Intensity 1997 Subtitles -

She checked the date code on the tape: October 23, 1997. Today was October 23, 1997.

The thrift store cashier, a pale man with jaundice-yellow fingers, glanced at the tape and then at her. “You’re not gonna watch that, are you?”

She fast-forwarded. The tape showed her uncle’s house—the same basement she sat in now. Her uncle, younger by a decade, sat in a folding chair, staring at the camera. The subtitles ran beneath him.

[Goodnight, 1997.]

The screen went black.

“Nothing about 1997 made sense,” he said, and refused to take her money. She left the tape on the counter anyway.

Lena raised an eyebrow. “A subtitle track? On a Betamax tape? That doesn’t make sense.” Intensity 1997 Subtitles

[Lena will hear a knock at the basement door in 3 seconds. She will not answer. The knock will repeat in 7 seconds. The third knock will come from inside the room.]

Lena lunged for the eject button.

Lena’s uncle was never found.

But if you go to certain estate sales—the ones in basements with wood paneling and broken air hockey tables—you might find a tape labeled INTENSITY. DO NOT WATCH ALONE.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

[The audience leans forward.]

From behind her.

Neither was she.