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WARNING: ATTEMPTED SUICIDE


11:36 PM, November 13th, Austin Texas. The alleyway was cold and damp, the city as quiet as it would ever be. A kid, no older than 14, with a short stature, thin, but only right before the point it became concerning.

This was Antonio. He had the pistol he'd stolen from his dad by his side. He was sobbing. Wet tears mixed with sweat that had come about by stress rolled silently down his cheek. He was going to do it.

He'd promised himself he'd do it. His promise to himself, you may ask? That on the night of his 14th birthday, if his circumstances hadn't gotten any better, that he would finally end his life. He'd made that promise to himself when he was only 12. A sad life he must have lived for that to be a promise he made to himself, and at such a young age too.

He sat slumped against the wet stone wall, whimpering as he tried to stifle his sobs. He pulled his arm up, the gun to his head in his shaky hand. As he reached for the trigger…

“Ugh, the hell are you doing?” Asked a red haired guy, popping around the corner of the alley. Antonio looked at him with sad confusion. “My name's Francisco, and yours is..?”

“An-Antonio.” He stuttered anxiously, looking up at Francisco with hope and fear. He didn't know how this would go, and past traumas wouldn't let him trust it… “What are you doing here?” He sniffled.

“Oh, I was just passing through, running away from home and all. Looking for pretty kids to come along with me.” Francisco smirked, his teeth perfectly straight and white, besides the gap between his two front top teeth.

“How old are you..?” Antonio asked wearily, stepping back a few paces, gun lowering back down to his sides.

“Come on, I'm only 15. You're a fine pretty kid, if you'd like to come along.” He said with confidence. He was a stark contrast to Antonio really. Antonio was shy, anxious, and scared to do much of anything to stand up for himself. But Francisco. Oh, Francisco. He was confident. Happy. Straightforward. Basically, everything Antonio wasn't.

“I… I'll come with you, just until you find a place to stay…” Antonio mumbled. “Good, now come on. I think there's a food place not far from here. You like burgers?” He asked as he pulled Antonio up off the wall, leading him out of the alley.

“I don't know…” He mumbled, following Franciscos lead to the near McDonald's. He felt like he had a friend for the first time in his life. He felt safe and like someone might care for him, even if only for a bit.

The interview is cut off by the PHEN-228, who begins to speak cryptically, and almost directly to the viewer. Disturbing imagery of PHEN-228 himself, the beating of something like a heart accompanied by squelching sounds, a recording of the sky opening to show blood the color of the PHEN-228 himself coming from the sky. In this video he is speaking of the sky opening, asking if the viewer hears the trumpets, saying that they would be melded together forever with love and connection before having a feast fit for a king. In the book of revelation from the Christian Bible a similar thing is mentioned, saying the sky will open up and a mix of blood and fire will pour out, the sound of seven trumpets will be heard from seven angels, talking about the day of judgement. As Zamperini describes PHEN-228 as not of lord christ it is likely that PHEN-228 is a demonic being, mocking the book of revelations/the Bible This is further clarified as Zamperini has a sign in his room saying “Give it to god, and go to sleep”, suggesting he is christian. The fact that the PHEN-228 specifically cuts off the interview with Zamperini seems like he has something against christians, god, or the bible. To add more onto this, only 509 of the around 530 people who viewed the original broadcast were paralyzed, suggesting that possibly only 509 of them were christians and, in the thoughts of PHEN-228, were the only ones who deserved/needed to be paralyzed.

The instructions for protection from PHEN-228 are as follows: Grab earplugs, a pencil, a sheet of paper, and a standard christian bible open to psalms 91:10. Psalm 91:10, in the King James Version, says “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” If anything begins speaking in tongues that are understandable to human ears, put in your earplugs and turn to your pencil and paper. Write on the paper “I can see this paper. I can see my hand. I can't hear the screaming of thousands. I can't hear the feast. I am a moving, breathing human being on planet earth.” After writing, recite psalm 91:10, and if the disturbing imagery and audio persists just pray, there's nothing else to do. After doing these activities, immediately call authorities and they will give you anesthetics, allowing many to lead a normal life afterwards.

Lastly, before PHEN-228 begins speaking about the day of judgement, an image is shown on screen. It says WONDERFUL DAY THE MIRACLE OF BIRTH A FETAL FANFARE 唯一無二のワタナベ・イバードを恐れる. The Japanese part of this text reads as follows in English: Fear the one and only Watanabe Ebard. The Watanabe Ebard, or Mutsuhiro Watanabe, was a famous war sergeant in Japan known for his mistreating of his prisoners. Though not clear how, it seems that the PHEN-228 may be tied to Mutsuhiro Watanabe.

Again, out of order, but the 6th video in the series seems a bit odd. It starts off showing a birdhouse, then cutting inside to show 3 pictures, one picture of a blue bird, one picture of a pink bird, and one picture of a goldfish. It then shows the blue bird sitting on the couch, and the pink bird popping out of the kitchen. The blue bird is sad because his goldfish just died, and he wonders where it went. The pink bird isn’t sure where the goldfish is, but says that some people believe that a part of the soul of a dead loved one lives on after death to visit you when you’re sad. There are then 10 knocks on the door which is odd since it’s late, but they open the door. A butterfly flies in, and flies around the blue bird, seeming to be the goldfish coming to comfort the blue bird after its death. While this video may seem out of context it actually makes a lot of sense when given some thought. First off, it could be a representation of Abby's father and someone else speaking after Abby's death, about how some part of her may come to comfort him after her passing. Secondly, when The Obelisk goes to see Abby's grave she is represented with a grub, so when the butterfly comes in it could be like Abby is there in soul in the form of herself more “evolved” or in the final form she’d ever appear in.

Next to last, the video “The House With No Windows” starts off with the cameraman saying he recently found an abandoned house with no doors or windows. He ends up finding a piece of wood covering a crawl space and goes inside the house. He comments on the smell of burnt matches, burnt matches smell like sulfur, and it is thought that demonic entities often make an area smell like sulfur. He begins exploring, finding one room with upside down chairs and a table with a lamp on it on the ceiling. Though not easily visible, there’s a small, unmentioned door in the corner of the room that remains unexplored. He walks down a hallway away from that room, the hallway having an empty bookshelf in it, commenting on how big the door at the end is before heading through it. He says some of the lights are on, meaning that someone, or something, has turned them on. He walks forward, coming to a hallway with one continuation to the left and one ahead. He looks at the one to the left, before turning back to the one ahead, the face of The Obelisk peeking out. It seems the cameraman doesn't notice, as he doesn't run or hide. He then begins to walk down the hallway to the left, seeing a room with glass doors and going inside of it. The room has an empty bookshelf, an easel, a school desk and chair, and most importantly a sign that says “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10), and since the house seems to belong to The Obelisk it is interesting that despite being inhuman that it has a sense of God. He walks out of the room and looks from left to right, a doorway on each side, going to the left. Above the left doorway is a cross, another symbol of God. To the right leading up to the doorway there is a long hall, obscured completely by darkness. In the doorway there is a staircase that leads to nowhere, being cut off by the ceiling. He begins walking back the way he came, but spots a door at the end of a hallway. He goes to it, but can’t open it as it’s too high up. The video then cuts to The Obelisk, seemingly the first time it was seen in the doorway. It asks what the person is, saying it knows his face. This is likely similar to The Obelisk being unable to see that Abby was Abby when she got older.

The last video in the series, labeled “The Man In The Tower”, is the longest and both most cryptic and most informative video in the series. It starts off with the cameraman waking up in the middle of the night, bedroom door open and saying he closed it the night before. He stands up and tries to turn on the light around 20 times before giving up as it didn’t come on. He walks out of his room, commenting that the whole house is dark. He goes downstairs, saying it once again smells like burnt matches, the smell that accompanies The Obelisk. He looks down into the basement. The video then cuts to him in a different part of the house, looking at a tall and thin door that is covered in a substance that looks similar to rust, saying it doesn’t belong there. He then turns around and into the living room, where we can see a couch, a plant, and oddest of all a door frame only filled by a wall but no door. This is never mentioned, and is unclear whether it is intentional or simply an issue in the editing/animation. Based on the box tv in the living room, it’s likely the story is set in the 80s/90s. He says this can’t be happening before saying that this isn’t his home anymore. It cuts to him in his room with a chair barricading the door and a rope tying the closet doors together, likely to keep The Obelisk out. It then cuts to him back downstairs, going through the rusty door into a hallway completely shrouded by darkness to an odd room with a tall chair and a small hole at the top of the wall. Based on the shape of the closet and the picture of a little girl on the wall in the closet it seems it may have been Abby's room. He turns around and sees a horizontal doorway and decides to go into it, in a hallway also shrouded in darkness with lights not working just like the rest of the house. As he walks down the hallway he passes two empty closets, and reaches the end of the hallway with a stairway going up ahead and another going down to the left. He asks the viewer up or down before going down the left stairway. There is a window that looks onto what looks like a living room, before the cameraman continues walking down the stairs into a room with what looks like a mix of a cross and an upside down cross, and a green and blue armoire. There are many doors leading off of this room, but the cameraman decides to go through the door on the left of the armoire. He walks down that hallway, passing a doorway that looks extremely similar to the doorway in the house he’d previously explored with the same stairway that leads to nowhere, until proceeding further, reaching a dead end, and turning back. As he goes back and passes the room with the armoire he originally came from, he continues walking down the hallway that leads from the right door in the room. He reaches the room that was previously seen through the window, and goes through a door in said room down another dark hall that leads to an area with windows that look onto his actual home, but sees The Obelisk coming through a doorway in his home and looking at him. He runs away from that room down another dark hallway, finding a room with another window and a figure running past that window. The video cuts, showing a doorway that is completely engulfed in darkness and a groaning sound, then another cut to the cameraman walking down a hallway back to the room with the armoire and heading to go back up the stairs before abruptly looking to his side to see The Obelisk watching him from the doorway. They both stare at each other for about 10 seconds before The Obelisk begins to lunge towards him and he quickly starts running up the stairs away from it, running through a hallway with many doors and working lights, something that hasn’t been present throughout the whole video. He runs through many doors in the labyrinth type place he’s in, before reaching a carpeted staircase, stumbling up them as he catches his breath from running. He looks around before finding a small room with a chair surrounded by books, seeing a cavity in the wall and goes into it.

As he goes through the cavity one thing seems present, though not very important, that the space would be quite easy for someone of average weight to go through, suggesting that the cameraman is somewhat overweight. At the end of the cavity he finds a hallway with an extremely tall and thin door, pushing it open with labored breathing, both from panic and still catching it from running. He then goes through a tall doorway, passing a room filled with carelessly thrown chairs before walking through another. The camera cuts to him walking through many tall doorways, before walking through a normal sized door into a dark hallway with a light at the end of it. He comments that the walls are changing while passing a horizontal doorway like his own, but clearly in a different house, suggesting that others have or are traveling through this labyrinth just like him. He passes by the room from the other house, the one with the easel, desk, and sign, saying that he’s seen it before. He then looks over an indoor balcony leading off of that room before the camera cuts to a view of the bottom of the easel before being picked up and the cameraman heading back out into the hallway. He heads back down the hallway the way he came, but just after reaching where the normal sized doorway had started, he spots The Obelisk looking down at him from one of those extremely tall doorways, beginning to walk towards him as he runs away. He runs to the horizontal door from before, as despite the fact it didn’t seem to be from his own home it was the only place he could go to get away from The Obelisk. He runs through multiple doors before finding the place that was underneath the previous indoor balcony. As he travels through this house-like area, he says the music that is playing somewhere far off reminds him of sunny days. He finds a door, and upon going inside he finds his childhood home, mentioning it was where he’d moved from after his Dad had passed away. Two things can be mentioned here. Firstly, the music is playing from a TV in this place that was his childhood home, so the music reminding him of sunny days suggests that it was something he’d heard in childhood. Second, his dad had passed away in this house, making it possible that after the video about the birds may have actually been about his dad coming back, just in a broken piece of himself. This brings up the question of The Obelisk possibly being his dad. He goes upstairs, looking into a bedroom that seems at first unimportant, but a small and almost hidden detail is a noose in the closet in the room, suggesting that either him, his mother, or one of his possibly existing siblings was considering suicide, likely due to the death of their dad or husband. It was likely his mothers bedroom and her planning to kill herself as that is the only other room shown besides the cameramans. It is also possible that his dads death was intentional, as it’s never clarified how he actually died. On a wall next to that room there is a height chart, finally giving the name “David” to the cameraman as it is marked next to the date on the height chart. The dates on the chart span from 1983 - 1988, confirming that this is likely set in the 90s. At the end of the hallway is his room, the same room from the first video in the series, showing the same closet, the same rocking chair, the same everything, just from the point of view of an adult rather than a child. A loud running sound is heard, so David exits the room and looks downstairs, only to see the light downstairs turn off. He runs into the closet in the room, laying on a pre-made pallet in the closet that was likely made for The Obelisk when David originally befriended it. The Obelisk comes into the closet, and simply asks “David?” as it looks down at him, before the video cuts off. The ending of this tell two things, that The Obelisk likes to turn off lights where it goes, and that The Obelisk doesn’t want to hurt David. It has many chances to hurt him throughout the series, but never does. It seems it wants to stay friends with him, not scare him or hurt him. This strengthens the theory of The Obelisk being David's dad.

And with that, the series is currently over, with many questions left unanswered, and many cryptic answers left without questioning. First of all, the second video in the series with the tall Obelisk seems almost irrelevant, never being mentioned again. Second, an Obelisk is a tall pillar, which is likely why The Obelisk is referred to as such, since it is an extremely tall being. Third, it is still unknown whether there is one or multiple Obelisks. Lastly, it is unclear whether the episode about the blue and pink birds is symbolism for David's dad’s death or Abby's death.