HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 4 "Win Or Die."

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 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?

  This episode is brought to you by Prenuvo. When it comes to your health, there's a lot that you can't see or feel. And sometimes having more information can make all the difference. That's where Prenuvo comes in. Prenuvo offers proactive, whole body MRI scans designed to help identify potential health concerns, including many cancers, aneurysms, and other conditions, sometimes before symptoms appear. The Prenuvo scan is non-invasive, uses no radiation, and is designed to give people a detailed picture of what's happening inside their bodies. Taking care of your health isn't just about responding when something feels wrong. It's about being proactive and making informed decisions. Prenuvo is helping people take a different approach to understanding their health.

• 0:43Kaelyn Moore?

  To learn more about Prenuvo and get $300 off your whole body MRI, go to prenuvo.com/hsp and use code HSP. That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O dot com slash HSP. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Primally Pure. I feel like every time I run out of a product in my bathroom, I have this moment where I go, okay, do I just order the same thing? Or do I finally make a better swap? And that thinking is exactly what got me into Primally Pure. They're a female-founded brand that keeps it really simple. Fewer, better ingredients, and nothing you can't pronounce. I just got an order from Primally Pure, and I am obsessed with their lip oil.

• 1:24Kaelyn Moore?

  I also got Eucalyptus and Lavender Body Butter, which has spa vibes for sure. If you want an easy starting point, their Clean Start Bundle is a great place to start. For under $50, you get three everyday essentials: their best-selling aluminum-free deodorant, a mini body butter, and the lip oil that I love. It's also a really thoughtful gift if you know someone who's been wanting to clean up their routine. Use code HSP to get 15% off your Primally Pure purchase. That's W-W-W dot P-R-I-M-A-L-L-Y-P-U-R-E dot com and use code HSP at checkout for 15% off your order. Hey, Heart Starts Pounding listeners. I hope you've been enjoying our special four-part presentation of The Timekeeper.

• 2:05Kaelyn Moore?

  This is a fictional audio drama that we produced, working with some fantastic actors. Jutta 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 the finale episode of the series, and thank you for all your support.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  We stood at the top of the stairwell and listened. Nothing but the creaking of the old building.

• 2:38Speaker 01

  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.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  We reached the lowest level and opened the door into a dark hallway like the one on the first floor. Only the inner wall was lined with rooms with open metal doors. Everything was scorched and on the back of the doors were scratched two words: Tick-tock.

• 3:11Speaker 02

  This is where they died?

• 3:13Speaker 01

  I could imagine someone showing up here. Desperate, taken off a street corner, signing up for the program, and being led down the hall to the elevator with thirteen floors. And then locked in the tiny room to play the game. To earn ascent for every second, knowing if they didn't win, if they didn't find the thirteenth key, it 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.

• 3:58Speaker 02

  Charlie? You hear that?

• 4:01Speaker 01

  Zoe pulled me 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.

• 4:22Speaker 03

  You shouldn't be here. No one should be here.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  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. Susan Graham.

• 4:48Speaker 03

  I'm sorry it has to be this way. We thought it was over. But this time, we'll be sure this time.

• 4:58Speaker 01

  You're S. Graham?

• 5:00Speaker 03

  Yes. And you're Charlie Dempsey. And you, I don't know who you are, dear. Because you're not playing the game.

• 5:12Speaker 02

  You locked him in here, didn't you? You're the one who set it on fire. It wasn't fair, child.

• 5:18Speaker 03

  We made a deal with the devil. So it was our responsibility. You understand?

• 5:26Speaker 02

  Your responsibility to what?

• 5:28Speaker 03

  To kill the devil.

• 5:31Speaker 01

  She turned when she said it, 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.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  But this time, we'll be sure.

• 5:44Speaker 02

  What is that? What are you gonna do?

• 5:47Speaker 03

  Make sure no one else dies.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  No one else dies? If you destroy the game, everyone playing is going to die.

• 5:53Speaker 03

  Everyone in the game always dies. That's the point. You can't beat it. The only way to win is not to play. It's funny, isn't it?

• 6:07Speaker 03

  It's funny.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  No, no, that isn't true. Maria won.

• 6:14Speaker 03

  Maria didn't win. She killed herself.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  But in the video, you thought she won, that, that it had worked.

• 6:23Speaker 03

  It did work, in its way. That's why we kept going. That's why we agreed, 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.

• 6:56Speaker 03

  Because that's what he told us. And whatever Jacob told you, you believed.

• 7:03Speaker 02

  But it didn't work.

• 7:05Speaker 03

  We're just not ready. The human brain, sure, you can break it apart. You just can't do much with the pieces.

• 7:14Speaker 01

  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.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  We did what we had to do.

• 7:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, is that why you killed Blake and Tim? Because you had to?

• 7:31Speaker 03

  No, Jacob killed them. I don't know how, but I know it was him.

• 7:38Speaker 02

  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.

• 7:50Speaker 01

  456E. What's 456E?

• 7:55Speaker 03

  Nothing.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  It can't be nothing. It's the last clue Fairchild left in the game, the night you killed him.

• 8:01Speaker 03

  Jacob wasn't himself anymore. Whatever you think he was telling you, I promise you, it doesn't mean anything.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  No, no, that, that's how we win. That's how we beat the game.

• 8:14Speaker 03

  Trust me, child. I know the look in your eyes. I've seen it a hundred times. 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. But like I said, we're not ready.

• 8:49Speaker 02

  Charlie, come on, we need to go.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  Zoe, if the server goes, everyone playing dies.

• 8:54Speaker 02

  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?

• 9:03Speaker 03

  The gun is just to make sure nobody gets in the way of what has to be done.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  Zoe, she's telling the truth.

• 9:09Speaker 02

  The truth about what?

• 9:10Speaker 01

  Blake and Tim.

• 9:11Speaker 02

  Charlie, I know we haven't slept in two days, but...

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Zee, do you trust me?

• 9:16Speaker 02

  Yes, but...

• 9:17Speaker 01

  Then race me.

• 9:19Speaker 02

  What?

• 9:20Speaker 01

  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.

• 9:38Speaker 03

  I think it's about time you two left me alone.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Susan had the gun in one hand and a chain in the other.

• 9:44Speaker 02

  To the wall?

• 9:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. Zoe let her eyes drift to the wall behind Susan.

• 9:49Speaker 02

  Fine.

• 9:50Speaker 01

  Zoe and I took a step backward through the door, and then dipped low

• 9:55Speaker 01

  and launched ourselves across the room.

• 10:02Speaker 02

  Charlie, grab the gun.

• 10:04Speaker 01

  Got it.

• 10:05Speaker 02

  I think she's out.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  After they went over the wheelbarrow, Susan slammed the back of her head into the cement.

• 10:09Speaker 02

  Oh shit, Charlie, you're bleeding.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  I barely felt it when the gun went off, but now I felt the warm trickle of blood down my left arm.

• 10:16Speaker 02

  Are you shot?

• 10:17Speaker 01

  It's fine.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  It's fine unless you touch it.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  You have to put pressure on it.

• 10:21Speaker 01

  Pressure is what hurts. Okay, forget about my arm. We have three minutes to get out of here.

• 10:26Speaker 02

  Well, I don't know how to defuse a bomb, but I do know how to eject a hard drive, so if you say we need it...

• 10:30Speaker 01

  We do. Zoe ran her hands down the server rack.

• 10:33Speaker 02

  There's only one drive that's not melted. That's the one Fairchild died protecting. So that's the one we take.

• 10:40Speaker 01

  Zoe pulled the drive from its slot and shoved it into the backpack.

• 10:43Speaker 02

  Come on!

• 10:44Speaker 04

  What about Susan?

• 10:45Speaker 02

  Charlie, we don't have time. Come on, we have to go!

• 10:48Speaker 01

  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.

• 10:57Speaker 02

  Open it!

• 10:59Speaker 04

  I can't! It's chained.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  "We." 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.

• 11:15Speaker 04

  Maybe she has the keys.

• 11:16Speaker 01

  We checked Susan's pockets, but there was nothing. The detonator timer said two minutes, which meant Susan only had thirty seconds or so left in the game.

• 11:24Speaker 04

  She's almost out of time.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  We're almost out of time.

• 11:28Speaker 02

  Forget keys. We shoot the lock. Come on.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  We ran toward the elevator and as we did, we saw the floor counter above it counting down. It was fake, too. Lights for thirteen floors, even though we knew they were only three. But still, they went off, one by one, counting down to our floor.

• 11:48Speaker 02

  What's happening?

• 11:50Speaker 01

  He's here. Susan staggered into the doorway behind us.

• 11:55Speaker 02

  Who's here?

• 11:56Speaker 01

  The timekeeper.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  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.

• 12:21Speaker 02

  Charlie, the gun.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  The light shut off and the figure was gone.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  When they flashed again... He was ten feet closer.

• 12:31Speaker 02

  The gun!

• 12:32Speaker 01

  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.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  So we fired point blank through him. But there was nothing there.

• 12:49Speaker 03

  It's been a long time, Jacob.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  I could feel him moving past us, through us. The hair on my arms standing up like I was in a lightning storm. And the smell was so strong, it was like everyone being burned alive right now. In this moment. We turned towards Susan and he appeared in front of her. His back to us.

• 13:10Speaker 03

  It is tonight.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Joey, the elevator.

• 13:18Speaker 04

  Come on, come on, come on, come on. We're, we're, we're.

• 13:31Kaelyn Moore?

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• 14:15Kaelyn Moore?

  built on a reputation for quality and reliability. So when it's time for your next Toyota, you could trade in for more. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow. A Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

• 14:33Speaker 04

  Are you okay? Are you alright? Zoe.

• 14:37Speaker 02

  What just happened?

• 14:38Speaker 04

  Zoe, Zoe. It's okay. Okay, he didn't care about us. He saw that. Our time was up. He only cared about her.

• 14:47Speaker 02

  But your time, Charlie, your time is up next.

• 14:50Speaker 01

  Zoe grabbed my good hand. And we stood there. Facing each other. While the elevator climbed in slow motion.

• 14:58Speaker 02

  Charlie, you're not allowed to die. I can't do a year here without you.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  You won't have to. I'm gonna beat the game.

• 15:05Speaker 02

  Promise me.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  I promise. We were standing so close. Everything was almost touching.

• 15:12Speaker 02

  We have a lot of things to do once we leave this town.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  But first we have to get out of here.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  How much time do we have?

• 15:25Speaker 04

  I don't know. Maybe thirty seconds?

• 15:28Speaker 01

  We made it to the front door, but it was chained to. We could push it open just enough to see the old pickup truck was gone.

• 15:33Speaker 04

  Come on! We've gotta find another way. It's Gamma. Hey! Charlie, there were flowers! Someone has to know, okay? Someone has to be watching, so be careful. Flowers? Where? In the cave. There were bones, and the skull was all smashed in, and there were fresh flowers, like someone had just dropped them off. Maria. Why? Never mind.

• 15:52Speaker 02

  Charlie, we've gotta find a way out of here.

• 15:54Speaker 04

  Where are you guys? Shady Pines, but we're stuck. What do you mean? Jesus, fuck, keep it on the road! I mean, we're locked in, and the whole place is about to go up. What do you mean, go up? 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 gray door in front? Yeah. Great, how do you know about the door? I moved out of the way! Fuck, fuck it! Oh shit, Zoe, move!

• 16:17Speaker 01

  Zoe and I dove behind the reception desk, just as the front of Tim's pickup widened the front entry by about six feet.

• 16:28Speaker 01

  We climbed over the desk and onto the hood of the truck.

• 16:31Speaker 04

  Reverse, reverse!

• 16:34Speaker 01

  The wheels 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 through my shoulder.

• 16:58Speaker 01

  The sound was like nothing I'd ever heard. Like being inside of a giant speaker stack. Like our bodies were being vibrated to put out the sound. We saw the fireball in 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.

• 17:18Speaker 05

  Are you guys okay? What happened?

• 17:20Speaker 01

  We caught each other up. They'd found Tim's keys on his body and took his truck from Al's when they couldn't get ahold of us. We told them what we found inside and showed them the drive.

• 17:29Speaker 05

  It's real. The game is really cursed. It's almost like I was saying that the whole time and no one believed me.

• 17:36Speaker 02

  We believe you now. But it doesn't matter. What matters is beating it.

• 17:39Speaker 06

  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's gonna have seen and heard that explosion.

• 17:47Speaker 01

  Gama was right. If we stayed, we'd be answering questions from police while the last of my time and everyone else's in the game ticked away.

• 17:53Speaker 02

  We have to figure out the last clue. But we need to get the game back online so we have more time.

• 17:58Speaker 05

  Four, five, six, E. It has to be the order.

• 18:02Speaker 06

  The order of what?

• 18:03Speaker 05

  The order of the changes.

• 18:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, maybe. But we don't have time to figure it out here.

• 18:08Speaker 01

  She was right. But I knew I was close. I had to be close. The other changes all made sense, all led us to something. Why would the last one be different?

• 18:17Speaker 06

  Give me a sec. Buzz, let me see Fairchild's watch.

• 18:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, I got you, bro. I took the watch from Buzz. The ticking made me shudder. The first clue. The login. The second clue. The grave. The video. He wanted us to know what happened to Maria.

• 18:34Speaker 02

  Any ideas?

• 18:35Speaker 01

  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. 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.

• 18:54Speaker 02

  Charlie, it's gonna take twenty 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.

• 19:01Speaker 01

  Four, five, six, E. Maybe he just ran out of time. 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. 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.

• 19:28Speaker 06

  Charlie, what are you doing? You good?

• 19:30Speaker 01

  Four, five, six, E.

• 19:33Speaker 06

  Yeah, we know.

• 19:34Speaker 01

  No, look. It, it's a compass. Four fifty-six E. Four fifty-six east. Maybe that's what he was trying to say. Four hundred fifty-six east. I looked to the east. Thick woods directly behind Shady Pines.

• 19:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, but four hundred fifty-six what?

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Maybe it's four hundred fifty-six steps.

• 19:53Speaker 02

  Maybe. Yeah, maybe, but if it's not, we're not getting back here and into town before the clock runs out.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  So we split up again. You guys go into town. I check it out.

• 20:03Speaker 02

  What? No.

• 20:04Speaker 06

  Yeah, you're not going by yourself.

• 20:06Speaker 01

  You guys have done enough, okay? If the police show up, you don't want to be here and we already know the timekeeper only cares about people in the game.

• 20:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, but we care about you.

• 20:14Speaker 06

  Okay. I'll go with Charlie. You guys get the game back on.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  You don't have to come, G.

• 20:18Speaker 06

  Shut up. You can barely hold the laptop and I'm not even sure you can count that high.

• 20:22Speaker 02

  Remember what I told you? We're not losing. We'll call you from the school.

• 20:27Speaker 01

  Thanks, Zoe. Be careful.

• 20:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, you too.

• 20:37Speaker 06

  Well. Into the woods we go.

• 20:41Speaker 01

  We walked around the smoldering facility and the construction equipment scattered around it. Flames still shot up occasionally from the center of the building, but everything was so wet, there wasn't a chance of it spreading. We stopped at the edge of the tree line and turned our flashlights on.

• 20:54Speaker 06

  All right. I guess we start counting.

• 20:57Speaker 01

  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 four hundred, the tree cover was so dense we couldn't see the moon. But at four forty, we entered a small rocky clearing where the moonlight broke through enough for us to see without the flashlights.

• 21:20Speaker 06

  There's nothing here.

• 21:22Speaker 05

  Well, uh, let's just walk around.

• 21:26Speaker 05

  Gamma, watch out.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  You couldn't see it until you were on top of it. But there was a shallow pit, as big around as a hot tub and about as deep.

• 21:35Speaker 06

  Thanks. It's a big hole. Reminds me of the fire pits we made at school for Thanksgiving.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  Light the match.

• 21:42Speaker 06

  What match?

• 21:44Speaker 05

  No, that was the line in the game that Fairchild replaced. The last change, light the match.

• 21:49Speaker 01

  We shined our flashlights into the pit. There were chunks of wood, broken branches that had washed there over the years and probably today. Grass grew up through them, but there was something else.

• 22:02Speaker 01

  Something black and burnt.

• 22:04Speaker 06

  Are those tires?

• 22:05Speaker 01

  I stepped down into the pit and felt the uneven rubber under my feet.

• 22:12Speaker 06

  My dad would probably want these.

• 22:14Speaker 05

  Gamma.

• 22:15Speaker 06

  What?

• 22:16Speaker 05

  Look.

• 22:17Speaker 01

  I shined my flashlight where Gamma had just kicked. He thought it was a rock, but the rock had rolled over and was looking at us with empty eyes.

• 22:26Speaker 05

  No, no, no, no, no. No more bones.

• 22:31Speaker 01

  Burnt tires, blackened bones. I remembered the pit from the field trip. This is where they burned the bodies.

• 22:40Speaker 06

  What? No, I thought they died in the fire, in the building with Fairchild.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  After Maria, the ones who didn't survive, this is where they brought them.

• 22:51Speaker 05

  It's Zoe. Zoe, where are you?

• 22:54Speaker 07

  At the school. We're online. Check the game, but it should be running. Did you find anything?

• 23:00Speaker 05

  Um, yeah, yeah, we found something.

• 23:02Speaker 07

  What?

• 23:03Speaker 05

  The rest of the patients.

• 23:05Speaker 07

  What?

• 23:06Speaker 05

  Their bones. Four hundred and fifty-six steps in the woods.

• 23:09Speaker 07

  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. We know what happened. Maria was the first. It worked, but she killed herself and they covered it up. But it kept happening. No one could beat the game and survive. It was like Susan said, we weren't ready. Our brains weren't ready, so they just kept it going.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  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 Gamma. But I already knew. My game wasn't over. The clock was still ticking.

• 23:45Speaker 04

  It hasn't stopped. Fifteen minutes, but it's still ticking down.

• 23:48Speaker 07

  No. No, no, that shouldn't be right. Unless... 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. Gama, look around what Charlie plays. See if there's anything else, like, like the watch at the grave. There has to be another clue there.

• 24:04Speaker 04

  And then another clue, and then another clue. That's how it works.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  I understood now. Finally, I understood. Hope.

• 24:14Speaker 07

  Yeah, but that's how you beat the game.

• 24:15Speaker 04

  You can't beat the game. What? You've never been able to beat the game. That's been the point since the beginning.

• 24:22Speaker 07

  We know that, but this is a different game.

• 24:25Speaker 04

  No. No, it's the same game. 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.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  I thought about the video. The talk he gave.

• 24:39Speaker 01

  A dolphin would drown. A bird would crash and die.

• 24:43Speaker 04

  Change or die. 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 he 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 is if he decides you've won.

• 25:06Speaker 07

  No, you don't get to booze. That's not an option.

• 25:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, Charlie, come on. We're gonna figure this out. Susan was right. We have to destroy it. No one else can ever play.

• 25:16Speaker 07

  No, I'll go back through the game. I'll check the drive. 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!

• 25:28Speaker 01

  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. But the time would always run out. And when the time ran out, the timekeeper came.

• 25:49Speaker 07

  Charlie, we'll figure something out, okay? Just play.

• 25:53Speaker 01

  No.

• 25:54Speaker 07

  What do you mean, no? You can't quit.

• 25:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, come on, I'll climb into the bone pit and see if there's anything there.

• 25:59Speaker 04

  No, 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.

• 26:08Speaker 01

  Charlie, if you don't play, you die.

• 26:09Speaker 04

  And if you do play, you die. Either way, I'm done playing his game.

• 26:15Speaker 07

  Garmo, make him play. Don't let him give up.

• 26:17Speaker 01

  Charlie, 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. Like he was waiting for a seed he'd planted to shoot 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.

• 27:01Speaker 01

  But I was done.

• 27:03Kaelyn Moore?

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• 27:46Kaelyn Moore?

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• 28:05Speaker 07

  Charlie? Listen to me.

• 28:10Speaker 07

  This isn't a game. If we don't beat this...

• 28:15Speaker 07

  We have to beat this, okay? We have to get the 13th key and stop the clock. We'll find a way.

• 28:23Speaker 01

  Sometimes it doesn't matter if you quit or if you keep grinding. You just lose because that's the way it's coded.

• 28:30Speaker 01

  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 gonna win. These were the rules that whoever set up the game decided. He just followed them. But someone else always set them. Someone else always set the rules.

• 28:53Speaker 04

  Zoe!

• 28:54Speaker 07

  What?

• 28:54Speaker 04

  What if everyone who played won?

• 28:57Speaker 07

  What do you mean?

• 28:58Speaker 04

  Everyone who plays dies because their clock hits zero. Okay, the keys don't matter. The only key that matters is the 13th key because that's the key that stops the clock. And Fairchild could trigger it no matter what else happened in the game.

• 29:09Speaker 07

  What are you saying?

• 29:11Speaker 04

  The code. You have the code. You have the game he uploaded. The game we're all playing, right?

• 29:17Speaker 07

  Yeah. Yeah, right.

• 29:20Speaker 04

  So, so can you make it so everyone who plays wins? How? By triggering the 13th key. How do you know that would work? We don't, but, 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.

• 29:35Speaker 07

  It would have to be in action everyone who plays the game does.

• 29:38Speaker 04

  Everyone who plays the game loses. 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?

• 29:53Speaker 07

  One minute. That's what we said to do.

• 29:55Speaker 04

  Can you do that?

• 29:57Speaker 07

  I think so, but Charlie, that's wasting a lot of the time you have left. What if we...

• 30:01Speaker 04

  Zoe.

• 30:03Speaker 07

  What?

• 30:04Speaker 04

  Everyone has died because they've played by Fairchild's rules. Right?

• 30:09Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 30:10Speaker 04

  At least this way, we're playing by ours.

• 30:14Speaker 07

  Yeah, okay. Okay, just play until I figure out the code.

• 30:17Speaker 01

  Plan.

• 30:18Speaker 07

  Plan.

• 30:19Speaker 05

  Plan.

• 30:20Speaker 01

  I sat down in front of the laptop. I was on the casino floor. 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.

• 30:34Speaker 05

  Charlie? Charlie, stay awake! Come on, I've got you!

• 30:39Speaker 05

  Any luck, C?

• 30:41Speaker 07

  Yeah, maybe. Oh shit.

• 30:44Speaker 05

  What is it?

• 30:46Speaker 07

  I think the alarm was on a timer. Buzz, go make sure no one comes this way. Just distract anyone who shows up. On that shit. Okay, I'm saving the change, but... There ain't no way to test it.

• 30:56Speaker 01

  Sure there is. I took my hands off the keyboard and let the seconds tick away.

• 31:02Speaker 05

  Charlie, are you sure about this, man? We can keep looking, we've got, we've got the whole drive, the graves, all of it we can go through.

• 31:08Speaker 01

  No. I'm done playing. No matter what happens. I'm done playing. Okay?

• 31:17Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 31:18Speaker 07

  Yeah. Okay.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  You guys remember when, uh... My mom would drive us into the city at like... 6 a.m. so we could spend all day at Six Flags wandering around and... Gamma would pretend he worked there so we could get fifty cent hot dogs?

• 31:35Speaker 07

  Yeah, yeah, I remember.

• 31:37Speaker 05

  Bro, my fake uniform was perfect.

• 31:39Speaker 07

  Except the patch kept falling off.

• 31:40Speaker 05

  Got too hot! That wasn't my fault. Besides, it's not like anyone really cared. Those hot dogs probably cost like seven cents max.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  I think Zoe set the record for number of times to throw up in a single day.

• 31:51Speaker 07

  Hey, look, I don't let little things like motion sickness get in the way of hookah time, but... I was glad when we switched at the water park.

• 32:00Speaker 05

  And then, and then we all got sick from whatever waterborne death virus was spawned there.

• 32:03Speaker 07

  Oh, yeah, your poor mom, Charlie. I think she had to pull the car over every five minutes on the way back.

• 32:12Speaker 05

  Yeah. Yep, she did. I remember she cried, she laughed so hard when she told my dad that night.

• 32:20Speaker 07

  How much time?

• 32:22Speaker 01

  Ten more seconds. Thanks. Guys. For everything.

• 32:28Speaker 07

  Think me in ten seconds.

• 32:30Speaker 01

  I wasn't really watching the clock tick down. I didn't want to see it. I didn't want to think about it.

• 32:36Speaker 05

  Five.

• 32:47Speaker 04

  Congratulations, the thirteenth key is yours. Welcome to a new era. Into a new era. Into a new era. Into a new era.

• 33:00Speaker 01

  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 Tim's. And drove into Borden. Zoe had made another change to the code. No new players could start a game. So we stayed up until the last players in the game hit one minute. 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 and 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.

• 33:46Speaker 01

  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.

• 34:02Speaker 06

  Kill it with fire.

• 34:03Speaker 02

  We can't burn it. What if someone else ends up playing it? We wouldn't be able to make any changes.

• 34:08Speaker 06

  No one can play it if it's destroyed, right?

• 34:09Speaker 02

  No one can play it if it's offline. And it is offline. It's not connected to anything.

• 34:14Speaker 06

  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?

• 34:22Speaker 01

  I think we lock it up.

• 34:23Speaker 06

  Where?

• 34:24Speaker 01

  You have a gun safe.

• 34:25Speaker 06

  No, absolutely, one hundred percent no. I am not keeping the cursed ghost game in my garage.

• 34:31Speaker 01

  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 had to be cursed. There were even a lot of Shady Pines costumes for Halloween. But 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.

• 35:18Speaker 01

  So what's the next all-nighter?

• 35:20Speaker 02

  I've actually been modding the old Amnesia since they released the source files, so we could do a Christmas Eve playthrough.

• 35:25Speaker 01

  Gama will love that.

• 35:27Speaker 02

  Tell him to restock his holy water.

• 35:30Speaker 01

  Come in.

• 35:33Speaker 06

  Hey, I brought dinner. I know you don't love tasty burger, but...

• 35:37Speaker 01

  No, that's great. I'm starving.

• 35:40Speaker 06

  Oh, alright.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  Hey, I'm gonna go eat, Zee.

• 35:43Speaker 02

  Hi, Mr. Dempsey.

• 35:44Speaker 06

  Hi, Zoe. Tell your parents I said hello and Merry Christmas.

• 35:48Speaker 02

  Will do. Merry Christmas.

• 35:50Speaker 01

  Later. It felt like things were getting back to normal.

• 35:55Speaker 01

  Maybe even a better normal.

• 36:05Speaker 08

  Come in.

• 36:08Speaker 09

  Hey, I was just going through the security logs from last quarter. There was a weird sign-in.

• 36:13Speaker 08

  What do you mean?

• 36:14Speaker 09

  Um, it was someone who hasn't worked here, or even, well, been alive in like ten years.

• 36:21Speaker 08

  What did they do?

• 36:23Speaker 09

  Dumped a bunch of files, like, an automatic thing. Just came online and just transferred everything over.

• 36:29Speaker 08

  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.

• 36:37Speaker 09

  Alright, will do.

• 37:17Speaker 10

  The Timekeeper, episode four, 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 Merrick Pearl Mutter. Executive produced by Kaelyn 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, Hugo Pierre Martin as Stan,

• 38:02Speaker 10

  Matt Ansba as Buzz, Brian Wiggins as The Man, and Darren Revitz as The Woman.

• 38:35Kaelyn 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.