon a crime. Oh, okay. And a title. It's a woman

just writes these. It's kind of like case file. Oh, okay, and

she wrote about that one. Oh, you should listen to it,

although the surprises, yeah, yeah, I know I'd like to read

about murders, about that one. So the other, I just have a

couple other ones that are true crime authors who became part of

the story. Yeah. And Emily knows a couple of these people. I've

never heard of them, but Emily is steeped in this stuff,

probably much more than I am. So not in murder, I mean, just in

true crime. I just want to know what I'm up against. She does.

She does. So the first one is this book called The Stranger

beside me, by Anne rule, who was once a crisis counselor working

day by day, next to a mild mannered and charming young man

named Ted Bundy, which she I'm young Republican.

Would he have been an INCEL? Maybe now he went, he's too

charming. I mean, he's basically the definition of an insult,

though kind of is except for, except for having had sex, yeah,

except for that. Well, I mean, I'm sure he had some consensual

sex. I have to share. He did. He was with women who were alive.

Yeah, I think so. But I don't know. I don't want to give him

much credit. I mean, because he's a monster, they were dead.

Yeah, it does, no, it doesn't. Never mind. We'll talk about,

oh, okay, okay.

Anyway, so Anne's book is a chilly memoir of those days she

spent with Bundy as she slowly comes to realize that her

colleague and friend is Not What He Seems. So that's pretty

fucking scary. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, imagine if one of your co

workers was like one of the most notorious serial killers in the

history of America. Well, I had a moment earlier today. I don't

know if we

could talk about that. We're not going, Yeah, we're not going to

talk about it. But no, none of our co workers are serial

killers, as far as we know. I mean, I don't know.

I'm gonna be like, snooping around the office like Sherlock

Holmes, yeah. What were you doing yesterday? Okay,

so I just have a couple more. There's this other book called

A.

Death in Belmont by Sebastian younger.

Few crime authors have gotten as close to their subject as

Sebastian younger. In the 1960s Boston was being terrorized by a

serial killer known as the Boston Strangler. As police were

following false leads, it turned out that the killer was hiding

out in the home of younger's parents, where he was employed.

There's even a chilling photo in the book of younger and his

mother with the Boston Strangler smiling behind them. So I think

he only killed one person. Oh, there were like, several Boston

Stranglers. Oh, that's one of the opinions. It's a conspiracy

theory. Oh, okay, but I think it's true. Okay, all right. But

that guy definitely was a rapist, though. Oh, the guy who

I wrote the book? No, who went down, who is considered

Albert De Salvo? He's considered the boston strangler. However, a

lot of people think it was more than one person. Oh, okay, but

what we do know about Albert De Salvo is he was a serial rapist.

Oh, so he's still a fucking dick wad. Yep. So, yeah, absolutely.

And that's pretty much, I think, gonna wrap it up, because those

are all the authors that I could find. I mean, that one are

murderers or involved in true crime somehow? Yeah, Sebastian

rule is not a murderer and not a murderer. We don't think Anne

rules, we don't think she is, but we don't know for sure a lot

of true crime. Oh, did she Yeah, after that whole thing with Ted

Bundy, happened? Yeah, I think it was kind of like, this is my

calling. And so she Yeah, just kept writing. And fun fact, she

wrote a book called Green River running red about the Green

River Killer, yeah, and it was before they caught him. Oh,

okay, so I feel like

I told you this before. Maybe she did readings at Powell's.

Oh, she's a Pacific Northwest person, yeah. And so, so they so

they said, at Powell's, I actually heard this on a my

favorite murder thing. Oh, okay,

the police always go to readings at Powell if they're about true

crime, and take pictures of the audience. Because apparently

Gary Ridgway, who is the Green River Killer, went to her

reading of the book that was about him, but they didn't know

it yet. Oh my god, that is such a serial killer move to right?

Because they just want to hear about themselves being famous.

Yeah? So dumb. He really, yeah, also an idiot, yeah, anyway,

well, I mean, that's ableist. That's yeah, right. Well, it is,

it is, I apologize to all the idiots out there, but that guy

really was so okay, that concludes my section of writers

who kill people and get involved in true crime. Somehow that was,

I just imagine that with a lot of hyphens.

That's correct,

all right. So, yeah, while self publishing ebooks is basically a

commodity at this point, and everybody's doing it, it was not

that way for a long time. And the way that people used to just

put their information out there was just by literally putting it

on the internet. Yep. So

it was well, and you remember that kind of being a big deal,

right? Where it's like, I can I have a blog? Yeah, I do.

Everyone can see a deal, yeah, still feel that way. But like,

No, I know. But it was back then where people were like, I can

just make a website, yeah? Tell everyone what. People can, like,

read all my thoughts, yeah, they're gonna see how brilliant

I have. It finally, Oh, wow. I was super into Live Journal. I

understand everything. I had a Live Journal, yeah? But I only

did like, three and then

Korea anyway,

I know it's like social media used to be commenting on

people's blogs. It did so one of the ways that this

horror propagated itself in this form of self publishing was

through creepypasta, which came from the word copy pasta, which

is like copy paste. And that was something that was kind of found

through four Chan, oh, my god, get out of here. Sorry. Also, I

am talking to four Chan, to get the fuck out of here. Seriously,

terrible cesspool of terror. However, they did give us

creepypasta, yep, which is kind of fun, yeah. But I mean, think

about it this way, if you existed in any way in the 90s,

which I know you did, I certainly

you probably were very familiar with chain emails. Yes, I was,

which were I remember this like it was yesterday. Oh, my God. I

remember getting like I was doing searches online today, and

I remember getting this one that I'm about to read. I was so

scared. I was so scared of it. And it was, you know,

keep reading

this one's called this.

One's called Little Clarissa. Explains It All.

Thank you. Except she doesn't, okay, warning. Carry on reading,

or you will die, even if you only looked at the word warning,

which, how would you know? Yeah, that's true.

Seems like a bogus claim. That's not fair, all right. Once, there

was a little girl called Clarissa. She was 10 years old,

and she lived in a mental hospital because she killed her

mom and her dad. Oh, boy, that wasn't in all caps, but I read

it like it was, so I'm sorry

she got

she got so bad she went to kill all the staff in the hospital.

So the more government,

M, O, R, E, hyphen, government, more government decided that

best idea was to get rid of her, so they set up a special room to

kill her as humane as possible. But it went wrong. The machine

they were using went wrong,

and she sat there in agony for hours until she died. Now, every

week on the day of her death, she returns to the person that

reads this letter. Oh God, on a Monday night, at 12 o'clock AM,

she creeps into your room and kills you slowly by cutting you

and watching you bleed to death. Oh no. Now send this to 10 other

pictures on this one site,

laureate of Fort, Chandra, I don't know what it means. No,

this was, this was, oh, although it might have,

she will hunt someone else who doesn't. This isn't fake,

apparently. Comma, if you copy and paste this to 10 comments in

the next 10 minutes, it might be from four channel. Reads like

it, you will have the best day of your life tomorrow. You will

either get kissed or asked out. If you break this chain, you

will see a little dead girl in your room tonight. In 53

minutes, someone will say, I love you or I'm sorry. Oh, did

you ever have that happen? You did anyone say I'm sorry? I love

you no? Because I was in seventh grade, and I had a crush on this

guy named Eric, uh huh. I was always like, Oh, what if I

forwarded this and then he talked to me. But I never did it

like, this is fake. Yeah. I was, like, always torn between like,

what if my crush talks to me? What if he does? I mean, he did

talk to me seventh grades. Weird. It is weird. I remember,

well, yeah, that's really good class picture that year. I had

coke bottle glasses, I had a shirt on that I loved, that had

multi colored, big buttons on it, and you probably thought it

looked really cool. I fucking love that shirt. I wish I could

find it. I should find a picture, because then put it

with one of my articles. We'll put it on the block. Yeah, yeah.

You can comment on it, yeah. Can have old school social media.

I would love nothing more. Yeah, okay, so I'm gonna read another

one. Okay, because they're great. Forward death by Bloody

Mary. Oh, what you were gonna talk about Bloody Mary? Oh,

yeah. Do you wanna talk about it now? Yeah, I just was like, I

still remember, I think I heard about Bloody Mary when I was,

like, in second or third grade, and it's still to this day, I

will absolutely not try it. I don't care that, like I have

seen people try it in front of me, and nothing has happened,

because I remember that when I was so scared of it. And my

brother must have heard about at the same time, because he was

also terrified. So we would, like, sleep in my parents room,

because we were, like, so scared of it. And so my dad got so mad

at us. He was like, You guys are ridiculous, so I'm gonna prove

to you once and for all the Bloody Mary isn't real. And I

was like,

Dad,

so like, of course, do it. Yeah, he did it, and of course,

nothing happened. And like, I was still scared of it, though,

despite the fact that it has been proved that nothing

happened, I was still terrified. So yeah, because you thought

that he was gonna wait for dad to go to sleep, yeah, probably.

And then he would, she would pounce, So, but anyway, yeah, so

I think it was just then my brother and I ended up sleeping

in the same room for like, a little while, and then we kind

of like, got over it, yeah, forgot about it, yeah. But it

was, it was really terrifying. I heard the whole thing is, like,

if you're doing that in the dark, uh huh, and then you,

like, open your eyes, yeah, seeing your own reflection. Oh,

well, that makes sense, yeah, yeah. Anyway, I'm gonna tell you

this, because mom's gonna tell you this too, if I don't, yeah,

so one of the girls at school, when she was telling the story

of Bloody Mary, kind of got the lines crossed somehow. Okay, I

just hit the thing. She got the lines crossed

somehow. And she said, like, Bloody Mary lived in the toilet.

So everybody knows Jaws lives in the toilet. Oh, is that yours?

Yeah,

or the alligators, or whatever. So I got, like, a complex about

flushing the toilet.

But I did like, I mostly did it, I mean,

definitely at school. But I would, I would like,

I would first open the stall door, and then I would, kind of

like, be halfway out of the stall door, and then I'd press

the thing and run out of the bathroom. I'd go wash my hands,

and then come back in. I.

And then, like,

I did it at home too. It was the most, like, embarrassing thing.

I was so scared that she was it was gonna be like, the poop goes

down and then she comes up out of the toilet to kill me. I know

it's so gross. Sounds like a South Park.

Let him marry Mary, the Halloween.

But the other one was,

it was Agnes, oh. She was someone who died driving on

Harris grade, which was the guide over where we lived, okay,

and her baby died. We were supposed to say, Agnes, I have

your baby, and then she come and kill you. Oh, great. Okay, like,

you have my baby, get my baby back. It was basically Bloody

Mary. Okay, so I'm gonna read the thing now, yeah, in red all

caps, this email has been cursed. Once opened, you must

send it.

You are now cursed. You must send this on, or you will be

killed tonight at 12 o'clock AM. Again, this is popular, yeah,

bye, Bloody Mary. This is no joke, so don't think you can

quickly get out of it and delete it now, because Bloody Mary will

come to you. If you do not send this on, she will slit your

throat and your wrist, Jesus, I know, and your wrists and pull

your eyeballs. Whoa, whoa, and then hang your dead corpse in

your bedroom cupboard. Cupboard is this British? Yeah, or put

you under your bed. What's your parents going to do when they

find you dead? What are they going to do? Won't be funny.

Then will it?

That wasn't me. That was

don't think this is a fake, and it's all put on to scare you,

because you're wrong, so very wrong. Want to hear of some of

the sad, sad people who lost their lives or have been

seriously hurt by this email. Case, one Annalise surname

removed. Yeah. Definitely. Rubbish. She got this email

rubbish. She thought she deleted it, and now Annalise dead, oh

no,

Annalise dead.

Case two. Louise, surname removed. She sent this to only

four people, and when she woke up in the morning, her wrists

had deep lacerations on each, oh no on each. Luckily, there was

no pain felt, though she is scarred for life. Oh so she

lived because she sent it to some Yeah, yeah, but she had

deep lacerations on each, yep.

So basically, creepypasta is somewhat like this, and it has

multiple iterations, because there were, there were

creepypastas that, you know, were just kind of passed along,

yeah, and people, while it's not necessarily the same, like I cut

and paste this here, it's, it's been turned into an art form all

of its own, indeed, yes. So

the one that the normies may have heard of before, is the

Slender Man. I have heard of that, yeah. Why have you heard

of it? I've heard of it because I watched the documentary about

a slender man. Yeah, I haven't watched it. We'll just sum it

up. Yeah. I mean, it was pretty much what I expected. It was

really creepy. It was, like, pretty clear that these two

girls, at least, I mean, they both had some sort of mental

issues. What? What two girls? Oh, what do you want me to read

their names on here? Yeah, I don't know. Just to tell, like,

tell the story real. Oh, okay, so two girls who were how I'm

gonna look? Oh, they were twelves 12. They were 12. They

were 12. Good for them.

She's better than

she's a perfect 12. Oh, God, all right. They were 12 year olds,

and I feel gross now.

It's okay. This is how men feel

time, If only, if only, yeah.

So, anyway, so they were both obsessed with Slender Man. How

do I describe him? I think he just looks like this, really

tall guy. He looks like Jack Skellington. Yeah, exactly. A

real person. Really tall, and he has no big limbs, right? Yeah,

really long, and no face, and no face. And does he have a top

hat? Did I make? I think it's kind of it's a bowler hat. Oh,

it's a bowler jaunty hat. If it were a top hat, it would be

adorable. Yeah,

it's a fashion turn, but they've tried to make it into a

historical thing that's part of the whole lore of it is. So they

doctor a lot of old school like black and white photos, yeah,

and Photoshop him into the background. And the whole thing

is, he kidnaps children, oh, right, yeah, and then makes them

into like, brain dead, like zombies, yeah, okay, yeah. And

they call them proxies. And there's different levels of

being a proxy. Either you're like a drone, or you kind of

have your own sense of whatever, but you're.

Working for him. I gotcha. So these, yeah, these 212 year old

girls, was like, said they were proxies of Slender Man, yeah.

And so they killed, or they tried to kill, one of their

friends, because they, I think she's supposed to be a sacrifice

or something. Yeah. They wanted people to know that Slender Man

was real. Yeah. They were like, We're slender man's Yeah, agents

of right, agents of death, terror, yeah, but it was, yeah.

I mean, everybody she lived, yeah, she lived, and she's okay.

I mean, she's traumatized, road fucking bad, seriously, yeah,

yeah. They should make, well, they guess they did. They did.

She's like, going to school and stuff, yeah, yeah, trying to

respect her privacy, right? Yes, that poor girl, Jesus Christ.

Um, they made a they made, like, a dumb PG, 13 slasher. Oh,

that's right, I did not see that. Did you see it? No. I

mean, I might, if it comes on Netflix. Yeah, I'm like home for

an afternoon, but, like, I have so little time now to watch

horror because JT, can't watch it 995, now, yep, yep. That does

not lose so I'm not gonna waste it on Slender Man. Yeah, no, I

don't blame you. I'm gonna hunting a pill. Yeah, a plus.

No, that's really great. But I don't know, yeah, the only thing

that I took away from that was that those girls clearly had

some sort of mental issues. I don't remember, like, which one

I thought had which issue, but yeah, I mean, I feel like they,

I don't know. I mean, they were just girls who needed help. I

don't think that they were like, I don't cold blooded killers. I

think it was just a well, it's like, if you, if you really

think that's real, yeah, yeah, right, yeah. Like, come on. You

know, they were just kids who, yeah, just really got carried

away and just needed to, need to go to so like a psychiatric

hospital or something. So if the kids would just go outside and

get off,

they wouldn't be trying to kill each other because of Slender

Man. They'd be trying to kill each other for different

reasons, right?

Oh, God. Anyway, that's all I remember about it, though. So

there's an entire

through research of this, I came upon an entire creepypasta wiki

off of fandom.com so there's a whole thing, and this is part of

what we were talking about in terms of, like, self publishing

internet. This is how we leave the thread back into the

podcast,

fan fiction, yes. So this is

a, this is a form, yes, this is a form of fan fiction where

you're where they'll take a character, and so many people

are interested in Slenderman, yes, that there's got a big fan

base. There's the there's creepypasta wiki, and it had a

spin off because it was so popular that they made their own

like creepypasta Slenderman wiki.

So the guy who runs the creepypasta wiki wanted people

to stop writing about Slenderman because he viewed the website as

a place for people to become better writers. Oh, okay, so,

like noble, he looked at it as a place where people could so

they're taking it from the creepypasta, which is the copy

paste thing, yeah, and turning it into a way to tell cool

horror stories.

So his the statement that he released after this attempted

murder was, I've been trying to encourage writers here to break

out from the serial killers and Slenderman cliches that tend to

overrun the creepy pasta fandom. Though my motivation was less

that I believe Slenderman was harmful the Jeff the Killer fan

girls and spin offs I did find somewhat troubling. I've

mentioned before that I feel romanticizing serial killers is

not really something I feel comfortable with promoting via

publishing all the Jeff love stories I'm gonna have to tell

about that too, yeah, and self inserts that people tried to

submit. The only Jeff spin off I did let through was when I felt

had a decidedly non romantic view, but more because I view

this website as a place for people to become better writers

and readers. Ah, okay, Jeff the Killer is a meme, basically, and

it's the guy with a scary face who, like, hides in your closet.

Oh yeah, okay, serial killer. And he sounds like a jerk. He

stands in your closet

and is

like, go to sleep. We should put this on that in the newsletter

too. I want to see I'm not okay, you know, I'm gonna put a link

to it. Okay, kind of scary. Oh, okay, okay. It's like, very

like, flared out white face with like a crazy smile like that.

Okay, but yeah, so he went off on this whole thing of, like,

why are people writing romantic Jeff the Killer? Well, it's like

he came into my room go to sleep, but I was like, I can't

go to sleep because you're so sick. Oh, God, I know these are,

like, those Richard Ramirez's wife, like those ladies who are

obsessed with serial killers and marry them in prison or create

Tumblr accounts for Dylan Klebold Jesus. Yeah, it's the

same thing. Well, I think this guy was just like, I'm here to

help people write horror stories. But all of these girls

are like, yeah.

Yeah, have sex with me. Slenderman, yeah, which like is

a thing. There is an entire like Slenderman erotica. Oh yes, no,

I'm not even kidding. There's a whole like section of

Slenderman, like, slash pick where Slenderman is like, well,

you know, fill in the blank. Pretty much Everything's in

there.

I'm not even kidding. I'm gonna find it and send it to you now.

What fertile imaginations This generation has. Wow. What

generation? Well, the generation younger. I mean, are there

people our age who are like, writing that up? I have no idea.

But yeah, I think it's right, or whatever. Yeah, I don't know,

stab real sex.

I didn't

That's right. So this guy wrote like us, oh, my god. How many

pages is this? I think it's six pages of how to write

creepypastas. Oh, wow. It's like a very thorough title, yeah,

it's manual. It's writing creepypastas. So he talks about

first the main types of fear, shock, the main purpose of

shock, fear is to startle the observer. Example, a loud scream

or a scary figure suddenly appears out of the closet,

paranoia. The purpose of paranoia is to make the observer

feel nervous and unsure about his or her surroundings.

Example, a story about home invasion makes you feel chills

when you hear a floorboard creak.

Dread. The purpose of dread is to create such a suspense that

the observer is overcome with a feeling of personal dread, okay,

a feeling that something bad will happen. This is perhaps the

most powerful form of fear, the stuff of nightmares. Example, a

horribly grotesque figure is rocking on the ground. You dread

that it will look up at you. I think he stole this from Stephen

King's on writing,

which is fine, yeah, sure. To teach a bunch of kids how to

write scary stories, right? And then he has, like, an Do you

want an anonymous or a specific story? And then, like, what is

scary? He has a list of things that are scary, the unknown

familiarity, taking something familiar to the reader and

putting a twist on it. Science, uh huh. By talking technically,

you can say, does he mean like to peep Flat Earthers? That's

scary. You can fool people into believing it's real, if it

sounds scientific. Oh, interesting. So like, yeah, if

you're talking about like a creepy experiment that happened,

which is one of the one of the creepy process is like this,

Sleep Experiment. Oh, okay, Soviet Sleep Experiment, yes, I

read about that. Yeah,

sorry, just That's all right. Children, uh huh, agreed. Story,

sorry, I love my friends. Children, a story, just them,

though, just the story about a child is scarier than one about

an adult roughly 80% of the time. I could say, would you get

that math mister

fact check mirrors, which you know, if you're submitting to a

traditional publishing house, will get you thrown right out.

Yeah, but if you're submitting to the creepypasta, it's fine,

yeah, the unclear, static, blurry photos, etc, described to

the reader, but not in huge detail. So this is what I'm

talking about, where the person is looking at a photo or

watching a video, and they try to explain it, but they're

confused by it, sure. So this gives people a chance to let

their mind wander. Their mind is in the right state where you put

it, yeah, paranoia, these unclear things lead them to

their own horrific conclusions. This is what sets the good

writers apart from the great ones.

Anyway, abandonment, sure, old abandoned house or a place that

can be wandered about. Who lived here? What were the people like?

Yeah, does something perhaps remain in the wall? Maybe it

does. And then faces, eyes, teeth and smiles can all be

described in such a way that they unnerve people.

Pictures, what say really quickly. The blurry face thing

made me think of the ring. Yeah, remember, that's like, what I

thought of first, yeah? Well, I mean, it's kind of the same

thing. Yeah. There's a lot of horror movies that do that well.

And then when you think about, like, the the chain emails,

yeah, and then, because it's like, you saw this, and now you

have to pass it on, right, right. Like, that's, yeah,

that's the ring, basically, that's true. And that's how a

lot of these creepypastas are. It's like, you've seen this, and

now you can and see it. You have to do something about it, right,

right. There was, there's one that's called, like, it has a

phone number, and it's like, Booth's world. You call it, it's

like, welcome to Booth's world. My name is Samantha name, and

it's like, if you call that number, yeah, then you're

signing up for like, murder. And it's like, you give them a name

and they they're gonna murder.

The person, unless they recruit 100 more people. It's basically

the MLM from hell. Sounds that way.

Anyway,

first person, blah, blah, blah, talks about point of view, talks

about how to use grammar. Yes, it's great. Like this guy really

cares, yeah, being better writers, yeah, yeah, like 11,500

or something, yeah, 518 Yeah. I think Yeah, you're welcome.

Yeah. I wrote it in the outline, but I did where, as you can

probably hear from how high the mics are turned up. Yes, we are

shuffling. Paper shuffling. Emily has 11,518

pages in her hand. I do. I do. It's not even exactly we take

this very seriously, folks, yeah, we're researchers. Yeah,

we are, by nature. We work really, calling, yeah, yeah.

That's why we're in publishing. That's right, we like to

research, yep, that's why we didn't have sex in high school.

Yeah, because we're too busy researching and reading. I was

like, I definitely know what that is.

I Okay, so

probably the highest elevation of people who get really into

creepypasta and who are willing to write horror for free, uh

huh, go to Reddit. Okay, yeah, makes sense to the no sleep Oh,

subreddit. I have never read that. I'm too scared. Yeah, if I

lived alone, I would, yeah, but

the way that it's set up is really cool, yeah, because it

has rules. Ah, so the description of the subreddit,

so, okay, for people who don't know what Reddit is, it's a

website where there's categories for everything under the sun

that you might be interested in. So if you like brewing beer,

there's a subreddit. If you like reading fantasy, there's a

subreddit. I looked up reviews of shampoo on there the other

day. It's its own subreddit, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah. And so very he'll just share information and no sleep

is

described as a place for realistic horror stories,

everything is true here, even if it's not, that's their tagline.

So users are to act as though everything is true on no sleep

and treat it as such in posts and comments. I like that. I

know no debunking, disbelief or criticism, constructive or

otherwise. If the formatting is off, report the post and the

mods will address it, do not ask for proof or tldrs, which is too

long, didn't read.

I never knew what that meant, really. Thank you for I always

need to look it up when I see it, and I just gotta forget. So

thank you for telling me what that means. TLDR, I like say

that in conversation.

I heard you say that, and I'm like, okay,

that's what I do when I can't, literally can't hear what

someone says, Oh, I'll be like,

okay. God.

So there's now a podcast for it. There's been 11 seasons on this

podcast, and I guess every week, they do a rundown of the most

popular so you can just go there and post a story. Oh, sweet. All

right, but it's usually from first person, unless you have

some really good reason not for it to be first person. And so

that's why, like, you can't die. At the end of it, you have to,

like, talk about the only way you can die is if you disappear

and stop posting. I see okay, yeah, okay. And then people in

the comments will be like, What happened to you? Yeah, right,

right. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Yeah. So I'm gonna read one,

yeah. So this one started as multiple posts on Reddit, and it

was so popular, he just kept getting points. Like, you can

give people like stars, or you can give them gold, okay? And it

like, ups your cred, I guess, sure. And so he just kept

getting all of this positive attention from it, and it turned

into a book, oh, good for him, called pen pal, all right, and

it was self published. And he created a company called 1000

vultures, which is his, his handle, okay, yeah, okay. He

cites his name. His real name is Dan Auerbach, uh huh. And he was

27 at the time. And for him, a philosophy teacher, I know more,

he cited RL Stein and Lord of the Flies as his inspirations,

and they were talking, I did find some stuff about them

going, they were gonna turn it into a movie, but I don't think

it happened, which is too bad, but he has written another book.

Oh, okay, I'm gonna read you the first story. It's like a half,

okay, so this is what the first story is called footsteps.

Footsteps. Okay, this is long, so I apologize for that. I've

never had to tell this story with enough detail to actually

explain it all the way. But it is true, and it happened when I

was about six years old in a quiet room. If you press your

ear against a pillow, you can hear your heartbeat.

As a kid, the muffled rhythmic beat sounded like soft footsteps

on a carpeted floor, and so as a kid, almost every night, just as

I was about to drift off to sleep, I would hear these

footsteps, and I would be ripped back to consciousness, terrified

for my entire childhood, I lived with my mother in a fairly nice

neighborhood that was in a transitional phase. People of

lower economic means were gradually moving in, and my

mother and I were two of these people. We lived in the kind of

house you see being transported in two pieces of the on the

interstate, but my mom took good care of it. There were a lot of

wood surrounding the neighborhood that I would play

in and explore during the day, but at night, as things often do

to a kid, they took on a more sinister feeling.

This coupled with the fact that, due to the nature of our house,

there was a fairly large crawl space, oh no, I know underneath,

filled my mind with imaginary monsters and inescapable

scenarios which would consume my thoughts when I was awoken by

the footsteps. I told my mom about the footsteps, and she

said that I was just imagining things. I persisted enough that

she blasted my ears with water from a turkey baster. Oh boy,

once just to placate me, since I thought that would help, well,

it's your own fault. Then, yeah, of course, it didn't. Despite

all the creepiness and footsteps, the only weird thing

that ever happened was that every now and then I would wake

up on the bottom bunk, despite having gone to sleep on the top.

But this wasn't really weird, since I'd sometimes get up to

piss. Okay, just made yourself sound like a like 80 year old,

yeah, no, not like a child or get something to drink, and

could remember just going back to sleep on the bottom bunk. I'm

an only child, so it didn't matter. Didn't matter. Why'd you

have a bunk bed? Then, yeah, that's weird. Maybe the ghost

slept in the other

sorry. This guy's story is really good. Go on.

I like it. Okay, this would want this would happen once or twice

a week, but waking up on the bottom bunk wasn't too

terrifying. But one night I didn't wake up on the bottom

bunk. Oh, I'd heard footsteps, but was too far gone to be woken

up by them. And when I was awoken, it wasn't from the sound

of footsteps or a nightmare, but because I was cold, really cold.

When I opened my eyes, I saw stars. I was alone in the woods.

I sat up immediately and tried to figure out what was going on.

I thought I was dreaming, but that didn't seem right, though,

neither did me. Being in the woods, there was a deflated pool

float right in front of me.

Must have been that annoying. It went from the bears video,

one of the pool floaties was shaped like a shark. This only

added to the surreal feeling. But after a while, it seemed

like I just wasn't going to wake up because I wasn't asleep. I

stood up to orient myself, but I didn't recognize these woods. I

played in the woods by my house all the time, and so I knew them

really well, but if these weren't the same woods, then how

could I get out? I took a step and felt a shooting pain in my

foot, which knocked me back to where I'd been laying. I'd

stepped on a thorn. By the light of the moon, I could see that

they were everywhere. I looked at my other foot, but it was

fine, and as a matter of fact, it was the rest of me. I didn't

have another scratch on me, and I wasn't even that dirty. I

cried for a little bit, and then stood back up. I didn't know

which way to go, so I just picked a direction. I resisted

the urge to call out, since I wasn't sure I wanted to be found

by who or what might be out there. Smart kid, very smart

kid, yep, I walked for what seemed like hours. I tried to

walk in a straight line and tried to course correct when I

had to take detours. But I was a kid, and I was afraid. There

weren't any howls or screams, and only once did I hear any

noise that scared me. It sounded like a crying baby, I think now

that it was just a cat, but I panicked. I ran, veering in

different directions to avoid big, thicks of bushes and

collapsed trees, and I was paying close attention to where

I stepped, because by that point, my feet were in pretty

bad shape. I paid too much attention to where I was

stepping, and not enough to where those steps were leading,

because not long after hearing the cry, I saw something that

filled me with a kind of despair I haven't experienced since. Was

it a baby?

Go on, I'm sorry. It was the pool float. Oh, no,

I was only 10 feet from where I'd woken up.

I know that wasn't magic or some supernatural space bending. I

was lost. Up until that moment, I thought more about getting out

of the woods than I how I got in, but being back at the

beginning caused my mind to swim. I wasn't even sure that

these were my woods. I had only been hoping they were had I run

in a huge circle around that spot, or did I get turned around

and start making my way back? How was I going to get out? At

the time, I thought the North Star was just the brightest

star, and so I looked and found the brightest one and followed

it. Eventually, things started to look more familiar. And then

I saw, quote, unquote, the ditch, a dirt ditch my friends

and I would.

Have dirt clod wars in sure I knew I had made it out. By that

point, I was walking really slowly because my feet hurt so

much. But I was so happy to be so close to home that I broke

into a light jog when I actually saw the roof of my house over a

neighboring lower set house. I let out a light sob and ran

faster. I just wanted to be home. I'd already decided that I

wouldn't say anything, because I had no idea what I could

possibly say. I would get back in the house, somehow, clean up

and get in bed. My heart sunk as I rounded the corner and my

house came fully into view. Every light in the house was on,

whoa. I knew my mom was up, and I knew I would have to explain,

or try to explain, where I had been. And I couldn't even figure

out where to start. My run became a jog, which became a

walk. I saw her silhouette through the blinds, and although

I was worried about how to explain things to her that

didn't that didn't matter to me. At that point, I walked up the

couple of steps to the porch and put my hand on the doorknob and

turned right before I pushed it open, two arms wrapped around me

and pulled back. I screamed as loud as I could. Mom, help me,

please, mom, the feeling of being so close to being safe and

then being physically pulled away from it filled me with a

kind of dread that is, even after all these years,

indescribable, the door I had been torn away from opened and a

flash of Hope shot through my heart. But it wasn't my mom, uh

oh,

it was a man, and he was enormous. I thrashed around and

kicked at the shins of the person holding me, while also

trying to get away from the person who had just come out of

my house. I was scared, but I was furious. Let me go. Where is

she? Where's my mom? What did you do to her? As my throat

stung from screaming and I was drawing in another breath, I

became aware of a sound that had been present for longer than I

had perceived it, honey, please calm down. I've got you. It

sounded like my mom. The arms loosened and set me down, and as

a man approached,

and as man approaching me, oh, that's not my mistake.

Blocked out the porch light with his head. I noticed his clothes.

He was a cop. Uh oh,

I turned to face the voice behind me and saw it really was

my mom. Everything was okay. I began to cry, and the three of

us went inside. I'm so glad you're home, sweetie. I was

worried I'd never see you again. By that point, she was crying

too. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. I just wanted to

come home. I'm sorry. It's okay, just don't ever do that again.

I'm not sure me or my shins could take it. A little.

Laughter broke through my sobs, and I smiled a bit. Well, I'm

sorry for kicking you, but why'd you have to grab me like that? I

was just afraid that you run away again. I was confused. What

do you mean? We found your note on your pillow, she said, and

pointing it at the piece of paper that the police officer

was sliding across the table

to the six year old. Yeah, sorry. I picked up the note and

read it. It was a running away letter. It said that I was

unhappy, never wanted to see her or any of my friends again. The

police officer exchanged a few words with my mom on the porch

while I stared at the letter. I didn't remember writing a

letter. I didn't remember anything about any of this, but

even if I sometimes went to the bathroom at night and didn't

remember or even if I could have gone in the woods on my own,

even if all of that could have been true, the only thing I knew

at this point was, this isn't how you spell my name. I didn't

write this letter. Whoa. So that's good, yeah, I like a book

out of that, yeah, yeah, for sure. So we're gonna close up

with a fun Facebook group. Yeah, that we like. It's called, it's

called, it's from Thought Catalog, which has a lot of

really annoying like, millennial writers. However, Thought

Catalog also has a branch called creepy catalog, yes, which has

some of the best horror writing it does. It's really good.

They'll have horror stories, which there are many series of

horror stories, and then they'll have these lists where it's

like, tell us about a time you almost died. And like, they'll

just have all these random people comment on it, and then

they'll share other people's stories, so it's kind of

collaborative and cool, okay? And then people who,

people who write the long stories for the site, usually

have their own books.

Thought Catalog

has its own publishing company. They do it through Lightning

Source. Oh, I didn't know that, but they publish their writers

into books, and they create ebooks. So that's also

interesting, yeah, and kind of plays into what we're talking

about does. So there's a fun thing that I wish creepy catalog

would do more of, where they do these text message conversation

Yes, and they're very scary stories. And they are. You know,

after a while, like, if you're like Karen and I and you're big

horror fans, you get pretty jaded. Yes, that's true. But

having, like, for some reason, having that, like, text message

conversation is kind of creepy. It is me a little bit of a

chill. Yeah, it's very it creates a lot of tension. Yeah,

exactly. So current and I were in.

Drama in high school, we indeed we were, which is probably why

we did not have sex in high school again. Well, did people

in your drama class have low sex? Yeah, but oh, they were. It

was just all the boys. Oh, of course, it

was everyone else going, Hey,

I'm cute. I

All right. So which one should we start with? Which one is

that? Oh, that's the long one, right? Yeah, let's okay. Do you

want to start with the long one? Sure, yeah, okay, because it's

got the Fun fact, yeah. So Wait, which one are you gonna read?

What did

we decide I'm the one? Yelling, you're the one. Okay, okay, so

are you the gray one and the blue one.

I'm the one on this side, the one on the Okay, gotcha All

right. I'm ready. Can you see? Yeah, I think so. Okay, I'll

tell you if I can. Okay, let's go. All right, here we go.

Hey, you awake?

Yeah, bro, what's up? We're dudes, yep, kind of freaking out

here. Oh shit. Oh, wait, no, that's not there. Why did

something happen to dad?

Three questions, dad decided not to come. I went hiking alone. I

didn't know. He bailed on you. Why? I don't know. Didn't want

to drive up to UMass. Ah, shit. We should be doing this with

accent. Oh, I can't do that accent,

so you went hiking alone. Yeah, just me and my pop tent. What

that was? Pop tent? Me too. So what's up? You know how late it

is, sorry, Chris. I'm just getting creeped out up here on

the mountain by myself. I'm surprised I didn't have

reception.

Why are you scared? I keep seeing these lights, lights like

flashlights. I don't think so. My tent is in a clearing halfway

up the mountain. The lights are higher up, but they're getting

closer. What? WTF?

Yeah, I'm spook man, wish you were here.

You sure it's not flashlights? Could be other hikers. No, it's

deaf, not they're like these glowing orbs. It's weird.

They're blue. Chris, sorry, I was just doing

Google search about the lights. Yeah,

and

nothing helpful. Just go back to sleep. I'm sure they'll go away

or something.

They're getting closer, though. They're floating through the

trees down the slope toward me,

dude, that's kind of creepy. I know it's making my skin crawl.

Want me to call you? No.

I want to stay as quiet as possible. Something about this

isn't right, dude, what do you mean? Just a feeling. Shit,

they're still coming. What do I do? Just relax, man, stay in

your tent closer. There's five of them. They're glowing blue.

They're about as big as soccer balls. They're just outside the

clearing where my tent is. What the hell

he was typing, and then WTF? What I can hear a kid crying out

there past the tree line. What the fuck dude? What the fuck

it's WTF. Dude, sorry. Okay.

What are the lights doing? Just hovering a couple dozen feet

away by the clearings edge.

Fuck that. Kid is sobbing. What do I do? Do not go out there.

The kid is screaming. Now call the park rangers.

The lights have started to flicker. Kid's still screaming,

fuck. I hate how that sounds. Get out of there. Something is

seriously wrong. Holy shit, my tent almost got blown away. It's

like a tornado just whipped through the woods. The boy is

still screaming. I think I heard a tree come down. I am freaking

out. Get out of there now. Ian, I'm not going out there, not

with that kid. Screw

he stopped screaming.

Lights are flickering still. I think they're waiting for

something.

Can you snap a picture or something? I need to help you.

Hold on.

What the fuck? WTF? What happened? I took a picture when

I looked at my phone, though there weren't orbs of light

anymore. What the hell were they?

People,

horrific looking people. They were all pointing right at me.

One

of them was a little boy, Chris, please help me. Run. Run in. Get

back to your car. You have to shaking. I'm so scared I don't

want to go out there. I think they're getting closer.

Ian run. Fuck, fuck,

Chris, I can't run. They're right outside the fucking 10

now.

Shit. Go. You.

Have to

Ian.

Ian,

what's happening?

I just tried calling. Please, answer me.

Please,

Hey, man,

Ian, what happened?

I'm here. I think I'm gonna go up the mountain. What? Yeah,

there's something I need to see up there. What are you talking

about? You should come too.

Bring some friends.

Why? What is going on?

Everything's okay. There's just something up there that you need

to see. Dude, come home.

Goodbye. Chris.

Oh, that was scary. The best part of this is the guy. So the

guy has a book out.

Yeah, on it's on Amazon,

and it's Elias withero. Oh, totally real name, uh huh, sure,

it's the book is called The Black farm, and it's like the

this couple's child die, and they have a suicide pack, and

then they kill themselves, and then they're at the black farm.

Wow. The weird thing about it, though, is under the cover image

on Amazon, there's an author page link, uh huh, to a woman

named Sharon Kendrick, okay? And she is literally a harlequin

paperback romance author. And there's all of these, like those

old fashioned, like, white cover with the kind of red frame,

okay, yeah, people making out in the middle. Yeah, it's all of

those. There's like 20 of them. And then there's this, like,

black farm.

The guy has an ax, and it's like a coded figure. And I'm like,

that's this seems wrong, but what if it is the same? We don't

know. Maybe she was just like, I'm tired of everyone falling in

love. It's terrible. It's terrible. Okay, well, we're

going to do, do you want to do this one? Sure, someone. Okay,

I'm not gonna tell what happened. Okay, okay, yeah.

The The title is a spoiler. It is a spoiler. Don't say it.

Okay, so which one are you? Laura, I'll be the gray one

again. Okay, so you're the scary one. I'm the scary Yeah, okay,

yeah, I like that.

Are you awake? I know it's a bit I can't see. I'm sorry. It's

late. Okay, sorry, wait, wait, right now, starting over. I'll

maximize. I have, like, terrible eyesight. Oh, here we go. Thank

you. All right, here we go. Okay, ready? Are you awake?

I know it's late, but can you answer me?

Micah, come on. I wouldn't

text you this late if it wasn't important.

Who the fuck is this?

Lol, nice to hear from you, too. Sunshine,

seriously, not fucking around. Who is this?

Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, stop. Tell me who this is

Jesus. Micah, it's Laura, obviously.

What did you delete my number or something?

This isn't funny.

What isn't

everyone knows Laura died,

whoever this is, I don't know how you're doing this, but it's

super fucked up of you to text someone from their dead

girlfriend's number.

Can I come over?

Seriously? Stop? Who is this

on my way?

Do you want to do the last one? Yeah, let's do the last one.

Fun. This one's your favorite, right? Yeah, okay,

we're not gonna maximizing the screen for I think it's a good

idea, yeah. Oh, this is your scary one again, yeah, okay,

unless you want to be the scary person, let me be this guy,

yeah, let's change it up. Okay, okay.

Elizabeth, your sister is hurt. What are you talking about? Who

is this? A friend. I took your number off her phone.

I don't understand. How do you have her phone?

I'm with her right now.

What happened? Did you call an ambulance?

No, I figured I would tell you first.

Where are you? I'm getting in my car now.

Answer your phone. I'm trying to call. Come on. I want to talk to

her.

She can't talk.

She's hurt that bad. Get her help. Call 911,

I don't think that's such a good idea.

Why the hell not?

Because I'm covered in her blood because the blade has my

fingerprints on it, because they'll figure out I did it.

Are you being serious? Right now, I'm gonna have the police

trace these messages back to you. You sick. Fuck. You'll be

locked up for life.

It's a burner phone. It's going in the trash with all the

evidence.

Then why did you even text me? Why did you tell me any of this

to fuck with me,

to make you suffer as much as her

good luck sleeping tonight. Elizabeth, I'll see you soon.

Yeah, that was awesome. I liked being scary. Yeah, it's fun

being the scary one, all right. Well,

that's fun. Yeah, that's fun. Well, and I think that, uh, I

feel like I could research and talk about this forever,

honestly, absolutely true.

Anyway, I'm not going to. I'm mostly just gonna, like do this

on my own free time.

But yeah, so we're gonna close up, yeah, but I wanted to thank

people for their iTunes reviews. We Yeah, thank you guys. Yeah.

We have seven, five star reviews, hell yeah. And then

three of them are reviews. I don't know how to differentiate

with words, with words like, actual, actual, like, word

review, yeah, like, written like, sentences, yeah,

sentences, there's stars, and set seven stars, sentences,

seven stars and then three sentences, yeah, from people,

yeah. So we have Rucker food, Cobra status, 31 and Melina

Hughes. Thank you very much. Thank you for your reviews.

Yeah. So follow us on Facebook. Just look up hybrid pub scout.

There's no one there but us, Twitter at hybrid pub scout. And

please visit hybridpubscout.com

and sign up from our for our newsletter. You can get more

cranky articles from me.

Get the fun links to our podcast, and I'm Corinne Yeltsin

cloud, that's right. And then we're gonna start trying to put

some more self published reviews. Yeah, we're gonna,

we're not going to talk about what we read this week. No,

thank you for not shaming. Yeah, well, we've, we've both been

reading Florida. Yes, we, well, we've. One of us says, yes,

okay, yes, we have, yes.

I've still been reading the Shirley Jackson book, though. So

I'm still reading that. That's important, I know so, but yes,

in October Florida, also, I think so too. Yeah, clarifying.

And then, oh, Marie Robinson's new stone and blood this week.

And so JT is gonna probably be back on soon to read another

chapter. I can't wait. I know Me neither. All right. Well, thanks

for listening and thanks for giving a shit about books. Bye.

You.

You.