never miss another strange story subscribe and hit the bell sit back and get comfortable I have a few stories to share with you it's not the cheating that bothers me Jim said my wife and it's the lying I just want you to be honest with me all the time even when it hurts can you do that yes I said I promise but I was lying and then she died and in the years since then I didn't sleep with a single woman ironic right also after that year I became sure that Ann was visiting me I felt her presence I smelled her perfume so strongly it's like it was spray directly at my face my birthday was coming up and Lucy our seven-year-old was making me a special present it was top secret apparently every day after school she locked herself in her room and worked on it until dinnertime I had absolutely no idea what she was doing in there occasionally I heard her talking faintly through the door but mostly it was dead quiet however she was extremely serious about keeping it a secret she reminded me daily not to look I told her I wouldn't do you promise she would ask intensely then she'd stare at me with her sharp eyes her mother's eyes yes I would say I promise but after two weeks I felt I had to step in something just wasn't right anymore so when she was at school I searched every inch of her room for her project but I found absolutely nothing it was so strange but I decided to just monitor the situation finally it was my birthday and I have to admit my curiosity was piqued after breakfast she made me sit on her bed with my eyes closed then I heard her knock three times on something pause then open it it sounded like her closet she repeated this over and over but also seemed to grow more and more frustrated I had no idea what the hell she was doing but she refused to let me open my eyes eventually she threw herself onto the bed the closet door was open it's not working she cried then she looked up at me accusatory you must have looked did you look I felt guilty no I told her I never looked do you promise yes eventually she told me the truth I've been trying to bring mommy back from the dead hole chills entered me worth what do you mean Eleonora told me to I came to her Elinor was my wife's middle name who's Elinor I asked she pointed at her laptop my stomach drop I reminded her about not talking to strangers online she tried to show me some chats when they were gone we tried to find Helena but she had vanished too after that day the visits from my wife stopped as time passed I couldn't help but wonder crazy as it might sound what would have happened if I kept my promise what would have happened if I hadn't looked it started around puberty the defiance the swearing walking in his bedroom door playing loud music I don't know when he started using drugs he didn't even have money to keep up without habit so he started selling them then he started stealing I tried talking to him but he wouldn't listen sometimes he shouted over me or raised his fist his stepfather bill intervened once and Wanda with a black eye it was ruining our marriage bill spent long days outside driving the fields over and over with Harold loosening up dirt the planting we barely talked we were never intimate so when I found Joey's note on the counter last Friday announcing he had gone to live with his father as much as I was upset I was also relieved bill robbed my back while I saw and it was me not him that said maybe this is for the best I put Joey out of my mind as best as I could for the weekend and it worked and I actually found myself smiling for the first time in months on Monday I decided to call his father to make sure that he had arrived all right make sure he was eating make sure he wasn't in jail already the little [ __ ] never came here his father said I collapsed on the floor what do you mean they laughs as startled as I was I called the police I called hospitals I even called the fire department their calmness in the face of my despair was maddening finally I tried calling Joey it rang endlessly that went into voicemail I'm not here so I fought said my sons recorded voice leave him a message bill suggested they'll call back soon I'm sure but I needed to talk to him now I called again and again on probably the tenth call I began to hear something it was faint but I could swear I heard Joey's phone ringing somewhere in the distance he must have been squatting out in one of the old barns of the property where we sorted hay and farm equipment it's raining Mary bill called after me you hadn't heard the ringing I kept reading every time he went into voicemail I followed it backward and forward across the horse paddocks louder here quieter there listening intently to figure out where was humming phone I expected to be drawn towards one of the barns but instead I find myself circling back over and over of specific spots in the middle of an empty field to some freshly churned soil where build had been planning to plant I dialed again and lowered my ear to the dirt I could hear the phone ringing louder than anywhere else bill I saw that caught up to me bill I began my voice shaky did you he swallowed hard not meeting my gaze silence and then bill look at me who said he was tearing us apart nobody in that small town ever respected Harry but all that changed with a simple ingredient no one ever liked Harry when he was a little fat kid on the playground or when he was an even fatter kid in high school they certainly did not when he dropped out to go to culinary school no one would ever believe you if you told them that they would worship Him one day no one knows where Harry went for a few years but when he returned he opened up a diner right in the center of town within a year it was the only thing people talked about everyone ain't there ask anyone and they would tell you why Harry's diner has the best em food simple as that it really was people loved it aided by the pound breakfast lunch and dinner Harry's Harry's and Harry's it became an obsession some people even started setting up camp outside just so they could be the first in line for breakfast Aries got so popular that he put the supermarket out of business the other restaurants closed soon as well no one was too bothered by that everyone who worked those places just started eating at Harry's that was only the beginning people loved that food so much who do anything for Harry while Moomin traded her firstborn child for a week free meal made another man killed his best friend just because he could it wasn't long before Harry had a whole army that would do anything just for the taste of what he would cook up next nowadays there's not much left of that town other than Harry's force of the whole world invaded the grass grows unchecked and trash sits out at the curb people wander the streets in haze waiting for their next meal the town even gave Harry access to their tornado siren it's wailing song signals the next feast at night the whole rune of the town fasts in the neo life from the diner side there his name proudly looking down over its subjects a whole kingdom to call his own he deserved it after all he really did have the best stem for simple as that but it wasn't because of salt pepper or paprika not because of the cheese or the butter either not even because of the factory frozen meat used it was the hair a nice day I've been having blackouts for almost a year now but no one seems to notice the first time was that my 16th birthday party my family threw for my cousin Adam his dad got him a DVD of a horror movie he loved and we decided to watch it so this only Adam had seen it before I was really looking forward to watching that movie but then I fell asleep just when he was getting started when I woke up the end credits for rolling everyone was talking about their favorite parts of the movie Denis was more into it than any of us Adam said about me and at the same time I assumed it was a joke for a while I thought I was just falling asleep at strange times then in geography class I blacked out like I always did when I woke up however I looked down to see a page full of notes on the lesson all in my handwriting it was like I wasn't actually gone I was running on autopilot I tried to keep track of when I blacked out to see if I could figure out what could be causing it but then fall asleep and wake up to find my record is missing or destroyed I take notes on my arm fall asleep and find them scrubbed away someone or something was trying to stop me from understanding it I could feel myself losing grip on reality they didn't think anyone would believe me eventually I figured it out pattern was both simple and crew anything that felt refreshing was being taken away from him anything that relaxed and recharged me was being stolen I would get the physical benefits of downtime by not the experience my stomach would be full after a blackout but I did not get to enjoy the meal it made my life absolutely miserable yesterday I finally broke down and told Adam everything while I was at his house we were hanging out while our parents were at the movies and then he asked me if something was wrong I just lost it I told him that I was having a breakdown and he offered to help Adam called our parents but none of them answer we knew what theater our parents were out so we decided to take the bus there tell our parents what was going on we took our seats on the bus and Adam put a hand on my shoulder and figure it out Dennis don't worry I was so relieved I could barely hold back my tears I finally reached out for help someone was actually there for me then close my eyes just for a moment he was gone I was on a bus but it wasn't the same one it was the only passenger I looked down at my arm he saw something written on it in my own handwriting and we'll never find him you don't do that many of the applicants came into our program with a romanticized idea of police work many envisioned an elegant battle of wits against wine swelling criminal masterminds many others were former high school bullies who were mostly interested in busting in some heads they didn't take my work as a corner too seriously for them a corpse was a clue to be sliced open and tossed aside the bethany was different she saw the cadavers as the people they had been worthy of respect she would whisper to them while she worked telling them the latest news they missed out on or how grateful she was to learn from them some of the students found it a bit off-putting but to me it was endearing and she always knew what she was doing which tools to use how to extract the organs properly IRA sewed the lips shut and so on it came as no surprise then to learn that she had been a morticians daughter she worked with her dad in some quaint rural village pruning up the bodies for funerals he had been something of a public servant as well being the only mortician for miles around she told me he would often offer his services for free to people who had died with our family and would stage a public viewing regardless of whether anyone came to visit the deceased he sounded like a kind-hearted man and I long to meet him I wondered if he shared his daughter's sense of gallows humor an important tool for people who thrive in circumstances that would otherwise engender despair today we were discussing the process of decomposition and the weird things a body may do postmortem we'd already discussed coffin births in angel lust look them up if you dare so I decided to end on a lighter note corpse might blow it up with gaps and that gas needs to escape somehow I said pausing for dramatic effect corpse farts in other words the students laughed dispelling some of the tension in the room Bethany raised her hand the gasses sometimes escape in other ways to out past the vocal cords so sometimes it sounds like they're moaning it was true the corpse sometimes mode and it was always unexpected and terrifying but then Bethany continued sometimes you said they even sound like they're streaming the other students cast each other sideways glances screaming impossible the vocal cords tightened when a person screams which requires an electrical impulse from the brain and corpse our brain did Bethany please these kids are not the brightest and they don't know you're joking everyone laugh who's joking she asked deadpan I smiled trying to think of a quick and smart comeback but then she added without a hint of humor it happened all the time when I worked in my dad's basement [Music] [Applause] [Music] everybody has moments like this I'm sure you've had many yourself a chance encounter our fleeting glimpse a split-second where you think maybe I should perhaps I gonna and many times when you've thought I wish I had just when it's been too late the moment has gone and then you mentally beat yourself for hesitating curse at yourself for being the type of person who takes too long to think so long that when a decision has been made it becomes null and void because the reason behind the decision no longer matters I used to be like that and then I decided to never again be indecisive no longer shall I be the person to walk by someone in need and have an argument with myself in my head all the while hoping someone else would take the matters out of my hands good Samaritans there's nearly always run around when the need is great I tried to be a good Samaritan no like right now standing beside this young man standing on the bridge tears in his eyes every now and then he mumbles to himself says he's no good tells himself the things would be better if he wasn't around I talked to him try to say the right things comfort him I tried to make sure not one word I say will convince him to take the next step I feel like he doesn't hear me but I remind myself then he has a lot on his mind too much I'll keep trying though maybe just one sentence will break his trends just a few words just one word the word that might make everything feel now riding it feel like hope again it's a shame it's late at night a shame there's no one else to help it help me I've been standing with him for nearly an hour now and I'll carry on standing here trying to say the right things but I know cannot see me I'm a ghost a phantom just a tingling of lingering energy buzzing right here at the spot I took one step too many four years ago just like this young man it's a shame I wish I could really help him slowly as he grips the railing he lifts his leg and pulls it back over and onto the safety of the path he looks down into the abyss then turns towards me surely can't see me but he whispers thank you then turns and walks away [Music] we live in the same day over and over literally October 23rd 2018 the day starts at 6 a.m. PST doesn't matter where you are in the world the day goes for 16 hours and then you fall asleep when you wake up everything is reset everything except your memory everyone gets to keep that for the first few weeks if you can even count these as weeks everyone was confused nobody could figure out what was going on most people didn't think it was real then came the various theories God is punishing us of course then people moved on to other things everything from aliens to the Lobel warming to changes in the migratory patterns of monarch butterflies was blamed scientists from all over the world worked hard trying to figure it out but I guess it's difficult to continue our work when everything keeps getting reset every 16 hours including things written on paper or saved on discs there are only so many complicated mathematical situation one can memorize I guess some people started to live a hedonistic life knowing that there's no tomorrow and therefore no consequences some people went the other way can kill themselves only to restore to life at 6 a.m. PST they had no memory of the time they spent that eventually even the scientists stopped trying or trying to keep track of the number of today's people adopted and try to make some sort of a life with the idea of no tomorrow and the virtual immortality that came with it this worked out well for some people especially the rich and not so well for others it was the worse with people like me who were dying before the loop began I was diagnosed with stage 5 cancer and given two weeks to live the pain is unbearable at a loss and the analgesic don't much most of the patients in my wing and I'm sure millions of others with similar conditions live in constant agony with no hope of a cure or death to take away the pain but I try to look at it in a more positive way some kind of life is better than not I think lights out says nurse Snooks must be 9:55 p.m. she is one of the few people who still comes to work every day to take care of people like me truly an angel some kind of life is better than none I think again as I wind this strange golden block the mysterious woman gave me yesterday and set the hands to 6 a.m. 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