The Harbinger Experiment | CreepCast

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Well, not to mention their context around that was I was in the grocery store with my mall. So I love that. I'm aged to be scared, but it's also funny to imagine a woman walking around and there's an iPad boy next to her listening to creepypods. Yeah. A version one iPad, giant brick, reading Harbinger Experiment, whatever. Which was that one then on ironically me. This, yeah, you were that little kid. Hello. What is that in your iPad? Basically smut. It was either, it was this, we ended up on this too. One of these days, I keep seeing people, there's a story called Happy Appie that people say is like a classic or something, too. So I don't know. That's one, too, though. I think we were going to have to read the future by the way. You'll love that one. Oh my God. This is like a fucking four or five hour long read. Yeah. You'll be excited when that one shows up. So. Okay. So that's a terrible story as what you're saying. No. No. You're horrible. A horrible, horrible liar that I immediately can tell that's going to be a dog shit story. If it's a fucking, my best friend's ruining my life, I can't do it. If it's if it's that long ago story and it'd go, uh, that was it. That was an actual person. You didn't appreciate what that story gave us. I hate David King that so much. Well, yeah, the point of the story is to hate David King, but fuck you. Um, I don't get it. You don't get it. It's us. That's what he wants. He wants you to do. Um, no, you don't appreciate that story because there are so many boring stories where I wish it became a PSA about credit card fraud and like David broke into the apartment and choked his roommate to death for no reason. That is true. If you're going to go there, at least go there and then it did go there. I mean, I, I will give credit where credit is due because I know that for some god off a reason, it's one of our audiences. I would say it's like a top episode. People fucking love that episode. Don't say, don't say for some reason. You know exactly why you were screaming. I mean, I was crying laughing. It's the crash. It's the crash out, but I'm not going to, I refuse to acknowledge it. I actually wanted to do something here, though, because you don't really remember, do you think you can at least set up what you can, what you think you remember from the story? Okay. Or do you remember anything at all? Okay. So for context, the Harbinger experiment was posted to creepypasta.com on December 20th of 2013, so it is a 12, over 12 year old story at this point. And I remember listening to it, gosh, it would have been 14, I think, 14 or 15, when I think Mr. Creepypasta covered it. And I remember it freaking me out. I just remember I was listening to it in my room and I got scared and then I made my friends listen to it, but they didn't like Creepypasta so they just bullied me. Well, I can creepypasta with that's another story. I feel there was something about three test subjects, I remember that. And there was some doctor running some evil experiment, but something had happened to the test subjects, and it had something to do. So the word Harbinger means like, you know, the, the bringer of something bad or like an omen or something for boating. So I feel like there may have been apocalypse vibes or like it was to stop the end times or something like that. It's usually safe to say with a lot of these stories too. I think a lot of kind of skewed to the end of the world kind of doomsday thing. I do think there's a lot of like in these earlier, well, even nowadays, I think people do like this kind of like evangelical end of world, biblical kind of thing. I always think that that's a through line, which always makes you think too that like a lot of these authors are from like the Midwest or like the South or something where it's like that's an oppressive thing that they think about. I used to, one of my buddies churches and they were like, it was just death and hellfire the entire. It was horrifying. And then there's other churches where it's like, Oh, this is, you know, this is awesome. This is lovely or whatever. So I could see some people taking that and being like, I'm afraid is this religion, the same or not religion is this church, the same one that told your mom you need a professional help. No. No, no, no. This is a different church and they were kind. I drew a lot of very odd things. I don't blame them for what they said. Holdry. I don't, I can't remember. Maybe like 11 so to 11 church faculty who met you one time, immediately pinged that you needed psychiatric health. I think around that time, I was really, I was really hooked on this comic, this Tokyo pop manga. I don't even know if Tokyo pops a company anymore. There's this Tokyo pop comic called Priest and I was so stoked on it. It was by this fucking awesome Korean artist named Min Woo Hyun. And he was amazing. But anyways, he drew these like, it was like, oh, it's a kind of like this western. I don't know if you've ever looked at that comic, I say, I think that you would actually like it a lot. But it's a, it's an interesting like western comic, but it's all about like a guy who takes a deal from the devil. Yada, yada, yada. Like, that's pretty generic. But the way that the guy draws is awesome. And I remember I just kept drawing all these and like, he like shoots all these angels because all like the devil's henchmen are all like the angels that went with him or whatever, but they still look beautiful and it's really cool. But I kept drawing all of these like people like getting their like wings ripped off and shit. So like, I could see people being like, oh, this child is, this child, that's equal to his heart. But I was just stoked on Priest. That's all I want. Sure. Sure. Okay. Also, it was funny a second ago when you said, I think this is a lot of, like a lot of these doomsday stories come from people in the Midwest or South, and I see now that you were talking about because they have religious influence. I thought you were implying because in the Midwest, the rapture just happens every now and then. Well, that is true, too. I think just being in these flyover states, you never know what happens. And I think that it's just constant sorrow. The entire idea of the Midwest is to leave the Midwest. And if you don't, then you're just kind of stuck. So it is just a bismaltair forever. I'm excited to get into this. So just wanted to thank everyone who is listening on audio platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. We appreciate you for giving us nice reviews as well. I appreciate you. And also to our patrons who support us behind the scenes and help us keep this thing going. Isaiah, are you ready to jump back into the past as I dive in with you? I'm ready to jump into the past. I'm ready to see if this was something actually scary or if this is just another public flagellation. So we'll find out. I always like to think that whenever we go into these, I never think they're going to be scary like these old, old ones. But I am curious to be like, oh, I can see how people maybe read this and they've influenced all this other stuff. You know, especially kids, 100% like I said, the story was written by Zion J. He's written a few stories, most recent of which was in 2016. But we'll leave a link to his creepyposter profile in the description so you can check out the other stories. Anyway, without further ado, the Harpinger experiment. The world we live in is full of things we don't understand. Being the curious humans that we are, we naturally try and seek these things out. Doing so has led us to remarkable discoveries and inventions that we never could have imagined a hundred years ago. We have defeated disease, built to the sky itself and even created machines that could take us beyond the clouds and into the stars. Our ancestors could see us and what we have created, I'm sure many of them would see us as gods. Our neck curiosity, lust for knowledge, has not always led us to greatness, however. True evil and darkness have also been uncovered in humanity's conquest of knowledge. And in the end, I fear this evil will be our doom. Should we also shout out the author and stuff real quick? I did, I did. That's what I just did a second ago. Oh, we did. Okay, I'm just making sure. Yeah, right before I start, I said, we'll leave his link below. Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. Sorry. So it's for a second. I always am. Alright. I'm in a constant state. A constant state is like a river. Alright, make sure, editor, make sure you leave in him asking me to shout out the author just so the audience knows what I go through, if you leave it, if you leave it in editor, you will be fired. No, no, you won't. You will. Well, if you get fired, I will double whatever he's paying you on when to go. So he won't. liar. I'll do it. It's on a matter of record right here. So leave this in as well. So there's a public record of it happening. So you have job security. So do the right thing. I did not say this from the standpoint of a great philosopher who has said and simply pondered things either. No. I said this because I've seen it experienced it. I was a part of it. It's interesting. It almost reads like a Frankenstein thing, doesn't it? Yeah. He's the experiment. Yeah. Like he's the monster that he was a part of it. I don't think. I don't remember that, but that could be what it is. It just reads like that. I don't know, or he was a part or it's more likely he was just a part of whatever he was like a researcher or something like that. What's funny is trying to remember details of it. I just remember the thing. I remember there being an experiment. I remember the third test object being creepy and that's it. So I know something else has to happen because there's no way the story is just, man, that guy's kind of spooky. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it is. Sometimes it's all you need. The event I'm about to relate to you is true in its entirety. This I swear. I feel certain that this will fall on deaf ears and many of you will believe this to be just another spooky story meant to give you cheap thrills. But I promise you, this is neither my intent nor my purpose. Why would you say neither intent nor purpose? That's the same thing. I just really drive it on the message. I fear. Okay. So that's it was neither what I meant to do or what I intended to do or was my purpose the Holy Trinity. Furthermore, this was not my purpose, my intent, my assumption, my direction, my directive, my, that's it. It scared me a little bit where it's like, I fear that this will fall on deaf ears and be another spooky story because I feel like a lot of the creepyposses back then would do this thing where it'd be like, you may think this is just another ghost story, but it's not, you know, I love that. I love that young energy of just being like, yeah, you could just, yeah, I think this is just another spooky story. But as a kid, though, I know that I would be in. I'd be like, what is this real? Yeah. It's like one of the first times I saw a paranormal activity. I was like, what are you fucking? That was real. What the fuck? You know, just because there was no credits or whatever, I want to thank Paramount Pictures. You're like, what? That kind of thing. Yeah. Like I said previously, I would this and no end house were the ones when I was really young, like 13, maybe 13, 14 that I would always tell people was my favorite. Or I'd be like, oh, this is the best one ever. It was like this. No end house, and I think in Aussie's coat, man, were the ones that were like prime for 13 year olds. No end house was good, though. I like that one. It was good. It just wasn't like the scariest start. Now we've read stuff that, you know, far surpasses it. Sure. That I wouldn't have appreciated when I was that age. Well, the pool of stuff must have been so much smaller back than two. It was. It was a lot smaller and there it was also the quality. And primarily I was 13, you know. Yeah. You're different human being now than you were when you were 14. Yeah. If I read penpal then, like sure, some moments would be scary. But I'd probably see it just like a lot of dialogue and stuff that. Yeah. Yeah. It just goes over your head. It just goes over your head with love it. Or like I don't appreciate how well-built those scares are and stuff like that. Sure. Whereas now it's way more impactful. At the time, a house with seven creepy doors was way more impactful. That's all you need. Yeah. That's one too many doors. Oh my gosh. If it was six, I could take it. But seven. Six is five. Yes. If it was six, I wouldn't be pissing my pants for seven. That's why you hear those dribbles. That's what it's like around 20 or those dribbles. Actually, wasn't it like nine doors? I think it was way more. That's way more than six. I remember he thought he had gone home and they dressed his house and his parents are dead. And then it's like there's another door. Yeah. There's another door that was like a time warp for like he was he's been in eternity in the void or whatever yet. Yeah. He had us 13. I'm like, Oh my gosh. This door is even creepier than the last. Oh my god. All these doors. I can't get it scarier. Let's just start from the top of this paragraph. I thought you're best of the whole story. I was like, no. The purpose of this story is to simply warn you of what lurks beyond the veil of what we can see and understand. To show you what awaits us in the darkness, even if I myself don't understand it. What I'm about to tell you has happened and I feel certain will happen again. In 1971, a not so well-known scientist began preparations for an extremely secretive project known simply as the Harbinger experiment. I would like to keep the identity of the scientist a secret for personal reasons. So throughout this recounting, I will refer to him as Zimmerman. Of course it's. All right. Now, you know what? It could be that I could climb on it for having a stereotypical German name for Germans like an evil scientist. Right. Sure. But I'm not going to do that because it could be good. The story could be good. And I'm just I'm just getting fast back to German scientists. I'm not faulting it for having Zimmerman. That's fine. But he said count. If he said like count Zimmerman. Okay. That's fucking real back. But Zimmerman to me is fine. You know what? Maybe I'm just afraid because what's happened several times of the show is I've pulled up a story I liked and it's been just trash. So I'm just 90% of the stories we read Isaiah. Okay. It's fine. You don't have to go that hard. But I've just got my gloves up a little bit, but I'm good. Good. Okay. Because the room is background is unclear at best beyond 1971. All that is known about him before that time is that he had grown up somewhere in Maryland with a strange fascination of the occult supernatural. This later made him an outcast amongst his fellow scientists due to how scoffed upon the metaphysical was and still is at the time. Zimmerman's opinions concerning the otherworldly were not the sole cause for him being an outcast though. It was his methods that made him widely unaccepted among his peers. Zimmerman was well known during his time for being ruthless and cold beyond measure. He never cared about the means all the matter to him was the results. And if he predicted the results to be valuable enough, anything would be worth obtaining them. It was this insatiable and brutal lust for the truth that made him feared among those that knew him and the few that knew of him and did not fear him believed in him and followed him and his work closely. The word harbinger itself has such a mysterious and intimidating taste to it. Maybe it's the way it rolls from our tongues or maybe it's simply due to its association with the project. But the word always seems to carry a certain amount of doom with it, which would make sense. The word itself means to warn or for bound. Keep it up together or not. The word seems to carry a amount of doom with it, which would make sense since it means doom. Which would make sense. That would actually make sense because that's what the word saying. It definitely feels like he's putting on like the anime gloves and you know, messing with his hands. You should be afraid. Whenever I think of the word car accident, I think of a car wreck. Since that's what the word means. Of course. Of course. Right away doctor. Yes. When I think of the word explosion, I think about something blowing up. Since that's what explosion means. Since that's pretty much what blowing up means. Thank you for clarifying for us. The word itself means to warn or for bow. I can't imagine Zimmerman's reason for giving the experiment this title, but in retrospect, it fits perfectly. I can't comprehend it all while he would give it this title. But in retrospect, it actually makes a lot of sense. It's what I find means that he knew that it was going to be a fucking like doomsday experiment. Right. I think. Dr. Zimmerman would never be so trash with his doctors. When I think of an explosion, I think of something blowing up. I don't know why they decided to name a hand grenade an explosive device. But after watching what it does, I think it fits perfectly. The doctor at the psych ward this guy just takes a gun out and blows his brain out. I can't do it anymore. Just saying words sound like other words and then now understanding why words are named what they are. Yeah. I think of cheese. I really think of the word milk. It's just pretty much because that's what's cheese is made of. I don't know why they call sour. You would have to take that person and treat them like a 14 year old lab. Well, bye bye bye. I don't know why they called the mocha at Starbucks a coffee with chocolate, but after tasting it, it fits perfectly I don't know why they call the mocha, but when tasting it, it's perfect, I see why they did that I don't know why they call the mocha at Starbucks a coffee with chocolate, but when tasting it, I don't know why they call the mocha at Starbucks a coffee with chocolate This left a very dark mark on my resume, so work was hard to find. I was also a native to Alaska and lived near where the experiment would take place. So I guess you could say I was a convenient choice. As you can imagine, I jumped at the opportunity. It was hard not to when I saw the payout. So he's getting a ragtag team of basically blacklisted professionals or whatever. So I'm guessing it's just because it's like, well, no one's even going to like see them gone because they're basically already ostracized from their fields. Yeah, yeah. It feels very, well, maybe not the professional part, but it feels SCP almost. Dude, I was actually going to say the exact same thing, expendable people to experiment on or whatever or like be a part of it, because like the SCP people, they're all like prisoners, right? Well, the D class are there's different classes people there because like the researchers and doctors aren't expendable per se, but the D class are the D class are like food. They throw in to see what it does or how it treats people and stuff. It's like, oh, well, we threw that man into the time prison forever. So oops. 15 of us were hired in total. Some were colleagues of his that have been working with him for a while. Some were maintenance workers and if you were hired as private security, I was the only medical professional to be hired. Still wondered to me how he even attained the funds necessary for the experiment. Would not be wholly surprised if his financing was not entirely legal. But legal or not, I needed the money and he was paying. Looking back, it's a decision I've come to regret. After Zimmerman obtained his money, he used it to buy a relatively large plot of land deep in the frozen wilderness of Alaska. Upon that piece of land, Zimmerman built a concrete structure not to similar to a bunker, in fact. The sole difference being that its goal was to keep any potential damage contained within the structure rather than keeping it out as he put it. Most of the structure dug underneath the earth, which at the effect of making the underground complex seems so much smaller than it really was from the outside, as would be expected. There's only one way of entering and leaving the underground structure and it was through a ladder that led from a small, unassuming concrete building on the surface, which I will refer to from now on as the entrance building for convenience to the network below. After everyone had gone to bed at night, the hatch that contained the ladder would be sealed off with a very large and thick metal lid. Zimmerman was very strict about this. Located not too far away from the entrance building was a series of wooden cabinets that would serve as the sleeping quarters for the staff Zimmerman had hired. Compared to the entrance building standing on the surface, the underground system was massive. At the center of the complex was the control room. This is where all the facilities electronics and such were linked to. This included security cameras, lights and door controls. Consoles monitors and computers lined the walls of this large central chamber. This is also where the ladder in the entrance building connected to in the underground complex. Connected to the control room were three doors. One led to a smaller room that served as the infirmary. Another door led to the break room and the last door led into the hallways. The hallways are where the complex began to feel extremely eerie. They were for some reason laid out in an extremely confusing scheme that led in circles and to complete that ends. These hallways made of a vast majority of the complex and it would be very easy to get lost in the maze if you were unfamiliar with the complex. It seems that the doctor has made a literal like labyrinth underground for the. Like I only imagine that the people that he hired were not for their specialties but just to experiment on them. And they're going to be like mice in a maze. Yeah, I think that sounds right. I can't remember exactly what happens but I think. I think that implications correct that these people are down here because they're expendable. But if you're going to kill the people you hire, you can promise anything. You can be like, "Oh, you'll make $10 million." Well, 100%. Yeah. I'll offer you a two-year salary. Oh, shit, okay. I'm like, "Oh, I'm never doing that." Yeah. They don't know they're going to die, which is kind of. Oh, okay, okay. I don't know why he called it the death chamber. Death makes me think of dying. But after what happened, it fit perfectly. It fits perfectly. This year, I'm focusing on limits. How much I'm spinning, how many things I'm working on, and definitely how many streaming subscriptions I need. And that's where our sponsor RocketMoney comes in. The unfortunate truth is that it's easy to spend money. But finding unnecessary costs might not be. 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Each room had a camera hooked up to one of the corners of the room and all three of those cameras were connected to a corresponding monitor in the control room. room. Gamers were also scattered throughout the hallways, so that whoever was watching their correspondent monitor could see anywhere they wanted to when they wanted to. Dick Metal Door stood at the entrance of each of the three eight-by-eight-foot rooms, and in order to open them, you would have to enter a four-digit code into a panel located near the door. I remember when I first arrived at the complex how badly the hallways frightened me. I've always been claustrophobic, you see. And those hallways were so very narrow. The noise, more accurately, lack of noise, was also a tremendous source of fear for me and those bleak, narrow hallways. It was always so unnaturally silent as if the entire world had stopped moving. It really made you feel like you were trapped down there. Thankfully though, I only rarely ventured into those hallways for I was the only medical professional in the facility and I had virtually no reason to go into them. In the beginning, I found it so peculiar that Zimmerman would ask for a medical professional like me on a project like this by the time it was all over. I understood why. It's like the third time. It's like paragraphs and it was like, I get it now. But I could see how it was. Or I would come to regret that later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, yes, we're reading the story, we get it. Yes, you're very scary, you're doing a good job. The official purpose of the Harbanger experiment was to test and observe the effects of extended isolation on the human mind. This is what was listed on reports being sent out at least. But unbeknownst to all those who were not participating in the project, excluding the subjects, the true purpose was much darker. Like I said before, Zimmerman had always had an obsession with the occult and supernatural. He sought to prove himself to those who did not believe in him. He wanted physical proof that the supernatural was a real phenomenon and he wanted to be the first one to attain proof. The true purpose of the Harbanger experiment was to find proof of the metaphysical world we cannot see. The thought of doing this was naturally a tad bit daunting and even scary, but it was Zimmerman's method of doing so was truly terrifying. Zimmerman believed that he would be able to open a portal between worlds momentarily, allowing three random entities to cross over to our world. And each one of these beings would be trapped within one of the three rooms. That's not going to work. We will simply put them in the rooms. Well, so the ghost-like creatures from the other world will basically see this vacant, very comfortable room and want to take a nap. From there, we will seal the door, OK? Thankfully, these multi-dimensional beings respect complicated hallways and doors. They're so narrow that they'll be kind of weeded out and want to take a nap in the room. No, you don't understand. We lock the door. They can't open it. Of course, they know what doors is. They wouldn't nest with that. That's a universal concept. That's our dimension, not their dimension. They don't know what doors are. I think of door. I think of-- I think of gate. I don't know why he's called it a door, but looking at it now, it makes perfect sense. Yeah, it makes perfect sense. It's perfect. It's just walking through the bunker, just looking at stuff. I don't know why he called it a computer, but looking at it now, it makes sense. Is he going to just shoot some in the back like that? This is not worth it. What if I'm just talking about something? We don't need the nurse. That's OK. Zimmerman had the theory that any entity would try and latch onto the nearest living thing that had the capacity for it. He wanted to use this technique to trap a spirit in a physical form by allowing it to enter a living being that had been injected with compound mixture of Zimmerman's creation. In theory, the compound would keep the entity from simply leaving, whether it was attached to. And the only way it would be able to leave a host would been injected with a compound was through death. According to Zimmerman, the host would have to be something living with the will strong enough to survive the possession. And there is only one known species that possesses the amount of will required for this-- humans. Zimmerman had also done something to ensure that the entities would only enter the three rooms and that there would only be one entity in each room. But I cannot say I know what he exactly he did. In fact, I know next to nothing when it comes to how Zimmerman managed to do what he did. He liked to keep his methodology a secret to his most trusted colleagues, most likely due to his paranoia that someone would steal his ideas and take credit for the success of said ideas. That whole paragraph's kind of funny. It's like, well, you may ask how he did that. I don't know, but he did it. And if he tried to ask him, he would just throw a bitch fit and be like, stop trying to steal my ideas, so whatever. So I didn't ask him. But I know there is a compound. And that's all you need to know. So basically, what is happening here is-- I feel like it's kind of spilling it out. I don't know if I'm getting this right, but it seems as if he is going to have these entities come in, but it seems like you need hosts to have these entities. So the people that he hired are going to be these hosts for the entities that are coming in. I think there's a specific three that we'll get to. I can't remember if they're like prisoners or if they're like test subjects or something like that. But yeah, I remember there's three subjects where it designated for it to happen to. I see. If I had known that this was the true purpose before I signed up, I may have reconsidered. But Zimmerman decided not to tell us until we were all gathered at his fortress. Even if any of us wanted to leave, I doubt we would have been allowed to do so. Security team Zimmerman had hired was loyal to him and the payout. It's not likely that Zimmerman had given them the order to now allow anyone to leave. There were three different subjects included in the experiment. All were native to Alaska, and each one was lured into the project under the belief that they would be participating in a harmless study on the effects of isolation on the human mind, as I mentioned before, which is why none of the subjects objected when they realized that they would be confined to one of the three rooms that I mentioned earlier. The first subject was a young man, who's apparently, out of work, and desperately needed the money that had been offered for participating in the study. The second was a woman, but looking at her, I could tell she was an addict of some sort. The third and final subject was an older man, Drifter, if I'd guess. One thing they all had in common was that none of them had any family or friends left. And short, no one would miss him, which is why they were chosen for the project. I'm sorry. I wish I could supply more information about the subjects, but all of this had been drawn for memory, and I was given little information on the three to begin with. The experiment did not officially begin until 1997, 16 years after its original announcement. I was eager to begin, so I packed up and headed out to the complex as soon as I could. I arrived at the compound a week before the subjects that even signed up, and a whole month before the project even began. I was not the first to arrive by any means. When I got there, Zimmerman, his colleagues and the security team had already arrived. I suppose you could say I was among the people Zimmerman did not trust to arrive first. Everyone had arrived about a week before the experiment began. There was a noticeable drift between those who were there simply for the money, like me, those who were followers of Zimmerman. On October 15th, 1987, all the preparations were in place. Subjects have been sealed in their rooms, cameras, lights, and speakers were fully operational, and all the staff members had settled in. The time had come for the experiment to officially begin. I suppose I do like this. Like I think this is kind of interesting of a secret, like just like a secret experiment thing and people being subjects of like a paranormal, like basically like a rift opening between worlds and allowing something in and seeing the effects it has for like hosting or whatever, but this kind of like fucked up guinea pig experiment is interesting enough. Like it kind of reminds me of like the Stanford prison experiment or something where it's just like these fucked up weird experiments that people are doing for the quote unquote, you know, for the quote unquote research purposes or whatever. It just feels like a torture or something. Yeah, I also like the distinction between there are people there with Zimmerman and there's people there for the money. I think it's cool. There's kind of like this shadow group moving in the midst of it and stuff like that. It's interesting so far. I'm actually like invested in the story because I remember some details but don't remember where it goes. So like I'm I bought in it's effectively. It's silly with some of the writing or whatever I will say. There is like a fun experiment that er, there's like a fun idea here. Yeah, and I was going to say too, I was trying to figure out where to put this in, but this definitely has to be a guy who read the Russian sleep experiment and was influenced. Yeah, well anyone anyone who was writing creepyposses in 2013 read the Russian sleep experiment. Sure. As soon as you start talking about the doors and stuff and the hallways, I was like, oh man, the sounds like I can see that the flavor of that seeking and seeping into this. I mean, it's like like the Russian sleep experiment and early ones like that that were so heavy. It's hard to even, because I would say like, oh, it's like saying that you watch movies but you've never seen Star Wars. It's like even then you can do that because movies are so varied. It's like being a sci-fi special effects artist and ever seen Star Wars. It's like it's such a hyperniche thing. It's like, of course, you've seen the like starting of it, right? Like the progenitor. But what you're saying too is that even if you haven't seen it, the things that you have seen have been influenced by the same thing. - Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so this guy definitely did which it was just fine. I mean, it's fine to work off of Yeah, I think it's cool. I was I was just pointing that out because I was like this is a fun This is a fun idea of someone reading that being like oh fuck that was awesome and then like putting their own take on it It guesses what I meant and also 13-year-old me I can see I've been like oh my gosh Well, yeah, I mean I was kind of like getting nestled into my seat a bit when he's just like you know First off 16 years of this prep work It's pretty crazy so you've like it's been a huge devotion to your life and then now it's like just beginning I mean now I'm like even I was kind of like getting nestled in like okay. Well, what the fuck's gonna happen? Yeah, 13-year-old me reading this like that's a good point that the harbinger does mean those things Wow, that's mean doom I didn't think of that. Wow, you're right. It does fit perfectly Zimmerman asked everyone to report to control room around 9 p.m. to witness the beginning of the experiment He wanted everyone to be present when he approved that all his theories have been correct and that he was not just a madman He wanted to solve to see the fruits of his labor But everyone had finally gathered in the large control room Zimmerman turned to us and simply said Observe He then turned his back to us Laneed into the microphone that would project his voice through the three rooms and then he began chanting and a strange language And I feel certain no one but Zimmerman could understand we all observed the three large monitors on the wall soundly waiting for something to happen The subjects all stood in their rooms dumb struck by Zimmerman's chanting staring at the monitors with confused expressions on their faces After about five minutes I felt something awful Cannot explain what exactly it was, but a horrible feeling of dread washed out for me riddling me with fear It was then the ground actually began to shake subtly and the lights began to flicker Zimmerman continued chaining into the microphone as if nothing was off or wrong all the subjects we can't dash in around their rooms screaming for help And suddenly The ground stopped shaking and the monitors image turned into static the air began to become very heavy as we all stood to the monitors Waiting for them to regain their image and show us what was happening or had happened in those three rooms for a while all the silent But then there was screaming Screams of a woman going through unbearable pain and terror began to echo through the compound The similar screams of men began to coincide with the woman's terrified screams and together They mixed into an awful symphony of pain and fear the beep mercilessly into our ears Those of us who were here for the money began to give each other scared looks while those loyal Zimmerman seemed completely unfazed We wanted to leave and never come back to this awful place, but we all knew deep down that Zimmerman would never allow that to happen We were here for the long haul There's no escape. It was 10.13 p.m. when the screaming finally stopped The monitors had yet to reveal to us what had occurred in those three rooms As soon as the screaming ended, Zimmerman stood and dismissed us all for the night Adding that we were all forbidden to come back into the compound until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning Not like any of us wanted to We all solemnly made our way out of the compound towards the cabins and settled them for the night I feel it's safe to say that not all of us slept well that night and I was not one of them The following morning all of the staff had arrived at the entrance building We all stood inside exchanging tired or nervous looks as we waited for Zimmerman to arrive and opened the hatch that concealed the ladder I could see palpable fear in the eyes of some of us while others did not seem to have been even remotely affected by what had happened last night Zimmerman showed up five minutes after 10 Apologizing for his tardiness as he came through the door of the entrance building He opened the hatch and without any hesitation he and ascending the ladder downwards into the black abyss He almost seemed enthusiastic. I was the first to follow behind Zimmerman's darkened into the facility It seemed that farther I climbed down the more the darkness closed in on me as if it was trying to swallow me whole As I climbed deeper I couldn't help feel that this place was Different somehow while before there was only the unsettling concrete hallways and rooms now there was something else Something made the eeriness feel so real and personified I felt like a horrible and gruesome scene awaited us down there, but I continued climbing downward It's by my fear my hesitation This was no longer just a spooky bunker. There was darkness and malevolence in the air True evil now lived here, and I could feel it We all could I like the idea after the experiment It's like what it was once this like normal place that you worked now has this like actual physical change where The presence of these beings is like affecting the entire Like the even just the air that you're in just it feels like it's all around you. It's pretty cool Yeah, I went from something that you were so familiar with to like a layer dungeon Yeah, and also just like the presence of evil being there. Yeah, it's like you said that's the seismic change that has happened Yeah, there's something otherworldly down there with you I finally felt my foot touch ground and let out a silent sigh of relief to be on solid ground Almost as if on cue the light bulbs came alive dousing the room in their warm and welcome light Zimmerman must have turned on the power I thought I allowed myself to take a couple seconds to examine the control room It was exactly as we had left it last night for which I gave silent and thankful prayer It was almost as if nothing unusual had ever happened I shook myself for my thoughts as I remembered the static filled monitors from the night before Let my eyes slowly make their way towards the monitors on the wall anticipating the grim and fearful scenes that would be on them My attention was first grabbed by monitor one and three Which were still pure static it would have been a small relief but then the motionless image on monitor two caught my eye Room two was entirely still and everything seemed entirely untouched Couldn't help but gas was I noticed the only thing that was different Woman lay in the center of the small concrete room Expression of fear and terror was frozen into her gaunt face as she lay silent and lifeless on her back Zimmerman's expression turned angry when he saw this He ordered that the second monitor be turned off and it was We didn't ask why it's not like any of us wanted to see the dreadful scene in the longer He also ordered that if the images in the monitors one and three did not return within the next two hours Security team would be sent to investigate the rooms The security team nodded at hearing this They made it seem as if they had no fear I could see it in their eyes I like um That's a fun note about the security team in the fear I also like The lead up to it where you know there's three people and the only one you can see is dead And that makes them upset that you can see it so he needs to turn it off right away So it makes you ask like what are the two others then like it's a good Build up to like an eventual reveal. Yeah, also to the security and staff that is quote-unquote Xeraman's Trusted colleagues know what's happening. They're just not saying stuff There's obviously like a fear on their face. Yeah They know it's not just three dead people in a room right the subtly loud ticked talk The clock was the only sound that echoed through the control room while I stared at the monitors Now we're in 50 minutes to come by Instatic was still all that occupied monitor one and three All the other staff members were working except me So as due to the fact that the project had been completely injury-free thus far So I essentially had nothing to do but wait for someone to hurt themselves So like how he clearly saw like a dead or catatonic woman on the floor And he's like I you know when I'm called When I'm called like I have no hypocriticals for that woman or whatever I just saw in that camera So you know Zimmerman a couple of his colleagues and I were the only ones that occupied the room They quietly chatted amongst each other on the other side of the room while I spent my time reading and pondering the situation I currently found myself in I clearly made a mistake coming here Corpse line of room two was evidence enough of this God only knew what awaited us in rooms one and three my thoughts were soon interrupted As monitor three's image returned The clear image now displayed on the screen made everyone's eyes noticeably widen What was displayed on the monitor was horrifying A humanoid Thing stood in the center of the room staring directly at the camera Unmoving It was wearing the jumpsuit that subject three had been issued But this clearly was not the same man that had entered the room What caught my attention first was its eyes We were solid black twice the size of normal human eyes It seemed so so endless so cold It's head and also grown with the eyes in such a symmetrical and unsettling manner The being had also shed all of the hair it had once had And even from the monitor I could see how unnaturally smooth and clear its skin was And it also seemingly grown its height and stature Which could be seen in the fact that the jumpsuit was now obviously far too small for its wear Slims grown especially long It's arm's tongue almost as low as the creature's knees I'm almost like thinking does it not sound like a gray alien a bit It does sound like a gray alien. Yeah, you know, doesn't it like just a description? I feel like that's where my mind immediately went what we were looking at was in no way the same man He gets in inside fear was all I felt as I continued to stare into the monitor the thing in the room My fears seemed to be shared by those around me, which made me feel kind of good It may sound awful, but it was a bit satisfying to see that Zimmerman and his colleagues could feel fear too But at the same time it was worrying because this showed that this was not part of Zimmerman's plan Something had gone wrong. We all stared into the monitor at the thing despite our fear It was almost as if we were in a trance My already present fear began to grow and spread rapidly through my body as I became lost in the creature's eyes Trapped in terrifying hypnotic gaze. I for what felt like forever managed to break eye contact with the creature and divert my attention from the monitor When I did so I felt my fear levels dropped considerably After a short while Zimmerman ordered his security team to make their way to subject one stored just as he said he would do Security team left without question armed only with batons and pistols I focused my attention on watching the men progress through the hallways towards subject one's room via the cameras Even through the not-so-high-quality cameras, it wasn't hard to tell that these men were afraid of what awaited them Their heads were downcast as they walked and it not possessed the same confidence within them that they did when this project began It looked like scared boys means an off to a terrible war Eventually they made it to the door We had a perfect vision of them in the door via the hallway camera One of them said something through one of their walkie talkies and made a motion towards the camera and response one of Zimmerman's colleagues buzzed the door open The men already had their pistols out by the time the button was pushed slowly the door began to open We all watched eagerly as the men began to approach the door and zamed inside Suddenly without warning there was a loud shriek And something bounded out of the room with the men the monitor turned static Immediately you get your screaming echoing down the hallways followed shortly after by the distinct sound of gunshots We could do nothing but wait After a couple minutes screaming and gunshots stopped We all waited and prayed hoping that whatever bounded at them from the room would not be the one to return to the control room For a couple more minutes three of the men came back carrying within the corpse of the fourth He had massive cuts covering his chest and his face was shredded He didn't even tell who he was anymore even that he was human I was used to gore in a doctor and all so I felt somewhat unfazed by the mass of shredded flesh and blooding meat They carried with him but many of the others went pale and vomited The security team all wore emotionless expressions and eyes filled with terror One of the men finally looked at us He stared at us for a while with those wide eyes of his Finally managed to mutter and shake and scared voice. I will say so again cool set up I like the way that like each of the test objects are being alluded to and shown off I do like that line unironically the one about the guards where it says They look like scared boys being sent off to a terrible war That's that was good and that's a surprising Statement out of a story that previously It has the it fits perfectly as we described so you know the the Zimmerman Aspect here I would I kind of wish I would knew more of how he felt about how the thing was going, you know Yeah, like I wish during these things is he Unless it's just supposed to be like we it's an intentional that it's like well Even the guards don't know what how he's feeling about how it's going so far. I just wish there was more Reaction or like something more of like our protagonist looking at Zimmerman being like he looked on phased or he looked like you know He was like pushing up his glasses and rubbing the brim of his nose like it wasn't going as planned Yeah I wish there was more of that because right now I'm kind of like I don't know if this is a part of the plan or not I know that the protagonist keeps saying well, it's not part of the plan, but how would he know? Yeah, I think we get more of it later, but I I can't remember and I think there's more keep you wrong But couple hours went by the demand's name was Frank He was buried outside in the cold a lasking ground Two of the men were unharmed physically at least Third was alive, but only barely His body was covered in bloody slashes and one of his eyes had been couched out. I Managed to stabilize him, but only just The other two men vaguely explained what happened Apparently subject one leaped out of Frank after the door had opened only it wasn't really subject one anymore According to them, it had a hideously contorted face and long sharp claws They claimed to have shot it over a dozen times before it fell dead And then they emptied another dozen bullets into it just to be sure it was really dead only once it was dead Did they come back after attending to the wounded man? I went to investigate the monitors As afraid as I was have seen what those monitors may have held I needed to see Subject three was the only one left now and I needed to see it and make sure the creature was still in his room It seemed to be more like a jail cell than an ordinary room at this point though Which was probably a good thing The camera's displaying subject one's room in the hallway outside. It still displayed a static-filled screen No one was sent to repair them or investigate. We just had to hope that subject one was well and truly dead Monitor three's image was exactly the same as I had left it Subject three was still staring directly into the camera at us He was still in the exact same position as if it were not for the small fan in the corner of the room I would think I was looking at a still image In a way, I felt relief had seen this Relief that he was still in his room and had not escaped while no one was looking After everything quieted down, I noticed something especially unusual There was a Strange sound emanating from somewhere But first it was barely noticeable The only reason I heard it was because of how extremely quiet it was in the infirmary This time went by slowly began to increase in volume After about an hour it was just loud enough that everyone else could hear it too And after a couple more hours its volume had increased so much that we could determine what the noise was It was a song One of the staff members that identified it as living in the sunlight by tiny Tim All right, well There it is What year did this become out? 2013 When did uh Yeah, by this time in city I said come out so that was just kind of the I think that was just kind of the meta or the popular it was just popular Yeah, but keep in mind living in the sunlight is the one that is used in SpongeBob Because what's the song again in city is what's the one it's tipped out through the two loops, right? But living in the sunlight's the one from the SpongeBob. I think it's from the pilot when he's making Yeah, yeah So You know you may think it's in the city's reference and you're probably right, but there is the chance that this is a SpongeBob reference So it may be maybe the thing that jumped out of room one and killed Frank Squidward suicide It was Squidward's It was Squidward with a shot Of course Apparently his father loved the song and listened to it frequently Songs seemed to be on a loop and care for playing itself Although we were able to identify the noise we remained unable to identify its source We knew that it wasn't coming from the speakers because we had turned them off It seemed to be emanating from the walls themselves More time ticked by as we all began to become increasingly agitated by the song This was most of my time in the infirmary attending to Frank or in the control room Fear hung in the air in the presence of unmistakable darkness and evil snowed out its source subject three still had not moved It kept his unblinking gaze fixed on the camera the entire time It always felt like he was staring directly at me no matter where I was in the room I think this effect was also felt by others due to the fact that they had seemed to move around the room a lot and for seemingly no reason After a few hours the song was so loud that people almost had to shout in order to communicate We've been trying to find the source so that we could turn the song off but it was to no avail Source was completely unidentifiable Is that at a level of extreme irritation to our already very present fear and not naturally a loud song That's also like one of the people's Dad's favorite song is so it's actually pretty fucking creepy. Yeah, just repeating over and over again It'd be like for me it'd be like if night moves just started blaring full volume Okay, that would actually be terrifying. Okay, then I said that out loud that would be Pretty free. Yeah, and then I'm really pleased and it's so personal Yeah, I don't know. It's just odd. I remember my What's that what's that line you're the end? where it's like I'm playing a song from 1962 and it funny how the night moves. I remember my dad singing that and like seeing The like recognizing his nostalgia for forward and stuff like that. So if I was in like an abandoned building and that was a fucking full volume, like I couldn't do anything else. That's actually, you know, I was so unnaturally loud like it's just like, it's getting louder even though we're standing in the same spot is insane. Like something's getting closer. Yeah. A hundred percent. It was around eight thirty that the ground itself began to shake once again. Just as it had done the previous night. Like began to spread among my fellow employees and me as the shaking grew in intensity. During this, I had the sudden instinctual feeling to look over at subject three spawner. It was gone. Almost as if on cue, power went out. Thankfully, the song did as well. Alright. So what is your game plan here, Hunter? You're down in this, at this moment, it feels like what, I mean, what can you actually do, you know, if you try to go to the laptop, the power goes out, you're in the complete dark. I mean, I don't know. I'd cry. I probably get under a table. I just cry. Probably cry a lot. Probably be a big baby. Probably a big baby. I mean, I would be in extreme baby mode. Yeah. I would initiate baby mode. Ah, I would activate baby protocols. Ever since the security team came back, panic had been slowly building up among the staff and Zimmerman was powerless to stop it. When those lights went out, the calm projections that everyone had been trying to maintain left us and the fear and all our hearts took over. The emergency backup lights kicked on shortly after the power went out, which I gave a silent thankful prayer for. The lights were dim. They still allowed me to see a lot. The total panic seized up as many of my fellow staff members began screaming and rushing the ladder in an attempt to escape. But too many were trying to use it at once, and no one was able to get very far in the ladder without someone else pulling them to the floor and taking their place. Zimmerman was shouting for everyone to calm down, but his dominating and intimidating personality had no effect here, and his demands fell upon deaf ears. It was total chaos. It wasn't long until people actually started hurting each other in their desperate attempts to get up that ladder and out of this place. I could only stand against the wall and wait for my opportunity to escape up the ladder. All the screams were soon silenced as the familiar humve that unsettling song began to rise when volume began, only much quicker this time. This time, it was clear that the noise was coming directly from the maze-like corridors. People stopped fighting and shouting as all our attention shifted to the door that led into the hallways. The song quickly got louder than it had ever been before, which forced many of us to cup our ears with our hands in an attempt to silence the noise. Then suddenly, the song just completely stopped silence. That was all the room as we all stared at the thick metal door and anticipation for what was coming. It felt like ages had gone by, but in reality, it was probably only seconds before the silence was broken. The door suddenly and violently opened and the music started to get louder than it had ever been before. The suddenness and the volume of this caused many of us to recoil by falling to the ground and grabbing our ears in an attempt to block out the noise. I glanced up for just a second and in the doorways to tall, smooth, skinned figure with long limbs and eyes so dark and malevolent that you clearly see them in the dim lighting. After I got my bearings, I looked upwards at the creature once again just in time to see the thing pick up and rip some of them in half. One flew in. Jesus! Good God! Dowsing the room and everyone ended up with his blood, intestines, and organs. I was no stranger to gore, but the sight of that was too much for me to bear, hunched over immediately after seeing this and bombeted all over the cold cement floor. Crazy moment! Just walks in, rips every minute and half, probably because he's the one that brought it here. You would have to assume so. I mean, he is the one who did the chant, so that's why I'm assuming that that's the subject but are, that's like their target, but at the same time, is he the one that just hasn't been scurrying back in fear or whatever, and then you just get picked up with the gloves and piece of paper? Yeah. Also, like creepyposses around this time were obsessed with characters throwing up. It's always like, I was so determined to have bombeted, I had to bomb into stuff like that. So it's funny to imagine this guy in the middle of this being like, "Um, can you give me a second?" And like, bending over to like do the whole hurl thing. That latter is my only hope for survival. I thought to myself as I forced myself to a standing position. As my eyes rose along with the rest of me, I could see the thing ripping and tearing through the people as they scattered in an attempt to escape it. It was distracted, and as awful as it sounds, this was my only chance to get up that latter. I forced my legs to move towards the latter, trying to block out the terrified screams of my fellow staff members in the unbearably loud music. I get your gunshots coinciding with the screams and terrible sounds of flesh being ripped apart somewhere in the mess of noise. I reached my hands outwards and felt a wave of relief wash over me as my fingers came into contact with the hard metal rungs of the latter. I gripped him and began to climb upwards as quickly as I could in my disoriented state. All the while, praying that the monster would not see me and pull me off the latter and back into the slaughter. But like at any moment, I would feel one of its smooth hands wraparound my ankles and pulled me to my death, but I eventually made it to the top. There was no question in my mind. I had to close the hatch and seal that thing down there, even if it meant certain death for my colleagues. I cannot allow that thing to escape. I gripped the thick metal lid and began to push with all my might in an attempt to seal the underground complex off. Despite how dense and sturdy it was, the lid was surprisingly easy to move and did not take very much effort to push it over the hatch, even in my weakened state. Seconds, hatch was completely covered by the dense metal lid. I collapsed on my side and began to vomit some more as exhaustion overtook me. As I lay there, I realized something. Aside from my labored breaths, the only thing I could hear was the faint echo of that song from down below. I felt as though I would lose more of my sanity if I continued to lay there and listened to that song. So I once again forced myself to my feet and began to make my way to the put in the lodge I had stayed in the previous night. It's where I left my baggage and also I left the keys to my truck. So I like that. I like the instinct. I wish there was more characterization for Zimmerman. Yeah. I mean, I have a bunch of stuff written down, I was going to say, I think that we might be on the tail end. I'd be curious if we should discuss it at the end or whatever, but yeah. I have, I have a lot of thoughts so far. You know what, Hunter? You can just tell me to shut up. Well, I guess it just made me, I feel like we're not too far from anything so far. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm sorry. It's just funny. Ever up a point. You're like, yeah, I've got stuff too. I got. Yeah. That's interesting. I have thoughts, but I'm not going to share. Yeah, that's interesting. Anyway, I'm waiting. I don't want to hear your voice. Yes. Yeah. Oh, you've got stuff to say. I don't really care. I care about what I'm saying. What were you going to say? No, it's just, I've just, I've just given you a complex, it was funny. Of the 15 staff members that took part in the forsaken experiment, I'm the only one who survived. I've never returned to that all. Well, yeah, you're the only one who survived. You shut the door. You shut the door. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty sure. It's just you, dude. I've never returned to that awful place where all of this happened and I don't intend to. The project was very secretive and Zimmerman was the only one who knew all the details of it. And as far as I know, no one is aware of my involvement aside from me. In fact, probably the only one who knows that the Harbinger experiment truly was, let alone what actually happened. By now, you're probably wondering why I've told you all about something none of you should be aware of. Maybe you're expecting me to give you a speech about not messing with things you don't understand or something along those lines. I hope not, or I have no speech to give or less than to impart. I'd be okay, I like that line too. I like that too. I have no speech to give or less than to impart. I began hearing a noise earlier today. Almost immediately, I recognize the noise as a very haunting and familiar song and then even try to trace it to its source. No, it would be pointless. And as the day has progressed, the song has increased in volume. It's loud enough now that I can very clearly make out the lyrics, completely unable to escape Tiny Tim's voice. It's followed me everywhere I've gone. Subject three is coming for me and I know my time left in this world is extremely limited now. And it'd be really funny if he just had his phone on and just playing the song over and over and over again. He confesses all these government secrets, he's like my time is up and it's just because he has Spotify. Spotify was open. Oops. I guess you could say that I just wanted to tell the tale of the Harbinger experiment before it's lost forever. I hope that you'll take some lesson from what I've recounted to you, but I think we both know you won't. Let's be honest, you don't believe a word of what I've just told you and I don't blame you. I wouldn't believe me if I were you. To you, this is nothing more than something to get your cheap thrills from. You'll probably mindlessly surf in the internet when you click the link and found yourself here, wherever here may be, reading the story, and to be honest, I don't care if you believe me or not. Even if you do, probably won't stop you from trying to uncover the truth of a darkness that few of us have ever seen, certainly never stops ever been. If you want a lesson, look what happened to him when he went seeking the truth. I pray that none of you will ever discover this truth. I pray that none of you ever have to see the evil I've seen. I hope you all get to live in ignorance of what lies beyond the veil of what we can understand. It's here now. I feel it's black eyes burning into me just as I could all those years ago. I was so much to blame as Zimmerman is for the monstrosity that is now free to roam the world. Even if I was not the one to create it, sorry. Please forgive me. That's the end of the Harbinger experiment. I mean, you don't want to do it for an older story. That was pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. It's not. I don't hate it. Yeah. My, uh, I wrote down. I wrote down a bunch of shit here. I wanted to talk about it. All right. Well, first off, well, I'm just going to just you pop in anytime because I was writing stuff the entire time all the way through. First off, I was going to say, like that it was once again, just to go back and be like, like that it was definitely something that was inspired by the Russian sleep experiment. I had that lovecraft and angle. You know, the audience knows I love that. All right. I did. It's my jam. Um, I was thinking whenever they're going through, they had so much emphasis on, um, I don't know him being like a paranormal or like believing in the occult and all that kind of stuff that my immediate first reaction is there should have been more to that. Like the hallways and stuff. Like I feel like there could have been an interesting thing, which it wouldn't have coincided with the ending, but this is me just writing it from the beginning. But when you're going through these narrow hallways, how cool would it have been if there was like seals or something like on the upper parts of like the walls or something? Something kind of like, um, related to like long, which is something more than just, uh, uh, the speech because then it's like, well, couldn't he have done this at any point, you know, yeah, exactly. I think because right now it's like, you just had three rooms that really did, which I'll say this, which I'm reaching here. And I don't think this is necessarily what it intended. But what if the complex with twisted hallways, what if the complex itself was a central? It could have been, but see, by not telling us that, or I mean, it could have been, you know, I mean, I like that as an idea of like the complex itself. And that's why it took so long. And why it had to be done here. Yeah. But you know, like I was thinking of stuff that's like, you know, like they're the fucking Zach Baggins and his haunted museum or whatever, which God, I can't even talk about this is, he has the dibbic box in there, but it's like this room and there's like a glass thing that has like a giant, like it has like, uh, uh, like a Jewish seal around it. It's like just looks, it just is kind of interesting where it's like, oh, this is to keep the spirit at bay or whatever. Because at first, I was thinking too, when we were reading this, I'm like, Oh, these rooms, if there was seal, like this is kind of turning into like a 13th, 13 ghost situation, where it's like people that are capturing ghosts inside of like these rooms or these cases that have like rooms or seals on them, whatever, only for the rooms or something to be faulty breaks. And then they're unleashed into this like maze of terror right at this place is what I was thinking. Um, yeah. At first, too, I was thinking, I don't know why I, which this might be, this might be a weird comment, but at first, I thought that he was saying because the first subject I believe was a woman, right? I was like, I was like, Oh, there's second one. There's second one then. Well, one of them was a woman. I was like, Oh, I wonder if they're all women. And I thought that it might go into an angle where like the possession is almost like a, like a pregnancy kind of thing. Because I was like, well, we've been here for 16 years, whatever, where I wonder if they, and I was like, I'd be kind of an interesting thing too. A ghost possesses a woman and then it like, that's like impregnates her. And then like the physical manifestation of that ghost is like burved, whatever. That might have been pretty cool. There you go. I think similar to me and the whole complex being a sigil, given it a little too much credit, I think 100%, I mean, that was just me going through. And then once again, I wish to that theory, the woman just died. Yeah. No. And that was like the biggest thing is a lot of the, and we find out with a lot of these older stories, but a lot of the older stories here, it feels like there's a really interesting ideas, but there's no, there's not any like sweet fat on the bones. It's kind of just the bones of an interesting idea. But you know, in a lot of times, I feel like we're like, you need to cut the fat because sometimes people over and doled, but these older stories, I feel like it's just skin and bones. He kind of want a little more meat to chew on. Let, you know, and I wrote it down here again too, but more magic, like more of him doing something that is like experimentive with this occult thing, you know, we kind of get, we touch on it, but really there's nothing that he's doing besides the chant, which after the chant, you can start with that, but there needs to be, I think more stuff. And I think a big part of that too, what I wrote down was instead of stealing medications or protagonists, I think that he should have been an experimentive doctor as well, or he was like, well, I got kicked out too because I, I experiment in this way or, you know, I like a, a challenging doctor against the status quo that, that Zimmerman needed for his experiment. Because right now our protagonist is like kind of worthless. He doesn't really do anything here, you know, but there's nothing that, there's no real reason that he's there besides just like it's a cheap doctor, but I think it'd be fun if it's like, like that, I guess that's why I was going back to like, it doesn't have to be the pregnancy thing. I'm kind of harping on the pregnancy thing, but it's like, oh, it's a guy that would be, you really want to be a pregnant lady. I know you. Yeah, I just want pregnant women. Sorry, but that's just what I'm all about. But just something where it's like this doctor who is an unconventional doctor gets approached with an unconventional task, you know, because this whole idea of like the guy coming out, he ribs Zimmer and half, all this stuff is like bloodshed and the tiny Tim things. They're effective and fun. But I do wish that it's like, there was more cause and effect, like because he did X this. There's more direction involved. There's like, I, I don't like tiny Tim specifically because I know that he just got it from, you know, and city. Yeah, I like the idea of these spirits or demons or whatever, possessing host and their, their actions are completely unknowable to us. I like that idea. Like the one that comes out of the room and it just kills people like whatever. But the one that stays in the camera and then there's music that precedes it as it follows and it kills the room. I like that. I don't like that immediately after it just becomes a thing that kills you. I remember talking to a guy about riding and he said, if the solution to, which this can be like played with, but if you're riding a monster and the monster's breakdown is it just kills people, then you should probably rewrite your monster. Well, yeah, it's just because I leave so much purpose also in a thing where it's a man-made experiment gone wrong, whatever. It feels so unrewarding to me at least as a reader where it's like, oh, this thing's just evil versus like because of your experiment, it was given the directive to do X, right? You know what I mean? It gives it more purpose. Almost like to where once again, wish that the people that he brought down, Zimmerman played everybody that was there to where like each person was connected to X ghost or spirit or entity. Right. So that's also why it's chasing it too. Because I was like, why the fuck would it still like, why would it not just be killing everybody? Yeah. Or like, why is it chasing him now? Because it's not really marked in any way unless it was like, you know, previously stated before where it was like, well, yeah, we need this guy to be here and you're going to be marked here. You're on subject three and it's all these different doctors and different perspectives that you could get where it's like, you're all spiritually linked to this subject or something or whatever, which would make you like, you know, more of a target or it's just like, I'm just coming after you. And then you kind of, it's like kind of a buying product like your punishment for experimenting. There's another movie I'm trying to think of where the same thing happens where someone brings out a demon. The first thing it does is kill them because they weren't supposed to. I guess it's in a lot of four movies, right? Like someone, someone's a spirit or ghost or whatever. Well, yeah, just punishment for doing something that, yeah, like, you know, it's punishment for your action, which feels like it's cause and effect, which is always more satisfying. I was even thinking, dude, where I was like, yeah, this could go into an almost, uh, ghost story. You know, I mean, this once again, I'm reaching, I'm giving it credit, but I was like, it would have been sweet if this would have been like a minotaur parody or something of like a guy summoning a thing. And then now he is like bringing these doctors and stuff in there and he's watching them interact with this monster he made or something like a, it's like the tunnels and everything. It's a literal labyrinth and he's going through and he's like watching how it affects her. Yeah, yeah, you could have it to where he leaves or like they think they're in the control room. The control room, they're actually and it's just a forest to get them down there. And then he releases the subjects with them to see how they interact with it. You could go even closer to the minotaur myth and have it be the reason he's doing this in experiment in the first place is to like bring back a lost love one or whatever. So maybe he thinks this is a way to bring her back, but as we see, it's just monsters, like he's just open the door and is not picking what comes through there. So it's kind of like the Ouija board thing, right? Like you're just knocking on the door. know who's going to answer it. Um, yeah. That's always a fun angle to with paranormal stuff where it's like the idea of the theme of being unable to let go. Yeah. Like being like the grief process, you're not able to ever come. You can't let something go that's already gone. So because of that, you decay with it. Like it gets worse or you open a, you open the door to let it back in, but something else comes out very like talk to me kind of vibe of like leaving the door open to talk to something, but something else comes through that you didn't want to want to happen. Also too, you know, these big facilities, they're cool pieces, but I'm always more like grounded a bit more in reality. And it's like just a weird guy. Cause it's like a long, yeah, the long complicated hallways never came in. They never come in. And I'm like, well, this bit of more, like almost like a thing where right? Let's say you do keep the guy who's like, I'm a sketchy drug dealer doctor, right? I'm a sketchy drug dealer doctor. I got my license revoked, but this guy says that there's a gig that I can do. Okay, well, I show up, but it's at the guy's house. Well, that's fucking weird. Well, this guy who's like, basically a criminal like a drug dealer, maybe he does like humor. This like fucking weird man who's like doing experiments in his house or something. Like a little more grounded in reality where it's like this is just the walks of this doctor's life put him in the situation where he like was foolish enough to like participate in an X Y and Z experiment. Yeah, I think like just stuff like that. You know, and this is all in hindsight. And I will say just to give the story credit, we were meaming on at the beginning and stuff. I had legitimately had a good time with the story. It was like a nice. Yeah. Yeah. For one of these older like OG kind of stories, I so much more has been, like you could tell this was a guy who was like very inspired, had like a fun idea because a lot of these stories that we read like the Jeff the killers or whatever, it feels like these are like a little throwaway kind of just like, oh, I wrote this in an afternoon kind of vibe or whatever. I will say because at this point, we're just doing fan fiction, right? But that thing that we talked about with the, the Minotaur, the Minotaur idea. Have you read House of Leaves? No, I mean, dude, I've heard you talk about it so much. I've been wanting to actually dive into it. But I honestly like since we read so much on this show too, it has stopped almost all of the kind of like reading I do. Which is so weird. But so I'll day only reason I have time to use because it's like what I do on the main channel and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, you also, you just really enjoy it. I just like it. But not to spoil the specifics for you, but there's a part in House of Leaves. Well, is it going to spoil the specifics for me? No, no, I'm not going to get the details. Yeah, to not spoil the specifics. There's a segment in the book where the book has multiple authors, right? Like they're not literally. But in the format of the book, yeah, different people are writing different segments on the page. And there's one part where a group of people are walking through the hallways of the House. And in the other part, another writer is giving an analysis of the Minotaur myth. Oh, interesting because in the literal plot where they're walking through the House, they're afraid of something in the hallways. As they're moving through it. And in the other part where you're talking about the Minotaur myth, so you have one author describing the literal and you have the other author describing like a figurative that connects to the literal. That's fun. But while describing the Minotaur myth, the author gives an interesting analysis I had never heard before. So you know, in the original Minotaur myth, it's King, it's not Midas. It sounds like Midas, so right? He has the child. And the child is like half a monster, so he throws it into the maze, right? And the author and House of Leaves says. Minos. Minos, that's it. The author has a different rendition of the story or a different interpretation of the story where Minos did not find his son disgusting, but instead Minos knew that his son would never be safe. So he built the labyrinths to protect his son, to keep people from wanting to find him and kill him. So in the original play, when it's Perseus who kills the Minotaur, right? I'm forgetting so many details. I think it's Perseus who kills the Minotaur. Perseus, theseus. Okay, when theseus kills the Minotaur, he stands before the King, holding the Minotaur's head or whatever, and the King cries because the monster has been slain. But in the House of Leaves rendition, it theorizes that perhaps when the hero went forward and killed minus his son, someone that only had to be killed because it was said the Minotaur was killing people that had ventured into the labyrinth. But in this version, the King sees the people who were going into the labyrinth as those who were going to kill his son and his son was just defending himself. So when Thesis stands with the head of the Minotaur, the King cries, not out of joy for the hero, but out of a morning for his son. Yeah, which is an interesting way to view that myth. So I was thinking about that where you were talking about the labyrinths for the harbinger, and we're putting a lot of weight on a creepy posture right now. But I mean, I just think that just shows also like, to me, I was just, I mean, I was writing down so much shit. It might be a simple creepyposs story, but I was just like, man, my mind was going all over the place. It's the starting point for a lot of different ideas that you can do and stuff like that. So you could have Zimmerman be more nuanced in the beginning. And he brings people this experiment and then not only the complex hallways, but the control room itself, they think is their safe zone is revealed to be all part of like a maze that they're to figure out. As this is some kind of ritual to bring back the dead like we talked about or something like that. And similar to the idea of minus loving the Minotaur, you could have the Zimmerman see this monster as something holy not the stereotypical route of like, oh, my creation or whatever, but maybe it does believe it's a lost love one or something. So you have him actively trying to destroy like our protagonist or group members efforts to destroy the creatures that they're down there with and stuff like that. So he becomes a sort of antagonist like from the top. But he thinks he's doing the right thing. But like I said, what the story actually is is there's three people in a room and one of them becomes a scary thing that kills everyone. Right. That's like it. But, you know, I guess just for this part for people that are interested or whatever, these are the ways that you can start you can start your skeleton of your story like yeah, then just go back and find fun ways. I do think that the idea of like even the thing of like Zimmerman's plan was this, but a protagonist didn't die when he was supposed to. That creates conflict in his plan. And then he had like that, you know what I mean? Like those kinds of things are the pivots of like X was supposed to happen, but why happened? And like that's like creates conflict and that's like what divide the hurts the thing and the creature could get loose or anything like that. Like those kinds of things I think are the things that make stories fun. And that's just the conflict. Whatever your conflicts are in your story that isn't just scary monster is X and he kills people. Yeah. Like I think like the conflict is the things of like what was the plan? How did it, you know, what is my plan? How did it go wrong? How do I try to solve that? And how does that create more and more conflicts with the kind of like foolish decisions that you're making? Whatever those are usually the fun ways. I mean, you can do whatever you want as a storyteller. Right. There's no rules or anything like that. But I feel like if you had an, it was a different time on the internet. This author could have been younger. I'm obviously not saying to their discredit. But from my point of view, if you're going to get people's attention and you're going to, you know, they're going to dedicate their time and you now have the opportunity to do something with that time. I mean, why not make it, you know, multi-layered, fun, interesting stuff. Something to chew on, you know, make it worth their while. Right. I'm always curious to see with some of these writers and these early stories. How much time do they take on it? Was it something that you ever just like, you were like, I just took a couple days and was just like a little, you know, I was into it for a couple months, like creepypuses for a couple months and I just decided to write this and then I kind of stopped reading them. Was it just something you did in the day with your friend? Like, I'm curious to how many of these is like, you're in a room with your buddy. And it's them like being like, oh, and then this happens. Like, I'm so curious to see that collaborative nature. I bet that was like a really fun weird time of people just quickly putting out things and not thinking too much about it and just kind of shooting from the hip, which is kind of, there's something admirable and pretty wholesome about that. Yeah. Yeah. But what a great story. I mean, yeah, once again, we'll leave a link to you. I'm officially not embarrassed with my younger self. That was fun. So, you know, good, good on me. I had a lot of fun. I think like a lot of all the older stories that we read, I think that this was one of the better ones in my opinion. But no, this was a fun one. I think that we'll leave the link below again. Thank you again to audio listeners that decided to listen to us ramble about possible ideas with Mr. Zimmerman on Spotify or Apple podcasts. If you can leave us a nice rating, it would help us out. And also thank you to our patrons who do support us behind the scenes and get a little extra extra content on the side. So if you want to do that, be sure to click the link below as well. But until next time guys, we will see you in the next one. Stay creeped. Bye bye. Stay creeped. You know, if you think about it, I'm kind of desiose because I'm in the blabberings with home. it's clearly like a monstrous bullman thing who his father has asked me to kill. So, you know, I'm a hero, I think, and I think his dad would cry out of joy if I killed him. So, yeah, bye. [Music] [Music] Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Jaldamist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Maybe it's Mabelie!