I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast

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Welcome back to Creepcast.

We are here with an exciting, dare I say monumental story called I Dared My Best Friend to Ruin My Life.

He's succeeding.

Now, why does that sound familiar, Isaiah?

Isaiah, well, my dear friend Hunter, I think it sounds familiar because you and I attempted to read this story at one point.

As a matter of fact, it is a story that we attempted to read, and I alluded to that attempt in a previous episode.

And you

immediately lost your mind.

Okay, first off, I was going to say, I thought you were going to be cute and say like, oh, you're ruining my life, but we didn't have to go into...

to me crashing out.

There was a lot of factors to why I crashed out the first time.

It It was an accumulation of the work end-of-year stuff.

It was us trying to wrap everything up.

And it was just one of those days where you're exhausted, you know?

And I think that I just wasn't looking at it through the right lens.

So today I'm hoping that I'm going to, I'm, I'm looking at it in a more positive light.

That's all I got to say.

And I've rested.

I've, I've left the country.

I've come back a new man.

And I'm ready.

I'm ready to tackle this bad boy.

Eight parts.

Eight parts.

Eight parts.

So this story

gets recommended to us a lot.

Yes.

A lot of people talk about it.

It is written by someone on Reddit known as Zand Sand90.

Now, I don't think.

Don't like that.

I don't like that name either.

I don't think that it's the author's actual name unless the author

named the protagonist of the story after themself because the protagonist of the story is named Xander.

Don't like that name either.

So I think this is a throwaway account for the story.

However, that would be fun.

In my attempt to find the author's real name,

there is a website.

I don't know if this is the author or not, but there's a website called Zach.fish,

and it's a guy named Zach Fish

who has this whole

post where he says that I dared my best friend to ruin my life is a massive online interactive misinformation awareness project accompanying the release of a 10-episode web series based on a story from R slash no sleep.

So this is like 50 different social accounts and 100 places on the internet where apparently like I dared my best friend to ruin my life was like an ARG

of some kind.

According to this, but it says based on a story from R slash no sleep.

So is Zach Fish the guy who wrote the story?

Is he Zan San?

Or did he just make an ARG around the story?

I can't tell.

I don't know.

Well, at first when you said it, I thought that you were saying, I thought you were saying that

this R slash no sleep story inspired others to do ARGs.

Is that not right?

That's kind of what I can't understand what the wording of this is because it says.

I dared my best friend to ruin my life.

It says it's a big misinformation awareness project based on a story from R slash no sleep.

So that makes it sound like he's not.

But does that mean this guy has like a 10,000 participant, according to the website, a 10,000 participant alternate reality game and he based it off of a no sleep story?

Maybe.

Maybe I'm so confused.

Maybe his genius knows no bound.

Look, there's a website called teamzander.com, which I imagine is like the no sleep thing.

Yeah, I don't know.

But then the web page doesn't work anymore.

But when you try to load the web page, the URL changes to daredmybestfriend.com.

So, like, what?

It's very interactive, immersive thing.

There's a lot of different websites going on here now.

Yeah, what did we step into?

I don't know.

I mean, maybe, maybe when we read the story, there'll be more clarity into some of this.

Maybe, maybe, you know what it is?

It might be one of those things when you read into it and it starts, it's like meta.

Like, it starts referring to those websites and shit.

Also, hold on.

When I look it up, it says that it is a movie.

Like when I Google Dared My Best Friend, it pulls up, it says movie, and it has a cast listed.

But then, okay, hold on.

The movie database.

There's a movie for this.

Okay.

It looks like, yeah, it looks like in 2020, there was a movie

for Dared My Best Friend to ruin my life.

And it was directed by Michael Morgenstern.

If you were going to say Michael Moore for a second, I was going to laugh so hard.

Is that the

mind?

David King shit.

Okay, well, first off, there's no Xander.

Dare my best friend ruin my life.

Okay, it looks like Michael Morgan Stern has done other stuff besides this.

Dare my best friend.

One year ago, Xander.

Oh, no, look.

Yeah, look.

Letterbox.

I dare you to ruin my life.

One year ago, Xander Jones dared David King to ruin his life.

He had no idea how far David Jones is synopsis.

Yes.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

But does that movie exist or was that just a movie that started to go into production?

And is it?

No, it looks like

it exists because there's two reviews.

Oh.

There's two reviews on Letterboxd of people who said

they know about it.

Whoa.

Okay.

So this,

but, but

this also somehow is related to like an internet awareness campaign, A-R-G.

What is

okay?

All right.

I don't know.

All I know is just.

Yeah, let's just.

Okay.

Yeah.

All I know is this: is that you should check out Creedcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

And you should

listen to us on the audio platforms because we are trying to grow, grow, grow, grow back on the charts.

We've been gone for a little bit, so we've sunk down.

If you guys are listening to this, consider listening to us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and give us a nice five-star rating there.

I'd appreciate that.

You know what?

Let's just dive into this.

You know, I'm not going to.

I promise you this.

I will not crash out this time.

I will.

Okay.

I'm gonna have five.

I'm here to have I'm already confused, so I might crash out, but we'll see how that goes.

Um,

I will say that normally the reason I try to look this up is because I want to be able to push people towards the author and be like, go support them here, stuff like that.

But I cannot figure out who Zan Sand is.

So

maybe it'll be revealed over the course of the story.

Maybe check out the movie that apparently exists, I guess.

All right, yeah, we'll just start the story.

We'll start the story before I lose my mind.

But yes,

check out the story, check out the fill, whatever you want.

Hunter, my good friend, are you ready to get into it?

I'm ready to have fun.

All right, ready to have fun.

I dared my best friend to ruin my life.

He's succeeding.

My name is Xander, and my best friend's trying to ruin my life.

Started out very small, but has quickly grown out of control.

I'm currently sitting inside a church using their Wi-Fi to post this story and taking advantage of the air conditioning.

I'm posting the story in case,

well, in case he finds me and kills me soon.

It's only a matter of time now, and I want someone to know what happened before I die.

Is killing somebody ruining their life, or is that just murder?

I feel like that's cheating.

That's way too easy.

Yeah, I feel like ruining someone's life, you have to let them live, right?

So they are in the misery.

You got to make sure we don't have to.

You don't have to ruin their relationship.

You don't lose their job, stuff like that.

But they have to live through that misery.

Yeah.

yeah.

Right.

It has to be very Job.

Like, you can't kill him, but you can just hurt him a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Job.

Yeah.

You know, the Bible character.

Yeah.

Leviticus.

No.

You know what?

You know what's my favorite Bible book?

Is Steve.

Is there a book of Steve?

Oh, oh, that's what it is.

Steve Job.

He makes a version of the iPhone in the Bible.

Hello, I'm Steve Job.

Okay.

Steve Job, you're dying of cancer.

Well, I better eat pears.

So make sure you can still get into heaven.

I'm going to keep reading before you're allowed to continue.

Okay, two years ago,

My friend David and I were sitting on the couch at my house thoroughly bored.

It wasn't a temporary boredom either.

It was a resounding boredom with life.

We both worked full-time at the local movie theater making minimum wage and cleaning up after idiots who couldn't keep popcorn and soda in their mouths.

We graduated high school two years prior and had no plans to attend college.

Life looked bleak for us.

College didn't sound appealing, work was annoying, and the little free time we had was blown on video games and YouTube.

We both still lived with our parents too, which made dating somewhat embarrassing.

Looking back, I'm sure we were suffering from mild depression on top of everything else.

I like that line.

You know what?

Actually, thinking about back, I was actually pretty depressed.

If I remember, if I could look back, I actually, I think I was in super depression, actually.

Not even mild.

I was in super depression.

In hindsight, the whole daring him to ruin my life thing,

maybe a little overkill.

Yeah, that was me probably being depressed.

That was, dare I say, a bad idea.

A little bit.

bit.

Yeah, I wish I would have just taken medication, but instead he ruined my life, so that was fine.

But instead, I'm in a church about to die.

What is

a

depression medication?

What am I thinking of?

I almost said Aflac.

So that's the duck.

That's the insurance, right?

Why did I say Aflac?

Is there a medication that's almost like Aflac?

Ambien.

Ambient.

Ambient.

I don't think that's exactly like Aflac.

Well, it starts with an A.

I don't know why my mind was me like, aflak!

And I was like, of course, the thing that cures my depression is the talking duck.

Is the duck.

Yeah.

Is the duck.

Yeah.

I like that.

No, that's cool.

I think that's what you should call it.

Yeah.

Aflak, a depression medication.

These life circumstances blended together to create the perfect storm for what I now have to call my reality.

As we sat on the couch at my parents' house, channel surfing the TV, David asked me if I was bored with life.

I responded in the positive, and he sighed.

High school was so easy because we knew our purpose and our goals were set for us.

Outlined the English essay, finished the math homework, get decent grades, pass the driving exam, be home by curfew, find a girlfriend.

Now we're out of high school.

There's no structure.

Our lives have become meaningless and we are just floating through space with no aim or purpose.

Would you go back to high school then?

Ah yeah.

You should get sad.

In the moment, high school was annoying.

It's only after looking back that I see how much better it was than I realized.

What's the solution then?

Either go somewhere that has structure and can deliver that high school gave us, or create our own structure.

Also, he's definitely this is like i feel like he's a he's a sleeper uh marine like recruiter this does not sound like a exactly the guy's like what if he just joined the army this is that is that not where this is leading doesn't that sound like it yeah it doesn't matter yeah that is what sounds like it the next line addresses that but like

i don't know just

all right you know i'm gonna behave i think i think if if my friend started talking like this i'd be like why don't you shut the hell up dude it'd be like what are you talking

What the fuck are you talking about?

Yeah, I just say, What is it?

Life structured at high school.

It's like, What are you?

Who taught you?

Yeah, you have a full-time job.

He has a full-time job.

You work in a movie theater, you're playing video games, and you're like, I need structure.

I need structure.

I work 40 hours.

Also, just because

it's like you have the idea of like, I work 40 hours at a minimum wage job, which, you know, sure, is that a career?

It might not be a career now, but that's still a lot of things you have to do.

I mean, you have to be be there at a certain time.

You have to do a set amount of time.

They're arguing there's no structure when they have structure.

Yeah.

It's not like they don't have a.

I feel like this is.

He's trying to lead into gay sex, is what I think is happening.

I mean, it's kind of leading.

I just

need structure.

It definitely feels like this is one click away from him being like

of David being like, why is your pants off?

And he's going to be like, I don't know,

why is your pants off?

I just need something uh i need someone to put me

i need someone to keep me in check i need some i think i'm gonna go home no come here look at my structure someone to tell me how bad i am tell me how bad i am at structure

well i don't want to go to college in the military and i can't think of anywhere else that provides the same structure yes i have to make my own but i have no idea where to start

the thing about high school was that

okay i i need him to fuck off off the high school.

So

this idea of being just being an adult out of high school.

High school is so

thinking about high school is insane to me.

I think two weeks after high school, I don't think I ever thought about it again.

Okay.

The thing about high school is that it requires...

I understand why

some people from older generations have that idea because I feel like they got out of high school and were immediately like in

there there was this idea of like, okay, you don't have friends anymore.

I guess because they couldn't keep communications or social media or whatever.

It's like, all right, your friends are gone.

You have to work a job now.

I understand that a little bit.

In the modern age, to still look back at high school as a good thing blows my mind.

I loved high school.

I had a great time, but also it was

to say that it gave me

to even say I gave effort in high school is insane.

All right.

Anyways.

Yeah, go ahead.

The thing about high school was that it required a minimum effort.

If you didn't give that minimum effort, you would face the consequences.

Jesus Christ.

The consequences were bad enough that you and I would put effort into school.

When high school ended, that minimum effort level decreased.

Now our minimum effort is not enough to improve ourselves.

Whatever structure we build has to have those consequences built in and minimum effort that forces us to improve constantly.

David was and is a very intellectual person.

Yeah.

Very intellectual.

I don't know.

Just the idea, because I know where this story's going based on the title and like the opener.

Just being like,

high school was great at motivating us.

So what if I kill you?

What if I try to kill you?

If you're this lost dude, get addicted to fentanyl.

That is your one and all solution.

If you need structure, get a fentanyl addiction.

That'll get you.

You can find structure that way, buddy.

It's just so absurdly

inhuman.

Well, yeah.

Also, the amount of time he said minimum effort made me want to

jump off a bridge.

Yeah.

Well, see, that would maybe motivate you, Hunter, to do more stuff.

So also, very bumps.

I don't need the gay sex, if I'm being completely honest so far.

Okay, we could just read Smut if that's what you want.

I 100%, and I don't want to derail the story.

We got to keep moving, but I want to say that I would love to read a Smut book, like a, from Smut.

I actually, I did not mean to encourage Sutton.

I think that it would be very funny, and I think it would be the scariest thing we would have read so far on this channel.

It

will, but I can't imagine me saying

for two hours, just reading

pucking around.

No, is what we should read.

No, I watched your video where you talked about it, and I'm not

doing that.

I still

have a lot of people.

I have a reputation in my church.

I feel like me standing there.

I feel like I can't do both.

You can't read a book from Steve Job and be instead read Pucking Around?

I know.

I think so.

I like to think Steve Job would

read Pucking Around.

Okay, all right.

This is, all right, before this gets blasphemous, the thing, Dave, he's an intellectual person.

He thinks about everything.

If you can't already tell,

I was pretty dumb compared to him, but I stuck around because he always had interesting things to say.

This conversation definitely counted as interesting.

I won't bore you with the entire conversation that we had, but it lasted an hour where we discussed how to build structure into our lives.

I want to emphasize here that boredom is dangerous.

Well, it's not dangerous by itself, but it can quickly lead to dangerous things.

Boredom can lead to pain, accidental children, technology that disrupts a monopoly, and even death.

Jesus Christ.

Our boredom

Our boredom led to a dare.

I dare to ruin my life.

What does that mean?

It's a way to build structure into my life.

If I know that you're always trying to ruin my life and actually trying to make me fail, then I am driven to fight back and act on initiative.

But how could I ruin your life?

You could ruin anyone's life if you gave it enough thought, planning an action.

God, David said with a smirk, Jesus Christ.

I'm not gonna crash out.

I'm not gonna crash out.

I'm not gonna give you any ideas.

I just want you to try and ruin my life.

I remember sitting back and thinking about what he meant.

The first thoughts came to my mind were about tripping him occasionally or hiding his toothbrush every time I went to his house.

My young mind didn't fully understand how serious David was being.

His mind was running three tracks above mine, so I didn't know what I was getting into when I said,

Okay, I'll try to ruin your life, but I dare you to try and ruin my life as well.

He smiled with a newfound enthusiasm, and I smiled back.

This has to lead to gay sex.

I mean, does it not?

I mean,

am I high?

Am I high?

I feel like this doesn't.

Go ahead.

I'm having fun.

So this would be

the...

That would be the more normal response.

Like, just

like,

why don't you ruin my life?

Why don't you come over here and mess this all up?

What I'm saying is,

would you consider ruining someone's life if you had a prolapsed asshole?

Like some red cabbage?

Okay, okay, all right.

That would be ruining someone.

Oh, my God.

What did you say?

What?

What?

Red cabbage?

Jewie?

What is that?

Ah, man.

Awful,

little monkey brain popping out between your cheeks.

Come on, man.

Come on.

We're all adults here.

I'm just saying that I've seen many, many a prolapsed asshole, and I feel like that would ruin my life.

Have a little jellyfish pop out and kiss my Haynes underwear.

I don't know if that would consider that ruining my life, but that would be a good start.

Oh, gosh, that hurts.

What did you...

Okay, as soon as you said that, I threw the headphones off.

I haven't heard anything you've said since.

I don't want to hear whatever you've said since.

All right.

Just.

Oh, gosh, dude.

That's...

That would be a great way to start

someone's life.

You have to sit on a ring, like one of those little cushions.

Stop, stop, talk.

Stop talking, stop talking, stop talking, please.

I'm begging you.

Okay.

That.

Oh, you get, you literally like unlocked a repressed memory for me when you said that.

What?

What?

Not of that happening to me.

Of something I read one time.

Oh, my gosh.

Sure, buddy.

All right.

I thought it was just a good way to reiterate the ruin, start to ruin someone's life.

Can we go back to the story now?

Sure.

I had hoped it would be a great way to relive my boredom with life.

David stood up and punched me in the leg as hard as he could.

I shouted at him, mostly out of surprise.

He just laughed.

The dance starts now!

He said, grabbing his shoes.

We are no longer friends.

We are nemesises.

He opened my front door and

looked over his shoulder.

Good luck.

I hope you work as half as hard as I will.

Once he left, I just sat there rubbing my sore thigh.

Okay, I thought.

If he wants a war, he'll get a war.

That night I laid awake trying to think of ways to make his life harder for him.

My My ideas were also childish and useless compared to what he would later throw at me.

I'm too embarrassed to list my ideas from back then.

I wish I could say I remembered the day David turned against me for real, but it was so subtle that I didn't notice right away.

To my face, David acted completely normal.

While we were at work, I would sprinkle popcorn over a section he had just cleaned up and point it out to him.

He would just laugh and say, Is that supposed to ruin my life?

Then he would clean it up.

I expected him to do the same to me, but he didn't.

His lack of visible retaliation made me bored again, so I stopped.

Looking back, I suspect that behind my back he was sabotaging my image with our other co-workers and our boss.

Out of the blue, a boss called me into his office and told me that I was fired because I wasn't doing a good enough job.

David acted sorry I was leaving and we promised to hang out again soon.

I left thinking I could make this something good and get a real job.

That dream died and I ended up at a McDonald's instead.

After I'd been at McDonald's for a month or so, my parents confronted me.

They asked me if I had been stealing cash from their wallets.

I'd never stolen a cent from them.

I told them so.

They backed off, but only for a week until my mom's debit card went missing.

They confronted me again, this time very angry.

They accused me of withdrawing several hundred dollars using my mom's debit card.

I have no siblings, so I wouldn't have been anyone else in the house.

It turned into a screaming match and they demanded that I move out as quickly as possible.

With my small cash of savings, I found an apartment near the local community college that housed college students.

The rent was affordable enough for me, so I moved out within the month.

I moved in and became instant friends with two of my roommates, Clark and Ivan.

Our other roommate, Isaac, kept himself and stayed in his room playing video games 24-7.

Life got good again because I hung out with Clark and Ivan frequently.

David and I had stopped hanging out after I was fired from the movie theater.

I had forgotten about him, but I had forgotten about the dare.

Every once in a while, I would message him on Facebook or shoot him a text to ask if he wanted to hang out, but my messages were always ignored.

Eventually, I gave up.

Within six months, I had a great life going.

I was dating a girl named Katie.

I had been promoted to crew trainer at McDonald's, which paid better, and my bank account was slowly growing.

I only recognize this as David's doing when I look back, but an obscene amount of junk mail showed up with my name on it every single day.

Magazines, credit card offers, vacation ads, and even physical letters from real people who claimed to be excited to be my new pen pal.

I sorted through them every day trying to find some pattern.

Clark and Ivan thought it was hilarious.

When I came home late from work, they would sometimes toss the junk mail in the air like confetti as I walked through the door, cheering that the mail king was home.

One day, I remember feeling sick of getting all this junk mail and deciding to sit down and call every subscription a cancel.

I recruited Clark and Ivan to help me, and we sat down with snacks one afternoon and started to crank through phone calls.

In a few days, the tide of junk mail subsided and we celebrated our efforts.

That only lasted a week.

The next week, it started coming back in full force.

There's twice as much as before, and even some pornographic magazines in the mix.

Lucky.

Not only did my...

What?

I said lucky.

Sorry.

Okay.

Not only did my physical junk mail increase, but my email became unnavigable through all the new spam messages.

Google moved a lot of it to the spam filter, but there were still hundreds of emails that made it through.

My email had been subscribed to websites I've never heard of.

Clark and and Ivan were blown away by the new tide of junk mail.

The event was dubbed Return to the Junk and became a great icebreaker for Clark and Ivan to introduce me to other people at parties.

One day, I was browsing Facebook's People You May Know section when I came across someone's profile that had my picture, but a different name.

The account was open for anyone to view and had a lot of porn posts, status updates full of swearing, and praises to Hitler.

Here's my cock.

These fucking brownies are awesome.

Mind Fuhrer.

Hey, that's not me.

Wait a minute.

Hold on.

Now, what's all of this?

Oh, I don't like any of this.

Also, I want, now that we have a second to talk about this,

the dare seems really weird when you're not even hanging out with the guy anymore.

But yeah, now it's just like a stranger that you're

does that make, or does that does that is there like a sense of consistency with that?

If you're trying to ruin someone's life, would part of ruining someone's life is like cutting ties with all of his friends?

So, like, in return of him not wanting to hang out with him, that's probably a part of him ruining his life, right?

So,

okay,

it's kind of hard for me to get on board right now because

it seems so

absurd

for two people who were friends to all of a sudden be like, Yeah, I'm a very because it describes him in the beginning as being like a smart guy, an intellectual guy, stuff like that.

It is hard for me to imagine someone who's actually good at things to be like, I'll dedicate my whole life towards torturing you for no reason, just because you said so, right?

But I think what the story is going for is that this this guy isn't

the guy who's torturing him isn't really a well-rounded, like

smart dude as much as he is like obsessive.

I think he's fucking insane.

He's insane.

What other guy brings up the fact where he's like, God, I need more structure in my life?

Like, what kind of fucking person is that?

Yeah, yeah, like a person talking about.

You have a job.

Yeah.

You might say that like once and you're like, fuck, I feel like, like, a rational person would be like, I feel like I need more structure.

I'm not doing enough.

But that would be like kind of the extent of it versus some guy being like, no, I mean, like, for real, like high school.

Like, and then like resorting it back to high school.

What a fucking moral.

Yeah, it's like, what you, you miss high school?

What are you talking about?

You haven't seen it.

Which, to be fair, the main, our protagonist, Xander, he was already like, I'm pretty fucking stupid as it is.

So he, if anything, the guy probably just knows like what an onomatopoeia is.

And he's like, God damn, this dude's pretty smart.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So I think he's like,

you made friends with the fucking lunatic.

Yeah, our protagonist is kind of like a, isn't that well-rounded, isn't the brightest, you know, knife in the drawer, so to speak.

And he just so happens to be friends with this super obsessive guy.

I feel like...

I mean, I don't really want to like critique it in like, oh, what I would have done.

But I feel like if this wasn't his friend and was more so just a guy he kind of knew, like, say it's in a friend group and there's kind of a weird guy who comes around parties.

And then one night our main character drunkenly is like, oh, yeah, well, I dare you to ruin my life.

And like guy who's like a social recluse takes it super seriously.

I feel like maybe that would make it a bit more creepy or believable.

But where it's his friend, I'm like, why are you doing like, but should it's part one?

Or if I imagine him as like an obsessive guy, sure.

It's part one.

I mean, it might branch out to like finding out more about their dynamic that might reveal more later.

Yeah.

I may just be being too harsh right now.

I'll give it a chance.

Yeah.

I frowned when I clicked on their, I frowned when I clicked on their pictures.

Most of the pictures were the same ones from my Facebook account, but there were some pictures of me that weren't on my account or anywhere else online.

Keep in mind, I didn't remember my day or to David, so I was feeling pretty creeped out.

I hit the report button and let Facebook know that the account was a fake and went on my way.

I think three months or so later is when more stuff started to happen.

Katie and I are getting very serious and discuss moving in together.

Junk mail still rolls in and I've started to just throw it away.

Ivan has moved out to go to an actual university, so a new roommate Jackson has moved in.

Clark and I attempted to befriend Jackson, but he's similar to Isaac and locked himself in his room most of the time.

A new game became available for pre-order, so I submitted my email to reserve a copy.

When I tried to log into my email to make sure the reserve code was there, I couldn't log in.

I hit forgot password and it asked if I wanted to use my phone number to reset the password.

I pressed yes and waited for my phone to light up.

It never did.

I pressed the button three more times, but no text ever came.

I tried old passwords I used to use, but none of them worked.

I frowned, but eventually just walked away from the computer.

I'll try again a different day.

I sat down on the couch and pulled up Facebook on my phone.

A pop-up appeared.

You've been signed out, it said.

Then it jumped to the login screen.

I thought I'd hit the logout button on accident, so I just typed in my email and password.

It didn't work.

I tried again, but it still told me the password was incorrect.

My phone buzzed in my hand.

Katie was calling me.

I answered it and immediately became concerned.

She was sobbing.

Katie?

You coward.

You don't get to just Facebook me that shit.

No, you have to talk to me and tell me what you're telling me with your voice.

Katie, what are you talking about?

Don't play, stupid asshole.

Say Say it!

Say what?

You Facebook me and say we are through, but when I call you, you deny everything?

What the hell are you trying to pull, Xander?

Katie, my Facebook got hacked.

I was literally just trying to log in when you called.

Are you at home?

I'm coming over.

We're not done.

We're far from done, sweetheart.

It took me some time to convince Katie that it hadn't been me, but she relented when I showed her that I couldn't log in.

I googled how to get my Facebook account back and contacted their help center.

Thankful they were able to get me back into my account.

Lots of links to porn sites have been posted all over my page by whoever jacked my account, so I spent time deleting all of those.

I also spent time answering family members who asked about strange content I had been posting.

Awkward.

I also want to say, how fucking much of a reach is that?

Somebody reaches out to you, hey, we broke up.

You like immediately, you're like, oh, what?

You like immediately believe it?

It seems a bit crazy.

Like, if I right now, like, DM'd my wife, I mean, I know they're not married in the story, but just like the absurdity of like DMing on Twitter, like, we're through, and then being like,

you've been together in a joke.

Yeah.

You've been together so long that you're considering moving in together.

If it was like, hey, I had one date, and the person, you like, messaged, of course, the person would be like, what the fuck?

But yeah.

I just saw those kind of things.

If you're about to move in together, I would just assume it was a joke.

You fucking coward.

You coward.

I will say this.

this i will say this credit to the story it didn't do the misunderstanding thing where katie's like yeah right we're done and hangs up and then katie exits the story right yeah well i want to say there's a point to it it's building an interesting case of the junk mail and even just like minor things that are slowly building up over time little

that that that would drive you fucking crazy after a while would i mean like that it really it would it would be so exhausting

Which it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I do think like it would actually it would fuck you up after a while

Yeah, yeah, and also like just little stuff like logging into your Facebook and posting porn like your mom's gonna see that you know your your extended family's gonna see well it's like ruining it's ruining your character with people yeah yeah

it is like

like as much as I was not a fan intro wise,

I am willing to hear the story out with the direction it's going.

So.

Katie also found out through her feeds that my Twitter and Instagram had been hacked.

The accounts were posting hundreds of crude messages and pictures.

Those two sites took a little more effort, but eventually I regained control over those two.

Fixing my email took a couple days, but I got access again.

Not wanting to repeat the experience, I made my passwords into really long strings of numbers, letters, and symbols.

Each account had a different password.

For anyone who has done this, you know how impossible it would be to memorize your passwords.

I wrote them down on a sheet of paper and put it in my dresser drawer.

I didn't intend to get hacked again.

I'm telling you where I put the paper so you'll know how freaked out I was when Facebook signed me out again the next week.

I checked my other accounts, locked out again.

I shot Katie a text to warn her and then called the Facebook Help Center again.

They gave me access to Facebook and gave me the same warning about making a long password.

When I told them the type of precautions I had taken last time, they suggested suggested checking my computer for viruses in case there were key loggers collecting all the information I typed.

I called the computer repair center and asked what I needed to do to get my computer scanned.

They asked me to bring it down and they check it out.

I had a desktop, so bringing it down required a lot of unplugging.

When I got down behind the computer to unplug everything, I found a tiny USB stick that I'd never seen before.

I frowned and tried to locate its contents on the computer.

The computer said Noah USB was attached.

The computer repair guy confirmed that the USB drive was a key logger.

He asked if my computer had ever been anywhere that anyone could walk up and use it.

I told him no and he said he had no idea how it could have gotten there.

He didn't charge me anything, just warned me to keep an eye on the computer.

I changed all my passwords again.

I went through the motions to get my accounts back.

A few days later, I received three, yes, three credit card bills in the mail.

I still had the habit of skimming through the junk mail in case there ever was anything super important.

I'm glad I did because I might never have found out about the credit cards that were registered in my name.

I called the credit card companies to inform them that they were mistaken.

I never signed up for a credit card.

My parents had warned me about them so often that I'd been deterred from ever getting one.

Before you comment and tell me I need to build my credit, yes, I know that now.

Quick Google search tells me what to do next.

I called Equifax, which is a company that calculates your credit score and tells creditors that it's okay for you to open a credit card account.

I placed a 90-day fraud alert on my credit.

They said they would call me if anyone tried to open a credit account in my name.

The dude at Equifax was kind enough to tell me what I needed to do next.

He asked me to go online and view my credit report.

If I saw any accounts I didn't recognize, I was to write them down and fill out a complaint to the FTC explaining the situation.

Once I had that submitted, I was to file a copy with the police and create a police report.

Then I had to take those two reports and call each of the credit companies that had issued credit to my identity to start the dispute process.

I instantly felt very discouraged at that moment of effort this would require.

It felt utterly insane to be required to follow all these steps just because I was the victim of identity theft.

Clark was horrified at what happened and looked at his credit score.

He was relieved when he came back clean.

I made Katie checkers too, just in case.

Also clean.

I'll take a minute to tell everyone reading that you are entitled by law to one free credit report per year from each of the three credit score companies.

That means you can and should check your credit three times a year.

Clark and I sent reminders on our phones to check the scores again in four months.

I asked Katie to do the same.

When I first found out about the accounts, I had called my parents to ask if they had opened any accounts in my name.

If they had, I'd at least know who the culprit was.

They told me they hadn't opened any accounts and I warned them about my problems.

They promised to check their credit score.

Two weeks after I'd called them, my dad called.

They found 15 fraudulent accounts between the two of them.

What the hell?

I told them the steps he needed to take and he was grateful for my help and warning.

I know this is boring to read, but I want you to realize how insanely painful it was to fix all this shit.

Seriously, watch your credit reports and nip identity theft in the bud before it happens to you.

I'd requested detailed bills from the the credit card companies that had issued the fraudulent accounts and they mailed them to me.

The bills were full of online purchases.

The accounts had been opened almost a year ago and in that time the thief had spent $62,000 between all the fraudulent accounts.

I was pretty upset that in a full year I had only just found any credit card bills in the mail.

I must have been tossing them with the mountains of junk mail.

Now I know that the masses of junk mail were deliberate, calculated, so the bills would blend in and hopefully get thrown away.

The first few transactions were from stores like Target, Walmart, etc.

But the further down I went, the less I recognized.

One word stuck out to me, Bitcoin.

I learned a little bit about it from my Facebook feed as I had some friends from high school who touted it as the next real currency.

According to the credit card statements, several thousand dollars had been exchanged into Bitcoin.

I started really researching Bitcoin and trying to figure out what it was and why an identity thief would want it.

To make the explanation short, short, Bitcoin allowed my thief to take completely anonymous online

Bitcoin allowed my thief to make completely anonymous purchases online.

It was as if he'd gone to an ATM and drained all the credit cards into cash.

I didn't foresee the credit card companies ever getting their money back.

David now had a hell of a lot of cash he could use to ruin my life.

I didn't know it was him at the time, obviously, but now I do.

Guys, identity theft is a serious

Guys, identity theft is a serious crime and is very damaging to everyone in the economy.

And while the theft had been bad, my life was about to get a whole lot worse.

That's all I have time to write for now.

I have to go and get some serious shit taken care of.

Write again as soon as I can.

My name is Xander, and my best friend's trying to ruin my life.

I want to take a quick break from the episode to thank today's sponsor, Zock Dog.

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And we are back to the episode.

End of part one.

There is eight

parts to this story.

Uh-huh.

This is where I'm at.

So here's the thing.

The first part, I think,

is

it's not horrible.

I think it introduces some interesting ideas of like,

yeah, these minor inconveniences would be annoying, and then it kind of keeps rallying up to where now you're actually financially getting effective.

And I think that is scary, like the real world repercussions of these things and how your normal day-to-day life would get completely shattered, right?

But I think it's like

I need, I think it needs to do something in the next couple parts to elevate this idea, or else I feel like it's going to be a lot of repetition and shit.

Um,

and

it's it's absurd.

I mean, like, this is just such an absurd concept.

Look, I can, it is, and that's honestly the biggest hang-up I have in my mind.

I am now in my head pretending that David is just a random person.

Yeah.

Because it's way more effective and works better for me if he just accidentally said it to someone, like a stranger.

Right.

I think it's kind of weird too.

Or I guess just something that, something that keeps coming to my mind is that if you had a friend who was really weird, he's like, yeah, like, yeah, we had this thing where, you know, we joked around and said, yeah, it ruined my life, whatever.

At what point would you kind of have that come back?

Like, that's what I'm wondering.

Is he keeps saying, like, well, now that I do know that now?

I'm wondering how he's gonna, like,

reiterate that back in because it's hard for me to separate that.

I think that the time skip didn't help, but it's as a reader, it's hard to not just be like, Well, dude, it's your buddy, your buddies, if he's fucking with you, or whatever, you know.

And then, also, like, like

I don't know.

I'm curious to see where this goes, but really hoping part two jazzes it up here a bit.

All right, part two.

Hello again, everyone.

I've had more time to write than yesterday.

Sorry about the length.

I'm trying to catch up to the present as quickly as possible, but also include enough detail so you can see how thorough David was being.

I'll resume where I left off.

While I was still trying to resolve the credit disputes with those companies, my car's windows started getting smashed.

The first time, it was parked on the street in front of my apartment.

Woke up one morning to find the driver's window smashed and my car raided.

My car was just a crappy Honda Civic and I didn't ever keep anything expensive in there, but they snatched my stereo, which was shitty anyway, and I'll spare change in the car.

Desperate much.

Oh, dude, if you're going to break into a car and you don't take someone's change, that's fucked up.

I remember in school

when I was in living Kansas City during college, my car got broken into all the time.

I mean, to the point where I just left the car unlocked just to be like dude just use it that don't fuck with i went my windows anymore and you want to you want to know what the most fucked up thing was what they would take your change and stuff every time they would take everything wires broken iphone cords they would take trash like cups take all that the only thing they ever left in my fucking car dude i'm not even joking was they would leaf my three creed cds every time they never took never took my creed cds they would take They would take death metal.

They would take country, all this other stuff.

They would never take my Creed CDs.

And I was fucking pissed.

I was like, my own prison, human clay, all this stuff.

I was like,

you guys are fucked.

And

you're going to steal these DVDs.

You're making a statement.

You're making a statement being like, fucking dumbass.

I'm not taking it.

I'm not mad that the car thief doesn't want to even steal the creed.

I was,

yeah.

So I was like, of course he's going to take the change.

At least take the creed CDs, dude.

Like, leave me with some respect Like because after a while I was like of course you would take the creed CDs man, why wouldn't you good music good music legendary

That's hilarious.

I like that guy whoever did that.

I support him.

I don't fuck that guy.

I do I'm his biggest fan now

I got my window repaired that day and decided to set aside some cash to buy a real nice stereo now that I had an excuse.

The next morning, the same window was smashed again.

Again, I had parked it in front of my apartment.

I got that repaired reluctantly and started to park in the underground parking for the apartment complex.

See, no one likes the underground parking because the lines are painted too close, so it's not uncommon for your car to get scratched up down there.

I decided it was better than a smashed window, so I fought for a spot that evening.

I know you're going to ask why I didn't call the police.

Mistakes, that's why.

We all make them.

You have the wisdom that comes with knowing the whole story.

I didn't.

Glass was all over around my car when I went down the next morning.

It wasn't just the driver's window that was damaged.

The front windshield and back windshield were deeply cracked.

I spent some time looking at every car in the garage.

No one else had so much as a scratch on their windows.

What the hell?

If some random asshole was out breaking windows, he was targeting me.

I noticed the note after I'd gotten into the car.

It was a sticky note, folded up and slipped into the ignition keyhole.

I opened it.

You have to increase your minimum required effort, it said.

The phrasing was intentional.

David wanted me to know it was him.

When I saw that phrase, I remembered our conversation.

That fucker.

I went into a total rage and drove out of the parking lot, trying my best to drive with the cracked windshield.

I still remembered how to get to David's house, and I ran a red light or two to get there.

Parking in front of his house, I slammed the door shut and marched to the front door.

Held the doorbell for much longer than necessary.

Try to breathe and remain calm.

David won't help me if I show up shouting and yelling.

His mom answered after a few minutes.

David's parents held off on having a child until they were much older.

As a result, David's mom was already 75, even though David was only 23.

Hello?

She said, opening the door and saw who it was.

Oh, it's Edgar.

How nice of you to come over.

I haven't seen you in weeks.

Yeah, it's been, well, it's been almost a year.

Mrs.

K, is David home?

Huh, no, sorry, dear.

He's at work right now.

Oh, okay.

I'll go and catch him at the theater.

I said, backpedaling towards my car.

No, no, he doesn't work there anymore.

He got fired?

No, he quit.

Not long after you did.

He became a security guard somewhere.

He never mentioned where.

I'll call him then.

He dropped his phone a few weeks ago and got a new one.

Let me give you the new number.

She walked back inside for a minute and I waited on the porch.

She came back with her old flip phone and opened it.

Do you mind?

My arthritis makes it hard to use this phone.

Perfect voice, by the way.

Thank you.

I went to her contacts, found David's number, entered it into mine, and handed the phone back.

Thanks, Mrs.

K.

I said.

Even if David was bait an asshole, I'd always liked his mom.

Anytime!

She said with a smile, closed the door.

I called David immediately, but only got a voicemail.

Hi, David.

It's Xander.

I just spoke with your mom, and she didn't know where you were, so she gave me your number.

Please call me, man.

I think you know why.

I said to his voicemail, I figured that being polite was the best way to get him to fix everything.

In the middle of the workday, my phone buzzed.

Hoping it was David, stepped outside and answered.

It was Clark.

Xander, have you been home today since you left?

No, why?

We've been robbed.

What?

Someone broke it and stole a ton of stuff.

Your computer's missing.

Our TV is gone and all kinds of shit.

Son of a bitch.

Did Did you call the police?

Yeah, they're on their way.

Don't touch anything, okay?

I suggested, remembering all the episodes of CSI that I binged on.

We might be able to get fingerprints.

I think I know who it is.

Who?

An ex-friend.

I'll tell you when I get home.

I'm leaving soon.

I told the manager that my apartment had been broken into, and he let me go home.

I drove home with my still broken windshields, praying I didn't get pulled over for it.

When I got to the apartment, the police were already there.

I walked to the landing where a cop was interviewing Clark and another was looking through the apartment.

The cop turned to face me.

Are you one of the roommates?

This is Xander.

My partner is looking through the apartment now.

A tech is going to come out and dust for Prince.

We're going to need you to make an inventory of everything that was stolen and bring it to the station once a tech is done.

I have a suspect, I said.

The cop raised his eyebrows.

His name is David King.

He used to be a really good friend of mine, but recently I've suspected that he's been doing all kinds of shit to me.

I think he stole my identity and my parents' identity, damaged my vehicle, and now broken into my house.

Clark shot me a questioning look.

Why do you think he's doing all this?

I found this in my car's ignition this morning with the windows smashed.

I said, handing him the folded sticky note out of my pocket.

He read it.

Why do you think he wrote this?

We had a conversation a year ago when we were talking about minimum requirements

for success and how school made our lives easier because it had consequences.

And if we didn't make a minimum effort,

I explained.

It looked like the idea went right over the cop's head.

We'll test this for Prince 2.

I mean, imagine being a cop and you respond to a break-in and he's like,

well, I was talking to this guy about minimum effort.

And now he's left me.

It's like, oh, okay.

Alrighty.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much for the note.

You all have a lovely day.

They don't pay me enough for this.

Exactly.

Get him the hell out of here.

Was all he said, pulling an evidence bag from his belt and putting the note inside.

Come down to the station with your inventory and be ready to make a formal statement about your friend.

I agreed to do so.

At that moment, the partner came outside with nothing to report.

Tech arrived and started dusting, waited patiently, eager to see what was missing.

You really should lock your bedroom doors.

Two of your roommates' doors are locked, so I doubt anything was stolen from them.

But you should make sure they check the rooms for anything that's missing when they get home.

We agreed to ask them.

Tech finished up and told us we know in a few days what prints he was able to find.

The house seemed bare.

Only the largest couch out of the three was left in the living room.

The TV, which had been a 65-inch plasma, was gone.

Food was missing from the pantry, and even the contents of the fridge were dumped on the floor.

Silverware was scattered around the kitchen floor and counters.

Where the hell is Isaac or Jackson?

They're always home.

We should call them.

I don't have their numbers.

Well, neither do I.

I said, walking to my bedroom.

It was stripped bare of anything worthwhile.

My computer, mouse, keyboard, computer chair, boxes of random knickknacks, bicycle were all missing.

My dresser drawers were laying everywhere.

My closet was clearly raided, and my bed covers had been tossed around the room.

I heard bouts of loud cursing from Clark as he inspected his room.

You took my goddamn Xbox, that son of a bitch!

Feeling shocked, defeated, and numb, I sat on the bed.

I called Katie to tell her what happened.

No answer.

Shot her a text.

My house got robbed.

And stared at the wall for a while, thinking.

David King had been in my house.

He'd stolen my identity, my public image, now my things.

It was time to step up my game.

No.

Not my game.

My life.

Time to stop floating through life and start beating the minimum required effort.

during the rest of the day i hate that for dane i hate that that's the phrase for phrasing

minimum required effort thank you um

during the rest of the day we learn it makes the story feel so reddit every time

heh yeah it says with a smirk minimum required effort stepped up Clearly, you don't own an air fryer.

During the rest of that day, we learned a lot about plumbing.

David had loosened every pipe he could find in the house.

See, that's a funny prank.

David had loosened every pump he could find in the house.

Clark made the discovery when our toilet unleashed a tsunami when he flushed.

We spent hours cleaning that up.

To fix all the pipes, he had to go out and buy tools because neither of us had any at the house.

When my card was declined, Clark stepped in and paid.

My decline card worried me.

Clark and I went to the library and I tried to log into my online banking site.

Locked out.

Shit, I didn't even bother retrying my password.

We raced to the bank before they closed and I breathlessly approached the teller.

I needed to freeze my account.

What's your account number?

The teller apparently named Chantel asked.

I told her my account number from memory.

She opened it on her computer.

Driver's license, please.

I handed her my card.

She typed typed my driver's license number into her computer to verify my identity and handed it back to me.

Looks like your account is at zero.

You can only freeze the account if there's money.

I've been robbed!

I shouted, feeling extremely angry now.

You moved all your money to your debit card via our online app, and then withdrew it all in cash for an ATM this afternoon.

It wasn't me!

I've been hacked!

If you'd like to report flaudulent transactions, I could fill that out for you right here.

Yes, fine, do it!

I said abruptly.

Clark watched me with worry a chair by the door.

When did you start to notice the fraudulent activity?

Today, but it could have s started any time of the last year.

I replied.

She raised her eyebrows in a way she thought I couldn't see and started typing.

After a few minutes, she looked up at me.

Okay.

I filled out the report and submitted it.

You should hear back from our fraud department soon.

What about the ATM cameras?

I don't have access to those.

You'll have to file a police report.

Okay, I'll do that.

Then Clark and I went back to the car and drove to the apartment.

Would have gone to the police department right away, but the apartment was still flooding in places.

Spent a few hours finding leaky pipes and tightening them.

Took hours because we looked everything up before we did it to be sure we were doing it right clark inspecting the pipes under the kitchen sink while i sat at the table and started my inventory for the police it was already 9 p.m so we were going to take it in the morning our local station wasn't open 24 hours a day we knocked on jackson and isaac's doors but got no answer either they weren't home or they were ignoring us

i'm really sorry about all the fraud going on

clark said as he tightened a pipe

you said you think you know who it is who's Who's David King?

David used to be a friend about a year ago.

I said.

I told him about the dares and the conversation that led up to it.

You dared each other to ruin each other's lives?

And then

he took it more than seriously?

Apparently.

So you're not going to hold up your end of the deal?

Mayan?

He dared you first, man.

And you haven't even tried.

Well, no, I guess not.

Then let's think of something to really destroy his life.

Clark pulled himself out from under the sink and washed the grease off his hands.

Prison would do it.

If I can nail him for identity theft, that'll solve the problem.

True.

We need to show him that you aren't going to just lay down and take it.

I have an idea.

It's not going to ruin his life, but it'll make him realize you're going to fight back.

Clark took me and his car to Home Depot, bought two cans of black spray paint.

Clark paid in cash.

Okay, where does this dumbass live?

Clark asked when we were back in the car.

Clark, his mom is great.

I don't think I can spray her house.

His mom?

Some guy that still lives with his mom is terrorizing you?

Okay, okay, Jesus.

I said, gave him the address, and he took off.

We drove past the house to see if any lights were on.

It was dark.

Even the porch lights were off.

Parked three blocks away from the house and started walking.

What's the plan?

Spray thief on the front of the house.

That ought to get the neighbors talking.

Honestly,

that'd be way worse.

Yeah, than thief.

This is so juvenile compared to what David's doing.

Yeah, David is like is proactively fucking with their entire life, and they're just like, let's put thief.

Is this the fucking show?

Let me ask you this.

Do you think Clark's reaction...

Okay, a guy's basically college age, living in a dorm together, and

you find out that the guy who stole your stuff is someone you know, right?

Is it unreasonable to be like, let's get him back?

You know?

I mean, it feels unrealistic.

Like, I mean, if you know who it is, you know where he lives.

I feel like, well, one, I feel like you would just want to threaten violence to him.

Like, you would just go up and be like, I'm going to fucking kill you unless you stop that would be the most reasonable thing I think

versus just being like well why don't we like fight fire with fire there's just what if we spray

that feels kind of like gimmicky a bit but I would just break his legs I'd take a metal bat and I'd break his legs and be like fucking quit it if not violence it'd be like well I'm going to the police tomorrow you know like that feels yeah which you can make an argument to

you could make an argument to be like they'll they'll just be like well how do you know it's him like there's probably ways of the law that's why I'm like I would just take a baseball bat and I just beat his legs.

I'd break his legs and be like, There you go.

I'd ruined your life.

I'm in full agreement with you.

If this guy kept like shattering my like car windows and like trying to ruin my relationship with my girlfriend and stuff like that, it's like, all right, we're

what time do you leave your house?

Are you alone?

He's done everything to where you can't prove it's him.

Because obviously, the reasonable, rational thing would be like, call the cops, you go to prison.

Sure.

But if it's, if it's that, and it's, and it's to this point where you, it's like this guy is proactively fucking with you this much that you really have no other option

Yeah, I agree We were next to the neighbor's house.

We ducked behind a fence and surveyed the neighborhood.

All was quiet.

No movement, no noise, no people.

We stayed low and silently dashed to the front door of the house.

I sprayed the F, Clark sprayed the T, and we worked towards each other.

Barely took three seconds.

We stepped back for a half second and examined our handiwork.

The letters were three feet tall, easily visible from the road.

Perfect.

We turned and started to run towards the car.

Then the door to the house opened.

Glanced over my shoulder.

David freaking freaking king.

It's funnier with freaking.

David freaking king.

Oh, shit.

I pissed.

Clark heard me and we sprinted full on towards the car.

David tore down the sidewalk after us.

Clark looked behind as well.

Oh god.

Oh god.

Oh god!

Clark chained up with each step.

He actually looked worried.

So we approached the car, Clark had a realization.

Just keep going.

He tried to whisper even though he was out of breath.

Pun lock the door.

It'll take too long to unlock.

And he'll know my license plate.

Clark didn't have automatic locks.

He had to use the key manually.

I agreed with his logic and we ran past the car as if it were just another vehicle.

I looked back and David was gaining on us.

Something I could just imagine this like dreamy dude, just like dead sprinting.

Like

that fucking

cop in Turnato.

Yes, yeah.

He's got like a pocket protector.

He's dressed like the angry video game nerd, but he's like unblinking, sprinting at like perfect speed.

He was gaining on it.

Why don't you just, there's two of you turn around and be like, I'm going to break your legs.

Why are they afraid of it?

Fuck you, David.

Yeah.

is David like eight foot tall and a bodybuilder?

Like, what?

David's like young Sheldon, and they're just too afraid to even touch him.

They're like, if we touch him, we'll get it.

It'd be really funny if it was like, uh, if like he had mind powers, like, they're like, Clark's like, What are you gonna do?

and Clark just explodes.

What the fuck are you gonna do, asshole?

Oh,

oh, yeah, look him in the eyes.

Like, he turns destroyed into the stratosphere.

David, no!

Keep up, Xander.

And he like disappears in there.

Yeah.

They're treating him like he's like a god-level threat, that he's like a impossible being.

And it's just a nerd.

Yeah.

Anyway,

I looked back.

David was gaining on us.

It was too dark to see his expression.

Hell, I didn't even know if he recognized me.

Split up!

I cried.

I cried, turning right into someone's front yard.

Clark kept going straight.

When I reached the white plastic fence that led along the back of their property, I glanced backwards.

David had followed me and ignored Clark.

I scrambled up the slippery fence and dropped on the other side.

I landed in someone else's backyard.

Started running towards the front yard.

A motion detecting light on the wall went off, blinding me.

I looked behind me again to watch David scale the fence in half a second.

God damn.

When the hell had he learned how to do that it's like a little spider-man like seriously it's like a little fucking lizard it's like young it's like sheldon cooper just like an athlete but he's like sheldon cooper changing for american ninja warrior or whatever

i rounded the corner of the house and smashed right into a patio table and chairs the chairs clattered down and the table tipped over while my body folded around it my heart was pounding as i untangled myself That's when David grabbed the back of my neck and pushed me down, my face against the edge of the table.

I'm telling you, it's gay sex.

That is the end of part two.

Part two is ending in gay sex 100%.

Dude, that would make this a way scarier story.

Oh, my God, 100%.

Imagine.

He just says, Red cabbage, red cabbage.

Oh, okay.

All right.

That's the end of part two.

Part two.

End of part two.

And

yeah.

I mean, you know what?

I'll give it this.

I'm slowly being kind of bought in.

I hope it keeps.

Bought in, not for a

legitimate reason.

No, no, no.

It's getting getting absurd and silly and i like i i i'm i'm having fun like i'm having more fun the part one i'm not gonna lie it was kind of like it was like stepping in like deep mud but now it feels like it feels like we're having fun if you imagine him as like a super powerful dimensional being yes

i imagine he wasn't even running he was like flying floating

he looked like goku flying

Yeah, I think that feels way better.

I'm imagining like angry video game nerd outfit, but he has like Martian Manhunter powers.

Yeah, he has the Nintendo orange gun.

Yeah.

All right, we are in part three now of I Dared My Friend to Ruin My Life.

So far, well, actually, before we get into the third part, how are you feeling about part one and two?

I'm enjoying them, but I don't know if it's intentional.

It's picking up to be something enjoyable.

I think that this is kind of how I feel.

It needs to either pick the lane of

really diving me deep into something where you as the reader are like, that would be fucking horrible.

Or it needs to go the other direction of like, this is so

cheesy and funny and fun.

It needs to pick a lane and really start revving the engine.

But I will say part two at least, I was trickling in, having a bit more fun.

I'm hoping now, you know, he like gives him AIDS.

I don't, so so I don't, I don't want that to happen,

to clarify for the audience.

You don't want Sanders AIDS?

No, I don't want that to happen.

I really don't want that to happen.

But I would love it if, like, what's it, David?

David's his name right?

Yeah.

If David becomes closer and closer to, like, an ethereal being, you know,

if, like, he starts having nightmares about David, if David's like floating above his bed at night, if David like phases out of his wall and stuff like that, I would love it.

So you think if it took, if David King became like a paranormal route,

that would set you like you would like that.

I would have so much fun.

I kind of want thrilling.

I really want bioterrorism.

Like you can't, like, once you go down that route, you cannot go back, you know?

You mean like, wait, you mean like a like a bomb?

Well, it could be that.

Or I'm just saying he has a syringe.

He sticks Xander with it.

Oh, and now he has AIDS.

Or

I assumed you were saying that he would contract it in another way.

That's where I thought you were hoping the story goes.

No, no, I'm saying like just something fucked up like that where he's like, it like really pushed me to a point where,

I mean, psychologically, can you even imagine that this little joke goes on or this like dare, right?

Goes into, and like one day you're like, is that a fucking like bug bite?

You like slaps back your neck?

You're like, what the fuck?

You don't think anything of it.

And And then, like, the weeks go by.

You go to the, go to the doctor, and they're like, yeah,

you have this virus or this disease or something.

Yeah.

Like, just something where push the envelope a bit more.

I mean, don't get me wrong.

It has been fun getting, like, he's loosened up the pipes.

It's like flooding it.

Psychological torment, not only to Xander, but to his family and friends.

It's building up, but

get me somewhere faster.

And I think part three, I think it's going to get us there.

I'm excited.

I think

you know the Half-Life games, right?

I've heard of that.

I've never played it.

Do you know who G-Man is?

No.

Okay, so there's this recurring thing in the game that anywhere you're at, there is this figure in a suit who you can just see standing off in the distance, like watching you.

And the idea, or like the fan community idea is that everything that happens in the games is orchestrated by him, the G-Man.

In my mind, that's how I want David to be.

I want him to be like the puppet master, like just always in the shadows witnessing.

Orchestrating some kind of thing.

That will make me, yeah, yeah, that's what will make me have fun with it, I think.

Yeah, it'd be like fucked up if like he orchestrated like, I don't know, like a new relationship or something.

And it turns out like the girl that he's dating was just like.

He like catfishes him.

Exactly.

Just crazy shit like that.

I would love something like that to happen.

Yes.

I just want him to be more evil.

But let's get into it.

I'm excited.

Part three.

All right.

Part three.

Hello again, everyone.

So many positive replies.

Thank you.

I haven't smiled in months, and you're definitely all making my days easier.

I love how almost every notification is giving me a countdown every couple hours.

Remind me, eight hours.

Thank you for making me laugh.

Seriously, I needed it.

I had a close call, and David almost found me today.

Caught a bus out of town, which is where I wrote this.

Now, we continue.

Hello, Xander.

Out for a walk?

Oh, yeah, because we also need to just preface again.

This is whenever he just got, he caught him after he was chasing him down.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Out for a walk.

Like, he's a Spider-Man.

Out for a walk.

Fuck you.

I spat.

My cheek jammed against the table edge.

Why so hostile?

Why so serious?

You know why, jackass.

Not so loud.

Not so loud.

We're having a nice, quiet conversation.

Okay.

Already.

Already, I meant.

I would have paid serious money to have a YSO serious right there.

Would have killed.

Would have killed.

Okay, like, honestly, just imagining this as like a super villain makes it better, right?

Yes.

And also,

I don't know about you.

I've pictured David as like...

maybe a 95-pound 5'4

guy who wears like 2xl 2xl polos and big baggy jeans and shit yeah i struggled to push my head off the table that he was so much stronger than me

stop struggling and listen i want to clarify the rules of the game since you finally caught on that we're playing this this this isn't a game you ruined my credit stole my money hacked my accounts and stole my shit i'm gonna kill you

But I'm not going to kill you.

That's the rule.

I will not kill you, Xender.

That would put an end to your ruined life.

And that's not the goal.

Now, you haven't put any effort into ruining my life.

Why not?

Because I'm not a sick psychopath!

Clearly not.

But this is boring for me.

I'm doing all the work making you fight for life while you're doing nothing to improve me.

Not that I haven't leaned- not that I haven't learned anything, but it would be more fun if you'd fight back.

I'll I'll even let Clark help you.

But I think you need motivation.

Okay, first off, this is getting very anime.

That is what I want.

Because it lost me in the serious route.

Like, the idea is that you're not going to be able to

pick a road.

That's what I'm saying.

Pick a road.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And I think it's picking a road.

But it needs to stay in this road.

It needs to stay absurd.

It can't veer back and forth.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree.

Yeah.

Do you think I need motivation to hurt you?

As if?

Yes, you do need it.

Because despite everything that's happened to you, your only attempt to fight back was pathetic.

I need you to put your game.

I need to put up your game and fight harder.

So that's where some motivation kicks in.

He reached his left hand into his pants pocket and pulled out a smartphone.

He tapped on it a few times before holding it up to his ear.

It's me,

he said when the other line picked up.

Put her on.

Oh, my gosh.

He has a mob that's kidnapped his girlfriend.

He has hired the Italian mob to kidnap Xander's girlfriend.

This is awesome.

Also, I just want to know, this is going into the exact Harvey Dent and Rachel Joker arc in the dark night.

Yes.

She's in a warehouse.

She's in a warehouse, and she's going to blow up very soon.

And he's like, Clark can help you too.

So Clark's in one building about to blow up, and Katie's in the other.

Exactly.

He's like, take

Alexander,

Rachel!

It's time to decide.

It's like in my head,

24-5.

Yeah,

you remember that scene where in the first Spider-Man movie when the green goblin's holding Mary Jay and the cart full of kids?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, two Spider-Man little children.

If you imagine, if you imagine David in the green goblin costume, He's in the full green goblin gobbling.

You have to be motivated.

Oh, gosh.

Then he held the phone to my ear.

Someone was crying.

Say hello.

Hello?

Katie.

He kidnapped Katie.

You motherfucker!

Easy on the language, Sander.

David smiled, talking as if he asked me to eat my vegetables.

Oh, God.

This is...

Dude, no, you're not in it like I am.

You need to come over here.

Get on this side of the fence.

Get on the other side.

I need the build up here.

I need to...

You need to get on my side of the fence.

Katie, where are you?

I said desperately into the phone.

David took the phone away and hung up, sticking it back in his pocket.

Do you understand the rules now, Xander?

Are you motivated?

I'm gonna kill you, you son of a bitch!

You'll burn in hell!

Now, now.

This isn't a theological discussion.

You and Clark, do your best to rule my life.

Do whatever you want.

But if you kill me,

I kill Katie.

Can't kill him if you're.

Can't kill him if you're dead.

No,

but my friend will.

It's amazing the kind of people you can meet online.

He's just as excited to play as I am.

Do you have any questions before the game really starts?

Okay, so I'm imagining that he legitimately made friends with seven middle-aged, obese Italian mobsters who are like, sure, David, we'll help you do whatever we can.

Yep.

They're wearing pinstripe suits.

Exactly.

If you dice, we will kill these little girls for reals.

That's what they say to him.

And we're going to do it for what?

$40?

Yeah, we'll do it.

We'll do it for what?

$42,000, David.

Well, that's why he probably took out the money.

Well, now that we have the cryptos, we'll do this for you, Davids.

Now that you have Bitcoin, the story being written in 2012, we're going to see a great increase in four years.

Yeah, we're actually very smart.

We're risk takers, but we do invest into Bitcoin.

We might be part of the Italian mob, but we are very knowledgeable about the blockchain.

Yeah, we don't tell people our crypto wallets, and we all have premium crocking accounts.

Yep.

What the hell happened to you?

We were best friends!

Things change.

I'd be dreaming of this game for years now.

You were my only real friend I could do this with.

One day I decided to just go for it.

You've ruined your life by trying to ruin mine.

Once you're convicted of identity theft and kidnapping, your life is over.

It's kind of funny where it's like, it is real, but it's funny having someone just be like, identity theft and you ruined my credit.

It's just

like a woman is kidnapped being held at gunshots.

My credit!

My credit card.

That's part of the game.

Can't ruin me if you can't convict me.

I've been preparing for years.

His eyes were dark and menacing.

Don't you think that's unfair to me?

How am I supposed to put in a good effort if you've been preparing for years?

I'll consider giving you some advice.

In the meantime, do your best and tell Clark to play along because I'll have some motivation for him, too.

The sound of scrambling on the back fence alerted us to someone's presence.

I shouted for help.

David slapped me, but lightly.

I didn't think it was like a little slap.

You bad boy.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's like a play.

It's like,

it's a very sensual slap in my mind.

Like, eh.

I tried to see who it was for my limited movement.

Clark's face appeared over the fence.

That's my cue to leave.

It's been good catching up with you, Xander.

Okay.

The author has to know, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, you're 100% right.

We are in Green Goblin territory for sure.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, writing stuff like, that's my cue to leave when like the woman tells us.

Yeah.

it's very this is very plainly for fun yeah I mean this makes me think it's definitely uh

like anime inspired kind of stuff like hmm well I guess that's my cue to leave and he like pushes up his glasses and he like teleports away in a cloud of smoke only fools are heroes only few little fools are heroes Xander pick a side Spider-Man invest into Bitcoin Spider-Man

Blockchain.

Yeah, it's the blockchain, Spider-Man.

Ethereum's more practical, practical, but Bitcoin's more profitable.

Like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Get out of here.

Oh, man.

I'm, I'm, you know what?

I'm sorry.

I was wrong to this story to take it seriously in the beginning.

This is fun.

I'm having a good time.

The code NFTs, Andrew.

And once we get Haley Welch, our plan will be complete.

I just drew you and Haley Welch making sweet love and sold it on the NFT market.

What?

How could you?

Some people consider this fine art.

I don't care.

All right.

Clark shot across the yard, yelling for David to piss off.

David just stood there, looking at me and waiting.

That's when Clark caught up and punched him square in the face.

David flew to the ground, releasing my head.

I stood up and rubbed my sore face.

David started to get up, but Clark kicked him in the side.

Stay down!

A light went out in the house behind us.

We both turned to look.

I had the thought to hold David here until the police arrived.

When he turned back around, David was halfway down the street.

Clark started to take off, but I grabbed his arm.

Stop, stop!

Let him go.

I have something to tell you.

Wait, hold on.

If Clark is running down the street, why would you stop him?

Because he only, or sorry, if David's running down the street,

because David only said that Katie would die if he dies.

You would still get him arrested.

You can still beat him up, right?

Yeah, you could also, well, to be fair, I don't think they can prove anything yet.

And then also, I think that if they beat the shit out of him, I think that he could probably just turn around and be like, oh, like they assaulted me or something.

I guess.

All he's done so far is like love tap him on the back of the head or whatever.

In my mind, it's like they turn around for a half second and they look up and he's teleported down the street.

Yeah, he's not running.

He's standing there.

I expected him to definitely do some kind of Naruto jutsu and like puff into like a like a cloud of smoke and be gone.

Yes.

Yeah, that's why that's what happened in my head.

Yeah.

We made a quiet decision to avoid the cops tonight.

We wanted to file a report with them on our terms, not having to explain what we were doing trespassing in the middle of the night.

We jogged back to his car and went home.

We sat on the living room couch as I told Clark about David's conversation.

Clark was staring dumbfounded at me.

I thought you said he used to be your friend.

He did.

And he never acted like this?

No,

not to me.

This is insane,

Clark said, standing from the couch.

He's kidnapped Katie, so you'll just try to ruin his life and follow along with some stupid dare?

Is he crazy?

He's going to be caught.

Let's hope so.

We should start planning.

I'm not taking any chances while he has Katie.

Okay, man.

I want nothing to do with this at all.

But I also want to help you.

If it was anyone else, I'd nope the fuck out.

Then let's get started.

He's become he's become the Alfred to his Batman.

Yes, legitimately.

I was going to say Alfred or Robin.

He's just like, well, Robin.

I didn't know that I could be a vigilante, but since you're a Batman, I guess I'm going to be

a wine cake.

some people just want to watch the world burn.

Some people need what was the line they kept saying: motivation, the minimum required effort.

Just need minimal effort to be motivated.

Some people need minimum required effort, man.

Massage of a tangerine for minimal effort.

He's doing Xander's doing all of this in full dark night cosplay.

He's 78-year-old Michael Caine sitting on his back.

Shall I coffee you with trying to ruin my wife?

I have Katie, and I plan on blowing her up if you don't try to ruin me wife.

My God, Xander, you look so much more different.

Some people just want to watch the world.

Oh, we have the Dark Knight.

The Michael Caine bit has got to end.

Well, no, in my head, Clark is Michael Caine.

In my head, David is now Michael Caine.

No, David's the Joker.

That's the whole thing.

He's like, he's ethereal.

He's like an agent of chaos.

Okay.

I don't know how much detail I want to put here because it'll likely get slow and boring for you.

We stayed up all night.

Oh, I promise you, it will not be boring to us.

We stayed up all night long mapping out events, people, weaknesses, strengths, everything we could think of.

We filled half a notebook with all our notes.

These were the weaknesses we could come up with we could potentially use against David.

So number one, boredom with life.

So we can make the game too boring to continue.

Number two, his mom.

If she knew what was going on, she might be able to get him to stop.

I know some of you commented that we should kidnap Mrs.

K and use her.

But we were still very green and had no desire to do that kind of shit David was using.

Number three, work.

Just keep in mind in the middle of all of this talking about getting his mom involved and like making him bored, a woman has a gun to her head.

Yeah, there is

in my mind, she is in a warehouse with four tied-up

pinstripe suit Italian mobsters waiting to be blown up, and he's like, Yeah, we should get him fired,

yeah.

Like, literally, point three, work, get him fired, and make sure no one would hire him again.

Like, yeah, okay, life ruined

that'll show him just through the phone.

You hear, bam!

Online accounts do the same thing to him that he done to me.

Number five, police.

If we can come up with...

Okay, first off, online accounts do the same thing he's saying, same things to him that he's done to me.

Wow.

How imaginative.

So what if we just did everything he did to us, David?

What if we posted porn on his Facebook account?

No!

I can't stress enough, there's a woman with a gun

all right David do we go ahead and blow you up then

hold on there's Brazilian fart porn on my Facebook team

I have to delete it first

he's good the Xander guy's good all right Xander

touche

five police if we could come up with hard evidence to get him convicted the problem would be solved six katie since he had kidnapped Katie this is said in the same tone as everything else.

Since he kidnapped Katie, the police would definitely get involved.

I could easily report my suspicions about David and they'd search him for the tiniest evidence.

So they're still not really looking to

like physically do anything to him.

He is very passive about his live-in girlfriend having literally being kidnapped by the police.

If someone had my wife in a warehouse that was going to blow her up up, and there was Italian mobsters, right?

Yeah.

The way that I would ruin this person's life is I would cut off all their toes, their fingers.

I'd blind them.

I'd make them deaf and I'd make them mute.

Like, like, how else?

I mean, that would ruin.

I mean, like, what else can you do?

Cut out their tongue.

Oh, you, uh, you, you have to technically be alive.

Well, good luck being quadriplegic forever.

Yeah, exactly.

And it's just like, well, there you go.

Because also, if you do that, you completely incapacitate him to do anything else.

And then he keeps going.

And then he's like, he's paralyzed on the ground, like, well played.

Yeah.

Yeah.

His tongue is cut out.

He has no eyes and he's kit deaf.

He's like, well paid.

Also, I feel like, couldn't you, you do that to him, right?

You physically incapacitate him because he's going to kill somebody.

I mean, he's threatening murder.

He's a psychopath.

If you do that, can you not just go to the Italian monsters then and be like, okay, I mean, he's, I mean, he's a vegetable.

And they'd be like, okay, I guess you, all right.

I guess that's an Udo reverse card.

All right, let it go, right?

I mean, like, it just, it seems odd that you don't immediately just be like, we're going to break his legs.

We're going to break his head.

It's, it's insane that you're not blackbagging this guy when he gets off of his ship immediately.

And, like, yeah, like, how are you talking about hacking

Facebook account?

What are we doing?

But then the other thing, too, is unless

Because what did he say earlier about the cops like getting arrested?

He's like, oh, I don't want you to get arrested because of this or that or whatever.

Yeah.

Or did did he say that?

Well, I'm just, I'm trying to think of like, oh, well, he can't.

We, if we do that, we're going to be arrested.

And I wonder if that like falls into like a negative area.

No, no, no.

He didn't say get arrested.

He was like, you have to prove it.

Like, you have to get me arrested first.

Okay.

I don't know why.

I'm with you.

Like, me, like, if this was either of us,

I feel like this would be an eight-hour ordeal.

We would be like, we would.

But, but, we're not having fun with it because the way to have fun with it is to imagine that he's Batman with Alfred.

No, no, no.

And I think you can do that.

But at the same time, I'm thinking like you and Clark, or let's just say Isaiah and Hunter, go.

And then the whole plan is like, okay, well, let's just fucking, we're going to break his fucking legs.

I'm going to shoot him in the leg

with a shotgun.

But then the story

to rebuttal that, that's when the story is like, oh, they tried to go there and do that.

And they, like, he expected them to resort to violence.

And I.e., he, you know what I mean?

Like, it's just odd where they're like, yeah.

And then we'll, we'll mess up with his job.

You're like, what the fuck are you doing, dude?

You know, moron, you fucking like a little baby?

Because this is how

his cereal is not going to be store brand.

It's going to be store brand and not, you know, awesome good stuff.

It's, it's like the bad kind of cereal.

Yeah.

Because, Hunter, this is sportsmanship.

You must play the game.

That's true.

Enjoy the game.

Right.

Enjoy the game.

Well, we have to be motivated.

Yes, of course.

We have to be motivated.

We have to minimum required effort.

So then

that's all the weaknesses I could hit him with.

Online accounts, work, and Xander's girlfriend, who's currently held hostage.

Right.

So

then we looked at his strengths and things to look out for.

So number one, prepared.

He obviously had a timeline he was following and knew what he was doing.

Two, his time.

The junk melon credit fraud incidents had all began long before I felt the effects.

This This meant that there could be other traps David had set up that would go off like a time bomb sometime in the future.

Three, his physical body.

It was clear from tonight that he had been working out a ton and practicing, possibly training for his job as a security guard.

Nope, nope, nope.

In my mind, David is like a JoJo's bizarre adventure character.

Yes.

Like, just a head on top of a pile of muscle.

I also like to think that he walks the same kind of way too.

Like, whenever he's in front of each other, like that.

He has his hand in his pocket like that.

Yeah, gonna go ruin my best friend's life.

Four, his money.

He had a lot of money now from what he stole from me and used fraud to receive.

Five, his friends.

If he'd made a friend who was willing to get involved in a kidnapping, that there were two or possibly more psychopaths to worry about now.

Six, his knowledge.

He knew how to use fraud without being caught yet and had computers, or at least hire someone to do it for him.

We had no idea what other dangerous knowledge he might have, so we made a list of things he could know that we should learn how to counter.

I won't list it here because it was pretty long.

Number seven, right, is willingness to break the law.

It was clear that the law was not part of the rules of the game for him.

He was either unafraid to be caught or confident that he would never be.

So,

why don't you just counter all of this by being like, my strength, I bought a gun.

I now have that gun and I'm going to use it.

Well, yeah, the thing is, like,

you can still fuck with people or like physically deter someone and not kill them.

Like, you could get a gun and shoot him

in his kneecap.

Or, yeah, like his hands or something crazy.

I like your idea of pulling out his teeth and like cutting his toes off.

I think you were really onto something there.

I was proud of you.

Also, I'm drawing David right now while you read the next parts because

these lists are driving me fucking crazy.

Good.

Okay, so after we looked at David, we looked at ourselves.

First, our weaknesses.

So, first weakness is knowledge.

We didn't have, this is literally a Batman game plan.

Knowledge.

We didn't have nearly the amount of knowledge David had.

Not just knowledge about

how to do things like fix a pipe, but also knowledge about David, who his friends were, where he worked, who he talked to, etc.

We'd have to start learning like crazy to try and catch up.

Two, his money.

I had no money left.

Clark was limited because he just spent a ton on the plasma TV that was just stolen.

Three, a home and car.

This is so funny that you wouldn't get other people involved.

Three, home and car.

David knew where we lived.

We planned to sell our lease ASAP.

He also knew our cars, but there was nothing we could do about that until we moved and had money to buy a junker car we could use when necessary.

No matter where we moved, if he could find our car, he could follow us home.

Four is Katie.

If David decided to change the rules and use Katie's motivation, we might have to rethink everything.

Five is fear.

Clark and I knew that deep down David terrified us more than he angered us.

I would have rather walked away than exact revenge.

We were also afraid and unwilling to do a lot of things David had already done.

So finally, we have our strengths.

These strengths are for one, the law.

The law was on our side so long as we kept things legal.

Two, was Clark's credit.

So far, David hadn't targeted Clark like he targeted me, so we could take precautionary measure to protect him.

Three is jobs.

We had jobs and could therefore earn more money unless David found a way to get us fired from them.

We needed to come up with a way to protect our jobs from David.

And four, for the FTC police force and government, that is the same thing that the first point was.

Government bodies with all their best resources were working for us on identity theft.

Why do you still care about the identity?

Yet, I feel like the story doesn't realize it included that he's going to kill someone.

I think that is like...

That it jumped the shark a bit there.

We thought it was likely that they'd be able to link David to my identity theft.

Looking at all the strengths and weaknesses of both parties side by side, it looked like an even matchup on paper.

No, it doesn't.

That doesn't even look like the way at all.

The only strengths you listed is that his credit card wasn't stolen, but you're still poor.

And then two of the four things you listed is the police who aren't helping you yet.

Yeah,

we have the law on our side.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Point three is literally jobs.

We have jobs.

That does not help you with the guy who is going to kill a woman.

What are you talking about?

Just thinking about trying to fight David made us feel like we were up against an impossible enemy.

This is this whole thing is worded like in Dragon Ball Z.

Like, we have to fight Sell.

He's so strong, or like, Frieza's more powerful than us.

Like, yeah.

We sat down to eat breakfast and continued talking over what we would do.

Both of us called in sick to work so we could start preparing.

All right.

I posted our leases up for sale on Craigslist.

I said, putting my phone down.

Clark was sniffing the air with a confused expression.

He leaned over and smelled his cereal.

Does this smell bad to you?

Smells like cereal to me.

Huh.

Smells bad to me.

He dumped the cereal in the sink.

Man, I would love it if it's like it was nerve gas.

Damn you, David.

I love this.

This is so fun.

This is where he's awesome.

Clark pulled out his phone and called Equifax.

Why are we still talking about the identity theft thing?

The identity Equifax thing has been harked on way too much.

So I actually, do you remember how when the story started, I found that it was connected to an ARG?

Yeah.

And the ARG was to raise awareness for identity theft online.

So he used the free trial of Equifax.

I have the sneaking suspicion that this entire story is like trying to teach the motive about you need to be safe online, which if they did that with these Superman level threats, that is so, that makes this so much better.

If like the person writing this is like, I'm going to teach kids about the dangers of having your credit information stolen, which is why I think they keep coming back to details about credit information.

Which, to be fair, it is horrifying, but it's fucking ridiculous.

It is insane to include details of that.

It tie it into, and I cannot stress this enough, a woman with a gun to her head.

All right, but before we help Katie, let's go check our credit real quick.

Literally, like, I think these next several accounts are about credit card theft, and I think it's inserted in here as a PSA to try to get the kids savvy on like identity theft, which makes it which makes this story 10 times better to me.

If it's like in earnest, as a PSA, you know,

it has to be.

It'd be like if we, if we read a whole story, like Barry's in the window with like the giant forest, if at the end, Smokey Bear stepped out and was like, only you can stop wildfires.

So did you.

This is doing that.

Did you really help stop the wildfire?

It's like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Okay, like, listen to this.

Clark pulled out his phone and called Equifax, letting them know that he wanted to freeze on his credit for 90 days.

When those 90 days were up, he would call again and again until this matter was resolved to protect his credit.

His credit card with a $3,000 limit was still accessible to us, but no new credit could be applied for.

He then went on every account he had online and changed every password to random gibberish.

He signed up for an online password manager and put his passwords in there.

The password manager worked by only storing an encrypted file on their server.

He would download his encrypted file from the password manager website, read or write the file, re-encrypt it, and then send it back to the server.

The server only held the encrypted file, no passwords.

Even if this company got hacked, the hackers would only have a bunch of useless encrypted files.

They could crack the files with time, sure, but it is the best we could do.

Does that not sound like it's a random insertion to like

educate you?

This feels like a paid advantage.

It feels like a paid ad for like

identity theft, but it's about a guy who just decided to like kidnap his friend's girlfriend.

You know what?

All-time creepcast story.

If that is what is going on here, this is incredible.

This is one of the best things I've ever read.

The only account.

He didn't put into the password manager was his bank account information.

He wrote down half the username on one small scrap of paper and the other half on another.

He did the same with the password.

He intended to hide the level of detail.

He intended to hide them in safe places around town.

If David got a hold of Clark's bank information, we were dead in the water.

While he did that, I finished both of our inventories to hand over to the police as soon as they opened for the day.

Once the station opened, we were going to head over, hand in our inventories, file a police report for the burglary, and recommend David as a police suspect.

Also planned to point them to my identity theft police report and state that I suspected David to be guilty of that as well.

Once we had the police report, we could go to our landlord and request for the locks to be changed, using the police report as evidence of the break-in.

The tech had told us that the door had been opened regularly and not forced.

That meant David had somehow made a copy of our key.

As it got close to 9 a.m., we got into Clark's car and drove around town.

He got out at four locations and hid his scraps of paper somewhere.

He knew it had to be somewhere people didn't touch for months at a time and wouldn't be damaged or moved by sprinkler storms, etc.

I don't know where he hid them, but he assured me they were safe.

After they were hidden, drove to the police station to follow our report.

Wait,

he wrote his bank account information on pieces of paper and spread them around town?

Yeah, like whore cruxes.

Why?

Why not just keep them?

Also,

also, why wouldn't he just tell him where they're where they're at?

I know the idea is like, oh, he broke into our house once.

he can do it again keep them in your pocket or like put them under the floorboard like they're i'm operating under the assumption but they're not operating under the assumption that david's like a god and like he can phase through walls and stuff okay uh

now it's just an easter egg hunt for him um

We waited patiently for an officer to see us.

Once we were called over, we took a seat and told him about the break-in and that a police report had been started.

We were now turning in an inventory of our stolen things.

We have a suspect for the burglary.

Okay, who?

His name is David King.

He used to be a friend of mine, but not anymore.

What happened?

He asked, writing the name down.

Recently, I had my identity stolen.

I suspect he was also behind that.

So if we stole my identity, it's likely he broke in too.

He hates me.

Okay, but...

What actually happened that made you not be friends anymore?

This is great.

I hesitated.

I didn't know how to explain the situation.

If anyone could think of a better way to explain the situation to a cop, let me know.

I only said...

We had a major fight and he threatened to ruin my life.

When was this fight?

About a year ago.

And you think he's just now stealing your identity and breaking into your home?

The cop said dubiously.

Were you friends with him?

No, I'm his roommate.

He replied pointing to me.

Okay, boys.

Thank you for the tip and your inventories.

We'll investigate this just like any other crime and give it our best effort.

Gotta get copies of your driver's license and phone numbers so I can contact you if I have any questions.

Handed him our license and wrote down our phone numbers in the file.

I'll be right back, he said, taking the license to make copies.

We looked at each other for a minute, taking a deep breath.

He doesn't believe us.

We'll find evidence.

Five minutes passed, then ten.

Then the officer came back, two others at his side.

Clark, Ulysses?

Yeah?

You're under arrest for vandalism and trespassing on private property.

The officers flanked him and pulled him to his feet.

I stared at the cop.

I stared at the cops in bewilderment.

Clark's eyes were wide.

When I went to cop, sorry, when I went to cop your license, I checked it against our records.

Last night, someone called and reporting so that you would, how you be, that you had been to their home and sprayed thief on their house and then attacked him when he came out to stop you.

Just the idea of a cop.

Like, you go to a police station, you're like, this guy stole my identity.

He is, they haven't mentioned the kidnapped girlfriend, which is insane.

He stole my identity.

He has stolen all of my money.

He broke into our house.

And then it's like, the cop's like, weird.

It looks like last night that same guy that they're saying did all this said these two were at his house.

We better arrest them.

Why would you not lead out?

Why would you not also?

Why would you also not lead with, hey,

he's kidnapped my girlfriend?

A person.

He's kidnapped a woman.

He told me he kidnapped a woman and he holds him at gunpoint.

And then the cop's still like, were you at his house last night?

uh yeah okay arrested okay trespassing's not a joke young man look you know what if you trespassed at my house i would kill your girlfriend too all right you ever think of that's what he says

my mouth dropped open son of a bitch

david king The one you just recommend, the one you just recommend as a suspect,

was the one who called it in.

Seems to me like you're trying to discredit him before he reported to you.

Is he beat you to it?

Read him his rights.

Wait, wait!

Hold on!

I was there too!

It wasn't just him!

Clark shook his head at me ever so slightly.

No, I wasn't going to let him take the fall for this.

Why would Clark even do that?

You know?

There's two witnesses.

Why is he like, no,

I need this.

I want to be a martyr.

Let me be a martyr.

Mr.

King explicitly stated that there was only one vandal and that he watched Mr.

Ulysses sneak out to the house and spray spray it by himself.

I knew you're trying to protect your friend, but don't throw your life away, kid.

One of the officers started reading Clark his Miranda rides while they cuffed him and walked him toward the door leading to inmate processing.

Call my mom for bail.

I'll be out soon.

Don't let him win.

Jesus Christ.

Oh,

that's so funny to like, it looks like you were coming here to discredit him.

And to do that, you ruined your credit for two years and broke into your own house that you filed a report about last week or two days ago, whatever.

All to discredit him who you came to his house last night.

Makes a lot of sense to me.

Yeah.

Doesn't that seem fishy?

Doesn't that seem strange to you that you that your life was ruined for two years leading up to you vandalizing his house?

Sounds suspicious to me.

You guys make me sick.

I guarantee, I hope it goes in the direction that David has paid off the police.

Well, I feel

the police department's in his wallet.

I fully believed that he was gone for so long because it was like, oh, no, he paid off the cops.

I thought it was going to be that immediately.

Okay, another thing I just thought about, there are so

many mentions between the laws on our side.

We have the police department, the FTC, we have the police and stuff like that in combination with the credit report thing.

The more I read this, the more it feels like a PSA for like kids, the police officer is your friend.

Stick by their side.

They know what they're doing to blah, blah, blah.

You know, like it feels, the more I think about the credit card scam PSA, the more it makes sense, which honestly, it makes this maybe the greatest thing I've ever read.

I mean,

I'm in hell.

This is awesome.

Okay.

I can't, I can't.

can't.

I'm ready to go into part four.

I'm ready to trudge through this.

That whole interaction with the police where it's like he gets arrested right away is the same level of in Jeff the Killer when it's like, oh, you stabbed a kid.

Looks like it's one year in Juvie.

Well, what's annoying about this so far is that it's like, if you, if you tell an officer, like, hey, so he actually, he's kidnapped my girlfriend.

He has admitted to it, whatever.

It's like,

just don't know why you don't lead with that.

What would happen is they're like, okay, can you?

Because I mean, like, just look at any case ever where there's been interrogations.

It's like, okay, can you stay here?

And then they go pick up David and they're like, we want to bring him in for some questions.

And then, like, they would have both of them in the station and get it sorted out.

They wouldn't be like, oh, you trespassed.

Well, that negates years of torment.

Oh, God.

Yeah, sorry.

Sorry, he got to us first.

And also, were the cops like, nope, nope, the person clearly stated it was one individual.

Even if you're confessing on the record to being there, we're not going to believe that.

Oh, God.

Okay.

Part four.

Are you ready?

Yeah.

Hi, everyone.

I've been exploring today.

New city, new layouts to learn.

I'm getting good at memorizing cities.

Watch.

Thank you.

What?

What are you talking about, man?

I couldn't be happier right now.

I've enjoyed this so much.

Thank you all.

Just the choice of language sometimes.

Thank you all for your support and suggestions.

Once again, these are all past events, and I'm taking your ideas into consideration for how to fight back here in the present.

A few of you have offered to help in other ways, and I appreciate the offers, but this is my fight.

I've ruined so many other lives by involving other people.

No, David is mine to ruin, even if I die trying.

Or even if Katie dies trying.

Also, I've looked back over it and realized I forgot something, but now I've forgotten what it was.

So forgive me if I make a correction in the next part.

Another thing.

I try to talk to as many people as I can in the comments unless my reply will have to contain spoilers.

But live events have forced me to limit that interaction because of time and the sheer number of you forgive me now i'll continue yeah was it the so from what i looked at previously this was like a whole arg right like there were like david had an account right and he had an account and they were talking to each other or something i think yeah yeah that's great oh that's so good I want someone to make a whole if there's any youtubers watch this who need a video essay idea if like you could find the whole ARG

and like make it, that would be stellar.

If it's good, I'll shout you out.

That's my, that's my deal.

I'll shout out one.

I won't shout out everyone.

If it's good, I'll shout you out.

If it's good, like if you're, if it's not phoned in, if it's not like, yeah, I think there were some, uh, some people involved anyway, like, comment, subscribe.

You know what I mean?

Like, you got to try.

If you tried, it's good.

I'll shout one out.

If you can figure out the whole web of what this story is, because I'm so invested.

The web of the web of lies that were

that's happening before our eyes right now.

i called clark's mom right away i had their home phone number because last christmas clark invited me to his house for christmas dinner since my parents and i were still fighting pretty harshly he'd already gone home while i had to work so he gave me the phone number in case i got lost and he didn't answer his cell she was devastated and asked me a million questions it was very very uncomfortable She agreed to drive down that day and post bail for him.

She lived a few hours away, so she said she'd be here around 5 p.m.

The county we were in didn't allow online payments via credit card, cash only, so he so she had to physically drive down.

In the middle of the phone call, I missed a call from a number that wasn't in my contacts.

I called back and they answered immediately.

Hi, I wish to call from this number.

Hi, this is Xander.

Yeah, who's this?

Sander, I'm Katie's mom.

Your parents gave me your number.

Shit.

Well, yeah, dude, how have you not brought up the fact that she fucking kidnapped him?

Come on.

It's like the story is treating the kidnapping at the same you would like a speeding ticket or like a break-in.

It's like you gotta tell somebody this stuff, Xander.

Yeah,

this is at the same level as like having your credit card stolen.

My word.

You fucking moron.

Good God.

He's like, ah, god dang it.

Okay.

I can't talk now.

I'm in a rush.

And I.

She cut me off.

Have you heard from Katie?

She didn't come home last night.

Your mom, give me your number.

Please tell me she's with you.

She's not.

I'm not sure where she is.

I have to go.

I'll call you back.

He's actually a monster.

I just want to say that.

So, what this is, I mean, like, I feel like the writer has kind of written himself into a corner or their self into a corner with

like jumping the gun so quickly on jump like a kidnapping and murder threat that it's just like um

yeah,

she's not with me.

I have to go.

You can't counter that.

Like, that's way too big of a jump to make at the store.

But it's funny to imagine that

Xander is also committed to the game now.

That he's like, well, if Katie's alive, our game's over.

Unless I have that minimum required effort motivation, then you gotta have the final pack how I should.

Yeah, yeah.

You gotta have it.

Fair play.

Yeah, fair play.

I hung up the phone.

I didn't want to talk to her about Katie because I was about to file her missing person report.

I walked over to the reception desk.

I was just talking to an officer, and then he arrested my friend and walked off.

I need to talk to the officer on my other case about identity fraud.

What case number?

I'm

nothing to say.

I was just talking to an officer and he arrested my friend.

Anyway, I need to talk to the other officer.

I'll deal with that in a second.

Excuse me, ma'am.

Excuse me.

Yeah.

Oh.

A while later, I was sitting in one of their interrogation rooms after asking for a private meeting.

Detective Hernandez sat at the opposite end of a metal table.

My two case files were on the table in front of him.

He was glancing through them, trying to familiarize himself with the break-in report.

A tape recorder sat between us.

He pressed a button on the recorder, and the tape started rolling.

He stated his name, my name, my case numbers, the date, and the time.

Alright, go ahead.

So, I submitted a report for identity theft a while ago, and I haven't heard anything about it.

The FCC can take some time to respond.

Wow.

Now there's a new report for a break-in at my apartment.

I was talking to another officer earlier and told him that I have a suspect for both crimes.

Yes.

The detective said looking over one of the folders.

He had both cases on the table.

One David King, correct?

Looks like it was written in.

Looks like it was written in your file.

Yes, David King.

He used to be a friend of mine, but now he hates me and he's been targeting me.

Targeting you how?

Most recently, he's kidnapped my girlfriend Katie.

Finally, it comes out.

Finally.

That caught his attention.

Pulled a pin from his front pocket.

When was this?

He asked, setting his pin on a blank page.

Last night, we went to go graffiti his house.

He chased after us and pinned me to a table.

He called someone on the phone and had them put Katie on the phone.

I heard her voice and he claimed he kidnapped her to motivate me.

Motivate you to do what?

I told him about the dare conversation.

Then about the junk mail, my online accounts, the credit card fraud, my parents' credit being targeted, my car windows, the break-in, my bank account being emptied, the graffiti incident, Katie's phone call, protecting Clark's bank and online accounts, and now Clark's arrest.

Hernandez took copious notes.

It just keeps escalating.

I said in defeat.

I watched Hernandez carefully trying to gauge his reaction.

I couldn't tell what he believed.

I need more details about the phone call.

What did she say?

What did you say?

And what did you hear on the other end?

We talked through everything for an hour.

Nothing I said was useful for finding Katie, but Hernandez sat back after I finished.

Xander, I have to be honest.

This all sounds very loose.

I don't mean the crimes themselves.

I just mean the connections linking David to all those

crimes.

There's nothing that can be done about the identity thefts until the FTC has finished their investigation.

The break-in, broken windows, hacked accounts, and empty bank account will have to produce their own evidence to prove that David committed each one.

To you, this is all one timeline of events, but to the law, they're all separate crimes that

have to be treated with no regard for past actions.

That is a stellar drawing.

You like David?

The National Guard logo on the shirt.

It's so funny.

That's awesome.

Wait, what does he mean?

They're flimsily connected.

David said, I kidnapped Katie, and then the phone call happened while you're with Katie.

If Hernandez doesn't believe that happened, that's fine.

But if he believes the phone call with Katie happened, then the guy who said it's Katie and held the phone up would be liable.

Whatever.

I'm putting way too much critical thought into a story that clearly wasn't made with that in mind.

I believe you, but I can't make an arrest without witnesses or hard evidence.

Your story is circumstantial at best, but I do believe you when you say they are connected.

Finally, someone believes me.

God, yeah.

What good that's worth, dude?

Nothing's happening.

All right, cool.

At least someone believes me.

What have the techs said about the break-in?

They said they found a few fingerprints.

All the fingerprints found belong to each of you and a few other people who used to live there.

According to the file, they've all been confirmed as past residents.

And what about the ATM camera?

No, that's something unfortunate.

He said, looking through the folder again.

We got a call from your bank to file a fraud report.

It was smart of you to go through the bank to report the fraud.

Here we go.

The PSA.

The bank credit card PSA.

Yes,

here it is.

I'm coming in.

My boss made it a priority.

And since it was your same name, it was added to our file on your identity theft.

It's been the one personally...

I've been the one personally working on our identity theft case.

Once received the case, I called the convenience store that the ATM was in.

They gave me the brand of the ATM so I could request the footage from the company.

Problem is, that ATM doesn't have a camera.

What?

How can an ATM not have a camera?

Not all brands do.

Some ATMs have cameras built in, and this was one of them.

Not all brands do.

Some ATMs don't have cameras built in.

And this is one of them.

Someone logged into your online bank account right before the

ATM transaction and moved all of your money from savings into your checking account.

They also increased your ATM withdrawal limit to 5,000 while online, which was above the 3,500 you had in your account.

Normally, you can only withdraw 500 per day.

What about the stores camera?

I asked for them to bring the footage down.

They said they'll be in today.

Where's the store?

I want to see this for myself.

No.

I have an inclination to lean towards your theory, but I will collect the evidence myself and court will decide.

You steer clear.

Then drive down yourself right now, goddammit.

I yelled.

He stood slightly, his hand reaching for his belt automatically.

Calm down.

Like a Ziko right reaching for his.

He's got to shoot him.

He's going to shoot the fucking

automatically.

He's like, drive down yourself.

And he's like,

he's going to shoot him right there at the end.

Calm down.

This is like a 15-year-old's understanding.

No, 12-year-olds understanding of how like police work and departments.

Yeah.

Everything is so

detailed.

I have a feeling all of our viewers have parted and I feel bad.

No, no, no, no.

I, dude, from what I know of our viewers, they are there with me.

This is a delight.

We're randomly through this story where they're getting arrested and stuff and it takes a break to tell us about the security of ATM brands and cameras.

Oh my gosh, dude.

Incredible.

This is awesome.

Calm down.

I have no money.

My car windows are smashed and I can't repair them.

My work will be due and I have no way to pay.

I can't get to work in a car.

I can't drive.

I need my money back.

Hernandez sighed, sitting back down and breathed heavily.

If David is the one who used your information to commit credit fraud, why would he steal a measly $3,500 from you?

Because he's dead set on ruining my life.

That's the dare.

He's taken it too far.

Further than any sane person would.

I mean, he's sick.

I just wanted to stop.

I said, I cried a little, and Hernandez let me sit in silence for a minute while the tears rolled down my cheeks.

What about Katie?

The kidnapping is going to get top priority.

That's the one case that have...

That's the one case that has a witness.

You.

I won't be working on it, but someone in a different section of the department will be.

The other detective will want to interview...

Oh my god.

The other detective will want to interview you today and get started.

Let's do it then.

Hernandez stepped out

and returned a while later with the detective.

Detective White came in and probed me with hundreds of questions.

Where did she work?

Who were her friends?

How long had we been together?

When did I last see her?

Do her parents know?

Questions like that.

When I brought up David in the phone call, he leaned in and asked me the same questions about what I'd heard, what we'd said, and anything I could remember.

Again, I didn't remember anything helpful.

I'll need you to bring David in for questioning.

Your testimony is decent, but we'll need more evidence for conviction.

I can't arrest him because I need more proof.

If we arrest him without enough proof, he'll walk free and can't be tried again.

No, you can arrest him.

No, take him to court yet.

No more proof.

No.

You had enough proof to arrest Clark!

Clark?

I was just talking with an officer who said Clark called in and told you all that Clark graffitied his house.

All right.

I was just talking with another officer that said David called in and told you all that Clark graffitied his house.

And he had to do, all he had to do was call, and he got arrested.

Detective White excused himself to go find out more about what had happened.

He came back five minutes later.

David has more proof on that case.

He just goes out in the corner.

Well,

the guy who kidnapped this woman actually has more proof about

graffiti in his house.

Photographs of the graffiti, photographs of Clark coming up to the house, his own testimony about recognizing Clark, and bruised face.

Clark's hand is also cut up, which corroborates a story.

We noticed it when we booked him.

This is the kind of evidence we need to convict in a kidnapping.

Right now, we have your testimony stating you said hello to Katie on a phone and David that he kidnapped her.

We need more evidence to convince a jury.

But I was with Clark

in the pictures, you weren't.

They're fakes.

An expert will check them and determine that.

This is awesome.

I sat back in my chair, feeling defeated.

Detective White thanked me for my testimony and left to contact Katie's parents.

Detective Hernandez sat back down, watching me as tears welled up in my eyes again.

Let me pay for it.

Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Okay, please.

I'm making a prediction right now.

So I'm looking at the text on Reddit, and then a few paragraphs down, I see like walls of text.

The entire story is quotes until it decides to talk about a PSA around identity theft monitoring or the law or something like that.

So I'm just, I'm just placing money down on red right now that that wall of text is going to be like an info dump.

But continue.

Let me pay for your windows.

It won't matter.

He'll break them again the next day.

He's broken them more than once.

Every time I repair them, they're smashed again the next day.

I might have an idea, but I'll need approval from my boss.

If If you haven't heard of entrapment in the concept,

it's another info dub.

Oh my gosh, this is great.

If you haven't heard of entrapment in the context of a police investigation, it's a legal defense.

It's used when evidence can be shown that an officer induces a criminal to commit a crime they wouldn't otherwise commit.

When this defense is used, there are two different views.

In some courts,

if a defendant uses entrapment as a defense, the prosecution has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the criminal was not entrapped.

In other courts, the defense has to prove that it wasn't trapped.

The state I was in required the prosecution to do the proving.

Hernandez recognized that this plan could be

construed as entrapment, and he explained this to me as we walked to his boss's office.

He told me that since David had already established a pattern of breaking my windows, Hernandez could set up surveillance on the car and just wait for David to commit the crime he was going to do anyway.

Since I had repaired my windows twice and he had kept the receipts, that would serve as good evidence that the crime had been repetitive.

The idea made me hopeful.

I sat outside his boss's office while he walked in and presented his idea.

When he walked out, he gave me a thumbs up.

David would never know what hit him.

Hernandez drove me to my house.

What they're not factoring in is David's fourth-dimensional understanding of electronics and their positions around him.

He can pick up on electromagnetic waves.

So

Hernandez drove me to my house where I picked up my car and took it to a repair shop.

He followed me over there and paid.

We drove to my work in Hernandez's car while they worked on it.

Hernandez ordered us some lunch and I talked to my boss.

I told him about my bank account getting hacked and that I needed to cancel direct deposit.

Luckily, payroll is next week, so they'd be able to change the method of payment by the next paycheck.

I told him about my situation and Hernandez backed me up.

He agreed to pay some of my wages in advance out of the store's petty cash until payday came and I was to pay him back.

I thanked him profusely for helping me out and apologizing for having to call in sick that day.

Walked out with a full stomach, $335, and a calm mind.

With any luck, we'd catch David tonight.

Hernandez took me back to the shop and I picked up my car.

I tried to pay for the money I'd received, but he refused, saying I could pay him back after this was all resolved.

He told me he'd be at my house later on to start the surveillance and to just park my car on the street.

Thanked him again before we parted.

It was about 3 p.m.

when I got home, parked my car several blocks away next to several others for camouflage.

I didn't want David to find it and smashed the windows before tonight.

The walk was hot, and the cool air conditioning welcomed me into my house.

Excuse me.

Someone asked timidly as I unlocked my front door.

I peeked my head back outside.

There's an older woman on the landing, probably in her 40s.

Yes?

You live in that apartment, I'm guessing.

Yeah,

I'm Mrs.

Watson.

I believe you and my son are roommates.

Oh, oh, hello.

Whose mom are you?

Isaac.

He and I were supposed to be driving out of state to visit family yesterday, but he never showed up.

Chill ran up my spine.

I've called him a thousand times, but he hasn't answered.

I've been standing here ringing the doorbell for a while, but no one has been home.

Can I go knock on his door?

I considered asking her to leave or telling her that I wasn't comfortable with her coming in, but I knew that would have been suspicious.

I knew knew what we were going to find.

I told her to come in, and instantly the smell overtook us.

Isaac's body was rotting in his room.

The smell overtook us.

She tried to be polite and not offend me, probably thinking we were typical college guys living like pigs.

She walked down the hall to Isaac's room.

Oh, God.

The smell must have been horrific right by the door.

I shuddered, but went down the hall towards her.

She knocked.

Isaac,

she called.

No answer, as I expected.

Isaac, it's mom.

I think the smell made her start to panic because she pounded harder on the door.

Isaac, open it, please.

She pleaded desperately.

I sighed.

Gently, I got.

Wait, where is this going?

Okay, Hunter, there's no way, right?

No, there's no way.

There's no way.

There's literally no way.

There's no way.

It cannot

be.

Gently, I guided her away from the door and braced myself.

I took a running start and slammed into the door.

It bit heavily, but the latch didn't break.

I tried again and again.

On the fourth try, the door wrenched open and I was inside.

The smell.

I don't know how many times I can tell you about it until you understand.

This was one of the moments where I'll remember every detail forever.

100, there's no way.

This is probably one of the worst.

stories I've read, so it's not going to be fun.

It's not going to go there.

Dude.

Isaac's room was a mess.

There were three bookshelves that likely used to have tons of books, but the shelves were torn apart and books scattered across the room.

His computer desk had papers scattered across it and cups knocked over.

The window was darkened by a blackout curtain used for gaming.

The large gaming computer under the desk hummed, and the monitor showed stars moving around a screensaver.

Isaac was on the bed.

His face was pale and patchy with purple lines.

His arms and legs were white and bruised.

An extension cord trailed off the bed.

The middle being wrapped around his neck several times.

Some flies nested on his body, flying to another spot occasionally.

Hunter, Hunter.

Oh my gosh, I killed him.

Bro!

Dude.

Dude.

I have no, I have no will.

This is great.

This might be the best thing I think we've ever read on the show.

Just

the insanity.

And this is all.

I'm fully convinced this is all an identity theft PSA.

And he murdered a guy in the apartment.

Bro.

Mrs.

Watson entered the room and screamed.

I just stood there staring at Isaac's dilapidated body.

David had jumped to murder.

I called the police and tried to get Mrs.

Watson to leave the apartment and preserve the crime scene.

She refused to set Savi next to Isaac's bed.

She was afraid to touch him.

The police came immediately and escorted Mrs.

Watson and I out of the apartment.

The next few hours were a blur of questions and police.

Detective Fernandez showed up and looked inside.

Techs were carrying in cameras and briefcases full of equipment.

After a while, they started to carry out some of Isaac's belongings and bags.

His gaming computer took two techs to carry out.

I sat on the curb nearby, not being allowed to leave by the head officer who's running the scene.

Hernandez sat next to me.

They broke open your other roommate's door.

All his belongings are there, but your roommate isn't.

Do you know where he is?

No, I never talked to him much.

Were you close to Isaac?

No, but it's still.

I know.

You think David is behind this too?

Probably.

We'll still carry out the surveillance.

Don't worry.

They'll analyze Isaac's body and if they find so much as a fleck of skint that we can link to David, we'll nail him.

No criminal is perfect.

Hernandez left me alone.

Hernandez left me alone, and I thought over the situation.

And then a car parked nearby, and out stepped Clark with his mom.

I jumped up and ran over to him.

Oh my god, Clark, are you okay?

I'm fine.

Posted bail, it was 350 bucks, so not awful.

I thought you said you'd be here by five.

I asked Clark's mom.

Side note, I don't remember the exact time she got there, but I do remember she was earlier than expected.

I was going to meet them both at the station.

I may have broken a few speed limits.

What happened?

What's happened?

Clark's face suddenly went cold when he saw the policeman near our door.

Isaac was found in his room.

I didn't have to specify what state he was in.

Jesus Christ!

Clark gasped, putting his hand on his knees.

He started hyperventilating, and his mom worriedly put a hand on his back.

Clark, honey, let's just go for a drive.

We can get your stuff later.

Your stuff?

He's moving out.

He told me all about this sick game your friend is playing.

I don't think it's very funny.

It's not funny!

It never was!

This fucking asshole is trying to ruin my life.

It's not a game!

A few of the policemen turned to watch me from the balcony.

Her jaw tightened and she guided her hyperventilating son into the car, drove away, and I was left in the middle of the street, watching my best friend leave me to handle David alone.

The idea that, oh, that's great.

The idea that people are getting murdered and Clark needs to stick around out of some obligation over this nut case.

Yeah.

Clark, you said you were going to hang out with me, man.

You said you were going to do this with me.

I wish, I wish so deeply that it would double down and Xander would be like, is that it, Clark?

We entered this game together.

A game of men, a game of sports.

You're not going to finish this game with me.

He has fully modded to the game idea, and that's why he said he's leaving.

But it's in this weird space where Xander is.

I'm not frank with you, man.

This might be my favorite.

He tries to act like a rational human being and does absolutely nothing a normal human being would do.

This might be my least favorite thing we've ever read.

I think this might be my favorite thing we've ever read.

We still have four parts and I'm in hell.

There's four parts.

There's four parts to go.

This is awesome.

So like, here's what I'm curious about.

So like, I

understand why our audience recommended the story, right?

Like, they're duh.

Duh.

No, no, because they want me and you to suffer.

That's the point.

But jokes on them.

I love this.

This is great.

So like I'm having fun with this, but I will see this story mentioned by people unrelated to Creepcast who will just be on, like,

they'll just be on subreddits, like, oh, best no sleep stories.

And they'll recommend this one as, like, a scary one.

It's like, what?

What?

Why do you read things?

What about, what about a story makes you think it was good?

Is it because a lot happens in it?

Or like, like, what is reading to you?

Are you reading them?

I don't know.

It's interesting.

I get why our audience recommended this loud and clear.

Maybe I'm being a negative Nancy.

Maybe I need to look at this in a different light.

I'm going to go into part five here in a new light, and I'm going to start having fun.

So let's just keep powering through.

Bro, he's killing people.

David King is killing people because it's all part of the game.

Minimum required effort.

I've got to strangle this guy in his bed because it's the minimum required effort.

Minimum required effort.

I don't know how you're not having fun

i am exhausted i'm like physically exhausted i'm thrilled i'm we're halfway through and he just strangled someone with a gaming cord as it was described in his own bed that's all okay all right let's get let's part five let's get it part five

just finished posting links to this part in all comments of part four I don't think I'll be able to do that again, so please check back 24 hours from the publication of this post.

Rip my fingers.

All right.

having fun.

Hi again, everyone.

As I do in every new post, thank you for your support and encouragement.

I read every single comment and reply to as many as I can or have something useful to reply.

David is nowhere to be seen in this new town, thankfully, so I don't think he's realized that I've moved on.

I've had some time to keep figuring out where things are in this town.

Once again, just reminding everyone, these are past events.

We haven't caught up to the present day yet.

i also want to remind everyone that i am writing these each day no i don't have parts built up so i can't make them longer release them all at once sorry guys a few people keep asking so i'm just clarifying one more thing as i was reading every comment like i do i noticed one person whose birthday is today and they got They got downvoted for suggesting this could make a good manga series.

So I want to wish them a public happy birthday.

Happy birthday, user super Kwame.

It's so funny to imagine, because this is an ARG, to imagine that he's actually like running for his life and he's still like, happy birthday, user.

Thank you.

Thank you for the gifts.

Thank you for the upvotes.

Thank you for the updates, the badges.

Also, that is 100% true.

This is, in my head, it's a manga or an anime, like what's happening.

Right.

And David looks exactly like the drawing you made, only he's super strong.

Like he is like a mountain ramp.

He's super strong.

Yeah, he's like, I need to read like a draw character.

I need to do a better drawing.

I think, no, no, I think the head should be perfectly as is in the neck, but the neck should connect to like a bulk of muscle.

Like the way you drew, what was that guy's name?

Sam Sullick?

Is that his name, the bodybuilder?

It should be like that head, just the necks attached to that body.

All right.

While you read, I'm going to keep drawing that then.

All right, sounds good.

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We are now back to the episode.

Let's begin.

The police took Isaac out in a body bag.

Mrs.

Watson left with the body, still sobbing uncontrollably.

I was was told that I couldn't go into my apartment until they were completely done with the crime scene.

No, they didn't know when that would be.

They suggested a hotel room, which I laughed at.

Asked if I could grab a blanket and a pillow for my room so I could sleep in my car.

They reluctantly brought it to me, and I gagged when I grabbed them.

They smelled like death.

Hernandez offered to get me a motel room or let me stay at his place, or even begged me to call a friend and stay with him.

I refused all three.

Badass.

I walked to my car and ignored Hernandez.

I was still too mad about everything and devastated that Clark had left.

Besides, we couldn't do surveillance on the car while I slept in it.

I marched all the way to my car and slammed the door hard.

I decided I didn't feel safe parking near my house to sleep, so I went to a Walmart parking lot for the night.

It was as if fate had finally begun to root for me.

I was walking towards the Walmart entrance from the parking lot to buy some food.

When I was only a few cars away, an armored truck pulled up.

The ones that carry money over to the bank.

You know what I mean?

And who do you think stepped out of the truck?

David King.

Fucking King.

I strafed to my left and got behind a car, used the back tinted windows to observe.

He was laughing with his partner who got out of the passenger side.

I was too far away to hear what they were saying, but I definitely didn't recognize the partner as anyone I knew.

It was obviously paranoia, but I wondered if he could be the one who made Katie speak into the phone.

The two of them walked into Walmart, and I took notes of the company that owned the truck.

Then I had an idea.

My first real idea on how I could fight back now that I knew where David was right this second.

I sprinted back to my car.

A little while later, I pulled up to Mrs.

K's house.

I got out and looked around, making sure David hadn't somehow beaten me here or followed me.

I had to hurry.

Who knew how much longer this shift would last?

I knocked on the door.

Mrs.

K opened up.

Hello, Xander!

Hi, Mrs.

K.

Can I come in?

Five minutes later, I was rifling through David's room.

Had to hurry.

Had to find something useful and fast.

I told Mrs.

K that years ago I'd let David borrow a video game and just now remembered and wanted to pick it up.

She had happily let me go into his room and find them.

I'd booted up his ancient laptop, but it was taking forever to load.

Why the hell hadn't he bought a new laptop with all the money he stole?

That would have made good evidence.

I glanced.

No, it wouldn't have.

I glanced at every paper I saw, hoping for something.

Written plans, a checklist, a receipt, anything.

Every paper I found was normal, from what I could see.

His room was a disaster, which worked in my favor.

He may have dropped something incriminated and not known about it.

I stuffed every flash drive I could find into my pockets as I went.

He had four of them laying around.

They might have incriminated evidence on them.

The laptop finally booted, and I instantly tried to log in.

No luck.

Password protected.

I should have known,

considering how tech savvy he'd been in hacking into my accounts.

A password?

A login password?

In fact, all the incriminating data was probably on the laptop.

He wouldn't bother printing anything out.

That gave me an idea.

I picked up the laptop and flipped it over.

Toolbox laid under the table and I snatched a screwdriver from it.

Using the screwdriver, I went to work disassembling the laptop.

When I finished, I held his hard drive up in my hand.

I will ruin you, David King.

So fucking badass.

I'm so cool.

I'm going to ruin him.

I'm going to get back after he strangled someone to death in my apartment.

I want to fucking kill you, David King.

I'm going to find all of your little files, David.

As I reassemble, they're going to have to put David in Arkham Asylum.

This is over.

They're going to wheel him out in like the

Hannibal Elector mask.

As I reassembled the laptop, something caught my eye under the bed.

A box.

Throwing my eyebrows, I pulled it towards me.

It was a shoe box.

That's good.

I like that.

That's good, honor.

It was a shoebox with dust cover at the top.

A few spots were less dusty where someone had handled the lid.

I opened it slowly and peered inside.

It contained a quarter-inch thick stack of pages all bound together by a binder clip.

The box was too too small to let the pad lay flat, so I curled it in the box.

The pages were old and worn.

They'd clearly been handled frequently.

I lifted it out and noticed that it looked like research paper.

The front page had a title in the middle of the page and an author at the bottom.

Psychological evaluation for David Edward King.

The bottom of the page had the name of the institute and psychologist that had done the study as well as the year.

I did the math and the evaluation must have been done when he was 16.

Jack Pott.

That's so funny to be like, huh, I'm going to prove this killer who has kidnapped a woman and tortured me for years isn't mentally well.

Like, wow, you're breaking crazy ground with that necessary person.

This is evidence.

This is evidence.

He has, he was psychologically evaluated at 16.

That'll put him under.

And knowing this story, the police are going to be like, he's clearly a sociopath.

We have to shoot him.

I stuffed it under my shirt as best I could hide its square form.

The laptop was set back in its place as if it never moved.

David would know something was wrong eventually, but not until he booted it up.

I gave a last look around and wondered if there was anything else I should do.

No decent ideas, I left David's house.

Mrs.

K gave me a brownie on my way out.

On the drive back to Walmart, I tried to come up with a plan.

I couldn't take this to the police because it was illegally obtained evidence and wouldn't be admissible in court.

I knew that from a bunch of crime shows.

We can tell.

I had to get at the evidence myself and somehow get it into the police hands legally.

When I parked at the Walmart, it still wasn't that late.

I walked inside carrying the flash drives and psychological evaluation with me.

I used the demo computers to look at the contents of the flash drives.

Looking back now, I'm amazed they let USB sticks work on the demo machines.

The first flash drive had old high school papers on it.

Nothing useful there.

Second and third were bootable drives that could boot Linux.

I don't expect everyone to understand what that means.

It's not important.

I don't expect you to understand what that means.

I have explained everything else in the fucking universe in this deal, but I'm not going to explain Linux.

Because only us-based R slash Linux users understand that one.

Am I right, guys?

Upvote.

Thank you.

I was on the fourth flash drive that had my first breakthrough of evidence.

It contained a single text file that had been edited the day before.

As I read through it, I realized that it was a conversation.

With my current understanding, the flash drive was how David and his kidnapping partner had been communicating.

David would write a message and hide the flash drive in a predetermined place, then the kidnapper would go pick it up and read the message.

The process would reverse when the kidnapper had a message to pass a log.

A lot of you will probably say, Why wouldn't they just use encrypt emails?

That's so much faster and safer.

If they had used any kind of network, yes, thank you.

Another, every single entry has a PSA about how internet and like security systems work if they had used any kind of network to communicate some internet service provider or some cell phone provider like comcast would have a log entry of the messages being exchanged even if the data was encrypted encrypted data is never 100 secure look look at this it just randomly launches into like infomercials

if you dedicate enough processing power, you can crack any encryption.

It may take thousands of years in some cases, but it could be cracked.

That means it can't be cracked.

That means no one's going to do it.

Yeah, but it would take thousands of years.

Someone would definitely take thousands of years.

Someone would take thousands of years to get through one

encoded signal for sure.

With our current advances in computing power, that could change to be even faster.

It could only be hundreds of years.

Exactly.

It could be 200 years.

David and his partner had reduced their risk of being caught by limiting who had access to the information.

If you send an email to me via Reddit, I'm not the only one that gets the message.

It passes through several servers.

Oh my gosh, this story is like crazy.

I seriously hate myself.

Like, I hate myself for deciding to read this.

I fucking hate this.

Yeah, for the record, this was your idea.

I said, I know, I know.

I hate myself.

I said, that story looks bad.

We should pass over it.

You said, we'll give it another shot, and I'll be more positive this time.

I know.

And look what's happened.

I love it.

And you're paying the price.

That's great.

Is this part six?

Or is this part six?

This is five.

This is five.

It passes through several servers and routers who all make a note that a message passed through at a specific time.

It leaves a trail.

Unless you can erase the logs of those servers, you leave a trail no matter how you send your data.

There was certainly risk that someone could find the flash drive, plug it in, and find all of this data like I had, but that could be reduced by choosing decent hiding places.

If you plan to pass messages this way, don't leave it laying around your room.

Especially, remember, kids, especially don't leave it unencrypted.

I still don't know why it wasn't encrypted.

The text file would have a line, then skip a line and add another where the next response was.

I don't have the flash drive or a copy of the conversation anymore, so I'll have to paraphrase as accurately as I can remember.

I'll use bullet points here on Reddit to format it more easily for you.

Payment received?

Yes.

Last half of payment comes when this is all over?

How long?

Depends on him.

Good?

Good.

No suspicion.

Quiet crap.

Was she harmed?

She fought.

A couple bruises.

Otherwise, fine.

There are some extra lines in between marking the start of a new conversation.

Any new information?

A kidnapping report has been filed with the police.

Change locations every two days as previously discussed.

Are you well supplied?

We have enough in the truck to keep moving and stay operational.

Good.

Then he lectus will be over soon once he makes an irreversible mistake.

I shuddered as I closed the text file.

That was damning evidence.

No, it's not.

That is, that is, that's a series of texts that you found.

That's how that works.

I checked who the the owner of the file was, it was blank.

Well, that would have been too convenient.

I googled the kind of cable I would need to hook the hard drive up to a computer.

I bought a SATA to USB cable.

I was thankful that the demo computers are in an aisle out of the view of employees in the tech center.

To people who don't know technology, I'm convinced I look like a hacker.

Oh my gosh.

To people who don't know technology.

Let me give you another lesson on technology, please

it's actually phrased that way let me give you another lesson on technology oh would you be so kind xander as to do that for us to give us another lesson listen hup hunter since i seem to be giving so many in this series

and the lampshade goes on

When you boot hunter, I don't know if you knew this hunter, but I'm gonna I'm gonna let you in on a little secret when you boot your computer it asks for a password if you've set one.

Without that password, you can't access the hard drive unless you do some hacked up workaround.

Some hacked up workaround.

In some cases, however, you can unplug the hard drive and plug it into another computer instead.

The new computer will treat it like a regular external drive, and voila, you have access.

Unfortunately, David had encrypted his entire hard drive, so it was useless to me at the moment until I had some spare time to either guess the password or find someone who could crack it.

Going to the summer supply section of the store, I took a seat and pulled out the psychological evaluation and looked at the cover page again.

Psychological evaluation for David Edward King.

I hope you realize that I've removed the institution author and date for privacy's sake, because that would matter.

In the midst of this, that would matter.

I've spent an hour skimming the contents, using the table of contents to navigate.

I constantly had to look up lengthy words on my phone, but I was beginning to understand what went on in David's sick little mind.

I won't give you an entire rundown of this whole life, but the report contained transcripted interviews with his parents about incidents, a psychologist's observation while holding David in confinement, and a general list of events that had occurred in David's life that may have traumatized him.

And these are the ones that I remembered.

David set fire to animals constantly and poked them with various objects.

When a snake lunged and bit him once in his backyard, his mother came out to find him whipping the limb body against a tree, guts spraying everywhere.

His only explanation was, it tried to hurt me.

Okay.

Two, he was found designing traps for rabbits and other animals that were expertly hidden in design.

He claimed to have never looked at a wilderness guide to make them.

His mother later found entire notebooks containing designs for traps.

The traps were aimed at getting both animals and humans.

His father died when he three.

His father died when he was 12, which affected him greatly.

He became quiet and reserved for years.

The first day of high school ever, he changed overnight and became charismatic, energetic, and clever.

And four, in middle school, one of his teachers had been interviewed after an incident.

She had noticed that three boys had begun picking on David, but he quietly took whatever they gave him.

One day, she came to class, and all three boys set ramrods straight and stared straight ahead.

They didn't dare look at David.

David was smirking and trying to hide it.

So he's like the Omen child.

He's like,

he's like the Antichrist from the movie Omen.

He's a badass, dude.

He's a badass.

He's so cool and swag, and he's so freaking awesome.

That's what the story wants us to think.

Finally, let me try to summarize what that psychologist wrote about David.

David seems to have a constant need to harm other living things and cause suffering.

That is what a psychologist would write about a 16-year-old who only had like a couple of weird interactions.

Yes, yes.

Once in my office, I found him stomping his feet on the floor.

I asked him what he was doing, and he admitted that he was trying to crush anything microscopic that could be on the mic.

That could be on my floor.

Oh my god.

God.

I seriously fear that he will not be able to remain in society without serious medication and therapy.

Why are you stomping your feet?

Just trying to kill all the kids.

Join the microscopic engineer on the floor.

I'm killing doctor.

You may not know this, Doctor.

He's like, darkness.

It caught it.

He's a very joker face paint, but he's a child.

I may not notice it.

It carded.

But there's microscopic engine was on the floor.

I am the one who docks.

I am evil.

Oh, this is so awesome.

And it's made so much better to me with the PSA stuff that it's made to, like, remember, kids, this can happen to you, too.

You know, this story is almost too good.

It's almost so, it has, it is trying to be.

It's horrible.

This is, I'm not, no, no, I'm not even, I'm not even joking.

No, not even joking.

This is the worst thing we have ever read.

And that is not me being a Debbie Downer.

I'm saying, realistically, this is the worst thing we have ever read.

That's what makes it so good.

Because

it is the worst thing we've ever read, but it is also a PSA about identity theft.

Like, know your surroundings.

Yeah, but

it also is trying to get him to be mad about credit card theft and worried about like his windows being broken when one person's person's dead and a second one's about to die.

That's insane.

It's just not fun enough, man.

I'm in hell.

I wanted this to be done.

We should just keep pushing on.

I'm in hell.

I'm loving this.

All right.

I had no idea that David had any of the let me ask you this real quick.

I know, I know you want to keep pushing up.

Please, God, just read this.

Do you think that this story, because I mentioned this in the beginning, but I was kind of thinking about it.

Obviously, it would need some buffing for like the language and the police department scenes and stuff like that, regardless.

But do you think this premise could work if it was like a stranger, like maybe a weird kid at school he'd only seen a couple times, and he's like, Why don't you try to ruin my life?

And then the kid goes to like the level of dedication, he's killing people.

Do you think something like that could be feasible?

The fact that it's not that he's even his friend, it's just

the story

does not work so far, even if it is a PSA, whatever, it's so descriptive and like it is haltering itself every

day.

It will not let itself progress because I explain things.

We talked earlier about like you need to choose a lane, and with the descriptive stuff, it gets so serious in trying to like ground it in reality that it's not fun.

Like, it's not like Jeff the Killer, where it's just like, I don't give a fuck.

I'm 12, and I'm writing something that I think is creepy.

It's something that's supposed to be like, and this is why this is happening because of like this is like the reasonable, plausible explanation to this.

And also, for people who don't know about fraud, this is what this is.

Like, it has nothing to do with him being like the problem is not his friend being his friend or not a stranger.

It's the sheer fact that, like, we're not, I'm like, we're not progressing the story at all.

Like, and the thing, too, is these parts are so

long

and they all amount to the exact same conclusion.

Like, it's seriously,

yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

It's seriously, but I mean, like, I'm, I am putting it up there as the worst thing we've ever read so far.

It keeps doing this thing where it will have these complete, like, comic book-level reveals of, like, him killing people or kidnapping people, having, like, spies around town and stuff like that.

But then it will, like you said, be like, let's take a break to talk about ATM security systems.

Like, it, yeah.

Yeah.

Which is why I love it and I'm having a great time.

I had no idea that David had any any of these problems or experiences.

He and I had met when we were both 17.

He'd been exactly as the report described: charismatic, energetic, and clever.

I felt blind for not seeing any red flags, but I knew that he had hidden them well intentionally.

Psychologist made another entry a month later.

David seems to have performed a complete 180 in his mood, actions, and demeanor.

He has been polite and kind every time he has come in and is very capable of being fully functional.

Did I tell you that this is basically Michael Myers?

David King is Michael Myers.

Doctor, but wouldn't you, as a psychologist, if a patient saw a complete 180 all at once, find that incredibly suspicious?

As you're a psychologist and knows that happens a lot.

No, this is normal.

I'm happy he's just cracking a smile.

Well, that's good.

So he should be reintroduced into society full-fledged.

Well, I don't see why not.

Yes.

Please.

I hope so.

Did I tell you I'm also an alcoholic?

I can't stop drinking.

I drink profusely, mostly to numb the pain.

The sentence struck me as odd.

Months of statements about David's instability, and suddenly this comes out.

I googled the professor's name.

He died in a car crash the same year as the publication date on the evaluation.

bro.

Drunk driving.

Drunk driving.

But no, the implication is that David killed his psychologist.

Yes, David killed a psychologist.

Son of a bitch.

I wonder if this would work better, too, if they were like, if he was at like a juvenile detention thing or if he was like...

In like a wayward house, like he was also kind of like mentally fucked up.

Like maybe he was depressed.

If this was like two boys inside of a mental facility?

Yeah.

And then that would be that could that would actually be kind of interesting because then you create parameters around the setting.

Well, then you can also like a wall they can't get out of.

It's also

or let's say that even the released.

Let's say he's released back.

They just released.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And like or

the one kid or Zander is released, right?

And he's back in public and then fucking David breaks out.

Like some or something like that.

Now you have something to where you also can say that that your narrator or your protagonist is an unreliable narrator because he is also mentally disturbed and stuff.

And you're kind of like, you get into like almost a beautiful mind thing where maybe he's seeing shit or, I don't know.

Anyways, the idea of him, I think like this idea of him like afterthought of him like, well, he was in a mental hospital.

I honestly think that would have been a way more fun approach than just starting it with, I'm bored.

I have no reason.

I have no purpose.

Kill me.

Kill my girlfriend.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Versus if they're in a mental asylum and they're having that conversation, makes way more sense.

Makes way more sense.

That would actually be kind of interesting.

Like they're both in there and they're like, I'm bored.

Yeah.

Well, also, I have no purpose.

I have no structure.

And they're in a mental asylum.

Like, it's like, it's fucking crazy.

You could even mirror some of these scenes as well.

In an interesting way where, like, maybe he doesn't know why David's in there.

David lied about while he was in there.

And then maybe one night he sneaks into the administration office and finds out that like David killed his mom or something obscene like that.

Yeah, I think also having like more you could instead of the officers, you have them be orderlies, yeah, people that work at the yeah, like hand out medication or something and whatever, you know what I mean?

Like, I don't know, how great would this be if it ends and it's like, anyway, I didn't take my medicine today, and it's like this whole thing was a delusion inside of it.

I'm not even joking.

I will punch a hole through my monitor and I'll slip my wrist.

If this this ending in the it was all a dream twist i think would make this the greatest thing i've ever seen and i swear to god i'm not even joking i don't know where this is going if it ends that way i'm i'm done with this show i am i am done with the show that's how that's it's how this that's how this ends i am done with this show

oh that's great because then i get a hundred percent of the paycheck for true well you know make it make a positive making lemonade out of lemons all right yeah exactly I'll take it.

You know what?

Deal.

Son of a bitch.

I reread the very last entry.

I recognized the words for what they were.

A coerced recommendation to re-enter society.

I could feel the psychologist's words scream through the page.

Good God.

He's going to kill me.

Oh, no wonder David was so prepared.

No wonder he was always ahead of me.

No wonder his expression had spread such an absolute fear through me that night, Chase Clark and I.

He was insane.

It's taken him this long to figure it out.

He designed traps.

He knew what made people and animals tick.

He enjoyed inflicting pain on them.

Not just that, but watching them suffer.

It's like, no shit!

We just read this!

It took him part set.

Like, for one, the author's explaining it to us twice, but also the like the idea that Xander's just now, like, he's not in his right mind.

What?

Okay, so I'm in danger because I don't know if you guys know this.

This guy's crazy.

Yeah, the guy who murdered someone as part of a game that he elected to do himself.

That guy's crazy.

And not only is that, but he also is like, he like set traps and like he's kind of done that before.

It's like,

let's just keep reading.

Let's just keep reading.

Let's just, let's just keep, let's push forward.

Isaiah, we have so much more to go through.

And I'm so upset i'm so upset i hunkered down in my seat and brought up a word document in my phone where i could take notes then i started googling you know what i'm talking about you're

oh oh he's gonna explain google oh god he's gonna explain why you use google i don't want to read anymore can we can we veto this can we can we stop

absolutely not can we veto

no well i think we're at three hours we're at three hours in our recording.

Three hours.

We have to.

We are finishing the story, Hunter.

You're facing a problem, and so you start searching for anything online that could help you fix your problem.

The internet was a wonderful tool for me at this moment.

Without it, I'd be dead months ago.

I was kicked out of the Walmart for loitering, but I continued my research in my car.

I turned my car on every once in a while to drive around and charge my battery.

That night, I learned a lot about hacking.

Phones, Android, surveillance, police procedure, legal procedure, and all kinds of subjects that related to my situation.

I took dutiful notes and outlined areas for further research and learning.

During my research, I found a list of apps that could be used for hacking someone's phone.

I checked my installed applications and can you guess what I found buried on my phone?

One of those apps.

David King had been eavesdropping and tracking me through my phone.

Instead of deleting the app, however, I kept it.

It could be useful in the future.

I also researched the company David apparently worked for.

It was a larger company that served several states, providing both long and short distance transport valuable goods.

This was good information.

If his job was to handle valuable goods, then it could be an easy way to get him fired or even charged if some of it disappeared from his truck.

His truck was long gone by then, so I had no current opportunity.

During all hours of the night, Hernandez would call me.

So would Katie's mom.

I ignored them both.

That was a big mistake, I'll later learn.

When the sun rose, I didn't feel tired.

I felt empowered.

Finally, I knew more about my situation and enough to be useful.

Because I looked up hacking.

I knew how to get those hard drives to the police legally, but I need Clark and Hernandez's help.

I never got to use that plan, though.

Reality caught up with me.

David moved too quickly.

I was driving to my apartment to see if I could brush my teeth, take a shower at least before work that day when my phone buzzed.

It was Hernandez.

I answered it reluctantly, prepared to get an earful for ignoring him all night.

Xander, where are you?

Driving to my apartment.

You need to come down to the police station.

Right away.

Why?

What's up?

It's...

it's bad.

Confused, someone's dead.

Confused, I hung up and turned right, heading towards the police station.

I walked into the police station's lobby to find Hernandez waiting for me.

Did Isaac's body turn up anything?

I asked, looking at his worried expression.

They're still analyzing it.

Some new development has come up.

I gave him a questioning look and then felt cold metal click around my right wrist.

I reacted, but the two cops who had flanked me pulled my arms together.

The metal clicked around my other wrist, handcuffing me.

What the hell?

The policeman gripped one of my arms.

Xander, I know you're upset about everything that's going on, but

what you did went way too far.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Hernandez held up a bag containing a phone.

Use a touchscreen through the bag and navigate to the phone's voicemail.

The voicemail was jawdly and sounded like whoever had the phone was running.

Wind struck the mic, making it harder to hear in places.

But the voice was unmistakable.

It was mine.

Fuck you, jackass.

You ruined my credit, stole my money, hacked my accounts, and stole my shit.

I'm gonna kill you!

You think I need motivation to hurt you?

I'm gonna kill you, you son of a bitch.

You'll burn in hell.

You'll burn!

My heart shuddered to a halt.

I had said those things.

I literally said those things.

The night David chased us and pinned me to the table.

I'd said every word.

The bastard had been recording the whole thing now had edited it into a threatening voicemail.

David King's home burned down last night.

He said slowly, watching me, gauging me.

David and his mother were still inside.

Firefighters found David alive and were able to pull him out, but his mother was already dead.

That voicemail was sent to his phone from yours around that time.

The firefighters estimate the fire started.

I lost my breath.

My eyes watered.

The world closed in.

I couldn't speak.

Couldn't defend myself.

Couldn't explain.

Xander Jones, you're under arrest.

You son of a bitch.

Part six.

Aren't you excited, Hunter?

Yeah.

Aren't you so excited?

Yeah.

It's times like these, Hunter.

I'm so happy that I get to have a podcast with my best buddy.

I get me and my friend, get to record stuff and have a good time.

It's insane because you know what?

I knew that this was, this had to, this had to happen at some point because we've been reading absolute ghast lately.

The astronaut one, Berry's in the window.

Yep.

You know, I mean, we've been, actually, if I look at the channel, I think we've been straight home runs for at least like the past five.

Yeah, I mean, we've had a, we've, it's been a bit, but of course, all the ones that are good are non-fatty, straight to the point.

And of course, this bloated, big, fat bitch has to be the longest fucking thing that we've read.

This might be the longest episode we've had in a long time.

This might be our longest of all time.

It might be our longest of all time.

And

I sincerely am talking to the viewers right now, if you have to unsubscribe, I completely understand.

I don't.

You all love this.

I know you people.

Yeah, because this is going to broach four hours, I think, by the end of it, which puts it above stolen tongues.

The only one that gives it a run for its money is if you count Left Right Game as one episode, part one and two.

That one, I think, beats it out.

But other than that, because part two of Left Right Game was five hours.

That is crazy to think about.

Yeah,

if that was all one video, I think it would like part one has five million views right now.

That's absurd.

All right, part six.

Part six.

Also, just

we kind of blaze over it, but David killed his mom to

get insanity.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Hi, everyone.

Thanks again for all your support.

I've been jumping from store to store today to prevent tracking, so I've written on and off today and replied to as many as possible.

I was just posting this when I almost ran right into David.

Forgive me for hiding before I got my phone back out, finished posting, edit, guess I was on time after all.

Sorry about the incident earlier with part 5 disappearing.

It was my own fault and the r slash no sleep mods were very helpful in restoring it.

I've said to a few of you that I estimate there being one to two more parts until I have caught up to the present day.

I believe that after part seven we will be fully at the present day.

That may change, so don't get mad if it does.

I just wanted to let you know what to expect.

I'll jump right in as usual.

I laid in an empty cell trying to catch a small nap since I'd been up all night.

My mind was racing though and made it hard to sleep.

I kept rehearsing what I was going to say when Hernandez finally came to get me.

They'd emptied my pockets into evidence bags, took my fingerprints and one cop was heading out to search my car.

I wasn't dumb.

I knew the evidence would point the police to three conclusions.

One, that I'd been in David's home recently.

After all, the data on those flash drives had been updated just the day before.

Even the ones that didn't have the kidnapping transcription on them.

Two, the flash drive containing messages between David and his partner might lead them to believe I had kidnapped Katie.

Three, that I'd stolen David's hard drive, as well as confidential medical information.

I kept trying to play out the conversation with Hernandez.

I hoped it would pan out the same way it was running in my head.

I was woken by a slight knock on the bars.

My eyes peeked open to see a man in a suit standing there, accompanied by an officer.

Hello, sorry to disturb you.

I'm Terry Jason, your public defender.

May we talk?

Yes, of course,

I said, sitting up.

The officer entered and cuffed me.

We were both led to the interrogation room where I met Hernandez for the first time.

I trust you will shut off the cameras, he said to the officer.

The cop nodded, removed my handcuffs, and closed the door.

You can call me Terry, reaching out to shake my hand.

We sat down opposite each other with the table between us.

I've heard a little bit about your case and a brief overview from the chief, he said, pulling folders from a briefcase.

It's, well, it's long.

So I I hear.

I'm going to have to apologize in advance.

It's likely that you'll have to repeat your story many times during these proceedings.

To prevent this as much as possible, you and I are going to sit down and write your version of events down.

That way, you can fall back on your statements and ensure that what you say is consistent and accurate.

Does it sound good to you?

Made sense, so I nodded.

First, I have a contract here for you to sign that says you agree to let me represent you in the criminal proceedings.

Pushed paper and pen across the table, skimmed inside at the bottom, pulled it back.

Would you like me to call you Xander or Mr.

Jones?

Xander is fine.

Okay, Xander, let's start writing.

Terry sat patiently with me while I wrote every detail I could think of.

I began with my dare conversation with David and followed all the way up to this point.

Started out as a page with scrambled memories and words to jog my memory.

Then it slowly formed into a statement that Terry helped me edit into a cohesive, fact-based statement.

When you're asked about your memories

or an event,

refer them to this document.

He said, worked for an hour before he spoke again.

I have to go to another appointment, but I've asked that you be allowed to continue working in your cell.

I scheduled a meeting with

the prosecutor and Detective Hernandez tomorrow at noon.

Do you think you can have it complete by then?

Yeah, I think so.

And I did.

I spent the rest of my day writing that statement.

I slept sporadically, but I was desperate to complete it before noon the next day.

So much had happened, and I had so much to say.

I was quite proud of the results.

In fact, I was more proud of that statement than this one.

That statement had a lot more fresh memories.

This one feels a little scatterbrained.

My statement was concise and to the point.

Maybe it's for the best that this is the one that I posted.

The next day at noon, I was back in the interrogation room.

Terry sat to my left.

Hernandez stood against the wall facing me with his arms crossed.

I couldn't read his expression.

On the other side of the table sat an older man who had introduced himself as Chief Gunderson, Hernandez's boss.

Beside him stood a tall, lanky man with the slicked back hair.

He held his hands behind his back, watching me intently.

The tape recorder between us was running.

I've been brought up to date on the cases you're involved in, Chief Gunderson said in a gruff voice.

I'm interested to hear everything from your perspective, considering the recent developments.

You arrested me just to hear my son of the story?

No, I arrested you because you were suspected of burning down Anne King's house and thereby killing her.

Hernandez tells me that you might have felt justified in doing so, considering all the accusations that you've levied against Mr.

King.

So, I'd like to hear what has happened from the beginning and hear your side of the events.

Who's he?

I'm the prosecutor, Adam Lunderman.

Oh.

So, you'll be able, so you'll be the one trying to put me in prison.

Terry put a warning hand on my leg.

I'll be trying to establish the truth about what happened.

My client has prepared a statement that he intends to wholly rely on, Terry said, pushing copies of the 17 handwritten pages across the table.

Chief Prosecutor took one.

Hernandez stepped forward and grabbed one too.

He instantly started reading from his spot in the corner.

I tried to catch his eye, but he didn't look at me.

I tuned Terry out and focused on Hernandez.

There was something about his demeanor that caught my attention.

I couldn't tell what it was.

Focused on him for the entire meeting, trying to figure out what my instinct was telling me.

I talked over legal details with Terry and corroborated the process of discovery between the two parties.

A couple days later, Terry was sitting with me in the interrogation room again, talking through what he'd learned from Discovery.

Discovery is when two...

Yes, we get a PSA.

We learn what discovery is in criminal cases, kids.

Oh my gosh.

Discovery is when the two sides of a case share evidence so that there are no surprises when they go to trial.

Anything not brought up in discovery is not admissible in court.

Before trial, though, would come my arraignment.

That's when the formal charges would be laid against me, and I would have to plead either guilty or not guilty.

Terry was talking through discovery with me, so I would be prepared for what they'd say during the hearing and decide whether I'd plead guilty or not guilty.

Here's what I'd learn.

After I'd been arrested, the police had searched my car and found the hard drive, flash drives, and psychiatric evaluation.

Something else that was curious, a half-empty canister.

He had planted a gas can in my car at some point without me knowing.

I'd been in my car all night, so either David knew he was going to burn his house down before I went to Walmart, or he planted it in the few minutes I was in the police station.

I told Terry about the gas can being planted, and he wrote down some notes.

The police had searched through the contents of all flash drives and discovered the conversation between David and his partner.

Except, as predicted, they accused me of writing the messages and therefore linked me to a kidnapping.

Text file never specified Katie's name, but they claimed Katie's kidnapping was the most likely scenario since I knew about it and was therefore involved.

Despite this evidence, however, the prosecution didn't feel that they could convince a jury without more evidence.

So Katie's kidnapping wasn't planned to be laid against me as a formal charge, but they were searching for evidence.

They'd also tried to open the contents of David's hard drive, but found that it was encrypted, just like I had.

They'd sent off to a lab to be analyzed for whatever data could be salvaged.

The medical report was classified.

Do you remember real quick?

Do you remember in Saw, I think it was seven or eight, when

what was that detective's name, Holloway, the one who turned out to be helping Jigsaw?

Yeah, that's going to be Hernandez 100%.

Hernandez, yes, actually, I was going to say David, but Hernandez would be the better fit.

He's in David's pocket, so he's just going through the evidence locker, executing people left and right.

Yeah.

Hernandez is 100% going to be bad.

He's going to, yeah, he's paid off.

Him doing the little thing of like, Hernandez seemed off.

I don't know know why, is just like such a clear indicator of like, oh, yep, there you go.

He's going to be

bad.

And then we're going to get a text, like a wall of text being like, remember, kids, you can trust officers, but sometimes an officer, maybe, yeah, whatever.

The medical report was classified as inadmissible because it pertained to an individual who did not consent to the dissemination of its contents.

As a citizen of, oh my gosh, it keeps explaining stuff.

As a citizen of the United States, you can

control over who can look at your medical records.

Denying its use in a courtroom is a right in certain situations, including this one.

David had decided to exercise that right and deny access.

As a result, the prosecutor could only charge me with possession of someone else's medical records without permission.

That was a serious crime, apparently.

Terry had also been informed that the identity theft case was being combined into the charges against me.

The credit card companies had done their own investigations and were filing criminal charges against me for fraud.

Why would they do that because a technical investigation to the origin of the registration for the fraudulent cards found that the reporter himself sander jones had indeed filled out and completed the registration forms from his own computing device in other words they traced the ip address of who had filled out the registration forms of the cards online and found that my computer had been the one to sign up which means that they were accusing me of signing up spending all my money and they're reporting fraud also a major crime

the empty of my bank account was also pinned on me again they claimed it was trying to commit fraud by filing a false claim at the bank The police had finally gotten the security tapes from the convenience store where the ATM was located.

There were three angles.

One camera was above the door, one was above the register, and one was in the far corner of the store opposite the ATM.

The tape showed a man in a dark hoodie walk into the store.

The video was grainy as you would expect, but despite that, a large symbol on the back of the hoodie could be recognized.

The man in the hoodie walked up to the ATM and pulled something from their pocket.

The prosecution claimed it was a cell phone since the timestamp on the camera matched the timestamp of the log into my bank account.

The figure looked down at it for a few minutes before typing it to the ATM, blocking the screen with their body.

The money spat out, he grabbed it and walked toward the door.

The camera in the opposite corner from the ATM was able to catch a glimpse of their face.

It was grainy, but the prosecution compared it to the pictures from my Facebook profile to claim that it was just enough resemblance to have been me.

Compared to David's pictures, it could have been him too.

I'd argue that point with the prosecutor pretty fiercely.

Couldn't you,

I mean, you could say all this information in a paragraph.

So, no, you could do it in a phrase.

That those three

paragraphs could be

the ATM camera footage was too grainy, so it couldn't be used.

That's it.

That's all you need for that.

Yeah, but it needs to explain everything to us twice so that it can then have room set up for when it instructs us on how

like,

you know, ATM identity theft works, stuff like that.

So that's why it's doing all that, I feel.

This is greater to me the more I imagine it was like commissioned by like a internet safety.

like commission like a stomp out bullying kind of group it makes it that much more fun

When I was done with my outburst, the prosecutor told me that investigators had also found a hoodie with the same logo in my apartment.

Then they played their Trump card.

The bank had been logged into from the IP address assigned to my own cell phone during that time period.

Regarding the fire, which was the main accusation against me, they had decent evidence.

The gas can was one and the voicemail was another, but

there was even stronger evidence.

When I first arrived at Walmart, I parked near the front doors in view of the cameras hanging off the building.

They clearly saw me drive away when I was heading to David's house.

When I came back, though, I had parked in the back of the lot, intending to be away from the other cars while I slept.

The cameras could barely make out my car parking in the back lot.

I was too dark to tell if it was even a vehicle, the prosecutor claimed.

So realistically, I had my own testimony to support the fact that I got back to Walmart at around 6 p.m.

I should add that it took about 15 minutes to get to David's house from the Walmart, just so you can understand the time frame.

Fire crews had received a call at 6.04 that David's home was on fire.

They had raced over immediately and found the house burning brightly.

David had been found trying to lift his mother up from the ground in her bedroom.

They'd brought them both out, and it was discovered that Mrs.

K was already dead from suffocation.

David had been rushed to the hospital with a few minor burns, smoke and elation.

He had yet to explain his version of events to police.

Firefighters had filed a report stating that the fire had been started from the middle of the living room where a puddle of gasoline had ignited.

The flames had spread through the house.

Traces of gasoline were found in various rooms, making them believe that the suspect, me, went from room to room and splashed gasoline around, just like in the movies.

The random, the random side comments are so funny, uh, just like in the movies.

And it also concluded that the fire had been started sometime before it was called in because of how much damage had already occurred by the time they arrived.

I know that David had set an alert on his phone that was linked to the app that he installed on my phone.

When the GPS read that I was at the house, an alert would be sent to his phone as a text message.

I could only guess that he jumped in his car, left for work, spent all the way home.

That's why I think the time was close.

I'm telling you all this detail.

I'm telling you all this detail so you can see just how hopeless I felt while I said a jail.

I was there for two whole weeks, but it was the same accusations that it's over and over.

I really started to just give up.

During the first few days, I don't think you have to give all the detail, though.

No, you don't.

I think in these, like, in these, in these briefs, in these briefs, the reason I wanted to say this too is like, you can, you can just be like

every

time I tried to, I don't know, rebuttal something, they brought up other fabricated pieces of evidence against me or like, you know, evidence is being fabricated and it felt like it felt hopeless.

I feel like you can just, you can just say that and I'm going to believe it because you, the author, are telling you that.

Yeah.

Because the omniscient person in the story, the one writing it, said it cannot be fixed.

So therefore it cannot be fixed.

And also like the rule of thumb with writing is if you're bored, assume your audience is bored as well.

Right.

And I do not know who's writing all of these details.

Like, wow, this is riveting, you know?

Could just be also that maybe this is like one of those older stories that was so captivating because it's so old that this was one that was like, it just goes into such detail that maybe like other stories at the time didn't, you know?

It was written nine years ago, so 2016.

So, uh, no,

how old?

Oh, okay.

Uh, how old's Baraska?

I think it's older, I'm pretty sure.

Uh, 10 years ago, yeah.

So,

so yeah, no.

I have no idea why people liked this, aside from like the reason I like it.

I don't know why people legitimately liked it, but during the first few days, I asked Harry about how he could prove that it was David specifically who had committed these crimes.

He frowned and told me I should be more concerned about being proven innocent, period, not on pleading it to another man.

By the end of two weeks, I was ready to just plead guilty rather than fight.

Plead guilty to murder.

To murdering someone in a fire.

The arraignment went poorly.

No charges were thrown out that had been placed against me.

I would list all the crimes I was charged with, but I don't remember their exact phrases, and I know I'll get it wrong.

What hasn't stopped you before?

You get the general idea, though, that it was over.

Bail had been set at $5,000.

$5,000 for burning someone to death?

Bail gets set at $5,000 for like DUIs.

Yeah.

What?

Whatever.

Okay.

Which essentially guaranteed I'll be stuck in jail for a while.

I'd already contacted my parents out of desperation.

They would try to raise money for family members and friends, but couldn't pay immediately.

Fuck.

Okay.

After three weeks, I was very depressed and not eating much.

They tried to cheer me up.

Also,

you burned someone to death and you have all this stalking and planning and they're willing to give you a bail, especially a bail that low.

What?

Okay, whatever.

I already contacted my parents out of desperation, blah, blah.

After three weeks, I had...

I was very depressed and not eating much.

Terry tried to cheer me up by showing me parts of arguments he was preparing, but nothing could cheer me.

I thought about Katie a lot, Clark and Ivan, and I missed my parents.

You know, Katie, the woman who's been kidnapped this whole time.

I also missed Clark's first hearing in the graffiti case, so I had no idea how that was going, which made me feel guilty that I couldn't support him.

During the time I was at jail, Hernandez only came to visit me once.

It was during the third week.

I jumped off my bed and ran to the bars.

Hernandez, please tell me you've come to give me good news.

No,

you're being transferred to county jail.

Your trial will be happening there.

Why?

Just how it works.

Did you find anything on Isaac?

I've been clinging to the hope that Isaac's body would turn up evidence against David.

I just wanted to nail him for that one crime.

Just one.

I wanted so bad that my hands would shake when I thought about it.

I'm not allowed to talk about that.

Anyway, I came to tell you that you'll be moved in three days.

Hernandez,

I thought you believed me.

I do.

Until you burn David's house down.

Now I'm not sure who the psychopath really is.

I didn't do it!

It's also funny to imagine that Hernandez believes everything about David manipulating his life for years and doesn't believe that he would frame an arson case on it.

No, no, he's insane, but I don't.

You are crazy, too.

I'm Hernandez.

I'm getting into this worldview.

I'm Hernandez.

This is my character.

Exit scene.

Three days later, as Hernandez had said, they came to move me.

After dinner, I was kept and let out the doors to the police cruiser that would drive me up to the county jail two hours away.

Two hours away to county?

My word.

How big is the county?

No shit.

The two officers who drove were polite to me, but instantly cranked up the radio when we got on the road.

I could barely hear myself think and was starting to get frustrated.

I'd always hated car trips without my own music, and now I was stuck in a two-hour ride with my hands cuffed behind my back and a radio blasting music I didn't like.

Yeah, that's your problem.

We were about an hour in and I was ready to scream.

Stared out the window, trying to find something interesting to watch and focus my mind on.

We were on a two-lane highway with no other cars in sight.

It was getting late, so looking back, I figured people were home for the night, and that's why it was so dead.

My view of a nice lake was suddenly obstructed by a big gray truck.

I tried to find something else to look at, but then noticed it was getting dangerously close to our lane.

Please tell me that they're going to stage a heist to like that David's like raming the police cruiser.

But then noticed it was getting dangerously close to our lane.

I looked up and saw that it was an armored truck, and it had the same logo as the company David worked for.

The panic was instantaneous.

So they gripped my lungs and kept me from vocalizing.

The truck slowly neared the side of the police cruiser before pressing against it.

The cop shouted.

The cop who was driving slammed on his brakes and the other cop dropped the radio he was reaching for.

The cruiser didn't slow down fast enough, however.

The truck nudged it off the road.

I braced for impact as we rolled down the grassy slope and slammed into a tree.

My seatbelt had held me in place, but my head ached when I rammed it against the driver's headrest the two cops were unconscious lying at awkward angles neither of them had their seat belts i started yanking at the handcuffs trying to reach my seat belt to undo it i reached red button the red button and pressed it when i turned back around to wriggle out of the loose seatbelt i saw david king walking down the slope towards the car also i just want to say you're saying david king but just because there's the you won't say the but the amount of times he has said

every single king every time

every time he says i saw david

king walk like God, dude.

Oh shit, oh shit,

I cursed, turning to reach the door handle with my cuffed hands.

No such luck.

The doors were locked from the outside to prevent prisoners from opening the doors on their own.

See, look at that.

Look at that.

In the middle of this moment, it can't just be the door was locked.

It's the doors were locked from the outside to prevent prisoners from opening doors on their own.

Like, thank you.

That's really what was on my mind.

I also feel like that's pretty obvious in a cop creature.

It's ridiculous.

Okay.

David got closer and closer until he was right outside the car.

He shot a smirk at me.

You clearly don't own an air fryer.

I'm looking at the drawing, too, while you're reading this part.

That's pretty accurate.

This does play out almost to the degree as one of your comedic three-minute cartoons, like the level of absurdity this guy goes through.

That is one of the most insulting things you ever said to me.

No, no, your whole thing is taking like normal situations and making them like insanely over the top.

But this guy is doing that and making it serious.

Tell me I'm wrong.

All right.

Okay, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.

I love your partner.

All right.

No, don't do that.

Don't give me the all right.

I love your work.

You're a great artist.

He shot a smirk at me and opened my door.

I tried to back away, but he grabbed my arm and tossed me out of the car.

I fell to the dirt with a gasp.

I sat up a little and saw that he turned his attention back to the police car.

I saw one of the cops beginning to stir.

David opened the driver's door and pulled something small from his pocket.

With a quick motion, he stabbed the cop in the neck.

Blood spurted out, and the cop started screaming and gurgling, grabbing for his neck.

I think I screamed too, but I can't remember.

You know what?

Sure, why not?

He closed the door and walked around the other side.

I could see the other cop was moving, but I couldn't tell what he was doing.

Apparently, he was reaching for his radio because David yanked it out of his hand and set it on the car's roof.

Then he stabbed that cop too.

Both of them were unconscious in seconds.

Go get up!

He threatened, walking towards me.

I didn't bother trying.

He walked over to where I sit and went behind me.

I tried to face him, but he kicked me lightly.

He knelt down and I felt him scratching the metal on my handcuffs.

I was confused, but sat absolutely still.

Nice to see you again, Xander.

Can you do it in the green goblin voice for me?

Nice to see you again, Xander.

Thank you.

He said, walking to stand in front of me.

I watched him with true fear.

His entire demeanor was different from the night he graffited his house.

He He was changing.

When I didn't answer, he laughed.

He was twisting the small object in his gloved hands.

I noticed through the blood that it was a crudely crafted shib about the length and width of a finger.

I told you, I'm not going to kill you, Xander.

In fact, for once, I'm here to help you out.

Sort of.

What does that

mean?

Remember the night you graffited my house?

I nodded.

I told you I'd consider giving you advice on how to succeed in our game.

Well, the time has come.

I'm giving you more than advice.

See, you know jail and you're no fun in jail.

I've seen the evidence they have on you.

You're going away for a long time.

I don't want that, so I'm granting you a second chance to keep playing.

He walked behind me again, and I felt sticky blood on my fingers and hand as he pressed a small shive against my hand.

Now, here's how this works.

I'm going to leave this knife with your fingerprints on in the car.

You'll think you stabbed the cops and made a run for it.

I'm going to remove your handcuffs and let you make a run for it.

You'll have a 30-minute head start before I call in on the radio.

Oh, oh, God, he has a knife!

He stabbed the driver and he's...

David cut off, mimicking the call he'd make.

Goosebumps ran up my spine.

I'll be sitting here and waiting.

If you attempt to come back,

I'll just take you away in my car and we'll play a different game.

You understand?

I nodded, too terrified to speak.

Get up, he commanded.

I struggled to my feet, rolling in the dirt to get up my knees and stand.

Come here, he said, moving towards the police car.

I followed.

He opened the police door and put his hands against the officer's neck.

I flinched when he flicked blood at me, splattered across my jailsuit and face, almost threw up.

There we go.

There we go.

He motioned for me to turn around, and I did.

He pulled the handcuff keys off the dead cop and unlocked the cuffs.

I rubbed my wrists, they were sore and marked from the crash.

I considered trying to get the shift from him and attacked, but the idea of going with him and his car to play other games terrified me.

David had set a backpack next to the car and now set it in my hands.

Hernandez says hello.

I paid him a lot of money to get him to let me track this car.

He demanded that I give you half, of course.

I'm not that generous, so here's 2,000.

A change of clothes, new shoes, and a map.

Nearest town's ten miles west.

Better hurry.

Remember, in 30 minutes, I'm calling it in.

My jaws shock as I put the backpack on and started heading towards the setting sun.

The forest looked dark and menacing.

I looked back when I was partway through the trees, and there he was, leaned against the car, drinking from the coffee container one of the cops had brought with him.

Shuddering in shock and absolutely terrified, I walked on into the woods, end of part six.

Part seven.

Okay, okay.

Jess, what does that mean?

Hernandez charged a lot of money, but said you have to give it to him too?

Like, I'll let you kill these police officers, but cut the kid some money.

You know, throw some money his way when you frame him for murdering two cops.

I guess it means anybody can be bought.

It's just like, just like, what is, what is Hernandez's character that he's like, well, give the kid some money before you murder the two officers.

There's no such thing as character.

It's just having a crazy time.

He's like, oh, I'm going to hit a cop car with an armored truck and then frame you for stabbing them to death.

Yeah, exactly.

How are you going to explain the giant dent in the side of the fucking with like paint probably

left over from the armored truck?

It's like, okay, why did I do your truck?

Yeah.

I was handcuffed in the back seat.

How would I, how How did I even get the shiv?

How would I stab them with my handcuffs?

He's Magneto.

Xander.

And if you don't do it, just play a different game, I guess.

Oh, my gosh.

And then he's like leaving his evidence by drinking the cops' coffee just to look especially evil.

Top comment on the part six is, this is literally the best series I've ever read on No Sleep.

My favorite part is that it doesn't rely on the paranormal to be scary.

It's just so creepy by itself.

Where did they make these people?

Where do they like?

Don't show who left that comment, but what kind of person is like, ooh, so creepy?

Like, what?

Well, you know what?

Now that I say that loud, I assume a child.

I assume someone who's young.

So that's fine, but otherwise, oh my gosh.

Okay.

All right.

Part seven.

Hi, everyone.

Sorry I haven't replied to nearly as many comments as in part six.

I've been busy, extremely busy.

So much to do today to prepare.

Get back to where we left off.

i honestly don't remember most of the night after the car crash i only have a glimpse of memories and i won't try to coherently express them here i got my bearings back after i'd slept off the shock my higher functions kicked back into gear after i'd gone to a grocery store and bought a small amount of food the amount of hunger that shock can induce is extreme I'd rifled through the backpack and found exactly what David had said.

Shoes, a pair of clothes, $2,000 in cash at hundreds of twenties, and a road atlas booklet.

I still have the Atlas and use it when I'm moving on.

Once I had food, water, and an inventory of my belongings, I could start to playing and work.

I dumped my jail clothes in a dumpster, paid for a haircut to try and alter my appearance.

Yes, I washed the blood off my face and hair before going in.

When I looked in the mirror afterwards, I still recognized myself, so I paid the hairdresser to dye my hair too.

I know there are self-dyeing kits that cost way less, but I know where to do it.

I knew I couldn't stay in this town because David would know exactly where to find me.

I had no idea how long this truce would last, so I had no intention of staying here one more night.

I bought a bus ticket to an adjacent state and arrived only a few hours later.

The town I chose was larger than the one I had come from.

This was intentional so I could have anonymity and a better selection of services for the homeless.

This town had a soup kitchen that I could use to cut down on cost, as well as a homeless shelter.

I knew I couldn't live long in the already dwindling $2,000, so I started going to the library and searching online for odd jobs.

I had to find something that wouldn't run a background check, if at all possible, because of the manhunt that was probably going on for me.

I saw nothing about it in the news yet,

but it had only been a day.

After a week of searching, I found a job at a CD telemarketing place that paid cash under the table.

You'd be surprised how many of these there are.

I hated the work, but it was out of the sun and making some money.

Before I found a rundown, half-empty apartment complex to live in and pay weekly.

I slept in the homeless shelter.

I could have just stayed there and saved a lot of money, sure, but I hated going there and avoided it as long as possible when nighttime came.

The money I've spent on the apartment as well was worth it.

I had some semblance of a life set up, and now I could get the the real work done.

I had gone to the mall and bought the cheapest prepaid Android phone.

Okay.

Android phone that had signed up for a monthly subscription that gave me unlimited data as well as text and calls.

I needed to find a store that would pay cash and top up every month, but it wasn't an expensive plan and I needed internet when the library was closed.

During the days, I'd spent my time in the library with a cheap notebook I'd bought doing more research similar to what I'd done in the Walmart parking lot.

I also spent a lot of time working out and trying to get stronger.

Oh, before I had the apartment, I paid for a gym membership and showered there instead of at the homeless shelter.

I decided to keep the membership at USA Machines to get a more effective workout.

Just working out in the midst of this is so funny.

Like that matters.

The plan at the time had been to stay alive and away from David and the cops.

I stayed inside the day.

I stayed inside the day the news broke of my escape in the other state.

The police finally admitted to needing help in finding me and went public for a request for information to list off the crimes I was accused of, as well as a request to question me in regards to two dead policemen.

I wrote down every detail of the investigation, though none of it proved useful other than the background knowledge.

I kept up with the sporadic news releases so I could stay as far as head of the cops as possible.

For the next six months, I stayed in the city.

During that time, I learned a lot.

Living on a tiny budget, home repairs when the landlord wouldn't fix something, hiding when you suspect you're being followed, and navigating the streets at night all became second nature to me.

I also continued to study computers and networks.

I am by no means any kind of licensed professional.

I learned by deciding what I wanted to know how to do it and practicing over and over.

One day, I was at the library when the news was published about me.

David fucking King was suspect of murdering the two cops.

I was ecstatic.

I couldn't believe my luck.

David King had finally made a mistake that had cost him, you know, using his own truck to random a cop car.

The news story did not specify why the police suspected him, but I didn't care.

Also, if he has a shiv and he's stabbing them in the neck, like I feel like your DNA is going to get

drank from the coffee cup.

Like, it's everywhere.

It's all over the place.

And 30 minutes is forever to hang out at a homicide scene.

Long time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Rule of thumb, like military, like when you're clearing through an area is 90 seconds.

Don't stay in an area where you just shot people 90 seconds because reinforcements will be there.

That is in a war zone.

30 minutes, like in civilian world is like an eternity.

My word.

David was going to get what he deserved.

A month passed with still no news on whether David had been captured or not.

I found myself tempted to call Detective Hernandez and ask what he knew, but I didn't.

Why?

Why would you?

He was bought out.

Why would you be tempted?

You know what I mean?

Am I fucking, am I going insane?

Did the guy not get bought out?

Maybe, but David was fine, and Hernandez is actually a good guy if I talk to him and tell him how I feel.

I don't know.

I honestly have no idea why he would even say that.

The next thing is, well, too, I learned a lot of self-control and risk assessment during those seven months.

Risk analysis was built in my daily decisions.

What are you talking about?

Just don't contact the guy who sold you out.

What do you okay?

After checking for news on David for the third time in a week, I decided that I would no longer be a bystander waiting for David to be caught.

I decided to begin actively hunting David.

Since I knew he was good with computers, the internet was the best place to begin looking for traces of him.

I searched hundreds of forums, scoring for a list of keywords that I thought David would either post for or look for.

I won't include that list here.

In only a a couple weeks, I found one of his online accounts on Stack Exchange.

I took notes of everything he commented as well as his account activity.

Fortunately, he had kept the same account for several years.

Granted, it was under a pseudonym, but he kept it.

He still uses it today, actually.

I just checked.

He was like several hours ago when I wrote this.

Once I found one account, it held clues to many others.

He slipped out information accidentally that I could use to locate his other accounts.

Posts like, I've asked this question on this forum and got no response.

Now I'm asking it here.

With link two accounts, reveal yet another gold mine of data for my study.

I spent weeks gathering pseudonyms, post records, and IP addresses he used, anything I could find with the tools I had available, some pseudonyms he had used more than once, and others he created as throwaway names.

The research gave me invaluable insight into the way David thinks, talks, and acts.

I got to know him on a level I could never have hoped to understand him just from being his friend in high school.

It made my hate for him grow, not diminish.

I didn't only check the regular web either.

Some people claim that deep web is a terrifying place where you can get killed at every turn, but if it isn't, you don't act stupid.

I installed Tor.

It isn't if you don't act stupid.

I installed Tor and began doing the same data mining in the deep web.

The results were fantastic.

I found catalogs worth of information.

I was able to identify a lot of his false identities online and then map them to make fake social media pages he had created for them that he might need to cover up.

And all this came because he insisted on using the same username over and over again.

Why did he do that?

Because he wanted people to know who he was when they interacted and respect him.

Weakness.

Well, isn't he also just like, he's probably just leaving breadcrumbs because he wants the guy to fuck with him?

I'd imagine.

Yeah.

One day, just for the hell of it, I sent him a message as myself to one of his accounts.

Why would you do that?

I made my email address visible on purpose.

He'd need it.

Spam mail started instantly after that.

The response was so childish and brashed that I was smiling that whole day.

I knew that I could get to him.

I also tried calling the Psychological Institute where David's records would be.

If I was lucky, I could get my hands on another copy of his evaluation, studied it with my new eyes.

There was no such luck, however.

David had called them and had told them to send copies to anyone because he was the current victim of fraud.

How ironic.

I was able to use his accounts that were used to track down his location.

Sometimes he used a VPN and sometimes he didn't.

Recently, last week, he moved to a nearby city.

He seemed to be following his own instruction to his partner to move around a couple of days.

He was jumping from city to city, but not crossing the entire country every time he moved.

He was making a snake-like trail through the country.

Went over to his town he'd moved to and walked down the streets for hours, hoping to get a glimpse of him.

It was just my luck that he walked out of a grocery store just as I was walking in.

He didn't notice me, but I followed him back to where he was staying.

For a couple of days, at least, I knew where he was.

Next few days were spent in surveillance.

Watched him day and night, following him everywhere.

I saw no signs of Katie being with him, though, which made sense.

His partner only came to visit once.

He stayed for only 10 minutes before leaving in a car.

I hadn't seen him arrive in.

Blew my only opportunity to follow him since I had no car of my own.

Dave's been a little bit more.

Also,

I just want to say, too, Katie has been gone for how many months now?

At least three, I think.

Okay.

I think.

So they're just housing her.

She's like in an Airbnb.

Yeah.

But still, she's a missing.

She's a missing person, though, is what I mean.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There is a massive manhunt for her.

There should be.

And there's also apparently a manhunt for him, but he still can sleuth around and stuff like that.

And this is coming from the guy who

was such an expert survivalist that the first thing he did was got a job and a gym membership

to places that require ID and cameras and stuff like that.

So,

yeah.

Brilliant.

Yeah, when David moved on, I followed him.

I slept on the streets again, unwilling to let him leave my sight.

I followed him around and learned so much about him from this routine and habits.

I had learned so much about my enemy and my nemesis that I was finally ready to confront him for the last time.

And now, everyone,

we come to the crux of the story.

This is the focal point that this entire series has led up to.

Hello,

David King.

Yes.

Oh, man.

I know you're reading this.

I see you check it during your morning coffee routine at Starbucks.

It took you a few days to find it, but I knew if I told the story through to the end and gained enough popularity, you'd find it.

The more people became interested, the more likely you were to see it.

And now here you are.

I'm sitting here watching to see your face when you read this part.

This has been the buildup of the entire series.

I wrote all of this for this one moment.

You've read every comment.

I've seen you scrolling through them and opening subcomments to see what they say.

You're very invested in what everyone has to say.

And the the one thing you can conclude from the comments is this.

Everyone here hates you.

Every last one.

Hundreds of people now hate you.

Many of them have offered time, talent, and cunning towards your complete destruction.

I have refused their help until now.

I want Katie back.

All my stalking hasn't told me what really matters, where she is.

So I'm using this thread to get to you.

Either you give Katie back or I release everything about you to all these people who hate you.

I know aliases, addresses, phone numbers, comments admitting to illegal activity, social security numbers, driver's license, passports, online account names, everything.

The police will have it all too.

I've been tracking you for so long, David.

The first few lines of every post where I said, for example, that you almost found me, they were lies.

I've been watching from afar during the entire publication of these posts.

Right now, as I'm about to press submit, you just bought a sandwich at Jimmy John's, the meatball sub.

It's currently Saturday, July 2nd, 7.32 p.m.

There's your proof that I'm nearby.

Convinced yet, bring Katie to Wells Park at 10 p.m.

tonight and leave your partner behind.

If you don't show, I'll release all the information I have, dedicate the rest of my life to updating that information and releasing it to anyone here who wants to do something about it.

I've set up a time release of that information.

It will be automatically posted via private message to everyone who ever commented on these threads, and they will spread it even further.

The timed release will occur at 3 a.m.

tonight unless I'm there to stop it.

You need two people to stop it, each one with their own password?

No, I won't tell you who the other person is.

For everyone else here on the thread, I will have another post up in at least 48 hours.

I'm giving myself a time buffer to respond in case David tries anything stupid.

If I don't write an update and the information has been released, you'll know what happened.

You all have asked what you could do to help me.

If you receive the information, do what you need to.

See you soon, David.

All right, this is the last part.

I am grinning

right now.

I'm so excited.

Last part.

Let's see how this ends.

Did David follow through?

Was he spooked into doing it?

Win to get?

Let's see.

All right.

Oh, man.

This is so.

This is it, man.

That was it.

Hey, you know what?

This is it.

You know what, brother?

Cheers.

Cheers, buddy.

I have my diet or I have a sugar-free Baja blast here.

So cheers.

Cheers, buddy.

Cheers, brother.

We made it.

We made it here together.

It's always me and you.

All right.

Well,

I'm back.

Hi, everyone.

I'm alive.

I...

Well, I'll just start telling you what happened.

I'm starting to shake as I even think about writing everything down, but I have to finish this.

After I posted my last update, it was go time.

I've been preparing for this event for so long that it was hard to believe that I had just hit submit.

I couldn't go through and comment to everyone that part seven was up.

Sorry, I had to see David's reaction.

I put my phone in my pocket and watched David from across the street.

He was eating dinner, just like I said in my post.

His phone clearly went off because he perked up his head and grabbed his phone from the table.

I've seen his phone go off whenever I post before, so I knew he had set an alert.

I watched his eyes scan the post with interest.

Then his eyes slowly widened.

I knew when he reached my favorite part because his gaze shot up and looked around the restaurant.

He wrapped up his sandwich and quickly walked out of the restaurant, his eyes scanning the street while still glancing at his phone to keep reading.

It was a very satisfying scene.

It makes me smile just thinking about it.

I didn't follow him home.

Instead, I waited for the inevitable email.

Do you want to know why David was so scared of my information release?

He was scared because the internet was his safe haven.

He was powerful there.

We had our dare conversation, and for so long after that, I was the computer illiterate one, and he ruled that domain.

And now I had managed to track him in his safe place.

Before, I had been weak and an easy target for his games.

Now that I had seriously fought back and threatened him, he was worried.

That email came while I could see him walking away.

Hello, Xander.

Bravo.

But I'm not going to meet you in public.

To be honest, I posted Wells Park online because I figured he would want to change the location if it was a public place.

And I didn't want to release the real address online.

I didn't want anyone crashing the party and getting hurt.

Sorry for lying.

I'll be apologizing for lying a lot by the end of this post.

I told him that I'd email him the new address 15 minutes before it was time to meet.

He didn't respond.

I didn't want him to have the address too early and show up to set any traps.

He really should have countered with the location of his own, but he didn't.

I stood up.

Time to go to the warehouse and wait.

The location I'd chosen used to be a warehouse of some kind.

I didn't care what it had been used for, only that it was abandoned and unguarded.

If David tried anything stupid, which I thought he was going to, I didn't want any more innocent bystanders in the way.

I took an Uber to to a suburban area a few blocks away.

When the Uber left, I walked to the warehouse.

When I arrived, I was already.

It was already almost 9 p.m.

Not completely dark yet, but getting there.

Walked around the perimeter of the warehouse, looking for any sign that David had beaten me here.

There wasn't any sign that I could see.

I approached the side door and pulled a key out of my pocket, unlocked the chains from the door, handed and stored them just inside the door as I entered.

The soundscape changed from an ambient evening in the city, an ambient evening in the city to a tomb.

Wait, he just owns a warehouse.

I get that, or maybe it's just like an abandoned one that's where he wanted to eat or something.

I don't know, but he has the keys, so I don't feel like whatever.

It's too late at this point.

The factory had a single floor that was one big open space.

High above it, catwalks ran along the rafters all leading from the warehouse manager's office, which was a metal cube suspended at one end of the warehouse.

I would pay a lot of money if he, like, the lights come on and David has Katie suspendered over a vat of acid.

I was going to pitch something to you.

The only way this story gets redeemed to be the coolest story ever is

uh these two clearly um

unwell unwell people have a lightsaber duel in

the warehouse

he does i guess it's kind of this zender and he like throws out the he does like the

like to the uh like almost like the baton lightsabers you could buy at Walmart, like the plastic ones.

You throw them out, and he just

and turns on the light.

And like a really crappy

bees, yeah.

A really crappy rendition of Duel of the Fate starts playing.

Exactly.

And he does.

Oh!

Yeah, dude.

That'd be so damn good.

Or the other alternative is this all turns out to be the Joker origin story, the killing joke, where like he kicks him into a bat of acid and he comes out and he's the joker and like the city waters.

Yeah, I forgot to tell you the city I was in was Gotham.

Gotham.

Yeah, I made my way to Gotham.

That'd be really cool.

All right, so it's literally like the warehouse industrial ending of like a superhero comic.

Yeah.

Shelf scaffolding that had been abandoned broke up the empty space.

Crates and pallets were strewn across here and there, making hiding places.

i'd previously come and strategically arrange them in case it came down to a firefight what did you have a gun uh i would assume if not then you just gotta give me you give me tons of information before this but then it's just like by the way i'm not gonna tell you i have a gun

that was my little surprise

That's also when I had put chains on every door.

There were four entrances into the warehouse, not including the windows near the ceiling.

I had chained them all except the one I entered through.

That was my funnel.

If you've ever gone hunting for live game, you know what I'm talking about.

Okay.

You don't have to go hunting for live game to know what a funnel is.

No,

if you've ever hunted an elephant, you'd know what I'm talking about.

You have to hunt elephant to understand the concept of locking every door except the one you want people to enter through.

There was nothing left to do but wait now.

I said,

it's funny to imagine that like our author is equally as insane.

Like they're both just like

completely inept people.

Yeah.

There was nothing left to do but wait now.

I sent him the address at 9:45.

Rattling of the front door alerted me that he was here.

He was a half hour late, which was an attempt to unnerve me.

The door jolted repeatedly, but the chains held it shut.

It was dark now.

The only lights

streamed in the windows from industrial-style streetlights outside.

How am I supposed to beat you if you won't let me in?

The hair on the back of my neck rose despite all my preparations.

It was time.

This is literally, this is, this is literally like, this is literally like airsoft fatty and his friend.

Yo, that's actually a really good, dude.

That's like a perfect one for one of like how seriously they're taking this.

Yes, exactly.

And this is like the level of circumstance that would call for seriousness, but what if they just made all that up?

David, I told you not to go full force.

Yeah, yeah, literally.

Dude, oh man, this is awesome.

I he opens up and he's like, the door opens opens and David's floating on a glider.

David tried all three doors.

He skipped over the only one that was unlocked until he absolutely had to.

He knew what a funnel was, but he had no...

He also must have hunted life game.

He knew what the funnel was, but he had no choice.

The windows were too high and resulted in a very high fall once he got in.

The side door silently opened and in walked.

David fucking king.

I stayed where I was behind a wooden crate stacked stacked with pallets.

If he came in shooting, I didn't want to be an easy target.

Slow clapping.

Oh, God.

Yes.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, this is so great.

Slow clapping filled the echoing room.

Dude, this entire story is like an alien watched airsoft fatty YouTube videos and then wrote like a crime novel.

Well done.

David chanted.

I peered through the pallets to see the door shut behind David.

He was alone.

Where is she?

Wait, can you say that like Batman?

Like the Where's Rachel?

Where is she?

Was that just loud enough to be heard?

I'm so very impressed with you, Xander.

Completely unexpected.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, lighting up the wall behind him.

He began to read.

Fuck you, David.

Hashtag fuck David King, Xander.

You brilliant bastard.

Go get your girl.

We're coming for you, David.

Thousands of these.

Almost all saying the same thing.

How does it feel to have people rooting for you?

You feel better equipped to fight me now?

We're

face shake!

Hold on, I gotta push my chair out of the way.

We're.

Oh, all right.

I'm half standing for this.

This is too good.

This is art.

Oh, my gosh.

All right.

Literally slow clapping into the room.

Well done.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, it'd be so funny if it was like David stepped in on a landmine and exploded.

The end.

David knocked on the door behind him and it opened.

Literally, mob, bum, bum.

David knocked on the door behind him and it opened.

In shuffled Katie.

Her face was red and shimmering with tears.

Duct tape had been wrapped around her entire head several times, covering her mouth.

Her wrist had been similarly wrapped.

A band of tape also tied her ankles together, but had enough slack that she could take small steps.

A thick arm was wrapped around her neck as a tall, blonde man with extremely curly hair guided her into the room.

I said to leave your partner behind!

If you didn't, if you don't want him here, then come kill him.

I didn't respond.

Damn it.

God fucking damn it.

So, Zed.

How would you like to proceed?

You're running the show here.

David called like a roundhouse.

Send Katie forward and leave.

Sorry.

I don't have a guarantee that you won't release all the information anyway.

Come on out here and we'll discuss my terms.

Like hell I am.

David looked to his his partner, and his partner used his free arm to punch Katie in the side.

She cried out,

poop!

She cried out.

This is literally like that.

If this was in an anime or like a Batman comic, it would be too cheesy, right?

Like the level of.

She cried out as best she could through the duct tape and faltered, but the blonde man held her up by her neck.

We can can do this all night.

Oh, God.

I stood up.

My hiding place was off to David's left, so I walked in a semicircle until I was directly in David's line of sight.

Come closer.

I stepped forward until we were a couple yards apart.

Look how you've changed.

Your hair looks good.

You should always dye it darker.

So stoic now.

Confident.

Being on the run has changed you.

I guess all we had to do was increase the minimum required effort, was go on the run, huh?

I fucking hate my life.

I hate my fucking life.

I hate my fucking life.

I hate my life.

Then maybe we could have avoided this whole mess.

Then again, it's all been so fun.

Let's get this over with.

So hostile.

What's your first term?

He leaves.

Okay.

David shrugged before I could process what was happening

Bro, this story keeps getting better.

This is the best thing I've ever read on the podcast David shrugged before I could process what was happening He pulled a handgun from his pocket and shot the blonde man in the head

It is beyond the realm of it.

It is like Saturday morning cartoons on steroids.

He collapsed dragging Katie with him.

Katie gave a muffled shriek and untangled herself from his body, dragging herself backwards along the floor.

She backed into the wall and stayed there, eyes wide.

David looked down at the body before slowly turning his head to me.

My turn.

It finally hit me how in over my head I was.

I might understand David King, but I could never, ever match his sickness.

It occurred that I could die that night, despite David's rules.

Show me the data.

That's my first term.

I want to know exactly what you're going to release so I know if it's worth my only bargaining chip.

I tried to hide my shaking hands as I pulled my phone out.

I went into my email drafts on a throwaway account where I had saved a copy and emailed it to him.

I sent it to you.

David smiled reassuringly.

Fast as a lizard, he spun around and snatched Katie off the floor.

She screamed as he stole.

She screamed as he stood her up and held held her in front of him.

I pulled my

Ruger SR-45 handgun out of the concealed carry holster I'd worn and tried to get a clear shot.

He was too fast and he had caught me by surprise.

So she was in front of him before I'd even lined him up in the sight.

So

you got a gun after all.

Didn't see that part in your post?

Relax.

I'm just making sure sure I can read in peace.

Oh my gosh.

He held the gun to her.

He held the gun to her head with one hand while opening his phone with the other.

My mind raced, trying to figure out the next steps.

David had waltzed into a hostage negotiation that I had arranged myself and took over.

He took his time reading through the data dump.

His expression changed between surprise and a smirk smirk repeatedly.

Well now,

he said, putting his phone away and slipping his now free arm around Katie's neck.

I had no idea I was so careless.

Katie gasped as he suddenly gripped her neck tighter and pressed the muzzle against her temple.

Let's move somewhere smaller.

He said, looking up at the manager's box.

I don't want you running away when the going gets tough.

They went up toward the back wall, then turned to the left straight into the side of the manager's box.

Another set of stairs should have been on the other side, mirroring these, but they had been disassembled and lay in a heap.

I kept my face to David as I walked towards the stairs.

I kept my gun pointed in his direction, and he kept his muzzle against Katie's head.

Katie was sobbing and watching me.

When I reached the stairs, I slowly backed up them.

David followed once I was halfway up.

At the top of the stairs, the door to the office stood.

To the left, a graded walkway led over the floor, spreading into catwalks that sprawled the entire place.

I opened the metal door to the office and backed in.

The only furniture in the room were two heavy wood tables.

The rest of the office was bare.

A thin slit of a window overlooked the warehouse floor.

David pushed Katie into the room with his arms still around her neck and shut the door behind him.

I followed him with my gun, standing against the opposite wall where the second door leading into the office was.

The office was big enough that we were still a few yards away from each other.

Now,

I don't have to worry about you running off into the dark warehouse.

As fun as hide-to-seek sounds, I don't have the time.

You know, when I found your post, I thought I stumbled across some sort of therapy story that you were putting up.

But it was so much better.

You really have surprised me.

You've grown and changed and tried to beat me.

But you haven't changed enough.

I can see in your face and your trembling hands, you are still you, Xander.

You've changed your exterior, but inside you have the same motivations and weaknesses.

He tided his grip on Katie again.

I know your next term is for me to let Katie go.

So I'm going to skip your turn, and I know you would prefer that she remain in my custody rather than getting shot.

So I suggest you put your gun down

I stood my ground I wanted to take a shot but didn't want to risk him being faster than me I was confident in my aim but not my speed

put it down

in an instant the gun had left her temple fired a shot into the floor and returned to her head she sobbed and the heat of the barrel on her skin must have hurt

and that fucking her outdoor

slowly I set the gun on the floor and kicked it in his direction

Good choice.

Have you realized why you're here yet?

My face answered him.

What did that even mean?

Of course I did.

You think you're here to save Katie, but you aren't.

She's been gone for a year now, and you've only built up memories of her.

The Katie you knew is dead.

But not even that, Katie, is the reason

you're here right now.

No,

you gave up on a happily ever after with Katie long ago.

This isn't a a hero's quest to save the princess.

This is a revenge assault on the dragon.

Woo!

I tighten my jaw.

I refuse to admit he was right.

This isn't about saving her.

This is about outsmarting me.

Keeping Katie safe and sound is just result.

So, in that sense...

You and I are the same now.

It's about outsmarting the other one.

You outsmarted one simply living a life, then progressed to defending yourself,

then to protecting your loved ones.

And now you've arrived where you wanted to be all along,

trying to ruin me.

It took you a couple of years, but you made it.

And at least most of the way.

Even if Katie isn't the true reason you're here, she's still a weakness.

And I'm going to guess that other people in your life are the same way.

You still have weaknesses that tie you down.

I learned how to get rid of mine.

Like your own mother?

She was a liability.

It wasn't personal.

You're a sick fuck.

The door behind David slightly opened.

I'd oiled those hinges for hours, making sure they made absolutely no noise.

I'm about to get a lot sicker.

He started to pull the trigger when he was tackled from behind.

Katie tumbled out of his grasp as he tried to use both arms to catch himself.

His gun went off, but the shot hit the wall.

Katie rolled away from David's reach.

David started to get up, but the assailant was on their feet faster.

David, on his hands and knees, looked up at the attacker.

Remember me, bitch!

Clark jeered and then punched in a downward arc into the side of David's head.

David dropped to the floor, but he was still conscious.

He grabbed Clark's legs and tore him to the ground.

I raced forward and pulled Katie out of the scuffle.

I dragged her out of the door before getting her to her feet and cutting the tape of her hands with my pocket knife.

This was a time to get the layers off her head.

She was wide-eyed.

Rain!

Go outside.

The cops will be here soon.

I turned back inside to go help Clark.

Not a romantic reunion, I know, but there was still a psychopath in there.

David and Clark were wrestling on the floor throwing punches and grappling with one another david was bigger and landed a few hard punches i looked over my shoulder making sure katie was stumbling down the steps i dove in aiming for my gun that was just beside the scuffle david saw me and kicked my legs like a tentacle out of the ocean i

i tripped and knocked the gun into the corner when i fell david suddenly shoved clark off of him practically tossing him on one of the tables.

I watched as David jumped up and made for his gun.

I writhed on the ground and kicked.

My toes barely caught the gun and sent it skittering across the room.

There were two guns in the room, both on opposite sides, two of us and only one of him.

Clark rolled off the desk and jumped into David as he ran for the gun.

They both slammed into the wall.

I crawled for my gun, which was just out of reach by a couple feet.

There was another crash behind me.

My fingers wrapped around the gun and I twisted around on the ground, aiming it in their direction.

I had turned just in time to see David fire a shot into Clark.

There was no hesitation as I squeezed the trigger.

I struck his shoulder.

He whirled to face me.

I fired again and again and again and again.

Even after he stumbled back against the wall and slid down, I kept firing just to be sure.

Just to make sure that that just to make sure he would never get back up again.

My gun clicked to alert me that I had emptied the clip.

10 shots and everyone had hit.

David fucking king.

I exhaled and dropped the gun, letting my head fall back to the floor.

My heart pounded.

My whole body shook, but I couldn't rest yet.

Shakily, I got to my feet and stumbled over to Clark.

He was crumpled against the wall, clutching his left shoulder.

Blood oozed through his fingers.

Damn, he shot me.

He said, clearly in shock.

It's when the police sirens could be heard.

Get out of here.

No, I'm going to.

I'll be fine.

Police will be here any second to help me.

Just get out!

Get Get back on the run!

I'll contact you when it's safe.

Go!

I'm not letting you get arrested again until they get the facts straight!

I rushed toward the door, stuffing the Ruger back of my pants as I moved.

I paused at the door.

Thank you, I said,

looking at Clark.

Go!

I sprinted down the steps and ran to the door furthest in the back of the building.

I unlocked the chains of the door, pulled it open, ducking into the night.

I'd run this path over and over, making sure it was good enough for an escape in case something went wrong.

I went to my previously established hiding place and hunger down to stay hidden.

I sent a text to the server my script was on and entered the password to cancel the info dump.

There was never a second person.

That was a bluff.

There's no reason to release that information to you now since David is dead.

I'm sorry.

I really appreciate the level of support to ruin David, but there's no point now.

I thought he'd still be alive afterward.

Police will get it eventually as evidence, though.

Also tapped out, I am alive in the Reddit thread to alert everyone that I had survived.

Then I collapsed into sleep.

This morning, I was thinking clearly again and feeling better.

I ate and drank lots to counter the shock.

I've started making plans of where I'll go next.

It isn't safe to stay here much longer.

The news hasn't said anything about the incident yet, but I'm sure the story will break eventually.

I have stayed glued to the radio app on my phone all day today and I'm listening right now.

Hoping for an update on Katie or Clark.

Thank you, Reddit.

God.

Thank you, Reddit.

You've helped me remain positive these past few days and set this trap.

It's finally done.

I regret so many things about what I did and how I reacted in the past.

I should have fought more forcefully before it came to this.

I was too scared, though, and didn't really understand David.

But now I do.

Only now does it matter because he's gone.

From here, I'll continue to stay on the run.

I don't plan to turn myself in until Hernandez says the prosecution is ready to drop all charges.

He got paid off!

I don't understand the Hernandez thing, but he was a good guy.

He got paid off, sure, but he made sure that, you know,

he got Xander got $2,000.

So that makes him okay.

Am I fucking high?

Am I fucking hot?

Even though he let two people die and was culpable in this entire conspiracy, he gave him $2,000.

You know, bygones are bygones.

It's really crude of you to hold that against him, I think, in my opinion.

Hernandez is trying his hardest back at home to mitigate mitigate the evidence against me and all those charges.

Clark's testimony about what happened last night should really help reduce the credibility of David's claims.

Plus, the GoPros we set up around the warehouse won't hurt.

We'll see that I lured him into a trap and then shot him to death.

David's confession about his mother was a bonus I hadn't expected.

Originally, we had intended to lock David in the manager's office for the police to find.

Clark had called the police just before attacking.

Circumstances had changed that plan.

Some of you may wonder, well, what if David hadn't taken you up into the manager's office?

We had a contingency plan.

I didn't know I was prepared to kill until I had my gun aimed at David.

I don't think I fully processed the fact that I've killed someone.

I don't know how I'm supposed to feel or act or think or anything.

I feel like I'm acting the wrong way.

Anyway,

there's another part that will help persuade the prosecutor to drop charges against me.

I lied before when Hernandez came to visit me in jail.

I said he told me he couldn't talk about Isaac's death, but he did tell me they had found a video file on Isaac's computer from the day he died.

He had been recording himself playing games for YouTube when there was a crash of silverware in the background.

Isaac didn't hit pause on the recording and left the room to investigate.

David came flying back into the room, shoving Isaac into the bookcase.

He slammed the door and was on him in seconds.

The assault lasted only minutes.

David walked out, leaving the door wide open.

So David didn't notice that he was being recorded the entire time, I guess.

The camera.

I didn't see the OBS on the computer watching.

I don't know.

I'm a hacker.

You think I'm supposed to know how cameras work, silly?

I'm a hacker.

I'm a hacker.

The camera watched him.

And also, so that means that Hernandez had a video of David murdering someone, but still they had to arrest him, send him over.

Couldn't stop him.

Not enough evidence.

Not enough evidence.

The camera watched him come back into the room with my pillow.

He held the pillow over Isaac's body and hit it repeatedly.

All the dead skin from my pillow fell into Isaac's body.

That's not how that works.

They found those traces on Isaac's body, but the video proved that I hadn't killed him.

David had walked out and locked the door behind him.

He made a mistake and had to check that what was running on the computer.

All he saw was the game.

Hernandez and I had been in contact while I was first on the run.

I lied about that too.

When I had first contacted him, he started crying on the phone, apologizing repeatedly.

He told me that he knew if I stayed in jail that I would, at the very least, lose a lot of time out of my life while I.

What?

Hold on.

Okay, this is every time you try to explain something in a story, it makes it worse.

When I had first contacted him, he started crying on the phone, apologizing.

He told me he knew if I stayed in jail, I would, at the very least, lose a lot of time of my life while the trial went on, even if David was accused later on and more evidence came out.

So hold on.

So Dave.

He had accepted David's deal and demanded that I had been given half the 15,000 he was paid.

David, as you know, only gave me two, but Hernandez had hoped it would help me lay low and evade capture while he could successfully contest the evidence.

We fully intended to to report the bribe to the police.

Hold on.

So Hernandez is like, well, I don't want you to be bored in jail.

So I agreed to get two cops killed in order to send you on the run after David, I hope, holds up his word and doesn't kill you.

Whatever.

He told me.

And after my escape from the car, the police were very suspicious about the circumstances of my escape.

There were too many holes in the story.

And Hernandez had been sure to point out every last one repeatedly to his boss.

A lot of you pointed them out, too.

Paint from the truck rubbing off, bars separated from the front seat from the back seat, GPS of the truck marking his whereabouts, and the location of the crash in relation to the time David sought the alarm.

Yeah, David, who's super smart, uses his company vehicle to ram a truck off the road and thinks he can blame it on the guy in the back.

David had clearly been desperate to get me out of jail.

He risked bribing an official and left a lot of his plan up to chance to get me out.

David just didn't want to end the game yet.

If I went to jail, it was over.

Yeah, there were still so many ways he could ruin my life.

His need for quick action led to mistakes.

Hernandez also told me that he came to visit Jackson to turn up.

He'd come home a couple days after I was arrested and was brought in for questioning.

He had proof and witnessed that he had been staying with his family for a few days.

Wait, who's Jackson?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Oh, he's the roommate who disappeared for a while.

Wait, so that whole thing, he was just gone.

He just went to be with his family for a minute.

Yeah.

The guy we thought was dead turns out he drove away from the house.

When asked about the breaking and theft, he told his story.

Why are we explaining this?

Oh my gosh, this is

like

an alien needing to explain all this.

David had knocked on the door just as Jackson was finishing packing to go on vacation.

He told Jackson that he was a friend of mine and he was helping me move out.

Jackson left him in and finished packing.

He was just walking towards the door with his suitcase, but David asked if he could be willing to help carry out the TV.

Jackson agreed and carried it out with David.

Huh?

He then grabbed the suitcase and left, asking David to lock up when he was done.

That's when he started stealing everything and trashing our house.

That's also when Isaac would have come out and been killed.

It solved the riddle of why the door had been locked and not broken when Clark found the apartment stripped bare.

Wait, police came in and did a whole investigation of the apartment and didn't go into the locked room that Isaac was dead in?

No.

Okay.

There are still some questions that I don't have answers to.

We haven't been able to figure out what he did with all the things he stole from us.

We also don't know who the partner is.

Hernando should know that in a few days, let me know.

I also don't know how the key longer got on my computer or when the tracking app was installed on my phone, or how David was able to provide my social security number, driver's license number, and all the other accurate information to the credit card companies.

The same goes for the fraud that was committed against my parents.

I can't help but wonder if David had been in our house before the break-in and done all that.

As for Clark, his disgraceful exit was a fabrication to throw David off.

It, what?

Oh, it was my idea to make him disappear from my life and take the target off his back.

It was both to protect him from what

back whenever he's like, oh, oh his mom made him go back you're leaving that's why he's saying that was a lie oh it was actually a ford each so this is the ending of the usual suspects where we see the flashback of how he instrumented everything that happened but he's just stupid but it's stupid but yeah

Disappearing my life, take the target off his back.

It was both to protect him from David's rage and so that he could support me in the background.

His mom did come and bail him out, but she was much kinder about the situation of worried, like all moms do.

When I messaged Clark to tell him I plan on posting the series, he immediately jumped to help help me.

And without him, I'd still be watching David and waiting for a good moment to strike.

It was his idea to plant the information about hiding his bank information on scraps of paper around town.

It was placed as a joke and a way to tell if he was reading the series.

We wanted to see if David would go hunting for them.

He didn't, but that was probably because he was on the run.

So

we did all this to see if he would go for it.

He did not, but he still probably read them, I would imagine.

But still, pretty fun.

But still, good idea.

Liked our little Easter egg hunt.

Clark's arraignment didn't go so well.

He's still being charged with the Myste for graffitiing David's old house.

An expert was called to analyze the photographs and identified them as authentic and undoctored.

Either David has someone else doing one hell of a Photoshop job, or he took pictures from angles that cut me out naturally.

We are still trying to figure out how to resolve his problem.

Yeah, all of this, Clark may face a $4,000 fine.

Like, it's pretty serious.

With Katie, I have yet to see her beyond those brief moments while confronting David.

It's been only a few days for all of you throughout this series, but for all of us, she's been missing for a year.

It's been a year.

It's been a year.

I thought it's been a couple months.

Oh my gosh.

I had no idea what David or his partner might have done during, done to her during all that time.

I don't know when I'll ever be able to see her again since I'm still on the run until the charges are dropped.

If the charges are dropped, that is.

I'm scared to see her.

I know David did it, but I feel responsible.

I wonder if she blames me.

I wonder if she hates me.

Maybe one day I'll know.

What David said has shaken me.

I spent a lot of time thinking about it today.

He told me I was there for him and not for Katie.

The guy who kidnaps kidnaps people and murdering being like, we're not so different, you and I.

And it worked.

That, that, I was after the dragon, not the princess.

I realized that he's right.

Oh man, I've read a few of your responses and agree with you.

I didn't write all that much about Katie during the series.

If it had been about Katie, I would have written more.

What?

The fact that I let her go back and fight says volumes about why I set this trap.

David was right.

It wasn't about Katie.

Katie was a result.

It makes me feel guilty and dirty to think about it.

Maybe it would be best if I never saw her again.

She's not likely to want to see me.

Katie, if you're ever reading this, if you can ever handle it, I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry.

Once again, thank you, Reddit.

You've helped me so much with your support, encouragement, and your unknowing aid in making this trap for David.

I couldn't have done this without you.

The last two years have been hell, but it's finally over.

We ruined who, Hunter?

David fucking king.

Let's go!

Story over.

We did it.

Oh, man.

That might have been the greatest thing to ever grace my lips on this show.

Incredible.

We appreciate you guys.

Whoever was able to stick with this until the end, whoever who's listening to me say this right now, I appreciate you as a

listener, as an audience member.

I am going to get, I'm going to give this the award, my award at least, which Isaiah might have his own someday, but this for me is awarded the least enjoyable reading.

Wait, Hunter, Hunter.

And this is the first, this is literally the first episode we've recorded in 2025.

And I really hope it doesn't mark the year that's to come.

It's all I have to say.

Wait, Hunter, do you have a

do you still have part eight pulled up?

Yeah, I do.

Yeah, I see series two, and I'm never going to read that.

No, click on it.

Look, Hunter, there's another seven-part series.

All from the perspective of Clark.

What?

All from the perspective of Clark?

Hunter,

we can't lose this.

Yeah.

Hunter, this is important.

We can't let this happen.

Whoa, Hunter.

Thank you guys for listening on Spotify and ranking us

on Spotify and giving us a hard spot.

Thank you guys for also listening on Apple Podcast as well.

We appreciate it.

I dared my best friend to end my life.

I just want to say

thank you guys so much for sticking with us.

I'm not sure if you can see it.

Hello, Reddit.

I'm very, very, very, very sorry.

Hunter, it says, this is Clark.

Again, forgive us.

And it opens and says, this is Clark.

And Xander's best friend.

He says, I hope you'll remember me.

I wish I was there.

He says, I'm here.

And he says, I'm here because Xander is missing.

Hunter, there's another eight-part series, and it starts with Xander missing.

We can't pass that up.

What will the people think?

They'll be so sad.

That was great.

I loved it.

I hope you all loved it too.

Thank you.

Bye.