 Another day, another year done. As I'm writing this, the year is probably here already. Anyway, I returned to my desk with a strange box marked by a person named Archibald Smith. Upon taking the box, it had some weight, someone must be pranking me. No. Upon opening it, there was a box of VHS tapes and a player with a sticky note. It said, My son tried to create an ARG called VHS The Rewind, but he had since been missing for two weeks. I've read your post and decided to share my son's ARG. Get back with me, Archie. I plugged the player in my TV and checked the tapes. Each of them were marked with weird symbols. Here we go again. Another one based on a movie. This time, the symbols looked like something an alien typed. This was the phrase on the first tape, written on a piece of paper and pasted on the side of the tape. This could be difficult. I looked everywhere for what these symbols were. They weren't base 64. Definitely not Vigenere Cipher. Until I stumbled upon a translator that said it was alien. Did an alien write it? Did the boy get taken over? Whatever it was, I tried to write the text and then use its alphabet to spell out what it was. Another quote. This time, it was Rorschach from Watchmen. The quote goes as follows. Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. That's always been the difference between us, Daniel. Wonder why that quote. Never compromise? For what? I had too many questions and I wanted answers right now. So I put the tape into the player and pressed play. The first thing that happened was an episode of SpongeBob. Oh God. The childhood trauma. Well, it was playing after the close-up. Thank God, it was playing the aftermath. Here was the transcript before something odd happened. A loud static sound was heard before the tape cuts to a commercial to magic. It seemed normal until the ending when the announcer said, Joseph E. Levine's magic. A terrifying love story. Suddenly, it starts glitching and warping as the announcer's voice was getting all warped and glitchy. Through the static and warping, the narrator could only say, Before the tape suddenly cuts to black and the commercial for magic potty started playing. What the hell is going on? I screamed at the TV. This is more jumbled than the last one, and at least that one made sense. Then the commercial stopped. It only showed Billy May's standing and holding the product. The tape made a weird click sound before it cuts to a sudden episode of SpongeBob with SpongeBob screaming. It was loud and had occasional distorted squealing and flittering before. I looked at the screen, hands covering my ears. It was SpongeBob, but something seemed off. The colored bars covered SpongeBob's eyes and his opened mouth had some noticeable screen tear and static bars. The frame looked like the one from Graveyard Shift. My favorite episode. I was about to pause the tape when a frame of Nosferatu came in with a static flicker, almost like the next recorded program came in. Nosferatu looked different. His form was a shrouded black shadow. There was a low sound, almost like a growl. Shit, that does it. I said as I quickly ejected the tape. As it came out, I slammed the tape on the desk and held my head. That damn tape got me a fucking headache. I took some medicine, and after watching two episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants to calm down, I looked at the tape itself. I noticed something marked on the tape in the next frame. I shined a flashlight. There was something written. I carefully cut the tape's real frame and hind it on the wall. The phrase was written in Italian. When translated, it was a phrase. My boy was far gone. I recovered half of my boy's favorite TV shows, movies, commercials, everything, but the tape corrupted too soon. This is my only resort. The black tape had invisible ink, noticing a pale green substance. I grabbed my black light and shined it. It was a website. The rewind.org. I put the website in the wayback machine. Only one website snapshot was present. January 1, 2004. Just as New Year's was happening in 2004, I hesitantly clicked the website snapshot. It showed a message. All it said was, I hope you're happy. My boy is missing because of you, because you had to visit that dreadful club. I should have been with you to save you. I checked the source code. There was something written in orange. I understand. No one knows pain. I closed the website and took off my hat. I couldn't believe it. A sequel to my boy? More lore? That's why it seemed confusing. The glitchiness of the tape, the warp screen, the quote from another movie. It made sense. I had written a lengthy email for Archie using his email marked on the sticky note. I've waited for a response. It's been a week. I hope Archie's okay. Thank you.