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These aren't the stories your

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mother told you. No, these

3:02

are the other stories. written

3:04

by Nick Botak and narrated

3:06

and produced by James Barnett,

3:08

aka Jimmy Horace. On the

3:10

side of a desolate road

3:12

that traverses the equally desolate

3:15

landscape of a region in

3:17

the northern United States, it's

3:19

a nondescript structure. Its appearance

3:21

is that of a warehouse

3:23

one might spot amongst many

3:25

similar buildings in the industrial

3:28

district of any given city.

3:30

Gray brick marred by age

3:32

in the elements. Windows along

3:34

the top third of the

3:36

sides and the bottom third

3:38

of the face, a flat

3:41

roof. is a place more

3:43

often driven past and driven

3:45

too, as no signs advertise

3:47

its existence. One of the

3:49

innumerable, unremarkable edifices that adorn

3:51

the sides of the winding

3:54

avenues that make up the

3:56

country's vascular system. But for

3:58

some, the buildings out of

4:00

place visage beckons. And when

4:02

the building casts out its

4:04

coal, a driver might feel

4:07

compelled to veer off the

4:09

road and onto the dirt

4:11

path that leads up to

4:13

the building's front doors, which

4:15

are perhaps the most distinct.

4:17

if out of place, feature

4:20

of the structure's exterior. The

4:22

doors are made of ornate

4:24

African blackwood with intricate designs

4:26

hand carved into them. Spirals

4:28

and cylindrical ravines both thin

4:30

and wide big and small.

4:33

The knobs are similarly ostentatious,

4:35

constructed of polished silver that

4:37

glints in the country sunlight.

4:39

As a guest enters the

4:41

building, they aren't met with

4:43

a stand at which they

4:46

might expect to purchase a

4:48

ticket. Rather... there is no

4:50

fee for admission, though even

4:52

if there were, there'd be

4:54

no employee to conduct the

4:56

transaction. This roadside museum is

4:59

free and open to all

5:01

travellers who find themselves coasting

5:03

down the quiet avenue beside

5:05

which it stands. And as

5:07

this curious visitor passes through

5:09

the sumptuous entranceway, the effect

5:12

will be staggering, for as

5:14

plain and barren as the

5:16

land surrounding the building is,

5:18

and indeed the exterior of

5:20

the building itself. The interior

5:22

is a lesson in overindulgence,

5:25

and garishness, in decadence. It

5:27

appears as if the space

5:29

within is several times larger

5:31

than the outside would suggest.

5:33

Its cathedral ceilings far taller

5:35

than the roof outside would

5:38

allow. The walls untold feet

5:40

more spaced apart. Hanging from

5:42

the ceilings are three large

5:44

crystal chandeliers lit by warm

5:46

jaundice bulbs from within. Shards

5:48

of light bouncing about the

5:51

walls. Below them is a

5:53

large open floor layer that

5:55

is home to what would

5:57

immediately inform any guess as

5:59

to the nature of the

6:01

building. Statues and busts are

6:04

featured prominently, cordoned by velvet

6:06

ropes and lit from below

6:08

by vivid white light. Hanging

6:10

about the walls are scores

6:12

of paintings from artists both

6:14

modern and of era's past,

6:17

in styles ranging from photo

6:19

real to abstract, to expressionist,

6:21

and everything between and beyond.

6:23

The subjects of these myriad

6:25

works are invariably serene. They

6:28

depict individuals who wear across their

6:30

faces expressions of contentment. Landscapes composed

6:32

of warm, peaceful beauty, and in

6:34

families in a state that, while

6:37

perhaps not reflective of the time

6:39

in which they, or people like

6:41

them, may have actually lived, appear

6:43

to exhibit genuine happiness. Elderly men

6:46

play chess in vibrant parks, lush

6:48

with autumn foliage. Renaissance women are

6:50

privileged, gallavant about uncharacteristically clean. and

6:52

maintain towns. Children from some indefinite

6:54

epoch frolic in the water of

6:57

an ocean as blue as sapphire,

6:59

and painted with such an adept

7:01

hand as to give the impression

7:03

that if one were to place

7:06

a hand upon it, they would

7:08

withdraw that hand and find it

7:10

damp and dripping with salt water.

7:12

And that each end of the

7:14

strange buildings easternmost wall are the

7:17

entrance and exit of the special

7:19

installation, or could perhaps be considered

7:21

this odd museum's main attraction. in

7:23

such a case that it did

7:25

any attracting at all. A sign

7:28

hangs above the entranceway as identification

7:30

and invites guests in, warning them,

7:32

in spite of the darkness beyond,

7:34

to watch their steps until they

7:37

are afforded more visibility. When the

7:39

guest steps past the threshold from

7:41

the main floor and into this

7:43

special exhibit, the disorienting effect of

7:45

the museum's inner dimensions will be

7:48

joined by another, similarly of putting

7:50

result. The space ahead. The space

7:52

ahead. What appears to be simply

7:54

emptiness will appear positively cavernous. The

7:57

guest might wonder how this building,

7:59

as large as it may be

8:01

in earnest, could possibly contain such

8:03

a vast amount of empty space.

8:05

It is here that the guests

8:08

may begin to feel their anxiety

8:10

rise, as their mind tries to

8:12

make sense of the inconsistencies with

8:14

this bizarre roadside museum. The anxiety,

8:16

however, will be put at ease

8:19

when a light bursts to life

8:21

up ahead, and another to the

8:23

right of the first, and a

8:25

third to the right of the

8:28

second. Each illuminated area is rectangular,

8:30

each wider than they are tall,

8:32

giving the impression of bay windows

8:34

installed in the shallow face of

8:36

this study in darkness. These windows

8:39

and the light within them have

8:41

their own unsettling feature. The light

8:43

does not cast itself outward, leaving

8:45

the area between it and the

8:48

guest a river of absence. And

8:50

that same time, the guest may

8:52

realize that the special installation's entrance.

8:54

the one through which they just

8:56

walked only moments ago, is now

8:59

gone, replaced by an abject darkness

9:01

of a purity identical to that

9:03

which lay ahead. The guests may

9:05

then walk ahead, moving through the

9:08

super black musing the peculiarly lit

9:10

windows ahead as its north star.

9:12

As they reach the angle of

9:14

which they can see through the

9:16

glass, they will lay eyes upon

9:19

this nameless museum special installation. Wax

9:21

sculptures of people stand motionless behind

9:23

the glass. The guest will marvel

9:25

at the lifelike qualities of the

9:28

sculptures, forgiving the places in which

9:30

the fact that they are indeed

9:32

built of wax are made apparent.

9:34

The eyes, after all, are the

9:36

most difficult thing to recreate in

9:38

any medium. What will truly captivate

9:40

the guest, however, is what they

9:42

will interpret as the installation's use

9:44

of mirrors to convey the illusion

9:46

of space. The wax

9:48

people will appear to number in

9:50

the hundreds or even thousands, standing

9:53

in a wholly disorganized fashion, stretching

9:55

back farther than the human eye

9:57

is capable of seeing. The

10:00

background against which they stand has

10:02

been painted so as to depict

10:04

an unfamiliar landscape, the ground a

10:07

cracked mess of red clay. Strange,

10:09

monolithic towers in the distance. A

10:11

dizzying collection of black stars resting

10:14

about the cosmos above. The method

10:16

of design which this canvas bears

10:18

will imbue the guest with the

10:21

illusion of motion. Inviting them to

10:23

fix their gaze upon any given

10:25

area. and see in their periphery

10:27

the swirling void in which a

10:30

thousand, thousand worlds exist and cease

10:32

to exist in the span of

10:34

a lingering glance. The guest will

10:37

almost certainly then become aware of

10:39

the direction in which each and

10:41

every one of those innumerable wax

10:43

sculpture's eyes are so intensely focused.

10:46

That direction being wherever the guest

10:48

happens to be standing at any

10:50

given moment in an unsettling manipulation

10:53

of the viewer's disorientation that might

10:55

inspire questions of the artist's intent.

10:57

or if this manufactured sensation of

10:59

being watched, was a curious by-product

11:02

of the exhibit's creation or a

11:04

conscious decision meant to instil dread

11:06

into the hapless passer-by. Upon this

11:09

realization an audio recording will begin,

11:11

one that explains the strange optical

11:13

illusion known as the Mona Lisa

11:16

effect, in which the eyes in

11:18

a painting or other work of

11:20

art follow the viewer around the

11:22

room. Right around the part of

11:25

the recording that informs the guest

11:27

of a misnomer in Nomencuncher, that

11:29

despite being named for Leonardo da

11:32

Vinci's seminal work, the Mona Lisa

11:34

doesn't actually exhibit the illusion. The

11:36

guest may suddenly feel the need

11:38

to question whether the wax sculpture's

11:41

head, the one a row or

11:43

two back from the glass, was

11:45

turned at that angle when they

11:48

last looked at it. And as

11:50

they ponder that, they'll begin to

11:52

wonder if all of their heads

11:54

were in the same positions they

11:57

were a moment ago. and then

11:59

if the bodies had changed positions

12:01

too, and hadn't the space closest

12:04

to the glass seem less crowded

12:06

just a moment ago? The guest

12:08

will likely assume that there appeared...

12:11

to be too many to have

12:13

gotten a reliable idea of their

12:15

positions. And by this time, the

12:17

exit of the installation is opened.

12:20

The yellow light from the main

12:22

floor is pouring in at the

12:24

opposite end of the hall. The

12:27

same distance away from the windows

12:29

as the entrance had been. The

12:31

recording will finish up and the

12:33

guest will head back to the

12:36

main showroom. But if the guest

12:38

decides to look back before they

12:40

exit the special installation area... They

12:43

might see wax sculptures all pushed

12:45

against the windows. Their faces twisted

12:47

into violent odious scales. Expressions with

12:49

the malevolence is pure as the

12:52

darkness to which they will return,

12:54

when their spotlights shut back off.

12:56

Accompanying this fearsome display is a

12:59

soundtrack that is only heard should

13:01

the wax sculptures be looked upon.

13:03

A soundtrack of tortured screens played

13:06

in reverse and at a volume

13:08

so low, to make the guest

13:10

question if they're hearing it at

13:12

all. But whether their curiosity compelled

13:15

them to take one last class

13:17

back at the wax sculptures or

13:19

not, the guest will emerge from

13:22

the special installation into a showroom

13:24

with a decidedly different atmosphere than

13:26

it had just minutes ago. The

13:28

paintings that once depicted joyous families

13:31

now feature father-raping daughter, mother smothering

13:33

infant son, brother cannibalizing sister, tranquil

13:35

scenery as given way to sinister

13:38

hellscapes. lands of smoke and ash

13:40

littered with brutalized cadavers of their

13:42

unfortunate denizens. The expressions of statues

13:44

and busts have transformed from happy

13:47

or, at the least, optimistically indifferent

13:49

to the same scoreful grimaces as

13:51

the wax figures. And some of

13:54

the works, be they the horrors

13:56

in paint or the horrors in

13:58

clay, to pick things not of

14:01

this earth at all, writhing tentacular

14:03

masses. hideous grotesquearies composed of innumerable

14:05

limbs, and eyes, and mouths, and

14:07

possessing a fearsome apathy regarded the

14:10

viewer and all of their kind,

14:12

and in each piece, in every

14:14

medium, the eyes will seem to

14:17

follow the guest as they make

14:19

their hurried, petrified way to the

14:21

museum's exit. The scores of gazes

14:23

feeling almost physical in their weight.

14:26

As though the figures casting them

14:28

appalled atop the shoulders of the

14:30

guests, slowing their pace, and quickening

14:33

their already rapidly beating heart to

14:35

the point of a cardiac episode.

14:37

And as the guest pushes back

14:39

through those African blackwood doors, they

14:42

might hazard a look over their

14:44

shoulder. But they will find amongst

14:46

the hateful artwork scores of wax

14:49

figures with their baleful, lifelike gazes

14:51

all leering with their scorn visages

14:53

at the departing visitor. The guest

14:56

will then leave the nameless museum.

14:58

Perhaps glancing in their rear view

15:00

mirror. Perhaps wondering if the building

15:02

had been at such an angle

15:05

before. This angle that makes it

15:07

seem as if the front of

15:09

the building is perfectly in line

15:12

with them. It's windows like eyes.

15:14

Windows that appear more numerous than

15:16

they were as the guest approached

15:18

the building. The guest will go

15:21

about their life for a time

15:23

with the unmistakable feeling of having

15:25

narrowly escaped a great and horrific

15:28

danger. A week, perhaps a month.

15:30

Even a year or more may

15:32

pass. But in due time the

15:34

Mona Lisa effect and the consequences

15:37

it wreaks on those unfortunate travelers

15:39

who happened upon that outwardly nondescript

15:41

structure that houses that nameless museum

15:44

will return. First it will be

15:46

instances that the guest can easily

15:48

brush off as being a result

15:51

of their paranoid mind. A single

15:53

magazine cover or a single person

15:55

in a photograph of many. But

15:57

before along the guest will find

16:00

that the actors in every shot

16:02

in a film. or television shows

16:04

seem to be breaking the fourth

16:07

wall for the sole purpose of

16:09

peering directly at them. And even

16:11

worse, all of their eyes will

16:13

have that... same little something off

16:16

about them. That minor incongruance characteristic

16:18

of the wax sculptures in the

16:20

special installation of that nameless museum.

16:23

Soon the malignant waxy eyes of

16:25

every still photo of every magazine

16:27

cover and interior, every billboard, every

16:29

advertisement, every animal both wild and

16:32

domesticated. Their eyes will follow the

16:34

guest. And by the end, every

16:36

person. The guest family and friends,

16:39

co-workers, strangers, their eyes will follow.

16:41

The guest may try to run.

16:43

To escape the oppressive observance of

16:46

any and all eyes, be they

16:48

alive or manufactured. But even if

16:50

they manage to isolate themselves from

16:52

the world and all its eyes,

16:55

no respite will come. Their mind

16:57

will make eyes where none are.

16:59

from shapes and angles and even

17:02

their own myodysopuses. The eyes will

17:04

never cease to follow them, and

17:06

the madness that a company is

17:08

being constantly watched will prove too

17:11

much for the guest to handle.

17:13

And their last thought before making

17:15

their most final decision will be

17:18

of the recording in the special

17:20

installation of that nameless museum on

17:22

the side of that desolate road,

17:25

of how the Mona Lisa doesn't

17:27

even exhibit the properties of the

17:29

properties of the effect. That bears

17:31

its name. Narrated and produced by

17:34

James Barnett, aka Jimmy Horrors, with

17:36

music by Mayu and Tom Robson,

17:38

a sound effect provided by Free

17:41

Sound, dog. The episode illustration was

17:43

divided by Luke's spoon of Carrion

17:45

House. A quick thanks to our

17:47

community managers, Jasmine Arch, Joshua Bouché,

17:50

and his iless ones, Mary Pastrano,

17:52

and Cody Sarzasti, and to Joshua

17:54

Bouché for helping with us on

17:57

mission reading. Of course, the better

17:59

I return for the ongoing explosion

18:01

of content, he fires out of

18:03

his social media canon. Nick Botek

18:06

would like everyone to go and

18:08

check out as a novel on

18:10

Amazon, daughter's drawings, and the link

18:13

to that will be in the

18:15

show notes. James Barnett is the

18:17

producer of the Night's End podcast

18:20

and After the Gloaming. Search for

18:22

him wherever you get your podcast.

18:24

You can also check other works

18:26

of his at James Barnett creative.com.

18:29

The other stories is a production

18:31

of the story studio, Hawk and

18:33

Cleaver, and it brought you with

18:36

creative comments, attribution, non-commercial, no-driven derivatives

18:38

license. That means don't change it,

18:40

don't sell it, but by all

18:42

means share the hell out of

18:45

it. So, until next time. To

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