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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/pentatonicalism on 2026-08-07 16:02:22+00:00.

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if you're reading this, i'm sorry. i won't be able to answer any queries. i won't be able to give any further answers than the ones i already have, because by the time this gains any traction, by the time this reaches anyone, i'll probably be dead. i don't know if it'll be my fault or someone else's or even something else's, but i just have the feeling that i'll be dead. so again, i'm sorry. this probably won't have a satisfactory ending for any of you.

but i need to share this. i need people to know what happened to me. i probably would've kept it quiet if the whole thing wasn't so bizarre and threatening, but it's gotten to a point where i can't keep this contained anymore. i should probably start from the very beginning- leave no stone unturned, as they say.

my name is christine, and i'm a dead woman writing. i'm 29 years old. i've never really been a very outgoing person, so i never expected myself to end up in any strange situations, but i guess the fun of living is that nobody gets left out. around, i want to say a year ago, i agreed to participate as a volunteer for product testing by a company a friend of mine worked for. the product was a simple one: an EEG sleep headband, designed to track things like brainwaves and heart rate while the person is asleep. the idea of it as a product was initially lost on me, to be honest. it felt like something that should be marketed to those people who claim to be ‘biohackers’- the types that try to intervene with absolutely everything about their own lives, the types where it's hard to imagine them living peacefully because they're just so invested in documenting every process their body goes through. i've always thought there's something not quite right about those types of people, but i guess none of us are without our issues.

i ended up agreeing to volunteer because my friend (let's just call him andrew for now) pointed out that i've always complained about difficulty sleeping. maybe this would be an opportunity for me to learn about my sleep activity, and really understand myself better. i'd be lying if i said i wasn't a little curious, so i agreed.

andrew and i had known each other for a while. we actually met in a support group for ptsd. as depressing as that might sound, i never found his company to be depressing at all. he was always an intellectual type, he enjoyed engaging with politics and art… maybe if we'd met under different circumstances, he would've annoyed me. but the way i knew him, i liked him.

i had a strong reason to believe that the ptsd was part of the reason for my sleep troubles. i was diagnosed fairly young, so i always sort of carried with me this belief that i wouldn't still be in support groups in my late twenties if i'd already managed to regulate the things that were wrong with me. i don't know if that's a bad belief to have. i don't really care. either way, i ended up agreeing to sign up as a volunteer, and he got me in as one of the picks: just one of the perks of being his friend, i guess.

i should've thought more of it when i was told the product wouldn't be delivered to my house, but i thought the justification sounded reasonable at the time. something about the product not being on the market yet, so they can't risk any chances of people stealing it from a volunteer’s doorstep. it was a ‘new and innovative’ design that they wanted to keep under wraps until they could start publicly advertising it. all i thought was, ‘that's sort of inconvenient’. after all, i'd have to drive to the address that had been posted through my mailbox. i'd have to go in there myself and pick up the headband from a locker assigned to my number.

it all sounded long and tedious to me. i barely had time to myself as it was with my job, and now i had to carve time out to pick up this tester product… but it meant a lot to andrew, and i didn't want to waste the fact that he'd tried hard to get me chosen as a tester. so i followed orders.

it was weird from the get go, in hindsight. the address they sent me to was some run-down old building, completely inconspicuous from the outside, rude symbols graffitied on it. but on the inside, when i was let in, it was so… cold. clinical. like stepping into the waiting room at a dentist's office, and somehow the whole building had this chilling temperature to it despite the lack of AC in the middle of a hot summer. but i trudged obediently to the locker with the number i'd been given to retrieve a box with my name on it in block capitals. not to be opened until i was in my own home. the locker room felt entirely dismal and empty, so i jumped out of my skin when i heard someone's voice.

“you should let me get you a bag for that.”

i don't like to judge people based on things they can't help. but this woman had a voice that sounded like it had been sandpapered into complete smoothness, devoid of any tone. she had the look for that kind of voice, too. not a strand of her blonde hair out of place. these big, unblinking dark eyes that looked like pools of molasses. i was a little jealous of her perfectly symmetrical face and her manicured nails, but at least her outfit wasn't anything to write home about- like she'd just thrown a lab coat over a simple office outfit. not that i would have looked any better, but it made me feel better.

i remember stammering a little on instinct. “ah- no, ma'am. no, that's okay.”

she'd stepped closer. “oh. i said should. i implied it was a suggestion. i'm sorry, i should have said will. you will let me get you a bag for that. it's policy.”

it was hard to pretend i wasn't the slightest bit unnerved by the way she spoke and how she kept stepping forward, like she'd never quite been taught how personal space worked. that smile of hers… perfectly symmetrical teeth that glistened. like perfectly polished white pool tiles. when people look too put together, it can be uncanny.

“ah.” i'd repeated, and cleared my throat awkwardly, my throat feeling dry. “right. okay. thank you, then.” i wasn't feeling thankful so much as i was feeling uncomfortable in her presence. she'd stared at me for a few seconds more, holding that smile, before abruptly dropping the expression and turning sharply to the side to walk quickly in a direct straight line towards wherever those bags were kept.

i understand, though, why she insisted on it. keep anything to do with the product and its company hidden. the bag she brought me had looked like your average shopping bag.

“it will be easier to carry it in a bag,” she explained it to me like I was five and didn't know what a bag was. alright. i'd watched her bag the box for me, my uneasiness melting away into a slight reproach. she made basic chitchat, or some imitation of it, but i wasn't particularly interested.

“what made you interested in our product?”

“a friend.”

“are you excited to experience it?”

“yes.”

“and you did read the policies?”

“yes.”

“so you know this is all very confidential.”

“yes.”

i was relieved when it finally seemed like she was going to let me leave, but on my way out, she had paused me with yet another question. i should have just thrown the damn thing on the floor then and there. i don't know why this strange woman wasn't where i drew the line already. “do you trust us?”

“...what?” it was a weird question to ask. i didn't really know this company that well. looking back, i should've done my research.

“do you trust us, christine?”

i really didn't like the way she said my name. i wanted the conversation to be over and done with. so i told her,

“yes.” what was i meant to say? was i supposed to talk badly about the company my close friend worked at just because he had a weird coworker? i remember seeing her shoulders become weirdly tense at that, but i didn't see any break in her composure.

“thank you.” she'd smiled at me again, and gestured for me to leave. so i did.

since i'm spilling everything that i know to be of relevance, i caught her name on a tag attached to her lab coat. i don't know how complicit she was in this, but she was still involved. maybe i'm just angry that i didn't respond accordingly to the red flags in her behaviour. but i plan on sharing all the dirt i picked up, and i don't plan on this being the type of scandal that comes out in the wash. this woman's name, according to that tag, is pearline bellamy.

by the time i got home, i remember being exhausted as i unboxed the headband, hoping it would be worth all the trouble. the weight of it in my hands was surprisingly heavy despite how small it was- like it was full of all these hidden little electronic parts. that makes sense, i’d thought to myself. it does all these scans while i’m sleeping. there have to be some components in there that make it a little hefty.

the material of it was smooth: similar to that woman pearline’s voice, it was like any and all texture had been completely sandpapered out of it. sleek and streamlined to a point where i can recall just sitting there absent mindedly, stroking my fingers over its svelte material. considerately, the inside of the headband lacked this same firm and modern minimalist material, lined with soft silk. just as readily as the rest of it, my fingers had gravitated towards its glossy sheen, feeling the texture of feathers or cotton- maybe even both- packed under the silk to make wearing it to sleep a more comfortable experience. was this the new and innovative design that they had teased? spari...

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Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1vi4o9d/a_letter_for_those_who_never_knew_me/