Why didn’t I take the video down right away? There wasn’t any point. It was already out there, and you know nothing disappears from the Internet; if I had deleted it, a dozen copies would have sprung up in its place, and at least I can get those removed as the owner. I thought I could control the narrative somehow. I thought deleting it would support the widespread belief that it’s a hoax. Because the real kicker is the ghost didn’t show up on video. Of course it didn’t.
I never planned to upload that video without Allie’s permission, but I was exhausted when I started recording at 1:30 a.m., I forgot to uncheck auto-upload—so when the file hit the maximum allowed size, at a little over two hours long, the software immediately posted it to my YouTube channel. If I hadn’t fallen asleep, I could have stopped it.
Allie was scandalized, and it wasn’t long before her school found out, and then our parents. They took action: they sent Allie to a church support group and counseling for sex addiction. Leave it to them to put the blame on her instead of an external force.
I wasn’t off the hook either. Our parents accused me of being a pervert, and the police actually investigated me for child pornography, but because you don’t really see anything in the video—hell, even they’re convinced it’s a stunt—no charges were filed. But facts don’t matter when people have already made up their minds about you.
I’ve never been a model son, but nothing quite matches the feeling you get when your mother won’t look you in the eyes anymore and your father stops talking to you. They moved me into the basement, like they needed to put two floors of our house between me and Allie at night. And after things got worse, they sent me to Zeppelin Bend.
I wasn’t doing anything but trying to help her! And maybe if I’d been in my old room, I’d have been able to do something to save her.
That’s what you really want to know about, right? Where did she go? Everyone has a theory, but only I know what really happened.
Even while Allie was dealing with bullying from her classmates, she continued experiencing the visitations. She started her own YouTube channel to document what she was going through, how the bullying and sleepless nights were affecting her, since she still didn’t remember anything of the actual attacks.
It’s heartbreaking. You can see her wasting away in her daily videos. If you want to know what it was like, watch Allie in her own words instead of that obnoxious “Sex Files” podcast that someone posted about our family.
That night, the last night, I couldn’t sleep, so I was in the kitchen grazing on leftovers when I heard footsteps above my head—from Allie’s room. The clock on the microwave said it was 2:03 a.m. A minute later I heard a high-pitched sound outside. . . . No, I felt it, a kind of sonic vibration that set my teeth on edge and rumbled through my bones.
I rushed to the window and looked outside just in time to see a flash of light bathe the back of the house like a giant camera flash. I blinked. When my vision adjusted again, I saw something zoom off overhead, into the night sky.
It was quiet upstairs.
I bolted up to Allie’s room. Her door was locked; my parents had the key. It’s a lot harder to kick doors open than it looks on TV. When I entered her room, it was too late. Her window was wide open, and the room was empty. There’s nothing she could have climbed down on: no trees, storm drains, or ropes made of knotted sheets. I looked out her window, and the backyard below was empty and undisturbed.
“Allie!” I called. “Allie!”
My parents ran in. Dad pulled me away from the window, and Mom screamed at me.
“What are you doing? Where’s your sister?”
At first they thought I’d pushed her out the window, but there was no body. There was no sign of her. The police came, took me back to the station, questioned me. All but arrested me. I was in even more trouble than I was for secretly recording Allie, but I didn’t care because she was gone. And it was my fault.
Most people think she ran away or that this is some elaborate hoax the two of us concocted together. Even my best friends finally abandoned me over it. Ryan thinks I’m lying and that I did something unimaginable to my sister. Tony cut me off for a different reason; it turns out I was right about him and Ryan being together, and he’s siding with her. So there go my friends, along with my YouTube content and my dreams of making it big as a video producer. If it weren’t for the video of Allie’s attack, my channel would be dead. Instead, I have more subscribers than ever, though they’re probably following me because they think I had something to do with her disappearance. But I know what really happened and who was responsible.
I’ve been calling the thing that was visiting her a ghost, but that isn’t quite right. I did end up calling the Ghost Sweepers. They came to the house, examined the original video to confirm I hadn’t manipulated it, and ran all their tests in her bedroom—and surprisingly, they determined that there’s nothing supernatural happening in our house, and there never was. Their investigation was so boring, they didn’t even bother to upload that footage on their own YouTube channel.
So if not a ghost, what was it?
Aliens.
I’m serious.
Who says that aliens have to look like E.T. or tall gray creatures? What if they can phase in and out, change their shapes, avoid being recorded on video? They could have psychokinetic powers like your typical poltergeist. What if, for all intents and purposes, these aliens look and act like ghosts? The question is: What do they want?
Insert requisite alien probe joke here.
I’m kidding, but I’m kind of not. My theory is these aliens are performing tests on humans to see how we work. Maybe they like sexual experimentation as much as we do, although they have a lot to learn about consent. Hell, they could be developing a weapon to incapacitate humanity with pleasure or using our sexual energy to power their vessels. It sounds like the plot of a campy B-grade porn video, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.
I wish they’d taken me instead of my sister. I wish they’d come for me now. I, for one, welcome our new sex-crazed alien overlords.
It’s not for the sex thing either. If they bring me to wherever they took Allie, maybe I can get her back. At home I’ve been sleeping in her room, recording myself every night. I’ve been reaching out to other people online, in case they’re also being visited. It’s a long shot, but I’m trying to get the aliens’ attention through my YouTube videos. So far, nothing. But if I mysteriously disappear one night, you’ll know what happened to me, and you can tell my story. Even if no one believes you.
In the meantime ask yourselves: Do you feel refreshed when you wake each morning? Or does it seem like you just aren’t getting enough rest no matter how much sleep you get?
“Was that a fucking joke?” Lucinda asked. “Aliens? You think it was aliens who molested your sister and then kidnapped her? And you want them to do it to you?”
“You made that up,” Cody said. “Right?”