Тим Леббон - New Fears 2 - Brand New Horror Stories by Masters of the Macabre

So yeah, nobody ever found much else of Joe. Just this… layer of sludge all over the apartment, unidentifiable, biological in origin. Just cracks in the ceiling and two broken bulbs lying in the far left corner, right by the window.

Adding insult to injury, the condo corporation tried like hell to blame me for the damage. They only gave up when I got a lawyer smart enough to point out that just publicizing the legal battle would tank sales in the entire building. That’s how I got out of my mortgage with enough money to do whatever I wanted after that.

But by that point I already knew what I had to do.

See, after that day? I couldn’t turn on an electric light anywhere—couldn’t even get near one—without hearing this… buzzing. Incandescent, CFL, LED, doesn’t matter. If I listen hard enough, like really, really hard, I can even hear it coming from computer screens or smartphones. And the buzzing… once you listen long enough, it sounds like—a voice. Whispering. I can’t ever make out what it’s saying, but I know it’s saying something. You know, how you can always tell?

And once it starts sounding like a voice, I know whose voice it is.

Has to be.

So.

(LONG PAUSE)

I quit my job. I bought a farmhouse—all stone and wood, not a bit of metal in it. I took up growing my own vegetables, raising my own chickens—they really are amazingly stupid birds, by the way. I made goddam sure they ripped out every piece of wiring in the building. I cut my own firewood, I buy oil supplies for lanterns and candles. Reading is the only entertainment I have. And when I’m too tired to read, I shut off the lantern and I sit in the dark, and the quiet, until I can fall asleep.

Because the grid is a web, a network of energies. Of ghosts. And things live in it, waiting for food. Hunting. Like spiders.

I mean, maybe I’m being paranoid. Maybe that thing was as ass-dumb as a chicken itself. But if it wasn’t… if it remembers there’s stuff here to eat, and at least one meal escaped… it might come looking. And I don’t want anybody else to die like Joe, eaten just because I wasn’t fast enough to get him to safety in time. That’s why I live alone. That’s the “conscience” part.

That’s why I’m telling you this story now. Because if it happened to me, it might happen again. To someone else.

(LONG, LONG PAUSE)

Hey. Did I lose you there, Doss?

Q: No. No, I just… um… I’m not sure what to say to all that. (PAUSE) I mean, I assume this is the reason for the anonymity and the alias. And the burner phone, too.

A: Bingo. (PAUSE) So how crazy do you think I am, now? C’mon. Scale of one to ten.

Q: Bronwyn, we don’t… look, that’s not…

A: Relax. I’ve heard your show before. You did an interview last year with those guys who’re waiting for the shape-shifting space lizards to reveal they control the world, remember?

Q: Well—yeah, but as long as they stuck to talking about building shelters and hunting schedules, they sounded sane. Maybe… maybe you could tell us a little more about your daily routine, the skills you use as part of your off-grid life…

A: Nope. I’ve already been on this phone too long.

Q: Wait, Bronwyn—one last question. If you’re afraid that this—thing, whatever—that it might come after whoever talks about it… should we be careful? What kind of… of risk would we be taking if we release this interview?

A: If you do think I’m crazy, then obviously none. Right?

Q: Bronwyn—

(DIAL TONE)

Oshi Takamura4:53 PM (1 hour ago)

to me, Jen ▼

Hi Lucas,

Listened to Doss’s file, and I have to say I agree—don’t care about people’s crazy reasons for living off-grid, but our shows have to talk about actually *living off grid*, because that’s what people tune in for. It’s also not long enough—we’d need at least another twenty minutes to round out a full episode. Try not to be too hard on Doss, BTW. I’ll have to pull an all-nighter to catch up, but it’s still a couple of weeks before exams.

Oshi

Lucas Brennan5:21 PM (30 minutes ago)

to Oshi, Jen ▼

Hey Oshi,

Dude, you’re way too forgiving. Doss should have damn well known better before he wasted all our time on this. This is not the same as spending three out of forty-two minutes on a conspiracy theory, this is Stephen King nightmare crap.

If Doss wasn’t our biggest audience draw I’d be seriously tempted to fire his ass. I’m deleting that file and I’d strongly recommend you do too.

If you’re OK with the all-nighters, Oshi, then I’m going to go ahead and pull the May 17th episode material forward to the 3rd—make sure you update the home page sidebars to match. Jen, I’ve reworked the interstitial scripts to pad them out a little. If you could review the attached files and do a couple of rehearsals on your own, then be ready to go for a recording session on the afternoon of April 25th, that’d be great. Let me know if either of you have any problems.

--L.

From Reddit.com, posted May 13th 2018:

Lost episode of “GridLost”

submitted 11 hours ago by DossalFinn

74 commentssharesavehidereport

harmony-interview-apr-18.mp3

[-] offbroadwaychaos

anyone got a screenshot of the GridLost home page? i wanna see if this was ever scheduled.

permalinkembedsavereply

[-] HyperJoan

I’ve attached a .gif from Wayback but it just says “Special Guest Star coming”. Which could be this Harmony chick, I suppose.

permalinkembedsavereply

[-] svalbard43

Don’t get it. Is this supposed to be a late April Fool’s joke or what?

permalinkembedsavereply

[-] MichaelTwyla50

No, I listen to GL all the time and this is the guy, this is Doss. + on the May 3rd show the producer did come on and apologize for a shorter-than-usual episode, which would completely make sense if they chickened out of releasing this. + Harmony6893’s a real person, I’ve read some of her posts on prepperforums.net

permalinkembedsavereply

[-] ChocoBot14

I’ve posted a transcript of the file here if anyone’s interested, with a few annotations.

permalinkembedsavereply

[-] RagingManticore

Okay guys: read transcript and phoned up the Toronto police department. theyve got a missing persons case still on the books from January 2017 for a ryerson engineering student age 22 named joseph macklay, last seen near a condo off adelaide west, fifteen minutes from downtown bay street. local real estate records say theres a corner one bed plus den unit still listed hasnt sold since. sooooo either a *really* well-researched creepypasta or ???????!!!!!?????

permalinkembedsavereply

[-] KevlarTuxedo

lol youre a tool—links or its bullshit

permalinkembedsavereply

From a subforum on www.prepperforums.net, posted June 5, 2018:

Hello everyone.

I’ve been drafting this post for a couple of weeks now, after my last trip into town, when I realized that my interview with the “GridLost” people had gone viral. Honestly, I never expected them to release it in any form. I just wanted to tell myself I’d told somebody . I still don’t know if I haven’t made a really big mistake. But there’s nothing I can do about it now.

That’s why this is going to be my last post to these forums, or any other. I’m cutting the last cord. I want to thank everyone for everything I’ve learned here, and I hope I’ve given as much as I’ve gained. If I came into this community out of fear, I think I’ve found something like peace, and I couldn’t be more grateful.