Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries - HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 3 "Shady Pines. "

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Charlie, Zoe and Gama head toward the coordinates Tim wrote down while he was playing the game, hoping to find him alive. Charlie keeps playing and finding more keys, but he can feel the Timekeeper closing in as his clock ticks down. The Timekeeper, features Judah Lewis as Charlie, Chandler Kinney as Zoe, and Arjun Athalye as Gama. The Timekeeper was created, written, and directed by Matthew A Brown. Sound Design, Scoring and Mix by Jeff Schmidt Original Score composed by Joshua Zimmerman Additional dialog editing by Marika Perlmutter Executive Produced by Matthew A Brown, Kaelyn Moore, and Judah Lewis The Timekeeper is a production from Heart Starts Pounding. For more from Heart Starts Pounding: Subscribe on⁠⁠ Patreon⁠⁠ to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society and enjoy ad-free listening, monthly bonus content, merch discounts and more. Members of our High Council on Patreon also have access to our weekly after-show, Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt. You can also enjoy many of these same perks, including ad-free listening and bonus content when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts . Follow on⁠⁠ Tik Tok⁠⁠ and⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠ for a daily dose of horror. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whether you own a bustling hair salon or a hot new bakery, you need business insurance that can keep up with your evolving needs. With flexible coverage options from TV insurance, you only pay for what you need. TD, ready for you. Hey, heart starts pounding listeners. I hope you've been enjoying our special four-part presentation of The Timekeeper. This is a fictional audio drama that we produced, working with some fantastic actors, due to Lewis, who you may know from the babysitter film franchise on Netflix,

Jandler Kinney, one of the stars of Pretty Little Liars original sin, and Arjun Atelier, who I worked with on Nickelodeon's reboot of Are You Afraid of the Dark? Please enjoy episode three and stay tuned for the final episode next Thursday at 5 p.m. Pacific. Thanks, guys. We've been crammed into Buzz's single cab for an hour. The sun was up, but the sky was so dark you couldn't tell. And I hadn't looked up from the screen anyway. The keys were coming fast now that I was actually playing the game, but there had been no sign of a login or any clue from Fairchild.

Everything in the game seemed to be part of the game. I'd used the first key to open the door to the next level from the elevator. When I stepped out, it was completely different. The field of view was cut down like I could only see out of my right eye, and the depth of objects all felt off. It was basically one open room surrounding the elevator, bright white, floors and ceilings, fluorescent bulbs, and there were long white tables set up in every direction in perfectly straight rows

with different stations set up along them. Computer monitors, physical puzzles, all logic-driven stuff. Right eye left brain. I remembered Fairchild's talk on the video, dolphins and birds sleeping with half their brains, shutting down one side. This was like a level entirely built to use one side of the brain. Tim's notes started making sense. I got the key and moved to the next. The third level was the opposite. Only my left eye, only my right brain. Like the game wanted to get me used to living in just one side. I said game.

Didn't feel like playing the game. I felt like someone was poking around inside my head. Like the timekeeper, Fairchild. It was feeling around. Watching. Like you could see the electrons firing. By the time I looked up, I had three more keys and I found myself walking around the slot machine blue.

around the slot machine Blake had been playing. Charlie? Hey, Charlie. Huh? We're getting gas. Do you want anything from inside? I hadn't even realized we'd stopped. I looked around.

A deserted gas station in the middle of nowhere. I'm gonna get some food. Sour gummies. For breakfast? It's a road trip breakfast. Okay, sour gummies. Charlie? Sourgummies.

Great. Two sour gummies. Good brain food. Glad we're not solving life or death puzzles. solving life or death puzzles or anything? Sitting in the cab, it was the first time Zoe and I had been alone together in months. Granted, Buzz was pumping gas up few feet away,

but inside, in the rain, it felt like its own little world. I was never nervous around her, but now I was. I couldn't even pay attention to the game. All I could think about was her leg touching mine as we sat crowded into the center of the bench seat, like buzzing calm. We're still book-ending us. I am...

I'm gonna use the restroom. You should take the laptop. Just play it for me. Ha. It wasn't raining hard, but the skies were dark, and the forecast had said the heavy stuff was on its way. I could see Gama inside scouring the shelves. The bathroom is outside around the back.

It smelled. like old piss and cigarettes and the urinal was half filled with cigarette butts floating like rose petals and perfume. I ran back through the levels in my head. The changes he made would have been simple, obvious, text-based. The series of numbers in the first room? I heard the TikTok. I'd heard so much it took me a second to realize I shouldn't be hearing it with the laptop in the car. But it wasn't the tinny speaker sound. It was more mechanic. It was more more mechanical, like the tick behind the door on the lowest level, the keyhole with the red light, the mechanical tick I'd imagined from Fairchild's watch, coming from behind the closed door of the stall.

Hello? I splashed cold water on my face and as I looked in the mirror above the sink, I swore there was someone standing behind me. A tall, dark figure with a mask. A mask covered in eyes that darkened in every direction or once. I turned. But there was no one there. But on the door, scratched in big letters across the gray metal.

The two words. Dick. Tom. Bro, what's wrong? The door. Look at the door. What? What am I looking at? Gama held the door open and look. For a good time, call your mom.

call your mom? Is that what I'm supposed to be seeing? I walked around to the other side and he was right. The only thing scratched into the door was a good time call message and a few penises. The ticking sound was gone and so were the words I thought I'd seen. Charlie, you good? It was right. What was? Nothing.

Nothing. I'm just tired, I guess. Never mind. Okay, well, here are your gummies. I got to take a leak and some muffins too in case you too. some muffins to do in case you two idiots decide you want something besides sugar for breakfast. There's more sugar in the muffins. Whatever. Don't worry, I got it. I dropped the gummies in a puddle and bent down to pick them up, and that's when I remembered.

The badge in the hallway, when I left the room on the first level, I bent over to pick it up. The name on the badge was Jacob Fairchild, but when I'd looked at it in the inventory, the name was J. Fairchild. And the object description was a random series of letters and numbers. I'd figured it was just placeholder text that the game wasn't finished but maybe it was something more Charlie! Charlie, come here! I think I might have the password.

It shut off. The computer? No, the server. I had the leaderboards up since that's the only thing I can actually click and I saw all these new names. New names where? On the live board. Just all these random names, people playing the game

and then it shut off. I don't know if it was too many people and it crashed or if the power went out, but the whole server is offline. Bro, there is no pause. There is play or do not play. Once you start, you can't stop. I turn it off, turn it back on, doesn't matter.

How much time did you have? Please don't make me do math right now. Charlie, we need to know how much time you have. Seven hours, 58 minutes, six keys. Okay, so 478 minutes. You were in the bathroom two. Let's round down to 470, and then half that. Four hours. A little under is what I set the alarm on my phone for.

We figured the storm had knocked out the power. We were an hour from nine mile bridge and it would take 15 minutes to get to Shady Pines. So we stuck to the plan. We'd find whatever was at the coordinates, then load up and head to Shady Pines to get the server back on. How much further? Almost there. Guys, look. There's Tim's truck. Al's Auto where the sheriff said they'd leave it.

Sheriff said they'd leave him. Still hasn't got. We'd been holding out hope for a text. A call, some kind of reply from Tim, but we'd gotten nothing and everything we sent was green. Okay, turn right up here, then we crossed nine-mile bridge, and then it's just a mile or so off the road. Uh, I don't think we're crossing nine-mile bridge. Nine-mile bridge was a nothing little bridge over what was usually a nothing little creek. But they'd open the floodgates upstream like the sheriff at Warren.

And there was a 40-foot wide white water river rushing over the road. We could barely see the top of the sign that said 9-mile bridge. Bro, she's a swimmer. You should see her. I take her through Cricket Creek all the time. Crooked Creek is a creek. That is a river. Yeah, I think Gama's right.

Okay, we'll test it out then. Just a little toe in. No, no, no, no, no. Guys, guys, I'm telling you, we crossed this. No problem. Gotcha. Buzz, chill. Just give it a second.

Oh, shit, shit. We need to get to Shady Pines and get the server back on. We need more time. So we split up. I don't want to go to that creepy ghost place anyway. There's got to be a way to cross my foot. Zoe, you and I can go on a nice scenic hike, find a crossing, and see what's there. And then what?

Charlie and Buzz get into the server? I don't think so. Hey, G-Man, I'll go with you. I got raincoats and shit all in the toolbox. We need your truck, though. Yeah, for sure. You take it. I got it.

I wasn't friends with Buzz. Gama wasn't friends with him. His only response to being asked to stay up all night, deal with a potentially cursed game, drive through a thunderstorm, cross a raging river, and march through a field toward God knows what, had been sure. Now he was offering to let Zoe and I take his truck and leave him stranded. I would rather hang out with him or me too.

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Yeah, we'll go you as soon as we're there. Okay, same. Good luck. Bye, babe. Bye. Gamma, be careful. You too. As we sped away, I watched Gama and buzz.

Pancho's on, climbing the barbed wire fence to walk up. and find a place to cross the river. The plan was simple. Whoever got to their destination first would call the others to check in. Buzz and Gama would let us know what they found at the coordinates and Zoe and I would get the server back online.

Then I'd keep getting keys while Zoe checked if the string of characters I remembered from the badge and the inventory really was Fairchild's password so she could see what else was on the server and what else Fairchild had changed to the game. But as long as it was on, I could play and give us more time to figure out what was really going on. really going on. We hoped whatever buzz and gama found would help. We're all exhausted.

I could tell Zohi was fighting to stay awake. You good? Huh? Oh, yeah. Hand me the gummies. I'm not sure. Charlie, the gummies are all I have. Just give them to me. Yeah, sure. Thanks for being here. I don't really have a choice. My best friend decided to get himself cursed. Your best friend hasn't been much of a friend lately. Look, we both want the same thing. We do?

We want to get out of this town. You distract yourself by working and studying 24-7, and I distract myself by staying up for days at a time, and then hoping I fall asleep and wake up, and it's the end of senior year. But what about Buzz? She's like never leaving. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Buzz and I aren't planning a future together.

He's just fun to be around. He never stresses, he doesn't care that our town sucks, and he makes me coffee. Oh, I guess I just thought... It's easy. Like, we don't take it that seriously, so when I go to college, it won't be a whole thing with pressure to like, oh, are we going to stay together or do... long distance or do we even need to make it to the end of senior year. I mean, I don't want to get stuck here. I don't want to... It would be different if it was someone else, you know? Like,

if there was someone I cared about differently or more strongly or whatever, it would be a whole thing. I just... So many people in this town are here because of that. And then where do they end up, you know? They end up here. Where they started. Exactly. Exactly, right? Where they started? I don't want that.

I'm not gonna let that happen. So that's why we're not going to lose this game, okay? We're not gonna lose. Okay. Promise me. Whatever it is, we're going to beat it. And then we're going to enjoy senior year and have fun like we used to. Like we used to. You and me and Gama and Buzz.

Sometimes, buzz. Promise. I promise. The entrance to Shady Pines was tucked into the trees off an old farm road. And we could see the gravel drive wind into the thick pines. There was a heavy iron gate with a chain and padlock. I'll check the gate. I ran up and pulled the chain.

It was wrapped tight. but when I shook it, the lock fell into the mud. I picked it up and saw it in and cut. I pulled the chain free and pushed the gates open. Unlock? Someone cut it. It's Gama. Gama, are you there?

What did you find? Zoe, how many, can you hear me? Barely. Tim, we found him. Where? Is he alive? No, no, no, he looks like he was. I don't know, I don't know. He would leaned up against his tree, and it looks like he was struck by lightning or something.

He's just, I can't think about it, or I'll throw off again, but there's something burned into the tree. What? I just hate you the picture. I knew what would be there before I saw the image. Two words. Tick-tock. Like they'd been branded into the park. Where did you find him?

At the coordinates? No, I mean, almost. Just outside. What do you mean outside? There's a cave in the side of the hills. What's in it? In it? Why would we go in? You have to go in, G.

Here, bro, you can take the machete. I don't want the machete, Buzz. Okay, then just use the pocket knife. That's cool. As far as I know, nice don't work on ghosts. Gama. You've gotta go in. No. They don't.

This is my mess. I'm the one who decided to play. Exactly. Exactly. It is your mess. I said don't play. Black cats, broken game, don't play. I said that. And you said, I am totally here. name and date of birth and my social security number, please come and murder me.

You don't have to go. Charlie? No. I thought I was the only one at risk because I was the only one playing, but now I don't know. If someone else killed Fairchild and they don't want us to know what happened, then we're all playing the game. We're all in risk. Shut up, dumbass. Buzz, give me the pocket knife. Close. Please, please close it.

Seriously, it's going to be so slippery in there. We're going in. Charlie, you owe me, your menu, Ray Farger, at any time of day, or no. Gamma, wait. We'll call number out. Be careful. Sure, babe. You too.

Zoe, I don't know what's happening. Neither do I. And I'm pretty sure there's someone who doesn't want us to know. You really don't have to do this. Charlie, whatever is going on isn't going to go away on its own. Someone knew Blake and Tim were playing the game. That means they know you're playing. So let's just get the server back on and then get out, okay?

Figure it out from there. Yeah. Yeah. The dirt road had turned to mud, and we fish-tailed through the deep tracks left by the heavy equipment that had been hauled in. The road wound through the trees for half a mile or so before it opened it to a clearing, and we could see shady pines looming in front of us. A huge square cement building.

A single-story above ground with a flat roof and square windows cut into the sides every few feet. It looks like a bunker. The walls were overgrown with weeds and dried, dead vines, climbing all the way to the top and over onto the roof. There were a few pieces of equipment parked around, a bulldozer, a backhoe, a closed trailer, and one old pickup truck. There was a single gray metal door in front,

propped open with a sandbag. We ran toward it and pulled it open and went inside. When the door fell closed behind us, it was pitch dark except for the little gray light coming in from the space held by the sandbag. Glad Buzz had flashlights. Here. It was nearly identical to the layout of the game.

The hallway leading to the elevator in the center, rooms on either side, and the reception desk sitting just to the right inside the door. Charlie, you see this? Zoe shined her flashlight on the floor in front of us. Footsteps. Zoe leaned down and touched them. Muddy. Hello?

Anybody in here? The wet prints led to a closed maintenance closet. We followed them and Zoe pulled open the door. The breaker boxes were inside. All flipped off. Worker must have come back to shut it down. I'm gonna turn them back on. Tell me if you see the server startup.

It'll take it a while to reboot, but you should at least be able to see if it's trying. I held the laptop open and watched the connection. watch the connection. Anything? Not yet. There's no labels on these stupid things. Wait, it's going. How long will it take? I don't know, it's ancient, so probably a few minutes? Anything from Gama? No, not yet. Reception is going in and out in here.

Same. What do you mean? It's a cave, bro. Only one way to go. Yeah, in and out. Right now we're going in, and I think the right way to go is out. You ever been cave diving? No. Oh, it's cool. I saw this whole thing about on the Red Bull Channel. It was like these guys going into the jungle to caves so deep. No one knew how deep they were, and they would just jump in with their parachutes and disappear forever. Forever? Yeah, just floating into the dark, getting smaller and smaller, and then poof, gone. Fine, please never mention it again.

Do you hear that? The ticking? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear it. Okay, Buzz, I think I'll trade you for the machete now. Where are you going? I want to see something. I walked down the hall towards the elevator. The doors were closed. Hey, Charlie, I know your brain isn't working great,

but we probably don't want to take the elevator given the power. given the power situation. I know, I know, I just... I want to see inside. I shoved a pry bar between the door panels, and Zoe helped force them apart. I shine the flashlight inside on 10 years of dust and cobwebs. What are you looking for?

I want to see how many floors there are. Jesus! Okay, I'm awake now. I leaned into the elevator It was just like in the game Floors won through B12 But I could see one of the buttons Was cracked around the edges

B-11 I ran my finger around it And it fell off in my hand I gave it to Zoe It's not connected to anything I peeled them off one by one Until there were only three floors left Why would they do that?

I don't know I remember Blake said Tim had told him The building was different I guess this is what he meant. Okay, so how many floors are there really? Three. Is the server back? Um, still connecting.

Wait. No, it's working. I'm in. The timer on the game was right where it should have been. I checked the leaderboard and saw all the new names. Everyone had a lot more time than me except S. Graham. She still didn't have any keys, and she was down to ten minutes. Go to your inventory and give me the password, or what you...

think is the password. I'll pull up the server on Gama's machine. He's not gonna like you doing that on his computer. Yeah, well, he doesn't like being in that cave either. I pulled up my inventory. Jay Fairchild's badge and the string of characters and the description were still there like I'd have remembered them. Okay. Read them to me. I read her the characters. Wish me luck.

Luck. Holy shit, it worked. I'm Jay Fairchild. I need to find the last saved game file before he made the changes. changes, then I can run a comparison to see what's different. Charlie, keep playing. This could take a minute. Did you lock the front door?

Check. Close the garage door? Yep. Installed window sensors, smoke sensors, and HD cameras with night vision? No. And you set up credit card transaction alerts, a secure VPN for a private connection, and continuous monitoring for our personal info on the dark web?

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Restaurants in Canada for a limited time Ah, damn, you were right, gee, this is slippery. Boss, keep it down. The echo sounds so cool, though. Do you see that? Bones. Why are there flowers here? Bro, people bring flowers to graves to, like, remember the person, you know?

Yes, thank you. I am familiar with that tradition. What I meant was, why are there fresh flowers here now? Dude, I don't know. Someone must have brought them. Yeah, well, the ticking is coming from underneath. Bus, what the hell? You don't disturb corpse? Don't disturb corpses. This whole game is already cursed. I don't want extra evil spirits following us around.

What? We've got to find whatever clue is here, no? To lead to the treasure. I think the dead body is the clue, and for the last time, there is no treasure. Well, hold on, hold on. Gee, I think there's something here. Wait, that's like the watch from the video.

The old pocket watch Fairchild had. Maybe this was Fairtrow. It looks kind of small. Hey, here, lay down and see if you're taller. I am not laying down next to a pile of bones. Bus. Look at the skull. Damn, bro.

Smashed up pretty bad. I think we got what we need. Let's just take some pictures and get out of here. Any luck? Almost there. Just waiting on the scan to finish. And done. Okay, well, it was definitely a rush job looking at the code,

which makes sense. The first change is the badge. The next change is the coordinates. And the next change... What? What is it? 456E. What?

It's like... Let me see. In the game, there's maybe a command that pops up in the front of a... I can't tell without running it. But there's a command that pops up and he changed it from Light the Match to 4.5.

That's all there is? Those are the only changes? Yep, that's it. Maybe he didn't finish. Maybe he was typing out something longer. Like what? I don't know, Charles. An address? Another password? There's a lot of stuff on the server he has access to. We can keep looking. Three clues. The first one got us the next two. We could have gotten them in the game, but we didn't. The login, the coordinates, 456E. We haven't found what's at the coordinates. Maybe that's why it doesn't make sense. You mean we have to solve them in order? Exactly. In the game, the key for the next level is on the level before.

And there's something else we know. What? He was in a hurry. So? So, maybe he doubled up. If the password got us onto the server, that means there's something on the server he wants us to find. Like you said, you can find all these clues without getting into the code at all.

I'm sure he only planned on people. finding them in the game. So one of the changes should reference something on the server? Does. Does reference something on the server. The coordinates of the cave. There's a video file with the same name. Play it.

Oh shit, that's Fairchild. It was Fairchild and a woman in her 30s. They were in an observation room at Shady Pines looking at monitors showing the rooms in the facility. Who's the woman? I don't know. Well, Dr. Graham, do you agree? I did.

The subject is actively playing the slot machine on basement level 6, and the EEG confirms the subject's brain activity matches that from earlier slot action, and the subject's physical movements still appear to be conscious. Meanwhile, the right hemisphere of the subject's brain exhibits the waveforms that are consistent with REM sleep. This pattern has been reported and consistent for the last six hours prior to which the inverse was true. Forget it, Susan. I'm getting the champagne. We'll do the write-up off the data in the morning. Susan Graham. Ask Graham. What? The other name on the leaderboard. I brought up the leaderboard again.

S. Graham. The time still ticking away with zero keys. Aren't you forgetting something? You're right. Maria Shepard, congratulations. You are the first human to get the 13th key. I knew it. I told you from the first day there was something special about her, didn't I?

You're going to be very famous, Maria. One day soon, everyone will know your name. Now, let me see if I remember I had to actually trigger it. The timekeeper finally loses. Thank God. You may not need this anymore. Fairchild grabbed something from the desk as he said this. I could barely make it out, but when he set it back down, it was clear. A mask covered with eyes.

The same one I'd seen in the reflection at Tim's house. That's what they were doing. What? The buttons in the elevator. The mask, they were making it seem real to the people who came. So they wouldn't know where the real world ended and the game started. Wait, do you see that? Fairchild's triggering the 13th key.

There's a way to beat it. He just had to do it himself. There we go. Fairchild entered a command, and we watched as the timekeeper character in the game walked to a dark door in a red-lit room and inserted a key into the keyhole in the center and turned. He's in the game the whole time. He's on the other side of the door. What door?

The last door. The lowest level. the lowest level, the red light on the other side of the keyhole. And we're done. With a little time left to spare, Maria. Congratulations, we drink for you. What's she doing? What's happening for her? There was a monitor that took up part of the video,

a black and white camera in Maria's room. We could see her sitting at the desk, wires covering her head, staring at the monitor. It was Maria's screaming, and the machines charting her. her brain functions looked like they were screaming, too. Jesus.

Zoe and I watched as Noriu banged her head into the desk over and over, blood pouring down her face. And then she stood and sprinted full speed into the tour with her head lowered. Her neck snapped and she fell to the ground in the pile. Holy shit. She... She's dead. We shut down again, the server. Breakers?

No, breakers still on. Oh, shit, we have to go down. Server room is on the lowest level, right? Yeah. Come on, then. We walked back down to the central hall to the elevator and turned around to the stairwell door. I stopped with my hand on the handle. What's wrong?

I didn't want to go down, but I knew we had to. Part of me had always known I would have to. Charlie we got this Zoe put her hand on mine and turned the handle the door swung open and we stepped inside

I knew there was no turning back the timekeeper episode three features Judah Lewis as Charlie Chandler Kinney as Zoe and Arjun Italia as Gama

The Timekeeper was created, written, and directed by Matthew A. Brown. Sound design, scoring, and mix by Jeff Schmidt. Original score composed by Joshua Zimmerman. Additional dialogue editing by Marica Perlmutter. Executive produced by Kaelin Moore, Matthew A. Brown, and Judah Lewis. The Timekeeper is a production from Heart Starts Pounding. Additional cast includes Matt Anspaugh as Buzz, Guy Kent as Jacob Fairchild,

and Princess Elmore as Susan Graham.