A dark anthology of rules breaking, identities shifting, and the terrifying moment when the familiar stops obeying the shape you trusted. This episode moves from a magic school under siege to a child drawing a house that should not exist, from a staircase predator in the dark to a zoo where the animals are beginning to look human, and finally to an absurd-sounding signal from the United Nations that asks one impossible question: are you guys crabs yet?
The strongest story in the episode follows ReGifted Corporation, a gifted-and-talented program with a buried history of cognitive manipulation, missing futures, and a boy in a glass room who keeps writing Jared Hale beneath a crayon house. That mystery deepens into a wider pattern of altered memory, corrupted childhood, and a system that may have stolen more than intelligence. Around it, the episode threads Saint Ardent’s magic academy, the Measure Arch, a dark staircase haunted by something that climbs when the lights fail, and Westlake Zoo, where lions, chimps, and even a giraffe begin crossing the line between animal and person.
These are stories about institutions built to keep order, and the moment they fail. They’re about hidden experiments, impossible transformations, and the unsettling possibility that the world is not becoming monstrous all at once — it is being taught to change, one room at a time.
Sources:
An Announcement for Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School -
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1w2r1jd/an_announcement_for_wearing_power_armor_to_a/Students in Our Gifted & Talented Class All Grew Up to Be Failures—It Wasn't Our Fault -
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1w0grrc/students_in_our_gifted_talented_class_all_grew_up/I’ve seen the thing that chases you up the stairs at night… -
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1vyssu0/ive_seen_the_thing_that_chases_you_up_the_stairs/The Animals at the Zoo Have Started to Look More Human -
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1vzzq01/the_animals_at_the_zoo_have_started_to_look_more/Are you guys crabs yet? -
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1vxyywd/are_you_guys_crabs_yet/Become a supporter of this podcast:
https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/strange-tales-of-the-unexplained--6458041/support.
Perfect for listeners who love: conspiracy thrillers, viral mysteries, digital horror, found-footage storytelling, vampires in the modern world, and near-future suspense.
This episode includes AI-generated content.
