October 9, 2025 • 76 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, this is Dane and this is Scary Stories and Rain.
Please join my family and followthis podcast on Spotify or
Apple. And if you want the ultimate
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win all of my giveaways every month by subscribing for just
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single giveaway automatically entered.
(00:22):
And starting now, today, every Sunday, I'm going to release the
ultimate episode 6 to 12 hours long Ultimate Scary Stories for
a rainy night. Subscriber exclusive.
And as a reminder, we are now four months away from my first
movie release in theaters, Gale Yellow Brick Road, a dark and
terrifying reimagining of The Wizard of Oz.
(00:45):
If you want to check out the first trailer, click the link in
the description to this episode.And if you're not following my
other two podcasts, please go check them out, Scary Stories
and Fire and Scary Stories AfterDark.
The links are in the description.
Thank you so much for being hereand I really hope you enjoy this
episode. The following story occurred in
(01:12):
2001. During this time, I remember it
being cold and we finally decided to pack up our Christmas
decorations. My sister and I were two rowdy
teenagers living in a single parent household.
Our father had passed away a fewyears back, so our mother took
on the full responsibility of raising us by herself.
(01:35):
My mom worked as a flight attendant, which made her time
with us very limited. However, we understood why
everyone was struggling to cope with this new life.
In the middle of dinner one night, our mom mentions to us
that she's going away for a few days for work related reasons.
My sister, Cleo sighs and disappointment and places her
(01:56):
fork on her plate. I quickly pinch her arm and
remind her to have a better attitude about everything.
Cleo is my younger sister. At times she can be very
disconnected from reality. She didn't understand that she
wasn't the only person that had to sacrifice things.
After my quick scolding, Cleo readjusts herself at the dinner
(02:19):
table and apologizes. Mom smiles and continues to
explain. Since she was leaving for a
period of three days, our mom felt more comfortable with us
staying at our aunt's house until she got back.
Cleo and I look at each other inastonishment.
You know how everyone has that one family member's house that
(02:40):
you dread going to? Well, in this situation, that
person was our Aunt Kathy. Was she kind?
Yes, but her lifestyle would be considered a little unorthodox
to most. Aunt Kathy was known for hosting
outlandish events and always hadat least two boyfriends.
(03:01):
She had a son named Chase who passed away last year.
During our childhood, our aunt would host parties and
gatherings at her house, and Chase would stay in his room the
entire time. She insisted that he was an
introvert, but every time I visited that house, I felt a
strange and unexplainable feeling.
(03:23):
Despite all of those things, I swallow my pride and nod in
agreement as my mother finishes explaining all of the details.
I could tell that Cleo was very annoyed that we had to leave.
She tried to convince our mom that we could watch over
ourselves, but Cleo had broken that trust by inviting a boy
over numerous times. Thanks a lot, Cleo.
(03:46):
The next day we pack a bag and wait on the front porch for our
aunt to come get us. Mom had already left early in
the morning for work. After about 15 minutes, Aunt
Kathy begins to pull in the driveway.
I still remember that car. It was a silver 1999 Toyota
Camry. We place our bags into the trunk
(04:09):
and sit in the back seat. Aunt Kathy shouts our names and
excitement and starts a conversation.
We discuss school, our mom and of course boys, but whenever we
would mention our cousin Chase, her response was short or she
would smile through the rear view mirror.
(04:29):
After a semi long car ride we arrive at the house.
Green shrubs were lined across the lawn along with a BBQ grill.
As we walk to the door, I look up and discover someone staring
down at me through a window. The curtains jerk shut
immediately after. I couldn't tell who it was, but
(04:52):
I assumed it was one of her boyfriends.
As we walk inside, I noticed that all of the lights are off.
Although it was daytime, it seemed eerily quiet and a dark
hue shadowed the house. I guess this was oblivious to
Cleo because she headed straightinto the living room to watch
TV. Aunt Kathy asks to speak with me
(05:14):
briefly in the kitchen. The look on her face alone made
me interested in what she had totell me.
She whispers to me and explains that she had been distraught
since the passing of her son. I hug her in consolation as she
sobs on my shoulder. I understood completely how she
felt. Losing someone that close to you
(05:36):
is heartbreaking. Aunt Kathy begins to tell me
that sometimes it feels like he is still here, especially when
she wakes up in the middle of the night.
My heart dropped to my stomach even though I knew I had to ask
her the following question. I wasn't prepared for the
answer. I asked my aunt about the person
(05:59):
in the window upstairs as we were entering the house.
She raises her head from my shoulder and looks at me in
confusion. She had no idea what I was
talking about. Aunt Kathy explained that she
had been living by herself ever since Chase died.
At that moment, I tried to convince myself that I didn't
(06:21):
see anything in the window. Everything happened pretty
quickly. Aunt Kathy insisted that it
could have been her cat. But as the day continued, I
realized how illogical that ideawas.
I think I know the difference between a cat and a human.
During our entire stay at the house, nothing happened.
(06:44):
As the last day approached, the idea of something eerie going on
had diminished almost completely.
Cleo and I hug Aunt Kathy goodbye and get into the Jeep
with our mom. Before we drive off, I noticed
two things, Aunt Kathy standing in the doorway waving goodbye
and the same figure I saw three days before standing in the
(07:08):
window. It seems to be more of a
silhouette and was black in color with soulless eyes.
I turned to Cleo and tell her tolook up but when she does the
figure disappeared. We never visited that house
again. Back in 2015 I was lucky enough
(07:37):
to win a 2 day yacht tour that was being raffled off by a local
boat rental shop. This was a short cruise with
meals provided and a captain to charter us around.
I never win anything, so when I entered the contest I really
didn't think I had any chance ofwinning.
I was imagining thousands of entries and only two entries
(08:00):
were chosen. I was actually shocked when I
was notified I won. Two people were chosen and you
could bring a guest over the ageof 21.
I of course brought my partner and the other person who won
brought his wife. The other couple, Robert and
Carol, were funny, outgoing older folks.
(08:23):
Definitely not the worst companyto have for almost 2 days.
We met with the captain, his first mate and the owner of the
store on the dock at 2:00 PM andwe're due to set sail at 3:30.
We went over a few safety courses, took a tour of the boat
and they showed us our very tinyrooms.
(08:44):
I don't know why I was envisioning the kind of yacht
that Jeff Bezos has. It was very much not that.
The yacht was nice enough, a little older and smaller, but
definitely a lot nicer than the one I have which is a non
existent yacht. So no complaints from me.
I'm only mentioning this becauseI think the age of the boat is
(09:08):
the reason for what happens next.
We set sail on time and started getting out into the open sea.
It felt like we were 1000 miles away from the shore by 6:00 PM
and the sun was getting lower inthe sky.
The view was breathtaking from the top of the boat.
Nothing insight all around us except a cargo ship way off into
(09:31):
the distance. The water was a dark blue as the
setting sun made its way past the perfectly straight line of
water that looked like the edge of the earth.
There was a table, a few chairs to sit in, shade in some spots,
and complimentary champagne. Dinner would be in half an hour,
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so we and the other couple shared some champagne and
stories before dinner, wonderinghow we got so lucky to end up
there. Or so we thought.
Dinner had come and gone and everything was going great.
Around 9:00 my partner and I headed to the tiny room to start
getting ready for some sleep. The boat was going to anchor
(10:14):
down in the morning and we wanted to take a swim for some
exercise to start the day, so weneeded some rest.
We were out by 11:00 PM, then woke up again at 1:00 AM to a
loud banging, an alarm going off, and a red light
illuminating our room. I wish that what I am describing
(10:35):
was just a nightmare. It was in fact not.
We scrambled out of bed, barely dressed, terrified and half
asleep. My girlfriend ran to open our
cabin door and as soon as she did, the first mate and the
other couple were wide eyed in the tiny hallway, putting on
(10:56):
life jackets and handing us some.
There was a smell of smoke in the air and I thought at that
moment that this was an overreaction.
There is no way this is happening and if it is, it isn't
that bad, right? Wrong.
We booked it out of the hallway to the deck of the boat to
(11:18):
notice that 1/2 of the boat was on fire and realized the boat
was sinking. The only light we had was from
the fire in the stars. Anything outside a 50 foot
radius was completely black. An abyss.
The water was glowing orange around the boat as the small
(11:38):
waves peaked and made kissing sounds, only to be overshadowed
by the roaring of the fire and the occasional pop and crack
from parts of the boat melting in the flames.
The normal calm the sound of waves usually brings was slowly
becoming the worst sound I couldever hear.
We were surrounded by complete darkness and would be for the
(12:01):
next few hours. The captain was preparing the
emergency raft. It was inflatable and just
required a pull on a string. With a strong pull the raft was
quickly inflating to become a four foot by 6 foot bright
yellow. A flimsy vessel that would keep
us afloat until help came. They threw it off to the side of
(12:23):
the boat near a small set of stairs that dipped into the
water. A small rope held the raft close
to the stairs. Meanwhile all I could do was
stand in shock with tears running down my face.
All I could think about was my dogs.
Still not sure that this was as bad as it seems.
(12:43):
We still have to be close to land boats.
Put out an SOS. I'm getting on the life raft so
I don't burn alive or drown. The captain and the first mate
we're talking quietly to each other.
That caused me to panic some. What are they saying to each
other that they can't say to us?They begin looking back and
(13:04):
forth between the raft and the fire.
At this point I am able to figure out that the series of
events that are unfolding are not ones that are working out in
our favor. I hear the first mate curse
loudly and by this time we are all looking over to them to find
out what we need to do. Why are we not moving into the
raft yet? The fire is growing and smoke is
(13:28):
filling the air. Maybe 10 seconds passed before
the captain shouts everyone on to the raft one at a time.
I was waiting for him to say women and children first because
this felt like it was straight out of the Titanic.
The first mate got into the raftand reached his hand up to Carol
(13:49):
while Robert held her hand to help her down the small set of
metal stairs. Robert was next and they both
sat down on the raft. Then I climbed down the stairs,
followed by my partner. The captain launched an oar, yes
one oar, into the raft, united the rope and hopped in.
(14:11):
He gave us a push off the side of the boat as best he could.
We didn't get very far with that, but the first mate had
been trying to use the singular oar to paddle us away from the
flames and smoke. The first few minutes while
trying to get a distance, nobodysaid anything.
Robert was comforting Carol and I was just staring off at the
(14:32):
boat anticipating a huge explosion like in the movies.
However, that never happened. The boat just burned and burned,
and after about 20 minutes the fire was diminishing due to the
water that was quickly sinking the boat.
This seemed like an actual nightmare and I didn't even know
(14:53):
at that point that it was only going to get worse.
The fire had been out for only afew minutes and the only way any
of us could see one another was by the dim light of the moon.
Of course, the moon was not evenclose to full that night, it
barely lit up anything you couldmaybe see a foot in front of
(15:15):
you. Anything past that was just
black, never ending darkness. The first mate made his way
around securing our life jacketstightly.
I appreciated the concern, but Itold him I would be fine without
a life jacket. The captain had been digging
around in a box that was built into the side of the raft.
(15:36):
He pulled out what looked like an extra piece of the raft
material and a bright orange flare gun.
He maneuvered slowly to the empty side of the boat, lifted
up the side and that's when we heard the gurgling of air
leaving the raft and hitting thewater.
There is no way there's a hole in this raft.
(15:58):
He tried a few times to pull theside up out of the water and
each time the weight of his bodyand inability to get any
leverage to use force to keep the underside up and out of the
water long enough to try to patch the rib.
The first mate tried to assist, but it all seemed like a waste
of effort. Finally, in desperation, they
(16:20):
peeled a clear seal off the sideof the extra raft material,
pulled up the side as hard as they could, and reached all the
way over to slap the patch on. Unfortunately, this was not a
success. They were unable to patch the
RIP in the side of the life raft.
The only thing keeping us out ofthe pitch black ocean was slowly
(16:42):
sinking. After a few minutes of
exchanging cuss words, tight tugs, and a few words of
encouragement, it was time to get real about the situation
that was happening. We were about to become stranded
in the ocean, just floating there with miles of nothingness
around us, above us and below us.
(17:05):
After all, we were close to the southern end of the Mariana
Trench, which is known to be thedeepest part of the ocean.
This gives me chills to think about.
Miles away from the next sign ofhuman life, the raft was losing
its air and the inflated sides were becoming soft to the touch.
(17:26):
Squishing easily under the pressure of my hand.
The flare gun went off. It was a silent star shooting
way up into the sky and then a pop like a firework.
The light was so bright from theflare I could see regret and
fear in the older couple's eyes.I knew at this point that we had
(17:49):
about 30 minutes until the raft was just a piece of flat yellow
rubber and nylon. Nothing much was said in those
last few minutes other than we learned we were almost 100 miles
off the coast of where we departed and nobody another boat
or the Coast Guard had respondedto our SOS.
(18:09):
Luckily we knew that the area ofthe ocean we were in was
considered a high traffic area for cargo and importing ships,
so it was unlikely that we wouldnever be found.
It was probably just going to take a while to be found still
in the dead of night, floating helplessly amongst the creatures
of the sea. For even just one minute is one
(18:32):
minute too long. It wasn't much longer before we
were all submerged and watching water take over the flat raft as
it sank a foot, 2 feet, 3 feet and by 4 feet it was a pale dark
yellow mass, losing its brightness to the sea.
(18:53):
It was barely visible, but I hadto watch it to see just how far
it would go until it disappeared.
That was a mistake. Because when I tell you that
that freaked me out more than anything, I mean it.
We all stayed close to each other, just floating in the
small waves. I don't know if I purposely
(19:15):
tried to scare myself, but all Icould imagine was the sea
creature swimming below us. No matter how deep I knew it,
every moment, there was likely something there.
I am an avid fan of Shark Week, so I knew that sharks become
more active at night, dusk and dawn.
(19:36):
We were just at the whim of the ocean waves.
I didn't care that I was tired or hungry.
I could only envision myself at any second being dragged deep
into the ocean by a shark to drown to death.
Still barely alive when it let go of me, but too far down to
float up fast enough to get a gasp of life saving oxygen.
(19:59):
Or even worse than this happening to me.
Happening to the love of my lifewho remained brave and stoic
during this whole ordeal. If I had to watch something bad
happened to her, I would rather it just be me. 4 hours and two
flares had gone by when I could see the sky start to lighten up.
(20:23):
The sun was rising. For some reason the thought of
daylight was comforting. I was still going to be floating
around, but I could see now dawnwas here and I could see if
there were any threats around usor if boats were passing by that
were able to see the wreckage ofour flare signals.
(20:43):
Help could see us. It wouldn't be long now until I
am on dry land again. Wrong.
The sun was getting higher into the sky.
Despite everything, it was beautiful, the pinks and oranges
from the ocean that was no longer black but blue.
(21:07):
I decided to do a 360 and turn around to see everything around
us. That's when it happened.
My biggest fear of free floating.
Something bumped my submerged legs, something big.
I screamed a blood curdling scream and the only words I
(21:27):
could get out of my mouth were big my leg shark.
At that moment I had no idea if it was really a shark.
I just assumed the worst becauseobviously after this whole
adventure the worst happens to me and what else would I expect?
(21:48):
Shark week comes in handy again.I remember to try not to panic
and that they are attracted to shiny jewelry.
I decided to take out my earrings and I tossed them into
the open water away from us. The idea was that the shark
would go after my earrings. It sounds dumb when I say it out
loud now, but I would have triedanything.
(22:11):
I just sat there and tried not to kick my legs, but also tried
not to lay on my back and float,trying not to resemble a fat
seal. We were all just darting our
eyes and bodies around to look for any signs it was still
around. All of a sudden, Robert let out
a Yelp. He too had been bumped.
(22:34):
A quick splash at the top of thesurface about 5 feet away
revealed a large fin. We were still unable to tell if
it was a shark by the fin or a dolphin.
But I don't know much about dolphins.
I didn't know if they lurked around the way this thing was.
I guess the earrings didn't work.
(22:56):
I don't know why I thought that was such a genius plan.
We all came in closer to each other hoping to give the image
that we looked bigger to the fish.
I would be lying to say that each time someone accidentally
kicked me while trying to keep afloat that I didn't freak out.
But I did and each time scared me more.
(23:19):
Some time had passed and there was no sight of fins breaking
the surface or any large dark masses swimming below us.
I don't think we would be able to really tell since we were
basically eye level with the water, but everything seemed
calm for the time being. We were all hungry, complaining
(23:40):
of hunger and thirst a while later.
I figured at this point it must have been 10 AM already in the
blazing sun. My girlfriend was sunburnt.
Her face was beat red and her lips dry and cracked from
exposure, dehydration, and salt water.
I eventually pulled off my shirtand used it to provide some
(24:03):
shade for her. I was shirtless underneath my
life jacket. Whoever rescued us was in for a
treat. The thought of not being rescued
before we perished to the bottomof the ocean crossed my mind and
I was starting to spiral. Everyone was trying to remain
positive, but not me. I guess I was the only one who
(24:26):
witnessed every single mishap that led us up to that moment.
Screw toxic positivity. Screw good vibes.
Only. We are in a serious situation
and despite being surrounded by never ending water, none of us
have a single drop since at least nine hours ago.
Is nobody else concerned about dehydration?
(24:50):
I knew I was getting snippy withpeople who didn't deserve it and
have their own way of dealing with things, but I was having
trouble seeing the bright side. All of a sudden, a loud horn
filled the air. It was like music to my ears.
Help was close behind. Carol was a red cargo ship in
(25:13):
the distance, maybe half a mile away.
The captain shot the last flare and the cargo ship's horn rang
twice. They saw us, they were coming.
The mood shifted and all the fears of megalodons and 3rd
degree sunburns were gone. There was a collective sigh of
(25:35):
relief. Immediately I started planning
my move for when we got to land.I was going to hit up a drive
through, slam a gallon of Pedialyte, take a Xanax and hold
on to my partner and our dogs and vow to never set foot on a
boat again. The cargo ship threw over some
(25:55):
floating devices and we held on as a Coast Guard helicopter flew
in from the other side of the boat.
The wind from the helicopter sprayed salt water in our eyes
and shot droplets at my face that felt like tiny bee stings.
They lowered a man down to the water and he attached each
person to what I believe was a stretcher, one at a time, and
(26:19):
reeled us up to the chopper. When we all made it inside of
the helicopter and before we began the flight back to land,
we hovered above our wreckage site.
It was some ways off from where we were picked up.
I looked down and thought about the odds of all this happening
and the moment I dropped the raffle ticket into the bucket a
(26:41):
few months ago and I was filled with regret.
I was checking the remnants of the wreckage when I noticed a
large black mass under the water.
Then I noticed another, a smaller mass, then two more.
The wreckage was swarming with sharks.
(27:04):
The Coast Guard was looking out the side with me and made a
comment. This area is notorious for shark
activity. You all are lucky to have made
it out alive and with all limbs intact.
There were quite a few sharks swimming near the area we picked
you up. The chopper was loud and hurting
my ears as we took a hard swoop left.
(27:28):
I just laid my head back and looked at my partner who was
applying Neosporin to her lips, and the others from the boat
removing their life jackets so they could use a stethoscope to
listen to their heart or lungs or whatever.
I didn't really respond to the Coast Guard guy about the
sharks. I couldn't bring myself to
(27:49):
comment on it. I just started to unbuckle my
life vest and asked if they had a shirt I could borrow when I
finished college. The Great Recession was at its
height. Despite graduating with a high
GPA and good internship experience, it took me two years
(28:13):
to find a full time job in my field.
During those two years, I felt isolated, adrift, and lost.
In retrospect, it makes sense that this was when I brushed up
against what may have been my first ghost.
Newspaper articles at the time were full of stories of
boomerang kids, young adults whomoved back home to ride out the
(28:37):
economic hardship with their parents.
I couldn't stand for that to be me, though.
I'd just broken up with my boyfriend, and I didn't think I
could handle the pity, the claustrophobia, and the further
sense of failure I would feel starting my adult life in my
childhood bedroom. Instead, I worked three jobs to
make ends meet. I could pay the rent, but I
(28:59):
swiftly fell into a state of depression.
I kept odd hours and it was difficult to find time to see
friends. One of my jobs was with a youth
psychologist. I was paid to transcribe
recordings the psychologist madeof his evaluations of patients.
Because of confidentiality concerns, I'm not going to talk
about anything specific that wasin those recordings.
(29:22):
One thing I noticed though, was how many of the kids grew up in
small, dying towns in the rural areas of our state.
I lived in our major city and hadn't spent a lot of time
exploring outside of it. Out of loneliness and
depression. I started using my free time to
drive. Sometimes it was aimless.
(29:44):
Sometimes I drove near the townswhere the kids in the recordings
were from. I passed ghost towns and
isolated mountain ranges and oldminds.
Once I got my car stuck in the mud outside an abandoned
cemetery and had to hike back tothe road to flag someone down
who could help me. The emptiness of those places
(30:05):
seems to cling to me. Sometimes I could stop my car in
the middle of the road, take offmy shoes, feel the hot asphalt
under my feet, and stare at the horizon for an hour before
someone else passed by. Even when I got back home, it
was like I couldn't wash the desert off me.
(30:25):
I felt changed. There was something else I
noticed about the psych evaluations too.
Almost all of the kids talked about the supernatural.
They had ghost stories, UFO stories, and a few even had
skinwalker stories, all from these areas that I have been
driving through. I was never a believer in the
(30:46):
supernatural, but after having spent time in the places they
lived and felt that eerie loneliness for myself, I could
see why they felt that way. There's a major river in the
southern part of our state that seemed to appear in a lot of
kids stories. When I was in an independent
bookstore one day, I found an older book full of stories and
(31:08):
legends about the river. On a whim, I decided to buy it.
Most of the stories were forgettable, but one that stuck
out to me was a journal entry written by a minor who lived in
the area in the 1800s. He said that one night in camp,
he looked over toward the river and saw a group of ghosts
walking out of the water and onto the shore.
(31:31):
There were no details beyond that, no description of the
people he saw or any indication of how he knew they were ghosts.
He said nothing about what he did afterward, but it stuck in
my mind for weeks. I thought about ghosts that
walked up out of a river and disappeared into the night.
It wasn't long before I decided I needed to see the place for
(31:53):
myself. It was far.
The river is on the border of another state and lies along one
of the least driven highways in the country.
I felt uneasy as I was driving toward it, but exhilarated too.
It's hard to explain, but something about reading those
ghost stories put a sense of possibility back into the world.
(32:15):
I believed in next to nothing atthis point in my life, but maybe
I could believe in this. It even seemed likely.
The world felt dark, and this seemed like a confirmation of
that feeling. When I arrived at the river,
there was no one there. I parked my car, hiked through
(32:35):
the sagebrush, and looked around.
It was just a river of muddy water.
I sat down on the bank and thought about my life.
Why was I going nowhere? When would this end?
Had my boyfriend seen this looming nothingness in me and
that was why he had left? I was 24 years old and I was
(32:56):
looking for ghosts. I had maybe even become a ghost
myself. Sometimes at night I felt like I
was beginning to fade at the edges, like whatever had made me
me was gone. Frustrated with myself and with
the sun beginning to set, I stood up to leave.
(33:16):
I walked back to my car, dreading the long drive home in
the dark. When I reached my car, I almost
missed it. The light was fading and my mind
was on other things. But I happened to fumble my
keys, getting them into the lock, and as I stooped down to
pick them up, I saw it. A set of wet footprints leading
(33:39):
to my car. I stood up slowly, tracing their
path with my eyes, but I knew where they were going to start.
At the edge of the river. My whole body felt cold and
light. It was the biggest moment of
unreality I've ever experienced,and it washed over me like a
(34:00):
wave. The footprints were half faded,
but very definite outlines of what looked like cowboy boots
leading from the river and rightup to the passenger door of my
car. Then they vanished.
There was no sign of where they had gone, and no sound either,
just the buzz of insects at the water's edge.
(34:21):
I didn't wait around to see anything else.
I jumped into the driver's seat,started the engine, and peeled
out. I made sure the doors were
locked, but somehow I knew it hadn't been a living person who
had made those marks. I had hiked out a little bit,
but I would have noticed if there had been someone else
there, especially if they had approached my car which was on
(34:44):
higher ground and more visible. The adrenaline kept me going the
entire drive home. When I got back I called my
friend and we talked for an hourabout unimportant gossip.
I ordered take out from the mostbasic normal sounding restaurant
I could think of. I put a sitcom on in the
background. I don't think I slept at all
(35:07):
that night and shortly after I was offered a full time salary
job in my field in a much biggercity.
I moved that summer and I haven't been back to that river
since. I also don't feel comfortable in
the desert or in any isolated place.
I prefer the busy noise of the city where I can surround myself
(35:30):
with friends and it's difficult to get too lost in my own
thoughts. But I know now I know there are
ghosts. Myself, age 6 or 7 and a 16 year
(35:56):
old neighbor babysitter were sleeping in my father's trailer
in the living room, which had a bar dividing it from the kitchen
and blocking most of the kitchenfrom view.
She was on the couch, me on the floor near our TV, even farther
from the kitchen. No one was with us and the dog
was sleeping between her and I on the floor.
(36:17):
I woke up for an unknown reason,jolting from a dreamless sleep
with a racing heart. I noticed it was around 2:00 AM
and it was a bright moonlit night which caused it to look
like dusk before the sun comes up.
A few seconds passed and I triedto find a clock to see the time,
but before I could I heard a bone chilling laugh which was on
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a loop of sorts, but each time it repeated 3 times but went for
longer and shorter random intervals of extending laughter.
It was not a person's voice. It was extremely mechanical in
tone, high pitched but flat sounding.
It was almost a mechanical and distorted version of my mom's
(37:01):
voice mixed with high pitched flat identical laughing.
It was like a broken post machine washed ruined toy with a
damaged voice box. Sometimes it would stop but
start again in repetitive intervals of three but at
differently spaced out times. I could hear it was directly
(37:21):
coming from the kitchen before the pitch black hallway in the
white plastic kitchen table chair my dad often sat in.
I was in such fear and shock that I leapt on top of the girl
Kay, and my knee rammed her bodyby accident from my lap to avoid
seeing in the kitchen. She woke up with a painful but
not angry sleepily ow trying to convey that it hurt while trying
(37:47):
to soothe and tell me to go backto sleep.
I rushed trying to tell her in apanicked whisper that there's a
sound from the kitchen that is not normal.
All of a sudden she went from confused to silent as her face
and body went tense and the eyeswidened.
We both heard the next interval of laughter.
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I asked her Do you hear that andshe said yes, hugging me as I
clung hugging her with a buried face, avoiding looking in the
kitchen. I looked at her hysterically and
said I'm afraid and she said I know I am too.
Both on the verge of crying. She tried to get up and tell me
(38:28):
that she was going to see if anyfriends were outside pranking
us. I was crying and hushed, loud
whispering, telling her not to leave me.
I was so attached to her torso and hand that she was having to
calmly, rushedly, but nicely pull away.
She told me to stay there. As she got up and went out the
front door, the sound kept persisting.
(38:52):
She looked in the kitchen from the living room but saw nothing.
I was severely hived up, coveredin huge hot red splotches from
anxiety and I was shaking in fear furiously with a clenched
jaw. My eyes shot to her walking back
in after going around the trailer and up and down the
road. The laughter kept happening but
(39:14):
it decreased in intervals until it stopped completely as we held
each other on the couch avoidingthe kitchen until it stopped and
we both drifted off. I also need to mention the dog
was on the couch wide eyed, avoiding looking in the kitchen,
shaking as violently as I was. She looked petrified.
(39:35):
My dad was told about this the next day in the afternoon and
went through the entire living room, the bar and the kitchen
looking for a toy of any sort which could make the noise.
He found nothing. I knew I had no noise making
toys. I liked Barbies and cheap
stuffed animals, all of which were at the opposite end of the
(39:56):
trailer, in my room anyway with a closed door.
And the girl never babysat me again from her own intense fear
of reliving that. This is my second shared.
Encounter me age 6 or 7 and my friend who is about nine months
older than me but in the same grade.
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I was being babysat by my childhood friend's mom.
She was babysitting me as a request from my dad, who always
found a way to isolate me from my mom.
My friend's name for the sake ofidentity protection will be.
CC and I were in the living roomon separate sides of a huge
sectional, so big that I was against the wall on one side of
(40:39):
the living room and she was on the other side.
She was near the hallway leadingto the other two rooms and
bathrooms where her mom and older brother both slept and
were snoring. C and I started hearing that
same distorted, loud, horrific laughing at different intervals,
which was coming from behind thetiny island separating the
(41:01):
kitchen from the open living room.
There was only a few feet behindthe tiny island we could not
see. Our eyes were as wide as
saucers. We were both holding big cheap
stuffed animals for comfort, andwe were both cocooned in our
blankets with our heads exposed.We both stared at the kitchen
where the island blocked our view.
(41:22):
Then our eyes shot from there toeach other.
An absolute horror. I said.
That's the sound I heard. We both stared at each other
with huge eyes and whispered about what it could be, stating
that we are so scared and we also came to the only agreed
action that we could do, ignore it and keep our eyes closed.
(41:46):
We did until we fell asleep. I remember it happened for
weeks. Eventually I fell asleep after
the sound was experienced one night by us both.
I woke up with my back arched like an upside down U, dizzy,
facing the ceiling jammed against the floor and wall, my
knees and legs bent hard and my arms bent strained with
(42:11):
contorted rigid hands like someone who had a stroke.
I was covered in vomit. I had, have always had, and
still have no memory of anythingthat happened.
I asked her mom why I was on thefloor.
After unbending my tense, strained body, her and her mom
both said my eyes were open. I was not talking in words.
(42:34):
Instead I screamed randomly manytimes, going in and out of
puking, blood curdling, screaming to frantic, wordless,
senseless babbling. And I went in and out saying
that I was going to puke, that there was something wrong and
help me. They were both in disbelief that
(42:55):
I didn't remember anything. And C was really upset because I
got vomit on her stuffed elephant.
She was scared to go near me forweeks.
She could not describe what happened to me very well, but I
saw the fear and confusion in her eyes from the experience.
I remember the sound that haunted me was never experienced
(43:17):
by me or my childhood friend, together or separately again in
my. Older age I still.
Have no hereditary family history of mental illness in
either side of my family. Also me personally having no
mental illness, only trauma related to PTSD, depression and
(43:38):
anxiety. After studying a lot in
psychology, mental illness, other various mental and
physical illnesses, and tons of research, I know that two
separate people cannot simultaneously experience the
exact same auditory or visual hallucination together.
(44:05):
Every weekend my family goes over.
To my grandma's house for dinner.
She lives right by the field behind my old middle school.
Along the outside edges of the campus is a long paved path
where I like to go on late evening walks or bike rides,
especially during the summer. Those trails hold some of my
best childhood memories. I live in Oregon, so most of my
(44:29):
childhood was spent doing outdoor activities with my
siblings. Back in the summer of 2012, when
I was about 7 or 8 years old, wewere visiting my grandma one
night when we decided to go for a walk.
It was a warm summer night and it just felt nice to get out.
I decided to bring my bike as I liked to ride ahead of everyone
(44:51):
so that I would have time to ride around the empty parking
lot before everyone else got back.
As I rode along the trail, the sun began to set behind the
trees on the opposite side of the field.
It was getting late, but if I hurried I would make it back by
dark. With still some extra time to
ride in the parking lot, I reached the long chain link
(45:11):
fence which separated the field from the parking lot.
I went through the gates and began pedaling quickly around
each section of the area, being careful to avoid speed bumps as
I neared the. Old brick building.
I noticed a man with a small dogstanding in the grass to the
left of the school. I didn't think anything of this
(45:33):
until he waved and called out tome.
Hey there, kid. He called in a raspy.
Voice. This man was about 6 feet tall
with long messy brown hair that was turning Gray.
He wore a pair of glasses that looks like they belonged on
Jeffrey Dahmer and looked to be about 50.
(45:54):
Just trying to be friendly. I waved back at him.
Don't get me wrong, my parents had taught me about all the
dangers of talking to people youdon't know, but this guy seemed
friendly enough and he had a dog.
No way he meant me any harm, right?
What could go wrong? You come.
(46:15):
Here often. He asked.
Not sure what to say but still trying to remain friendly, I
told him yeah, sometimes my grandma lives in the
neighborhood. My first mistake.
He nodded and asked, Where's your grandma?
Being a dumb little. Kid I.
(46:35):
Explained to him how I rode ahead of everyone else and they
were still catching up. This is when.
Things started to get. Weird.
He gave me a smile and asked me,Have you ever found money?
Over here, kids drop their moneyall the time.
No, I haven't. I answered, still not thinking
(46:57):
anything of this strange encounter.
Well, I found 10. Dollars lying over there in the
grass just a couple days ago. There's money everywhere.
If you come over here, I'll showyou, he replied.
Grinning. Even bigger, I began to get a
(47:19):
bit nervous, not because I was scared of this guy or anything,
but because I had pretty severe social anxiety and really didn't
want to spend too long talking to him.
Just then I heard my mom shouting behind me.
What are you doing? Get over here.
I turned to see her standing by the fence behind me with a very
(47:40):
angry but concerned look on her face.
I looked back at the man. I got to go.
I'll see you later. I told him, turning and
beginning to pedal away. I took one last look at him, but
he was no longer smiling. He just stared back at me with a
look of pure hatred. When we got back, my mom gave me
(48:04):
a huge lecture about how I should never talk to strangers
and how dangerous that could have been.
Looking back on the situation, Idon't know what would have
happened if my mom hadn't showedup or if I'd actually gone with
the man to look for money. I never saw the man again.
I have no idea who he was or what his intentions were, but I
(48:27):
can tell you they were not the best.
When you are alone, always remember to be aware of your
surroundings and be careful who you talk to.
Whatever your beliefs, as far asthe.
(48:47):
Paranormal. I'll just say that these two
instances are 100% true. I experienced them.
I've always believed in the paranormal because I feel how
could anyone be positive that something doesn't exist?
Even if I haven't seen little Gray men or Bigfoot, hundreds of
(49:08):
other people claim they have. Even so, I've been blessed or
cursed with a very practical, analytical mind.
I watch real ghost hunting showswith a grain of salt, always
asking how this could have been faked.
Many times it is fake, but not all.
Many things have happened to me that I dismissed as something
(49:30):
else, so I'm only telling you these that I can't dismiss.
My first experience occurred at a famous seaside restaurant in
California. It's been featured on numerous
ghost hunting shows as well as on Unsolved Mysteries.
I lived about 30 minutes from the place, but I hadn't been
there. I finally got to have dinner
(49:52):
there with a boyfriend. I was fascinated asking the
employees about their experiences with their infamous
spectre. See, I was happy to have a
paranormal experience as long asI wasn't alone.
At some point in the evening, I had to use the restroom.
I asked my boyfriend to walk with me after I realized the
(50:14):
restroom was outside the dining room and down a long, deserted
hallway. He didn't want to wait right
outside the women's room door, but he waited near the entrance
to the hallway, so I was in there alone.
Just my luck, no one else had touse the restroom.
I went into the second of two stalls and did my thing, and
(50:37):
suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck began standing up.
I didn't hear anything, it was just a feeling.
So I told myself that I was justbeing paranoid because of the
dark scary hallway, and I'd psyched myself out still.
I was very. Relieved when a minute later
someone else came into the restroom and I was no longer
(51:01):
alone. She went into the other stall
and I came out of mine and washed my hands.
That's when I noticed there was no one in the other stall.
The door was resting open as it had been clearly empty.
There was nowhere else anyone could go in the small restroom,
yet I had heard all the noises, the outside door squeaking, open
(51:25):
and closed footsteps, and someone closing and locking the
stall door right next to me. Yet I was completely alone,
heart beating. Out of my chest.
I ran out of there, down the hall and into my boyfriend's
arms. Months later, I learned that the
(51:45):
women's restroom was one of the most haunted places in that
building. I'm glad I hadn't known that
before I went in there, or I never would have been able to
relieve myself. This next story happened in the
house. I had bought with that same
boyfriend. It was a small house built in
the 40s. There was nothing creepy about
(52:06):
the house, but it wasn't long before we had some strange
little things happened. I heard a man clear his throat
behind me when I was home alone.Some items I put on the floor
and leaned up against the wall got knocked over.
Little things like that. But the weirdest thing that
happened to me in that house were the knocks.
(52:27):
They always seemed to happen when I was home alone in
whatever room I was. There were two loud knocks on
the window. It sounded exactly like someone
outside came up to the window and knocked on it.
Always 2 good loud raps. The first time I was lying in
bed one morning and I heard two knocks on my bedroom window.
(52:49):
A quick knock knock. The thing is, my bedroom was in
the very back of the house facing the backyard, and the
backyard was not accessible except from inside the house.
It was a fully fenced, very longbackyard and anyone who came
from the street in front couldn't get to it because it
was a very narrow passage that we had blocked to keep anyone
(53:11):
out. I've been awake when it
happened, so I got out of bed and went to the window to see
who it could have possibly been.Of course there was no one
there. There was no one anywhere in the
backyard. The next time it happened, I was
in the kitchen home alone again and there were two wraps on the
(53:31):
kitchen window. It was daytime again and our
kitchen faced the carport. Of course there was nobody
there. After a few more times, I told
my boyfriend and my older son about it.
Neither of them believed me. They teased me about it, saying
I kept dreaming that people wereknocking on the windows.
(53:54):
So one day while I was taking a shower, the knocks happened
right on the shower window. It was so close to me and so
unexpected I actually jumped. This time I was not home alone
so I thought maybe my boyfriend or my son was playing a joke on
me. So I kind of laughed it off.
(54:14):
I knew that it would be hard to get to that window though,
because it faced the blocked narrow side of the house and
right outside of it were rose bushes with thorns.
Later they both swore they hadn't done it.
They were very serious and I could tell that they were
telling the truth. They also said they had not
(54:35):
heard the knocks, so they still didn't believe me.
Only one time do I remember it happening at night.
This time I was in the third bedroom that we used as an
office in the back of the house.It also faced the inaccessible
backyard and it was late and dark.
(54:56):
My curtains were closed and I was doing something on the
computer when the two loud knocks hit that window.
I was too scared to look out thecurtains.
This only went on for a few months, but it happened a lot,
and every time it occurred in whatever room I happened to be
in at the time, I never heard itfrom another room.
(55:18):
No one else heard it either until one night.
On this night, I had gone to bedand my boyfriend and my son were
in the living room watching a movie.
The next day they told me that at about 1:00 AM they heard two
quick, loud knocks on the livingroom window.
There was no knock on the front door, which was right next to
(55:42):
the window. They looked out the window and
of course no one was there. It finally.
Happened to someone. Else in a room that I did not
happen to be in and after that they finally believed me.
(01:05:39):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:12:40):
Yeah.
Hey, this is Dane and this is Scary Stories and Rain.
Please join my family and followthis podcast on Spotify or
Apple. And if you want the ultimate
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win all of my giveaways every month by subscribing for just
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single giveaway automatically entered.
(00:22):
And starting now, today, every Sunday, I'm going to release the
ultimate episode 6 to 12 hours long Ultimate Scary Stories for
a rainy night. Subscriber exclusive.
And as a reminder, we are now four months away from my first
movie release in theaters, Gale Yellow Brick Road, a dark and
terrifying reimagining of The Wizard of Oz.
(00:45):
If you want to check out the first trailer, click the link in
the description to this episode.And if you're not following my
other two podcasts, please go check them out, Scary Stories
and Fire and Scary Stories AfterDark.
The links are in the description.
Thank you so much for being hereand I really hope you enjoy this
episode. The following story occurred in
(01:12):
2001. During this time, I remember it
being cold and we finally decided to pack up our Christmas
decorations. My sister and I were two rowdy
teenagers living in a single parent household.
Our father had passed away a fewyears back, so our mother took
on the full responsibility of raising us by herself.
(01:35):
My mom worked as a flight attendant, which made her time
with us very limited. However, we understood why
everyone was struggling to cope with this new life.
In the middle of dinner one night, our mom mentions to us
that she's going away for a few days for work related reasons.
My sister, Cleo sighs and disappointment and places her
(01:56):
fork on her plate. I quickly pinch her arm and
remind her to have a better attitude about everything.
Cleo is my younger sister. At times she can be very
disconnected from reality. She didn't understand that she
wasn't the only person that had to sacrifice things.
After my quick scolding, Cleo readjusts herself at the dinner
(02:19):
table and apologizes. Mom smiles and continues to
explain. Since she was leaving for a
period of three days, our mom felt more comfortable with us
staying at our aunt's house until she got back.
Cleo and I look at each other inastonishment.
You know how everyone has that one family member's house that
(02:40):
you dread going to? Well, in this situation, that
person was our Aunt Kathy. Was she kind?
Yes, but her lifestyle would be considered a little unorthodox
to most. Aunt Kathy was known for hosting
outlandish events and always hadat least two boyfriends.
(03:01):
She had a son named Chase who passed away last year.
During our childhood, our aunt would host parties and
gatherings at her house, and Chase would stay in his room the
entire time. She insisted that he was an
introvert, but every time I visited that house, I felt a
strange and unexplainable feeling.
(03:23):
Despite all of those things, I swallow my pride and nod in
agreement as my mother finishes explaining all of the details.
I could tell that Cleo was very annoyed that we had to leave.
She tried to convince our mom that we could watch over
ourselves, but Cleo had broken that trust by inviting a boy
over numerous times. Thanks a lot, Cleo.
(03:46):
The next day we pack a bag and wait on the front porch for our
aunt to come get us. Mom had already left early in
the morning for work. After about 15 minutes, Aunt
Kathy begins to pull in the driveway.
I still remember that car. It was a silver 1999 Toyota
Camry. We place our bags into the trunk
(04:09):
and sit in the back seat. Aunt Kathy shouts our names and
excitement and starts a conversation.
We discuss school, our mom and of course boys, but whenever we
would mention our cousin Chase, her response was short or she
would smile through the rear view mirror.
(04:29):
After a semi long car ride we arrive at the house.
Green shrubs were lined across the lawn along with a BBQ grill.
As we walk to the door, I look up and discover someone staring
down at me through a window. The curtains jerk shut
immediately after. I couldn't tell who it was, but
(04:52):
I assumed it was one of her boyfriends.
As we walk inside, I noticed that all of the lights are off.
Although it was daytime, it seemed eerily quiet and a dark
hue shadowed the house. I guess this was oblivious to
Cleo because she headed straightinto the living room to watch
TV. Aunt Kathy asks to speak with me
(05:14):
briefly in the kitchen. The look on her face alone made
me interested in what she had totell me.
She whispers to me and explains that she had been distraught
since the passing of her son. I hug her in consolation as she
sobs on my shoulder. I understood completely how she
felt. Losing someone that close to you
(05:36):
is heartbreaking. Aunt Kathy begins to tell me
that sometimes it feels like he is still here, especially when
she wakes up in the middle of the night.
My heart dropped to my stomach even though I knew I had to ask
her the following question. I wasn't prepared for the
answer. I asked my aunt about the person
(05:59):
in the window upstairs as we were entering the house.
She raises her head from my shoulder and looks at me in
confusion. She had no idea what I was
talking about. Aunt Kathy explained that she
had been living by herself ever since Chase died.
At that moment, I tried to convince myself that I didn't
(06:21):
see anything in the window. Everything happened pretty
quickly. Aunt Kathy insisted that it
could have been her cat. But as the day continued, I
realized how illogical that ideawas.
I think I know the difference between a cat and a human.
During our entire stay at the house, nothing happened.
(06:44):
As the last day approached, the idea of something eerie going on
had diminished almost completely.
Cleo and I hug Aunt Kathy goodbye and get into the Jeep
with our mom. Before we drive off, I noticed
two things, Aunt Kathy standing in the doorway waving goodbye
and the same figure I saw three days before standing in the
(07:08):
window. It seems to be more of a
silhouette and was black in color with soulless eyes.
I turned to Cleo and tell her tolook up but when she does the
figure disappeared. We never visited that house
again. Back in 2015 I was lucky enough
(07:37):
to win a 2 day yacht tour that was being raffled off by a local
boat rental shop. This was a short cruise with
meals provided and a captain to charter us around.
I never win anything, so when I entered the contest I really
didn't think I had any chance ofwinning.
I was imagining thousands of entries and only two entries
(08:00):
were chosen. I was actually shocked when I
was notified I won. Two people were chosen and you
could bring a guest over the ageof 21.
I of course brought my partner and the other person who won
brought his wife. The other couple, Robert and
Carol, were funny, outgoing older folks.
(08:23):
Definitely not the worst companyto have for almost 2 days.
We met with the captain, his first mate and the owner of the
store on the dock at 2:00 PM andwe're due to set sail at 3:30.
We went over a few safety courses, took a tour of the boat
and they showed us our very tinyrooms.
(08:44):
I don't know why I was envisioning the kind of yacht
that Jeff Bezos has. It was very much not that.
The yacht was nice enough, a little older and smaller, but
definitely a lot nicer than the one I have which is a non
existent yacht. So no complaints from me.
I'm only mentioning this becauseI think the age of the boat is
(09:08):
the reason for what happens next.
We set sail on time and started getting out into the open sea.
It felt like we were 1000 miles away from the shore by 6:00 PM
and the sun was getting lower inthe sky.
The view was breathtaking from the top of the boat.
Nothing insight all around us except a cargo ship way off into
(09:31):
the distance. The water was a dark blue as the
setting sun made its way past the perfectly straight line of
water that looked like the edge of the earth.
There was a table, a few chairs to sit in, shade in some spots,
and complimentary champagne. Dinner would be in half an hour,
(09:52):
so we and the other couple shared some champagne and
stories before dinner, wonderinghow we got so lucky to end up
there. Or so we thought.
Dinner had come and gone and everything was going great.
Around 9:00 my partner and I headed to the tiny room to start
getting ready for some sleep. The boat was going to anchor
(10:14):
down in the morning and we wanted to take a swim for some
exercise to start the day, so weneeded some rest.
We were out by 11:00 PM, then woke up again at 1:00 AM to a
loud banging, an alarm going off, and a red light
illuminating our room. I wish that what I am describing
(10:35):
was just a nightmare. It was in fact not.
We scrambled out of bed, barely dressed, terrified and half
asleep. My girlfriend ran to open our
cabin door and as soon as she did, the first mate and the
other couple were wide eyed in the tiny hallway, putting on
(10:56):
life jackets and handing us some.
There was a smell of smoke in the air and I thought at that
moment that this was an overreaction.
There is no way this is happening and if it is, it isn't
that bad, right? Wrong.
We booked it out of the hallway to the deck of the boat to
(11:18):
notice that 1/2 of the boat was on fire and realized the boat
was sinking. The only light we had was from
the fire in the stars. Anything outside a 50 foot
radius was completely black. An abyss.
The water was glowing orange around the boat as the small
(11:38):
waves peaked and made kissing sounds, only to be overshadowed
by the roaring of the fire and the occasional pop and crack
from parts of the boat melting in the flames.
The normal calm the sound of waves usually brings was slowly
becoming the worst sound I couldever hear.
We were surrounded by complete darkness and would be for the
(12:01):
next few hours. The captain was preparing the
emergency raft. It was inflatable and just
required a pull on a string. With a strong pull the raft was
quickly inflating to become a four foot by 6 foot bright
yellow. A flimsy vessel that would keep
us afloat until help came. They threw it off to the side of
(12:23):
the boat near a small set of stairs that dipped into the
water. A small rope held the raft close
to the stairs. Meanwhile all I could do was
stand in shock with tears running down my face.
All I could think about was my dogs.
Still not sure that this was as bad as it seems.
(12:43):
We still have to be close to land boats.
Put out an SOS. I'm getting on the life raft so
I don't burn alive or drown. The captain and the first mate
we're talking quietly to each other.
That caused me to panic some. What are they saying to each
other that they can't say to us?They begin looking back and
(13:04):
forth between the raft and the fire.
At this point I am able to figure out that the series of
events that are unfolding are not ones that are working out in
our favor. I hear the first mate curse
loudly and by this time we are all looking over to them to find
out what we need to do. Why are we not moving into the
raft yet? The fire is growing and smoke is
(13:28):
filling the air. Maybe 10 seconds passed before
the captain shouts everyone on to the raft one at a time.
I was waiting for him to say women and children first because
this felt like it was straight out of the Titanic.
The first mate got into the raftand reached his hand up to Carol
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while Robert held her hand to help her down the small set of
metal stairs. Robert was next and they both
sat down on the raft. Then I climbed down the stairs,
followed by my partner. The captain launched an oar, yes
one oar, into the raft, united the rope and hopped in.
(14:11):
He gave us a push off the side of the boat as best he could.
We didn't get very far with that, but the first mate had
been trying to use the singular oar to paddle us away from the
flames and smoke. The first few minutes while
trying to get a distance, nobodysaid anything.
Robert was comforting Carol and I was just staring off at the
(14:32):
boat anticipating a huge explosion like in the movies.
However, that never happened. The boat just burned and burned,
and after about 20 minutes the fire was diminishing due to the
water that was quickly sinking the boat.
This seemed like an actual nightmare and I didn't even know
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at that point that it was only going to get worse.
The fire had been out for only afew minutes and the only way any
of us could see one another was by the dim light of the moon.
Of course, the moon was not evenclose to full that night, it
barely lit up anything you couldmaybe see a foot in front of
(15:15):
you. Anything past that was just
black, never ending darkness. The first mate made his way
around securing our life jacketstightly.
I appreciated the concern, but Itold him I would be fine without
a life jacket. The captain had been digging
around in a box that was built into the side of the raft.
(15:36):
He pulled out what looked like an extra piece of the raft
material and a bright orange flare gun.
He maneuvered slowly to the empty side of the boat, lifted
up the side and that's when we heard the gurgling of air
leaving the raft and hitting thewater.
There is no way there's a hole in this raft.
(15:58):
He tried a few times to pull theside up out of the water and
each time the weight of his bodyand inability to get any
leverage to use force to keep the underside up and out of the
water long enough to try to patch the rib.
The first mate tried to assist, but it all seemed like a waste
of effort. Finally, in desperation, they
(16:20):
peeled a clear seal off the sideof the extra raft material,
pulled up the side as hard as they could, and reached all the
way over to slap the patch on. Unfortunately, this was not a
success. They were unable to patch the
RIP in the side of the life raft.
The only thing keeping us out ofthe pitch black ocean was slowly
(16:42):
sinking. After a few minutes of
exchanging cuss words, tight tugs, and a few words of
encouragement, it was time to get real about the situation
that was happening. We were about to become stranded
in the ocean, just floating there with miles of nothingness
around us, above us and below us.
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After all, we were close to the southern end of the Mariana
Trench, which is known to be thedeepest part of the ocean.
This gives me chills to think about.
Miles away from the next sign ofhuman life, the raft was losing
its air and the inflated sides were becoming soft to the touch.
(17:26):
Squishing easily under the pressure of my hand.
The flare gun went off. It was a silent star shooting
way up into the sky and then a pop like a firework.
The light was so bright from theflare I could see regret and
fear in the older couple's eyes.I knew at this point that we had
(17:49):
about 30 minutes until the raft was just a piece of flat yellow
rubber and nylon. Nothing much was said in those
last few minutes other than we learned we were almost 100 miles
off the coast of where we departed and nobody another boat
or the Coast Guard had respondedto our SOS.
(18:09):
Luckily we knew that the area ofthe ocean we were in was
considered a high traffic area for cargo and importing ships,
so it was unlikely that we wouldnever be found.
It was probably just going to take a while to be found still
in the dead of night, floating helplessly amongst the creatures
of the sea. For even just one minute is one
(18:32):
minute too long. It wasn't much longer before we
were all submerged and watching water take over the flat raft as
it sank a foot, 2 feet, 3 feet and by 4 feet it was a pale dark
yellow mass, losing its brightness to the sea.
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It was barely visible, but I hadto watch it to see just how far
it would go until it disappeared.
That was a mistake. Because when I tell you that
that freaked me out more than anything, I mean it.
We all stayed close to each other, just floating in the
small waves. I don't know if I purposely
(19:15):
tried to scare myself, but all Icould imagine was the sea
creature swimming below us. No matter how deep I knew it,
every moment, there was likely something there.
I am an avid fan of Shark Week, so I knew that sharks become
more active at night, dusk and dawn.
(19:36):
We were just at the whim of the ocean waves.
I didn't care that I was tired or hungry.
I could only envision myself at any second being dragged deep
into the ocean by a shark to drown to death.
Still barely alive when it let go of me, but too far down to
float up fast enough to get a gasp of life saving oxygen.
(19:59):
Or even worse than this happening to me.
Happening to the love of my lifewho remained brave and stoic
during this whole ordeal. If I had to watch something bad
happened to her, I would rather it just be me. 4 hours and two
flares had gone by when I could see the sky start to lighten up.
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The sun was rising. For some reason the thought of
daylight was comforting. I was still going to be floating
around, but I could see now dawnwas here and I could see if
there were any threats around usor if boats were passing by that
were able to see the wreckage ofour flare signals.
(20:43):
Help could see us. It wouldn't be long now until I
am on dry land again. Wrong.
The sun was getting higher into the sky.
Despite everything, it was beautiful, the pinks and oranges
from the ocean that was no longer black but blue.
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I decided to do a 360 and turn around to see everything around
us. That's when it happened.
My biggest fear of free floating.
Something bumped my submerged legs, something big.
I screamed a blood curdling scream and the only words I
(21:27):
could get out of my mouth were big my leg shark.
At that moment I had no idea if it was really a shark.
I just assumed the worst becauseobviously after this whole
adventure the worst happens to me and what else would I expect?
(21:48):
Shark week comes in handy again.I remember to try not to panic
and that they are attracted to shiny jewelry.
I decided to take out my earrings and I tossed them into
the open water away from us. The idea was that the shark
would go after my earrings. It sounds dumb when I say it out
loud now, but I would have triedanything.
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I just sat there and tried not to kick my legs, but also tried
not to lay on my back and float,trying not to resemble a fat
seal. We were all just darting our
eyes and bodies around to look for any signs it was still
around. All of a sudden, Robert let out
a Yelp. He too had been bumped.
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A quick splash at the top of thesurface about 5 feet away
revealed a large fin. We were still unable to tell if
it was a shark by the fin or a dolphin.
But I don't know much about dolphins.
I didn't know if they lurked around the way this thing was.
I guess the earrings didn't work.
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I don't know why I thought that was such a genius plan.
We all came in closer to each other hoping to give the image
that we looked bigger to the fish.
I would be lying to say that each time someone accidentally
kicked me while trying to keep afloat that I didn't freak out.
But I did and each time scared me more.
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Some time had passed and there was no sight of fins breaking
the surface or any large dark masses swimming below us.
I don't think we would be able to really tell since we were
basically eye level with the water, but everything seemed
calm for the time being. We were all hungry, complaining
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of hunger and thirst a while later.
I figured at this point it must have been 10 AM already in the
blazing sun. My girlfriend was sunburnt.
Her face was beat red and her lips dry and cracked from
exposure, dehydration, and salt water.
I eventually pulled off my shirtand used it to provide some
(24:03):
shade for her. I was shirtless underneath my
life jacket. Whoever rescued us was in for a
treat. The thought of not being rescued
before we perished to the bottomof the ocean crossed my mind and
I was starting to spiral. Everyone was trying to remain
positive, but not me. I guess I was the only one who
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witnessed every single mishap that led us up to that moment.
Screw toxic positivity. Screw good vibes.
Only. We are in a serious situation
and despite being surrounded by never ending water, none of us
have a single drop since at least nine hours ago.
Is nobody else concerned about dehydration?
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I knew I was getting snippy withpeople who didn't deserve it and
have their own way of dealing with things, but I was having
trouble seeing the bright side. All of a sudden, a loud horn
filled the air. It was like music to my ears.
Help was close behind. Carol was a red cargo ship in
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the distance, maybe half a mile away.
The captain shot the last flare and the cargo ship's horn rang
twice. They saw us, they were coming.
The mood shifted and all the fears of megalodons and 3rd
degree sunburns were gone. There was a collective sigh of
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relief. Immediately I started planning
my move for when we got to land.I was going to hit up a drive
through, slam a gallon of Pedialyte, take a Xanax and hold
on to my partner and our dogs and vow to never set foot on a
boat again. The cargo ship threw over some
(25:55):
floating devices and we held on as a Coast Guard helicopter flew
in from the other side of the boat.
The wind from the helicopter sprayed salt water in our eyes
and shot droplets at my face that felt like tiny bee stings.
They lowered a man down to the water and he attached each
person to what I believe was a stretcher, one at a time, and
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reeled us up to the chopper. When we all made it inside of
the helicopter and before we began the flight back to land,
we hovered above our wreckage site.
It was some ways off from where we were picked up.
I looked down and thought about the odds of all this happening
and the moment I dropped the raffle ticket into the bucket a
(26:41):
few months ago and I was filled with regret.
I was checking the remnants of the wreckage when I noticed a
large black mass under the water.
Then I noticed another, a smaller mass, then two more.
The wreckage was swarming with sharks.
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The Coast Guard was looking out the side with me and made a
comment. This area is notorious for shark
activity. You all are lucky to have made
it out alive and with all limbs intact.
There were quite a few sharks swimming near the area we picked
you up. The chopper was loud and hurting
my ears as we took a hard swoop left.
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I just laid my head back and looked at my partner who was
applying Neosporin to her lips, and the others from the boat
removing their life jackets so they could use a stethoscope to
listen to their heart or lungs or whatever.
I didn't really respond to the Coast Guard guy about the
sharks. I couldn't bring myself to
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comment on it. I just started to unbuckle my
life vest and asked if they had a shirt I could borrow when I
finished college. The Great Recession was at its
height. Despite graduating with a high
GPA and good internship experience, it took me two years
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to find a full time job in my field.
During those two years, I felt isolated, adrift, and lost.
In retrospect, it makes sense that this was when I brushed up
against what may have been my first ghost.
Newspaper articles at the time were full of stories of
boomerang kids, young adults whomoved back home to ride out the
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economic hardship with their parents.
I couldn't stand for that to be me, though.
I'd just broken up with my boyfriend, and I didn't think I
could handle the pity, the claustrophobia, and the further
sense of failure I would feel starting my adult life in my
childhood bedroom. Instead, I worked three jobs to
make ends meet. I could pay the rent, but I
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swiftly fell into a state of depression.
I kept odd hours and it was difficult to find time to see
friends. One of my jobs was with a youth
psychologist. I was paid to transcribe
recordings the psychologist madeof his evaluations of patients.
Because of confidentiality concerns, I'm not going to talk
about anything specific that wasin those recordings.
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One thing I noticed though, was how many of the kids grew up in
small, dying towns in the rural areas of our state.
I lived in our major city and hadn't spent a lot of time
exploring outside of it. Out of loneliness and
depression. I started using my free time to
drive. Sometimes it was aimless.
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Sometimes I drove near the townswhere the kids in the recordings
were from. I passed ghost towns and
isolated mountain ranges and oldminds.
Once I got my car stuck in the mud outside an abandoned
cemetery and had to hike back tothe road to flag someone down
who could help me. The emptiness of those places
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seems to cling to me. Sometimes I could stop my car in
the middle of the road, take offmy shoes, feel the hot asphalt
under my feet, and stare at the horizon for an hour before
someone else passed by. Even when I got back home, it
was like I couldn't wash the desert off me.
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I felt changed. There was something else I
noticed about the psych evaluations too.
Almost all of the kids talked about the supernatural.
They had ghost stories, UFO stories, and a few even had
skinwalker stories, all from these areas that I have been
driving through. I was never a believer in the
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supernatural, but after having spent time in the places they
lived and felt that eerie loneliness for myself, I could
see why they felt that way. There's a major river in the
southern part of our state that seemed to appear in a lot of
kids stories. When I was in an independent
bookstore one day, I found an older book full of stories and
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legends about the river. On a whim, I decided to buy it.
Most of the stories were forgettable, but one that stuck
out to me was a journal entry written by a minor who lived in
the area in the 1800s. He said that one night in camp,
he looked over toward the river and saw a group of ghosts
walking out of the water and onto the shore.
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There were no details beyond that, no description of the
people he saw or any indication of how he knew they were ghosts.
He said nothing about what he did afterward, but it stuck in
my mind for weeks. I thought about ghosts that
walked up out of a river and disappeared into the night.
It wasn't long before I decided I needed to see the place for
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myself. It was far.
The river is on the border of another state and lies along one
of the least driven highways in the country.
I felt uneasy as I was driving toward it, but exhilarated too.
It's hard to explain, but something about reading those
ghost stories put a sense of possibility back into the world.
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I believed in next to nothing atthis point in my life, but maybe
I could believe in this. It even seemed likely.
The world felt dark, and this seemed like a confirmation of
that feeling. When I arrived at the river,
there was no one there. I parked my car, hiked through
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the sagebrush, and looked around.
It was just a river of muddy water.
I sat down on the bank and thought about my life.
Why was I going nowhere? When would this end?
Had my boyfriend seen this looming nothingness in me and
that was why he had left? I was 24 years old and I was
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looking for ghosts. I had maybe even become a ghost
myself. Sometimes at night I felt like I
was beginning to fade at the edges, like whatever had made me
me was gone. Frustrated with myself and with
the sun beginning to set, I stood up to leave.
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I walked back to my car, dreading the long drive home in
the dark. When I reached my car, I almost
missed it. The light was fading and my mind
was on other things. But I happened to fumble my
keys, getting them into the lock, and as I stooped down to
pick them up, I saw it. A set of wet footprints leading
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to my car. I stood up slowly, tracing their
path with my eyes, but I knew where they were going to start.
At the edge of the river. My whole body felt cold and
light. It was the biggest moment of
unreality I've ever experienced,and it washed over me like a
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wave. The footprints were half faded,
but very definite outlines of what looked like cowboy boots
leading from the river and rightup to the passenger door of my
car. Then they vanished.
There was no sign of where they had gone, and no sound either,
just the buzz of insects at the water's edge.
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I didn't wait around to see anything else.
I jumped into the driver's seat,started the engine, and peeled
out. I made sure the doors were
locked, but somehow I knew it hadn't been a living person who
had made those marks. I had hiked out a little bit,
but I would have noticed if there had been someone else
there, especially if they had approached my car which was on
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higher ground and more visible. The adrenaline kept me going the
entire drive home. When I got back I called my
friend and we talked for an hourabout unimportant gossip.
I ordered take out from the mostbasic normal sounding restaurant
I could think of. I put a sitcom on in the
background. I don't think I slept at all
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that night and shortly after I was offered a full time salary
job in my field in a much biggercity.
I moved that summer and I haven't been back to that river
since. I also don't feel comfortable in
the desert or in any isolated place.
I prefer the busy noise of the city where I can surround myself
(35:30):
with friends and it's difficult to get too lost in my own
thoughts. But I know now I know there are
ghosts. Myself, age 6 or 7 and a 16 year
(35:56):
old neighbor babysitter were sleeping in my father's trailer
in the living room, which had a bar dividing it from the kitchen
and blocking most of the kitchenfrom view.
She was on the couch, me on the floor near our TV, even farther
from the kitchen. No one was with us and the dog
was sleeping between her and I on the floor.
(36:17):
I woke up for an unknown reason,jolting from a dreamless sleep
with a racing heart. I noticed it was around 2:00 AM
and it was a bright moonlit night which caused it to look
like dusk before the sun comes up.
A few seconds passed and I triedto find a clock to see the time,
but before I could I heard a bone chilling laugh which was on
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a loop of sorts, but each time it repeated 3 times but went for
longer and shorter random intervals of extending laughter.
It was not a person's voice. It was extremely mechanical in
tone, high pitched but flat sounding.
It was almost a mechanical and distorted version of my mom's
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voice mixed with high pitched flat identical laughing.
It was like a broken post machine washed ruined toy with a
damaged voice box. Sometimes it would stop but
start again in repetitive intervals of three but at
differently spaced out times. I could hear it was directly
(37:21):
coming from the kitchen before the pitch black hallway in the
white plastic kitchen table chair my dad often sat in.
I was in such fear and shock that I leapt on top of the girl
Kay, and my knee rammed her bodyby accident from my lap to avoid
seeing in the kitchen. She woke up with a painful but
not angry sleepily ow trying to convey that it hurt while trying
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to soothe and tell me to go backto sleep.
I rushed trying to tell her in apanicked whisper that there's a
sound from the kitchen that is not normal.
All of a sudden she went from confused to silent as her face
and body went tense and the eyeswidened.
We both heard the next interval of laughter.
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I asked her Do you hear that andshe said yes, hugging me as I
clung hugging her with a buried face, avoiding looking in the
kitchen. I looked at her hysterically and
said I'm afraid and she said I know I am too.
Both on the verge of crying. She tried to get up and tell me
(38:28):
that she was going to see if anyfriends were outside pranking
us. I was crying and hushed, loud
whispering, telling her not to leave me.
I was so attached to her torso and hand that she was having to
calmly, rushedly, but nicely pull away.
She told me to stay there. As she got up and went out the
front door, the sound kept persisting.
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She looked in the kitchen from the living room but saw nothing.
I was severely hived up, coveredin huge hot red splotches from
anxiety and I was shaking in fear furiously with a clenched
jaw. My eyes shot to her walking back
in after going around the trailer and up and down the
road. The laughter kept happening but
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it decreased in intervals until it stopped completely as we held
each other on the couch avoidingthe kitchen until it stopped and
we both drifted off. I also need to mention the dog
was on the couch wide eyed, avoiding looking in the kitchen,
shaking as violently as I was. She looked petrified.
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My dad was told about this the next day in the afternoon and
went through the entire living room, the bar and the kitchen
looking for a toy of any sort which could make the noise.
He found nothing. I knew I had no noise making
toys. I liked Barbies and cheap
stuffed animals, all of which were at the opposite end of the
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trailer, in my room anyway with a closed door.
And the girl never babysat me again from her own intense fear
of reliving that. This is my second shared.
Encounter me age 6 or 7 and my friend who is about nine months
older than me but in the same grade.
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I was being babysat by my childhood friend's mom.
She was babysitting me as a request from my dad, who always
found a way to isolate me from my mom.
My friend's name for the sake ofidentity protection will be.
CC and I were in the living roomon separate sides of a huge
sectional, so big that I was against the wall on one side of
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the living room and she was on the other side.
She was near the hallway leadingto the other two rooms and
bathrooms where her mom and older brother both slept and
were snoring. C and I started hearing that
same distorted, loud, horrific laughing at different intervals,
which was coming from behind thetiny island separating the
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kitchen from the open living room.
There was only a few feet behindthe tiny island we could not
see. Our eyes were as wide as
saucers. We were both holding big cheap
stuffed animals for comfort, andwe were both cocooned in our
blankets with our heads exposed.We both stared at the kitchen
where the island blocked our view.
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Then our eyes shot from there toeach other.
An absolute horror. I said.
That's the sound I heard. We both stared at each other
with huge eyes and whispered about what it could be, stating
that we are so scared and we also came to the only agreed
action that we could do, ignore it and keep our eyes closed.
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We did until we fell asleep. I remember it happened for
weeks. Eventually I fell asleep after
the sound was experienced one night by us both.
I woke up with my back arched like an upside down U, dizzy,
facing the ceiling jammed against the floor and wall, my
knees and legs bent hard and my arms bent strained with
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contorted rigid hands like someone who had a stroke.
I was covered in vomit. I had, have always had, and
still have no memory of anythingthat happened.
I asked her mom why I was on thefloor.
After unbending my tense, strained body, her and her mom
both said my eyes were open. I was not talking in words.
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Instead I screamed randomly manytimes, going in and out of
puking, blood curdling, screaming to frantic, wordless,
senseless babbling. And I went in and out saying
that I was going to puke, that there was something wrong and
help me. They were both in disbelief that
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I didn't remember anything. And C was really upset because I
got vomit on her stuffed elephant.
She was scared to go near me forweeks.
She could not describe what happened to me very well, but I
saw the fear and confusion in her eyes from the experience.
I remember the sound that haunted me was never experienced
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by me or my childhood friend, together or separately again in
my. Older age I still.
Have no hereditary family history of mental illness in
either side of my family. Also me personally having no
mental illness, only trauma related to PTSD, depression and
(43:38):
anxiety. After studying a lot in
psychology, mental illness, other various mental and
physical illnesses, and tons of research, I know that two
separate people cannot simultaneously experience the
exact same auditory or visual hallucination together.
(44:05):
Every weekend my family goes over.
To my grandma's house for dinner.
She lives right by the field behind my old middle school.
Along the outside edges of the campus is a long paved path
where I like to go on late evening walks or bike rides,
especially during the summer. Those trails hold some of my
best childhood memories. I live in Oregon, so most of my
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childhood was spent doing outdoor activities with my
siblings. Back in the summer of 2012, when
I was about 7 or 8 years old, wewere visiting my grandma one
night when we decided to go for a walk.
It was a warm summer night and it just felt nice to get out.
I decided to bring my bike as I liked to ride ahead of everyone
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so that I would have time to ride around the empty parking
lot before everyone else got back.
As I rode along the trail, the sun began to set behind the
trees on the opposite side of the field.
It was getting late, but if I hurried I would make it back by
dark. With still some extra time to
ride in the parking lot, I reached the long chain link
(45:11):
fence which separated the field from the parking lot.
I went through the gates and began pedaling quickly around
each section of the area, being careful to avoid speed bumps as
I neared the. Old brick building.
I noticed a man with a small dogstanding in the grass to the
left of the school. I didn't think anything of this
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until he waved and called out tome.
Hey there, kid. He called in a raspy.
Voice. This man was about 6 feet tall
with long messy brown hair that was turning Gray.
He wore a pair of glasses that looks like they belonged on
Jeffrey Dahmer and looked to be about 50.
(45:54):
Just trying to be friendly. I waved back at him.
Don't get me wrong, my parents had taught me about all the
dangers of talking to people youdon't know, but this guy seemed
friendly enough and he had a dog.
No way he meant me any harm, right?
What could go wrong? You come.
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Here often. He asked.
Not sure what to say but still trying to remain friendly, I
told him yeah, sometimes my grandma lives in the
neighborhood. My first mistake.
He nodded and asked, Where's your grandma?
Being a dumb little. Kid I.
(46:35):
Explained to him how I rode ahead of everyone else and they
were still catching up. This is when.
Things started to get. Weird.
He gave me a smile and asked me,Have you ever found money?
Over here, kids drop their moneyall the time.
No, I haven't. I answered, still not thinking
(46:57):
anything of this strange encounter.
Well, I found 10. Dollars lying over there in the
grass just a couple days ago. There's money everywhere.
If you come over here, I'll showyou, he replied.
Grinning. Even bigger, I began to get a
(47:19):
bit nervous, not because I was scared of this guy or anything,
but because I had pretty severe social anxiety and really didn't
want to spend too long talking to him.
Just then I heard my mom shouting behind me.
What are you doing? Get over here.
I turned to see her standing by the fence behind me with a very
(47:40):
angry but concerned look on her face.
I looked back at the man. I got to go.
I'll see you later. I told him, turning and
beginning to pedal away. I took one last look at him, but
he was no longer smiling. He just stared back at me with a
look of pure hatred. When we got back, my mom gave me
(48:04):
a huge lecture about how I should never talk to strangers
and how dangerous that could have been.
Looking back on the situation, Idon't know what would have
happened if my mom hadn't showedup or if I'd actually gone with
the man to look for money. I never saw the man again.
I have no idea who he was or what his intentions were, but I
(48:27):
can tell you they were not the best.
When you are alone, always remember to be aware of your
surroundings and be careful who you talk to.
Whatever your beliefs, as far asthe.
(48:47):
Paranormal. I'll just say that these two
instances are 100% true. I experienced them.
I've always believed in the paranormal because I feel how
could anyone be positive that something doesn't exist?
Even if I haven't seen little Gray men or Bigfoot, hundreds of
(49:08):
other people claim they have. Even so, I've been blessed or
cursed with a very practical, analytical mind.
I watch real ghost hunting showswith a grain of salt, always
asking how this could have been faked.
Many times it is fake, but not all.
Many things have happened to me that I dismissed as something
(49:30):
else, so I'm only telling you these that I can't dismiss.
My first experience occurred at a famous seaside restaurant in
California. It's been featured on numerous
ghost hunting shows as well as on Unsolved Mysteries.
I lived about 30 minutes from the place, but I hadn't been
there. I finally got to have dinner
(49:52):
there with a boyfriend. I was fascinated asking the
employees about their experiences with their infamous
spectre. See, I was happy to have a
paranormal experience as long asI wasn't alone.
At some point in the evening, I had to use the restroom.
I asked my boyfriend to walk with me after I realized the
(50:14):
restroom was outside the dining room and down a long, deserted
hallway. He didn't want to wait right
outside the women's room door, but he waited near the entrance
to the hallway, so I was in there alone.
Just my luck, no one else had touse the restroom.
I went into the second of two stalls and did my thing, and
(50:37):
suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck began standing up.
I didn't hear anything, it was just a feeling.
So I told myself that I was justbeing paranoid because of the
dark scary hallway, and I'd psyched myself out still.
I was very. Relieved when a minute later
someone else came into the restroom and I was no longer
(51:01):
alone. She went into the other stall
and I came out of mine and washed my hands.
That's when I noticed there was no one in the other stall.
The door was resting open as it had been clearly empty.
There was nowhere else anyone could go in the small restroom,
yet I had heard all the noises, the outside door squeaking, open
(51:25):
and closed footsteps, and someone closing and locking the
stall door right next to me. Yet I was completely alone,
heart beating. Out of my chest.
I ran out of there, down the hall and into my boyfriend's
arms. Months later, I learned that the
(51:45):
women's restroom was one of the most haunted places in that
building. I'm glad I hadn't known that
before I went in there, or I never would have been able to
relieve myself. This next story happened in the
house. I had bought with that same
boyfriend. It was a small house built in
the 40s. There was nothing creepy about
(52:06):
the house, but it wasn't long before we had some strange
little things happened. I heard a man clear his throat
behind me when I was home alone.Some items I put on the floor
and leaned up against the wall got knocked over.
Little things like that. But the weirdest thing that
happened to me in that house were the knocks.
(52:27):
They always seemed to happen when I was home alone in
whatever room I was. There were two loud knocks on
the window. It sounded exactly like someone
outside came up to the window and knocked on it.
Always 2 good loud raps. The first time I was lying in
bed one morning and I heard two knocks on my bedroom window.
(52:49):
A quick knock knock. The thing is, my bedroom was in
the very back of the house facing the backyard, and the
backyard was not accessible except from inside the house.
It was a fully fenced, very longbackyard and anyone who came
from the street in front couldn't get to it because it
was a very narrow passage that we had blocked to keep anyone
(53:11):
out. I've been awake when it
happened, so I got out of bed and went to the window to see
who it could have possibly been.Of course there was no one
there. There was no one anywhere in the
backyard. The next time it happened, I was
in the kitchen home alone again and there were two wraps on the
(53:31):
kitchen window. It was daytime again and our
kitchen faced the carport. Of course there was nobody
there. After a few more times, I told
my boyfriend and my older son about it.
Neither of them believed me. They teased me about it, saying
I kept dreaming that people wereknocking on the windows.
(53:54):
So one day while I was taking a shower, the knocks happened
right on the shower window. It was so close to me and so
unexpected I actually jumped. This time I was not home alone
so I thought maybe my boyfriend or my son was playing a joke on
me. So I kind of laughed it off.
(54:14):
I knew that it would be hard to get to that window though,
because it faced the blocked narrow side of the house and
right outside of it were rose bushes with thorns.
Later they both swore they hadn't done it.
They were very serious and I could tell that they were
telling the truth. They also said they had not
(54:35):
heard the knocks, so they still didn't believe me.
Only one time do I remember it happening at night.
This time I was in the third bedroom that we used as an
office in the back of the house.It also faced the inaccessible
backyard and it was late and dark.
(54:56):
My curtains were closed and I was doing something on the
computer when the two loud knocks hit that window.
I was too scared to look out thecurtains.
This only went on for a few months, but it happened a lot,
and every time it occurred in whatever room I happened to be
in at the time, I never heard itfrom another room.
(55:18):
No one else heard it either until one night.
On this night, I had gone to bedand my boyfriend and my son were
in the living room watching a movie.
The next day they told me that at about 1:00 AM they heard two
quick, loud knocks on the livingroom window.
There was no knock on the front door, which was right next to
(55:42):
the window. They looked out the window and
of course no one was there. It finally.
Happened to someone. Else in a room that I did not
happen to be in and after that they finally believed me.
(01:05:39):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:12:40):
Yeah.
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