September 23, 2025 • 91 mins
💀 Go ad-free + unlock perks ($2.99/month) → https://open.spotify.com/show/6EVEYUdrCx4HCa16MZQdF3No ads • Exclusive long-form episodes • Automatic entry into monthly giveaways (proof posted on IG)
Calm narration + immersive rain ambience, perfect for late-night chills, uneasy dreams, or falling asleep.
🔥 Also check out my other podcast — Scary Stories and Fire
More chilling tales with the crackle of firelight → https://open.spotify.com/show/007fyPR3zCdgA7CNPwfNqx
👻 More horror content → http://chilling.app.link/chillingall📷 Proof of giveaways → Instagram @scarystoriesrain_podcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
Before we begin, I just want to remind you to follow this
podcast. It really helps me out a lot and
it'll ensure that you never missan episode.
And if you would like to take things a step further, you can
subscribe for just 299 a month. As a subscriber, you'll enjoy
every episode completely ad free.
Plus, you'll automatically be entered to win every giveaway
(00:22):
that I do each month. Right now there's a PlayStation
5 up for grabs, which will be given away in mid-october.
Subscribers also get access to the Ultimate episodes.
These are extra long. I'm talking 6-8 to 12 hours
uninterrupted stories with relaxing rainfall designed for
falling asleep, staying asleep all night long relaxing, or just
(00:46):
enjoying hours of long form entertainment.
And last thing before we begin, I just want to say thank you so
much for being here and I reallyhope you enjoy this episode.
This is a true story that happened in 2014.
I am a female junior high schoolteacher in a province in the
(01:09):
Philippines. The school where I teach is one
of the first private schools in that province to install CCT VS
in all classrooms for the safetyof students, teachers and all
staff. Three months previously I had
what I can only assume is a paranormal experience while
teaching in one of the third floor classrooms, but when I
(01:31):
checked the CCTV footage in the admin office, the feed for my
classroom malfunctioned. The security officer back then
found it really strange too because every single feed in the
building was working properly except for the room where I was
at and at the exact period wherethis strange occurrence
happened. Long story short, I saw and
(01:53):
interacted with the student who turned out not to be there on
that day and I didn't even have CCTV footage to prove it.
Ever since then, I was on the lookout for more strange
encounters in the classrooms. Remember, this school was in a
province and the people who wereborn and raised there have a lot
of stories to tell of unexplainable circumstances that
(02:14):
can only be described as paranormal.
But the months passed without incident and I started to forget
what happened until one day I was in my 10th grade class at
this time in room 405. The second quarterly exams were
just finished last week, and I wanted to spend this period
showing my students their progress. 1:00 so that I can
(02:37):
congratulate and give credits tostudents who did well, and 2:00
so that I can talk to students who are falling behind.
I have their grades in an excel file on my laptop, but grades
are private documents. So I arranged my excel sheet,
zoomed it in and froze some of the cells so that only one
student's grades will be shown at a time.
(02:59):
I then placed my laptop in the high table situated at the front
and right side of the classroom,my laptop facing me, of course
away from the student's eyes. I then asked my students to form
a line in front of me so that I can show them their grades one
by one. The rest of the students can
just chill or review for their next class while waiting for
(03:19):
their turn. And so it started.
After the first student is done,I told the next student in line
to wait for a few seconds while I adjust the excel sheet, my
hand raised in the air in a stopgesture.
This is to avoid students seeingthe grades of those before them.
Then, when the excel file is ready, I tell them to approach.
(03:42):
Remember, I made it so that onlyone grade is visible at a time.
Some students were pumping theirfists in the air or high fiving
me or hugging each other when they see how well they did.
Others were sighing sadly, asking me for ways to make up
for it, or laughing at how bad they did.
Each interaction with a student lasted for about 5 seconds to a
(04:02):
minute, some students taking longer if they needed assurance
that they can do better next time.
I was dreading showing one of mystudents her grade.
Let's call her Anna. Admittedly, she was the noisiest
girl in class, but in the first quarter she was one of my
brightest students. For the second quarter, she lost
(04:24):
interest in the subject, often times chatting with her
seatmate, turning in assignmentslate, and performing poorly.
Overall, her grade for this quarter went down by three
points, and I was preparing myself mentally to comfort her.
When it was her turn, she was coming up next in line, right
behind her friend, who we will call Jane.
(04:46):
Please remember that in the line, Jane was standing before
Anna. This will be important later.
After I showed Jane her grade, Itook a deep breath and faced
Anna. I motioned for her to come
forward. She was silent, expressionless.
She looked at the screen for a few seconds, then turned away
(05:06):
and went back to her seat without saying anything.
I was confused because Anna was not the silent type.
I shrugged it off and just went on showing my students their
grades one by one. A little bit further down the
line, I can hear some students chatting and laughing away, and
as the line inched forward, I noticed that these happy, loud
(05:28):
students included Anna. She was next in line again.
I was quite relieved to see thatshe was in a better mood, but I
was confused why she was in lineagain.
I asked her. You wanted to see your grades
again? Anna said again.
I haven't seen my grades yet. Once again, I shrugged it off
(05:52):
and showed her her grade. This time she reacted.
She gasped, covered her mouth and whined.
Oh, my grades went down. What am I going to do in that
funny, drama queen way that we're all so familiar with?
Her friends laughed and teased her good naturedly and they went
(06:12):
on their way. At that moment, I had a strange
feeling. Who was the first Anna who
checked her grade? Was she telling the truth when
she told me she had been in lineonly once?
When that period ended, I could not wait to check the CCTV
footage. I wanted real, tangible proof
that Anna was in that line. Twice.
(06:35):
Immediately after class, I marched down to the admin office
and asked if I could see the CCTV footage of room 405.
I will try to explain what I sawin the best way I can.
In the monitor where I can see the footage for room 405, I
could see myself standing in theupper right hand corner with
that line of students starting from that point to the lower
(06:58):
right hand corner. It was grainy, but I could
clearly see myself clicking on my laptop, gesturing for the
next students in line to wait, then telling them to come
closer, so on and so forth. I could even see the facial
expressions on my face and my students.
Now, before I tell you what I saw next, I would just like to
(07:21):
ask you to think back to when you last lined up in a queue.
There's this automatic response in everyone that if the person
ahead of you moves forward, you move forward as well, and that
the distance between each personin line is somewhat equal.
You just don't leave an empty space in front of you when
you're in line. Back to the CCTV footage a few
(07:43):
minutes later. At the bottom of the screen, I
could see Jane falling in line, talking to some people in front
of her. I waited with bated breath to
see Anna in the footage as the line inched forward.
Jane did too. Any moment now, I expect to see
Anna at the bottom of the screen.
But Anna was not there. The line inched forward again.
(08:08):
Jane stepped forward. Still no Anna.
I can clearly see another student step behind Jane, but
for some reason she stayed about3 to 4 feet behind Jane.
You know, a space large enough to fit another person in the
line. But there was no one in that
empty space. As the line continues to move
(08:29):
forward, I noticed that the people behind Jane maintained
their distance. That empty space behind her
remained constant. This seemed really weird to me
because the people behind Jane are looking forward talking to
Jane and that she sometimes looks back to them, talking,
laughing, but never occupying that space.
(08:51):
This is really weird because youjust don't leave an empty space
in front of you when you're in aline, right?
Finally, it's Jane's turn to approach me in that upper right
corner. In the footage, the space behind
her still remained empty. When Jane left, I saw myself
look at my laptop with the lightfrom the monitor shining on my
(09:13):
face, and then I saw myself in the video completely freeze up.
None of the students behind Janewere approaching me.
They can clearly see me. That was apparent in the
footage. They were still moving.
Everything was still moving except for me in the video.
(09:34):
I asked the security officer to zoom in on my face.
Me in the video was completely still.
I was not even blinking. I don't think I was even
breathing. After 10 seconds, me in the
video started moving again and that's when the next student in
line finally occupied that emptyspace.
(09:55):
The officer and I looked at eachother weirded out what happened
there. Did you have a stroke or
something? He jokingly asked, then seeing
my expression asked me what's wrong.
So he paused the video and listened as I told him what
happened earlier. After listening to my story, he
(10:15):
said nothing left to do but check if the second Anna was
real. I nodded and so we continued
watching the footage. I kept my eyes focused on the
bottom right. I asked the officer to forward
the footage a bit until I could see Anna at the bottom of the
line. This time I could clearly see
Anna chatting with her friends in line, being her usual self.
(10:40):
When she finally reached me at the top, I can see our
interaction the way I rememberedit earlier.
Me smiling, her covering her mouth, her friends laughing at
her exactly as I remembered it. I asked the officer to stop the
video and thanked him for his time.
The officer gave me a kind of look and told me to take it
(11:00):
easy. My mind was racing.
Did I really see Anna twice in the classroom?
Did I just hallucinate the firstAnna that approached me?
It's possible, maybe. I'm pretty sure there's a
scientific or neurological explanation for stuff like that,
but I've never experienced that before.
(11:20):
I mean, if I randomly freeze during the day, surely my
students and my Co teachers willhave noticed it by now.
I was ready to accept that the first Anna, this silent Anna,
the expressionless Anna was my imagination.
But then, if there really was noone in line after Jane, why
(11:41):
didn't the student after her approach me after I was done
talking to Jane? It's apparent in the footage
that they can see me for the 10 seconds that I was not moving.
The students next in line could see me.
If I did really freeze up, surely one of the students will
approach, if not to see her grade, then to ask me if I was
OK. And also, why was there an empty
(12:04):
space behind Jane? An empty space that the students
behind her never stepped into? Could they have possibly seen
someone in the line behind Jane?Could they perhaps, like me, saw
this silent girl approach me? A silent girl who looked just
like Anna, but was not Anna? This is a story I don't usually
(12:37):
tell because I'm not sure if I was overreacting, but it's
something that still haunts me to this day.
This took place during my freshman year at university a
few years ago. It was around 5:00 AM on the day
I was supposed to leave to go back home for summer break.
I'm a huge procrastinator, so I had been up all night packing up
my dorm room and doing a ton of laundry.
(13:00):
Before I get into what happened,I think it's important to
mention that my dorm building was 17 floors high and I was on
the 15th floor. Each floor had its own little
laundry room. The laundry room on our floor
was all the way across the building for me because my room
was at the very end of the hall in an entire different wing.
(13:20):
Since my dorm was at the end of the hall, my room was directly
across the exit door leading to the staircase.
While I was packing that night into the early morning, I kept
hearing the door to the staircase occasionally opening
and shutting a few times every hour.
It wasn't exactly weird enough for me to be concerned about
(13:41):
since the Ras did their rounds every hour or so and it was
policy for them to use the staircase to patrol every floor.
However, it was weird enough forme to notice the amount of times
the door kept opening and closing as that was uncommon and
usually the RA stopped their rounds around 2:00 AM, but I
just brushed it off and figured they were doing extra rounds
(14:03):
because it was move out day. Sometime between 4:30 and 5:00,
AMI was standing in my room about to put on a shirt to go
switch around my laundry. As I was pulling the shirt over
my head, my door opened and a man stepped in.
He was dressed in all black witha hood over his head and made it
difficult to see his face. From what I could tell, he
(14:26):
looked like a student. He was young, maybe early 20s or
so, and filled my door frame at about 6 feet tall.
I stood in fear and confusion without a shirt on and stared at
this man with my mouth wide openin shock.
We just stared at each other, not saying a word for what felt
like forever but was probably only a minute or so still in
(14:50):
perspective. It was too long.
He had the most blank and lifeless expression I had ever
seen. I had no idea who this man was.
I was already so tired and stressed from packing I barely
remember finally muttering the words.
What the heck? The man quietly mumbled sorry,
(15:12):
backed out of the room and slowly shut my door.
I stood there in shock for a fewseconds before quickly putting
on my shirt and grabbing a smallpocket knife I had in my desk
drawer. I hurried and locked my door
before I could even take a breath.
My thoughts began racing. Who was that guy?
Why did he just walk into my room?
(15:33):
Why didn't he seem surprised or shocked that he just walked into
a stranger's room? My brain forced rational thought
and I came to the conclusion that he must have accidentally
came into my room and meant to go into my suite mates room who
lived next door to me. I told myself it was probably
her boyfriend and maybe he was drunk and went to the wrong door
(15:54):
or something, but he didn't seemdrunk, in fact he didn't seem to
have any emotion at all. I felt much better after coming
to this conclusion, but I was still reluctant to go out and
get my laundry. After a few minutes of hyping
myself up and telling myself that it was just an accident, I
finally went to get my laundry, making sure the coast was clear
(16:17):
1st and making sure to lock my door behind me just in case.
I switched the clothes and dragged my laundry basket
quickly down the hall and back to my room.
As I stood in front of my door to unlock it, I glanced up and
all of the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
I looked up and saw my huge nametag that my RA placed on my door
(16:40):
at the beginning of the year. I realized he could not have
possibly mistaken my room for someone else's as my name was
written in big black letters on my door.
I rushed into my room and lockedthe door behind me as more
questions began to fill my head.I was still really freaked out
about what had happened and it replayed in my head over and
(17:01):
over again. Time had passed and it was
around 6:00 AM at this point. I could still hear the staircase
door being opened and closed periodically, but thought
nothing of it at the time. I continued to pack my clothes
while being overly aware of my surroundings, which probably
made the next part of this even more horrifying for me.
(17:22):
It's like that feeling when you're waiting for something
really scary to happen, or you're trying to scare yourself
and you have this huge pit in your stomach and you're
constantly on edge, but nothing happens.
Except something did happen. My door knob begin to violently
turn. It was constant and forceful,
(17:43):
like somebody knew they wanted to get in here even though the
door was locked. I grabbed my knife and stood in
the middle of my room facing thedoor, telling myself that I
might actually have to stab thisguy.
After about an entire minute of him trying to open my door, he
left. I knew something was definitely
wrong. Now I was completely and utterly
(18:06):
freaked out. If I had any thought left that
this man had accidentally came to the wrong room, it was
definitely no more. He could not have possibly came
to the wrong room twice, especially when my door was
labeled with my name and I had no idea who he was.
I picked up my phone and called my mom who was five hours away
(18:28):
and frantically explained what had happened and she told me to
keep my door locked and that if he came back again I should call
the police. We hung up the phone and I tried
my hardest to stay focused on finishing up my room.
Around 6:30 there was frantic knocking at my door.
I was horrified and just wished whatever this was would stop.
(18:50):
I looked through the peephole and saw a girl who lived across
from me at my door. I opened it and she was
hysterical. She was crying and asking me for
help. I asked her what was wrong and
what she told me left me speechless.
She said that she woke up to a man standing in her room.
She explained that she was sleeping and a little tipsy when
(19:12):
she woke up from drinking the previous night and had woken up
suddenly to the feeling of beingwatched.
When she realized there was someone standing by her bed, she
screamed and he ran out of the room.
That's when she got dressed and came to my door.
She had no idea how long he had been there for.
I told her we needed to call thecampus police and reassured her
(19:36):
she would not get in trouble forbeing intoxicated.
I called the police for her and we waited together for them to
come. When they arrived about 10
minutes later, the officer questioned us about what had
happened and I explained the incident that went down only an
hour earlier. While I was explaining what the
man looked like, my suite maid stepped out of her room and said
(19:58):
are you talking about a man coming into your room?
I told her yes and asked if she had heard anything.
My suite maid told us about an hour ago she woke up next to a
man standing next to her bed just watching her.
After about 30 seconds of him standing there, he spoke.
What he said to her will continue to haunt me for the
(20:19):
rest of my life. He looked at her blank and dead
eyed and said that's what you get for sleeping with your door
unlocked and walked out of her room like it was nothing.
This happened right after he initially came into my room.
I don't think the police ever figured out who it was since I
never heard back from them, but there are still questions that
(20:41):
rack my brain. Who was that guy?
Was he one just walking in and out of their staircase for
hours? Doing this on multiple floors?
What was he doing at 5:00 in themorning?
How did he get into the dorm in the 1st place?
And the one question that still gives me goosebumps?
What would have happened if I didn't lock the door the first
(21:03):
time and he actually got into myroom the second time he came
back? When I was around 12 years old I
had a pretty creepy experience in my house.
To give some back story, I'm theyoungest of three with two
(21:25):
sisters. The way my house was laid out is
my mom and dad's room was on theone side of the house and me and
my sister's rooms were on the other side with the living room
in the middle. Now my oldest sister is actually
my step sister. Even though I have never thought
of her like that, she has alwaysbeen a true sister to me.
During this time, she was going through a lot.
(21:48):
She struggled with bipolar disorder and had spent many
nights getting into screaming matches with her boyfriends at
ungodly hours of the morning. These arguments would almost
always end in some sort of violent situation.
I remember one specific instancevery clearly where my sister was
so furious at her boyfriend for watching something I'll leave to
(22:08):
your imagination on his phone right in front of her.
She started to beat and scratch his face with a high heel shoe.
Anyway, one night something was weird.
No guest was in the house, and Iknew this when falling asleep.
Yet when I heard the screams at 2:00 in the morning, I was still
unaffected. I imagined that one of my
(22:31):
sister's boyfriends had snuck inthrough the window to see her
and they were now erupting into another fight.
But I was wrong. I heard my parents run into my
sister's room, bursting through the door.
They were silent for a few seconds as my sister continued
to scream and scream. I started to realize this was
not like the other times. This wasn't an argument with a
(22:53):
high school boy. These were wails of true terror.
After what seemed like forever but was really like 15 seconds,
my parents started yelling. What?
What? Why are you screaming?
All I could hear while sitting in my bed was my sister
responding right there, right there.
How can you not see? How can you ask me that?
(23:17):
This went on for a while and my sister was taken out of her room
by my parents and she stayed in the kitchen drinking tea for the
rest of the night. My parents and sister didn't
tell me anything that had happened since.
In comparison to the drama that has happened in our household
previously, this was a pretty peaceful night.
Now it was the next day and timefor bed again.
(23:39):
I was having a little trouble falling asleep because I was
still thinking about what my sister was screaming about.
Was she seeing things? Sleep paralysis?
Was she on something? Was there a ghost in the house?
The hallways then proceeded to carry my sister screams
throughout the house again, thistime several hours earlier than
(24:02):
last night and even louder. My sister screamed like I have
never heard any scream before. The words she said mixed with
the tone of her voice gives me ice cold skin penetrating
chills. Just as I tell this story, my
sister was screaming the words just kill me fast, don't hurt
(24:24):
me, just kill me fast. This time my whole family,
myself included, ran into her room.
This sounded serious. She was screaming in terror and
pointing into the corner of a room, but again, there was
nothing there. She claimed that a large dark
figure with a purple robe and red eyes was standing in the
(24:46):
corner of a room watching her with a sinister presence.
I began to get frustrated with my sister.
I thought she was doing this forsome kind of twisted desire for
attention. In a lot of ways, that's what I
felt a lot of her dramatic situations were.
But on the third night, I would come to believe her.
(25:07):
On the third night, we put one of our dogs in my sister's room
to keep her company. She was a small pappy poo, which
is a ridiculous name for a mix of papillon and poodle.
Her name was Twilight. She was a good dog and always
very perceptive. Twilight was always the first to
know when someone was approaching our house or even
(25:27):
just walking past it. That night I didn't even bother
sleeping as I knew there was going to be screams to startle
me awake anyway. I was just staying up playing
Saints Row 3 until I passed out from exhaustion or something.
I hadn't been sleeping for the past two nights and it was a
train wreck at school, but at this point I didn't really care.
(25:50):
And then right on cue, at around1:00 in the morning, the
screams. I was mad that my sister was
carrying on with this act, keeping me and my whole family
awake. I was the only one who decided
to stay awake in my house, and my sister's room is right next
to mine. So I got up, walked in there
fast, getting ready to give my sister a piece of my mind on her
(26:12):
attention seeking behavior. But then I heard Twilight not
just barking, but howling. Like a desperate, urgent
howling. I had never heard it before from
her, and would never hear it again as long as Twilight lived.
I was taken aback by that, but Ibarged in the room anyway, and
(26:35):
there was my sister screaming interror while staring, eyes wide
open, into the corner of the room.
And there was Twilight, looking at the exact, and I mean exact
same place my sister was looking.
Twilight had her head up, looking at the corner of the
room, howling. It was such an uncanny image,
(26:57):
two beings reacting in terror and distress.
It's something I could not see. Now I am not a religious person.
I was raised to believe that angels and demons exist, but I
have no real belief in any kind of spiritual warfare anymore.
Then I believe in the Q Anon theories of Hollywood
celebrities sacrificing babies to the devil or whatever.
(27:19):
But I do believe in my own two eyes and I still can't explain
what they saw. After all this, my sister was
brought into therapy after taking my dad's advice and my
mom had the room blessed by the priest from our church.
It never happened again. When I was about 10 or 11, I
(27:46):
shared a room with my two older sisters.
Now we would stay up late at night talking sometimes getting
us into trouble. But this one particular night we
had our window open ajar and theblinds open meaning anyone on
the outside could see in becausewe also had a lamp in our
bedroom. As we were laying in bed
(28:07):
talking, there was a knock on the window.
None of us could move or speak. We didn't know what to do so we
ignored it. 5 minutes went by and nothing else happened so we
continued our conversation. When knock knock knock this time
we all ran out of our bedroom and went straight to our parents
(28:29):
room where we told them what wasgoing on. 1st we woke up our mom
because she's a light sleeper anyway.
Then she woke up our dad. My dad being the brave guy he is
went outside with a bat while mymom went into our room with us.
When my dad came back inside he told us there was no one out
there reassuring us it's OK to go back to sleep.
(28:52):
We did 10 minutes go by when another knock woke us all up
including our mom. She jumped out of bed, went into
her room, woke up our dad and I remember I heard her say call
the police. As the police arrived they
looked around the house and found nothing.
Now I thought that was the end of it, but as I got older I
(29:15):
asked my mom about it. That's when I learned something
very disturbing. The police found footprints
underneath our window in the garden.
Also, they found a chair from our porch below our window,
meaning whoever was out there that night must have been
watching us for who knows how long.
(29:36):
All I have to say is close your blinds at night and always close
your window. You never know who may be
watching. This happened to me when I was
around the age of 6. I was watching late night
(29:59):
cartoons on the TV as I did every night before bed and my
parents were having company overas this was very common for
them. Around this time I don't
remember falling asleep but I remember waking up in my room
and the TV was off and the only light coming into my room was
from the moonlight peering through my window.
My room is almost completely black, I couldn't move at all
(30:23):
and I felt like I couldn't breathe, not a feeling of
something on my chest but rathermy throat was closed up so tight
I could barely get a breath of air.
I knew something was wrong so I tried to call out to my parents
but I was unable to speak. I sat there for probably 5
minutes, scared out of my mind. I heard my parents conversing
(30:46):
loudly with their friends in theother room and I thought to
myself that they'll never hear me.
I stared at my door hoping my parents would come in and save
me from whatever was happening. After about 10 minutes, my door
cracked open a little bit and slowly crept open a few inches.
There was a tall figure staring at me through the crack of my
(31:07):
door. I couldn't make out anything
other than they were really talland had a blank stare in their
eyes. The figure in the doorway backed
away and after another few minutes of trying to cry for
help, my mom came in and turned the lights on.
I still couldn't move or talk. My mom grabbed my dad, told him
(31:29):
there's something wrong with me and I need to go to the
hospital. They loaded me up in the back
seat of the family van and droveoff frantically.
The only thing I remember about being taken to the hospital is
seeing the street lights coming in and out of the window as we
drove down the street. Then I lost consciousness.
(31:49):
When I woke up I was in a hospital bed surrounded by
nurses. I had an oxygen mask on my face
and I was hooked up to the IVI could almost talk again and I
tried to say the words what's happening to me but before I
could say anything the nurse said don't worry you're going to
be fine and I fell back asleep. I woke up again seeing my
(32:14):
parents happy standing next to the bed and the nurses were
saying that I would be ready to leave shortly.
Then the nurse took off my mask and gave me this Peach juice
that I'll always remember. My dad carried me on his back
and put me back into the van andwe went home.
I woke up in bed the next day and felt really weird but was
(32:36):
relieved everything was OK. I didn't talk to my parents
about it too much because every time I tried to bring it up,
they wouldn't talk about it and they would just change the
subject. I kind of forgot about it for a
long time, but would still thinkabout it when people would ask
me what's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you?
(32:57):
Years later, when I was in my teens, I brought it up laughing,
saying remember the time you guys had to take me to the
hospital. They just stared at me with a
confused look on their faces. So I described the whole event
in detail and they looked at me like I was on something and said
that I must have dreamt it. So I gave up trying to get them
(33:18):
to remember and went back to my bedroom confused.
I wholeheartedly believe that this was not a dream.
It was so vivid and real and I remember almost everything about
it. The man in the doorway, the
oxygen masks, the juice the nurse gave me, and the absolute
helplessness of not being able to move or speak.
(33:42):
The weirdest thing is I was never taken to the hospital
before and had never seen someone hooked up to an IV
before, so how could I have dreamt that?
When I was 22 I moved into a rental home in Harvey's Lake,
(34:03):
PA. It was very small and somewhat
run down. It reminded me of a cabin that
you see on fishing trips. Honestly, I hated it but could
not afford anything better at the time.
The basement was creepy. The bathroom ceiling sloped
downwards so that the shower head was aimed at my chest and I
(34:25):
could not stand to pee without my head touching the ceiling.
The floor also sloped, but hey, it was cheap with all utilities
provided. Shortly after I had moved in, I
had a dream. One night.
I dreamt in the third person andat first I assumed that what I
was seeing was from my point of view.
(34:48):
It was like I was floating towards my front door in the
middle of a full moon lit night.Once I got to the front door, a
thin pale hand turned the knob and slowly opened it.
It wasn't my hand, so now I knewthat I was seeing the vision of
someone else. Slowly I started walking towards
(35:11):
my bedroom, which was the first room on the right, immediately
after the small kitchen, and I could see myself sleeping in my
bed. My vision then slowly glided
into my room and to the side of my bed by a window, and I was
looking down at myself sleeping on my stomach.
After a second, the thin, pale hand reached down to grab me.
(35:34):
Seeing myself about to be attacked, I violently woke from
the dream and lashed out towardswhere the figure was standing,
knocking things off the night stand next to me.
But there was no one there. Although I told myself that it
was just a dream, I thought it was incredibly weird that there
was no difference in the amount of darkness in my room.
(35:57):
It was apparently a full moon visible right outside my window,
and that made the room more blueand brighter than usual.
It was exactly the same as in mydream.
Most nights it is very dark in my room.
A week or so later I had friendsover.
There was an old bar down the road that we could quickly walk
(36:20):
to, so we got a little drunk andwalked back to my place.
We were watching a movie to passthe time so that my friends
could sober up to drive home, but after a while they all
decided to just stay over. As we were watching the end of a
movie, my friend's girlfriend woke up looking alarmed like she
was having a nightmare and was about to yell.
(36:42):
We all looked at her and she looked relieved to be awake, but
she kept saying to her boyfriendwho was my best friend, come on
let's go, I want to go, I reallydon't want to be here.
After a minute of him telling her that they could not drive,
she calmed down and reluctantly agreed to stay.
(37:02):
Nothing else happened and in themorning they all got up and
drove home. She called me as soon as she got
home to apologize. She was afraid that I got
offended that she did not want to stay in my home and I just
laughed and told her that it wasfine, no big deal.
She then proceeded to tell me why she wanted to leave so bad.
(37:24):
She said she fell asleep and hada dream that some pale evil
looking lady who resembled A demonic witch dressed in black
grabbed her in the apartment andwas dragging her away across the
floor. It was a very violent
apparently, but she woke up in the middle of the nightmare.
She said it was the scariest thing she ever experienced.
(37:47):
I thought she was joking with meuntil I realized that I told no
one of my similar dream. I then told her about my dream
and she freaked out and spent days doing research into the
area and the home, thinking thatsomething bad must have happened
there, but found nothing. She never came over again after
(38:09):
that, but it didn't matter. I was out of there within a few
months and the house was torn down about 10 years later.
This is not my story, but my dad's.
(38:31):
He gave me permission to share it.
When my dad was around the age of 10, he had a somewhat creepy
experience that to this day keeps him from leaving windows
open in the night. His mother worked at a mental
health facility and they actually lived just down the
road from said facility. His mother was head cook in a
(38:51):
large kitchen there. All the patients adored her as
she had worked there a very longtime.
My dad and his younger brother shared a room together.
They had two twin beds that sat on either side of a large window
that was right smack dab betweentheir beds.
Things were different back then.It was perfectly safe to sleep
(39:13):
with your windows wide open whenit was hot outside.
One hot summer late night my dadawoke to someone touching his
face. When he realized that what he
was feeling was an adult hand, he opened his eyes to a woman
caressing his face while lightlysinging.
He leaped out of bed and stood there staring at her.
(39:36):
She wore a white dress and she did nothing but stand right at
their window with a smile on herface.
Leaving his sleeping brother, mydad ran from the room to his
parents bedroom to get help. All three of them rushed into
the room to find the woman attempting to crawl inside.
His mom screamed the woman's name, shocking them all, then
(39:58):
said she is a patient from my work.
She wasn't wearing a dress like my dad had initially thought.
It was actually a hospital gown.The hospital was quickly called.
Searchers have been looking for her for a short time already.
She had gotten out somehow and had wandered down to their home
(40:21):
since it was a short distance away.
My dad is in his 60s now, and hestill checks the windows nightly
to make sure they are shut and locked.
One summer in the late 90s, whenI was about 11 or 12, my dad
(40:46):
took my little brother and I on vacation to Northern California.
We decided to spend a day at theSanta Cruz Boardwalk.
I sat alone on our blanket on the sand while my dad and
brother played in the ocean. Not too far away, a man walking
by himself on the beach crept upand squatted beside me so that
(41:06):
he sat eye level with me. He was probably early to mid
20s, had black spiky hair and all black clothing.
He held a lit cigarette in the hand closest to me and wore a
mischievous smirk on his face. He smiled and quietly said.
Hi, I'm Shadow, what's your name?
(41:29):
I replied. Hi Catherine, what a beautiful
name, do you know how pretty youare?
I shook my head as he looked me up and down.
Are you here all by yourself? No, I'm here with my dad and my
(41:50):
brother, they're right there. I pointed.
Oh well, do you want to go for awalk?
The way he over pronounced the Kin walk gave me chills even
though it was hot and sunny out.This is when a light bulb went
off in my head. I should not be talking to this
(42:13):
guy. I didn't know how to tell him to
leave me alone, and I was honestly kind of scared to be
rude to him. Within a split second, so many
thoughts went racing through my head.
Was he going to pick me up and carry me away?
Would my dad turn around to check on me only to find an
empty blanket and no trace of which direction I had gone?
(42:36):
I was panicking internally and Ijust sat there, paralyzed and
silent. I looked towards the water to
find my dad with his mouth agapeand a look of horror on his
face. Rage overtook him.
He picked up my brother and stormed towards us, my brother
now crying. My dad yelled at the man to get
(42:58):
away from me as he violently rancloser to us.
Thank goodness Shadow took him seriously.
By the time my dad reached me, Shadow had already fled down the
beach. After arriving home the
following week, my dad was catching up on the previous
week's newspapers. He made it a point to show me
(43:20):
the article and I will never, ever forget it.
The article reported that the body of a young girl was found
near the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Allegedly, she had been
abducted, assaulted and murderedand left behind a dumpster.
Fortunately, they caught the person that did it.
(43:41):
Unfortunately, there was no picture or detailed description
of the perp. They only described him as a
local man in his 20s. I won't ever know for sure if it
was Shadow that committed the horrendous crime against an
innocent little girl. I can only be thankful that it
(44:02):
wasn't me. This event takes place in Cedar
Rapids, IA during the mid 1980s.What I can say about this is
that it was the most frighteningexperience I have ever had, and
I'm very thankful that I never found out what the true motives
(44:23):
of these men were. I cannot definitively remember
the exact year, but it was earlysummer of either 1986 or 1987.
I was around 11 or 12 at the time and can still recall the
fear of this incident quite vividly.
I should first start by saying that growing up, I was unusually
(44:44):
strong and big for my age. Therefore, my parents were never
that worried about me being out on my own, even at an age as
young as 11 or 12. Since this particular story
involves bicycles, I should start by saying that I started
racing BMX when I was seven years old, as did my friend who
was with me during this incidentand continued up until around
(45:08):
the age that this story takes place.
This fact is important because Ibelieve those BMX skills are
part of what enabled my friend and I to escape unharmed during
the incident. When I look back on this
incident, I can remember myself feeling uneasy at the time and
for no real reason I can recall that it was a night in early
(45:31):
summer. I get the feeling that it was
very close to school ending as this was one of the reasons my
friend and I used to convince mymom that summer was pretty much
beginning. On that night my best friend
Luke and I were planning on riding our bikes to his
grandparents house and spending the night.
I should note that his grandparents house was a
beautiful four story house that was a near mansion built on the
(45:55):
edge of the downtown area. The interesting part is that by
this time in the mid 1980's the house was in what was considered
to be one of the worst areas of town.
It sat all alone, surrounded by medical offices at the very edge
of both the downtown area and the beginning of what was
considered the dangerous area ofthe city.
(46:18):
Very sad how quickly neighborhoods can change for the
worse, but this is vital to the story as it relates to the
reason my mom was hesitant for us to ride our bikes down and
through that neighborhood so close to nightfall.
I think she was also concerned that our bikes may tempt someone
to try and steal them. It's worth noting that I had a
(46:39):
blue and white club Fuji road bike and my friend had a sweet
super sport Schwinn. I can't remember exactly how
much they were value that in 1986 or 87, but they were nice
bikes and probably cost over $450 a piece at the time.
Kind of spoiled now that I thinkabout it, but we were middle
(47:00):
class kids and did not understand how much that set our
parents back at the time. It was starting to get late by
the time we convinced my mom to let us head out.
I remember thinking we didn't have much light left and even
some of the street lights were threatening to turn on.
I would estimate that it was around 7:30 PM when Luke and I
(47:21):
took off on our ride to his grandparents house, which was
where he was living at the time with his mom.
We grew up across the street from each other and have known
each other since we were two years old.
We are like brothers. I should also say that the
neighborhood where we grew up and the one we had to pass
through to get to our destination was at the time
(47:42):
considered part of the bad neighborhood in town.
We felt perfectly fine going through it because it was our
stomping ground and we knew everyone around there and the
streets like the back of our hands.
The ride should only take us about 20 minutes at a regular
riding pace, but knowing how my friend liked to take detours and
(48:02):
make stops to get pop or candy, I figured it would take us
longer. Now at this point of our trip we
are about 10 minutes in and having fun just riding around,
taking different streets and flying through our old
neighborhoods. The only thing I can remember is
that it was extremely deserted on the streets, no traffic, no
(48:23):
people out and about, which is kind of odd for this area in the
evening. There was really no explanation
for this, but I can remember it fueled the strange feeling I had
from the beginning of this ride.I told Luke we should probably
start taking a more direct path to his grandparents house.
Luke said he wanted to stop and get a Gatorade at the Jiffy
(48:44):
Mart, which is where we spent a lot of our time growing up
getting our candy and pop fixes.He went inside the store to get
us a couple of orange Gatorades.I sat outside to watch our bikes
and as I did I noticed this creepy looking van driving
around the block. I didn't think much of it at
first other than to think to myself how much it looked like a
(49:06):
stereotypical kidnappers van. After I saw it circle around
three times I started feeling a bit nervous.
But as I stated earlier, I was extremely strong and big for my
age and my friend Luke was the most street smart kid I ever
met. In fact, he recently spent five
months in the projects of Washington DC when his mom moved
(49:30):
there with her piece of garbage boyfriend.
They eventually moved back afterthe boyfriend showed his true
colors and I couldn't have been more thrilled.
He told me how tough it was in the projects.
He's afraid of no one, nothing even to this day.
Sorry, I'm getting a bit off point, but this is important as
(49:51):
neither of us were concerned about being abducted.
In our minds, that happens to little kids.
I guess we forgot that the famous Des Moines Register
paperboy Johnny Gosh was 12 years old when he was abducted,
roughly the same age as we were at this time.
So Luke isn't worried at all andeven seems to be getting a rush
(50:14):
from it. I'm not feeling the same way and
I can't shake the feeling that there's something different
going on, something more sinister.
We sit outside the Jiffy Mart drinking our Gatorade while
keeping a lookout for the van. We don't see it come back around
and decide to take off down the road and go past our childhood
(50:34):
houses. Now at this point, we think that
the van is gone and was possiblynot even interested in us in any
way. I felt slightly relieved as it
was getting dark at this time and I was ready to get to where
we were going. Now I know this area better than
anyone and have hiding spots in my memory from growing up here,
(50:55):
so I was already preparing different escape routes for us
that a vehicle would have trouble following.
I think I was doing it to ease my mind because I was still
pretty spooked and couldn't figure out exactly why I was.
As we got about halfway down thehilly Rd. that leads away from
the Jiffy Mart, I saw the van ona side street out of the corner
(51:15):
of my eye. Like you might imagine, the van
must have seen us because I heard a screech of tires and the
van came squealing around the corner in our direction.
I yelled to Luke and he followedme as I already had a path in
mind. Now the BMX racing comes into
play. Both Luke and I are extremely
fast on bikes with excellent handling skills.
(51:39):
Whoever was driving and navigating the van appeared to
not be familiar with the area aswe were able to lose them by
taking routes that weren't obvious paths for vehicles.
The topography of the area we were at in the beginning of the
chase was on a hill and there were many alleyways that were
somewhat hidden unless you knew exactly where to turn.
I think this was the only reasonwe were able to put some
(52:01):
distance between US and the van.The thing that really scared me
was the sound of the van gunningthe engine as it desperately
searched for us. I remember thinking that the
van's engine roared like a demonand I was having a hard time
understanding why they would continue to pursue us with such
unrelenting commitment. Luckily, Luke and I knew the
(52:24):
area so well and had found our old hiding spot from when we
were kids. It was in a wooded spot behind a
garage that no one used but gaveus cover and many escape routes.
Luke and I had eluded the van for a moment, but we could still
hear it in the distance, circling around and with the
same demonic engine roar that made me cringe when it got
(52:46):
close. Our plan was to hang out there
for a bit until we felt it was safe.
We were still quite far from hisgrandparents house, and since it
was the days before cell phones,we had no other option but to
wait. Luke still wasn't as concerned
as I was, even though I could tell he was a bit unnerved by
the situation. We both couldn't understand why
(53:09):
they would be so reckless in their driving just to scare us
or take our bikes away. It felt like they were hunting
us for something bigger. I don't know why I thought that,
but I just got that feeling. So after about 20 minutes of
waiting, we decide that the van and its occupants must have
gotten bored looking for us, andwe cautiously exit our hiding
(53:32):
spot. We look around and see nothing,
not even any neighbor activity. We head down the alley and make
sure we check every route and headlights we see to make sure
the van is nowhere. Insight.
I should describe the van in question before moving on.
It was a rather beat up copper colored Ford or Chevy van, 1970s
(53:57):
or 1980s. I think my fear at the time
blocks the detail of it since the only time it got really
close I was too busy making somecrazy maneuver to get away from
it. As we get to the street that our
childhood homes are on, we decide to go down like we
planned and we reminisce for a few minutes about past memories
on this street. We then head around the corner
(54:19):
of the street as we are planningon connecting with the road that
will lead us straight to the parking lot that connects to his
grandparents home. It's just a couple of blocks
away when I think I see the van cross roughly four blocks down.
Luke thinks I'm seeing things and I can't be certain, but it
seems likely knowing what was tocome.
(54:42):
We keep on riding down the road and I'm feeling very
uncomfortable, like I'm being watched but there isn't anyone
around. I still to this day can't
believe how strangely absent people were that night, although
we did see some guys who possibly saved us.
So we get to the street that will eventually take us to our
(55:03):
destination. I'm still feeling anxious but
slightly relieved because we areonly 6 or 7 minutes away.
Just as I'm thinking that I hearthe sound of skidding tires.
I look back to see the van backing up after screeching to a
stop, reversing and coming straight for us.
Luke takes off and I follow as the van is gaining on us.
(55:26):
We cut off through a narrow alley not meant for vehicles and
the van follows our exact path which I was shocked at.
I am in full panic mode and Lucas too which made me even
more frightened. We did everything we could to
try to elude this van. We were very close to the
busiest St. in town so we peddled over towards that way as
(55:49):
the van finally got out of the maze that we took it on.
It was at this point that I got a look at the occupants of the
van, and it didn't make me feel any better.
There appeared to be at least three men in the van, all
scruffy males from the fleeting glance I got.
For some reason I still get the feeling that they weren't
(56:09):
interested in our bikes, especially since it seemed like
they were trying to run us over.Once we got to the main busy Rd.
we again hidden the cover of people walking around the city
sidewalks. I felt safer by all the traffic
lights and businesses, but 9:30 PM downtown at this time wasn't
(56:30):
particularly safe for kids either.
There was still an adult theaterright on the main road at this
time in the 1980s, but at least the perverts running around this
night weren't after us. We rode over and hung out by a
McDonald's that was crowded and only saw the van briefly as it
passed by and headed off into the night.
(56:50):
We decided to leave when we saw the McDonald's crew shutting the
place down. At this point we are only a few
minutes away from Luke's grandparents house.
Our plan was to ride as far as we can on the busy Rd. until we
have to turn left for the last leg of our journey.
We are exhausted at this point and just want to get home so we
(57:11):
book it up the road and turn onto the street that leads to
his grandparents house. As we start riding down the road
we see the van three blocks downand it spots us and floors it
coming after us. Luke and I are forced to take
left which takes us further awayfrom his grandparents house but
we have no choice as the van is approaching us fast.
(57:35):
We hop a curb and speed across aparking lot with no entrance on
the side. We take thinking the van won't
follow and we can lose it while it has to go around the block to
find us. I hear the sliding door of the
van open, but we were way too fast for anyone on foot to catch
us, so they appeared to abandon that tactic quickly.
(57:55):
We got over to another St. whichat the time was considered the
most dangerous St. in our city as it had a notorious bar where
fights happened on what seemed like a nightly basis.
It was lucky for us that we saw a group of guys shooting craps
outside the bar, and we knew a couple of them because they were
older brothers of our friends. Just as we started talking with
(58:17):
them, the van creeped up on the street north of us.
Upon seeing all of the guys out playing dice, they slowly drove
away. The guys playing dice asked what
was up with the van. We told them it had been
aggressively pursuing us for quite some time now.
They said to take off and that it likely wouldn't be back now
(58:38):
because of their presence. We agreed and they went back
inside. We really did think that that
would be the end of it as the guys we were talking to were
very bad dudes with dubious reputations.
They liked us because we grew upin the same neighborhoods and we
went to school with their littlebrothers.
Unfortunately, our night wasn't quite over.
(59:01):
We decided to avoid the road where we last saw the van to be
on the safe side and took a street that wasn't so out in the
open. Had we had taken the most
straight line easy route, we would have been easily spotted
by anyone looking for us. So we cut across another St. and
ended up in a parking lot that was in the back of a pharmacy
(59:21):
and medical supply store. As Luke and I are riding across
the dark parking lot going towards the front of the
pharmacy, we see the van creeping along the road.
It's obviously still searching for us as it slows and stops as
if they were looking all over for any sign of us.
In kind of an unspoken moment, Luke and I both know this isn't
(59:45):
a normal situation. These guys have been following
us for over 2 hours now and theyhaven't given up.
We are now close enough to see his grandparents house sitting
in the dark waiting for our moments to spring.
Luke and I and our 12 year old minds both agree that we must
split up. One of us will be bait and the
(01:00:08):
other will get to his grandparents house and call the
cops or come help whichever one of us the van pursues then the
other. Just at that moment the van
abruptly turns and starts comingup the one way St. towards us.
We wait for it to get close and then Luke cuts back through the
parking lot and speeds out onto the street.
(01:00:30):
The van swerves and goes after him.
I speed as fast as I can down the street to his grandparents
house as I see the van within 20feet of a frantically peddling
Luke. I get to his grandparents house
in record time and I'm so workedup that I can barely speak.
Once I calm down I tell Luke's grandma, grandpa and uncle what
(01:00:52):
was happening. They knew that I wasn't joking
around as my personality is verymild mannered and I was frantic
at that moment. We all started heading out the
back to the car to go look for Luke and just at that moment we
see him flying towards us through the parking lots that
connects to the property. I have never been so relieved in
my life. I seriously thought he would be
(01:01:15):
gone forever but he was able to get away.
He said one of the guys in the van tried to tackle him but
missed and the van got stuck at a light.
The cops were called but I'm notsure they took it too seriously
as we never heard anything from them again.
Luke and I couldn't sleep at allthat night and told his mom and
(01:01:36):
step dad about it and they were concerned because they knew this
wasn't like us to embellish anything.
Luke and I eventually calmed down and we were falling asleep
when I swore I heard that demonic van engine roar one last
time. We were on the top floor in
Luke's room that led out to a huge balcony overlooking the
(01:01:58):
road. I saw the van drive slowly down
the street and then turn off into the night.
We never saw the van or the occupants again.
I am not sure if they knew that's where we fled to or if
they were still just driving around looking for us.
Think about this though. We first spotted them at roughly
(01:02:20):
8:00 PM. They chased us until we finally
were safe at Luke's Place around10:30.
I saw that van for the last timeat around 3:00 AM.
Did they just want our bikes or were they just having fun
scaring two kids out at night? Four years I just assumed they
(01:02:42):
wanted to steal our bikes because that happened constantly
in our area during that time. But what kind of grown men in a
creepy van pursued 212 year old boys for the better part of
seven hours? A few months after our
encounter, 2 friends of ours areon the same age as we were.
(01:03:04):
Had a very similar encounter while delivering newspapers in
the early morning hours. Same van and occupants
description, but in this situation two of the men were on
opposite sides of the block closing in on them while the van
drove slowly around the area. That's not my story to tell, but
(01:03:25):
I always wondered if it was the same group who chased after Luke
and I. I still don't know exactly what
was going on that night, but something tells me it wasn't
good and we were extremely luckyto get out of that situation
unscathed. Yeah.
(01:06:08):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:22:05):
Yeah. Yeah.
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
Before we begin, I just want to remind you to follow this
podcast. It really helps me out a lot and
it'll ensure that you never missan episode.
And if you would like to take things a step further, you can
subscribe for just 299 a month. As a subscriber, you'll enjoy
every episode completely ad free.
Plus, you'll automatically be entered to win every giveaway
(00:22):
that I do each month. Right now there's a PlayStation
5 up for grabs, which will be given away in mid-october.
Subscribers also get access to the Ultimate episodes.
These are extra long. I'm talking 6-8 to 12 hours
uninterrupted stories with relaxing rainfall designed for
falling asleep, staying asleep all night long relaxing, or just
(00:46):
enjoying hours of long form entertainment.
And last thing before we begin, I just want to say thank you so
much for being here and I reallyhope you enjoy this episode.
This is a true story that happened in 2014.
I am a female junior high schoolteacher in a province in the
(01:09):
Philippines. The school where I teach is one
of the first private schools in that province to install CCT VS
in all classrooms for the safetyof students, teachers and all
staff. Three months previously I had
what I can only assume is a paranormal experience while
teaching in one of the third floor classrooms, but when I
(01:31):
checked the CCTV footage in the admin office, the feed for my
classroom malfunctioned. The security officer back then
found it really strange too because every single feed in the
building was working properly except for the room where I was
at and at the exact period wherethis strange occurrence
happened. Long story short, I saw and
(01:53):
interacted with the student who turned out not to be there on
that day and I didn't even have CCTV footage to prove it.
Ever since then, I was on the lookout for more strange
encounters in the classrooms. Remember, this school was in a
province and the people who wereborn and raised there have a lot
of stories to tell of unexplainable circumstances that
(02:14):
can only be described as paranormal.
But the months passed without incident and I started to forget
what happened until one day I was in my 10th grade class at
this time in room 405. The second quarterly exams were
just finished last week, and I wanted to spend this period
showing my students their progress. 1:00 so that I can
(02:37):
congratulate and give credits tostudents who did well, and 2:00
so that I can talk to students who are falling behind.
I have their grades in an excel file on my laptop, but grades
are private documents. So I arranged my excel sheet,
zoomed it in and froze some of the cells so that only one
student's grades will be shown at a time.
(02:59):
I then placed my laptop in the high table situated at the front
and right side of the classroom,my laptop facing me, of course
away from the student's eyes. I then asked my students to form
a line in front of me so that I can show them their grades one
by one. The rest of the students can
just chill or review for their next class while waiting for
(03:19):
their turn. And so it started.
After the first student is done,I told the next student in line
to wait for a few seconds while I adjust the excel sheet, my
hand raised in the air in a stopgesture.
This is to avoid students seeingthe grades of those before them.
Then, when the excel file is ready, I tell them to approach.
(03:42):
Remember, I made it so that onlyone grade is visible at a time.
Some students were pumping theirfists in the air or high fiving
me or hugging each other when they see how well they did.
Others were sighing sadly, asking me for ways to make up
for it, or laughing at how bad they did.
Each interaction with a student lasted for about 5 seconds to a
(04:02):
minute, some students taking longer if they needed assurance
that they can do better next time.
I was dreading showing one of mystudents her grade.
Let's call her Anna. Admittedly, she was the noisiest
girl in class, but in the first quarter she was one of my
brightest students. For the second quarter, she lost
(04:24):
interest in the subject, often times chatting with her
seatmate, turning in assignmentslate, and performing poorly.
Overall, her grade for this quarter went down by three
points, and I was preparing myself mentally to comfort her.
When it was her turn, she was coming up next in line, right
behind her friend, who we will call Jane.
(04:46):
Please remember that in the line, Jane was standing before
Anna. This will be important later.
After I showed Jane her grade, Itook a deep breath and faced
Anna. I motioned for her to come
forward. She was silent, expressionless.
She looked at the screen for a few seconds, then turned away
(05:06):
and went back to her seat without saying anything.
I was confused because Anna was not the silent type.
I shrugged it off and just went on showing my students their
grades one by one. A little bit further down the
line, I can hear some students chatting and laughing away, and
as the line inched forward, I noticed that these happy, loud
(05:28):
students included Anna. She was next in line again.
I was quite relieved to see thatshe was in a better mood, but I
was confused why she was in lineagain.
I asked her. You wanted to see your grades
again? Anna said again.
I haven't seen my grades yet. Once again, I shrugged it off
(05:52):
and showed her her grade. This time she reacted.
She gasped, covered her mouth and whined.
Oh, my grades went down. What am I going to do in that
funny, drama queen way that we're all so familiar with?
Her friends laughed and teased her good naturedly and they went
(06:12):
on their way. At that moment, I had a strange
feeling. Who was the first Anna who
checked her grade? Was she telling the truth when
she told me she had been in lineonly once?
When that period ended, I could not wait to check the CCTV
footage. I wanted real, tangible proof
that Anna was in that line. Twice.
(06:35):
Immediately after class, I marched down to the admin office
and asked if I could see the CCTV footage of room 405.
I will try to explain what I sawin the best way I can.
In the monitor where I can see the footage for room 405, I
could see myself standing in theupper right hand corner with
that line of students starting from that point to the lower
(06:58):
right hand corner. It was grainy, but I could
clearly see myself clicking on my laptop, gesturing for the
next students in line to wait, then telling them to come
closer, so on and so forth. I could even see the facial
expressions on my face and my students.
Now, before I tell you what I saw next, I would just like to
(07:21):
ask you to think back to when you last lined up in a queue.
There's this automatic response in everyone that if the person
ahead of you moves forward, you move forward as well, and that
the distance between each personin line is somewhat equal.
You just don't leave an empty space in front of you when
you're in line. Back to the CCTV footage a few
(07:43):
minutes later. At the bottom of the screen, I
could see Jane falling in line, talking to some people in front
of her. I waited with bated breath to
see Anna in the footage as the line inched forward.
Jane did too. Any moment now, I expect to see
Anna at the bottom of the screen.
But Anna was not there. The line inched forward again.
(08:08):
Jane stepped forward. Still no Anna.
I can clearly see another student step behind Jane, but
for some reason she stayed about3 to 4 feet behind Jane.
You know, a space large enough to fit another person in the
line. But there was no one in that
empty space. As the line continues to move
(08:29):
forward, I noticed that the people behind Jane maintained
their distance. That empty space behind her
remained constant. This seemed really weird to me
because the people behind Jane are looking forward talking to
Jane and that she sometimes looks back to them, talking,
laughing, but never occupying that space.
(08:51):
This is really weird because youjust don't leave an empty space
in front of you when you're in aline, right?
Finally, it's Jane's turn to approach me in that upper right
corner. In the footage, the space behind
her still remained empty. When Jane left, I saw myself
look at my laptop with the lightfrom the monitor shining on my
(09:13):
face, and then I saw myself in the video completely freeze up.
None of the students behind Janewere approaching me.
They can clearly see me. That was apparent in the
footage. They were still moving.
Everything was still moving except for me in the video.
(09:34):
I asked the security officer to zoom in on my face.
Me in the video was completely still.
I was not even blinking. I don't think I was even
breathing. After 10 seconds, me in the
video started moving again and that's when the next student in
line finally occupied that emptyspace.
(09:55):
The officer and I looked at eachother weirded out what happened
there. Did you have a stroke or
something? He jokingly asked, then seeing
my expression asked me what's wrong.
So he paused the video and listened as I told him what
happened earlier. After listening to my story, he
(10:15):
said nothing left to do but check if the second Anna was
real. I nodded and so we continued
watching the footage. I kept my eyes focused on the
bottom right. I asked the officer to forward
the footage a bit until I could see Anna at the bottom of the
line. This time I could clearly see
Anna chatting with her friends in line, being her usual self.
(10:40):
When she finally reached me at the top, I can see our
interaction the way I rememberedit earlier.
Me smiling, her covering her mouth, her friends laughing at
her exactly as I remembered it. I asked the officer to stop the
video and thanked him for his time.
The officer gave me a kind of look and told me to take it
(11:00):
easy. My mind was racing.
Did I really see Anna twice in the classroom?
Did I just hallucinate the firstAnna that approached me?
It's possible, maybe. I'm pretty sure there's a
scientific or neurological explanation for stuff like that,
but I've never experienced that before.
(11:20):
I mean, if I randomly freeze during the day, surely my
students and my Co teachers willhave noticed it by now.
I was ready to accept that the first Anna, this silent Anna,
the expressionless Anna was my imagination.
But then, if there really was noone in line after Jane, why
(11:41):
didn't the student after her approach me after I was done
talking to Jane? It's apparent in the footage
that they can see me for the 10 seconds that I was not moving.
The students next in line could see me.
If I did really freeze up, surely one of the students will
approach, if not to see her grade, then to ask me if I was
OK. And also, why was there an empty
(12:04):
space behind Jane? An empty space that the students
behind her never stepped into? Could they have possibly seen
someone in the line behind Jane?Could they perhaps, like me, saw
this silent girl approach me? A silent girl who looked just
like Anna, but was not Anna? This is a story I don't usually
(12:37):
tell because I'm not sure if I was overreacting, but it's
something that still haunts me to this day.
This took place during my freshman year at university a
few years ago. It was around 5:00 AM on the day
I was supposed to leave to go back home for summer break.
I'm a huge procrastinator, so I had been up all night packing up
my dorm room and doing a ton of laundry.
(13:00):
Before I get into what happened,I think it's important to
mention that my dorm building was 17 floors high and I was on
the 15th floor. Each floor had its own little
laundry room. The laundry room on our floor
was all the way across the building for me because my room
was at the very end of the hall in an entire different wing.
(13:20):
Since my dorm was at the end of the hall, my room was directly
across the exit door leading to the staircase.
While I was packing that night into the early morning, I kept
hearing the door to the staircase occasionally opening
and shutting a few times every hour.
It wasn't exactly weird enough for me to be concerned about
(13:41):
since the Ras did their rounds every hour or so and it was
policy for them to use the staircase to patrol every floor.
However, it was weird enough forme to notice the amount of times
the door kept opening and closing as that was uncommon and
usually the RA stopped their rounds around 2:00 AM, but I
just brushed it off and figured they were doing extra rounds
(14:03):
because it was move out day. Sometime between 4:30 and 5:00,
AMI was standing in my room about to put on a shirt to go
switch around my laundry. As I was pulling the shirt over
my head, my door opened and a man stepped in.
He was dressed in all black witha hood over his head and made it
difficult to see his face. From what I could tell, he
(14:26):
looked like a student. He was young, maybe early 20s or
so, and filled my door frame at about 6 feet tall.
I stood in fear and confusion without a shirt on and stared at
this man with my mouth wide openin shock.
We just stared at each other, not saying a word for what felt
like forever but was probably only a minute or so still in
(14:50):
perspective. It was too long.
He had the most blank and lifeless expression I had ever
seen. I had no idea who this man was.
I was already so tired and stressed from packing I barely
remember finally muttering the words.
What the heck? The man quietly mumbled sorry,
(15:12):
backed out of the room and slowly shut my door.
I stood there in shock for a fewseconds before quickly putting
on my shirt and grabbing a smallpocket knife I had in my desk
drawer. I hurried and locked my door
before I could even take a breath.
My thoughts began racing. Who was that guy?
Why did he just walk into my room?
(15:33):
Why didn't he seem surprised or shocked that he just walked into
a stranger's room? My brain forced rational thought
and I came to the conclusion that he must have accidentally
came into my room and meant to go into my suite mates room who
lived next door to me. I told myself it was probably
her boyfriend and maybe he was drunk and went to the wrong door
(15:54):
or something, but he didn't seemdrunk, in fact he didn't seem to
have any emotion at all. I felt much better after coming
to this conclusion, but I was still reluctant to go out and
get my laundry. After a few minutes of hyping
myself up and telling myself that it was just an accident, I
finally went to get my laundry, making sure the coast was clear
(16:17):
1st and making sure to lock my door behind me just in case.
I switched the clothes and dragged my laundry basket
quickly down the hall and back to my room.
As I stood in front of my door to unlock it, I glanced up and
all of the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
I looked up and saw my huge nametag that my RA placed on my door
(16:40):
at the beginning of the year. I realized he could not have
possibly mistaken my room for someone else's as my name was
written in big black letters on my door.
I rushed into my room and lockedthe door behind me as more
questions began to fill my head.I was still really freaked out
about what had happened and it replayed in my head over and
(17:01):
over again. Time had passed and it was
around 6:00 AM at this point. I could still hear the staircase
door being opened and closed periodically, but thought
nothing of it at the time. I continued to pack my clothes
while being overly aware of my surroundings, which probably
made the next part of this even more horrifying for me.
(17:22):
It's like that feeling when you're waiting for something
really scary to happen, or you're trying to scare yourself
and you have this huge pit in your stomach and you're
constantly on edge, but nothing happens.
Except something did happen. My door knob begin to violently
turn. It was constant and forceful,
(17:43):
like somebody knew they wanted to get in here even though the
door was locked. I grabbed my knife and stood in
the middle of my room facing thedoor, telling myself that I
might actually have to stab thisguy.
After about an entire minute of him trying to open my door, he
left. I knew something was definitely
wrong. Now I was completely and utterly
(18:06):
freaked out. If I had any thought left that
this man had accidentally came to the wrong room, it was
definitely no more. He could not have possibly came
to the wrong room twice, especially when my door was
labeled with my name and I had no idea who he was.
I picked up my phone and called my mom who was five hours away
(18:28):
and frantically explained what had happened and she told me to
keep my door locked and that if he came back again I should call
the police. We hung up the phone and I tried
my hardest to stay focused on finishing up my room.
Around 6:30 there was frantic knocking at my door.
I was horrified and just wished whatever this was would stop.
(18:50):
I looked through the peephole and saw a girl who lived across
from me at my door. I opened it and she was
hysterical. She was crying and asking me for
help. I asked her what was wrong and
what she told me left me speechless.
She said that she woke up to a man standing in her room.
She explained that she was sleeping and a little tipsy when
(19:12):
she woke up from drinking the previous night and had woken up
suddenly to the feeling of beingwatched.
When she realized there was someone standing by her bed, she
screamed and he ran out of the room.
That's when she got dressed and came to my door.
She had no idea how long he had been there for.
I told her we needed to call thecampus police and reassured her
(19:36):
she would not get in trouble forbeing intoxicated.
I called the police for her and we waited together for them to
come. When they arrived about 10
minutes later, the officer questioned us about what had
happened and I explained the incident that went down only an
hour earlier. While I was explaining what the
man looked like, my suite maid stepped out of her room and said
(19:58):
are you talking about a man coming into your room?
I told her yes and asked if she had heard anything.
My suite maid told us about an hour ago she woke up next to a
man standing next to her bed just watching her.
After about 30 seconds of him standing there, he spoke.
What he said to her will continue to haunt me for the
(20:19):
rest of my life. He looked at her blank and dead
eyed and said that's what you get for sleeping with your door
unlocked and walked out of her room like it was nothing.
This happened right after he initially came into my room.
I don't think the police ever figured out who it was since I
never heard back from them, but there are still questions that
(20:41):
rack my brain. Who was that guy?
Was he one just walking in and out of their staircase for
hours? Doing this on multiple floors?
What was he doing at 5:00 in themorning?
How did he get into the dorm in the 1st place?
And the one question that still gives me goosebumps?
What would have happened if I didn't lock the door the first
(21:03):
time and he actually got into myroom the second time he came
back? When I was around 12 years old I
had a pretty creepy experience in my house.
To give some back story, I'm theyoungest of three with two
(21:25):
sisters. The way my house was laid out is
my mom and dad's room was on theone side of the house and me and
my sister's rooms were on the other side with the living room
in the middle. Now my oldest sister is actually
my step sister. Even though I have never thought
of her like that, she has alwaysbeen a true sister to me.
During this time, she was going through a lot.
(21:48):
She struggled with bipolar disorder and had spent many
nights getting into screaming matches with her boyfriends at
ungodly hours of the morning. These arguments would almost
always end in some sort of violent situation.
I remember one specific instancevery clearly where my sister was
so furious at her boyfriend for watching something I'll leave to
(22:08):
your imagination on his phone right in front of her.
She started to beat and scratch his face with a high heel shoe.
Anyway, one night something was weird.
No guest was in the house, and Iknew this when falling asleep.
Yet when I heard the screams at 2:00 in the morning, I was still
unaffected. I imagined that one of my
(22:31):
sister's boyfriends had snuck inthrough the window to see her
and they were now erupting into another fight.
But I was wrong. I heard my parents run into my
sister's room, bursting through the door.
They were silent for a few seconds as my sister continued
to scream and scream. I started to realize this was
not like the other times. This wasn't an argument with a
(22:53):
high school boy. These were wails of true terror.
After what seemed like forever but was really like 15 seconds,
my parents started yelling. What?
What? Why are you screaming?
All I could hear while sitting in my bed was my sister
responding right there, right there.
How can you not see? How can you ask me that?
(23:17):
This went on for a while and my sister was taken out of her room
by my parents and she stayed in the kitchen drinking tea for the
rest of the night. My parents and sister didn't
tell me anything that had happened since.
In comparison to the drama that has happened in our household
previously, this was a pretty peaceful night.
Now it was the next day and timefor bed again.
(23:39):
I was having a little trouble falling asleep because I was
still thinking about what my sister was screaming about.
Was she seeing things? Sleep paralysis?
Was she on something? Was there a ghost in the house?
The hallways then proceeded to carry my sister screams
throughout the house again, thistime several hours earlier than
(24:02):
last night and even louder. My sister screamed like I have
never heard any scream before. The words she said mixed with
the tone of her voice gives me ice cold skin penetrating
chills. Just as I tell this story, my
sister was screaming the words just kill me fast, don't hurt
(24:24):
me, just kill me fast. This time my whole family,
myself included, ran into her room.
This sounded serious. She was screaming in terror and
pointing into the corner of a room, but again, there was
nothing there. She claimed that a large dark
figure with a purple robe and red eyes was standing in the
(24:46):
corner of a room watching her with a sinister presence.
I began to get frustrated with my sister.
I thought she was doing this forsome kind of twisted desire for
attention. In a lot of ways, that's what I
felt a lot of her dramatic situations were.
But on the third night, I would come to believe her.
(25:07):
On the third night, we put one of our dogs in my sister's room
to keep her company. She was a small pappy poo, which
is a ridiculous name for a mix of papillon and poodle.
Her name was Twilight. She was a good dog and always
very perceptive. Twilight was always the first to
know when someone was approaching our house or even
(25:27):
just walking past it. That night I didn't even bother
sleeping as I knew there was going to be screams to startle
me awake anyway. I was just staying up playing
Saints Row 3 until I passed out from exhaustion or something.
I hadn't been sleeping for the past two nights and it was a
train wreck at school, but at this point I didn't really care.
(25:50):
And then right on cue, at around1:00 in the morning, the
screams. I was mad that my sister was
carrying on with this act, keeping me and my whole family
awake. I was the only one who decided
to stay awake in my house, and my sister's room is right next
to mine. So I got up, walked in there
fast, getting ready to give my sister a piece of my mind on her
(26:12):
attention seeking behavior. But then I heard Twilight not
just barking, but howling. Like a desperate, urgent
howling. I had never heard it before from
her, and would never hear it again as long as Twilight lived.
I was taken aback by that, but Ibarged in the room anyway, and
(26:35):
there was my sister screaming interror while staring, eyes wide
open, into the corner of the room.
And there was Twilight, looking at the exact, and I mean exact
same place my sister was looking.
Twilight had her head up, looking at the corner of the
room, howling. It was such an uncanny image,
(26:57):
two beings reacting in terror and distress.
It's something I could not see. Now I am not a religious person.
I was raised to believe that angels and demons exist, but I
have no real belief in any kind of spiritual warfare anymore.
Then I believe in the Q Anon theories of Hollywood
celebrities sacrificing babies to the devil or whatever.
(27:19):
But I do believe in my own two eyes and I still can't explain
what they saw. After all this, my sister was
brought into therapy after taking my dad's advice and my
mom had the room blessed by the priest from our church.
It never happened again. When I was about 10 or 11, I
(27:46):
shared a room with my two older sisters.
Now we would stay up late at night talking sometimes getting
us into trouble. But this one particular night we
had our window open ajar and theblinds open meaning anyone on
the outside could see in becausewe also had a lamp in our
bedroom. As we were laying in bed
(28:07):
talking, there was a knock on the window.
None of us could move or speak. We didn't know what to do so we
ignored it. 5 minutes went by and nothing else happened so we
continued our conversation. When knock knock knock this time
we all ran out of our bedroom and went straight to our parents
(28:29):
room where we told them what wasgoing on. 1st we woke up our mom
because she's a light sleeper anyway.
Then she woke up our dad. My dad being the brave guy he is
went outside with a bat while mymom went into our room with us.
When my dad came back inside he told us there was no one out
there reassuring us it's OK to go back to sleep.
(28:52):
We did 10 minutes go by when another knock woke us all up
including our mom. She jumped out of bed, went into
her room, woke up our dad and I remember I heard her say call
the police. As the police arrived they
looked around the house and found nothing.
Now I thought that was the end of it, but as I got older I
(29:15):
asked my mom about it. That's when I learned something
very disturbing. The police found footprints
underneath our window in the garden.
Also, they found a chair from our porch below our window,
meaning whoever was out there that night must have been
watching us for who knows how long.
(29:36):
All I have to say is close your blinds at night and always close
your window. You never know who may be
watching. This happened to me when I was
around the age of 6. I was watching late night
(29:59):
cartoons on the TV as I did every night before bed and my
parents were having company overas this was very common for
them. Around this time I don't
remember falling asleep but I remember waking up in my room
and the TV was off and the only light coming into my room was
from the moonlight peering through my window.
My room is almost completely black, I couldn't move at all
(30:23):
and I felt like I couldn't breathe, not a feeling of
something on my chest but rathermy throat was closed up so tight
I could barely get a breath of air.
I knew something was wrong so I tried to call out to my parents
but I was unable to speak. I sat there for probably 5
minutes, scared out of my mind. I heard my parents conversing
(30:46):
loudly with their friends in theother room and I thought to
myself that they'll never hear me.
I stared at my door hoping my parents would come in and save
me from whatever was happening. After about 10 minutes, my door
cracked open a little bit and slowly crept open a few inches.
There was a tall figure staring at me through the crack of my
(31:07):
door. I couldn't make out anything
other than they were really talland had a blank stare in their
eyes. The figure in the doorway backed
away and after another few minutes of trying to cry for
help, my mom came in and turned the lights on.
I still couldn't move or talk. My mom grabbed my dad, told him
(31:29):
there's something wrong with me and I need to go to the
hospital. They loaded me up in the back
seat of the family van and droveoff frantically.
The only thing I remember about being taken to the hospital is
seeing the street lights coming in and out of the window as we
drove down the street. Then I lost consciousness.
(31:49):
When I woke up I was in a hospital bed surrounded by
nurses. I had an oxygen mask on my face
and I was hooked up to the IVI could almost talk again and I
tried to say the words what's happening to me but before I
could say anything the nurse said don't worry you're going to
be fine and I fell back asleep. I woke up again seeing my
(32:14):
parents happy standing next to the bed and the nurses were
saying that I would be ready to leave shortly.
Then the nurse took off my mask and gave me this Peach juice
that I'll always remember. My dad carried me on his back
and put me back into the van andwe went home.
I woke up in bed the next day and felt really weird but was
(32:36):
relieved everything was OK. I didn't talk to my parents
about it too much because every time I tried to bring it up,
they wouldn't talk about it and they would just change the
subject. I kind of forgot about it for a
long time, but would still thinkabout it when people would ask
me what's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you?
(32:57):
Years later, when I was in my teens, I brought it up laughing,
saying remember the time you guys had to take me to the
hospital. They just stared at me with a
confused look on their faces. So I described the whole event
in detail and they looked at me like I was on something and said
that I must have dreamt it. So I gave up trying to get them
(33:18):
to remember and went back to my bedroom confused.
I wholeheartedly believe that this was not a dream.
It was so vivid and real and I remember almost everything about
it. The man in the doorway, the
oxygen masks, the juice the nurse gave me, and the absolute
helplessness of not being able to move or speak.
(33:42):
The weirdest thing is I was never taken to the hospital
before and had never seen someone hooked up to an IV
before, so how could I have dreamt that?
When I was 22 I moved into a rental home in Harvey's Lake,
(34:03):
PA. It was very small and somewhat
run down. It reminded me of a cabin that
you see on fishing trips. Honestly, I hated it but could
not afford anything better at the time.
The basement was creepy. The bathroom ceiling sloped
downwards so that the shower head was aimed at my chest and I
(34:25):
could not stand to pee without my head touching the ceiling.
The floor also sloped, but hey, it was cheap with all utilities
provided. Shortly after I had moved in, I
had a dream. One night.
I dreamt in the third person andat first I assumed that what I
was seeing was from my point of view.
(34:48):
It was like I was floating towards my front door in the
middle of a full moon lit night.Once I got to the front door, a
thin pale hand turned the knob and slowly opened it.
It wasn't my hand, so now I knewthat I was seeing the vision of
someone else. Slowly I started walking towards
(35:11):
my bedroom, which was the first room on the right, immediately
after the small kitchen, and I could see myself sleeping in my
bed. My vision then slowly glided
into my room and to the side of my bed by a window, and I was
looking down at myself sleeping on my stomach.
After a second, the thin, pale hand reached down to grab me.
(35:34):
Seeing myself about to be attacked, I violently woke from
the dream and lashed out towardswhere the figure was standing,
knocking things off the night stand next to me.
But there was no one there. Although I told myself that it
was just a dream, I thought it was incredibly weird that there
was no difference in the amount of darkness in my room.
(35:57):
It was apparently a full moon visible right outside my window,
and that made the room more blueand brighter than usual.
It was exactly the same as in mydream.
Most nights it is very dark in my room.
A week or so later I had friendsover.
There was an old bar down the road that we could quickly walk
(36:20):
to, so we got a little drunk andwalked back to my place.
We were watching a movie to passthe time so that my friends
could sober up to drive home, but after a while they all
decided to just stay over. As we were watching the end of a
movie, my friend's girlfriend woke up looking alarmed like she
was having a nightmare and was about to yell.
(36:42):
We all looked at her and she looked relieved to be awake, but
she kept saying to her boyfriendwho was my best friend, come on
let's go, I want to go, I reallydon't want to be here.
After a minute of him telling her that they could not drive,
she calmed down and reluctantly agreed to stay.
(37:02):
Nothing else happened and in themorning they all got up and
drove home. She called me as soon as she got
home to apologize. She was afraid that I got
offended that she did not want to stay in my home and I just
laughed and told her that it wasfine, no big deal.
She then proceeded to tell me why she wanted to leave so bad.
(37:24):
She said she fell asleep and hada dream that some pale evil
looking lady who resembled A demonic witch dressed in black
grabbed her in the apartment andwas dragging her away across the
floor. It was a very violent
apparently, but she woke up in the middle of the nightmare.
She said it was the scariest thing she ever experienced.
(37:47):
I thought she was joking with meuntil I realized that I told no
one of my similar dream. I then told her about my dream
and she freaked out and spent days doing research into the
area and the home, thinking thatsomething bad must have happened
there, but found nothing. She never came over again after
(38:09):
that, but it didn't matter. I was out of there within a few
months and the house was torn down about 10 years later.
This is not my story, but my dad's.
(38:31):
He gave me permission to share it.
When my dad was around the age of 10, he had a somewhat creepy
experience that to this day keeps him from leaving windows
open in the night. His mother worked at a mental
health facility and they actually lived just down the
road from said facility. His mother was head cook in a
(38:51):
large kitchen there. All the patients adored her as
she had worked there a very longtime.
My dad and his younger brother shared a room together.
They had two twin beds that sat on either side of a large window
that was right smack dab betweentheir beds.
Things were different back then.It was perfectly safe to sleep
(39:13):
with your windows wide open whenit was hot outside.
One hot summer late night my dadawoke to someone touching his
face. When he realized that what he
was feeling was an adult hand, he opened his eyes to a woman
caressing his face while lightlysinging.
He leaped out of bed and stood there staring at her.
(39:36):
She wore a white dress and she did nothing but stand right at
their window with a smile on herface.
Leaving his sleeping brother, mydad ran from the room to his
parents bedroom to get help. All three of them rushed into
the room to find the woman attempting to crawl inside.
His mom screamed the woman's name, shocking them all, then
(39:58):
said she is a patient from my work.
She wasn't wearing a dress like my dad had initially thought.
It was actually a hospital gown.The hospital was quickly called.
Searchers have been looking for her for a short time already.
She had gotten out somehow and had wandered down to their home
(40:21):
since it was a short distance away.
My dad is in his 60s now, and hestill checks the windows nightly
to make sure they are shut and locked.
One summer in the late 90s, whenI was about 11 or 12, my dad
(40:46):
took my little brother and I on vacation to Northern California.
We decided to spend a day at theSanta Cruz Boardwalk.
I sat alone on our blanket on the sand while my dad and
brother played in the ocean. Not too far away, a man walking
by himself on the beach crept upand squatted beside me so that
(41:06):
he sat eye level with me. He was probably early to mid
20s, had black spiky hair and all black clothing.
He held a lit cigarette in the hand closest to me and wore a
mischievous smirk on his face. He smiled and quietly said.
Hi, I'm Shadow, what's your name?
(41:29):
I replied. Hi Catherine, what a beautiful
name, do you know how pretty youare?
I shook my head as he looked me up and down.
Are you here all by yourself? No, I'm here with my dad and my
(41:50):
brother, they're right there. I pointed.
Oh well, do you want to go for awalk?
The way he over pronounced the Kin walk gave me chills even
though it was hot and sunny out.This is when a light bulb went
off in my head. I should not be talking to this
(42:13):
guy. I didn't know how to tell him to
leave me alone, and I was honestly kind of scared to be
rude to him. Within a split second, so many
thoughts went racing through my head.
Was he going to pick me up and carry me away?
Would my dad turn around to check on me only to find an
empty blanket and no trace of which direction I had gone?
(42:36):
I was panicking internally and Ijust sat there, paralyzed and
silent. I looked towards the water to
find my dad with his mouth agapeand a look of horror on his
face. Rage overtook him.
He picked up my brother and stormed towards us, my brother
now crying. My dad yelled at the man to get
(42:58):
away from me as he violently rancloser to us.
Thank goodness Shadow took him seriously.
By the time my dad reached me, Shadow had already fled down the
beach. After arriving home the
following week, my dad was catching up on the previous
week's newspapers. He made it a point to show me
(43:20):
the article and I will never, ever forget it.
The article reported that the body of a young girl was found
near the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Allegedly, she had been
abducted, assaulted and murderedand left behind a dumpster.
Fortunately, they caught the person that did it.
(43:41):
Unfortunately, there was no picture or detailed description
of the perp. They only described him as a
local man in his 20s. I won't ever know for sure if it
was Shadow that committed the horrendous crime against an
innocent little girl. I can only be thankful that it
(44:02):
wasn't me. This event takes place in Cedar
Rapids, IA during the mid 1980s.What I can say about this is
that it was the most frighteningexperience I have ever had, and
I'm very thankful that I never found out what the true motives
(44:23):
of these men were. I cannot definitively remember
the exact year, but it was earlysummer of either 1986 or 1987.
I was around 11 or 12 at the time and can still recall the
fear of this incident quite vividly.
I should first start by saying that growing up, I was unusually
(44:44):
strong and big for my age. Therefore, my parents were never
that worried about me being out on my own, even at an age as
young as 11 or 12. Since this particular story
involves bicycles, I should start by saying that I started
racing BMX when I was seven years old, as did my friend who
was with me during this incidentand continued up until around
(45:08):
the age that this story takes place.
This fact is important because Ibelieve those BMX skills are
part of what enabled my friend and I to escape unharmed during
the incident. When I look back on this
incident, I can remember myself feeling uneasy at the time and
for no real reason I can recall that it was a night in early
(45:31):
summer. I get the feeling that it was
very close to school ending as this was one of the reasons my
friend and I used to convince mymom that summer was pretty much
beginning. On that night my best friend
Luke and I were planning on riding our bikes to his
grandparents house and spending the night.
I should note that his grandparents house was a
beautiful four story house that was a near mansion built on the
(45:55):
edge of the downtown area. The interesting part is that by
this time in the mid 1980's the house was in what was considered
to be one of the worst areas of town.
It sat all alone, surrounded by medical offices at the very edge
of both the downtown area and the beginning of what was
considered the dangerous area ofthe city.
(46:18):
Very sad how quickly neighborhoods can change for the
worse, but this is vital to the story as it relates to the
reason my mom was hesitant for us to ride our bikes down and
through that neighborhood so close to nightfall.
I think she was also concerned that our bikes may tempt someone
to try and steal them. It's worth noting that I had a
(46:39):
blue and white club Fuji road bike and my friend had a sweet
super sport Schwinn. I can't remember exactly how
much they were value that in 1986 or 87, but they were nice
bikes and probably cost over $450 a piece at the time.
Kind of spoiled now that I thinkabout it, but we were middle
(47:00):
class kids and did not understand how much that set our
parents back at the time. It was starting to get late by
the time we convinced my mom to let us head out.
I remember thinking we didn't have much light left and even
some of the street lights were threatening to turn on.
I would estimate that it was around 7:30 PM when Luke and I
(47:21):
took off on our ride to his grandparents house, which was
where he was living at the time with his mom.
We grew up across the street from each other and have known
each other since we were two years old.
We are like brothers. I should also say that the
neighborhood where we grew up and the one we had to pass
through to get to our destination was at the time
(47:42):
considered part of the bad neighborhood in town.
We felt perfectly fine going through it because it was our
stomping ground and we knew everyone around there and the
streets like the back of our hands.
The ride should only take us about 20 minutes at a regular
riding pace, but knowing how my friend liked to take detours and
(48:02):
make stops to get pop or candy, I figured it would take us
longer. Now at this point of our trip we
are about 10 minutes in and having fun just riding around,
taking different streets and flying through our old
neighborhoods. The only thing I can remember is
that it was extremely deserted on the streets, no traffic, no
(48:23):
people out and about, which is kind of odd for this area in the
evening. There was really no explanation
for this, but I can remember it fueled the strange feeling I had
from the beginning of this ride.I told Luke we should probably
start taking a more direct path to his grandparents house.
Luke said he wanted to stop and get a Gatorade at the Jiffy
(48:44):
Mart, which is where we spent a lot of our time growing up
getting our candy and pop fixes.He went inside the store to get
us a couple of orange Gatorades.I sat outside to watch our bikes
and as I did I noticed this creepy looking van driving
around the block. I didn't think much of it at
first other than to think to myself how much it looked like a
(49:06):
stereotypical kidnappers van. After I saw it circle around
three times I started feeling a bit nervous.
But as I stated earlier, I was extremely strong and big for my
age and my friend Luke was the most street smart kid I ever
met. In fact, he recently spent five
months in the projects of Washington DC when his mom moved
(49:30):
there with her piece of garbage boyfriend.
They eventually moved back afterthe boyfriend showed his true
colors and I couldn't have been more thrilled.
He told me how tough it was in the projects.
He's afraid of no one, nothing even to this day.
Sorry, I'm getting a bit off point, but this is important as
(49:51):
neither of us were concerned about being abducted.
In our minds, that happens to little kids.
I guess we forgot that the famous Des Moines Register
paperboy Johnny Gosh was 12 years old when he was abducted,
roughly the same age as we were at this time.
So Luke isn't worried at all andeven seems to be getting a rush
(50:14):
from it. I'm not feeling the same way and
I can't shake the feeling that there's something different
going on, something more sinister.
We sit outside the Jiffy Mart drinking our Gatorade while
keeping a lookout for the van. We don't see it come back around
and decide to take off down the road and go past our childhood
(50:34):
houses. Now at this point, we think that
the van is gone and was possiblynot even interested in us in any
way. I felt slightly relieved as it
was getting dark at this time and I was ready to get to where
we were going. Now I know this area better than
anyone and have hiding spots in my memory from growing up here,
(50:55):
so I was already preparing different escape routes for us
that a vehicle would have trouble following.
I think I was doing it to ease my mind because I was still
pretty spooked and couldn't figure out exactly why I was.
As we got about halfway down thehilly Rd. that leads away from
the Jiffy Mart, I saw the van ona side street out of the corner
(51:15):
of my eye. Like you might imagine, the van
must have seen us because I heard a screech of tires and the
van came squealing around the corner in our direction.
I yelled to Luke and he followedme as I already had a path in
mind. Now the BMX racing comes into
play. Both Luke and I are extremely
fast on bikes with excellent handling skills.
(51:39):
Whoever was driving and navigating the van appeared to
not be familiar with the area aswe were able to lose them by
taking routes that weren't obvious paths for vehicles.
The topography of the area we were at in the beginning of the
chase was on a hill and there were many alleyways that were
somewhat hidden unless you knew exactly where to turn.
I think this was the only reasonwe were able to put some
(52:01):
distance between US and the van.The thing that really scared me
was the sound of the van gunningthe engine as it desperately
searched for us. I remember thinking that the
van's engine roared like a demonand I was having a hard time
understanding why they would continue to pursue us with such
unrelenting commitment. Luckily, Luke and I knew the
(52:24):
area so well and had found our old hiding spot from when we
were kids. It was in a wooded spot behind a
garage that no one used but gaveus cover and many escape routes.
Luke and I had eluded the van for a moment, but we could still
hear it in the distance, circling around and with the
same demonic engine roar that made me cringe when it got
(52:46):
close. Our plan was to hang out there
for a bit until we felt it was safe.
We were still quite far from hisgrandparents house, and since it
was the days before cell phones,we had no other option but to
wait. Luke still wasn't as concerned
as I was, even though I could tell he was a bit unnerved by
the situation. We both couldn't understand why
(53:09):
they would be so reckless in their driving just to scare us
or take our bikes away. It felt like they were hunting
us for something bigger. I don't know why I thought that,
but I just got that feeling. So after about 20 minutes of
waiting, we decide that the van and its occupants must have
gotten bored looking for us, andwe cautiously exit our hiding
(53:32):
spot. We look around and see nothing,
not even any neighbor activity. We head down the alley and make
sure we check every route and headlights we see to make sure
the van is nowhere. Insight.
I should describe the van in question before moving on.
It was a rather beat up copper colored Ford or Chevy van, 1970s
(53:57):
or 1980s. I think my fear at the time
blocks the detail of it since the only time it got really
close I was too busy making somecrazy maneuver to get away from
it. As we get to the street that our
childhood homes are on, we decide to go down like we
planned and we reminisce for a few minutes about past memories
on this street. We then head around the corner
(54:19):
of the street as we are planningon connecting with the road that
will lead us straight to the parking lot that connects to his
grandparents home. It's just a couple of blocks
away when I think I see the van cross roughly four blocks down.
Luke thinks I'm seeing things and I can't be certain, but it
seems likely knowing what was tocome.
(54:42):
We keep on riding down the road and I'm feeling very
uncomfortable, like I'm being watched but there isn't anyone
around. I still to this day can't
believe how strangely absent people were that night, although
we did see some guys who possibly saved us.
So we get to the street that will eventually take us to our
(55:03):
destination. I'm still feeling anxious but
slightly relieved because we areonly 6 or 7 minutes away.
Just as I'm thinking that I hearthe sound of skidding tires.
I look back to see the van backing up after screeching to a
stop, reversing and coming straight for us.
Luke takes off and I follow as the van is gaining on us.
(55:26):
We cut off through a narrow alley not meant for vehicles and
the van follows our exact path which I was shocked at.
I am in full panic mode and Lucas too which made me even
more frightened. We did everything we could to
try to elude this van. We were very close to the
busiest St. in town so we peddled over towards that way as
(55:49):
the van finally got out of the maze that we took it on.
It was at this point that I got a look at the occupants of the
van, and it didn't make me feel any better.
There appeared to be at least three men in the van, all
scruffy males from the fleeting glance I got.
For some reason I still get the feeling that they weren't
(56:09):
interested in our bikes, especially since it seemed like
they were trying to run us over.Once we got to the main busy Rd.
we again hidden the cover of people walking around the city
sidewalks. I felt safer by all the traffic
lights and businesses, but 9:30 PM downtown at this time wasn't
(56:30):
particularly safe for kids either.
There was still an adult theaterright on the main road at this
time in the 1980s, but at least the perverts running around this
night weren't after us. We rode over and hung out by a
McDonald's that was crowded and only saw the van briefly as it
passed by and headed off into the night.
(56:50):
We decided to leave when we saw the McDonald's crew shutting the
place down. At this point we are only a few
minutes away from Luke's grandparents house.
Our plan was to ride as far as we can on the busy Rd. until we
have to turn left for the last leg of our journey.
We are exhausted at this point and just want to get home so we
(57:11):
book it up the road and turn onto the street that leads to
his grandparents house. As we start riding down the road
we see the van three blocks downand it spots us and floors it
coming after us. Luke and I are forced to take
left which takes us further awayfrom his grandparents house but
we have no choice as the van is approaching us fast.
(57:35):
We hop a curb and speed across aparking lot with no entrance on
the side. We take thinking the van won't
follow and we can lose it while it has to go around the block to
find us. I hear the sliding door of the
van open, but we were way too fast for anyone on foot to catch
us, so they appeared to abandon that tactic quickly.
(57:55):
We got over to another St. whichat the time was considered the
most dangerous St. in our city as it had a notorious bar where
fights happened on what seemed like a nightly basis.
It was lucky for us that we saw a group of guys shooting craps
outside the bar, and we knew a couple of them because they were
older brothers of our friends. Just as we started talking with
(58:17):
them, the van creeped up on the street north of us.
Upon seeing all of the guys out playing dice, they slowly drove
away. The guys playing dice asked what
was up with the van. We told them it had been
aggressively pursuing us for quite some time now.
They said to take off and that it likely wouldn't be back now
(58:38):
because of their presence. We agreed and they went back
inside. We really did think that that
would be the end of it as the guys we were talking to were
very bad dudes with dubious reputations.
They liked us because we grew upin the same neighborhoods and we
went to school with their littlebrothers.
Unfortunately, our night wasn't quite over.
(59:01):
We decided to avoid the road where we last saw the van to be
on the safe side and took a street that wasn't so out in the
open. Had we had taken the most
straight line easy route, we would have been easily spotted
by anyone looking for us. So we cut across another St. and
ended up in a parking lot that was in the back of a pharmacy
(59:21):
and medical supply store. As Luke and I are riding across
the dark parking lot going towards the front of the
pharmacy, we see the van creeping along the road.
It's obviously still searching for us as it slows and stops as
if they were looking all over for any sign of us.
In kind of an unspoken moment, Luke and I both know this isn't
(59:45):
a normal situation. These guys have been following
us for over 2 hours now and theyhaven't given up.
We are now close enough to see his grandparents house sitting
in the dark waiting for our moments to spring.
Luke and I and our 12 year old minds both agree that we must
split up. One of us will be bait and the
(01:00:08):
other will get to his grandparents house and call the
cops or come help whichever one of us the van pursues then the
other. Just at that moment the van
abruptly turns and starts comingup the one way St. towards us.
We wait for it to get close and then Luke cuts back through the
parking lot and speeds out onto the street.
(01:00:30):
The van swerves and goes after him.
I speed as fast as I can down the street to his grandparents
house as I see the van within 20feet of a frantically peddling
Luke. I get to his grandparents house
in record time and I'm so workedup that I can barely speak.
Once I calm down I tell Luke's grandma, grandpa and uncle what
(01:00:52):
was happening. They knew that I wasn't joking
around as my personality is verymild mannered and I was frantic
at that moment. We all started heading out the
back to the car to go look for Luke and just at that moment we
see him flying towards us through the parking lots that
connects to the property. I have never been so relieved in
my life. I seriously thought he would be
(01:01:15):
gone forever but he was able to get away.
He said one of the guys in the van tried to tackle him but
missed and the van got stuck at a light.
The cops were called but I'm notsure they took it too seriously
as we never heard anything from them again.
Luke and I couldn't sleep at allthat night and told his mom and
(01:01:36):
step dad about it and they were concerned because they knew this
wasn't like us to embellish anything.
Luke and I eventually calmed down and we were falling asleep
when I swore I heard that demonic van engine roar one last
time. We were on the top floor in
Luke's room that led out to a huge balcony overlooking the
(01:01:58):
road. I saw the van drive slowly down
the street and then turn off into the night.
We never saw the van or the occupants again.
I am not sure if they knew that's where we fled to or if
they were still just driving around looking for us.
Think about this though. We first spotted them at roughly
(01:02:20):
8:00 PM. They chased us until we finally
were safe at Luke's Place around10:30.
I saw that van for the last timeat around 3:00 AM.
Did they just want our bikes or were they just having fun
scaring two kids out at night? Four years I just assumed they
(01:02:42):
wanted to steal our bikes because that happened constantly
in our area during that time. But what kind of grown men in a
creepy van pursued 212 year old boys for the better part of
seven hours? A few months after our
encounter, 2 friends of ours areon the same age as we were.
(01:03:04):
Had a very similar encounter while delivering newspapers in
the early morning hours. Same van and occupants
description, but in this situation two of the men were on
opposite sides of the block closing in on them while the van
drove slowly around the area. That's not my story to tell, but
(01:03:25):
I always wondered if it was the same group who chased after Luke
and I. I still don't know exactly what
was going on that night, but something tells me it wasn't
good and we were extremely luckyto get out of that situation
unscathed. Yeah.
(01:06:08):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:22:05):
Yeah. Yeah.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!