September 27, 2025 • 94 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
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
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Plus, you'll automatically be entered to win every giveaway
(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.
For some background, there's an app called Life 360 where you
(01:08):
can add your friends and family on and essentially you can all
see each other's current and past locations.
You can set alerts. To be notified when someone
comes home or leaves, arrives atwork, etcetera.
It's a really great app and I recommend it to everyone.
You can never be too safe nowadays. 2 months ago I was at
(01:32):
home waiting for my boyfriend toget home.
I got an alert at around 6:00 letting me know that he had left
work. It usually took him around 45
minutes to get home. I got up from the sofa and
headed upstairs to run myself a bath.
My bath was ready in about 10 minutes and as I was doing other
things waiting for it to cool, Iheard a thud downstairs and
(01:56):
through the closed bathroom doorassumed that it was the front
door. I shouted something along the
lines of I'm taking a bath. I heard him walking along our
very creaky floorboards and assumed he was in the kitchen
grabbing some dinner. It was about 5 minutes later
when I picked up my phone to puton some music and realized I
(02:19):
never got an alert on my phone from Life 360 saying my
boyfriend arrived home. So I went into the app to make
sure and I kid you not, my bloodran cold when I saw that my
boyfriend stopped at a gas station and was still about half
an hour away. I could still hear the
floorboards creaking downstairs very lightly, as if someone was
(02:42):
trying to tiptoe but was unable to.
I had no idea what to do. I called my boyfriend, he didn't
answer and when I didn't hear his phone ring from downstairs I
freaked out even more. I have horrible anxiety and I
could feel an attack coming on. I left the bathroom and walked
(03:04):
into the bedroom as quietly as possible.
I shoved my desk chair under theknob as it didn't have a lock.
I don't know why, but I didn't think to call the police then.
I was so focused on getting out that all my other thoughts and
senses just disappeared. I say this lightly now, but this
(03:24):
was not the case in the moment. I proceeded to basically Mission
Impossible out of the room. We had a shed under the window
large enough for me to safely get on top of it and then jump
off of it into the garden. The only issue was that I had to
make my way down the garden alley where I would have to walk
past the large window and door where he would be able to see me
(03:46):
very clearly. I was so scared I kept taking
peeks into the window and couldn't see anyone.
I felt more confident to run past and took one last peek and
he was there looking right at menot even a foot away from the
window. I can't even begin to explain
(04:07):
the sheer fear and horror I feltlooking him right in the eyes.
He had such a cold expression, totally emotionless.
I ran, didn't look back. I was terrified.
I remember nearly tripping in myslippers and having to shake
them off so I could run faster. There was a long road between US
(04:30):
and our neighbors where I was running to.
I did make it. Their lights were on and I
started pounding on their window.
I was let in and they called thepolice for me.
As I was. Inconsolable at that point, I
kept telling them to please callmy boyfriend as he was on his
way home. When the police arrived, they
(04:50):
found no one there. We didn't have any cameras and
neither did my neighbors so we had no way of telling when or
how he entered and left. I later found out he came
through the window. That was the noise I heard,
which I assumed was the door wasactually the window that fell
downward and shut loudly after Iassume the man came in.
(05:15):
There were also some scratches on the top of the chair that I
put under the doorknob, signaling he had tried to push
it open but was unable to. There wasn't much of a case, I
couldn't ID him, and he was wearing a face mask and a
beanie. I don't even know what color
hair he had, only that he was tall, slim, and a man.
(05:37):
I only looked right at him for amere second, if that.
Nothing was stolen either. We have cameras in the security
system now. Never making that mistake ever
again. Something recently happened to
(06:00):
me, an event which I cannot seemto get my head around.
It has left me perplexed and quite frankly a little freaked
out. I live in a small village in the
West of Ireland, not far from the border between the Republic
of Ireland and Northern Ireland.The village has hustle and
bustle with around 2500 people living in the local area.
(06:23):
As you can imagine with such a small populace, the community is
fairly tight knit and a person would know everyone pretty well,
or at least know them by their face.
A man from town who is now deceased named Jimmy used to
frequent a pub quite regularly where I used to work and I often
had chit chat with him on the regular.
(06:44):
In more recent years I did some training in the local nursing
home where Jimmy was a full timeresident.
He was suffering from Alzheimer's and was now under
constant supervision. While his memory was virtually
gone, he never lost his ability to play cards.
So during my training I often spent time playing cards with
him and it goes without saying Ilost pretty much every game.
(07:09):
While this information does seemtrivial, it is relevant to what
I'm about to tell you. As I mentioned before, Jimmy is
now deceased and is buried in a local cemetery which is adjoined
to the church. In the evening I bring my dogs
for walks and one route I often take is through the church
grounds and I cut through the cemetery.
(07:30):
There is a large view of the village and the valley in which
it is situated from the cemetery.
The cemetery is on a gradual slope and as you'd expect all
the graves are in rows. My dogs who are both Jack
Russell Terriers and in being soare very feisty and nothing ever
really Spooks them. One evening last week I decided
(07:52):
to cut through the graveyard like I often do.
But when we reached the gate of the graveyard, both of the dogs
demeanors changed from that of being happy with tails wagging
and general contentment to get out for a walk, to that of which
their heads were down and tails between legs and showing
stubbornness to pass through thegate.
(08:13):
Thinking nothing of it, I pulledthe two dogs through the gate,
jokingly scolding them and asking them in the quaint
country Irish way, what is wrongwith you?
We walked up the gradual slope, passing by graves of folks who
had passed on along the way. Some of the names I recognized
and some were unfamiliar. Nothing strange in that.
(08:35):
Normally when I reach the last grave on the slope, I would be
passing by Jimmy's grave. I would normally stop for just a
brief moment and in my head I would say to myself, how are you
Jimmy? Now, I am a quality manager at
work, so it's fair to say that Ido notice a lot of things, and I
know for a fact that Jimmy's grave was definitely the last
(08:57):
one on the slope in the very front.
Row. I at least passed it once a week
since he passed away, and I knowthat it was definitely, without
a shadow of a doubt, located right there.
The evening in question, as the dogs and I reached the last
grave, my heart nearly went intomy mouth.
(09:17):
Jimmy's grave was not there. I couldn't understand it.
A completely different gravestone stood there of a
woman who I also knew from the locale.
But how could this be? Jimmy's grave was definitely
there. My eye started darting from
grave to grave, looking for Jimmy's grave in despair.
(09:39):
I eventually found it 3 or 4 rows back, but nowhere near the
top front row where I'd seen it before so many times.
Miffed about what it just happened, an uneasy feeling came
over me and the hairs begin to stand on the back of my neck.
Maybe I too was sensing with thedogs it felt Earlier I noticed
(10:00):
the breeze had disappeared and the cemetery was eerily silent
as you could normally hear a bird song from the surrounding
trees. I couldn't get out of there fast
enough that evening. I have since passed through the
cemetery and still Jimmy's graveis still in the mix with all the
others, completely out of place of where I know it used to be.
(10:23):
I really cannot understand what happened.
It's not as if they moved his plot or that many people have
been buried since he was. Reflecting upon this story, I
recalled something that happenedto me a few years earlier.
In that cemetery, every July, onthe last Sunday of the month,
the local priest holds a ceremony called the Blessing of
(10:44):
the Graves. As my grandparents are buried
there, I would normally attend such an event, not so much for
the religious aspect, but just to catch up with my relatives
who would attend. Last year I wasn't feeling well
on this Sunday, so I actually missed the ceremony.
Feeling a little guilty about this, I decided in my free time
(11:04):
to go to the grave to maybe say a quiet prayer for my
grandparents. I have been to the grave many
times as I often help my mother maintain it by wedding and
decorating it with flowers as well as the annual visit for the
blessing of the graves. But this particular day I could
not find the grave and I spent agood 20 minutes looking for it.
(11:27):
Blaming myself. I just put it down to my own
ignorance as to why I couldn't find it.
But now in hindsight, I wonder if instead of my ignorance, was
there something a little more sinister and paranormal at play?
(11:52):
A few years ago, I was working as a healthcare assistant at the
hospital, and recently, having moved out of my dad's home, I'd
started renting a small detachedhome in the countryside.
I had one neighbor on this street, a man in his late 30s
who I will call Jake. He was single and lived alone.
My first encounter with Jake waswhen I was moving in.
(12:15):
My dad couldn't accompany me on my first day of moving due to
his work schedule, so I was unpacking by myself.
Jake walked up to me, introducedhimself and offered to help with
moving my heavy items. I am very small, so I
appreciated the help. My first impressions were that
he was very kind, open and polite.
(12:36):
He chatted to me about his job, told me that he liked to play
instruments and write in his spare time.
We bonded over both loving the band Tool and we both enjoyed
playing the bass. The next day I brought him some
beer as a thank you. He wasn't in however, so I left
it by his front door and included a thank you note for
(12:57):
all the previous help the day prior.
Over the next few weeks as I settled in, Jake would pop by.
We would chat about music, discuss shared hobbies, drink
beer, and occasionally even watch movies together.
I was new to the area and didn'thave many friends yet so he
helped provide some social interaction outside of my job.
(13:20):
But as you can already tell, things didn't stay so good.
I got home 1 evening to see a basket full of flowers on my
doorstep and an included card which read that it was from Jake
and he wanted to speak with me when I had the time.
I walked inside with the basket.I didn't even get a chance to
(13:40):
put it down before I heard knocking at my door.
It was around 11:00 PM and I wasn't expecting anyone.
I looked through the window nextto the door to see Jake waving
at me. I opened the door and that's the
first time I can recall where I started to feel uneasy around
him. He asked if I saw the basket and
(14:02):
if I liked it. He asked to come in, but I said
something along the lines of howtired I was and that we should
just speak tomorrow. He didn't say anything for a few
seconds before he asked if I would want to grab a coffee with
him before work tomorrow. I said sure and closed the door.
That next morning we grabbed coffee that was close to the
(14:23):
hospital I worked at. He seemed very excited and
giddy. Soon after, he asked me to be
his girlfriend. I had to decline as we had only
known each other for a few weeksand well, he was significantly
older than me. He suddenly dropped his cheery
demeanor as if he had became someone else in a matter of
(14:44):
seconds. He grabbed his things and left,
saying only that he had to go towork.
I went to work too and tried notto think too much on it.
I had to work overtime that night and started heading home
at around midnight. When I pulled up to my home, I
saw Jake sitting on my doorstep.I really, really didn't want to
(15:07):
get out of my car, but I did andwalked up to him.
He started off politely asking if I had thought over his
proposal. I said no, that I'm sorry but
I'm not interested. Once again, as if a switch had
flipped, he went off on me, calling me spoiled and
ungrateful. I was scared at that point and
(15:30):
asked him to leave. He wouldn't.
I managed to get to my car with him following me and showed him
through the window that I'm calling the police.
He swore at me and left. I didn't call the police that
night, I gave him the benefit ofthe doubt thinking he was just
frustrated. One of my biggest regrets was
(15:52):
not calling them. The next morning I found
wildflowers that looked like they were picked from a garden
at my front door as well as a post it note with the word sorry
and a sad face drawn on it. At work that day I was called by
the nurse in charge who took me aside saying my boyfriend was
(16:14):
here to see me as it's urgent. She also told me to tell my
boyfriend that he should not come to see me at work again
especially since I wasn't on break as it's unprofessional.
It was Jake, he wanted to ask meif I had gotten his flowers and
message. I went off on him saying things
(16:34):
along the lines of how dare he come to my work, getting me in
trouble no less pose as my boyfriend.
All of this took place in the canteen.
He didn't say anything, didn't apologize.
I told him to knock it off and Ileft.
Things only got worse from there.
(16:54):
He would often wait for me when I got home, try to bribe me with
gifts, more flowers, he even went as far and got me a new
guitar. I accepted nothing and always
left everything where he had putit.
I eventually broke down to my dad, who asked if I wanted him
to speak to Jake. I said no.
(17:15):
He offered for me to move back in with him, but I had too much
pride and declined. My dad was really worried about
me. One day, everything came to a
halt when I came home to my front door ajar.
Though not broken, my front roomlooked absolutely ransacked.
(17:35):
I ran to my car and called the police.
Nothing was missing. Absolutely nothing but my front
room, kitchen and bedroom were all rummaged through.
I told the police I had an inkling it was Jake who they
ended up questioning, but his friend vouched for him and said
they were together that evening so it couldn't have been Jake.
(17:59):
I still don't believe that. I tried to tell the police
everything that has been happening with Jake and how I
was starting to feel very unsafe.
However, I had no proof but the notes he had left me which
weren't threatening. So since there was no threat to
life or well-being, they literally could do nothing.
(18:20):
My dad helped me clean everything up and I had my locks
changed. Jake actually left me alone for
a little while after that. I started looking for a new
place to live around that time. Then one evening I had come
home, ate some food, showered and went to bed, only to be
(18:41):
awoken, I'm not sure when, to somebody standing in my doorway.
I didn't move. I remember originally thinking I
was having a sleep paralysis episode, but after moving my
fingers I realized I was fully awake with a dark figure clearly
standing in my doorway. My phone was under my pillow so
(19:04):
I rolled over to my side pretending to still be asleep
and I just waited with my hand under my pillow on my phone.
There was no way I could call the police without alerting the
person in my doorway. Eventually I could hear the
footsteps fade and I called the police, only telling them my
address and that someone just broke into my home and that I
(19:27):
think they're still here. I got out of bed, grabbed the
keys on my night stand, and got out of the house by going out my
window and bolting to my car. I had on a tank top and shorts.
I didn't even have shoes on, which made driving horrible.
I saw him then when I was pulling out, standing in the
(19:48):
kitchen through the window. It was Jake.
I had a small essential oil diffuser next to the window that
shined enough light to be able to tell who the figure was.
I drove as I spoke to the police.
I remember just completely detaching from.
Reality. At least that's what it felt
like. I drove to my dad's house.
(20:11):
After looking over my house, thepolice drove to my dad's home
where I was. I told them everything about
Jake, how he had been following me, coming to my work, waiting
for me when I got home and now Iwas 100% sure he broke into my
home and was planning to do God knows what.
I was told that they found my front door locked when they got
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there and went to knock on Jake's door.
He answered and looked as if he had just woken up.
They asked him some questions and left him alone.
It is so unimaginably hard to prove that you're being stalked
in the Uki managed to get a restraining order on the grounds
of harassment with proof that hehad come to my workplace posing
(20:55):
as my boyfriend and a Co worker who could support me in this as
she had overheard our conversation where I had asked
him. To.
Stop following me. I had also saved some texts that
he sent me where I asked how he got my number and told him to
stop contacting me. But he went on to send some
vaguely threatening messages along the lines of I'll be
(21:17):
waiting when you come home today.
Which along with the workplace incident as well as the fact
that I had mentioned Jake to thepolice when my house was broken
into, managed to get me my restraining order.
I went back to that house once with my dad and his friend to
gather all my things. I did not see Jake that time or
(21:39):
ever again for that matter. I had to transfer workplaces
back to my original workplace asI moved back in with my dad.
I am now moved away and live alone again, trying to put the
past behind me, but this definitely messed with me a
little. I had to get some therapy and
found it difficult to develop friendships, especially romantic
(22:02):
relationships. He somewhat ruined that for me.
I have not made any new friends since.
Never had a boyfriend either. I find it very hard to trust
people outside of work colleagues and family.
(22:23):
The nightmare I am about to share is 1 I had from age 6 to
age 9. However, I didn't find out it
was more than a nightmare until two weeks ago.
I hope you enjoy. When I was 6 my mother and I
moved into an older home. It was in good shape for the
most part. It was a one story home with a
(22:44):
sun room, nice backyard, attic, and unfortunately a basement.
It had two bedrooms so after my baby sister was born we ended up
sharing a room. It wasn't long after we moved
into the house that I started having a messed up nightmare.
It was the same one over and over again.
(23:06):
I was laying in my bed when a man would come into my room and
grab me by my leg. He would then start dragging me
off my bed and onto the floor. When he got to the top of the
basement staircase, he would stop for a moment then continue
dragging me down the stairs. I would scream in my dream, but
(23:27):
he never stopped. The basement was all white.
White walls, white tile flooring.
There was a dentist chair, an old vintage 1.
He would pick me up and slam me down into it.
As he would start applying the restraints to my wrists, ankles
and my forehead. I got a good look at him.
(23:50):
He was dressed in all white. White long lab coat with one of
those round silver things on hisforehead.
The only thing not white was hisdark brown dress shoes.
He was an older man, white facial hair.
There was a long white table with jars and jars all lined up
(24:10):
with teeth in them and the gums were still attached.
He had an empty jar and his tools all laid out.
He then grabbed a knife and started cutting into my gums.
There was blood everywhere and Iwas screaming.
It would always end right beforeit felt like I was going to die.
(24:31):
I never watched scary movies as a child so my mother couldn't
figure out why I was having thisdream.
I would wake up with tears running down my face wondering
why I am having this nightmare. When I was 9, we moved because
my mother got married. I haven't had that dream since.
(24:52):
Fast forward to two weeks ago, my husband and I were talking
about the homes we grew up in. That got me thinking about that
house so I looked it up. Luckily I was able to pull up
the houses history online. I loved reading about it.
It was amazing until I seen thata man who was very close with
(25:13):
the family not only helped get electricity into the home but
also used to rent out the basement for a while.
He was a man of science and had a.
Career at a local university as a professor.
Very well respected. He even shared my husband's last
name but was not related. I looked him up to show my
(25:35):
husband but once I saw his face I screamed and covered my mouth.
My husband asked me what was wrong and I told him about the
dream and then said that's the man who would cut out my teeth.
(26:01):
Once I got off work one night, Iwent straight to bed and that
was around 5:00 in the evening. I guess you can say I'm not
really a night owl because my job schedule varies throughout
the week. Either I'm working at night or
I'm working in the morning. This day I had to work in the
morning so I stayed up the nightearlier.
(26:22):
I woke up around 9 PMI got up totalk to the family, watch some
TV, then started getting tired again.
This was around 1:00 AM and I decided to go back to bed and I
actually felt the weight of sleeping this time.
Once I got my bed ready I put YouTube on for a little
background noise and just started to drift off.
(26:44):
Then all of a sudden everything was quiet.
Then I dreamed about waking up in a building.
A building I have dreamt of before but not for a long time.
I was laying on a sleeping bag in a decrepit room with no
furniture. I wasn't scared but confused.
(27:05):
The door leading outside suddenly swings open with
someone walking in then slammingit shut.
Then I was automatically pushed out of the dream as I was jolted
awake. I was laying there thinking
maybe I was just experiencing sleep apnea and tried to get up
but I couldn't. I couldn't move my arms, my
(27:26):
legs, it's like I left my body for the next minute of what I'm
about to tell you. I have had experiences with
sleep paralysis before, but not to this extent.
Once I knew my body went numb, Istarted to panic, started to
breathe heavily. It was unbearably longer than it
(27:47):
should have been. For me it would last around 30
seconds at most and I haven't even experienced the large
weight on my chest yet. That's what I was actually
waiting for and I guess my body was trying to prepare for it
because the dread was like a sharp knife point and it just
kept jabbing me each passing 2nd.
(28:09):
Then I stopped breathing becausewhat happened next made my heart
stop and my blood cold. In close proximity of my ear I
heard someone say hey, it sounded like a woman whispering
in my ear. I was so disturbed I tried to
call out for help but I knew that couldn't work because I
(28:33):
couldn't even breathe out a syllable.
I tried to break free of this invisible bind but I gave up and
knew I had to rough through it. The next thing I know, something
sits on my chest, but it wasn't the normal weight I would
experience in these episodes. It was something lighter that
felt less aggressive. It felt like fingertips
(28:56):
caressing across my chest in a sensual way.
Laying down on my right PEC, it was followed by a leg wrapping
itself on the front of my thighs.
The next thing I know, the left side of my body was being
weighed upon like someone would be cuddling up next to me.
Just for the record, I don't have a girlfriend, and I doubt
(29:18):
anyone in my house would start sneaking into my room at night.
I was frightened and confused. I still couldn't move.
Then the woman's voice came back.
What are you doing? It said in a very quiet, sincere
tone. I didn't know what was
(29:38):
happening, but I knew I had to respond.
So as calmly as I could, I said I'm trying to sleep.
That's when I noticed my face can move and my hands can move,
but I refused to open my eyes because I didn't care for what
there was to see. The next thing I knew, the
(30:00):
weight on my left side started to diminish and my body can move
again. So I shot up.
Looked around the room, no one was there.
My senses started to come back and the sound of my computer
comes back to me like it was never turned off.
I didn't bother going back to sleep.
(30:21):
I guess this was a wake up call.I need a better sleep schedule,
probably need to change a few things from now on, but my mind
is still stuck on it. Was it a spirit?
Was it part of the dream I was having?
If it was a spirit, maybe it wasjust lonely and it just needed a
(30:42):
body to lay with. Maybe it was a dream, but I
don't dream that often, especially if the touch I felt
is real. I don't know what to think.
I guess I'll just chalk it up toa hallucination and get on with
my life. I am telling you all this as a
(31:18):
warning, something I wished I had gotten before my visit.
A bit of back story about me as this will be important later.
I am 18 years old and I have to drive out of state to visit my
girlfriend as we met online. This drive usually takes us
around an hour and a half an hour and 15 minutes on a good
(31:39):
clear night. This was one of those nights.
I was cruising down the empty freeway, the lights of a car on
the opposite side flashing occasionally.
I was listening to some quiet music, taking in the
surroundings and enjoying the cool wind blowing in through the
sunroof. Now, I will be honest, I wasn't
(32:01):
paying as much attention to the road as I should have.
I was tired and sick of stickingto my leather seats, so I pulled
over to the right side of the road and got out to scratch my
legs. I left my car running.
I wanted to make sure that I could see in front of me with
the headlights, just in case anything came out of the woods.
(32:21):
By anything I mean Bobcats and bears, nothing supernatural.
It's not that I didn't believe in the supernatural, I just
hadn't experienced anything. I was parked on the side of the
freeway, standing to the right of my car, staring at the pitch
Black Forest and just listening to the sounds of the night.
(32:43):
I really don't know why I did it, but something told me that I
should look around, that something was off.
That's when I saw it. the Billboard.
It was one of those roadside signs, the expensive ones that
big businesses used to advertise.
The backdrop was a faded blue with very pale yellow writing on
(33:04):
top of it. The text read Ashland Motel,
Exit 72. There was nothing inadvertently
wrong with this sign. It was so basic and lacking.
But something was off. the Billboard couldn't be seen from
the road. The trees covered it just the
(33:25):
right way, making it impossible unless you were pulled over in
this exact spot, looking this exact way.
Maybe it's just an old sign nobody took down.
I told myself. There is nothing wrong with an
old motel sign. The place is probably gone by
now. I felt like that wasn't right,
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but it was a pure gut feeling. I wanted to investigate a little
bit further, but my body wouldn't move.
My legs felt like lead and Jellyat the same time, but I mustered
the courage to take a few steps forward.
That's when I saw the text at the bottom.
Vacancy since 2020. I don't know why, but these
(34:12):
words sent such a disgusting feeling into my stomach.
This sign was altered recently, so why was it so hidden?
What purpose did this sign hold if it wasn't meant to be seen by
the public? I felt so sick I just started
vomiting off the side of the road.
It was uncontrollable. This sign was absolutely the
(34:35):
reason for it. When I was sure that I had
emptied out my stomach plus a little bit more, I ran back to
my car and jumped in. I have never locked a car door
so fast. I am not a religious man, but I
prayed that my car would start and I could just drive 90 miles
an hour home as far away from the Ashland Motel as possible.
(34:58):
My 1999 Toyota turned over and the fear in my stomach begin
building again. I stopped turning the key and
waited for a second, hoping a break would help the car start.
I looked around and for a split second I saw him.
He was tall, featureless, shadedby the night.
(35:22):
His silhouette was pure blackness.
It seemed to consume the moonlight, so it was obvious
this wasn't just a tree or plantor animal.
This was something otherworldly.I wretched the key in the
ignition again, and after desperate pleas to whatever God
was out there, it sputtered and started.
(35:44):
I slammed my foot on the gas, tires squealing, and I got away
from the Ashland Motel sign. This was two weeks ago.
The Ashland Motel sign had haunted my mind every day.
I told two of my friends about this experience.
I didn't want them to think I was crazy so I left the bit
(36:05):
about the tall man out. They of course wanted to find
the motel. I begged them not to, that it
wasn't meant to be found and we should just leave it like that.
They told me that they were going with or without me.
Me being the overthinker and constant anxiety ridden boy I
am, I couldn't think to let themgo without me just in case
(36:28):
something happened and I wasn't there to help.
We left after dinner time around5:00 PM.
The sun was setting which made me even more nervous.
I put the Ashland Motel into Google Maps.
Nothing. I looked it up on Google,
nothing. I searched Facebook for a while
(36:51):
looking for an address and only found one post talking about the
Ashland Motel. The post read the Ashland Motel
five stars, safe rooms and lively staff.
This honestly sounded like someone who was trying to make
you think something while meaning something else.
(37:11):
My friends gave me a slap on theback and told me that I was
overthinking again. I laughed nervously and agreed,
although nothing about this was funny.
We ended up putting exit 72 in the GPS and it began taking us
there. I made my friend Ethan drive.
(37:32):
I didn't want to have to sit behind the wheel if that man
came back. It took us about 35 minutes to
get to exit 72 and we got off right away.
Immediately I had a bad feeling.The motel wasn't insight at all
and I was sure that it wouldn't be, especially because of the
placement of that sign. I didn't mention this though, I
(37:57):
didn't want to find the motel. Sadly, Ethan remembered my
comment about the sign being invisible from the street and
decided to just start pulling down blind driveways and gravel
roads. We searched for a while until
Will, my other friend in the back seat, told Ethan to stop
the car. He had seen something in the
(38:18):
trees, a small building hidden in the woods.
We reversed slowly until we saw it.
The rectangular building hidden by the forest, A sign reading
Ashland Motel. My stomach felt sick instantly
after seeing this. The words were in the same pale
(38:40):
yellow text, somehow looking more faded than the sign on the
freeway. There didn't seem to be a road
leading to the motel, meaning that we would have to park the
car and walk through the woods to get to it.
I begged my friends not to go. We had seen the motel.
We could leave. It exists.
(39:01):
I warned them about the Bobcats and the bears, about ticks and
bear traps. Nothing seemed to shake their
drive to investigate. I knew that I had to go.
If the man appeared, I knew thatthey wouldn't be able to shake
off the fear the same way that Iwould be able to.
(39:21):
We all grabbed a torch from the backseat of Ethan's car and
begin our trek into the woods. The motel was set back about 100
yards and there was no path leading to it.
We had to shine our flashlights at the ground to make sure we
didn't fall into a large hole orstep on a venomous snake.
With each footfall, a branch would snap and leaves would
(39:45):
rustle under us. Finally we made it to the
clearing and I wanted to run back as soon as we arrived.
The building was a pale yellow with a brown roof that obviously
hasn't been cleaned in a long time, if ever.
We stood at what seems to be thefront of the motel, but there
(40:05):
were no signs or roads to guide us.
The best way I can describe it, the motel seemed to have dropped
from the sky, removing all the trees under it.
And just sitting there for years.
The grass was overgrown, there were vines growing over the
lattice, Moss on the doors. There were around 10:00 rooms.
(40:29):
Each of the doors were separatedby a window and a small empty
pot. I was heavily analyzing the
motel, speculating the reason for its placement, when I had
the same feeling I did at the sign.
My stomach lurched, and I placedmy elbows on my knees.
Ethan tapped my shoulder. I didn't move.
(40:53):
He tapped me again, harder, but he wouldn't say anything.
I looked up at him, and the color had drained out of his
face. He was staring at the forest
behind the motel, as if he were mystified by that spot.
Will was staring back at the car.
Color drained from his face, too.
(41:13):
Only then, only then, did I realize why they were staring
with so much fear. The sounds of branches cracking
and leaves crunching were surrounding us.
Like 100 people were running in a circle around the motel woods.
I whirred around, trying to catch a glimpse of what was
(41:34):
making the noise, but it was beyond fast.
If it was one thing, I couldn't catch my breath.
I began to hyperventilate and sweat aggressively.
I saw Will begin to cry silentlyand Ethan began to apologize for
killing us. I had to get it together, I knew
(41:55):
I did. That's when the urge hit me
again. I felt so drawn to it I couldn't
stop my head from turning to face the motel.
I begin to sob when I saw them. Pale faces, all of them staring
at us from the windows of the motel.
They were illuminated by something otherworldly, as the
(42:17):
rest of the area was pitch black.
All the faces had a disgustinglylarge smile, too large to be
human, stretching from ear to ear, each showing too many
teeth, all of them perfectly white.
The eyes are the reason I am telling this now.
(42:38):
They had hollow eyes set into their heads too far back.
I realized that I wasn't lookingat the eyes, but the lack of
them. All of the.
Holes were filled with the same darkness that outlined the man
at the motel sign that night. I repressed the need to vomit,
(42:59):
but my sobs did not stop. They were deep and
uncontrollable. I knew I had to run, even if the
thing running around the motel would stop us.
I just knew that it was better to deal with that thing than
whatever was in the motel. Those faces would do something
worse than kill us. I knew it.
(43:20):
I grabbed my friend's arms and started running.
My vision was blurring. The footsteps and crunching got
louder and louder. I drowned them out.
I could feel myself choking on my own mucus and tears.
I screamed to hurry up and we sprinted deeper into the woods.
It felt like we were running through the woods for hours as
(43:42):
the footsteps echoed around us. Screams flooded my ears.
They were louder than any noise I ever heard before.
I knew it was coming from the motel.
The faces were so angry and hungry and horrible.
The screams were so loud I thought I was going to die.
(44:04):
As I dragged my friends through the final stretch of the woods,
the screams suddenly stopped. The lack of noise was deafening,
but I knew we were still being chased by the forest thing.
I saw the car. This stupid Ford Focus was the
best sight I had ever seen. We had finally made it and the
(44:25):
footsteps stopped. As soon as we made it to the
car, I began to vomit profusely.It felt like I was bleeding from
my stomach, and it was too dark for me to check.
I couldn't tell if the liquid running down my face with tears,
mucus, or blood, and honestly, Ididn't care.
(44:46):
Ethan was vomiting aggressively as well, sobbing between hurls.
Will was on the ground in the fetal position, sobbing.
I turned around to look back at the Ashland Motel, and there it
was. The shadow man, the one who was
at the sign. The one who was staring at me.
(45:07):
He was illuminated with the samesinister light that cast upon
the windows in the motel, but hestill was as dark as ever.
He had no features, he was taller than me and he felt
sinister. I could tell that he was smiling
at us, trying to lure us back in.
(45:27):
I grabbed my friends and threw them into the back seat of the
car. I didn't want them to see him.
I knew they would never forget his darkness.
We drove home in silence and eventually arrived.
I got my car from Ethan's house and headed back to my house.
No matter what I do, the screamsstill play in my head and I can
(45:52):
feel the smile on his face. That's why I'm telling this.
Does anybody know anything aboutthis motel, the Ashland Motel?
Is it possible to forget all of this?
Will he follow me? I don't want to keep seeing this
place. Can someone please help?
(46:25):
Now to start this off, I'm a 22 year old dude with lots of
energy. So much so that I usually take
midnight walks around my house to get me ready for bed and I
cannot sleep before 2:00 AM. My parents recently told me that
they were going on vacation and that they needed a house sitter.
Being the cheap parents they are, they asked me to watch
(46:47):
their cabin in the forest, 30 miles to the nearest town and
three miles from the nearest neighbor cabin in the middle of
nowhere, all alone with a lakefront view.
Who could say no? I told them goodbye and wish
them luck in their trip and I arrived at the cabin the next
day. The first day went well because
(47:11):
I thought that they didn't have cable or service.
I was wrong because they did. I fished, swam and ate good
food. But the second day is when the
nightmare started. The time was about 1:00 in the
morning and I couldn't sleep. I put on my boots and headed out
into the cool night air for a little walk.
(47:33):
I walked around the house a couple of times and stood by the
edge of the thick forest. Just when I was about to head
back to go back to bed, I heard footsteps in the trees.
Now I am used to deer being everywhere around my house, but
the footsteps sounded way heavier than a normal deer.
(47:54):
Being the curious guy I am, I threw a rock in the thick brush
to see if it would run off. Silence at first, then I heard
something I wish I didn't. Laughing not from a normal
person, but from someone who sounded insane.
(48:14):
Then the same rock I threw was thrown right back at me.
I never ran so fast in my life. I ran to my truck.
When I started the ignition and the headlights came on, I could
see a bald man still laughing standing in the same spot.
I was just standing. I speed until I reached the end
(48:38):
of the long driveway. I then called the sheriff and
had to wait for about an hour. When they got there they thought
that I was just joking, but whenthey checked where I told them
to, they found rope, a knife anda faint bloody trail leading to
another cabin far away into the trees.
(49:00):
Inside was just a bunch of scribbles like a child does and
a rag covered in blood. The police looked all around and
even checked our cabin but this person was never found to my
knowledge. The next day my parents canceled
their trip. I still wonder whose blood was
(49:21):
in that cabin and what would have happened if I didn't find
the man in the woods. I work in food service front of
house. So in the early days of the
pandemic, with restaurants closed, I was taking work
(49:42):
wherever I could find it. An old friend clued me into a
medical office that needed someone to come in and do a bit
of light filing. I was able to go in at night to
limit direct contact with people, so I jumped at the
opportunity right away. Ironically, the medical office
job had been the safest gig I'd been offered thus far.
(50:03):
I wanted to. Avoid the bus if I could due to
crowds. So decided to swing for a
rideshare app. It's not all that expensive in
my area and I really didn't wantto get the virus.
I headed in at almost 3:00 AM because it was after the
cleaning crew had left. I was kicking myself for being
so cautious though because I wasexhausted.
(50:25):
I stumbled onto the block looking for my ride and to my
tired self's great relief, the car spotted me almost
immediately and pulled up askingUber while I cluelessly wandered
up and down the street searching.
The ride was taking a while, butI'd only just moved here last
year so I'm not familiar with all of the surrounding areas and
(50:45):
thought nothing of it. I was pretty alert at first so I
was trying to pass the time playing games on my phone and
stuff, but the car didn't have acompatible phone charger and I
wasn't sure the building would have one so I wanted to save my.
Battery to be able to call a ride back.
I shut my phone down into airplane mode and eventually
drifted off from a combination of tiredness and boredom.
(51:08):
I don't often take rideshare, sobeing alone with a strange
driver often put me a bit on edge, but this guy had a pretty
boring car and a very standard look about him.
He looked a little like my brother.
Even young, clean, kept listening to jazz.
Nothing that screamed you need to micromanage this trip.
(51:30):
When we arrived, the driver tried to wake me up by calling
to me from the front, but I was in too deep of a sleep and
couldn't fully distinguish it from my dream.
Finally, he awkwardly jimmied myleg to wake me up and kept
saying. Ma'am, ma'am, we're here now.
I was embarrassed that I had been that out of it.
So I just gave a hurried thanks and booked it out of the car and
(51:55):
into the building. As I looked around I began to
realize nothing was what I had expected of an office park.
I had seen a Street View of the building when I first looked up
the business and it had appearedto be a strip mall Plaza.
The further I went the more loudly alarm bells were ringing
in my gut. The structure was semi
(52:15):
dilapidated and it was pitch black dark past the entryway.
I expected some lights to be offin the night time, but not to
the whole building. I skittered across the concrete
foundation comprising what was left of the lobby area, told
myself they must just be renovating, and followed.
Signs for the. Stairs after what felt like ages
(52:37):
but was likely just a few minutes.
All I had passed. Was construction equipment, a
couple locked doors and some smashed windows.
I was certain I was not going tofind a medical office and
figured maybe I'd mixed up the address.
I took out my phone to double check, but once I got it out of
airplane mode, I could barely get a signal.
(52:58):
I kept moving around in the building, pacing, looking for a
stronger signal. I eventually confirmed in my
texts. That I had.
Written down the correct addressjust by scrolling back, which
didn't require service since I'donly been inside for a few
minutes at most. I figured I would try to get in
touch with the driver because ifI entered the correct address
(53:19):
then it was only fair he should continue my ride to the correct
place and save me the added feesof calling a second trip.
Considering this was all his mixup.
The app was taking forever to load with my slow service, but
before I could get to a cloud ofreception I heard a rustling
sound in the lower level of the building.
I was on the top floor and the only stairwell I was aware of
(53:41):
was the one I had taken up, so it wood forest me into the
middle of the building. There was no way to exit the
situation without encountering whoever was downstairs in an
abandoned building in the latesthours of the night.
I figured the chances were high that it was a tweaker and I had
no desire to try slipping past atweaker, especially when it was
(54:02):
late enough that they were probably on something so jumpy
and on edge. I tried to get a text out to a
group of friends with my addressand a request to call 911 to
help get me from the property because I didn't feel safe
walking in that neighborhood at night and didn't have enough
reception to call a new ride. But the message wasn't sending
(54:23):
reception was too weak, so I gave up on getting my phone
going and started checking for another stairwell or even a
window with a balcony or dumpsters that could be used to
exit the 2nd floor as a last resort in the event whoever was
downstairs came upstairs. I scrambled over to a door with
a stairs sign on it, but the stairs were completely
(54:45):
dilapidated and it was essentially just a straight drop
down to the first floor. At that point the worst case
scenario began to unfold. I heard whoever was downstairs
begin making their way up the stairs.
I thought fast and figured basedon my walk, the floor was
basically a giant loop. So I would have to wait for
whoever this was to come up the stairs, wait for them to come
(55:09):
all the way up, and then Sprint the opposite direction of
wherever they were going and tryto get down the stairs and out
of the building in time to make it to the road without
encountering them. I was not anticipating being
chased or anything, but didn't want to piss off a druggie or
have a homeless person who mighthave been living there feel as
though I had trespassed and become hostile towards me, or
(55:31):
have any sort of interaction that could possibly occur at
that hour in an abandoned industrial park.
I held my breath for what felt like 5 minutes but was likely
closer to just 30 seconds, and the person appeared at the top
of the stairs. To my great relief, it was just
the Uber driver. I figured he had come back for
(55:53):
me, realizing he had left me in the wrong spot, a place that
could have worked out to be dangerous.
So I came out from the beam I was hidden behind and started to
wave him down. But then I processed there was
no way for him to realize this had been the wrong address.
My stomach lurched forward and my blood chilled to slush.
(56:15):
I made eye contact with him verybriefly, and he was completely
calm and composed, but breathingpretty heavily and blocking the
stairwell down. On a normal rational day, as an
outside observer, I could think of a dozen innocent reasons he
might have returned. But in that moment, standing
across from him, I just knew in my gut that this was someone
(56:38):
with I'll intent. I can't remember much more from
the ensuing few minutes. Operating solely on muscle
memory and instinct, I Superman doe from the second stairwell's
opening and just let myself falldown the drop.
Thankfully, I don't think he hadseen where I'd gone at 1st, and
though I was in too much pain toknow it then.
(56:59):
Plenty was bruised, but nothing was completely broken.
I scrambled up and threw myself at anything that seemed like it
could be the door. It was too dark to tell.
I was disoriented from the. Fall.
And I wasn't in a calm enough mindset to think to use my phone
flashlight. Plus, in hindsight, some part of
me probably knew it would call too much attention to my
(57:21):
location. Just before I was able to reach
the door, it flew open with a blinding light beaming straight
into my eyes. My first thought, though not
totally coherent, was there's another one of these guys and I
stumbled backwards trying to find something to hide behind.
Before I could, a voice called out.
(57:44):
All right, this is the Police Department.
Everyone get on your knees with your hands in the air.
I didn't believe it was the police at first.
I was in such a fight or flight mode and had already committed
to flight that I continued looking for ways to get out.
But he kept shining the flashlight right at me as I
teetered around and he yelled, Hey, I said, get on the ground
(58:07):
right now, hands out, hands out where I can see them.
He sounded so authoritative thatI just automatically did exactly
as he asked. He approached me and finally
shined the light away from me. It took a second to get my night
vision, but once I did, I could see he was really a police
officer. I tried to explain what was
(58:27):
happening, but first he started asking me all these questions
and that combined with what had just happened and my fear of the
driver coming back all snowballed into my being unable
to perform a single articulate sentence.
He was even asking easy questions too, like can you tell
me your name? Do you have any knives, needles,
(58:50):
or anything that could poke or cut me?
Would you rather talk in here oroutside?
And my total stunned babbling inresponse at first led him to
believe that I was on something.He directed me out to his car
and once I was safely out of thebuilding, I was able to start
getting my bearings. Just a little.
I sat on the edge of the back seat of the squad car with the
(59:12):
door open facing out while he stood across from me and asked
the same questions again. The first thing I could think to
ask was did my friends? Call you?
What did they tell you? And he explained no, nobody
called him. He was patrolling the area and
noticed a car idling outside of the building that is known to be
(59:34):
condemned and nobody is supposedto be inside.
And he said when they are, they are not up to no good.
He was launching into a speech about how if I had gone to shoot
up or meet a John, he had resources he could direct me to
and that this was not an ideal place to do either of those
things and asking if I had somewhere safe to stay that
(59:54):
night. But I was stuck on something
else he had said. Finally it all clicked.
The car. I spilled my whole rideshare
story in a frantic word vomit. He looked around and the car
wasn't there anymore. The officer guessed the guy had
driven off while we were talkinginside the building.
He asked me all the details I remembered and I told him, but
(01:00:18):
there weren't many. I had been too tired when the
ride started to track much, but the officer realized I could
pull up my Uber app and get all the information.
There wasn't really enough reception there, even outdoors.
So we speed down the road and once I had enough bars the app
roared to life and I had four missed notifications from Uber.
(01:00:40):
They said hello, I've arrived and I don't see you, can you
confirm the pickup address is correct and I am flashing my
hazards. And finally, unfortunately, your
driver had to cancel. At first I thought the driver
was so cunning as to pick me up while sending these fake
(01:01:03):
messages and canceling so the GPS wouldn't track US, knowing I
wouldn't notice because I was asleep with my phone off and
exonerating himself. But instead I checked the car
details, checked again, and it was definitely not the same
driver. The person who had driven me
there had not been my Uber. My driver was somewhere else on
(01:01:28):
the street when this guy pulled up to me.
The policeman took my statement and said they would keep an eye
out for the guy. But the best I could give them
to go off of was basically younglooking man with brown hair,
sideburns, goatee, and 4 door sedan wearing a zip up
sweatshirt. Maybe had a hood which is
basically one out of every four guys in this city.
(01:01:52):
I feel so blessed to have survived this near miss.
Suffice it to say I do not take rideshare services anymore.
Quadruple check your license plate and driver name.
You just never know. A few months ago I, 22 was at
(01:02:14):
the local coin laundromat. I went late because I've been
studying around 10:00 PM. The laundromat is pretty small,
closer to the edge of the beach town I live in.
The town is pretty well known for Drifters and people
experiencing homelessness. Most people are friendly and
there is a lot of drug use, but I've never really felt scared.
(01:02:37):
Everything was fine until I wentto move my laundry to a dryer.
I was listening to music on my headphones, but not super
loudly. Suddenly I just got the feeling
that someone was watching me. I can't really explain it, I
just felt the presence. I turned around and there was a
man standing just a few feet away from me.
(01:02:58):
He had pink hair, wearing a fullface mask like a ski mask, a
hoodie, gloves, and sunglasses. Even though it was dark out, the
gloves and sunglasses especiallyimmediately made me feel
uncomfortable. I thought maybe he was a drifter
or high, but I didn't want to berude.
I tried to laugh it off. And told him he surprised me.
(01:03:21):
He immediately started talking. A lot of it was disjointed and
just didn't make sense. He was talking about coming up
from Brazil to bring his brothermoney to get a classic car.
None of it made much sense, but he would ask me questions and
wait for me to respond, so I tried to just play along.
I still thought he was probably just high or something, but he
(01:03:42):
was standing between me and the only door and I started getting
this gut feeling that he was blocking the door on purpose,
not just accidentally as he talked to me.
He was getting closer to me as he talked and the feeling got
stronger. Logically something was off, but
mostly I just had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that I
(01:04:04):
needed to leave and keep him talking until I could.
I started to edge to the side but he stayed in front of me and
the feeling got more intense. I started to grip my keys in
attack position just in case. He talked more and then backed
off a little. He took off his backpack, which
was a child's Unicorn backpack, and set it on the nearby dryer.
(01:04:29):
I looked over to the door just for a second, and when I looked
back he was pulling something I couldn't see out of it and
holding it to the side behind him where I couldn't see it.
But I did see what was in his backpack, duct tape.
Instantly it was just like an alarm went off.
There was no more worrying aboutbeing rude, no more second
(01:04:51):
guessing myself that he was justoff but harmless.
It was like this cold numb dreadjust washed down over me.
I almost felt calm, like I knew the next steps, knew I had to do
something. Time seems to move in slow
motion and he turned back to me,not saying anything anymore and
(01:05:13):
took a step. Forward.
I gripped my keys as tightly as possible and tried to mentally
prepare to fight. I remember being afraid that I
would move too slow or be too weak, like in a nightmare.
But all of a sudden the door to the laundromat open and a woman
walked in, barely even looking at us as she went in to get her
(01:05:34):
laundry. It was like a scene in a movie,
a moment of intensity just interrupted by something
innocuous and suddenly it's over.
He just turned, got his bag and left.
I was so scared I just stayed there a minute until I could get
my laundry and just go home. I didn't report it.
(01:05:57):
I never knew what to say since nothing had actually happened.
But when I think about it, I think the scariest thing is that
he left as soon as someone walked in.
If he was just crazy it wouldn'thave mattered.
I think a stranger's laundry timer saved me from something
terrible. I don't go to the laundromat
(01:06:18):
anymore. I joined a laundry service.
The extra cost is worth it to never have to go back.
(01:08:09):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:31:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
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(00:22):
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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
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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.
For some background, there's an app called Life 360 where you
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can add your friends and family on and essentially you can all
see each other's current and past locations.
You can set alerts. To be notified when someone
comes home or leaves, arrives atwork, etcetera.
It's a really great app and I recommend it to everyone.
You can never be too safe nowadays. 2 months ago I was at
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home waiting for my boyfriend toget home.
I got an alert at around 6:00 letting me know that he had left
work. It usually took him around 45
minutes to get home. I got up from the sofa and
headed upstairs to run myself a bath.
My bath was ready in about 10 minutes and as I was doing other
things waiting for it to cool, Iheard a thud downstairs and
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through the closed bathroom doorassumed that it was the front
door. I shouted something along the
lines of I'm taking a bath. I heard him walking along our
very creaky floorboards and assumed he was in the kitchen
grabbing some dinner. It was about 5 minutes later
when I picked up my phone to puton some music and realized I
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never got an alert on my phone from Life 360 saying my
boyfriend arrived home. So I went into the app to make
sure and I kid you not, my bloodran cold when I saw that my
boyfriend stopped at a gas station and was still about half
an hour away. I could still hear the
floorboards creaking downstairs very lightly, as if someone was
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trying to tiptoe but was unable to.
I had no idea what to do. I called my boyfriend, he didn't
answer and when I didn't hear his phone ring from downstairs I
freaked out even more. I have horrible anxiety and I
could feel an attack coming on. I left the bathroom and walked
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into the bedroom as quietly as possible.
I shoved my desk chair under theknob as it didn't have a lock.
I don't know why, but I didn't think to call the police then.
I was so focused on getting out that all my other thoughts and
senses just disappeared. I say this lightly now, but this
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was not the case in the moment. I proceeded to basically Mission
Impossible out of the room. We had a shed under the window
large enough for me to safely get on top of it and then jump
off of it into the garden. The only issue was that I had to
make my way down the garden alley where I would have to walk
past the large window and door where he would be able to see me
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very clearly. I was so scared I kept taking
peeks into the window and couldn't see anyone.
I felt more confident to run past and took one last peek and
he was there looking right at menot even a foot away from the
window. I can't even begin to explain
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the sheer fear and horror I feltlooking him right in the eyes.
He had such a cold expression, totally emotionless.
I ran, didn't look back. I was terrified.
I remember nearly tripping in myslippers and having to shake
them off so I could run faster. There was a long road between US
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and our neighbors where I was running to.
I did make it. Their lights were on and I
started pounding on their window.
I was let in and they called thepolice for me.
As I was. Inconsolable at that point, I
kept telling them to please callmy boyfriend as he was on his
way home. When the police arrived, they
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found no one there. We didn't have any cameras and
neither did my neighbors so we had no way of telling when or
how he entered and left. I later found out he came
through the window. That was the noise I heard,
which I assumed was the door wasactually the window that fell
downward and shut loudly after Iassume the man came in.
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There were also some scratches on the top of the chair that I
put under the doorknob, signaling he had tried to push
it open but was unable to. There wasn't much of a case, I
couldn't ID him, and he was wearing a face mask and a
beanie. I don't even know what color
hair he had, only that he was tall, slim, and a man.
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I only looked right at him for amere second, if that.
Nothing was stolen either. We have cameras in the security
system now. Never making that mistake ever
again. Something recently happened to
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me, an event which I cannot seemto get my head around.
It has left me perplexed and quite frankly a little freaked
out. I live in a small village in the
West of Ireland, not far from the border between the Republic
of Ireland and Northern Ireland.The village has hustle and
bustle with around 2500 people living in the local area.
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As you can imagine with such a small populace, the community is
fairly tight knit and a person would know everyone pretty well,
or at least know them by their face.
A man from town who is now deceased named Jimmy used to
frequent a pub quite regularly where I used to work and I often
had chit chat with him on the regular.
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In more recent years I did some training in the local nursing
home where Jimmy was a full timeresident.
He was suffering from Alzheimer's and was now under
constant supervision. While his memory was virtually
gone, he never lost his ability to play cards.
So during my training I often spent time playing cards with
him and it goes without saying Ilost pretty much every game.
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While this information does seemtrivial, it is relevant to what
I'm about to tell you. As I mentioned before, Jimmy is
now deceased and is buried in a local cemetery which is adjoined
to the church. In the evening I bring my dogs
for walks and one route I often take is through the church
grounds and I cut through the cemetery.
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There is a large view of the village and the valley in which
it is situated from the cemetery.
The cemetery is on a gradual slope and as you'd expect all
the graves are in rows. My dogs who are both Jack
Russell Terriers and in being soare very feisty and nothing ever
really Spooks them. One evening last week I decided
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to cut through the graveyard like I often do.
But when we reached the gate of the graveyard, both of the dogs
demeanors changed from that of being happy with tails wagging
and general contentment to get out for a walk, to that of which
their heads were down and tails between legs and showing
stubbornness to pass through thegate.
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Thinking nothing of it, I pulledthe two dogs through the gate,
jokingly scolding them and asking them in the quaint
country Irish way, what is wrongwith you?
We walked up the gradual slope, passing by graves of folks who
had passed on along the way. Some of the names I recognized
and some were unfamiliar. Nothing strange in that.
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Normally when I reach the last grave on the slope, I would be
passing by Jimmy's grave. I would normally stop for just a
brief moment and in my head I would say to myself, how are you
Jimmy? Now, I am a quality manager at
work, so it's fair to say that Ido notice a lot of things, and I
know for a fact that Jimmy's grave was definitely the last
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one on the slope in the very front.
Row. I at least passed it once a week
since he passed away, and I knowthat it was definitely, without
a shadow of a doubt, located right there.
The evening in question, as the dogs and I reached the last
grave, my heart nearly went intomy mouth.
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Jimmy's grave was not there. I couldn't understand it.
A completely different gravestone stood there of a
woman who I also knew from the locale.
But how could this be? Jimmy's grave was definitely
there. My eye started darting from
grave to grave, looking for Jimmy's grave in despair.
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I eventually found it 3 or 4 rows back, but nowhere near the
top front row where I'd seen it before so many times.
Miffed about what it just happened, an uneasy feeling came
over me and the hairs begin to stand on the back of my neck.
Maybe I too was sensing with thedogs it felt Earlier I noticed
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the breeze had disappeared and the cemetery was eerily silent
as you could normally hear a bird song from the surrounding
trees. I couldn't get out of there fast
enough that evening. I have since passed through the
cemetery and still Jimmy's graveis still in the mix with all the
others, completely out of place of where I know it used to be.
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I really cannot understand what happened.
It's not as if they moved his plot or that many people have
been buried since he was. Reflecting upon this story, I
recalled something that happenedto me a few years earlier.
In that cemetery, every July, onthe last Sunday of the month,
the local priest holds a ceremony called the Blessing of
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the Graves. As my grandparents are buried
there, I would normally attend such an event, not so much for
the religious aspect, but just to catch up with my relatives
who would attend. Last year I wasn't feeling well
on this Sunday, so I actually missed the ceremony.
Feeling a little guilty about this, I decided in my free time
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to go to the grave to maybe say a quiet prayer for my
grandparents. I have been to the grave many
times as I often help my mother maintain it by wedding and
decorating it with flowers as well as the annual visit for the
blessing of the graves. But this particular day I could
not find the grave and I spent agood 20 minutes looking for it.
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Blaming myself. I just put it down to my own
ignorance as to why I couldn't find it.
But now in hindsight, I wonder if instead of my ignorance, was
there something a little more sinister and paranormal at play?
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A few years ago, I was working as a healthcare assistant at the
hospital, and recently, having moved out of my dad's home, I'd
started renting a small detachedhome in the countryside.
I had one neighbor on this street, a man in his late 30s
who I will call Jake. He was single and lived alone.
My first encounter with Jake waswhen I was moving in.
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My dad couldn't accompany me on my first day of moving due to
his work schedule, so I was unpacking by myself.
Jake walked up to me, introducedhimself and offered to help with
moving my heavy items. I am very small, so I
appreciated the help. My first impressions were that
he was very kind, open and polite.
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He chatted to me about his job, told me that he liked to play
instruments and write in his spare time.
We bonded over both loving the band Tool and we both enjoyed
playing the bass. The next day I brought him some
beer as a thank you. He wasn't in however, so I left
it by his front door and included a thank you note for
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all the previous help the day prior.
Over the next few weeks as I settled in, Jake would pop by.
We would chat about music, discuss shared hobbies, drink
beer, and occasionally even watch movies together.
I was new to the area and didn'thave many friends yet so he
helped provide some social interaction outside of my job.
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But as you can already tell, things didn't stay so good.
I got home 1 evening to see a basket full of flowers on my
doorstep and an included card which read that it was from Jake
and he wanted to speak with me when I had the time.
I walked inside with the basket.I didn't even get a chance to
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put it down before I heard knocking at my door.
It was around 11:00 PM and I wasn't expecting anyone.
I looked through the window nextto the door to see Jake waving
at me. I opened the door and that's the
first time I can recall where I started to feel uneasy around
him. He asked if I saw the basket and
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if I liked it. He asked to come in, but I said
something along the lines of howtired I was and that we should
just speak tomorrow. He didn't say anything for a few
seconds before he asked if I would want to grab a coffee with
him before work tomorrow. I said sure and closed the door.
That next morning we grabbed coffee that was close to the
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hospital I worked at. He seemed very excited and
giddy. Soon after, he asked me to be
his girlfriend. I had to decline as we had only
known each other for a few weeksand well, he was significantly
older than me. He suddenly dropped his cheery
demeanor as if he had became someone else in a matter of
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seconds. He grabbed his things and left,
saying only that he had to go towork.
I went to work too and tried notto think too much on it.
I had to work overtime that night and started heading home
at around midnight. When I pulled up to my home, I
saw Jake sitting on my doorstep.I really, really didn't want to
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get out of my car, but I did andwalked up to him.
He started off politely asking if I had thought over his
proposal. I said no, that I'm sorry but
I'm not interested. Once again, as if a switch had
flipped, he went off on me, calling me spoiled and
ungrateful. I was scared at that point and
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asked him to leave. He wouldn't.
I managed to get to my car with him following me and showed him
through the window that I'm calling the police.
He swore at me and left. I didn't call the police that
night, I gave him the benefit ofthe doubt thinking he was just
frustrated. One of my biggest regrets was
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not calling them. The next morning I found
wildflowers that looked like they were picked from a garden
at my front door as well as a post it note with the word sorry
and a sad face drawn on it. At work that day I was called by
the nurse in charge who took me aside saying my boyfriend was
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here to see me as it's urgent. She also told me to tell my
boyfriend that he should not come to see me at work again
especially since I wasn't on break as it's unprofessional.
It was Jake, he wanted to ask meif I had gotten his flowers and
message. I went off on him saying things
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along the lines of how dare he come to my work, getting me in
trouble no less pose as my boyfriend.
All of this took place in the canteen.
He didn't say anything, didn't apologize.
I told him to knock it off and Ileft.
Things only got worse from there.
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He would often wait for me when I got home, try to bribe me with
gifts, more flowers, he even went as far and got me a new
guitar. I accepted nothing and always
left everything where he had putit.
I eventually broke down to my dad, who asked if I wanted him
to speak to Jake. I said no.
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He offered for me to move back in with him, but I had too much
pride and declined. My dad was really worried about
me. One day, everything came to a
halt when I came home to my front door ajar.
Though not broken, my front roomlooked absolutely ransacked.
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I ran to my car and called the police.
Nothing was missing. Absolutely nothing but my front
room, kitchen and bedroom were all rummaged through.
I told the police I had an inkling it was Jake who they
ended up questioning, but his friend vouched for him and said
they were together that evening so it couldn't have been Jake.
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I still don't believe that. I tried to tell the police
everything that has been happening with Jake and how I
was starting to feel very unsafe.
However, I had no proof but the notes he had left me which
weren't threatening. So since there was no threat to
life or well-being, they literally could do nothing.
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My dad helped me clean everything up and I had my locks
changed. Jake actually left me alone for
a little while after that. I started looking for a new
place to live around that time. Then one evening I had come
home, ate some food, showered and went to bed, only to be
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awoken, I'm not sure when, to somebody standing in my doorway.
I didn't move. I remember originally thinking I
was having a sleep paralysis episode, but after moving my
fingers I realized I was fully awake with a dark figure clearly
standing in my doorway. My phone was under my pillow so
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I rolled over to my side pretending to still be asleep
and I just waited with my hand under my pillow on my phone.
There was no way I could call the police without alerting the
person in my doorway. Eventually I could hear the
footsteps fade and I called the police, only telling them my
address and that someone just broke into my home and that I
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think they're still here. I got out of bed, grabbed the
keys on my night stand, and got out of the house by going out my
window and bolting to my car. I had on a tank top and shorts.
I didn't even have shoes on, which made driving horrible.
I saw him then when I was pulling out, standing in the
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kitchen through the window. It was Jake.
I had a small essential oil diffuser next to the window that
shined enough light to be able to tell who the figure was.
I drove as I spoke to the police.
I remember just completely detaching from.
Reality. At least that's what it felt
like. I drove to my dad's house.
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After looking over my house, thepolice drove to my dad's home
where I was. I told them everything about
Jake, how he had been following me, coming to my work, waiting
for me when I got home and now Iwas 100% sure he broke into my
home and was planning to do God knows what.
I was told that they found my front door locked when they got
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there and went to knock on Jake's door.
He answered and looked as if he had just woken up.
They asked him some questions and left him alone.
It is so unimaginably hard to prove that you're being stalked
in the Uki managed to get a restraining order on the grounds
of harassment with proof that hehad come to my workplace posing
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as my boyfriend and a Co worker who could support me in this as
she had overheard our conversation where I had asked
him. To.
Stop following me. I had also saved some texts that
he sent me where I asked how he got my number and told him to
stop contacting me. But he went on to send some
vaguely threatening messages along the lines of I'll be
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waiting when you come home today.
Which along with the workplace incident as well as the fact
that I had mentioned Jake to thepolice when my house was broken
into, managed to get me my restraining order.
I went back to that house once with my dad and his friend to
gather all my things. I did not see Jake that time or
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ever again for that matter. I had to transfer workplaces
back to my original workplace asI moved back in with my dad.
I am now moved away and live alone again, trying to put the
past behind me, but this definitely messed with me a
little. I had to get some therapy and
found it difficult to develop friendships, especially romantic
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relationships. He somewhat ruined that for me.
I have not made any new friends since.
Never had a boyfriend either. I find it very hard to trust
people outside of work colleagues and family.
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The nightmare I am about to share is 1 I had from age 6 to
age 9. However, I didn't find out it
was more than a nightmare until two weeks ago.
I hope you enjoy. When I was 6 my mother and I
moved into an older home. It was in good shape for the
most part. It was a one story home with a
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sun room, nice backyard, attic, and unfortunately a basement.
It had two bedrooms so after my baby sister was born we ended up
sharing a room. It wasn't long after we moved
into the house that I started having a messed up nightmare.
It was the same one over and over again.
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I was laying in my bed when a man would come into my room and
grab me by my leg. He would then start dragging me
off my bed and onto the floor. When he got to the top of the
basement staircase, he would stop for a moment then continue
dragging me down the stairs. I would scream in my dream, but
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he never stopped. The basement was all white.
White walls, white tile flooring.
There was a dentist chair, an old vintage 1.
He would pick me up and slam me down into it.
As he would start applying the restraints to my wrists, ankles
and my forehead. I got a good look at him.
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He was dressed in all white. White long lab coat with one of
those round silver things on hisforehead.
The only thing not white was hisdark brown dress shoes.
He was an older man, white facial hair.
There was a long white table with jars and jars all lined up
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with teeth in them and the gums were still attached.
He had an empty jar and his tools all laid out.
He then grabbed a knife and started cutting into my gums.
There was blood everywhere and Iwas screaming.
It would always end right beforeit felt like I was going to die.
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I never watched scary movies as a child so my mother couldn't
figure out why I was having thisdream.
I would wake up with tears running down my face wondering
why I am having this nightmare. When I was 9, we moved because
my mother got married. I haven't had that dream since.
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Fast forward to two weeks ago, my husband and I were talking
about the homes we grew up in. That got me thinking about that
house so I looked it up. Luckily I was able to pull up
the houses history online. I loved reading about it.
It was amazing until I seen thata man who was very close with
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the family not only helped get electricity into the home but
also used to rent out the basement for a while.
He was a man of science and had a.
Career at a local university as a professor.
Very well respected. He even shared my husband's last
name but was not related. I looked him up to show my
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husband but once I saw his face I screamed and covered my mouth.
My husband asked me what was wrong and I told him about the
dream and then said that's the man who would cut out my teeth.
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Once I got off work one night, Iwent straight to bed and that
was around 5:00 in the evening. I guess you can say I'm not
really a night owl because my job schedule varies throughout
the week. Either I'm working at night or
I'm working in the morning. This day I had to work in the
morning so I stayed up the nightearlier.
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I woke up around 9 PMI got up totalk to the family, watch some
TV, then started getting tired again.
This was around 1:00 AM and I decided to go back to bed and I
actually felt the weight of sleeping this time.
Once I got my bed ready I put YouTube on for a little
background noise and just started to drift off.
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Then all of a sudden everything was quiet.
Then I dreamed about waking up in a building.
A building I have dreamt of before but not for a long time.
I was laying on a sleeping bag in a decrepit room with no
furniture. I wasn't scared but confused.
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The door leading outside suddenly swings open with
someone walking in then slammingit shut.
Then I was automatically pushed out of the dream as I was jolted
awake. I was laying there thinking
maybe I was just experiencing sleep apnea and tried to get up
but I couldn't. I couldn't move my arms, my
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legs, it's like I left my body for the next minute of what I'm
about to tell you. I have had experiences with
sleep paralysis before, but not to this extent.
Once I knew my body went numb, Istarted to panic, started to
breathe heavily. It was unbearably longer than it
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should have been. For me it would last around 30
seconds at most and I haven't even experienced the large
weight on my chest yet. That's what I was actually
waiting for and I guess my body was trying to prepare for it
because the dread was like a sharp knife point and it just
kept jabbing me each passing 2nd.
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Then I stopped breathing becausewhat happened next made my heart
stop and my blood cold. In close proximity of my ear I
heard someone say hey, it sounded like a woman whispering
in my ear. I was so disturbed I tried to
call out for help but I knew that couldn't work because I
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couldn't even breathe out a syllable.
I tried to break free of this invisible bind but I gave up and
knew I had to rough through it. The next thing I know, something
sits on my chest, but it wasn't the normal weight I would
experience in these episodes. It was something lighter that
felt less aggressive. It felt like fingertips
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caressing across my chest in a sensual way.
Laying down on my right PEC, it was followed by a leg wrapping
itself on the front of my thighs.
The next thing I know, the left side of my body was being
weighed upon like someone would be cuddling up next to me.
Just for the record, I don't have a girlfriend, and I doubt
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anyone in my house would start sneaking into my room at night.
I was frightened and confused. I still couldn't move.
Then the woman's voice came back.
What are you doing? It said in a very quiet, sincere
tone. I didn't know what was
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happening, but I knew I had to respond.
So as calmly as I could, I said I'm trying to sleep.
That's when I noticed my face can move and my hands can move,
but I refused to open my eyes because I didn't care for what
there was to see. The next thing I knew, the
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weight on my left side started to diminish and my body can move
again. So I shot up.
Looked around the room, no one was there.
My senses started to come back and the sound of my computer
comes back to me like it was never turned off.
I didn't bother going back to sleep.
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I guess this was a wake up call.I need a better sleep schedule,
probably need to change a few things from now on, but my mind
is still stuck on it. Was it a spirit?
Was it part of the dream I was having?
If it was a spirit, maybe it wasjust lonely and it just needed a
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body to lay with. Maybe it was a dream, but I
don't dream that often, especially if the touch I felt
is real. I don't know what to think.
I guess I'll just chalk it up toa hallucination and get on with
my life. I am telling you all this as a
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warning, something I wished I had gotten before my visit.
A bit of back story about me as this will be important later.
I am 18 years old and I have to drive out of state to visit my
girlfriend as we met online. This drive usually takes us
around an hour and a half an hour and 15 minutes on a good
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clear night. This was one of those nights.
I was cruising down the empty freeway, the lights of a car on
the opposite side flashing occasionally.
I was listening to some quiet music, taking in the
surroundings and enjoying the cool wind blowing in through the
sunroof. Now, I will be honest, I wasn't
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paying as much attention to the road as I should have.
I was tired and sick of stickingto my leather seats, so I pulled
over to the right side of the road and got out to scratch my
legs. I left my car running.
I wanted to make sure that I could see in front of me with
the headlights, just in case anything came out of the woods.
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By anything I mean Bobcats and bears, nothing supernatural.
It's not that I didn't believe in the supernatural, I just
hadn't experienced anything. I was parked on the side of the
freeway, standing to the right of my car, staring at the pitch
Black Forest and just listening to the sounds of the night.
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I really don't know why I did it, but something told me that I
should look around, that something was off.
That's when I saw it. the Billboard.
It was one of those roadside signs, the expensive ones that
big businesses used to advertise.
The backdrop was a faded blue with very pale yellow writing on
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top of it. The text read Ashland Motel,
Exit 72. There was nothing inadvertently
wrong with this sign. It was so basic and lacking.
But something was off. the Billboard couldn't be seen from
the road. The trees covered it just the
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right way, making it impossible unless you were pulled over in
this exact spot, looking this exact way.
Maybe it's just an old sign nobody took down.
I told myself. There is nothing wrong with an
old motel sign. The place is probably gone by
now. I felt like that wasn't right,
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but it was a pure gut feeling. I wanted to investigate a little
bit further, but my body wouldn't move.
My legs felt like lead and Jellyat the same time, but I mustered
the courage to take a few steps forward.
That's when I saw the text at the bottom.
Vacancy since 2020. I don't know why, but these
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words sent such a disgusting feeling into my stomach.
This sign was altered recently, so why was it so hidden?
What purpose did this sign hold if it wasn't meant to be seen by
the public? I felt so sick I just started
vomiting off the side of the road.
It was uncontrollable. This sign was absolutely the
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reason for it. When I was sure that I had
emptied out my stomach plus a little bit more, I ran back to
my car and jumped in. I have never locked a car door
so fast. I am not a religious man, but I
prayed that my car would start and I could just drive 90 miles
an hour home as far away from the Ashland Motel as possible.
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My 1999 Toyota turned over and the fear in my stomach begin
building again. I stopped turning the key and
waited for a second, hoping a break would help the car start.
I looked around and for a split second I saw him.
He was tall, featureless, shadedby the night.
(35:22):
His silhouette was pure blackness.
It seemed to consume the moonlight, so it was obvious
this wasn't just a tree or plantor animal.
This was something otherworldly.I wretched the key in the
ignition again, and after desperate pleas to whatever God
was out there, it sputtered and started.
(35:44):
I slammed my foot on the gas, tires squealing, and I got away
from the Ashland Motel sign. This was two weeks ago.
The Ashland Motel sign had haunted my mind every day.
I told two of my friends about this experience.
I didn't want them to think I was crazy so I left the bit
(36:05):
about the tall man out. They of course wanted to find
the motel. I begged them not to, that it
wasn't meant to be found and we should just leave it like that.
They told me that they were going with or without me.
Me being the overthinker and constant anxiety ridden boy I
am, I couldn't think to let themgo without me just in case
(36:28):
something happened and I wasn't there to help.
We left after dinner time around5:00 PM.
The sun was setting which made me even more nervous.
I put the Ashland Motel into Google Maps.
Nothing. I looked it up on Google,
nothing. I searched Facebook for a while
(36:51):
looking for an address and only found one post talking about the
Ashland Motel. The post read the Ashland Motel
five stars, safe rooms and lively staff.
This honestly sounded like someone who was trying to make
you think something while meaning something else.
(37:11):
My friends gave me a slap on theback and told me that I was
overthinking again. I laughed nervously and agreed,
although nothing about this was funny.
We ended up putting exit 72 in the GPS and it began taking us
there. I made my friend Ethan drive.
(37:32):
I didn't want to have to sit behind the wheel if that man
came back. It took us about 35 minutes to
get to exit 72 and we got off right away.
Immediately I had a bad feeling.The motel wasn't insight at all
and I was sure that it wouldn't be, especially because of the
placement of that sign. I didn't mention this though, I
(37:57):
didn't want to find the motel. Sadly, Ethan remembered my
comment about the sign being invisible from the street and
decided to just start pulling down blind driveways and gravel
roads. We searched for a while until
Will, my other friend in the back seat, told Ethan to stop
the car. He had seen something in the
(38:18):
trees, a small building hidden in the woods.
We reversed slowly until we saw it.
The rectangular building hidden by the forest, A sign reading
Ashland Motel. My stomach felt sick instantly
after seeing this. The words were in the same pale
(38:40):
yellow text, somehow looking more faded than the sign on the
freeway. There didn't seem to be a road
leading to the motel, meaning that we would have to park the
car and walk through the woods to get to it.
I begged my friends not to go. We had seen the motel.
We could leave. It exists.
(39:01):
I warned them about the Bobcats and the bears, about ticks and
bear traps. Nothing seemed to shake their
drive to investigate. I knew that I had to go.
If the man appeared, I knew thatthey wouldn't be able to shake
off the fear the same way that Iwould be able to.
(39:21):
We all grabbed a torch from the backseat of Ethan's car and
begin our trek into the woods. The motel was set back about 100
yards and there was no path leading to it.
We had to shine our flashlights at the ground to make sure we
didn't fall into a large hole orstep on a venomous snake.
With each footfall, a branch would snap and leaves would
(39:45):
rustle under us. Finally we made it to the
clearing and I wanted to run back as soon as we arrived.
The building was a pale yellow with a brown roof that obviously
hasn't been cleaned in a long time, if ever.
We stood at what seems to be thefront of the motel, but there
(40:05):
were no signs or roads to guide us.
The best way I can describe it, the motel seemed to have dropped
from the sky, removing all the trees under it.
And just sitting there for years.
The grass was overgrown, there were vines growing over the
lattice, Moss on the doors. There were around 10:00 rooms.
(40:29):
Each of the doors were separatedby a window and a small empty
pot. I was heavily analyzing the
motel, speculating the reason for its placement, when I had
the same feeling I did at the sign.
My stomach lurched, and I placedmy elbows on my knees.
Ethan tapped my shoulder. I didn't move.
(40:53):
He tapped me again, harder, but he wouldn't say anything.
I looked up at him, and the color had drained out of his
face. He was staring at the forest
behind the motel, as if he were mystified by that spot.
Will was staring back at the car.
Color drained from his face, too.
(41:13):
Only then, only then, did I realize why they were staring
with so much fear. The sounds of branches cracking
and leaves crunching were surrounding us.
Like 100 people were running in a circle around the motel woods.
I whirred around, trying to catch a glimpse of what was
(41:34):
making the noise, but it was beyond fast.
If it was one thing, I couldn't catch my breath.
I began to hyperventilate and sweat aggressively.
I saw Will begin to cry silentlyand Ethan began to apologize for
killing us. I had to get it together, I knew
(41:55):
I did. That's when the urge hit me
again. I felt so drawn to it I couldn't
stop my head from turning to face the motel.
I begin to sob when I saw them. Pale faces, all of them staring
at us from the windows of the motel.
They were illuminated by something otherworldly, as the
(42:17):
rest of the area was pitch black.
All the faces had a disgustinglylarge smile, too large to be
human, stretching from ear to ear, each showing too many
teeth, all of them perfectly white.
The eyes are the reason I am telling this now.
(42:38):
They had hollow eyes set into their heads too far back.
I realized that I wasn't lookingat the eyes, but the lack of
them. All of the.
Holes were filled with the same darkness that outlined the man
at the motel sign that night. I repressed the need to vomit,
(42:59):
but my sobs did not stop. They were deep and
uncontrollable. I knew I had to run, even if the
thing running around the motel would stop us.
I just knew that it was better to deal with that thing than
whatever was in the motel. Those faces would do something
worse than kill us. I knew it.
(43:20):
I grabbed my friend's arms and started running.
My vision was blurring. The footsteps and crunching got
louder and louder. I drowned them out.
I could feel myself choking on my own mucus and tears.
I screamed to hurry up and we sprinted deeper into the woods.
It felt like we were running through the woods for hours as
(43:42):
the footsteps echoed around us. Screams flooded my ears.
They were louder than any noise I ever heard before.
I knew it was coming from the motel.
The faces were so angry and hungry and horrible.
The screams were so loud I thought I was going to die.
(44:04):
As I dragged my friends through the final stretch of the woods,
the screams suddenly stopped. The lack of noise was deafening,
but I knew we were still being chased by the forest thing.
I saw the car. This stupid Ford Focus was the
best sight I had ever seen. We had finally made it and the
(44:25):
footsteps stopped. As soon as we made it to the
car, I began to vomit profusely.It felt like I was bleeding from
my stomach, and it was too dark for me to check.
I couldn't tell if the liquid running down my face with tears,
mucus, or blood, and honestly, Ididn't care.
(44:46):
Ethan was vomiting aggressively as well, sobbing between hurls.
Will was on the ground in the fetal position, sobbing.
I turned around to look back at the Ashland Motel, and there it
was. The shadow man, the one who was
at the sign. The one who was staring at me.
(45:07):
He was illuminated with the samesinister light that cast upon
the windows in the motel, but hestill was as dark as ever.
He had no features, he was taller than me and he felt
sinister. I could tell that he was smiling
at us, trying to lure us back in.
(45:27):
I grabbed my friends and threw them into the back seat of the
car. I didn't want them to see him.
I knew they would never forget his darkness.
We drove home in silence and eventually arrived.
I got my car from Ethan's house and headed back to my house.
No matter what I do, the screamsstill play in my head and I can
(45:52):
feel the smile on his face. That's why I'm telling this.
Does anybody know anything aboutthis motel, the Ashland Motel?
Is it possible to forget all of this?
Will he follow me? I don't want to keep seeing this
place. Can someone please help?
(46:25):
Now to start this off, I'm a 22 year old dude with lots of
energy. So much so that I usually take
midnight walks around my house to get me ready for bed and I
cannot sleep before 2:00 AM. My parents recently told me that
they were going on vacation and that they needed a house sitter.
Being the cheap parents they are, they asked me to watch
(46:47):
their cabin in the forest, 30 miles to the nearest town and
three miles from the nearest neighbor cabin in the middle of
nowhere, all alone with a lakefront view.
Who could say no? I told them goodbye and wish
them luck in their trip and I arrived at the cabin the next
day. The first day went well because
(47:11):
I thought that they didn't have cable or service.
I was wrong because they did. I fished, swam and ate good
food. But the second day is when the
nightmare started. The time was about 1:00 in the
morning and I couldn't sleep. I put on my boots and headed out
into the cool night air for a little walk.
(47:33):
I walked around the house a couple of times and stood by the
edge of the thick forest. Just when I was about to head
back to go back to bed, I heard footsteps in the trees.
Now I am used to deer being everywhere around my house, but
the footsteps sounded way heavier than a normal deer.
(47:54):
Being the curious guy I am, I threw a rock in the thick brush
to see if it would run off. Silence at first, then I heard
something I wish I didn't. Laughing not from a normal
person, but from someone who sounded insane.
(48:14):
Then the same rock I threw was thrown right back at me.
I never ran so fast in my life. I ran to my truck.
When I started the ignition and the headlights came on, I could
see a bald man still laughing standing in the same spot.
I was just standing. I speed until I reached the end
(48:38):
of the long driveway. I then called the sheriff and
had to wait for about an hour. When they got there they thought
that I was just joking, but whenthey checked where I told them
to, they found rope, a knife anda faint bloody trail leading to
another cabin far away into the trees.
(49:00):
Inside was just a bunch of scribbles like a child does and
a rag covered in blood. The police looked all around and
even checked our cabin but this person was never found to my
knowledge. The next day my parents canceled
their trip. I still wonder whose blood was
(49:21):
in that cabin and what would have happened if I didn't find
the man in the woods. I work in food service front of
house. So in the early days of the
pandemic, with restaurants closed, I was taking work
(49:42):
wherever I could find it. An old friend clued me into a
medical office that needed someone to come in and do a bit
of light filing. I was able to go in at night to
limit direct contact with people, so I jumped at the
opportunity right away. Ironically, the medical office
job had been the safest gig I'd been offered thus far.
(50:03):
I wanted to. Avoid the bus if I could due to
crowds. So decided to swing for a
rideshare app. It's not all that expensive in
my area and I really didn't wantto get the virus.
I headed in at almost 3:00 AM because it was after the
cleaning crew had left. I was kicking myself for being
so cautious though because I wasexhausted.
(50:25):
I stumbled onto the block looking for my ride and to my
tired self's great relief, the car spotted me almost
immediately and pulled up askingUber while I cluelessly wandered
up and down the street searching.
The ride was taking a while, butI'd only just moved here last
year so I'm not familiar with all of the surrounding areas and
(50:45):
thought nothing of it. I was pretty alert at first so I
was trying to pass the time playing games on my phone and
stuff, but the car didn't have acompatible phone charger and I
wasn't sure the building would have one so I wanted to save my.
Battery to be able to call a ride back.
I shut my phone down into airplane mode and eventually
drifted off from a combination of tiredness and boredom.
(51:08):
I don't often take rideshare, sobeing alone with a strange
driver often put me a bit on edge, but this guy had a pretty
boring car and a very standard look about him.
He looked a little like my brother.
Even young, clean, kept listening to jazz.
Nothing that screamed you need to micromanage this trip.
(51:30):
When we arrived, the driver tried to wake me up by calling
to me from the front, but I was in too deep of a sleep and
couldn't fully distinguish it from my dream.
Finally, he awkwardly jimmied myleg to wake me up and kept
saying. Ma'am, ma'am, we're here now.
I was embarrassed that I had been that out of it.
So I just gave a hurried thanks and booked it out of the car and
(51:55):
into the building. As I looked around I began to
realize nothing was what I had expected of an office park.
I had seen a Street View of the building when I first looked up
the business and it had appearedto be a strip mall Plaza.
The further I went the more loudly alarm bells were ringing
in my gut. The structure was semi
(52:15):
dilapidated and it was pitch black dark past the entryway.
I expected some lights to be offin the night time, but not to
the whole building. I skittered across the concrete
foundation comprising what was left of the lobby area, told
myself they must just be renovating, and followed.
Signs for the. Stairs after what felt like ages
(52:37):
but was likely just a few minutes.
All I had passed. Was construction equipment, a
couple locked doors and some smashed windows.
I was certain I was not going tofind a medical office and
figured maybe I'd mixed up the address.
I took out my phone to double check, but once I got it out of
airplane mode, I could barely get a signal.
(52:58):
I kept moving around in the building, pacing, looking for a
stronger signal. I eventually confirmed in my
texts. That I had.
Written down the correct addressjust by scrolling back, which
didn't require service since I'donly been inside for a few
minutes at most. I figured I would try to get in
touch with the driver because ifI entered the correct address
(53:19):
then it was only fair he should continue my ride to the correct
place and save me the added feesof calling a second trip.
Considering this was all his mixup.
The app was taking forever to load with my slow service, but
before I could get to a cloud ofreception I heard a rustling
sound in the lower level of the building.
I was on the top floor and the only stairwell I was aware of
(53:41):
was the one I had taken up, so it wood forest me into the
middle of the building. There was no way to exit the
situation without encountering whoever was downstairs in an
abandoned building in the latesthours of the night.
I figured the chances were high that it was a tweaker and I had
no desire to try slipping past atweaker, especially when it was
(54:02):
late enough that they were probably on something so jumpy
and on edge. I tried to get a text out to a
group of friends with my addressand a request to call 911 to
help get me from the property because I didn't feel safe
walking in that neighborhood at night and didn't have enough
reception to call a new ride. But the message wasn't sending
(54:23):
reception was too weak, so I gave up on getting my phone
going and started checking for another stairwell or even a
window with a balcony or dumpsters that could be used to
exit the 2nd floor as a last resort in the event whoever was
downstairs came upstairs. I scrambled over to a door with
a stairs sign on it, but the stairs were completely
(54:45):
dilapidated and it was essentially just a straight drop
down to the first floor. At that point the worst case
scenario began to unfold. I heard whoever was downstairs
begin making their way up the stairs.
I thought fast and figured basedon my walk, the floor was
basically a giant loop. So I would have to wait for
whoever this was to come up the stairs, wait for them to come
(55:09):
all the way up, and then Sprint the opposite direction of
wherever they were going and tryto get down the stairs and out
of the building in time to make it to the road without
encountering them. I was not anticipating being
chased or anything, but didn't want to piss off a druggie or
have a homeless person who mighthave been living there feel as
though I had trespassed and become hostile towards me, or
(55:31):
have any sort of interaction that could possibly occur at
that hour in an abandoned industrial park.
I held my breath for what felt like 5 minutes but was likely
closer to just 30 seconds, and the person appeared at the top
of the stairs. To my great relief, it was just
the Uber driver. I figured he had come back for
(55:53):
me, realizing he had left me in the wrong spot, a place that
could have worked out to be dangerous.
So I came out from the beam I was hidden behind and started to
wave him down. But then I processed there was
no way for him to realize this had been the wrong address.
My stomach lurched forward and my blood chilled to slush.
(56:15):
I made eye contact with him verybriefly, and he was completely
calm and composed, but breathingpretty heavily and blocking the
stairwell down. On a normal rational day, as an
outside observer, I could think of a dozen innocent reasons he
might have returned. But in that moment, standing
across from him, I just knew in my gut that this was someone
(56:38):
with I'll intent. I can't remember much more from
the ensuing few minutes. Operating solely on muscle
memory and instinct, I Superman doe from the second stairwell's
opening and just let myself falldown the drop.
Thankfully, I don't think he hadseen where I'd gone at 1st, and
though I was in too much pain toknow it then.
(56:59):
Plenty was bruised, but nothing was completely broken.
I scrambled up and threw myself at anything that seemed like it
could be the door. It was too dark to tell.
I was disoriented from the. Fall.
And I wasn't in a calm enough mindset to think to use my phone
flashlight. Plus, in hindsight, some part of
me probably knew it would call too much attention to my
(57:21):
location. Just before I was able to reach
the door, it flew open with a blinding light beaming straight
into my eyes. My first thought, though not
totally coherent, was there's another one of these guys and I
stumbled backwards trying to find something to hide behind.
Before I could, a voice called out.
(57:44):
All right, this is the Police Department.
Everyone get on your knees with your hands in the air.
I didn't believe it was the police at first.
I was in such a fight or flight mode and had already committed
to flight that I continued looking for ways to get out.
But he kept shining the flashlight right at me as I
teetered around and he yelled, Hey, I said, get on the ground
(58:07):
right now, hands out, hands out where I can see them.
He sounded so authoritative thatI just automatically did exactly
as he asked. He approached me and finally
shined the light away from me. It took a second to get my night
vision, but once I did, I could see he was really a police
officer. I tried to explain what was
(58:27):
happening, but first he started asking me all these questions
and that combined with what had just happened and my fear of the
driver coming back all snowballed into my being unable
to perform a single articulate sentence.
He was even asking easy questions too, like can you tell
me your name? Do you have any knives, needles,
(58:50):
or anything that could poke or cut me?
Would you rather talk in here oroutside?
And my total stunned babbling inresponse at first led him to
believe that I was on something.He directed me out to his car
and once I was safely out of thebuilding, I was able to start
getting my bearings. Just a little.
I sat on the edge of the back seat of the squad car with the
(59:12):
door open facing out while he stood across from me and asked
the same questions again. The first thing I could think to
ask was did my friends? Call you?
What did they tell you? And he explained no, nobody
called him. He was patrolling the area and
noticed a car idling outside of the building that is known to be
(59:34):
condemned and nobody is supposedto be inside.
And he said when they are, they are not up to no good.
He was launching into a speech about how if I had gone to shoot
up or meet a John, he had resources he could direct me to
and that this was not an ideal place to do either of those
things and asking if I had somewhere safe to stay that
(59:54):
night. But I was stuck on something
else he had said. Finally it all clicked.
The car. I spilled my whole rideshare
story in a frantic word vomit. He looked around and the car
wasn't there anymore. The officer guessed the guy had
driven off while we were talkinginside the building.
He asked me all the details I remembered and I told him, but
(01:00:18):
there weren't many. I had been too tired when the
ride started to track much, but the officer realized I could
pull up my Uber app and get all the information.
There wasn't really enough reception there, even outdoors.
So we speed down the road and once I had enough bars the app
roared to life and I had four missed notifications from Uber.
(01:00:40):
They said hello, I've arrived and I don't see you, can you
confirm the pickup address is correct and I am flashing my
hazards. And finally, unfortunately, your
driver had to cancel. At first I thought the driver
was so cunning as to pick me up while sending these fake
(01:01:03):
messages and canceling so the GPS wouldn't track US, knowing I
wouldn't notice because I was asleep with my phone off and
exonerating himself. But instead I checked the car
details, checked again, and it was definitely not the same
driver. The person who had driven me
there had not been my Uber. My driver was somewhere else on
(01:01:28):
the street when this guy pulled up to me.
The policeman took my statement and said they would keep an eye
out for the guy. But the best I could give them
to go off of was basically younglooking man with brown hair,
sideburns, goatee, and 4 door sedan wearing a zip up
sweatshirt. Maybe had a hood which is
basically one out of every four guys in this city.
(01:01:52):
I feel so blessed to have survived this near miss.
Suffice it to say I do not take rideshare services anymore.
Quadruple check your license plate and driver name.
You just never know. A few months ago I, 22 was at
(01:02:14):
the local coin laundromat. I went late because I've been
studying around 10:00 PM. The laundromat is pretty small,
closer to the edge of the beach town I live in.
The town is pretty well known for Drifters and people
experiencing homelessness. Most people are friendly and
there is a lot of drug use, but I've never really felt scared.
(01:02:37):
Everything was fine until I wentto move my laundry to a dryer.
I was listening to music on my headphones, but not super
loudly. Suddenly I just got the feeling
that someone was watching me. I can't really explain it, I
just felt the presence. I turned around and there was a
man standing just a few feet away from me.
(01:02:58):
He had pink hair, wearing a fullface mask like a ski mask, a
hoodie, gloves, and sunglasses. Even though it was dark out, the
gloves and sunglasses especiallyimmediately made me feel
uncomfortable. I thought maybe he was a drifter
or high, but I didn't want to berude.
I tried to laugh it off. And told him he surprised me.
(01:03:21):
He immediately started talking. A lot of it was disjointed and
just didn't make sense. He was talking about coming up
from Brazil to bring his brothermoney to get a classic car.
None of it made much sense, but he would ask me questions and
wait for me to respond, so I tried to just play along.
I still thought he was probably just high or something, but he
(01:03:42):
was standing between me and the only door and I started getting
this gut feeling that he was blocking the door on purpose,
not just accidentally as he talked to me.
He was getting closer to me as he talked and the feeling got
stronger. Logically something was off, but
mostly I just had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that I
(01:04:04):
needed to leave and keep him talking until I could.
I started to edge to the side but he stayed in front of me and
the feeling got more intense. I started to grip my keys in
attack position just in case. He talked more and then backed
off a little. He took off his backpack, which
was a child's Unicorn backpack, and set it on the nearby dryer.
(01:04:29):
I looked over to the door just for a second, and when I looked
back he was pulling something I couldn't see out of it and
holding it to the side behind him where I couldn't see it.
But I did see what was in his backpack, duct tape.
Instantly it was just like an alarm went off.
There was no more worrying aboutbeing rude, no more second
(01:04:51):
guessing myself that he was justoff but harmless.
It was like this cold numb dreadjust washed down over me.
I almost felt calm, like I knew the next steps, knew I had to do
something. Time seems to move in slow
motion and he turned back to me,not saying anything anymore and
(01:05:13):
took a step. Forward.
I gripped my keys as tightly as possible and tried to mentally
prepare to fight. I remember being afraid that I
would move too slow or be too weak, like in a nightmare.
But all of a sudden the door to the laundromat open and a woman
walked in, barely even looking at us as she went in to get her
(01:05:34):
laundry. It was like a scene in a movie,
a moment of intensity just interrupted by something
innocuous and suddenly it's over.
He just turned, got his bag and left.
I was so scared I just stayed there a minute until I could get
my laundry and just go home. I didn't report it.
(01:05:57):
I never knew what to say since nothing had actually happened.
But when I think about it, I think the scariest thing is that
he left as soon as someone walked in.
If he was just crazy it wouldn'thave mattered.
I think a stranger's laundry timer saved me from something
terrible. I don't go to the laundromat
(01:06:18):
anymore. I joined a laundry service.
The extra cost is worth it to never have to go back.
(01:08:09):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:31:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
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