WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.740 --> 00:00:05.130 It’s the grisliest crime scene the Detective has seen in years. 00:00:05.130 --> 00:00:10.000 Photographers wince as they capture it all in a succession of quick, stark flashes. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.590 CSI Technicians do what they can to pick up the broken pieces. 00:00:14.590 --> 00:00:18.740 Posted at the gate, a rookie doubles over and throws up while his older partner gives 00:00:18.740 --> 00:00:21.119 him a sympathetic pat on the back. 00:00:21.119 --> 00:00:24.710 He can’t hide his own discomfort at the things they’ve seen today. 00:00:24.710 --> 00:00:28.300 The call came in the middle of the night from a pair of concerned hikers on the outskirts 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:29.509 of town. 00:00:29.509 --> 00:00:33.520 They were half way through their nightly walk down an old country road when they heard screaming 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:35.540 from a nearby farm. 00:00:35.540 --> 00:00:40.080 When officers finally made their way down to the farmhouse, it was too late. 00:00:40.080 --> 00:00:42.070 Everyone there was dead. 00:00:42.070 --> 00:00:43.890 Nobody to save. 00:00:43.890 --> 00:00:49.120 All that’s left to do is pick up the pieces and figure out what the hell actually happened. 00:00:49.120 --> 00:00:53.080 The Detective leans under a yellow garland of crime scene tape and asks an attending 00:00:53.080 --> 00:00:55.550 officer what they know so far. 00:00:55.550 --> 00:01:00.670 The cop, who looks pale and clammy, swallows over a lump in his throat and says, “Looks 00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:03.170 like the old farmer snapped and went postal. 00:01:03.170 --> 00:01:04.519 Whole family’s dead. 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:06.820 We found his body in the barn.” 00:01:06.820 --> 00:01:08.880 He heads inside to take a look at the carnage. 00:01:08.880 --> 00:01:13.460 It’s a veritable house of horrors: the farmer’s wife is dead in the kitchen. 00:01:13.460 --> 00:01:15.740 The children were both murdered in their beds. 00:01:15.740 --> 00:01:19.220 The Detective can’t say he’s ever seen a murder done in such cold blood. 00:01:19.220 --> 00:01:20.759 So detached. 00:01:20.759 --> 00:01:24.450 For a man with no history of violence to do something so terrible to his loved ones for 00:01:24.450 --> 00:01:25.869 no reason... 00:01:25.869 --> 00:01:30.509 The Detective shakes his head and walks upstairs, sliding on rubber gloves to avoid contaminating 00:01:30.509 --> 00:01:31.670 the scene. 00:01:31.670 --> 00:01:35.600 He goes room to room, making fastidious notes about anything suspicious. 00:01:35.600 --> 00:01:38.259 He’s got a keen eye for this kind of thing. 00:01:38.259 --> 00:01:42.510 The man’s a 20 year veteran of the force, he’s seen some terrible things, but as he 00:01:42.510 --> 00:01:47.299 lays his eyes on the bodies of the victims, he can’t help feel a chill tiptoeing down 00:01:47.299 --> 00:01:48.889 his vertebrae. 00:01:48.889 --> 00:01:53.450 In the master bedroom, where the now deceased farmer and his wife once shared a loving marital 00:01:53.450 --> 00:01:57.560 bed, he hits some pay dirt: a diary in the bedside cabinet. 00:01:57.560 --> 00:01:58.780 He flips through. 00:01:58.780 --> 00:02:00.600 Early on, it’s all mundane. 00:02:00.600 --> 00:02:04.640 Scattered thoughts for the day at hand and little to-do lists for the next one. 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:09.240 But the last three entries contain a marked shift from what came before. 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:10.510 The first one reads, 00:02:10.510 --> 00:02:13.640 “he seemed shook up when he came back from the barn today. 00:02:13.640 --> 00:02:18.620 He’s awful quiet about it, said something like, ‘I heard something I shouldn’t have.’ 00:02:18.620 --> 00:02:19.620 In the barn? 00:02:19.620 --> 00:02:23.020 Don’t know what that could mean, but I decided not to press. 00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:24.020 Stressed enough already. 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:28.960 He didn’t say much to the kids during dinner, kept looking over his shoulder. 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:30.380 Freaked me out something terrible. 00:02:30.380 --> 00:02:35.100 I don’t know what did it, but whatever it was, it put a scare in him.” 00:02:35.100 --> 00:02:36.360 The second reads, 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:38.310 “I’m starting to worry about him. 00:02:38.310 --> 00:02:42.420 It’s been a few days since whatever he heard in the barn, and he ain’t gotten any better. 00:02:42.420 --> 00:02:44.900 In fact, I think he’s getting worse. 00:02:44.900 --> 00:02:45.970 He won’t shower. 00:02:45.970 --> 00:02:49.450 Something about the bathroom mirror, he just won’t go in there. 00:02:49.450 --> 00:02:50.820 He hasn’t been eating. 00:02:50.820 --> 00:02:52.340 Worst of all, he doesn’t sleep. 00:02:52.340 --> 00:02:56.220 I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and see him sitting bolt upright, staring 00:02:56.220 --> 00:02:59.230 at the bedroom door, not saying a word, not even blinking.” 00:02:59.230 --> 00:03:01.490 The third, and final, entry reads, 00:03:01.490 --> 00:03:05.060 “This ain’t the man I married anymore. 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:09.140 There’s something wrong with him, it’s scaring the kids and it’s scaring me. 00:03:09.140 --> 00:03:11.340 He’s started bringing his gun to bed every night. 00:03:11.340 --> 00:03:14.400 He doesn’t sleep, he just sits there with it. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:15.630 He never sleeps. 00:03:15.630 --> 00:03:21.810 When I asked him what’s happening, he told me something’s coming, but it’s okay, 00:03:21.810 --> 00:03:23.650 he won’t let it get us, no matter what. 00:03:23.650 --> 00:03:25.270 I don’t understand. 00:03:25.270 --> 00:03:29.630 I’m gonna take the kids and go stay with mom for a few weeks while he works this out, 00:03:29.630 --> 00:03:32.570 but I’m afraid of what he’ll do if he realizes. 00:03:32.570 --> 00:03:35.390 The gun is always loaded...” 00:03:35.390 --> 00:03:39.140 The Detective sighs and slides the diary into an evidence baggie. 00:03:39.140 --> 00:03:43.580 It was, sadly, a tale he’d heard all too many times. 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:47.130 The terrible things we can do to the ones we love when we’re not ourselves. 00:03:47.130 --> 00:03:52.850 Though it now seems cut and dry - a mental break snowballing into a massacre - one detail 00:03:52.850 --> 00:03:58.570 is still gnawing at the Detective: What did the farmer hear in the barn that day? 00:03:58.570 --> 00:04:01.370 When the Detective enters, he orders everyone else to leave. 00:04:01.370 --> 00:04:03.580 He needs some time alone in here. 00:04:03.580 --> 00:04:06.840 As the people file out, he approaches the farmer’s corpse. 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:11.120 He’s laying in the straw, head a bloody mess - bludgeoned beyond recognition. 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:15.290 And yet, he’s the one holding the bloodstained hammer. 00:04:15.290 --> 00:04:22.150 And in his other hand, he’s clutching something even stranger: A rusty, old cow bell. 00:04:22.150 --> 00:04:25.919 Of all the things to be holding in your last moments on earth, the Detective thinks, as 00:04:25.919 --> 00:04:27.740 he reaches over. 00:04:27.740 --> 00:04:29.729 Something about the bell draws his eye. 00:04:29.729 --> 00:04:35.439 Why, after murdering his entire family, would a man head out into the barn and - presumably 00:04:35.439 --> 00:04:40.400 - try and fail to hammer a cow bell to pieces? 00:04:40.400 --> 00:04:44.690 As he picks up the bell, he runs his gloved fingers along the rust. 00:04:44.690 --> 00:04:48.590 Other than the wear and tear of age, the bell shows no signs of actual damage. 00:04:48.590 --> 00:04:51.530 It’s such a strange, innocuous object. 00:04:51.530 --> 00:04:53.229 What’s the significance? 00:04:53.229 --> 00:04:57.419 His internal musing is interrupted when a large spider - the kind that like to make 00:04:57.419 --> 00:05:01.819 their homes in straw-filled barns - suddenly crawls out from inside the bell and onto the 00:05:01.819 --> 00:05:02.819 Detective’s hand. 00:05:02.819 --> 00:05:08.289 He drops the bell, an involuntary shock reflex, and it hits the ground with a brassy gong. 00:05:08.289 --> 00:05:11.349 The sound lingers in the air for far longer than it should. 00:05:11.349 --> 00:05:14.530 It seems almost like it’s getting louder. 00:05:14.530 --> 00:05:16.659 The Detective feels his heart beat speeding up. 00:05:16.659 --> 00:05:18.909 His breath’s getting heavy and labored. 00:05:18.909 --> 00:05:22.840 The sound gets louder; it feels like someone is sitting on his chest. 00:05:22.840 --> 00:05:25.759 He falls to his knees, scratching at his swelling throat. 00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:26.759 His heart pounds. 00:05:26.759 --> 00:05:27.979 Is he having a heart attack? 00:05:27.979 --> 00:05:31.930 He claws at the dirt and straw beneath him, trying desperately to get a handle on things 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:34.550 as the world around him seems to go dark. 00:05:34.550 --> 00:05:37.879 The toll of the cow bell gets louder and louder. 00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:43.210 Eventually, he’s able to force out a scream, then collapses to the ground. 00:05:43.210 --> 00:05:47.529 When his eyes open, he’s being carted away on a stretcher to a nearby ambulance, parked 00:05:47.529 --> 00:05:49.530 just outside the crime scene. 00:05:49.530 --> 00:05:53.169 When a paramedic asks him if he’s okay, the only thing he can stutter out through 00:05:53.169 --> 00:05:56.069 his dry mouth is, “Don’t touch the bell. 00:05:56.069 --> 00:05:58.949 Don’t let anyone touch the bell...” 00:05:58.949 --> 00:06:02.999 The doctor who treats him will later tell him there are no signs of any physical ailment. 00:06:02.999 --> 00:06:06.979 In all likelihood, the Detective had experienced a severe anxiety attack. 00:06:06.979 --> 00:06:10.509 When the Detective tells the doctor that he has no history of anxiety attacks, and that 00:06:10.509 --> 00:06:14.300 this is far from the first violent crime scene he’s encountered, the doctor purses his 00:06:14.300 --> 00:06:17.099 lips and knits his brow in concentration. 00:06:17.099 --> 00:06:19.770 “Very strange,” the doctor says. 00:06:19.770 --> 00:06:22.449 “Perhaps just take it easy for the next few days. 00:06:22.449 --> 00:06:26.699 Work stress can sneak up on a person, especially in a career as high-stakes as yours. 00:06:26.699 --> 00:06:30.270 It can sometimes manifest in rather strange ways...” 00:06:30.270 --> 00:06:34.610 That night, the Detective is at home, brewing himself a soothing cup of herbal tea - on 00:06:34.610 --> 00:06:35.990 his doctor’s recommendation. 00:06:35.990 --> 00:06:39.900 He’s still wracked by a strange uneasiness from earlier in the day. 00:06:39.900 --> 00:06:44.270 You see, one of the keys to being a good Detective is pattern recognition. 00:06:44.270 --> 00:06:48.360 You’re able to detect obscure links between pieces of information that other people, in 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:51.409 the stress of the moment, may not correlate. 00:06:51.409 --> 00:06:55.610 As the Detective sips his tea, he remembers the first entry in the farmer’s wife’s 00:06:55.610 --> 00:06:56.610 diary. 00:06:56.610 --> 00:07:00.900 When the farmer’s downward spiral started, it began with him “hearing something he 00:07:00.900 --> 00:07:03.330 shouldn’t have” inside the barn. 00:07:03.330 --> 00:07:06.749 The Detective doesn’t know a lot about what happened to himself in that barn, either, 00:07:06.749 --> 00:07:11.070 but he can safely say he heard something he shouldn’t have heard, too. 00:07:11.070 --> 00:07:15.550 He sighs - no point in psyching himself out like this, after all, it’s just the post-attack 00:07:15.550 --> 00:07:20.310 jitters - and turns to his kitchen window, hoping to look out at the night sky and feel 00:07:20.310 --> 00:07:22.289 a little more at peace. 00:07:22.289 --> 00:07:27.870 Instead, he sees something out of a nightmare: A tall figure, standing behind him - Somewhere 00:07:27.870 --> 00:07:31.139 in the ballpark of “human”, but also, somehow... 00:07:31.139 --> 00:07:32.139 Not. 00:07:32.139 --> 00:07:34.960 It’s tall, fleshy, and emaciated. 00:07:34.960 --> 00:07:40.509 Its face is too smooth, with bulging eyes and a large mouth being the only features. 00:07:40.509 --> 00:07:44.800 It reaches for him with huge, spindle-fingered hands, mere centimeters away from the back 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:45.800 of his head. 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:50.059 But the second it sees him looking at it, it turns and begins to run. 00:07:50.059 --> 00:07:52.569 The Detective’s mug falls and shatters on the ground. 00:07:52.569 --> 00:07:56.219 He turns with an involuntary yelp to track the creature, but it’s already gone. 00:07:56.219 --> 00:07:58.970 His kitchen is empty and silent. 00:07:58.970 --> 00:08:03.639 Of course, one question haunts his mind: What the hell just happened? 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:07.370 He’s no fool, he knows the mind can play funny tricks on you. 00:08:07.370 --> 00:08:10.349 After all, who hasn’t seen something out of the corner of their eye that gave them 00:08:10.349 --> 00:08:14.360 a momentary fright, before realizing that it was just a trick of the imagination. 00:08:14.360 --> 00:08:18.199 But this wasn’t just a flicker playing on a paranoid mind. 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:22.330 The Detective would swear on his mother’s life that he truly saw this thing. 00:08:22.330 --> 00:08:26.400 Some bizarre humanoid monster, standing behind him in his reflection. 00:08:26.400 --> 00:08:30.860 He doesn’t know which possibility scares him more: That there really was something 00:08:30.860 --> 00:08:33.779 behind him, or that he’s starting to lose his mind. 00:08:33.779 --> 00:08:36.000 Either offered a number of frightening possibilities. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:40.430 But the Detective does what he does best: Applies logic to a situation. 00:08:40.430 --> 00:08:44.880 He’d spent the day around a particularly distressing crime scene, read something unnerving 00:08:44.880 --> 00:08:48.529 in the diary of one of the victims, and suffered a panic attack in the barn. 00:08:48.529 --> 00:08:51.720 All of this was just a suggestion implanted in his mind. 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:53.370 Connections being threaded where they shouldn’t. 00:08:53.370 --> 00:08:58.660 A natural side effect of a brain wired to register patterns in strange data clusters. 00:08:58.660 --> 00:09:02.120 The Detective does his best to remain calm for the rest of the evening. 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:04.140 Fear is the mind killer. 00:09:04.140 --> 00:09:06.600 Panic only ever makes a situation worse. 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:10.130 These are both things he believes, but he can’t seem to shake that creeping feeling 00:09:10.130 --> 00:09:11.130 of dread. 00:09:11.130 --> 00:09:13.220 He’s being watched. 00:09:13.220 --> 00:09:16.399 For the first time in his adult life, the Detective decides he doesn’t want to sleep 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:17.459 in the dark. 00:09:17.459 --> 00:09:20.170 All those shapes in the blackness put him on edge. 00:09:20.170 --> 00:09:23.690 He thinks that a good night’s sleep will probably have him right as rain by tomorrow 00:09:23.690 --> 00:09:24.690 morning. 00:09:24.690 --> 00:09:26.649 Everything passes eventually. 00:09:26.649 --> 00:09:31.490 As his mind drifts and his eyes begin to flutter closed, he starts to wonder if he always left 00:09:31.490 --> 00:09:36.220 that bedroom door open, or whether it started to open, very slowly, as soon as his head 00:09:36.220 --> 00:09:37.220 hit the pillow. 00:09:37.220 --> 00:09:39.440 Soon enough, he wakes up gasping. 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:44.200 Long, cold fingers - abnormally long, in fact, and cold as death - have closed around his 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:45.200 throat. 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:47.980 He’s gasping in vain for breath as the hand clamps tighter. 00:09:47.980 --> 00:09:53.450 His eyes jolt open and he sees it again: That tall, thin monster lingering over him, strangling 00:09:53.450 --> 00:09:54.450 him. 00:09:54.450 --> 00:09:58.030 Its face is split into a wide, sadistic, tooth-bearing grin. 00:09:58.030 --> 00:10:01.460 For something so thin, it’s impossibly strong. 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:02.650 The Detective can’t move. 00:10:02.650 --> 00:10:03.650 He can’t scream. 00:10:03.650 --> 00:10:04.920 He can’t do anything. 00:10:04.920 --> 00:10:09.650 But as he slips from sleep to true wakefulness, the monster is gone. 00:10:09.650 --> 00:10:13.209 It wafts out of the room with all the ease of a gust of wind. 00:10:13.209 --> 00:10:17.560 He sits up, heart pounding, lungs strained, skin slick with sweat. 00:10:17.560 --> 00:10:19.450 He’s never been so afraid in his life. 00:10:19.450 --> 00:10:23.300 He’s been calmer during the active shoot-outs of his beat days, all those years ago. 00:10:23.300 --> 00:10:28.449 The thing that was strangling him, it looked exactly the same as the monster from the reflection. 00:10:28.449 --> 00:10:32.019 They weren’t just similar, it was exactly the same thing. 00:10:32.019 --> 00:10:33.930 Is he being stalked? 00:10:33.930 --> 00:10:39.440 Then, it dawns on him, another fragment of information swimming in the mess of his consciousness. 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:43.850 An article he’d read a couple years before about a phenomenon known as Sleep Paralysis: 00:10:43.850 --> 00:10:47.209 It’s when people suddenly wake up during REM sleep. 00:10:47.209 --> 00:10:52.019 Their body remains paralysed while their consciousness activates, giving them one foot in reality 00:10:52.019 --> 00:10:54.680 while leaving the other in a nightmare. 00:10:54.680 --> 00:10:58.950 In this state, people can believe they’re being attacked by monsters or demons. 00:10:58.950 --> 00:11:01.959 And one of the major factors causing sleep paralysis? 00:11:01.959 --> 00:11:03.319 Stress. 00:11:03.319 --> 00:11:04.670 The Detective sighs. 00:11:04.670 --> 00:11:08.041 He feels like an idiot - There’s nothing he’s experienced today that doesn’t have 00:11:08.041 --> 00:11:13.570 a completely logical explanation, so why does he keep jumping to such absurd conclusions? 00:11:13.570 --> 00:11:17.839 Twisting facts to suit theories rather than theories to suit facts. 00:11:17.839 --> 00:11:20.870 That being said, he still doesn’t sleep another wink that night. 00:11:20.870 --> 00:11:25.690 He pours himself a few cups of coffee - subconsciously avoiding anything reflective - and sits in 00:11:25.690 --> 00:11:29.520 bed until sunrise, just watching his bedroom door. 00:11:29.520 --> 00:11:34.220 Better safe than sorry, he keeps repeating in the empty corridors of his addled brain. 00:11:34.220 --> 00:11:37.269 He drives to work the next morning, like he always does. 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:41.070 Sitting at a stoplight, a car pulls up next to him, and he catches something in the reflection 00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:42.480 of the car’s window. 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:46.170 It’s that monster again, sitting next to him, reaching out towards him with one of 00:11:46.170 --> 00:11:47.899 its huge hands. 00:11:47.899 --> 00:11:51.370 The Detective gasps and spins around, his eyes flaring with panic. 00:11:51.370 --> 00:11:54.190 But of course, it isn’t there. 00:11:54.190 --> 00:11:57.660 Just some children on the sidewalk on their way to school. 00:11:57.660 --> 00:12:02.410 Maybe it’s the fear, maybe it’s the sleep deprivation, maybe it’s both, but in that 00:12:02.410 --> 00:12:05.279 moment, he feels like crying. 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:09.449 Little does he know, things are going to get so much worse. 00:12:09.449 --> 00:12:12.959 Over the following days, the frequency of the sightings increase. 00:12:12.959 --> 00:12:17.259 Any time he finds his eyes meeting a reflective surface, that monster is there, approaching 00:12:17.259 --> 00:12:21.709 him, but of course, it runs away before he can ever look at it head on. 00:12:21.709 --> 00:12:23.990 The people at work keep giving him funny looks. 00:12:23.990 --> 00:12:24.990 He grits his teeth. 00:12:24.990 --> 00:12:28.509 He can’t say anything - If he tells anyone what’s been happening to him, they’ll 00:12:28.509 --> 00:12:32.040 haul him off to the funny farm to spend the rest of his life in a padded cell. 00:12:32.040 --> 00:12:34.110 But he knows he’s not crazy. 00:12:34.110 --> 00:12:37.060 It’s too real to be the product of human insanity. 00:12:37.060 --> 00:12:40.899 This isn’t some hallucination, that thing is really there. 00:12:40.899 --> 00:12:42.160 It’s always waiting. 00:12:42.160 --> 00:12:43.480 Always watching. 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:48.640 Even when he can’t see it, he can feel its eyes on him, sense its malicious intent. 00:12:48.640 --> 00:12:50.910 It’s even worse at night. 00:12:50.910 --> 00:12:53.569 Every time he tries to sleep, it attacks him. 00:12:53.569 --> 00:12:55.850 He feels its hand clasping around his throat. 00:12:55.850 --> 00:12:58.630 He feels its balled fists pummeling his body. 00:12:58.630 --> 00:13:01.420 He feels its long fingernails scratching into his skin. 00:13:01.420 --> 00:13:02.910 He can’t sleep anymore. 00:13:02.910 --> 00:13:04.240 He’s too scared. 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:09.709 And that too takes its toll: Every feeling, every emotion, every thought, starts to take 00:13:09.709 --> 00:13:11.680 on an odd flat quality. 00:13:11.680 --> 00:13:13.839 Like nothing is quite real. 00:13:13.839 --> 00:13:17.920 He starts to subsist on coffee, energy drinks, and anything else that will give him a buzz 00:13:17.920 --> 00:13:18.920 of alertness. 00:13:18.920 --> 00:13:22.120 He’s started to carry his service pistol around with him everywhere. 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.089 He hides it under his pillow at night. 00:13:24.089 --> 00:13:25.949 He can never be too careful. 00:13:25.949 --> 00:13:29.980 He knows that the creature is always out there, always watching, always waiting. 00:13:29.980 --> 00:13:34.579 He knows, on some level, that it won’t stop until it has taken everything from him. 00:13:34.579 --> 00:13:36.850 He’s taking the subway to work again. 00:13:36.850 --> 00:13:38.600 He’s messy, disoriented. 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:39.720 His clothes stink. 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:42.699 His bloodshot eyes are couched in unsightly bags. 00:13:42.699 --> 00:13:44.939 He shivers slightly - a nervous twitch. 00:13:44.939 --> 00:13:48.720 Put simply, he’s not the man he used to be. 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:50.139 He can’t drive anymore. 00:13:50.139 --> 00:13:53.769 His nerves are too wrecked, and he has to take the bus to and from work. 00:13:53.769 --> 00:13:55.519 That’s when he sees it. 00:13:55.519 --> 00:14:00.100 Not behind him this time, but on the other side of the street as he waits for his bus. 00:14:00.100 --> 00:14:04.350 It stands among the other pedestrians, all seemingly oblivious to its presence. 00:14:04.350 --> 00:14:07.439 It just smiles, mocking him. 00:14:07.439 --> 00:14:09.880 This time, the Detective is ready. 00:14:09.880 --> 00:14:11.170 The Detective won’t have it. 00:14:11.170 --> 00:14:16.830 In a single fluid motion, he unholsters his pistol and begins firing at the creature. 00:14:16.830 --> 00:14:20.660 The street erupts into screams as people scatter to avoid the frantic volley of gunshots. 00:14:20.660 --> 00:14:22.750 But the creature doesn’t move. 00:14:22.750 --> 00:14:26.920 It just keeps grinning as the Detective fires, the rage and sleep deprivation throwing off 00:14:26.920 --> 00:14:27.920 his aim. 00:14:27.920 --> 00:14:30.779 He hears the sound of the bell again, its toll rising. 00:14:30.779 --> 00:14:32.440 It’s deafening. 00:14:32.440 --> 00:14:33.550 He needs to kill it. 00:14:33.550 --> 00:14:35.370 He needs to get closer. 00:14:35.370 --> 00:14:38.940 The Detective walks towards the creature firing bullet after bullet. 00:14:38.940 --> 00:14:41.220 The creature doesn’t care. 00:14:41.220 --> 00:14:42.820 He roars in animal fury. 00:14:42.820 --> 00:14:44.410 The bell toll rises. 00:14:44.410 --> 00:14:48.639 A sudden light illuminates the creature’s terrible smile, as the Detective realizes 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:52.490 that the sound he’s hearing isn’t the toll of the bell at all. 00:14:52.490 --> 00:14:58.529 He turns, just in time to see the bus, but not in enough time to get out of the way. 00:14:58.529 --> 00:15:02.740 The cowbell the detective found in the barn that day seemed innocuous enough. 00:15:02.740 --> 00:15:06.970 But this old cowbell, corroded and covered in rust which no known methods - chemical 00:15:06.970 --> 00:15:13.509 or mechanical - seem to be able to remove, would soon have a name - SCP-513. 00:15:13.509 --> 00:15:17.670 It was discovered by an SCP Foundation Agent during Containment Reestablishment Procedure 00:15:17.670 --> 00:15:21.910 Mu at a classified Containment Site, where its interior was covered in duct tape to prevent 00:15:21.910 --> 00:15:23.879 it from properly making a sound. 00:15:23.879 --> 00:15:26.400 There was also a paper note attached, reading: 00:15:26.400 --> 00:15:27.509 “You’ve seen it. 00:15:27.509 --> 00:15:28.800 Now he can hear you. 00:15:28.800 --> 00:15:30.060 You’ve touched it. 00:15:30.060 --> 00:15:31.790 Now he can see you. 00:15:31.790 --> 00:15:32.890 Never ring it. 00:15:32.890 --> 00:15:35.910 If you hear it, he can touch you.” 00:15:35.910 --> 00:15:42.380 And this is a warning worth heeding, because ringing SCP-513 invariably results in death. 00:15:42.380 --> 00:15:46.790 The question is just how much mental and physical anguish it puts its victim through before 00:15:46.790 --> 00:15:48.410 that end point. 00:15:48.410 --> 00:15:53.029 When the bell is first rung, anyone within earshot will begin to experience extreme anxiety 00:15:53.029 --> 00:15:57.079 - including physical symptoms such as heightened heart rate and raised blood pressure. 00:15:57.079 --> 00:16:01.360 They will also report feelings of dread and may claim that they can feel themselves being 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:02.360 watched. 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:05.970 Within about an hour, this worry is confirmed. 00:16:05.970 --> 00:16:11.390 SCP-513-1 is the less-than-charming creature hounding the unfortunate bell ringer, and 00:16:11.390 --> 00:16:14.529 will begin to stalk the affected individuals. 00:16:14.529 --> 00:16:18.120 It will appear to approach individuals from behind, but quickly disappear if ever the 00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:20.920 subject attempts direct visual contact. 00:16:20.920 --> 00:16:25.009 It will also stage non-lethal physical attacks on its victims during their sleep in order 00:16:25.009 --> 00:16:29.459 to induce greater levels of psychological terror, though it disappears quickly upon 00:16:29.459 --> 00:16:30.459 waking. 00:16:30.459 --> 00:16:35.040 The stalking threat will only elevate over time, leading to increased psychological disarray 00:16:35.040 --> 00:16:36.879 for the victim. 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:42.639 SCP-513-1 will eventually induce paranoia, aggression, hypervigilance, and depression, 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:45.439 ending in a distressing and violent death. 00:16:45.439 --> 00:16:49.939 Because of the immense danger posed to anyone who hears the sound of this cow bell tolling, 00:16:49.939 --> 00:16:54.850 SCP-513 has been given extensive containment precautions - extensive enough to warrant 00:16:54.850 --> 00:16:58.529 giving it the Euclid containment class, a classification reserved for things that are 00:16:58.529 --> 00:17:01.300 often unpredictable in containment. 00:17:01.300 --> 00:17:06.890 SCP-513 is suspended in a one cubic meter block of gelatin and contained within a soundproofed, 00:17:06.890 --> 00:17:08.610 climate-controlled cell. 00:17:08.610 --> 00:17:12.220 The gelatin is inspected daily for any degradation or loss of integrity. 00:17:12.220 --> 00:17:17.459 An emergency inspection is carried out immediately following any earthquake, explosion, or sonic 00:17:17.459 --> 00:17:20.170 event grade 2 or higher. 00:17:20.170 --> 00:17:24.189 Personnel performing the inspection wear earplugs and active noise-canceling earmuffs at all 00:17:24.189 --> 00:17:29.870 times while inside SCP-513’s cell to avoid any kind of accidental exposure. 00:17:29.870 --> 00:17:35.929 If the gelatin cube shows any signs of degradation - such as rips, tears, splits, liquefaction, 00:17:35.929 --> 00:17:40.919 or mold - SCP-513 will be immediately removed and suspended within a replacement cube by 00:17:40.919 --> 00:17:44.240 a team of surgically deafened Class-D personnel. 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:47.950 No other personnel are to enter the cell during this procedure. 00:17:47.950 --> 00:17:53.190 Any sentient beings exposed to SCP-513 are to be monitored by at least two security personnel 00:17:53.190 --> 00:17:54.670 at all times. 00:17:54.670 --> 00:17:59.270 Under absolutely no circumstances may exposure victims be administered sedatives or allowed 00:17:59.270 --> 00:18:00.430 to fall unconscious. 00:18:00.430 --> 00:18:05.250 Any victim who does fall unconscious is to be terminated immediately. 00:18:05.250 --> 00:18:09.140 Class-D personnel are to be terminated at the first sign of mental degradation. 00:18:09.140 --> 00:18:12.620 All other exposure victims may be terminated at their request. 00:18:12.620 --> 00:18:19.070 If possible, SCP-513-1 is to be apprehended on sight, but sadly, the Foundation hasn’t 00:18:19.070 --> 00:18:21.980 managed to get their hands on this unpleasant creature yet. 00:18:21.980 --> 00:18:26.309 But be careful ringing any mysterious old bells you find, or else he might just get 00:18:26.309 --> 00:18:28.810 his hands on you. 00:18:28.810 --> 00:18:34.720 Now go and watch another entry from the files of Dr. Bob, like “SCP-4975 Time’s Up”, 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:38.070 for another terrifying anomaly that’ll pursue you to your last breath. 00:18:38.070 --> 00:18:42.799 And make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications, so you don’t miss a single anomaly, as we 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:46.780 delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s classified archives.