Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
My mom married my stepdad when I was around eight
years old, and after they got married, Mom and I
moved into my stepdad's house, which was on a large
piece of land about twenty acres. It was just the
three of us, my mom, my stepdad, and me. We
had two big dogs at the time of this event.
(00:40):
We lived in that house for fourteen years, and I
saw a lot of strange things during that time. But
among all those moments, there was one story that sticks
out the most, one that I'll never forget. I was
about ten years old, though I don't remember my exact age,
I just remember the present I got that year. At
(01:01):
that age, I could use the bathroom by myself at night,
but I was still young enough that my mom would
usually come check on me anyway. So it was Christmas
Eve and the house was decorated for the holidays with
colorful lights and garlands. But the house was quieter than usual,
so I could hear every little creek and that's when
(01:24):
this story begins. Our Christmas tree was always turned off
at night except on Christmas Eve, and when you walked
in through the front door, you were right in the
living room. Straight ahead was what we called the hall
but really it was just a small rectangle with doors
on three of the four sides. From the front door
(01:46):
and living room, you could see straight into the bathroom,
and when you walked towards the bathroom, there was a
closet on the left side, and next to that was
the bathroom door. On the right you'd see my bedroom door,
then a small empty section of wall about the size
of a door, and then my parents' bedroom door. The
(02:07):
kitchen was just off to the left of the living
room and shared a wall with the bathroom and closet.
We also had an unfinished basement that was a bit creepy,
with wooden stairs leading down to it from the living
room near the kitchen and the back porch. The basement
was mostly used for storage, and I didn't like going
down there by myself. So it was Christmas Eve and
(02:32):
I got out of bed, walked out of my bedroom
and turned the corner to go into the bathroom. Of course,
I had to take a quick look at the Christmas
tree and the presence under it. I thought I saw
a monster truck. I was a big fan of monster
trucks back then, and I really wanted a remote control one,
(02:52):
but I didn't stop to check because I really needed
to go to the bathroom. After I finished in the bathroom,
I got up and looked towards the living room again.
I really wanted to get a better look at my
presence before going back to sleep. In my house growing up,
we didn't close the doors unless we had guests over,
(03:13):
so from where I was sitting, I could see the
front door and the glow of the Christmas tree. I
turned to flush the toilet, and when I looked back
up at the doorway between the hallway and the living room,
I saw the shadow of a boy. He looked about
my age from his height, but he had his back
to me, so I couldn't see his face. He was
(03:36):
standing in the doorway using his left hand to hold
onto the doorframe while he leaned into the living room
on his tiptoes to look at the presence. In his
right hand, he was holding a red lollipop. His whole
body looked dark because there wasn't much light and the
Christmas lights were shining behind him. I moved closer to
(03:57):
the edge of the bathroom so that I was just
inside the door. If I had stretched out my arm,
I could have touched him. I was standing there, about
to ask him what he was doing, when he slowly
came back down on to his flat feet and started
to turn towards me. As he began to turn, I
(04:17):
suddenly felt this intense feeling of dread, fear, and worry.
I could see the side of his face and he
was just smiling, staring straight ahead. Right before he fully
turned around, my mom came out of her room and
asked if I was okay. In the split second that
I looked at my mom and then back at the boy,
(04:41):
he was gone. I pointed towards the living room, and
my mom thought I was just trying to peek at
the presence, so she tucked me back into bed. I
fell asleep quickly and completely forgot about it. The next morning.
I did get my remote control monster truck that year.
It was only years later that I remembered and told
(05:02):
my mom about it. She wasn't surprised, because, like I said,
a lot of strange things happened in that house. Something
really creepy happened today about ten hours ago, and the
(05:24):
more I think about it, the scarier it feels. My
older sister, I'm a guy, by the way, wanted to
finish her Christmas shopping, so she made a list of
places to visit now. One of the stops on her
list was our local mall in northern Virginia. I went
with her for two reasons. One, she's really small and
(05:46):
people often think she's attractive, though I highly doubt it. Two,
she needed help deciding what to get me, so I
was supposed to point out some things I liked. We
had already gone to a few stores like Hot Topic
and American Eagle, but we were running out of places
to look. I'll admit I hadn't been very helpful in
(06:07):
giving her ideas for gifts so far. As we walked around,
we decided to check out Spencers because they usually have
a good selection of T shirts and some fun nostalgic items.
I remembered they often carry cool throwbacks from my childhood,
like old school Nickelodeon stuff, which I thought could be
interesting to look at. We were at the back of
(06:31):
the store looking at T shirts, but I wasn't having
any luck finding something I liked or in my size.
While we were looking, a guy came up and started
checking out the same T shirts as us. He looked
like he was in his late thirties or early forties,
with short, dark hair, a long go tee, an average build,
(06:53):
and was about five feet eight inches tall. At first,
it didn't seem suspicious. Sure, we were the only two
people in the back of the store, but there was
plenty of stuff to look at, so it didn't feel
like a big deal. He was just holding a small coffee,
so it seemed normal enough. Then he looked at me
(07:13):
and said, they've got a lot of stuff in this store.
If you've been to Spenser's, you know they sell some
adult items in the back, but those were on the
opposite side from where we were. I just nodded and
kept looking at the T shirts. At first, it seemed normal,
but then I noticed he wasn't really looking at the
(07:34):
merchandise anymore. Instead, he kept glancing at me and my
sister in a weird way. We started to walk away,
going around a rack of clear and shirts and other stuff,
but he followed us, staying right behind us the whole time.
My sister was clearly creeped out by this guy, and honestly,
(07:56):
even though I'm five ten and two hundred and fifteen pounds,
I was feeling weird about him too. Maybe it's because
I have family and law enforcement, but something about the
situation just felt off. So we looked at each other
and she asked, are you ready to leave? I said
yes and pointed toward the front of the store, where
(08:17):
all the employees and other customers were. As we were
walking away, I heard someone behind me say hey man.
I knew it was the same guy, but I didn't
want to talk to him since he had already made
me uneasy, so we kept walking. My sister was about
five feet ahead of me because I made sure not
(08:37):
to let him get between us. Even though I ignored him,
he called out again, hey man. This time, when I
turned slightly, I saw him with his hand outstretched like
he wanted to shake hands. Even though I knew he
was trying to shake hands, I just said what, because
I didn't see any reason to shake hands with this
(08:58):
guy replied, well, it was nice to meet you anyway.
That might not sound creepy except for the fact that
we hadn't talked at all other than the one comment
he made earlier. I responded with, nah, I'm good man,
which clearly didn't sit well with him. He then decided
(09:20):
to say, yeah, we'll screw you too man, which didn't
bother me since I had already turned around and started
walking away. I think he expected me to turn around
and respond, but when I didn't, he followed up with more.
While this was happening, my sister was sticking to our
original plan and heading toward the exit. The distance between
(09:43):
us kept growing, so she didn't notice what was going
on until he yelled his final insult at me. She
quickly turned around, looking confused, and asked, what's going on.
I could tell she didn't understand what had just happened.
I stayed calm and told her just keep walking, knowing
(10:04):
it wasn't worth making a scene or getting into it
with this now angry guy. My focus was on keeping
her safe and getting out of the store. In the
back of my mind, I was ready to escalate if
he decided to follow us out, but luckily he stayed
where he was and didn't try anything else. We walked
straight to the exit without looking back, wanting to put
(10:27):
some distance between us and him. We immediately headed to
a different store in the mall to take a moment
and process what had just happened. My adrenaline was still rushing,
and for the next several minutes. I couldn't stop glancing
over my shoulder making sure he wasn't following us. As
we got to the car and drove away, I couldn't
shake the feeling of how close things came to being
(10:49):
much worse. It was a reminder to always trust your
instincts and stay aware of your surroundings. About four years ago,
when I was eight months pregnant, something weird happened. My
(11:13):
belly was big and noticeable. Because I was almost ready
to have my baby, I went to the local mall
to do some Christmas shopping. It was around nine o'clock
at night when I finished. After I got my shopping done,
I walked out of the mall to head to my truck.
At this mall, there's a road that goes around the
(11:33):
building and the parking lot is on the other side
of the road, so to get to the parking lot
you have to cross the road. As I was leaving
the store, I saw a man standing in the middle
of the road. He looked right at me and made
eye contact. I quickly looked away and kept walking. At
the same time, two other men walked past him to
(11:55):
go into the mall. He didn't look at them. Or
say anything to them. He just kept his eyes on me.
I noticed he started walking toward me.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Excuse me, can you help me?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Being from the South, I was raised to be polite,
so I couldn't ignore him. I asked, what do you need?
He looked around and said.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Can you help me start my car?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I think my.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Battery is very low.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Now I may be polite, but I'm not foolish. If
his car was really having trouble, why would he ask
a pregnant woman for help instead of the two men
who just walked past him. That didn't make sense to me,
So at this point I knew it was time to leave.
I said sorry, I can't help and kept walking, but
(12:45):
this time a little faster. I could still see him
from the corner of my eye, and he was following me.
I had my keys out and was ready to get
in my truck as soon as I reached it, but
he was still following me. You're really not going to
help me. I just need a jump, I replied, nope, sorry.
(13:09):
I finally got to my truck, unlocked it, and got inside.
By now he was almost running toward me. I locked
the doors quickly and tried to put the key in
the ignition, but my hands were shaking so much that
I couldn't get it to fit. He reached my truck
and started banging on the window. Then he grabbed the
(13:29):
door handle and tried to open my door, screaming, just
open the door. That's when I lost my cool and
made a quick decision. I've taken self defense classes before
and knew I needed to act to protect myself and
my baby. When he tried to open my door, my
only thought was to keep us safe. I rolled down
(13:50):
the window and said, I'm not going to tell you again,
stop following me. It felt like time stopped in that instant.
I didn't know what he would do next, but I
was ready to use the self defense skills I had
learned if he came any closer. But fortunately he didn't.
(14:11):
He didn't say a word. He just turned and walk away.
Even though the danger was gone, I couldn't leave right away.
I sat there, frozen and shaken. I couldn't stop thinking
about how close I had come to being in serious danger.
I was terrified, not just about what could have happened,
(14:34):
but also about how quickly I had to act to
protect myself and my baby. It's not a situation I
ever want to face again, but I'm glad I trusted
my instincts. When I was about eight or nine years old,
(14:59):
something strange happen, and on Christmas Eve that I've never forgotten,
I believed in Santa Claus. Like most kids my age,
I was nervous and excited, imagining Sanna coming into our
house to leave presents under the tree. I remember lying
in bed trying my hardest to fall asleep. Eventually I
(15:19):
managed to drift off, but then I woke up to
the sound of soft footsteps in my room. I immediately
thought it was Santa Claus. I felt scared to look
because I didn't want to ruin the magic or make
him leave. Slowly, I opened one eye just a little,
and I saw a dark figure standing by my bed,
staring down at me. It was very tall, maybe around
(15:43):
six feet, and its body was completely dark, like it
was made of shadows. It seemed even darker than the
room around it, almost like it was sucking up the light.
And I couldn't see any eyes, a nose, or a
mouth on its face, but I could clearly make out
the shape of its head, arms, body, and legs. It
(16:05):
looked like a very tall person, and because it was
Christmas Eve, I immediately thought it had to be Santa Claus.
I felt frozen in my bed, too scared to move
or make a sound. Then it started to move, taking
a few slow steps closer to me. It leaned in closer,
(16:25):
still staying a few feet away from me, and then
stayed there for another ten or fifteen seconds. Even though
I couldn't see a face, I could feel it looking
right at me. You know that strange feeling you get
when you know someone is watching you, That's what it
felt like. I shut my eyes tightly and stayed still,
(16:47):
too scared to move. After a few minutes, I opened
my eyes again and it was gone. The house I
lived in was really old, and the doors and floorboards
were always squeaky and loud, but I didn't hear anything
as it left. I heard the footsteps, but I never
heard the door open. I never saw that figure again,
(17:11):
even though I had other creepy experiences in the house.
The next morning, I asked my mom if she heard
Santa when he came into my room. She looked confused
for a moment, then smiled and played along, probably thinking
I was just making it up. I know this wasn't
a person, and I know it wasn't just a dream.
(17:32):
It felt too real to be my imagination. I've heard
that spirit or ghost are often drawn to places with
lots of energy, excitement, or emotions, and Christmas is full
of all of that. I don't remember exactly how old
(18:00):
I was, but I know I was still in kindergarten.
Every time my dad picked me up, we often stopped
at a park on our way home. My dad is
an amazing person, and when I was little, he would
create treasure maps just for me. He didn't stop there,
he actually went to the park beforehand and hid real
(18:21):
treasures like small toys or shiny coins, and I'll always
remember how much effort he put into making those moments
so special. We were at the park like we usually were,
and while we were walking, I saw a sewer hole
with steam coming out of it, almost like it was
a furnace. We were walking toward it, and I remember
(18:43):
my dad saying, look.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Maybe this is where Sanna makes gifts for the good kids.
I laughed a little, because by then I already knew
Santa wasn't real. As we walked past the sewer, I
got curious and peeked through the small holes in the cover.
The steam was thick, but I could still make out
something unusual.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Through the mist. I saw a man wearing a strange
triangle shaped hat. It wasn't something you'd see every day,
and it gave me a weird feeling. Everything happened so
quickly I only had a moment to look. The man
was sitting at a table, and it seemed like he
was writing something, though I couldn't see exactly what. When
(19:27):
I saw him, I remember freezing for a moment. So
many thoughts were running through my little head. I wondered
if he was a real elf and maybe my dad
was telling the truth, or if my dad had hired
some one to pretend, just like he hid the treasures
for me to find. Either way, I didn't say anything
(19:48):
to my dad and he didn't mention it either. When
we got home, I was so excited that I told
my Grandma I had seen a Christmas elf in the park,
but I could tell she didn't believe me. My Dad
was laughing too, but he didn't say anything to confirm
or deny it. Over the next few days, I couldn't
(20:08):
stop thinking about what I had seen. I kept picturing
the strange man in the triangle shaped hat and wondering
if it could really have been an elf. Eventually I
convinced myself that my dad had probably planned it all.
Maybe he had asked some one to dress up as
an elf and sit in the sewer, just like he
hid treasures for me in the park. But a few
(20:31):
years later, when I finally asked my dad about it,
he said he never did anything like that and asked
me more about what I saw. I told him everything,
and he said it was probably just my wild imagination
since I was so little at the time. But I
know what I saw, and I still remember it clearly
(20:52):
even now. I even went back to the same park
to check the area, but a lot has changed. The
place looks completely different. Now there's no walking path and
no sewer hole, just plain grass. What's even stranger is that,
as the years went by, every time I remembered that man,
(21:14):
I started noticing similarities between him and myself. I only
saw him briefly and from behind. It had the same
color and texture as mine, something I realized when I
saw photos of myself years later after I'd grown up.
It felt weird, almost like I was looking at an
older version of myself. But I can't say for sure.
(21:38):
Maybe it's just my imagination running wild over the years,
trying to make sense of what I saw. Still, it's
something that sticks with me even now
My mom married my stepdad when I was around eight
years old, and after they got married, Mom and I
moved into my stepdad's house, which was on a large
piece of land about twenty acres. It was just the
three of us, my mom, my stepdad, and me. We
had two big dogs at the time of this event.
(00:40):
We lived in that house for fourteen years, and I
saw a lot of strange things during that time. But
among all those moments, there was one story that sticks
out the most, one that I'll never forget. I was
about ten years old, though I don't remember my exact age,
I just remember the present I got that year. At
(01:01):
that age, I could use the bathroom by myself at night,
but I was still young enough that my mom would
usually come check on me anyway. So it was Christmas
Eve and the house was decorated for the holidays with
colorful lights and garlands. But the house was quieter than usual,
so I could hear every little creek and that's when
(01:24):
this story begins. Our Christmas tree was always turned off
at night except on Christmas Eve, and when you walked
in through the front door, you were right in the
living room. Straight ahead was what we called the hall
but really it was just a small rectangle with doors
on three of the four sides. From the front door
(01:46):
and living room, you could see straight into the bathroom,
and when you walked towards the bathroom, there was a
closet on the left side, and next to that was
the bathroom door. On the right you'd see my bedroom door,
then a small empty section of wall about the size
of a door, and then my parents' bedroom door. The
(02:07):
kitchen was just off to the left of the living
room and shared a wall with the bathroom and closet.
We also had an unfinished basement that was a bit creepy,
with wooden stairs leading down to it from the living
room near the kitchen and the back porch. The basement
was mostly used for storage, and I didn't like going
down there by myself. So it was Christmas Eve and
(02:32):
I got out of bed, walked out of my bedroom
and turned the corner to go into the bathroom. Of course,
I had to take a quick look at the Christmas
tree and the presence under it. I thought I saw
a monster truck. I was a big fan of monster
trucks back then, and I really wanted a remote control one,
(02:52):
but I didn't stop to check because I really needed
to go to the bathroom. After I finished in the bathroom,
I got up and looked towards the living room again.
I really wanted to get a better look at my
presence before going back to sleep. In my house growing up,
we didn't close the doors unless we had guests over,
(03:13):
so from where I was sitting, I could see the
front door and the glow of the Christmas tree. I
turned to flush the toilet, and when I looked back
up at the doorway between the hallway and the living room,
I saw the shadow of a boy. He looked about
my age from his height, but he had his back
to me, so I couldn't see his face. He was
(03:36):
standing in the doorway using his left hand to hold
onto the doorframe while he leaned into the living room
on his tiptoes to look at the presence. In his
right hand, he was holding a red lollipop. His whole
body looked dark because there wasn't much light and the
Christmas lights were shining behind him. I moved closer to
(03:57):
the edge of the bathroom so that I was just
inside the door. If I had stretched out my arm,
I could have touched him. I was standing there, about
to ask him what he was doing, when he slowly
came back down on to his flat feet and started
to turn towards me. As he began to turn, I
(04:17):
suddenly felt this intense feeling of dread, fear, and worry.
I could see the side of his face and he
was just smiling, staring straight ahead. Right before he fully
turned around, my mom came out of her room and
asked if I was okay. In the split second that
I looked at my mom and then back at the boy,
(04:41):
he was gone. I pointed towards the living room, and
my mom thought I was just trying to peek at
the presence, so she tucked me back into bed. I
fell asleep quickly and completely forgot about it. The next morning.
I did get my remote control monster truck that year.
It was only years later that I remembered and told
(05:02):
my mom about it. She wasn't surprised, because, like I said,
a lot of strange things happened in that house. Something
really creepy happened today about ten hours ago, and the
(05:24):
more I think about it, the scarier it feels. My
older sister, I'm a guy, by the way, wanted to
finish her Christmas shopping, so she made a list of
places to visit now. One of the stops on her
list was our local mall in northern Virginia. I went
with her for two reasons. One, she's really small and
(05:46):
people often think she's attractive, though I highly doubt it. Two,
she needed help deciding what to get me, so I
was supposed to point out some things I liked. We
had already gone to a few stores like Hot Topic
and American Eagle, but we were running out of places
to look. I'll admit I hadn't been very helpful in
(06:07):
giving her ideas for gifts so far. As we walked around,
we decided to check out Spencers because they usually have
a good selection of T shirts and some fun nostalgic items.
I remembered they often carry cool throwbacks from my childhood,
like old school Nickelodeon stuff, which I thought could be
interesting to look at. We were at the back of
(06:31):
the store looking at T shirts, but I wasn't having
any luck finding something I liked or in my size.
While we were looking, a guy came up and started
checking out the same T shirts as us. He looked
like he was in his late thirties or early forties,
with short, dark hair, a long go tee, an average build,
(06:53):
and was about five feet eight inches tall. At first,
it didn't seem suspicious. Sure, we were the only two
people in the back of the store, but there was
plenty of stuff to look at, so it didn't feel
like a big deal. He was just holding a small coffee,
so it seemed normal enough. Then he looked at me
(07:13):
and said, they've got a lot of stuff in this store.
If you've been to Spenser's, you know they sell some
adult items in the back, but those were on the
opposite side from where we were. I just nodded and
kept looking at the T shirts. At first, it seemed normal,
but then I noticed he wasn't really looking at the
(07:34):
merchandise anymore. Instead, he kept glancing at me and my
sister in a weird way. We started to walk away,
going around a rack of clear and shirts and other stuff,
but he followed us, staying right behind us the whole time.
My sister was clearly creeped out by this guy, and honestly,
(07:56):
even though I'm five ten and two hundred and fifteen pounds,
I was feeling weird about him too. Maybe it's because
I have family and law enforcement, but something about the
situation just felt off. So we looked at each other
and she asked, are you ready to leave? I said
yes and pointed toward the front of the store, where
(08:17):
all the employees and other customers were. As we were
walking away, I heard someone behind me say hey man.
I knew it was the same guy, but I didn't
want to talk to him since he had already made
me uneasy, so we kept walking. My sister was about
five feet ahead of me because I made sure not
(08:37):
to let him get between us. Even though I ignored him,
he called out again, hey man. This time, when I
turned slightly, I saw him with his hand outstretched like
he wanted to shake hands. Even though I knew he
was trying to shake hands, I just said what, because
I didn't see any reason to shake hands with this
(08:58):
guy replied, well, it was nice to meet you anyway.
That might not sound creepy except for the fact that
we hadn't talked at all other than the one comment
he made earlier. I responded with, nah, I'm good man,
which clearly didn't sit well with him. He then decided
(09:20):
to say, yeah, we'll screw you too man, which didn't
bother me since I had already turned around and started
walking away. I think he expected me to turn around
and respond, but when I didn't, he followed up with more.
While this was happening, my sister was sticking to our
original plan and heading toward the exit. The distance between
(09:43):
us kept growing, so she didn't notice what was going
on until he yelled his final insult at me. She
quickly turned around, looking confused, and asked, what's going on.
I could tell she didn't understand what had just happened.
I stayed calm and told her just keep walking, knowing
(10:04):
it wasn't worth making a scene or getting into it
with this now angry guy. My focus was on keeping
her safe and getting out of the store. In the
back of my mind, I was ready to escalate if
he decided to follow us out, but luckily he stayed
where he was and didn't try anything else. We walked
straight to the exit without looking back, wanting to put
(10:27):
some distance between us and him. We immediately headed to
a different store in the mall to take a moment
and process what had just happened. My adrenaline was still rushing,
and for the next several minutes. I couldn't stop glancing
over my shoulder making sure he wasn't following us. As
we got to the car and drove away, I couldn't
shake the feeling of how close things came to being
(10:49):
much worse. It was a reminder to always trust your
instincts and stay aware of your surroundings. About four years ago,
when I was eight months pregnant, something weird happened. My
(11:13):
belly was big and noticeable. Because I was almost ready
to have my baby, I went to the local mall
to do some Christmas shopping. It was around nine o'clock
at night when I finished. After I got my shopping done,
I walked out of the mall to head to my truck.
At this mall, there's a road that goes around the
(11:33):
building and the parking lot is on the other side
of the road, so to get to the parking lot
you have to cross the road. As I was leaving
the store, I saw a man standing in the middle
of the road. He looked right at me and made
eye contact. I quickly looked away and kept walking. At
the same time, two other men walked past him to
(11:55):
go into the mall. He didn't look at them. Or
say anything to them. He just kept his eyes on me.
I noticed he started walking toward me.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Excuse me, can you help me?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Being from the South, I was raised to be polite,
so I couldn't ignore him. I asked, what do you need?
He looked around and said.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Can you help me start my car?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I think my.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Battery is very low.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Now I may be polite, but I'm not foolish. If
his car was really having trouble, why would he ask
a pregnant woman for help instead of the two men
who just walked past him. That didn't make sense to me,
So at this point I knew it was time to leave.
I said sorry, I can't help and kept walking, but
(12:45):
this time a little faster. I could still see him
from the corner of my eye, and he was following me.
I had my keys out and was ready to get
in my truck as soon as I reached it, but
he was still following me. You're really not going to
help me. I just need a jump, I replied, nope, sorry.
(13:09):
I finally got to my truck, unlocked it, and got inside.
By now he was almost running toward me. I locked
the doors quickly and tried to put the key in
the ignition, but my hands were shaking so much that
I couldn't get it to fit. He reached my truck
and started banging on the window. Then he grabbed the
(13:29):
door handle and tried to open my door, screaming, just
open the door. That's when I lost my cool and
made a quick decision. I've taken self defense classes before
and knew I needed to act to protect myself and
my baby. When he tried to open my door, my
only thought was to keep us safe. I rolled down
(13:50):
the window and said, I'm not going to tell you again,
stop following me. It felt like time stopped in that instant.
I didn't know what he would do next, but I
was ready to use the self defense skills I had
learned if he came any closer. But fortunately he didn't.
(14:11):
He didn't say a word. He just turned and walk away.
Even though the danger was gone, I couldn't leave right away.
I sat there, frozen and shaken. I couldn't stop thinking
about how close I had come to being in serious danger.
I was terrified, not just about what could have happened,
(14:34):
but also about how quickly I had to act to
protect myself and my baby. It's not a situation I
ever want to face again, but I'm glad I trusted
my instincts. When I was about eight or nine years old,
(14:59):
something strange happen, and on Christmas Eve that I've never forgotten,
I believed in Santa Claus. Like most kids my age,
I was nervous and excited, imagining Sanna coming into our
house to leave presents under the tree. I remember lying
in bed trying my hardest to fall asleep. Eventually I
(15:19):
managed to drift off, but then I woke up to
the sound of soft footsteps in my room. I immediately
thought it was Santa Claus. I felt scared to look
because I didn't want to ruin the magic or make
him leave. Slowly, I opened one eye just a little,
and I saw a dark figure standing by my bed,
staring down at me. It was very tall, maybe around
(15:43):
six feet, and its body was completely dark, like it
was made of shadows. It seemed even darker than the
room around it, almost like it was sucking up the light.
And I couldn't see any eyes, a nose, or a
mouth on its face, but I could clearly make out
the shape of its head, arms, body, and legs. It
(16:05):
looked like a very tall person, and because it was
Christmas Eve, I immediately thought it had to be Santa Claus.
I felt frozen in my bed, too scared to move
or make a sound. Then it started to move, taking
a few slow steps closer to me. It leaned in closer,
(16:25):
still staying a few feet away from me, and then
stayed there for another ten or fifteen seconds. Even though
I couldn't see a face, I could feel it looking
right at me. You know that strange feeling you get
when you know someone is watching you, That's what it
felt like. I shut my eyes tightly and stayed still,
(16:47):
too scared to move. After a few minutes, I opened
my eyes again and it was gone. The house I
lived in was really old, and the doors and floorboards
were always squeaky and loud, but I didn't hear anything
as it left. I heard the footsteps, but I never
heard the door open. I never saw that figure again,
(17:11):
even though I had other creepy experiences in the house.
The next morning, I asked my mom if she heard
Santa when he came into my room. She looked confused
for a moment, then smiled and played along, probably thinking
I was just making it up. I know this wasn't
a person, and I know it wasn't just a dream.
(17:32):
It felt too real to be my imagination. I've heard
that spirit or ghost are often drawn to places with
lots of energy, excitement, or emotions, and Christmas is full
of all of that. I don't remember exactly how old
(18:00):
I was, but I know I was still in kindergarten.
Every time my dad picked me up, we often stopped
at a park on our way home. My dad is
an amazing person, and when I was little, he would
create treasure maps just for me. He didn't stop there,
he actually went to the park beforehand and hid real
(18:21):
treasures like small toys or shiny coins, and I'll always
remember how much effort he put into making those moments
so special. We were at the park like we usually were,
and while we were walking, I saw a sewer hole
with steam coming out of it, almost like it was
a furnace. We were walking toward it, and I remember
(18:43):
my dad saying, look.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Maybe this is where Sanna makes gifts for the good kids.
I laughed a little, because by then I already knew
Santa wasn't real. As we walked past the sewer, I
got curious and peeked through the small holes in the cover.
The steam was thick, but I could still make out
something unusual.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Through the mist. I saw a man wearing a strange
triangle shaped hat. It wasn't something you'd see every day,
and it gave me a weird feeling. Everything happened so
quickly I only had a moment to look. The man
was sitting at a table, and it seemed like he
was writing something, though I couldn't see exactly what. When
(19:27):
I saw him, I remember freezing for a moment. So
many thoughts were running through my little head. I wondered
if he was a real elf and maybe my dad
was telling the truth, or if my dad had hired
some one to pretend, just like he hid the treasures
for me to find. Either way, I didn't say anything
(19:48):
to my dad and he didn't mention it either. When
we got home, I was so excited that I told
my Grandma I had seen a Christmas elf in the park,
but I could tell she didn't believe me. My Dad
was laughing too, but he didn't say anything to confirm
or deny it. Over the next few days, I couldn't
(20:08):
stop thinking about what I had seen. I kept picturing
the strange man in the triangle shaped hat and wondering
if it could really have been an elf. Eventually I
convinced myself that my dad had probably planned it all.
Maybe he had asked some one to dress up as
an elf and sit in the sewer, just like he
hid treasures for me in the park. But a few
(20:31):
years later, when I finally asked my dad about it,
he said he never did anything like that and asked
me more about what I saw. I told him everything,
and he said it was probably just my wild imagination
since I was so little at the time. But I
know what I saw, and I still remember it clearly
(20:52):
even now. I even went back to the same park
to check the area, but a lot has changed. The
place looks completely different. Now there's no walking path and
no sewer hole, just plain grass. What's even stranger is that,
as the years went by, every time I remembered that man,
(21:14):
I started noticing similarities between him and myself. I only
saw him briefly and from behind. It had the same
color and texture as mine, something I realized when I
saw photos of myself years later after I'd grown up.
It felt weird, almost like I was looking at an
older version of myself. But I can't say for sure.
(21:38):
Maybe it's just my imagination running wild over the years,
trying to make sense of what I saw. Still, it's
something that sticks with me even now
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