Scary Stories For A Rainy Night - Ep. 240 - Blood Pumpkin

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
Before we begin, I just want to remind you to follow this
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(00:22):
that I do each month. Right now there's a PlayStation
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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. I'm a female and when I was in

(01:06):
my 20s I went to a retreat in the beautiful Berkshire
Mountains in Massachusetts. It was a weekend of lectures and
activities on how to live your best life basically.
Little did I know that by midnight I would be living my
worst nightmare. Upon our arrival, we were given
a tour of the campus which consisted of various buildings

(01:28):
for lectures and activities, dormitories, A cafeteria, and an
arcade. We were warned about ticks and
that there had been recent bear sightings.
I was so mesmerized with the beauty of the place that I admit
I may not have been paying the utmost attention to the tour
guide. It was autumn in New England and

(01:49):
the leaves were a multitude of colors.
Standing on the edge of the mountain, we were able to see a
babbling brook below us. I had never been that high up on
a mountain before and the view was insane.
The highlight of the tour was definitely the arcade building,
which consisted of various game rooms.
There were all kinds of games, from a pool table to classic

(02:12):
arcade games. After touring the arcade
building, the tour guide warned us to be back in our dorms by
11:00 PM. We are very strict about lights
out at 11:00 PM, no exceptions. You must be in your dorm at
11:00 PM, so keep an eye on the time.
It seemed odd to me that there was such a strict curfew for a
bunch of paying adult customers,but I guess they wanted to make

(02:36):
sure we got enough sleep to be well rested for the lecturers.
In the morning. After dinner, I decided I would
spend the rest of my first day at the arcade building.
Since there were no activities planned that evening, I had been
eyeing a racing game. It was the type of arcade game
that you sit inside and there's a steering wheel and you have to
stay on the track. Well, this game was extremely

(02:59):
engrossing and I was enjoying myself to the fullest, so much
so that I could not believe it when the lights suddenly went
out, the game went dark as well as everything else in the
building. Could it possibly be 11:00 PM
already? I actually spent five hours
playing this game. No way, I was scared sitting

(03:23):
there in the dark. Is anybody here?
I called, nobody answered. Apparently everybody had their
eyes on the clock except me. I couldn't blame my fellow
guests for leaving me behind because this was a loud arcade
and I was sitting inside a game where they couldn't see me.

(03:45):
Plus we had just met each other and they had no idea of the head
count. After calling out several times
to no avail, I accepted the factthat I was alone in this pitch
dark building. Every single game had turned off
as well as every single light and you could hear a pin drop.
Terrified, I decided that the best strategy to avoid getting

(04:07):
hurt was to hold my hands out infront of me until I could feel
the wall, and then slide my hands along until I found the
door to the outside. It seemed to take hours to get
myself to the wall, never mind to get to the door to the
outside. I kept walking into things and
getting hurt, but finally my hand turned a doorknob that was

(04:29):
heavier than the rest and I knewI had finally found the door to
go outside. I was so thankful that my
nightmare was about to end. As I opened the door I realized
that to my horror, when they said lights out at 11 they not
only meant indoor lights but St.lights as well.
I was standing outdoors in the pitch darkness on the edge of a

(04:51):
mountain in an area that had recent bear sightings.
All around me, as far as the eyecould see, was pitch black.
I had no idea which was north-south, east or West.
I knew I was on the edge of a Cliff because the babbling brook
from earlier kept getting louderand louder.
So instead of walking with my hands out in front of me like I

(05:13):
did in the building, I decided to crawl to make sure I was
still on land. I would put one hand lightly in
front of me to make sure there was still ground, and then the
other would follow and bend my legs.
I had to crawl like this for hours, fearing that I would fall
off the Cliff at any moment as the brook got louder and louder,

(05:34):
fearing that a bear would come and attack me at any moment,
wondering if I would ever be able to find my dorm.
I was crying in the pitch darkness.
I was praying like crazy. I honestly thought I was going
to die. I was either going to fall off
the mountain, or a bear was going to find me, or I was going

(05:55):
to tire from this crawling that I had to do, which was
exhausting physically and emotionally.
About 3 hours later, at 3:00 in the morning, I finally saw a
light in a window. It must be a dorm.
I figured I was going to knock on this window at 3:00 in the
morning and I did not care. I just couldn't take this

(06:16):
anymore. I stood there scared that the
people would be mad that I was disturbing them at 3:00 in the
morning. But on the other hand, I didn't
care because I didn't want to die.
A man opened the door and I burst out crying and tried to
sob out my story. He took pity on me and gave me a
Lantern and pointed me in the direction of my dorm.

(06:38):
By the time I reached my bed, the sun was coming up and it was
almost time to attend the lectures.
As you can imagine, all I wantedto do at that point was sleep.
I was very thankful to be. Alive.

(07:01):
I used to be in the Boy Scouts and spent many summers working
on a camp staff as the pool director.
Another staff member named Chrisand I arrived two weeks before
the camp opening for the summer to clean the pool, check
equipment and get all of the canoes and row boats out of the
storage and cleaned up. The rest of the camp staff would
not arrive until the next week. It should be noted that before

(07:24):
working on. Staff I had.
Camped here for about 10 years and never had one single
problem. This is a 600 plus acre camp
that we both knew like the back of our hands.
When you first enter the camp you drive up a long road about
two miles long and drive into a large gravel parking lot.
At the front of the lot. Off to the right is a large

(07:47):
lodge with a gravel Rd. that goes in two directions straight
ahead or to the right. By going straight you can drive
either to the dining hall or continue past and continue down
the road past many different campsites in four different
cabins on the three mile drive down.
Ultimately, this road leads you to the back winter entrance to

(08:09):
the Camp at the Lake where thereare additional cabins and a
parking lot. There are lots of trails
throughout this area that led toall of the different campsites
and cabins. About 3/4 of the way down this
road there is an amphitheater surrounded by large cliffs with
caves. Many of the trails crisscrossed
through the cliffs and back to the top of the camp.

(08:32):
The dining hall was located about 100 yards from the lodge
at the edge of the parking area,about 75 yards downhill from the
dining. Hall is a large swimming pool
where the showers and changing rooms are located.
About another 100. Yards down the hill is a large
pine forest where the staff campsite was located.

(08:52):
The staff area had several smallponds around it and several
large cabins with a road leadingback to the camp's top.
After working outside the entireday, Chris and I get cleaned up
and meet his mom and dad in the nearest town for dinner.
Dinner was great and we returnedto the campsite around 9:30 PM.
As we walked down the road to the staff area, we decided that

(09:15):
instead of sleeping in the cabin, we would sleep in the
staff tents that we had already set up because it was warm
outside. All of a sudden we heard a truck
turn down the gravel Rd. At first we thought it might
have been the Ranger coming to say hi as he knew we were there,
but it did not sound like his truck at all.

(09:35):
Luckily the cabin we were standing in front of was back
off the road so we could not be seen.
We hurried behind the cabin to the back entrance, unlocked the
door, entered and locked the door.
Thankfully, we never had the lights on, however the windows
were open. As we snuck over to the window
we saw three trucks parked with four guys standing in front of

(09:56):
them. None of them was anyone that was
on the camp staff or that we hadever seen before.
We thought at first that maybe they had a legitimate reason to
be there. All of a sudden we heard one of
the men say where'd they go? I saw them come down here.
At the moment I knew they were looking for us.

(10:19):
The cabin was empty so we knew that they would see us if they
came to the doors or windows. Luckily there was a storage room
across from the bathroom at the opposite end of the cabin that
had a door in the floor with a ladder that led underneath the
cabin as it is about 6 feet off the ground.
If they tried to get in, we at least had an exit.

(10:40):
We heard the people at the frontand back entrance knocking on
windows telling us to come out. We quietly crept down the ladder
and moved slowly to the oppositeend of the cabin and we were
able to slide out the end where a piece of the lattice was
missing around the edge of the cabin.
Once out, we had to quickly decide if we run up the road to

(11:00):
our cars, which was about a halfa mile away and risk them
catching up to us in their trucks, or turn and run down one
of the many trails in that area.At least we have the advantage
of knowing the place. If they decided to run after us,
We snuck out from under the cabin and began walking towards
one of the trails that was about50 yards from the cabin.

(11:23):
About halfway there, someone screamed.
They're over there. We began running down one of the
trails that we knew led to the middle of the camp where there
were many campsites, cabins, andareas we could hide.
We could see flashlights runningbehind us and on the trails next
to us. We quickly jumped onto another

(11:43):
trail that led up to the amphitheater where there was a
hidden trail that led to the top.
We knew we would be safe there because we would be able to see
anyone that was walking up the trail.
We finally made it to the amphitheater and to the top of
the cliffs where we stayed for what seemed like forever but was
only a few hours. We kept seeing flashlights off

(12:05):
in the distance. Finally the flashlights were
moving towards the lake oppositewhere we were.
We took the back trail which took us around the far backside
of the camp and to the top wherethe lodge and dining hall were
located. It took about 45 minutes to
reach the top. We then slowly walked back to

(12:25):
the staff camp so we could get our keys.
The staff area was about 200 yards from the parking lot where
my car was parked, which is a different lot next to the
archery range which had a separate exit.
We ran to the car and drove out of there as fast as we could.
We drove to the camp ranger's house, which was at the very
edge of camp by the main Rd. andtold him what happened.

(12:50):
He called the local sheriff whenthey arrived about 40 minutes
later. They searched throughout the
camp and never found anyone. We never did find out who it
was. We also never had any trouble
the rest of the summer. I worked there the next two
summers without issues. When I was about 16 or 17 years

(13:21):
old, I was walking home from a party being held at my friend's
house. The streets were dark and eerily
empty as I strolled down the road that led to my home.
The beeping of the watch I wore then notified me of the passing
of the hour, and I glanced at itto confirm the time. 3 AMI
didn't normally go to parties orcome home so late.

(13:45):
In fact I can count the times I came home after midnight in high
school with one hand. But I was a good kid and my
parents knew my friends well. All I had to do is let them know
who I would be with, what time Iwould be back and give them a
call before I left my friends houses.
And I pretty much had no curfew as I wasn't really accustomed to

(14:07):
coming home so late. I wasn't used to the empty
streets. They were normally bustling with
people playing and living their lives.
The emptiness gave the walk a creepy vibe.
I was about two short blocks from the bridge that led to my
house when I saw a hooded figurestep off the bridge headed in my
direction. One thing you should know about

(14:30):
that bridge is that it was a hotspot for mugging and other
violent crime. I was always told never to walk
on that bridge at night and to go around the long way.
I did mention I was a teenager at the time, however, so of
course I didn't listen. Seeing the hooded figure made me
wish I had, however, as even from afar he gave off a

(14:53):
threatening vibe. I decided that I was a tough guy
and if the guy started with me, I would finish it.
I continued toward him. Big mistake.
As I drew closer, the strangest thing I had ever witnessed
happened. From either behind or out of

(15:13):
that hooded figure, another hooded figure came forth and
fell in line with the first. Then out of the second a third
emerged, and from the third a fourth.
I couldn't believe what I'd witnessed.
It was almost as if the first guy multiplied into four people.

(15:34):
Either that or they were walkingin such a perfect sink that you
could not see one behind the other.
There were 4 hooded figures, alldressed the same with the same
height and weight, walking toward me in a perfect cadence.
I have seen my share of creepy stuff before that day, but
nothing like that. Every instinct in my body was

(15:57):
shouting for me to flee and I decided at that moment that I
wasn't as tough as I thought. I began to cross the street to
take the long way around and they also begin to cross.
It was clear that they were matching my movement.
I picked up my pace and got to the corner before they did,
almost at a jog. At one point I was close enough

(16:19):
to get a look at them, but all four of their faces were
obscured by their hoods. I couldn't even see their chins
or noses. It was just darkness, almost as
if they had no faces. I was just about to start
sprinting in abject terror when suddenly I found my backbone and

(16:40):
decided I would not run from whatever they were.
I took a deep breath and summoning all my courage, I
turned around to face them. They were gone.
I looked around for them, but they were nowhere insight.
They had completely disappeared.There was no place they really
could have gone. However, they weren't close

(17:02):
enough to any buildings to have gotten into.
In fact, they were right behind me.
I didn't spend too long searching for the creepy hooded
figures however, and 10 minutes later I was home.
As soon as I entered my house, my mother comes from out of her
bedroom and approaches me and asked are you OK and thought

(17:24):
maybe she didn't Remember Me calling her before leaving my
friend's house. I'm fine mom, we spoke an hour
ago. I told you I'd be home at this
time. You did, She confirmed.
But after I spoke to you I fell asleep.
Then suddenly I was awoken by anAngel that told me your son is

(17:44):
in danger, come with me. My mother was, and still as a
Christian as am I, so hearing her speak about angels wasn't
uncommon, but her saying she went somewhere with one wasn't
your average dinner conversationin my house.
The Angel LED my spirit into a room where there were a bunch of

(18:05):
other teenagers that were chanting around a table and they
had a picture of you on the table and their words sounded
foreign. It felt like they were trying to
send something after you. My mom explained.
I swallowed hard. What happened next?
I asked her hesitantly. The Angel prompted me to step

(18:26):
forward onto their table, so I did, and suddenly I was wearing
this beautiful white gown and the kids that were chanting
could see me and they all fled in terror.
I think I disrupted whatever they were trying to do.
Mom, when did this happen? I asked.
Although I already knew just now, like maybe 10 or 15 minutes

(18:50):
ago, she responded. I couldn't believe it.
That was about the same time those guys appeared.
Was there any connection betweenmy mom's vision and the four
hooded figures? I don't know, but all I do know
is that I don't ever want to meet those hooded guys again.

(19:16):
This was a few years ago, and I don't expect many to believe me
considering it was also Friday the 13th.
It was my best friend's birthdaythe night before and he had just
turned 21. Mind you, we were all around
that age at the time. I am now a newly 26 year old
male and what happened later that night still sends shivers

(19:38):
down my spine. We had a compact but close
friend group back then and had planned to visit our local pub
to celebrate his birthday. The night went on and as we
shared our experiences, talked and ultimately had fun, which
was the most important thing. We arrived at the pub around
8:30 PM and got kicked out at 12AM due to closing reasons.

(20:01):
After that, we chatted for a bitmore outside the pub before
walking home as we were all pretty drunk.
The night was silent and dark, but thankfully not stormy.
My house was on a slight hill inwhat I assumed a safe
neighborhood before this happened.
Let me quickly say that I was living with my aunt at the time.

(20:22):
I was walking down the street when I noticed someone dressed
in black head to toe in my peripheral vision.
They had their hood over their head so it was next to
impossible to capture their identity in the dim
streetlights, but they seemed tobe in their mid 30s to 40s with
a more muscular build. They were on the adjacent street
from mine and coming towards theintersection I was walking.

(20:45):
Through. I didn't think much of it as I
thought he was out walking home or out somewhere, so I continued
to walk and was almost home by this time.
It was around 1:30 AM when I turned around to see the same
guy I saw before following me. I was a little alarmed,
especially since I've been drinking a couple hours before

(21:07):
and my paranoia senses were elevated.
Needless to say, I've always been paranoid walking anywhere
late at night. I started to pick up the pace to
get some distance from him, and to my surprise, he did as well.
That's when I knew I was in a fight or flight response
situation. Instead of trying to act all

(21:27):
tough and risk getting myself jumped or possibly worse, I
decided to Sprint down the street since my house was on the
corner of it. Of course, he was right behind
me. I ran up my driveway, slamming
the gate behind me before abruptly opening the back door
and almost shaking the whole house trying to lock it.

(21:48):
What I didn't notice is that themotion sensor light we had
connected to our garage didn't turn on when I came into range
of it. I found this to be odd since we
always kept on top of its battery life and the light was
extremely sensitive to motion. The next morning, when I felt it
was safe enough to exit the house, I checked the motion

(22:09):
sensor light and was shocked to see that it had been
intentionally covered and turnedtowards the garage so that it
couldn't be activated. I felt a severe pain in my chest
when I realized that the man hadmore sinister intentions planned
for me. I went back inside and checked
with my family members. And none of them.

(22:30):
Had touched the light after I left for the pub.
What happened? Friday October 13th would be the
first and last time I have ever seen that person.
What confuses me still today is how he knew I lived at that
house. Often I enjoy walking my dog at

(22:56):
night time. This is due to the fact that my
dog is harder to walk when people are around with their own
dogs, so we tend to walk around parks in the area when they
become somewhat secluded. I'm not a very big guy, I'm just
about 5-10 and very lanky, so I wouldn't call myself an
intimidating figure. However, my 120 LB black boxer

(23:19):
named Loki could be somewhat considered threatening to most
from what I hear. I figured his size would be used
as a deterrent for anyone looking to cause nightly
troubles. I was dead wrong.
On one specific night in the fall of 2016, I could recall of
an encounter that reminds me of why I am so reluctant to walk

(23:40):
around once daylight falls. This specific park is 1 I have
been to a couple of times and from what I remember, this park
is usually secluded around 6:30 and later.
Aside from a couple of joggers, there are very few other dog
walkers. Not many people walk the same
path I take. I also like to put on my
headphones and listen to music while I walk, but on this

(24:03):
specific night I chose not to wear them since my phone was on
low battery and I wanted to preserve it as long as I could.
Anyway, the walk was going as usual.
Loki did his business and we continued our usual path.
About midway on our walk, I realized.
That it had. Started to get really dark.
Since he was done with his business, I decided to cut the

(24:26):
walk somewhat short and we took a shortcut that kind of let us
off the path. This path had a bunch of trees
surrounding the area and there were still leaves on the
branches. With that being said, I felt a
weird feeling as if I were beingwatched.
I have pretty bad anxiety sometimes, but since I knew the
town was safe, I knew that nothing was going to happen.

(24:48):
But still, I could not for the life of me shake off the feeling
of being watched. I peered back to see if anyone
had been following me out of anxiety, and every single time,
no one was there. In fact, no one was anywhere.
This whole shortcut was essentially secluded.
Suddenly Loki stopped walking and also looked back.

(25:12):
I told him, Loki, come on boy, we got to go.
One thing I failed to mention was that Loki is a big coward.
I noticed his tail was tucked between his legs, which is a
telltale sign that a dog is afraid.
I was also curious and a bit nervous, but I surely did not
want to find out what he heard or noticed.

(25:33):
I just wanted to get out ASAP. I pulled a little and he began
to walk, but every now and then I'd see him peer back.
After maybe a minute or so of walking he stopped again and
this time he began to growl despite being a coward.
Loki is a bark but no bite kind of dog, so I took this chance to

(25:54):
see exactly what he was growlingat.
It was quite dark so I could notsee well, so I used my phone's
flashlight to see what was up. Trees, just trees.
What he heard was probably some kind of small animal.
Once again I turned around and kept walking.
He continued to peer back once in a while still, but this time

(26:17):
I noticed it was a lot more frequent.
I just said to myself, just squirrels, maybe a bird, and I
ignored it. Then I heard what appeared to be
actual footsteps and branches breaking.
There is absolutely no way a small animal could have produced
a sound like that. Loki turned around, quick and

(26:38):
still with his tail tucked. He began to growl and bark at a
figure that I could only describe as a man in his early
50s, possibly late 40s appeared from out of the woods.
He was dressed in dirty clothing, his hair was long and
was graying. He had one hand in his pocket
and he said to me, not a dog youhave.

(27:00):
What breed is he? He's a boxer.
I replied. Oh, I love dogs.
Mind about Pedim? He wondered.
The man got closer and emerged from the trees.
As he got closer, I realized that he was quite tall and a bit
burly. Loki instantly got bad vibes.

(27:21):
He ran behind me and started to bark at him.
Actually, I do kind of mind. My dog here doesn't like
strangers. Sorry but it's probably not best
if you pet him. I quickly stated it's OK.
Really. He seems like a friendly guy.
Just a little. Pet wouldn't harm him.
The man retorted as he got closer.

(27:42):
I felt extremely uncomfortable as he appeared to get closer and
closer. I don't know why this guy
couldn't take no for an answer. I mean, I usually don't allow
people to pet Loki unless he comes up to them first.
If he's scared of you then I usually do not want to freak him
out by letting him be pet by a stranger.
This is especially the case whensaid stranger came from the

(28:05):
woods behind a few trees. I'm really sorry man, I'm scared
he'd bite you or something. I told him as I began to walk
away. Like I said before, I wasn't
trying to be judgmental or anything, but the dude came from
the woods and was possibly the one trailing us from before.
I don't know why he won't just let me introduce myself to him.

(28:27):
The guy replied angrily. This time I began to speed walk.
I was very uncomfortable and my fight or flight instincts begin
to take over. He followed us and kept
muttering curses to himself. I don't know if this man was
under the influence of something, but he did not let
up. I won't lie, I started to get a
little angry. Why can't a guy just take no for

(28:50):
an answer? He began to match my speed,
almost as if he was trying to catch up to us.
Loki and I both took this as an answer to start sprinting a bit.
I don't remember much of the running, it was all a blur to
me, but I do remember the spine tingling feeling of hearing his
footsteps rapidly increasing behind me.

(29:11):
For a man of his stature, he wasquite fast.
I also realized that his intentions may not have been to
just pet my dog. No one reasonable would go that
far just to pet a dog that clearly wanted nothing to do
with him. I looked behind me and he was in
pursuit. Maybe about 10 feet behind me.

(29:31):
He was chasing us. I'll never forget the look in
his eyes. I have never had anyone look at
me like that. A look of killer intent.
All for what? Just because he couldn't pet my
dog? My instincts told me that he
definitely had sinister intent behind that.
Finally, the path led to the park exit and into the busier

(29:54):
streets. I lived about 10 minutes away
from the park. I made sure no one was following
me and I even made sure to walk on populated streets.
After what seemed like an eternity, we got home, but I
knew for a fact that I was not going to get a minute of sleep.
From my window in the porch. I watched all night with Loki

(30:16):
just to see if anyone had followed us home.
I also made a police report withmy parents.
After all, this guy seemed to have been quite suspicious and
who knows what his true intentions were.
Had his target been someone who couldn't protect themselves or
run away, what would he have done?
I also often ask myself, what ifI was wearing my headphones and

(30:39):
the Sound of Music drowned out the footsteps behind me?
Ever since, I haven't walked Loki in that park.
I have also made it a habit of mine to walk on livelier streets
at night. If I could give anyone one piece
of advice, even if you live in arelatively safe town, do not
ever let your guard down. You never know what kind of

(31:02):
person might be lurking in the shadows.
OK, so bear with me as I kind ofsuck at telling stories without
some rambling. I changed the names for
anonymity's sake. I'll give you a little.
Background and then dive into the story.

(31:25):
My husband will call Michael andI are in our 30s.
We have two toddlers. The couple I will talk about
I'll call Liz and her husband wewill call Clinger.
Now let's dive into the story. I was scrolling through Facebook
when I noticed a post on one of our local talk of the town
groups. Liz posted saying she isn't from

(31:46):
the area and wanted to know where everyone hangs out and she
said she wants to make friends. Me being my outgoing self, I
decided to comment saying I'll be your friend.
I know, I know. It was a very stupid idea on my
part and I let my overly trusting and friendly
personality get the best of me. Liz and I started Facebook

(32:06):
messaging and quickly realized we had a lot in common.
Clinger and I have mutual Facebook friends so that made me
more inclined to meet up. I arranged for the four of us to
get dinner and hang out. We had a good time and share the
same sense of humor. It turned into Liz and I hanging
out weekly and Clinger inviting Mike to play pool every week.

(32:28):
Mike was working a very demanding job that made it hard
for him to have the time to hangout and when he did have the
time he was too tired. Well this made Clinger turn a
bit crazy. Clinger asked if Mike could go
to pool night and he said no because of work.
Clinger completely freaked out. He started texting Mike saying

(32:48):
that he was being a quote UN quote part time friend and that
he couldn't deal with having a friend that didn't give enough
effort. He said that Mike was leading
him on as a friend. Naturally Mike and I thought
what the heck, what is wrong with this guy?
Mike started saying that Clingerwas overreacting and that he has
obligations like work and familytime.

(33:10):
He said that he doesn't have to be Clinger's friend and to chill
out. Mike ignored all messages from
Clinger and we went about our days.
Liz and I still hung out regularly just as girls and
figured that Mike and Clinger didn't have to hang out with us.
I thought OK, problem solved. Wrong.
Clinger started messaging me saying that he doesn't

(33:32):
understand why Mike wouldn't want to hang out with him and
that he wasn't being nice. I tried explaining that he's got
a lot going on and to chill out.This just angered him more and
he lashed out by saying that Mike didn't give enough me time
and that everyone deserves that.He insisted that Mike take time
for himself and have a guys night weekly.

(33:54):
I told Clinger that him and Mikedon't have to be friends and
it's not a big deal. You would think I would have cut
Liz and Clinger out of my life right then, but I thought I
could be friends with only Liz. I then started to notice that
Liz was becoming too clingy and would get mad if I said I felt
like just hanging out at home instead of with her.

(34:15):
She made me feel guilty for wanting to have time alone so my
idiot self fell for it and thought that it would be wrong
of me to leave her to be lonely as she didn't have any other
friends in the area. This in turn made me spend more
money than we could afford as she always wanted to get drinks
or food. Mike and I started arguing
because Liz would twist things Isaid to her then Clinger would

(34:37):
spit them out to Mike. I thought about ending our
friendship but wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
This all changed when I got a text from Liz asking if Mike and
I would want to come over and doMolly with them.
I am not into that stuff except for smoking occasionally, so I
definitely wasn't about to go over to their place to do Molly.
I said that we couldn't and I'm not into it anyway.

(35:00):
Plus we didn't have a sitter. Liz had the audacity to say that
I should bring our kids over with us and their kids could
play with them. I told her absolutely not and
she got mad that I said it was abad idea.
Meanwhile, Klinger is non-stop texting Mike saying that he's a
piece of crap alcoholic and thathe doesn't give me enough time.

(35:22):
Mike and I were totally taken aback as this came out of
nowhere and I never complained about my sex life to Liz or
Klinger. In fact I told Liz that I was
content with it. I did mention Mike drinking a
lot at the time but didn't go into further detail and it
wasn't some big secret. Clinger then lectured Mike about
him needing to quit drinking andthat he's a piece of crap father

(35:44):
just like his dad. My husband has his share of
issues, sure, but he's not a piece of crap dad and he has
dramatically improved since thisoccurred.
Clinger then said that our kids are annoying and ugly.
He told Mike that our son shouldn't have a pacifier and
how we are intentionally screwing up his teeth.

(36:05):
Keep in mind that they were around 1617 months and three
years old with standard tantrums.
Mike said that he was done with the conversation and that there
was no reason for him to disrespect our family, which
obviously included a few choice words.
Mike said that he doesn't care what his sexual preference is,
but it seems like Clinger seems to be looking for a boyfriend,

(36:26):
not a friend. Clinger lost it and threatened
Mike and said that he would break him in half.
Mike blocked him on everything. Then I texted Liz saying that
our friendship was over due to her psycho husband.
After we blocked them, we didn'thear from them again, but I was
nervous for a good month that Clinger would show up at our

(36:46):
house and try to do something. It didn't help knowing that
Clinger regularly went on the dark web and hearing all the
horror stories surrounding that.Also, at the time, they lived
about 10 minutes away. Thankfully, I knew beforehand
that they would be moving to a city about 40 minutes away in
the near future, so I knew it would be unlikely that I would

(37:07):
run into them. So Long story short, I learned
the hard way that when it comes to friends, it's quality, not
the quantity of friendships. We have a couple of good friends
now and are more than happy withthat.

(37:30):
Before I begin, I'd like to state that I am a paranoid
schizophrenic. This will come into play later.
This happened recently on July 6th at around 8:00 PM, just
starting to get dark when I happened to notice a man walking
around my housing complex. I saw this on my security system
with about 6 cameras in total. He is wearing a black hoodie

(37:52):
with the hood up and a pair of ratty blue jeans and he had a
wild looking beard. I see him walking around and
think nothing of it until around30 minutes later I see the man
walk around near my house and notice him walking a bit too
close to my car for comfort. He then just walks away and I
don't see him for another hour when I get an alert on my

(38:14):
monitor with all of my security cameras that says there is a
proximity alarm. I have each camera set to a
different proximity alert and the two garage door cameras were
set to around 15 feet away from the camera.
At this point it's dark outside and the cameras switch into
infrared mode where I can get a better look at this guy.

(38:35):
He looked crazed and had a smallgrin on his face.
It didn't look too obvious but it was definitely noticeable.
I kid you not, what he does nextis just downright terrifying.
He looks up and then begins to stare into the camera with his
wild looking face and just sits there for a good 5 minutes.

(38:58):
He then tries the rear left doorand fails to open it, then tries
the driver side to no avail. The crazed man begins to then
knock on the windows of the driver's side door and starts
pounding it. After a short period of time,
this guy was getting more visibly agitated and angry with
each second he couldn't get intomy vehicle.

(39:19):
By this point I am already on the phone with the police and
they say they'll be at my place soon.
I get off the phone with the operator and just continue to
watch what this guy is doing. He's still trying to get into my
vehicle, then stops and just stares into my car with no
regard to anything else. After 10 minutes, 2 police
cruisers come onto my street with their lights on and their

(39:41):
weapons drawn at the man. He looks at them and starts
walking toward them slowly. By doing that, the guy got
tased. I assume the guy had a weapon of
some sort because why else wouldfour officers have their weapons
drawn? Then I hear a loud scream come
from outside. Once the officers got the guy in
cuffs, he turned his head back toward the main garage door

(40:04):
camera and stares into it with the most deranged and insane
look on his face. I give the police a statement
and AUSB drive with all of the footage of which is transpired
and I'm still waiting to hear back from the police.
I am not allowed to show any footage from these events as
there is still an active investigation going on.

(40:34):
I didn't set out to hurt anyone.I certainly didn't want to kill
anyone. I didn't have a choice, though.
The pumpkin demanded sacrifice. I bought the damn seeds at
Reggie's vegetable stall. David Decker bought his seeds
from there too. I was quite sure David was a bit

(40:54):
of a local celebrity. You see, he had grown the
biggest pumpkins in the county for the last five years and
counting, and for the last five years, I had to be content with
second place. This year was different though.
This was the year where I beat David Decker and reclaimed my
prize as the biggest pumpkin grower in the county.

(41:15):
This year was different because Reggie said that he had
something special for me, a secret weapon, if you will, and
he assured me that it would finally wipe the smile off old
Decker's face once and for all. Reggie found some special seeds.
Blood pumpkins. I said skeptically.
The package was old. It looked older than God.

(41:39):
The paper had taken on that soft, velvety feel of a material
that had seen the fall of the Second World War, and the seeds
inside felt hard little bullets under my thumb.
The paper declared them to be blood curvies, and if Reggie
hadn't told me what they were, Iwould have never known.
Everything on the package was ina foreign language and I would

(42:01):
have sworn it was something thathe had bought from a joke shop
if he had not been so serious. Reggie was a practical joker,
but his face was stoned serious as he looked at me from across
the counter of his vegetable stand.
Blood pumpkins he and toned backwith deep seriousness.
I don't know, Reggie. These things look older than

(42:22):
God. Are you sure they'll grow?
Absolutely. Reggie stretched the word into
3. Granddad brought them back from
Germany and he said the pumpkinshe saw over there were huge.
I scoffed. Your granddad was a sod Buster
just like mine, Reggie. When did he go to Germany?

(42:44):
During the war, Same as your granddad, except your granddad
spent it in Alaska. I wanted to take offense to
that, but he was right. Granddad got a very cushy post,
while Reggie's granddad had gotten half his leg blown off by
a potato masher and was sent home with honors.
Let me get my usual spread of regular pumpkins too, Reggie,

(43:06):
just to be safe. So how did these work anyway?
Any special instructions for these German pumpkins?
Granddad always said that the man who gave him the seeds said
that a sacrifice was needed to see them reach their full
potential. What that sacrifice was, the man
wouldn't say, but Granddad figured if anyone knows anything

(43:26):
about sacrifices, it's farmers like us.
He wasn't wrong. All the farming these past few
years were one sacrifice after another.
You sacrificed your time, your love, your family, your hair,
and damn nearly everything else so you could afford to keep the

(43:47):
taxes paid and the lights on year after year.
Sodbusting was nothing but sacrifice in many ways, and I
figured I would plant the seeds and see what came of them.
I honestly figured I would get more out of the other packs of
seeds than those two old pumpkinbullets.
Anyway. Looking back, I realized that I
had no idea about sacrifice yet.I planted the seeds as I had

(44:12):
done for years and years in the East Field.
As I stood up and rubbed the dirt off my hands, I looked
across my field and felt the same sense of pride I always
felt. The corn was coming up, potatoes
and yams, beans and peanuts. The fruit trees were starting to
bear fruits in the orchard and my 20 acres was abuzz with

(44:33):
growth. The July sun had beaten down on
me as I shaded my eyes to surveymy Kingdom and I knew it
wouldn't be long before harvest time, packing time, and time to
take another load down to Reggieso we could sell my harvest and
I could lay enough back to make it through the winter.
And once I win this year's grandprize for the biggest pumpkin

(44:53):
contest, I would open my own stall in the following spring
and sell my harvests like my father used to do.
I was such a fool. The pumpkins grew slowly, as
pumpkins do, but after a month Ihad my eye on three that looked
to be coming along nicely. I named them Hercules, Goliath
and Samson. They outgrew the others by quite

(45:16):
a bit. It might seem silly to name a
pumpkin, but I always named the ones I thought would be my
entries into the fair that year.The other 40 or so would be sold
to pie makers and pumpkin carvers and all sorts of other
folks, but these three would be weighed, judged, and then made
into pies by the misses for the pie contest to be held two days

(45:37):
hence. I always laughed about it, but I
always felt a little sorry to see her make those pumpkins into
a pie after I worked so hard on their rearing.
I named the blood pumpkin Fritz.It's a little different from the
others. It was underperforming.
Fritz wasn't even as big as mostof the regular pumpkins, but I

(45:58):
kept tending to him and hoping that maybe he was just a late
bloomer. When I had gotten a pumpkin at
all from the seeds, I had held out hope that maybe Reggie's
granddad was right, and that these pumpkins would be bigger
than the regular ones I usually entered.
I pruned it and weeded it by hand, just as I did with the
other three, hoping that maybe it would grow bigger and I could

(46:20):
sell it as an oddity at Reggie'sstand.
While my other pumpkins were orange, this one was a deeper
orange, like blood orange, and its leaves had a strange wilted
look on them. I was certain it would make
someone an extra creepy Jack O Lantern when Halloween rolled
around, but I really didn't havetoo high of hopes for the

(46:41):
stunted little thing other than that.
Then one day in August, I got a surprise.
A painful surprise. I was out tending to the
pumpkins. My top three are still growing
larger and fuller than the others, and while I was pruning
around Fritz, I accidentally cutmy hand with the shears.

(47:01):
It wasn't a deep cut, just took a little skin off a knuckle, but
like any wound, it bled a bit, and before I could snatch my
finger back to put it in my mouth, a few drops of blood
splattered around the pumpkin. I didn't think much of it at the
time, it was just a cut after all, and I wrapped it in a
bandana and got back to work. The next day, however, when I

(47:24):
went to go check on the pumpkins, I noticed that
something amazing had happened. The blood pumpkin had grown.
It was smaller than even my smallest pumpkin the day before,
and now it was almost as big as Samson, the smallest of my 3
entries. I had done nothing different,

(47:45):
nothing besides giving it my blood.
Then I remembered what Reggie said.
He had said that the plant required a sacrifice, and I
thought to myself that maybe this sacrifice was more than my
time and energy, the sacrifice Iwould give to any crop.
What if this sacrifice was my blood?

(48:05):
As though I was in a daze, I pulled out my buck knife and
slid the blade across the meat of my palm.
This sting was little more than an afterthought.
As I squeezed my hand, I sent a dozen fat drops onto the ground
beside the pumpkin. The drops splashed onto the
vines as well, a single fat dropsplattering the body of the

(48:26):
gourd, and as it fell I could swear I heard it grow.
It was a soft, whispery noise, like the trees in light wind,
and the ground drank up my bloodand left nothing behind.
It seemed to grow before my eyes, looking bigger than it was
a minute ago, and the next day Imeasured 3 inches of growth.

(48:48):
Seemingly overnight for the nexttwo weeks, I began giving the
pumpkin my blood. It was never much, the amount
you'd get from a diabetes test, but in two weeks I noticed a
change in the size of the blood pumpkin.
In those two weeks, it grew as big as any of the pumpkins I had
planned to enter. By the last week of August, it

(49:10):
was twice as big as any of the pumpkins I had planned to enter.
And Fritz was my new entry for sure.
I imagined that anyone who caredto look would have seen the
bruises on my fingertips and palm.
My wife certainly made a lot of them as she aided them at the
dining room table, but she was the only one.
I had a lot of visitors in the last week of August.

(49:32):
Actually, someone it's seen had seen the blood pumpkin.
My neighbor was the first. He could hardly miss a pumpkin
that was nearly 5 feet tall and four feet wide and wondered if
he could come have a look. After that, I was visited every
day by curious townspeople wanting to see my pumpkin.

(49:53):
As I spent more and more time with the pumpkin, I began to
worry that this was as large as it was going to get, topping out
just shy of five feet, and started increasing the amount of
blood I gave it. I was back to cutting my palm
for the fat red drops I've gotten before, but even that
didn't make it grow. The ground drank, but the
whispering growth didn't occur. I slept poorly.

(50:17):
I began to neglect my other crops and Fritz the Blood
Pumpkin became somewhat of an obsession.
On the 4th of October, I got thevisit I've been expecting.
He called on me early, just a short series of knocks that
dragged me from the table where I've been listlessly eating my
breakfast. He wore overalls and a blue work

(50:39):
shirt, boots with the rundown heels of many years of use, and
a Round Top round hat that probably was meant to make him
look like a cowboy, but just made him look even more like a
farmer from a John Wayne movie. He hadn't taken the hat off,
just stood grinning on my front porch as though we were the best
of friends. David, what brings you out my

(51:01):
way this early? I asked with no real emotion.
He grinned. Well, I'd heard that I might
have a spot to worry about this year.
Seems like you've got a real contender of a pumpkin on your
hands. Might I get a look?
I considered it. Sure, he had seen pictures and
heard gossip, but in the end I decided that I really didn't

(51:22):
want him to see my pumpkin. Maybe it was jealousy, maybe it
was mean spiritedness, but I think it was something else.
I don't believe the pumpkin wanted him to see it.
Sorry David, but if you want to see my pumpkin, you'll have to
wait till the contest. I tried to close the door and
found the tip of one of those rundown boots blocking the way.

(51:45):
Come on now, just a peek. Hell, you've let half the town
see it, so what's the harm in letting me have a glance?
I said. No, David, you can see it in
three weeks when it's got a blueribbon attached to it.
He moved his foot then, allowingme to close the door, but when
he nodded his head and showed mehis grin again, I knew it wasn't

(52:06):
the genial smile I'd seen before.
Suit yourself then, I'm sure I'll see it in due time.
He was right, of course, but thescene would prove to be his
undoing. He got his look.
Three nights later I was in bed,my wife snoring peacefully

(52:26):
beside me, and as my eyes made amap of the dark topography of
the ceiling, I heard a noise from the barn.
It was subtle, could have been the wind, but I felt myself
getting out of bed and walking down the hall and into the
kitchen. I moved around the dark table
and stood in the screen door as I gazed at my east field.
It was late midnight by the clock on the stove and there

(52:50):
should have been no way for me to see anyone in the field at
all. Standing in the dark kitchen,
though, I became very sure that I could see someone walking into
my east field, carrying something with a long handle.
I slept walked from the house, silent as a ghost, and though
the October winds sent goosebumps up my bare legs, I

(53:13):
hardly noticed. I paused by the woodpile and
wrapped my scarred hand around the old splintery axe that sat
buried in the ancient stump. As I approached, I saw the
person staring at the pumpkins, staring at Fritz, and in the
moonlight it was easy to see them transfixed by the
silhouette of the swollen gourd.He stood stock still,

(53:37):
contemplating the thing for nearly a minute, and I was less
than 30 feet when he raised the tool in their hand and swung it
down into the pumpkin with a wet, meaty thunk.
I started to run then, bare feetslapping the earth, and he must
have heard me because he turned.In the moonlight I got a glimpse
of a round crowned hat and a face full of white, snarling

(54:00):
teeth. I didn't register who it was,
didn't even register that he washuman, and my only thought was
that this person would die for harming my pumpkin.
I buried the axe in his chest, blade biting into the wood of
the hoe which he tried to use toblock the swing, and as the wood
splintered, I saw the blood splash across my undershirt and

(54:23):
stain it red. David Decker looked at me with
stunned and unbelieving eyes, but those eyes didn't fill with
fear until something wrapped around his ankle.
His blood had fallen on the ground between US, and even now
the earth was drinking it greedily.
He turned suddenly, ax still buried in his chest, and as he

(54:46):
did, he fell to his knees as theblood began to bubble from his
lips. The red fell on the face of that
unholy gourd, and I saw it grow and writhe before my very eyes.
Its vines twined around him, long stalks wrapping around him
like the coils of some monstroussnake, and all at once the earth
began to writhe and churn as itsroots came up to join its vines.

(55:10):
In his terror, David struggled. His hands lashed out feebly with
a broken hoe as he was dragged beneath the soil by the grasping
vines. I watched, God help me, I
watched as he disappeared into the earth and all at once I felt
my knees unhinge and I too was knee bound on the soil of my

(55:32):
east field as the roots begin toslide over me as well.
I felt my mind slip away as the shadow of the blood pumpkin fell
across me. Now 6 or 7 feet tall and five or
six feet wide, I could hear it growing and groaning.
It grew with a sound like thin trees and a high wind, and as I

(55:53):
blacked out, I never expected tohave another thought on God's
green earth. Besides that last.
My thoughts was that I finally made my sacrifice and that this
pumpkin would take me into the earth as its next meal.
I almost wish that it had. I awoke in the field with my
wife standing over me and the pumpkin, that 7 foot tall

(56:16):
behemoth of orange skin and green vines towering over us
both. My shirt was clean, the ground
was undisturbed, and all signs pointed to the night's events
being just a dream. Except for the broken hoe and
the ugly little scar on the leftside of Fritz where the hoe had
bitten into him when David swungit.

(56:38):
David Decker was never seen again.
The sheriff found his truck not far from my farm, and they came
by one afternoon to ask some questions.
Had I seen him? Had he been here, and did I know
anything about his disappearance?
I told them no, I couldn't very well tell them that one of my
pumpkins had eaten him and stayed out of the nut house, and

(56:59):
they believed me. They said that the visit was
just a courtesy anyway and that they wouldn't keep me from my
harvest. The harvest that year was
tremendous, the blood pumpkin wasn't the only thing that had
benefited from David's sacrifice, and the yield that
year was so great that I could have bought my own stand without
the money from winning the contest.

(57:21):
That hardly mattered now though.Nothing really mattered at this
point. By this time, I didn't care
about anything but the pumpkin and keeping it happy.
October 15th, 5 days before the contest, I began to notice a
change in Fritz. Though still connected to the

(57:41):
ground and still 7 feet tall, itwas beginning to take on a
definite sag. It was waxy looking, had an over
ripened look to it, and I had serious doubts that it would
make it to the time of the fair.My blood would no longer sustain
it and whatever it had gotten from David was gone now.
It appeared that another sacrifice was required, but I

(58:04):
did not have the strength to catch its food for it.
I had not the resolve to feed myneighbors to this unholy thing.
I was sitting at the kitchen table and contemplating what I
would do next when the knock came at the door.
It was Reggie, the only one leftin town, who hadn't come to see
the pumpkin. My wife was out visiting a sick

(58:25):
friend. It was just he and me, and he
wanted to see the pumpkin, the one he had heard so much about
around the stand. Reggie had walked from his farm
a few blocks away. He had probably told no one
where he was going. I took him to the east field and
as he marvelled at the pumpkin, I slipped my hand into my

(58:46):
pocket. This is wild, Granddad said.
They were big, but this is huge.I wrapped my hand around the
buck knife I'd used to feed it my own blood.
Even if Decker hadn't disappeared, I'm pretty sure
that not even he would be able to grow anything big enough to
compete with this. Reggie had his back to me and

(59:07):
thus didn't see the knife slide out.
What have you been feeding this thing?
Granddad said It took a sacrifice.
You must have spent a lot of time out here.
He was so lost in his own rambling that he didn't hear the
metallic click as the knife cameopen.
Unless you've been making actualsacrifices out here in your East

(59:27):
field, he said jokingly. What's the secret, buddy?
Virgin's blood, goats, A little full moon.
He stopped talking when the knife slipped into the side of
his neck, stopped talking and started gurgling.
The ground accepted him, and when my wife got home from her

(59:48):
friend's house, the pumpkin was 12 feet tall.
The judges came to my house thatyear to see Fritz the Behemoth,
and I won hands down. It wasn't even a contest,
really. The judges couldn't find a
pumpkin even half as large as mine, and when my wife came for
her early sacrifice for the pie contest, I gave her the other 3

(01:00:11):
instead. She seemed disappointed.
Maybe she had noticed what a mania this pumpkin had become
for me. But she took them anyway, and
won the pie contest that year with the tastiest pie that the
judges had ever tasted. As she left my field, her arms
ladened with pumpkins, I first heard the slithery voice of the

(01:00:32):
serpent as it offered me its apple.
The voice was autumn wind and winter's promise.
And I had heard it before, hadn't I?
It was the voice that tells you that you can squeeze in one more
crop before the winter. The voice that tells you that it
wouldn't be that cold tonight, so there's no need to bring the

(01:00:53):
livestock in. The voice of creeping winter
that's hungry for its sacrifice.The voice told me that if I gave
it my wife, my fame would be eternal.
On that day, I turned away from it.
On that day, I was strong. That year, at my annual pumpkin

(01:01:14):
patch, I was not so strong. I had arrayed my smaller
pumpkins for sale, and even Hercules sat amongst them since
he had been spared. The people milled about the
patch, looking in awe at Fritz the Behemoth as they made their
choices, and I saw the kid when he stepped a little too close to
the massive pumpkin. He was a poker, a hefty kid from

(01:01:37):
a family of hefty adults, and hehad stopped to stare at the
pumpkin as he held one of its smaller cousins in his pudgy
hands. All at once, he shifted the
pumpkin under his arm and stepped towards the mountainous
board with a hand outstretched to touch.
I started to stop him. I should have stopped him, but
as I started to rise from my chair and raise my voice to warn

(01:01:59):
him, I heard the voice of the serpent again, commanding me to
stand aside. I sat back down and cast my eyes
away, but even that didn't fullysave me from witnessing the end.
The police were called when theynoticed his absence, and they
searched my field in the forest beyond for a week without
finding anything. His parents sat at my kitchen

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table, his mother crying into a square of silk as my wife poured
tea and assured her that he would turn up until nearly 10:00
that first night. I am lucky my wife was such a
Hostess because all I could do was sit shell shocked in a chair
as she puttered about and made small talk.

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Everyone thought I was broken about the kid, and in a way,
they were right. After all, it's not every day
you watch a child get pulled under the soil while no one's
looking. I won the contest the next year,
too. People said I had a knack for
growing pumpkins, but really it was the same 1.

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When it got 18 feet tall and 12 feet wide, it started to attract
tourists. Some of them never made it back
to wherever they were from. By that point, I was numb to the
sacrifices the pumpkin ate. The pumpkin grew, and as the
tourists begin to pay to see it,I found that I no longer had to

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grow anything to get by. The pumpkin made my farm a
natural stop for tourists on theroad, and they never grumbled
too much about a few dollars here or there to see it.
This was the year we took it on the road.
We loaded it up on a flatbed trailer and took it to County
Fair after County Fair so the whole state could see the

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world's biggest pumpkin. We did it for five years, and in
those five years, I remember hearing about a suspected serial
kidnapper plaguing the state. They dubbed him County Fair
Kidnapper, as I recall, and in five years he abducted more than
20 children and five adults fromstate fairs across the state.

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The state police even questionedme, not as a suspect, but to see
if I had seen anything amiss, and I always told them no.
What choice did I have? As I told you when the pumpkin
took Decker, I would have been slapped into a loony bin if I
had come to them with stories ofkiller pumpkins or blood
sacrifices. I am not blameless in this whole

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affair, I know that, and I have never claimed otherwise.
But the pumpkin was good for my family, the pumpkin was good for
the town. My pumpkin brought in the crowds
and the crowds stopped in the cafes to have a bite.
They stopped at the gas station for gas and road snacks and
stopped at the farmers market tobuy fresh produce.

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They spread their money up and down the street from May till
November, and the town always had a corn maze or a fair of
some sort to draw them away fromthe pumpkin and back into the
town proper. At one point, my face and a
picture of the pumpkin were evenon the town's sign when you
drove over the city limits. Come see the world's Biggest

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pumpkin. It's stated in bold black
letters and at one point you could damn near see the thing
from the city outskirts. In its heyday, it towered up
nearly 30 feet high and was wider than my house.
It was blind to its feedings forthe most part.
Hell, I suppose you'd say I was complicit in the murders.

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I killed 2 for Fritz and I'm responsible for all the rest,
and that I turned aside. But I didn't really grasp its
slyness, it's cunning, until thelast time I watched it kill.
When I watched it take my wife. I was standing in the back door
watching her, trying to ignore the creeping voice as it told me

(01:05:57):
it must feed. She was out in the field tending
some vegetables in the space I no longer used, and as I watched
her I began to wonder if I mightresist this evil and win free.
I had been this pumpkins puppet for nearly eight years, 8 long
years of dragging its burden around my neck, and my heart was

(01:06:19):
growing heavy with the burden ofthat sin.
As I watched her, watched her inher purity and her love, I began
to think that I might escape this evil thing and be the man I
once was. We could leave, just pack our
things and go and leave this cursed earth behind us as we set
out to start anew. She had noticed something was

(01:06:42):
off, likely noticed from the start that something was off.
But she was dutiful, and she wasobedient, and she loved me more
than I could ever love her. If I had loved her, I would have
never let her get near that field again.
She was coming in, carrying a basket of produce, and I

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remember the way she smiled whenshe saw me.
Her face, that old young face ofhers, stretched into a smile,
and she raised her hand to wave as I stood framed in the
doorway. I think I waved back.
Can no longer remember, really. But whatever I was doing ended
abruptly when she dropped into the earth.

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Dropped. Dropped is the right word.
She didn't sink. She wasn't pulled.
It was as though a hole had opened up and swallowed her in
one gulp. Her basket fell tumbling
vegetables across the dirt, and it was all the evidence that I
had that she was there at all. It laughed at me as I dug up the

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field, dug it up in furious crumping sweeps of the shovel,
but I never found a trace of her.
She was the last sacrifice I wasa part of.
I set up a fence after that and never let the tourists get
close. They could pay their money and
observe from a distance, but no one was allowed to go into the
field again. It caught at me as I stood in my

(01:08:10):
chair by the fence saying that this was a useless gesture, but
I ignored it and kept my silence.
People will ask me. Why I didn't destroy it, didn't
burn it to the ground, and to them I would ask how stupid they
think I am. I threw coal oil on it the night
it took my wife got loaded on whiskey first to muster my

(01:08:32):
courage and had intended to walkinto the flames myself.
But the bastard wouldn't burn any damage I did to it, just
healed, and all the while it laughed at me.
So I kept my vigil, kept my silence.
And as we both lived, the town shriveled around us.

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It had gotten too powerful, you see, too evil to be contained.
And those who spent time close to it became susceptible to its
voice. They came in the night, they
died silently in the field. As they were drawn into the
earth, they sustained that cursed thing.

(01:09:13):
By now they are all gone. The town is deserted, a ghost
town in a country full of such towns, and the only thing to see
is Fritz. Fritz, the world's oldest
pumpkin. We are both shriveled now, a
couple of relics from a bygone age.

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And if you come, you too can seehim and have your picture taken.
For $5, you can get your selfie and have a pamphlet on the Ninth
Wonder of the World. But I wouldn't stay for too
long. He's a shriveled old thing,
small as he was before I droppedmy blood on him, but if you
spend too long in his company, you can start to hear his creaky

(01:09:56):
old voice. You can start to feel his
influence in your head, and one night you'll drain your blood
for him upon the soil. I'm old, over 100 years old now,
and Fritz is a Methuselah of a pumpkin.
My end is soon, I can feel it, and I often wonder if my

(01:10:18):
guardianship of this cursed thing will mean a hill of beans
when I am gone. Who will guard the world from
him when I am dust in the ground?
Who will keep the tourists back and the kids away at night?
If you're listening to this, it may be you, and if it is, I am
eternally sorry. If you have found yourself in

(01:10:40):
the custodian of Fritz the Pumpkin, then I give you only
one piece of advice. Watch him close and keep that
which you love away. Don't let him have the blood.
Don't let him take another as his sacrifice.
Let this cycle end with me. God help me and let that damned

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thing wither in the field. Yeah.