HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 3 "Shady Pines. "

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 https://www.patreon.com/heartstartspounding 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 https://www.tiktok.com/@heartstartspounding?lang=en and⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/heartstartspounding/ for a daily dose of horror.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Kaelyn Moore?

  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. Judah Lewis, who you may know from the babysitter film franchise on Netflix. Chandler Kinney, one of the stars of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. And Arjun Atali, 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 5:00 PM Pacific. Thanks, guys.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  We'd 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'd been no sign of a login or any clue from Fairchild. Everything in the game seemed to be part of the game.

• 0:55Speaker 01

  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

• 1:40Speaker 01

  sense. I got the key and moved to the next floor.

• 1:45Speaker 01

  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 a game. It felt like someone was poking around inside my head, like the Timekeeper, Fairchild, 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 Blake had been playing.

• 2:15Speaker 02

  Charlie. Hey, Charlie.

• 2:18Speaker 01

  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.

• 2:29Speaker 02

  Sour gummies.

• 2:30Speaker 03

  For breakfast?

• 2:31Speaker 02

  It's a road trip breakfast.

• 2:33Speaker 03

  Okay, sour gummies. Charlie? Sour gummies. Great, two sour gummies. Good brain food. Glad we're not solving life or death puzzles or anything.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  Sitting in the cab, it was the first time Zoe and I had been alone together in months. Granted Buzz was pumping gas a 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 Buzz and Gama were still bookending us.

• 3:14Speaker 03

  I am... I'm gonna use the restroom.

• 3:18Speaker 02

  You should take the laptop.

• 3:20Speaker 03

  Just play it for me.

• 3:21Speaker 02

  Ha.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  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 was outside around the back.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  It smelled like old piss and cigarettes, and the urinal was half-filled with cigarette butts, floating like rose petals in 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?

• 4:00Speaker 01

  I heard the tick tock. I'd heard so much it took me a second to realize I shouldn't be hearing it with the laptop in the car.

• 4:08Speaker 01

  But it wasn't the tinny speaker sound. It was 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.

• 4:24Speaker 01

  Hello?

• 4:29Speaker 01

  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.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  A tall, dark figure with a mask. A mask covered in eyes that darted in every direction at once. I turned,

• 4:47Speaker 01

  but there was no one there. But on the door, scratched in big letters across the gray metal,

• 4:54Speaker 01

  were two words: "Tick." "Top."

• 5:02Speaker 03

  Bro, what's wrong?

• 5:03Speaker 01

  The door. Look at the door.

• 5:05Speaker 03

  What? What am I looking at?

• 5:06Speaker 01

  Gamma held the door open and looked.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  For a good time call, your mom? Is that what I'm supposed to be seeing?

• 5:11Speaker 01

  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.

• 5:22Speaker 03

  Charlie, you good?

• 5:24Speaker 01

  It was right here.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  What was?

• 5:26Speaker 01

  Nothing. Nothing. Um... I'm just... tired, I guess. Never mind.

• 5:34Speaker 03

  Okay, well, here are your gummies. I gotta take a leak and some muffins too in case you two idiots decide you want something besides sugar for breakfast.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  There's more sugar in the muffins.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  Whatever.

• 5:45Speaker 03

  Don't worry, I got it.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  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.

• 6:15Speaker 02

  Charlie! Charlie, come here!

• 6:19Speaker 03

  I think I might have the password.

• 6:20Speaker 02

  It shut off.

• 6:21Speaker 03

  The computer?

• 6:22Speaker 02

  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.

• 6:28Speaker 03

  New names where?

• 6:29Speaker 02

  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.

• 6:40Speaker 04

  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.

• 6:48Speaker 02

  How much time did you have?

• 6:50Speaker 01

  Please don't make me do math right now.

• 6:52Speaker 02

  Charlie, we need to know how much time you have.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Seven hours, fifty-eight minutes. Six keys.

• 6:57Speaker 02

  Okay, so four hundred seventy-eight minutes. You were in the bathroom too, let's round down to four hundred seventy. And then half that.

• 7:05Speaker 01

  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 fifteen 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.

• 7:27Speaker 03

  How much further?

• 7:29Speaker 02

  Almost there.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  Guys, look. There's Tim's truck. Al's auto where the sheriff said they'd leave it. Still hasn't got there. 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.

• 7:45Speaker 02

  Okay, turn right up here, then we cross Nine Mile Bridge and then it's just a mile or so off the road.

• 7:51Speaker 03

  Uh, I don't think we're crossing Nine Mile Bridge.

• 7:54Speaker 01

  Nine Mile Bridge was a nothing little bridge over what was usually a nothing little creek. But they'd opened the floodgates upstream like the sheriff had warned. And there was a forty-foot-wide whitewater river rushing over the road. We could barely see the top of the sign that said Nine Mile Bridge.

• 8:08Speaker 04

  Bro, she's a swimmer. You should see her. I take her through Crooked Creek all the time. Crooked Creek is a creek. That is a river.

• 8:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think Gama's right.

• 8:17Speaker 04

  Okay, we'll test it out then. Just a little toe in.

• 8:20Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

• 8:21Speaker 04

  Guys, guys, I'm telling you, we crossed this. No problem. Gotcha.

• 8:25Speaker 02

  Buzz, chill. Just give it a sec.

• 8:29Speaker 02

  Oh, shit, shit, shit. We need to get to Shady Pines and get the server back on. We need more time.

• 8:35Speaker 03

  So we split up. I don't want to go to that creepy ghost place anyway. There's gotta 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.

• 8:43Speaker 02

  And then what? Charlie and Buzz get into the server? I don't think so.

• 8:47Speaker 04

  Hey, G-Man, I'll go with you. I got raincoats and shit all in the toolbox.

• 8:51Speaker 02

  We need your truck, though.

• 8:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. You take it.

• 8:54Speaker 01

  I got it. I wasn't friends with Buzz. Gamma 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 than me, too.

• 9:19Kaelyn Moore?

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• 10:02Kaelyn Moore?

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• 10:19Speaker 03

  You got everything? Yeah, we'll go you as soon as we're there. Okay, same. Good luck. Bye, babe.

• 10:25Speaker 02

  Bye.

• 10:27Speaker 02

  Gamma, be careful.

• 10:29Speaker 03

  You, too.

• 10:36Speaker 01

  As we sped away, I watched Gamma and Buzz. Pontos on, climbing the barbed wire fence to walk upstream 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 Gamma 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. We hoped whatever Buzz and Gamma found would help. We were all exhausted. I could tell Zoe was fighting to stay awake.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  You good?

• 11:22Speaker 02

  Huh? Oh, yeah. Hand me the gummies.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  I'm not sure.

• 11:27Speaker 02

  Charlie, the gummies are all I have. Just give them to me.

• 11:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. Sure.

• 11:36Speaker 01

  Thanks. For being here.

• 11:41Speaker 02

  Don't really have a choice. My best friend decided to get himself cursed.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  Your best friend hasn't been much of a friend lately.

• 11:48Speaker 02

  Look, we both want the same thing.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  We do?

• 11:52Speaker 02

  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.

• 12:05Speaker 01

  But what about Buzz? He's like, never leaving.

• 12:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, I... 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.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  Oh. I guess, I just thought...

• 12:27Speaker 02

  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...

• 12:51Speaker 02

  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. It just... so many people in this town are here because of that. And then where do they end up, you know?

• 13:11Speaker 01

  They end up here, where they started.

• 13:14Speaker 02

  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... we're not gonna lose.

• 13:29Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 13:30Speaker 02

  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. You and me and Gamma and Buzz.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  Sometimes Buzz.

• 13:46Speaker 02

  Promise.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  I promise.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  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.

• 14:01Speaker 03

  I'll check the gate.

• 14:06Speaker 01

  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 sawed it and cut.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  I pulled the chain free and pushed the gates open.

• 14:25Speaker 02

  Unlock?

• 14:26Speaker 03

  Someone cut it.

• 14:30Speaker 02

  It's Gamma.

• 14:32Speaker 02

  Gamma, are you there? What did you find? Zoe? Zoe, can you hear me? Barely. Tim, we found Tim. Where? Is he alive? No, no, no, he looks like he was.

• 14:42Speaker 05

  I don't know, I don't know. He leaned up against this 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 up again, but there's something burned into the tree.

• 14:52Speaker 02

  What?

• 14:54Speaker 05

  I just sent you the picture.

• 14:55Speaker 01

  I knew what would be there before I saw the image. Two words: tick-tock. Like they'd been branded into the bark.

• 15:02Speaker 02

  Where did you find him? At the coordinates?

• 15:05Speaker 05

  No, I mean, almost. Just outside.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  What do you mean, outside?

• 15:08Speaker 05

  There's a cave in the side of the hill.

• 15:10Speaker 02

  What's in it?

• 15:11Speaker 05

  In it? Why would we go in?

• 15:12Speaker 02

  You have to go in, G.

• 15:14Speaker 05

  Here, bro, you can take the machete. I don't want the machete, Buzz. Okay, then just use the pocket knife. That's cool. Buzz, as far as I know, knives don't work on ghosts.

• 15:22Speaker 02

  Gama.

• 15:23Speaker 05

  Yeah?

• 15:24Speaker 02

  You've gotta go in.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  No, they don't. This is my mess. I'm the one who decided to play.

• 15:30Speaker 05

  Exactly, exactly. It is your mess. I said, "Don't play. Black cat, broken game, don't play." I said that, and you said, "I am Charlie, here's my name and date of birth and my social security number, please come and murder me."

• 15:41Speaker 01

  You don't have to go.

• 15:42Speaker 02

  Charlie?

• 15:43Speaker 01

  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... Then we're all playing the game. We're all at risk.

• 15:56Speaker 05

  Shut up, dumbass. Buzz, give me the talking knife. Close. Please, please, close it. Seriously. It's gonna be so slippery in there. We're going in. Charlie, you owe me. You're my new raid partner at any time of day or night.

• 16:08Speaker 01

  Gama, wait!

• 16:09Speaker 05

  We'll call him, we're out.

• 16:10Speaker 02

  Be careful.

• 16:11Speaker 05

  Sure, babe. You too.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  Zoe, I don't know what's happening.

• 16:16Speaker 02

  Neither do I, and I'm pretty sure there's someone who doesn't want us to know.

• 16:20Speaker 01

  You really don't have to do this.

• 16:21Speaker 02

  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.

• 16:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:40Speaker 01

  The dirt road had turned to mud and we fishtailed 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 into 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.

• 17:01Speaker 02

  It looks like a bunker.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  The walls were overgrown with weeds and dried, dead vines climbing all the way to the top and over onto the roof. There were few pieces of equipment parked around: a bulldozer, a backhoe, a closed trailer, and one old pickup truck.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  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.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  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.

• 17:40Speaker 02

  Glad Buzz had flashlights. Here.

• 17:45Speaker 01

  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.

• 17:55Speaker 02

  Charlie, you see this?

• 17:56Speaker 01

  Zoe shined her flashlight on the floor in front of us. Footsteps. Zoe leaned down and touched them. Muddy.

• 18:03Speaker 02

  Hello? Anybody in here?

• 18:07Speaker 01

  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.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Worker must have come back to shut it down.

• 18:19Speaker 02

  I'm gonna turn them back on.

• 18:22Speaker 02

  Tell me if you see the server start up. It'll take it a while to reboot, but you should at least be able to see if it's trying.

• 18:32Speaker 01

  I held the laptop open and watched the connection.

• 18:35Speaker 02

  Anything?

• 18:36Speaker 01

  Not yet.

• 18:38Speaker 02

  There's no labels on these stupid things.

• 18:41Speaker 01

  Wait, it's going. How long will it take?

• 18:44Speaker 02

  I don't know, it's ancient, so... Probably a few minutes.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  Anything from Gamma?

• 18:50Speaker 02

  No, not yet.

• 18:53Speaker 02

  Reception is going in and out in here.

• 18:54Speaker 01

  Same.

• 19:02Speaker 01

  I don't think we're going the right way.

• 19:04Speaker 04

  What do you mean? It's a cave, bro. Only one way to go.

• 19:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, in and out. Right now, we're going in, and I think the right way to go is out.

• 19:13Speaker 04

  You ever been cave diving?

• 19:14Speaker 01

  No.

• 19:15Speaker 04

  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.

• 19:27Speaker 01

  Forever?

• 19:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, just floating into the dark, getting smaller and smaller, and then, poof, gone.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  That's horrifying. Please, never mention it again.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  Do you hear that? The ticking?

• 19:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear it.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  Okay, Buzz, I think I'll trade you for the machete now.

• 19:51Speaker 02

  Where are you going?

• 19:52Speaker 01

  I wanna see something. I walked down the hall towards the elevator. The doors were closed.

• 19:57Speaker 02

  Charlie, I know your brain isn't working great, but we probably don't wanna take the elevator, given the power situation.

• 20:05Speaker 01

  I know, I know, I just... I wanna see inside.

• 20:10Speaker 01

  I shoved a pry bar between the door panels, and Zoe helped force them apart.

• 20:16Speaker 01

  I shined the flashlight inside on ten years of dust and cobwebs.

• 20:20Speaker 02

  What are you looking for?

• 20:21Speaker 01

  I wanna see how many floors there are.

• 20:27Speaker 02

  Jesus.

• 20:30Speaker 02

  Okay, I'm awake now.

• 20:32Speaker 01

  I leaned into the elevator. It was just like in the game. Floors one through B12. But I could see one of the buttons was cracked around the edges. B11. I ran my finger around it, and it fell off in my hand. I gave it to Zoe.

• 20:49Speaker 02

  It's not connected to anything.

• 20:50Speaker 01

  I peeled them off, one by one, until there were only three floors left.

• 20:55Speaker 02

  Why would they do that?

• 20:57Speaker 01

  I don't know. I remember Blake said Tim had told him the building was different. I guess this is what he meant.

• 21:03Speaker 02

  Okay, so how many floors are there really?

• 21:05Speaker 01

  Three.

• 21:06Speaker 02

  Is the server back?

• 21:08Speaker 01

  Um, still connecting. Wait. No, it's working. I'm in.

• 21:16Speaker 01

  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 10 minutes.

• 21:28Speaker 02

  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.

• 21:34Speaker 01

  He's not gonna like you doing that on his computer.

• 21:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, he doesn't like being in that cave either.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  I pulled up my inventory. J. Fairchild's badge and the string of characters in the description were still there, like I'd remembered them.

• 21:46Speaker 02

  Okay, read them to me.

• 21:48Speaker 01

  I read her the characters.

• 21:50Speaker 02

  Wish me luck.

• 21:51Speaker 01

  Luck.

• 21:53Speaker 02

  Holy shit, it worked. I'm J. Fairchild. I need to find the last saved game file before he made the changes. Then I can run a comparison to see what's different. Charlie, keep playing. This could take a minute.

• 22:11Kaelyn Moore?

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• 23:40Kaelyn Moore?

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• 24:17Speaker 04

  Ah, damn, you were right, G. This is slippery.

• 24:19Speaker 03

  Boss, keep it down.

• 24:21Speaker 04

  The echo sounds so cool, though.

• 24:23Speaker 03

  Do you see that? Bones. Why are there flowers here?

• 24:29Speaker 04

  Bro, people bring flowers to graves to, like, remember the person, you know?

• 24:32Speaker 03

  Yes, thank you. I am familiar with that tradition. What I meant was, why are there fresh flowers here now?

• 24:38Speaker 04

  Dude, you know, I don't know. Someone must have brought them.

• 24:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, the ticking is coming from underneath. Boss, what the hell? You don't disturb corpses. This whole game is already cursed. I don't want extra evil spirits following us around.

• 24:48Speaker 04

  What? We gotta find whatever clue is here, no? To lead to the treasure.

• 24:52Speaker 03

  I think the dead body is the clue. And for the last time, there is no treasure.

• 24:56Speaker 04

  Wait, hold on, hold on, G. I think there's something here.

• 24:59Speaker 03

  Wait, that's like the watch from the video. The old pocket watch Fairchild had. Maybe this was Fairchild.

• 25:05Speaker 04

  Hmm, it looks kind of small. Hey, here, lay down and see if you're taller.

• 25:10Speaker 03

  I am not laying down next to a pile of bones. Boss, look at the skull.

• 25:17Speaker 04

  Damn, bro. Smashed up pretty bad.

• 25:21Speaker 03

  I think we got what we need. Let's just take some pictures and get out of here.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  Any luck?

• 25:32Speaker 02

  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...

• 25:52Speaker 01

  What? What is it?

• 25:54Speaker 02

  456E.

• 25:56Speaker 01

  What?

• 25:57Speaker 02

  It's like, um, uh, 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 456E.

• 26:14Speaker 01

  That's all there is? Those are the only changes?

• 26:18Speaker 02

  Yep, that's it.

• 26:20Speaker 02

  Maybe he didn't finish, maybe he was typing out something longer.

• 26:24Speaker 01

  Like what?

• 26:25Speaker 02

  Well, 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.

• 26:34Speaker 01

  Three clues. The first one got us the next two. We could've 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.

• 26:47Speaker 02

  You mean we have to solve them in order?

• 26:49Speaker 01

  Exactly. In the game, the key for the next level is on the level before.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  And there's something else we know.

• 26:54Speaker 01

  What?

• 26:55Speaker 02

  He was in a hurry.

• 26:56Speaker 01

  So?

• 26:57Speaker 02

  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.

• 27:13Speaker 01

  So one of the changes should reference something on the server?

• 27:17Speaker 02

  Does. Does reference something on the server. The coordinates of the cave. There's a video file with the same name.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  Play it.

• 27:27Speaker 02

  Oh shit, that's Fairchild.

• 27:29Speaker 01

  It was Fairchild in a woman in her 30s. They were in an observation room at Shady Pines, looking at monitors showing the rooms in the facility.

• 27:37Speaker 02

  Who's the woman?

• 27:38Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 27:39Speaker 06

  So, Dr. Graham, do you agree? I do. 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 inconsistent for the last 6 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.

• 28:09Speaker 01

  Susan Graham. S. Graham.

• 28:12Speaker 02

  What?

• 28:12Speaker 01

  The other name on the leaderboard. I brought up the leaderboard again. S. Graham. The time's still ticking away with zero keys.

• 28:20Speaker 06

  Aren't you forgetting something? You're right. Maria Shepherd, 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 gonna be very famous, Maria. One day soon, everyone will know your name. Now let me see if I remember how to actually trigger it. The timekeeper finally loses. Thank god. May not need this anymore.

• 28:47Speaker 01

  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.

• 29:01Speaker 02

  What?

• 29:02Speaker 01

  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.

• 29:11Speaker 02

  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.

• 29:18Speaker 06

  There we go.

• 29:20Speaker 01

  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.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  He's in the game the whole time. He's on the other side of the door.

• 29:37Speaker 02

  What door?

• 29:38Speaker 01

  The last door. The lowest level, the red light on the other side of the keyhole.

• 29:43Speaker 06

  And we're done. With a little time left to spare, Maria. Congratulations, we drink to you.

• 29:51Speaker 05

  What's she doing? What's happening to her?

• 29:56Speaker 01

  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 screaming, and the machines charting her brain functions looked like they were screaming too.

• 30:12Speaker 02

  Jesus.

• 30:17Speaker 01

  Zoe and I watched as Maria banged her head into the desk over and over. Blood pouring down her face. And then she stood and sprinted full speed into the door with her head lowered.

• 30:31Speaker 01

  Her neck snapped and she fell to the ground in a pile.

• 30:34Speaker 02

  Holy shit. Is she...

• 30:37Speaker 01

  She's dead.

• 30:40Speaker 02

  It shut down again, the server.

• 30:42Speaker 01

  Breakers?

• 30:45Speaker 02

  No, breaker's still on. Oh shit, we have to go down. Server room is on the lowest level, right?

• 30:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:53Speaker 02

  Come on, then.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  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.

• 31:01Speaker 02

  What's wrong?

• 31:02Speaker 01

  I didn't want to go down. But I knew we had to. Part of me had always known I would have to.

• 31:09Speaker 02

  Charlie? We got this.

• 31:12Speaker 01

  Zoe put her hand on mine and turned the handle.

• 31:17Speaker 01

  The door swung open. And we stepped inside.

• 31:21Speaker 01

  I knew there was no turning back.

• 31:28Speaker 07

  The Timekeeper, episode three, features Judah Lewis as Charlie, Chandler Kinney as Zoe, and Arjun Atalier 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 Marika Perlmutter. Executive produced by Kaelyn Moore, Matthew A. Brown, and Judah Lewis. The Timekeeper is a production from Heart Starts Pounding. Additional cast includes Matt Ansba as Buzz,

• 32:09Speaker 07

  Guy Kent as Jacob Fairchild, and Princess Elmore as Susan Graham.

• 32:33Kaelyn Moore?

  Do you want more Darkly Curious stories in your life? Sign up for our Patreon for free and get access to a rotating shelf of bonus content, our weekly Rogue Detecting Society newsletter, and the HSP Book Club. Paid members also get monthly bonus episodes and archive access, which I think is more than 40 episodes at this point. You also get a cool jinx sticker after your first three months. And you can check it all out with a free seven-day trial. Link in the bio or go to patreon.com backslash Heart Starts Pounding. But whatever you do, stay curious.