The weird video I couldn’t understand, the one with the troubled looking teen, the weird arm, and and somebody being shot dead, that scared me as a kid still hasn’t been found, but I might be getting closer to finding at least a trace of it.
Somethinginthefire.mp4 was infamous to me as a kid, so I won’t stop searching for it. Its unexplainable creepiness has always captivated me. It’s been 7 months since I last posted about it, and finally somebody reached out and gave me a lead.
I received a private message from a fellow Redditor. At first, I thought it was going to be work related.
“Hi. I remember that video. It was the video that taught me what it looks like when somebody gets shot in the head. I would also like to know exactly what was going on in that house. Who was that boy? What was that arm? Anyway, I have something to ask you. Did you watch the other videos on his channel back then? Or just that video?”
I was happy to find out yet another person had seen the video, but there was a heavy feeling in my gut as I recalled the video. I responded quickly.
“Just that video. I didn’t think of watching anything else on his channel. I was hyperfocused on that one video.”
Ten minutes later, he responded.
“Well… I did… this might be discomforting, so read on if you want to. I don’t want to cause you more distress, but I too was freaked out by that video when I was a kid. I was 8, and it was the beginning of 2008. After watching Somethinginthefire, I went to his channel out of morbid curiosity. Like when you don’t want to look but feel tempted to anyway. It’s the call of the abyss. Well, I acted on it.
What caught my attention first were the thumbnails. Chainsaws up to necks, a bath tub filled with a… dark red substance, someone who looked to have had the skin of his face removed with his face being blood red, but he wasn’t bleeding, still had eyes, and looked to be laughing (I decided to avoid watching that one the second I saw that thumbnail,) a kid with ten mouths eating an arm… pretty messed up and weird all around. All the videos had less than 300 views, and their titles were cheekier than Somethinginthefire. One of the chainsaw ones was titled “MR POTATO HEAD GETS AN OPERATION.” The bath one was titled “BLOODBATH,” the third one was titled “Wheresyourface.mp4” and the fourth one was titled “Dragonchildmuststayhome,” which of course was tamer like Somethinginthefire.
You probably think I was going to watch the dragon child one, which, to be honest, gave me the creeps as soon as I saw it, but the one I chose to watch was the latest one on the channel at the time. Its thumbnail photo was of a young looking man staring out of one of the windows of a neighbouring house. What captivated me was his appearance. He had stitches around the perimeter of his face. Two lines of purple skin formed two separate rings on either side of the stitch circle. The boy had a fearful and conflicted expression on his face that sent chills down my spine. I guess it was that he looked like a kid in need that stimulated my curiosity.
The video began with your average white text on a blue background. The text went something along the lines of… “This kid has been staring out his window for an hour every day. Usually around 5 PM”
The video showed the kid staring out his window. The cameraman zoomed in, then out. The person filming opened his own window, then asked the kid if he wanted something. He didn’t respond. The text came back, stating they went over and knocked on the front door. That one of the kid’s parents answered, then the cameraman asked them about their kid, then they told him their little boy just liked to stare off into space.
Then the video showed a clip montage of the kid staring out the window on exact dates. The dates were shown in text in between each clip as an introduction to each clip, but I only remember the year being 2007.
After about the tenth clip, a different clip played. The cameraman was walking through a dark room. He set his camera up against the window. The only source of light was a nearby streetlight somewhere offscreen to the left. It was shining on something long stretching out of the kid’s window. At first I thought it was a decoration, but then I noticed it was moving like a snake. It was thicker and longer than a snake, and it just kept moving. It was unnerving as hell. Like, what on earth was it? Dread filled my chest like there was no tomorrow. Not understanding something as an 8 year old is gut wrenching.
The cameraman stepped outside. It had to have been midnight or something. The cameraman walked over to the house, the sound of his quick breathing audible. He stopped about ten feet away from the arm, zoomed in on it, panning to the right toward’s the boy’s window, then panned the other way to the front door, which the arm was covering. He stood for a minute, watching as the arm continued to crawl. A childlike cry began echoing from the boy’s window. The cameraman picked something up from the ground and threw it. It struck the arm, which, in response, stopped moving. A second later, it started to move again. The crying was still going. The cameraman walked up to the window and the screaming got louder and louder. Considering the situation, a feeling of concern hit me and an odd pit of dread formed in my gut.
I didn’t know what was going on in there, and as much as I wanted to know, I was too freaked out by whatever that arm thing was.
The white text came back, stating the police were called, but by the time they arrived, the arm had crawled back into the boy’s window. The police said they found nothing.
The next part of the video showed a fire in the boy’s room that was visible through the window. The cameraman ran outside to his own front porch, then pointed the camera to his right. Two fire trucks were parked outside the boy’s house.
I didn’t know whether or not it was the same fire as the one in somethinginthefire but from a different angle. It was creepy nontheless. That boy looked troubled, but he also didn’t seem human. Being 8, I assumed he was human, but now I realize how off his stare was. I feel cold typing this up.
The next video was titled “Where?” The thumbnail image was of an MS Paint drawn man standing in an empty field of grass. In the video, the character talks to himself in a weak, shaky tone.
“Where did they come from? The things under my feet, the thing on the stairs, the thing in the walls, the things all over the halls. As long as I have your hand to hold, I’ll be good.”
A white vortex opened up behind him. A skeleton’s hand reached out towards him. He grabbed hold of it, then got pulled into the vortex. These days, that wouldn’t be so creepy to me, but when I was 8, I had nightmares about it afterwards. What did he mean by “the thing under the stairs?” It was vauge enough to fill me with dread. By itself, it wouldn’t have been bad, but it was posted by the same guy who posted the other unexplainable creepy videos that looked so vivid I wouldn’t ever believe they were faked.
I showed the channel to a friend of mine. He told me the videos were fake. When I asked him why he thought so, he told me he was just saying. Maybe he hoped the videos were fake because they were creepy?
One more video I want to mention was titled “LEGO MEN Part 1” with an image of an empty hallway with yellow walls for the thumbnail. That video began in an empty room with only a beanbag chair in the corner to the left of the door. The camera operator went up to the door while a scream echoed from outside. The camera operator opened the door and looked to their right down the hall. A man in his 30s or something ran by. Blood dripped down his forehead like he was melting.
The camera was aimed down the hallway, where you could see an intersection with another hallway. A high pitched noise, like that of scratching a pane of glass, echoed from there. My eyes widened with terror at that noise. The cameraman ran up the hallway, in the same direction as the other man. As he ran, the noise echoed again, then again, then again at a louder volume. The hallway seemed endless, with not another turn or an exit in sight. At one point, the camera operator tried to get into one of the rooms, but the door wouldn’t open. I was about to click off when the video ended.
I saw part 2 at the top of the related videos section, with a man screaming while looking into the camera as the thumbnail image. My heart was beating so fast already. I was afraid of finding out what happened to him. I was afraid of what made that screech. For some reason, seeing part one seemed like a warning… and it was a warning I chose to take. I clicked right off the channel.
There are some insane videos out there… ones you are more likely to believe are real compared to the videos on the channel… but I needed answers. I decided to leave a comment along the lines of “why would you put this here?” but probably heavily misspelled. I came back to the video (I needed to backtrack. House fire videos - people in house fires - animal in a house fire - keep clicking - somethinginthefire.mp4 - the channel) and there was no response.
From what I remember, my comment was the only one there. I thought to myself, what if one of the monsters come after me for being the only one to comment? Typical 8 year old me… I deleted the comment immediately.
All in all, the worst videos of these days don’t seem as bad, even if they’re still horrifying. Maybe YouTube’s search results becoming less relevant over the years was good for one reason. The rabbit holes aren’t as deep as they used to be.
Anyway, I hope you find the video so you can get some closure. The only thing I’m worried about is other kids. Like with a certain other shock video that has a much bigger search effort going for it, if this video is found, it should be kept in good hands. Make a clean version and post that on the internet if you’d like. With this video, though, it’s not just about the death. It’s also about how unknown those things were. Kids are petrified of the unknown. I drew everything I saw in those videos for years. My parents thought I was just very creative.
Writing this out helps me process this stuff. Please watch your mental state.
I have not been to that channel since 2008. If that video really is lost now, I don’t expect it to ever be found. It was just too obscure to stick around. The name of the channel was ===THEDWE=== …the entire channel was probably wiped too, but I dread seeking it out in case some of its content is still up. All those things were real. I will never ever get them out of my head.”
Wow… I never looked at the channel that uploaded Somethinginthefire. It makes sense that the other videos on there were similar in their unexplained, creepy nature. I’m going to look the channel up… I don’t expect to get any results, but who knows. I’m only seeking it out for at least one trace of Somethinginthefire though… as I have goosebumps thinking about the possibility of running into those other videos, and worst of all, encountering anything filmed on that channel. I’m going to cover the search result thumbnails with my hand again. I’m going to make sure my curtains are closed too, as the irrational worries and dread are back.
Edit: It doesn’t seem like the channel is up anymore. Good? I guess we’ll see if any other leads come up, which I guess will take another 7 months lol.