I set up a damn security camera in my living room after coming home one night to find the rest of my toilet paper used up. I live alone.

Now I know that sounds silly, absurd even. Had it been the one time I found something out of place in my two-bedroom house, I wouldn’t have noticed it.

Recently, I’d been going crazy over the smallest, little details. If you know me, then you know I like my shit tidy. This is especially before I leave the house for work. Picturesque. My books have to be in alphabetical order on the shelves, the dishes organized in the washer, the carpet free of debris, my mattress made as if presented in a Raymour & Flanigan line up. So, when I come home night after night and see dishes I remember cleaning in the sink, or my TV remote on the couch cushion—instead of on the stand next to the TV itself—you can see why this might raise my tail.

Were these the early stages of dementia in my youth? Definitely didn’t want that to be the case. Recently, I been getting into scary podcast that feature some stories about unwanted guests living in people’s homes. Y’know, hiding inside vents, crawlspaces, and shit. This seemed likely, as I’ve also had the vague feels of being watched lately. Though, this was probably paranoia due to my recent habit of forgetfulness; however, the used-up toilet paper really drew the line for me. That was straight bizarre.

Petty? Maybe. Better safe than sorry. In all truths, I wouldn’t have even bothered with the lengths of recording my own home if it weren’t for something I had in the trunk of my car. From there, I retrieved a teddy bear.

Not your ordinary teddy bear, no sir. In actuality, it was a security camera. Never had an excuse to use this thing. The last owner of it, my father, used it to spy on the nanny that used to watch over my sister and me. My mother had gotten suspicious that our nanny had been going into her old jewelry case and stealing.

Caught the bitch red handed.

For one reason or another, it was now in my possession. The camera was in the eye of the teddy bear, some duct tape covered where the cables would enter on the back. All I needed to do was plug the old toy into my laptop to see if it still functioned.

Took a minute, but I got it running.

The bear was placed on a dresser in the living room, my laptop hidden between the dresser and wall. I’m not gonna lie, as mildly excited as I was to set it up, I kinda forgot about it. I’m an accountant who crunches hours, works overtime a lot. Come home, watch some television or read a book, then sleep.

For three whole days, things seemed normal enough.

Until the fourth day.

Was a long shift. I approached my front door, tried the keys, and my door was already unlocked.

I froze.

Should’ve backed off, but masculine pride forced me to swing the door open.

The house was a mess, or my version of what a mess would look like.

The windows were wide open, more dishes in the sink. My television was on, which happened to be playing one of my favorite movies: The Ring. My couch cushions had imprints on them. Sat in one of them and the seat was warm.

Wanted to call the police right there, but there was one problem: nothing was stolen. Everything was fine, really. Things were out of place, but I knew the police weren’t gonna do shit. And between my perspiring hands and racing heart, maybe a part of me still wanted to believe this was all me being forgetful. If I was gonna call the police, I would need solid—

Then I snapped. “The footage.”

Ran over to the bear, retrieved the laptop from underneath, and logged in. Still connected to the charger thanks to my foresight, but due to my negligence, I had days of continuous footage.

I skimmed through a lot of it at first. Wasn’t interested in watching myself, and my old ass computer couldn’t jump too far ahead in the recordings without freezing for a bit.

I’m taking out the trash, cleaning, eating, sleeping on the couch, yadda-yadda. Timestamp now displayed: "12/27/22," the third day of recording out of the four, and I was only interested in whatever happened on the fourth day.

Then a thought came to me that I didn’t know how to interpret.

It was difficult to land on footage of my home vacant. It was odd to me that at every attempt at jumping ahead, it always happened to land on me doing a variety of things. This didn’t make sense. More often than not, I should see an empty house.

This is when I really started paying attention to the timestamps.

11:38am, I’m napping on the couch. . . even though I’m scheduled for work at 10:30am.

“No...this ain't right,” I thought. “This time must be wrong.”

So, I tried something.

Clicked the video’s slider and ever-so-gently nudged it back to see what I was doing at a time where I would be getting ready for work. This would be about two hours prior from me being shown napping, and I got it on my first try.

9:25am: footage of me getting into my work attire.

“Okay. . . So, what the heck?” I said.

Was certain there had to have been an error, a glitch in the system which distorted the footage at some point. I decided I’d spend the next hour or so making absolute sure I saw myself leave for work. If things were making chronological sense, there should be a jump cut or something indicating corrupted data, resolving the confusion.

At 10:11am, I tidy up the house like normal and leave for work.

Then at 10:50am, shit you not, I come back into the house.

Now my brows are scrunched together. “What? Did I forget something? I don’t remember forgetting a damn thing Tuesday.”

No, it wasn’t like that at all. It’s as if I left for work, came back minutes later, and was acting as if I’d come home after a long day. There were no jump cuts, the timestamps were consistent, and the kicker, the light coming from my living room windows didn’t change at all. Same tan skin tone, jawline, curly brown hair, my mannerisms, every damn criteria—this was myself down to the bone.

I watched this other me go into the bathroom and take a shower, then take a nap later.

Skimmed through more footage.

This other 'me' had woken up and did all the casual shit I might actually do until nighttime.

Forwarded more. Needed to see what this footage would show on a timestamp when I would normally be returning home.

I usually return home by 11:40pm, but at 11:02pm, I’m checking myself out in my living room mirror, in my work attire.

At 11:30pm the footage shows other 'me' leaving home. At 11:43pm, actual me returns.

I stared blankly at my screen.

"What about me coming home today?" I thought

Before I can truly allow myself to react, I needed to see. Afterall, this was only footage from the 27th. Needed to know what the footage would show after I left for work on the 28th.

Thus, continued me skimming through.

On the 28th, I woke up in the morning, did my routine exactly how I remembered it. Got ready for work, I left, and whaddya know, this other 'me' comes right back in after about 20 minutes.

Exactly the same shit happens. Now that I’m truly taking time to analyze it, this other me is so noticeably sloppier. He touches things and doesn’t put them back properly, doesn’t clean up after himself. And probably doesn’t replace the empty roll in the bathroom, though I don’t have that specific view. For the most part, he does everything I would normally do at home up until it’s time for the actual me to come back from work. He leaves, I return minutes later, and I see myself react to my house being in disorder, up until I see myself approach the bear to check the footage. The recording ends.

I spin around and peak through the blinds of all my windows. My meltdown begins. I pack all of my shit right then and leave for my sister’s place.

This whole ordeal happened about two weeks ago.

What happened since then? Something did, but I don’t want to extend this post for too long.

Questions you might have:

'Did you try posting the footage?'

I tried several times. First on YouTube. Tried explaining the context in the description and everything. I was met with very little views, and the few comments I got called bullshit. Afterall, it’s merely footage of me leaving and entering my home. At first glance, big deal, right? After a few hours, the video got taken down by some “community guideline” thing. Tried Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, all with the same results. Can’t get this shit up anywhere.

The only reason I’m posting this now is because I was contacted by the owner of this account, Yoel, who offered an avenue in which I could at least share the details of my stories to some folk who might actually believe it.

So, that’s about it. For now. I’ll update soon, of course, but until then, I’ll leave you with this:

While over at my sister's house, we discovered something while examining the first two days of footage, which were ones I hadn’t checked at first. There’s a moment where this other me is talking on the phone. Since it’s on speaker, we can hear the entire conversation.

We can hear the sound of my sister’s voice coming from the other line.

part 2