I need to be casual about this. I'm going to try to sound casual. But I'm not feeling particularly casual at the moment.
The @bog_remembers account posted again today.
If you don't remember, that's the mysterious TikTok account that's been posting images of bogs for months without explanation. Just mist, water, plants, nothing else. Then suddenly it starts posting the Rattlin' Bog melody in these haunting instrumental versions. Nobody knows who runs it. Nobody even knows if it's connected to the viral trend or if it existed before.
Today's video is different.
It's about fifteen seconds long. It shows a bog at night — actual night, very dark, you can barely see anything. Mist is rising up thick. And if you turn your volume up — really turn it up — you can hear the melody of the Rattlin' Bog.
But it sounds WRONG.
It's slowed down. Reversed? I'm not sure which or both. The melody is there — I can definitely make out our song — but it's twisted somehow. It sounds like it's being played backwards but also speeded up and slowed down at the same time. My brain can't quite hold the shape of it.
The comments are split completely. Half the people say it's genuinely creepy and they got chills. The other half are saying it's the most beautiful thing they've ever heard, that there's something profound about hearing the song that way, something that makes them feel things they can't name.
I watched it about thirty times. I'm not going to admit that to anyone but you lot.
I don't know what it means. I don't know who's running that account. But I've got a tight feeling in my chest and I can't quite shake it.
It's just a song. It's just a recording. Nothing to worry about.
Right?