Entry #19

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Summary

Entry #19 was posted on November 25, 2009.
It has the description "19".

Jay reveals that he has been filming himself constantly as Alex had. He discovers footage in which the masked figure is inside his bedroom. He also discovers that he left his room for three hours but has no memory of ever waking up. Jay decides that he needs to go somewhere safer.

+ Detailed Transcript

[00:01] White text appears:

I've seen totheark's video response to Entry #18.

[00:09-00:15] The entry shows stills from the Messages Video, "Messages" in red text is at the top of the screen.

Tell us
You have been keeping
secrets.
Smile for the camera

[00:17] More white text:

There is something I have failed to mention in any other entries.

I have been recording myself, much in the same way Alex did, for about a month now.

However, it yielded nothing worth mentioning. So I only began checking it weekly since it recorded to a hard drive and not tapes.

Until I checked the footage at the end of last week.

All of the following clips take place two nights after I returned from the house in Entry #18.

[00:46-01:10] Jay comes into his bedroom with a digital camera. He checks something on the camera display, then puts it away.
[01:11-01:17] Jay sits on his bed and takes off his shoes.
[01:18-01:26] Jay is lying in his bed, sleeping. The masked figure can be seen looking in the window.
[01:27-01:31] The masked figure appears in Jay's room, crouching atop Jay's dresser. There is severe audio and video distortion.
[01:31-01:33] The masked figure is sitting on Jay's dresser. The audio and video distortion continues.
[01:33-01:37] The masked figure crouches beside Jay's bed while Jay sleeps. Continued audio and video distortion.
[01:37-01:43] The masked figure stands right in front of the camera in close-up. Continued audio and video distortion.
[01:43-01:46] Audio and video distortion stops. Jay's bed is empty and the masked figure can again be seen looking through the window.
[01:49] More white text:

My room is empty for about three hours, after which I come back in and fall asleep instantly.

I don't remember ever getting up for an extended amount of time.

Totheark, who I suspect is the person wearing the mask, knows where I live.

Since finding these clips, I have not left my house at all. I've kept all the doors and windows locked.

I need to find somewhere else to go. It's not safe to stay here anymore.

[02:23] Video ends.

Speculation & Analysis

* Due to the shirt J is wearing and its description as "91", many believe that totheark's Return Video shows some of what happened during the missing three hours J talks about in this entry.

* Now, why is there skipping around in the video? Is it because the distortion was so bad? Or is it because J is an unreliable narrator?
~ Lifegospel

* A knowledgeable friend pointed out that while J claims this was recorded on a digital camera, digitally-recorded video can't frame-slip as it does during the distortion. What popped into my head was a complete timeline of the events of that night:

1) J sets up his digital camera and leaves it recording while he goes to sleep.
2) The mask/totheark comes in and turns off the digital camera.
3) He then sets his own (tape-recorder) camera next to it, which explains why the shots of totheark during the distortion are slightly shifted from the (digitally-filmed) shots before and after.
4) He films himself in J's room (crouching on the dresser, sitting on the dresser, sitting on the floor).
5) He picks up the camera and films his own masked face (which explains why the window has moved in that shot).
6) He leads a sleeping/hypnotized J out of the room.
7) For whatever reason, he turns J's digital camera back on so that it films J's empty room for three hours. During these events, the camera has not been disturbed, and so records the exact same shot as in the beginning of the video.
8) Out in the hallway (or possibly at Alex' house), the Return video is filmed by totheark on the same tape-recording camera.
9) totheark returns J to his room.
10) Then, either that same night or shortly thereafter, totheark transfers the video from tape to digital (carrying over the distortion). He cuts away the Return section to post later (and possibly edits the video to account for the skipping around that Lifegospel points out above), then goes to J's computer and copies over the section with him in J's room. This might all have been done on J's computer, time permitting and assuming he had the right equipment at his disposal. Otherwise, he did it himself, either on a laptop or back at wherever he keeps his computer (the same one he uses to upload his YouTube videos).
11) He then leaves the video for J to find days later.
~ FekketCantenel

Many users at UF have noted that the masked figure is wearing the same jacket Tim is in Entry 20. ~msheadwound

* Masky can be seen at the window while J is sleeping at 1:19 [tothepark