Scary Stories For A Rainy Night - Ep. 183 - The Old Lady Across The Street - Scary Stories and Rain

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
I really hope you enjoyed this episode.
And don't forget you can subscribe to this podcast for
just 299 a month. You can get rid of all of the
irritating ads and be automatically entered to win a
Nintendo Switch to Mario Kart bundle.
Only 299 a month, no more ads. I have all the info you need in

(00:21):
the description to this episode.And one last thing, thank you so
much for being here. I really hope you enjoy.
In my late 20s, I moved from Germany to a small town in Texas
with a population of 17,000. The location was almost a 2 hour

(00:41):
drive to the nearest bigger city.
As an avid lifelong animal lover, I got involved with the
local Humane Society and animal shelter.
There I learned to my horror that all of the wildlife in need
of help was being euthanized because there was nobody who
would take on the rescue missions.

(01:02):
Fast forward a year and thanks to the gracious support of the
Boy and Girl Scouts, I had a fully built rescue with
enclosures, cages, and necessaryfacilities to obtain a wildlife
rehabilitation permit from the state.
After a thorough inspection. I also received help and
donations from the local population such as blankets,

(01:23):
animal food, crates, etcetera. During one of those visits I met
Richard. He was the typical redneck
living way out in the country, relying mainly on hunting and
growing his food. When in town, he would drop off
any extra food that he had left for my animals.
Over the next few years he oftencame around to lend a helping

(01:45):
hand, cutting down trees, repairing things and providing
supplies. He was a good friend and we
would talk for hours about personal issues.
Richard was a rough guy and although he bragged and
exaggerated, he was always respectful and polite to me.
He never hit on me in any way. He was just a good friend whom I

(02:09):
knew I could call when I needed him and vice versa.
Richard was a single father living with his parents who
helped him raise his son rich after the mother ran off chasing
a drug habit. I met his son a few times and
watched him grow up when he was a teenager.
They often came by after attending a gun show,

(02:30):
shouldering rifles and bragging about their weapon collection.
I felt very uncomfortable duringthose visits.
You don't see many weapons in Germany and ending up in Texas.
That was a huge part of my culture shock.
I still haven't gotten used to it after living in this country
for more than 30 years. One day Richard came by to drop

(02:52):
off some bones for the dogs and we got to talking.
At that time we had known each other for about 5 years.
That was when the creep factor came into play.
He had consumed some shrooms andwas weirdly high.
He proceeded to tell me how he likes to go into the city and
pick up prostitutes. He got into a horrible rant that

(03:13):
appalled me, but he was so into the zone that he just kept on
talking, describing how we had taken two of them home on two
different occasions to his trailer on his parents property
and put them through terrible things too terrible to repeat.
He then described how he took the life of each one, burned

(03:34):
their bodies and scattered the remains for the animals after he
left. I was stunned.
After running it by my husband, we decided it was just one of
his made-up stories. There's no way that he really
did that and we convinced ourselves of that.
We did confront him about it thenext day when he was sober and

(03:56):
he laughed it off, confirming that he just made it up after
watching a scary movie while on shrooms.
Fast forward another five years,he met a woman and started a
relationship. I met her Tammy a few times and
took to her immediately. She was warm, outgoing, sweet,

(04:16):
and caring. They got married and we lost
touch for another year. I assumed they were in their
honeymoon phase and were just content with each other.
Then one day he messaged me telling me that Tammy was
diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.
My heart broke for them so I messaged her asking how she was

(04:38):
doing. I was not prepared for what she
told me next. Shortly after they got married,
Richard showed his true colors. He began hurting her,
controlling her, and eventually kept her confined to the trailer
against her will. She didn't dare call for help
and try to flee because he promised to end her if she did.

(05:02):
She didn't doubt it for a second.
To top it all off, she said thatRichard refused to pay for her
chemo and literally forbade her to go through with it.
She said she had decided to do it anyway and was going to go to
the clinic the next day. I promised her I would talk to
Richard at the time and see whatthe problem was.

(05:23):
The following morning, Richard messaged me stating that he had
just found his wife dead in bed.The cancer must have killed her.
He said there was no autopsy. She was cremated within 48 hours
and that was that. I don't think I have to describe
what was going through my mind, right?

(05:46):
I didn't want to believe that hehad a hand in his wife's death,
but the red flags were undeniable.
Yet I didn't see that there was anything I could have done.
Call him on it and risk having him turn on me?
Talk to the police about it after she had been cremated?
Contact her parents and tell them what I suspected.

(06:07):
I didn't believe any of it wouldhave made a difference and maybe
would have made it worse, so I did nothing.
All I knew was that I did not want to be around him anymore.
Thankfully, he never tried to contact me after that, and I
certainly didn't reach out to him either.
Fast forward to December 2021, amutual friend messaged me with a

(06:30):
link to a news article. Erith County Sheriff's Office
investigate death of father and son A man in his 50s reportedly
upset that his father had cut him out of his will, shot and
killed his own son on December 14th, then turned the weapon on
himself. Erith County Sheriff Matt Coates
said deputies were called to thescene at about 10:30 PM after

(06:53):
the victim's grandfather discovered the bodies inside his
home and patio. Richard Calandrini Junior had
apparently been playing video games when his father walked
into the room and shot him. Coates would not give an
official statement about the murder suicide, saying the case
is still under investigation. He said the killing had to do

(07:15):
with money and the grandfather'swill.
Autopsies on both men are pending.
My jaw drops to my knees. It felt like I was in a movie.
I needed to find out more to be able to process this, so I
contacted Richard's ex-wife. She didn't even know it yet.
We talked for hours about his abuse, his grandiose

(07:39):
narcissistic personality, his murder stories, how we had
almost killed her and how she got out in the last minute.
My entire world fell apart. How could I have been friends
with such a person for over 20 years and not caught on to it?
It shook my ability to trust my fellow human being to the core.

(08:03):
We decided that she was going tocontact the sheriff and let him
know about the prostitutes that he allegedly murdered and our
suspicion about Tammy's passing.Richard had told her about 3
murders, one more than he told me.
Unfortunately, the sheriff shrugged it all off.
There was no missing persons reports that would fit those

(08:24):
alleged crimes during that time.There's nothing that can be done
or proven regarding his wife's death, and there's definitely
not enough public interest to pursue any of this further.
And that was the end of it all, and I'm left with the big
question of whether my friend ofover 20 years was a serial

(08:47):
killer. Overall, the new experience of
fatherhood to me is packed full of positives that far outweigh

(09:07):
any negative aspects of having children.
You really do feel more exhausted than you ever have
felt. You really won't be able to
balance everything you used to and still have time to function.
As a father. You become extremely aware and
hyper vigilant. Your dad isn't crazy, he really

(09:27):
can tell that somebody touched the thermostat.
He really does know when you walked into a room, even if you
didn't touch anything. A lot of fathers with strong
parental instincts tend to basically know where their kids
are, what they are up to, and generally speaking, what's going
on at all times, seemingly without prying into any details.

(09:51):
Such seems to be the case with me so far.
That being said, I am extremely guarded in public these days and
I watch my family like a hawk. What happened to next would flip
on all my switches and keep me up late for days.
I saw my wife out the door for work and my stepson to school

(10:12):
shortly after. Down the narrow wooden stairwell
with an echoing clatter of steps.
Silence and the loud stomps of an 11 year old boy trudging down
the stairs every other step and slamming the door behind him.
Silence. I had the house to myself for
about an hour to drink some coffee and wake up in the warm

(10:34):
glow of the peaceful morning sunbeaming through into my still
and serene apartment. Before my son was up and going,
after a quick bottle and a change, I had him in his
activity center to watch some sensory shows.
Our apartment is small, the nursery adjoins the living room

(10:54):
and the living room adjoins the kitchen where my desk and
computer area is. In a nutshell, my son can watch
television in his activity center in the living room, and
from the other side of the apartment.
Sitting at my desk, I can keenlyobserve the movement of a
bouncing static crop of fresh blonde hair glowing in the
warmth of the incoming sunlight,like the top of a fuzzy cactus

(11:19):
illuminated in the window. I've been sitting at my desk,
grinding through a piece I was riding 3 or 4 cups of coffee
deep and still without breakfast.
I was stuck in writer's block atthis point and just sort of
staring at the screen trying to figure out where to go.
I needed some air. I grabbed my cup of coffee and

(11:40):
my vape pen and opened the curtain so I could easily see in
through the window to watch my son from this angle.
I could see him happily playing away, turning and bouncing from
this way to that, occasionally stopping to glance up at the
television. This balcony looks out.
Far into a field on one side andhas a thick Grove of trees to

(12:02):
the left, shadowing my backyard and the neighbors in a thick
blanket of lush green and dark shade.
My back deck has since become a quick escape for me and
something I found grounding. It would take me a while to find
that piece in my space again. When I looked over to see some
recycling that didn't quite makeit into the bin and I bent down

(12:24):
to grab it. I looked up and had a quick
glance through my reflection in the double pane of glass just
ahead of my nose. I saw the figure of a large man
standing alone in my living roombetween the doorway and my son,
seemingly staring down at him and observing For whatever

(12:45):
reason I don't even want to know.
My heart began to flutter to stomp as my vision began to
narrow, my mind racing. In response to this, I quickly
barreled in through my kitchen door and basically leaped into
the kitchen in a panic. There was no one there.
The apartment was empty save formy son bouncing away and

(13:08):
babbling away playfully. I quickly checked all the exits
and the potential open windows, closets, and down the old stairs
to the front to no avail. It didn't take me very long to
realize that there was no possible way that in that time I
got into the living room, I wouldn't have heard somebody

(13:29):
making a quick exit down the stairs or out of a window if
there were indeed an intruder inmy home.
Relieved that my boy was safe and everything was OK, I started
to let my guard down and settle down.
As in, the experience came to anapparent end, but it still left
me pretty shaken up. Maybe I was just tired and

(13:52):
stressed. I'm not sure what happened or
why, but the more I sit and dwell on it, the more and more
I'm convinced that there may have been something more at work
here that was not meant to be seen.
As time goes on, I often try to forget about it, but on those
restless nights when I find myself awake, I can't help but

(14:15):
recollect as I hear the soft creaking of the stairwell, now
louder than ever before. I once knew this maintenance guy

(14:37):
who told me this gruesome story.At the time this story took
place, he worked at a lower class motel that sat in the
heart of his downtown area. The motel featured a historic 2
story building with individual cabins near the back of the
property. For this particular story, an
older gentleman requested one ofthe private cabins for a week

(14:59):
while his home was being either worked on, renovated, but no one
really remembers exactly. Everything went normally with
the guest. At first, his comings and goings
were as expected. As far as normal motel guests
go, he would come and go maybe once or twice a day.
In fact, the guest was so normalthat no one even noticed that

(15:23):
they had not seen him in about four days or so.
As per usual protocol, the motelfront desk staff first attempted
to check in on the guest on the day that he was set to check
out. After a few attempts to speak
with the guest by calling his cabin and also by knocking on
his door, the front desk staff had no other choice but to call

(15:46):
upon the maintenance guy for themaster key.
When the maintenance guy tried and failed to get an answer at
the cabin door, he had no other choice but to use his master key
to open it. But as soon as he opened the
door, a horrid smell hit him like a freight train.
Take into account that it was a hot summer day and where we live

(16:08):
does get hot, and I mean desert hot.
Unfortunately, in this case, theAC in the guest's cabin was not
on that day. So as you can imagine, the
maintenance guy started to gag without even having entered the
room. For inside the motel's cabin,
laying on the bed was what remained of the missing guest.

(16:32):
The man had decomposed so much already that he was practically
beyond recognition already. According to the unfortunate
maintenance guy, the body was literally pooling in its own
liquid on the bed. When a body rots within the four
walls of a small room, especially the moisture from the

(16:52):
rotting body stays in the air inside the room.
As a result, the body can't dry out, and that encourages more
insect larvae to form faster than outdoors.
That and the lack of direct sunlight, as insects larvae
prefers shadier conditions in order to thrive, causing

(17:13):
decomposition to take place faster indoors.
So when the coroner arrived to pick up the body, they were only
able to get most of the body instead of all of it.
So unfortunately, the poor maintenance guy was stuck
picking up the pieces. Literally in my opinion, and his
hazmat should have been called to clean up the gruesome scene

(17:34):
in that small motel cabin. But unfortunately, the poor
maintenance guy got stuck disposing of the mattress soaked
with the man's fluids. After all, the maintenance guy
was only doing what his boss told him to do.
The real kicker is that the verynext day after the room was
cleaned, the motel staff moved ayoung woman right into that very

(17:57):
same cabin. Back in 1997, when I was a
senior in high school, I was part of the guitar players,
skateboarders, Stoner groups. My name is Peter.

(18:21):
I had a good friend who played bass guitar in my band.
His name was Ruben and he had a younger brother named Geary, who
is a freshman. We let him play keyboards in the
band. Ruben was very charismatic and
outgoing, but Geary was more quiet and reserved.
One day I was hanging out at their house in La Mirada, CA and

(18:42):
we were all getting stoned and drunk.
I wound up hanging out with Garyin his room and we listened to
Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Pantera.
He winds up giving me a T-shirt that was Black Sabbath.
Please note in the background ofthe shirt there was a hanging
noose. More about this later.

(19:04):
Anyhow, most people didn't really engage him too deeply,
but we had a good conversation and he started opening up to me
about life and stuff. He wound up selling me an
Epiphone Les Paul guitar that was black.
It was a really cool guitar thathe really liked, but for some
reason he let it go to me for a good price.

(19:25):
I remember several weeks later when we were all getting wasted
in Sapapan Park in Rosemead, Gary took off from the group on
foot to go see a gal he really liked.
He came back the following day looking dismayed.
I got a call from my lady friendAlexis on April Fool's Day and
she told me Gary was gone. I called BS, but Alexis wasn't

(19:48):
one to mess around like that. She had a big heart, the hippie
type. She told me that he took his own
life in the garage. I couldn't believe it.
It was a hanging. I wasn't very close with him,
but it was very tragic nonetheless.
It turned out he was into some heavy stuff like crack and

(20:09):
smack. I never knew that.
Several months later I was hanging out with some character
named Skylar. I met him at work where I used
to scoop ice cream. We would smoke up and do other
things. He was a weirdo, but then again,
I'm weird too. He was OK by me.

(20:31):
One night me and Skylar decided to get wasted in the San Gabriel
Mission cemetery. He started rolling up joints on
the headstone. I told him to have some respect
for the dead and use some notebook paper.
At least I had some in my backpack.
He did as I told him and a shorttime later we were smoking up.

(20:52):
After I took a few rips I felt someone or something watching
me. I turned to the left of me where
the wall was and I saw someone sitting with their back to the
wall, cross legged and cross armed.
It was Geary. He was wearing his typical
skater stuff, a beanie, some oldschool Vans, black Dickies, and

(21:14):
a Cheech and Chong sweater. He was just staring off into the
cemetery. I was completely freaked out and
did a double take. He was still there.
I did a triple take and he was still there.
I was scared but more flabbergasted than fear.

(21:36):
It was just so bizarre. Giri was like 15 feet away from
us. I had looked away and when I
went through my thought processes he was gone the final
time I looked. I don't know why he appeared to
me as no one has ever mentioned this happening to them.
Maybe I was the cool older dude who bonded with him when others

(21:58):
weren't listening. I'm not sure.
I wish I kept his guitar that hesold me, but it's in good hands.
I had shortly sold it to a neighbor friend who still plays
it to this day, 27 years later. Alex the punker.
But I still do have that T-shirtGary gave me, the Black Sabbath

(22:19):
shirt with the noose in the background.
Gary, I haven't forgotten you. I know we weren't close, but I
will always appreciate you visiting me that day at the
cemetery. This is a story about my

(22:49):
favorite puppy, Baby, whom I will always dearly love.
Baby was a present from my only brother.
There's just something very special about Baby.
Anybody who's ever met him will tell you Baby is quite
intelligent for a dog and even seems to have a peculiar sense
of humor. He's one of those pets whom is

(23:11):
only loyal to one person, me. Of course, Baby tended not to
like any of my boyfriends and isvery protective.
Finally, though, I met this guy who I'll refer to as George,
that was able to make a connection with Baby.
Whenever George would come over to visit, he would bring a nice
treat. Slowly over time they finally

(23:34):
bonded and we all got along together quite well, but Baby
was always my dog first and foremost.
George loved the outdoors and togo hiking.
At first we would go alone, but eventually I was able to
convince him to let Baby come along.
Baby absolutely loved the outdoors and would often run
ahead of us to explore. I never kept him on a leash, he

(23:58):
was so well behaved. George likes to play fetch with
baby as we walked through the woods.
I should mention that George would always carry a weapon
whenever we went for a hike. He had served overseas in the
Special forces and said you could never be careful enough.
George taught me how to shoot ata range for what he said was

(24:19):
just in case. Eventually we started to do
backpacking trips which culminated in a trip to a well
known upstate mountain range. This would be a 2 day trip to
reach a beautiful view at the mountain top.
The first day the trail was quite steep and slow going.
We had gotten a slow start and as night began to fall we came

(24:41):
across a small shelter on the side of the trail.
We decided to make camp there asit seemed just perfect.
Sometime not too long after we finished dinner, there came the
sound of another party making their way up the trail.
It turned out to be a group of three teenage boys and their
dad. Rain was just starting to fall

(25:02):
and the father asked us if we could share the shelter with
them. They looked like locals I'll
equipped for the trip and we're lugging a huge cooler amongst
them. George pointed out the shelter
was too small to hold everyone. The father replied that they had
no intent to turn back or go on,we would just have to make do at

(25:24):
this point. George empathetically said no,
they were not welcome. Baby was laying beside me and
started to growl again. The father argued stating the
shelter was public and they had just as much a right to it.
George just shook his head. All right, fine.
The father finally said with a frown.

(25:46):
The rain was coming down steady now.
They went over to the other sideof the trail and set up a tarp
to shelter under. It turns out they had brought a
small grill and charcoal to cooktheir greasy steaks.
Baby intently watched their every move.
I should mention the boys were quite big like their dad.

(26:06):
I could see them staring at us over the fire light as they
chewed their meal in the rain. Eventually I had to go, if you
know what I mean. George told me to go behind the
shelter and be quick about it. I got out of my sleeping bag and
put my boots back on. Baby followed beside me.
As I made my way around the shelter and squatted.

(26:27):
I heard a twig snap and looked out into the forest.
Even though it was dark, I couldmake out the shape of one of the
teenage boys watching me. Baby immediately let out a loud
bark and shot out into the darkness.
As I pulled up my pants, I couldhear the father talking again.
He must have come back over to the shelter and was arguing with

(26:49):
George. I heard Baby barking as he
chased after the teenager Baby. I called out but he didn't
return. There came the sound of a
scuffle inside the shelter. I came back around the shelter
to see the father was grappling with George.
One of the other boys had come across as well and menacingly

(27:10):
flashed a knife at me. He had this creepy smile which
revealed a few missing teeth. Then there came a stark scream
from behind the shelter. Baby must have got a hold of the
creep that had been watching me.The boy holding the knife yelled
Tom and ran off into the woods. The other teenage boy had come

(27:32):
across the trail now and was holding a big stick.
He dove into the shelter and immediately started hitting
George. One of the other boys had come
back and started towards me and I sprayed him in the face with
bear Mace. Immediately he dropped to his
knees screaming bloody murder. I heard barking again as Baby
crashed through the foliage, leaping into the shelter.

(27:56):
I should mention Baby is a Rottweiler and was full grown.
His jaws clamped down on the teenager's arm holding the
stick. I could literally hear bones
snapping as he screamed and Babytwisted back and forth.
By now, George had gotten on topof the father and drew his
weapon. For the love of Jesus, call off
your dog, he cried. George got up, watching him.

(28:20):
Baby, let go. I said.
The boy was sobbing like a baby as he cradled his ruined arm.
Get out of here now, said George.
Baby growled again, baring his teeth.
The other boy had returned, standing silently beside the
shelter. Baby started barking again as

(28:41):
the four of them ran away, heading back down the mountain
side as fast as they could go. We're going to have to leave,
George told me. I don't want those rednecks
messing with the SUV. Quickly, we packed up and
started our way along the trail.Time passed quickly as we hiked
in the darkness, baby leading the way.

(29:03):
By the time we reached the trailhead, we could hear a
vehicle revving as it peeled outof the parking lot.
George drove us to a motel wherewe spent the rest of the
evening, baby laid out at the foot of the bed, sleeping like a
child. It would be some time before we
went hiking again, but we never returned to that particular

(29:24):
mountain. This story took place during my
sophomore year of high school. To preface, I'm 20 years old

(29:45):
now, so this was about four or so years ago.
In late 2019, Homecoming season was rolling around and sophomore
year of high school was when US kids really started turning to
teens and throwing real parties.The big thought on just about
everyone's mind was who was going to take one for the team
and have the homecoming after party.

(30:08):
As the night of the dance was quickly approaching and there
had still been no word about whowas having a party, my friends
and I figured we would all just hang out after with our dates at
one of our houses and get drunk and whatnot until the Friday at
school. The day of homecoming, I got
invited to the party by one of my classmates who said his
parents were going out of town for the weekend last minute and

(30:31):
that he had the whole house to himself until Sunday.
I was excited and asked him if my friends, who I'll call Jack
and Chris for the sake of the story, could also come.
He said yes and I remember immediately spamming the group
chat with the thrilling news that we had an actual plan for
an after homecoming. That seems to be what the
majority of our grade was also doing.

(30:54):
The night came and the dance wasfun.
I don't remember most of it because as soon as we got there,
the three of us, along with our dates, had snuck away from the
multi purpose room where the dance was being held into one of
the nearby classrooms and got drunk from the shooters that we
snuck in using the inside pockets of our jackets.

(31:14):
We left as soon as we were allowed to, catching a ride from
one of our parents, I can't remember who.
The ride to this kids house was a pretty far distance away from
the high school. I had never been to this kids
house before and it was located in the section of the area that
we lived that I never frequentlyvisited as our school district

(31:35):
was a huge regional one that covered a very large area.
The house was nice, but it sat on a main road in a very sketchy
area so just keep that in mind. The party was great, I won't
bore you with the details of it,but I had a good time up until a
group of us we're getting ready to walk to a nearby park to

(31:56):
smoke. Now this was way before I had
habitually started smoking so I had a very low tolerance.
We walked about two minutes to this nearby elementary school
that had a playground. The playground was extremely
dark and I remember just feelingon edge even though I didn't
really have a reason to. I could just sense that walking

(32:19):
to this dark school late at night in an unfamiliar area was
just not the smartest idea. There was probably about 5 or 6
of us there. I wasn't really that close with
many of the people besides Jack.Chris had gone off with his date
somewhere and we hadn't seen them for a bit.

(32:39):
Now the group of us smoking weresitting in one of those big
slide climbing structures, the ones that kids can like run
around in and slide down different slides.
I don't know if that makes sense, but the point I'm trying
to make is that from where we were sitting, we were out of
view from anyone in the parking lot and we had big structural
walls surrounding us from both sides.

(33:01):
As we were smoking, a car pulledup in the parking lot.
Weird, but not immediately a redflag.
As time prolonged and we were passing the smoke around the
circle left and right, I began to really get messed up.
I completely forgot that the carwas even there until another car

(33:22):
had pulled up. Now I was starting to get a bit
more sketched out, but I was still too messed up to walk back
to the house and was not sure ifmaking our presence known was
safe, so I remained where I was.I remember whispering to Jack
making a comment about it being peculiar as to why two cars were
hanging out in an elementary school parking lot at about 2:00

(33:45):
AM on a Friday night. He made a comment back to me how
whatever it was was going on, itwas probably not good.
We chuckled, but in the back of my crossed mind I knew it was
probably best if we left. The second car had probably been
there for about 5 minutes or so and Jack and I figured it was

(34:07):
probably time that we started tohead back to the house to find
Chris and figure out whose housewe were going to sleep at.
We began to say our goodbyes to the others when all of a sudden
we all went silent when we beganto hear an argument going on in
the direction of the two cars. We couldn't really hear the

(34:27):
dialogue as the doors to both cars were closed, so it was
muffled arguing. Then I heard a sound that I
hadn't before, a gunshot, and then another one, and then
silence. I didn't know what to do.
None of us did. We all just sat still on that

(34:48):
playground, looking at each other in awe.
About 30 seconds later, one of the car's backside passenger
doors opened and a person could be seen sprinting to the other
car, getting in and speeding away so fast out of that parking
lot the screeching of those tires probably could have been
heard a mile away. I know it wasn't the morally

(35:10):
right situation, but we ran. All of us did.
We ran back to the party, which at that point had gotten a
significant amount more empty aswe didn't realize how much time
had gone by and how late into the night it was.
We found Chris, his date and therest of ours and we got one of

(35:31):
our dates older brothers to giveus all a ride back to Chris's
house. The sound of those shots played
in my head all night. The event obviously made the
news and it turned out to be a drug deal gone wrong.
Apparently a guy owed way too much money to his dealer and the
dealer just had had enough. It's sad, but what's even sadder

(35:55):
is that type of stuff was like night and day in my area as we
lived just outside a major city which did have a lot of crime.
I do feel guilty for running, but in the end it's not like
there was anything we could havedone.
For all I know, if the guy with the weapon had been aware, had
six witnesses to his murder, he probably would have shot all of

(36:18):
us too. As time goes on, I think about
this story less, but I want the biggest piece of advice to be
taken from this story, which is said in about a million other
scary stories online. Stay aware of your surroundings.
If you have a feeling of uneasiness, even with how

(36:39):
impaired I was that night, that feeling is your gut instinct
signaling danger and do not hesitate to listen to it.

(37:02):
An acquaintance of mine who happened to have been a cop once
told me this little tale he experienced several years ago.
Back then he was a deputy and still new to the patrol scene.
Since he was new to it, he got called often to more simple
tasks. Tasks that made the more
experienced deputies jobs easier.

(37:22):
One nights the deputy got a request on someone that took
their own life. The victim was still inside the
home and they needed the deputy to sit and guard the main entry
to the home until the coroner got there to take the body.
They didn't want any relatives or anyone else to enter the
scene and mess up evidence. That was a standard procedure.

(37:43):
So the deputy got to the home ofthe victim and confirmed with
the cops already on the scene that he was there to wait for
the coroner. It was the middle of the night,
so the deputy grabbed his flip phone out of his patrol car and
settled on the front porch to play some snake on his phone.
All was totally quiet around him.
After everyone else left, all the deputy could hear was the

(38:06):
occasional sounds of distant barking dogs and the faint
sounds of the sparse Hwy. traffic.
The silence did indeed make him a little nervous, especially
considering what lie only a few feet away and invisible to him
only because of a wall, so it was only natural that his

(38:26):
instincts had his ears on high alert.
So he was startled when he suddenly thought he heard a
rustling sound seemingly coming from inside the house behind
him. All he could do was sit there
and wait and listen intently. A few minutes went by though,
and he didn't hear anything else, so we just figured he

(38:47):
probably heard the house settling or something.
Over half an hour went by and the deputy was starting to get a
little drowsy, staring at Snake on his small flip phone, so we
flipped it shut and sat back fora few minutes to relax.
But then suddenly there was thatsound again, which seemed louder
that time. A strange rustling sound, like

(39:11):
maybe rustling papers, he thought to himself, puzzled.
As he sat there and listened hard.
He heard it again and that time he was sure it was coming from
inside the house behind him where the victim was.
At that point, the deputy admitshe was pretty scared.
He didn't want to call for backup until he was sure there

(39:32):
was someone in the house, but healso didn't want to go inside
the dark creepy death scene by himself to investigate either.
So he stood up and waited once again for any noise while
resting his hand on his weapon on his belt.
Then the deputy drew his weapon as a loud sound from behind him
caused him to spin around and face a large window by the front

(39:53):
door, covered by vertical hanging blinds.
As he turned around to face the window, an explosion of
movements disturbed the blinds. The deputy did admit to me in
telling of this story that he did in fact jump and scream as
almost anyone would. The deputy's vision quickly
cleared. And he stared at the face on the

(40:15):
other side of the window, definitely not expecting to see
what particular face stared backat him.
The deputy screamed and went wide eyed.
The face stared back at him and it made a startled sound with
wide eyes as well. Then for a quiet moment, man and
cat eyed each other before both turning away, feeling stupid.

(40:41):
I guess the victim had a pet catwhich ended up most likely going
to a relative. The deputy admitted to me after
telling me this story that he felt that that was one of the
most scariest things that's everhappened in his entire.
Career. I'm from a small town in

(41:11):
northwest Wisconsin, and to giveyou an idea of how small this
town was, we had a gas station and a bar.
The population was about 112 people I think at the time, and
it was mainly older folks. I lived on the outskirts of this
town with my grandma and my two sisters.
We lived in a Parsonage, and if you don't know what that is,

(41:33):
it's basically a house that's close to a church.
That way the pastor could live there and stay close to it.
But this house was rented out bythe church and my grandma was
the one paying it. It was a very nice house.
It was across the road from the church and when looking at it
from the road we had a graveyardon the right side of the
property. It had four bedrooms, 1

(41:56):
bathroom, A2 car garage and everything.
Was on one level besides the basement, now surrounding the
left and backside of the house with thick woods.
It was a mix of pine trees, oak woods, and very tall grass
During the summer. It was a very beautiful spot and
me and my sisters would play in the forest all summer long.

(42:19):
Now on to why I'm telling this story.
The other day I had a conversation with my.
Grandma she's getting up there in age and has started telling
old stories from when me and my sisters were kids and this one
had me remember that I had this friend that would.
Play in the forest with us. They were tall and dark, and

(42:40):
they never came out from behind the trees.
I remember him being tall, like really tall like 7 feet up the
tree is where his head would poke out from.
The only part I remember seeing was the deer skull that it wore
on its face that would poke out every once in a while.
I don't feel fear when thinking about this creature.

(43:03):
I'm just going to call it that because it definitely was not
human. I feel protected when I think of
it. Me and my sisters always played
hide and seek with it and this creature actually made noise
when we found it while playing or talking to it.
It sounded almost like a low cooing sound.

(43:24):
This creature was so much fun tobe around and made the forest
light up. It seemed like it did stink
though. Man.
My youngest sister, who would have been 6 at the time, called
it stinky because of this. I remember seeing this creature
climb the trees like no other. It almost seems like a shadow

(43:44):
with how silent it travelled through the woods.
One day after school my sisters and I got home and went to the
woods and we saw a small Fort built out of sticks and whatnot
and we assumed it was built fromthe creature and we played in it
and made mud pies and whatnot. But then we heard my grandmother

(44:05):
screaming for us to come inside and in a panic since grandma
never did this, we all quickly ran inside and once we asked her
what was wrong, she locked the door behind us and told us to
duck down while she tried calling the police.
And then she whispered there wasa man lying flat in the grass.

(44:26):
How did you not see him? I was in shock and was wondering
what the man wanted. My younger sisters were crying
at this point and me and my grandma tried to calm them down
but nothing was working. About 10 minutes later the local
cop shows up and my grandma explained what she saw.

(44:47):
The cop went around the propertyto see if the guy was still
around but he didn't find anything.
Then he informed my grandma thatif he shows up again call them
ASAP and then he left. My grandma didn't let us play
outside for a few months and it really sucked because I was just
coming into my preteens so I wasgiving my grandma a hard time

(45:10):
which is something I still feel really bad about.
Later on that night, once everyone was asleep, I took a
flashlight and headed to the forest as quickly as I could.
I know it was dumb of me to go out by myself and not tell
anyone, but nine year old me wanted to go check on my friend.
Once I got to the edge of the forest I panned the flashlight

(45:33):
around trying to look for anything moving and once I
thought I was in the clear I entered the woods and started
walking towards the stick court.Then I heard some grass move to
my back right which was deeper into the woods.
I stopped in my tracks and listened.
I thought it was a man from the way it was breathing heavy and I

(45:56):
was right. I'm assuming it was the man my
grandma saw a few months back. I turned my flashlight in that
direction and yelled who's thereand next thing I know this man
jumps on me and starts choking me.
Last thing I remember was wakingup to a crunching noise and I
could see a blurred black mass with my flashlight just barely

(46:19):
lighting the edges of it. I passed out again and woke up
an hour or so later and I assumed that due to it still
being pitch blackout. Once the adrenaline came back, I
started frantically padding all over my body, checking myself
for injuries and whatnot, but all I could feel was slight
discomfort in my throat. I stood up slowly and looked

(46:43):
around to see if anything was around me.
I could see the porch light on the House peering through the
trees and without a second thought I ran right for it.
When I got to the door I opened it and slammed it shut and
locked it. My grandma woke up and ran down
the hall with a weapon. I said grandma, it's just me.

(47:05):
She came around the corner and started asking me all these
questions and I told her what had just happened.
We called my aunt who lived not too far up the road to come and
watch my sisters as we went to the ER that was about 35 minutes
away. Once there, the doctors took a
look over me and said that I hadbruises on my neck that I could

(47:26):
not have inflicted myself, so they reported it to the police.
The next few days were a blur. I wasn't able to sleep very much
due to the trauma from what my grandma told me.
The other day the police came out to the house and started a
search in the woods. They had two dogs on the scene
as well. This is where it gets graphic.

(47:50):
The dogs found a bloody trail. They saw where the struggle
between me and this man was in the tall grass and there was
blood about 20 feet to the northof where this struggle was.
I wouldn't say a pool of blood, but they said that the blood
trail went on for about 1 1/2 miles into the woods.

(48:11):
They called for more officers before heading in further, but
once they got to the end of it, apparently they found the man.
He was ripped to pieces, his limbs were hanging up on the
branches in the nearby trees, his eyes were missing.
My grandma kind of got sidetracked with the story, but

(48:33):
at the end of it all, me and both of my sisters went to
different aunts and we stayed with them for about 3 months
before we could go back. Apparently my grandma went to
stay with her sister while our house got put under
investigation. We heard no news about it,
nothing was said about the man who was spread around all over

(48:54):
the trees. The cops say it was a bear but
the more I think on it, it had to have been my forest friend.
I never treated the woods or night time the same.
I've become obsessed with the Wendigo due to it having similar
features of the creature that I remember.

(49:15):
I got a tattoo of 1 not too longago but the trauma is a lot.
I can't handle being in the dark.
I definitely can't go camping oranything like that.
This whole experience made me into the homebody I still am
today. We moved out of the house when I
was 14 due to the new pastor wanting to move in and I have

(49:37):
never been back inside. I did go and drive by it the
other day when my grandma told me the story and so much has
changed. A lot of the trees were cut down
in the yard. The little garden fence we had
was gone, but the woods and the tall grass of course are still
there. I only wonder if he's still

(50:02):
hiding in there. Before diving into this story, I
would like to say that we are sensitive to the supernatural.
Personally, this so-called ability has been passed down to

(50:25):
me for my mother, who has or used to have stronger abilities
of her own, but that's a different story altogether.
So both of us have our own experiences with the
supernatural from childhood until adulthood.
While we believe in the supernatural, we are logical
people. When we have strange encounters,

(50:47):
we always break them down and consider all logical
possibilities. However, there are strange,
eerie moments where reason simply does not exist, where
previously ordinary surroundingsare stripped of their
everydayness and only intuition makes sense.
Almost as if you could say the veil is thinning and an entrance

(51:09):
to a hole is opened. The story that I will share is
one of those experiences. During the height of the
pandemic, my husband and I builtour home in a sleepy seaside
town. The land itself has a history,
and it was formerly used as a farmland and mango plantation.

(51:29):
Many decades ago, the land had been in my husband's family for
a. While and even though the lot is
huge, not one family member has decided to use it until we came
along. The story goes that my husband's
grandfather paid a hefty price for such land, his relationship
with his siblings. Apparently, they fought over

(51:51):
ownership of the land and while my husband's grandfather
successfully inherited it beforehe passed away, it came with a
lot of heartache, tears, and lost relationships along the
way. His purpose has always been to
pass down the lot to his children and grandchildren for
future use. Due to this, my husband's

(52:13):
relatives refused to sell their respective lots for profits,
believing that their grandfather's soul would not be
at rest knowing the land has been lost from the family.
While some relatives have decided to sell their shares
today, this was not the case only a few years back.
The entire lot is quite sizable at about 4000 square meters.

(52:36):
Our lot itself is not as grand at about 400 square meters.
On top of it, we built a modest duplex with a porch.
To build this house, we had to have a few trees cut down to
make way for the foundation and the walls.
In the Philippines, we believe that creatures dwell in the
trees like the caper, agta, and dewindi.

(53:00):
Although we do not necessarily believe in the existence of
these beings, we still respect the superstitious beliefs as
part of Philippine culture and tradition.
Before cutting trees, Filipinos have their rituals to ensure we
do not unknowingly cut down a tree where a supernatural being
is living. Before cutting down a tree, a

(53:23):
person strikes the trunk with anaxe.
It is believed that if the axe sticks to the trunk, you are
allowed to cut down the tree as no creature dwells in it.
However, if the axe falls to theground or does not stick to the
trunk, a creature may be living inside it.
When it's the latter, we bring offerings of food to the tree to

(53:47):
respectfully ask permission fromthe creature to let us cut its
home down. We hired an experienced
contractor to do the job, and heusually performs this on all
construction projects that he manages.
This ritual is almost an unspoken rule among Filipinos
and is a commonly accepted practice in rural and modern

(54:07):
areas. People just go along with it as
something that's part of the waythat we do things here.
And regardless if you believe init or not, what's the harm in
complying, right? Some of this is driven by fear,
as there are instances when trees are cut down and
construction crew members die unexpectedly, or a business's

(54:29):
bad luck is attributed to the place being cursed or haunted
from angering a spirit or entity.
Anyway, we had a couple of treescut down, some believed to be as
old as my husband's grandfather.The construction of the house
was completed and we moved in only a few months after.

(54:49):
The house is situated near the center of the lot, which means
to get there you need to drive up a few meters on a makeshift
gravel path connected to a back Rd.
This makeshift path is surrounded by dense bushes,
grass and trees. You make a sharp turn where your
vision is clouded by tall trees and bushes and suddenly see a
house in the distance. We had the electricity company

(55:13):
make a connection for us as our area is quite remote and there
are no light posts as it's private property so when night
falls it's eerily dark and quiet.
When people asked us where we lived we used to joke that to
find our house you have to pass the gateway to Narnia.
When we had packages delivered, delivery people usually got lost

(55:36):
or simply refused to enter the path when it was night time.
A few months into living in the house, we had a few strange
occurrences here and there, which is to be expected when
you're living in a rural area surrounded by more trees and
wildlife than people. Living near the sea in a
tropical country means sweltering hot temperatures and

(55:56):
high humidity levels. It was one of those long dry
spells where you're constantly drenched in sweat.
When this happens in the late afternoon, my husband and I are
in the living room with the windows open.
It was quickly approaching dusk as we went through our yoga
practice. Our two cats were lounging on

(56:17):
the furniture, lazily watching us.
We were watching a YouTube videoto guide us in our practice.
When the video ended. I vividly recall saying I wanted
to do another yoga video, to which my husband reluctantly
agreed. He reasoned it was getting dark
and we had to prepare supper. Plus, the weather seemed

(56:38):
unusually cool today, which meant it got dark much quicker.
I realized that was true. After another sweltering hot
day, the wind seems to pick up in the late afternoon.
As I looked for another yoga video, however, the wind seemed
to die down, like how it goes quiet before the 1st drops of

(57:00):
rain. As we were sitting down on our
yoga mats at dusk, we saw a neatlightning bolt strike the sky.
The lightning was clear against the dark sky and was so bright
it made me squint. Only a few seconds later, we
heard a loud crashing sound. The Thunder was so deafening
that the house shook. Our window pane certainly shook,

(57:24):
and it felt like the Thunder andlightning hit alarmingly close
to the house, specifically near the big tree by the window where
we can sometimes feel a presencethere watching us at night.
This was so sudden and so ear piercing in our quiet home in
the middle of nowhere that we simply froze in place.

(57:46):
It really didn't help that when the Thunder struck, the power
suddenly went out. We were enveloped in darkness.
My skin broke in goosebumps. For a moment I was gripped in
fear, unable to move or think ofwhat to do next.
I could hear our two cats scrambling looking for hiding

(58:07):
places in the dark. My heartbeat fast in my chest as
I blindly looked around the living room, waiting for my eyes
to adjust and my heart to steadyitself.
I remember instinctively scrambling near me, trying to
feel for my phone so I could turn on the flashlight.
Just as my vision started to adjust and sharpen, I noticed a

(58:29):
black silhouette sitting right in front of me.
My husband had his yoga mat beside mine so that when we were
facing each other, sitting down before the power went out in a
shaky voice, I said into the darkness.
Love. He didn't answer.
The wind howled. It continued to howl, passing

(58:52):
through our open windows and causing the air to permeate the
space. I could hear the rustling of
trees and bushes outside. I tried again with love.
Love. Ah yupag Ben Owenba, which means
love love, don't joke like this.When my husband did not answer

(59:13):
me, I reached out to him with myright hand just as another flash
of lightning struck near the window, causing a temporary
bright streak of lights to flashthrough the living room.
In a split second the room was illuminated by an eerie glow,
and as my eyes adjusted again, Isaw in complete disbelief that

(59:34):
there was no one in front of me at this very moment.
My hands gripped nothing but air.
The light came and went, and again we were shrouded in
darkness. I took back my outstretched hand
and was struck with paralyzing fear as another loud Thunder
shook the house. At that moment, I felt myself

(59:55):
shrink, like somehow the four corners of the house seemed
impossibly huge and I was just atiny thing on the ground.
My heart sunk into my stomach and I felt something else.
Another presence in the house, but it was different this time.
Not the usual feeling I had whenI sensed another presence in the

(01:00:16):
woods or by that mysterious treenear the window.
I felt like something had shifted when the energy from the
Thunder and lightning struck ourhome, like a door had been
opened. And there were these things,
these things I could not put a name to enter the space, their
magnitude and presence so profound that I was an

(01:00:37):
insignificant living thing that was simply taking up their
space. I was hit with a type of primal
fear that causes you to shut down, where all logic just
leaves your body. I had never in my life felt that
kind of fear. This was different somehow, like
my insides were screaming at me to run, but my body refused to

(01:01:00):
get In Sync. I was running on intuition and
my intuition told me to look forlight, any light source.
I forced my legs to move and wasin the middle of standing up
when a small beam of light hit the yoga mats.
It was my husband standing near our bedroom door, holding a

(01:01:21):
flashlight in his hand. We immediately ran to each other
and then found our way to the electrical box to turn off the
electricity to prevent damaging surges.
At this point, the first few drops of rain started to pour
down before gaining traction. We calmed ourselves and took out
the emergency candles and lightsthat we had stored.

(01:01:42):
We found our two cats, both of them with their hairs on end
shrinking into a corner. Just two chunky poof balls with
wide, terrified eyes. The power eventually returned
during the night, and we never spoke of that event without
verbally agreeing. We each always made sure to keep

(01:02:03):
a light in each room on at nightand stored backup candles and
emergency batteries in case of asudden storm and power outage
shook our home again. The first time we let our
thoughts from that experience manifest themselves into our
reality was when we took a trip to the bustling city a few
months later. While we didn't plan on talking

(01:02:24):
about it, it just felt safe to do so away from the house.
Like speaking about what happened, where it happened,
would somehow welcome whatever mysterious entity or power was
in play that day into our reality from sheer belief alone.
Understand that we weren't dyingto talk about it, it just never

(01:02:45):
came up and we never thought to bring up the topic.
We were just sitting at a coffeeshop somewhere, calmly sipping
our beverages, when one of us, I'm not sure who, went.
Hey, remember that weird thing with the freak power outage and
storm at home? It was only then that I got my
husband's side of the story fromhis point of view.

(01:03:08):
After the first Thunder and the power went out, he had stood up
blindly in the darkness. When he stood up and started to
dash to the shelf by the bedroomdoor where we kept an emergency
flashlight, he felt that some invisible force was stopping
him. He stopped in his tracks and
felt something cold in his path,something he could not see or

(01:03:29):
reach out to. He was paralyzed, paralyzed with
fear, with the overwhelming looming feeling of anxiety and
dread that stemmed from the unexplainable.
He felt the hairs at the back ofhis neck stand up like cold air
was suffocating, the once humid room surrounding him with the

(01:03:50):
wind howling outside and flying through the rustling trees and
bushes. He could not hear me call out to
him. After the second Thunder and the
temporary light from the lightning, he saw in front of
him the shelf and roughly where the flashlight stood as the room
was again enveloped in darkness.He dashed forward roughly where

(01:04:10):
the shelf was and felt for the flashlight.
That's when he hurriedly turned it on with shaky hands and
instinctively turned around and shown the flashlight on the
ground where I was. The moment that the light made
its way through the thick darkness, we felt this immense
relief wash over us. It was such a powerful emotion

(01:04:32):
that I simply could not fully put it into words.
This happened on February 8th, 2021.
Since we moved to the city in November 2023, I've buried the
experience in my memory. Try as I might to forget it, a
part of me is nonplussed and amazed all the same.
Amazed that I had experienced something new, something so

(01:04:55):
foreign to me, A powerful primalfear that I never thought I had
inside me had awakened, and nothing in my past experiences
and experiences after that eventhad ever awoken that ancient
feeling inside me. The memory may just be a looming
fog at the back of my mind, but what I felt is something that

(01:05:16):
brims to the surface now and then when my intuition tells me
that something is not right. It might surface when my
intuition is trying to convey something, but never quite as
overwhelming as it was that day last week.
I woke up in the morning and settled in front of my desk to
get a head start on work when myhusband, whose desk is beside

(01:05:39):
mine, set out of nowhere. Today is the anniversary, I
responded. The anniversary of what?
Feeling confused as I racked my brain for the answer.
Had I forgotten an anniversary of something?
A birthday perhaps, And my husband, who is normally

(01:05:59):
forgetful and bad with dates, simply said of the power outage
back home. All the emotions I felt from
that experience hit me with a powerful force, and I swallowed
the feeling of anxiety that wanted to resurface from my
stomach to my throat and out from my mouth in the form of
words I said. That's not something to make an

(01:06:21):
annual event out of love. None.

(01:13:31):
None. The.

(01:22:40):
The. Yeah.

(01:24:17):
Yeah. Yeah.

(01:29:19):
Yeah.

All Episodes

Scary Stories For A Rainy Night - Ep. 183 - The Old Lady Across The Street

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Scary Stories For A Rainy Night - Ep. 183 - The Old Lady Across The Street