I go on Reddit sometimes. I like it because in between the pictures of kittens and inane memes, there are sometimes bizarre and obscure stories from all over the world.
A couple days ago I opened one titled: I’m a 9-1-1 operator. Just had the most terrifying call … It was posted by the user HiggsThunder.
The rest of the post is a transcript of a 9-1-1 call where a fellow living in the middle of nowhere looks out his window and sees some creepy guy on his front lawn.
The call operator tells him that since he lives so far away, it will take a while for the police car to arrive. In the meantime, the situation deteriorates for the caller, and the creepy guy gets creepier — a lot creepier.
I’m usually not that frightened by anything that isn’t an immediate danger. A mugger in the street? Yes, that’s scary. But a 9-1-1 call from Nowheresville, USA? Who cares? It’s too far away to affect me.
But this did.
The only way I could fall asleep was after I hid a few kitchen knives and an axe under my bed (just in case).
It affected a lot of other people too — almost 3,500 up votes and almost 1,000 comments after two days. And who knows how many other people read it without voting or commenting?
The story ends on a cliffhanger (there’s a loud noise, the line goes dead), and that’s mostly what the commenters have been addressing: what happened next?
The other popular comment is, of course, variations on “that was really scary.” And a lot of miscellaneous speculation.
After scanning through the comments, I noticed something was missing. So far, no one (and this is the Internet we’re talking about) has called B.S.
On rereading the transcript, I noticed how well structured it is. The dialogue is believable, and if we call this a story and say it has a plot, then it follows the formula of a short horror story perfectly. It builds suspense and tension, introduces what may or may not be a supernatural element, has a climax, and then ends with a cliffhanger.
So I did some digging. There’s an address provided at the beginning but, according to Google Maps, it doesn’t exist.
A previous post by HiggsThunder reveals that he lost his job at a magazine a little while ago. It’s a simple plea for advice from the Reddit community, and the comments offer various ideas for future jobs.
One of them, a complete non sequitur from a poster calling himself betrion, reads: “I know! You should give it a shot as a 9-1-1 operator!”
Coincidence?
I sent HiggsThunder a message on Reddit saying that I liked his story, and offered some of my own analysis.
“However,” I wrote, “I’m convinced it’s a work of fiction.”
He wrote me back within an hour to thank me for my analysis and confirmed that his story was a work of fiction.
The moral of this story is that if you see something on the Internet that scares you, offends you, fills you with unconditional joy … be cynical, and do some research.
