You know, there's something I've always wondered about in the story of the Little

Red Riding Hood. After the wolf kills the grandmother, he puts on her clothes. And he talks in an old lady voice, but why? I get that he wants to trick, Little Red, but the great big eyes, the ears, the teeth,

she can clearly tell he's not really her dear old grandmamma.

If his whole plan is to just eat her, why bother trying to disguise himself?

Well, maybe, just maybe, it's because a disguise buys us something,

something powerful, courage, courage to do something great, something terrible,

something beyond what we think we are capable of in our ordinary lives.

It just depends.

What kind of person are you when you're hiding behind a mask?

Do you become the hero?

Or are you the wolf?

In today's story, a suburban dad finds his disguise, not in a grandmother's cabin, but in an equally terrifying place.

An internet chatro.

I'm Harvey Guillenne, and this is Killer Stories. Today's story takes us back to 2005. The track suits are juicy, the jeans are low, and the ugs are not yet ironic.

It's a time when technology is moving faster than people can keep up with.

Google Maps, YouTube, and Reddit have all been launched,

but people are still printing directions off MapQuest.

Social media is still dominated by MySpace, and chat rooms are still a popular way to communicate.

Thomas Montgomery is a middle-aged ex-marine who loves chat rooms. He has a nice home in upstate New York, a stable job that pays the bills, and an adoring family.

It's the kind of life a lot of people dream of.

And Thomas is about to screw everything up

because he is a catfish.

...