Chasing Phantoms

I'd love to tell you all about where I'm headed, but I'm afraid that a certain busybody is making that quite difficult. I can tell you however, that I am planning on verifying the latest video - one way or another. There is a name I'd like to share with you.

"Timothy Kirby"

Also unlikely but possibly named "Timothy Mayfield-Kirby" or "Timothy & Kirby Mayfield".

Let me tell you that I have a number of theories as to the nature of these videos. The videos seem to have been definitely made by man, but the circumstances under which this happened seem to be rather extraordinary. Children and invalids kidnapped, possibly. Government sponsored? Who knows. I fear I was, before my memory loss, involved in this project. Something strange there, though. Something not entirely scientific.

And that's why I'm going where I'm going, rather than heading straight for the ninth video.

At this moment, Dr. Samuel Tyler is of no importance to any of us. Contacting him would be a waste of time.

Johnathan "boardmoderator" Smith seems to be a bit of a troublemaker. Keep an eye on him.

I'll update after I get where I'm going. Then, off to the next video we shall go.

Video 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYhhVC-5ugg

Not sure what exactly to think of it. Placed upon the doorstep. Seems like I could be set up. Watching it, the feelings I got didn't... feel like they used to. I suppose these people are as familiar as the others, but I'm not sure how much of that is me simply wanting them to be familiar.

I have some more leads to follow. I hope my trusty helpers will be willing to help me out when I decide to deal with those. Information will be posted tomorrow.

For now, I will continue to examine this video - comparing it to the others.

Memories (what little we retain)

"I remember the day you first walked into my office: the lanky, blonde boy with not a single iota of personal history. You were friendly, shy, and there seemed to be an infinite amount of knowing and sadness in your eyes. Whatever horrible things had happened to you before your memory loss seemed to have stayed, latched on in some way. You weren't haunted by any specific thing. Instead, you found yourself victim to a large number of vague and terrifying feelings. Your inability to figure out what these things were only worsened your condition.

"I was very afraid for you.

"Over the course of five years, my worries have slowly evaporated into pride. You've made friends, become employed, and proven that you are a strong person of tremendous character. The flaws you have only serve to emphasize your best characteristics. You are heading for California now, and I find myself like the proud father watching as his son packs to leave home. My sadness over you leaving is only quelled by the satisfaction that you are doing something with your life. You may never find what you have lost, but I know you will build something new - something grand.

Your friend,
B. Grigorev"

I keep this letter with me at all times. It means a lot to me. I know that with the things I do, it is sometimes difficult for people to relate to me. Whatever destiny these videos hold for me, I am a person.

Please, if you know anything and you're for some reason not interested in playing the game, hand over the information anyway. I want so little, and I feel like I'm so close to it at times that I can hardly fail to grasp it.

An excerpt: six names

1. Steven Pearsall - Lewistown
2. John B. Reamer - Helena
3. Alexander Wright - Lyons
4. Benjamin Cannon - Omaha
5. Robert Pillsen-Rahier - Colorado Springs
6. Daniel Edmonds, Jr. - Salem

I've been busy at work with these names. I think I've drawn a basic connection between five of them, but I have a problem. Perhaps you all could help?

I do not know what to do about Alexander Wright. He is the most elusive of these individuals. I am having difficulty finding information out about him. Perhaps you could step in? Draw a concrete connection between him and the others?

Once this is done, the eighth video may very well just be a handful of hours away. I warn you, though - some of the information in the list I found in the book is outdated. He may no longer be living anywhere named "Lyons".

Finding Seven

He lived in Arcadia district alone. A tiny little house upon a hill. He's the one who inspired this little trip.

The thing with the Wyoming Incident is that, once you moved away from the pissant boards and started your own digging, you could find a whole bunch of stuff. I found a man with two things: a video and a book.

I've already shared the video with you. The book will come soon. Very soon.

He told me he'd fallen asleep on his living room couch once. He woke up in the middle of the night. Around 3:30 or so. Noticed some headlights in his driveway. Very unusual. No real friends or family in the area. Lots of farmland. Figured someone was lost or having car troubles.

Got the gun he kept at home anyway.

They stayed in the car. Four silhouettes. No sound, no light inside the car. After about half an hour, they drove off. In all that time, he'd never even once considered calling the police. Strange occurrence.

Around a month later, he again fell asleep on the couch. Upon waking up this time, there were no headlights in his driveway. Instead, he saw two eyes peering in at him. He was paralyzed with fear. It was a child. Finally working up the courage to get up and near the door, he saw that there were two more behind the first.

He sank back a little.

They rang the doorbell. He answered the door. They wanted to know if he had a video. He knew what they wanted. He told them they weren't welcome, and he shut the door. That's all he'd need to do.

That night, he dreamed of a shop his father used to take him to in Missouri. A little hardware store that he'd wander around in whenever he was unfortunate enough to be dragged there. A man approached him and took his hand. He led him down into the basement.

And that's when he saw the children. Lined up, tied up, and with absolutely horrified looks frozen on their faces. The man sat him across from them. He walked over to his captives. He took out a gun. He shot each child in the back of the head. There was surprisingly little blood.

And when he was done, all of their eyes were empty. It was like something from within them had been emptied.

And that's when he woke up.

He spent so long trying to find someone who would understand these videos and what they can potentially do to those who watch them. He found me.

I've taken his video. And now I've even got a little book as a nice bonus.

The videos aren't meant for him.

They were always meant for me.

You know this, and you'll keep playing anyway.

Take My Arms

Explanations come soon.

And then, perhaps you all will help me find the eighth video?

Hear My Words

Closer, now. You will find this blog, I'm sure. They'll think it's such a smart idea to show it to you, but I know all you want to do is play the game.

It's fun, isn't it?

You help me out, and I'll let you be a part. Don't deny it - there is something to the Wyoming Incident that will always drive you back to it. Something you can't articulate. Something in the videos. Something in your mind. Something in mankind's heart.

So don't blame yourself for not helping them. It's only natural to want to play.

And it never has to end. We'll keep playing and watching until our eyes and arms will bleed, and we'll laugh like children in the dark.

Not long before I get the video. The 20th, they tell me. They tell me I'll have it by the 20th.

And if I need help to get the other videos, will you help me?

I have so much to teach you.

You don't even know half the rules of this game you play.

Video 7

I have talked to people who knew about the Wyoming Incident before it was called "The Wyoming Incident". A series of videos, origins completely unknown, passed back and forth between people. Videos that inspired madness. Videos that somehow found their way into the hands of an untalented goon.

I don't need Bambos anymore. I don't need SomethingAwful anymore.

I know how to get my videos now.

It will require some questionable actions on my part, but I will have it in a matter of days. The seventh video.

Sorry to keep you all waiting. I have been traveling for so, so long.

My Background

I was found wandering the streets of Lusk, Wyoming in March of 1999. I had a severe head wound, and I did not know where I was, who I was, or what had happened to me. They picked me up on East 3rd Street. A stranger in a small town. An injured stranger in a small town. An injured stranger in a small town who had no clue as to who he was.

They took me to Cheyenne. To a hospital there where I could stay until my identity was figured out.

They estimated that I was about somewhere between twenty and twenty-five years old. My fingerprints and DNA have never matched anything in any known database. Such a thing isn't too uncommon. What is uncommon is that my amnesia hasn't faded, and no one in all this time has stepped forward with my identity. Notices on me were sent to hospitals (both medical and psychiatric) and police stations and... just about everywhere. Nothing. It was like I'd just sprang into being one day in the middle of Nowhere, Wyoming.

In 2004, I expressed interest to leave the "housing" provided for me in Cheyenne. A small apartment was provided for me in Huron, California. My doctor had once lived there, and I thought it was about as far away as I could get from Wyoming.

An obsession with my origin took over, and I soon plunged into researching the circumstances of my appearance online. It provided a sort of escape for me, the hope that I could some day find my old life.

In early 2007, I found a video that, strangely enough, happened to be related to Lusk, Wyoming.

And the face in it was hauntingly familiar. Something grabbed at me, and I could barely speak or breathe as I watched the video. That first video is the only one Bambos hasn't poisoned with his "clever editing". What better one to draw people in?

I followed the happenings of the Wyoming Incident. I was sucked into it. I stayed with it, through parts good and bad. Every video made it worth it for me. Every one of the early stories touched at my very core.

And then videos stopped coming, and the stories became trite expositions for stupid characters in a conceited mythology. Still, I stayed. Maybe there would be more?

My obsession was only hindered by the overbearing presence of the doctor who saw fit to keep an eye on me. He had been an acquaintance of my doctor in Cheyenne, and he lived in a neighboring county. I guess he had an interest in amnesiacs or something... he certainly went out of his way to "visit" me.

For years I tolerated his annoying presence. For months I tolerated the inane happenings of the Happy Cube. I'm not sure which was worse.

In the end, I decided to abandon both.

But I had to keep playing the game. I'd just be playing it somewhere else.

I've been doing my own independent research, and boy, is it paying off.

Analysis

The children might have been real. Perhaps in the beginning. The strange shadows, the horrible places that lay just on the edge of reality, the lunatics... all these things may very well have been real. The so-called Puppetmasters were able to tie them into the videos easily enough, I suppose.

But Gods? Muses? Fantastical, Lovecraftian beings that argued like children amongst themselves? The work of incompetent writers who were barely able to string along twenty some people a week with their insipid storylines.

The videos and the original stories... these are the only things that have kept the Wyoming Incident alive. And Senor Bambos can't even honestly claim this as his own. It's sad, isn't it?

I think I've seen the children. I don't know who they are or who they belong to. Perhaps it's all in my head. A paranoia of sorts. You can feel them watching you sometimes, can't you?

The nape of your neck twitches.

You sense the truth.

And it's more frightening than any God ever conceived of.

On the Wyoming Incident

I could never write a memoir. It's an unfortunate thing, I suppose. I think of all the happy memories other people have, and then I think of my own barren past. I have nothing but a fog in my mind. This fog was so thick for so long... until early 2007. Having resigned myself to an empty life in a tiny apartment in a tiny city, I used my computer to try and escape reality. I never imagined I'd find a way to transcend it.

I found the Wyoming Incident videos, and they shone a light into my past. I know those faces. It's an instinctive feeling. Were some of these faces my parents? Brothers and sisters? Lovers? I don't know who they were. I only know they were a part of the life I lost. I played the game. Greek mythology, Aleister Crowley, children with darkened eyes... it went on and on. There was an unraveling mythology, but it provided me no real answers. I continued to play, and sometimes I would message whichever dupe was currently running the forum. The game provided no answers, and the administrators ignored me.

And then it was revealed to all be a prank. It was a joke. Was I supposed to laugh?

I didn't.

Bambos and the others have bastardized something very real. I'm sure they think those videos are awful funny, but I need to know where they came from. They'd didn't make them.

Bambos goes on and on about how easily he made the videos. He once claimed he made the third one in under fifteen minutes! He posted some (incredibly vague) details about how he generated the faces and effects and so on... but he refuses to make any more videos himself.

Isn't that strange? You'd think he'd at least do a funny fake one like so many at Something Awful have requested him to do... but no, he can't be bothered.

He doesn't make anymore because he can't. He didn't make them in the first places. That's why his details about making them are so inconsistent, why they're so vague, why he's never bothered to make another. He is a snickering moron and a liar. Not a flattering combination.

The stories, too. People on his own website have attested to his lack of writing ability - to his desperate dreams of one day being a "serious" writer. His stories are always so mediocre and underwhelming.

Those stories that gripped your heart and made you feel paranoid while you were "playing" the Wyoming Incident? Not his. Two of them were actually found archived on a website that went back to 1997.

And all those awful, rambling, silly little stories that came after the good ones? Completely his. Figures.

Bambos and the others who stood by him have plagiarised something they can't even begin to understand. There is a reason the Wyoming Incident videos act like a primal, fearful force in the minds of those who watch them, and I aim to find out what that reason is.

Years wasted in a hospital in Cheyenne. More years wasted in a dust town in California. Now... freedom.

It makes me want to laugh until I am sick.