Flash Bulb 35:01

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We had a great October, and this is just the beginning for the Mayfair Watchers Society. As always, you can listen early and ad-free on Apollo, and just thank you for tuning in. We are the Watchers.

Observers of the strange, paranormal, occult, unwelcome, unspiritual, horrifying, mystical, secret, transcendent, repulsive, captivating, unwelcome, appalling, gruesome, unseen, magic, weird, revolting, intruders, horrifying, unseen.

Welcome to Mayfair Watchers Society. Go ahead, start with your name and where you live. What? Your name. Yeah. Okay. Hey, I'm Drew Laskin. My mom is Catherine Laskin. We live on the... Oh, okay. My mom and Cam's mom, they said that we should post these videos we took on here.

And that I should, uh, I should tell you. There's something living in the mill. The Hayward textile mill? The Hayward textile mill, yeah. We were trying to make a podcast. A video podcast, I mean. Like Case Abandoned does. With like, kind of an urban legend thing going on instead of true crime. It was Cam's idea. A video podcast? What, what? Oh.

Can you tell me about the pictures? Do you know what might have been on it?

I don't know. I don't know how to, um... It's just it was on the ceiling, you know, the whole time. It was above us. If I think about it too much, I just... I can't stop seeing it. Did you watch the videos? No, I didn't. You should probably just watch the videos. Can I go? You ready, Drew?

Whenever you are. Hey, don't forget to turn on the music. Yeah, I got it.

Okay, so should we like count in or- Hey there mystery seekers! It's Cameron here with another thrilling installation of- Cam, you can't say "another installation." This is the first episode. But what am I supposed to say then? That's how Dan does it! What did he do for the first episode? I don't know. I don't think there was a first episode. Case of Bandans like always been around. What? There's gotta be a first episode. Even the old stuff has to start somewhere.

I'm telling you, it's... Let's look it up. We don't need to look it up. We can just... I don't know. I'll just wing it. You sure? Yeah, it's no problem. I thought you said you had this set to loop. I did!

I mean, obviously you didn't. I did! This fucking thing's just broken. Shit, maybe we shouldn't do the music then. Huh? Well, if the loop is busted, then the music's not gonna work. No, it's... it's not busted. You said it was busted. Listen, are we doing this thing or not? I thought you said you wanted to help- Okay, okay. Well, we're gonna have to start over anyway. You want me to stop the recording and start a new video? No, it's fine. Just keep going. We can fix it in post.

Do you even know what that means? Huh? Yeah, it just means we can fix it after. Yeah, but like, do you know how? It can't be that hard, right? I'm gonna restart the music. Yeah, okay. Hey there, mystery seekers! It's Cameron here with, um, the first installation of the Mayfair Mystery Video Podcast.

Fuck, that sounded so dumb. No, it sounded good. Just keep going. Anyway, today we're gonna be doing a real-life deep dive into... The Roving Man! Drew? Huh? Today, we're gonna be doing a real-life deep dive into... The Roving Man! Drew, come on, it's you! What? Oh, shit, uh...

But Cameron, isn't that just a scary story from the internet? Yeah, that's what they say. That's what they say, but it feels true, doesn't it? The story feels right, and that's why it's creepy. So, can we really say the tale of the roving man is just a story? That's dumb, Cameron. You're just making shit up. I bet you don't even have anything to back that up. Huh?

Uh, no, no, you gotta listen. Hear me out. This? This is Mayfair. You know which one. The real Mayfair. Hell yeah. And here in Mayfair, we've got the Hayward Textile Mill. Now, my grandpa used to work at the mill. Mine too. And my uncle. Yeah, and my pop. He's a big horror buff. So sometimes when my mom's working late, I'll go hang out with him and we'll read the trending stuff.

Do they really need to know that, Kim? It's like context. Okay. Anyway, a couple weeks ago, the story comes up. The Roving Man. And Pop looks at me when we get to the part with the moths, and he goes, Oh, I get it. He doesn't rove. He's made of roving. And I'm like, what the hell is roving?

So what the hell is roving? You know how you shear the sheep, right? Right. And then all this stuff happens so it can get turned into yarn? Right. Roving is like, right in the middle of that. It's like this fluffy shit that sort of like felt. But it's not felt. Nah, it's like yarn that's not yarn yet.

And that's how they describe the Roving Man. He's made of all this weird stuff that he puts together into himself, right? All sorts of stuff. Bits of string, old feathers, dog hair, cat hair, human hair. Ugh, that's so gross. Yeah, and that's why he's so weird. He's always taking stuff so he can add it to himself so the moths don't finish eating him up. Okay, cool.

So what's this got to do with the mill? Well, here's the thing about the Hayward Textile Mill. It's fucking full of moss. It's been so long since it's closed that you think they, like, would have ran out of food by now, but nah, it's full of moss. You can see them all over the insides of the windows sometimes. Yeah, so that got us thinking. How are there still all these moss? They should have starved, right? Yeah.

Right. They should have starved by now. So something's gotta be feeding them. Something's bringing stuff into the mill. And you know, Drew, I think I heard about a guy that does that. I mean, I don't think it's on purpose. Okay, yeah, but he still does it. And nobody knows where he goes when he's not taking your hair.

Yeah, and he has to go somewhere. Yeah, and I think we both know where he goes, right? Someplace the moths never seem to starve, even though they should have already eaten all the wool by now. We're gonna go find the real-life roving man. You see that? Get a shot that goes all the way across. Across the front of the building? Yeah, from there to there. Like this? Yeah, just like that. Awesome.

Okay, okay, I'm filming. Shut up. Don't tell me to shut up! You're talking over the shot, though. So? So it's gonna sound weird if you're just talking about some random bullshit in the background. What do you mean? Well, just put music over it. Huh? That's what Kesa Bandand does. They always put music over these parts. Wait, like, is this part of fixing it in post?

Do they do that part after? Yeah, I guess. Probably? Why'd we have to play music when we were recording it in your mom's kitchen then? I... uh... You fucking dumbass. I'm not a dumbass. It's because I was talking. If we put the music over that part, nobody would be able to hear it. What was that? What was what? The noise. What noise? The noise. One second, let me...

Right here! Get a shot of me! Okay, just hold still. Why? It's a video, not a photo. Yeah. Hey Cam, I just realized something. What? We could've just like, made a big long video and cut out the parts that we wanted, right? Huh?

I guess? But, Kesa Bandan always has the shots all cut up like this? I think maybe that's because they take a big long video and cut it up, Cam. Huh? I think they take one long video and then they cut it up so they can get all the best parts, you know? Fix it in post. Huh? Oh my god. You ever been in here before? Yeah, a couple years ago with my brother, but we didn't get very far before Miss Majeski caught us.

You? Nah, I was supposed to come here with Finch last year, but then that whole thing with the... the... Yeah, I remember. You don't have to say it. Yeah, that happened. So what do you think? I think it smells like ass. Look at those, though. Don't they look cool? The machines? Yeah, they do. You get a good shot of them yet?

I'm not sure the camera is picking them up. It's just black on the screen. I think it's too dark in here. Want me to try turning the big flashlight on? Sure. Someone might see, though. I'm surprised nobody's come yet, actually. We spent a long time outside. It'll be fine. My mom says there's some shit going on right now. Nobody's gonna be watching the mill when they've got better shit to do. I'm turning on the light, okay? It's gonna be bright. Go for it. Ah! It's the...

It's the light! Turn it off! Turn off the fucking flashlight! Hey, where's the camera? Huh? Oh, shit! Oh, covered in crap. Then why'd you drop it, dumbass? I wasn't trying to. Ew. Hey, when I turned on the light and the moss came flying at me, did you get that? Think so. Stop the video. I want to see. Trevor Henderson here with an ad break.

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Shopify helps you do your thing, however you cha-ching. From the launch your online shop stage, all the way to the we just hit a million orders stage. No matter what stage you're in, Shopify's there to help you grow. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash special offer, all lowercase. That's shopify.com slash special offer. And now, back to our show. Hey, move. You're in the way. Okay. Okay.

Anyway, like I was saying, isn't this crazy? It's not like anybody was gonna find this here. We found it. Yeah, but that's different. I think it's a Polaroid or something. Maybe they just dropped it and forgot about it. What do you think it's supposed to be of? I don't know. It's too blurry. Kind of just looks like a picture of the ceiling. Look at that though. Like, doesn't that look like the top of somebody's head? Yeah, it does.

Maybe somebody was trying to take a picture and fucked up, so they just left it on the ground. But what's that, though? What? That. I don't know. Probably just an old part of a mill. Wait, did you just start filming again? When you picked up the picture, yeah. Why'd you wait so long? We could've missed something cool without realizing. Sorry, it's just... We're gonna run out of memory if I'm not careful, I think. Seriously?

I'm almost out already. What? How are you already almost out? Because you didn't tell me that I needed to clear out the memory. I didn't think I had to ask. You didn't think about it before now either, okay? Don't fucking lie. Damn it, it's getting kind of dark anyway. You want to clear out the memory and come back tomorrow? Sure, but won't your mom notice if we keep sneaking out? Nah, she's working late all this week. Somebody stopped showing up to work or something.

Really? That sucks. For her, maybe. Your mom is nice, though. Of course you think she's nice. You don't have to live with her. Wait, are you still filming? You got the camera on? Yeah. And you're sure you remembered to empty the card this time? Yes, stop asking me. God. Yeah, well, I wouldn't keep asking if we hadn't come all this way out here for you to tell me that... I forgot, okay? There's a lot going on right now. I just fucking forgot.

Yeah? Yeah. You wanna talk about it? Not right now, okay? I'm filming. Okay. Stepdad stuff? I-I said I didn't wanna talk about it. Yeah, sorry. I should be able to just film without having start and stop this time, so... Alright! Yeah, yeah, let's do this. Let's find the fucking roving man! Hell yeah. Hell yeah! Okay. But, like, where do we start? In here, I guess?

You really think he'd be in here? Like, two rooms in? Shit, that's a good point. Somebody would have found him by now if he was here, huh? Yeah, I think so. So he's gotta be further in. Yeah. So we go further in. Yeah. You gonna just keep saying yeah to everything? Yeah. Seriously, where do you think we should go? Maybe upstairs? Nobody goes upstairs much. Isn't that because there are holes in the floor? Where'd you hear that?

Finch told me. Oh. Yeah. So... you don't think we should go upstairs? No, I... Nah, let's do it. Finch was always full of shit anyway. Yeah. Hey, look at these windows. What about them? Huh. They just... don't they look kinda pretty? They're broken, though. Yeah, but, like... Never mind. Okay. Did you hear that? Hear what?

It was like a creepy creaking sound. That's probably just the building settling. What if it was him, though? The roving man? Yeah. Should we go in? Yeah. Keep your flashlight on the floor, though. You still think there might be holes? No, I just... What if there are, though? My gas. What was that? What the fuck was that? What the hell? Fuck, my fucking eyes! Did someone just take a picture of us?

What? Someone just took a fucking picture of us. Where? I don't know. Hey, is somebody there? Don't call him. Why not? This guy just took a picture of us and you think he's not a creep? Should I call the cops? What? No. Then we'll have to tell them we came in here. Hey! Hey, is anybody there? Camp, shut up. Cut it out. Don't fucking pull on me. Let's just go.

Camera's on. Cool. Do you think he's still here? The creep? Yeah. I don't know. Are you sure this is a good idea, Cam? He left the picture for us right in the entrance. I just... I don't know. It just feels creepy. It's gonna be fine. He'd have to be an idiot to stick around. What if he called the cops after all? Come on. But what if he lives here? Nobody lives in the mill.

Don't you think that's kind of weird though? Huh? Don't you think it's kind of weird that nobody lives in the mill? Not really. Why? Well, it's just... It's not like there's no homeless people in Mayfair. So what? What, you think some of them would sleep in the mill? Some of them sleep in the Jack. What?

The Jack. The Jansen... whatever. You know the old auto plant? Then just call it that! Jesus, who calls it the Jack? My brother. He always... that's not important right now. Anyway, don't you think that it's weird that nobody lives here? Maybe it just stinks too much. I don't think it's that big of a deal when you're homeless. Okay. What are you trying to say? That guy. What if he's like a killer or something?

Don't be stupid. He's here. I fucking told you. Hey, where are you? What the fuck is wrong with you? No, what the fuck is that? What? By your foot. What the fuck is that? An owl? It's dead. I can see, dumbass. Look at its face. What the fuck? Ew. I think it's one of those things. So, there's a guy here. So what if there's something else here? When you see one, sometimes there are...

Let's just go, Cam. Let's just fucking go. Come on. Did you get that? Did you get him, Drew? He was right there. Cam, we need to go. Did you get him? Did you get him with the camera? I don't know. Cam, we shouldn't be here. Shh. Cam, come on. Shut up or he'll hear us. What if he's not up there? What if he's down here? He's up there. How do you know?

Because the first picture we found, I looked at it again, and that's the second floor. And the first time he took a picture of us, that was on the second floor too. So? He took those pictures of us on the first floor last time. There's something about them. It's like a magic eye. I feel like I haven't seen it yet. Forget the pictures. He's up there. Just trust me. You coming or what?

Whatever happened to us just looking for the Roving Man, Cam? Huh? We came here looking for Roving Man. Obviously, he's not here. Let's just fucking go. Are you telling me you don't want to know what's going on here? Yeah, sure. But I don't want to die or something. We're not going to die, you fucking baby. You saw the bird. That clearly was one of those things. What if there are more in here?

What if they're dangerous? If they were dangerous, don't you think they would have come after us already? I guess. There's only one fucked up thing in this place, and it's that freak with the camera. You said you saw him, right? Yeah, sorta. What did he look like? What should I be looking for? Kinda weird. Old. Old like how? Like Miss Winter's level of old? No, like weird old. He wasn't just wrinkly, he looked all twisted up.

You sure he's not the roving man? Nobody said anything about the roving man having a camera. Maybe they didn't know. Maybe. I don't think he's the roving man. But you think he could be. Well, we're not going to find out by staying here. Are you going to come with me or are you going to chicken out? I'm not going to leave you on your own, Cam. Then shut up and help me with this door, okay? You sure he's up here? Yeah.

Where do you think he is? Danelle, hey, keep your flashlight down or I'll see you. Sorry. What's that over there? Another picture? Nah. Looks like a shoe. That's even weirder. Why is there a... Look where you're going! Oh shit! Shit! There really was a hole. Maybe it's a coincidence? Seriously, Drew? I haven't seen others yet. Finch said there were holes. Plural, right? I think so. So maybe it's a coincidence. Let's go around.

What do you think made this? Huh? The hole. I don't know. Maybe the floor just gave out. It's smooth, though. What do you mean? Look where my flashlight is pointing. What is that? What are you looking at? Cam, don't move. What? We gotta go. We gotta fucking go! Cam! What? Fuck the podcast, Cam! Yeah, fuck the podcast.

Can you call my mom? I think my leg might be broken. Alright, can you tell us about what happened at the mill? Why? Please, just- Yeah, me and Drew were sneaking into the mill. You know that. Everybody knows that. What do you want me to say? Yeah, we were trespassing. I'm already in trouble with my mom and my leg's fucking broken, what are you- Language, please. Just start with your name. Cameron Price. What? A little more, please?

Why are you asking me? There's a video. Go watch that. What exactly did you see? Yeah, of course I saw it. You tried to fucking eat me. Please, watch your language. Listen, only reason I came here is because Drew asked me to. If you're just gonna be shitty about it, I'm gonna go home. No, no, no, no, no. We don't need to worry about that like this. It's just... Whatever. Tell us what you saw. Big. Like...

Sort of spindly, but heavy looking if that makes sense. Sure. Guess it couldn't have been that heavy though. What did it look like? How did it move? It was, uh... Have you ever been in the mill? No, we've never been in the Hayward Mill. So, uh, when you get into the big rooms, if you look up, you can see there's all this, like, stuff bolted to the ceilings. All these bars and pipes right above the machines.

They're not like water pipes or anything. They kind of look like my grandpa's shower bar, just long. And you know, on the ceiling. I don't know what they're for. Yeah, I think it was using them like handholds, like when you're a kid and you go upside down on the jungle gym. I don't know, it was just all mouth and legs.

That's all I saw. After Drew's bro got hit by that car, he said the whole world slowed down, like everything went super fast and super slow at the same time. It was like that. Drew was pointing the flashlight up at the ceiling, so I looked up and everything just slowed down for a second. It was right over top of me. He looked weird.

Moved weird too. "A little bit more descriptive please?" I couldn't see his face, he always had his camera up. Maybe he didn't have a face. I'm not even sure he's like a guy anymore. "Sorry, what do you mean not a guy anymore? Like he's turned into a corpse?" Maybe he's not a guy. Not a person. Or a person-shaped thing. Maybe they're not separate things, you know?

Like, it wasn't one thing taking a picture of another thing. Maybe it was taking a picture of itself. Sorry, why would a thing take a picture of itself? Have you never heard of a selfie before? Yeah, I'm in love with a werewolf and she makes me howl in every moment.

Mayfair Watchers Society is based on the works of Trevor Henderson. Flashbulb was written by K.L. Brown. Drew was played by Dustin Sullivan. Cameron was played by Tal Minear. And Interviewer was played by Brad Colbrook.

Dialogue editor was Jesse Hall. The sound designer was Brad Kolbrek. Music was by Matt Roy Berger. The showrunner is Pacific S. Obadiah. The creative director is me, Trevor Henderson. And the producers are Tom Owen and Brad Miska. A Bloody FM Show.