The session with no counselor
The counselor never showed up, yet someone signs the register for him. And he is in the photos of every past summer.
- YouOur counselor is missing
- ThemMissing how
- YouHe never turned up. He is not at the flag line
- ThemSo who is running your cabin
- YouNobody. We walk to breakfast alone, lights out alone
- ThemThat cannot happen. There are checks
- YouSomeone signs the register in his name
- pause 1.5 s
- ThemTell the head counselor
- YouThe head says Adam is right here
- And that he saw him this morning
- ThemThen he exists
- YouHe is in none of the photos in the camp chat
- pause 1.2 s
- ThemMaybe he is the one taking them
- YouHe is in every photo
- ThemYou are contradicting yourself
- YouIn the photos from past summers
- 2019, 2014, 2006. The same face
- pause 1.8 s
- ThemSend them
- YouNo. You will not sleep after
- ThemSend them
- pause 1.5 s
- YouSent
- ThemThis is not funny
- You are wearing the shirt you bought last summer
- YouWhat
- ThemIn the 2006 photo, that is you standing there
- pause 2.0 s
- YouI was not at that camp in 2006
- In 2006 I was not born yet
- pause 1.2 s
- ThemThen why is the caption "Our cabin. Everyone came back"
- YouWho wrote the caption
- ThemAdam
How it works
The photograph works as evidence and as a trap at once. First there is one person too many in it, then it turns out the extra one is whoever is looking.
How to make it yours
Pick the years on the photos to fit your character, as long as the earliest one is before they were born: the whole ending rests on that. Never show the photo itself, not as a picture and not as a description of the face; the less you give, the more the viewer fills in. The camp can be a sports training camp, a school trip or a choir on tour. Send the caption and the counselor’s name as separate short messages, the last one a single word.
Every story here is fiction. Any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental.
Turn a scary chat into a video
A story like this works as a vertical video for TikTok, Shorts or Reels. Pick how the chat should look, or send the script to the bot and get a finished MP4.