To preface, this story took place around 2012 during my college years. I was decently social but never bothered to be around frat bros just barely skating by college and endlessly drinking. I instead hung out with the local film club mainly to watch free movies. It was here where I met an individual called John. John was obsessed with “making it big” through YouTube. He carried around a digital camera with him everywhere and would attempt to screen his short films at any place. I felt bad for him and slightly amused by having him around so we became “friends”.

Around that summer, I checked my email on a whim when I saw John had emailed me. He had linked 5 different YouTube channels and then boasted he could put do them and “make them look like Teletubbies”. The new few lines were him asking me to join him and telling me how great it would be. I wasn't doing shit at the time besides working at a grocery store so I agreed. Within a second he emailed back thanking me and asking me the times I could be available. I replied I could do the weekend and he sent me an address.

When I arrived on Saturday, I was greeted by two familiar people. A young couple who I saw at the film club. They introduced themselves as Maria and Don, two theater majors at the college. Our first meeting was just him pitching the series to us, ranting about it will blow all of the series out of the water, and then assigning us to watch a bunch of series/movies to get an idea. I barely skimmed through, this is where I got introduced to the idea of the Slenderman. I got a decent amount of knowledge of the mythos before going to sleep that night. The next few meetings weren't that interesting, between hitting up thrift stores for props and costumes to Location scouting for places to film.

Around the fifth meeting is where the story truly starts, we just got done filming a few shots in the nearby woods when he drove us to an abandoned house quite a distance away. We got out and he led us to an old door before managing to open it and walking inside. The place was run down and seemed very dangerous to walk in, so I stayed outside until he forced me in. We stood around looking around until John came out of one room holding an old notebook. We filmed a few shots here before bailing. The following week, we released our first video.

He began to act incredibly strange, he carried that notebook everywhere and would silently read from it before filming. The channel began to gather quite a lot of attention and views around the time so he dropped out of college and told us we should to. I was just about done with my degree so I told him no, but i’d still help out. He was becoming an egotistical madman, barking orders at us like he was the next Stanley Kubrick or some shit. We were eventually invited into a small private group of similar channels and within a few days, John’s behavior got us kicked out.

The final straw for me, was when we were watching the news and John suddenly got this bizarre look on his face. He pointed at the television and walked right up to it. The news anchor then read a story about a 14 year old boy killing his parents. John laughed and then stated “I didn’t think that would work”. Maria yelled at John “What the fuck do you mean? What would work”. John laughed before stating “I can’t tell you”. After this, I distanced myself from John but he still sent emails to me. Almost all linking a tragic happening and a video from the channel. I grew some balls and blocked his email.
That was the last time me and John interacted. I moved after graduating and forgot about him. I did eventually decide to check in and found the channel had been deleted, along with his previous short film channel. I googled the series name but only a few posts on old forums popped up. I did get in touch with Maria, but she refused to talk about John or her time working with him. I gave up and checked my work email only to find one email tucked away in spam.

“Hi Rick, I made a new series. Check it out :)))))))”

Due to the safety of everyone reading this, I will not be naming either channel. I also don’t want to promote John’s content. The new channel is still out there, with a decent amount of views and subscribers too. I don’t linger long because I feel like he’s watching me whenever I am on the page.