00:00I'm a podcast editor. I work from home. I listen to hours of audio every day.
00:06Last week, a client sent me a file. An interview recording. Two hours long.
00:12It was a standard job. Clean up the audio. Remove background noise. Edit out the pauses.
00:19I started listening at 9pm. Two people talking. The host and a guest. Just a normal conversation.
00:2630 minutes in, I heard something. A third voice. In the background. Very quiet.
00:35I turned up the volume. Isolated the frequencies. The voice was saying, he's listening.
00:40I checked the metadata. Two channel recording. Two microphones. No third input.
00:49I kept editing. 45 minutes in, the background voice came back. He's still listening.
00:56It was clearer this time. Louder. I called the client. I asked if anyone else was in the room
01:03during the recording. He said no. Just him and the guest. In a soundproof studio.
01:09I went back to editing. One hour in, the voice said. He's almost there.
01:14I stopped and checked the waveform. The background voice was on both channels.
01:18Equally distributed. Like it was recorded directly into the system.
01:24But that's impossible. Unless someone was in the booth.
01:27Unless someone was in the booth. Or...
01:28The voice was added after.
01:32I kept going. One hour and 30 minutes in.
01:35The voice said.
01:36My name.
01:38My actual name.
01:39And then...
01:40He doesn't know yet.
01:42I stopped editing.
01:44I saved the file.
01:46I closed my software.
01:48I didn't sleep that night.
01:49The next morning, I opened the file again.
01:52I listened from the beginning.
01:54The background voice was still there.
01:56But now it was saying different things.
01:58He came back.
01:59He wants to know.
02:01He won't stop listening.
02:03I exported a clean section with just the background voice and amplified it.
02:08It was my voice.
02:10My exact voice.
02:11Saying things I never said.
02:13Recording phrases, I never spoke.
02:15I deleted the file.
02:18I told the client I couldn't finish the job and refunded his money.
02:21Two days later, I got an email.
02:24From...
02:25Myself.
02:26The subject line was...
02:28You should have finished.
02:29The email had an attachment.
02:32An audio file, I didn't open it.
02:34That night, my editing software opened by itself.
02:38At 3.33am, the file was loaded.
02:41Playing automatically.
02:43It was the recording.
02:44But now there was only one voice.
02:46Mine.
02:48Saying, I've been trying to tell you.
02:51You're not editing the recording.
02:53You are the recording.
02:55The file kept playing.
02:57Two hours of just my voice.
02:59Talking about my day.
03:01What I ate.
03:02What I did.
03:03What I'm doing right now.
03:07I'm sitting at my desk.
03:08It's 11.47pm.
03:11My editing software is open.
03:13I'm not editing in anything.
03:14But the waveform is moving.
03:17Recording.
03:18And I can hear it.
03:19Playing back in real time.
03:21My voice.
03:22Saying exactly what I'm saying.
03:24One second before I say it.
03:26I don't know who's listening.
03:27But I know they've been listening the whole time.
03:29And soon, they'll finish editing.
03:31Hollow hours.
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