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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 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.
I work at a restaurant in a small town and I have been
locking up at the end of the night for a year now.
It's nice easy money and I usually get paid an extra hour
(00:43):
while doing simple tasks like cleaning or rolling silverware.
It's actually calming after a hectic night in the kitchen.
I never checked bathrooms or anything before locking up.
Usually the restaurant is empty well before I am finished and I
have a lot of time to myself. There is something so eerie
about being in a restaurant alone after closing.
(01:06):
What was once a bustling place full of people is now empty and
silent. The sounds of the machinery
kicking on can be heard across the restaurant.
The sound of the ice machine dumping ice usually makes me
jump with the layout of the restaurant.
The main light switches are on the opposite side of the
restaurant from the door with the alarm, so I usually lock the
(01:29):
back and front doors and then turn off all the lights.
Then I make my way through the dark restaurant to the side door
which has the keypad. In order to arm the system, all
doors need to be closed and there needs to be no movement in
the restaurant. If there is an error it will
tell me the door that is open orinfrared and the area where
(01:51):
there is movement. When I first started locking up
I needed the flashlight on my phone to navigate to the door,
but now I know the layout so I just walk in the darkness.
For some reason it is less scaryto just speed walk through the
dark than to have a dimly lit phone light casting shadows and
reflecting off surfaces. I hate to say it, as a grown
(02:13):
man, the dark creeps me out. Tonight the restaurant had been
closed for almost 2 hours. I mopped the kitchen, cleaned a
bit, and rolled some silverware for the morning crew.
I locked the doors, turned off the lights, then made my way
through the dark restaurant to the door.
I typed in the code and got an error.
(02:36):
Error. Infrared detected dining room.
I felt my stomach sink. I know I've been alone in this
restaurant for two hours. I know I just walked through
that pitch black dining room. Just then I heard footsteps
pounding on the tile coming towards me from the dining room.
(02:58):
I have gotten chills down my spine before when something
creeps me out, but this was different.
It felt like my entire nervous system was overloaded.
I didn't even turn around. I just opened the door and
bolted out into the parking lot.I didn't hear any footsteps
behind me. I got in my car and peeled out.
(03:20):
I drove down the street and called 911 and then my boss.
I waited until they arrived before I went back into the
restaurant. The door was wide open.
There was no sign of anyone. Nothing was stolen, nothing was
broken. I gave a report of what happened
(03:40):
and that was it. The only interior camera that is
pointed at the cash registers didn't see into a majority of
the dining room, but the exterior camera caught something
that scared the life out of me and that I will think about for
the rest of my life. It captures me running out of
the building and around the corner to my car shortly after I
(04:04):
exited. You could barely see the
elongated shadow of someone standing by the door beneath the
camera watching me run away, theperson casting it being just out
of frame before turning the opposite direction and
disappearing. Just seeing my terrified self
(04:24):
running away and that shadow watching me do so.
I have never felt so vulnerable.I'm not really a believer in the
paranormal but I just don't knowwhat kind of sick person would
wait in a restaurant for two hours after closed, not steal
anything just to scare the employee that was locking up.
(04:48):
I know for a fact it wasn't any of my Co workers.
Obviously there wasn't much thatcould be done to find out who it
was. Nothing shows anyone entering
the building after close and from what we could tell everyone
who entered that day had left. This event still has me
questioning myself on whether itwas a sick prank, someone
(05:11):
mentally ill, or something supernatural.
In my late teens, early 20s, I was a Venture Scout and leader
(05:35):
for trips my local Boy Scout troop went on.
I'm a female, but my brother waspart of the troop for years and
I became friends with everyone in the troop.
I completed my youth protection training and was allowed to
become a leader slash chaperone on camping trips.
And other wilderness related outings.
(05:55):
I had a long time friend in the troop.
Let's call him Sam, and he was aclose friend of my whole family.
Sam was a little older than me and had already been a Boy Scout
leader for several years at thispoint.
This story takes place in November of 2018.
Sam and I were made the leaders of an upcoming camping trip, the
(06:18):
annual Fall canoe float down theBuffalo National.
River in Arkansas. The Buffalo River runs about 135
miles through the Ozark Mountains, with enormous Bluffs
on at least one side or the other through most of it.
It flows through some of the most beautiful parts of
northwest and northern Arkansas,and despite my incident, I still
(06:42):
encourage you to take a trip there.
We had made camp that afternoon on the riverbank.
After about 15 miles from where we put it in.
The scouts put up their tents about 25 yards upstream of my
tent, with the campfire and cooking station situated in
between us. As I was setting up, I mentioned
(07:02):
to Sam that I was a little nervous about sleeping in my
tent alone for the first time. He shrugged me off and told me
it would be fine, that sleeping alone was actually quite
peaceful. I remember rolling my eyes
because unlike me, Sam had not only been camping completely
alone for years, he had also done it in a hammock with no
(07:26):
other what I consider protectivegear.
I didn't bother to ask him to tent with me because according
to the scouting rules, males andfemales cannot share tents and I
didn't want to get in trouble the very first time I was
leading the troop. However, I think Sam sensed my
unease and he set up his sleeping arrangements outside my
(07:47):
tent, which consisted of a sleeping pad on the ground with
his canoe flipped over on top ofthem like a coffin.
To this day, I admire what it must have been like to live with
so little concern. We all spent the evening around
the campfire talking and making dinner.
The. Forest and the river all around
(08:07):
us was so full of life that I felt a little more comfortable
when we all decided to turn in for the night.
I watched Sam lay down on his pad and.
Flip the canoe. Over on top of him before
sighing with contentment and I climbed into my tent.
I spent the first hour or two reading while listening to the
sounds of the boys up the riverbank fade as they all
(08:31):
started to fall asleep, but I couldn't.
The nighttime temperature had dropped below freezing.
Then of course I needed to pee. I spent probably another 10
minutes trying to trick myself into forgetting about it and
fall asleep. But it was impossible.
(08:52):
Finally, I got out of my tent, tapped Sam's canoe to let him
know where I was going, and thenheaded up the bank for some
privacy. I don't know how many women on
here appeared in the woods, but if you have, you'll know it's
one of the worst things about camping.
What made it even worse is because I was cautious about
(09:12):
being seen. I climbed all the way up the
embankment and walked about 10 feet into the woods before
stopping. And Oh my gosh, it was miserable
not only having to drop drawer in the freezing.
Cold, but also being completely vulnerable.
But the worst part about it was the Woods were completely
(09:34):
silent. Not a cricket, not a.
Rustle of a squirrel? Nothing.
It didn't click in my head untilyears later about how bad that
actually is. Just the primitive part of my
brain started screaming to leaveimmediately.
I ran back to the embankment before sliding down onto my butt
(09:57):
and sprinting back to camp. Once back around everyone else
and in the glow of the full moon, I had a.
Little more sense of security. The river was.
Burbling on quietly and I could see the dying embers of the
campfire before getting the ideato take the warm rocks from the
campfire and put them in my sleeping bag to try to get
(10:18):
enough warmth to sleep. I drug about four or five decent
sized stones into my tent and slipped them into the bottom of
my sleeping bag. Unfortunately it just wasn't
enough. I was awake for hours in pain
from how cold I was, trying to rub the ache out of my legs.
(10:39):
I remember actually tearing up abit with how exhausted and cold
I was. That's when I heard a noise like
footsteps walking around downstream from my tent.
The bank was covered in smooth river stones so any kind of
footsteps would make noise, but the sound of the rocks shifting
(11:01):
told me that this was something large.
Then I heard them enter the water and I worried.
One of the boys was awake and going for a midnight swim.
I quickly unzipped my tent and poked my head out to see an elk
drinking from the river. At least it looked like an elk.
(11:23):
It was massive, but it was far enough away and standing
perfectly in shadow that I wasn't quite sure it was much
too big to be a deer. But we don't have moose in
Arkansas. I quietly watched it, hoping to
see more of it. When it looked directly at me.
(11:45):
It's face, even in the shadow, triggered my primitive brain
again. If my blood wasn't running cold
before, it was now. I felt this prickling up my neck
as this unknown terror crept into my bones.
I ducked my head back into my tent and stayed completely still
(12:06):
for hours. The combination of fear and the
cold wasted any hope of sleeping.
I never heard the elk thing leave the bank, but I also
didn't even think about listening for it.
The woods were that almost screaming silence again.
After what felt like hours, someone tapped on my tent and
(12:28):
said come on out it's time to go.
I pressed my face into my hands and breathed this sigh of both
relief and exhaustion. I had made it through the night
and even though I didn't get anysleep, it was over.
I quickly stuck my feet in my boots and stepped out of my
(12:48):
tents to find nothing. It was still night.
I had confused the light from the moon as dawn.
No one was around my tent and the time it took from when they
spoke to me to when I came out was not enough time for one of
the boys to make it back to their tent before I saw them.
(13:12):
That pricking feeling came back but this time it was all over my
body as I heard a voice in my head say don't turn around.
I slowly sat backwards in my tent and zipped myself up into
it with shaking hands. I laid down in my sleeping bag
and covered my face and prayed. I prayed for so long until I
(13:36):
finally fell asleep. In the morning I woke up to the
familiar voice of Sam talking toanother scout outside my tent.
I could feel the warmth of the sun beating down into my tent.
I know I looked terrible by the way Sam did a double take upon
seeing me. Oh geez, you look like you
(13:57):
didn't sleep at all, Did you come to my tent last night?
I asked him. Sam, still studying my face
slowly responded. No, please don't play with me.
If you did, you got me good. Great, just don't continue the
joke right now if you did, please.
(14:19):
I felt a little bad being accusatory because Sam was
actually a pretty no nonsense guy, especially when it came to
being in charge on camping trips.
Diana, no, I wouldn't try to scare you.
I know how nervous you were about sleeping alone out here.
He folded up his pad before tossing it into his canoe and
(14:40):
throwing it over his shoulder. But I guess you were too scared
last night. I looked confused.
What? Sam gestured up the embankment
into the woods. I heard you make a few trips up
there. Next time just get a Gatorade
bottle and you won't have to leave your tent around that
(15:01):
time, the rest of the scouts hadannounced.
That they had. Finished cooking breakfast and
everyone migrated to the campfire, but I felt like I had
just sunk down to my knees in the river mud.
I had left the tent once I went up the embankment and came back
down once. So if it wasn't me, what had Sam
(15:23):
heard coming out of the woods and checking out my tent
multiple times that night? Why hadn't I heard it?
I've told this story to people before and they say I just
dreamed it, but I know that I hadn't.
I had been too cold and it sat up in my sleeping bag most of
the night rubbing my legs. And since I know it wasn't a
(15:46):
dream, what is hiding and hunting in the woods along the
Buffalo? River.
(16:07):
I can't breathe. My eyes are open and I'm able to
see everything around me. Yes, it's shrouded in darkness,
but it's still my room and I'm still in my bed.
Except I can't move and I can't breathe.
I can feel the eyes of somethingsinister on me.
Something is watching me from the darkness that is surrounding
(16:29):
me. I don't see it.
I can smell it, a putrid, stagnant smell like sulfur acid
and bowel movements all in one. But I feel it.
I feel anger and the hatred in the air around me.
The room I fell asleep in was peaceful.
(16:52):
It's my room. I can see the Jack Skellington
tapestry on the wall across fromme.
The television is in sleep mode,the little bubbles dancing
around the screen. I can feel the weight of my tiny
dog beside me under the blanket.My drawings hung where they were
when I fell asleep, but the darkness in the room is darker.
(17:15):
The feeling in the room is evil.There's a sound.
What's that sound? It's not me.
I can't breathe, I can't move and I for sure can't speak.
But something is moving. Footsteps.
Those are footsteps that I can hear coming from my closet.
(17:38):
I cut my eyes, looking as far tothe side of them to try and see
who or what that there's nothingthere until there's movement at
the end of my bed, looking down,still unable to do anything but
stare. There he is, the guy in the top
hat. He's tall, all black.
(18:01):
He's not a he at all, but a thing.
No facial features are imminent,but I can make out a grin
spreading across his blank and stoic face.
He's enjoying this, the torture and pure terror I feel.
I can tell he's feeding off of it, tightly shutting my eyes.
(18:26):
I'm hoping that doing this will make him go away.
My eyes fly back open in a panicwhen I feel breath on my face
and neck. There he is, hovering over me,
the grin wider than it was before I tried to make him
disappear. He's mouthing something but no
(18:46):
words are audible. And then, in a growling whisper,
I watch you sleep at night. So lovely you are.
From this night forward until time ends, I will watch you
(19:11):
sleep time and time again. Praying in my head that he will
just go away. I can feel the tears gliding
down the sides of my face. I still can't breathe, move, or.
Speak. I'm so beyond trapped in the
(19:31):
terror welling inside me. Needs to be released.
I open my mouth, forming a scream and in my mind that's all
I'm doing, screaming as loud as possible.
Finally, the only thing filling the silence and the darkness
that surrounds me are my screams.
(19:52):
I sit up as quickly as possible and gather myself.
Inhale 123. Exhale 123 After I had pulled
myself together and obtained thecourage to go to the bathroom, I
head that way. Upon returning to my bed, I
(20:14):
grabbed my phone to check the time and they're present.
On the screen is a picture takenof me from above, my eyes wide
and filled with tears that are streaming down my cheeks, mouth
open in the form of a scream, and a dark glaze over my eyes.
(20:37):
Those don't look like my eyes. During the summer of 1975, my
grandfather worked at a car dealership as a mechanic in a
(21:00):
major city on the West Coast. That was where my Aunt Cece got
her first job as a receptionist for the dealership.
They were from a small town out in the countryside, so she was
excited to start work in the bigcity as Cece had just graduated
high school and wanted to save up for an apartment.
Despite the fact that she was ina major city, Cece's job was
(21:23):
what you would expect working asa receptionist inside a car
dealership. The immediate area was devoted
to industry, work and other car dealerships.
It was in effect a social desertfor a 17 year old social
butterfly like CC. This was a blue collar area that
was predominantly men working hard, dirty jobs.
(21:44):
Despite that, CC enjoyed her work and the chance to carpool
with her dad and got along greatwith the staff.
With what my grandfather called the gift of gab, she could make
friends with anybody. Now, as it was 1975, most
transactions were done in cash and as a result, paperwork and
(22:05):
money deposits had to be done with daily trips to the bank.
That task fell upon CC as part of her duties and she was
entrusted with taking deposits to the bank located within
walking distance of her place ofemployment.
As she worked in a successful car dealership, she could
deliver thousands of dollars in cash per deposit.
(22:26):
To put the money in perspective,$2000 in 1975 is equal to well
over $10,000 now. So here was CCA lone 17 year old
girl with a daily routine walking from a popular car
dealership to a bank with large sums of money at a somewhat
isolated and rough neighborhood inside a major city.
(22:50):
To say that her employer did notfirst see an opportunity for
disaster was naive on their part, and for my grandfather as
well. All that I can say about that
relaxed attitude was that the 70s was an entirely different
world almost 50 years ago, and CC was the one to pay the price.
(23:11):
On that summer's day, the dealership had quite a few
successful transactions that resulted in netting over $3000.
So with the paperwork done afterlunchtime, CC put the money into
her purse and began the short walk to the bank.
She was a few minutes into her journey when a rusty van
screeched to a halt behind her. Before she could react, the
(23:34):
sliding door opened and a man pulled her inside.
Before she had a chance to do anything, the door slammed shut
and the engine revved as they took off.
And just like that, she was kidnapped.
Inside the van were five rough looking men in their mid to late
20s. The back seats have been taken
out for a mattress and several pillows to convert it to a party
(23:57):
van, as was typical for the time, as evidenced by the empty
beer cans and bottles as well asother paraphernalia.
The men were laughing as they shoved CC onto the mattress,
commenting that they had wanted a pretty girl to join the party
and she had the misfortune to be.
That random girl in their path. They seemed either oblivious or
(24:21):
uncaring that they had abducted a young woman off the streets
against her will. Now, I don't need to emphasize
how dangerous the situation Cecewas in.
She was fully aware that what was likely to happen to her with
five strangers taking her to Godknows where.
The men didn't look like collegestudents and by appearance had a
(24:42):
rough lifestyle. She also realized that they
weren't aware of the money in her purse.
These were men looking for a good time at the expense of
praying on an innocent woman, not criminal masterminds who had
cased her daily trip to the bankfor a deposit.
Regardless, her chances would likely plummet to 0 if they
(25:04):
discovered the $3000 hidden inside her purse.
That much money might be too tempting a prize than to leave a
witness behind. Cece then did what she was
gifted with. She kept her cool and turned on
the charm. She laughed along with the men
as if being held against her will was a joke saying to the
(25:26):
effect. You guys seem pretty cool.
It's too bad I can't party with you as I'm expected back at
work. I would hate for all of us to
get in trouble as my boss will be mad if I'm not back soon.
He'll definitely call the cops because of what's been happening
lately. At this time, the then
unidentified serial killer Ted Bundy was active on the West
(25:47):
Coast, especially in that city. CC and her sisters had even cut
their hair short as a precautionbecause the girls targeted at
the time all had long hair. Those murders were at the
forefront of the public's minds,and CC used that as leverage for
her kidnappers to take her word seriously.
(26:09):
It was enough to plant a seed ofdoubt in their minds, but it
also showed that they never had good intentions aside from the
fact that they had abducted her,with the added risk of her being
immediately missed and the cops quickly involved.
Cece continued talking with the men as they mold this
information over while she downplayed her own fear.
(26:31):
You guys really don't want to dothis.
My boss is really strict about my brakes and we'll all get into
trouble real soon. I don't think any of us want
that. In the end, those terrible men
decided that she wasn't worth the trouble.
They pulled over near a grocery store and opened the door to let
her out and then quickly drove off.
(26:52):
CC, who still had her purse withthe $3000, ran into the store to
call her dad. The cops were also involved, but
without any identification or a license plate.
The kidnappers were never caughtand no follow up was ever made.
In retrospect, C CS kidnapping might not have been taken
(27:12):
seriously by the police. This was 1975, literally just
one year after American women were legally able to open their
own credit cards in their own name without a male partner.
So it's frustratingly likely that C CS whole abduction was
written off as some harmless joyride prank and she was
(27:32):
neither assaulted nor robbed. Hopefully those men thought
better than to try again on another innocent bystander, but
sadly that might just be wishfulthinking.
I want to finish this story by stating that I love my Aunt Cece
and I'm so grateful that she is a part of my life.
She is an incredibly brave womanwho has had many adventures
(27:55):
traveling all over the world doing photography and using her
gift of gab to cultivate friendships that reach across
cultures and language barriers. I'm glad that her narrow escape
at being abducted as a teenager did not diminish her adventurous
spirit, but instead taught her how to better survive in this
dangerous world. She has many stories but tells
(28:17):
this. One as a lesson and not getting
too relaxed in daily routines and in keeping emotions in check
during scary situations. After all, she is certain that
the outcome of her abduction. Would have ended.
Badly for her if she had lost her cool.
And those men discovered that payload inside her purse.
(28:53):
This story is from my hike from Graz, Austria to Venice, Italy.
It might not be as frightening as some other stories, but I
want to share it. In the summer of 2023, my two
friends and I, all 17 years old at the time, were in the final
week of our hike from Graz to Venice.
It was late at night and we still hadn't found a place to
(29:15):
set up our tents. We were walking along a
seemingly endless beach, exhaustion weighing heavily on
us after 20 days of walking. Our legs ached from blisters and
we had already taken minutes long pauses to regain energy.
We were all eager to rest. Eventually we found a suitable
(29:35):
spot on the map, a beach furtheraway from the city we were in,
and decided to head there. By this time, we had briefly
entered the city but hadn't gonedeep into it.
The streets were empty except for some tourists near the
beach. I was so exhausted that I was
even walking with my eyes closed.
(29:55):
To reach our campsite, we had totake a small gravel path
connected to one of the streets.As we arrived at the
intersection that led to our intended campsite, a man
suddenly emerged from the path we needed to take, which led
right into the woods and walked right past us.
My friend, distracted by fatigue, walked past the
(30:18):
intersection without noticing it.
I quickly called out to him, pointing out that we needed to
take that path just after I corrected my friend.
I don't know why, but I glanced back and noticed the man
standing in the middle of the road, motionless, staring at us
(30:40):
for a few seconds. I looked at him, but it was
pitch black, so I couldn't make out his features.
I didn't think much of it and decided to continue walking.
However, as soon as we entered the gravel path, we made a
chilling discovery. The man was now following us,
heading back from where he had just come.
(31:01):
As we began to worry, all our exhaustion and pain vanished
along with the weight of our fully packed backpacks.
While still walking down this dark path, we started discussing
what to do rather loudly, not expecting him to understand our
language since we weren't locals.
After a brief discussion, we decided that jumping into the
(31:24):
field next to the path was a better option than staying on
the path or facing the man. So after about 30 meters of
walking along the path, we jumped into the field.
The field was full of crops and difficult to wade through,
including jumping over some kindof ditch in the middle of the
field. But with adrenaline pumping, we
(31:46):
barely noticed the discomfort and.
Kept running as fast as we couldwith these huge backpacks.
As soon as the man saw us move, he immediately turned back and
returned to the road that we hadjust left.
We quickly did the same and witha head start.
We managed to put some distance between US and him, our shorts
(32:10):
and shoes were wet. However, there was no time to
care, the man was still following us.
We rushed through the streets ofthe city and as soon as we
didn't see him anymore, we calmed down a bit.
Still, fear kept us moving, trying to stay in the darkness
so we couldn't see us walking past the gas station at the end
(32:33):
of the city, which could be seenfrom the street where we had met
the man. We continued and walked another
5 kilometers before finally setting up our tents, far away
from where we had encountered the man.
To this day, we have no idea if he was just a drunkard playing a
twisted joke or. If he had more sinister
(32:55):
intentions, and who knows what might have happened?
If it hadn't been for those pauses that we took, we might
have been right on time to meet this mysterious man further down
into the darkness of the woods. It was Christmas time, I was 14
(33:26):
years old. My family and I were going ice
skating one evening. My family consisted of my 2
younger brothers, my mom and my stepfather.
I had invited my girlfriend to come with us and we were just
waiting on her to show up at ourhouse so that we could leave.
She eventually made it over and we all piled into an SUV and
(33:47):
headed downtown. The ice skating rink was packed
as it was only open at Christmastime and it was 8:00 on a
Saturday. After driving around the rink a
few times we found a parking spot.
We all started walking over to it and as we walked I saw that
all of the lights went off in the skating rink and for about
(34:08):
one minute green and red black lights were lighting the whole
place up. It was pretty cool I thought,
and I was looking forward to getting my skates on.
They were serving hot cocoa right next door in a little
booth. My little brothers wanted some
and so my parents jumped in linewhile my girlfriend and I headed
to the window where we could rent some ice skates.
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There was no line there and we got our skates pretty quickly.
We sat down on the bench near the window and put on our
skates. My girlfriend had never been ice
skating before and she was a bitnervous.
She was afraid she would fall, but I told her it's really not
that difficult and even if she did, it's not a big deal.
We got to our feet with our skates now on and walked over to
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the skating rink. Before we stepped onto it,
suddenly the lights switched to the dark green and red lights
again. You could barely see when the
lights switched and people were running into each other all over
the place. Some people were falling down.
It was a cool idea to have the lights switched to green and red
for the holiday, but whoever setthe lights up made them way too
(35:17):
dim. My girlfriend told me to wait
for the lights to switch back onand we did.
A minute later the normal lightspopped back on and we stepped
onto the ice. My girlfriend skated awkwardly
for a few minutes but got the hang of it fairly quickly and we
were soon flying around the rink.
After about 6 laps, the lights went out again, but this time it
(35:42):
seems to me that it was even darker than before.
My girlfriend grabbed my arm andclung to me as we tried not to
run into anyone as we skated in the near darkness.
Now. She asked me.
It's getting darker, don't you think?
I agreed and the lights popped back on again.
(36:02):
We sighed with relief and continued skating.
As we made our way around, we passed a man wearing a dark red
trench coat that was about to step onto the ice.
He had a dark red hood over his head which covered most of his
face. After noticing him, I looked
around for my family and spottedthem sitting down on the benches
(36:24):
drinking their hot cocoa. I looked over to my girlfriend
who had broken away from my arm and she looked nervous.
I skated closer to her and askedher if she wanted to get off the
ice. She said no, but that she was
worried about when the lights flipped to the dark green and
red again. She was worried that they would
flip off completely and leave everyone in complete darkness.
(36:49):
As if on cue, the lights switched off and they switched
off completely. My girlfriend gasped, along with
many other people around us. For the briefest of moments,
everyone was quiet and it was pitch black.
It was an incredibly eerie feeling.
Then suddenly being on the ice with so many people but feeling
(37:14):
alone. Then suddenly I heard a woman
scream. Then I heard commotion.
The woman's screams were silenced and then I heard a man
yell in a similar way, like theyhad just been really hurt by
something. My girlfriend and I ran into a
group of people and we all collapsed onto the ice.
(37:37):
She started calling my name and I could hear the fear in her
voice. People were falling all around
us and then I heard another woman scream.
This scream was piercing and I knew at that moment that
something was very wrong. The woman continued to scream
when I heard somebody else scream bloody murder.
(37:59):
At this point, I could hear noises of frantic people
falling, moving, and screaming trying to escape the ice rink.
I tried to stand up but was hit by people in all directions and
my hands were sliding across theice as I crawled.
It felt like razor blades. I was hyperventilating when
suddenly I felt an extreme pain in the tip of my middle finger
(38:24):
on my right hand. I realized that somebody had
just skated over it. I stopped crawling and heard yet
another ear piercing scream of agony and terror.
I started calling my girlfriend's name but did not
get a response. Somebody skated into me, their
knee hitting my face hard. I fell flat onto the ice and my
(38:47):
breath was taken away when I felt random people topple on top
of me, one person landing on my stomach as they all tried to
separate from each other and myself.
I felt an ice skate slice my thigh.
I started crawling again fast, and I could feel my finger
pulsating as blood gushed from the wound.
I hit a wall and I remember feeling the tiniest relief.
(39:10):
I called my girlfriend's name again, but once again no
response. In the midst of screams and
frantic mayhem, it sounded as ifeveryone was screaming now and I
thought that I might have a heart attack.
I stuck to the side of the wall and attempted to stand up onto
my skates again. I reached my feet and started
(39:32):
coughing. I felt somebody clip my back as
they skated by me, and then suddenly I felt pain.
Pain in my back. Monumental pain.
The worst pain I've ever felt. At first I thought somebody had
somehow cut my back with an ice skate, but I twisted my arm and
(39:55):
reached around to my back to feel what it was.
Somebody then crashed into me and I fell onto the ice once
more. Tears poured from my eyes and
screams erupted from all around me.
I twisted my arm to reach my back again and I felt it.
Somebody had stabbed me. My breathing started to get
(40:16):
heavy and a full breath was difficult to achieve.
The pain was growing more intense and I felt panic set in
as it felt like the pain would not reach a stopping point and
would just increase and increase.
Suddenly I heard another scream very close.
It was mine. My screams joined the rest and I
(40:38):
began sobbing In between screams.
I started crawling once more, but I couldn't move as I did
before. My muscles were becoming weaker
and I felt as if I were falling asleep.
I moved slowly and I could feel thick, syrupy liquid wherever I
put my hands on the ice. It was warm.
(41:00):
I knew it was blood, my blood, and I suddenly began coughing
again with no control and didn'tstop.
I put my hand over my mouth and stopped crawling.
I felt blood coming out of my throat as I coughed and it
started to block my nasal passage and I could barely
breathe. The screams were absolutely ear
(41:23):
shattering at this point. I lay on my back and started to
shiver. After a few minutes I felt
people fall and trip over me once again and I flipped over
onto my stomach. After this I looked up and I
could see small beams of light all over the place.
And then I heard people speak. It was the police, I thought to
(41:46):
myself. They were running and tripping
over people, trying to get people out, trying to help.
I put my arm up and said the word.
Help. But nothing came out.
I couldn't say it. I dropped my arm back to the ice
and I felt my eyes start to close.
(42:07):
I cleared my throat full of blood and coughed it onto the
ice. Everything at that moment went
black. I awoke in a hospital bed. 24
people were murdered on the ice skating rink that night, my
girlfriend included. I recently moved into a big
(42:43):
house, just temporarily. It's kind of a complicated
situation. The house belongs to a family
member. They were going to be gone for a
few months, that sort of thing. I was going to be there on my
own. So obviously I thought, what if
this place is haunted? There wasn't anything in the
(43:04):
house when I moved in, but thereis now.
I was in the main hallway unpacking some stuff when the
doorbell rang. That put me on edge right away,
because the house is at the end of a long driveway and kind of
out of the way. You have to go looking for it.
There was an old woman at the door, or sort of old, it was
(43:28):
kind of hard to tell. This was in broad daylight, but
there was still something kind of off about her.
She was really tall, like a fullhead taller than me, and there
was something weird about the way she looked.
It was like none of her clothes fit her properly.
(43:49):
She shook my hand and smiled really wide and told me that she
was from the neighborhood council or something and asked
if she could come in and talk tome.
My gut reaction was to say no, but I couldn't really think of a
reason to. She was just an old woman, what
was she going to do? I really wish I had just slammed
(44:14):
the door in her face. I brought her into the living
room and she sort of tottered behind me, like her feet didn't
fit into her shoes properly. She sat down without asking and
grinned at me until I took a seat across from her.
For about half a minute she didn't say anything, just smiled
(44:35):
and stared at me while it got increasingly awkward.
Just as I was about to break thesilence, she fished into her
pocket and pulled out this really big old fashioned candy,
the type that comes in see through wrapping.
Here, she said, eat this. I should probably point out here
(45:00):
that she spoke really quietly, so it was difficult to hear
anything she said. I accepted the candy, kind of
taken aback, and unwrapped it. It was dark red, almost black.
I popped it into my mouth because she was still grinning
at me and nodding her head. Have you ever walked around
(45:22):
behind a supermarket where they keep those big bins?
They throw meat that's gone bad in those bins.
Imagine that rancid smell, but on a hot summer day.
It's so thick you can almost feel it in the air.
That is what this candy tasted like.
(45:43):
I almost spit it out onto the floor, but social niceties made
me chew the thing and force it down my throat.
The woman was talking the whole time, but between the taste and
her quiet voice, I barely heard her.
My mouth tasted like rotten meat, so I politely told her I
(46:03):
was going to get some water and walked fast into the kitchen.
When I came back, she was gone. I had been in the kitchen for
less than 30 seconds. My first reaction probably
should have been to assume that she went to the bathroom or had
to leave in a hurry. Instead, I searched the entire
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house. I went through every single room
convinced I was going to open a closet or look under a bed and
see her stuffed in there grinning at me.
That didn't happen, obviously, but I was still extremely on
edge. As the sun started to go down, I
felt like I was turning off the light in my bedroom after
(46:49):
spotting a giant spider in there.
That night I propped a chair against my bedroom door because
I just couldn't shake the feeling that the woman was still
in the house somewhere, hiding. I woke up at around 2:30 in the
morning and heard creaking floorboards downstairs.
(47:11):
It was an old house and unfamiliar.
I kept telling myself that untilthe noises stopped.
When I woke up the next morning,there was a red candy on the
living room table. I'll tell you the same thing I
told the police. No, I couldn't be absolutely
(47:32):
certain that the candy wasn't there the day before.
Maybe I had just overlooked it, but I didn't think so.
They told me that the organization the woman claimed
to come from did not actually exist and clearly thought I was
was wasting their time. After they left, I searched the
(47:52):
entire house again and the grounds.
Then I searched them again. By the time I was finished, I
had managed to calm down a bit and looked at the situation
rationally. The woman probably left the
candy there the previous day andI just didn't notice.
I had searched the whole house twice now.
(48:15):
There was nowhere she could possibly be hiding.
She was probably just some doddery old lady who wandered
off while I was in the kitchen. As I prepared to go to bed, I
had managed to fully delude myself into thinking nothing
strange was going on. I decided not to do anything
childish like blocking my door, because what was I afraid of?
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Even if she somehow was still inside the house somewhere, what
was she going to do? At some point in the middle of
the night, I woke up abruptly, knowing in the back of my mind
that something was wrong. I guess I must have heard
something in my sleep. I turned over onto my side and
(49:00):
reached out to turn on the bedside lamp, groping around
because I was in an unfamiliar room.
When the light came on, I saw the old woman standing right
next to my bed. I only got the briefest glimpse
of her before she vanished into the unlit hallway outside my
door. I now believe that the human
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brain has a special compartment for dealing with experiences far
outside the realm of the natural.
If I had woken up to find a burglar in my room, I probably
would have gone numb with panic.If there was a lion at the foot
of my bed, I would have been tooparalyzed with fear to do
anything. But as soon as the woman the
(49:44):
woman was gone, that special compartment took over.
I jumped out of bed and slammed the door shut and then shoved
the chair up against the handle.Then I dashed for my phone.
No signal, no Internet. I later found out there was
nothing wrong with the phone or the local service.
(50:06):
I think she was interfering withit somehow.
The drop from the bedroom windowwasn't too high.
If I landed just right, I would probably avoid injury.
But what if I sprained my ankle or broke my leg?
I had a sudden vision of pullingmyself across the dark garden
while the woman sprinted after me and decided I didn't want to
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risk it. That gave me two options.
Wait out the night in my bedroomor try to get out of the house.
Now I went for the second option.
I had a thought that my flimsy barricade would not hold if the
woman decided she wanted back in.
I broke one of the chair legs off and crept slowly into the
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hallway, reaching carefully for the light switch.
When I pressed it, the lights came on for a second and then
faded out. I flicked the switch a few more
times. Nothing.
Some gut instincts told me she was sabotaging them somehow.
I used my phone for light as I slowly, quietly crept along the
(51:18):
upstairs hallway and down the stairs.
The light barely traced the shapes of the walls and the
dark, yawning frames of open doorways.
I jumped at every single shadow and unidentifiable shape,
certain that any second that grinning face would appear out
of the shadows. I got downstairs into the front
(51:39):
door. I had double locked it and put
the chain in place. Just as I was reaching for the
first lock, I heard rapid unevenfootsteps at the top of the
stairs. Approaching swiftly, I undid the
first lock. A high pitched shriek came from
the hallway down the stairs and I screamed as I undid the second
(52:01):
lock and wrenched the door open.It stuck fast.
I had forgotten the chain. I glanced behind me and saw the
tall, spindly shape of the womanhalf running, half falling down
the stairs toward me, her head lolling backward and her mouth
hanging open. I can't even remember getting
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the chain off. I might actually have just
yanked the door open so hard that it broke.
In any case, the last I saw of the woman was her face inches
away from me as I slammed the door shut.
I sprinted to the nearest house and they called the police.
Possibly because I was half delirious with fear and babbling
(52:44):
incoherently, the police once again failed to find anything
unusual. It's been a week.
I'm staying at a friend's place,sleeping with the lights on and
the bedroom door barricaded. The house's real owners aren't
back yet. I'm not sure what I'm going to
(53:05):
tell them, but I have to stop them from going back there
somehow. This isn't a haunting, it's an
infestation. I can't stop thinking about all
the holes in our defenses, the windows and doors left open, the
(53:26):
strangers invited into our living rooms.
I just hope it's the house that she wanted and not me.
(53:51):
When I look back at my younger years from around the age of 9,
all I can picture is the holidayhome that we visited and what
happened there. The location that we stayed in
was a frequent choice for us with about 3 or 4 visits in the
past. Each time we visited, we had
consistently positive experiences.
(54:13):
It was located in a remote area about 30 minutes away from
everything, and there wasn't a phone signal for at least three
miles. The memory of that night still
haunts me even now. As a 28 year old man, I
frequently attend therapy sessions to address my anxiety
about that night. So let me take you back to the
(54:33):
winter of 1996. After a long and challenging
drive through harsh weather and treacherous terrain, my family
and I finally arrived at our cabin in the dead of the night.
The cozy little house we were staying in was a charming 2
bedroom cabin nestled within nature.
(54:54):
The kitchen was small but functional, and the living room
was even tinier, giving it a snug and intimate feel as my
father prepared wood for the campfire and my mother lovingly
tucked me and my. Sister, who was seven at the
time, into bed. A sudden loud bang on the door
startled us all. My father cautiously peered
(55:16):
through the keyhole, only to find no one on the other side.
He bravely opened the door to investigate, but the surrounding
area appeared empty, leaving allof us puzzled and a little
uneasy. At first we thought the incident
was just an animal running into the door, but I couldn't shake
(55:38):
an uneasy feeling that night. I was terrified thinking about
someone outside in the dark creeping around our house.
Despite my fear, I eventually fell asleep, but it was
restless. A few days passed and little
(55:59):
happened. Apart from a few strange sounds
coming from outside every now and then, and the odd stuttering
of the lights, everything was going smoothly and our trip
appeared to be rather ordinary. That was, until we saw him.
I couldn't accurately make it out in the dark, but from what I
(56:21):
could see, there was a slender, lanky man peering down through
the window. His skin was Gray, his eyes were
jet black, and he had a massive,gaping grin stretching across
his face. Everyone fell silent, we were
all just staring directly at thewindow, petrified and helpless.
(56:45):
The silence was broken by a blood curdling scream from
outside, which was shortly followed by the disappearance of
the creature at the window. I don't know what it was or who
it was, but I sure as hell didn't want to wait to find out.
The car was parked about 5 seconds away from the door, so
(57:06):
this would have taken us around 10 seconds to Sprint over there,
open the doors, turn the key, and drive away.
My father instantly sprung into action, grabbing the double
barrel weapon our family kept for emergencies and smashing
through the front door. He stared down the sight,
watching as whatever it was dashed towards him and shot 2
(57:30):
slugs directly into the chest. Of the beast within a split
second. We all sprinted outside and into
the car as we watched whatever it was lay on the floor.
As soon as my father started theignition we were out of there as
if a bullet leaving a rifle. We never went back to that place
(57:52):
and I hope no one else did either.
I don't know what I saw that night, but what I do know is
that if my father hadn't made that split second decision, my
whole family may have ended up dead.
(58:57):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:10:08):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:20:19):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:23:49):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:28:07):
Yeah.
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.
I work at a restaurant in a small town and I have been
locking up at the end of the night for a year now.
It's nice easy money and I usually get paid an extra hour
(00:43):
while doing simple tasks like cleaning or rolling silverware.
It's actually calming after a hectic night in the kitchen.
I never checked bathrooms or anything before locking up.
Usually the restaurant is empty well before I am finished and I
have a lot of time to myself. There is something so eerie
about being in a restaurant alone after closing.
(01:06):
What was once a bustling place full of people is now empty and
silent. The sounds of the machinery
kicking on can be heard across the restaurant.
The sound of the ice machine dumping ice usually makes me
jump with the layout of the restaurant.
The main light switches are on the opposite side of the
restaurant from the door with the alarm, so I usually lock the
(01:29):
back and front doors and then turn off all the lights.
Then I make my way through the dark restaurant to the side door
which has the keypad. In order to arm the system, all
doors need to be closed and there needs to be no movement in
the restaurant. If there is an error it will
tell me the door that is open orinfrared and the area where
(01:51):
there is movement. When I first started locking up
I needed the flashlight on my phone to navigate to the door,
but now I know the layout so I just walk in the darkness.
For some reason it is less scaryto just speed walk through the
dark than to have a dimly lit phone light casting shadows and
reflecting off surfaces. I hate to say it, as a grown
(02:13):
man, the dark creeps me out. Tonight the restaurant had been
closed for almost 2 hours. I mopped the kitchen, cleaned a
bit, and rolled some silverware for the morning crew.
I locked the doors, turned off the lights, then made my way
through the dark restaurant to the door.
I typed in the code and got an error.
(02:36):
Error. Infrared detected dining room.
I felt my stomach sink. I know I've been alone in this
restaurant for two hours. I know I just walked through
that pitch black dining room. Just then I heard footsteps
pounding on the tile coming towards me from the dining room.
(02:58):
I have gotten chills down my spine before when something
creeps me out, but this was different.
It felt like my entire nervous system was overloaded.
I didn't even turn around. I just opened the door and
bolted out into the parking lot.I didn't hear any footsteps
behind me. I got in my car and peeled out.
(03:20):
I drove down the street and called 911 and then my boss.
I waited until they arrived before I went back into the
restaurant. The door was wide open.
There was no sign of anyone. Nothing was stolen, nothing was
broken. I gave a report of what happened
(03:40):
and that was it. The only interior camera that is
pointed at the cash registers didn't see into a majority of
the dining room, but the exterior camera caught something
that scared the life out of me and that I will think about for
the rest of my life. It captures me running out of
the building and around the corner to my car shortly after I
(04:04):
exited. You could barely see the
elongated shadow of someone standing by the door beneath the
camera watching me run away, theperson casting it being just out
of frame before turning the opposite direction and
disappearing. Just seeing my terrified self
(04:24):
running away and that shadow watching me do so.
I have never felt so vulnerable.I'm not really a believer in the
paranormal but I just don't knowwhat kind of sick person would
wait in a restaurant for two hours after closed, not steal
anything just to scare the employee that was locking up.
(04:48):
I know for a fact it wasn't any of my Co workers.
Obviously there wasn't much thatcould be done to find out who it
was. Nothing shows anyone entering
the building after close and from what we could tell everyone
who entered that day had left. This event still has me
questioning myself on whether itwas a sick prank, someone
(05:11):
mentally ill, or something supernatural.
In my late teens, early 20s, I was a Venture Scout and leader
(05:35):
for trips my local Boy Scout troop went on.
I'm a female, but my brother waspart of the troop for years and
I became friends with everyone in the troop.
I completed my youth protection training and was allowed to
become a leader slash chaperone on camping trips.
And other wilderness related outings.
(05:55):
I had a long time friend in the troop.
Let's call him Sam, and he was aclose friend of my whole family.
Sam was a little older than me and had already been a Boy Scout
leader for several years at thispoint.
This story takes place in November of 2018.
Sam and I were made the leaders of an upcoming camping trip, the
(06:18):
annual Fall canoe float down theBuffalo National.
River in Arkansas. The Buffalo River runs about 135
miles through the Ozark Mountains, with enormous Bluffs
on at least one side or the other through most of it.
It flows through some of the most beautiful parts of
northwest and northern Arkansas,and despite my incident, I still
(06:42):
encourage you to take a trip there.
We had made camp that afternoon on the riverbank.
After about 15 miles from where we put it in.
The scouts put up their tents about 25 yards upstream of my
tent, with the campfire and cooking station situated in
between us. As I was setting up, I mentioned
(07:02):
to Sam that I was a little nervous about sleeping in my
tent alone for the first time. He shrugged me off and told me
it would be fine, that sleeping alone was actually quite
peaceful. I remember rolling my eyes
because unlike me, Sam had not only been camping completely
alone for years, he had also done it in a hammock with no
(07:26):
other what I consider protectivegear.
I didn't bother to ask him to tent with me because according
to the scouting rules, males andfemales cannot share tents and I
didn't want to get in trouble the very first time I was
leading the troop. However, I think Sam sensed my
unease and he set up his sleeping arrangements outside my
(07:47):
tent, which consisted of a sleeping pad on the ground with
his canoe flipped over on top ofthem like a coffin.
To this day, I admire what it must have been like to live with
so little concern. We all spent the evening around
the campfire talking and making dinner.
The. Forest and the river all around
(08:07):
us was so full of life that I felt a little more comfortable
when we all decided to turn in for the night.
I watched Sam lay down on his pad and.
Flip the canoe. Over on top of him before
sighing with contentment and I climbed into my tent.
I spent the first hour or two reading while listening to the
sounds of the boys up the riverbank fade as they all
(08:31):
started to fall asleep, but I couldn't.
The nighttime temperature had dropped below freezing.
Then of course I needed to pee. I spent probably another 10
minutes trying to trick myself into forgetting about it and
fall asleep. But it was impossible.
(08:52):
Finally, I got out of my tent, tapped Sam's canoe to let him
know where I was going, and thenheaded up the bank for some
privacy. I don't know how many women on
here appeared in the woods, but if you have, you'll know it's
one of the worst things about camping.
What made it even worse is because I was cautious about
(09:12):
being seen. I climbed all the way up the
embankment and walked about 10 feet into the woods before
stopping. And Oh my gosh, it was miserable
not only having to drop drawer in the freezing.
Cold, but also being completely vulnerable.
But the worst part about it was the Woods were completely
(09:34):
silent. Not a cricket, not a.
Rustle of a squirrel? Nothing.
It didn't click in my head untilyears later about how bad that
actually is. Just the primitive part of my
brain started screaming to leaveimmediately.
I ran back to the embankment before sliding down onto my butt
(09:57):
and sprinting back to camp. Once back around everyone else
and in the glow of the full moon, I had a.
Little more sense of security. The river was.
Burbling on quietly and I could see the dying embers of the
campfire before getting the ideato take the warm rocks from the
campfire and put them in my sleeping bag to try to get
(10:18):
enough warmth to sleep. I drug about four or five decent
sized stones into my tent and slipped them into the bottom of
my sleeping bag. Unfortunately it just wasn't
enough. I was awake for hours in pain
from how cold I was, trying to rub the ache out of my legs.
(10:39):
I remember actually tearing up abit with how exhausted and cold
I was. That's when I heard a noise like
footsteps walking around downstream from my tent.
The bank was covered in smooth river stones so any kind of
footsteps would make noise, but the sound of the rocks shifting
(11:01):
told me that this was something large.
Then I heard them enter the water and I worried.
One of the boys was awake and going for a midnight swim.
I quickly unzipped my tent and poked my head out to see an elk
drinking from the river. At least it looked like an elk.
(11:23):
It was massive, but it was far enough away and standing
perfectly in shadow that I wasn't quite sure it was much
too big to be a deer. But we don't have moose in
Arkansas. I quietly watched it, hoping to
see more of it. When it looked directly at me.
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It's face, even in the shadow, triggered my primitive brain
again. If my blood wasn't running cold
before, it was now. I felt this prickling up my neck
as this unknown terror crept into my bones.
I ducked my head back into my tent and stayed completely still
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for hours. The combination of fear and the
cold wasted any hope of sleeping.
I never heard the elk thing leave the bank, but I also
didn't even think about listening for it.
The woods were that almost screaming silence again.
After what felt like hours, someone tapped on my tent and
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said come on out it's time to go.
I pressed my face into my hands and breathed this sigh of both
relief and exhaustion. I had made it through the night
and even though I didn't get anysleep, it was over.
I quickly stuck my feet in my boots and stepped out of my
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tents to find nothing. It was still night.
I had confused the light from the moon as dawn.
No one was around my tent and the time it took from when they
spoke to me to when I came out was not enough time for one of
the boys to make it back to their tent before I saw them.
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That pricking feeling came back but this time it was all over my
body as I heard a voice in my head say don't turn around.
I slowly sat backwards in my tent and zipped myself up into
it with shaking hands. I laid down in my sleeping bag
and covered my face and prayed. I prayed for so long until I
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finally fell asleep. In the morning I woke up to the
familiar voice of Sam talking toanother scout outside my tent.
I could feel the warmth of the sun beating down into my tent.
I know I looked terrible by the way Sam did a double take upon
seeing me. Oh geez, you look like you
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didn't sleep at all, Did you come to my tent last night?
I asked him. Sam, still studying my face
slowly responded. No, please don't play with me.
If you did, you got me good. Great, just don't continue the
joke right now if you did, please.
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I felt a little bad being accusatory because Sam was
actually a pretty no nonsense guy, especially when it came to
being in charge on camping trips.
Diana, no, I wouldn't try to scare you.
I know how nervous you were about sleeping alone out here.
He folded up his pad before tossing it into his canoe and
(14:40):
throwing it over his shoulder. But I guess you were too scared
last night. I looked confused.
What? Sam gestured up the embankment
into the woods. I heard you make a few trips up
there. Next time just get a Gatorade
bottle and you won't have to leave your tent around that
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time, the rest of the scouts hadannounced.
That they had. Finished cooking breakfast and
everyone migrated to the campfire, but I felt like I had
just sunk down to my knees in the river mud.
I had left the tent once I went up the embankment and came back
down once. So if it wasn't me, what had Sam
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heard coming out of the woods and checking out my tent
multiple times that night? Why hadn't I heard it?
I've told this story to people before and they say I just
dreamed it, but I know that I hadn't.
I had been too cold and it sat up in my sleeping bag most of
the night rubbing my legs. And since I know it wasn't a
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dream, what is hiding and hunting in the woods along the
Buffalo? River.
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I can't breathe. My eyes are open and I'm able to
see everything around me. Yes, it's shrouded in darkness,
but it's still my room and I'm still in my bed.
Except I can't move and I can't breathe.
I can feel the eyes of somethingsinister on me.
Something is watching me from the darkness that is surrounding
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me. I don't see it.
I can smell it, a putrid, stagnant smell like sulfur acid
and bowel movements all in one. But I feel it.
I feel anger and the hatred in the air around me.
The room I fell asleep in was peaceful.
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It's my room. I can see the Jack Skellington
tapestry on the wall across fromme.
The television is in sleep mode,the little bubbles dancing
around the screen. I can feel the weight of my tiny
dog beside me under the blanket.My drawings hung where they were
when I fell asleep, but the darkness in the room is darker.
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The feeling in the room is evil.There's a sound.
What's that sound? It's not me.
I can't breathe, I can't move and I for sure can't speak.
But something is moving. Footsteps.
Those are footsteps that I can hear coming from my closet.
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I cut my eyes, looking as far tothe side of them to try and see
who or what that there's nothingthere until there's movement at
the end of my bed, looking down,still unable to do anything but
stare. There he is, the guy in the top
hat. He's tall, all black.
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He's not a he at all, but a thing.
No facial features are imminent,but I can make out a grin
spreading across his blank and stoic face.
He's enjoying this, the torture and pure terror I feel.
I can tell he's feeding off of it, tightly shutting my eyes.
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I'm hoping that doing this will make him go away.
My eyes fly back open in a panicwhen I feel breath on my face
and neck. There he is, hovering over me,
the grin wider than it was before I tried to make him
disappear. He's mouthing something but no
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words are audible. And then, in a growling whisper,
I watch you sleep at night. So lovely you are.
From this night forward until time ends, I will watch you
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sleep time and time again. Praying in my head that he will
just go away. I can feel the tears gliding
down the sides of my face. I still can't breathe, move, or.
Speak. I'm so beyond trapped in the
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terror welling inside me. Needs to be released.
I open my mouth, forming a scream and in my mind that's all
I'm doing, screaming as loud as possible.
Finally, the only thing filling the silence and the darkness
that surrounds me are my screams.
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I sit up as quickly as possible and gather myself.
Inhale 123. Exhale 123 After I had pulled
myself together and obtained thecourage to go to the bathroom, I
head that way. Upon returning to my bed, I
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grabbed my phone to check the time and they're present.
On the screen is a picture takenof me from above, my eyes wide
and filled with tears that are streaming down my cheeks, mouth
open in the form of a scream, and a dark glaze over my eyes.
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Those don't look like my eyes. During the summer of 1975, my
grandfather worked at a car dealership as a mechanic in a
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major city on the West Coast. That was where my Aunt Cece got
her first job as a receptionist for the dealership.
They were from a small town out in the countryside, so she was
excited to start work in the bigcity as Cece had just graduated
high school and wanted to save up for an apartment.
Despite the fact that she was ina major city, Cece's job was
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what you would expect working asa receptionist inside a car
dealership. The immediate area was devoted
to industry, work and other car dealerships.
It was in effect a social desertfor a 17 year old social
butterfly like CC. This was a blue collar area that
was predominantly men working hard, dirty jobs.
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Despite that, CC enjoyed her work and the chance to carpool
with her dad and got along greatwith the staff.
With what my grandfather called the gift of gab, she could make
friends with anybody. Now, as it was 1975, most
transactions were done in cash and as a result, paperwork and
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money deposits had to be done with daily trips to the bank.
That task fell upon CC as part of her duties and she was
entrusted with taking deposits to the bank located within
walking distance of her place ofemployment.
As she worked in a successful car dealership, she could
deliver thousands of dollars in cash per deposit.
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To put the money in perspective,$2000 in 1975 is equal to well
over $10,000 now. So here was CCA lone 17 year old
girl with a daily routine walking from a popular car
dealership to a bank with large sums of money at a somewhat
isolated and rough neighborhood inside a major city.
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To say that her employer did notfirst see an opportunity for
disaster was naive on their part, and for my grandfather as
well. All that I can say about that
relaxed attitude was that the 70s was an entirely different
world almost 50 years ago, and CC was the one to pay the price.
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On that summer's day, the dealership had quite a few
successful transactions that resulted in netting over $3000.
So with the paperwork done afterlunchtime, CC put the money into
her purse and began the short walk to the bank.
She was a few minutes into her journey when a rusty van
screeched to a halt behind her. Before she could react, the
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sliding door opened and a man pulled her inside.
Before she had a chance to do anything, the door slammed shut
and the engine revved as they took off.
And just like that, she was kidnapped.
Inside the van were five rough looking men in their mid to late
20s. The back seats have been taken
out for a mattress and several pillows to convert it to a party
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van, as was typical for the time, as evidenced by the empty
beer cans and bottles as well asother paraphernalia.
The men were laughing as they shoved CC onto the mattress,
commenting that they had wanted a pretty girl to join the party
and she had the misfortune to be.
That random girl in their path. They seemed either oblivious or
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uncaring that they had abducted a young woman off the streets
against her will. Now, I don't need to emphasize
how dangerous the situation Cecewas in.
She was fully aware that what was likely to happen to her with
five strangers taking her to Godknows where.
The men didn't look like collegestudents and by appearance had a
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rough lifestyle. She also realized that they
weren't aware of the money in her purse.
These were men looking for a good time at the expense of
praying on an innocent woman, not criminal masterminds who had
cased her daily trip to the bankfor a deposit.
Regardless, her chances would likely plummet to 0 if they
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discovered the $3000 hidden inside her purse.
That much money might be too tempting a prize than to leave a
witness behind. Cece then did what she was
gifted with. She kept her cool and turned on
the charm. She laughed along with the men
as if being held against her will was a joke saying to the
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effect. You guys seem pretty cool.
It's too bad I can't party with you as I'm expected back at
work. I would hate for all of us to
get in trouble as my boss will be mad if I'm not back soon.
He'll definitely call the cops because of what's been happening
lately. At this time, the then
unidentified serial killer Ted Bundy was active on the West
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Coast, especially in that city. CC and her sisters had even cut
their hair short as a precautionbecause the girls targeted at
the time all had long hair. Those murders were at the
forefront of the public's minds,and CC used that as leverage for
her kidnappers to take her word seriously.
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It was enough to plant a seed ofdoubt in their minds, but it
also showed that they never had good intentions aside from the
fact that they had abducted her,with the added risk of her being
immediately missed and the cops quickly involved.
Cece continued talking with the men as they mold this
information over while she downplayed her own fear.
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You guys really don't want to dothis.
My boss is really strict about my brakes and we'll all get into
trouble real soon. I don't think any of us want
that. In the end, those terrible men
decided that she wasn't worth the trouble.
They pulled over near a grocery store and opened the door to let
her out and then quickly drove off.
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CC, who still had her purse withthe $3000, ran into the store to
call her dad. The cops were also involved, but
without any identification or a license plate.
The kidnappers were never caughtand no follow up was ever made.
In retrospect, C CS kidnapping might not have been taken
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seriously by the police. This was 1975, literally just
one year after American women were legally able to open their
own credit cards in their own name without a male partner.
So it's frustratingly likely that C CS whole abduction was
written off as some harmless joyride prank and she was
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neither assaulted nor robbed. Hopefully those men thought
better than to try again on another innocent bystander, but
sadly that might just be wishfulthinking.
I want to finish this story by stating that I love my Aunt Cece
and I'm so grateful that she is a part of my life.
She is an incredibly brave womanwho has had many adventures
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traveling all over the world doing photography and using her
gift of gab to cultivate friendships that reach across
cultures and language barriers. I'm glad that her narrow escape
at being abducted as a teenager did not diminish her adventurous
spirit, but instead taught her how to better survive in this
dangerous world. She has many stories but tells
(28:17):
this. One as a lesson and not getting
too relaxed in daily routines and in keeping emotions in check
during scary situations. After all, she is certain that
the outcome of her abduction. Would have ended.
Badly for her if she had lost her cool.
And those men discovered that payload inside her purse.
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This story is from my hike from Graz, Austria to Venice, Italy.
It might not be as frightening as some other stories, but I
want to share it. In the summer of 2023, my two
friends and I, all 17 years old at the time, were in the final
week of our hike from Graz to Venice.
It was late at night and we still hadn't found a place to
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set up our tents. We were walking along a
seemingly endless beach, exhaustion weighing heavily on
us after 20 days of walking. Our legs ached from blisters and
we had already taken minutes long pauses to regain energy.
We were all eager to rest. Eventually we found a suitable
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spot on the map, a beach furtheraway from the city we were in,
and decided to head there. By this time, we had briefly
entered the city but hadn't gonedeep into it.
The streets were empty except for some tourists near the
beach. I was so exhausted that I was
even walking with my eyes closed.
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To reach our campsite, we had totake a small gravel path
connected to one of the streets.As we arrived at the
intersection that led to our intended campsite, a man
suddenly emerged from the path we needed to take, which led
right into the woods and walked right past us.
My friend, distracted by fatigue, walked past the
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intersection without noticing it.
I quickly called out to him, pointing out that we needed to
take that path just after I corrected my friend.
I don't know why, but I glanced back and noticed the man
standing in the middle of the road, motionless, staring at us
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for a few seconds. I looked at him, but it was
pitch black, so I couldn't make out his features.
I didn't think much of it and decided to continue walking.
However, as soon as we entered the gravel path, we made a
chilling discovery. The man was now following us,
heading back from where he had just come.
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As we began to worry, all our exhaustion and pain vanished
along with the weight of our fully packed backpacks.
While still walking down this dark path, we started discussing
what to do rather loudly, not expecting him to understand our
language since we weren't locals.
After a brief discussion, we decided that jumping into the
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field next to the path was a better option than staying on
the path or facing the man. So after about 30 meters of
walking along the path, we jumped into the field.
The field was full of crops and difficult to wade through,
including jumping over some kindof ditch in the middle of the
field. But with adrenaline pumping, we
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barely noticed the discomfort and.
Kept running as fast as we couldwith these huge backpacks.
As soon as the man saw us move, he immediately turned back and
returned to the road that we hadjust left.
We quickly did the same and witha head start.
We managed to put some distance between US and him, our shorts
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and shoes were wet. However, there was no time to
care, the man was still following us.
We rushed through the streets ofthe city and as soon as we
didn't see him anymore, we calmed down a bit.
Still, fear kept us moving, trying to stay in the darkness
so we couldn't see us walking past the gas station at the end
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of the city, which could be seenfrom the street where we had met
the man. We continued and walked another
5 kilometers before finally setting up our tents, far away
from where we had encountered the man.
To this day, we have no idea if he was just a drunkard playing a
twisted joke or. If he had more sinister
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intentions, and who knows what might have happened?
If it hadn't been for those pauses that we took, we might
have been right on time to meet this mysterious man further down
into the darkness of the woods. It was Christmas time, I was 14
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years old. My family and I were going ice
skating one evening. My family consisted of my 2
younger brothers, my mom and my stepfather.
I had invited my girlfriend to come with us and we were just
waiting on her to show up at ourhouse so that we could leave.
She eventually made it over and we all piled into an SUV and
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headed downtown. The ice skating rink was packed
as it was only open at Christmastime and it was 8:00 on a
Saturday. After driving around the rink a
few times we found a parking spot.
We all started walking over to it and as we walked I saw that
all of the lights went off in the skating rink and for about
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one minute green and red black lights were lighting the whole
place up. It was pretty cool I thought,
and I was looking forward to getting my skates on.
They were serving hot cocoa right next door in a little
booth. My little brothers wanted some
and so my parents jumped in linewhile my girlfriend and I headed
to the window where we could rent some ice skates.
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There was no line there and we got our skates pretty quickly.
We sat down on the bench near the window and put on our
skates. My girlfriend had never been ice
skating before and she was a bitnervous.
She was afraid she would fall, but I told her it's really not
that difficult and even if she did, it's not a big deal.
We got to our feet with our skates now on and walked over to
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the skating rink. Before we stepped onto it,
suddenly the lights switched to the dark green and red lights
again. You could barely see when the
lights switched and people were running into each other all over
the place. Some people were falling down.
It was a cool idea to have the lights switched to green and red
for the holiday, but whoever setthe lights up made them way too
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dim. My girlfriend told me to wait
for the lights to switch back onand we did.
A minute later the normal lightspopped back on and we stepped
onto the ice. My girlfriend skated awkwardly
for a few minutes but got the hang of it fairly quickly and we
were soon flying around the rink.
After about 6 laps, the lights went out again, but this time it
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seems to me that it was even darker than before.
My girlfriend grabbed my arm andclung to me as we tried not to
run into anyone as we skated in the near darkness.
Now. She asked me.
It's getting darker, don't you think?
I agreed and the lights popped back on again.
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We sighed with relief and continued skating.
As we made our way around, we passed a man wearing a dark red
trench coat that was about to step onto the ice.
He had a dark red hood over his head which covered most of his
face. After noticing him, I looked
around for my family and spottedthem sitting down on the benches
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drinking their hot cocoa. I looked over to my girlfriend
who had broken away from my arm and she looked nervous.
I skated closer to her and askedher if she wanted to get off the
ice. She said no, but that she was
worried about when the lights flipped to the dark green and
red again. She was worried that they would
flip off completely and leave everyone in complete darkness.
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As if on cue, the lights switched off and they switched
off completely. My girlfriend gasped, along with
many other people around us. For the briefest of moments,
everyone was quiet and it was pitch black.
It was an incredibly eerie feeling.
Then suddenly being on the ice with so many people but feeling
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alone. Then suddenly I heard a woman
scream. Then I heard commotion.
The woman's screams were silenced and then I heard a man
yell in a similar way, like theyhad just been really hurt by
something. My girlfriend and I ran into a
group of people and we all collapsed onto the ice.
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She started calling my name and I could hear the fear in her
voice. People were falling all around
us and then I heard another woman scream.
This scream was piercing and I knew at that moment that
something was very wrong. The woman continued to scream
when I heard somebody else scream bloody murder.
(37:59):
At this point, I could hear noises of frantic people
falling, moving, and screaming trying to escape the ice rink.
I tried to stand up but was hit by people in all directions and
my hands were sliding across theice as I crawled.
It felt like razor blades. I was hyperventilating when
suddenly I felt an extreme pain in the tip of my middle finger
(38:24):
on my right hand. I realized that somebody had
just skated over it. I stopped crawling and heard yet
another ear piercing scream of agony and terror.
I started calling my girlfriend's name but did not
get a response. Somebody skated into me, their
knee hitting my face hard. I fell flat onto the ice and my
(38:47):
breath was taken away when I felt random people topple on top
of me, one person landing on my stomach as they all tried to
separate from each other and myself.
I felt an ice skate slice my thigh.
I started crawling again fast, and I could feel my finger
pulsating as blood gushed from the wound.
I hit a wall and I remember feeling the tiniest relief.
(39:10):
I called my girlfriend's name again, but once again no
response. In the midst of screams and
frantic mayhem, it sounded as ifeveryone was screaming now and I
thought that I might have a heart attack.
I stuck to the side of the wall and attempted to stand up onto
my skates again. I reached my feet and started
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coughing. I felt somebody clip my back as
they skated by me, and then suddenly I felt pain.
Pain in my back. Monumental pain.
The worst pain I've ever felt. At first I thought somebody had
somehow cut my back with an ice skate, but I twisted my arm and
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reached around to my back to feel what it was.
Somebody then crashed into me and I fell onto the ice once
more. Tears poured from my eyes and
screams erupted from all around me.
I twisted my arm to reach my back again and I felt it.
Somebody had stabbed me. My breathing started to get
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heavy and a full breath was difficult to achieve.
The pain was growing more intense and I felt panic set in
as it felt like the pain would not reach a stopping point and
would just increase and increase.
Suddenly I heard another scream very close.
It was mine. My screams joined the rest and I
(40:38):
began sobbing In between screams.
I started crawling once more, but I couldn't move as I did
before. My muscles were becoming weaker
and I felt as if I were falling asleep.
I moved slowly and I could feel thick, syrupy liquid wherever I
put my hands on the ice. It was warm.
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I knew it was blood, my blood, and I suddenly began coughing
again with no control and didn'tstop.
I put my hand over my mouth and stopped crawling.
I felt blood coming out of my throat as I coughed and it
started to block my nasal passage and I could barely
breathe. The screams were absolutely ear
(41:23):
shattering at this point. I lay on my back and started to
shiver. After a few minutes I felt
people fall and trip over me once again and I flipped over
onto my stomach. After this I looked up and I
could see small beams of light all over the place.
And then I heard people speak. It was the police, I thought to
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myself. They were running and tripping
over people, trying to get people out, trying to help.
I put my arm up and said the word.
Help. But nothing came out.
I couldn't say it. I dropped my arm back to the ice
and I felt my eyes start to close.
(42:07):
I cleared my throat full of blood and coughed it onto the
ice. Everything at that moment went
black. I awoke in a hospital bed. 24
people were murdered on the ice skating rink that night, my
girlfriend included. I recently moved into a big
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house, just temporarily. It's kind of a complicated
situation. The house belongs to a family
member. They were going to be gone for a
few months, that sort of thing. I was going to be there on my
own. So obviously I thought, what if
this place is haunted? There wasn't anything in the
(43:04):
house when I moved in, but thereis now.
I was in the main hallway unpacking some stuff when the
doorbell rang. That put me on edge right away,
because the house is at the end of a long driveway and kind of
out of the way. You have to go looking for it.
There was an old woman at the door, or sort of old, it was
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kind of hard to tell. This was in broad daylight, but
there was still something kind of off about her.
She was really tall, like a fullhead taller than me, and there
was something weird about the way she looked.
It was like none of her clothes fit her properly.
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She shook my hand and smiled really wide and told me that she
was from the neighborhood council or something and asked
if she could come in and talk tome.
My gut reaction was to say no, but I couldn't really think of a
reason to. She was just an old woman, what
was she going to do? I really wish I had just slammed
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the door in her face. I brought her into the living
room and she sort of tottered behind me, like her feet didn't
fit into her shoes properly. She sat down without asking and
grinned at me until I took a seat across from her.
For about half a minute she didn't say anything, just smiled
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and stared at me while it got increasingly awkward.
Just as I was about to break thesilence, she fished into her
pocket and pulled out this really big old fashioned candy,
the type that comes in see through wrapping.
Here, she said, eat this. I should probably point out here
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that she spoke really quietly, so it was difficult to hear
anything she said. I accepted the candy, kind of
taken aback, and unwrapped it. It was dark red, almost black.
I popped it into my mouth because she was still grinning
at me and nodding her head. Have you ever walked around
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behind a supermarket where they keep those big bins?
They throw meat that's gone bad in those bins.
Imagine that rancid smell, but on a hot summer day.
It's so thick you can almost feel it in the air.
That is what this candy tasted like.
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I almost spit it out onto the floor, but social niceties made
me chew the thing and force it down my throat.
The woman was talking the whole time, but between the taste and
her quiet voice, I barely heard her.
My mouth tasted like rotten meat, so I politely told her I
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was going to get some water and walked fast into the kitchen.
When I came back, she was gone. I had been in the kitchen for
less than 30 seconds. My first reaction probably
should have been to assume that she went to the bathroom or had
to leave in a hurry. Instead, I searched the entire
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house. I went through every single room
convinced I was going to open a closet or look under a bed and
see her stuffed in there grinning at me.
That didn't happen, obviously, but I was still extremely on
edge. As the sun started to go down, I
felt like I was turning off the light in my bedroom after
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spotting a giant spider in there.
That night I propped a chair against my bedroom door because
I just couldn't shake the feeling that the woman was still
in the house somewhere, hiding. I woke up at around 2:30 in the
morning and heard creaking floorboards downstairs.
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It was an old house and unfamiliar.
I kept telling myself that untilthe noises stopped.
When I woke up the next morning,there was a red candy on the
living room table. I'll tell you the same thing I
told the police. No, I couldn't be absolutely
(47:32):
certain that the candy wasn't there the day before.
Maybe I had just overlooked it, but I didn't think so.
They told me that the organization the woman claimed
to come from did not actually exist and clearly thought I was
was wasting their time. After they left, I searched the
(47:52):
entire house again and the grounds.
Then I searched them again. By the time I was finished, I
had managed to calm down a bit and looked at the situation
rationally. The woman probably left the
candy there the previous day andI just didn't notice.
I had searched the whole house twice now.
(48:15):
There was nowhere she could possibly be hiding.
She was probably just some doddery old lady who wandered
off while I was in the kitchen. As I prepared to go to bed, I
had managed to fully delude myself into thinking nothing
strange was going on. I decided not to do anything
childish like blocking my door, because what was I afraid of?
(48:39):
Even if she somehow was still inside the house somewhere, what
was she going to do? At some point in the middle of
the night, I woke up abruptly, knowing in the back of my mind
that something was wrong. I guess I must have heard
something in my sleep. I turned over onto my side and
(49:00):
reached out to turn on the bedside lamp, groping around
because I was in an unfamiliar room.
When the light came on, I saw the old woman standing right
next to my bed. I only got the briefest glimpse
of her before she vanished into the unlit hallway outside my
door. I now believe that the human
(49:21):
brain has a special compartment for dealing with experiences far
outside the realm of the natural.
If I had woken up to find a burglar in my room, I probably
would have gone numb with panic.If there was a lion at the foot
of my bed, I would have been tooparalyzed with fear to do
anything. But as soon as the woman the
(49:44):
woman was gone, that special compartment took over.
I jumped out of bed and slammed the door shut and then shoved
the chair up against the handle.Then I dashed for my phone.
No signal, no Internet. I later found out there was
nothing wrong with the phone or the local service.
(50:06):
I think she was interfering withit somehow.
The drop from the bedroom windowwasn't too high.
If I landed just right, I would probably avoid injury.
But what if I sprained my ankle or broke my leg?
I had a sudden vision of pullingmyself across the dark garden
while the woman sprinted after me and decided I didn't want to
(50:30):
risk it. That gave me two options.
Wait out the night in my bedroomor try to get out of the house.
Now I went for the second option.
I had a thought that my flimsy barricade would not hold if the
woman decided she wanted back in.
I broke one of the chair legs off and crept slowly into the
(50:53):
hallway, reaching carefully for the light switch.
When I pressed it, the lights came on for a second and then
faded out. I flicked the switch a few more
times. Nothing.
Some gut instincts told me she was sabotaging them somehow.
I used my phone for light as I slowly, quietly crept along the
(51:18):
upstairs hallway and down the stairs.
The light barely traced the shapes of the walls and the
dark, yawning frames of open doorways.
I jumped at every single shadow and unidentifiable shape,
certain that any second that grinning face would appear out
of the shadows. I got downstairs into the front
(51:39):
door. I had double locked it and put
the chain in place. Just as I was reaching for the
first lock, I heard rapid unevenfootsteps at the top of the
stairs. Approaching swiftly, I undid the
first lock. A high pitched shriek came from
the hallway down the stairs and I screamed as I undid the second
(52:01):
lock and wrenched the door open.It stuck fast.
I had forgotten the chain. I glanced behind me and saw the
tall, spindly shape of the womanhalf running, half falling down
the stairs toward me, her head lolling backward and her mouth
hanging open. I can't even remember getting
(52:21):
the chain off. I might actually have just
yanked the door open so hard that it broke.
In any case, the last I saw of the woman was her face inches
away from me as I slammed the door shut.
I sprinted to the nearest house and they called the police.
Possibly because I was half delirious with fear and babbling
(52:44):
incoherently, the police once again failed to find anything
unusual. It's been a week.
I'm staying at a friend's place,sleeping with the lights on and
the bedroom door barricaded. The house's real owners aren't
back yet. I'm not sure what I'm going to
(53:05):
tell them, but I have to stop them from going back there
somehow. This isn't a haunting, it's an
infestation. I can't stop thinking about all
the holes in our defenses, the windows and doors left open, the
(53:26):
strangers invited into our living rooms.
I just hope it's the house that she wanted and not me.
(53:51):
When I look back at my younger years from around the age of 9,
all I can picture is the holidayhome that we visited and what
happened there. The location that we stayed in
was a frequent choice for us with about 3 or 4 visits in the
past. Each time we visited, we had
consistently positive experiences.
(54:13):
It was located in a remote area about 30 minutes away from
everything, and there wasn't a phone signal for at least three
miles. The memory of that night still
haunts me even now. As a 28 year old man, I
frequently attend therapy sessions to address my anxiety
about that night. So let me take you back to the
(54:33):
winter of 1996. After a long and challenging
drive through harsh weather and treacherous terrain, my family
and I finally arrived at our cabin in the dead of the night.
The cozy little house we were staying in was a charming 2
bedroom cabin nestled within nature.
(54:54):
The kitchen was small but functional, and the living room
was even tinier, giving it a snug and intimate feel as my
father prepared wood for the campfire and my mother lovingly
tucked me and my. Sister, who was seven at the
time, into bed. A sudden loud bang on the door
startled us all. My father cautiously peered
(55:16):
through the keyhole, only to find no one on the other side.
He bravely opened the door to investigate, but the surrounding
area appeared empty, leaving allof us puzzled and a little
uneasy. At first we thought the incident
was just an animal running into the door, but I couldn't shake
(55:38):
an uneasy feeling that night. I was terrified thinking about
someone outside in the dark creeping around our house.
Despite my fear, I eventually fell asleep, but it was
restless. A few days passed and little
(55:59):
happened. Apart from a few strange sounds
coming from outside every now and then, and the odd stuttering
of the lights, everything was going smoothly and our trip
appeared to be rather ordinary. That was, until we saw him.
I couldn't accurately make it out in the dark, but from what I
(56:21):
could see, there was a slender, lanky man peering down through
the window. His skin was Gray, his eyes were
jet black, and he had a massive,gaping grin stretching across
his face. Everyone fell silent, we were
all just staring directly at thewindow, petrified and helpless.
(56:45):
The silence was broken by a blood curdling scream from
outside, which was shortly followed by the disappearance of
the creature at the window. I don't know what it was or who
it was, but I sure as hell didn't want to wait to find out.
The car was parked about 5 seconds away from the door, so
(57:06):
this would have taken us around 10 seconds to Sprint over there,
open the doors, turn the key, and drive away.
My father instantly sprung into action, grabbing the double
barrel weapon our family kept for emergencies and smashing
through the front door. He stared down the sight,
watching as whatever it was dashed towards him and shot 2
(57:30):
slugs directly into the chest. Of the beast within a split
second. We all sprinted outside and into
the car as we watched whatever it was lay on the floor.
As soon as my father started theignition we were out of there as
if a bullet leaving a rifle. We never went back to that place
(57:52):
and I hope no one else did either.
I don't know what I saw that night, but what I do know is
that if my father hadn't made that split second decision, my
whole family may have ended up dead.
(58:57):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:10:08):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:20:19):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:23:49):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:28:07):
Yeah.
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