"If You Find a Website With a Button Labeled "Soul Search", Please Don't Click It..." | CLANCYPASTA

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, I'm not sure where else to turn, but I know I need to share this and maybe

[00:00:16] just maybe someone out here can help me understand or figure out what to do next.

[00:00:26] I know this is going to sound crazy, but I swear every word I'm about to write of this is

[00:00:32] true.

[00:00:35] It all started last night, around midnight.

[00:00:39] I was doing the usual internet deep dive, you know how it is when Somnia hits and suddenly

[00:00:45] you're a detective on a mission to uncover the most obscure corners of the web.

[00:00:50] I would often load up Google or another search engine if I was feeling dangerous and just

[00:00:55] browse random phrases and things that pop into my head, trying to go deep into the search

[00:01:01] results to find obscure sites that would give me a laugh or at least give me some little

[00:01:06] pieces of entertainment.

[00:01:09] And that's when I stumbled across it.

[00:01:13] A website that seemed innocuously simple at first glance.

[00:01:19] A stark plain black background with a single white button in the center labeled SoulSearch.

[00:01:29] My curiosity, as it tends to do, got the better of me.

[00:01:34] I clicked without even thinking about it.

[00:01:40] What followed was a moment that felt like an eternity, a loading icon spinning before

[00:01:46] my eyes.

[00:01:48] It probably stayed on that spinning logo for 5 minutes and I just sat there staring.

[00:01:54] It occurred to me more than once that the website was frozen.

[00:02:00] Just as I was about to click off, the screen suddenly flashed right white and then went

[00:02:06] back to black again.

[00:02:09] And then images began to appear, taking up the full window of the browser.

[00:02:17] Not just any images, mind you, but to be specific, photos from my life.

[00:02:24] It started with what were apparently recent ones.

[00:02:30] Me at work at the grocery store, even the doctor's office, all looking like they were snapped

[00:02:37] covertly from around a corner.

[00:02:41] I noticed as I looked at the images that I was holding my breath, the creepiness of this

[00:02:48] made my skin crawl.

[00:02:51] How?

[00:02:52] No not how, but who would do this?

[00:02:57] But it didn't stop there.

[00:03:00] The images regressed even further into my past, to my high school days.

[00:03:06] My childhood.

[00:03:09] I saw myself walking the halls at school, exploring the woods behind my house and eventually

[00:03:17] celebrating my youngest birthdays in some of the most personal and intimate moments of

[00:03:23] my life that I knew were not documented.

[00:03:29] Each photo seemed to be impossible.

[00:03:32] But one of them had I ever seen.

[00:03:37] But how?

[00:03:38] How did this website have all these?

[00:03:41] I never uploaded them anywhere, they didn't even exist!

[00:03:48] Panic was setting in and a cold sweat drenched my back.

[00:03:56] Then as abruptly as it had begun, the page suddenly refreshed.

[00:04:02] When it loaded back up, I found it to display an error message that sent a wave of chills

[00:04:08] down my spine.

[00:04:13] 4-04 Soul Not Found

[00:04:19] I paused for a moment, reading the phrase over and over again.

[00:04:26] My heart was still beating in my lament and I thought there was a chance that something else

[00:04:31] would pop on the screen eventually.

[00:04:34] But as the minutes passed, nothing moved a millimeter.

[00:04:41] Eventually I tried refreshing the page.

[00:04:44] But that was when I discovered my computer was unresponsive.

[00:04:49] I tried clicking over and over again.

[00:04:52] It eventually decided to hard power the thing off.

[00:04:56] Oh boy, I thought.

[00:04:59] I guess my Laze Faire internet browsing had led me straight into a virus.

[00:05:05] I hoped to be able to run a virus scan after rebooting, but to my extreme annoyance and horror

[00:05:12] it wouldn't even turn back on.

[00:05:16] A single website had turned the computer I rely on for both entertainment and helping out

[00:05:22] on work projects.

[00:05:23] A useless brick on my desk.

[00:05:27] A sinking feeling in my gut told me this was no ordinary virus.

[00:05:35] This felt different than anything I'd ever encountered.

[00:05:41] Suddenly, a loud noise boomed outside my window.

[00:05:47] It almost sounded like someone ramming their car into a trash can or something.

[00:05:54] My peeked through the blinds just to the right of my desk and my heart nearly stopped.

[00:06:03] A black car parked as if watching my house was suddenly speeding off down the road into

[00:06:10] the night.

[00:06:14] Based on where it was when I saw it, it could have been parked right outside my driveway.

[00:06:23] It felt either like the coincidence of the century, or this was somehow directly related

[00:06:28] to the website that had just bricked my computer.

[00:06:33] But how?

[00:06:39] Believe it or not as I was laying in the bath trying to calm myself down that night.

[00:06:45] I tried to convince myself that all of this was nothing.

[00:06:50] Even though every molecule of my being was telling me otherwise.

[00:06:56] So the next morning, I went to work, still rattled but hoping the daylight and normalcy

[00:07:03] of my job would calm my nerves.

[00:07:07] Surprise, surprise!

[00:07:09] It didn't.

[00:07:11] Instead I found myself in a nightmare of an absolutely bizarre reality.

[00:07:20] Apparently, and I know this is going to be hard to believe but no one could see me.

[00:07:29] I walked into the office and greeted the usual co-workers, but none of them even turned

[00:07:34] their head to look at me.

[00:07:37] Weird, I thought, but whatever.

[00:07:41] However, I needed to talk to the manager about something.

[00:07:46] And when he wasn't acknowledging me, either, despite me talking directly into his ear, I began

[00:07:53] to freak out a little.

[00:07:55] I began to yell out, waved my hands, even when so far as to tap him on the shoulder.

[00:08:04] Nothing.

[00:08:06] Absolutely nothing.

[00:08:08] It was as if I was a ghost unseen and unheard by anyone.

[00:08:15] My presence seemed to have no effect on the world around me.

[00:08:21] Eventually I just froze, completely shocked and unsure what to do about this at all.

[00:08:29] Then a thought entered my mind.

[00:08:32] Maybe if I picked something up they would see it?

[00:08:36] Like if I picked up a pencil maybe they'd just see a floating pencil?

[00:08:42] So I rammed the coffee mug off my desk and held it right in front of my boss's face,

[00:08:48] like an inch from his face.

[00:08:51] No reaction.

[00:08:53] No response of any kind.

[00:08:59] I was dumbfounded.

[00:09:03] I guess anything I was touching disappeared as well.

[00:09:10] I've heard of being ignored, but this was 100% literal invisibility.

[00:09:18] I just couldn't believe it.

[00:09:19] My mind raced with the implications.

[00:09:23] And then my mind went back to that website.

[00:09:27] Had that soul search or whatever done something to me?

[00:09:32] Was this the meaning of the result?

[00:09:36] Full, not found?

[00:09:38] It spit out at me.

[00:09:40] In a panic I ran out of the building unnoticed as ever and ran to the bus station to get

[00:09:48] home.

[00:09:50] It was standing there, waiting that I now realized why the bus driver didn't seem to care

[00:09:56] about my ticket earlier.

[00:10:01] But before the bus arrived, a thought struck me.

[00:10:06] If I was unseen, could I perhaps benefit from this curse?

[00:10:13] Would I be able to just grab whatever the heck I wanted and walk out without any trouble?

[00:10:20] Driven by a mix of despair and curiosity, I walked into a local store nearby.

[00:10:28] I was very nervous and not sure what to test this theory out on.

[00:10:34] I walked through the grocery aisles and then looked at the clothing.

[00:10:38] But then I noticed a stack of laptops behind the counter in the electronic section.

[00:10:45] Oh boy, here's my time to shine, I thought.

[00:10:52] I forced myself to walk over there and put one under my arm.

[00:10:58] I started walking through the store towards the exit, constantly looking over my shoulders.

[00:11:04] No one seemed to notice or care when I made it through the doors.

[00:11:10] No alarms, no attempt at stopping me.

[00:11:15] Nothing.

[00:11:17] I walked out as invisible as I had walked in.

[00:11:22] I just couldn't believe it.

[00:11:25] I walked around the plaza for a while holding this laptop, considering going back to

[00:11:29] the bus station.

[00:11:31] But that was when I noticed a pretty nice looking street bicycle with a nice wicker basket

[00:11:38] affixed to the front than just so happened to be the exact dimensions to fit my brand

[00:11:45] spanking new laptop.

[00:11:49] I admit I couldn't resist.

[00:11:56] So here I am.

[00:11:59] I just got home about half an hour ago.

[00:12:03] I was going to make myself something to eat but then I realized I didn't really feel hungry

[00:12:12] like at all.

[00:12:15] So I went back to my living room and tore open my new package.

[00:12:20] And that's when I began typing this tale on this technically stolen laptop because quite

[00:12:29] frankly, what else can I do?

[00:12:35] I am lost.

[00:12:37] A drift in a world that no longer acknowledges my very existence.

[00:12:43] If nothing changes soon, I don't think I can call this living.

[00:12:49] It's existing in a void.

[00:12:52] My emotions have run the gamut on this from curiosity to confusion to utter terror.

[00:13:01] I apparently can't eat.

[00:13:04] I have no desire to sleep and I definitely can't shake the feeling that something fundamental

[00:13:10] about me has changed.

[00:13:13] But when did it change?

[00:13:16] Was it overnight or when I saw that car speeding away last night?

[00:13:23] The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that clicking that soul search button was

[00:13:29] the biggest mistake of my life.

[00:13:34] It's as if by doing so.

[00:13:37] I allowed the site to strip away my vital essence, my very soul leaving me a shell of

[00:13:44] a creature invisible to those around me.

[00:13:52] I'm posting this here in this form because I don't know what else to do.

[00:14:01] Maybe one of you has heard of something like this before or maybe just maybe someone

[00:14:08] knows how to fix this?

[00:14:11] Please, if you've ever come across a website like the one I described, tell me for the

[00:14:17] love of God, tell me there's a way to reverse this.

[00:14:22] And to anyone who's reading this, heed my warning.

[00:14:28] If you ever find yourself on a site with a button labeled soul search, click away as fast

[00:14:37] as you can.

[00:14:40] Don't make the same mistake I did.

[00:14:43] I wouldn't wish this exists on anyone.

[00:14:50] Wait a second.

[00:14:52] Is anyone even going to be able to read this?

[00:14:56] Or like everything else I touch, is this just going to disappear into the void of my personal

[00:15:01] little hell?

[00:15:03] Oh God.

[00:15:06] Please tell me someone can hear me.

[00:15:20] Okay.

[00:15:30] Thank you for listening to tonight's episode of Clancy Pasta.

[00:15:34] I hope you enjoyed.

[00:15:36] If you did, give the episode a like, subscribe for more and comment down below with what you

[00:15:42] think.

[00:15:43] If you're listening on a podcast service, you can always go to youtube.com slash clancy

[00:15:47] pasta to see episodes first and also see the nice pretty visuals.

[00:15:54] Just kidding, they're not anything to write home about.

[00:15:57] But huge thanks to all of my Patreon supporters and YouTube members.

[00:16:00] I'm going to be updating the Patreon scroll either this weekend or early next week.

[00:16:08] So I just wanted to mention that so nobody worries I forgot.

[00:16:11] And also some more Patreon exclusive episodes are going to be uploaded this week as well,

[00:16:15] probably more like in a batch.

[00:16:17] So there's not going to be just one, but there's going to be a few.

[00:16:20] So I'm looking forward to that.

[00:16:22] Alright, with all that out of the way, I hope you've been enjoying the regular uploads

[00:16:28] lately.

[00:16:29] I really appreciate all of your support and I will see you all next time.

[00:16:36] Have a great night everyone.

[00:16:39] Cheers.