This episode of the sharing tapes was made possible by our backers on Seed and Spark, Jamie Lane Johnson, Bridget Guzzewicks, Christina Faulkner, and Toby Mills. If you'd like to support the show as well, please go to Patreon.com slash Homestead Corner. For as little as $5 a month, you get early access to ad-free versions of episodes, a special weekly behind-the-scenes podcast, and patron-only AMA live streams. Before we get started, this episode contains brief depictions of a child drowning,

strong elements of existential dread and terror, loud noises, and distorted audio.

Content warnings and a full transcript are available in the show notes.

Anna!

I had a friend named Anna Sheridan.

That much I know. That much is all I'm. I had a friend named Anna Sheridan.

That much I know.

That much is all I know for certain now.

Her name burns through my every waking moment like a firebrand,

like a ribbon of flame through the nightmare that is my existence in this place.

Anna Sheridan.

I remember a well and a school and a face, a face staring down at me from a circle of light far above me as I floundered and drowned.

And that face was my own.

And the face staring back up at me out of the black water as I stood in front of Anna on that sunlit morning and early summer.

It was mine too. I knew it. I saw it, and I ran away in terror from a fate I could

not possibly escape, because I was already in that well, had always been in that well, had never

walked in the sun beneath an open sky with a friend by my side,

because I was never born, because I was never meant to exist.

And as I ran away from that gaping wound in reality, masquerading as an old abandoned well,

someone else looked down into the waters as I struggled to stay afloat.

My friend, Anna.

The person I was when I walked above the surface,

...