The Harbinger Experiment | CreepCast

welcome back to grief cast today i believe we are reading a classic or at least this is one that isaiah knew from when he was a kid yes called the harbinger experiment which also you said that there's posts on our subreddit that are that basically said like oh you should check this out i remember it being good well the one post you're reading me it was kind of funny the guy was like yeah you should read it i don't remember anything about it i just can't remember that i think it made me feel pretty scared but i don't remember and you're like what kind of review is that for the story well not to mention their context around that was i was in the grocery store with my mom. Yeah, I love that. Prime age to be scared by us. It's also funny to imagine a woman walking around and there's an iPad boy next to her listening to creepypastas. A version one iPad, giant brick reading Harbinger experiment or whatever. That was unironically me. Yeah, you were that little kid. Hello! What is that on your iPad? Basically smut! tell him uh it was either it was this we ended up on this too one of these days i keep seeing people uh there's a story called uh happy appy that people say is like a classic or something too so i don't know that's one too though i think we were gonna have to read the future but you'll love that oh my god this is like a fucking four or five hour long read yeah well um you'll be you'll be excited when that one shows up so okay so that's a that's a terrible story is what you're saying. Don't know. No. You're a horrible, horrible, horrible liar. I immediately can tell that that's going to be a dog shit story. If it's a fucking my best friend's ruining my life, I can't do it. If it's that long of a story and it'd go... That was an actual prison sentence. You didn't appreciate what that story gave us. I hate David King so much. Well, yeah, the point of the story is to hate David King. but fuck you um you don't get it princess that's what he wants you to do um no you don't appreciate that story because there are so many boring stories where i wish it became a psa about credit card fraud and i mean that's true david broke into the apartment and choked his roommate to death for no reason that is true if you're gonna go there at least go there and it did go there i mean i i will give credit where credit is due because i know that for some god-awful reason it's one of our audiences i would say it's like a top episode people don't say don't say for some reason you know exactly why you were screaming i was cry laughing it's the crash it's the crash out but i am not gonna i refuse to acknowledge it i actually wanted to do something here though because you don't really remember do you think you can at least set up what you think you remember from the story. Or do you remember anything at all? Okay, so for context, the Harbinger experiment was posted to creepypasta.com on December 20th of 2013. So it is a over 12-year-old story at this point. And I remember listening to it. Gosh, I would have been 14, I think. 14 or 15. when I think Mr. Creepypasta covered it. And I remember it freaking me out. I just remember I was listening to it in my room, and I got scared, and then I made my friends listen to it, but they didn't like Creepypasta, so they just bullied me for liking Creepypasta. That's another story. I feel there was something about three test subjects. I remember that. And there was some doctor running some evil experiment, but something had happened to the test subjects and it had something to do. So the word harbinger means like, you know, the bringer of something bad or like an omen or something for boating. So I feel like there may have been apocalypse vibes or like it was to stop the end times or something like that. It's usually safe to say with a lot of these stories too. I think a lot of them kind of skew to the end of the world kind of doomsday thing. I do think there's a lot of like in these earlier stories, Well, even nowadays, I think people do like this kind of like evangelical end of world, biblical kind of thing. I always think that that's a through line, which always makes you think, too, that like a lot of these authors are from like the Midwest or like the South or something where it's like that's an oppressive thing that they think about. I used to one of my buddy's churches and they were like it was just death and hellfire the entire it was horrifying. And then there's other churches where it's like, oh, this is awesome, this is lovely, or whatever. So I could see some people taking that and being like, I'm afraid. Is this church the same one that told your mom you'd need professional help? No. No, no, no. That was a different church, and they were kind. I drew a lot of very odd things. I don't blame them for what they said. How old were you? I can't remember. maybe like 11 so it'll still 11 church faculty who met you one time immediately pinged that you needed psychiatric help i think around that time i was really i was really hooked on this comic this tokyo pop manga i don't even know if tokyo pop's a company anymore there's this tokyo pop comic called priest and i was so stoked on it it was by this fucking awesome korean artist named menwoo jung and he was amazing but anyways he drew these like it was like oh it's kind of like this western i don't know if you've ever if you've never looked at that comic isaiah i think he would actually like it a lot but it's uh it's an interesting like western comic but it's all about like a guy who takes a deal from the devil yada yada like that's pretty generic but the way that the guy draws is awesome and i remember i was i just kept drawing all these and like he like shoots all these angels because all like the devil's henchmen are all like the angels that went with him or whatever but they still look beautiful and it's really cool. But I kept drawing all of these like people like getting their like wings ripped off and shit. So like I could see people being like, Oh, this child is this child. That's evil in his heart. But I was just stoked on priest. That's all it was. Sure. Sure. Okay. Also, it was funny a second ago when you said, I think this is a lot of like a lot of these doomsday stories come from people in the Midwest or South. And I see now that you were talking about because they have religious influence. I thought you were implying because in the Midwest, the rapture just happens every now and then. Well, that is true, too. I think just being in these flyover states, you never know what happens. And I think that it's just constant sorrow. The entire idea of the Midwest is to leave the Midwest. And if you don't, then you're just kind of stuck. So it is just abysmal terror forever. I'm excited to get into this. Also, just wanted to thank everyone who is listening on audio platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. We appreciate you for giving us nice reviews as well. I appreciate you. And also to our patrons who support us behind the scenes and help us keep this thing going. Isaiah, are you ready to jump back into the past as I dive in with you? I'm ready to jump into the past. I'm ready to see if this was something actually scary or if this is just another public flagellation. So we'll find out. I always like to think that whenever we go into these, I never think they're going to be scary like these old, old ones. But I am curious to be like, oh, I can see how people maybe read this. and that influenced all this other stuff, you know? Especially kids. 100%. All right, well, like I said, the story was written by Zion J. He's written a few stories, most recent of which was in 2016, but we'll leave a link to his creepypasta profile in the description so you can check out the other stories. Anyway, without further ado, the Harbinger experiment. The world we live in is full of things we don't understand. Being the curious humans that we are, we naturally try and seek these things out. Doing so has led us to remarkable discoveries and inventions that we never could have imagined a hundred years ago. We have defeated disease, built to the sky itself, and even created machines that could take us beyond the clouds and into the stars. If our ancestors could see us and what we have created, I'm sure many of them would see us as gods. Our innate curiosity and lust for knowledge has not always led us to greatness, however. true evil and darkness have also been uncovered in humanity's conquest of knowledge and in the end i fear this evil will be our doom uh should we also shout out the author and stuff real quick uh i did i did that's what i just did a second ago oh we did okay just making sure yeah right before i started i said we'll leave his link below yeah okay great sorry did you just did you go comatose for a second i always am i'm in a constant state a constant state it's like a river All right. Make sure, editor, make sure you leave in him asking me to shout out the author just so the audience knows what I go through. If you leave it, if you leave it in, editor, you will be fired. No, no, you won't. No, you won't. You will. If you get fired, I will double whatever he's paying you on, Wendigoon. No, I won't. He's a liar. I'll do it. It's on this matter of record right here. So leave this in as well so there's a public record of it happening. So you have job security. So do the right thing. I did not say this from the standpoint of a great philosopher who has said and simply pondered things either. No. I say this because I've seen it. Experienced it. I was a part of it. It's interesting. It almost reads like a Frankenstein thing, doesn't it? Yeah. Like he's the experiment? Yeah, like he's the monster. That he was a part of it. I don't think... I don't remember that, but that could be what it is. It just reads like that. I don't know. Or he was a part... Or what's more likely is he was just a part of whatever... He was like a researcher or something like that. What's funny is trying to remember details of it. I just remember the thing. Like I remember there being an experiment. I remember the third test subject being creepy, and that's it. So I know something else has to happen because there's no way the story is just, man, that guy's kind of spooky, and that's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe it is. Who knows? Sometimes it's all you need. The event I'm about to relay to you is true in its entirety. This I swear. I feel certain that this will fall on deaf ears, and many of you will believe this to be just another spooky story meant to give you cheap thrills, but I promise you this is neither my intent nor my purpose. Why would you say neither intent nor purpose? That's the same thing. I just really drive it home the message. I feel, okay, so that's... It was neither what I meant to do, or what I intended to do, or was my purpose, the Holy Trinity. Furthermore, this was not my purpose, my intent, my assumption, my direction, my directive. That scared me a little bit, where it's like, I fear that this will fall on deaf ears and be another spooky story, because I feel like a lot of the creepypastas back then would do this thing where it'd be like, you may think this is just another ghost story but it's not I do love that I love that young energy of just being like you could just make this into another spooky story but as a kid though I know that I would be in I'd be like what is this real it's like the first time I saw Paranormal Activity I was like why are you fucking that was real what the fuck you know just because there was no credits or whatever I want to thank you Paramount Pictures you're like what that kind of thing yeah like I said previously I would this and No End House were the ones when I was really young, like 13, maybe 13, 14, that I would always tell people was my favorite. Or I'd be like, oh, this is the best one ever. It was like this, No End House, and I think Anassi's Goatman were the ones that were prime for 13-year-olds. No End House was good, though. I liked that one. It was good. It just wasn't like the scariest. now we've read stuff that far surpasses it that I wouldn't have appreciated when I was that age the pool of stuff must have been so much smaller back then too it was a lot smaller primarily I was 13 you know you're a different human being now than you were when you were 13 if I read pen pal then sure some moments would be scary but I'd probably see it as a lot of dialogue and stuff that just goes over your head. Just goes over your head with a lot of it. I don't appreciate how well-built the scares are and stuff like that. Sure. Whereas now it's way more impactful. At the time, a house with seven creepy doors was way more impactful. That's all you need. That's one too many doors. Oh my gosh. If it was six, I could take it, but seven? Six is fine. If it was six, I wouldn't be pissing my pants for seven. That's why you hear those driplets. That's why you hear those driplets. Actually, wasn't it like nine doors. I think it was way more. That's way more than six. You're actually the wrong guy, dude. That's way more than six. I remember he thought he had gone home and then he drives to his house and his parents are dead. And then it's like there's another door. There's another door that was like a time warp where he spent an eternity in the void or whatever. When I was 13, I'm like, oh my gosh, this door is even creepier than the last. Oh, my God. All these doors! They can't get it scarier! Let's just start from the top of this paragraph. I thought you were about to say the whole story. I was like, no. Let's just fucking restart. Fuck this. The purpose of this story is to simply warn you of what lurks beyond the veil of what we can see and understand. To show you what awaits us in the darkness, even if I myself don't understand it. What I'm about to tell you has happened, and I feel certain will happen again. In 1971, a not-so-well-known scientist began preparations for an extremely secretive project known simply as the Harbinger Experiment. I would like to keep the identity of the scientist a secret for personal reasons. So throughout this recounting, I will refer to him as Zimmerman. Of course, it's a... You know what? You know what? It could be... I could clown on it for having a stereotypical German name for Germans, like an evil scientist, right? sure I'm not going to do that because it could be good the story could be good and I'm just I'm just getting flashbacks German scientist I'm not faulting it for having Zimmerman that's fine if he said count if he said like count Zimmerman okay let's fucking reel it back but Zimmerman to me is fine you know what maybe I'm just afraid because what's happened several times in the show is I've pulled up a story I liked and it's been just trash so I'm just 90% of the stories we read Isaiah Okay. You don't have to go that hard. But I just got my gloves up a little bit. But I'm good. Good. Okay. Zimmerman's background is unclear at best beyond 1971. All that is known about him before that time is that he had grown up somewhere in Maryland with a strange fascination of the occult supernatural. This later made him an outcast amongst his fellow scientists due to how scoffed upon the metaphysical was and still is at the time. Zimmerman's opinions concerning the otherworldly were not the sole cause for him being an outcast though it was his methods that made him widely unaccepted among his peers Zimmerman was well known during his time for being ruthless and cold beyond measure never cared about the means all that mattered to him was the results and if he predicted the results to be valuable enough anything would be worth obtaining them. It was this insatiable and brutal lust for the truth that made him feared among those that knew him. And the few that knew of him and did not fear him believed in him and followed him and his work closely. The word harbinger itself has such a mysterious and intimidating taste to it. Maybe it's the way it rolls from our tongues or maybe it's simply due to its association with the project. But the word always seems to carry a certain amount of doom with it. which would make sense. The word itself means to warn or for both. Keeping it together, we're not. The word seems to carry an amount of doom with it, which would make sense since it means doom. Which would make sense. That would actually make sense because that's what the word's saying. It definitely feels like he's putting on the anime gloves and messing with his hands. That wouldn't make sense. You should be afraid. Very afraid. Whenever I think of the word car accident, I think of a car wreck, since that's what the word means. Of course. Of course, Dr. Zimit. Right away, Dr. Newman, yes. When I think of the word explosion, I think about something blowing up, since that's what explosion means. That's pretty much what blowing up means. Yeah. Thank you for clarifying for us. Which would make sense. The word itself means to warn or forebode. I can't imagine Zimmerman's reason for giving the experiment this title, but in retrospect, it fits perfectly. Gosh. I can't comprehend at all why he would give it this title. But in retrospect, it actually makes a lot of sense. Well, that probably means that he knew that it was going to be a fucking, like, doomsday experiment. When I think of... Dr. Zimmerman would never be so crass. With his titles. When I think of an explosion, I think of something blowing up. I don't know why they decided to name a hand grenade an explosive device, but after watching what it does, I think it fits perfectly. The doctor at the psych ward this guy just takes a gun out and blows his brain out. I can't do it anymore! Just saying words unlike other words and then now understanding why words are named what they are. Yeah. When I think of cheese, I really think of the word milk, which is pretty much because that's what cheese is made of. I don't know why they call sour cream a dairy product. You would have to take that person and treat them like a 14-year-old lab. Well, time for a little taste of death, buddy. Time to put you down. Go ahead and eat the chocolate. This is Ghirardelli dark chocolate. Ooh, it's tasty, isn't it? When I think of chocolate, I think of cocoa. Eat it. Eat the chocolate. I don't know why they called the mocha at Starbucks a coffee with chocolate, but after tasting it, it fits perfectly. I don't know why they call it mocha, but when tasting it, it's perfectly. It fits perfectly. I see why they did that now. Dr. Zimmerman, you are a treasure. I can't imagine why Zimmerman called the nutty butter crunch part what he did. But after it's done it, it fits perfectly. It makes perfect sense. It fits perfectly. If me and you get bogged down in a corner like that on a track, we're never coming out of the turn. We'll just spin in the mud for a while. We have got to persevere. It also doesn't help. We're recording kind of early in the morning, and I feel like it's us getting – this is us, like, really coming to and to the day. So I feel like this is just, like, revealing itself very slowly, and we're getting fixated on it. Zimmerman came to select a few, me being one of them. He told us he was working on something big and that he needed people who could – Okay. I will not think about the something big being another butter crunch bar. I won't keep it together. He told us he was working on something big and that he needed people who could keep confidentiality and not spread idle gossip of his work. While he did not fully trust some of us, he did know that we were professionals and that for some reason or another, we were all in dire need of employment. I'd worked at the local clinic as a doctor. I was caught stealing medication and was probably fired. What? It's a funny note. I steal drugs from work. That's why I'm here. I steal hard prescription medication. Do you think it's because, is he using them? I mean, I don't know. It doesn't matter. Dr. Zimmerman saw him and was like, this man's perfect. The guy that steals medication, he can be trusted to keep his mouth shut. Well, well, well, the doctor who steals hydrocodone and sells it to 12-year-olds. You're going to be perfect for my something big experiment. This left a very dark mark on my resume, so work was hard to find. I was also a native to Alaska and lived near where the experiment would take place, so I guess you could say it was a convenient choice. As you can imagine, I jumped at the opportunity. It was hard not to when I saw the payout. So he getting a ragtag team of basically blacklisted professionals Yeah Whatever Yeah So I guessing it just because it like well no one even going to like see them gone because they basically already ostracized from their fields Yeah Yeah It feels very, uh, well, maybe not the professional part, but it feels SCP almost. Dude, I was actually going to say the exact same thing. Expendable people to experiment on or whatever, or like be a part of it. Cause like the SCP people, they're all like prisoners, right? Well, the D class are, there's different classes of people there. Cause like the researchers and doctors, aren't expendable per se, but the D-class are. The D-class are like food they throw in to see what it does or how it treats people and stuff. It's like, oh, well, we threw that man into the time prison forever, so oops. Fifteen of us were hired in total. Some were colleagues of his that have been working with him for a while. Some were maintenance workers, and a few were hired as private security. I was the only medical professional to be hired. Still a wonder to me how he even attained the funds necessary for the experiment. I would not be wholly surprised if his financing was not entirely legal. But legal or not, I needed the money and he was paying. Looking back, it's a decision I've come to regret. After Zimmerman obtained his money, he used it to buy a relatively large plot of land deep in the frozen wilderness of Alaska. Upon that piece of land, Zimmerman built a concrete structure not dissimilar to a bunker, in fact. The sole difference being that its goal was to keep any potential damage contained within the structure rather than keeping it out, as he put it. Most of the structure dug underneath the earth, which, at the effect of making the underground complex, seemed so much smaller than it really was from the outside, as would be expected. There is only one way of entering and leaving the underground structure, and it was through a ladder that led from a small, unassuming concrete building on the surface, which I will refer to from now on as the entrance building for convenience, to the network below. After everyone had gone to bed at night, the hatch that contained the ladder would be sealed off with a very large and thick metal lid. Zimmerman was very strict about this. Located not too far away from the entrance building was a series of wooden cabins that would serve as the sleeping quarters for the staff Zimmerman had hired. Compared to the entrance building standing on the surface, the underground system was massive. At the center of the complex was the control room. This is where all the facility's electronics and such were linked to. This included security cameras, lights, and door controls. Consoles, monitors, and computers lined the walls of this large central chamber. This is also where the ladder in the entrance building connected to in the underground complex. Connected to the control room were three doors. One led to a smaller room that served as the infirmary another door led to the break room and the last door led into the hallways the hallways are where the complex began to feel extremely eerie they were for some reason laid out in an extremely confusing scheme that led in circles into complete dead ends these hallways made up a vast majority of the complex and it would be very easy to get lost in the maze if you were unfamiliar with the complex it seems like the doctor has made a literal like labyrinth underground for the, like I only imagine that the people that he hired were not for their specialties, but just to experiment on them. And they're going to be like mice in a maze. Yeah. I think that sounds right. I can't remember exactly what happens, but I think, I think that implication is correct that these people are down here because they're expendable, which if you're going to kill the people you hire, you can promise anything. You can be like, Oh, you'll make $10 million. Well, 100%, yeah. I'll offer you a two-year salary. Oh, shit, okay. I'm going to be like, I'm never doing that. Yeah. They don't know. They're going to die, which is kind of fun. Okay, okay, okay. I don't know why he calls it the death chamber. Death makes me think of dying. But after what happened, it fit perfectly. It fits perfectly. It fits perfectly. This year I'm focusing on limits, how much I'm spending, how many things I'm working on, and definitely how many streaming subscriptions I need. And that's where our sponsor, Rocket Money, comes in. The unfortunate truth is that it's easy to spend money, but finding unnecessary costs might not be. Running a business or controlling your personal finances takes planning and budgeting, and with so much going on, it can be easy to overlook things. Well, today's sponsor, Rocket Money, is here to help. Rocket Money is an easy-to-use app that helps you save more and manage your money better. I love using Rocket Money to set budgets. 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Unlock even more features when you sign up for a premium. That's rocketmoney.com slash creepcast or click the link in the description to get started for free. Thank you so much, Rocket Money. Now back to the episode. Almost a year ago today, we read I dared my best friend to ruin my life on this channel. We laughed. We cried. Some of us screamed. But the biggest thing we learned from the day was the importance of cybersecurity. We cannot trust the David Kings of the world. That's why you need ProtonMail. ProtonMail is free to use, and it's built around privacy and security. With ProtonMail, you get a safer alternative to email. You can make sure your files and photos are safe from training AI models, third parties, or hackers. Their encrypted email ensures that only you and your intended audience see the message. Plus, ProtonMail stops companies from selling your data and helps you to avoid identity theft and fraud. You, however, can access your files anywhere and upload without limits. There isn't a restriction on the file or size, which is also great for the show. The best part is that making the switch doesn't mean losing your contacts. With a few easy clicks, you can use their migration tool to transfer emails, calendar invites, and contacts over from Google and other providers into ProtonMail. Protect your privacy and get free end-to-end encrypted email at proton.me slash creepcast. That's proton.me slash creepcast. Thank you to ProtonMail for sponsoring the show. Back to your episode. But if you knew where you were going, you would find yourself standing before one of three 8x8 foot rooms before long. Each room had a camera hooked up to one of the corners of the room, and all three of those cameras were connected to a corresponding monitor in the control room. Cameras were also scattered throughout the hallway so that whoever was watching their corresponding monitor could see anywhere they wanted to, when they wanted to. Thick metal doors stood at the entrance of each of the three 8x8 foot rooms, and in order to open them, you would have to enter a four-digit code into a panel located near the door. I remember when I first arrived at the complex how badly the hallways frightened me. I've always been claustrophobic, you see, and those hallways were so very narrow. The noise, or more accurately, lack of noise, was also a tremendous source of fear for me in those bleak, narrow hallways. It was always so unnaturally silent, as if the entire world had stopped moving. It really made you feel like you were trapped down there. Thankfully, though, I only rarely ventured into those hallways, for I was the only medical professional in the facility, and I had virtually no reason to go into them. In the beginning, I found it so peculiar that Zimmerman would ask for a medical professional like me on a project like this. By the time it was all over, I understood why. it's like the third time it's like paragraphs that it was like i get it now but i could see how it was or i would come to regret that later yeah yeah yeah it's like yes we know we're reading the story we get it yes you're very scary you're doing a good job the official purpose of the harbinger experiment was to test and observe the effects of extended isolation on the human mind this is what was listed on reports being sent out at least but unbeknownst to all those who were not participating in the project, excluding the subjects, the true purpose was much darker. Like I said before, Zimmerman had always had an obsession with the occult and supernatural. He sought to prove himself to those who did not believe in him. He wanted physical proof that the supernatural was a real phenomenon, and he wanted to be the first one to attain said proof. The true purpose of the Harbinger experiment was to find proof of the metaphysical, the world we cannot see. the thought of doing this was naturally a tad bit daunting and even scary but it was Zimmerman's method of doing so it was truly terrifying Zimmerman believed that he would be able to open a portal between worlds momentarily allowing three random entities to cross over to our world and each one of these beings would be trapped within one of the three rooms that's not gonna work. We will simply put them in the rooms. Well, so the ghost-like creatures from the other world will basically see this vacant, very comfortable room and want to take a nap. From there, we will seal the door. Okay? Thankfully, these multi-dimensional beings respect complicated hallways and doors. They're so narrow that they'll be kind of weirded out and want to take a nap in the room. No, you don't understand. We lock the door. They can't open it. Of course they know what doors is. They wouldn't mess with that. That's a universal concept. That's our dimension, not their dimension. They don't know what doors are. I think of door. I think of a gate. I don't know why he called it a door, but looking at it now, it makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense. Just walking through the bunker, just looking at stuff. I don't know why he called it a computer, but looking at it now, it makes sense. Zimmerman just shoots him in the back of the head. This is not worth it. We don't need the nurse. That's okay. Zimmerman had the theory that any entity would try and latch onto the nearest living thing that had the capacity for it. He wanted to use this technique to trap spirit in a physical form by allowing it to enter a living being that had been injected with a compound mixture of Zimmerman's creation. In theory, this compound would keep the entity from simply leaving whether it was attached to. And the only way it would be able to leave a host who had been injected with a compound was through death. According to Zimmerman, the host would have to be something living with a will strong enough to survive the possession. and there is only one known species that possesses the amount of will required for this humans zimmerman had also done something to ensure that the entities would only enter the three rooms and that there would only be one entity in each room so i cannot say i know what exactly he did in fact i know next to nothing when it comes to how zimmerman managed to do what he did he liked to keep his methodology a secret to his most trusted colleagues most likely due to his paranoia that someone would steal his ideas and take credit for the success of said ideas. That whole paragraph is kind of funny. It's like, well, you may ask how he did that. I don't know, but he did it. And if you try to ask him, he would just throw a bitch fit and be like, stop trying to steal my ideas. So whatever. So I didn't ask him, but I know there is a compound and that's all you need to know. So basically what is happening here is, I feel like it's kind of spelling it out. I mean, I don't know if I'm getting this right, but it seems as if he is going to have these entities come in, but it seems like you need hosts to have these entities. So the people that he hired are going to be these hosts for the entities that are coming through. I think there's a specific three that we'll get to. I can't remember if they're like prisoners or if they're like test subjects or something like that. But yeah, I remember there's three subjects who are designated for it to happen to. I see. If I had known that this was the true purpose before I signed up, I may have reconsidered. But Zimmerman decided not to tell us until we were all gathered at his fortress. Even if any of us wanted to leave, I doubt we would have been allowed to do so. The security team Zimmerman had hired was loyal to him and the payout. It's not likely that Zimmerman had given them the order to now allow anyone to leave. There were three different subjects included in the experiment. All were native to Alaska and each one was lured into the project under the belief that they would be participating in a harmless study on the effects of isolation on the human mind, as I mentioned before, which is why none of the subjects objected when they realized that they would be confined to one of the three rooms that I mentioned earlier. The first subject was a young man. He was apparently out of work and desperately needed the money that had been offered for participating in the study. The second was a woman. By looking at her, I could tell she was an addict of some sort. The third and final subject was an older man, drifter if i had to guess one thing they all had in common was that none of them had any family or friends left short no one would miss them which is why they were chosen for the project i'm sorry i wish i could supply more information about the subjects but all of this had been drawn from memory and i was given little information on the three to begin with the experiment did not officially begin until 1987, 16 years after its original announcement. I was eager to begin, so I packed up and headed out to the complex as soon as I could. I arrived at the compound a week before the subjects had even signed up, and a whole month before the project even began. I was not the first to arrive by any means. When I got there, Zimmerman, his colleagues, and the security team had already arrived. I suppose you could say I was among the people Zimmerman did not trust to arrive first. Everyone had arrived about a week before the experiment began. There was a noticeable rift between those who were there simply for the money, like me, and those who were followers of Zimmerman. On October 15, 1987, all the preparations were in place. Subjects had been sealed in their rooms, the cameras, lights, and speakers were fully operational, and all the staff members had settled in. The time had come for the experiment to officially begin i must say i do like this like i think this is kind of interesting of a secret like just like a secret experiment thing and people being subjects of like a paranormal uh like basically like a rift opening between worlds and allowing something in and seeing the effects it has for like hosting or whatever but this kind of like fucked up guinea pig experiment is interesting enough like it kind of reminds me of like a stanford prison experiment or something where it's just like these fucked up weird experiments that people are doing for the quote-unquote, you know, for the quote-unquote research purposes or whatever. Yeah. It almost just feels like a torture or something. Yeah, I also like the distinction between there are people there with Zimmerman and there's people there for the money. I think it's cool. There's kind of like this shadow group moving in the midst of it and stuff like that. It's interesting so far. I'm actually invested in the story because I remember some details, but I don't remember where it goes. So I'm bought in effectively. It's silly with some of the writing or whatever, but I will say there is a fun experiment – or there's a fun idea here. And I was going to say, too, I was trying to figure out where to put this in, but this definitely has to be a guy who read the Russian Sleep Experiment right and was influenced by that. Well, anyone who was writing Creepypastas in 2013 read the Russian Sleep Experiment. Sure. As soon as he started talking about the doors and stuff in the hallways, I was like, oh, man, this sounds like I can see that the flavor of that seeking and seeping into this. I mean, it's like like the Russian sleep experiment and early ones like that that were so heavy. It's hard to even because I would say like, oh, it's like saying that you watch movies, but you've never seen Star Wars. It's like even then you can do that because movies are so varied. it's like being a sci-fi special effects artist and ever seen star wars it's like it's such a hyper niche thing it's like of course you've seen the like starting of it right like the but what you're saying too is that even if you haven't seen it the things that you have seen have been influenced by that thing yeah yeah yeah so this guy definitely did and which which is fine i mean it's fine to work off of no i think it's cool i was i was just pointing that out because i was like this is a fun this is a fun idea of someone reading that being like oh fuck that was awesome and then like putting their own take on it i guess is what i meant and also 13 year old me i can see i would have been like oh my gosh well yeah i mean i was kind of like getting nestled into my seat a bit when he's just like you know first off 16 years of this prep work it's pretty crazy so you've like it's been a huge devotion to your life and then now it's like just beginning i mean now i'm like even i was kind of like getting nestled in like okay well what the fuck's gonna happen yeah 13 year old me reading this like that's a good point that the harbinger does mean those things. Wow. It does mean doom. I didn't think of that. You're right. It does fit perfectly. Zimmerman asked everyone to report to the control room around 9 p.m. to witness the beginning of the experiment. He wanted everyone to be present when he proved that all his theories had been correct and that he was not just a madman. He wanted us all to see the fruits of his labor. When everyone had finally gathered in the large control room, The Zimmerman turned to us and simply said, Observe. He then turned his back to us, leaned into the microphone that would project his voice through the three rooms, and then he began chanting in a strange language that I feel certain no one but Zimmerman could understand. We all observed the three large monitors on the wall, silently waiting for something to happen. The subjects all stood in their rooms, dumbstruck by Zimmerman's chanting, staring at the monitors with confused expressions on their faces. After about five minutes, I felt something awful. I cannot explain what exactly it was, but a horrible feeling of dread washed out for me, riddling me with fear. It was then the ground actually began to shake subtly and the lights began to flicker. As the moment continued chaining into the microphone as if nothing was off or wrong, All the subjects began dashing around their rooms, screaming for help. Then suddenly, the ground stopped shaking and the monitor's image turned into static. The air began to become very heavy as we all stared at the monitors, waiting for them to regain their image and show us what was happening or had happened in those three rooms. For a while, all was silent. But then there was screaming. The screams of a woman going through unbearable pain and terror began to echo through the compound. The similar screams of men began to coincide with the woman's terrified screams, and together they mixed into an awful symphony of pain and fear that beat mercilessly into our ears. Those of us who were here for the money began to give each other scared looks, while those loyal to Zimmerman seemed completely unfazed. We wanted to leave and never come back to this awful place, but we all knew deep down that Zimmerman would never allow that to happen. We were here for the long haul. There was no escape. It was 10.13 p.m. when the screaming finally stopped. The monitors had yet to reveal to us what had occurred in those three rooms. As soon as the screaming ended, Zimmerman stood and dismissed us all for the night, adding that we were all forbidden to come back into the compound until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. Not like any of us wanted to. We all solemnly made our way out of the compound towards the cabins and settled in for the night. I feel it's safe to say that not all of us slept well that night. and I was not one of them. The following morning, all of the staff had arrived at the entrance building. We all stood inside exchanging tired or nervous looks as we waited for Zimmerman to arrive and open the hatch that concealed the ladder. I could see palpable fear in the eyes of some of us, while others did not seem to have been even remotely affected by what had happened last night. Zimmerman showed up five minutes after 10, apologizing for his tardiness as he came through the door of the entrance building. He opened the hatch and, without any hesitation, began descending the ladder downwards into the black abyss. He almost seemed enthusiastic. I was the first to follow behind Zimmerman Stark to sit into the facility. It seemed that the farther I climbed down, the more the darkness closed in on me, as if it was trying to swallow me whole. As I climbed deeper, I couldn't help but feel that this place was different somehow. While before there was only the unsettling concrete hallways and rooms, now there was something else. Something made the eeriness feel so real and personified. I felt like a horrible and gruesome scene awaited us down there, but I continued climbing downward, despite my fear and my hesitation. This was no longer just a spooky bunker there was darkness and malevolence in the air true evil now lived here and i could feel it we all could i like the idea after the experiment it's like what it was once this like normal place that you worked now has this like actual physical change where the presence of these beings is like affecting the entire like the even just the air that you're in just it feels like it's all around you. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it went from something that you were so familiar with to like a lair dungeon. And also just like the presence of evil being there. It's that seismic change that has happened. Yeah, there's something otherworldly down there with you. I finally felt my foot touch ground and let out a silent sigh of relief to be on solid ground. Almost as if on cue, the light bulbs came alive, dousing the room in their warm and welcome light. Zimmerman must have turned on the power I thought I allowed myself to take a couple seconds to examine the control room It was exactly as we had left it last night for which I gave a silent and thankful prayer It was almost as if nothing unusual had ever happened. I shook myself for my thoughts as I remembered the static-filled monitors from the night before. Let my eyes slowly make their way towards the monitors on the wall, anticipating the grim and fearful scenes that would be on them. My attention was first grabbed by monitor 1 and 3, which were still pure static. It would have been a small relief, but then the motionless image on monitor 2 caught my eye. Room 2 was entirely still, and everything seemed entirely untouched. I couldn't help but gasp as I noticed the only thing that was different. The woman lay in the center of the small concrete room. An expression of fear and terror was frozen into her gaunt face as she lay silent and lifeless on her back. Zimmerman's expression turned angry when he saw this. He ordered that the second monitor be turned off, and it was. We didn't ask why. It's not like any of us wanted to see the dreadful scene any longer. He also ordered that if the images in the monitors 1 and 3 did not return within the next two hours, the security team would be sent to investigate the rooms. The security team nodded at hearing this. It made it seem as if they had no fear. I could see it in their eyes. I like, that's a fun note about the security team and the fear. I also like the lead up to it where, you know, there's three people and the only one you can see is dead. And that makes him upset that you can see it. So he needs to turn it off right away. So it makes you ask, like, what are the two others then? Like, it's a good build up to like an eventual reveal. Yeah. Also, too, the security and staff that is, quote, unquote, Zermin's trusted colleagues know what's happening. They're just not saying stuff. There's obviously a fear on their face. Yeah. They know it's not just three dead people in a room. Right. The subtly loud tick-tock clock was the only sound that echoed through the control room while I stared at the monitors. An hour and 50 minutes had gone by, and static was still all that occupied monitor one and three. all the other staff members were working except me this was due to the fact that the project had been completely injury free thus far so i essentially had nothing to do but wait for someone to hurt themselves so like how he clearly saw like a dead or catatonic woman on the floor and he's like uh you know when i'm called when i'm called like i have no hippocratic oath for that woman or whatever I just saw on that camera. So, you know, Zimmerman, a couple of his colleagues and I were the only ones that occupied the room. They quietly chatted amongst each other on the other side of the room while I spent my time reading and pondering the situation I currently found myself in. I clearly made a mistake coming near. The corpse line in room two was evidence enough of this. God only knew what awaited us in rooms one and three. My thoughts were soon interrupted as monitor three's image returned. The clear image now displayed on the screen made everyone's eyes noticeably widen. What was displayed on the monitor was horrifying. A humanoid thing stood in the center of the room staring directly at the camera, unmoving. He was wearing the jumpsuit that subject three had been issued, but this clearly was not the same man that had entered the room. What caught my attention first was its eyes. They were solid black, twice the size of normal human eyes. It seemed so, so endless, so cold. Its head had also grown with the eyes in such a symmetrical and unsettling manner. The being had also shed all of the hair it had once had, and even from the monitor I could see how unnaturally smooth and clear its skin was. It had also seemingly grown its height and stature, which could be seen in the fact that the jumpsuit was now obviously far too small for its wear. His limbs had grown especially long. His arms hung almost as low as the creature's knees. I'm almost like thinking, does it not sound like a gray alien? A bit. It does sound like a gray alien, yeah. You know, doesn't it? Like just the description, I feel like that's where my mind immediately went. What we were looking at was in no way the same man we had sent inside. Fear was all I felt as I continued to stare into the monitor at the thing in the room. My fears seemed to be shared by those around me, which made me feel kind of good. It may sound awful, but it was a bit satisfying to see that Zimmerman and his colleagues could feel fear too. But at the same time, it was worrying because this showed that this was not part of Zimmerman's plan. Something had gone wrong. We all stared into the monitor at the thing despite our fear. It was almost as if we were in a trance. My already present fear began to grow and spread rapidly through my body as I became lost in the creature's eyes, trapped in its terrifying, hypnotic gaze. After what felt like forever, I managed to break eye contact with the creature and divert my attention from the monitor. When I did so, I felt my fear levels drop considerably. After a short while, Zimmerman ordered his security team to make their way to Subject 1 store just as he said he would do. The security team left without question, armed only with batons and pistols. I focused my attention on watching the men progress through the hallways towards subject one's room via the cameras. Even through the not-so-high-quality cameras, it wasn't hard to tell that these men were afraid of what awaited them. Their heads were downcast as they walked. They did not possess the same confidence within them that they did when this project began. They looked like scared boys being sent off to a terrible war. Eventually, they made it to the door. We had a perfect vision of them in the door via the hallway camera. One of them said something through one of their walkie-talkies and made a motion towards the camera. In response, one of Zimmerman's colleagues buzzed the door open. The men already had their pistols out by the time the button was pushed. Slowly, the door began to open. We all watched eagerly as the men began to approach the door, guns aimed inside. Suddenly, without warning, there was a loud shriek. and as something bounded out of the room at the men, the monitor turned into static. Immediately, we could hear screaming echoing down the hallways, followed shortly after by the distinct sound of gunshots. We could do nothing but wait. After a couple minutes, the screaming and gunshots stopped. We all waited and prayed, hoping that whatever bounded at them from the room would not be the one to return to the control room. After a couple more minutes, three of the men came back, carrying with them the corpse of the fourth. He had massive cuts covering his chest and his face was shredded. Couldn't even tell who he was anymore, even that he was human. I was used to gore, being a doctor and all, so I felt somewhat unfazed by the massive shredded flesh and bloodied meat they carried with him. But many of the others went pale and vomited. The security team all wore emotionless expressions and eyes filled with terror. One of the men finally looked up at us. He stared at us for a while with those wide eyes of his. He finally managed to mutter in shaken scared voice. I will say, so again, cool setup. I like the way that each of the test subjects are being alluded to and shown off. I do like that line, unironically, about the guards where it says they look like scared boys being sent off to a terrible war. That was good, and that's a surprising statement out of a story that previously. It fits perfectly, as we described. The Zimmerman aspect here, I kind of wish I knew more of how he felt about how the thing was going. I wish during these things, unless it's just supposed to be intentional that it's like, well, even the guards don't know how he's feeling about how it's going so far. I just wish there was more reaction or like something more of like our protagonist looking at Zeramin being like, he looked unfazed or he looked like, you know, he was like pushing up his glasses and rubbing the brim of his nose. Like it wasn't going as planned, et cetera. Yeah. I wish there was more of that. Cause right now I'm kind of like, I don't know if this is a part of the plan or not. I know that the protagonist keeps saying, well, it's not part of the plan, but how would he know? Yeah. I think we get more of it later, but I can't remember. I think there's more. If you're wrong, but a couple hours went by. The dead man's name was Frank. He was buried outside in the cold Alaskan ground. Two of the men were unharmed, physically at least. Third was alive, but only barely. His body was covered in bloody slashes and one of his eyes had been gouged out. I managed to stabilize him, but only just. The other two men vaguely explained what happened. Apparently, Subject 1 leaped out at Frank after the door had opened. Only it wasn't really Subject 1 anymore. According to them, it had a hideously contorted face and long, sharp claws. They claimed to have shot it over a dozen times before it fell dead, and then they emptied another dozen bullets into it just to be sure it was really dead. Only once it was dead did they come back. After tending to the wounded man, I went to investigate the monitors. As afraid as I was of seeing what those monitors may have held, I needed to see. Subject 3 was the only one left now, and I needed to see it and make sure the creature was still in his room. It seemed to be more like a jail cell than an ordinary room at this point, though, which was probably a good thing. The cameras displayed Subject 1's room in the hallway outside. It still displayed a static-filled screen. No one was sent to repair them or investigate. We just had to hope that Subject 1 was well and truly dead. Monitor 3's image was exactly the same as I had left it. Subject three was still staring directly into the camera at us. He was still in the exact same position as if it were not for the small fan in the corner of the room. I would think I was looking at a still image. In a way, I felt relief at seeing this. Relief that he was still in his room and had not escaped while no one was looking. After everything quieted down, I noticed something especially unusual. there was a strange sound emanating from somewhere at first it was barely noticeable the only reason i heard it was because of how extremely quiet it was in the infirmary this time went by slowly began to increase in volume after about an hour it was loud enough that everyone else could hear it too and after a couple more hours its volume had increased so much that we could determine what the noise was. It was a song. One of the staff members identified it as Living in the Sunlight by Tiny Tim. All right, well, there it is. What year did this movie come out? 2013. When did Insidious? Yeah, by this time Insidious had come out, so I think that was just kind of the meta or the popular. It was just popular. Yeah, but keep in mind, Living in the Sunlight is the one that is used in Spongebob. Because what's the song again, Insidious? What's the one? It's Tiptoe Through the Tulips, right? Tiptoe through the window. Yeah, but Living in the Sunlight's the one from Spongebob. I think it's from the pilot when he's making food for the sardis. Yeah. Living in the sunlight. Living in the sunlight. So, you know, you may think it's an insidious reference and you're probably right but there is a chance that this is a Spongebob reference. So it very well be. Maybe the thing that jumped out of room one and killed Frank. Squidward's suicide. It was Squidward's It was Squidward with a shotgun. Of course. Apparently, his father loved the song and listened to it frequently. The song seemed to be on a loop and kept replaying itself. Although we were able to identify the noise, we remained unable to identify its source. We knew that it wasn't coming from the speakers because we had turned them off. It seemed to be emanating from the walls themselves. More time ticked by as we all began to become increasingly agitated by the song. This spent most of my time in the infirmary attending to Frank or in the control room. Fear hung in the air and the presence of unmistakable darkness and evil was no doubt its source. Subject three still had not moved. It kept his unblinking gaze fixed on the camera the entire time. It always felt like he was staring directly at me, no matter where I was in the room. I think this effect was also felt by others due to the fact that they had seemed to move around the room a lot and for seemingly no reason. After a few hours, the song was so loud that people almost had to shout in order to communicate. We had been trying to find the source so that we could turn the song off, but it was to no avail. the source was completely unidentifiable. It added a level of extreme irritation to our already very present fear. An unnaturally loud song that's also one of the people's dad's favorite song is actually pretty fucking creepy. Just repeating over and over again. For me, it would be like if Night Moves just started blaring full volume. That would actually be terrifying. Now that I say that out loud, that would be pretty freaky. And it's so personal, you know, I don't know. It's just odd. I remember my what's that what's that line near the end where it's like. I'm playing a song from 1962. Ain't it funny how the night moves? I remember my dad singing that and like seeing like recognizing his nostalgia for it and stuff like that. So if I was in like an abandoned building and that was playing full volume, like I couldn't hear anything else. That's actually, you know, it's pretty good. Unnaturally loud. Like, it's just like it's getting louder, even though we're standing in the same spot is insane. Like something's getting closer. Yeah. A hundred percent. It was around 830 that the ground itself began to shake once again, just as it had done the previous night. Panic began to spread among my fellow employees and me as the shaking grew in intensity. During this, I had the sudden instinctual feeling to look over at Subject 3's monitor. It was gone. Almost as if on cue, the power went out. Thankfully, the song did as well. All right. So, what is your game plan here, Hunter? This series of events is happening. You're down there. At this moment, it feels like, I mean, what can you actually do? If you try to go up the ladder, you get shot. The power goes out. You're in the complete dark. I mean, I don't know. I'd cry. I'd probably get under a table, and I'd just cry. Probably cry a lot. Probably be a big baby. Probably be a big baby. I would be in extreme baby mode. I would initiate baby mode. I would activate baby protocols. Ever since the security team came back, panic had been slowly building up among the staff, and Zimmerman was powerless to stop it. When those lights went out, the calm projections that everyone had been trying to maintain left us and the fear in all our hearts took over. The emergency backup lights kicked on shortly after the power went out, which I gave a silent thankful prayer for. The lights were dim, but they still allowed me to see a lot. Total panic seized up as many of my fellow staff members began screaming and rushing the ladder in an attempt to escape. but too many were trying to use it at once and no one was able to get very far in the ladder without someone else pulling them to the floor and taking their place. Zimmerman was shouting for everyone to calm down, but his dominating and intimidating personality had no effect here, and his demands fell upon deaf ears. It was total chaos. It wasn't long until people actually started hurting each other in their desperate attempts to get up that ladder and out of this place. I could only stand against the wall and wait for my opportunity to escape up the ladder. All the screams were soon silenced as the familiar hum of that unsettling song began to rise in volume again, only much quicker this time. This time, it was clear that the noise was coming directly from the maze-like corridors. Oh, God. People stopped fighting and shouting as all our attention shifted to the door that led into the hallways. The song quickly got louder than it had ever been before, which forced many of us to cup our ears with our hands in an attempt to silence the noise. then suddenly the song just completely stopped silence that was all that filled the room as we all stared at the thick metal door in anticipation for what was coming it felt like ages had gone by but in reality it was probably only seconds before the silence was broken the door suddenly and violently pushed open and the music started again louder than it had ever been before the suddenness and the volume of this caused many of us to recoil by falling to the ground and grabbing our ears in an attempt to block out the noise. I glanced up for just a second and in the doorway stood a tall, smooth, skinned figure with long limbs and eyes so dark and malevolent that you could clearly see them in the dim lighting. After I got my bearings, I looked upwards at the creature once again, just in time to see the thing pick up and rip sitting in half. One fluid moment. Jesus! Good God! Dousing the room and everyone in it with his blood, intestines, and organs. I was no stranger to gore, but the sight of that was too much for me to bear. I hunched over immediately after seeing this and vomited all over the cold cement floor. Crazy moment. Just walks in, rips every minute in half, probably because he's the one that brought it here. Right? You would have to assume so. I mean, he is the one who did the chant, so that's why I'm assuming that that's the subject, but that's like their target, but at the same time, is he the one that just hasn't been scurrying back in fear or whatever and then yeah he just gets picked up he's just the closest one paper yeah yeah also like horror like creepypastas around this time we're obsessed with characters throwing up it's always like i was so disturbing i vomited i had to vomit and stuff like that so it's funny to imagine this guy in the middle of this being like um can you give me a second i'm like bending over to like do the whole hurl thing that ladder is my only hope for survival i thought to myself as i forced myself to a standing position as my eyes rose along with the rest of me. I could see the thing ripping and tearing through the people as they scattered in an attempt to escape it. It was distracted, and as awful as it sounds, this was my only chance to get up that ladder. I forced my legs to move towards the ladder, trying to block out the terrified screams of my fellow staff members and the unbearably loud music. I could hear gunshots coinciding with the screams and terrible sounds of flesh being ripped apart somewhere in the mess noise. I reached my hands outwards and felt a wave of relief wash over me as my fingers came into contact with the hard metal rungs of the ladder. I gripped them and began to climb upwards as quickly as I could in my disoriented state, all the while praying that the monster would not see me and pull me off the ladder and back into the slaughter. It felt like at any moment I would feel one of its smooth hands wrap around my ankles and pull me to my death, but I eventually made it to the top. There was no question in my mind, I had to close the hatch and seal that thing down there, even if it meant certain death for my colleagues. I could not allow that thing to escape. I gripped the thick metal lid and began to push with all my might in an attempt to seal the underground complex off, despite how dense and sturdy it was. The lid was surprisingly easy to move and did not take very much effort to push it over the hatch, even in my weakened state. In seconds, the hatch was completely covered by the dense metal lid. I collapsed on my side and began to vomit some more as exhaustion overtook me. As I lay there, I realized something. Aside from my labored breaths, the only thing I could hear was the faint echo of that song from down below. I felt as though I would lose more of my sanity if I continued to lay there and listen to that song, so I once again forced myself to my feet and began to make my way to the wooden lodge I had stayed in the previous night. That's where I left my baggage And also where I left the keys to my truck Um So I like that, I like the end scene I wish there was more characterization for Zimmerman Um Yeah, I mean, I have a bunch of stuff written down I was going to say, I think that we might be on the tail end I'd be curious, we should discuss it at the end Or whatever, but Yeah, I I have a lot of thoughts So far You know what, Hunter, you can just tell me to shut up Well, I guess it just made me, I feel like we're not too far from the ending. I'm just, I'm just, oh, sorry. It was just funny. I brought up a point. You're like, yeah, I've got stuff too. I got, yeah, that's interesting. I have thoughts, but I'm not going to share them. Yeah, that's interesting. Anyway, I'm waiting. I don't want to hear your show. Yeah. Oh, you've got stuff to say? I don't really care. I care about what I'm saying. That was rude. What were you going to say? More care of the decision of Zimler? No, I'm just giving you a complex. It was funny. of the 15 staff members that took part in the forsaken experiment i'm the only one who survived i've never returned to that all well yeah you're the only one who survived you shut the door yeah pretty sure it's just you dude i've never returned to that awful place where all of this happened and i don't intend to the project was very secretive and zimmerman was the only one who knew all the details of it. And as far as I know, no one is aware of my involvement aside from me. In fact, I'm probably the only one who knows that the Harbinger experiment truly was, let alone what actually happened. By now, you're probably wondering why I've told you all about something none of you should be aware of. Maybe you're expecting me to give you a speech about not messing with things you don't understand or something along those lines. I hope not, I have no speech to give or lesson to impart. Okay, I like that line too. I like that too. I have no speech to give or lesson to impart. I began hearing a noise earlier today. Almost immediately I recognized the noise as a very haunting and familiar song I didn even try to trace it to its source I knew it would be pointless And as the day has progressed the song has increased in volume It's loud enough now that I can very clearly make out the lyrics, completely unable to escape Tiny Tim's voice. It's followed me everywhere I've gone. Subject three is coming for me. And I know my time left in this world is extremely limited now. And it'd be really funny if he just had his phone on and just playing the song over and over again. Living in the sunlight, but a bit of sunlight, but a bit of sunlight. Yeah. He confesses all these government secrets. He's like, my time is up, and it's just because he has Spotify open. Spotify was open. Yeah. Oops. I guess you could say that I just wanted to tell the tale of the Harbinger experiment before it's lost forever. I hope that you'll take some lesson from what I've recounted to you, but I think we both know you won't. Let's be honest. You don't believe a word of what I've just told you, and I don't blame you. I wouldn't believe me if I were you. To you, this is nothing more than something to get your cheap thrills from. You're probably mindlessly surfing the internet when you clicked the link and found yourself here, wherever here may be, reading this story. And to be honest, I don't care if you believe me or not. Even if you do, it probably won't stop you from trying to uncover the truth of a darkness that few of us have ever seen. It certainly never stops Zimmerman. If you want a lesson, look at what happened to him when he went seeking the truth. I pray that none of you will ever discover this truth. I pray that none of you ever have to see the evil I've seen. I hope you all get to live in ignorance of what lies beyond the veil of what we can understand. It's here now. I feel its black eyes burning into me just as I could all those years ago. I'm as much to blame as Zimmerman is for the monstrosity that is now free to roam the world. Even if I was not the one to create it, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. That's the end of the Harbinger experiment. I mean, you know what, dude? For an older story, that was pretty good. Yeah. I don't hate it. Yeah. I wrote down a bunch of shit here I wanted to talk about. All right. Well, first off, well, I'm just going to just you pop in anytime because I was writing stuff the entire time all the way through. First off, I was going to say like that. It was once again, just to go back and be like, like that. it was definitely something that was inspired by the Russian sleep experiment. It had that Lovecraftian angle. You know, the audience knows I love that. All right. That's my jam. I was thinking whenever they're going through, they had so much emphasis on, I don't know, him being like a paranormal or like believing in the occult and all that kind of stuff that my immediate first reaction is there should have been more to that. Like the hallways and stuff. Like I feel like there could have been an interesting thing, which it wouldn't have coincided with the ending, but this is me just writing it from the beginning. But when you're going through these narrow hallways, how cool would it have been if there was like seals or something like on the upper parts of the walls or something, something kind of like related to like long ritual, something more than just the speech, because then it's like, well, couldn't he have done this at any point? You know? Yeah, exactly. It's a little more complicated. Because right now, it's like you just had three rooms that really didn't do anything special. I'll say this, which I'm reaching here, and I don't think this is necessarily what it intended. But what if the complex with the twisted hallways, what if the complex itself was a sigil? It could have been. But see, by not telling us that or like if there was a description. Yeah, I'm just making it up to say, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it could have been. I mean, I like that as an idea of like the complex itself. And that's why it took so long and why it had to be done here. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, like I was thinking of stuff that's like, you know, like the fucking Zach Bagans and his haunted museum or whatever, which God, I can't believe I'm talking about this is he has the Dybbuk box in there. But it's like this room and there's like a glass thing that has like a giant like it has like like a Jewish seal around it. It's like just looks it just is kind of interesting where it's like, oh, this is to keep the spirit at bay or whatever. because at first I was thinking too when we were reading this, I'm like, oh, with these rooms, if there was seal, I'm like, this is kind of turning into like a 13 ghost situation where it's like people that are capturing ghosts inside of like these rooms or these cases that have like runes or seals on them, whatever, only for the runes or something to be faulty breaks and then they're unleashed into this like maze of terror right at this place is what I was thinking. Yeah. At first, too, I was thinking, I don't know why, which this might be a weird comment, but at first I thought that he was saying, because the first subject, I believe, was a woman, right? I was like, I wonder if they're all women. The second one is. Oh, the second one is. Well, one of them was a woman. I was like, oh, I wonder if they're all women. And I thought that it might go into an angle where, like, the possession is almost like a pregnancy kind of thing. Because I was like, well, we've been here for 16 years, whatever, where I wonder if they – and I was like, that would be kind of an interesting thing, too. a ghost possesses a woman and then it like that's like impregnates her and then like the physical manifestation of that ghost is like birthed or whatever that might have been that that'd be pretty cool um there you go i think similar to me and the whole complex being a sigil giving a little too much credit i think 100 100 i mean that was just me going through but and then once again In contrast to that theory, the woman just died. Yeah. No. And that was like the biggest thing is a lot of the – and we find out with a lot of these older stories. But a lot of the older stories here, it feels like there's really interesting ideas, but there's no – there's not any like sweet fat on the bones. It's kind of just the bones of an interesting idea. But a lot of times I feel like we're like you need to cut the fat because sometimes people overindulge. But these older stories, I feel like it's just skin and bones. You kind of want a little more meat to chew on. And I wrote it down here again, too, but more magic, like more of him doing something that is like experimentive with this occult thing. We kind of get – we touch on it, but really there's nothing that he's doing besides the chant, which after the chant, you can start with that. But there needs to be, I think, more stuff. And I think a big part of that, too, what I wrote down was instead of stealing medications, our protagonist, I think that he should have been an experimentive doctor as well. Or he was like, well, I got kicked out, too, because I I experiment in this way or, you know, I like a challenging doctor against the status quo that that Zimmerman needed for his experiment. Because right now our protagonist is like kind of worthless. He doesn't really do anything here, you know, but there's nothing that there's no real reason that he's there besides just like it's a cheap doctor. But I think it'd be fun if it's like like that. I guess that's why I was going back to like it doesn't have to be the pregnancy thing. I'm kind of harping on the pregnancy thing, but it's like, oh, it's a guy that would be. You just really want to see some pregnant ladies. I know you. Yeah, I just want pregnant women. Sorry, but that's just what I'm all about. But just something where it's like this doctor who is an unconventional doctor gets approached with an unconventional task. Yeah. You know, because this whole idea of like the guy coming out, he rips Zimmer in half, all this stuff is like bloodshed and the Tiny Tim things. They're effective and fun. But I do wish that it's like there was more cause and effect. Like because he did X, this happened. There's more direction involved. I don't like Tiny Tim specifically because I know that he just got it from Insidious and Screapy and stuff. But the idea of these spirits or demons or whatever possessing hosts and their actions are completely unknowable to us, I like that idea. Like the one that comes out of the room and it just kills people like whatever. but the one that stares into the camera and then there's music that proceeds it as it follows and it kills everyone i like that i don't like that immediately after it just becomes a thing that kills you i remember talking to a guy about writing and he said if the solution to which this can be like played with but if you're writing a monster and uh the monster's breakdown is it just kills people, then you should probably rewrite your monster. Well, yeah. It's just because it leaves so much purpose. Also, in a thing where it's a man-made experiment gone wrong, whatever, it feels so unrewarding to me, at least as a reader, where it's like, oh, this thing's just evil versus like because of your experiment, it was given the directive to do X. You know what I mean? It gives it more purpose. almost like two where once again wish that the people that he brought down Zimmerman played everybody that was there to where like each person was connected to x ghost or spirit or entity right so that's also why it's chasing it too because I was like why the fuck would it still like why would it not just be killing everybody yeah or like why is it chasing him now it was like because it's not really marked in any way unless it was like you know previously stated before where it was like well yeah we need this guy to be here and you're going to be marked here. You're on subject three, and it's all these different doctors and different perspectives that you could get where it's like you're all spiritually linked to this subject or something or whatever, which would make you more of a target or it's just like I'm just coming after you. And then you kind of – it's like kind of a buy-in product, like your punishment for experimenting. Yeah, yeah. It's like you did – there's another movie I'm trying to think of where the same thing happens where someone brings out a demon and then the first thing it does is kill them because they weren't supposed to. I guess it's in a lot of horror movies, right? Like someone summons a spirit or a ghost or whatever. Well, yeah, it's just punishment for doing something that, yeah, like, you know, it's punishment for your action, which feels like it's cause and effect, which is always more satisfying. I was even thinking, dude, where I was like, yeah, this could go into a normal ghost story. You know, I mean, this, once again, I'm reaching, I'm giving it credit, but I was like, it would have been sweet if this would have been like a Minotaur parody. or something of like a guy summoning a thing. And then now he is like bringing these doctors and stuff in there and he's watching them interact with this monster he made or something like, it's like the, the tunnels and everything are, it's a literal labyrinth and he's going through and he's like watching how it affects her. Yeah. Yeah. You could have it to where he leaves or like they think they're in the control room, the control room they're actually in is just a farce to get them down there. and then he releases the subjects with them to see how they interact with it. You could go even closer to the Minotaur myth and have it be the reason he's doing this experiment in the first place is to bring back a lost loved one or whatever. So maybe he thinks this is a way to bring her back, but as we see, it's just monsters. He's just opened the door and is not picking what comes through there. So it's kind of like the Ouija board thing, right? You're just knocking on the door. you don't know who's going to answer it. Yeah, that's always a fun angle, too, with paranormal stuff, where it's like the idea of the theme of being unable to let go. Like the grief process, you're not able to overcome. You can't let something go that's already gone. So because of that, you decay with it. Like it gets worse. Or you open the door to let it back in, but something else comes out. Very like talk to me kind of vibe of like leaving the door open to talk to something, But then something else comes through that you didn't want to happen. Also, too, these big facilities, they're cool pieces, but I'm always more grounded a bit more in reality, and it's just a weird guy. It's just like, oh, I'm a doctor. Yeah, the long, complicated hallways never came in. They never come in, and I'm like, well, this has been almost like a thing where, right? Let's say you do keep the guy who's like, I'm a sketchy drug dealer doctor, right? I'm a sketchy drug dealer doctor. I got my license revoked. But this guy says that there's a gig that I can do. Okay, well, I show up, but it's at the guy's house. Well, that's fucking weird. Well, this guy who's like basically a criminal, like a drug dealer, maybe he does like humor. This like a fucking weird man who's like doing experiments in his house or something. You know what I mean? Like a little more grounded in reality where it's like this is just the walks of this doctor's life put him in the situation where he like was foolish enough to like participate. in an X, Y, and Z experiment or whatever. I think just stuff like that. And this is all in hindsight. And I will say, just to give the story credit, we were memeing on it at the beginning and stuff. I had legitimately had a good time with the story. It was good. Yeah. For one of these older OG kind of stories, so much more has been, you could tell this was a guy who was very inspired, had a fun idea. Because a lot of these stories that we read, like the Jeff the Killers or whatever, it feels like these are like a little throwaway kind of just like oh i wrote this in an afternoon kind of vibe or whatever i will say because at this point we're just doing fan fiction right um but that thing uh that we talked about with the um um the minotaur minotaur idea uh have you read House of Leaves? No. I mean, dude, I've heard you talk about it so much. I've been wanting to actually dive into it, but honestly, since we read so much on this show, too, it has stopped almost all of the other kind of reading I do, which is so weird. So I'll... The only reason I have time to do is because it's what I do on the main channel and stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, also you just really enjoy it. I just like it, yeah. Not to spoil the specifics for you, but there's a Part in House of Leaves. Well, is it going to spoil the specifics for me? No, no. I want to read it one day. Should I hear this? No, no, no. I'm saying I'm not going to give the details. Oh, to not. Okay, okay. To not spoil the specifics. There's a segment in the book where the book has multiple authors, right? Like, not literally, but in the formatting of the book, yeah, different people are writing different segments on the page. And there's one part where a group of people are walking through the hallways of the house. and in the other part another writer is giving an analysis of the minotaur myth um oh interesting because in in the literal plot where they're walking through the house they're afraid of something in the hallways as they're moving through it and in the other part where you're talking about the minotaur myth so you have one author describing the literal and you have the other author describing like a figurative that connects to the literal oh that's fun but while describing the minotaur myth the author gives an interesting analysis i had never heard before so you know in the original minotaur myth it's king it's not midas it sounds like midas though right he has the child yeah and the child is like half a monster so he throws it into the maze right um and the author in house of leaves says they're minos minos that's it um The author has a different interpretation of the story where Minos did not find his son disgusting, but instead Minos knew that his son would never be safe. So he built the labyrinths to protect his son to keep people from wanting to find him and kill him. So in the original play, when it's Perseus who kills the Minotaur, right? I'm forgetting so many details. I think it's Perseus who kills the Minotaur. when Theseus kills the Minotaur he stands before the king holding the Minotaur's head or whatever and the king cries because the monster's been slain but in the House of Leaves rendition it theorizes that perhaps when the hero went forward and killed Minus' son someone that only had to be killed because it was said the Minotaur was killing people that had ventured into the labyrinth but in this version the king sees the people who were going into the limberth as those who were going to kill his son and his son was just defending himself so when Thesis stands with the head of the Minotaur the king cries not out of joy for the hero but out of mourning for his son which is an interesting way to view that myth so I was thinking about that where you were talking about the labyrinth for the Harbinger and we're putting a lot of weight on a creepypasta right now but I mean, I just think that just shows also like I, to me, I was just, I mean, I was writing down so much shit, but just be, it might be a simple creeper story, but I was just like, man, my mind was going all over the place. You can use it. It's, it's the starting point for a lot of different ideas that you can do and stuff like that. Yeah. So you could have Zimmerman be more nuanced in the beginning and he brings people this experiment. And then not only the complex hallways, but the control room itself, they think is their safe zone is revealed to be all part of like a maze that they're to figure out as this is some kind of ritual to bring back the dead like we talked about or something like that and similar to the idea of Minos loving the Minotaur you could have the Zimmerman see this monster as something holy not the stereotypical route of like oh my creation or whatever but maybe he does believe it's a lost loved one or something so you have him actively trying to destroy like our protagonist or group members efforts to destroy the creatures that they're down there with and stuff like that so he becomes a sort of antagonist like from the top and he thinks he's doing the right thing but like i said what the story actually is is there's three people in a room and one of them becomes a scary thing that kills everyone um right that's like it but you know but i guess just for this part for people that are interested or whatever Or these are the ways that you can start your skeleton of your story like that, but then just go back and find fun ways. I do think that the idea of like even the thing of like Zimmerman's plan was this, but our protagonist didn't die when he was supposed to. That creates conflict in his plan. And then he had like that. You know what I mean? Like those kinds of things are the pivots of like X was supposed to happen, but Y happened. And like that creates conflict and that's like what diverts the thing and the creature could get loose or anything like that. Those kinds of things, I think, are the things that make stories fun, and that's just the conflict, whatever your conflicts are in your story. That isn't just scary monster is X and he kills people. I think the conflict is the things of like, what was the plan? What is my plan? How did it go wrong? How do I try to solve that? And how does that create more and more conflicts with the kind of foolish decisions that you're making, whatever. Those are usually the fun ways. I mean, you can do whatever you want as a storyteller, right? There's no rules or anything like that. But I feel like if you – and it was a different time on the internet. This author could have been younger. I'm obviously not saying to their discredit. But from my point of view, if you're going to get people's attention and they're going to dedicate their time and you now have the opportunity to do something with that time, I mean, why not make it multilayered, fun, interesting, something to chew on? you know, make it worth their while. Right. Yeah. I'm always curious to see with some of these writers and these early stories, how much time do they take on it? Yeah. Was it something that you ever just like, you were like, I just took a couple of days and was just like a little, you know, I was into it for a couple of months, like creepypastas for a couple of months. And I just decided to write this. And then I kind of stopped reading them. Was it just something you did in a day with your friend? Like, I'm curious to how many of these is like, you're in a room with your buddy and it's them like being like, Oh, and then this happens. Like, I'm so curious to see that collaborative nature. I bet that was a really fun, weird time of people just quickly putting out things and not thinking too much about it and just kind of shooting from the hip, which is kind of something admirable and pretty wholesome about that. Yeah. Yeah. But what a great story. I mean, yeah, once again, we'll leave a link to the author. I'm officially not embarrassed with my younger self. That was fine. No. So, you know, good on me. I had a lot of fun. I think like a lot of all the older stories that we read, I think that this was one of the better ones in my opinion. But, no, this was a fun one. I think that we'll leave the link below again. Thank you again to audio listeners that decided to listen to us ramble about possible ideas with Mr. Zimmerman on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. If you could leave us a nice rating, it would help us out. And also thank you to our patrons who do support us behind the scenes and get a little extra content on the side. So if you want to do that, be sure to click the link below as well. But until next time, guys, we will see you in the next one. Stay creeped. Bye-bye. Stay creeped. You know, if you think about it, I'm kind of Desi's because I'm in a labyrinth with Hunter. It's clearly like a monstrous bull man thing who his father has asked me to kill. So, you know, I'm a hero, I think. And I think his dad would cry out of joy if I killed him. So, yeah, bye. Thank you. Thank you.