July 25, 2025 • 95 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
I'm excited to let you all know that I got my hands on a
Nintendo Switch to the Mario Kart World bundle and I'm giving
it away to one of my podcast supporters on June 4th.
I stood in line for about 7 hours to ensure that I got 1, so
I'm pretty excited to tell you that I actually did get one by
(00:21):
the skin of my teeth. Honestly, only my podcast
members are in this pool. It's a small group, you actually
have a shot to win. In order to win, all you have to
do is sign up for a 299 a month membership to support my
podcast. Keep in mind that all of the ads
will go away, you'll be able to listen completely interruption
(00:41):
free and you will enter automatically by doing that.
The winner will be announced September 1st.
Click the link in the description to Join.
Now get rid of all of the ads, enjoy the podcast with
absolutely no interruptions, andyou might just have a Nintendo
Switch 2 sent to your doorstep. And with that said, I really
hope you enjoy this. Episode One night out with some
(01:09):
friends, I was dared to go inside of a local abandoned
house. Everyone from my school knew
about this house. Being a young teenager, I said
sure. I approached cautiously.
Stepped into the decrepit house,it's creaking floorboards
echoing through the dimly lit hallways.
I ventured deeper. A chilling breeze whispered
(01:32):
through the broken windows, sending shivers down my spine.
Shadows danced on the peeling wallpaper, playing tricks on my
imagination. A sense of foreboding gripped me
as I entered the living room. The air grew.
Heavy with an unsettling silence.
Broken only by the sound of my own heartbeat, something wasn't
(01:54):
right. I couldn't shake the feeling
that I was being watched. I made my way up the stairs,
each step groaning beneath my weight.
The musty scent of decay lingered in the air, mingling
with a scent of fear. The hallway above seems to
stretch endlessly, it's darknessswallowing the feeble light of
(02:17):
my flashlight as I tiptoed further.
Across from me stood a large oldwooden door.
Against my better judgement, curiosity propelled me towards
it. I pushed it open, revealing a
room frozen in time. Dust covered furniture and faded
photographs lined the walls, butit was the mirror that caught my
(02:41):
attention. Its surface was stained and
cracked, reflecting A distorted version of myself.
As I stared into its depths, I felt a presence behind me.
I spun around, but there was nothing there.
The room was empty, yet the feeling of being watched
(03:02):
intensified. Panic welled up within me as I
realized that I was not alone inthis house.
Whispers filled the air, slightly faint and muffled.
I strained to listen, my heart pounding in my ears.
The voices grew louder, their chilling words crawling under my
(03:23):
skin in a desperate attempt to escape.
I turned to run, but the door slammed shut, trapping me within
the room. The whispers became screams,
echoing through the house, tormenting my mind.
Shadows writhed and twisted, merging into a grotesque figure
(03:44):
that advanced towards me. Fear consumed me as I realized
I'd stumbled into a realm of darkness beyond comprehension.
It was a place where nightmares took form, where the line
between reality and the supernatural blurred as the dark
figure closed in. A cold grip tightened around my
(04:04):
throat, choking the life out of me.
It was at this moment my eyes opened, only to realize it was
all a dream. I have been homeless for a
(04:31):
while, not helpless nor without a home.
I won't get into it because it serves no purpose to the story.
I sleep under the stars every night and I do not mind the mist
in the overcast weather. In the morning I find it easy to
rise. The light is not too overbearing
(04:51):
as it breaches my eyelids. There is no heat, nor is there
cold. The birds and the frogs and the
crickets are the first sounds inthe morning, and I find no equal
in the extremity of events. Since I've chosen this
lifestyle, there have been some events that stand out, some more
(05:12):
than others. Time is precious, however, and
it would be best if I summarizedthis story now as quickly and
concisely as possible. Sleeping with the elements leads
to many different outcomes, I must say.
Whether or not I choose to, I wake up every single day at 3:30
(05:33):
in the early morning. This is what I believe is
considered the witching hour. For the most part, it is silent
and statuesque. There was one time where I awoke
face to face with a raccoon peering back at me.
We were both close enough to kiss each other's noses.
I jumped up in a flurry and the raccoon scampered off.
(05:56):
Still, it sent me into conniptions.
Stories about raccoons are just child's play as far as I'm
concerned. One night not too long ago,
about 3 to 5 weeks ago, I woke up at the witching hour like I
typically do and rolled onto my back to peer into the black web
(06:18):
of sky that entangled the stars within it, harassing the sky
like a trickle of rainwater blemishes the integrity of a
window pane. A silver of light bolted across
the sky. It was blurry and it was dim to
look upon. It was as if to try to see
something behind a wall of dark black ice.
(06:41):
I really didn't get a good look at it because it moved so fast.
The dim shooting star molested the carpet of stars amidst it
and pierced the night unquestioningly, tearing the
beautiful array of cosmos through and through.
I peered further into the dark to see the stars and found
myself dumbfounded and intriguedand stoned.
(07:05):
Still all was silent, and at this point in time, all was
lost. I deemed that there was no more
credence to give the occasion, since all that passed had lasted
a mere 15 seconds and no alarms were raised, so to speak.
(07:26):
I closed my eyes again, rolled over and focused on keeping my
eyes closed, on breathing and the position of my body.
I am not vulnerable, I told myself with as much confidence
as I could muster. After not too long, my body
relaxed, my mind submitted, and once again I felt my body giving
(07:50):
into the necessities and allowing me to sleep once again
for a few more hours. Then I woke up again.
It seemed as if no time had passed at all.
The air was just as solid, the sounds were silent, muted,
morphed into oblivion, and I wasthe only one awake in the
(08:15):
solitary world. I just can't get into my dreams
now, or that would take a novel.But I will say this much, after
lucid dreaming for a decade and a half, I know the difference.
This was no dream. I was most surely awake, very
(08:35):
awake, on edge. Yet it was so serene and
tranquil. There was no justification to be
Askew as my eyes peered to my left and my right laying on my
side. The most untypical thing
happened to me to this very moment.
I will never be able to completely describe it.
(08:58):
The best I can do for you is to describe it as thus.
Take two tubas and have them attempt to hit a middle C and
then have a few more French horns join in, only they're
going to octave above and all ofthem are slightly out of tune
with each other. It was definitely a cord of some
(09:18):
sort. The difference being to a human
being is this did not sound brassy.
It sounded more metallic, if that makes sense.
It was as if the tubas and French horns were not real.
More realistically, it was a replication.
That's the best way I could describe it.
(09:39):
To me, it sounded like the tuba was a middle C and the French
horns were an octave above, and they struggled to linger on this
note. At first I thought something
similar to What is that? Perhaps the folks down the way
We're having a party and they wanted to raise the roof with a
good song. Bad song to pick.
(10:03):
It was just one long, breathing,heavy note.
That seemingly came from nowhere.
But then, at 5 minutes or so, there was silence once again,
and then the notes shifted up, half a note up, the staff
lingering ever so present, and then faded out again.
(10:27):
Odd, I said to myself. I closed my eyes again, delving
deep into the idea. I had a vivid imagination.
But then it started again. These slow notes.
Just two notes, wavering in the sky above like an out of tune
rusty squeeze box. And loud, gargantuanly loud.
(10:53):
The reverberation was madding asit shook the concrete underneath
me as I lay there defenseless. That moment right there, all
that happening, there really wasn't much I could do.
It didn't make very much sense to me, and I was rather sure I
had just been imagining things. After another 10 minutes or so,
(11:16):
the attempted melody picked up once again and repeated itself
through and through while I justlay there thinking to myself,
man, what is that? The strange melody from the
Milky Way disappeared as discreetly as it had appeared,
and there was no more. I've never heard it before, and
(11:40):
I certainly have not heard it since.
I haven't the slightest clue with that song from the sky may
have been it lasted no more than20 minutes, and nothing worth
writing home about happened. Being slightly out of the
ordinary, however, it had my mind wandering and wondering and
(12:02):
confused and convoluted about what had exactly transpired out
on the misty night as I laid alone upon the grass.
(12:25):
On a fateful December morning in1948, Somerton Beach, with its
tranquil sands and gentle waves,it became the setting for a
mystery that would defy explanation for generations to
come. The sun was just beginning to
break over the horizon when a passerby stumbled upon a man's
(12:46):
lifeless body. He was impeccably dressed in a
well tailored suit and tie, giving the appearance of a man
of refinement. However, upon closer inspection,
it became evidence that this wasno ordinary discovery.
It marks the beginning of an extraordinary enigma.
(13:07):
The man's. Attire bore a peculiar
characteristic. All labels have been surgically
removed, leaving no clue to his identity.
His footwear was of the finest quality, devoid of scuffs or
signs of wear. Even more perplexing was the
presence of an unlit cigarette hanging behind his ear, as if he
(13:29):
had been interrupted mid smoke. The arrival of authorities at
the scene led to an examination that would confound even the
most seasoned investigators. The autopsy conducted on the
unidentified man revealed no traces of violence, poison, or
any obvious cause of death. His pupils were curiously
(13:51):
constricted, hinting at the possibility of poison ingestion,
yet no poison could be detected in his system.
His overall physical condition appeared to be robust, adding a
layer of mystique to the baffling case.
Amidst the absence of clues, a tantalizing lead emerged.
(14:12):
A small scrap of paper was discovered hidden in an obscure
pocket of the man's trousers. The paper bore a single phrase
to Mam should This cryptic phrase was found to be Persian,
translated to, ended or finished.
(14:33):
It was a line from a book titledThe Rubiat of Omar Khayyam.
The discovery LED investigators to a copy of the book found in
an abandoned car near the beach,within which a perplexing coded
message was concealed. The plot thickened when
investigators uncovered a telephone number belonging to a
(14:54):
mysterious woman scribbled on a concealed page of the book.
This number eventually LED them to a nurse named Jessica
Thompson. Initially, she vehemently denied
any knowledge of the deceased man, but her behavior raised
suspicions. Ultimately, she confessed to
(15:14):
owning a copy of the same book but denied any connection to the
Somerton Man. As the years rolled on, a
plethora of theories and conspiracies took root.
Some speculated that the Somerton Man was a spy embroiled
in a web of espionage, while others contended that he had
succumbed to natural causes or was entangled in a complex love
(15:38):
affair. The backdrop of the Cold War era
fueled suspicions of international intrigue.
Nevertheless, the case remained unsolved, and the true identity
of the Somerton Man continued toelude investigators and amateur
sleuths alike. The tale of the Somerton Man
represents A baffling enigma that has persisted for over 7
(16:01):
decades. Despite relentless
investigations and the tireless curiosity of amateur sleuths,
the identity of the man and the circumstances of his death
remain cloaked in mystery. The coded message, the enigmatic
woman, the conspicuous absence of concrete evidence continue to
(16:21):
tantalize those who seek to unravel the secrets hidden
beneath the sands of Somerton Beach.
Until the day the Riddle is deciphered, the Somerton Man
shall remain A timeless symbol of the unknown within the realm
of true crime. This story isn't really scary so
(16:53):
much as it is weird. There are no monsters, no
creepers, no ghosts or demons. Just completely unexplainable
happenings that I swear are true, although I'm really not
sure how. My wife and I recently had a
child and decided to move somewhere with a little more
opportunity for our family. There are four of us now,
(17:17):
myself, my wife, first son, my stepson, and our newborn son.
My stepson just recently turned 11 and was a little apprehensive
at first but quickly settled into his new surroundings.
I'd come up two months prior to find adequate housing for the
four of us and get a job that would support the move.
(17:40):
I stayed on one of my old friends couches and he was kind
enough to let me stay as long asI needed to get established
here. The real estate market being
what it is in Ontario, it was extremely challenging and nerve
wracking. But at the last minute, right
when I needed things to happen, I found a place.
Once our newborn son was born and my wife was ready to travel,
(18:04):
we quickly moved my family into the small upper level apt I
found for us in a small neighborhood of the city that we
now call home. It's small, but it's clean, and
it's enough for us to get started in a new town.
The apartment has access to the front door and a private
entrance in the back that leads out to a long deck along the
(18:25):
back of the duplex. The neighborhood we live in is a
quiet residential area wedged between a major roadway and a
set of industrial railroad tracks that mark the start of an
industrial area. A short walk down the road past
a concrete yard and an impound lot is another main road with a
(18:45):
Walmart and a grocery store justaround the corner.
I really lucked out with the jobtoo.
The timing was great and the money I make now comfortably
covers everything we need. I have to rideshare to get
there, but that's not really a problem in the area we live.
It's a 25 minute walk in One Direction down Queenston St. to
(19:08):
the downtown bus station where my rideshare picks me up.
I don't mind The Walking either.I'm the kind of person who will
just Daydream and tune out. I really love just walking and
thinking and I make it a sort ofritual every morning to make
that walk. Grab a drink and really wake up
before I get to work. I went to college here so I'm
(19:31):
pretty familiar with the area and it's really easy to just
tune out and end up where I'm going without much thought.
We don't drive, so once a week one of us will walk up to the
grocery store Plaza and do all of our shopping.
One day about a month after we moved in, my wife and stepson
went out to run some quick errands in the early afternoon
(19:53):
while I stayed home with the baby and did some cleaning.
The trip there and back usually takes about an hour with
shopping, and I like to play this game where I try to do as
much tidying as possible before they come home if I stay behind.
About 20 minutes later, I was inthe middle of doing some dishes
(20:13):
when the front door opened and the unmistakable shuffle of my
family came up the stairs. Surprised that they were back so
early, I assumed they must have turned around.
Maybe she forgot her wallet or something, but when she got to
the top of the stairs she met mewith an even more confused look
(20:34):
on her face. I was about to ask why they
turned around and if they had forgotten something and my
stepson came up the stairs with a few arms full of grocery bags.
Sorry it took us so long, we were on our way back and we just
weren't sure what happened. What do you mean you've only
been gone 20 minutes at most? I pointed out and looked at my
(20:56):
phone to confirm. This is when it got a little
weird and I noticed that they both seemed a little bewildered,
so I asked what was the matter and this is what they told me.
They both swear up and down thatwhen they were walking home from
the grocery store, they got to the railway line that borders
the start of the neighborhood and according to them, the whole
(21:19):
Rd. just started over again. They both clearly remember
walking down the majority of ourRd. through the long section of
the industrial area and then in the blink of an eye they were
back at the busy Rd. they turnedoff.
Under any other circumstance I might think maybe it was just
them not really paying attention, but they both tuned
(21:41):
out and didn't realize that theyhadn't yet gotten to the tracks.
But I did find it a little odd that they were back in 20
minutes with groceries when the trip takes about an hour, and by
their accounts it took them longer than that.
At any rate, we just filed it under Strange and got on with
(22:02):
life pretty quickly. It was just weird.
A couple of weeks later I was walking to the convenience store
around the corner one night on my day off and when I was
walking back from the store it only took me two minutes.
This is hard to describe, but not only do I have 0 memory of
this space in between the convenience store and the turn
(22:24):
off onto my Rd. but I remember vividly getting to the store
completely. I did a double take when I got
onto my road and it was as if the buildings between the
intersection and the store were just sort of deleted.
They simply were not there. I must be going insane, I
(22:44):
thought to myself. I turned around once again, not
even a blink, and the street corner was back to normal.
What is going on? A little shaken and extremely
confused, I quickly got back down the street and back to my
place. When I got home, I was met with
(23:05):
the same confused look that I had a few weeks prior and my
wife peeked her head out the door and down the stairs.
Did you forget something? What is happening here?
(23:34):
I live in southern Ontario, justoff the North Shore of Lake Erie
in farm country. Nobody who still lives here can
say it's the best place on earthto live.
It's small, quiet, and everything is far away.
There aren't many jobs there, and if you want to stay there,
your best bet is to pick a tradeand commute to the nearest city.
(23:56):
Although life here is kind of lackluster, I've always
cherished those quiet drives through the Norfolk County
countryside, especially on an autumn night as the sunsets
shining low and casting its final lights over the
picturesque landscape. The roads wind through fields of
golden corn dotted with wood, lots of pine trees and lined
(24:21):
with rich thickets of sumac thatline the route seem to whisper
secrets to the colors in the thundering skies.
One night I decided to take one of my late night commutes.
The air was crisp and the harvest moon cast this eerie
silver glow over the fields of corn and the trees that lined
(24:42):
the road. I knew these roads well, every
twist and turn like the back of my hand.
When we were younger, we would bike up and down the concessions
and in and out of the trails, passing through the nearby
conservation land, sometimes even walking it.
We would often lock our bikes upto the trees alongside the road
(25:03):
and hike into the forest and walk among the trees, trudging
through thickets of brush and burdock, only to come out
covered in burrs and mud. You could spend all day and
night out there without a worry.There are no predators here
aside from the odd coyote, and they aren't likely to come near
you in groups. We have lots of animals, sure,
(25:26):
foxes, Badgers, lynx, possum, but nothing big, nothing that is
very likely to pose a threat walking out in the woods.
In fact, out here you are far more likely to be mistaken for a
deer by a hunter than you are tobe attacked by an animal.
We have no bears, no wolves, theodd mention of Cougars, but
(25:50):
these accounts are rare and heavily contested or given
little thought. Even then, you would never see
one even if they were here. On one particular night, I found
myself with downtime. I have the next four days off
and I just settled into a house to myself.
(26:11):
My brother had moved away to Toronto a couple of months
earlier and my parents were awayfor the weekend.
My plans for this weekend were to have no plans.
I was just going to chill on my own, buy a bunch of snacks and
bask in the cool darkness of thebasement and play Diablo.
(26:31):
I had everything I needed at home, but I had elected to make
a snack run and get some chips, pop, and maybe some ice cream
from the grocery store in town. We lived out in the country
north of a small hamlet called Vanessa.
The nearest grocery store was inWaterford, South of us by a few
minutes drive. It's a nice drive into town if
(26:54):
you take the back roads, and that was my plan.
The roads were thick on either side with a tall ancient canopy
of trees, light breaking throughthe tops of the trees to
illuminate the road in golden stained glass, layers of green
fading into the deep shadows of the canopy.
(27:15):
The lowering light of the sun atthis time shows just how immense
these particular woods are, a never ending sprawl of fallen
leaves and mud, lined with fiddlehead ferns and skunk
cabbage fenced in by the trees along the roadside.
On my way back from the grocery store, as I was heading down one
(27:35):
of the more remote stretches of Rd. something in the distance
caught my eye. At first I thought it was just a
trick of the light. It seems to race along behind me
in the trees as I drove down theforested Rd.
Upon further inspection, it seems to be running on all fours
(27:56):
and it was starting to catch up to me.
It moved with a sort of unsettling grace, as if it were
on the hunt. As it got closer, my heart
started to race as it began to overtake me.
As it jumped out in front of me,I slammed on the brakes and sent
myself forward in my seat. Looking up, it was about 10 feet
(28:19):
away from me, upright in the middle of the now moonlit Rd.
There was no denying it, I was looking at a creature.
A creature that should have onlyexisted in stories.
This thing was massive, poking and covered in matted fur.
(28:40):
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
My eyes locked onto this creature.
It seemed so out of place in ourworld.
It looked like a big black dog. But it was.
Upright on its hind legs like a dog and had wide paws with
opposable thumbs. They looked more like a human
(29:00):
hand with long, sharp claws, Gray like an elephant's hide,
covered with fur among massive forearms.
At first glance, it looked a little like a primate, were it
not for a wiry canine tail and asnarling snout laden with
countless sharp, wolfish teeth. It stared with a bloodthirsty
(29:24):
ferocity I have never encountered in my life up to
this point and never again sincethen, and gave a deep booming
growl that overtook all sound inthe now still standing
wilderness along the silent country Rd.
I didn't even perceive the musicthat I had on at the time.
(29:46):
Nothing really registered aside from the horror I was witnessing
ahead of me on the road. The moonlight revealed its eyes
which glowed with an unnatural amber light.
It had a snout full of sharp, glistening teeth.
Fear surged through me, but I could not tear my gaze away.
(30:08):
The world felt suspended in thatmoment, like everything else had
disappeared. And then the impossible
happened. The creature turned its head to
look at me. Our eyes met, and a wave of
terror washed over me, primal and raw.
I was sure I was done for, that this thing was going to leap at
(30:30):
me. Every bone in my body was frozen
as time and space stood still. My blood froze as I awaited what
was sure to be my doom. I was locked in place.
I know what you're thinking. You're in a car.
Why didn't you just hit the gas?But I just couldn't will my foot
(30:51):
into action. There are three human reactions
to exterior threats. Fight, flight and freeze.
And I guess in that moment my body chose to freeze.
But then the unmistakable flash of high beams from a distant
truck now speeding towards us broke the tension and the thing
(31:14):
reacted, lifting its snout up inthe air and sniffing as it
turned to see the oncoming truck.
As suddenly as it had appeared, the creature turned away and
bounded off into the night, vanishing into the shadows of
the trees. I could not believe my luck.
Awestruck and still shaken up bywhat I had just seen, I sat
(31:38):
there in the road, still struggling to come back to
reality. As the truck approached it
slowed to a stop before it passed me and the driver got
out, apparently thinking something was the matter as I
was parked in the middle of a concession at this point.
Just sitting there kid. Hey kid, are you all right?
(32:00):
The man shouted out from just outside of his driver side door.
I jerked up and nodded at him. I tried to pull myself together
as he walked up to my window andI rolled it down and looked out
to him. You good?
Should you be driving? The man clearly thought I was
drunk, or maybe too stoned and couldn't drive.
(32:23):
I mean, I don't blame him. What am I supposed to say?
I just saw a werewolf. I told him I was fine and that
yes, I could drive. I quickly made it up that my
engine had stalled and I just got in after fixing it, and he
nodded and got back in his truck, heading on his way down
the road and out of sight. As soon as I got in, I tried my
(32:47):
best to shake it off quickly, get my head together, and I
slammed my foot on the gas pedal, putting as much distance
between me and that terrifying encounter as I could.
I drove back home that night shaken to my core.
I couldn't stop thinking about what I had seen.
Norfolk County had always been aplace of beauty and tranquility
(33:11):
for me, but that night I had come face to face with something
I've since never been able to come to terms with.
Something straight out of some German fairy tale from Grimm.
When I got home I hit the desk straight away and started
looking up anything I could findthat even remotely described
what I saw. The closest thing I could find
(33:34):
was a reference to something called the Loop Guru or Werewolf
of Quebec City, but I couldn't find anything about anything of
the sort in Ontario. I still can't explain what
happened that night, and even now most people don't believe
me. But for me, the memory of that
(33:56):
encounter with whatever was stalking cars in the middle of
the country will always be etched in my mind.
A chilling reminder that sometimes there are things we
cannot explain, or just are not ready to try explaining.
That there is more to this worldthan perhaps we know, and that
(34:17):
maybe, just maybe, something, maybe even someone is lurking
out in the woods of Ontario that, for better or for worse,
we will never discover. When I was 5, me, my mother and
(34:46):
sister moved for the first time.My mother had divorced my father
and decided to live someplace nicer, as she called it.
After a 30 minute drive we endedup in another town.
We got settled in the house and started adjusting to our new
life. The first weird thing I noticed
(35:06):
in the house was the energy. There was just this off feeling
to it, like something would be watching your every move.
I would always quickly run upstairs when I would get ready
for bed in order to not feel tooscared before I would sleep
after a few weeks at the bottom of the wall.
(35:26):
There was this weird face painted.
It was no bigger than 1.5 inchesbut it looked really off.
The next day I told my mother and she said she had no idea
where it was coming from. Even my stepdad didn't know, but
no one ever dared to remove it. A few months later me and my
(35:48):
sister had our second encounter.We were laying in bed in our
shared room while we were both trying to get rest.
In the distance, we heard some weird sounds.
My sister, being the curious one, went up to the door and
opened it slightly. The noise had gotten louder as
she stood there listening. Eventually she closed the door
(36:13):
as she turned to my bed. There's a toy in the attic going
off. She said.
My sister was not scared easily,but I could tell she was getting
nervous. We eventually saw the light turn
on and heard our mother come upstairs.
She went to the attic and the sound stopped.
(36:35):
My sister laid back in bed and our mother actually got angry
with us, assuming that we had gotten out of bed and secretly
continued playing. The third encounter I
experienced was by myself. I was laying in bed as it was a
school night and because my sister was older she had the
privilege to go to bed later. My room had been really cold
(36:59):
despite the thick comforter and blanket I had draped over my
body. I remember being in a light
sleep before my eyes shot open. I had felt something hold my
left hand softly, but my left side was the wall side, meaning
no one could have been there. There was also no toys or
stuffed animals that I could blame.
(37:21):
I stayed up until my sister got upstairs to go to sleep.
The energy in the house seems tohave shifted the last years of
our stay. Our usual nice and funny
stepfather had changed into an angry narcissistic man doing
everything to make our lives miserable, and our neighbor who
loved kids and was always happy started to become creepy staring
(37:46):
out the window whenever we wouldplay outside.
She started complaining about usbeing too loud while we never
slammed any doors or screamed inside the house.
She even tried to attack my mother once with a broom.
Our mother was less happy as well.
Eventually it all became too much and my mother and
(38:08):
stepfather broke up. We started living somewhere else
and everything seems to instantly become better.
We were happier and there were no weird unexplainable things
happening. When I went to high school I
started becoming best friends with this girl.
I knew her from my childhood because we actually lived in the
(38:30):
same St. She lived 8 houses down, but I
never actually played with her at home when I was younger.
When we were in high school though, we started hanging
outside and inside. She was home alone, often living
with a teen brother and a littlesister and her mother.
(38:50):
Her mother had two jobs, so she was barely home when we got out
of school. When we grew closer, we started
opening up about our pasts. She admitted that her father was
a narc, an alcoholic, and had anger issues.
He came by their house every once in a while to bring home
her youngest sister from school.Then he would eat with them and
(39:13):
leave when her mother would comehome.
My friend also started opening up by the weird things that were
happening in her house. Eventually she also told me that
this wasn't the 1st house that they had had these experiences
Before me and my family moved there.
My best friend had lived somewhere else about 5 minutes
(39:34):
from their current place. She told me that there was an
off vibe in the house and her mother actually invited a medium
to look at it. My friend told me that when the
medium arrived, she stepped in the hallway and had all the
color drained from her face. She refused to go further in the
house and left. After some digging, they had
(39:57):
actually found out that there used to be a farm where the
houses were standing and there had been an accident.
Children were supposedly playingon the land and the farmer had
not noticed them in time, running them over with the
agriculture equipment. I honestly was freaked out by
this, but nothing ever happened to me in that house so I didn't
(40:20):
refrain myself from coming there.
Wrong decision. The day this following situation
all went down started calmly. Me and my friend had actually
gotten out of school early so wedecided to go to her house and
watch American Horror Story upstairs.
We got into the house and lockedthe doors behind us, heading
(40:43):
into the living room where we hung out and ate something
listening to the radio. When we were ready, we went
upstairs putting on the show. After about two episodes we
heard the radio being turned up from downstairs.
We both looked at each other completely terrified.
We were basically trapped upstairs as there was no Safeway
(41:05):
down from the house. My friend tried to convince me
and herself that it was probablyjust her father trying to scare
us. However, the music had not
gotten turned down. I grabbed a blow dryer and made
my way towards the hallway. My friend followed with a coat
rack hanger. We slowly went downstairs and I
(41:29):
remember I was sweating bollocks.
When we were almost down the stairs, I stopped in my tracks.
Till this day, I don't know why my body just would not move like
an instinct. After about 10 seconds, the
downstairs hallway door was thrown closed.
(41:49):
We both stood there in shock, not knowing what to do.
My friend had forgotten her key in the living room so we
couldn't go through the front door.
All of a sudden, an anger came washing over me.
What the heck does this thing think it is?
I thought as the rage built up inside me.
(42:09):
I stormed down the stairs, throwing open the door.
The music from the radio was so loud it rang in my ears when I
was almost at the radio. I couldn't even hear the music
anymore as the adrenaline was beeping in my ears.
The world around me was spinning, almost like I had to
physically fight whatever was doing this to us.
(42:32):
I turned off the radio and therewas a deafening sound of
silence. My friend had chased behind me,
looking at me with big eyes. After a moment, I felt like I
could breathe again. We were both standing, frozen in
our spots, and eventually I toldmy best friend to check the
doors. She nodded, hurrying to the
(42:54):
front door as I hurried to the back.
They were both locked. Her key was still sitting on the
dining room table where she leftit.
My friend and quickly hurried upstairs, checking if her
brother was there. He wasn't.
We went upstairs to grab our stuff and then stayed downstairs
(43:15):
trying to calm down from the situation.
My friend texted me later on saying her father and her
brother had gotten home an hour later, both not knowing what she
was talking about. We didn't hang out in her house
for a good two months after that, only slowly introducing
(43:36):
the idea when it was raining outside.
I don't know what is wrong with this neighborhood, but it is not
natural. In the picturesque landscape of
(44:01):
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, theKeddie Resort stood as an Oasis
of tranquility. Cabin 28, a rustic yet charming
abode, was the residents of the Sharp family, Sue Sharp, a
devoted mother, her two childrenDana and John, and their friend
(44:21):
Dana Wingate. The year was 1981, and Ketty was
the epitome of a peaceful haven,a place where city dwellers
sought refuge from their hectic lives on the crisp morning of
April 12th, 1981. The peacefulness of Keddie was
shattered by the return of Sheila Sharp, Sue's teenage
(44:44):
daughter, from a neighbor's sleepover.
The sights that greeted her inside Cabin 28 was nothing
short. Of a nightmare.
Her mother. Her.
Brother and their friend Dana Wingate lay dead, found and
brutally bludgeoned. The cabin was a scene of
(45:04):
unimaginable violence and Sheilafled in terror to seek help from
the resorts management. Law enforcement arrived promptly
and the investigation into the Keddie cabin murders was
launched. The crime scene was chaotic,
with potential evidence strewn across the cabin.
It was evidence that this was norandom act of violence as the
(45:27):
other children sleeping in the adjacent bedrooms remained
unharmed. Suspicion quickly turned to
Marty Smart, Sue Sharp's ex-husband, and his acquaintance
Bo Bobede, who had been spotted around the resort on the night
of the murders. Marty's wife Marilyn had joined
them for part of the evening, but insisted that she left
(45:49):
before the violence erupted. Both Marty and Bo had criminal
records and a history of violentbehavior.
The investigation into the CaddyCabin murders was filled with
twists and turns. Several leads were pursued,
including potential connections to local drug dealers and
organized crime, but the case eventually grew cold.
(46:13):
The murders remained an enigma, haunting the memories of those
who had been touched by the tragedy.
In 2016, a glimmer of hope emerged when new evidence,
including DNA, was unearthed. This development led to the
arrest of three suspects. Maryland Smart, her brother Dana
(46:34):
Wingate, and John Sharp's classmate Justin.
Justin, a mere child at the timeof the murders, was believed to
have witnessed the horrifying events.
The cases against Maryland Smartand Dana Wingate were
subsequently dropped due to alibis that placed them away
from the scene on the night of the murders.
(46:55):
Tragically, Justin had taken hisown life in 1982, and the
justice for the Sharp family remained elusive.
The Caddy Cabin murders remain ahaunting and unsolved chapter in
true crime history. Despite the emergence of new
evidence and suspects, justice for the Sharp family remains an
(47:17):
unfulfilled promise. The shadows cast by the Sierra
Nevada Pines continue to guard their secrets, and the legacy of
the Ketty Cabin Murders leaves an indelible mark on Ketty
Resort, forever etching a chilling tale in the annals of
the resort's history. I have always had a morbid
(47:52):
curiosity, from true crime podcasts to documentaries to
books and spending hours online looking up killers both infamous
and obscure. In fact, when I was in the 5th
grade, my parents had to come inand talk to the teacher when I
told the class about the body farms the FBI uses to teach
(48:12):
future agents to identify how long corpses have been dead for.
I devoured this kind of stuff and still do, but it wasn't
until I met Matt, my roommate atcollege, that this hobby was
taken up a notch. Like me, Matt was into the same
things, only his parents were rich and gave him enough money
(48:34):
so that he could go on what he called death tours, where he
could go see where murderers lived, where they worked, and
even to the sights of their grisly murders.
And since I was his friend and into the same things as he was,
you would pay for my ticket and bring me along.
The 1st place we went was where HH Holmes Murderer Castle once
(48:57):
stood. Since it was no longer there, we
both thought this was a bit of alet down.
A shame too because he was my favorite serial killer.
Lots of people look at me awed for claiming I have a favorite
serial killer. Or when I explain that I love
true crime and all its gory details.
(49:17):
It's not like I am dangerous or anything, I just want to know
how someone could go ahead and actually kill someone everyone
has thought about. It but to actually go ahead and
do it is well, that's what I find fascinating the summer
break before our senior year we decided to take off to Arizona
(49:40):
to explore where Mateo Salazar haunted for nearly 20 years
before he was caught and. Executed when Matt suggested
this destination. I didn't know who Mateo Salazar
was, so Matt showed me his stats.
All the people that he killed, how long he was active,
(50:00):
etcetera. His crimes were so gruesome that
I was surprised that I had neverheard of him.
He would abduct people, give them strange tattoos before
skinning them alive, and then kill them.
No one knows why he skinned people he forced tattoos on, but
it's suspected that it was part of a strange and twisted
(50:22):
religious ritual. Also the exact number of people
that he. Murdered is a topic of
contention, but it is. Anywhere between 35 and 50.
Shortly after he was caught, thearea he haunted in became a
ghost town, not just because no one wanted to live in a place
where that many murders happened, but because it was so
(50:43):
isolated that there were no jobsto keep people around.
Since then, it became a sort of grim tourist attraction
dedicated to the man who killed so many.
When we got there I expected to see a tour guide, but other than
the dust being kicked up by the wind and the abandoned
buildings, there was very littleto see.
(51:05):
I would have thought that there would have been at least someone
in the gift shop which was the former post office, but that too
was empty. Most of the things in the small
and dust covered gift shop were Knick knacks and not interesting
to either Matt or I. However, there was 1.
Thing that caused a cold shiver to creep up my spine.
(51:27):
Under a glass counter was MatteoSalazar's death mask, taken
shortly after his execution. Beneath it were the last words
he spoke, and when I read them, it sounded more like a curse.
My work is not finished. It will never be finished.
I'll be back. Matt was not bothered by this,
(51:52):
But for some reason that I cannot articulate, I was.
I had to leave, but instead of telling Matt the mask made me
feel uneasy. He would have teased me if I
did. I just told him I'm going off to
explore. Which was true.
All over town there were plaques.
(52:12):
Some gave a brief history of a building, and others were about
the people who lived or worked there.
Most of them were either Salazar's victims or friends who
were oblivious to the horrible things that he did when he was
alive. Like always, I took tons of
pictures while Matt ran off to do his own thing.
(52:32):
In hindsight, I wish I had followed him around.
Maybe things would have been different if I had.
After a few hours had passed, I realized that I hadn't seen him
around for a long time. It wasn't like the town was
large enough to get lost in. In an hour.
I had been down every major roadand after two hours I saw mostly
(52:57):
everything the town had to offer, yet there was no sign of
Matt or anyone else. I wondered if this was one of
his tricks, like he was going tojump out and try to scare me or
something. If you know Matt, you would know
that this would not have been a surprise, however, if he was
going to jump out and scare me. He was displaying an
(53:20):
uncharacteristically amount of patience because I hadn't seen
any sign of him since leaving the gift shop.
I called out to Matt. After seeing all I could in that
ghost town, but there was no reply, it's hard to explain how
it felt having an entire town tomyself.
The best word I can come up withis Erie, but that falls short.
(53:45):
Thankfully, Matt didn't jump outto scare me.
But the look on his face hinted that he did something he should
not have done. But I was too scared and cranky
from walking all day to ask him about it.
Driving back to the hotel, Matt asked me what I thought of the
town and I told him that I was sort of let down by it.
(54:05):
I was hoping that there was moreto see, at least a tour guide
that could have told us with theInternet couldn't.
I assumed that Matt wouldn't have been disappointed with my
opinion. But it didn't bother him.
After a long moment, I turned tolook at him and saw a smile that
did little to hide some mischievous deed.
(54:28):
I asked what he did, but insteadof answering, he said he would
rather show me when we get back to the hotel.
And I knew I was not going to like what he would say.
Back at the hotel, he opened up the backpack that he had with
him all day and pulled out the death mask of Matteo Salazar.
He had stolen it from the gift shop.
(54:51):
With a smile, he said he was going to hang it up on the wall
back at the dorm. Needless to say, I was upset
about this. Even more so when he said it was
all right because he looked and there were no cameras.
As if I was mad that he might get caught and not because he
stole something. I was tired and I didn't want to
(55:12):
fight. It wasn't like it would have
done either of us any favors if I did.
So I decided to drink at the hotel bar for the remainder of
the night. When we got back to the dorms,
Matt stayed true to his word andhung up the death mask on the
living room wall. There it served as an
interesting conversation piece when we had guests.
(55:34):
It didn't take long before our guests claimed that they were
getting a weird feeling from it.When asked about it, they said
it wasn't so much as the feelingof being watched, which was also
the case, but more like it was radiating evil.
At first, we considered this nonsense.
(55:54):
No one had that feeling before we told them about its origins,
so we chalked it up as the placebo effect.
In truth though, sometimes it gave me the creeps.
I too would get the feeling of someone watching me when I was
alone. In the weeks that followed, I
would be doing something for class, reading a book, or
researching something online, and in the corner of my eye, I
(56:18):
could have sworn that its eyes were open.
However, every time I looked, its eyes were shut.
I told myself it was the trick of the light, my imagination.
Or that I should take it easy with the edibles.
However, none of that explained how Matt's behavior changed.
(56:39):
He started missing classes. He stayed out all night and
hardly spoke to me. I should have done something,
but at the time the only thing Icould think of was talking to
his parents. Sometimes when he thought I was
asleep in my room, I could hear Matt talking to himself.
One night I spied on him and discovered that he was actually
(57:01):
talking to the death mask. I needed a break from this and
decided to go to a party. I didn't go with Matt, not
because of how much he changed, but because parties were never
his scene. So I was a little surprised to
see him standing in the corner looking at everyone at the
(57:22):
party. The way he was looking at people
wasn't like his usual self. It wasn't like he was trying to
build up the nerves to talk to agirl that caught his eye.
It reminded me of the way a reptile looked at something cold
and unfeeling, eyes calculating to decide if it was worth the
effort to go after. Coming up with an excuse not to
(57:44):
return to the dorm room was a nobrainer.
I needed a break from Matt, so that night I slept at my
girlfriend's house. The next morning I was reluctant
to return, but when I did, I sawpolice cars in the parking lot
and on the grass next to the doors.
People were crying and holding each other.
(58:07):
When I asked what happened, theytold me my roommate killed a
girl while I was gone. I refused to believe it, but
then someone showed me a video on their phone of the police
marching that out of the dorms as he was laughing.
The police interviewed me and I cooperated to the best of my
ability. They didn't ask about Mateo
(58:30):
Salazar's death mask, so I nevermentioned it.
After a few hours of interrogation, I was free to go,
but I was warned not to leave town.
The people in the dorms treated me like a leper and kept away
from me. Not surprising.
After all, it wasn't a secret that the two of us had the same
(58:51):
interests, and it was only natural to assume that I was
involved with the murders too. The details of Matt's crimes
came out over the next few days and to me they sounded exactly
like Matteo Salazar's. He abducted 3 people, 2 girls
and a guy and killed them. Rumor was he also gave them
(59:14):
tattoos and skinned them. I couldn't help but to think of
Salazar's death mask if I wasn'talready freaked out by it.
Hearing the details of Matt's crimes was the straw that broke
the camel's back and I decided to get rid of it.
However, before I could throw itin the trash, someone knocked on
(59:35):
the door. When I answered it, I was
surprised and confused to see two people who didn't look like
they were police or FBI. Not only were they hairless, but
they also had bright orange coveralls.
After asking who they were and what they wanted, the shorter of
the two answered in a monotone voice and said they just wanted
(59:58):
the mask. I would have given it to them
for free, but they pulled out a checkbook and asked me to name
my price. When I said the number, I
thought they would haggle me, but they didn't blink and wrote
out the check. Surprised at this sudden
windfall of money, I didn't say or do anything to stop them when
(01:00:19):
they let themselves in and took the mask off the wall.
They left without a word after taking the mask and I watched
them depart down the hallway on the back of their coveralls.
Was the same name on the Czech The Catadesmos Museum.
(01:00:50):
OK, So what I'm about to tell you is completely true.
About 7 years ago, both me and my girlfriend were on the run
together. We had both gotten in trouble
and decided to catch a greyhoundfrom North Carolina to Missouri
to stay with some friends. To make a long story shorter, we
ended up in Springfield, MO and rented a house with a buddy of
(01:01:11):
mine named Stoney. The house we moved into ended up
being a very creepy place. Me and my girlfriend could both
feel something wrong about it and we told Stoney that we
thought it might be haunted. He wasn't the type to believe in
the paranormal and for the most part I wasn't either until a few
days down the road. Me and my girlfriend had to
(01:01:34):
leave for the weekend and wouldn't return into the
following Tuesday. When we finally got back to the
house, Stoney was sitting on thefront porch looking really
freaked out and dismayed. I asked him what was going on
and he replied you guys were right, something isn't right
about this place. He wouldn't specify what he
(01:01:56):
meant, but it was clear to see that something had scared the
crap out of him. My buddy wasn't a cupcake
either. He was a tough little dude who
wasn't really scared of anything.
He had even broken out of jail before, but he refused to go
back in that house unless we were in there with him.
We ended up moving our mattress into his room because he didn't
(01:02:18):
want to sleep alone. It was a rainy day outside and I
was off of work so I decided to rent a couple of movies.
We pulled our mattress beside Stoney's and turned on the TV.
Stoney randomly asked if we would pray with him, so we all
stood in the center of the room and said a prayer.
(01:02:38):
While he was praying, I was overtaken by this terrible
feeling. It almost felt like we were
upsetting something by praying. As I backed away, I started to
feel really weird and dizzy, so I got in the bed and laid my
head in my girl's lap. I slipped into tunnel vision and
was paralyzed for the next couple of minutes hearing
(01:03:00):
voices. There was a very deep
pulverizing voice that scared meto the core, talking to what I
perceived to be a human female. The deeper voice was not a
regular human. It almost sounded metallic in a
way, for lack of better description.
I remember it bragging about howit had been around forever and
(01:03:22):
that it was immortal. It's said that humans were
stupid beasts and did not. Deserve to live.
I remember it specifically saying that we were poisoning
ourselves for some reason. The female voice asked should we
take him now? And the other voice said no,
(01:03:43):
he's killing himself and we'll see him soon enough.
I started thinking to myself, isthis thing talking about me?
Do they know that I can hear them?
The very moment I had this thought, they began saying
things that were specifically about me.
They were naming all of these bad things that would happen to
(01:04:04):
me in the future while seeminglygetting off on my fear at the
same time. They said my girl would leave me
and I would end up alone and in prison, or I would be repeatedly
assaulted and stabbed. The way they were laughing about
these things was truly evil and disturbing.
They were literally getting off on my fear.
(01:04:26):
It was a bloodthirsty evil that I can't even put into words.
For the 2 to 3 minutes this was going on, I couldn't move a
muscle. I wanted to get my girl's
attention, but I could not move my finger to even scratch her
leg. Then all of a sudden the voices
stopped and I could move again. As soon as my girl saw my face,
(01:04:48):
she could tell something was terribly wrong.
For the next week I was shook upand ended up spending a lot of
time on the porch with Stoney until we all moved out of that
house. Before you judge me, just know
that I wasn't on anything. I have never suffered from any
kind of mental illness and I have never heard voices before
or after that day. People try to tell me it was
(01:05:11):
sleep paralysis, but I never closed my eyes or dozed off at
any point in time. Regardless of what anyone may
think, I know that what I heard that day was demons.
I want people to know that true evil is real and not just an
imaginary thing that we humans use to blame all of our flaws
(01:05:34):
on. I used this day to remind me
that true evil exists and to keep me in check and on the
right path. When I remember the reality of
what happened and the sound of that voice, it still shakes me.
I hope that none of you guys ever have to encounter what I
did that day. Just take my word.
(01:05:56):
For it. Yeah.
(01:30:23):
Yeah. Yeah.
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
I'm excited to let you all know that I got my hands on a
Nintendo Switch to the Mario Kart World bundle and I'm giving
it away to one of my podcast supporters on June 4th.
I stood in line for about 7 hours to ensure that I got 1, so
I'm pretty excited to tell you that I actually did get one by
(00:21):
the skin of my teeth. Honestly, only my podcast
members are in this pool. It's a small group, you actually
have a shot to win. In order to win, all you have to
do is sign up for a 299 a month membership to support my
podcast. Keep in mind that all of the ads
will go away, you'll be able to listen completely interruption
(00:41):
free and you will enter automatically by doing that.
The winner will be announced September 1st.
Click the link in the description to Join.
Now get rid of all of the ads, enjoy the podcast with
absolutely no interruptions, andyou might just have a Nintendo
Switch 2 sent to your doorstep. And with that said, I really
hope you enjoy this. Episode One night out with some
(01:09):
friends, I was dared to go inside of a local abandoned
house. Everyone from my school knew
about this house. Being a young teenager, I said
sure. I approached cautiously.
Stepped into the decrepit house,it's creaking floorboards
echoing through the dimly lit hallways.
I ventured deeper. A chilling breeze whispered
(01:32):
through the broken windows, sending shivers down my spine.
Shadows danced on the peeling wallpaper, playing tricks on my
imagination. A sense of foreboding gripped me
as I entered the living room. The air grew.
Heavy with an unsettling silence.
Broken only by the sound of my own heartbeat, something wasn't
(01:54):
right. I couldn't shake the feeling
that I was being watched. I made my way up the stairs,
each step groaning beneath my weight.
The musty scent of decay lingered in the air, mingling
with a scent of fear. The hallway above seems to
stretch endlessly, it's darknessswallowing the feeble light of
(02:17):
my flashlight as I tiptoed further.
Across from me stood a large oldwooden door.
Against my better judgement, curiosity propelled me towards
it. I pushed it open, revealing a
room frozen in time. Dust covered furniture and faded
photographs lined the walls, butit was the mirror that caught my
(02:41):
attention. Its surface was stained and
cracked, reflecting A distorted version of myself.
As I stared into its depths, I felt a presence behind me.
I spun around, but there was nothing there.
The room was empty, yet the feeling of being watched
(03:02):
intensified. Panic welled up within me as I
realized that I was not alone inthis house.
Whispers filled the air, slightly faint and muffled.
I strained to listen, my heart pounding in my ears.
The voices grew louder, their chilling words crawling under my
(03:23):
skin in a desperate attempt to escape.
I turned to run, but the door slammed shut, trapping me within
the room. The whispers became screams,
echoing through the house, tormenting my mind.
Shadows writhed and twisted, merging into a grotesque figure
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that advanced towards me. Fear consumed me as I realized
I'd stumbled into a realm of darkness beyond comprehension.
It was a place where nightmares took form, where the line
between reality and the supernatural blurred as the dark
figure closed in. A cold grip tightened around my
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throat, choking the life out of me.
It was at this moment my eyes opened, only to realize it was
all a dream. I have been homeless for a
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while, not helpless nor without a home.
I won't get into it because it serves no purpose to the story.
I sleep under the stars every night and I do not mind the mist
in the overcast weather. In the morning I find it easy to
rise. The light is not too overbearing
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as it breaches my eyelids. There is no heat, nor is there
cold. The birds and the frogs and the
crickets are the first sounds inthe morning, and I find no equal
in the extremity of events. Since I've chosen this
lifestyle, there have been some events that stand out, some more
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than others. Time is precious, however, and
it would be best if I summarizedthis story now as quickly and
concisely as possible. Sleeping with the elements leads
to many different outcomes, I must say.
Whether or not I choose to, I wake up every single day at 3:30
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in the early morning. This is what I believe is
considered the witching hour. For the most part, it is silent
and statuesque. There was one time where I awoke
face to face with a raccoon peering back at me.
We were both close enough to kiss each other's noses.
I jumped up in a flurry and the raccoon scampered off.
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Still, it sent me into conniptions.
Stories about raccoons are just child's play as far as I'm
concerned. One night not too long ago,
about 3 to 5 weeks ago, I woke up at the witching hour like I
typically do and rolled onto my back to peer into the black web
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of sky that entangled the stars within it, harassing the sky
like a trickle of rainwater blemishes the integrity of a
window pane. A silver of light bolted across
the sky. It was blurry and it was dim to
look upon. It was as if to try to see
something behind a wall of dark black ice.
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I really didn't get a good look at it because it moved so fast.
The dim shooting star molested the carpet of stars amidst it
and pierced the night unquestioningly, tearing the
beautiful array of cosmos through and through.
I peered further into the dark to see the stars and found
myself dumbfounded and intriguedand stoned.
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Still all was silent, and at this point in time, all was
lost. I deemed that there was no more
credence to give the occasion, since all that passed had lasted
a mere 15 seconds and no alarms were raised, so to speak.
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I closed my eyes again, rolled over and focused on keeping my
eyes closed, on breathing and the position of my body.
I am not vulnerable, I told myself with as much confidence
as I could muster. After not too long, my body
relaxed, my mind submitted, and once again I felt my body giving
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into the necessities and allowing me to sleep once again
for a few more hours. Then I woke up again.
It seemed as if no time had passed at all.
The air was just as solid, the sounds were silent, muted,
morphed into oblivion, and I wasthe only one awake in the
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solitary world. I just can't get into my dreams
now, or that would take a novel.But I will say this much, after
lucid dreaming for a decade and a half, I know the difference.
This was no dream. I was most surely awake, very
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awake, on edge. Yet it was so serene and
tranquil. There was no justification to be
Askew as my eyes peered to my left and my right laying on my
side. The most untypical thing
happened to me to this very moment.
I will never be able to completely describe it.
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The best I can do for you is to describe it as thus.
Take two tubas and have them attempt to hit a middle C and
then have a few more French horns join in, only they're
going to octave above and all ofthem are slightly out of tune
with each other. It was definitely a cord of some
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sort. The difference being to a human
being is this did not sound brassy.
It sounded more metallic, if that makes sense.
It was as if the tubas and French horns were not real.
More realistically, it was a replication.
That's the best way I could describe it.
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To me, it sounded like the tuba was a middle C and the French
horns were an octave above, and they struggled to linger on this
note. At first I thought something
similar to What is that? Perhaps the folks down the way
We're having a party and they wanted to raise the roof with a
good song. Bad song to pick.
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It was just one long, breathing,heavy note.
That seemingly came from nowhere.
But then, at 5 minutes or so, there was silence once again,
and then the notes shifted up, half a note up, the staff
lingering ever so present, and then faded out again.
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Odd, I said to myself. I closed my eyes again, delving
deep into the idea. I had a vivid imagination.
But then it started again. These slow notes.
Just two notes, wavering in the sky above like an out of tune
rusty squeeze box. And loud, gargantuanly loud.
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The reverberation was madding asit shook the concrete underneath
me as I lay there defenseless. That moment right there, all
that happening, there really wasn't much I could do.
It didn't make very much sense to me, and I was rather sure I
had just been imagining things. After another 10 minutes or so,
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the attempted melody picked up once again and repeated itself
through and through while I justlay there thinking to myself,
man, what is that? The strange melody from the
Milky Way disappeared as discreetly as it had appeared,
and there was no more. I've never heard it before, and
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I certainly have not heard it since.
I haven't the slightest clue with that song from the sky may
have been it lasted no more than20 minutes, and nothing worth
writing home about happened. Being slightly out of the
ordinary, however, it had my mind wandering and wondering and
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confused and convoluted about what had exactly transpired out
on the misty night as I laid alone upon the grass.
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On a fateful December morning in1948, Somerton Beach, with its
tranquil sands and gentle waves,it became the setting for a
mystery that would defy explanation for generations to
come. The sun was just beginning to
break over the horizon when a passerby stumbled upon a man's
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lifeless body. He was impeccably dressed in a
well tailored suit and tie, giving the appearance of a man
of refinement. However, upon closer inspection,
it became evidence that this wasno ordinary discovery.
It marks the beginning of an extraordinary enigma.
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The man's. Attire bore a peculiar
characteristic. All labels have been surgically
removed, leaving no clue to his identity.
His footwear was of the finest quality, devoid of scuffs or
signs of wear. Even more perplexing was the
presence of an unlit cigarette hanging behind his ear, as if he
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had been interrupted mid smoke. The arrival of authorities at
the scene led to an examination that would confound even the
most seasoned investigators. The autopsy conducted on the
unidentified man revealed no traces of violence, poison, or
any obvious cause of death. His pupils were curiously
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constricted, hinting at the possibility of poison ingestion,
yet no poison could be detected in his system.
His overall physical condition appeared to be robust, adding a
layer of mystique to the baffling case.
Amidst the absence of clues, a tantalizing lead emerged.
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A small scrap of paper was discovered hidden in an obscure
pocket of the man's trousers. The paper bore a single phrase
to Mam should This cryptic phrase was found to be Persian,
translated to, ended or finished.
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It was a line from a book titledThe Rubiat of Omar Khayyam.
The discovery LED investigators to a copy of the book found in
an abandoned car near the beach,within which a perplexing coded
message was concealed. The plot thickened when
investigators uncovered a telephone number belonging to a
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mysterious woman scribbled on a concealed page of the book.
This number eventually LED them to a nurse named Jessica
Thompson. Initially, she vehemently denied
any knowledge of the deceased man, but her behavior raised
suspicions. Ultimately, she confessed to
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owning a copy of the same book but denied any connection to the
Somerton Man. As the years rolled on, a
plethora of theories and conspiracies took root.
Some speculated that the Somerton Man was a spy embroiled
in a web of espionage, while others contended that he had
succumbed to natural causes or was entangled in a complex love
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affair. The backdrop of the Cold War era
fueled suspicions of international intrigue.
Nevertheless, the case remained unsolved, and the true identity
of the Somerton Man continued toelude investigators and amateur
sleuths alike. The tale of the Somerton Man
represents A baffling enigma that has persisted for over 7
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decades. Despite relentless
investigations and the tireless curiosity of amateur sleuths,
the identity of the man and the circumstances of his death
remain cloaked in mystery. The coded message, the enigmatic
woman, the conspicuous absence of concrete evidence continue to
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tantalize those who seek to unravel the secrets hidden
beneath the sands of Somerton Beach.
Until the day the Riddle is deciphered, the Somerton Man
shall remain A timeless symbol of the unknown within the realm
of true crime. This story isn't really scary so
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much as it is weird. There are no monsters, no
creepers, no ghosts or demons. Just completely unexplainable
happenings that I swear are true, although I'm really not
sure how. My wife and I recently had a
child and decided to move somewhere with a little more
opportunity for our family. There are four of us now,
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myself, my wife, first son, my stepson, and our newborn son.
My stepson just recently turned 11 and was a little apprehensive
at first but quickly settled into his new surroundings.
I'd come up two months prior to find adequate housing for the
four of us and get a job that would support the move.
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I stayed on one of my old friends couches and he was kind
enough to let me stay as long asI needed to get established
here. The real estate market being
what it is in Ontario, it was extremely challenging and nerve
wracking. But at the last minute, right
when I needed things to happen, I found a place.
Once our newborn son was born and my wife was ready to travel,
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we quickly moved my family into the small upper level apt I
found for us in a small neighborhood of the city that we
now call home. It's small, but it's clean, and
it's enough for us to get started in a new town.
The apartment has access to the front door and a private
entrance in the back that leads out to a long deck along the
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back of the duplex. The neighborhood we live in is a
quiet residential area wedged between a major roadway and a
set of industrial railroad tracks that mark the start of an
industrial area. A short walk down the road past
a concrete yard and an impound lot is another main road with a
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Walmart and a grocery store justaround the corner.
I really lucked out with the jobtoo.
The timing was great and the money I make now comfortably
covers everything we need. I have to rideshare to get
there, but that's not really a problem in the area we live.
It's a 25 minute walk in One Direction down Queenston St. to
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the downtown bus station where my rideshare picks me up.
I don't mind The Walking either.I'm the kind of person who will
just Daydream and tune out. I really love just walking and
thinking and I make it a sort ofritual every morning to make
that walk. Grab a drink and really wake up
before I get to work. I went to college here so I'm
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pretty familiar with the area and it's really easy to just
tune out and end up where I'm going without much thought.
We don't drive, so once a week one of us will walk up to the
grocery store Plaza and do all of our shopping.
One day about a month after we moved in, my wife and stepson
went out to run some quick errands in the early afternoon
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while I stayed home with the baby and did some cleaning.
The trip there and back usually takes about an hour with
shopping, and I like to play this game where I try to do as
much tidying as possible before they come home if I stay behind.
About 20 minutes later, I was inthe middle of doing some dishes
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when the front door opened and the unmistakable shuffle of my
family came up the stairs. Surprised that they were back so
early, I assumed they must have turned around.
Maybe she forgot her wallet or something, but when she got to
the top of the stairs she met mewith an even more confused look
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on her face. I was about to ask why they
turned around and if they had forgotten something and my
stepson came up the stairs with a few arms full of grocery bags.
Sorry it took us so long, we were on our way back and we just
weren't sure what happened. What do you mean you've only
been gone 20 minutes at most? I pointed out and looked at my
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phone to confirm. This is when it got a little
weird and I noticed that they both seemed a little bewildered,
so I asked what was the matter and this is what they told me.
They both swear up and down thatwhen they were walking home from
the grocery store, they got to the railway line that borders
the start of the neighborhood and according to them, the whole
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Rd. just started over again. They both clearly remember
walking down the majority of ourRd. through the long section of
the industrial area and then in the blink of an eye they were
back at the busy Rd. they turnedoff.
Under any other circumstance I might think maybe it was just
them not really paying attention, but they both tuned
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out and didn't realize that theyhadn't yet gotten to the tracks.
But I did find it a little odd that they were back in 20
minutes with groceries when the trip takes about an hour, and by
their accounts it took them longer than that.
At any rate, we just filed it under Strange and got on with
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life pretty quickly. It was just weird.
A couple of weeks later I was walking to the convenience store
around the corner one night on my day off and when I was
walking back from the store it only took me two minutes.
This is hard to describe, but not only do I have 0 memory of
this space in between the convenience store and the turn
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off onto my Rd. but I remember vividly getting to the store
completely. I did a double take when I got
onto my road and it was as if the buildings between the
intersection and the store were just sort of deleted.
They simply were not there. I must be going insane, I
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thought to myself. I turned around once again, not
even a blink, and the street corner was back to normal.
What is going on? A little shaken and extremely
confused, I quickly got back down the street and back to my
place. When I got home, I was met with
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the same confused look that I had a few weeks prior and my
wife peeked her head out the door and down the stairs.
Did you forget something? What is happening here?
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I live in southern Ontario, justoff the North Shore of Lake Erie
in farm country. Nobody who still lives here can
say it's the best place on earthto live.
It's small, quiet, and everything is far away.
There aren't many jobs there, and if you want to stay there,
your best bet is to pick a tradeand commute to the nearest city.
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Although life here is kind of lackluster, I've always
cherished those quiet drives through the Norfolk County
countryside, especially on an autumn night as the sunsets
shining low and casting its final lights over the
picturesque landscape. The roads wind through fields of
golden corn dotted with wood, lots of pine trees and lined
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with rich thickets of sumac thatline the route seem to whisper
secrets to the colors in the thundering skies.
One night I decided to take one of my late night commutes.
The air was crisp and the harvest moon cast this eerie
silver glow over the fields of corn and the trees that lined
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the road. I knew these roads well, every
twist and turn like the back of my hand.
When we were younger, we would bike up and down the concessions
and in and out of the trails, passing through the nearby
conservation land, sometimes even walking it.
We would often lock our bikes upto the trees alongside the road
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and hike into the forest and walk among the trees, trudging
through thickets of brush and burdock, only to come out
covered in burrs and mud. You could spend all day and
night out there without a worry.There are no predators here
aside from the odd coyote, and they aren't likely to come near
you in groups. We have lots of animals, sure,
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foxes, Badgers, lynx, possum, but nothing big, nothing that is
very likely to pose a threat walking out in the woods.
In fact, out here you are far more likely to be mistaken for a
deer by a hunter than you are tobe attacked by an animal.
We have no bears, no wolves, theodd mention of Cougars, but
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these accounts are rare and heavily contested or given
little thought. Even then, you would never see
one even if they were here. On one particular night, I found
myself with downtime. I have the next four days off
and I just settled into a house to myself.
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My brother had moved away to Toronto a couple of months
earlier and my parents were awayfor the weekend.
My plans for this weekend were to have no plans.
I was just going to chill on my own, buy a bunch of snacks and
bask in the cool darkness of thebasement and play Diablo.
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I had everything I needed at home, but I had elected to make
a snack run and get some chips, pop, and maybe some ice cream
from the grocery store in town. We lived out in the country
north of a small hamlet called Vanessa.
The nearest grocery store was inWaterford, South of us by a few
minutes drive. It's a nice drive into town if
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you take the back roads, and that was my plan.
The roads were thick on either side with a tall ancient canopy
of trees, light breaking throughthe tops of the trees to
illuminate the road in golden stained glass, layers of green
fading into the deep shadows of the canopy.
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The lowering light of the sun atthis time shows just how immense
these particular woods are, a never ending sprawl of fallen
leaves and mud, lined with fiddlehead ferns and skunk
cabbage fenced in by the trees along the roadside.
On my way back from the grocery store, as I was heading down one
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of the more remote stretches of Rd. something in the distance
caught my eye. At first I thought it was just a
trick of the light. It seems to race along behind me
in the trees as I drove down theforested Rd.
Upon further inspection, it seems to be running on all fours
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and it was starting to catch up to me.
It moved with a sort of unsettling grace, as if it were
on the hunt. As it got closer, my heart
started to race as it began to overtake me.
As it jumped out in front of me,I slammed on the brakes and sent
myself forward in my seat. Looking up, it was about 10 feet
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away from me, upright in the middle of the now moonlit Rd.
There was no denying it, I was looking at a creature.
A creature that should have onlyexisted in stories.
This thing was massive, poking and covered in matted fur.
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I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
My eyes locked onto this creature.
It seemed so out of place in ourworld.
It looked like a big black dog. But it was.
Upright on its hind legs like a dog and had wide paws with
opposable thumbs. They looked more like a human
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hand with long, sharp claws, Gray like an elephant's hide,
covered with fur among massive forearms.
At first glance, it looked a little like a primate, were it
not for a wiry canine tail and asnarling snout laden with
countless sharp, wolfish teeth. It stared with a bloodthirsty
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ferocity I have never encountered in my life up to
this point and never again sincethen, and gave a deep booming
growl that overtook all sound inthe now still standing
wilderness along the silent country Rd.
I didn't even perceive the musicthat I had on at the time.
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Nothing really registered aside from the horror I was witnessing
ahead of me on the road. The moonlight revealed its eyes
which glowed with an unnatural amber light.
It had a snout full of sharp, glistening teeth.
Fear surged through me, but I could not tear my gaze away.
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The world felt suspended in thatmoment, like everything else had
disappeared. And then the impossible
happened. The creature turned its head to
look at me. Our eyes met, and a wave of
terror washed over me, primal and raw.
I was sure I was done for, that this thing was going to leap at
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me. Every bone in my body was frozen
as time and space stood still. My blood froze as I awaited what
was sure to be my doom. I was locked in place.
I know what you're thinking. You're in a car.
Why didn't you just hit the gas?But I just couldn't will my foot
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into action. There are three human reactions
to exterior threats. Fight, flight and freeze.
And I guess in that moment my body chose to freeze.
But then the unmistakable flash of high beams from a distant
truck now speeding towards us broke the tension and the thing
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reacted, lifting its snout up inthe air and sniffing as it
turned to see the oncoming truck.
As suddenly as it had appeared, the creature turned away and
bounded off into the night, vanishing into the shadows of
the trees. I could not believe my luck.
Awestruck and still shaken up bywhat I had just seen, I sat
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there in the road, still struggling to come back to
reality. As the truck approached it
slowed to a stop before it passed me and the driver got
out, apparently thinking something was the matter as I
was parked in the middle of a concession at this point.
Just sitting there kid. Hey kid, are you all right?
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The man shouted out from just outside of his driver side door.
I jerked up and nodded at him. I tried to pull myself together
as he walked up to my window andI rolled it down and looked out
to him. You good?
Should you be driving? The man clearly thought I was
drunk, or maybe too stoned and couldn't drive.
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I mean, I don't blame him. What am I supposed to say?
I just saw a werewolf. I told him I was fine and that
yes, I could drive. I quickly made it up that my
engine had stalled and I just got in after fixing it, and he
nodded and got back in his truck, heading on his way down
the road and out of sight. As soon as I got in, I tried my
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best to shake it off quickly, get my head together, and I
slammed my foot on the gas pedal, putting as much distance
between me and that terrifying encounter as I could.
I drove back home that night shaken to my core.
I couldn't stop thinking about what I had seen.
Norfolk County had always been aplace of beauty and tranquility
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for me, but that night I had come face to face with something
I've since never been able to come to terms with.
Something straight out of some German fairy tale from Grimm.
When I got home I hit the desk straight away and started
looking up anything I could findthat even remotely described
what I saw. The closest thing I could find
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was a reference to something called the Loop Guru or Werewolf
of Quebec City, but I couldn't find anything about anything of
the sort in Ontario. I still can't explain what
happened that night, and even now most people don't believe
me. But for me, the memory of that
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encounter with whatever was stalking cars in the middle of
the country will always be etched in my mind.
A chilling reminder that sometimes there are things we
cannot explain, or just are not ready to try explaining.
That there is more to this worldthan perhaps we know, and that
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maybe, just maybe, something, maybe even someone is lurking
out in the woods of Ontario that, for better or for worse,
we will never discover. When I was 5, me, my mother and
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sister moved for the first time.My mother had divorced my father
and decided to live someplace nicer, as she called it.
After a 30 minute drive we endedup in another town.
We got settled in the house and started adjusting to our new
life. The first weird thing I noticed
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in the house was the energy. There was just this off feeling
to it, like something would be watching your every move.
I would always quickly run upstairs when I would get ready
for bed in order to not feel tooscared before I would sleep
after a few weeks at the bottom of the wall.
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There was this weird face painted.
It was no bigger than 1.5 inchesbut it looked really off.
The next day I told my mother and she said she had no idea
where it was coming from. Even my stepdad didn't know, but
no one ever dared to remove it. A few months later me and my
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sister had our second encounter.We were laying in bed in our
shared room while we were both trying to get rest.
In the distance, we heard some weird sounds.
My sister, being the curious one, went up to the door and
opened it slightly. The noise had gotten louder as
she stood there listening. Eventually she closed the door
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as she turned to my bed. There's a toy in the attic going
off. She said.
My sister was not scared easily,but I could tell she was getting
nervous. We eventually saw the light turn
on and heard our mother come upstairs.
She went to the attic and the sound stopped.
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My sister laid back in bed and our mother actually got angry
with us, assuming that we had gotten out of bed and secretly
continued playing. The third encounter I
experienced was by myself. I was laying in bed as it was a
school night and because my sister was older she had the
privilege to go to bed later. My room had been really cold
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despite the thick comforter and blanket I had draped over my
body. I remember being in a light
sleep before my eyes shot open. I had felt something hold my
left hand softly, but my left side was the wall side, meaning
no one could have been there. There was also no toys or
stuffed animals that I could blame.
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I stayed up until my sister got upstairs to go to sleep.
The energy in the house seems tohave shifted the last years of
our stay. Our usual nice and funny
stepfather had changed into an angry narcissistic man doing
everything to make our lives miserable, and our neighbor who
loved kids and was always happy started to become creepy staring
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out the window whenever we wouldplay outside.
She started complaining about usbeing too loud while we never
slammed any doors or screamed inside the house.
She even tried to attack my mother once with a broom.
Our mother was less happy as well.
Eventually it all became too much and my mother and
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stepfather broke up. We started living somewhere else
and everything seems to instantly become better.
We were happier and there were no weird unexplainable things
happening. When I went to high school I
started becoming best friends with this girl.
I knew her from my childhood because we actually lived in the
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same St. She lived 8 houses down, but I
never actually played with her at home when I was younger.
When we were in high school though, we started hanging
outside and inside. She was home alone, often living
with a teen brother and a littlesister and her mother.
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Her mother had two jobs, so she was barely home when we got out
of school. When we grew closer, we started
opening up about our pasts. She admitted that her father was
a narc, an alcoholic, and had anger issues.
He came by their house every once in a while to bring home
her youngest sister from school.Then he would eat with them and
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leave when her mother would comehome.
My friend also started opening up by the weird things that were
happening in her house. Eventually she also told me that
this wasn't the 1st house that they had had these experiences
Before me and my family moved there.
My best friend had lived somewhere else about 5 minutes
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from their current place. She told me that there was an
off vibe in the house and her mother actually invited a medium
to look at it. My friend told me that when the
medium arrived, she stepped in the hallway and had all the
color drained from her face. She refused to go further in the
house and left. After some digging, they had
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actually found out that there used to be a farm where the
houses were standing and there had been an accident.
Children were supposedly playingon the land and the farmer had
not noticed them in time, running them over with the
agriculture equipment. I honestly was freaked out by
this, but nothing ever happened to me in that house so I didn't
(40:20):
refrain myself from coming there.
Wrong decision. The day this following situation
all went down started calmly. Me and my friend had actually
gotten out of school early so wedecided to go to her house and
watch American Horror Story upstairs.
We got into the house and lockedthe doors behind us, heading
(40:43):
into the living room where we hung out and ate something
listening to the radio. When we were ready, we went
upstairs putting on the show. After about two episodes we
heard the radio being turned up from downstairs.
We both looked at each other completely terrified.
We were basically trapped upstairs as there was no Safeway
(41:05):
down from the house. My friend tried to convince me
and herself that it was probablyjust her father trying to scare
us. However, the music had not
gotten turned down. I grabbed a blow dryer and made
my way towards the hallway. My friend followed with a coat
rack hanger. We slowly went downstairs and I
(41:29):
remember I was sweating bollocks.
When we were almost down the stairs, I stopped in my tracks.
Till this day, I don't know why my body just would not move like
an instinct. After about 10 seconds, the
downstairs hallway door was thrown closed.
(41:49):
We both stood there in shock, not knowing what to do.
My friend had forgotten her key in the living room so we
couldn't go through the front door.
All of a sudden, an anger came washing over me.
What the heck does this thing think it is?
I thought as the rage built up inside me.
(42:09):
I stormed down the stairs, throwing open the door.
The music from the radio was so loud it rang in my ears when I
was almost at the radio. I couldn't even hear the music
anymore as the adrenaline was beeping in my ears.
The world around me was spinning, almost like I had to
physically fight whatever was doing this to us.
(42:32):
I turned off the radio and therewas a deafening sound of
silence. My friend had chased behind me,
looking at me with big eyes. After a moment, I felt like I
could breathe again. We were both standing, frozen in
our spots, and eventually I toldmy best friend to check the
doors. She nodded, hurrying to the
(42:54):
front door as I hurried to the back.
They were both locked. Her key was still sitting on the
dining room table where she leftit.
My friend and quickly hurried upstairs, checking if her
brother was there. He wasn't.
We went upstairs to grab our stuff and then stayed downstairs
(43:15):
trying to calm down from the situation.
My friend texted me later on saying her father and her
brother had gotten home an hour later, both not knowing what she
was talking about. We didn't hang out in her house
for a good two months after that, only slowly introducing
(43:36):
the idea when it was raining outside.
I don't know what is wrong with this neighborhood, but it is not
natural. In the picturesque landscape of
(44:01):
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, theKeddie Resort stood as an Oasis
of tranquility. Cabin 28, a rustic yet charming
abode, was the residents of the Sharp family, Sue Sharp, a
devoted mother, her two childrenDana and John, and their friend
(44:21):
Dana Wingate. The year was 1981, and Ketty was
the epitome of a peaceful haven,a place where city dwellers
sought refuge from their hectic lives on the crisp morning of
April 12th, 1981. The peacefulness of Keddie was
shattered by the return of Sheila Sharp, Sue's teenage
(44:44):
daughter, from a neighbor's sleepover.
The sights that greeted her inside Cabin 28 was nothing
short. Of a nightmare.
Her mother. Her.
Brother and their friend Dana Wingate lay dead, found and
brutally bludgeoned. The cabin was a scene of
(45:04):
unimaginable violence and Sheilafled in terror to seek help from
the resorts management. Law enforcement arrived promptly
and the investigation into the Keddie cabin murders was
launched. The crime scene was chaotic,
with potential evidence strewn across the cabin.
It was evidence that this was norandom act of violence as the
(45:27):
other children sleeping in the adjacent bedrooms remained
unharmed. Suspicion quickly turned to
Marty Smart, Sue Sharp's ex-husband, and his acquaintance
Bo Bobede, who had been spotted around the resort on the night
of the murders. Marty's wife Marilyn had joined
them for part of the evening, but insisted that she left
(45:49):
before the violence erupted. Both Marty and Bo had criminal
records and a history of violentbehavior.
The investigation into the CaddyCabin murders was filled with
twists and turns. Several leads were pursued,
including potential connections to local drug dealers and
organized crime, but the case eventually grew cold.
(46:13):
The murders remained an enigma, haunting the memories of those
who had been touched by the tragedy.
In 2016, a glimmer of hope emerged when new evidence,
including DNA, was unearthed. This development led to the
arrest of three suspects. Maryland Smart, her brother Dana
(46:34):
Wingate, and John Sharp's classmate Justin.
Justin, a mere child at the timeof the murders, was believed to
have witnessed the horrifying events.
The cases against Maryland Smartand Dana Wingate were
subsequently dropped due to alibis that placed them away
from the scene on the night of the murders.
(46:55):
Tragically, Justin had taken hisown life in 1982, and the
justice for the Sharp family remained elusive.
The Caddy Cabin murders remain ahaunting and unsolved chapter in
true crime history. Despite the emergence of new
evidence and suspects, justice for the Sharp family remains an
(47:17):
unfulfilled promise. The shadows cast by the Sierra
Nevada Pines continue to guard their secrets, and the legacy of
the Ketty Cabin Murders leaves an indelible mark on Ketty
Resort, forever etching a chilling tale in the annals of
the resort's history. I have always had a morbid
(47:52):
curiosity, from true crime podcasts to documentaries to
books and spending hours online looking up killers both infamous
and obscure. In fact, when I was in the 5th
grade, my parents had to come inand talk to the teacher when I
told the class about the body farms the FBI uses to teach
(48:12):
future agents to identify how long corpses have been dead for.
I devoured this kind of stuff and still do, but it wasn't
until I met Matt, my roommate atcollege, that this hobby was
taken up a notch. Like me, Matt was into the same
things, only his parents were rich and gave him enough money
(48:34):
so that he could go on what he called death tours, where he
could go see where murderers lived, where they worked, and
even to the sights of their grisly murders.
And since I was his friend and into the same things as he was,
you would pay for my ticket and bring me along.
The 1st place we went was where HH Holmes Murderer Castle once
(48:57):
stood. Since it was no longer there, we
both thought this was a bit of alet down.
A shame too because he was my favorite serial killer.
Lots of people look at me awed for claiming I have a favorite
serial killer. Or when I explain that I love
true crime and all its gory details.
(49:17):
It's not like I am dangerous or anything, I just want to know
how someone could go ahead and actually kill someone everyone
has thought about. It but to actually go ahead and
do it is well, that's what I find fascinating the summer
break before our senior year we decided to take off to Arizona
(49:40):
to explore where Mateo Salazar haunted for nearly 20 years
before he was caught and. Executed when Matt suggested
this destination. I didn't know who Mateo Salazar
was, so Matt showed me his stats.
All the people that he killed, how long he was active,
(50:00):
etcetera. His crimes were so gruesome that
I was surprised that I had neverheard of him.
He would abduct people, give them strange tattoos before
skinning them alive, and then kill them.
No one knows why he skinned people he forced tattoos on, but
it's suspected that it was part of a strange and twisted
(50:22):
religious ritual. Also the exact number of people
that he. Murdered is a topic of
contention, but it is. Anywhere between 35 and 50.
Shortly after he was caught, thearea he haunted in became a
ghost town, not just because no one wanted to live in a place
where that many murders happened, but because it was so
(50:43):
isolated that there were no jobsto keep people around.
Since then, it became a sort of grim tourist attraction
dedicated to the man who killed so many.
When we got there I expected to see a tour guide, but other than
the dust being kicked up by the wind and the abandoned
buildings, there was very littleto see.
(51:05):
I would have thought that there would have been at least someone
in the gift shop which was the former post office, but that too
was empty. Most of the things in the small
and dust covered gift shop were Knick knacks and not interesting
to either Matt or I. However, there was 1.
Thing that caused a cold shiver to creep up my spine.
(51:27):
Under a glass counter was MatteoSalazar's death mask, taken
shortly after his execution. Beneath it were the last words
he spoke, and when I read them, it sounded more like a curse.
My work is not finished. It will never be finished.
I'll be back. Matt was not bothered by this,
(51:52):
But for some reason that I cannot articulate, I was.
I had to leave, but instead of telling Matt the mask made me
feel uneasy. He would have teased me if I
did. I just told him I'm going off to
explore. Which was true.
All over town there were plaques.
(52:12):
Some gave a brief history of a building, and others were about
the people who lived or worked there.
Most of them were either Salazar's victims or friends who
were oblivious to the horrible things that he did when he was
alive. Like always, I took tons of
pictures while Matt ran off to do his own thing.
(52:32):
In hindsight, I wish I had followed him around.
Maybe things would have been different if I had.
After a few hours had passed, I realized that I hadn't seen him
around for a long time. It wasn't like the town was
large enough to get lost in. In an hour.
I had been down every major roadand after two hours I saw mostly
(52:57):
everything the town had to offer, yet there was no sign of
Matt or anyone else. I wondered if this was one of
his tricks, like he was going tojump out and try to scare me or
something. If you know Matt, you would know
that this would not have been a surprise, however, if he was
going to jump out and scare me. He was displaying an
(53:20):
uncharacteristically amount of patience because I hadn't seen
any sign of him since leaving the gift shop.
I called out to Matt. After seeing all I could in that
ghost town, but there was no reply, it's hard to explain how
it felt having an entire town tomyself.
The best word I can come up withis Erie, but that falls short.
(53:45):
Thankfully, Matt didn't jump outto scare me.
But the look on his face hinted that he did something he should
not have done. But I was too scared and cranky
from walking all day to ask him about it.
Driving back to the hotel, Matt asked me what I thought of the
town and I told him that I was sort of let down by it.
(54:05):
I was hoping that there was moreto see, at least a tour guide
that could have told us with theInternet couldn't.
I assumed that Matt wouldn't have been disappointed with my
opinion. But it didn't bother him.
After a long moment, I turned tolook at him and saw a smile that
did little to hide some mischievous deed.
(54:28):
I asked what he did, but insteadof answering, he said he would
rather show me when we get back to the hotel.
And I knew I was not going to like what he would say.
Back at the hotel, he opened up the backpack that he had with
him all day and pulled out the death mask of Matteo Salazar.
He had stolen it from the gift shop.
(54:51):
With a smile, he said he was going to hang it up on the wall
back at the dorm. Needless to say, I was upset
about this. Even more so when he said it was
all right because he looked and there were no cameras.
As if I was mad that he might get caught and not because he
stole something. I was tired and I didn't want to
(55:12):
fight. It wasn't like it would have
done either of us any favors if I did.
So I decided to drink at the hotel bar for the remainder of
the night. When we got back to the dorms,
Matt stayed true to his word andhung up the death mask on the
living room wall. There it served as an
interesting conversation piece when we had guests.
(55:34):
It didn't take long before our guests claimed that they were
getting a weird feeling from it.When asked about it, they said
it wasn't so much as the feelingof being watched, which was also
the case, but more like it was radiating evil.
At first, we considered this nonsense.
(55:54):
No one had that feeling before we told them about its origins,
so we chalked it up as the placebo effect.
In truth though, sometimes it gave me the creeps.
I too would get the feeling of someone watching me when I was
alone. In the weeks that followed, I
would be doing something for class, reading a book, or
researching something online, and in the corner of my eye, I
(56:18):
could have sworn that its eyes were open.
However, every time I looked, its eyes were shut.
I told myself it was the trick of the light, my imagination.
Or that I should take it easy with the edibles.
However, none of that explained how Matt's behavior changed.
(56:39):
He started missing classes. He stayed out all night and
hardly spoke to me. I should have done something,
but at the time the only thing Icould think of was talking to
his parents. Sometimes when he thought I was
asleep in my room, I could hear Matt talking to himself.
One night I spied on him and discovered that he was actually
(57:01):
talking to the death mask. I needed a break from this and
decided to go to a party. I didn't go with Matt, not
because of how much he changed, but because parties were never
his scene. So I was a little surprised to
see him standing in the corner looking at everyone at the
(57:22):
party. The way he was looking at people
wasn't like his usual self. It wasn't like he was trying to
build up the nerves to talk to agirl that caught his eye.
It reminded me of the way a reptile looked at something cold
and unfeeling, eyes calculating to decide if it was worth the
effort to go after. Coming up with an excuse not to
(57:44):
return to the dorm room was a nobrainer.
I needed a break from Matt, so that night I slept at my
girlfriend's house. The next morning I was reluctant
to return, but when I did, I sawpolice cars in the parking lot
and on the grass next to the doors.
People were crying and holding each other.
(58:07):
When I asked what happened, theytold me my roommate killed a
girl while I was gone. I refused to believe it, but
then someone showed me a video on their phone of the police
marching that out of the dorms as he was laughing.
The police interviewed me and I cooperated to the best of my
ability. They didn't ask about Mateo
(58:30):
Salazar's death mask, so I nevermentioned it.
After a few hours of interrogation, I was free to go,
but I was warned not to leave town.
The people in the dorms treated me like a leper and kept away
from me. Not surprising.
After all, it wasn't a secret that the two of us had the same
(58:51):
interests, and it was only natural to assume that I was
involved with the murders too. The details of Matt's crimes
came out over the next few days and to me they sounded exactly
like Matteo Salazar's. He abducted 3 people, 2 girls
and a guy and killed them. Rumor was he also gave them
(59:14):
tattoos and skinned them. I couldn't help but to think of
Salazar's death mask if I wasn'talready freaked out by it.
Hearing the details of Matt's crimes was the straw that broke
the camel's back and I decided to get rid of it.
However, before I could throw itin the trash, someone knocked on
(59:35):
the door. When I answered it, I was
surprised and confused to see two people who didn't look like
they were police or FBI. Not only were they hairless, but
they also had bright orange coveralls.
After asking who they were and what they wanted, the shorter of
the two answered in a monotone voice and said they just wanted
(59:58):
the mask. I would have given it to them
for free, but they pulled out a checkbook and asked me to name
my price. When I said the number, I
thought they would haggle me, but they didn't blink and wrote
out the check. Surprised at this sudden
windfall of money, I didn't say or do anything to stop them when
(01:00:19):
they let themselves in and took the mask off the wall.
They left without a word after taking the mask and I watched
them depart down the hallway on the back of their coveralls.
Was the same name on the Czech The Catadesmos Museum.
(01:00:50):
OK, So what I'm about to tell you is completely true.
About 7 years ago, both me and my girlfriend were on the run
together. We had both gotten in trouble
and decided to catch a greyhoundfrom North Carolina to Missouri
to stay with some friends. To make a long story shorter, we
ended up in Springfield, MO and rented a house with a buddy of
(01:01:11):
mine named Stoney. The house we moved into ended up
being a very creepy place. Me and my girlfriend could both
feel something wrong about it and we told Stoney that we
thought it might be haunted. He wasn't the type to believe in
the paranormal and for the most part I wasn't either until a few
days down the road. Me and my girlfriend had to
(01:01:34):
leave for the weekend and wouldn't return into the
following Tuesday. When we finally got back to the
house, Stoney was sitting on thefront porch looking really
freaked out and dismayed. I asked him what was going on
and he replied you guys were right, something isn't right
about this place. He wouldn't specify what he
(01:01:56):
meant, but it was clear to see that something had scared the
crap out of him. My buddy wasn't a cupcake
either. He was a tough little dude who
wasn't really scared of anything.
He had even broken out of jail before, but he refused to go
back in that house unless we were in there with him.
We ended up moving our mattress into his room because he didn't
(01:02:18):
want to sleep alone. It was a rainy day outside and I
was off of work so I decided to rent a couple of movies.
We pulled our mattress beside Stoney's and turned on the TV.
Stoney randomly asked if we would pray with him, so we all
stood in the center of the room and said a prayer.
(01:02:38):
While he was praying, I was overtaken by this terrible
feeling. It almost felt like we were
upsetting something by praying. As I backed away, I started to
feel really weird and dizzy, so I got in the bed and laid my
head in my girl's lap. I slipped into tunnel vision and
was paralyzed for the next couple of minutes hearing
(01:03:00):
voices. There was a very deep
pulverizing voice that scared meto the core, talking to what I
perceived to be a human female. The deeper voice was not a
regular human. It almost sounded metallic in a
way, for lack of better description.
I remember it bragging about howit had been around forever and
(01:03:22):
that it was immortal. It's said that humans were
stupid beasts and did not. Deserve to live.
I remember it specifically saying that we were poisoning
ourselves for some reason. The female voice asked should we
take him now? And the other voice said no,
(01:03:43):
he's killing himself and we'll see him soon enough.
I started thinking to myself, isthis thing talking about me?
Do they know that I can hear them?
The very moment I had this thought, they began saying
things that were specifically about me.
They were naming all of these bad things that would happen to
(01:04:04):
me in the future while seeminglygetting off on my fear at the
same time. They said my girl would leave me
and I would end up alone and in prison, or I would be repeatedly
assaulted and stabbed. The way they were laughing about
these things was truly evil and disturbing.
They were literally getting off on my fear.
(01:04:26):
It was a bloodthirsty evil that I can't even put into words.
For the 2 to 3 minutes this was going on, I couldn't move a
muscle. I wanted to get my girl's
attention, but I could not move my finger to even scratch her
leg. Then all of a sudden the voices
stopped and I could move again. As soon as my girl saw my face,
(01:04:48):
she could tell something was terribly wrong.
For the next week I was shook upand ended up spending a lot of
time on the porch with Stoney until we all moved out of that
house. Before you judge me, just know
that I wasn't on anything. I have never suffered from any
kind of mental illness and I have never heard voices before
or after that day. People try to tell me it was
(01:05:11):
sleep paralysis, but I never closed my eyes or dozed off at
any point in time. Regardless of what anyone may
think, I know that what I heard that day was demons.
I want people to know that true evil is real and not just an
imaginary thing that we humans use to blame all of our flaws
(01:05:34):
on. I used this day to remind me
that true evil exists and to keep me in check and on the
right path. When I remember the reality of
what happened and the sound of that voice, it still shakes me.
I hope that none of you guys ever have to encounter what I
did that day. Just take my word.
(01:05:56):
For it. Yeah.
(01:30:23):
Yeah. Yeah.
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