Pod Insights Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 4 "Win Or Die." About this episode 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.
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Transcript 6,370 words · 11 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Kaelyn 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.
0:43 Kaelyn 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.
1:24 Kaelyn 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.
2:05 Kaelyn 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.
2:31 Speaker 01 We stood at the top of the stairwell and listened. Nothing but the creaking of the old building.
2:38 Speaker 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.
2:56 Speaker 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.
3:11 Speaker 02 This is where they died?
3:13 Speaker 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.
3:58 Speaker 02 Charlie? You hear that?
4:01 Speaker 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.
4:22 Speaker 03 You shouldn't be here. No one should be here.
4:27 Speaker 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.
4:48 Speaker 03 I'm sorry it has to be this way. We thought it was over. But this time, we'll be sure this time.
4:58 Speaker 01 You're S. Graham?
5:00 Speaker 03 Yes. And you're Charlie Dempsey. And you, I don't know who you are, dear. Because you're not playing the game.
5:12 Speaker 02 You locked him in here, didn't you? You're the one who set it on fire. It wasn't fair, child.
5:18 Speaker 03 We made a deal with the devil. So it was our responsibility. You understand?
5:26 Speaker 02 Your responsibility to what?
5:28 Speaker 03 To kill the devil.
5:31 Speaker 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.
5:42 Speaker 03 But this time, we'll be sure.
5:44 Speaker 02 What is that? What are you gonna do?
5:47 Speaker 03 Make sure no one else dies.
5:49 Speaker 01 No one else dies? If you destroy the game, everyone playing is going to die.
5:53 Speaker 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?
6:07 Speaker 03 It's funny.
6:11 Speaker 01 No, no, that isn't true. Maria won.
6:14 Speaker 03 Maria didn't win. She killed herself.
6:18 Speaker 01 But in the video, you thought she won, that, that it had worked.
6:23 Speaker 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.
6:56 Speaker 03 Because that's what he told us. And whatever Jacob told you, you believed.
7:03 Speaker 02 But it didn't work.
7:05 Speaker 03 We're just not ready. The human brain, sure, you can break it apart. You just can't do much with the pieces.
7:14 Speaker 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.
7:26 Speaker 03 We did what we had to do.
7:27 Speaker 02 Yeah, is that why you killed Blake and Tim? Because you had to?
7:31 Speaker 03 No, Jacob killed them. I don't know how, but I know it was him.
7:38 Speaker 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.
7:50 Speaker 01 456E. What's 456E?
7:55 Speaker 03 Nothing.
7:56 Speaker 01 It can't be nothing. It's the last clue Fairchild left in the game, the night you killed him.
8:01 Speaker 03 Jacob wasn't himself anymore. Whatever you think he was telling you, I promise you, it doesn't mean anything.
8:10 Speaker 01 No, no, that, that's how we win. That's how we beat the game.
8:14 Speaker 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.
8:49 Speaker 02 Charlie, come on, we need to go.
8:51 Speaker 01 Zoe, if the server goes, everyone playing dies.
8:54 Speaker 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?
9:03 Speaker 03 The gun is just to make sure nobody gets in the way of what has to be done.
9:08 Speaker 01 Zoe, she's telling the truth.
9:09 Speaker 02 The truth about what?
9:10 Speaker 01 Blake and Tim.
9:11 Speaker 02 Charlie, I know we haven't slept in two days, but...
9:13 Speaker 01 Zee, do you trust me?
9:16 Speaker 02 Yes, but...
9:17 Speaker 01 Then race me.
9:19 Speaker 02 What?
9:20 Speaker 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.
9:38 Speaker 03 I think it's about time you two left me alone.
9:41 Speaker 01 Susan had the gun in one hand and a chain in the other.
9:44 Speaker 02 To the wall?
9:45 Speaker 01 Yeah. Zoe let her eyes drift to the wall behind Susan.
9:49 Speaker 02 Fine.
9:50 Speaker 01 Zoe and I took a step backward through the door, and then dipped low
9:55 Speaker 01 and launched ourselves across the room.
10:02 Speaker 02 Charlie, grab the gun.
10:04 Speaker 01 Got it.
10:05 Speaker 02 I think she's out.
10:06 Speaker 01 After they went over the wheelbarrow, Susan slammed the back of her head into the cement.
10:09 Speaker 02 Oh shit, Charlie, you're bleeding.
10:11 Speaker 01 I barely felt it when the gun went off, but now I felt the warm trickle of blood down my left arm.
10:16 Speaker 02 Are you shot?
10:17 Speaker 01 It's fine.
10:19 Speaker 01 It's fine unless you touch it.
10:20 Speaker 02 You have to put pressure on it.
10:21 Speaker 01 Pressure is what hurts. Okay, forget about my arm. We have three minutes to get out of here.
10:26 Speaker 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...
10:30 Speaker 01 We do. Zoe ran her hands down the server rack.
10:33 Speaker 02 There's only one drive that's not melted. That's the one Fairchild died protecting. So that's the one we take.
10:40 Speaker 01 Zoe pulled the drive from its slot and shoved it into the backpack.
10:43 Speaker 02 Come on!
10:44 Speaker 04 What about Susan?
10:45 Speaker 02 Charlie, we don't have time. Come on, we have to go!
10:48 Speaker 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.
10:57 Speaker 02 Open it!
10:59 Speaker 04 I can't! It's chained.
11:01 Speaker 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.
11:15 Speaker 04 Maybe she has the keys.
11:16 Speaker 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.
11:24 Speaker 04 She's almost out of time.
11:25 Speaker 02 We're almost out of time.
11:28 Speaker 02 Forget keys. We shoot the lock. Come on.
11:33 Speaker 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.
11:48 Speaker 02 What's happening?
11:50 Speaker 01 He's here. Susan staggered into the doorway behind us.
11:55 Speaker 02 Who's here?
11:56 Speaker 01 The timekeeper.
12:07 Speaker 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.
12:21 Speaker 02 Charlie, the gun.
12:24 Speaker 01 The light shut off and the figure was gone.
12:28 Speaker 01 When they flashed again... He was ten feet closer.
12:31 Speaker 02 The gun!
12:32 Speaker 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.
12:43 Speaker 01 So we fired point blank through him. But there was nothing there.
12:49 Speaker 03 It's been a long time, Jacob.
12:55 Speaker 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.
13:10 Speaker 03 It is tonight.
13:12 Speaker 01 Joey, the elevator.
13:18 Speaker 04 Come on, come on, come on, come on. We're, we're, we're.
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14:33 Speaker 04 Are you okay? Are you alright? Zoe.
14:37 Speaker 02 What just happened?
14:38 Speaker 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.
14:47 Speaker 02 But your time, Charlie, your time is up next.
14:50 Speaker 01 Zoe grabbed my good hand. And we stood there. Facing each other. While the elevator climbed in slow motion.
14:58 Speaker 02 Charlie, you're not allowed to die. I can't do a year here without you.
15:02 Speaker 01 You won't have to. I'm gonna beat the game.
15:05 Speaker 02 Promise me.
15:06 Speaker 01 I promise. We were standing so close. Everything was almost touching.
15:12 Speaker 02 We have a lot of things to do once we leave this town.
15:15 Speaker 01 Yeah.
15:20 Speaker 01 But first we have to get out of here.
15:24 Speaker 02 How much time do we have?
15:25 Speaker 04 I don't know. Maybe thirty seconds?
15:28 Speaker 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.
15:33 Speaker 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.
15:52 Speaker 02 Charlie, we've gotta find a way out of here.
15:54 Speaker 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!
16:17 Speaker 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.
16:28 Speaker 01 We climbed over the desk and onto the hood of the truck.
16:31 Speaker 04 Reverse, reverse!
16:34 Speaker 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.
16:58 Speaker 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.
17:18 Speaker 05 Are you guys okay? What happened?
17:20 Speaker 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.
17:29 Speaker 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.
17:36 Speaker 02 We believe you now. But it doesn't matter. What matters is beating it.
17:39 Speaker 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.
17:47 Speaker 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.
17:53 Speaker 02 We have to figure out the last clue. But we need to get the game back online so we have more time.
17:58 Speaker 05 Four, five, six, E. It has to be the order.
18:02 Speaker 06 The order of what?
18:03 Speaker 05 The order of the changes.
18:05 Speaker 02 Yeah, maybe. But we don't have time to figure it out here.
18:08 Speaker 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?
18:17 Speaker 06 Give me a sec. Buzz, let me see Fairchild's watch.
18:20 Speaker 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.
18:34 Speaker 02 Any ideas?
18:35 Speaker 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.
18:54 Speaker 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.
19:01 Speaker 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.
19:28 Speaker 06 Charlie, what are you doing? You good?
19:30 Speaker 01 Four, five, six, E.
19:33 Speaker 06 Yeah, we know.
19:34 Speaker 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.
19:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, but four hundred fifty-six what?
19:51 Speaker 01 Maybe it's four hundred fifty-six steps.
19:53 Speaker 02 Maybe. Yeah, maybe, but if it's not, we're not getting back here and into town before the clock runs out.
19:59 Speaker 01 So we split up again. You guys go into town. I check it out.
20:03 Speaker 02 What? No.
20:04 Speaker 06 Yeah, you're not going by yourself.
20:06 Speaker 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.
20:12 Speaker 02 Yeah, but we care about you.
20:14 Speaker 06 Okay. I'll go with Charlie. You guys get the game back on.
20:17 Speaker 01 You don't have to come, G.
20:18 Speaker 06 Shut up. You can barely hold the laptop and I'm not even sure you can count that high.
20:22 Speaker 02 Remember what I told you? We're not losing. We'll call you from the school.
20:27 Speaker 01 Thanks, Zoe. Be careful.
20:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, you too.
20:37 Speaker 06 Well. Into the woods we go.
20:41 Speaker 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.
20:54 Speaker 06 All right. I guess we start counting.
20:57 Speaker 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.
21:20 Speaker 06 There's nothing here.
21:22 Speaker 05 Well, uh, let's just walk around.
21:26 Speaker 05 Gamma, watch out.
21:28 Speaker 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.
21:35 Speaker 06 Thanks. It's a big hole. Reminds me of the fire pits we made at school for Thanksgiving.
21:40 Speaker 01 Light the match.
21:42 Speaker 06 What match?
21:44 Speaker 05 No, that was the line in the game that Fairchild replaced. The last change, light the match.
21:49 Speaker 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.
22:02 Speaker 01 Something black and burnt.
22:04 Speaker 06 Are those tires?
22:05 Speaker 01 I stepped down into the pit and felt the uneven rubber under my feet.
22:12 Speaker 06 My dad would probably want these.
22:14 Speaker 05 Gamma.
22:15 Speaker 06 What?
22:16 Speaker 05 Look.
22:17 Speaker 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.
22:26 Speaker 05 No, no, no, no, no. No more bones.
22:31 Speaker 01 Burnt tires, blackened bones. I remembered the pit from the field trip. This is where they burned the bodies.
22:40 Speaker 06 What? No, I thought they died in the fire, in the building with Fairchild.
22:44 Speaker 01 After Maria, the ones who didn't survive, this is where they brought them.
22:51 Speaker 05 It's Zoe. Zoe, where are you?
22:54 Speaker 07 At the school. We're online. Check the game, but it should be running. Did you find anything?
23:00 Speaker 05 Um, yeah, yeah, we found something.
23:02 Speaker 07 What?
23:03 Speaker 05 The rest of the patients.
23:05 Speaker 07 What?
23:06 Speaker 05 Their bones. Four hundred and fifty-six steps in the woods.
23:09 Speaker 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.
23:31 Speaker 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.
23:45 Speaker 04 It hasn't stopped. Fifteen minutes, but it's still ticking down.
23:48 Speaker 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.
24:04 Speaker 04 And then another clue, and then another clue. That's how it works.
24:08 Speaker 01 I understood now. Finally, I understood. Hope.
24:14 Speaker 07 Yeah, but that's how you beat the game.
24:15 Speaker 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.
24:22 Speaker 07 We know that, but this is a different game.
24:25 Speaker 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.
24:35 Speaker 01 I thought about the video. The talk he gave.
24:39 Speaker 01 A dolphin would drown. A bird would crash and die.
24:43 Speaker 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.
25:06 Speaker 07 No, you don't get to booze. That's not an option.
25:09 Speaker 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.
25:16 Speaker 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!
25:28 Speaker 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.
25:49 Speaker 07 Charlie, we'll figure something out, okay? Just play.
25:53 Speaker 01 No.
25:54 Speaker 07 What do you mean, no? You can't quit.
25:56 Speaker 01 Yeah, come on, I'll climb into the bone pit and see if there's anything there.
25:59 Speaker 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.
26:08 Speaker 01 Charlie, if you don't play, you die.
26:09 Speaker 04 And if you do play, you die. Either way, I'm done playing his game.
26:15 Speaker 07 Garmo, make him play. Don't let him give up.
26:17 Speaker 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.
27:01 Speaker 01 But I was done.
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28:05 Speaker 07 Charlie? Listen to me.
28:10 Speaker 07 This isn't a game. If we don't beat this...
28:15 Speaker 07 We have to beat this, okay? We have to get the 13th key and stop the clock. We'll find a way.
28:23 Speaker 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.
28:30 Speaker 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.
28:53 Speaker 04 Zoe!
28:54 Speaker 07 What?
28:54 Speaker 04 What if everyone who played won?
28:57 Speaker 07 What do you mean?
28:58 Speaker 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.
29:09 Speaker 07 What are you saying?
29:11 Speaker 04 The code. You have the code. You have the game he uploaded. The game we're all playing, right?
29:17 Speaker 07 Yeah. Yeah, right.
29:20 Speaker 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.
29:35 Speaker 07 It would have to be in action everyone who plays the game does.
29:38 Speaker 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?
29:53 Speaker 07 One minute. That's what we said to do.
29:55 Speaker 04 Can you do that?
29:57 Speaker 07 I think so, but Charlie, that's wasting a lot of the time you have left. What if we...
30:01 Speaker 04 Zoe.
30:03 Speaker 07 What?
30:04 Speaker 04 Everyone has died because they've played by Fairchild's rules. Right?
30:09 Speaker 07 Yeah.
30:10 Speaker 04 At least this way, we're playing by ours.
30:14 Speaker 07 Yeah, okay. Okay, just play until I figure out the code.
30:17 Speaker 01 Plan.
30:18 Speaker 07 Plan.
30:19 Speaker 05 Plan.
30:20 Speaker 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.
30:34 Speaker 05 Charlie? Charlie, stay awake! Come on, I've got you!
30:39 Speaker 05 Any luck, C?
30:41 Speaker 07 Yeah, maybe. Oh shit.
30:44 Speaker 05 What is it?
30:46 Speaker 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.
30:56 Speaker 01 Sure there is. I took my hands off the keyboard and let the seconds tick away.
31:02 Speaker 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.
31:08 Speaker 01 No. I'm done playing. No matter what happens. I'm done playing. Okay?
31:17 Speaker 05 Okay.
31:18 Speaker 07 Yeah. Okay.
31:22 Speaker 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?
31:35 Speaker 07 Yeah, yeah, I remember.
31:37 Speaker 05 Bro, my fake uniform was perfect.
31:39 Speaker 07 Except the patch kept falling off.
31:40 Speaker 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.
31:47 Speaker 01 I think Zoe set the record for number of times to throw up in a single day.
31:51 Speaker 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.
32:00 Speaker 05 And then, and then we all got sick from whatever waterborne death virus was spawned there.
32:03 Speaker 07 Oh, yeah, your poor mom, Charlie. I think she had to pull the car over every five minutes on the way back.
32:12 Speaker 05 Yeah. Yep, she did. I remember she cried, she laughed so hard when she told my dad that night.
32:20 Speaker 07 How much time?
32:22 Speaker 01 Ten more seconds. Thanks. Guys. For everything.
32:28 Speaker 07 Think me in ten seconds.
32:30 Speaker 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.
32:36 Speaker 05 Five.
32:47 Speaker 04 Congratulations, the thirteenth key is yours. Welcome to a new era. Into a new era. Into a new era. Into a new era.
33:00 Speaker 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.
33:46 Speaker 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.
34:02 Speaker 06 Kill it with fire.
34:03 Speaker 02 We can't burn it. What if someone else ends up playing it? We wouldn't be able to make any changes.
34:08 Speaker 06 No one can play it if it's destroyed, right?
34:09 Speaker 02 No one can play it if it's offline. And it is offline. It's not connected to anything.
34:14 Speaker 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?
34:22 Speaker 01 I think we lock it up.
34:23 Speaker 06 Where?
34:24 Speaker 01 You have a gun safe.
34:25 Speaker 06 No, absolutely, one hundred percent no. I am not keeping the cursed ghost game in my garage.
34:31 Speaker 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.
35:18 Speaker 01 So what's the next all-nighter?
35:20 Speaker 02 I've actually been modding the old Amnesia since they released the source files, so we could do a Christmas Eve playthrough.
35:25 Speaker 01 Gama will love that.
35:27 Speaker 02 Tell him to restock his holy water.
35:30 Speaker 01 Come in.
35:33 Speaker 06 Hey, I brought dinner. I know you don't love tasty burger, but...
35:37 Speaker 01 No, that's great. I'm starving.
35:40 Speaker 06 Oh, alright.
35:41 Speaker 01 Hey, I'm gonna go eat, Zee.
35:43 Speaker 02 Hi, Mr. Dempsey.
35:44 Speaker 06 Hi, Zoe. Tell your parents I said hello and Merry Christmas.
35:48 Speaker 02 Will do. Merry Christmas.
35:50 Speaker 01 Later. It felt like things were getting back to normal.
35:55 Speaker 01 Maybe even a better normal.
36:05 Speaker 08 Come in.
36:08 Speaker 09 Hey, I was just going through the security logs from last quarter. There was a weird sign-in.
36:13 Speaker 08 What do you mean?
36:14 Speaker 09 Um, it was someone who hasn't worked here, or even, well, been alive in like ten years.
36:21 Speaker 08 What did they do?
36:23 Speaker 09 Dumped a bunch of files, like, an automatic thing. Just came online and just transferred everything over.
36:29 Speaker 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.
36:37 Speaker 09 Alright, will do.
37:17 Speaker 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,
38:02 Speaker 10 Matt Ansba as Buzz, Brian Wiggins as The Man, and Darren Revitz as The Woman.
38:35 Kaelyn 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.
Previous 147. The Werewolf: H.H Holmes and His Murder Castle // MONSTERS SERIES Next 149. Skinwalkers, Stalked In The Backwoods, And Other Terrifying True Stories From Listeners (feat. Morgan Absher) Page updated November 1, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated