I Pretended To Be A Missing Girl | Creep Cast

Speaker 1 Tu mereces tis fruitartos favoritos por menos. Ja sel na Big Mac, McNuggets, or a sausage, egg and cheese, McCriddles, pidetuan to hocomo un meo ya hora.
Oof, nava comodarto un gustaso por tam poco.

Speaker 1 Los extra value meals están del regreso. Gana por la mañana con el extra value meal, sausage, mc, muffin with egg, hash browns, yun cafe alien pequeño por solos selares.
Bara ba ba ba.

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Speaker 1 Welcome back to Creepcast. Today we are doing, would you call this a Hollywood special now with how with the recent news? It's a bit of a crossover, I'd say.
For sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 We are reading a story from back in the day called I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl, which coincidentally, not coincidentally, because we're reading this because of this, is it's the new movie Sidney Sweeney is doing.

Speaker 1 When we saw that there was a movie that is going to be about an R slash no sleep story, we had to read it. And I'm excited.

Speaker 1 I'm excited to read this and then go see it when it comes out and then see, like, you know, what do they keep? What do they change? All that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think

Speaker 1 this is interesting because I actually hadn't heard of this no-sleep story before, and it's only four years old, which for most no sleep stories is pretty short. It's pretty recent.

Speaker 1 Is it only four years old, or because

Speaker 1 we've seen that it was posted on multiple R slash websites? I think we're reading the version from R slash short stories because I think it's the updated version.

Speaker 1 Yes. So the author is a guy named Joe Coat

Speaker 1 on

Speaker 1 No Sleep or on Reddit. His name is J Coat 12.

Speaker 1 He originally wrote the story to R slash No Sleep, and it was a shorter version that actually had a link at the end that made it seem like the ending of the story was in a newspaper, like it was a newspaper clipping, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 But then he decided to do a rewrite, add on to the story a bit more, and posted a second version of it in R slash Short Story.

Speaker 1 story so that's the version we're going to be reading today but both of those say they were posted four years ago so as far as like horror stories on reddit goes that's pretty recent from what we've seen yeah no definitely usually i mean i if you would have told me

Speaker 1 it like when i first i guess when i first heard about it i was thinking of oh this is like a 2015 2016 story you know that kind of golden era of people posting in there so they see that it's only four years old something like maybe a covid uh story uh probably maybe joe Joe was just, you know, sitting at home, like not doing shit.

Speaker 1 Maybe that's what inspired something out of this. So pretty curious to see, though, Sidney Sweeney, yeah, you know, master of film, as Isaiah said.
And the,

Speaker 1 you know, I really appreciate her

Speaker 1 ability to find interest. Like, the Immaculate movie that she, I don't know if she directed it, but I think she produced it.
and starred in it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But just still, kind of weird, odd horror choice here.

Speaker 1 So, I'm wondering where that hook is going to be in here as well that maybe makes it kind of visually interesting to translate that to the screen. So, I'm hoping that there's some goodies here.

Speaker 1 Always cool to me whenever

Speaker 1 actors like develop a

Speaker 1 kind of role of what's the word I'm looking for, an investment sort of in the projects they're working on, where she's like, this looks good. I'm going to go in as a producer and as an actress.

Speaker 1 And also, I believe Eric Roth is currently set to do the screenplay for it. And he did

Speaker 1 Dune, I think. He was a part of the writing team on Dune, unless I'm way off.

Speaker 1 The guy who wrote the Dune movie. No, no, no.
The screenplay. The screenplay.
The guy who wrote it is. No, no, that's what I'm saying.
The Dune movie.

Speaker 1 I'm saying the guy who wrote the Dune movie, the screenplay for the movie, is doing the R slash No Sleep horror film. If that's true,

Speaker 1 let me make sure. Let me make sure.
Hold on. Am I talking? He did Force Gump, apparently.
Hold on. Wait, the guy who did Dune.
He did Dune. He did Dune.
Yeah. Wow.
He did Dune and Forrest Gump.

Speaker 1 Good for you, Sydney. Eric Rod.
Good for Cindy Sweeney for getting that. That's fucking crazy.
I like how the guy's just like Forrest Gump, Dune, and then

Speaker 1 now I'm pretending to be a missing girl with Cydney Sweeney.

Speaker 1 R/slash classic. I hope it's good.

Speaker 1 I'll say this is pretty stacked so far. Yeah,

Speaker 1 this is a killer. This is a killer lineup.

Speaker 1 I say we just fucking hop in.

Speaker 1 Also, congratulations to Joe Coate for like writing the story on this four years ago that get into this. Also, according to what I've seen online,

Speaker 1 he is a high school English teacher.

Speaker 1 So he's just like an English teacher who likes stories who wrote this and now it's got all distractions. So congratulations.
Be sure to check him out on Reddit.

Speaker 1 I couldn't find any other definitive links to like his socials or stuff like that. But as this becomes more popular, like as the story gets made into a film, I'm sure it'll come out.

Speaker 1 But congrats, Joe. That is a very cool thing.
Yeah, he seems, like you were saying, to be pretty active on Reddit. So go give him some support there.
Go read some of his other stuff as well.

Speaker 1 And, you know, Joe, like you said, congratulations, man. The guy who fucking wrote Dune and Forrest Gump is writing the screenplay to you.

Speaker 1 That's pretty sick. That's pretty sick.
Now, here's the real kicker. Do I try to do a Sidney Sweeney impression for this episode? What does your Sidney Sweeney impression sound like? Trying to think.

Speaker 1 I've seen her euphoria a lot, and it's like,

Speaker 1 I don't even know. It's not Valley Girl.
It's more... It's just kind of, I guess, just,

Speaker 1 I guess it'd just be a regular girl.

Speaker 1 No, it's, she's kind of got that.

Speaker 1 It's not southern, but it's like Wyoming, sort of.

Speaker 1 Like the mid, like a northwest draw, you know? How is that going for you? What does that look like for you?

Speaker 1 I can't do impressions.

Speaker 1 I don't want to to do that to myself right now. It's like

Speaker 1 kind of valley girl. I can't.
You know what? Whatever your heart thinks is the right move with this one. Okay.
I'll trust you to it. All right.
We'll see.

Speaker 1 Well, if it's horrible, I don't want to be judged. Okay.
Well, you should be, I think.

Speaker 1 Also, if my voice is a little rough in this episode, I apologize. I was on a flight yesterday, and there was a guy behind me who just had the wettest,

Speaker 1 like, sickly cough I think I've ever heard. It sounded like he was like gurgling as he was coughing.
I was like, sitting there, and I was like, where are you going with this?

Speaker 1 Like, as the cough was floating around me, like, you could smell

Speaker 1 the pestilence in it. It was rough.
So, I'm feeling a little under the weather today. I think I caught whatever he has.
I am, um, I'm once again a rat inside of God's hot car.

Speaker 1 Uh,

Speaker 1 and I, I'm, I'm pushing through. But if I

Speaker 1 suffer,

Speaker 1 it's that guy's fault, but also Hunter's somehow.

Speaker 1 Channel Sidney Sweeney's

Speaker 1 vision for this movie,

Speaker 1 for this story to turn into a movie, and let that guide you to a blissful reading experience that we're getting ready to endure. Thank you.
I appreciate that, Hunter. Here we go.

Speaker 1 I pretended to be a missing girl. Michaela Murray went missing 12 years ago on the eve of her 18th birthday.

Speaker 1 She didn't have any big plans or anything, but her friends described her as having been in a particularly good mood for what was an otherwise perfectly normal Friday.

Speaker 1 She'd gone to school, soccer practice, work, and then came home for a night of movies with her kid brother, James. He was more excited for her birthday than she was.

Speaker 1 Even wanted to stay awake with her until midnight, but of course, had fallen asleep right away.

Speaker 1 When he woke in the middle of the night, he saw her headlight shining through his window and watched as they rushed down their country road, not knowing that it was the last he'd ever see her.

Speaker 1 The poor kid was only five and would be forever tormented over why she'd left him. Or why'd she never come back?

Speaker 1 It wasn't until the sun came up on that cold Saturday morning that anyone realized something was wrong.

Speaker 1 Her parents entered her room to wish her a happy birthday, only to find her bed empty, car gone, and phone off.

Speaker 1 They'd started their rounds of calls to all of Michaela's friends, but nobody had seen or heard from her.

Speaker 1 Panic really started to set in when Michaela's car was found abandoned on the side of a heavily wooded road, facing the wrong direction, practically in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 1 There were no parks or hiking trails, nor were there any signs of a struggle or any evidence of where she might have gone next.

Speaker 1 Until Michaela's parents followed that road on a map, they knew she had a boyfriend, Tom.

Speaker 1 He was a year older and had just gone off to college. He'd been trying to get Michaela to come visit him, but her parents forbid it.

Speaker 1 But if they hadn't, this was the very road Michaela would have taken to get there.

Speaker 1 So while Linda Murray filed the missing person's report, Paul Murray sped on up that road, all the way to Tom's university.

Speaker 1 Tom swore to him, and later the investigators, that he hadn't seen her in weeks, that he had been in his room studying that night.

Speaker 1 His roommate confirmed as such, with the added disclosure of having later gone home, where he'd then spent that weekend. The rest was uncertain.

Speaker 1 The police looked deeper into Tom and found strands of Michaela's hair in his car, which proved nothing foul, but it spooked him enough into admitting that he'd seen Michaela more recently than he'd stated.

Speaker 1 That he'd picked her up late the weekend prior for a midnight drive. This sounded precisely like what had happened the night she'd gone missing, but police found nothing to substantiate it.

Speaker 1 Tom was eventually cleared as a suspect and the Murrays would never let it go. They were certain he was involved in Michaela's disappearance.

Speaker 1 So certain that Paul Murray spent several nights sitting outside Tom's dorm, waiting to catch his daughter going in or out.

Speaker 1 Tom's family wanted to press charges, but Paul had friends in the sheriff's office who assured the family that it would not happen again and left Paul with a very stern warning.

Speaker 1 But being friends with law enforcement only went so far and the case would soon go cold, days, weeks, and months passing by without any further updates.

Speaker 1 The public moved on, while the people in Michaela's life were left with this dark cloud of uncertainty, wondering what had happened to her if she was out there somewhere alive. And she was.

Speaker 1 She's about to return home after more than a decade gone.

Speaker 1 Because I'm Michaela Murray, and I ran away that night to start a new life. That's what I told the Murrays, anyway.

Speaker 1 I had no idea what happened to that girl.

Speaker 1 That's a fun hook. Okay.
It's a fun hook. I will say, if I was the dad, if I was Paul, I would just be like, dude, I'm sitting outside a fucking dorm.

Speaker 1 I'm like, it'd be different if every day he was beating the hell out of Tom.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying? Is this a crime? Is this against?

Speaker 1 Maybe it is. Dude, you can't just sit out here and watch him.
He's just like, I'm sorry, I can't watch you going in and out of these buildings. It's weird, but is it illegal? Is that illegal?

Speaker 1 Oh my God, wait, is that actually like, what's the problem? Is this a crime? I do think it is illegal to sit outside of a student's dorm.

Speaker 1 Or at least, like, it's probably illegal at the campus, right? I guess, yeah, because well, I guess it would be because that's probably private property, I would assume.

Speaker 1 They 100% would ask you to leave.

Speaker 1 And if you didn't leave, then you'd be trespassing.

Speaker 1 The problem is probably Paul's like, no,

Speaker 1 I'm not leaving. I'm sitting here.
And the security guard's like,

Speaker 1 okay,

Speaker 1 awkward.

Speaker 1 He's like, I don't get paid enough for this.

Speaker 1 But now

Speaker 1 we have a girl who is probably fucking murdered. And then for some reason,

Speaker 1 some

Speaker 1 person decided to capitalize on it over a decade later. What a psychopath.

Speaker 1 I'm excited. Let's see where this goes.
So I'm awful. I know.
I'm not proud of myself. I was desperate.
Homeless and on the run.

Speaker 1 Smoking a pack a day, sleeping with men from bars for money, only to spend it at another bar and do it all over again. Same, honey.
I was stuck and needed

Speaker 1 That's really funny to imagine you like going to bars and being like hey toots you looking for a

Speaker 1 warm tonight. How you doing sweetheart? What's your name? And the guy's like what I do

Speaker 1 Like you ever you ever see heaven? He's like what the hell you talking about he's like just go to the bathroom.

Speaker 1 I'll open the gates right now for you. So I'd say and I'd be like I have the cutest little red skirt on

Speaker 1 pleather, whole outfit pleather.

Speaker 1 You ever seen heaven?

Speaker 1 You just have it shaved. Your hair is still the same way.
Nothing is changed. It's kind of poetic at first, like the Have You Seen Heaven thing.
It's kind of, or I say poetic.

Speaker 1 It's a bit less on the nose, but then by the end of it, I'm just like, I'm going to suck your balls.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the guy just like beats the shit out of me. Damn, a simple no would have been fine.

Speaker 1 It's like you're like laying in the alley out bag, like, all right,

Speaker 1 I'll see you around.

Speaker 1 You don't know what you missed out on.

Speaker 1 Is that all you got? Is that all you got? Yeah, spitting out teeth.

Speaker 1 I can whistle better.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this is, yeah. So, this is you.
The story's about you, actually. Sidney Sweeney's playing you in the movie.
Yeah, imagine, the viewer, listener now, imagine that the

Speaker 1 person that's doing this is just me. But I'm dressed up as Sidney Sweeney.
I have a blonde wig on, and my tits are just as big as hers, except I'm wearing a push-up brawn.

Speaker 1 So the recording's been going 17 minutes and 31 seconds. I was wondering how long it would take you to mention Sidney Sweeney's chest.
I was just,

Speaker 1 I was proud of you for not doing it in the intro, but 17 minutes and 31 seconds. 17 minutes, 31 seconds.
And to be fair, I said that I am emulating her large breast with my own large breast. Okay.

Speaker 1 But you still mentioned them. I just

Speaker 1 come up eventually. That's fair.
I was forcing all the blood to my face to not scream out it immediately. So

Speaker 1 I was proud of you for not bringing it up in the intro. That was a big step.
I know.

Speaker 1 I'm very proud of you, Hunter. I was stuck and needed a plan.
Then I saw her face, Michaela Murray.

Speaker 1 It was on a bulletin board at some cheap motel I'd been passing through.

Speaker 1 There were half a dozen girls out there, and Michaela stood out, her blonde hair straight and pretty, her blue eyes as wide as her smile. It stopped me dead in my tracks, because she looked like me.

Speaker 1 Exactly like me.

Speaker 1 I could have swapped in one of my old high school photos and nobody would have noticed. Not that anyone was paying attention to this board or these girls anymore.

Speaker 1 Even the lady at the motel, who'd spotted me staring, said, They ain't coming home, dear, but I don't got the heart to take him down.

Speaker 1 I was curious enough to turn on the phone I'd kept in my bag just in case. My father had long stopped paying for it, but the motel offered free Wi-Fi and I'd used it to read more about Michaela.

Speaker 1 I learned that she was only two years older than me, that the photo in the lobby wasn't just a one-off.

Speaker 1 She resembled me in every other photo, of which there were many, along with theories about what had happened to her. I couldn't have given any less of a shit about that rabbit hole.

Speaker 1 What got my interest were the earrings Michaela wore in these photos, or the necklace her mother wore at the press conference, or the watch on her dad's wrist.

Speaker 1 So I dug deeper and became clear that the Murrays had money, a fair good amount of it. After entering Jerry from the

Speaker 1 entertainment,

Speaker 1 I think Isaiah has caught himself caught himself a fly. There you go.
He's a little bar fly as well. He's like, uh-oh, someone's in my web.

Speaker 1 Knock, knock, Jerry. Who's there?

Speaker 1 I said that, and I'm like, all right, well, that was like a trap card for Hunter. Yeah, it didn't feel like pot of greed.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hunter gets to draw three additional insults from his deck.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're gay.

Speaker 1 steal I wish instead of drawing three cards you could just call your opponent gay that'd be funny I mean you can't stop you from doing that

Speaker 1 after entertaining Jerry from the bar and stealing his jacket I ripped a butt late that I

Speaker 1 I what

Speaker 1 I ripped a butt late that night what does that mean

Speaker 1 I think it means

Speaker 1 it might be euphemism for weed, or I made me think of a cigarette butt, but it is funny.

Speaker 1 It is funny if you saying, entering Jerry into Amelia. I ripped a butt.

Speaker 1 I play pot of greed.

Speaker 1 Your game.

Speaker 1 Anytime I misspeak from here on out, I can just hear the sound effect.

Speaker 1 Okay, let me just do this sentence again. After entertaining Jerry from the bar and stealing his jacket, I ripped a butt late that night and decided one of those girls was coming home.

Speaker 1 And it was going to be me. That's it.

Speaker 1 I like the detail that, like, looking at the press conference photos and stuff, she noticed how much money they had by the jewelry they wore and like the earrings she had and pictures and stuff.

Speaker 1 like yeah i don't know why it made me think of uh gone girl of like yeah just the press conference thing just i i not it they're not related really but i just the way that how i guess crafty the main character is in that movie and just like able to manipulate situations and stuff it's just cool and also yeah if you were sitting there you're like holy fuck i look like this person and it's been over 10 years i mean I think plausibly you could be like, I feel like I could just fucking get away with this.

Speaker 1 I don't know how you'd sleep at night, but, you know, you do what you got to do. I mean, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 It's like, well, you know, I mean, if she's already willing to like sell herself for money, then like lying to a family is probably the better alternative, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I would much rather, well, you know what? And this, this is not going to, honestly,

Speaker 1 prostitution is.

Speaker 1 Nowhere near as evil as going to a family, lying to them, giving them hope that their daughter is alive and well.

Speaker 1 But I'll tell you, I would would much rather wild take but that's uh that was actually fine continue yeah well i was gonna say i just uh don't get me wrong probably

Speaker 1 if you were able to live with yourself for being a piece of that's probably a much better life to live for sure but oh yeah that that's what i mean that like she 100 is like this is gonna be far easier yeah like i don't want to yeah yeah yeah get the out of these motels all that stuff yeah yeah

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Uh-oh, let's get scared again.

Speaker 1 The Murrays still lived in the same house, an hour west of the small Michigan towns I've been nesting in, which worked perfectly as I'd been toying with the idea of going back home to Chicago.

Speaker 1 It was a cheap way to justify the awful thing I was about to do, because in reality, there was no way I was actually going back home, even with Murray Fortune in my pockets.

Speaker 1 It's frightening what we'll do to ensure we're the good guys in our story. So I dished out a small chunk of my remaining cash to hop on a bus.
I felt no hesitation or fear.

Speaker 1 Sure, it was risky, but I wasn't planning on being there for more than a night. I'd done enough research on Michaela to get in, find what I could take, and get out.

Speaker 1 I was going to beg the family to give me one day before alerting anyone that I'd returned, to let me rest in my own bed before being swarmed by whatever media Nowhere Indiana had to offer.

Speaker 1 After miles and miles of cornfields, I'd hoped to have plenty of time to escape that wave.

Speaker 1 When the bus arrived at the station, I couldn't help but notice how out of place it looked, like it had been copied and pasted from somewhere else, standing out among the rundown outlets, shops, and restaurants.

Speaker 1 I spotted a seedy-looking bar next to an even more questionable-looking mechanic and thought about making a a detour. I needed a drink, but I couldn't.
I had to make sure not to talk to anyone.

Speaker 1 Couldn't risk being mistaken for the town's longest missing girl. Not here.
Not now. So when an older man approached me outside the station as I smoked one last cigarette, I'd panicked.

Speaker 1 He asked if I could bum him one, said that he really needed it. So I did, just to make him go away.

Speaker 1 Then he started rambling on about his car having broken down and the shithole and how he was stuck here until they fixed it. He told me his name and then asked me mine.
I told him it was Abby.

Speaker 1 It's not. He said I reminded him of his niece back in Iowa.
Something I pretended was interesting.

Speaker 1 Maybe I can pretend to be her too, I thought.

Speaker 1 When I finished smoking, I wished him luck and set off for what I came here to do. I shoved the rest of my cigarettes and lighter deep into my backpack, along with my real identity.

Speaker 1 When I turned down Lincoln Avenue, I was no longer me or Abby. I was Michaela Murray.
You know, I was just thinking about

Speaker 1 we see missing reports sometimes. I'm sure that this happens sometimes, but what if Michaela, like,

Speaker 1 what if there's something horrible at the house that

Speaker 1 she escaped from?

Speaker 1 That

Speaker 1 she was just like, I'm just going to leave my life so my family can't find me. And that's, you know, they're still looking for, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 It's almost like if you had some, like, you were living in some kind of hell. And then the person left and it was like actually a good thing.
Just like a weird twist. I don't know.

Speaker 1 My mind was thinking about that where when you, anytime you go in the Midwest, it's always just kind of this weird,

Speaker 1 it's like a very like desolate feeling. I don't know.

Speaker 1 I kind of suspect that might be where the story's going.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 it's just like, yeah, yeah, I kind of get the vibe. It's like, um,

Speaker 1 what? Because the story's not just going to be, I stole stuff and I left. There's going to be something.
that happens. So that might be where it goes.

Speaker 1 Also, our fake Michaela Murray also saying, like, I wonder if I could be her too, has immediately made me not like this person. Like, I'm like, I fucking hate this person so much.

Speaker 1 Well, she's desperate for money, and she's willing to do whatever it takes. There's desperation, but then there's also, I don't know, yeah, she's a snake for sure.
I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Hold on, let me piss really quick.

Speaker 1 Whips your cock out and pisses on the keyboard.

Speaker 1 I say, didn't hear my funny bit about

Speaker 1 whooping his dick out and pissing on his keyboard. I said it to to no laughs and I kind of looked like a jackass.

Speaker 1 How foolish I am.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was so clever too. It's like

Speaker 1 the absurdity of pissing on your own keyboard.

Speaker 1 I'll do better.

Speaker 1 I'll do better.

Speaker 1 It'd be kind of funny if the guy who's like, hey, can I buy him a cigarette? He's like, sure. He's like, yeah, I just plan on ripping butt.

Speaker 1 And everyone's like, if the author, if Joe just kept putting that in the story, it's like, what the fuck does that even mean?

Speaker 1 I assume it means like ripped a butt out of the case, like pulled a cigarette butt. But I don't think I've ever heard that phrase before.
I've never heard I'm ripping a butt. I've heard ripping a cig.

Speaker 1 I've heard of people saying ripping a cigarette, but I don't, I just have not heard ripping a butt.

Speaker 1 Yeah, rip butt. Yeah, don't mind me.
Yeah. Just ripping butt out here.
She's going to go back and that would mean farting. They're going to have a nice

Speaker 1 they're going to have a nice nice dinner tonight. And the dad's going to be like, Michaela, would you like to rip butt?

Speaker 1 Michaela, would you like us to rip butt together?

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 1 I didn't know we did that as a family.

Speaker 1 Okay. The Murrays lived a pretty secluded life.
Their homes set alone in the middle of endless plains, their neighbors barely dots in the distance.

Speaker 1 I'm starting to understand why Michaela might have run away. Although the house itself is beautiful with many protruding sections and gables, a wrap-around porch and a large two-door garage.

Speaker 1 There was even an inground swimming pool out back, now covered and topped with autumn leaves, and a cute little gazebo further off in the field, draped in numerous flags and dream catchers, with flower pots lining the railings.

Speaker 1 Certainly didn't look like the kind of place tragedy had struck. I stepped quietly up the stairs and was almost spooked by my own reflection in the glass of their front door.

Speaker 1 Nerves were definitely setting in now. I rang the bell and felt my stomach sink.
What if my dirty blonde hair wasn't light enough, or if Michaela had had some obvious birthmark I'd overlooked?

Speaker 1 I was sweating underneath my coat, unable to recall the name of the man I'd taken it from. When the door opened, my heart stopped.

Speaker 1 Linda Murray was standing there in her casual weekend wear, pleasantly confused. Hello?

Speaker 1 She greeted me. Then her face went white in an instant, like her soul had left her body.
She She shrieked and clasped her hands to her mouth, bursting into tearful exclamations. Oh my God! Oh my god!

Speaker 1 She kept repeating. She suddenly lunged forward and squeezed me tighter than I would have liked, her arms attempting to wrap all the way around my backpack.

Speaker 1 I stood there awkwardly, bracing all of her weight onto mine, as she surely was about to collapse.

Speaker 1 The dog at her legs was barking madly, and as Linda's tears dropped onto my back, all I could think about was how pissed off I'd be had I gotten caught because the dog didn't recognize my set.

Speaker 1 Okay, I will say

Speaker 1 you I

Speaker 1 guess I wasn't processing how evil this is. It's horrible.

Speaker 1 It's horrible.

Speaker 1 The mother cried and she's like, oh, the stupid dog. Like, it's like super villain levels of bad.
Because in my head, I'm like, oh, she's going to steal money. Like, that's bad.

Speaker 1 But I wasn't thinking about the trauma. She's like,

Speaker 1 a goddamn lot lizard is infiltrating a family's home, dude. And she's like,

Speaker 1 hope old poochie here doesn't, you know, he better not give the family any tips. It's like, it's a dog, idiot.
Yeah, she's like, she's like irredeemable. Yeah.
What is it, Linda?

Speaker 1 Michaela's dad called from somewhere inside. He soon appeared in the doorway, his button-up tucked into his jeans.
And when he saw my cold, pale face poking over Linda's shoulder, he stumbled back.

Speaker 1 What is this?

Speaker 1 He gasped. His eyes went wide and his bushy gray mustache twitched.
The dog was still barking, reminding me that I was in fact a stranger in this house. I smiled and said, I'm home, daddy.

Speaker 1 Oh, man, she's evil. I know.
She's good. She's awful.

Speaker 1 I'm gross. That accent you actually just did was a pretty good Sydney Sweeney, I think.
I'm trying to, I think maybe with longer stuff, it will be good.

Speaker 1 And what if I don't have to continuously say daddy, that will be nice. Thank you.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think, I hope that she keeps saying that because that'll be great.

Speaker 1 There you go. I was trying to make myself cry.
And if Linda had squeezed me any harder, I just might have.

Speaker 1 She held onto my sleeve as we let go, so afraid her daughter would run off again. Paul Murray was still staring at me in disbelief when something shifted in his face and he stepped forward.

Speaker 1 Come here, baby girl. Linda passed me off like a toy she didn't want to share.
Paul pulled me into his arms and held even tighter than she had. Rocked back and forth for a moment.

Speaker 1 I can't believe it's you. Linda rushed for the door and yelled inside, calling for her son James.
Come inside, baby. Paul beamed as he released me, keeping a hand on my back and beckoning me inward.

Speaker 1 It's cold. Come, come.

Speaker 1 We moved into the foyer, where Paul asked to take my coat, which I happily handed him. Now that I was inside, I could practically smell the bar on it.
Your bag, sweetie.

Speaker 1 I shook my head and said, No, that's okay. He made a face and I worried it was suspicious, and then worried more that my worrying was the only thing suspicious.
I had to settle down.

Speaker 1 I nearly jumped when Paul turned the locks and hit a button on the alarm system. Jesus.
Chimed louder than I would have expected. See,

Speaker 1 that's what I'm saying, dude. I'm saying there's

Speaker 1 no. The seeds are getting planted, dude.
They're just like, baby girl, you ain't going to run away so easily this time.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1 you get that vibe. And it's not, to clarify for the audience, it's not a bear trap moment.
It's not. No, 100%.
Well, 100%. First of all, it is.
That's what the description is. 100%.
No, it's not.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, it's not. It's not because that's what the description said on the article we looked at at the beginning.
It said she breaks into someone's house only to regret it. So we knew that.

Speaker 1 We knew that. Now, what is the oh noise you're making? What is that? That's the bear getting hit.

Speaker 1 Is that the noise a bear makes when its leg gets snapped by a giant metal trap?

Speaker 1 Do you think a bear is like a cow?

Speaker 1 Well, have you caught a bear? Because I have many times. My bear trap goes off quite a bit.
You shoot bears a lot.

Speaker 1 Thank you too.

Speaker 1 What kind of bears are there in Kansas City?

Speaker 1 Blackberry. Grizzly.
Black bears.

Speaker 1 Both of them. Yeah,

Speaker 1 all kinds of bears. It's the only place.
It's the crossover. That's why they call Missouri the crossover state.

Speaker 1 It's because there's both kinds of bears there. You just kill all of them.
It's a rite of passage for bears to walk through the St. Louis arch.

Speaker 1 And they have to do it.

Speaker 1 In downtown St. Louis.

Speaker 1 Exactly.

Speaker 1 Do bears have rites of passage? Is that a thing bears do? That's one of them. That's one of them.

Speaker 1 What's another one?

Speaker 1 Eating fish mostly and sleeping.

Speaker 1 Really,

Speaker 1 the St. Louis Arch is kind of the most flavorful one.
All the other ones are really good. Looking at this straight.

Speaker 1 To be a bear, to earn your bear rights, you have to eat fish, sleep, pass through the St. Louis Arch in St.
Louis.

Speaker 1 well some bears also they getting caught in hunter's bear trap is also right of passage

Speaker 1 yeah yeah so you're so your bear trap isn't just a mental thing you have also to be fair we don't we don't even know yet we don't know yet if the bear trap actually i think you're i i think it's hit okay first off finish what you said finish what you said i think you're right is what you're gonna say That's what you're gonna say.

Speaker 1 You backed up out of it. And you cut me off.
And you cut me off. No, you cut me off.
I didn't back out of it. You cut me off.
So I'm not

Speaker 1 going to fish what I'm saying. Pot of of agree.
So, shut up. So I'm saying if I had a bear trap, I would coincidentally, in this occasion, set mine where yours is.

Speaker 1 Like that was a good lay to get out of here as opposed to your 17 other bear traps that are off in the brush somewhere, aren't even turned on, aren't even activated.

Speaker 1 They're just shut up and thrown into the weeds. This was a good placement in this occasion.

Speaker 1 Don't be afraid of

Speaker 1 the screams in the night. They are are just the bears passing through.

Speaker 1 Have you ever seen Top Gear? Yeah. Well, I mean, like, not all of it, but I've seen episodes.

Speaker 1 Have you seen the clip where

Speaker 1 Jeremy sets up claymores for alligators around their camp? No, I haven't seen that. My wife likes Clark's Farm or whatever.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That show, too. Anyways, we'll

Speaker 1 read the story anyway yeah yeah yeah the story the story it chimed louder than i would have expected i wondered if all this had always existed or if it was a result of their daughter having slipped out one night never to be seen again one of her coats still hung on a hook by the door untouched after all these years now mine hung next to it well danny's or whatever

Speaker 1 As we moved even further inside, I was blown away by how nice this place was. So much so that I'd slipped and let it show.
Nothing in this house was supposed to be surprising to me.

Speaker 1 It was hard not to be impressed by the high ceilings and bookshelves, or the many sofas beside a grand marble fireplace, or the fact that it was just the room that branched off to all the other rooms, one they probably hardly ever used.

Speaker 1 As I continued to survey my surroundings, a figure high above caught my eye. It was James.

Speaker 1 Looked down over the railing and looked more flabbergasted than anyone to have seen me. At 17, he was now the same age his sister was when she vanished, only much taller, but with the same baby face.

Speaker 1 Look, James, look who it is. It's sissy.
Come give her a hug.

Speaker 1 I wanted to puke. Man, she is awful.

Speaker 1 Well, I think now she's like, I think she's feeling nervous now. I think that it's, I think she's.
Yeah, maybe. I think they're trying to humanize her a bit.

Speaker 1 I think even Joe's just like, Jesus Christ, this jig

Speaker 1 sucks.

Speaker 1 All right, now she wants to puke. All right, there we go.

Speaker 1 James didn't move right away. And when he did, it was this slow, cautious crawl.
I figured, surely, of all people, I'd have been safest around James. After all, he'd hardly ever known his sister.

Speaker 1 Yet the baby blue eyes behind his jet-like hair were piercing into mine, searching for the girl he so dearly missed. I couldn't think of what to say to him.

Speaker 1 I was distracted by the feel of the cigarettes in my bag. I needed one.
Aye.

Speaker 1 Was all he mustered, stopping at the foot of the stairs. Hey, Goober.

Speaker 1 I had no idea if that was something Michaela ever called him. Yeah, she's just like dynamite.

Speaker 1 Just making up pet names on the fly.

Speaker 1 Okay, where's the food? Where's dinner at? Mama Cita, old pops?

Speaker 1 To be fair, the mom and dads are throwing around pet names a lot. Baby, sissy, all that kind of shit.

Speaker 1 So he's like, Goober?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Hey, Goober.

Speaker 1 That's fine to imagine that, like, your sister runs away for like, what's it been? Six years? Seven years? No,

Speaker 1 like 12. 12 years.
Like, 12 years. Yeah.
So now you're 30. And you're like,

Speaker 1 goober? Yeah. Well, to be fair, that could be some nice millennial cringe type of deal.

Speaker 1 Hey, goober.

Speaker 1 Hey, goober. I had no idea if this was something Michael ever called him, but neither had anyone else.
James and I then did something resembling a hug and let go.

Speaker 1 Linda looked on, face red, still overcome with emotion. Paul was smiling at us.
Let's go sit, yeah.

Speaker 1 You look exhausted. He wasn't wrong.
I couldn't wait to sit down. There probably wasn't a piece of furniture in this place less comfortable than the mattress I'd been living on for the last decade.

Speaker 1 I held in my amazement as we marched from room to room, deeper and deeper into the house. Linda was still exhaling this stuttered, painful sob, kept reaching to touch me in any way.

Speaker 1 Hand on the back or a light brush of the hair. It was annoying.
But then again, I never learned how to have a mother.

Speaker 1 When I shrugged Linda off, she looked heartbroken. Why would you shrug her off? It was at that moment that I finally began to feel like the asshole I knew I was.
Okay, there you go.

Speaker 1 There's your, there it is.

Speaker 1 There's a little bit of like a human reaching out from deep down there. After passing through the kitchen and down another hall, we stopped in their second larger living room.

Speaker 1 It was very open, the ceiling reaching all the way up to the third story, with photos lined as high as a ladder could reach.

Speaker 1 I followed Michaela's progression of school photos, remarking how eerily similar they were to mine, and how they were one photo short.

Speaker 1 There was an upper level behind us, where a grand piano sat in one corner, and a bar in the other, separated by yet another fireplace. I imagined how nice a Christmas tree must have looked in here.

Speaker 1 even during the day with the natural light coming in through the sliding glass doors to the back porch. Each Murray dropped onto a separate couch on the lower level.

Speaker 1 Paul gestured for me to sit next to Linda, who, of course, was eager to be next to me. James was slouched directly across, staring down at the ground.

Speaker 1 The rest of us were darting our eyes, waiting for someone to begin.

Speaker 1 Let me just start by saying that we're not mad. Linda was nodding feverishly in agreement.
Paul went on. We just want to know what happened.
Something inside my gut wrung.

Speaker 1 If my actual dad had showed even an ounce of this concern, I might not have run away myself. Instead, he took his brother's side, my abuser.
I dropped my head. I needed to get out of here.

Speaker 1 I felt trapped and I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I just didn't know what else to do.
I'm really sorry. It certainly wasn't Oscar-worthy, but I wasn't playing the long con.

Speaker 1 I only needed to be passable long enough for me to swipe several of the items we'd passed along the journey to this room. Paul nodded slowly, gazing off somewhere over my shoulder.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what kind of an answer is that? Like, I just needed some air. That's why I was gone for 12 years.
I just needed to get out of here. All righty.
But don't worry, dad. It was your fault.

Speaker 1 That's why I felt like I needed to leave. You're just a terrible person.
You're just awful, and I hated being around. I hated being your little sissy little dad.

Speaker 1 I'd have preferred to start my entire life over at 18. Absolutely.
Absolutely. It was somehow worse than anything else he could have said.

Speaker 1 For all I knew, Michaela had had a great life here with a loving family. Now I was making them feel responsible.
Each of them was staring off somewhere, letting my story sink into their minds.

Speaker 1 I wanted to sink into the couch. Where did you go, Michaela? Linda suddenly wondered.
Paul leaned forward. No, Linda, it's okay.
She's not a little girl anymore. That's her business.

Speaker 1 Listen, baby girl. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want.
All that matters now is that you're home. and you're safe.

Speaker 1 Funny enough, by the way, audience, that's just what Hunter sounds like when he's not recording videos. Baby girl.

Speaker 1 That's exactly what it sounds like. It's his Midwest accent coming out.
Like when we're recording, he's like talking in his normal, like, you know,

Speaker 1 kind of YouTube speak, just general American accent. And then the moment we get off, he's like, all right,

Speaker 1 are we looking to go?

Speaker 1 Also, I will say, it's kind of fucked up that every time I read Baby Girl, I hear when you say it.

Speaker 1 You say baby girl a lot.

Speaker 1 I say baby girl a lot. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I do say baby girl a lot, don't I? You do that and gamer. I do

Speaker 1 Does that bother you that I say gamer a lot? I mean, not really. It's just that's just we're talking about words.
I do do that a lot.

Speaker 1 Anytime I like start talking on her, I'm like, hey, gamer, what's up? I got that because

Speaker 1 my friend operator Drewski, who's a YouTuber, says gamer all the time. And I started taking that from him because he'll always call me gamer.
So I started calling everyone else gamer.

Speaker 1 The baby girl, I think, was my own invention. I always say sounds good, baby girl.

Speaker 1 That's very cute that when you hear baby girl, you think of me. That's so cute.
The fan teams are going to love that.

Speaker 1 The editors are going to love that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Have you seen that? I love when a 30-year-old man calls me baby girl. That's great.
I'm 25.

Speaker 1 Let's round up. We can round up.

Speaker 1 I say, well, if I round it up for you, it'd be like 78 for one. We don't have to.
We're splitting hairs at this point, but it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 Anytime near you have a moment on the podcast where we say something slightly

Speaker 1 flirty or romantic, all of the so someone will go post it on Reddit or TikTok and all the comments will say, do they know it's legal? Like, do they know they don't have to hide it?

Speaker 1 Like, that's what, that's what they're going to say to this clip that you said.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm grossed out by it, but that's just me. That's good.
Whatever you say, baby girl. He reached for my hands and held on gently.
It was strangely comforting.

Speaker 1 For the first time in my life, I'd felt cared for and safe.

Speaker 1 In my short time there, I'd completely flipped my thinking. What if Michaela was just another stupid teenager rebelling against her parents who were only trying to protect her?

Speaker 1 What if she'd sneaked out to celebrate her 18th birthday with her college boyfriend at some prat party? What if he slipped something into her drink? Or if she got too experimental?

Speaker 1 What if someone offered her something she never tried before and she took it? To be cool? Show off in front of her college boyfriend's college friends? I spent my whole life wishing I had hers.

Speaker 1 What if she just left it? You know what? I have an idea, Paul said with a clap. Linda, why don't you go out and get stuff for pork sandwiches? And I'll cook up some tear tots, yeah?

Speaker 1 He was looking at me with raised eyebrows like I was supposed to know what he was talking about, so I pretended to. This must have been some sort of Murray tradition or Michaela's favorite meal.

Speaker 1 That sounds great. I tried to smile at James, but it was clear he wasn't ready to forgive his sister for abandoning him.
Linda hopped up. Michaela, sweetie, do you want to come with me?

Speaker 1 I hated how often she was saying her name and how she spoke to me like I was five. Before I got a chance to respond, Paul chimed in.
Hun, let her breathe.

Speaker 1 Run to the store and I'll get things started here. And you? He said to me, go rest up.
It's going to be crazy here by tomorrow. I just want to have one night as a family first.

Speaker 1 I could not have agreed more. Everything was going exactly as I had planned.
Maybe better.

Speaker 1 There was a really shiny diamond-studded vase across the room calling my name, right next to an autographed jersey of some football player I never heard of.

Speaker 1 I'm just gonna walk out with one while wearing the other. Going up to your room.
We'll come get you when it's ready. Linda pulled me in for another hug and kissed me on the side of the head.

Speaker 1 She looked over at James and saw that he was looking rather lifeless. She caught his attention and made a tipping motion toward her mouth, to which James replied,

Speaker 1 I taught taught him already. Finally, he glanced my way, but it wasn't quite the look I wanted to see.
There's more than just betrayal in his eyes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's probably saying, Why the fuck did you come back to this hell, dude? GG.

Speaker 1 I bet you're right. Way to go.

Speaker 1 It's like, why would you come back? Yeah. No, that wasn't.
You just said the thing. Bear trap.

Speaker 1 That's not what a bear sounds like when it gets hit in a bear trap.

Speaker 1 Okay, there, whatever.

Speaker 1 Everyone broke at once and dispersed. Paul heading for the kitchen and Linda making her way out.

Speaker 1 I grabbed my backpack and followed a sluggish James up the stairs, feeling good about how things were going so far. Until it occurred to me that I'd had no idea which room was Michaela's.

Speaker 1 It wasn't something she'd ever have forgotten. Not even after 12 years.
James and I ran to the corner and were faced with a long, narrow hallway with several doors.

Speaker 1 I feared I was going to have to guess the right one, but James threw me a lifeline. Hey, he began.
He stopped in front of his door and turned to me. You want to hang out, watch a movie or something?

Speaker 1 Even this had come out tense, like he was being forced to ask. Then I remembered that this had been the last thing he and Michaela had done together.
Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 I don't think I'm ready to see my room yet anyway. James nodded, and the knot of my stomach untwisted.
When we entered his room, I was surprised by how neat it was.

Speaker 1 So much so that it felt wrong laying my dirty bag down.

Speaker 1 James' baggy jeans and messy hair hair gave me a totally different vibe, but his bed was made, the walls were bare, and the desk in the corner looked like it had hardly been used.

Speaker 1 The one window in the room had a perfect view of the setting sun beyond the fields. Shadow cast a line between the pool below and the gazebo that was just barely visible from this vantage point.

Speaker 1 I heard a lock click. We need to go now.
Okay, all right.

Speaker 1 This is the no,

Speaker 1 that's not. This is what

Speaker 1 stop making the bear noise.

Speaker 1 This is what the article said when we clicked on the story so we had forewarning you what I will give you a bear trap about I'll give you a single bear paw is the reason James was so upset is that he was like why did you come back?

Speaker 1 You're correct

Speaker 1 Okay

Speaker 1 He let his neutral expression drop into one of panic I watched in confusion as he rushed over to his closet and threw on a sweater, cursing under his breath as he did so.

Speaker 1 When he looked up at me again, it was like he'd forgotten I was there.

Speaker 1 What are you talking about? James shook his head. He knows.
He knew the whole time. My brain was automatically rattling off ways to salvage this, but there was no point.

Speaker 1 I was caught, and something other than my identity was bothering him.

Speaker 1 That made me nervous. What gave it away? He looked at me like I was crazy.
Do you have any idea what's going on here? He killed her, he buried her. Oh,

Speaker 1 whoa,

Speaker 1 yo.

Speaker 1 okay,

Speaker 1 that's really cool.

Speaker 1 Okay, that so think about it this way: they murdered their daughter, or he murdered the daughter, and then buried her.

Speaker 1 And then, like, to try to pass it off, they're like, Oh, our daughter's gone missing. Oh, can anyone find our daughter?

Speaker 1 And then a girl shows up years later, pretending to be, and they immediately know, but go along with the facade to get her inside. That's so cool.
Yeah, yo, yeah, I'm wondering.

Speaker 1 While they're sitting there, everyone in the room knows that she's a fake,

Speaker 1 but she's tried to pass it off. You'd have to assume the mom knows too, right? Yes, almost certainly.

Speaker 1 But that's a good twist. This is fun.
My heart stopped. What?

Speaker 1 That wasn't in any of the theories I'd read online. Like everyone else, I'd been so sure it was the boyfriend Tom.
It was obvious, but the look of fear washing over James' face was hitting me as well.

Speaker 1 How do you know that? Took me by the arm and dragged me to the window.

Speaker 1 He spat with an outward finger against the glass. Far beyond the covered pool sat the gazebo, lifeless and weatherborn, with noticeable chips in its white paint.

Speaker 1 Only its right side was visible from behind the rest of the house. I could see the flags encircling its beams, waving calmly above a row of gardening supplies.

Speaker 1 James was breathing heavily as he stared out at it, his eyes fixed, even as he spoke. He built it right after she disappeared, and we're not allowed to use it.
Calls it his garden.

Speaker 1 I claimed it once when I was 10 and he beat the shit out of me. But I've seen him out there at night, a couple times, spraying the plants, fixing the dirt, and look.

Speaker 1 He hurried to his dresser and rummaged through before pulling something out and jaming it into my gut. I reached down.
It was a dirty purple bracelet, all stretchy and rubber.

Speaker 1 It had Michaela's name on it. I played with it in my hand.
Remy dug that up last year.

Speaker 1 Dropped it right at my feet. And I remember it.
I remember her wearing it that night. I stared at it and let it slide down onto my wrist, trying to find any counter to his theory.

Speaker 1 You saw her drive off? I reminded him. I saw her car drive off.
There's a voice in the back of my mind telling me he was delusional, but the voice that believed him was louder and much more afraid.

Speaker 1 I watched, mouth agape, as he struggled to tie his shoes. He kept messing up and starting over, spitting more curses under his breath.
My thoughts were swirling.

Speaker 1 Jabes, why haven't you called the police? Because I can't. It was louder than he'd intended.
He stood up and recollected himself.

Speaker 1 My dad is friends with the sheriff. If a cop pulls up, he'll kill us.
If I run, he'll he'll kill my mom. I don't even think she'd believe me.
Okay, so the mom doesn't know.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what I'm saying. My mom probably thinks that she's actually disappeared.
Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. I put my hands up to quiet him, but the fearful cry he'd been holding in had burst out.

Speaker 1 He covered his mouth to push it back in, along with the snot and tears that were oozing out of him.

Speaker 1 He rushed over to his bedside drawer and picked up a bottle of pills, swiftly popping a few into his mouth. My chest was getting tighter.
Why

Speaker 1 You don't understand. He'd rather die than get caught.
And he'd take us with him. I know it.
So we need to go. Out the window now.
We'll just run.

Speaker 1 At that point, it no longer mattered to me if James was right or if he was out of his mind. I wanted to get out of there.
I looked out the window again. It was starting to get dark.

Speaker 1 I would have preferred a more casual escape over jumping off the roof, but if what he was saying was true, then we had no choice.

Speaker 1 I was craving a cigarette more than ever, and that alone was almost enough to get me on that roof. We could take a bus.
It's how I got here. It's only a couple miles that way.
I know where it is.

Speaker 1 We should have to stay off the roads. We can use the fields for cover, and then once we- There was a knock at the door.
James? It was Paul. I tried turning the handle.
Everything all right in there?

Speaker 1 Without hesitation, James ran for the window and opened it. I could hear the faint chime of the alarm from somewhere out in the hall.
Paul's jiggling of the locked door grew more aggressive.

Speaker 1 Now what the hell's going on in there? Open the door! When he started pounding on it, I threw on my bag and joined James, who was already halfway out the window.

Speaker 1 Together we scurried on the roof, hopped onto the back porch, and dropped down onto the rather large portico above the back door. I'd almost fallen down the side, but James held me up.

Speaker 1 A loud crash came booming from back up in his room. I looked up.
Don't stop! James yelled. He jumped first onto the lawn, and I followed.

Speaker 1 Both of my feet and knees took the impact hard, the ground underneath the autumn foliage deceptively solid. James held me up and we took off running.

Speaker 1 Against his advice, I looked back and saw Paul peeking out James' window. He shouted to us and then disappeared.
James had already separated himself a good distance from me.

Speaker 1 I kept pushing my legs as he called back for me to do so, my backpack bouncing off my ass with each stride. There was a road in the distance, the same road I drudged along to get here.

Speaker 1 I could see where it met the orange and purple sky. It felt like it was never getting any closer.
Gunshot rang loud, ripping across the plains.

Speaker 1 Paul was now standing by the back door, aiming a rifle in our direction, his crimes chasing us behind the gunpowder. My word.
Another bang and my legs buckled.

Speaker 1 When I reached the gazebo, I hid behind it to catch my breath. There was a sharp, debilitating pain in my side.

Speaker 1 I held myself up one of those railings and thought I could feel my heartbeat vibrating against the wood. I swore if I'd survived this, I would quit smoking.

Speaker 1 I peeked around the corner and saw Paul hurry into the garage, James calling out for me by the road.

Speaker 1 But as I stood there, frozen against the gazebo, flags caressing my shoulder, I thought about the girl buried underneath. What if James was right? What if nobody ever found Michaela's remains?

Speaker 1 What if we didn't make it out of there? Nobody ever knew. What are you talking about?

Speaker 1 What if James is right? James is right.

Speaker 1 No, no, no. About

Speaker 1 if we don't leave now, we're dead. What's up? James is right about no one knows about this.
What's I mean? I'm like, of course he is. And Paul is shooting at you.

Speaker 1 Like, I wouldn't even question that anymore. I'd be like, you need to die.

Speaker 1 That's fair. That's fair.

Speaker 1 I guess she's saying, like, what if James is right that we're going to die and no one will ever know? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, he's right. No, he's right.
He's right. You're going to die.
No one's ever going to know.

Speaker 1 You know, I think it's interesting, which, you know, there's still more story, obviously, to go, but I like kind of how quickly the story ripped off the band-aid.

Speaker 1 Because at first I thought it was going to be, okay, well, now I'm in a sticky situation where I have to go along with this plan and just like hope the dad, you know, or like, maybe that's like the midpoint reveal of, you know, him being like, my sister died or he killed her or whatever.

Speaker 1 And it's just like, oh, this whole time, you know, like more of a build, but it's just kind of like, you know, it's like almost like a fucking greyhound race.

Speaker 1 The things are just like dead sprinting now.

Speaker 1 I thought for a while it would be like the whole liar revealed setup. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But it's like, yep, nope, nope, that's not what we're doing here we're calls already shooting at them

Speaker 1 it's like okay well here we are what if we didn't make it out of there nobody ever knew i thought of my own story unheard and not believed when i told my dad what my uncle had done all those years he hit me couldn't let this story stay buried too took out my lighter and lit a flag and then another fire burned slowly picking up quick as it caught onto more flags and dream catchers, then down to the plants below.

Speaker 1 So I went back and watched the flames spread and dance along the darkening sky. I hoped, at the very least, it would be a distraction, and more so enough to attract law enforcement.

Speaker 1 I could hear Linda's shrill voice crying out at the sight of it. She rushed around the side of the house with groceries in her hands, calling out for her husband who had just sped off in his truck.

Speaker 1 He was coming. I made one last dash for James, who was impatiently waving me on.
took my arm and led me across the road his father would soon be turning on to.

Speaker 1 We slipped into the cornfield and kept going until we heard the roar of an engine pass by. Froze until there was nothing but the wind, the pain in my side still nagging me.

Speaker 1 As dark as the sky had rapidly grown, it was even darker in that field, the corn towering over us, clinging to life as much as we were.

Speaker 1 Paul's headlights were shining through from not much farther ahead. We waited in terror for a crunch or a shout, or ideally, for the truck to zoom off.
Another gunshot rang high into the air.

Speaker 1 I gasped and had to cover my mouth to quiet my breathing. What do you do with my son? Paul called in a sing-songy fashion.
We could hear him walking about over the sound of his engine purring.

Speaker 1 Where the fuck are you? His footsteps wandered around, farther, closer, then farther again, separated only by the sound of swishing corn as he searched randomly along the outer edge.

Speaker 1 There was a pause, followed by a door slamming shut. Paul's truck whirled and sped back down the road.
I exhaled as James tugged on my arm and instructed to keep going.

Speaker 1 We pushed through more corn and followed along the road as best as we could. I never would have imagined being in this situation when I walked down it earlier that day.
Now I was wishing I never had.

Speaker 1 Sirens suddenly wailed nearby and eventually rushed past us. The glow of the flames grow noticeably brighter in the distance, smoke visible high above the fields.
Holy shit. Come on.

Speaker 1 We need to keep moving. Are you okay?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I wasn't. We shuffled farther through the corn, shoving it aside more aggressively as we went.
I could hardly see more than a few feet in front of me.

Speaker 1 After a while, we could hear a steady buzz of passing vehicles, indicating that we'd reached the city, but also the end of the cornfields.

Speaker 1 We stepped out onto a road and into the glow of street lights. I felt like I could breathe again, for just a moment.
You ready? We gotta move quick, but we gotta blend in.

Speaker 1 I'd realized in that moment how truly young James was and how insane I was for having put my life in his hands. I was 28.

Speaker 1 but felt just like the same little girl I was all those years ago, hoping her father would protect her. Only hoped James was better at it.

Speaker 1 We dashed across an empty street and then slipped into the downtown area. I kept my head down.

Speaker 1 Most of the businesses on the strip were closed for the night, but the bar I'd seen earlier was now glowing in its neon signs, which did a good job masking its otherwise unapproachable facade.

Speaker 1 There were locals standing outside having to smoke, drunkenly arguing about nothing. James and I crossed the street.
When we reached the bus station, I was relieved to see the lights were still on.

Speaker 1 This relief would not last. Incoming only, folks.

Speaker 1 you'll have to wait until morning sorry i was already making my way for the exit james caught up with me what are you doing i'm getting the out of here what am i supposed to do he followed alongside me being more conspicuous than i would have liked he stopped and leaned in close i don't care come with me or don't i'm leaving i was on the verge of crying the lump of my throat growing larger James stood there at a complete loss.

Speaker 1 I looked at him and saw the five-year-old boy who woke up in the night all alone, the street lights above shining in his eyes like the headlights he'd watched disappear. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 I just want to go home. I couldn't believe I had said it and meant it.
Then I realized James couldn't go home. If my fire failed, he was going to be on his own, on the run, and homeless at 17.

Speaker 1 Just like I was. They're going to find Michaela.
Then you'll be safe. He was trembling.
What if they don't? I had no answer. Not one he would have liked anyway.

Speaker 1 Even if he made a call to the police that very moment, I could already see Paul going home and putting the rifle to Linda's head before putting it in his mouth. I wondered if he already had.

Speaker 1 I think James did too. He leaned into me and started to cry.
He was a whole foot taller than me and bony, but I held on to him. Not like I had with Paul or Linda, but with Ernest.
Excuse me!

Speaker 1 A voice suddenly called out to us. I was about to run when I saw a familiar face.
The old man I'd smoked with earlier was approaching us from the mechanic slot next to us.

Speaker 1 His face twisted when he recognized me back.

Speaker 1 Oh, it's you, Abby, right?

Speaker 1 Everything all right over here? James and I looked at each other but said nothing. An idea crossed my mind.
Actually, no, sir. We're stuck here, too.
The man whose name I'd forgotten grinned. Huh.

Speaker 1 Well, cars fixed. I want to head out if you guys need a lift.
We headed. Anywhere.
His smile faded. Right.

Speaker 1 Okay, sure. That's fine.
I'm going to be driving west down 80 for a while if that works for y'all. Yes, that's perfect.

Speaker 1 James and I followed the man back to the lot and hopped into his old station wagon. I took the front.
I thanked the old man repeatedly, even offered him gas money, but he refused it.

Speaker 1 Said he was happy to help. He introduced himself to a catatonic James in back, reminding me his name was Frank.
Eyes kept darting between Frank's and the rearview mirror he was periodically checking.

Speaker 1 James was huffing short, panicked breaths. I wondered if he needed his meds.
We drove in silence for a while. You You couldn't see anything beyond the headlights path, just a deep, empty void.

Speaker 1 The old man tried to spark up conversation, but neither James nor I were up for it. He asked if we wanted the radio on or off, if we were hungry, if we were cold, hot.

Speaker 1 Each time I told him we were fine. Took the hint, and we drove for hours down the same stretch of highway, having barely spoken, until James had fallen asleep.
I know it ain't my business, young lady.

Speaker 1 Very sure you and your friend are okay. Frank kept his voice just above the hum of the radio.

Speaker 1 I assured him once more we were fine, and even though my mind was still back on Lincoln Avenue, wondering what had been happening that very moment at the Murray household, if the flames revealed the truth below, or if they were extinguished before they got the chance, I played an imagined scene in my mind over and over.

Speaker 1 The fire trucks, the inspection of the damage, Paul watching eagerly nearby, ready to run.

Speaker 1 The discovery of bones, the call to the sheriff, the arrest of the man he'd known and tried to help all those years ago, or whom he might now have to hunt down.

Speaker 1 Well, at least tell me your real name, Frank asked, bringing me back to reality. We had so clearly been withholding the truth from this poor man.

Speaker 1 All he wanted was just a small piece of it, maybe so we could justify the crazy thing he had done that day.

Speaker 1 Looked down at my fidgeting hands and noticed the purple bracelet still tight on my wrists, the pink lettering of Michaela's name flashing with every passing streetlight.

Speaker 1 I'd forgotten that I was still wearing it. I thought about how badly I wanted to give her the ending she deserved.
The one she'd won for herself, an escape, freedom.

Speaker 1 How easy it would have been to do it, to say her name. It's Rachel.
I uttered instead. Frank smiled at me.
Well, Rachel, it's nice to finally meet you. I'll let him drive us another hour.

Speaker 1 It was almost midnight. When I woke James to get out, he jumped.
I had Frank drop us off at a cheap bed and breakfast, something I'd grown quite accustomed to over the years.

Speaker 1 I tried once more to pay him, but he wound up giving me money instead. It wasn't much, but the gesture alone was beyond kind.

Speaker 1 In spite of everything I'd been through that day and all that came before it, it wasn't any less meaningful coming across someone as genuinely good as that man.

Speaker 1 I felt bad that I lied to him about my name again.

Speaker 1 That's a fun little way to end that little section of the story.

Speaker 1 We still don't know her.

Speaker 1 This story has, I'm like, the emotion worked, you know, like the

Speaker 1 like her.

Speaker 1 Like she came from a troubled background and now she kind of sees James in the same position she was.

Speaker 1 So she feels like this this kind of like duty to help him in spite of herself and stuff like that like even if it's kind of a

Speaker 1 kind of played out thing of like the the person who went through trouble wanting to help someone else through the trouble I like it well it's not only uh it's not only James but I mean it's stumbling across a different version of her own life of

Speaker 1 a man who was abusing this girl or hadn't been abusing but basically murdered

Speaker 1 his daughter the same way that like her father neglected her. It's just like a different outcome.
It's like reliving that basically that past horrible experience.

Speaker 1 And now kind of given the opportunity to right the wrongs of this girl and give her a proper

Speaker 1 send-off, you know, right now, and I think that's where the direction is going to head is her being like, fuck this. They deserve, like, she deserves to have like a...

Speaker 1 that people deserve to know, you know, like to not have to, you don't have to live in that lie of like, oh, she's missing.

Speaker 1 Cause that's the whole thing, too, is that with her own thing of with her uncle doing

Speaker 1 the said things as well, that's something that no one ever believed or no no one cared to believe. Yeah.
So now it's time to reveal that, I think. And that's going to be the ridiculous thing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, maybe I can't write what happened to me, but maybe I can write like the narrative around this girl. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 James and I shared a bed, sleeping head to toe beside a rattling air conditioner. I wouldn't have slept anyway.
I was plenty happy with the four hours I got. I woke early the following morning.

Speaker 1 I stepped outside for a cigarette and enjoyed every moment of it. I'd quit another day.
James was sitting up in bed by the time I went back inside. His hair an awful mess, his tired eyes red.

Speaker 1 He'd asked me what our plan was. He was impatient and I understood.
I told him that we should eat breakfast first and figure it out from there. It had almost been an entire day since I'd last eaten.

Speaker 1 When we entered the dining area, we saw that there was only a few other guests inside. I still wanted a table in back, but James insisted we sit by the bar where TV was playing the news.
I gave in.

Speaker 1 He was worried about his mother, and I couldn't blame him for that. I'd have been worried about mine, too, if she were still alive.
I was really hoping this aspect of our lives remained different.

Speaker 1 James was glued to the TV, even as the waitress came and took our order. You're going to drive yourself crazy.
Told him as she walked away. He shook his head at me and kept his eyes fixed.

Speaker 1 We sat in silence as we waited for our food, potentially news. Your coat.
You left your coat at my house. I laughed, at which James blinked.
It's not my coat. Whose is it?

Speaker 1 Some guy named Scott, I think. Maybe Jordan.
It wasn't long before the waitress arrived with our meals. We were at the same thing, only my eggs were scrambled.

Speaker 1 There was something about the smell of bacon and home fries that brought comfort strong enough to make you forget that you were on the run.

Speaker 1 I moaned at the first bite. Probably could have eaten both plates.

Speaker 1 You didn't have to moan. I even thought I saw a moment of calm in James's face as he ate.
TV caught our attention. Thank you, John.

Speaker 1 Authorities say they responded early last night to a fire in one very familiar Indiana home, the home of Michaela Murray.

Speaker 1 James nearly fell out of his seat, dropped my fork, home fry fell on the floor.

Speaker 1 Missing since 2008, Michaela's disappearance is one that rocked the small town of Millersburg, Indiana, but left many hopeful that she was still out there, listening.

Speaker 1 But when authorities found her car abandoned near Elkhart River, just miles from her home, friends and family began to fear the worst. Michaela was gone, her whereabouts never discovered, until now.

Speaker 1 I wanted to turn back to James, but was afraid of the look on his face.

Speaker 1 When authorities cleared the scene last night at 1108 Lincoln Avenue, they made a shocking discovery that would answer a decade-long mystery, but spark a new one.

Speaker 1 It cut to the sheriff's press conference. He spoke matter-of-factly while cameras clicked all around him.
The fire department responded to a 911 call around 5 p.m. last night.

Speaker 1 There was a gazebo on fire in the yard of the Murray residence, and when we assessed the damage, we discovered a bunker hidden underneath.

Speaker 1 Upon further inspection of the bunker, we found the body of a young woman and child. We indeed confirmed the woman to be Michaela Murray, but have no further information at this time.
James Quilled.

Speaker 1 They found her!

Speaker 1 That is insane that that actually worked. Yeah.
Yeah, I'll be honest. I'm like,

Speaker 1 I did not think that would happen.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was like. Wait, hold on.

Speaker 1 A young woman and child?

Speaker 1 No, there's a child's body down there. There's two bodies, but one of them they said they can't confirm is Michaela.
So one of them is definitely Michaela, but there's also a child down there.

Speaker 1 Well, it could be. It almost sounds like it's the original wife and daughter, maybe.
Oh, that's a good point. Okay.

Speaker 1 So, well, maybe. But anyway.
Oh, God. Or it's Michaela.

Speaker 1 It doesn't. I'm not going to.
Go ahead. Yeah, I know what you were thinking.

Speaker 1 I know where your brain. Because my brain also put that together, but I'm like, I'm not going to entertain that thought out loud.
Yeah. I ignored him.
My face sunken.

Speaker 1 Waitresses and patrons were noticing our panic state. Something wasn't right.
She'd been buried under there for so long. There shouldn't have been much to find.

Speaker 1 And a child it is believed that Michaela had been held captive inside the bunker since that fateful day 12 years ago until last night when tragically both she and the child suffered fatal smoke and a

Speaker 1 oh my gosh

Speaker 1 oh my gosh

Speaker 1 it is believed that michaela had been held captive inside the bunker since that fateful day 12 years ago. Until last night, when tragically, both she and the child suffered fatal smoke

Speaker 1 inhalation resulting from the fire. Authorities have yet to confirm the identity of the child or who started the fire.

Speaker 1 Michaela's mother, Linda, is being questioned by police while federal officials search for her father, Paul, and brother James, both of whom are now missing.

Speaker 1 If you have any information on their whereabouts, please call this number and stay tuned for more on this story. My

Speaker 1 God!

Speaker 1 Bro, talk about God!

Speaker 1 Yo, oh no!

Speaker 1 Oh, the humanity!

Speaker 1 She was alive until last night!

Speaker 1 Wait, what? Wait, what? Oh, my God. Keep reading.
I couldn't feel my body. I turned around and stared down at my shaking hands on the table.
The world caving in on me. What happened? James cried.

Speaker 1 His breathing was heavy, his eyes bulging out of their sockets, staring at me, bewildered. I finally looked at him.
I killed Michaela. And that's it! Set the fire.
I killed her. And that's the story!

Speaker 1 That's where it is. That's the whole thing!

Speaker 1 What a depressing ending. Oh my god.
You find out!

Speaker 1 God!

Speaker 1 That she's alive. This girl who the whole ethos has been like, I'm going to make her truth known.
I'm going to make her story known. I'm going to do for her what no one did for me.

Speaker 1 And then it turns out that she's. And then she fucking killed her.

Speaker 1 She killed her. She was alive in the basement.
So the implication is that the baby was like an incest baby. Yeah.
Paul was keeping me.

Speaker 1 That's the idea. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, dude.

Speaker 1 To add to a whole extra layer. Yeah.
Sorry. To add, to add literal insult to injury.
Like, that's like unfucking real.

Speaker 1 Also,

Speaker 1 I'm guessing that there's, there's, no, there's no shot that the mom does not know about this, right? Um,

Speaker 1 I mean, maybe she does, maybe she doesn't know that her daughter is in a bunker outside, you know.

Speaker 1 So, the dad is buying, the dad is buying baby clothes secretly and taking them babies arms bags down to the fucking.

Speaker 1 Was having like toys and babies are us bag. This was sort of, this is all certainly like a fallout bunker setup.
Yeah, I don't think so. I think it's going to be a

Speaker 1 he's like down there. That's so it's God.

Speaker 1 God.

Speaker 1 What? God.

Speaker 1 What a bummer, Andre.

Speaker 1 Well, she was alive, but we killed her. I don't even know

Speaker 1 what the story is saying. The story just proves that your dad's going to like assault you.
And like, there's like, there's, I don't, I don't even know what the fuck I'm trying to get out of this.

Speaker 1 She had more in common with Michaela than she thought. Oh, God.
Yeah. Well, but

Speaker 1 well, her life was like her choice to run away was apparently the correct correct option, you know? The who the our

Speaker 1 Michaela or no, no, no, our maid ran away. No, our main character is what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, so Michaela gets kidnapped by her dad, thrown in the bunker. That explains why

Speaker 1 he suspect James of knowing something and then shoots at our protagonist as they're running away because like he's trying to keep his like his daughter who he's holding as like a mother mother of his kin like in the bunker and he's like shooting at them as they're running away i mean i guess uh but i'm i mean on one hand the fire worked by exposing what he was doing but it also killed michaela that's such a crazy angle to take it it is pretty awesome

Speaker 1 it has there's so many there's so many turns also this is like this isn't a super fast it's twisted like five times like i honestly

Speaker 1 like you know i was complimenting it earlier over the

Speaker 1 how fast it was was going. I really kind of wish that it was one of those things where, because as soon as she said at the beginning, when she was like, oh, I'm only going to be there for a night.

Speaker 1 I'll be in and out. I was like, okay, well, this is going to turn into something where it turns into a week or something or like a month.
She'll be there a while.

Speaker 1 Because at first then, when she walks in, she's like, this house is so nice. You know, it's this thing where it's like, why the fuck would I just steal this thing and go from motel to motel again?

Speaker 1 I mean, I could just like ride this gravy train for a bit or whatever. And I mean,

Speaker 1 the most sinister thing that the dad did, obviously, besides like shooting and whatever, I just mean like in terms of like the dialogue is like the idea of being like, I'm going to make tater tots is like the most disturbing, like threatening thing is such a mind fucking.

Speaker 1 We're going to wear Mike Tater Tots. To wear it more of that.
Daughter.

Speaker 1 You know, or even something too where like, you know, she's walking the grounds or like she's doing this thing and the dad still isn't really sure what to do.

Speaker 1 Cause I think that I read it now that the mom doesn't know, which feels a little weird. Yeah.
Like like almost i feel like it's kind of it would have been i don't know cooler

Speaker 1 well i mean not cooler but just like more demented the dad's the dad's a psychopath and the mom like genuinely cares about her daughter and doesn't know that her husband is holding her daughter as like a slave wife

Speaker 1 yeah yeah what i'm saying is it's it's even more demented and fucking creepy to me if it's like a the family thing like she knows but she's just like oh

Speaker 1 you know i i don't know like the the mom not knowing and then like because i I guess that's true.

Speaker 1 If you have it to where the mom doesn't know, then it makes it harder for the dad to like boot this kid out or like this new, the, the daughter, like this person that's pretending to be the daughter.

Speaker 1 Cause he's like, Yeah, because

Speaker 1 the mom knows, she walks in and they just kill her. Yeah.
And then you could have had some fun things where she's, like, walking around or like James is like, this is where he buried her.

Speaker 1 But then you can, like, you know, she, like, goes back one night and you, like, hear, like.

Speaker 1 you know, like screaming or

Speaker 1 some kind of thing of like, she's screaming for help. There could have been a, there's a lot of different directions.
I mean, this, first off, sounds like this is gonna be a fucking wild movie.

Speaker 1 It's gonna be a wild movie.

Speaker 1 That's what I, that's what I was thinking. I'm like, this is a pretty short story compared to like how long you could take this idea.

Speaker 1 So making a film out of this, there are so, there's so much potential to expand it, right? Yeah, there's no shot more scenes like that, more levels.

Speaker 1 There's no shot that the movie can end with them at a waffle house and then like the news comes on. I mean, I would, I would, I'm, I'd be down for it if it was satisfied up at the moment.

Speaker 1 I'm just saying that for a movie, I think that you get more out of like the reveal there like the the climax of the movie is the the is kind of what we had here with like the chase scene the cornfield running away whatever but then it's probably a thing where she's like we have to go back and save her this is prime this is primed for uh

Speaker 1 in terms of a movie and how it goes or even in this story what would have happened is

Speaker 1 our character our nameless uh protagonist

Speaker 1 is

Speaker 1 finds out that she's alive and she's also like, you know, not even that the abuse thing, whatever. She finds out that she's alive and then she's like, I'm not, I cannot leave her.

Speaker 1 Cause she's been acting on selfish impulses this whole time to where at the end, she's like, fuck that. I'm going to save this person.
The same way that I was never, no one saved me.

Speaker 1 I'm going to save this person. And you go back and it's going to be kind of like a pull her out that kind of way.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 But then that's what I'm saying is if the mom's in on it too, you think she's all sweet the whole time and then all of a sudden she's the one who like pulls a gun out too.

Speaker 1 It's just like, there's so many different ways you could do it. But

Speaker 1 there are ways you could take it. I think the way the setup worked, though, the mom can't know because I think it's stronger that way, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 And like, if, if this girl pretending to be Michaela walks into the house and the dad knows and the mom knows, then they can just like, and they, and they both know that James is suspicious.

Speaker 1 They can do whatever they want. They can like

Speaker 1 kill, they can kill this new girl or whatever. So I think that the way the story is written here, it has to go that direction.
But I mean, man, dude, talk about a ride.

Speaker 1 Like like going from oh we're going to manipulate this family into um

Speaker 1 they know they're not missing because he killed her then they're shooting at himself and then the end reveal that they killed her in the fire like dude i uh

Speaker 1 there was so much there it was it's just so weird because i

Speaker 1 so many

Speaker 1 so fast paced like even the dad which is kind of realistic if you think about like You go to a cornfield, the people go, they're able to like skirt around things and they kind of like hide from them.

Speaker 1 And now the dad, the house is on fire.

Speaker 1 he's like fuck this i'm leaving you know he's gonna be a fucking like a pussy and run whatever it's like it all feels realistic but it's one of those things where it's like you just i'm like man i'm so man i just wish there was just a so much more meat on the story just because it was so so fun well that's that's what that's what the potential it has when it goes into a film yeah well i hope it'd be it'd be cool if joe had some kind of uh input on that too if like maybe other ideas see i think i saw an article that said he did or i saw something somewhere that's like he's being adapted with it, or he's a part of the writing team, or something like that.

Speaker 1 It's so crazy, the dude that wrote Forrest Gump is doing this now. He's like,

Speaker 1 he's going to sit there and he's going to write like, interior, rape bunker.

Speaker 1 A woman, a woman and girl. You know what I mean? It's like, he's

Speaker 1 just like the kind of like, it's just such a polar opposite to like a fucking Forrest Gump saying.

Speaker 1 He's like, all right, dude, I'm usually have Neanderthals eating boxes of chocolate, but this time I guess I'll have to. Dude, that's not.
I was looking at Eric Roth.

Speaker 1 He also wrote like Killers of the Flower Moon. Like, he has so many like.

Speaker 1 I'm curious to see what dramatic

Speaker 1 role is.

Speaker 1 Listen to this. Force Gump, Killers of the Flower Moon, the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
My boy wrote the curious case of Benjamin Button. He comes out young, but gets old like really quick.

Speaker 1 And then he starts getting young again.

Speaker 1 He's like, all right, and seen. Inseem.

Speaker 1 Older Brad Pitt has sex with pretty Pretty Hot Woman.

Speaker 1 Exterior.

Speaker 1 It's like, okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I will say this. I think Sidney Sweeney is going to be a fun,

Speaker 1 a fun cast for this. A fun pick for the,

Speaker 1 yeah, I think she embodies the, like, that, like, kind of what we were saying earlier, that Valley Girl vibe. But I think that.
She's also, she's a great final girl type. Oh, dude.

Speaker 1 Well, and even Euphoria, she has some fucking crazy moments of like, she could be like a very unstellar action. Kind of crazy character, like very, very high-strung.
So, having this kind of

Speaker 1 I'm curious to see, it's just gonna be a lot of fun to see who

Speaker 1 they have. I really hope that they don't make the kid lanky and bony, like we were saying before.
It would be so funny if James

Speaker 1 I was kind of hoping James is like a like a fat neckbeard, and his like room's like a net beard nest.

Speaker 1 I forget the actor's name. In my head, I imagined him as the guy who plays the zombie in warm bodies, James.
Oh, the fucking No, no, he's too handsome. He's British.

Speaker 1 That's true.

Speaker 1 I think what you have to do is you have to do, you either have to do,

Speaker 1 yeah, it'd be so funny. Just like a British guy.
Hello.

Speaker 1 My sister's under the gazebo.

Speaker 1 I think my sister's under the gazebo.

Speaker 1 My sister's down. She's dead.

Speaker 1 A girl and child are found. Oh, God, it was much worse.

Speaker 1 It was much worse, not Michaela.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 This is, man, what just a fun trip. I have just so much I want to say, so much different fucking things I want to say.
Well, Sam, King, this is your podcast.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm just saying, there's just, I mean, I could just, you know, rant and rave about all the different things that you could do, but

Speaker 1 it was, it's a fun story. Also, just fucking bleak.
God damn. I will say the end of the day.
That's a rough read that's a rough read there's like there's just really no

Speaker 1 there's really no character arc in the story at all it's just kind of something that's just like

Speaker 1 you're you're kind of like growing with this character you're finding things and then all of a sudden it's like here's your giant bar of soap that you get a bite into

Speaker 1 i mean there's a little bit of our main character being like I don't want him to be the way I was. Yeah, but she goes from like manipulative to like wanting to take him with her.

Speaker 1 That's not really a character arc, especially when

Speaker 1 she says to the kid, like,

Speaker 1 like, come with me or don't, I don't give a fuck. I'm leaving.
Like, she's pretty selfish all the way through.

Speaker 1 You know, really, the character that had the most gumption and like drive was the 17-year-old James.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 we were at the part in this story right here where non-Michaela, this is the part where she's like, I'm turned, like, this is the turn. You know, this is the part.

Speaker 1 This is the part where you would find out that, like,

Speaker 1 there's not a news broadcast that's just like an exposition dump of like, this is what happened. Holy shit.
By the way, did we tell you that there's a, you know, you know, all this different stuff?

Speaker 1 Instead, there's somebody in town or, you know, she's like, we got to go. We have to go back.
Like, we have to, we need to like let people know about the, the, the, her body is there.

Speaker 1 And they think that she's dead still. And when they go back, that's when you find out that she's like, oh, no, she's a fucking prisoner inside this thing.

Speaker 1 And it's a whole nother can of worms, but she sticks with it. And that would be, and like, that's like the kind of like punchy, like, rally behind this character who you fucking hate so far.

Speaker 1 Because I really just don't, the non-Michaela character,

Speaker 1 really.

Speaker 1 Not likable. Like, not a likable character.
Yeah, of course, of course. But she did have.

Speaker 1 And I think this is probably where the movie will go. She did have a tone midway through of like, maybe I need to tell someone's story just because mine couldn't be told stuff.

Speaker 1 So there's like, the story tries to set up an understanding of why she's the way that she is with her previous abuse and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 And then it's like, maybe I don't have to be like this just because I grew up like this.

Speaker 1 Like, the story starts to give her an about face when it comes to her motivations and ethics, but then that's ripped away from her because it turns out, no, you killed the girl who you're trying to write the story of, which is brutal, which brutal slapdown is.

Speaker 1 Not intentional murder, but I mean, that's like the yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's just like I'm trying to tell the story for this girl. Oops,

Speaker 1 yeah,

Speaker 1 it is a big bundle of of oopsie daisies for sure it is a big bouquet of oopsie daisies for sure but the i think uh just just more of that because i think you could have a character that's like i've been

Speaker 1 i'm a victim of these circumstances that are horrible and i really enjoy that it's like this girl is this this person who is supposedly dead is a victim now of these circumstances as well and it's a thing of being like i have the strength now and the courage now to step up and uh

Speaker 1 you know right like help somebody that I wish somebody would have helped me with like being that like guardian angel for somebody else and it just gets like worse and worse you know it's uh there's a lot there but you know as it is now yeah it does it feels like I just got kicked in the face

Speaker 1 I seriously felt like I got winded at the end of it as soon as I heard as soon as the whole thing of like I just finally looked at him and it's I killed Michaela and it's just like it you should see the down like the uh the upvotes and the comment numbers I was like are you fucking kidding me that's it

Speaker 1 that's it that's where we are. Yeah.
What's funny is I'm looking at the original version that was posted to No Sleep.

Speaker 1 So the original version ends with that conversation in the car where the guy's like, will you at least tell me your name? And she gets out. And then it ends and says,

Speaker 1 I paused. I looked down at my hands.
I'd forgotten I was still wearing it. And then says, relax.
I didn't do what you think I did. That would have been a mistake.

Speaker 1 But when the old man dropped me off at the rest stop early the next morning, I saw that I'd already made a much bigger one.

Speaker 1 And then it links to a picture of a news article, a newspaper article that tells us the same thing.

Speaker 1 That says, missing girl's body found late last evening, authorities responded to a house fire in Lincoln Avenue. And then we get the same readout of what happened.

Speaker 1 So that's how the original one ended. There's interesting setups there, too, with like this man that is kind of like a weird older guy.
who seems shady.

Speaker 1 And, you know, we've done these, she's basically been prostituting herself out to other people. But then it's,

Speaker 1 you have a character, character, this male character, who is just helping her out of the kindness of her heart and does help her out, gives her money, and there's no like sexual interaction or whatever.

Speaker 1 It's a nice, it's, it's, it's a little seed that I think is a good plot motivator too for a character to be like, not everyone is horrible. Like, I can't let this thing define me, whatever.

Speaker 1 And there's good people out there, right? That's like a and James was a good person, James was a good person. And James, and James was

Speaker 1 cool, too. It's, it's one of those things where it's like you get to

Speaker 1 humanity can be shown that, like, lets you, because her being a, like, because she's like a selfish person, it's like, that makes total sense that you are, you've been on your own. You've had to

Speaker 1 do horrible shit to survive. So, yeah, you're going to be jaded.
You're going to be bitter. And you're going to be a character that's just like, I don't give a fuck.
I'm going to focus on myself.

Speaker 1 But you can have that moment where.

Speaker 1 Little pieces of humanity are coming through. I kind of like this, this, uh, this comment, by the way.
The top comment on this post is a girl, Pringle697, says, Oh, I love this one.

Speaker 1 I thought she was going to live with them for a while and drain their money. Nice twist, super sad and fucked up ending.

Speaker 1 Very well written, and then our boy, our boy Joe, comments, and this is what he says, and this is, I think this is kind of fucked. He says, Thank you.

Speaker 1 This one really kicked my butt, but I was super late. Uh, I was up super late almost every night trying to get it right, so it seriously means a lot that you all enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 That's what it's all about. You're right, though, it was pretty fucked up.
It was, it was a pretty fucked up end, huh? I feel bad, even though it was under my control, crying, laughing, emoji.

Speaker 1 I'm like, what a psychopath, dude. He's like, ha ha, yeah, it was fucked up, but that's just me.
I'm quirky.

Speaker 1 You like that? You like caring about these characters?

Speaker 1 You like that? And it's done. That's kind of how it feels.

Speaker 1 It's done. That's what you get.
You're just like, eh, there it is. Bedtime.

Speaker 1 So it's interesting, looking at the newspaper clipping ending, which I haven't read the entire version on No Sleep, but going off the newspaper clipping, it seems like in the original version, she ran away on her own, and James didn't go with her or got separated from James at some point.

Speaker 1 And there's no mention of Michaela in the bunker having a child, it just says she died in the fire, her body found. And then it says,

Speaker 1 parents Paul and Linda have been placed under arrest with their remaining child, James, now being questioned by the FBI. So in the original, it was more ambiguous, like who was a part of it,

Speaker 1 stuff like that. But I mean, I like James being the centerpiece.
I like James being the catalyst of

Speaker 1 basically basically telling our protagonist that

Speaker 1 his sister was murdered and that they need to get out of here.

Speaker 1 I really think that if we spent more time in the house, you could get more out of not only the awkward interaction, but I think there needs to be more development with James as well.

Speaker 1 Like, almost in a way of... You have a character who we think is dead and is still being, like, two children that are being abused in a household.

Speaker 1 I don't think James, you don't need to have like be two fucking separate instances of assault in in that way, but even just like the dad, like, I don't know, like he slaps the back of his head.

Speaker 1 He's like, come on, man, you know, or like, what, like, just kind of like a weird, just some other kind of, uh, I think

Speaker 1 like some other kind of abuse or like, you know, like kind of just a shitty household. And then I think that builds his character up too, to where when he's taking action and doing things, it's also

Speaker 1 our protagonist being able to help him as well. And like,

Speaker 1 somebody who is alive and is going through some shit

Speaker 1 can be,

Speaker 1 I don't know, yeah, just like a kind of like a beacon or like a guide for our character to also help out in that time too. But it's also the end of just like the child thing.

Speaker 1 That's just like a demented cherry on top of the story. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think. I mean, that was great.
I really enjoyed that. That was a fun story.

Speaker 1 And also, this is like primo material to get turned into a film because

Speaker 1 there is a lot of the time it bothers me when when something takes like a whole novel and then adapts it one for one and doesn't make any changes because sometimes it's like well for one we already had the book for that and two not everything translates perfectly from you know page to screen well a whole novel also a 400 page book translating into a hour and a half movie very hard you're gonna lose so much you're gonna lose so much and like it becomes a different format and there's certainly some things that do it right but they have to understand what needs to be changed right it's not an easy one for one but this is the other way around where you have this short interesting idea with a lot of really cool plot moments, and you can expand in places.

Speaker 1 You can add, you can change.

Speaker 1 I think this would be a great film. Sidney Sweeney's perfect to be a part of it from other projects she's been in, like Immaculate and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 A fucking Eric Ross, obviously, a good screenwriter. Walton Doggins would be a good Paul.
Yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah.
I think that'd be sick.

Speaker 1 This is great. So I'm excited to see this is becoming a film, and I definitely get why it is.
And I really enjoyed this story. That was fun.
Yeah, no, it was a great little read.

Speaker 1 Y'all, we appreciate you be sure to go give some love to uh joe maybe go congratulate him as well it's pretty fucking huge to have a story of yours be adapted into a full-blown movie so that's awesome joe we appreciate you man also uh joe is very active on reddit we'll have to check out some more of his works in the future as well but go give him some love guys uh until the meantime as always be sure to check us out on spotify apple podcast give us the nice ratings there it really does mean a whole hell of a lot uh thank you so much for joining us this week and we'll see you in the next one bye-bye we'll see you in the next one.

Speaker 1 And don't forget about early in the episode, the mention of Hunter bar diving in a red plethora skirt. Okay, bye.
Thanks. Bye.