The Lost Footage: Videos, #2

By Steven Bazydlo

Finding something you shouldn't is one thing, Stealing something you shouldn't is another. Especially if that something reveals a whole new reality that has been hidden away from society and for a just reason. Come see the horrors that reside in the real world, outside of your little box. Can you resist its pull as it tries to drag you out of it?

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven Bazydlo
• Release date: Mar 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215375617

Book preview

Credits

Editor- Tasha Schiedel

Book Jacket- Lemseh Carothers-Abdullah

Video 1

Miracle of Childbirth

I’m kind of happy for once that my mom is a hoarder. She has all the older style electronics, which means I'll have no issue finding something useful to watch my score from Squeaks.

I didn't have as much time as I was hoping in order to check his whole room, but I was able to get in through the window and find the treasure trove pretty quickly. His room was plain and relatively clean, so the rotted box on the bed seemed to stand out.

Jackpot.

As I approached the old tattered box, I heard something fall behind me. Turning to see what I must have knocked over, I almost fell over myself at the sight of a small dog frozen in fear staring up at me. Its little ears folded back and its tail between its legs. It looked just like I felt, caught. I didn't know what else to do, but I didn't want it to bark and alarm anyone. Kneeling down, I tried to convince it that I was a friend.

I didn't know Squeaks had a dog, poor thing looks terrified. Reaching my hand out to pet it, it slowly moved its nose close to my fingertips. The gentle bursts of air as it sniffed was cute, but after only a second or two it stopped and its body tensed and scuttled back out the window like a crab. I knew there was a roof outside that I had climbed up, but where the hell would it go? The odd behavior scared me a bit, but I knew I had more important matters at hand.

Well it ain't much of a guard dog, creepy as hell, but I still better make this quick.

I guess he didn't really care if his parents found out about his hobby of film making, but with the amount of detail those two put into these, I was surprised that I didn't see one piece of make-up or even the dummies they must have used for those incredibly lifelike scenes. In this small of a town too, I'm shocked no one has recognized any of the actors or even admitted to having been in them given how popular they've been online. I didn't have time to worry about that though, I had to grab these videos so I can try and cash in on this.

Reaching into the box I grabbed a few tapes of varying sizes and a few small cameras, hastily shoving them into my backpack before I heard someone quickly making their way up the stairs.

As cliche as it was, I ran and hid in the closet just as Squeaks seemed to be sneaking in through the door. Nearly shitting a brick when he noticed quicker than I thought that he was missing his stuff.

Grabbing his phone he called someone that I could only assume was Jimmy. The strange part was that he seemed genuinely scared that he couldn't replace them and that he needed to find more of them at some asylum.

He noticed the window was open and seemed scared of whatever appeared to be outside the house. Closing it quickly, he locked it before ducking down. He left the room in a hurry with the box.

I don't know how long I sat in that pile of dirty laundry, but figured the coast was clear given how quiet things were. Squeaks was nowhere to be seen and I knew it was time for me to leave.

Opening the window back up, I climbed down to the little roof over a side door and hopped down to the ground.

That was easier than getting up here to get in. I said with a little laugh. Looking in through a window I did catch a glimpse of something strange though.

I could see Squeak's mom laying down on the couch and the dog from before was now standing blocking her face from view. It was up on its hind legs and appeared to be convulsing, its head flopped to the side staring straight into my eyes, its teeth bared in a way that almost seemed to increase the amount of teeth that were in its mouth. Foam dripped in saliva strands to the floor before the look in its eyes slowly began to roll its gaze back to Squeaks mom.

Quickly, ducking down, I pressed my back against the wall. I had come too far now to be caught by some epileptic dog.

Man, that thing is having one hell of a seizure. Grabbing up my bag of goodies, it was time to move.

I waited until it was my usual, get off the bus time to walk home so as to not raise any suspicion from mom. She was a saint, but Satan when she was mad and I don't want to have to get the belt for her catching me not only skipping school but stealing. She may have a serious problem with that, and I know it would be more than just an ass whooping for getting caught with stolen property.

Cracking the front door open, I checked to see if mom was home and was relieved to see that the house was empty. It made the whole sneaking in with a bag of random electronics a lot easier.

Dropping the backpack off in my room. I began searching through the hall closet full of old media players before finding a few that might still work for the older cassette tapes, as well as wires to connect the obsolete technology to my computer.

Awesome, thank you mom for not being able to throw anything away.

I don't know how they were able to make this so realistic, but I would be impressed if it played at all with the layers of dirt staining it. Rubbing a smear of crusted dirt away from the label, I felt the roughness of something under the sticker.

What's this?

Peeling it back the perfectly cleaned outline was only blemished by words scratched into the black plastic.

Childbirth 1988

Sliding the bulky old cassette tape into the ancient VCR, I could hear the reels going into place then the tape started to automatically play. The crappy VHS quality of the video kept glitching with the static lines tracking across the old CRT TV. The screen was black for a few seconds before a few rustling noises were replaced by a man and a woman's voice.

Where the hell's the picture? I spent so much on this...

Hun, check the lens cap.

There was some audible fumbling before the man's voice came back.

Oh... Never-mind

A second later a small click was heard and the old film quality could be seen in all its glory of fuzzy images.

Now where's the trac... okay, there we are, and here's the... Focus, there we be.

A few seconds of the dude messing with the focus and the video became more clear, or at least as clear as the old tape would allow.

Okay, I got it now. Hello world! We are the soon to be Hanson family. The man made a big flamboyant gesture with his arms to try and get both himself and the woman behind him in the frame.

The video panned over to a woman squatting to stand up from a chair. She appeared to be very pregnant and struggling to heave herself up.

This is my lovely wife Janet, and the little bun in the oven here. The camera zoomed in on the bulbous stomach of the woman. This right here is our little rugrat. With the obscene close up, I thought I saw a strangely large movement under the somewhat tight shirt she appeared to be wearing before the camera shot up to her face. She looked a little rough from