Creepy - The Vanish Room & I was involved in a top secret experiment that was leaked onto the internet

Episode Date: August 18, 2022

The Vanish Room***Written by: Isaac Menuza and Narrated by: Rissa Montanez***Content Warnings: kidnapping, child death***I was involved in a top secret experiment that was leaked onto the internet***Written by: Anonymous for safety reasons and Narrated by: Megan McDuffee***Find our reward tiers and how to get your bonus magnet at patreon.com/creepypod***You can also subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/creepypod***Title music by Alex Aldea Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Bloody Disgusting Network. No. This is creepy. A podcast dedicated to sharing the most famous chilling and disturbing creepy pastors and urban legends in the world. Whether these stories truly happened or are simply fabrications is for you to decide. These stories may contain graphic depictions of books. violence and explicit language. Listener discretion is advised.

Creepy presents. The Vanish Room, written by Isaac Manuza and narrated by Rissa Montanaz. It wasn't really a room per se. More like a forgotten space between the kitchen and the living room, about the size of an oven. But flush with the wall and flaky,

like some of the room. had tried to drywall over it. The floor was always cold nearby. Maybe that's how my little brother Tom Tom found it that day. Not long after we moved in. His tiny feet frozen in place before that mysterious opening. My mom was on one of her night shifts at the call center. Headphone hell, she called it. She'd left us Tupperware containers full of Frito Tuna surprise in the fridge. Microwaving that meal made the whole house smelled like moldy socks. I had an essay to finish that week on Egyptian gods for world history. So I warmed the dish up and left it on the table for Tom Tom. You better finish it before I come back, I said.

Yuck! He said from the couch. He sat playing a match three game on an old phone mom had given him. If he had his way, he'd stay there for hours, color-coating shapes like a zombie monkey. Mom will take that away if you don't eat, I said, already heading to my room. Fine, sissy. He didn't look up. To my surprise, not only was his food gone when I returned, but he'd cleared his plate too. Wow, Tom Tom? Well done! He studiously ignored me while he perused the DVDs under the TV.

I thought nothing of it, and at bedtime, I let him have two stories as a way of congratulating him. In the middle of the night, I awoke to a small hand prouting my shoulder. Tom Tom stood beside my bed, pale moonlight making his face look like a frightened porcelain doll. Mickey, I did something bad. Did you wet the bed? I asked grogily. He pouted his lips. I lied. I didn't finish my dinner. What do you mean? I put it in the small room. Ugh, Tom Tom, Tom, it's going to smell.

I grunted and swung myself out of bed. What room? Show me. We crept downstairs, sneaky quiet, even though my mom wouldn't be home for another couple of hours. Somehow it just felt better not to disturb the house at night. Tom Tom Tom led me to the space between the kitchen and the living room. I felt a sort of static charge in the air, raising goosebumps on my flesh. The cold floor made my toes tingle.

He pushed an unpacked box out of the way, exposing the off-white square wall. When he pressed a corner, the piece of wall swung outward, spilling crumbled plaster onto the floor. A hidden light flickered to life inside the blank space. Are you playing a joke? I asked. No! I swear, I put it in there, sissy. I crouched down to peer inside.

White walls glowed blinding bright. The floor, unlike anywhere else in the house, was perfectly pristine, not a scratch in sight. I heard a soft, ambient trickle coming from somewhere in there, but also not, like a stream surrounded the room. It made me want to crawl in deeper, find the source of that sound. Tom Tom retreated a step.

Where did it go? He asked. I don't like it. He started sobbing. I took him back to his bed. He refused to sleep alone. So I laid next to him until I heard his quiet snores. For some reason, his breathing reminded me of the room.

The next day, Tom Tom refused to walk past that square in the wall. If he needed to cross, he'd insist that I carry him. Eventually, I snapped. Stop it, Tommy. You just forgot what you did with your plate. He started crying. You think I'm a liar. Ashamed. I hugged him and tussled his hair. I promise, there's nothing to worry about. I retrieved an empty soup can from the recycling. Paul suddenly clammy as I clicked the door open. I couldn't see any hinges, yet it moved smoothly. The soft humming inside tickled my ears.

I threw the can inside and shut the square again, crossing my arms. How long do you think we should wait? I asked. He shrugged and tugged at his shorts. I realized they were already too small for him, that mom was going to need to buy him another set of clothes. close soon. Sometimes. I wished I'd been born a boy so I could hand him down some of mine. How about now? I asked, finally. Tom Tom nodded shyly. When the door opened and the light switched on, McCann was gone. Tom Tom's eyes widened. I staggered back, a chill taking root in my

chest. Quick, get me something else, I said. He ran off and came back with an elm DVD, one he hadn't watched for a couple of years. I tossed it in, closed the hatch. The light clicked off. I put my ear next to the wall. It sounded like the water was rushing faster now, careening downward, below our feet. I opened it again. Bright light, blank white walls, bare wood floor. Tom Tom started crying again. I want my movie back, he said. After that, I began to experiment. When Tom Tom wasn't paying attention,

I'd grabbed something expendable, use tissue, brownish grapes, a lone sock without a match, and shut it in the vanish room. They all disappeared, no matter how long or how briefly I left them in there. I'd sit cross-legged in front of the space, door thrown open and listened to its song.

When my mom was home, I tried to show it to her, but she only smiled a tired smile and told me she was going upstairs to take a nap. Tom Tom's complaints piled up. I burned the mac and cheese. I wouldn't play with him. It was past his bedtime and he wanted to sleep. His whining grated on my nerves. I couldn't concentrate.

The more I sat there, the more annoyed I became, with his endless moaning, with the beeps and chirps of his game, with the stacks of unfinished homework that accumulated in my backpack. I thought maybe, just maybe. If the house could be silent, I might be able to hear what happened behind the door, to figure out what exactly snuck in through the darkness to consume the offerings I placed there. After this had gone on for about a week, I'd had enough. Tom Tom sat on the couch playing his game. The characters on the phone yelped with glee and encouraged him to keep up,

to keep matching lines of colored gems or whatever. Their shrill voices burrowed into my head. There you go! The room yawned open as I quietly contemplated what to drop in there next. Turn it down, Tommy, I said. He kept jabbing at the phone. Nice one. Tommy, turn the volume down, I growled.

Wow, amazing. For a brief moment, I considered shutting myself inside the room to find some peace. Instead, I stood up, walked over to the couch, and yanked the phone from his hands. Mickey? No! He sprung from the couch and came to the couch. came running towards me. I lobbed the phone into the room and nudged the door with my hip, not realizing just how fast TomTom was moving.

He slid under my arm and careened inside, chasing his beloved device. It happened too fast. The door clicked shut behind him. He screamed. Water rushed. His scream? Cut off. I pressed frantically on the square.

But it wouldn't budge. Tommy! I slammed my fist against the wall. After a moment, the door popped open on its own with a soft whoosh, like a sigh of satisfaction. White walls, bare floor, bright light, and nothing else. The cops didn't believe me. They stood in the kitchen with their clipboards and their scowls and their wrinkled uniforms and listened to my story.

Eyes pinched incredulously. They whispered to one another and took scribbly notes. My mother didn't believe me. She shook me by my shoulders and wailed and clawed her face. She hugged one of the cops and cried into his shoulder,

leaving me to sulk against the counter. I tried to show them. I put another soup can in the room, but when I opened the door, They can remain there, empty and defiant. Everyone muttered to themselves and looked at me with expressions of pity and suspicion. The police told my mom they saw situations like this all the time. That Tom Tom would come back when he got too tired or too hungry to stay away.

We didn't have a funeral. Mom and I put up flyers of Tom Tom's grinning face around the neighborhood. Her staying always ahead of me. me and never saying a word, which was somehow worse than if she had just told me she blamed me, that I was a shitty sister, that she wished I'd leave too. My mom took extra shifts and started spending nights at Chum's bar in town, coming home late, slamming cabinets, muttering to herself. If I was still awake, I'd wait for her to slouch into her bedroom. Then I'd slither downstairs for a or to grab a glass of water, stepping quickly past that square in the wall.

One night, long after dark, I came down to find the door open. A rectangle of light spilled out onto the floor of the kitchen. I rushed forward and kicked it shut, throwing everything into shadow. My socks felt wet and soggy, as though I'd stepped in a puddle of some kind. I fumbled for the light switch. The walls pulsed with the sound of running water, turning my blood to ice. I fled upstairs, jumped into my bed, and flipped on the tiny pink lamp on my nightstand, listening to the creaks and groans of the house.

I fell asleep with the sheets pulled over my head. Mickey? I shot awake at the sound of my brother's voice. It echoed in my head, fuzzy. I thought it must have been a dream. Mickey? I don't feel so good. Just beyond the hazy lamplight,

I spotted a small figure at the foot of my bed, staring at me. Tom Tom? I couldn't make out his features, but his eyes glittered. They looked bulbous, like they were being squeezed out of his head, each staring in opposite directions.

He looked lumpy, too. as though he'd put on fat in odd places. Tom Tom! Oh my God, come here! I put out my arms, but he didn't move. Throwing the sweaty linens off me, I stood in the light and waved him forward. He stepped back. With how dark it was, it looked more like he was gliding.

Mickey, I need a hug. I noticed his eyes. voice sounded slurred and croaky. I advanced a short ways, and he floated backwards towards the corner of my room. I caught the scent of something muddy and sour. I'm hungry, sister. Can you make me a snack? Tom Tom's body jostled like a puppet on a stick. He had never called me sister before. I snatched my lamp and held it in front of me, throwing its glare over his position. Tom Tom's body swung atop an inky tendril, skin gray and modeled, and behind him, spread against the wall of my room, was a huge black mass.

As soon as the light hit it, a hole gaped open, exposing descending rows of razor-like teeth. A piercing shriek filled my head, and the thing whipped six. sideways, slamming Tom Tom's body on the floor and escaping in the shadows of the hallway, dragging him along like a corpse behind a car. I heard Tom Tom's hoarse cry undulating as he bounced down the stairs, followed by a crash in the sound of the square door, clicking shut. I never turned off the lights again. Creepy Presents. I was involved in a top secret experience. that was leaked onto the internet, written by anonymous for safety reasons, and narrated by Megan McDuffie.

About six years ago, I was a doctor at a rundown hospital. I made a minor indiscretion at the hospital, which cost me my job, and nearly my medical license. This was not the end to my career that I had hoped for, especially after racking up a huge debt at med school. Shortly after this incident, by some stroke of I don't know. know what, I was approached to be part of an experimental project. They were looking for qualified doctors, offering a lot of money and not a lot of information. The experiment was jointly funded

by the government and the military. And in hindsight, I also think my ethical indiscretion is the reason I was approached for the project. Other than that, when I found out what the project was about, I didn't believe it. I just joined for the money. I am cautiously coming forward to share my experience, as someone has leaked some basics about the experiment onto the internet, www.w.theferryringexperiment.com, if you're interested in reading it. You may have heard of an old story called the Philadelphia Experiment from the 1940s about a Navy destroyer escort ship, the USS Eldridge. It has many conspiracies surrounding it, and even a movie to fuel the mystery of the event. If you have not heard of the Philadelphia

experiment, I will explain the legend and the official explanation to you. It will give you a background into the project I took part in, which was nicknamed the Fairy Ring Experiment. It took a heap of the official sounding information from the information that was put on the internet. I don't know how this stuff gets there. It was all supposed to be top secret. I guess WikiLeaks or hackers have a lot to answer for. All I can tell you is what I experienced. Here is the background info I mentioned before. In 1943, the USS Eldridge and another ship in Philadelphia were carrying classified experimental devices designed to scramble the magnetic sea mines. This gave birth to a theory that they were testing some kind of cloaking device. Upon testing, it is alleged that the USS Eldridge vanished from its dock and was seen in a naval shipping yard in Virginia before returning to Philadelphia.

Witnesses to the event claimed they saw a green glow from around the ship. This was officially explained as the effects of an electrical storm, or the phenomenon known as St. Ilmo's fire. This occurs when there is a gap in electrical charges in the atmosphere. Sailors have apparently witnessed this fire for millennia. Coupled with the rumors that the ships had huge electromagnetic devices on board, this explanation could, at a stretch, be plausible if we had the weather data from that time. The final thing that you need to know is that it was reported that many of the crew of the U.S.

Eldridge were affected by the testing of the secret device. Many allegedly went mad or died of a mystery illness after the event. Okay, hopefully that bit of plagiarized background will help you understand some part of what I was involved in. I was employed to take part in the Jessup's unified field test. It started in 2017, and everyone that worked there nicknamed it the Fairy Ring Experiment. I'm not a scientist, so my knowledge of how the technology worked and its effects is, limited. I dealt with the staff and volunteers in the project. I was brought into the project just before human testing started, and a number of staff left were removed or died as part of the project as it progressed. We signed some kind of secrecy agreement with the government and the military.

At the time, I didn't know what this meant for the longevity of my life after the project. I still don't. But hey, moving on. It's on the internet now, so I'm feeling a bit safer. From what I understand, the full documentation from the Philadelphia experiment was refined over the years. In the fairy ring experiment, the old data was used to continue the work, but on a more advanced level. Here is my attempt at some of the science I can remember. A ring of mushroom-shaped objects made of materials known as meta-materials were built, and a specific frequency was passed around the ring, making an electromagnetic field. The area of the field was directed into the center of the ring.

I was told that the current to the mushrooms, which stood only about two feet high, was randomized, creating a constant fluctuation in the field or a non-uniform field. There was something about the earth having a magnetic field, and that was also important to the workings of the fairy ring. Let's move on. All that technical stuff is a bit sketchy in my mind. Initially, it was pretty dull just setting up medical equipment and start. surgery rooms until the project kicked off officially. On the final day of testing, before the volunteers arrived, we were all invited to see the fairy ring in action. Everyone crowded into the

military personnel's recreational area, where a large projection screen had been set up on one wall. The screen showed the ring of metamaterial mushrooms in a room lined with iron. It had been told it was meters thick, and the only way in was through a sealed iron hatch in one of the walls that had to be mechanically moved as it was so heavy. As the electric currents started to flow through the mushrooms, light started to appear in the center of the ring. All the colors that a human eye could see, displayed like the northern lights. It was beautiful and mesmerizing.

We celebrated that evening, confident that we were all on the edge of a scientific breakthrough, even if we weren't sure what that breakthrough was. I think that even the word miracle was thrown around. Sorry. Sorry. realize that I've not told you the point of the fairy ring experiment. I guess I'm still quite nervous about sharing my experiences after all. In 1943, the USS Eldridge did travel to another port and returned to Philadelphia. The tall tale that was dismissed as fiction was in fact, well, a fact. It did, however, fail to complete the version of the story that is still officially

documented by the Navy today. The official story was to make the shape of the show. The official story was to make the invisible to magnetic minds, not invisible in the disappearing sense, but undetectable to magnetic minds. In reality, it was attempting to move humans through space-time, through the use of electromagnetic fields. This is what I was a part of. After the project's final test, the volunteers started to arrive. My job was to do routine medical checks on them every time they were going to enter the testing room. It was just stuff like blood samples, checked eyes, etc., like a standard annual health checkup. At this time, I had no contact with any of the staff involved with the process after the volunteers had entered the fairy ring. I essentially lived with the domestic duties and other

pre-test staff. I guessed that information was on a need-to-know basis. I do recall from information we were given before the project started that every volunteer had comfortable rooms and access to a canteen. They were free to leave their rooms at any time apart from when the tests were being run. On the first day of volunteer testing, we all gathered in the military staff wreck area again to watch the screen.

A shivering, naked man entered into the center of the ring and waited. He looked self-conscious of his naked body. He stood there, covering his genitals, and staring at the floor. As the electromagnets started up and the lights began to appear, his head snapped up, and you could see feet, in his eyes. I thought this was quite understandable at the time. He was stepping into an unknown situation. As the lights swelled around him, his body tensed, and he threw his arms behind him

with his back arched. I could see he was screaming. His mouth twisted wide and his chest heaving, and then he wasn't there anymore, just for maybe a second or two, and then he returned in exactly the same position. The machine started to wind down and you could see his body relax, and he curled up in a ball on the floor. There was absolute stunned silence in the wreck area until someone started clapping, like an infection, the clapping and cheering spread, until we were all hugging and congratulating each other like we had created this phenomenon ourselves. As I was leaving the room, I felt ecstatic, not really knowing exactly why, or if I had actually seen a man disappear before my very eyes.

As I mentioned, at this time, I was not on the medical team that assessed patients after the testing, but I heard in passing that the first volunteer had experienced excruciating global headaches for days after the test. When he was no longer sedated for the pain, he reported that he had seen nothing but black for the moments he had disappeared. It went on like this with different volunteers for a few weeks. After the first month, the reports that the volunteers were beginning to change, and the headaches they had experienced had virtually disappeared. I was not allowed to ask the volunteers any questions before they went into the fairy ring. Just follow my standard medical script. Rumors were circulating that the volunteers were talking about being in different places all around the world.

They didn't really know where they were, but the descriptions were so accurate that between a number of staff members, it was worked out where they had apparently transported to. Being lumped in with the domestic staff had its perks, they brought back juicy information from other areas of the facility. Then, all the other staff were discussing physical changes to the volunteers. While the volunteers were showing signs of great physical and mental health, they had an unidentifiable substance present in their bodies at low levels. I didn't know too many details at this time,

and I couldn't access results of the blood tests I had taken. The only information came from eavesdropping in the other staff's rec area and canteen. The first crazy moment that halted the experiments for a few days came when volunteer number seven, Maria, went into the fairy ring. She touched one of the mushroom things as she entered. No one noticed at the time, but after she disappeared for over an hour, the camera footage was analyzed extensively, and it showed that she had slightly moved one of the mushrooms. I'm unsure if the next part of my experience was good or bad luck for me. Either way, I suddenly had access into the bowels of the experiment.

After Maria's trip, she suffered hypothermia and skin issues associated with severe windburn. Alongside this, the usual post-ring medical tests were performed on her, and the unknown substance in her body had significantly increased. Rather than immediately treat the hypothermia, she was taken into surgery to see if they could get samples of the substance. Maria killed every member of staff in the room before miraculously healing herself of all her medical problems. That's when I was suddenly promoted to the Fairy Rings medical inner circle.

With this new position, I had direct access to all the volunteers and data about them. Maria was confined to her room as quickly as the dead staff's blood was cleaned up and washed away. Don't get me wrong. terrified and delighted at the same time. I now knew what we could be dealing with at this job, but it had become exciting and not just about the money. I had a second chance at doing something worthwhile on the verge of discovering an unknown substance, and apparently people were traveling through a portal to other places in the world. Fascination and fears is an intoxicating combination, and I was living it and thriving on every moment. One of the privileges of being in the inner

circle of the experiment was having access to outside news. While I was on a multi-emotional high of being promoted, I learned that a hurricane had hit Puerto Rico and nearly destroyed it. Bizarrely, the hurricane was called Maria. What were the chances? The experiments continued, and more detailed reports came back from the volunteers. They had increased time disappearances in the ferry ring. Each one of them had to be medically treated for various serious ailments, usually associated. with the weather phenomenon. People started talking about a possible link between natural disasters and the volunteers. I had not seen the correlation initially, but someone had. Volunteer 7's real name was Maria Russo, and Hurricane Maria could be connected to her. Almost immediately, I accessed

the psychological reports and interviewed transcripts from just after Maria got back from her disappearance. She talked about feeling the power of the wind and water, and how it filled her. She played with them and felt as one with them. It sounded like a child telling a make-believe story, but I had the hindsight or bias of Hurricane Maria, even though her psych evaluation happened a few hours before the hurricane hit. Incidentally, the name of the hurricane was purely coincidental and not connected to Volunteer 7 at all. Eventually, some of the higher-up officials took notice of the connections that people were reporting. It was confirmed that five further major weather or natural events had happened in correlation to the volunteers being tested in the

fairy ring. Some of them are documented on the website. I do remember thinking at the time that at this point we were no longer in control and we were being used by the volunteers or whatever that unknown substance inside them was. Okay, sorry again. I need to backtrack a little. So many intentionally suppressed memories keep coming back. The link between the natural disasters and our volunteers took a few months to confirm. Over this time, I noticed a shift in what the officials in the project were looking for. More medical procedures were scheduled to find out what the mystery substance in the volunteer's body was. Each one led to more deaths or severe injury of medical personnel.

Maria had completely healed herself after her attempted operation, and all the other volunteers did the same. At the same time as all this was happening, Maria was disaffirmed. peering from her room for hours at a time. She was locked in her room with an armed guard outside each time. I was getting increasingly worried and frightened, as were most of the remaining medical staff. As the number of qualified staff dwindled, I eventually ended up on the team trying to find out what the mystery substance was. As you can imagine, my mind nearly unraveled completely when I got the order. I didn't think I could quit. In fact, I knew I couldn't.

All the excitement of being part of a groundbreaking secret experiment had left me. I felt like we were shells of people, just following orders. I guess this is how the volunteers felt when they first got to the facility. The next day, I had to try to extract some of the substance from Maria's body. She was showing over 90% change in her physical internal form, yet looked the same on the outside. I smiled and greeted her when she arrived at my room, hoping my fear didn't show. We chatted about the procedure.

I was struck off as a doctor, but I always prided myself on my bedside manner. Anyway, I don't know what helped me that day. But if I believed in any kind of higher power, I would have thanked them a million times. Maria wanted an exchange. In return for a consensually given sample of the substance, she wanted to go back into the fairy ring. I didn't have the authority to agree to that, so I called in one of the officials, to my relief, the exchange was agreed. Maria disappeared for three days and then returned to her room, not the ring.

The next week was a bit of a blur, with the fear of the unknown and, well, let's be honest, death still coursing through all the staff on a daily basis. The finger that Maria donated was dissected, analyzed in every known way possible. The substance could not be identified. The threads of my sanity were blowing in the breeze. I think other people were the same, but we were too afraid to talk. There were stories of an interdimensional portal being opened and our volunteers were no longer human. I honestly didn't know what was going on.

I didn't know anything more until recently when that report was leaked. The little information I had at the time was that the people running the project had wanted to use the new substance for something. Weapons probably, knowing the government and the other agencies involved, The volunteers were disappearing at will Without the fairy ring and all the controlled aspects of the project stopped After that one week of chaos We were suddenly told it was over and we would be paid upon leaving the facility We left without question and we left quickly

I had initially been there for the money but I got so much more I lived with paranoia intense fear and a feeling in my stomach that I had been part of something terrible with lasting repercussions. 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.

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