If Part 1 was the seduction… this is the unraveling.

By now, Celeste is fully in - the "true believer" phase we like to call it. The relationships feel real. The stakes feel real. And the consequences for questioning it? Also very real.

Because inside this world, there are rules. Rewards for loyalty. Punishments for doubt. And what once felt magical begins to shift. The cracks start to show. And Celeste is forced to confront a terrifying possibility:

What if none of this is real?

What follows is a slow, psychological tug-of-war between belief and reality - until one discovery changes everything.

After all, the most shocking part wasn't that there were vampires on the internet.

It was who was pretending to be them.

______

FOLLOW CELESTE → Instagram @celestemott | Tiktok @celestemoth

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At 16, Celeste Mott was alone, grieving, and searching - for meaning, for connection, for something that felt bigger than her small, suburban life.

And then she found them.

An online world inspired by Anne Rice.

Dark. Seductive. Intelligent.

A place where vampires weren’t just characters… they were real.

Or at least—that’s what they lead her to believe.

This was the early 2000s internet— before social media, before real names, before anyone was asking who’s actually behind the screen.

Message boards. Chat rooms. Total anonymity. The perfect environment for something to take hold… unnoticed.

What begins as a message board for Anne Rice fans, transforms into something far darker. Something that on the surface, sounds completely unbelievable. Except not when you know how cults operate.

Because this wasn’t just fandom.

This was belonging.

This was identity.

This was… a promise.

And like every good cult—it knew exactly what she needed to hear.

This is Part 1 of 2.

______

FOLLOW CELESTE → Instagram @celestemott | Tiktok @celestemoth

FOLLOW US → For more culty content — follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacult

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Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude)

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Michelle Dowd was born into a cult that was literally training boys to fight in God’s army when the apocalypse came.

It started in sunny Pasadena, California when her grandfather - a former Boy Scout leader - decided the Scouts weren’t strict enough and built his own organization. Boys were recruited young, drilled like soldiers, and raised to believe they were preparing for the end of the world.

Michelle grew up inside the group known as “The Field,” running miles before breakfast, enduring military-style obedience drills, selling candy to fund the movement, and eventually living for years on a remote mountain with basically no formal education.

What eventually happened is almost unbelievable: a secret college application, a full scholarship, and a cult survivor with no formal education… to becoming a professor teaching critical thinking.

Michelle Dowd is now a writer and the author of Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult.

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MICHELLE DOWD LINKS → Instagram @michelledowdz |

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Michelle’s NYT Modern Love essay: “Love in a Time of Low Expectations”

***

Tyler’s mascot book mention: Where Are the Fighting Giraffes? by David Winder

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Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude)

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