Well, I'm still alive, for now at least. Though they did find the last article quicker than I anticipated. My internet has experienced a marked slowdown, starting ten minutes from the post going live the other night, but I expected that. That's one of the first ways they try to discourage us from leaking things. They see you do it once, and you just get a little slap on the wrist, unless it's something really big. I guess that transcript wasn't too bad, and they're waiting to see what I do next. Hell, for all I know they may want to encourage these little leaks, so that the public gets a little misinformation once in a while. A perfect society always breeds distrust. An imperfect society, well, what could be easier to control than a society that expects mistakes? It's easy to turn secret information that shouldn't have been shared into a hoax. Pin it on a cult, swap a few names, send a few emails, and there you go. Problem solved. I'm not a problem yet, but if they let me keep going, I will be.

Why are they letting me do this if they know who I am? A lot of you are asking that, I'm sure. Again, they may want to foster these little... incidents. I mean, how many of you actually believe anything I'm writing? Why would you? To you, this whole thing sounds ridiculous. And they're banking on that. The one or two of you who believe or know that I'm telling the truth, they're not worried about you. Yet.

Anyway, maybe I'm doing them a favor, and they just want to make sure I don't get too carried away. Hence the strangled internet. It's not a long term solution, obviously; I can always go somewhere else in the area and use a different connection. But it's a very quiet little nod, something to let me know that they are, in fact, aware of what I'm up to. At work, I'm sure it will be the same. No one will say anything, but my boss will know, and he'll know that I know that he knows. And we'll be two actors in this little play we're in, until I either stop what I'm doing and am moved to a different department (there's a lot of other things going on in this agency than just transcription), or until one day my desk is emptied out, and he receives my 'extended vacation' notice. We're in Act One, Scene Two now. Let's see what unfortunate souls we'll be watching today.

Call is connected

OPERATOR: "911, what is your emergency?"

Crying

OPERATOR: "Hello?"

Crying

OPERATOR: "Hi, I'm here, what's your emergency?"

CALLER: "I-"

Crying

OPERATOR: "What's going on, are you there?"

CALLER: "Yeah, I'm here..."

Caller cries and sniffs continuously throughout remainder of the call

OPERATOR: "What's going on, sweetie, talk to me."

CALLER: "There's- there's someone in my ho-ouse!"

Sobbing

OPERATOR: "There's someone in your house? Where are your parents, honey?"

CALLER: "They're at- at the neighbor's house, and there's someone in here-!"

OPERATOR: "Okay, where are you at, honey, what's your address?"

CALLER: "9903 Cur- Curtice, please hurry I can hear him!"

OPERATOR: "Where are you at right now, are you in your room?"

CALLER: "Yeah..."

Crying

OPERATOR: "Okay, can you do me a favor?"

CALLER: "Uh-huh."

OPERATOR: "Can you go and lock the door for me? Can you do that?"

CALLER: "I-I di-id! But I can hear him!"

OPERATOR: "I've got someone coming out to you just as fast as they can, sweetie. How old are you?"

CALLER: "I'm e-eight, please call my Mom and Dad!"

OPERATOR: "It's gonna be okay, it's alright, I promise the police are gonna be there soon. Just stay on the line with me, okay? Can you tell me what happened?"

CALLER: "I was- was watching TV and I heard the door open and I saw a man come in but- but he-"

Faint scraping. Caller screams

CALLER: "Please go away, please-!"

OPERATOR: "What's going on, is he trying to get in?"

CALLER: "He keeps scraping the door!"

OPERATOR: "Is he trying to open it?"

Crying

CALLER: "No- I don't think so, he's just sc-scraping it."

OPERATOR: "The police are almost there, sweetie, you're doing a great job. You're being very brave."

Sobbing

CALLER: "I just want him to go away! Please go away!"

OPERATOR: "So he came in through the front door?"

CALLER: "Yeah I was watch-watching TV and he came in but he was cra-crawling on the ground!"

OPERATOR: "He was crawling?"

CALLER: "Uh huh, and I ran upstairs to my room but he came after me and he-"

Sobbing

CALLER: "He came up the stairs but he was backwards!"

OPERATOR: "He came up- what do you mean, he was backwards? He came up the stairs backwards?"

CALLER: "He was- was bent backwards on his hands and-and feet and he was running on fours but his head wasn't upside-down it was right-side-up and he was looking at me! I want him to go away please make him go away!"

OPERATOR: "Okay... Okay, just hang on, okay? The police are right down the road, they're almost there."

Scraping

CALLER: "Go away! Go away!"

Faint crashing

(Almost inaudible) "-the police!"

"Help me! Please he's outside please make him go away!"

Footsteps running up the stairs

OPERATOR: "The police are there, they're gonna take care of you, okay?"

Faint sound of glass crashing from somewhere outside the room. Officers can be heard shouting

OFFICER: "-out the window! Go!"

Phone is dropped. A lot of shuffling and mostly inaudible talking can be heard. A door opens and the caller can be heard crying. The phone is picked up

OFFICER: "This is Officer Barns, we're secure. I'll disconnect."

OPERATOR: "Alright, thank you."

Call is disconnected

I didn't enjoy transcribing that one. I have an unfortunate condition, called misophonia, that makes me uncontrollably angry in the presence of certain sounds. Things like snapping, whistling, singing, gum chewing, gum popping, tapping, heavy breathing. Most of all though, I cannot stand the sound of screaming babies or crying children. It's a condition that I can't control, and it is unfortunate that my reactions tend to be... violent. Not physically so, but verbally abusive, and incredibly inappropriate at times.

So listening to this girl scream and carry on was... unpleasant, to say the least. I destroyed a stress ball that I'd had for years, and I'm still finding the beans from it months later. What was interesting about this call, however, is the fact that I've had at least four other calls that are similar. In every case, it's a young girl home alone, who sees someone come in through the front door. This person is always crawling in a 'creepy' way, and never harms the occupant. It just seems to follow them upstairs, or to wherever the caller barricades themselves, and waits outside the door. Now at first I thought this was a really widespread, comical case of mistaken identity. Probably some dog that was wandering around scaring the shit out of people. But then I got an officer-to-sergeant report that described the thing walking on two legs, before bending over backwards into the bridge position. The things head rotated so that it was facing up, and it charged the officer, who fired several shots at it. He missed, but the noise was enough to send the thing fleeing into the trees. I'm sure this officer will be counseled and his memories 'cleared up' to fit with a story that's a little less 'absurd'.

As for what I think, it doesn't really matter. The opinion of a dead man doesn't really matter that much. But if I had to guess, I'd say it's probably a different 'class' of what you guys call 'shadow people.' That's not how the group of guys studying them refer to them, but then again they have a better idea of what they are than you do.

Do you see how someone in my position is a huge, gaping risk? I know everything. I know the things that Group A is hiding from B, but I also know that Group B is hiding a huge piece of information from Group A. I know everything. I am on every side, and I've got my hands in every pocket there is. People share so much information, it's right there for the taking. I've recently gotten some written communication between the White House and the official committee that investigated the collapse of the Twin Towers. If only I could sell it to a journalist who I could guarantee would stay alive.

Now you see why I am so important. Why they let me get away with so much. They take you on for life, and they will do literally anything to keep you there. The amount of work it takes to train someone new, the amount of money, it's nothing compared to keeping the rest of us alive. They don't need us to be happy, or well adjusted. They don't need us to have complete satisfaction in the work place. They need us alive.

Let's see how hard they'll work for me before I hit the red.