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Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know from how Stuffworks

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Speaker 1: dot com.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's

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Speaker 2: Charles w Chuck Bryant. This is stuff you should know

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Speaker 2: and friends, it is almost folloween. Just do that, then

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Speaker 2: Jurie doesn't have to do any seventy time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, just step my mouth making like wind blowing and

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Speaker 1: Woolve's alley. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's good, Chuck. Happy Halloween.

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Speaker 1: Happy Halloween, buddy. It's good to be back in the

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Speaker 1: old studio. It feels nice, you know. Yeah, we have

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Speaker 1: the lighting dim. It's actually a little spooky. No, it's here.

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Speaker 1: It is Friday's is like twenty eight days later.

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Speaker 2: Right, Our guest producer Matt, survived the zombie apocalypse. Ye're

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Speaker 2: still here and still normal, right, Matt? Pretty normal, says Matt.

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Speaker 2: And so I guess if you hadn't figured out, I know,

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Speaker 2: what we're about to do is read our annual Halloween

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Speaker 2: scary story. But this one's a little different.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I know some of you know, but maybe not everybody

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Speaker 2: knows that we held a Halloween horror fiction contest. We

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Speaker 2: reached out to our fans and said, hey, scarce, thanks right,

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Speaker 2: some of them did.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And hats off to you, my friend, because this

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Speaker 1: was Josh's idea, and I think it was a great idea.

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Speaker 1: And we got over one hundred stories and one hundred

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Speaker 1: and four yeah, and you guys ultimately decided in the

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Speaker 1: bracket game. But I would have been happy with any

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Speaker 1: of those sixteen yeah and strong entries. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: There were probably even more than sixteen, because it wasn't

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Speaker 2: it wasn't easy to pick those sweet sixteen. We got

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Speaker 2: one hundred and four entries that were qualified. I believe

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Speaker 2: we had another maybe eight that were disqualified for hundred reasons.

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Speaker 2: But I appreciate you taking your hat off to me.

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Speaker 2: I take my hat off to everybody who took the

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Speaker 2: time to send their stuff in.

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Speaker 1: Agreed.

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Speaker 2: Some people sent stuff they had sitting around. Other people

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Speaker 2: whiped this stuff up just for us. And thank you

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Speaker 2: to all of you who sent in a story. Yes,

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Speaker 2: and we want to say that obviously, if you send

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Speaker 2: us a story, we could tell by the caliber of

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Speaker 2: the writing that we got that you are professional writers

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Speaker 2: or aspiring to be professional writers. So if you publish

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Speaker 2: a book, whether it's horror fiction, short stories, or whether

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Speaker 2: it is a children's book or anything like that. We

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Speaker 2: want to show our appreciation to you for entering the

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Speaker 2: contest by saying, let us know, and we will tell

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Speaker 2: everybody about it, yep, on social media, on the podcast whatever,

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Speaker 2: and we can start that little courtesy now, Chuck, because

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Speaker 2: one of the guys who made it to the Sweet sixteen,

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Speaker 2: his name is Adam pract and he submitted a story

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Speaker 2: called Frame Story, which was awesome, and he went ahead

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Speaker 2: and published it in a book. He's got a book

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Speaker 2: called appropriately enough Frame Story. It's seven stories of sci

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Speaker 2: fi and fantasy, horror and humor. It's available in Kindle

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Speaker 2: as a Kindle e book. I think he's got pretty

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Speaker 2: much every ebook covered he's got. It's a dot mobi file,

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Speaker 2: which means that you can use it on just about

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Speaker 2: any eReader. You can go to uh smash words dot

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Speaker 2: com and find it. You can find it on Amazon,

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Speaker 2: and you can find it as a print on demand

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Speaker 2: paper book if you're not into that whole new fangled

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Speaker 2: eReader thing at createspace dot com. Slash four zero, two, three, five,

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Speaker 2: seven six. So Adam Practice Frame Story, seven story collection,

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Speaker 2: heck of a deal, and it's out there already.

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Speaker 1: Wow, look at you. Yeah, uh so I guess we'll

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Speaker 1: explain quickly. We divided the story not by paragraph this time,

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Speaker 1: but by style, because this story deals with a communica

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Speaker 1: that someone is sending. Yes, and there's another part of

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Speaker 1: the story where this man exists, and so I will

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Speaker 1: be reading that, Josh will be reading the communica. A. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I think that was a good way to do it.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I agree, and that was your idea. So let's

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Speaker 2: continue the pat on the backfest, and we should probably

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Speaker 2: tell everybody what story we're reading. Yes, this is the

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Speaker 2: winner of the stuff you should know horror fiction contest.

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Speaker 1: Ever, I would.

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Speaker 2: Say inaugural, but that would indicate that there's more to come.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we haven't decided that. Yeah, and he technically should

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Speaker 1: never say first annual. People say that a lot, right,

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Speaker 1: until there's a second year, it can't be annual.

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Speaker 2: Right, you say inaugural?

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Speaker 1: Oh, is that what the replacement is? Okay, gotcha.

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Speaker 2: Well that's a good point. But the winner is a

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Speaker 2: guy named Brett s Arnold, and mister Arnold submitted a

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Speaker 2: story called Sign Forever and Ever, and we think it's

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Speaker 2: awesome and we're proud of one.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, agreed.

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Speaker 2: Again, Thank you to everybody who submitted your stories. You

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Speaker 2: can go to the bogs at HowStuffWorks dot com and

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Speaker 2: read all of the Sweet sixteen. They're still up there.

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Speaker 2: They will be in perpetuity and lead some nice comments.

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Speaker 2: Nice comments. Okay, yeah, okay, so let's read it.

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Speaker 1: Huh, all right?

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Speaker 2: Henceforth here with here too we read Signed Forever and

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Speaker 2: Ever by Brett s Arnold.

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Speaker 1: Edmund thought of holding his breath as another splinter formed

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Speaker 1: in the window. The creaking of vessel under the pressure

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Speaker 1: of well, what exactly was it brought to mine images

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Speaker 1: of the Titanic at the bottom of the sea, and

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Speaker 1: suddenly he was cold. Some people think all they're doing

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Speaker 1: in death is returning to the sea, but no, he

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Speaker 1: thought that's too short sighted. He would be returning to

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Speaker 1: the stars. For the moment, everything was stable, He exhaled

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Speaker 1: and returned to his electronic courier.

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Speaker 2: I never told you the truth because I didn't want

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Speaker 2: to hurt you. But we're past that now. When she left,

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Speaker 2: I was destroyed. I didn't know how to raid you.

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Speaker 2: I feared you would be different without your mother. How

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Speaker 2: would they treat you at school? What about when you

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Speaker 2: were older? Her leaving hurt me too, of course, and

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Speaker 2: very deeply. But it was you that I was worried about, Sarah.

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Speaker 2: I want you to know I've thought about this every

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Speaker 2: day since she left. I shouldn't have told you she died.

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Speaker 2: That was wrong. Still, worse things have happened since, and

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Speaker 2: I need you to know the real story.

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Speaker 1: After she left, I.

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Speaker 2: Found it was to chase down another man. It makes

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Speaker 2: me sick to think about, sick to my stomach. Who

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Speaker 2: was he anyway, some nobody, a drug dealer. Whoever, It's

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Speaker 2: a good thing he died, Sarah. Bad things happen to

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Speaker 2: bad people, but that's still not the worst of it.

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Speaker 1: He paused to look at the small crescent window, twenty

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Speaker 1: six inches thick out to the sun. The direct light

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Speaker 1: hurt his eyes, and when he closed them he saw

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Speaker 1: small purple streaks. When he rubbed them, there was another

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Speaker 1: murmur from the vessel, metal compressing in on itself on him.

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Speaker 1: The vessel turned on its end and threw him in

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Speaker 1: its courier to the ground. He caught the edge of

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Speaker 1: the bed frame he was sitting on and steadied himself.

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Speaker 1: The vessel's course smoothed. The splinter in the window was

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Speaker 1: longer now with new smaller splinters fracturing away from it

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Speaker 1: like cobwebs. He was panting and out of breath. He

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Speaker 1: picked the courier up from the floor and propped it

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Speaker 1: against the dashboard.

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Speaker 2: I love you, Sarah. I wish I had more time

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Speaker 2: to say that to you right now, and back at

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Speaker 2: home too. When I heard that the man had died,

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Speaker 2: I was at work, sitting at my desk reading the

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Speaker 2: newspaper about the problems the Mars colony was having and

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Speaker 2: how the first settlers were facing more challenges than they'd expected.

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Speaker 2: I received a message via post from your uncle. He

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Speaker 2: said the man died from disease, a slow moving cancer

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Speaker 2: whose long treatment bankrupted your mother and him. And then

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Speaker 2: after she was coming back to the only place she knew.

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Speaker 1: He studied his gray standard issue uniform with the red

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Speaker 1: circular insignia and the numbers five two seven below. This

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Speaker 1: far passed the Moon. Communications other than electronic courier was impossible,

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Speaker 1: and even those took hours to transmit across the cosmos.

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Speaker 1: He had sent one to Cape Canaver forty minutes prior,

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Speaker 1: only to alert them that a red light on his

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Speaker 1: dashboard titled relay Valve, was suddenly on and he couldn't

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Speaker 1: recall from his brief training what that meant. He was

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Speaker 1: sure it was serious. There's no reason for me to

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Speaker 1: be here, he thought, or anyone. The world isn't ending.

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Speaker 1: There's no impending cataclysmic event, no threat to the species

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Speaker 1: as a whole. It was a just in case. That's

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Speaker 1: how they'd phrased it to him in training, just in case.

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Speaker 1: He mulled the words over angry.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if she was going to try to

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Speaker 2: contact us. I heard it from a friend that she

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Speaker 2: was staying at the Late Sleeper motel outside of town.

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Speaker 2: I like to think that if you had been in

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Speaker 2: my head then and heard everything I was thinking and

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Speaker 2: experienced the rush, that you would have done the same

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Speaker 2: thing I did, and I wouldn't be here. But that's

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Speaker 2: not how life works. I couldn't stand the thought of

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Speaker 2: her meeting you after I raised you, or her asking

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Speaker 2: to come back or coming to take you away. That's

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Speaker 2: when I took the lumber axe in the yard and

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Speaker 2: drove to the motel and pushed your mother on the

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Speaker 2: bed and laid the blade into her, missing the first time,

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Speaker 2: but not the second, or the third, or fourth. I

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Speaker 2: lost count That night, I didn't sleep. I thought about

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Speaker 2: what you would have done if you saw me when

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Speaker 2: I came home and showered, and grabbed your sheets from

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Speaker 2: your bed and wrapped them around your mother in the

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Speaker 2: back seat of our automobile, and drove her to the

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Speaker 2: lake and dumped her in on the north side, which

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Speaker 2: was more shallow than I had thought. I watched the

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Speaker 2: current move her body down to a small pocket of

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Speaker 2: water lined with rocks that her clothes must.

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Speaker 1: Have snagged on.

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Speaker 2: A tree grew overhead.

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Speaker 1: It was pretty in its own way.

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Speaker 2: It was colder the next morning, in overcast I tried

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Speaker 2: to ignore everything, like I'd done before.

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Speaker 1: The vessel shook again, sending Edmond to the floor, his

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Speaker 1: face hitting the side of the bunk he had been

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Speaker 1: sitting on. From that perspective, he could almost make out

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Speaker 1: the shape of the milky Way and the landscape of

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Speaker 1: lights blinking on his dashboard, red and orange and yellow.

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Speaker 1: He reached to study the sharp pain in his jaw

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Speaker 1: with his left hand, but jolted when he made contact.

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Speaker 1: He could barely move it, and when he did, he

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Speaker 1: could hear a loud clicking sound against his ear drum,

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Speaker 1: probably broken, he thought. The blood ran thick like half

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Speaker 1: frozen water down his neck and chest, where it collected

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Speaker 1: in pools, and the folds of his uniform pants. He

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Speaker 1: sat as quiet as possible and tried not to think

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Speaker 1: about the window and its new splinters and fractures. The

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Speaker 1: silence is good, he thought.

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Speaker 2: By the time I thought to move your mother before

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Speaker 2: anyone else found her, it was too late. The sides

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Speaker 2: of the river and all the shallow areas had frozen

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Speaker 2: over in a matter of days. I came at night

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Speaker 2: and discovered this. I tried kicking through the ice with

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Speaker 2: my boot. I used the tire iron nothing. The second

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Speaker 2: time I came was in the day. I walked past

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Speaker 2: the spot, never stopping, and looked in past to see

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Speaker 2: if I could see her, if she was still there,

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Speaker 2: But the ice was like frosted glass. Every few minutes

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Speaker 2: a truck or some other vehicle would pass on the highway,

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Speaker 2: and I would croped low to the ground. I let

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Speaker 2: a week go by and came back at night. I

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Speaker 2: parked on the shoulder of the highway half a mile

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Speaker 2: up and walked back to the river with my flashlight off.

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Speaker 2: I tested the ice with my boot again and walked

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Speaker 2: out onto it. I laid my head against the ice

220
00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:25,600
Speaker 2: and looked down for your mother. I couldn't see her.

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00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:28,160
Speaker 2: I put my ear to the ground, as if testing

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Speaker 2: for a coming train by listening to the tracks, but

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00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:32,800
Speaker 2: all I could hear was ice splintering in the distance,

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Speaker 2: a low echoing sound. I turned the flashlight on and

225
00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,120
Speaker 2: pointed it to where I left her beneath. I saw

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Speaker 2: the faintest blur of her, the smooth edges of the

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Speaker 2: structure of her face. Her white sweater was clear against

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Speaker 2: the brown river bottom. Tiny air bubbles were frozen everywhere

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00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:49,720
Speaker 2: in the ice, but most of them seemed to be

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Speaker 2: around her head, and I wondered what caused that. From

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Speaker 2: then on, I came back every night. I waited until

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Speaker 2: a few hours before sunrise. I put my ear to

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Speaker 2: the ground and listened to the shifting eye. And I

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00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:03,120
Speaker 2: waited until I had seen no headlights for several minutes

235
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Speaker 2: before I turned on the flashlight. Impressed my face as

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Speaker 2: close to the ice as possible for as long as possible.

237
00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:11,840
Speaker 2: The blue moonlight mixed with my yellow flashlight made her

238
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Speaker 2: look green. It did not matter what color she was.

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00:12:14,559 --> 00:12:17,840
Speaker 2: I hardly recognized her after all those years. Anyway, I

240
00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:19,960
Speaker 2: felt sick at home when the sun came up. But

241
00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:22,720
Speaker 2: every night I went back. I think more than anything,

242
00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:27,800
Speaker 2: I was waiting for spring, for the ice to melt.

243
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Speaker 1: There was too much blood. He felt light headed and

244
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Speaker 1: stood up and immediately fell back down. He felt short

245
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Speaker 1: of breath. Outside his window, the red planet was bigger.

246
00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:42,720
Speaker 1: He could see individual caverns in the details of ridges.

247
00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,080
Speaker 1: The color was more vibrant, where Earth was still so

248
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Speaker 1: blue in the distance. He could now be sure first

249
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Speaker 1: hand and not by a matter of faith, that there

250
00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:54,080
Speaker 1: was no water where his vessel was heading. It would

251
00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:56,400
Speaker 1: be nice, he thought, if he could fly the vessel

252
00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:58,520
Speaker 1: far enough to at least make it into orbit or

253
00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:03,120
Speaker 1: the red planet. He remembered setting benchmarks for himself, most

254
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Speaker 1: of all as a young man about his death. If

255
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Speaker 1: I could only make it until Christmas and die the

256
00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:10,839
Speaker 1: day after, if I have to, that would be best.

257
00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:13,640
Speaker 1: Then Christmas would come and go, and he would think,

258
00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:16,480
Speaker 1: if I have to die now, at least let it

259
00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:20,040
Speaker 1: be after vacation, or at the very least during vacation,

260
00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:22,599
Speaker 1: so I can go while looking at the beach, or

261
00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:25,679
Speaker 1: the cabin or the city lights. He ripped the sleeve

262
00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:28,640
Speaker 1: off his standard issue uniform and held it firmly against

263
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Speaker 1: his wound. The harder he pressed, the more it hurt.

264
00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:35,000
Speaker 1: He put his full weight into it, eyes closed, sweating,

265
00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:36,240
Speaker 1: thinking of the window.

266
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Speaker 2: In September, before all of this, I received a letter

267
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Speaker 2: thanking me for my application, et cetera, and that yes,

268
00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:47,560
Speaker 2: I had been selected to join the second colonizing group

269
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Speaker 2: of Mars. I had not decided if I would go

270
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Speaker 2: with you going to college. It seemed like the right thing,

271
00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:56,040
Speaker 2: a fit, a way to support us while you were away.

272
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Speaker 2: I could not protect you anymore while you were away,

273
00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:02,199
Speaker 2: but I couldn't do it. I took out loans I

274
00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:04,880
Speaker 2: borrowed against the house. I would be there for you

275
00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:05,680
Speaker 2: when you needed me.

276
00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:11,199
Speaker 1: He reached for his wallet and took out a small

277
00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:13,600
Speaker 1: picture he kept in one of the card pockets. He

278
00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:17,120
Speaker 1: could not remember his daughter's eye color. He remembered when

279
00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:19,880
Speaker 1: Sarah was four or five, his wife and him had

280
00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:22,320
Speaker 1: a fight at a restaurant about what color her eyes

281
00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:25,360
Speaker 1: were blue or green. The night ended with them being

282
00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:27,960
Speaker 1: asked to leave and Sarah crying all the way home.

283
00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:31,160
Speaker 1: Edmund didn't speak to his wife for a month. The

284
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:33,840
Speaker 1: photo was of her on her seventeenth birthday, with two

285
00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:36,160
Speaker 1: of her friends at her side at the aquarium, but

286
00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:38,040
Speaker 1: her eyes were too small to see the color of

287
00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:41,200
Speaker 1: a large blue tank with a school of silver fish

288
00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:45,560
Speaker 1: filled the background. Felt trivial now, but also fundamentally basic.

289
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,720
Speaker 1: Any other father would know this answer, and probably whispered

290
00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:52,120
Speaker 1: it in their sleep. My daughter's eyes are but the

291
00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:53,040
Speaker 1: answer didn't come.

292
00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:57,760
Speaker 2: I didn't have hopes for the program, knowing they took

293
00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:00,800
Speaker 2: a local geologist with my credentials, if you can even

294
00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,480
Speaker 2: call them that, I'm guessing I was chosen because I

295
00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,960
Speaker 2: could be spared. Older single men seemed to get that wrap.

296
00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:10,440
Speaker 2: The first wave of colonists was mostly hard laborers and

297
00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:13,360
Speaker 2: criminals and their elected leaders. But all we were good

298
00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:17,080
Speaker 2: for was bringing supplies. We had almost no training. These

299
00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:20,760
Speaker 2: vessels fly themselves. I had only a passing interest. The

300
00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:23,480
Speaker 2: forms were too easy to fill in and submit. I

301
00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:25,760
Speaker 2: was told I would be taking part of the future

302
00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:29,720
Speaker 2: of mankind, a planet for tomorrow, one we needed yesterday.

303
00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:34,280
Speaker 2: People never change humanity, that is, but as people as

304
00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,840
Speaker 2: individuals too. It applies both ways. No one cared who

305
00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:40,560
Speaker 2: we were, just that we were healthy and willing. I

306
00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:44,640
Speaker 2: was still not committed in full to go through with it.

307
00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:47,200
Speaker 1: Its slow hits began in the machinery somewhere beneath them.

308
00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:49,800
Speaker 1: In the vessel, it was quiet at first, then louder.

309
00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:54,440
Speaker 1: It stopped. Suddenly the overhead light turned off. Edmond sat

310
00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:58,120
Speaker 1: very still, his pulse visible from his jugular, the lights

311
00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:01,560
Speaker 1: of his electronic courier illuminating his sweaty face. The air

312
00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:04,440
Speaker 1: conditioning unit was no longer functional, and the absence of

313
00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:07,320
Speaker 1: his white noise made the silence even more pronounced. He

314
00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:10,200
Speaker 1: felt lightheaded. The vessel will not make it, he thought.

315
00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,200
Speaker 2: I was going to leave town a few days before.

316
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:17,160
Speaker 2: We were set to leave on our individual vessels. By

317
00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:19,920
Speaker 2: then spring was coming, and something changed my mind quickly.

318
00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:22,600
Speaker 2: There was no moon out one of the nights I

319
00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,280
Speaker 2: was visiting your mother. The ice had begun to thaw

320
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:27,840
Speaker 2: slowly over the past few nights, and I could make

321
00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:28,880
Speaker 2: her out more clearly.

322
00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:29,160
Speaker 1: Now.

323
00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:32,000
Speaker 2: I had no plan for when the ice melted. I

324
00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:33,960
Speaker 2: wanted to be there when it did, though, to move

325
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,720
Speaker 2: her out of there. I was looking at her then

326
00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:40,560
Speaker 2: brown skin and the deep cuts that exposed bone. All

327
00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,080
Speaker 2: around me. It was black and cold and completely silent.

328
00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:44,680
Speaker 2: No cars passed.

329
00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:45,560
Speaker 1: I was alone.

330
00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:49,280
Speaker 2: A branch snapped somewhere near the shore. I was laying

331
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:52,040
Speaker 2: down and turned off the flashlight. Had I been followed,

332
00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:55,600
Speaker 2: I waited, turned the flashlight on towards the sound's source,

333
00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:58,960
Speaker 2: but didn't see anything through the trees. I didn't want

334
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,840
Speaker 2: to leave the body there. The sounds could have been anything.

335
00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:04,800
Speaker 2: I waited all night with my small pocket knife drawn.

336
00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:08,000
Speaker 2: At first daybreak, I walked back to the automobile across

337
00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:10,480
Speaker 2: the highway and drove home. I did not go to

338
00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:13,800
Speaker 2: work that day or ever again. The next night I returned,

339
00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:16,560
Speaker 2: I made sure I was not followed. I wore black

340
00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:19,919
Speaker 2: and felt stupid. The ice was thinner. I looked at

341
00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:22,080
Speaker 2: your mother, the strands of her hair that were beginning

342
00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:24,280
Speaker 2: to break free, and the current swayed back and forth.

343
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:26,760
Speaker 2: The next night I planned to bring a hammer and

344
00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:29,760
Speaker 2: break through the ice and move her. The purple rings

345
00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:31,679
Speaker 2: on her skin that formed just before I threw her

346
00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:34,439
Speaker 2: in the lake were now black. I sat waiting in

347
00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:37,399
Speaker 2: the silence for the first time, without meaning to, I

348
00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:40,440
Speaker 2: fell asleep on the ice. I awoke with a startle,

349
00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:44,520
Speaker 2: covered in cold sweat. Something didn't feel right. I turned

350
00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:46,639
Speaker 2: the flashlight on and scanned the trees and saw nothing.

351
00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:50,479
Speaker 2: Another branch or twigs snapped under the weight of something

352
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:53,200
Speaker 2: I was too far away to see. I turned the

353
00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:57,960
Speaker 2: flashlight off, and another branch snapped closer, then another. Then

354
00:17:58,000 --> 00:17:59,879
Speaker 2: there was the sound of ice breaking on the shore,

355
00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:03,080
Speaker 2: like metal striking metal. I turned on the flashlight and

356
00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:05,880
Speaker 2: pointed it at the sound, like a spotlight. A thin

357
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:08,560
Speaker 2: woman in white stood looking at me, her eyes knee

358
00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:12,119
Speaker 2: on yellow in the reflection. She was older and midstep

359
00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:15,120
Speaker 2: on the ice, coming toward me. I dropped the flashlight

360
00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:17,639
Speaker 2: and ran across the lake in the other direction. I

361
00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:19,639
Speaker 2: hid all night in the woods on the opposite end

362
00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:22,879
Speaker 2: of the lake, completely separated from the highway. Had the

363
00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:26,000
Speaker 2: body been found. When I finally got back to my automobile,

364
00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:28,400
Speaker 2: I didn't know where to drive. I headed for home,

365
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:31,120
Speaker 2: turned around, and drove through to Florida. I went straight

366
00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:33,159
Speaker 2: to the mission base and waited to go to Mars.

367
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:38,240
Speaker 1: The vessel was quiet outside the window of the blackness

368
00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:41,000
Speaker 1: was almost beautiful. He thought soon he would be part

369
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:41,239
Speaker 1: of it.

370
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:45,960
Speaker 2: I wanted you to know the story from me before

371
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,560
Speaker 2: anything happens. And you hear about all this from someone else.

372
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:50,720
Speaker 2: You don't have to lie about it if you don't

373
00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,160
Speaker 2: want to, you don't have to say anything about it,

374
00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:55,600
Speaker 2: you won't hear from me again. I want you to

375
00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:58,360
Speaker 2: know I don't understand any of this. There was never

376
00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:01,000
Speaker 2: a plan, but I can tell you, and not many

377
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:02,840
Speaker 2: people get a chance like this to say it when

378
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:07,359
Speaker 2: they really need to. I love you, Signed Forever and Ever, Edmund.

379
00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:12,359
Speaker 1: He directed his fingers across the glass surface of the

380
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:14,480
Speaker 1: electronic courier to hit send.

381
00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:19,120
Speaker 2: One more thing. If you haven't decided for yourself yet,

382
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:20,560
Speaker 2: let's agree your eyes are blue?

383
00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:25,160
Speaker 1: Is that okay with you? And the message was sent

384
00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,800
Speaker 1: off to the blue planet so far away from him.

385
00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:30,520
Speaker 1: His daughter would not receive the message for several hours.

386
00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:33,959
Speaker 1: Even if she replied right away, he would never receive it.

387
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,160
Speaker 1: This he knew. He closed his eyes and thought about

388
00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:40,439
Speaker 1: his actions leading up to this. He realized what he

389
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,119
Speaker 1: wrote to Sarah was true. That he didn't understand the

390
00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:45,960
Speaker 1: meaning behind anything that had happened. He didn't want to,

391
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:49,080
Speaker 1: and if he didn't understand the past, he thought there

392
00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:51,640
Speaker 1: was no way he could comprehend the present or the future.

393
00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:55,000
Speaker 1: So he thought of nothing. As the vessel rocked violently

394
00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:58,119
Speaker 1: in a gasket? Was it a gasket broke in the

395
00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:01,679
Speaker 1: dashboard and shot white smoke into the cabin. The vessel

396
00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,280
Speaker 1: shook again, and the glass windows splintered more and more.

397
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:08,080
Speaker 1: That fat Lady sings, He thought. It happened very quickly.

398
00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:11,200
Speaker 1: There was immense pressure from within his body pushing outward.

399
00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:15,480
Speaker 1: His sight was accentuated with purples and blacks, his heart

400
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,679
Speaker 1: beating rapidly and then hard and slow. He could hear

401
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,400
Speaker 1: it in his ear drums. The wound on his chin reopened,

402
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:24,000
Speaker 1: and the last thing he saw before suffocating to death

403
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:27,040
Speaker 1: was his blood rushing out of the window and then

404
00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:30,879
Speaker 1: floating in outer space and tiny red, impossibly beautiful globules

405
00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:35,040
Speaker 1: made magnificent by the unfiltered sunlight. Dying this way was,

406
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:46,200
Speaker 1: to his surprise, pleasurable way to go. Wow, that is

407
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:47,200
Speaker 1: a heck of a story.

408
00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:50,040
Speaker 2: Signed Forever and Ever by Arnold.

409
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:51,560
Speaker 1: Do you know what it read like to me? Was

410
00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:53,919
Speaker 1: a graphic novel? Yeah, the way he wrote it. And

411
00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:57,440
Speaker 1: I think some artist out there should get in touch

412
00:20:57,440 --> 00:20:58,919
Speaker 1: with us, to get in touch with him and like

413
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,720
Speaker 1: make this sing a graphic novel. That would be awesome.

414
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:04,320
Speaker 1: We could be middlemen. Yeah, we get like a cut

415
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:04,880
Speaker 1: of that or something.

416
00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:07,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll call ourselves collectively.

417
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:10,320
Speaker 1: Colonel to publishers, right, yeah, that's what they call us. So, man,

418
00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:14,520
Speaker 1: that was awesome. That was great. Man. Uh.

419
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:18,200
Speaker 2: There were plenty of other awesome stories yeah uh, and

420
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:20,439
Speaker 2: they are published. You can go onto the blogs at

421
00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:24,280
Speaker 2: HowStuffWorks dot com and look for read the horror fiction

422
00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:28,879
Speaker 2: Contest Sweet sixteen here yep, I think, and yeah, I

423
00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:31,119
Speaker 2: think you'll enjoy all of them. You can, and then

424
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:32,760
Speaker 2: you can email us and be like, no, this should

425
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:34,919
Speaker 2: have been the winner. Well are you two idiots?

426
00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:37,560
Speaker 1: Yeah? I almost feel like, I don't know, we don't

427
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:39,760
Speaker 1: even need to have another contest. We can just We've

428
00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:43,280
Speaker 1: got like fifteen years worth of episodes. Yeah, we do,

429
00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 1: you know, we do. So we'll see what happens next year.

430
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:48,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. Yet, and maybe we'll even publish one

431
00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:50,520
Speaker 2: of the one or two of the others that didn't

432
00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:54,000
Speaker 2: quite make it, including like that one disqualifying.

433
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:55,280
Speaker 1: One that we like. So man, that was good. Yeah.

434
00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:59,119
Speaker 2: Uh. Well, in the meantime, everybody, have a very safe

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