CHAPTER 39
Mina Murray’s Journal
I’m at Lucy’s and she’s asleep but I can’t even shut my eyes.
I can’t stop thinking about how that tweet could be a legit note from a MURDERER or it could be a total JOKE. And the point almost isn’t figuring out which one it is, but the way one single utterance has the power to occupy such radically different territory. But I guess that’s been the lesson of late, huh? The lines between reality and games, threat and joke, fascination and repulsion…they’re all so horrifyingly thin.
And whether it’s threat or joke, all I can think of is that it happened because of Shadowcast. We’ve gotten comments since episode one about how it’s gross and unethical to get ANY entertainment out of true crime. Hell, we’ve heard that we were sick and creepy for being personally interested in it since we were kids. But this is different. This is a potentially real, drastic consequence of something WE put out into the world.
Never again will I be able to record an episode without wondering if that’s the episode where we’ll gain the follower who wants to kill someone in an attempt to get on the show. Never again will I be able to chat with someone who loves true crime at a party and not think of this as a cautionary tale. Where once I relished the opportunity to shut down people who judged me for my interest, now I’m faced with a very real example of WHY those people might have been right. Not that I’m sick or it’s wrong…but that we really *shouldn’t* have Shadowcast.
Ugh, I don’t really think that. I know it’s not our fault. But just because something isn’t your *fault* doesn’t mean it didn’t happen *because* of you. And that’s a heavy burden to bear.
Fuck I hope it’s a joke.
* * *
Google Hangouts
8:38 AM
Arthur Quincey
Hey, are y’all up? You doing okay?
Mina Murray
Yeah we’re up, hey.
Did you talk to the cops?
Arthur Quincey
Yeah just talked to them.
Lucy Westenra
How’d it go? You didn’t tell them about Harker did you?
Arthur Quincey
Nope.
It went fine. I talked to a detective on the phone, explained what happened. She was nice, actually.
Lucy Westenra
Did you show her the tweet? Did she think it was real? Can they trace the account???
Mina Murray
Yeah what is the legal right of the police re: twitter accounts?
Arthur Quincey
So, by the time I talked to Detective Williams, @henryirving had deleted their account.
But I sent her the screenshot I took.
She was pretty sang froid about it, y’all. Like I couldn’t tell if she just deals with this shit all the time, or if it’s a cop thing to not let on anything you’re thinking.
When I asked if she thought it was more likely to be the real killer or someone messing around, she might as well have been you, Mina *smirk*
Mina Murray
I assume you mean she’s very smart and extremely beautiful?
Arthur Quincey
You took the words right outta my mouth!
She said, “It’s impossible to tell at this juncture, but stupidity is a lot thicker on the ground than menace.”
Lucy Westenra
Wow I guess if you ever dump me I can just go date her, Min *heart eyes*
Mina Murray
Lucy
Arthur Quincey
Oh man, even I could hear the stern voice that time *heart eyes*
Lucy Westenra
Right? *high fives arthur*
Ok but more importantly, that means she thinks it’s a joke, right???
Arthur Quincey
That’s how I took it, yeah.
Mina Murray
Not necessarily. Stupidity could have been referring to someone basically confessing to murder in a public forum as well as being a stupid fucking asshole for making that joke.
Guys
Cats have millions of instagram followers and people are starving in the streets so idk what ppl are doing really *sob*
Lucy Westenra
Aw kitteeeez :D
Kidding. Okay, she’s spiraling, I got this.
Mina I’m going to distract you from the fact that the world is horrible kay?
(Arthur, this is why she and VH are going to be best friends do you see???)
Arthur Quincey
(YUP)
Mina Murray
Hahaha you laugh now but when VH and i have our own podcast entitled “Things You Do To Distract Yourselves From The Fact That Horseshoe Crabs Have Persisted Virtually Unchanged for 500 Million Years and Humans Have Done Nothing Except Speed Up The Heat Death Of The Universe” you won’t be quite so twee!
[silence]
Arthur Quincey
Uh.
I have nothing to say to that. Jesus. Ok now i’m depressed.
Lucy Westenra
JFC Mina
Arthur Quincey
I’m gonna go find VH
Mina, do NOT propose that podcast to him
I’m scared he’d say yes
Mina Murray
w/e he studies human culture so he’s prob not really a nihilist
Lucy Westenra
Take your clothes off and shut up