Creepy - Day 10 - The Quilt & The Meat Market

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

The Quilt***Written by: J.L. Delozier and Narrated by: Michelle Kane***The Meat Market***https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/***Support the show at patreon.com/creepypod***Sound design by: ...Pacific Obadiah***Title music by: Alex Aldea Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Creepy presents. The 31 Days of Horror. Day 10. This is creepy. A podcast dedicated to sharing the most famous, chilling and disturbing creepy pastures and urban legends in the world. Whether these stories truly happened or our simply fabrications is for you to decide. These stories make me. ...contained graphic depictions of violence and explicit language.
Starting point is 00:00:40 Listener discretion is advised. Good afternoon, Michelle. Good morning, Dr. Hall. I apologize for being late today. That's okay. I was just reading. Oh, what are you reading? House of Leaves. Oh, I heard that's really good.
Starting point is 00:01:06 How are you liking it? I don't know. I just keep reading the first chapter over and over again. trying to figure out what's going on. Isn't it annoying when it seems like life is on repeat, but you can't get a handle on things? Yes, I can see how that would be frustrating. How have you been sleeping lately?
Starting point is 00:01:30 Pretty much the same. Weird dreams that feel like something I really lived through. Would you care to tell me about your most recent dream? Sure, doctor. But that's the weird part. I know it was my dream, but it felt like I was watching someone else's life. It was about the quilt. Lilith hunched over the antique quilting frame and cursed the darkness.
Starting point is 00:02:03 Outside the October wind, icier than the devil's lips, gusted through the cracks in the home's 200-year-old foundation, and kissed the windows with frost. The sun had set six hours ago. Too early, it seemed, but she labored on. She had to finish this tonight. Her eyes, milky with age, strained to follow the black cotton thread as she sewed the final row of fabric squares around the border of her newest creation. The stitches paid testament to her years of hard work and practice. They were perfect, evenly spaced, tiny. and uniform in size, despite the gnarling of her arthritic hands. Lilith practiced a lost art. She paused to massage her cold fingers.
Starting point is 00:02:56 The goose neck lamp, copper, with the green patina of age, sputtered in protest against the hours of relentless use. She focused its dim light on the hem and struggled to stretch the blanket tot over the rigid frame. Even before the pandemic had begun to rage, This queen's size monstrosity was slated to be her final project. Ring quilts, subscription quilts, Lilith's artistry had run the gamut throughout her many years, yet she had nothing to show for it, save the simple threadbare blanket covering her twin bed. Her handiwork went to her neighbors, peace offerings for her frequent indiscretions.
Starting point is 00:03:38 A woman of strong faith, she prayed over these gifts, imbueing each quilt, with the spirit of its own. Her blood harvested from the prick of a calloused finger lay hidden in the batting. After a gentle pressing, she'd fold the blanket into a tidy square, bind it with ribbon, and drop it on the neighbor's front porch or doorstep.
Starting point is 00:04:02 But this latest quilt was destined for a different fate and a greater purpose. A triumph of design and ambition, it represented the grand finale of her life's work. Her piece de resistance, a special kind of gift. Her daughter Lucy watched her mother's progress from the portrait on the wall, staring down her airbrushed nose at the mounds of fabric and piles of tangled thread on the floor. Her daughter wanted the house, but not the quilt frame.
Starting point is 00:04:35 Ten generations of daughters had toiled over its sturdy oak legs, but Lucy planned to lay it to rest. She had never bothered to learn the craft. Lilith rubbed her tired eyes and returned her daughter's condescending gaze with a glower of her own. Leave it to Lucy to reappear not just on all Hallows Eve, but at the dawn of the apocalypse, with plague and pestilence poised to rule the land. Her daughter always had a flare for the dramatic. Lucy had fled New England for the city of angels as,
Starting point is 00:05:12 soon as she was old enough to run. And that was that. Until a week ago, when she called, said she'd heard about the goings-on in the neighborhood, the rumors and the escalating accusations. She'd heard from the young couple down the road, who, a few days after their newborn died, returned Lilith's gift, a handmade baby quilt. Cursed, they'd called it. Offended, Lilith had disagreed, Inbued, cursed, semantics, it's all about what you believe. Lucy believed the neighbors. She had flown in from California and found her mother a nice room at Heavenly Acres in Salem, where someone could watch over her at all times. Keep her out of trouble. Refusal was not an option. If Lilith didn't go voluntarily,
Starting point is 00:06:05 Lucy threatened to petition the court and have her mother declared incompetent, by way of dementia. The hearing was yesterday. Lilith didn't go. Lucy called again today and told Lilith to pack her bags. They were coming for her in the morning. Who they were remained unclear, but Lilith didn't care. She had heard nothing but silence from Lucy for 45 years. Now two terse phone calls later, and her daughter conspired to evict her. The agenda behind the timing was obvious, and it had nothing to do with cursed quilts, uneasy neighbors, or embarrassing indiscretions. Lillith heard demons whisper and angel sing. They told her the truth, and the truth was, now was the perfect time for her daughter to lock her away. The virus had
Starting point is 00:07:02 already spread like hellfire through a nursing home in Seattle. It targeted the fragile elderly. Soon it would march east, and long-term care facilities coast to coast would lock their doors. The window of opportunity would pass. Being committed wasn't enough. Lucy wanted her dead. Lilith threw the final stitch in place and jabbed the needle into its cushion, knocking her sewing kit to the ground with a clatter. She flinched at the unaccustomed noise.
Starting point is 00:07:36 A spool of pure white thread rolled to rest on the floor. beneath her daughter's portrait. Lilith turned her back and let it be. Lucy's behavior wasn't a surprise. It's all on how you raise them. The grandfather clock dolefully told the quarter hour, reminding her she had only 15 minutes to spare. Lilith stood and stretched her back, waiting for her creaky knees to unlock. She kicked the scattered thimbles and spools aside and shuffled to the kitchen, where she pulled a monogram silver platter out of the cupboard. The tray had been special once, used for Thanksgiving dinners and other holidays long since passed, but before her family had unraveled like a torn hem.
Starting point is 00:08:21 She rubbed her thumb over its tarnished surface and grimaced at her distorted reflection. The poor thing hadn't seen the light of day in decades, but for tonight it would do. She rooted through her freezer with both hands, Buried in the back corner under an expired bag of frozen peas, Lilith found a small plastic container. She dumped its contents onto the butcher block for closer inspection and flashed a toothless grin. The frosty black paw was still in pristine condition.
Starting point is 00:08:54 The neighbor's cat had been far too trusting. The cookie jar came next. She rummaged around its ceramic interior until her fingers brushed something soft taped to the bottom. She released the tape and pinched a thin lock of hair between her thumb and index finger, inching it out so as not to lose a single strand. She held it to her nose and inhaled, sighing with pleasure at the familiar scent. Old Spice. Her husband had been far too trusting, too.
Starting point is 00:09:27 Lilith loaded the silver solver with her treasures and added five pillar candles from the pantry. Her gaunt shoulders quivered under the weight as she dottered to the living room. The massive frame, said to be hewn from timbers of the Mayflower itself, impeded her progress. As she slid past, she allowed herself a moment to pause and appreciate the artistry of her work. The blanket's star pattern was a traditional one, pieced together from leftover fabric in various shades of black and red, all sewn at perfect angles. She hoped its new owner would be pleased. She rested the platter on the cushion of her favorite high-back armchair.
Starting point is 00:10:10 With the crank of a lever, the quilting frame's stiff wooden gears turned, releasing the heavy quilt from the frame's tight grip. It dropped to the floor with a dull thud. Panting, Lilith dragged the blanket around the sofa and spread it over the floor's wide oak planks. Centering the black and red star underneath the chandelier, smoothing away any wrinkles with a loving hand. One by one, she fussed over the placement of the pillar candles, positioning them exactly at each of the star's five points.
Starting point is 00:10:44 With the strike of a match, her husband's hair smoldered and smoked, shielding the flame with her palm, she paced counterclockwise along the quilt's border, using the flaming lock to light each candle in turn. Satisfied with her efforts, Lilith retrieved the tray of offerings from where it listed precariously on the lumpy cushion and walked to the center of the quilt. She lowered herself to the floor and sat as cross-legged as her stiff joints would allow, displaying the tray before her. The clock chimed 12, and she sighed,
Starting point is 00:11:20 A new day, the day of her eviction. But if she were going to hell, it would be on her own terms. In the hearth, the evening's fire, long since reduced to glowing embers, burst into flame. The sudden warmth of welcome and brace. She rocked back and forth, chanting in a low voice, gaining speed and volume as she went. The candles crackled in response, sparking a line of fire that followed the stitches on her quilt to the fabric's hemmed edge. A fiery arc jumped through the air to the wall below Lucy's portrait. darkening the surrounding wallpaper until the damask curled and dripped like molten black wax to the floor below. Lucy's chin and cheeks bubbled and blistered before melting in a final burst of flame.
Starting point is 00:12:12 Only her eyes remained gaping, bearing witness once again to her mother's heinous crimes. The old woman bowed her head in thanks and relief. Master had heard her prayers, and he'd found her. her offerings acceptable. She would not rot away in a nursing home like many others her age. Her transformation was nigh and her daughter's punishment guaranteed. Lucy should have known better than to return to leave her city of angels. She certainly should have known better than to interfere. Whether via the virus or by his own devilish hand, Master would make her pay. The fire spread along the razor-straight lines of Lilith's handiwork,
Starting point is 00:13:03 highlighting the pentagonal pattern until it glowed in the darkness. With her living room walls ablaze, the windows shattered one by one, choking the neighborhood with thick black smoke. In the distance, a siren wailed, but Lilith did not move. Let the apocalypse rage. Let the locusts and the earthquakes and pestilence come. It didn't matter anymore. Master was calling her home.
Starting point is 00:13:41 Thank you for sharing that, Michelle. It's very interesting. Isn't it weird that I dreamed about someone else's life? Not really. That could be for any number of reasons. Projection of self, dissociation, processing trauma, symbolic storytelling, or simply observer mode. Observer mode?
Starting point is 00:14:07 Yes. Some interpret witness-style dreams as a shift in conscious awareness, like stepping back from your ego to observe events more objectively. This could suggest growth, self-reflection, or an attempt to make sense of something in your life. The dream may be asking, what am I being shown here? or what is my role as an observer? Oh, and what is that dream trying to tell me? I'm a little worried to guess.
Starting point is 00:14:45 These are the questions we are here to answer, Michelle, and I believe we will in time. For now, just do your best to relax. I need to go catch up on my rounds, but good luck with your book. I hear it gets pretty strange. I'm used to that kind of thing. See you later, doctor.
Starting point is 00:15:33 What? I said it's good to see you awake. I thought after all the exercise you did yesterday that you'd be sleeping all day. It was good to see you so energetic. Oh, yeah, that. It was good to stretch my legs a bit. That's wonderful day.
Starting point is 00:15:54 More exercise today? or just rest? You mean outside of this room? My dream? You mean about the meat market? You hear people say that studying abroad will change your life. They say that like it's a good thing. I came to Berlin to escape my routine.
Starting point is 00:16:34 My world back home was all concrete sameness and second-hand ambition. Dead-end side gigs. lecture halls with no windows, roommates who didn't speak to me unless they needed to borrow something. In high school, I was so excited for freedom of being on my own that it never occurred to me that freedom could be so damn boring. So when the university offered a semester in Berlin, I signed up without thinking. Told myself it'd be the start of something big. Turns out, it was. I don't know what it feels like to anyone else, but to me,
Starting point is 00:17:11 The city felt vibrant, old bones draped in neon. On the surface, Berlin pulsed like a living thing. Music in every corner, language stacked like bricks, strangers who never quite look away. My German was clumsy, but passable. I learned out to navigate the trains, how to blend in, but the city has layers. And I went too deep. I was living in a cramped apartment in Friedrichin with two other exchange students, one Spanish, one Italian.
Starting point is 00:17:48 They were nice enough, loud mostly, boisterous, but also well-meaning. And that myself something familiar, men looking for something other than the world that had been presented for them, and they had full intention to making the most of it. The kind of guys were always looking for the next party. It all got to be pretty routine. Not in a bad way, more like background noise. So I didn't really pay attention when they started talking about it. Not that I would have had much luck anyway.
Starting point is 00:18:20 Their English was good enough, but when they get excited, they'd revert to their home languages, which are actually close enough that they never seem to have trouble communicating with each other. One day they came home with a new rumored pop-up rave that was supposedly coming soon, a club with no rules. They called it the meat market. Meat with an A.
Starting point is 00:18:44 I remember laughing the first time I heard it. Sounds like a serial killer's idea of a singles mixer, I'd said. They didn't laugh. They said it was supposed to be the best night we'd never remember. That should have been a red flag. It was a Saturday, mid-October, windy. Cold enough that my breath clung to the air like cobwebs. We've been bar hopping near Vashauerstrassahs, cheap drinks, packed room, usual throb of base-level nightlife.
Starting point is 00:19:18 I wasn't drunk, but warm, just numb enough to follow wherever the night led. The meat market wasn't even in the back of my mind. It was just another passing rumor. It wasn't even real. I stepped outside for a cigarette. A bad habit I picked up to help fit in when I first started college. This was before the days of vaping. I reached from my lighter, and that's when I found the flyer.
Starting point is 00:19:44 Tucked in the inner pocket of my coat. It wasn't folded, just placed. Maybe I was drunker than I thought. Black textured cardstock with crimson lettering that bled at the edges. No address, no website, just three lines. The meat market. Midnight until slaughter, to night only.
Starting point is 00:20:08 And then in the corner, almost legible under a smudge of what looked like dried blood. Follow the siren. I grabbed my lighter and lit my smoke. I turned the flyer over and over, showed it to a person next to me who just shrugged at me. I thought the dried blood effect was cute. That's when my roommate stumbled out of the club,
Starting point is 00:20:30 laughing hysterically, and each hooked my arm, dragging me down the street. I was about to toss the flyer away when I noticed the side. sound that was out of place. I could barely make it out over the base of the music pushing out from the club. Low at first, like the growl of a distant generator. A hum, you could feel in your ribs. I thought maybe it was the trains or a baseline leaking from some other nearby club.
Starting point is 00:20:57 But the deeper we walked into the maze of alleyways, the clearer it became. I showed my roommates the flyer and only seemed to fuel our walk. They seemed jealous and annoyed that had somehow gotten an invite, but they hadn't. We kept following the sound. Not music. Not really. It was mechanical. Pulsing.
Starting point is 00:21:19 Rhythmic. Like a heartbeat forged in steel. We followed it. We always do, don't we? Curiosity wrapped in bravado. The promise of something no one else knows about. I didn't even question how we knew where to go. My legs just moved, taking orders from my ears.
Starting point is 00:21:42 The city peeled back. Noise dropped away. And then we found it. The entrance was built into a slab of abandoned concrete behind the ruins of some war-era factory. No signs, no line. Just a massive, rusted steel door set into a wall, glowing faintly red at its seams like something overheated.
Starting point is 00:22:06 It wasn't even a bouncer. No security. No sound from inside other than that siren sound. We stood there for a full minute, confused and a little dejected, thinking that it had all been some gag. Watch the stupid foreigners wander into a dark alley looking for a club. It was just about that time that the movie Hostel started playing in my head. I should have been more than happy to leave at that moment.
Starting point is 00:22:34 But the door opened when my roommate stepped forward, slow and heavy, so the building itself were breathing us in. The smell hit first. Meat. Not raw, not cooked, just old. Sweet and metallic. The kind of scent that burrows into your sinuses and doesn't leave. I told myself it was probably just a butcher shop repurposed as a club.
Starting point is 00:23:01 Berlin loved that kind of thing, gritty, ironic. It had to be a theme, like performance art. Tremens freaking love that stuff. The slaughterhouse would be perfect for them. That's what I told myself as we stepped inside. It was pitch black at first. Then red strobe lights flickered overhead. Too slow to see clearly, too fast to adjust.
Starting point is 00:23:28 The walls were slick metal. wet in places lined with narrow passages that branched like arteries. The floor grated beneath our feet, clinging faintly with each step. Every few seconds, a burst of steam hissed from unseen vents. There was music, but not like anything I'd heard before. Industrial, layered with static and bone-deep bass. It didn't fill the space so much as it infected it, infected us. I tried to laugh, tried to say something to the guys, but they were gone.
Starting point is 00:24:08 I called out. No answer. I walked back the way I came only to find a different hallway. No door, no sign, just more red-lit corridors stretching like intestines in every direction. That's when the horrible idea slammed into me. This wasn't a club. Not really. It was a maze.
Starting point is 00:24:33 And it was closing behind me. My head swam with urban legends and horror movie scenes. That person was too stupid to see the warning signs? It was me. There was no music anymore. Just that heavy mechanical hum vibrating faintly through the walls. That and that wet hiss of steam. Like the place was exhaling around me.
Starting point is 00:25:02 I'd already tried my phone. No signal. Just static. The screen refused to stay on, glitching like it was submerged under water. The walls looked like they were steel or cast iron. I wasn't going to be calling one-one-two anytime soon. I stood still for a while, just listening.
Starting point is 00:25:24 There were no footsteps, no voices, not even the distant thump of a baseline anymore. Whatever club this was, it wasn't designed for dancing. It was something else. Something darker. The hallways branched and twisted. Nothing repeated. I kept trying to mark my path, scratches on the metal, Eurocoins drop-hit corners.
Starting point is 00:25:52 But every time I turned back, the marks and coins were gone. or the walls had shifted, or the path I'd just walk down, wasn't there anymore. I wasn't sure if I was just lost and scared, hallucinating, or... I don't know. Once I passed a mirrored wall, not glass, but polished steel. Distorted just enough to make my face look like it had been peeled back and stitched wrong. How was that possible? I kept walking.
Starting point is 00:26:30 The deeper I went, the louder the sounds became. I kept walking, and I started hearing things again. The deeper I went, the louder the sounds became. Not music, but machinery. Grinding, clanking, sawing, snapping and cracking, something wet, hitting metal. Pipes overhead dripped a thick, dark liquid. It wasn't water.
Starting point is 00:27:02 He landed on my wrist, sticky and warm. I wiped it off and my fingers came away red. I told myself it was fake. Stage effects. Berlin clubs were weird like that. But the longer I stayed, the more the lie unraveled. No one was laughing. No one was dancing.
Starting point is 00:27:25 No one was there. I was alone. This wasn't art. At least none that I wanted to be a part of. I turned a corner and found lockers. Floor to ceiling, dozens of them, all closed. Some with dense punched into the metal, others with rusted nameplates in German. I opened one.
Starting point is 00:27:51 Inside was a jacket. A long white one like a lab coat. Soaked. It looked familiar. I thought maybe it was an employee and there would be something useful inside, like keys or... I don't know what. I played video games. It's where my mind went to.
Starting point is 00:28:12 Instead, all I saw was a name stitched on the inside of the collar and gold thread. The name stitched on the inside was mine. I didn't scream. I think my body had already accepted it, whatever it was. I was no longer where I thought it had been. That this wasn't a club or a prank or anything close to sane. It was built with purpose. with intention.
Starting point is 00:28:39 And I wasn't a guest. I was inventory. Eventually I reached a chamber wider than the others, lit by flickering red fluorescence that swung slowly from chains overhead. The walls were covered in hooks. Real, rusted butcher's hooks. Some empty. Some not. For the first time I wasn't really alone.
Starting point is 00:29:05 And God how I wished I was. on one of the hooks hung a leg Just a leg Pale with a tattoo on the ankle A crescent moon outlined with an almost red neon glow I remembered seeing it earlier that night on a girl in line at the bar I didn't throw up or anything like that When her body felt tensed
Starting point is 00:29:34 Nothing was coming out of me I think I was too afraid to lose control so I kept walking. One foot, then the other, like I could outrun the meaning of what I'd seen. Like if I just got to the end, there'd be some reveal. My roommates would be waiting there on some big dance floor, laughing and waiting with shots,
Starting point is 00:29:56 pretending like they hadn't been scared by theatricality of it all, the things we tell ourselves to keep moving forward. A door stood at the far end of the chamber. Huge, steel teeth lining the frame. It opened for me without a sound. Inside, it was cool. What option did I have but to move forward? Go back to the room with a severed leg?
Starting point is 00:30:24 Fuck no. The floor slick with frost, the walls lined with plastic flaps smeared red and brown. The kendi-seen meatpacking plants. Something shined above me. Saw blades, I realized. hung from retractable arms. I took one step in. A voice whispered from the ceiling.
Starting point is 00:30:51 Weight accepted. Processing. I turned around. The door had closed. There wasn't even a seam to try and pry my fingers into. Then the saws above me started to spin. And that was when I ran. Through corridors they no longer pretend.
Starting point is 00:31:11 It tended to be a club. Just machinery and meat and lights that flickered in time with something alive. I stopped looking for logic. I stopped hoping for exits. There were no exits. Only one direction. Forward. The maze didn't want me to escape.
Starting point is 00:31:32 It wanted me to move. At some point I slipped and fell, hit my chin. Blood filled my mouth. When I sat up, I realized that landed. on a conveyor belt. It wasn't moving, but I could feel the vibration in the rubber beneath me, like something deep in the machine was waking up. The walls on either side began to shift, metal arms descending, saw as rotating.
Starting point is 00:31:59 I rolled off just as a belt came to life, grinding forward into a narrow opening I had. I caught a glimpse of what waited there. Blades, dozens of them. Serrated, spiraling, hissing. as they spun. Something passed through them. Fast. Slip.
Starting point is 00:32:22 Something with fingers or claws. I found a hatch on the floor, but before I could get to it, I felt tugged backward. My coat was caught on one of the conveyor gears. Frantically, I clawed it off and wrenched the door open, just feet from the blades. I dropped into it without thinking. It was a shoot. I slid and slid and slid. Slid, scraping my elbows, smashing my hip, the air reeking of rust.
Starting point is 00:32:52 When I landed, I was in complete darkness. Wet, squelching darkness, I was in a pit. The walls pulsed around me, meat-colored and soft, as though I dropped into something's stomach. I gagged at the smell, old blood and bile. Then I heard breathing. Not mine. Something massive. Weasing slowly in the blackness.
Starting point is 00:33:26 Then a voice. That from a speaker, not from above, from inside the walls. Not even really words as much as a message forced into my head. You've been chosen. I don't know how long I lay in that pit. Time slipped into something meaningless. The only constant was the slow, heavy breathing, all around me. Deep, steady, almost like the place itself was alive, waiting.
Starting point is 00:33:58 My limbs felt numb, as if I'd been underwater too long. The walls around me weren't stone or metal. They seemed soft, almost organic, pulsing faintly beneath my fingertips. I forced myself up, searching for a way out, anything familiar. I found a ladder embedded into the wall. Cold, slick was something I didn't want to touch, but what option? did I have. I climbed slowly, painfully, till I reached a trap door. Pushing it open, I thought I was outside. The cold night air hit my face, stars shining faintly above. But I wasn't safe. Above me hung dozens of shapes, silhouettes against the weak light, form suspended from hooks, unmoving, eerily still. I couldn't make them out in the darkness,
Starting point is 00:34:54 beyond the faint outline when I tried to force my eyes to focus. It could have been anything, I told myself. Anything. But I knew what they were. A terrible silence pressed down, broken only by the mechanical hum that filled the air. The vast space stretched out like a factory floor. Conveyor belt sneaked through darkness, moving silently. Tools hung suspended, as if ready to work themselves.
Starting point is 00:35:24 No one was here. No one alive, at least. Only me. I walked forward, the hum growing louder with every step. I felt like I kept lacking out, like when you drive on a long road and all of a sudden you're ten miles further down the road but can't remember getting there.
Starting point is 00:35:46 The space shifted around me, while I was sliding, corridor is twisting, turning without warning. The maze was alive. and it didn't want me to leave. I passed rooms filled with strange tanks, glass containers holding figures submerged in red liquid. They floated motionless, faces pale, eyes closed. I couldn't look away.
Starting point is 00:36:13 On a hook near a distant hallway. I saw my jacket, soaked and torn, and the pocket was my phone miraculously intact. A single video file replayed over and over on the screen. A shaky recording with myself, smiling in the red light at this place. The voice I heard was not mine but echoed in my mind. We were all part of the same machine. Fear drove me forward. I stumbled through corridors lined with cold tile and steel grates.
Starting point is 00:36:49 I passed rooms where shadowed shapes hung motionless from hooks. Their presence a silent warning. Eventually I came upon a door unlike any other. a simple wooden frame with brass handles. Inside was a room, oddly warm, with a table set for dinner and a single flickering candle. On the plate closest to me was a perfectly sculpted mask. An imitation of my face, frozen, and a smile. I recoiled, but the door behind me had vanished.
Starting point is 00:37:22 Only a mirror remained. I stared into it. There was no reflection. Only the hum, louder now, filling every corner of the room. Then came a voice. Again, not spoken aloud, but felt deep in my chest as if the building itself was speaking to me. You have been chosen. You are a part of the cycle.
Starting point is 00:37:50 You must share our story. Feed us. The walls seem to breathe, flexing like lungs. From the shadow's arms reached out. Not mechanical, but strangely organic, woven with cables and sinew. They didn't harm me. They held me gently as if I belonged. I wanted to scream, but no sound came out.
Starting point is 00:38:18 When I finally collapsed, the world faded to black. I awoke days later outside the city, weak and disoriented. Memories of the maze fading like a nightmare. There were interviews, police reports. rumblings of an international incident, as I'm sure they suspected that I was involved in the disappearance of my roommates. They were never found. I told the police the whole story and it was received about like you'd think.
Starting point is 00:38:49 I was clearly a stupid drunk American, probably on drugs. If they found anything at the abandoned factory, they never let me in on it. After two weeks, the university contacted me, telling me that my semester abroad was over and that I should prepare for a disciplinary meeting when I returned to discuss my behavior. I didn't give a shit. I just wanted to get home to my monotony. I'd never complain about being bored again. Just get me as far away from that voice and its message as possible.
Starting point is 00:39:25 I'm home now. I'm safe. But sometimes, in the quiet, I still hear the hum beneath the floorboards. And I wonder... Is the meat market still waiting? And will it call me back again? It must be hungry by now. You need to stretch your legs for a bit?
Starting point is 00:39:59 Yeah. Yeah, I am. Is something wrong? No, I just... Well, I mean... I know this is going to sound weird, but... Do you know what my... name is?
Starting point is 00:40:20 Of course. I'm just having trouble remembering right now. No, wait, I... His mind shouldn't be focusing on details. I know, doctor, I'm sorry. It's just we've had to up his dosage lately. I think he's adjusting to it. That's impossible.
Starting point is 00:40:54 I know, doctor, but... No buts and no more mistakes. Administer the exact dosage I have prescribed and never take it upon yourself to second guess what we are doing here. Do you understand? Yes, doctor. Of course, I'm sorry. It won't happen again.
Starting point is 00:41:13 It better not. Unless you want to be in that cell instead. For more information on this podcast, including how to submit your own story for consideration, please visit creepypod.com. You can also follow us at creepypod on social media. and YouTube. All stories told on this podcast are done so through Creative Commons Share a Like licensing or with written consent from the authors. No portion of this podcast may be rebroadcast or otherwise distributed without the express written consent of the creepy podcast
Starting point is 00:42:01 production team and the stories author.

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