[5] Penpal is told via a series of non-linear recollections by an unnamed narrator trying to make sense of mysterious events that happened to him during his childhood, the truth of which have been kept from him by his mother all his life.

While most of the children get letters back, the narrator starts to believe his balloon got lost, until he receives an envelope containing a single poorly shot Polaroid photo.

The narrator recalls a series of disconnected events which, while innocuous to him as a child, take on sinister new meaning from an adult perspective: a neighborhood snow cone customer returning the same dollar bill to the narrator that he'd included in his initial penpal letter; hearing strange clicking noises while out playing with Josh which he later identified as camera flashes; finding a strange drawing in a pair of shorts he'd left by the riverside, depicting himself aside a much larger man; and the presumed murder of one of the narrator's elderly, Alzheimer's-stricken neighbors shortly after claiming her long-dead husband had returned home and was living with her again.

One incident that particularly stands out in the narrator's memory is awakening in the woods one night and finding his way home to discover police looking for him; a letter was placed on his bed stating his intentions to run away, although his name was misspelled.

She confesses that shortly after Veronica's death, Josh's father – a construction worker – was offered cash by a man to fill a series of holes in his backyard.

The pair agreed to keep what had happened a secret, and Josh's father set fire to the man's corpse, refusing to allow his son to rest with his abductor in death.

Suffering from survivor's guilt, the narrator wishes he had never met Josh, and admits that he does not believe in an afterlife, and therefore does not think the penpal will ever face punishment for his crimes.

[1][7] In an interview, Auerbach explained how he came up with the original idea for the short story "Footsteps" (which would later be turned into the full novel Penpal), stating that it came from a childhood memory: "My mom denies that this ever happened, but as a kid I distinctly remember waking up on my porch outside, cold and in my underwear.

"[10]Auerbach also explained how the fear of someone scooping him up in broad daylight and taking him away from his parents was always a prominent worry he had growing up, and one that would constantly manifest itself in his nightmares.

Because so many people had followed the individually released stories that Penpal contains for so long on creepypasta.com, Auerbach was able to open a Kickstarter to raise money to get the book independently published.

Auerbach explains in an interview held by Horrornovelreviews.com that the reason he believes his novel was so well-received from horror fans was because the idea of a stalker hunting you down is such a raw and human fear.