June 16, 2025

The X Letters EP 3 - The people you used to know

The X Letters EP 3 - The people you used to know

Sometimes the people you used to know - just aren't the same anymore.


Hope you're doing good out there.



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Transcript
WEBVTT

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M all right, hey everybody. What I've been doing is

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I've been working in my workshop. I started making knives

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again over the last year. You guys want to check

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that out, you can That is the nineteen studio on Etsy. Also,

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if you're you're still around on the Kentucky Xpos Facebook,

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I can post a link there too. You can check

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out what I've been making. It's pretty cool. But when

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I'm doing I sit down here and I read some

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emails for you guys. So well, let's dig in. All right,

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let me see where was I now. Although I don't

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have as much time as I used to do this stuff,

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I'm still trying to make I'm trying to make time

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every day to get in here and set up my

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I got my little, my little portable recorder, and I

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got my my podcast mic out and I got it

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set up. I got my headset on, and I'm just

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sitting here. And we're in my workshop right now, So

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you're not you know, we don't have the studio set up,

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we don't have noise reduction. You've got you can probably

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hear cars in the background. I mean that we're we're

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basically outside in my workshop. So apologies if the sound

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isn't up to standard, but it's the best I got

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right now. So all right, here we go. Let's see here,

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let's see here. You're Denny. You're not gonna believe this.

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It's a great start. Let's see edit right here, Dear Denny.

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This might sound like a dream or maybe a hallucination,

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but I swear to you I was wide awake this

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whole time. I was driving to visit my sister in

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West Virginia. She lives up in the mountains near Elkins,

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so it's not unusual for GPS to get a little

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screwy once in a while when you leave the main roads.

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I'd made the trip half a dozen times before and

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never had an issue. But that morning something was just off.

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The sky was overcast, it was heavy and kind of low,

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and there was this weird golden hue in the air,

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like almost like the light was bending wrong. I passed

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a familiar exit, but the GPS rerouted me and told

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me to take a road that I didn't recognize, Ashbridge Land.

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I thought I might be I thought it might be

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a backway, maybe it would save me some time, so

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I went for it. I really shouldn't have, Oh, no,

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this is not. I hate when stories do this, like

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when you tell me a story and you and you

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tell me like here's what should have happened, and then

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this didn't happen. Okay, let's see here. The road narrowed quick.

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There was no signs, no houses, just winding pavement and

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trees so dense the canopy blocked out the sun. My

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reception had completely went black about less than a mile in.

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I guess went black. Does that mean I guess he

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lost all his signal? I don't. I don't really understand that.

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I saw a sign that said Welcome to Ashbridge. It

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looked like it looked old, rusted, bolted. Oh okay, he

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was Okay, sorry, it's punctuation. Guys. Do you know commas?

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You know what I mean? Commas really helped, especially for

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for Denny's. That don't read so good. All right, so

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let me start this paragraph ever, so bear with me. Here.

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The road narrowed quick, no signs, no houses, just winding

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pavement and trees so danced. The canopy blocked out the sun.

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My reception went black less than a mile in. Then

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I saw the sign Welcome to Ashbridge. It looked old

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and rusted It was bolted to a crooked wooden post.

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But I didn't remember there being any towns marked Ashbridge

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in the area, no listing on my paper map either,

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And something about the air just changed. It was like

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stepping into the still room right after a thunderstorm. Well,

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I crested the hill and there was a town, old storefronts,

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cracked sidewalks, a gas station with one working pump, a diner,

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chrome and glass, with a neon sign that buzzed faintly

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open all night. The buildings were clean but lifeless. There

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was no cars, no people. The only sound was the

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faint static of a distant radio. I pulled into a

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gas station and figured i'd at least asked for direction.

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The pump turned on. When I picked up the handle,

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the screen lit up. I put in ten dollars worth

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of gas, and the machine printed me a receipt. Ashbridge General,

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March third, nineteen seventy nine. Nineteen seventy nine. That's when

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I started getting nervous. I went inside. The door creaked,

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but it opened smooth. The interior was spotless. Magazine rat

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gum on the counter, old style register, no clerk, no

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hum of refrigeration, just silence. So I walked to the diner.

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Next it was worse. A jukebox in the corner was

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playing faint music, something like Blue Moon, but the boots

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were empty, the coffee cups were half full, no steam

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plates with food still looked fresh. I called out, no answer.

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I turned around and saw someone outside. There was a

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man a pail where He was pale, and he was

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wearing an old flannel jacket. Standing at the edge of

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the sidewalk. He was just watching me. He didn't blink,

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he didn't move. I stepped towards the window, and he

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opened his mouth like he was about to scream, but

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no sound came out. Instead, he just spoke the words

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you shouldn't be here yet, and then he vanished. Didn't

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walk away, didn't run away. I mean, he was just gone. Well,

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I did not wait for it. I bolted back to

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my car. The engine started, but then I tried to

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drive out. Every turn seemed like it was leading me

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back to the same intersection Maine and Sycamore. I think

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I took five different routes left, right, straight, but they

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all curved back. It was like the town was circling me. Finally,

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I parked and I sat in silence. I told myself

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I'd wait until morning. But then when I blinked, it

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was morning, full sun and clear skies. I was back

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on the main road, GPS working again. No sign of Ashbridge,

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no rusted sign, just wooden pavement. I drove straight to

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my sister's house and I never said a word. Later,

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I checked every map I could find, a topography, digital,

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local history. Nothing, no town called Ashbridge ever existed in

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that region. But I still have the receipt. It's in

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my club compartment right now. It's still faded and yellowed.

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It looks like it's been there for forty years. I

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don't know if I stumbled into ghost town or a

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time loop, or maybe I dreamt the whole damn thing,

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but I'll tell you what. It was enough to scare me. Thanks, guys.

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I did not leave a name, So if you wrote

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that and want to write to me and let me

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know what your name is, or if you have anything

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else to add, I'd love to hear more. That was

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kind of crazy, Like that sounded like a movie. I

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don't know. That one's pretty far out. It's interesting, though,

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like that's it interesting, But I don't think I've ever

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heard anything like that before. Like, I don't think I'm

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trying to. I'm trying to like jog my memory here.

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Have I ever heard anything like that, like somebody stumbled

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into a ghost town. I'm gonna get on the internet

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later and look it up, see if I see if

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I come up with anything pretty wild though, definitely definitely wild.

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That's that's one of the crazier I guess, like a

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ghost story I think I've ever heard. So I appreciate

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the email. Would love to know, you know, if you

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want to follow up to that, let me know. Encounters

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at kyxfiles dot com. I guess. Let's see here, Let's

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go on to the next one I got here. Uh,

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this this is from a guy named Jacob. Looks like

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he's from Minnesota. By the way, folks, even if you

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put your last name on it, I'm probably gonna leave

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your last name off it, all right, So uh it's

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the best I can do just to kind of protect

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your you know, your identify identifying whatever. We'll just keep

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it anonymous, you know what I mean? All right? So,

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Jacob Brights, dear Denny, I'm not the kind of guy

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who writes in the podcast. Oh that's fair. Hell, I

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don't even talk about my feelings much. I grew up

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working class, old school family, you know how that goes.

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But something happened last winter that I still can't explain,

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and this has been eating me alive. My brother Mark

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and I we grew up in northern Minnesota, thick woods,

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frozen lakes, winters that chew the breath right out of you.

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We always went ice fishing every January, says we were kids.

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It's a kind of a family tradition, something about sitting

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there on the lake, no phones, no noise, just to

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wind and the ice and the quiet. Kind of sacred. Anyway,

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last January, we took our gear out and we went

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to Larkson's Lake, kind of remote. You have to snowmobile

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in park about three miles from the cabin, then hike

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across the ice to get to the spot where the

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fishings get. Nobody goes there. Hell, it's practically ours. The

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day started pretty normal, cold but clear. Mark and I

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drilled a couple holes, got a little propane heater going

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into the shack, and we were sitting there drinking coffee

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and shooting the shit. We were waiting for a bite.

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Around three in the afternoon, Mark stood up and said

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he was going to go take a leak. He grabbed

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his jacket and he stepped outside. That was the last

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time I saw him for three days. At first I

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figured he just went back behind the shack, maybe stretched

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his legs. But then ten minutes past, then twenty I

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stepped outside and I called for him. No answer, So

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I began looking. There were tracks in the snow, clear

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as day, boot tracks leading off towards the trees at

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the end of the lake. But they just stopped. They

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didn't fade. They had not faded, not blown away, They

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just stopped, like he'd been lifted off the damn ground.

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They went thirty feet into the woods and had just vanished.

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It was like he walked through a doorway that wasn't there.

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That's pretty wild. That's pretty wild. I don't know what

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to say there. I radioed the ranger station. They brought

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in a search and rescue dogs, drones. The whole nine

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yards we combed, five square miles. Nothing, no blood, no gear,

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no trail. They started talking about wild animals and hypothermia

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induced confusion. So maybe he fell through the ice and

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drifted under. I don't know, man, I think I know

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better you know, my brother is a navy vet. He

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doesn't really get lost. He never just vanishes. Well. On

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the fourth mornings, just before sunrise, I heard a knock

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on the door and it was Mark. He was just

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standing there like nothing happened, clothes clean, no frostbite, no,

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not even shivering. He just said, hey, man, you make coffee. Yet.

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I was in shock. I just hugged him and asked

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him where the hell he'd been, What the hell happened.

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He looked confused and said he'd only stepped out for

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a minute. He swore, he remembered walking into the woods

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to take a piss, and then coming back. He thought

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it was still the same afternoon. He'd been gone for

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seventy four hours. We we drove straight home and I

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told him everything, the search, the time gap, the missing prints.

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He just went quiet for a while. I thought maybe

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it was trauma, or maybe like some kind of disassociative episode.

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But then the weird stuff started. Mark kind of changed.

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It was real subtle. At first. He stopped making eye contact,

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His voice sounded flatter. He used to talk with his

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hands a lot, crack jokes and fidget. Now he just

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he's just stiff sometimes I catch him staring at the

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sky like he's listening for something. And then he started

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doing this thing with salt. At first, he kept the

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salt shaker on the nightstand. I thought he was being weird.

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But then I saw him pouring a thin line of

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salt around his bed and I asked him why. He

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got real serious and said, they don't cross it, that's

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all he said. I pressed him about it and said

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who's they, but he wouldn't answer. He just says it's

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safer this way. Last week, I walked into the kitchen

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and found him sitting at the table at two am,

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fully dressed and staring at the door. He didn't even

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look up. He said, I think it might almost be time.

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I don't know who or what came from those woods,

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but I know my guts, My gut's telling me it's

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not my brother. He hasn't slept more than an hour

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at a time. He won't go near the lake. He

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unplugged all the mirrors, all the mirrors in the house.

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He won't let me touch them. And then when it rains,

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he hums, I've been sleeping with a knife under my bed.

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I hate that feeling. I hate that I feel that way,

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but something just isn't right. He disappeared, something came back

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wearing his face. I'm dead set on that. Well, if

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anybody else out there might have said or hurt something

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like this, please let me know Jacob. Well, Jacob, I'm

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officially creeped out. That's a that is a hell of

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a story. Holy shit, Wow, man, I don't know what

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to say. That's crazy. Anybody out there, if you heard

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anything similar to that, please let me know. Encounters at

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kyxbos dot com. I would love to go further on

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that one, and I'm definitely going to be keeping my

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eyes peeled for any more emails following that one. So well,

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that's food for thought. Alright. So I'm gonna go ahead

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and get out of here, guys, and I will catch

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you guys on the next one. So you guys, take

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care of each other out there. We'll talk soon. M M.

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