Line #10 Literature/PenPal


1	[[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/penpal_cover_auerbach.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:255:''How much do you remember about your childhood?'']]
3	''Penpal'' started as a series of short stories by Dathan Auerbach about the childhood of one young man (unnamed in the stories, called "Dathan" out-of-universe) that were posted as an online horror story on Website/{{Reddit}}. It quickly drew popularity from its readers and soon there were illustrations, audio recordings, and short films made of it. Then it was revised and expanded to be turned into a full length book.
4
5	The story of ''Penpal'' follows a young man who, in an attempt to understand his childhood, investigates seemingly unrelated, strange, horrifying, and soul-crushingly tragic events that occurred over the course of his life. Beginning from his early days in kindergarten and persisting well into his teen years, he discovers that these incidents are actually connected as a single frightening tale that have molded his entire life and affected everyone around him. Ever played in the woods a little too long after dark? Ever had the feeling that you were being watched, and by someone with less than noble intentions? Do you remember the first friend you ever made and how strong that bond was? Well, then ''Pen Pal'' has something for you, and it is a journey you won't soon forget. [[BrainBleach Though, you might just try, anyway.]] Also, make sure to bring [[TearJerker a box of tissues]].
6
7	The book is divided into six chapters, ''Footsteps'', ''Balloons'', ''Boxes'', ''Maps'', ''Screens'', and ''Friends''.
8
9	The original Creepypasta can be found [[https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/Penpal here]].
10
11	The book is available [[http://www.amazon.com/dp/098554550X/ref=cm_sw_su_dp here]].
12
13	You can listen to an online dramatic reading [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYK-9Ji21LirW0rmQ05_aufB7MFLKRK1h&feature=view_all here]], by Mr. Creepypasta of [[WebVideo/TheMidnightSociety The Midnight Society]].
14	----
15	!!''Penpal'' has examples of:
16
17	* AbductionIsLove: The stalker evidently believes this, because it happens twice in the story. The first time is when he kidnaps Dathan while he's asleep and brings him out into the woods. The second is when [[spoiler:he takes Josh and holds him captive for years, with a strong implication that he spends the time molesting him, and then has the two of them buried alive]]. Both times, he leaves a note allegedly from the victim claiming that they're running away.
18	* AbhorrentAdmirer: The stalker towards Dathan. While we never see him in face to judge him as unattractive [[spoiler:until the end at least]] his obsessive personality surely makes him monstrous.
19	* AdaptationExpansion: The book adds some information on to the original version. A lot of it is just lengthening of parts already in the story, but some information is added and/or changed, too. For example:
20	** Dathan's friend Chris (the one whose house he stays at on the night of [[spoiler:his ill-fated trip to the movies to see Veronica]]) is given a bit of backstory.
21	** The part where Dathan and Josh find the pool float while looking for Boxes plays out differently. Instead of Dathan kicking the float which startles a rat that scares Josh, Josh is scared when a group of spiders who've made their home on the float begin crawling on him.
22	** A part is added where Dathan details his first time meeting Mrs. Maggie, and also gives a lot of new information about her and her late husband Tom. The actual ''significance'' of the pool float is explained too. In the original, there's no reason given for it being present in the woods; the book reveals that [[spoiler:it was a present from Mrs. Maggie to Josh and Dathan that was later stolen by the stalker]]. This actually creates a minor PlotHole, because [[spoiler:it is never explained why Dathan doesn't seem to recognize it when he ends up in the woods, even though that happened around the same time]], or why [[spoiler:he and Josh still don't recognize it when they go into the woods later to look for Boxes]].
23	** It is explained why [[spoiler:Josh's family has a different phone number]] by the time Dathan meets Veronica: [[spoiler:after Josh goes missing, his family receives prank calls from people pretending to know where he is. They have the number transferred to a friend to act as a buffer, because they don't want to deal with that but also don't want to just change it.]]
24	* AllGaysArePedophiles: Implied. The stalker is never seen being interested in any female character and is only focused on the young male narrator.
25	* AnachronicOrder: The chapters aren't organized by sequential date, but rather come as revelations as the narrator remembers more, or asks his mother for information.
26	* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Josh. Poor, poor ''Josh.'' His relationship with the narrator causes the stalker to turn his focus towards him. The stalker kidnaps Josh, leaving a note on his pillow that states he has "run away" so there won't be an investigation. For two years, the stalker detains Josh doing God knows what to him (the narrator himself states he doesn't allow himself to think about what must have happened), all the while pretending Josh is the narrator; he dyes his hair and forces him to wear the narrator's old clothes. Ultimately, the stalker decides he wants to go out with a bang and ends up paying Josh's ''own father'' to unknowingly fill up the hole he is going to place himself and Josh in. When their bodies are found, it's clear that Josh was still alive when he was buried and was being embraced by his kidnapper and torturer.]] It's no wonder Josh's father [[spoiler:basically has a mental breakdown when he finds the scene and realizes that what he thought was some ordinary construction work led to his son's death.]]
27	* AntagonistTitle: The titular "penpal" in the story is an insane pedophile who stalks the narrator.
28	* AxCrazy: The stalker is not only a creepy pervert who likes to torment young kids but also a dangerous homicidal lunatic [[spoiler:since he viciously kills anyone close to Dathan simply out of jelousy.]]
29	* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:The stalker terrorizes the narrator for years, killing several of his loved ones, and at the end, he dies blissfully with Josh-dressed-as-the-narrator.]]
30	* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: [[spoiler:The stalker kills Dathan's pet cat.]]
31	* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:Veronica after the stalker hits her with his car. Dathan can't even tell if she's laying on her back or stomach.]]
32	* BondBreaker: The stalker's actions cause [[spoiler:Dathan and Josh's friendship to suffer greatly]], and [[spoiler:puts a lot of strain on his relationship with his mother.]]
33	* CameraFiend: The stalker is a villainous (and frightening) example. He takes countless candid photos of Dathan while stalking him (at least fifty), and also [[spoiler:takes Josh and Veronica's pictures before kidnapping and killing them respectively]].
34	* CatScare: Dathan and Josh are chased through the woods while trying to make their map, at one point running in circles and eventually hearing what they think is a stranger coming towards them. It turns out to be a deer.
35	* CharacterBlog: The story started as a series of posts written in-character on Reddit. The author would even respond to comments in character, sometimes offering up new information.
36	* ChekhovsGun: Josh and Dathan are said to be strikingly similar, to the point where Dathan's mother says that the only way she can tell the two of them apart is by their hair. [[spoiler:So when the stalker can't have Dathan, he settles for Josh, dying his hair to match Dathan's and dressing him in Dathan's old clothes.]]
37	* ChildrenAreInnocent: Josh and Dathan are honestly just two sweet little kids. Josh may be a bit of a trouble maker, but he's honestly a nice kid. [[spoiler:He even tell Dathan he has a surprise for him for his next birthday, only to learn that the present he had planned was the completed map from the "Maps" chapter.]]
38	* CrazyJealousGuy: [[spoiler:The stalker. He goes after several of Dathan's loved ones, including his potential girlfriend and even his ''cat'', for no other reason than that they are close to him.]]
39	* CynicismCatalyst: By the end, Dathan is left embittered, cynical, and guilty about the whole ordeal and how many lives were ruined because they were close to him. [[spoiler:He wants to believe that Josh is in a better place, but he knows it's just a dream. He reflects on how there will never be any justice or vengeance for what happened 10 years ago and decides that the world is a cruel place, made even crueler by [[HumansAreBastards man.]]]]
40	* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler:The stalker steals Veronica's phone when she dies in the hospital and begins a brief text message relationship with Dathan while claiming to be her. He doesn't find out who he's really talking to until his mother tells him that the real Veronica died weeks ago.]]
41	* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler:Josh's fate.]]
42	* DepravedHomosexual: The stalker is male and is extremely fixated on the young male narrator. [[spoiler:So much that he arrives to kill Dathan's potential girlfriend Veronica, seeing her as someone who could take Dathan away from him. If that wasn't bad enough, he also kidnaps Josh and is implied to rape him over the next two years.]]
43	* DirtyOldMan: The stalker. A pedophile with an extreme "romantic" obsession on a young child.
44	* DisappearedDad: Dathan's dad is not in the picture, and is never mentioned in either the original story, or the expanded novel version. A lot of people believed that the stalker would turn out to be him. [[spoiler:It doesn't.]] Also, [[spoiler:Dathan responded to a comment in-character on Reddit stating that his parents never got married, but he still kept in contact with his dad regularly. So he's mostly just "disappeared" in the sense that he never shows up in the story.]]
45	* DontGoInTheWoods: The first story has our protagonist wake up in the woods, not knowing how he got there. Future sojourns into the woods spell danger for anyone involved.
46	* DoubleMeaningTitle: A couple. "Boxes" is the name of the narrator's cat and also what they find in the abandoned house, full of his clothes. "Screens" refers to movie screens as well as the screen separating the narrator from Veronica in the hospital.
47	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Dathan learns about how his childhood basically ruined the lives of the people around him, specifically his friend Josh, who was taken by the stalker because of their similar appearance and was [[AndIMustScream buried alive with him by his own father]], as well as the stalker killing his pet cat, his kind old neighbor from his old neighborhood, and Josh's sister who was Dathan's potential girlfriend. The story also implies that Josh's family will never recover from the loss of their children and Dathan's relationship with his mother becomes strained by the fact she kept the events from him for so many years]].
48	* EpistolaryNovel: The story is told in the first person by the main character writing down the results of his investigation into his past.
49	* EvilIsBigger: [[spoiler:The only accurate description we get about the stalker is that he's even bigger than Josh's father, who is a pretty big man himself.]]
50	* FauxAffablyEvil: The Stalker's only line of dialogue is a friendly "Hello". For the most part, he plays the part of a smitten man, but he’s lusting after a child.
51	* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Dathan and Josh end up at the spot with the pool float, Dathan notes a deep hole that wasn't there the last time he found himself there. Years later, [[spoiler:the stalker would have Josh and himself buried alive in that very hole.]]
52	* FriendshipTrinket: [[spoiler:The map that Josh keeps in his pocket for the years he is held captive]].
53	* GoneHorriblyWrong: All this pain and misery thanks to a simple kindergarten project.
54	* HateSink: There's absolutely nothing likable about the stalker. He's a creepy pedophile who stalks a five year old kid, [[spoiler:kills anyone close to him, including his potential love interest]] and makes his life miserable with no remorse. It's quite obvious he's not supposed to be seen in a positive light or else.
55	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Josh and Dantan.
56	* HopeSpot:
57	** When Dathan returns home after failing to find his missing cat, he hears meowing coming from under his bed. [[spoiler:The cries are coming from his walkie talkie. His cat never came home.]]
58	** [[spoiler:Despite being badly mangled, it initially seems like Veronica will survive her injuries. But she eventually succumbs to them.]]
59	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Each chapter is named after a single plural noun that is relevant to its respective story.
60	* ImpliedRape: It can be assumed that [[spoiler:Josh]] endured sexual abuse [[spoiler:in the near 3 years between his kidnapping and death]], as the stand-in for the stalker's object of affection. Dathan even says near the end that he "tries to pretend he doesn't know" what the stalker must have done with his friend [[spoiler:during those years of captivity.]]
61	* IncitingIncident: Near the end of the narrative, Dathan muses sadly that if he had let his balloon go on that long-ago day in kindergarten a few minutes later or a few minutes earlier than he did, none of the next decade of horror and misery would've happened.
62	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:The stalker gets almost exactly what he wanted in the end, and explicitly died smiling.]] Dathan reflects on the injustice and cruelty of the world.
63	* KillTheCutie:
64	** [[spoiler:Boxes, Dathan's pet cat, is abducted by the stalker and it is heavily implied that the stalker kills him]].
65	** [[spoiler:Mrs. Maggie, a kind old woman with Alzheimer's that lives next door to Dathan and sometimes gives him and Josh presents, is ''very'' brutally murdered by the stalker so he can hide in her house to be closer to his target]].
66	** [[spoiler:Veronica, Josh's older sister and Dathan's potential LoveInterest, is horrifically mangled by the stalker's car in such a way that Dathan cannot even tell if she's laying on her back or her stomach]].
67	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Nice job not telling Dathan about the stalker or getting more involved with the police, Dathan's mom!]]
68	* NoNameGiven: The protagonist and the stalker's names are never given in-story, although the protagonist is called "Dathan" (after the author) by fans.
69	* NothingIsScarier:
70	** See PresentAbsence below. It makes the stalker a ''whole'' lot more frightening.
71	** The death of [[spoiler:Mrs. Maggie. We don't get any graphic detail of what the stalker did to her, but her remains are carried out of her house by the authorities afterwards in ''several bags'']].
72	** Whatever the stalker did to [[spoiler:Josh in the two years he held him captive. Dathan doesn't even want to hazard a guess]].
73	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:Josh and Veronica's parents.]]
74	* PresentAbsence: [[spoiler: Dathan's stalker is never seen, described, or even identified. In fact, he only speaks one word in the entire narrative: "Hello".]]
75	* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:There isn't a single tragedy that occurs in the story that couldn't have been averted if Dathan's mother had just told him what was going on.]]
76	* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: While it's never confirmed [[spoiler: it's horribly deducible that the stalker before killing himself along with Josh probably abused him sexually first.]]
77	* RedHerring:
78	** At the beginning of ''Screens'', Dathan brings up a kid named Alex who had a crush on Josh's sister Veronica and wants Josh to tell her for him. Aside from asking Veronica if Josh ever actually told her about him, Alex is never mentioned again and served only to segue into the subject of Veronica.
79	** It was almost implied that Mrs. Maggie might have been the stalker based on her senility and confusing Dathan and Josh for her sons. The boys also point out how despite her friendliness, she always gave a creepy vibe and Dathan's mom always told him to never go into her house whenever she invites him in. Her innocence is made clear when [[spoiler:[[SuspectExistenceFailure the stalker murders her to get closer to Dathan]].]]
80	* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:The stalker kidnaps Josh and pretends that Josh is the narrator for an unknown amount of time. He even makes Josh dye his hair and wear the narrator's clothes.]]
81	* {{Sadist}}: Despite his supposed "love" for Dathan, the stalker is not above psychologically tormenting him by [[spoiler:using the walkie-talkie he stole from Dathan and Josh to broadcast Boxes' meows to him after kidnapping him]]. He also goes out of his way to [[spoiler:trick Josh's dad into indirectly murdering his own son]], apparently as an additional act of cruelty to their family.
82	* SanitySlippage: Josh's mom goes through this [[spoiler:after Veronica dies. It forces her to quit her job and causes her to wander around the neighborhood at night looking for her missing/dead kids.]]
83	* SilentAntagonist: Since the stalker is never seen in person [[spoiler:except at the end]] he has therefore no dialogues. [[spoiler:However he utters a single "Hello" when Dathan is lost in the wood and spoke to Josh's father when he manipulates him into burying him alive with his son. However the dialogue it's not heard.]]
84	* StalkerShrine: [[spoiler:At the end of "Boxes", Dathan and Josh find out the stalker has broken into his old abandoned house after they moved and took his childhood clothes (that he left behind packed in boxes) and hung them back up in the closet and pasted numerous photos he took of Dathan on the walls.]]
85	* StalkerWithACrush: Of the most horrifying variety. [[spoiler:The unseen main antagonist of the story is an obsessed pedophile that began stalking Dathan when the boy was five. It started with a kindergarten project to release balloons with a letter and picture of the child who sent it. The purpose was for whoever received the balloons to take pictures of the area they live in and mail them back. Dathan's came to him. Instead of following the instructions in the letter, the stalker instead tracked it to the source and began stalking Dathan for about ten years and killed anyone who got too close to the boy. The victims included a sweet old woman who always watched over Dathan, the family cat, his best friend, and later, Dathan's potential girlfriend.]]
86	** While the reason for his actions may seem to be ForTheEvulz, Dathan's mother states that, [[spoiler:upon looking at his dead body, he looked like an ordinary man in love.]] This arguably makes him even more terrifying, since he must have thought that he was truly being romantic while [[spoiler:stalking Dathan and killing anyone whom he thought got in the way of their "love".]] There's sick, and then there's FUBAR.
87	* SurvivorsGuilt: Dathan clearly suffers from this by the end, especially in regards to [[spoiler:Veronica and Josh. He even apologizes to Josh for choosing him as a friend.]]
88	* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The stalker. It is specifically stated that [[spoiler:he looks like a normal guy rather than some kind of psychopathic lunatic as one might expect him to]]. The only description we get of him is that [[spoiler:he's larger than Josh's dad, who is stated to be pretty big himself.]]
89	* TragicBromance: The story is just as much Josh’s as it is Dathan’s. What began as a friendship formed by two little boys who both had the same lunch box ends with one of them being [[spoiler:kidnapped and killed]]. Dathan even acknowledges that Josh would never have met this fate of he'd simply never befriended him at all.
90	* VillainousCrush: The stalker has this for Dathan. Him being an adult and Dathan a young child makes everything more nightmarish.
91	* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"I think I've been sleep-walking." This is said by Josh in "Friends" at Dathan's birthday party. This is both a CallBack to the first installment, and a harbinger for Josh's kidnapping.]]
92	* WouldHurtAChild: The stalker is a psychopathic pedophile who loves to stalk very young children whom he feels attracted to. [[spoiler:At the end, having failed to get Dathan, he kidnaps Josh as a replacement and manipulates his own father to bury them both alive. It's also disturbingly implied that before that the stalker probably molested Josh.]]
93	* WouldHarmASenior: The stalker murders the elderly [[spoiler:Mrs. Maggie]] at the end of "Maps".
94	* {{Yandere}}: The stalker is a very disturbing example.

Context Literature / PenPal