Heart Starts Pounding Presents: The Timekeeper, Ep. 3 "Shady Pines"

Released: October 17, 2025
Podcast: Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries
Host: Heart Starts Pounding

Brief Overview

Episode 3 of the chilling audio drama "The Timekeeper" picks up the story mid-road trip, with Charlie, Zoe, Gama, and Buzz racing against time to unravel the secrets of a cursed game and the mysterious events at Shady Pines. The group splits up—one team hoping to restore a server vital to their survival, the other investigating ominous coordinates. Themes of friendship, fear, and the blurred lines between reality and game intensify as discoveries grow more chilling. The episode focuses on the growing danger and psychological horror as the protagonists draw closer to the truth behind the game’s creation, the enigmatic Dr. Fairchild, and the fate of others before them.

Key Discussion Points & Story Developments

1. The Road Trip & The Game (02:19–09:11)

• The group is crammed in Buzz’s truck as Charlie obsessively plays the game, noting disturbing changes in perception—fields of view skew, puzzles invoking “right-brain” and “left-brain” functions.
• The narrative blurs the line between Charlie’s thoughts and the game: “It felt like someone was poking around inside my head. Like the Timekeeper, Fairchild, was feeling around, watching.” (03:20, Charlie)
• At a rural gas station, Charlie experiences a vision in the grimy bathroom: a masked figure covered in eyes, and disturbing words scratched on the door—only to vanish when Gama checks. Raises questions about the game’s psychological impact.

2. Countdown, Crashing Server & Crossing Into Danger (08:04–11:02)

• Zoe reports a surge of new player names on the game's leaderboard, then the server abruptly shuts down—potentially due to overload or power failure.
• Charlie notes the game’s unforgiving rules: “Bro, there is no pause. There is play or do not play. Once you start, you can’t stop.” (08:21, Charlie)
• With power outages and flooding barring the planned route, the team splits: Charlie and Zoe head for Shady Pines to restore the server; Buzz and Gama take a perilous hike to investigate the mysterious coordinates.
• Tension in the group dynamics and personal stakes surface, notably as Zoe and Charlie discuss their past friendship, their ambitions, and the trap of their small town.

Memorable Quote:
"We want to get out of this town. You distract yourself by working and studying 24/7, and I distract myself by staying up for days at a time..."
(14:11, Zoe)

3. Harrowing Discoveries at the Coordinates (16:50–18:31)

• Buzz and Gama make a stark discovery: Tim, a missing friend, is found dead under a struck tree—“looks like he was... struck by lightning or something.” (17:00, Gama)
• The phrase “Tick Tock” is burned into a tree, repeating the motif from the game.
• A cave is found nearby, matching the suspicious coordinates. There’s debate over entering, highlighting the atmosphere of dread and confusion about what’s “real.”

4. Shady Pines: Entering the Bunker (19:21–22:24)

• Charlie and Zoe arrive at Shady Pines, opening a cut chain at the gate. The facility's interior uncannily matches the game’s map.
• Traces of recent activity (muddy footprints, an open maintenance closet, powered-off breakers) deepen the suspense—a shadowy “someone” may still be inside.
• Zoe restores power and server connectivity; Charlie finds the physical elevator buttons in the complex have been tampered with, just like in the game.

5. Unlocking Clues: Server Secrets and the Past (23:28–32:45)

• With the server back online, they input a possible password from Fairchild’s badge, gaining admin access.
• Zoe uncovers a series of code changes made in a rushed fashion: the badge, the coordinates, a cryptic command “456E.”
• They locate a video file named for the coordinates. The video reveals Dr. Jacob Fairchild and Dr. Susan Graham overseeing human experiments: slot machine gameplay is designed to induce a REM sleep state in one brain hemisphere while the other remains awake.
• The video’s test subject, Maria Shepherd, becomes the first to achieve the “13th key.” The experiment, however, ends gruesomely—Maria dies violently, watched via surveillance feed.

Memorable Quote:
“Congratulations. You are the first human to get the 13th key.”
(31:17, Fairchild)

Memorable Quote:
“Zoe and I watched as Maria banged her head into the desk over and over, blood pouring down her face. And then she stood and sprinted full speed into the door with her head lowered. Her neck snapped and she fell to the ground in a pile.”
(33:12, Charlie)

6. Descent & Impending Confrontation (32:45–End)

• Zoe determines the server room is on the lowest level—they must descend.
• As they face the stairwell, Charlie hesitates, but Zoe’s support helps him press on. Both recognize “there’s no turning back.”
• The episode ends with the threat at its peak, the boundaries between game, experiment, and reality all but dissolved.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the game's psychological tricks:
  “It felt like someone was poking around inside my head. Like the timekeeper Fairchild was feeling around, watching. Like you could see the electrons firing.”
  (03:20, Charlie)

• On their hometown and ambition:
  “You distract yourself by working and studying 24/7, and I distract myself by staying up for days at a time and then hoping I fall asleep and wake up and it's the end of senior year.”
  (14:11, Zoe)

• When finding Tim's body:
  “No, no, no. He. He looks like he was. I don't know. I don't know. He leaned up against this tree and it looks like it was struck by lightning or something.”
  (17:00, Gama)

• The experiment revealed:
  “The subject is active. Actively playing the slot machine on basement level six. And the EEG confirms the subject's brain activity matches that from earlier slot action. Meanwhile, the right hemisphere of the subject's brain exhibits the waveforms that are consistent with REM sleep.”
  (30:36, Fairchild)

• The chilling outcome:
  “We drink to you.”
  (32:41, Fairchild, to Maria after she 'wins')

Important Timestamps

• 00:00–01:44 – Sponsor & intro (skip)
• 02:19 – Episode proper begins: Charlie describes gameplay and psychological effects
• 04:08 – Charlie’s first hallucination in the gas station bathroom
• 08:04 – Server crashes, panic about lost time
• 09:35 – Arrival at the flooded bridge; team splits up
• 15:49–17:17 – Zoe and Charlie’s heart-to-heart on friendship and the future
• 16:45 – Shady Pines, discovering the broken lock and entering the facility
• 17:00–18:16 – Finding Tim’s body and confronting the cave
• 19:21–22:24 – Searching Shady Pines, following muddy footprints, restoring power
• 23:28–24:13 – Accessing Fairchild’s server via the found password
• 28:46–31:41 – Revelation of the experiment, death of Maria Shepherd
• 33:12–34:21 – Zoe and Charlie prepare to descend into the bunker’s lowest level

Tone & Language

The episode maintains a tense, immersive, and youthful voice, with dialogue-rich scenes that blend horror, friendship banter, and an undercurrent of existential dread. The conversations are sharp, sometimes darkly humorous, but grow increasingly desperate as danger mounts.

Summary Recap

Episode 3 is a pivotal, suspenseful entry in "The Timekeeper." The group splits up to solve parallel mysteries and keep the cursed, brain-bending game from claiming more victims. Hallucinations, physical danger, and the discovery of a deadly real-world experiment ratchet up both horror and stakes. By the end, the protagonists stand on the edge of deeper darkness, forced to uncover—at great risk—the relationship between game and reality, science and horror, and their own roles as both players and prey.