Dennis Dennis, 28, and his nihilist troll companion (Dennis Filion): When the swattings started spreading across the US

As the swattings continued to spread across the US, Dennis was dismayed. There have been no new villains that represent the threat. There has been no shortage of new nihilist troll willing to pick up the slack.

In May, he told WIRED that his hoax calls were partly for fame and partly for political reasons. He said that the money is being spent on searches of schools and not welfare checks to Jews and bankers.

In November, just weeks after his 18th birthday, Filion pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his nationwide spree of swatting calls. He faces up to 20 years in prison for four counts of making interstate threats to injure another person. As of mid-December, the teenager is awaiting sentencing in a Seminole County, Florida, jail cell.

A Stranger Observed in the Dark: Where Do You Go From Here? What Has Happened? How Dennis Had to Meet a Girl Outside a Krispy Kreme

Dennis is in a different purgatory. He ate breakfast, checked his email for leads on work, and played the video game Rocket League while a WIRED reporter visited him. Throughout the evening, he carried a loaded glock in a holster, a round in the chamber, no safety. He drinks Red Bulls every two hours to fit in his daily intake of cups of coffee. He no longer gets visits from the squirrels. He can’t be certain, but he believes that his favorites have died or been killed by other animals. Dennis doesn’t have the desire to befriend new people.

He spotted the 11-year-old girl outside a Krispy Kreme during his drive through Seattle at night. She was seen from a poster of missing and exploited children. She was able to get in touch with a foster family when she was found by police after approaching his car thinking he was a customer. He is proud of that, as well as he is proud to have solved the case. He has been unrecognized by both police agencies and the FBI. His work as a private eye was no longer being done. To stay afloat, he has sold off possessions—including the very computer he used to find Torswats—and for a time took up driving for Uber Eats. He says that the year has been the worst in a long time.

Dennis has no faith any of that will change. A mass shooting is a constant threat in the US, as the country remains awash in guns. The militarized police force of America is ready to be exploited by anyone with technical skills and a persuasive voice.

Dennis is hopeful about another high-profile case coming his way, one that will give him a sense of purpose like the ones he felt during the Torswats investigation. As he drives around in the dark, he seems to hope that another monster will appear for him to hunt—that it might offer him a chance to repair his career and some part of the world.

“Things will happen that will change the course of your life,” he says from the driver’s seat of his Honda as he peers out of the windshield at the North Seattle streets. “Things will reveal themselves.”