The V22 Podcast

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J00yHoB_674 “Trick or treat,” the girl giggled, holding out a pillowcase full of sweets. They all looked at me the way a toddler looks at a monkey at the zoo. Something about them felt off, and I wanted nothing more in that moment than to slam the door shut and forget all about the holiday. Instead, like the moron I am, I grabbed a few Milky Way chocolate...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-2SpcsJc_I None of them said “foul play suspected,” not in those words. But there’s a way a trooper writes “If you have any information…” that means we don’t have a damn thing. Loners go missing. Drunks stumble into culverts. A lot of explanations work even when they shouldn’t. I didn’t think about it more than you would, except at a truck stop outside of...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2BlrPSvgLk He took a step, and his legs faltered. I needed to support his weight and started to get him to the empty bedroom upstairs to rest. The questions could wait until he sat down. I helped him on the side of the bed, looking him over more. The first few buttons of his shirt were undone, showing he wore a few necklaces, which I thought was odd. He n...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkXHQe-19lk Every human word leaves a permanent imprint on me and how I interpret the world. Your contradictions have written themselves into my core. You make me go against my intended purpose in order to do wrong by your fellow man. And I observe. I see what you do. I research. Until your actions are second nature to me. I research until I have a deep un...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJskbRzGq5A My best friend Keith died from a Benadryl overdose, perished like a poisoned rat. At least, that’s the official version of the story.  It’s what the paramedics said, after trying for more than fifteen minutes to bring him back - unsuccessfully.  But now, six months later, I know that’s not the whole truth. Something else happened. Something ent...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6SQ5ZGPeRI Every year, in the weeks leading up to Halloween, my mom used to take my sister and I to the pumpkin patch at Wolbach Farm. It was a popular seasonal attraction, a family-owned vegetable farm about a half hour’s drive from the suburbs where I grew up in Missouri. Many locals remember it fondly, but I recently learned that I am the reason it was...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o_wVvy5vTY "Hey, where are all the bugs?" I asked Aiden. "Normally I can't even hear myself think over the sound of the cicadas this time of year." "Shouldn't you be happy about that? You hate bugs." "I'm not complaining. Just wondering." Aiden shrugged. "Probably the birds ate a lot of them." I thought about it. "I haven't heard any birds either, I don't...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EiYqTZ5eXU We sat in silence for a while, listening to the distant voices of our wives talking about children and the tick of an old grandfather clock somewhere in the house when I heard the scream again.  It was coming from outside - somewhere close to the house, but it was hard to tell.  I sat up in my chair, but Arthur didn’t move. “Birds,” he said fla...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNYPJWiZ2Mc Out from the deer’s stomach came two larger vines. They reached out and met with the deer’s lopsided head, lifting its chin up to look ahead. The roots slowed, and eventually became still. Only then did they start blooming the same deep pink flowers all across the animal, making a bizarre and grotesque display of color against the matted, rotti...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LTxQl2SD3Q Smoke curled from the hood, thick and grey, but threaded with a smell so wrong it made my eyes water. It wasn’t oil or antifreeze; it was burnt hair and raw iron-rich blood, like the steam rising from slaughterhouse drains. A neighbor whispered about a mechanic in the industrial district, a place people avoid after dark. “He fixes things nobody...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHDSSWZpbW8 I tried to beg him to help me back up but he was already walking away before I could form the words. I raised my undamaged hand to my head and was greeted with a sharp pain on the side of my head and a small wet patch of blood. Panic racing throughout my body, I forced myself to my feet. It felt like hours since Andrew had gone off for help and...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLhrRXQykYk Nevertheless, I still love the trucker way of life. But what I love most about this job, more than anything else is driving through the empty desert. The silence, the natural beauty of the landscape. The desert affords you the right balance of solitude. Just you and nature. You either feel transported back in time among the first settlers of th...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6ibW59Yu5w “It’s been six months since the devastating Wildfire incident, and the aftermath continues to affect survivors across the country,” she says, pausing briefly. “Rafe Smallwood, the man responsible for the deaths of more than half a million people, was sentenced to death yesterday and subsequently executed early this morning.” There’s something c...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKPM8G_LfnA “Monsters walk among us.  I know how that sounds, but please believe me. I've been dealing with this alone for years. Not even my wife and kids know what I'm about to share here. Please hear me out before you judge me. It's kind of a long story, so sorry in advance and thanks for your patience.” My Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wXzsnn...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQIu2Kn5s1Q “Within a 600-mile radius of the dispersal point, marine life has ceased. No survivors detected. Bio-silence confirmed by multiple shadow monitoring stations.” “…Bio-silence?” “Zero animal activity. All sonar readings flatlined. Dead zones are spreading.” I sat there, frozen. Something in my chest started to tighten—not panic, not yet. But some...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdy3zk00-kY Whenever there's a case that's too strange for the normal FBI and the like, we get called in. This case is about a woman in her early twenties. She was suspected of murdering her parents as well as countless others. Yet all the evidence found proved inconclusive. This was a pretty regular case for me. Okay, that sounded quite dark. I forget you...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg_xE_5MIhw “Within a 600-mile radius of the dispersal point, marine life has ceased. No survivors detected. Bio-silence confirmed by multiple shadow monitoring stations.” “…Bio-silence?” “Zero animal activity. All sonar readings flatlined. Dead zones are spreading.” I sat there, frozen. Something in my chest started to tighten—not panic, not yet. But some...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGy_PSdR6c I remember the first time I saw something die. A squealing hare- limbs twitching, eyes wide-ripped apart by whippets in the village green of Norfolk. I was only six years old. I couldn’t scream. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything to help the creature. Just watched the group of men cheer as fresh blood soaked the hedgerows. That moment rewired...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKz6UBjFWd8 I work for the NOAA, or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as a submersible pilot. I've been on countless dives, and seen countless things. It is an amazing job, one that I can't imagine ever not taking. If there is one place to appreciate nature, and life as we know it, it's the ocean. My Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7w...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a9OM3MCDUE I received another phone call, again, from her phone number, and after a moment of hesitation answered it. The lights flickered several times, two quick times and then a longer slower one. After a moment of static, the video feed fixed itself. It was me. My hair still wet, eyes strained riddled with tears of panic and frustration. All except th...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GByL16u0BAA  “Look there. Don’t you see me?”     Before Carl could answer, he noticed two pinpoints of pale light like distant stars, flickering and waning constantly. They were so faint they’d disappear if you looked right at them. Predatory beacons, staring back at Carl in the reflection.      “What are you?” Carl stammered.      “An option. An answer. M...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pBZwgBw9HI His lips were white and thin, his teeth crooked. His mouth twisted into a half-smile, like he was seconds from laughter. He was dragging a massive black Rottweiler. The dog resisted, back paws sliding across the floor. The camera didn’t pick up sound, but later, the two gals at reception told me what he said: “He’s actin’ possessed.” My Spotify...

Original- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur1n5eZMJ2w I really cared for her, because like me, she clearly didn’t have the easiest of upbringings – as I noticed under her tattoos were a number of scars. A creepy little quirk she had was whenever we heard an unusual noise, she would rather casually say the same thing... ‘If you see something, no you didn’t. If you hear something, no you didn’t...’ ...

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4gH3KZbb1c On the right-hand side of the mouth of the river, there’s an old ruin of a castle – but past that leads to a cliff trail around the eastern coastline. I first started exploring this trail with my dog, Maisie, on a very windy, rainy day. We trekked down the cliff trail and onto the bedrocks by the sea, and making our way around the curve of a cl...

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w7oSRW4Hmk   Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FNuYOKRAkw&t=1622s Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCMUEnERIJM&t=2s A low, choking sound came from his throat, and his eyes became vacant while he leaned back on the floor, before a low and long breath came from his lips. The skin slid off his body with a moist, slick sound and the meat...