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Someone made a true crime documentary about my death. But
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I'm still here. A few months ago, I got an
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email at three in the morning. Life Rights Inquiry. Untitled project.
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Wes Bennett. Documentary producer. I looked him up. He'd done
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two films I actually recognized. The kind that get nominated
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for things. He said he'd spent the past year developing
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a story about me. Wanted to talk. I couldn't imagine
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what about my life was worth documenting. Hi, Cassie. Hi, Caitlin. Hi,
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creepy people.
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Hello!
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Hello! This is PNW Haunts and Homicides, where we chat
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about true crime, the paranormal... We are doing something a
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little bit different today. We're still probably going to do
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a tarot reading. I don't know. We'll see how we
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feel when we get there. We have to. Okay. Well,
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we'll see.
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That's our thing.
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It's kind of our thing. I came across a story
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that I thought, holy shit, if I told someone to
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write a story that would somehow combine tarot our two
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genres flawlessly, what would it be about? It would be
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about this. This is that story. Murder and ghosts? Maybe.
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Maybe. A little bit.
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Or is it like a bank robbery and cryptids? Oh,
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that would be so cool. Bigfoot robbed a bank.
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Yeah.
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That would be sick. That would be sick.
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No.
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Damn it. Okay. Okay. So I had a different story
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by this same Reddit user that I actually reached out
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to them about first. Oh, cool. Yeah. Okay. So PieEater727,
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thank you so much because I almost was like, okay,
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be cool. I definitely was. It wasn't almost. I was
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definitely like, be cool, be cool, be cool. because I'd
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already gotten their approval to read a different story, and
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I was like, what if they think we're just greedy now?
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But I was like, if I can't read any other
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Reddit story possibly ever, I want to read this one.
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We're starting with a scary story that somehow is the
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stuff of both of our nightmares. We'll also hear about
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an unsettling encounter that And then maybe we'll see. Maybe
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we'll wrap up our time today with what I thought might,
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depending on the interpretation, be considered a palate cleanser. So
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we'll just see how you feel about it when we
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get there. Someone made a true crime documentary about my death,
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but I'm still here. Oh! Spooky.
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It reminds me of like when celebrities, like they, someone fakes,
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puts out that they had died and then they read
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it or like their friends read it and like try
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to contact them and be like, are you dead, bro?
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Are you dead, bro?
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Yeah.
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Yeah. Oh, okay. All right. Well, save your guesses, interpretations,
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and pee until the end. A few months ago, I
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got an email at three in the morning. Life Rights Inquiry.
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Untitled project. Wes Bennett. Documentary producer. I looked him up.
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He'd done two films I actually recognized. The kind that
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get nominated for things. He said he'd spent the past
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year developing a story about me. Wanted to talk. I
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couldn't imagine what about my life was worth documenting. He
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signed off with a coffee shop three blocks from my apartment.
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He was already sitting when I arrived. Latte on the table,
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made exactly how I take it, down to the extra
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shot I usually get. Hell yeah, me too. I was like,
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this is where Cassie gets so invested. Yeah, extra shot.
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She's a Derby's girl. I save all my points to
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buy the extra shot. A leather folder sat under his
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hand like it might try to leave without him. We
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talked about my life, my childhood, my job, the street
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I grew up on. At first, it was almost flattering.
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I remember relaxing into it, laughing at something he said.
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He had a charm you didn't notice until it closed
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around you. Then he mentioned a third act. Is he
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going to kill her?
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I figured it out.
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A stretch where I go quiet.
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Pull away.
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Get hard to reach. The front door, one night, wouldn't
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be locked the way I left it. No forced entry.
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I was so confused. Asked him what kind of documentary
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was this supposed to be? True crime, he said, like
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I'd missed something obvious. I laughed. The alternative was worse.
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Who's crying?
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He looked at me the way you look at a
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child who's asked something idiotic. Open the folder, absent-minded. Photographs.
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My building. My hallway. My front door, shot from an
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angle that didn't exist unless the camera stood inside my apartment,
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looking out. Ooh, I got chills. That's creepy. My chair
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screeched against the floor before I knew I'd stood. Wes
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closed the folder with the same calm he'd opened it.
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We already have most of the footage, he said. I
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just wanted you to know your side gets told too.
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Seemed like the ethical thing to do. Dude, this is
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really creepy.
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Is he like the documentary serial killer where he like
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Does the documentary about the killing, but like he killed them?
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Could be.
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I blocked his number that night. Email, phone, the production
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company's main line. A week of nothing. One night, my
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neighbor mentioned in passing that a man had come by
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asking questions about me for a film project. He said
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it as a compliment, like I'd made it big. Couldn't
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remember the name. Was pretty sure he'd signed something. I
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swear things in my apartment started moving around after that.
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A mug two inches from where I'd set it. A
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chair turned toward the window like someone had been staging
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it for a shot. Ooh, it sounds like some books
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that I read.
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Right?
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I stopped sleeping right. Awake at strange hours. Certain I
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heard a shutter click. Hide under the covers. Hold my
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breath until my chest burned. I never saw a camera.
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That absence became its own kind of animal. A wrongness
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under the skin. The way you feel a fever coming on.
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I moved. Told no one the new address. Not even
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my mother. That's exactly what you should do. I know, right?
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Kind of sounds like you got the right idea. You're
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in wit sec now. One sleepless night. I opened a
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streaming service looking for something to fill the quiet. A
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thumbnail stopped my thumb before my brain caught up. My face.
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Badly lit.
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Mid-laugh. A title underneath. Plain sight. A documentary. One hour,
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33 minutes. Released today. My hands went cold before I
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pressed play. The first 20 minutes were the coffee shop.
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Our conversations. cut tight, scored with ominous strings. Wes's voice
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pitching to a version of me who looked far more
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frightened on screen than I remember feeling in the room.
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My old building, my neighbor telling the camera how we met,
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my front door filmed from inside looking out. No. That
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angle again. A news segment, the kind that runs after
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a body turns up. a reporter at the edge of
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a tree line, floodlights, officers moving through underbrush, heads down,
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sweeping flashlights over the ground. The reporter said my full
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name into the microphone. Cut to my mother in the
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house I grew up in, sitting too straight at the
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kitchen table, hands folded like she's bracing for news that
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hasn't quite hit her yet. She looked into the lens,
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said how she misses her daughter, wishes she could hear
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her voice again. The tree line again, closer now. A
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stuffed rabbit, half sunk in wet leaves. The one that
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slept on my bed since I was six. The one
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sitting on the shelf behind me right now. The camera moved, slow, reverent.
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There I was, face down, in the dirt, a coat
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I don't own yet, hair fanned out wrong. I remembered
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my own voice, high and cracked, screaming at the television
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that none of this happened, that it wasn't real, like
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the television could be argued with. Then, my new apartment.
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Right now, a static shot of my front door. Heavy breathing,
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like someone standing too close to the microphone. I looked
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up from the screen. My front door was open. I
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slammed it shut.
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Locked it.
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Called the police with my back against the wood. They
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came fast. Walked the apartment. Checked the hinges, the frame,
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the fire escape. Nothing forced. Nothing broken. Nothing missing. I
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told them about the TV. Told them the counter was
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still crawling. They just needed to look. Okay, so this
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is where I'm going to interject and say, you know,
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at the bottom of the screen when you're watching the show. Okay, okay.
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Not the counter was like crawling with ants. Yeah, yeah.
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That's where my head went first, which is how you
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know that I live. In a place with a lot
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of greenery. Yeah. Because we have ants all the time.
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No matter what you do. There was nothing. Just a
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blank screen, they said.
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Kind.
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The way you talk to someone who's had a scare
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over nothing. They told me to get some rest and
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left for the night. The documentary didn't stop. It doesn't stop.
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That's the part I keep circling back to. Awake at
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four in the morning with the runtime bar, still sitting
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at five minutes remaining, no matter how many times I check.
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Five minutes of a thing that hasn't happened. Counting down
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to a version of me in woods I've never been.
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I sleep with the rabbit now. Make sure it's on
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the bed every night before I check the locks.
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I mean, I don't know if I'd want it with
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me if that's a part of it. I would maybe
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get rid of it.
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I don't know if getting rid of the singular stuffed
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animal changes anything. It could. Butterfly effect. I'm still here.
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I want that on record somewhere that isn't their footage.
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I'm still here. I'm still alive. I'm still here. Dude,
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that's so creepy. Is that the end? That's the end.
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That is so creepy to like have a documentary with
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the person who was murdered in it like talking. Right.
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Like I know people use like past videos and things.
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Yeah.
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During the production.
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Right.
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Because you shouldn't know that this person is going to
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be murdered. Yeah. So many things. Oh my God. All right.
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This next one is actually a Pacific Northwest story. Oh, okay.
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I like that. By OK The Nomad. Okay. The Nomad.
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The Nomad. Dog perceives things in my little cabin near
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Mount St. Helens. Dash, dash, dash. Posting in real time. Ooh.
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I'm at my little cabin in the middle of nowhere
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near Mount St. Helens in Washington State. My dog just
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did this weird thing he has started doing at the cabin.
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In fact, he is doing it now. It only happens
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when it is dark outside. Here's what happens. All of
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a sudden, he becomes super alert. Body frozen, tail up,
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eyes fixed on something across the room. Only there's nothing there. Yes,
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there is. You just can't see it, but your dog can.
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He often tries to walk up or follow what he
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is seeing. He just did that a few seconds ago.
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He just stares vigilantly like he's watching prey or something.
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Whatever he is seeing, he sees in various parts of
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the cabin. He goes and checks corners, etc. He will
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do this for much of the evening. Really, the whole evening. Ooh.
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He is not a hunting breed. He is just a
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little cute rescue with an underbite. Oh, I love an underbite.
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So cute.
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Tonight, I asked him if he wanted to play his game.
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It's one of those dog games you can buy where
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they find hidden treats. Like a puzzle? Yeah. That's what
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I'm picturing.
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Yeah.
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I play this game with him every night and he
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loves it. He gets all excited when he sees me
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pull out the game and fill it with treats. He
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barks with joy when I ask him if he wants
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to play. Oh, that is so cute. Tonight, he was
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so intent on whatever he was looking at, he didn't
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even notice when I loaded his game. Dude, something's there.
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He didn't look at me when I asked him if
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he wanted to play. This is a dog who is
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highly motivated by food, too. Finally, I interested him in
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trying to play. He made a few half-hearted attempts, but
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he'd stop trying to make a treat appear and start
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looking at his whatever. He didn't even finish the game. Usually,
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he plays it full-heartedly and we do two rounds. I
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didn't even bother him with the second round tonight. He
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hasn't always done this in the cabins. It started maybe
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a few months ago. I don't live here. It's more
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a vacation cabin that I come up to on weekends. Crap.
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Now he's whining a tiny bit at whatever he sees
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and looks at me like he wants to show me
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what he sees. He just jumped off the couch to
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go after whatever it is. Oh my god, I can
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like see him in the cabin like typing this out.
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Right?
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I'm getting creeped out right now. even more creeped out