Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries - HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 4 "Win Or Die."

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

Charlie and Zoe race against the clock as they confront the true horror of Shady Pines and learn the truth behind Fairchild’s death. The Timekeeper, features Judah Lewis as Charlie, Chandler Kin...ney 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

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Starting point is 00:00:47 Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. 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. Duda Lewis, who you may know
Starting point is 00:01:07 from the babysitter film franchise on Netflix, Chandler Kinney, one of the stars of Pretty Little Liars Original Sin, and Arjun Attali, who I worked with on Nickelodeon's reboot of Are You Afraid of the Dark? Please enjoy the finale episode of the series, and thank you for all your support. We stood at the top of the stairwell and listened.
Starting point is 00:01:30 Nothing but the creaking of the old building. We started down the dark stairs. It was musty at first, but as we hit the first landing and started down, I smelled something familiar. The same thing I'd smelled in the break room at Funland lingered, trapped down here. We reached the lowest level and opened the door into a dark hallway
Starting point is 00:01:55 like the one on the first floor. Only the inner wall was lined with rooms with open metal. with rooms with open metal doors. Everything was scorched and on the back of the doors were scratched two words, tick-tock. This is where they died. I could imagine someone showing up here. Desperate, taken off street corner, signing up for the program,
Starting point is 00:02:16 and being led down the hall to the elevator with 13 floors, and then locked in the tiny room to play the game. To earn a cent for every second. Knowing if they didn't win, if they didn't find the 13th key, would all be gone, awake for days, weeks, reality breaking into little pieces, and I could imagine the night of the fire. Doors locked, the fists banging, just like Blake, pounding, pounding, pounding, pounding. Charlie, you hear that?
Starting point is 00:02:59 back into the hall. We followed the sound around the corner of the front of the elevator, and there it was. Just like the lowest level of the game, a long, dark hallway that led to a single metal door with a keyhole through the center, and shining through from the other side, a red light. You shouldn't be here. No one should be here. The woman had her back to us, stooped over working on something we couldn't see. She had short black hair streaked with gray and a long, old denim dress with muddy hiking boots. When she turned and faced us with a pistol, her eyes were bloodshot like she hadn't slept in days. She was recognizable, but only barely.
Starting point is 00:03:43 Susan Grant. I'm sorry it has to be this way. We thought it was over. But this time, we'll be sure this time. You're S. Graham. Yes. And you're Charlie Dempsey. And you, I don't know who you are, dear, because you're not playing the game.
Starting point is 00:04:08 You locked him in here, didn't you? You're the one who set it on fire. It wasn't Fairchild. We made a deal with the devil. So it was our responsibility. You understand? Your responsibility to what? To kill the devil. She turned when she said it.
Starting point is 00:04:29 And I could finally see what was ticking behind her. A detonator wired to barrels of what had to be some kind of explosive. The timer was at five minutes. But this time we'll be sure. What is that? What are you gonna do? Make sure no one else dies. No one else dies? If you destroy the game, everyone playing is going to die.
Starting point is 00:04:50 Everyone in the game always dies. That's the point. You can't beat it. The only way to win is not to play. win is not to play. It's funny, isn't it? It's funny. No. No, that isn't true.
Starting point is 00:05:10 Maria won. Maria didn't win. She killed herself. But in the video, you thought she won. That it had worked. It did work in its way. That's why we kept going. That's why we agreed.
Starting point is 00:05:27 Everyone with Jacob that we'll cover it up. Nothing we did would bring Maria back, but the things we could do, we could change things for everyone. Could give billions of people better lives. That's what we thought. If we just raised the stakes, make them believe it was life or death. Because that's what he told us. And whatever Jacob told you,
Starting point is 00:05:56 told you you believed but it didn't work we're just not ready the human brain sure you can break it apart you just can't do much with the pieces so you killed them the people who went missing but then you decided you'd had enough so you set the fire to make it look like fairchild went crazy and killed everyone you left them to die we did what we had to do yeah is that way you killed blake and because you had to? No. Jacob killed them. I don't know how, but I know it was him.
Starting point is 00:06:35 Bullshit! Fairchild is dead. You just didn't want anyone to really know what happened that night. What really happened to Maria. But they were figuring it out, like we figured it out. So now you're trying to cover it up for good.
Starting point is 00:06:47 456E. What's 456E? Nothing. It can't be nothing. It's the last clue Fairchild left in the game the night you killed him. Jacob wasn't himself anymore. Whatever you think he was telling you,
Starting point is 00:07:03 I promise you. It doesn't mean anything. No. No, that's how we win. That's how we beat the game. Trust me, child. I know the look in your eyes. I've seen it a hundred times.
Starting point is 00:07:17 It's the look of hope. Because hope is what keeps you playing. If you believe you can solve the puzzle, You believe there's a way to get the next key, and the next key. And finally, the last key. A way to win. That's what Jacob understood. That's what made the game work.
Starting point is 00:07:40 But like I said, we're not ready. Charlie, come on, we need to go. Zoe, if the surfer goes, everyone playing dies. Charlie, the gun or the bomb, those are the two things that are going to kill us. Not a ghost, not a game. Isn't that right, Susan? Or why else would you have a gun? The gun is just to make sure nobody gets in the way of what has to be done.
Starting point is 00:08:04 Zoe, she's telling the truth. The truth about what? Blake and Tim. Charlie, I know we haven't slept in two days, but... Zee? Do you trust me? Yes, but... Then race me.
Starting point is 00:08:15 What? First to the wall. I'd never beaten Zoe in a race. In elementary school, she'd be at the swings before I'd gotten out of my starting stance. I'd kept changing the distances, hoping to find something I could beat her at. Eventually, I got tall enough I could get close to a tie under six feet, about the distance to the back wall of the server room. I think it's about time you two left me alone.
Starting point is 00:08:38 Susan had the gun in one hand and a chain in the other. To the wall? Yeah. Zoe let her eyes drift to the wall behind Susan. Fine. Zoe and I took a step backward through the door, and then dipped low, and launched ourselves across the room. Charlie, grab the gun.
Starting point is 00:09:00 Got it! I think she's out. After they went over the wheelbarrow, Susan slammed the back of her head into the cement. Oh, shit, Charlie, you're bleeding. I had barely felt it when the gun went off. But now I felt the warm trickle of blood down my left arm. Are you shot? It's fine.
Starting point is 00:09:15 It's fine unless you touch it. You have to put pressure on it. Pressure is what hurts. Okay, forget about my arm. We have three minutes to get out of here. Well, I don't know how to defuse it. a bomb, but I do know how to eject a hard drive. So if you say we need it. We do. So we ran her hands down the server rack. Hey, there's only one drive that's not melted. That's the one fair child
Starting point is 00:09:33 died protecting. So that's the one we take. So we pulled the drive from its slot and shoved it into the backpack. Come on. What about Susan? Charlie, we don't have time. Come on. We have to go. So we ran. Back toward the elevator and around to the door leading into the stairwell. We'd come down. But when we hit the door, it hit back. Open it! I can't! It's chained. We.
Starting point is 00:09:58 Susan had kept saying we made a deal with the devil. We are going to finish it. It wasn't her acting on her own that night. It had to be everyone. Everyone who had worked at Shady Pines. Maybe she has the keys. We checked Susan's pockets, but there was nothing. The detonator timer said two minutes,
Starting point is 00:10:17 which meant Susan only had 30 seconds or so left in the game. She's almost out of time. We're almost out of time. Out of time. Forget keys. We shoot the lock. Come on. We ran toward the elevator and as we did, we saw the floor counter above it counting down. It was fake, too. Lights for 13 floors, even though we knew they were only three. But still they went off one by one, counting down to our floor.
Starting point is 00:10:43 What's happening? He's here. Susan staggered into the doorway behind us. What? Who's here? Who was here? The timekeeper. The elevator.
Starting point is 00:10:55 The elevator was dark, but I could smell the sharp stench of burned flesh and hair. The lights inside flickered, and I saw him. Just for an instant. A tall, thin shape with a face covered in eyes that looked in every direction at once. Charlie, the gun. The light shut off and the figure was gone. When they flashed again, he was ten feet closer. The gun!
Starting point is 00:11:28 I let Zoe take the gun from me. She raised it toward the figure, and the next time the light flashed, he was there, right in front of us, staring. Zoe fired point-blank through him. But there was nothing there. It's been a long time, Jacob. I could feel him moving past us, through us. The hair around my arms standing up like I was in a lightning storm.
Starting point is 00:11:56 And the smell was so strong it was like everyone's being burned alive right now. In this moment. We turned towards Susan and he appeared in front of her. His back to us. It is tonight. Zoe, the elevator. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Work, work, work, work.
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Starting point is 00:12:50 Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. Are you okay? Are you all right? Zoe. What just happened? Zoe, Zoe, it's okay. Okay, he didn't care about us.
Starting point is 00:13:27 You saw that. The time was up. He only cared about her. But your time, Charlie, your time is up next. Zoe grabbed my good hand. And we stood there, facing each other. While the elevator climbed in slow motion. Charlie, you're not allowed to die. I can't do a year here without you.
Starting point is 00:13:46 You won't have to. I'm gonna beat the game. Promise me. I promise. We were standing so close. Everything was almost touching. We have a lot of things to do once we leave this town. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:04 But first we have to get out of here. How much time do we have? I don't know. Maybe 30 seconds. We made it to the front door, but it was chained two. We could push it open just enough to see the old pickup truck was gone. Come on, we've got to find another way. It's gamma. Hey.
Starting point is 00:14:23 Charlie, there were flowers. Someone have to know, okay? Someone has to be watching, so be careful. Flowers? Where? In the cave. There were bones, and the skull was all smacked in, and there were fresh flowers like someone who just dropped them off.
Starting point is 00:14:33 Maria. What? Never mind. Charlie, we've got to find a way out of here. Where are you guys? Shady pine, but we're stuck. What do you mean? Jesus, fuck, keep it on the road.
Starting point is 00:14:43 I mean, we're locked in, and the whole place is about to go up. What do you mean, go on? I mean, boom. Where are you? Shady Pines, I already told you. No, I mean where are you exactly? Just inside the front entrance. Big great door in front?
Starting point is 00:14:53 Yeah. Wait, how do you know about the door? Then move out of the way. Fuck, punch it! Oh shit! Zoe, move! Zoe and I dove behind the reception desk, just as the front of Tim's pickup
Starting point is 00:15:04 and widen the front entry by about six feet. We climbed over the desk and onto the hood of the truck. Reverse! reverse! The wheel smoked as the truck tried to free itself from the debris. Zoe and I gripped the front of the hood. I tried to squeeze with my left hand, but it was numb and tingling from the hole from my shoulder. This sound was like nothing I'd ever heard.
Starting point is 00:15:44 Like being inside of a giant speaker stack. Like our bodies were being vibrated to put out the sound. We saw the fireball and the reflection of the windshield as Buzz gunned it in reverse. Buzz slammed on the brakes and the truck slid to a stop in the wet grass just before the tree line. Thick dust and tiny chunks of cement rained down on us. Are you guys okay? What happened? We caught each other up. They'd found Tim's keys on his body and took his truck from owls when they couldn't get a hold of us.
Starting point is 00:16:09 We told them what we found inside and showed them the drive. It's real. It's real. The game is really cursed. It's almost like I was saying that the whole time and no one believed me. We believe you now. But it doesn't matter. What matters is beating it. Yeah, well, we can't hang around here trying to beat it because, A, we don't have anything to hook that drive to, and B, everyone in the county is going to have seen and heard that explosion. Gamma was right. If we stayed, we'd be answering questions from police while the last of my time and everyone else is in the game ticked away. We have to figure out the last clue. But we need to get the game back online so we have more time.
Starting point is 00:16:43 It has to be the order. The order of what? The order of the changes. Yeah, maybe. But we don't have time to figure it out here. She was right, but I knew I was close. I had to be close. The other changes all made sense.
Starting point is 00:16:59 All led us to something. Why would the last one be different? Give me a sec. Buzz, let me see Fairchild's watch. Yeah, yeah, I got you, bro. I took the watch from Buzz. The ticking made me shudder. The first clue.
Starting point is 00:17:11 The login. The second clue. The grave, the video. He wanted us to know what happened to Maria. Any ideas? I looked around our circle and everyone looked like they were dead. Cut, bruised, bleeding, covered in dirt and dust and mud and blood. And all because I wanted to play this stupid game.
Starting point is 00:17:30 Because I wanted to know what happened to Blake. I had a little more than half an hour on my timer in the game. I could see it on the phone, counting down. Charlie, it's going to take 20 minutes to get into town. I don't know how long to get the drive. set up, but we can't afford to wait here. 4-56E. Maybe he just ran out of time.
Starting point is 00:17:49 Maybe he was already insane, like Susan had said, and there was no final clue. I stared at the second hand of the watch and imagined Fairchild holding it in the observation room. Ticking, ticking, ticking, ticking, staring down at it. It wasn't just a clock face. There was a compass on it, too, that still seemed to work. I spun slowly in a circle and watched the needle pointing north. Charlie, what are you doing? You good?
Starting point is 00:18:15 456E. Yeah, we know. No, look. It's a compass. 456E. 456 East. Maybe that's what he was trying to say. 456 East.
Starting point is 00:18:29 I look to the East. Thick woods directly behind Shady Pines. Yeah, but 456 what? Maybe it's 456 steps. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. But if it's not, we're not getting back here. into town before the clock runs out.
Starting point is 00:18:43 So we split up again. You guys go into town. I check it out. What? No. Yeah, you're not going by yourself. You guys have done enough, okay? If the police show up, you don't want to be here,
Starting point is 00:18:53 and we already know the timekeeper only cares about people in the game. Yeah, but we care about you. Okay. I'll go with Charlie. You guys get the game back on. You don't have to come, gee. Shut up. You can barely hold the laptop, and I'm not even sure you can count that high. Remember what I told you?
Starting point is 00:19:07 We're not losing. We'll call you from the school. Thank you. Zoe, be careful. Yeah, you too. Well, into the woods we go. We walked around the smoldering facility and the construction equipment scattered around it. The flame still shot up occasionally from the center of the building, but everything was so wet there wasn't a chance of it spreading.
Starting point is 00:19:34 We stopped at the edge of the tree line and turned our flashlights on. All right. I guess we start counting. The woods were thick. You could tell there had been a path here a long time ago, but it was overgrown and had been reclaimed by the forest. We counted under our breaths, and by the time we reached 400, the tree cover was so dense we couldn't see the moon.
Starting point is 00:19:55 But at 440, we entered a small, rocky clearing where the moonlight broke through enough for us to see without the flashlights. There's nothing here. Well, uh, let's just walk around. Gamma, watch out. You couldn't see it until you were on top of it, but there was a shallow pit,
Starting point is 00:20:17 as big around as a hot tub and about as deep. Thanks. It's a big hole. Reminds me the fire pits we meet at school for Thanksgiving. Light the match. What match? No, that was the line in the game that Fairchild replaced. The last change, light the match. We shine her flashlights into the pit.
Starting point is 00:20:36 There were chunks of wood, broken branches that had washed there over the years probably today. Grass grew up through them, but there was something else. Something black and burnt. Are those tires? I stepped down into the pit and felt the uneven rubber under my feet. My dad would probably want to be Gama. What? Look. I shined my flashlight where Gama had just kicked. He thought it was a rock, but the rock had rolled over and was looking at us with empty eyes. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no more bones. Burned tires, blackened bones.
Starting point is 00:21:18 I remembered the pit from the field trip. This is where they burn the bodies. What? No, I thought they died in the fire, in the building with Fairchild. After Maria, the ones who didn't survive, this is where they brought them. It's Zoe. Zoe, where are you?
Starting point is 00:21:38 I'm the school. We're online. We're online. Check the game, but it should be running. Did you find anything? Um, yeah. Yeah, we found something. What? The rest of the patients? What? They're bones. Four hundred and fifty-six steps in the woods. That's it then. That's what he wanted us to find. That's the last clue, the bodies. Everyone who died, that's it. They should have beaten the game.
Starting point is 00:22:01 We know what happened. Maria was the first. It worked, but she killed herself, and then covered it up. But it kept happening. No one could beat the game and survive. survive. It was like Susan said, we weren't ready. Our brains weren't ready, so they just kept it going. That's what had happened. And Fairchild had led us to everything we needed to prove it with the clues he'd left us just before he died. I took the laptop from Gamo, but I already knew. My game wasn't over. The clock was still ticking. It hasn't stopped. Fifteen minutes, but it's still ticking down. No, no, that shouldn't be right. Unless that wasn't the last clue. The last clue he typed led you there, but that doesn't mean there isn't another clue there.
Starting point is 00:22:42 Gama, look around while Charlie plays, see if there's anything else, like the watch at the grave. There has to be another clue there. And then another clue, and then another clue. That's how it works. I understood now. Finally, I understood. Hope. Yeah, but that's how you beat the game.
Starting point is 00:22:59 You can't beat the game. What? You've never been able to beat the game. That's been the point since the beginning. We know that. It's a different game. No. No, it's the same game.
Starting point is 00:23:11 Fairchild is the timekeeper. He doesn't want you to uncover a mystery. He doesn't want you to solve a puzzle and get to the end and win. I thought about the video. The talk he gave. A dolphin would drown. A bird would crash and die. Change or die.
Starting point is 00:23:30 He started with money as the reward, but he always knew that life or death stakes was the only way to make it work. So we tried to convince people of that when they came to Shady Pines. that it was real. The buttons in the elevator, the mask he wore. But it was still just a game then. Wait, what are you saying? I'm saying the only way to beat his game
Starting point is 00:23:48 is if he decides you've won. Now, if you don't get to lose, that's not an option. Yeah, Charlie, come on, we're going to figure this out. Susan was right. We have to destroy it. No one else can ever play. No, I'll go back through the game. I'll check the drive.
Starting point is 00:24:02 We may have missed something, okay? But just keep playing. Okay, Charlie, keep playing. We have... forever. We'll keep you awake. We'll help, right, guys? Come on. I imagined all the people telling themselves that in the program. And Fairchild and Susan and the others waiting, watching, hoping, right along with them, waiting for the patterns in their brain to change and stick, not change and then snap.
Starting point is 00:24:28 But the time would always run out. And when the time ran out, the timekeeper came. Charlie, we'll figure something out, okay? Just play. No. What do you mean? No. You can't quit. Yeah, come on. I'll climb into the bone pit and see if there's anything there. No, no, no. Fuck your game. You hear me? Fuck your game! The only way to win is not to play. Well, I'm not playing. Charlie, if you don't play, you die.
Starting point is 00:24:53 And if you do play, you die. Either way, I'm done playing his game. Gama makes him play. Don't let him give up. Charlie, Charlie, come here. Take the laptop. Please. Just move around. Just do something, okay? Keep the clock stopped. I didn't care anymore. I could see Fairchild grin when I closed my eyes, like he was watching me in his observation room. Watching as my brain tore itself apart.
Starting point is 00:25:19 Like he was waiting for a seed he'd planted to shrewd through the dirt and turn into something real and alive. But I was already alive. I'd been alive before I ever started playing. This, his game was just a little slice of reality that I'd made my whole world. I'd chosen to spend every second thinking about his puzzles, his games, and following the clues he'd left. But I was done.
Starting point is 00:25:50 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? Uh, I'm looking into it.
Starting point is 00:26:07 stress less about security. Choose security solutions from TELUS for peace of mind at home and online. Visit tellus.com slash total security to learn more. Conditions apply. Charlie, listen to me. This isn't a game. If we don't beat this, we have to beat this, okay? We have to get the 13th key and stop the clock.
Starting point is 00:26:34 We'll find a way. Sometimes it doesn't matter if you quit or if you keep grinding. You just lose because that's the way it's coded. My mom never quit. But her code said, these genes will kill you. My dad was never going to quit working at Tasty Burger. But he was also never going to win. These were the rules that whoever set up the game decided.
Starting point is 00:26:55 He just followed them. But someone else always set them. Someone else always set the rules. Zoe, what if everyone who played one? What do you mean? Everyone who plays dies because their clock hit zero. Okay, the keys don't matter. The only key that matters is the 13th key
Starting point is 00:27:17 because that's the key that stops the clock. And Fairchild could trigger it no matter what else happened in the game. What are you saying? The code. You have the code. You have the game he uploaded. The game we're all playing, right? Yeah. Yeah, right. So, so can you make it so everyone who plays wins?
Starting point is 00:27:36 How? By triggering the 13th key. How do you know that would work? We don't, but on the video, the one where Maria died, we watched Fairchild trigger the timekeeper in the game to open the last door. That was what stopped the clock for Maria. It would have to be an action everyone who plays the game does. Everyone who plays the game loses.
Starting point is 00:27:53 Exactly. Exactly. When the clock hits zero, the timekeeper comes. Zoe, can you make it so that when the clock hits one second, it triggers the 13th key? One second? We want to give yourself one second? What if it doesn't work? One minute.
Starting point is 00:28:07 That's what we said to do. Can you do that? I think so, but Charlie, that's wasting a lot of the time you have left. Zoe. What? Everyone has died because they've played by Fairchild's rules. Right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:23 At least this way, we're playing by ours. Yeah, okay. Okay, just play until I figure out the code. Plan. Plan. Plan. I sat down in front of the laptop. I was on the casino floor.
Starting point is 00:28:37 The same slot machine Blake had asked me to play. Waiting for it to come up all keys. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open, pressing to spin the slot over and over and over. Charlie, Charlie, stay awake. Come on, I've got you. Any Luxie? Yeah, maybe.
Starting point is 00:28:55 Oh, shit. What is it? I think the alarm was on a timer. Buzz, go make sure no one comes this way. Make sure no one comes this way. Just distract anyone who shows up. On that shit. Okay, I'm saving the change, but there's no way to test it.
Starting point is 00:29:08 I'm sure there is. I took my hands off the keyboard and let the seconds tick away. Charlie, are you sure about this, man? We can keep looking. We've got the whole drive, the graves, all of it we can go through. No. I'm done playing. No matter what happens, I'm done playing.
Starting point is 00:29:28 Okay? Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. You guys remember when my mom would drive us into the city at like 6 a.m. So we could spend all day at six flags wandering around. Gama would pretend he worked there so we could get 50-cent hot dogs. Yeah, yeah, I remember.
Starting point is 00:29:50 Bro, my fake uniform was perfect. Except the patch kept falling off. Got too hot. That wasn't my fault. Besides, it's not like anyone really cared. Those hot dogs probably cost like $7.00 max. I think Zoe set the record for a number of times to throw up in a single day. Hey, look, I don't let little things like motion sickness get in the way of a good time, but I was glad when we switched to the water perk.
Starting point is 00:30:13 And then we all got sick from whatever waterborne death virus was spawned there. Oh, yeah, your poor mom, Charlie. I think she had to pull the car over every five minutes on the way back. Yeah. Yep, she did. I remember she cried, she laughed so hard when she told my dad that night. How much time? Ten more seconds.
Starting point is 00:30:38 Thanks, guys, for everything. Thank me in ten seconds. I wasn't really watching the clock ticked down. I didn't want to see it. I didn't want to think about it. Five. Congratulations, the 13th key is yours. Welcome to a new era, into a new era, into a new era, into a new era.
Starting point is 00:31:13 And just like that, it was over. The clock stopped at one minute, my name was on the leaderboard, just below Maria's. We didn't sleep that night. Gama and I went back and took Buzz's trucks and Zoe and Buzz had taken Timms and drove into Borden. Zoe had made another change to the code. No new players could start a game. So he stayed up until the last players in the game hit one minute,
Starting point is 00:31:36 and then their name showed up on the leaderboard too. People in Borden talked about that night for a long time, but no one ever really knew what happened. We told the sheriff we'd been worried about Tim, so we went to look for him. That we'd split up to try and find him, found the body, and took his keys in his truck into town because our phones weren't working. Turns out no one was too worried about the alarm at the school with all the power issues from the storm
Starting point is 00:31:58 and on account of what happened at Shady Pines. We told them about Susan Graham and the bodies in the woods and Maria's body in the cave. We didn't tell them about the game or the server we'd found it on. That part was just for us, and we had to decide how to handle it.
Starting point is 00:32:15 Kill it with fire. We can't burn it. What if someone else ends up playing it? We wouldn't be able to make any changes. No one can play it if it's destroyed, right? No one can play it if it's offline, and it is offline. It's not connected to any.
Starting point is 00:32:27 All I'm saying is I'd feel better if it was in a million little charred pieces. Oh, I've got a cutting torch. I'll burn it up. Charlie, what do you think? I think we lock it up. Where? You have a gun safe. No, absolutely 100% no.
Starting point is 00:32:40 I am not keeping the cursed ghost game in my garage. So that's what we did. We kept it in a thick safe. And most days we forgot it was there. The first few weeks of school all anyone talked about was Blake and Tim and Shady Pines and the manhunt for all the people who used to work there. And how the whole place was there. had to be cursed. There were even a lot of Shady Pine's costumes for Halloween. But
Starting point is 00:33:02 then it was done. My shoulder was back to normal. Gama and Zoe and I were up all night every weekend playing video games and planning out trips we could take together from our respective colleges. And sometimes Buzz was around even though he and Zoe had called things off before Thanksgiving. And every day, one of us would sign on and check the server address and make sure it was offline. And every day it was. So what's the next All-Nighter? I've actually been modding the old amnesia since they released the source files, so we could do a Christmas Eve playthrough. Gama will love that.
Starting point is 00:33:40 Tell him to restock his holy water. Come in. Hey, I, uh, brought dinner. I know you don't love tasty burger, but... No, that's great. I'm starving. Oh, all right. Hey, uh, I'm gonna go easy. Hi, Mr. Dempsey. Hi, Zoe. Tell your parents I said hello and Merry Christmas.
Starting point is 00:34:01 We'll do. Merry Christmas. Later. It felt like things were getting back to normal. Maybe even a better normal. Come in. Hey, it was just going through the security logs from last quarter. There was a weird sign-in. What do you mean?
Starting point is 00:34:27 Um, it was someone who hasn't worked here, or even, well, been alive in like 10 years. What did they do? Dumped a bunch of files, like an automatic thing, just came online and just transferred everything over. Okay. Uh, well, scan them, go through them, make sure there's nothing malicious. Probably just an old server bank that came back on for maintenance or something. All right, we'll do. I don't know. The Timekeeper, Episode 4, features Judah Lewis as Charlie, Chandler Kinney, as Zoe, and Arjunitalier as Gama.
Starting point is 00:35:39 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 Kailen Moore, Matthew A. Brown, and Judah Lewis. The Timekeeper is a production from Heart Starts Pounding. Additional cast includes Guy Kent as Jacob Fairchild, Princess Elmore as Susan Graham,
Starting point is 00:36:12 Hugo Pierre Martin as Stan, Matt Anspaugh as Buzz, Brian Wiggins as The Man, and Darren Revitz as the woman.

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