WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:05.870 Everyone in this school knows to step aside when the goth girl is on the move. 00:00:05.870 --> 00:00:10.630 She strides down the school hallway, confident that no one will challenge her as the undisputed 00:00:10.630 --> 00:00:12.190 ruler of this high school. 00:00:12.190 --> 00:00:16.680 It’s not just her dark wardrobe or her black nails and eyeliner that intimidate the other 00:00:16.680 --> 00:00:21.540 students – her domineering attitude and sharp tongue make her feared. 00:00:21.540 --> 00:00:25.849 She brushes past a gaggle of underclassmen, who wilt under her devastating gaze. 00:00:25.849 --> 00:00:30.189 “Beat it, dorks,” she hisses, jerking her head to indicate that they should get 00:00:30.189 --> 00:00:31.699 out of her way. 00:00:31.699 --> 00:00:36.399 The other students disperse instantly, afraid to chance really getting an earful. 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:40.440 Her terrible reputation means that no one ever makes trouble for the goth girl. 00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:42.980 But it’s more than just her attitude that keeps her on top. 00:00:42.980 --> 00:00:46.199 It’s also all those rumors around her. 00:00:46.199 --> 00:00:50.880 The rumors started last year, just after a new transfer student arrived in their school. 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:54.800 She was a younger classman, who shared the goth girl’s same dark fashion sense and 00:00:54.800 --> 00:00:56.290 sensibilities. 00:00:56.290 --> 00:00:59.789 Students even saw the younger girl occasionally hanging out with the school’s resident goth 00:00:59.789 --> 00:01:00.789 population. 00:01:00.789 --> 00:01:04.699 But it was no secret that the goth girl didn’t like her. 00:01:04.699 --> 00:01:08.830 Maybe she felt like this younger girl was homing in on her territory or even angling 00:01:08.830 --> 00:01:11.400 to take her place among the goth crew. 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:15.159 Whatever the case, other students couldn’t help but notice how the goth girl’s lip 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:19.329 quivered or her eyes flashed whenever the younger girl tried to worm her way into the 00:01:19.329 --> 00:01:20.970 goth gang’s meet-ups. 00:01:20.970 --> 00:01:25.049 Then, one day, the younger girl didn’t come home from school. 00:01:25.049 --> 00:01:28.970 The younger girl’s parents reported her missing and organized a whole search party. 00:01:28.970 --> 00:01:32.970 The police spent weeks tracking down every lead, desperately looking for anything that 00:01:32.970 --> 00:01:37.460 might tell them what became of the missing girl… but found nothing. 00:01:37.460 --> 00:01:40.750 Rumors spread around school that the goth girl had something to do with it. 00:01:40.750 --> 00:01:43.540 After all, hadn’t the younger girl been her biggest rival? 00:01:43.540 --> 00:01:45.520 Hadn’t she always hated the younger girl? 00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:50.140 And, if anyone at this school would have had the chutzpah to actually do something sinister… 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:52.159 it would be her, right? 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:56.560 Despite all the gossip, though, no evidence ever surfaced to link the goth girl to the 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:57.560 disappearance. 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:01.570 The police even interviewed her several times, but she always denied knowing anything. 00:02:01.570 --> 00:02:05.409 “Yeah, I didn’t like that little brat,” she said in the police interview. 00:02:05.409 --> 00:02:08.500 “She was always getting underfoot and thinking that she could hang with us. 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:10.470 But that doesn’t mean that I did anything to her. 00:02:10.470 --> 00:02:14.200 I mean, it’s not like I would have REALLY wanted to hurt her!” 00:02:14.200 --> 00:02:18.099 The goth girl concluded her statement with a knowing smirk, as if she was pleased with 00:02:18.099 --> 00:02:20.410 herself for getting away with murder. 00:02:20.410 --> 00:02:25.270 But you can’t build a case out of a smirk, so even if the police suspected anything they 00:02:25.270 --> 00:02:27.140 were forced to let her go. 00:02:27.140 --> 00:02:29.690 Eventually, life at school returned to normal. 00:02:29.690 --> 00:02:34.410 Other than a few fading missing child posters still fixed to telephone poles around town, 00:02:34.410 --> 00:02:37.440 most students eventually forgot about their missing classmate. 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:40.800 But the goth girl’s fearsome reputation persisted. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:45.190 Could she have actually had something to do with that younger girl’s mysterious disappearance? 00:02:45.190 --> 00:02:48.580 Now that other students thought she might have actually killed someone, they naturally 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:51.020 found her even more intimidating. 00:02:51.020 --> 00:02:52.909 The goth girl didn’t mind, though. 00:02:52.909 --> 00:02:56.980 After all, she already thought most of the other students were normie losers, anyway, 00:02:56.980 --> 00:02:59.760 so she liked that they gave her a wide berth. 00:02:59.760 --> 00:03:03.410 The goth girl walks toward the end of the hallway, pushing open a designated fire exit 00:03:03.410 --> 00:03:06.050 door and slipping out behind the school. 00:03:06.050 --> 00:03:09.090 Today, the other goths are hanging out behind the school building. 00:03:09.090 --> 00:03:11.989 They nod curtly as the goth girl joins them. 00:03:11.989 --> 00:03:16.830 “What’s going on, losers,” she says, adopting an aura of bored detachment. 00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:20.330 “I was just telling them that there’s this haunted game you can download,” says 00:03:20.330 --> 00:03:21.330 the goth boy. 00:03:21.330 --> 00:03:22.470 “It’s all messed up. 00:03:22.470 --> 00:03:26.459 Like, the game knows all your worst secrets, and the more you play, the more it taunts 00:03:26.459 --> 00:03:27.459 you. 00:03:27.459 --> 00:03:29.970 Then, when you finish, you just disappear.” 00:03:29.970 --> 00:03:32.069 The other goths snicker at the story. 00:03:32.069 --> 00:03:36.189 None of them really believe it, but it makes for a fun spooky tale to help set the atmosphere 00:03:36.189 --> 00:03:37.959 as the sun sets. 00:03:37.959 --> 00:03:41.900 But one girl is more skeptical than the rest, to the point that she’s almost insulted 00:03:41.900 --> 00:03:44.080 by how obviously fake this story is. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:47.470 “What do you mean, you just disappear?” asks the girl. 00:03:47.470 --> 00:03:48.470 The boy shrugs. 00:03:48.470 --> 00:03:49.470 “I dunno. 00:03:49.470 --> 00:03:50.930 I just know that no one ever sees them again.” 00:03:50.930 --> 00:03:53.670 “I don’t believe that at all,” say the goth girl. 00:03:53.670 --> 00:03:54.670 “That sounds made up.” 00:03:54.670 --> 00:03:56.720 “No, no,” says the boy. 00:03:56.720 --> 00:03:57.799 “It’s 100% real. 00:03:57.799 --> 00:04:00.220 It’s called ‘The Book of Tamlin.’ 00:04:00.220 --> 00:04:02.019 “Okay, sure, whatever you say. 00:04:02.019 --> 00:04:04.629 And who exactly is Tamlin?” 00:04:04.629 --> 00:04:05.629 The boy shrugs. 00:04:05.629 --> 00:04:06.629 “I don’t know. 00:04:06.629 --> 00:04:09.250 Clearly, I haven’t played it, since I’m still here.” 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:10.460 The girl rolls her eyes. 00:04:10.460 --> 00:04:11.460 “That’s ridiculous. 00:04:11.460 --> 00:04:13.360 I’ll show you right now.” 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:16.790 She whips her cellphone out of her backpack and starts to thumb through the app store 00:04:16.790 --> 00:04:19.359 until she sees it: The Book of Tamlin. 00:04:19.359 --> 00:04:21.180 It’s right there in the store? 00:04:21.180 --> 00:04:24.270 That just makes this whole story seem even sillier. 00:04:24.270 --> 00:04:28.980 She would expect that, if there were a real haunted app, it would only be accessible via 00:04:28.980 --> 00:04:33.650 the dark web or maybe a strange glitch that randomly installed it into doomed victims’ 00:04:33.650 --> 00:04:34.650 phones. 00:04:34.650 --> 00:04:37.130 But it’s right here, for anyone to download! 00:04:37.130 --> 00:04:40.800 With a skeptical smirk on her face, she punches the button to begin the installation. 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:43.650 “It’s right here in the app store,” says the goth girl. 00:04:43.650 --> 00:04:46.220 “Any of you chickens gonna play?” 00:04:46.220 --> 00:04:48.300 The other goths eye each other nervously. 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:54.330 Sure, they were all pretty quick to dismiss the ominous story about this weird game before. 00:04:54.330 --> 00:04:58.260 But now that their friend is challenging them to actually play it, they don’t feel quite 00:04:58.260 --> 00:04:59.880 so confident. 00:04:59.880 --> 00:05:01.740 The goth girl snorts derisively. 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:04.360 She wonders why she bothers hanging out with these poseurs. 00:05:04.360 --> 00:05:08.449 They’re the closest thing that she has to friends, since so few other students even 00:05:08.449 --> 00:05:09.550 dare approach her… 00:05:09.550 --> 00:05:13.979 But what does a bossy prima donna like her really need with friends anyway? 00:05:13.979 --> 00:05:18.380 She watches as the game loads up the intros screen and then gameplay begins. 00:05:18.380 --> 00:05:19.600 She snorts again. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:23.789 The Book of Tamlin appears to be a hidden object game, where the point is to discover 00:05:23.789 --> 00:05:26.540 various objects hidden in a larger image. 00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:28.910 This is baby stuff, thinks the goth girl. 00:05:28.910 --> 00:05:33.690 “Find the 10 black cats in the cemetery,” instructs the game as it pulls up a cartoony 00:05:33.690 --> 00:05:34.690 image of a graveyard. 00:05:34.690 --> 00:05:39.030 The goth girl’s finger hovers over the screen, and she quickly taps it whenever she spots 00:05:39.030 --> 00:05:42.390 a black cat crouching behind one of the pixelated tombstones. 00:05:42.390 --> 00:05:44.320 Is this supposed to be scary? 00:05:44.320 --> 00:05:47.819 The screen fades, and an empty room with a pair of doors fades in. 00:05:47.819 --> 00:05:52.039 The goth girl intuits that she’s supposed to pick one to advance to the next screen. 00:05:52.039 --> 00:05:54.889 Rolling her eyes, she selects the door on the left. 00:05:54.889 --> 00:05:56.530 The next scene looks familiar. 00:05:56.530 --> 00:05:57.530 Too familiar. 00:05:57.530 --> 00:06:00.169 It’s a bedroom… 00:06:00.169 --> 00:06:01.860 her bedroom, in fact! 00:06:01.860 --> 00:06:05.460 She recognizes the dark décor and the black clothing thrown on the floor. 00:06:05.460 --> 00:06:08.069 She narrows her eyes suspiciously. 00:06:08.069 --> 00:06:10.650 Surely that’s just a crazy coincidence, right? 00:06:10.650 --> 00:06:14.050 She eyes the other goths, but they don’t give any indication that they were expecting 00:06:14.050 --> 00:06:15.050 this twist. 00:06:15.050 --> 00:06:16.610 Are they playing a trick on her? 00:06:16.610 --> 00:06:21.110 ‘Find the outfits that make your parents ashamed to be seen with you,‘ says the instructions. 00:06:21.110 --> 00:06:22.110 She grits her teeth. 00:06:22.110 --> 00:06:24.720 What’s the deal with this stupid program insulting her? 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:28.840 She knows that her parents don’t exactly approve of her fashion choices, but this stupid 00:06:28.840 --> 00:06:29.990 game can’t know that. 00:06:29.990 --> 00:06:33.610 It’s probably just guessing that any young person who plays the game will probably have 00:06:33.610 --> 00:06:35.979 had quarrels with their parents about the way they dress. 00:06:35.979 --> 00:06:37.960 That’s pretty normal, right? 00:06:37.960 --> 00:06:41.060 Again, the empty room with the two doors appears. 00:06:41.060 --> 00:06:43.980 This time, the goth girl chooses the one on the right. 00:06:43.980 --> 00:06:47.599 The next screen after that is a picture of a pretty garden, and the instructions say 00:06:47.599 --> 00:06:49.600 to pick out ten pretty flowers. 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:53.199 The next is a barnyard with instructions to find five cows. 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.570 The goth girl starts to relax. 00:06:55.570 --> 00:06:58.590 That weird screen with her room must have just been a fluke. 00:06:58.590 --> 00:07:00.810 Otherwise, this game seems pretty mundane. 00:07:00.810 --> 00:07:05.450 But the next screen makes the goth girl’s face go as white as a sheet. 00:07:05.450 --> 00:07:08.800 Her eyes bug out of her head and sweats starts to bead on her forehead. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:09.800 No. 00:07:09.800 --> 00:07:10.800 No way. 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:13.410 There’s no way that this next screen could be real! 00:07:13.410 --> 00:07:16.190 The image that appears is familiar to her. 00:07:16.190 --> 00:07:18.300 It’s a real-life place. 00:07:18.300 --> 00:07:20.509 She knows because she’s been there. 00:07:20.509 --> 00:07:24.629 It’s an image of a particular ravine, deep in the local woods. 00:07:24.629 --> 00:07:28.440 People sometimes throw old garbage down there, so it’s full of old washing machines and 00:07:28.440 --> 00:07:29.440 wrecked cars. 00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:34.639 Years ago, an old oak tree fell across the chasm, and now the dead log functions as a 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:36.379 makeshift bridge. 00:07:36.379 --> 00:07:38.570 Sometimes kids dare one another to cross it. 00:07:38.570 --> 00:07:44.050 The instructions read: ‘Find the girl who wanted to be part of your club.’ 00:07:44.050 --> 00:07:47.889 The goth girl doesn’t need to search the image to know what she’ll find. 00:07:47.889 --> 00:07:52.750 She knows, deep in her heart, that the hidden object that she’s being instructed to find 00:07:52.750 --> 00:07:57.380 will be a broken body lying at the bottom of the ditch, half hidden under old blankets 00:07:57.380 --> 00:07:58.919 and debris. 00:07:58.919 --> 00:08:00.849 How could this game know? 00:08:00.849 --> 00:08:02.099 She was so careful. 00:08:02.099 --> 00:08:05.979 She remembers last school year when that younger girl kept trying to usurp her place in her 00:08:05.979 --> 00:08:06.979 clique. 00:08:06.979 --> 00:08:07.979 It made her so mad! 00:08:07.979 --> 00:08:11.099 But that younger girl seemed to look up to her, to think of her as the leader of the 00:08:11.099 --> 00:08:15.940 group and the one who she needed to impress in order to be accepted. 00:08:15.940 --> 00:08:16.940 That was good. 00:08:16.940 --> 00:08:19.930 The goth girl knew she could use that to her advantage. 00:08:19.930 --> 00:08:23.340 She told the younger girl to meet her in the woods, by the old ravine, late at night. 00:08:23.340 --> 00:08:27.680 Of course, it was nothing sinister, it was just for a little initiation test to prove 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:30.699 that the younger girl could take her place as part of their gang. 00:08:30.699 --> 00:08:34.080 The younger girl was only too excited for her test! 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:37.570 The goth girl was waiting at the ravine when her younger rival finally arrived. 00:08:37.570 --> 00:08:40.650 “I came as fast as I could,” said the younger girl. 00:08:40.650 --> 00:08:42.769 “What do you need me to do?” 00:08:42.769 --> 00:08:45.640 “Listen, I see how you want to hang out with us,” said the goth girl. 00:08:45.640 --> 00:08:48.970 “But you have to prove yourself if you want to be part of our group. 00:08:48.970 --> 00:08:52.130 But you have to understand, us goths, we embrace the darkness. 00:08:52.130 --> 00:08:54.140 We’re not scared of the void. 00:08:54.140 --> 00:08:57.670 We only take the coolest and the bravest, the kids who aren’t afraid of death. 00:08:57.670 --> 00:09:00.970 So you have to show me that you’re willing to look eternity in the eye. 00:09:00.970 --> 00:09:05.120 All you have to do to join us is to cross this ravine over that log over there.” 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:07.029 She pointed at the fallen log. 00:09:07.029 --> 00:09:10.010 The younger girl looked frightened, but she nodded. 00:09:10.010 --> 00:09:14.320 The goth girl half-expected her to turn tail and run home, but she was surprised to see 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:17.200 her rival make her way toward the log. 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:20.170 Maybe she wasn’t as much of a poseur as the goth girl thought! 00:09:20.170 --> 00:09:25.260 The goth girl didn’t mean for anything bad to happen, she really only wanted to scare 00:09:25.260 --> 00:09:26.730 the younger girl. 00:09:26.730 --> 00:09:29.170 Maybe she could freak her out enough that she wouldn’t want to hang out with them 00:09:29.170 --> 00:09:32.649 anymore, and then she wouldn’t have to deal with that little pest anymore! 00:09:32.649 --> 00:09:36.630 The younger girl clambers up atop the log and slowly starts walking across the deep 00:09:36.630 --> 00:09:40.370 gorge, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. 00:09:40.370 --> 00:09:43.940 But the peeling bark of the old log is more slippery than it looks, and it’s hard to 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:45.260 keep her footing in the dark. 00:09:45.260 --> 00:09:50.310 The younger girl makes it almost halfway across the ravine before she loses her footing. 00:09:50.310 --> 00:09:54.920 With a yelp, she lurches to the side and falls down the slope, tumbling head over heels, 00:09:54.920 --> 00:09:57.410 and landing amongst the garbage with a sickening crunch. 00:09:57.410 --> 00:09:59.010 The goth girl screamed in shock. 00:09:59.010 --> 00:10:03.000 She stared down in the ravine, seeing the younger girl lying still at the bottom, her 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.250 neck bent at an impossible angle. 00:10:05.250 --> 00:10:08.950 It was obvious that the fall had killed her instantly. 00:10:08.950 --> 00:10:10.829 The goth girl knew she was in trouble. 00:10:10.829 --> 00:10:13.010 Or was she? 00:10:13.010 --> 00:10:16.500 Nobody knew she was out here, nobody knew that she’d asked the younger girl to meet 00:10:16.500 --> 00:10:17.550 her here. 00:10:17.550 --> 00:10:21.660 All she had to do was keep her mouth shut and nobody could pin this on her. 00:10:21.660 --> 00:10:22.690 The plan worked. 00:10:22.690 --> 00:10:27.100 She worked out her alibi and stuck to it during all the police interviews, never deviating, 00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:29.390 practicing her story until it sounded natural. 00:10:29.390 --> 00:10:34.820 The cops fell for it, clearing her as a suspect before moving on in their investigation. 00:10:34.820 --> 00:10:37.490 For a whole year, she had carried this terrible secret. 00:10:37.490 --> 00:10:39.950 Of course, it got easier over time. 00:10:39.950 --> 00:10:43.380 She gradually convinced herself that the whole thing was a terrible accident, it couldn’t 00:10:43.380 --> 00:10:46.790 have been prevented, she had nothing to feel guilty about. 00:10:46.790 --> 00:10:50.410 And yet somehow, this game knew! 00:10:50.410 --> 00:10:53.070 This game knew exactly what she had done! 00:10:53.070 --> 00:10:56.120 The phone slips from her palsied fingers and drops to the ground. 00:10:56.120 --> 00:10:58.060 The other goths look at her in confusion. 00:10:58.060 --> 00:11:01.380 They’ve never seen their leader in such a state of terror. 00:11:01.380 --> 00:11:02.700 What could have spooked her so bad? 00:11:02.700 --> 00:11:05.450 “Which of you made this dumb game?” she snaps. 00:11:05.450 --> 00:11:07.139 “It must have been one of you… fess up!” 00:11:07.139 --> 00:11:10.850 “We don’t know what you’re talking about,” says the goth boy, “I already told you, 00:11:10.850 --> 00:11:12.220 it’s supposed to be haunted and…” 00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:15.800 “I don’t know what you think you know, but you don’t know anything!” 00:11:15.800 --> 00:11:18.350 shouts the goth girl, hysterical in her fear. 00:11:18.350 --> 00:11:20.240 Has she been found out? 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:24.370 Was this entire game just an elaborate ruse to trick her into confessing her guilt? 00:11:24.370 --> 00:11:26.690 Well, she’s not going to fall for it! 00:11:26.690 --> 00:11:29.871 She’s still the queen boss of this school and if any of these losers think that they 00:11:29.871 --> 00:11:33.310 can knock her off her perch with a silly game… they’re dead wrong! 00:11:33.310 --> 00:11:36.130 “What do you mean ‘we don’t know anything?’” 00:11:36.130 --> 00:11:38.100 The other goths are murmuring amongst themselves. 00:11:38.100 --> 00:11:41.740 Of course, they’ve heard the rumors about their leader as well, but they never really 00:11:41.740 --> 00:11:43.320 gave them much credence. 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:46.490 She may be a little sharp, but that doesn’t make her capable of murder. 00:11:46.490 --> 00:11:50.950 But the way that this game has freaked her out so much is really beginning to make them 00:11:50.950 --> 00:11:51.950 wonder. 00:11:51.950 --> 00:11:56.260 The goth girl is frantic now, seeing her control slip away as the other kids begin to mull 00:11:56.260 --> 00:11:57.690 the possibilities. 00:11:57.690 --> 00:11:58.880 She can’t believe this! 00:11:58.880 --> 00:12:02.470 She wonders, desperately, if someone was there that night to see the whole terrible accident 00:12:02.470 --> 00:12:06.100 play out... or maybe she let something slip without knowing… 00:12:06.100 --> 00:12:08.100 what other explanation could there possibly be? 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:09.220 “I’m out of here! 00:12:09.220 --> 00:12:10.220 Leave me alone! 00:12:10.220 --> 00:12:11.220 Don’t follow me!” 00:12:11.220 --> 00:12:12.480 she yells as she stomps away. 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:16.709 The other goths don’t make any move to follow, intimidated by the wrath of their leader. 00:12:16.709 --> 00:12:21.910 But when the goth girl throws open the door to head back inside the school, she’s confronted 00:12:21.910 --> 00:12:24.260 with an unexpected sight. 00:12:24.260 --> 00:12:28.550 Instead of the long gray hallway, lined with lockers, that she expected, she instead sees 00:12:28.550 --> 00:12:30.079 a single empty room. 00:12:30.079 --> 00:12:34.951 It couldn’t be, but it looks exactly like the empty room from the game, the one that 00:12:34.951 --> 00:12:36.480 she glimpsed between levels. 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:38.680 “This isn’t supposed to be here!” 00:12:38.680 --> 00:12:39.730 she cries. 00:12:39.730 --> 00:12:41.470 Behind her, the other goths stare in confusion. 00:12:41.470 --> 00:12:45.029 They too recognize the room from the game, but they can’t figure out for the life of 00:12:45.029 --> 00:12:47.190 them how it’s managed to appear in real life. 00:12:47.190 --> 00:12:48.190 What’s going on? 00:12:48.190 --> 00:12:50.300 Is her guilty mind playing tricks on her? 00:12:50.300 --> 00:12:54.800 No, that can’t be… the reaction of the other goths shows that they see it too. 00:12:54.800 --> 00:12:58.860 She doesn’t think she can trust her senses, but she also feels an overwhelming urge to 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:00.339 step into that empty room. 00:13:00.339 --> 00:13:01.610 “Don’t go in!” 00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:04.140 calls the goth boy, but it’s too late. 00:13:04.140 --> 00:13:08.370 Internally her rational mind is screaming at her to stay out, but she can’t control 00:13:08.370 --> 00:13:09.800 her feet. 00:13:09.800 --> 00:13:13.820 She steps inside and the door swings closed behind her. 00:13:13.820 --> 00:13:18.050 The goth boy runs to the door and yanks it open, hoping to help his terrified friend. 00:13:18.050 --> 00:13:22.390 But beyond the door he sees nothing but the ordinary hallway that’s always there. 00:13:22.390 --> 00:13:26.040 The mysterious empty room is nowhere to be seen. 00:13:26.040 --> 00:13:29.820 And the goth girl has completely vanished with it. 00:13:29.820 --> 00:13:36.889 Not many people would say that SCP-1590, better known as The Book of Tamlin, is any fun. 00:13:36.889 --> 00:13:42.140 SCP-1590 is a downloadable app SCP-1590 has been designated as Euclid, and seven copies 00:13:42.140 --> 00:13:45.980 of the game are currently held by the foundation in a containment locker for experimentation 00:13:45.980 --> 00:13:47.339 purposes. 00:13:47.339 --> 00:13:52.690 Whenever the foundation discovers new instances of SCP-1590, information technicians initiate 00:13:52.690 --> 00:13:57.240 an immediate DDoS attack on the hosting server, and an MTF is to be sent in to appropriate 00:13:57.240 --> 00:13:58.680 all hardware. 00:13:58.680 --> 00:14:02.310 Any systems that were able to download copies of the game before the DDoS attack should 00:14:02.310 --> 00:14:07.040 be infected with the 'ComAmA' computer virus to prevent unwitting innocents from playing 00:14:07.040 --> 00:14:08.350 the game. 00:14:08.350 --> 00:14:14.070 SCP-1590 is a one-kilobyte program, or 'application,' designed for use with touch screen hardware 00:14:14.070 --> 00:14:16.250 such as tablets. 00:14:16.250 --> 00:14:23.540 Attempts to view SCP-1590's coding reveal only the numbers 1 through 66,666 in numerical 00:14:23.540 --> 00:14:29.610 order, but on the front end, SCP-1590 plays as a mostly ordinary video game in the hidden 00:14:29.610 --> 00:14:31.310 object puzzle genre. 00:14:31.310 --> 00:14:35.001 Like other hidden object puzzle games, the player is given a list of objects that they 00:14:35.001 --> 00:14:37.970 must find in a scene within an allotted amount of time. 00:14:37.970 --> 00:14:44.490 What makes SCP-1590 unusual, though, is that as the game progresses, the scenes and hidden 00:14:44.490 --> 00:14:48.630 objects become more personal to the player – often referencing traumatic or unsettling 00:14:48.630 --> 00:14:50.380 events from the player’s life. 00:14:50.380 --> 00:14:56.500 It is not known how SCP-1590 is able to gain such intimate knowledge of a player, but since 00:14:56.500 --> 00:15:01.660 some players report that SCP-1590 seems privy to personal secrets that have never been revealed 00:15:01.660 --> 00:15:06.079 to another person, it is unlikely that it’s just due to very good research on the part 00:15:06.079 --> 00:15:08.050 of the game’s designers. 00:15:08.050 --> 00:15:13.100 The game always begins with the same dedication screen, containing the message "To Joey, who 00:15:13.100 --> 00:15:14.639 taught me how to be cool.” 00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:19.510 The dedication continues, listing another name who “who almost made it out." 00:15:19.510 --> 00:15:23.670 This second name changes with every play-through, but is always the name of the previous person 00:15:23.670 --> 00:15:25.420 to play the game. 00:15:25.420 --> 00:15:29.670 The dedication screen is followed by an animated cut scene, with a humanoid silhouette standing 00:15:29.670 --> 00:15:32.660 on the deck of what appears to be an oil tanker. 00:15:32.660 --> 00:15:35.940 The screen turns bright white, then returns to the oil tanker. 00:15:35.940 --> 00:15:39.649 A yellow wall, larger than the ship, has been added to the scene. 00:15:39.649 --> 00:15:44.430 The wall's appearance causes a wave to crash over the ship, waving the humanoid overboard. 00:15:44.430 --> 00:15:49.589 The screen fills with bubbles, and the words 'The Book of Tamlin' and 'Start Game' appear 00:15:49.589 --> 00:15:51.410 overlaid on the bubbles. 00:15:51.410 --> 00:15:55.700 The significance of this animated sequence, as well as the title ‘The Book of Tamlin,’ 00:15:55.700 --> 00:15:58.089 if any, is currently unknown. 00:15:58.089 --> 00:16:02.209 When a player chooses 'Start Game,' the title screen fades into an image of a cluttered 00:16:02.209 --> 00:16:03.209 room. 00:16:03.209 --> 00:16:06.890 The user is presented with a series of tasks, directing them to find objects hidden in the 00:16:06.890 --> 00:16:08.009 room image. 00:16:08.009 --> 00:16:13.100 The allotted time to find every object in a scene ranges from one to twelve minutes. 00:16:13.100 --> 00:16:17.440 Once the user finds every object in a scene, a set of doors appear on screen, and the player 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:20.230 must choose one to progress in the game. 00:16:20.230 --> 00:16:24.610 The game continues through a random number of screens, labeled from 7 to 43. 00:16:24.610 --> 00:16:28.770 Eventually, if the user fails to find all objects in a scene within the time limit, 00:16:28.770 --> 00:16:30.829 the next scene will be an empty room. 00:16:30.829 --> 00:16:34.290 The words "You've found out everything there is to find about the House! 00:16:34.290 --> 00:16:37.190 Now all you have left to find, is the way out!" 00:16:37.190 --> 00:16:38.190 appear on the screen. 00:16:38.190 --> 00:16:42.790 At this point, the game ends, and cannot be replayed by the same user. 00:16:42.790 --> 00:16:46.790 The actual length of the game appears to vary from player to player, but even players who 00:16:46.790 --> 00:16:51.190 appear to win the game, always finding all hidden objects within the time limit, will 00:16:51.190 --> 00:16:55.310 eventually be shown the same end screen and receive the same message. 00:16:55.310 --> 00:16:59.630 As strange as the game is, what happens next is even stranger. 00:16:59.630 --> 00:17:03.589 Within seventy-two hours of completing the game, whether a player has ostensibly won 00:17:03.589 --> 00:17:08.140 or lost, the player will encounter the final room from the game in real life. 00:17:08.140 --> 00:17:12.980 They will find that some ordinary door, possibly in their home or work place, no longer leads 00:17:12.980 --> 00:17:17.179 to the room it should lead to… but instead leads to the empty room from the end of the 00:17:17.179 --> 00:17:18.559 game. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:22.240 If someone other than the player attempts to pass through the door, they will find themselves 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:27.530 not in the empty room from the game but instead in the room that the door normally leads to. 00:17:27.530 --> 00:17:32.000 If the player passes through the door, though, they disappear into the empty room. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.320 Any tracking devices cease to transmit after the user passes through the doorway. 00:17:36.320 --> 00:17:42.980 The Foundation currently has no idea who or what is behind SCP-1590 or how the game manages 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:44.760 to access users’ memories. 00:17:44.760 --> 00:17:48.960 It’s also not clear what purpose the game solves, whether it’s intended as a therapy 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:53.789 device to help subjects’ work through hidden trauma or as an instrument of justice to punish 00:17:53.789 --> 00:17:54.789 wrongdoing. 00:17:54.789 --> 00:17:58.919 Either way, you might want to make sure you have a clean conscience before you download 00:17:58.919 --> 00:18:01.330 any new mysterious games for your phone. 00:18:01.330 --> 00:18:05.480 You never know when you might find yourself confronting The Book of Tamlin. 00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:10.260 If you want to support our important mission here at Dr. Bob, check out the Dr. Bob Patreon 00:18:10.260 --> 00:18:13.830 and become a junior researcher today! 00:18:13.830 --> 00:18:18.220 Now go and watch another entry from the files of Dr. Bob, like Squid Game SCP? 00:18:18.220 --> 00:18:23.230 - SCP-024 Game Show of Death, for another tale of a game that takes the fun out of play. 00:18:23.230 --> 00:18:27.320 And make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications, so you don’t miss a single anomaly, as we 00:18:27.320 --> 00:18:32.190 delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s classified archives.