welcome to nightmares and grief a place to explore and celebrate the darkness each episode I'll read stories written by me Derek heisy so settle in check under the bed and pour a drink for the skeletons in your closet it's time to start the [Music] feeds I started watching other people's cameras because I was bored I stumbled onto the site completely by accident I I think I might have been looking for cameras to start a new hobby and the algorithm thought I wanted to look through cameras I guess
I wonder what my life would be like if it had taken me to the right place as soon as the site loaded I was greeted by a wall of thumbnails each detailing a random scene some of the thumbnails were totally dark others were pointed at random objects but a lot of them most of them stared into a person's face at an unflattering angle I thought it was weird but you know I was bored so I clicked I was curious and it was an enticing proposition something new to watch and what would you watch why peopl
e of course consequence free voyerism just hop on and watch I couldn't believe it wasn't staged it was too amazing I'd click on a person's thumbnail drop in on their cameras webcams or cell phones and glimpse into their real lives I thought the amount of tech needed was too much it had to be staged but the longer I spent on the site the more I saw the more I watched the more it became obvious it couldn't be staged I once watched a middle-aged woman lay in bed for hours reflected in her glasses w
ere brightly colored candy puzzle pieces dropping swapping and exploding into sprinkles the form of her husband knocked out cold unmoving lay in the periphery of the phone's glow who's going to pay people to do that at 3:00 in the morning the sight was real the people were real and they were totally clueless I can't explain what attracted me to it at first I thought it was a sex thing some forbidden door War I'd stumbled upon you know whenever people talk about voyers that's what it's always abo
ut right they're peeping through open windows on girls and sorority houses or big city apartment complexes jacking off into tissues and Dixie Cups and that's what it was for me at first too I'd scroll through the weird screen grabs of the different people looking for the prettiest girl and I drop in hoping she was lonely it almost never happened I still couldn't stop watching it's hard to place what I liked about it or why I couldn't stop maybe it was the power trip when I think about it that th
at's the most likely reason I liked knowing they showed me their private moments you know it was It was kind of beautiful kind of pure I didn't ask them for anything they didn't ask me for anything we simply existed together sharing the same space with honesty it became my only hobby it became the reason I got up every morning the reason I went to work so I could come home pay my Internet bill pay the site subscription and watch watching consumed me I could have done it forever until it came it
waited a long time I I didn't realize it was there until 3 months in and then it came in as a faint blur like a smudge in the back always off on the side I saw it in every one of the feeds I watched all of them every single one the blur smeared the left edge of every feed it was elusive like an eye floaty the moment I turned my attention to it the blur vanished it was really annoying especially because I thought it was a problem with my monitor there was no way that every single camera on the fa
ce of the planet had an issue so I worked a few overtime weeks to save up for one of those massive curved Ultra HD monitors with a light changing sound bar underneath that didn't solve it though if anything it made it worse I'd see the blur and sharp Vivid color defying any attempts to be made more defined and it seemed to seep into the surrounding image one day I left the cameras running while I had a screen capture program on I wanted to record it for later you know I woke up to a wounded scre
en vomiting Sparks out onto the desk the black smudge had blown over a hole in the LED I thought I'd lose my [Ā __Ā ] fortunately I'd only just recently thrown out the old monitor so it was still in the dumpster I needed it if I didn't have a monitor I couldn't watch the feeds if I couldn't watch the feeds I'd lose my mind I called out that day the the prospect of losing the feeds until I got a replacement monitor made me so upset that I I couldn't breathe for a while the edges of my vision got bl
urry and fuzzy and I had to stop I wanted the whole day with my feeds in case I lost them again especially since the recording IID made was completely corrupted it made me wonder if there was some kind of Safeguard against the recording but with the screen caps on the the thumbnails that couldn't be possible anyway that day I curled up in my big zero gravity chair watching the feeds it was like being in the womb so so secure so safe I didn't have to worry about anything or anybody all I had to d
o was enjoy this special time with my favorite people I found some atmospheric ambient music on YouTube and floated away the worst was when they put their phones in their pockets when all I saw was Darkness it was almost guaranteed to be there for a while sometimes they do it right in the middle of when they were doing something interesting and that was the worst but more often than not watching paid off I once saw a woman in a kitchen whose phone must have been propped up so she could read the
recipe she chopped onions with Fierce concentration tying her brow into knots the very tip of a bright pink tongue peeking from between her lips then she moved on to the carrots finally the mushrooms scooping all the vegetables into a big metal Bowl she scraped the knife's face against the inner lip of the bowl to remove a few straggling mushroom slices and then she paused her exposed forearm stretched before the camera as it steadied the Bowl against the blade she must have had an amazing phone
because I could almost make out blue veins running down milky white skin from the heel of her Palm to her elbow the paws stretched longer something was going to happen my saliva thickened into hot gelatin and my heart galloped against my rib cage she raised the blade brought it to her skin and Drew it slowly across red tears wept over pale flesh and dripped into the food distressed but unceasing the woman's arms and body seemed transfixed her face a wash and Agony and that's when I saw it the b
lur it took shape now almost like a person it was monstrous towering above the woman as it stood in the far corner of the kitchen behind her a silhouette drawn in Shadow smoke or static I couldn't tell which it defied any precise definition but it wasn't a person it was interference it had to be I'd never seen anything like it before but that was the only reasonable explanation the the the woman must have something magnetic or a different electronic or something interfering with the camera's sig
nal the blur coalesced in the background like a well of Shadows and approached her I couldn't focus on it the moment I looked at it directly it vanished I had to focus on the woman and watch it in my peripherals as it reached out and then the phone lost its balance Landing screen down on the countertop I rocketed out of my chair and howled this was the best thing I'd ever seen and now I wasn't going to know the ending unacceptable I had to know I immediately took to the internet to find out who
the woman was it was hard especially because the feed was essentially cut I checked it every few minutes but it remained the faintly lit black screen of a blocked camera I mustered up what details I could from my memory and I dug but I couldn't find her I didn't know enough I didn't have enough Clues I couldn't figure out where she lived based only on the interior of her kitchen her feed never came back it was gone Without a Trace in a few hours as if the people on the site erased her I became o
bsessed I looked for lateral job transition so I could work from home and spend more time on my feeds I scraped by for another monitor and set them up side by side one so I could work and another so I could monitor the feeds all my money was going to pay for the site so I didn't have much to spare but I absolutely had to monitor the feeds now I was looking for the blur I still enjoy the feeds don't get me wrong but now I was convinced that there was a conspiracy with the blur maybe some of the f
eeds were faked and staged and they threw them in there for Intrigue what if that was the case it was working this Easter egg was exciting whatever it was was there some kind of meta story underlying the whole thing was this some kind of messed up ARG made to scare people like me if so it failed it only made me more ruthless I trolled Reddit in other forms looking for answers seeking someone else who'd seen the blur on the feeds but I came up with nothing was I the only one who'd experienced the
blur weeks went by I practically lived on my computer my goldfish died because I forgot to feed it I was so focused on my screens it wasn't until the water had turned cloudy and stank that I noticed part of me is amazed I could keep my job but it's probably because I knew if I didn't bring in any money I couldn't watch the feeds and if I couldn't watch the feeds I couldn't find the blur I don't think I really would have quit searching but part of me was almost ready to I was barely sleeping sus
taining myself with short naps living on microwaved burritos and Diet Coke I had delivered to my door I hadn't gotten sight of the thing again more likely a bigger part of me was ready to accept I'd imagined the blur maybe I'd spent so much time on the feed that I I'd fallen asleep and had a weird dream I I don't know one night I was so weary and had a big project do so I was about to turn in for a night of real sleep it could have been the first full night of sleep i' had in over a month if I h
adn't refreshed the Page by accident it was a side shot probably taken from a nightstand of a man on all fours in bed he glared into the pillow extended arms flexing with effort and strain veins bulged in his forehead he struggled to keep something down and that's when I saw the hand wrap around his wrist when I when I leaned forward and squinted I saw a nose peeking out behind the edge of the pillow the man on top pushed harder leaning with all his weight into the body beneath him the hand appe
ared to pull at his wrist trying to pry him [Music] off then it [Music] materialized it was a gradual collection of Darkness the same process as in the woman's kitchen it coales moat by moat Gathering the darkness together like collecting wool I I I I fumbled from my notepad and and scribbled down as many details as I could I took screenshots of the apartment bedroom hoping I could use them later as Clues I watched an anticipatory awe as a pair of legs feudly kicked the air at the man's back my
heart pounded as I wondered why the blur was with them it soon became apparent when the hand stopped resisting when it fell limp to the side what felt like hours later it became obvious what the shadow wanted it wanted lives I had no doubt the woman from the kitchen had killed herself that's why it had stalked her it was ready to prey on the energy of those who died my suspicion was confirmed after the murderer grabbed a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from the bed table he left the room passin
g right in front of the blur the moment he left it Advanced reaching out for the the corpse putting its shadowy hands on it white wispy tendrils rose out of the corpse as the blur popped in and out of focus its edges would sharpen and soften over and over again the tendrils Weedle into the blur entering it in degrees up along its arms across its chest shoulders and neck and at last when every wispy tendril had vanished into the blur static Mass its edges sharpened permanently I thought about the
woman in the kitchen the blur hunted her stalking its prey same as it was here when the murderer returned the blur was still there the man gazed at the corpse with a puckered morose expression then shook his head the blur came close behind him extending its round arm likee appendages on either side of its head from the man's ears the white tendrils snaked out he stood for a while staring at what done while the blur fed and became more defined the man withdrew a gun from the same bedside table h
e'd gotten the smokes and put it in his mouth the wall behind him was painted red and he collapsed to the floor shocked I I I I couldn't move I stared Frozen mouth a gape at the screen I I I needed to see what happened next I needed to know how the story ended the blur stood before the red smear facing the camera and raised a hand a hand defined articulated with five fingers it waved and then its whole being flickered out of existence like B add reception the feed went black hours later the site
took down the page the next time I saw it I think it saw me too it came easier this time rather than spending weeks waiting and hunting I I only spent a few days part of me felt like I was figuring out the patterns the energy of the people the way they'd look and and could stake them out by then but a deeper part of me couldn't shake the idea that it was planned I I didn't know how or why I I know social media companies will manipulate what you see and make you buy stuff maybe the site owners w
ere manipulating it to make me see the feeds they wanted me to guiding me to the places they wanted me to find were they leading me to the blur it was on the front page first thumbnail I knew it almost before I fully registered the image a man man with a desperate look in his eyes heavy bags sow skin patchy hair he looked like the poster child for struggle like life had put him through the ringer and W the kind of guy at the end of his rope he's next I thought there was no way the blur wouldn't
want to feed on him I I still didn't know what it was feeding on but whatever he had that's what it wanted I bet to the blur that guy looked like prime rib despair maybe that's what it was eating maybe it fed on people's despair the blur loomed in the distance behind the guy while he mindlessly scrolled on his phone for hours he took periodic slugs of Jack Daniels straight from the bottle I got the sense he'd been drinking for a while before I'd shown up and he finished the bottle while I watche
d throwing the empty carcass across the room it didn't take long before he started crying I I think he was already doing it before but quietly in that way you're not even sure you're crying when you're so full of emotion your eyes just sort of leak at all all out and before you know it your face is wet I'd have it happen usually when I talk to my parents on the phone that discrepancy you know between who they were and who they are now sometimes it was too much anyway I recognize this guy's heart
I recognize the Shadows cast by cloudy skies I knew his despair the blur got close there wasn't a smooth transition or a clean apperance it wasn't like it materialized or the the camera cut off briefly one moment the space behind the sad drunk guy was empty and the next it was blurred as the man wept the blur raised its arms framing his face at the ears like fungal melum the white tendrils spread out again leaking out of his skin and wriggling into the blurs Define hands its now narrow wrists a
nd into its solidifying forearms the more it took the more defined it got and the harder he wept until finally he wound down and stopped he seemed to fall asleep but I knew what had happened he drank a lot he was passed out and he wasn't waking up it would show up as alcohol poisoning but the blur had killed him Souls I felt the world drop out from beneath me and realized everything I knew was wrong death wasn't a natural state of being it wasn't something that had to happen death was a parasite
an opportunistic bottom feeder devouring the life force of those at the end of their rope death was the blur as it drained the drunk man's energy features formed on its head like a child scrawling on the side walk with a big piece of chalk two scribbled dots for eyes and a long narrow mouth the crude face wasn't static either it was in constant movement almost as if it were being created and recreated over and over without being erased when the blur stopped pulling the white threads out of the
drunk man it settled its attention onto me and then smiled I I wish I could say I I didn't know how I knew I wish I could say it was paranoia that I was on the knife's edge of my nerves because of what I'd witnessed but I knew it had focused onto me because I felt it Goosebumps turned my skin inside out my Palms grew sweaty and my feet went cold a shutter racked my whole spinal column and then it beckoned it reached out with its hand to beckon with a finger it it was less of a request and more o
f a taunt it knew it was being watched it knew I was watching it I I checked my body to ensure I didn't have any white tendrils coming off of me patting it almost like I was looking for something in my pockets and then the feed cut the website crashed and when I reloaded the site the sad salow man was removed from the site entirely but a new feed appeared this one didn't have a person's face on the thumbnail yet it was fresh within the last hour or two and no one in the community had managed to
screen cap their face yet it was only a random grab of their environment but I recognized the space I recognized the couch and the coffee table I knew the carpet I tread it flat at the thresholds of the doors it was my apartment under under normal circumstances I might have appreciated the irony and welcomed it if only briefly but now that the blur had beckoned to me I knew it wasn't a coincidence I was marked I I I I've started doing everything I can to do better to be better I've been eating o
nly only plant-based food I I I I've been running and doing yoga every day I I even started meditating I I I'm desperate it's death right I I'm not misunderstanding something am I it's coming to take my life so so if I if I'm if I'm healthy it can't take me if I if I can settle my rattling nerves and I can find peace it can't make me take my own I can be safe I can be saved right I swear I can see it in the corner of my eyes I swear when I turn around I can see pieces of it dematerialized like I
just missed it [Music] Escape sometimes when I'm trying to sleep I can hear the faint crackle of static sometimes during late nights when Sweat Beads my foreheads and my thoughts turn into a world pool of Despair I swear I see little white tendrils Rise Up from my [Music] cheekbones I'm always worried that tonight's going to be the night I'm not ready to go please don't let it take me will you watch over me will you keep me safe [Music] thank you for sharing my nightmares and helping me carry t
he grief if you enjoyed the show please share your favorite nightmare with a friend or family member don't forget to leave a rating remember to subscribe and turn on notifications if you'd like to go the extra mile you can join my patreon for $3 a month and you can cancel at any time or you can buy my book on Amazon I've put links to both in the description I'd love to connect with you on Instagram Facebook or threads just look for nightmares and grief and you'll find me thank you for sharing th
is time with me good night [Music]
Comments
Nice and creepy.....loved it!