#FIRESIDEFRIGHTS VOLUME 33 #WeirdDarkness
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Welcome, Weirdos! I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.

You can already hear it sounds a little different because this is a Fireside Frights episode. On these episodes, and I know I haven't done one in a very long time so many of you probably are not even aware of what I do with these, well on a Fireside Fright episode I strip away all the music, all the sound effects, any fancy audio production that I sometimes do in my regular episodes

Here on a Fireside Fright episode is just you, me, this campfire and the stories that listeners like you send in. These are all stories from Weird Darkness listeners. If you have a story that you'd like to send in, I'd love to see it. You can do that by visiting WeirdDarkness.com and under the Contact Social tab you'll see something to click on that says "Tell Your Story."

Or if you just want to type it into your web browser, it's weirddarkness.com slash submit because you are submitting a story. So it's weirddarkness.com slash submit. And although I do take true and fiction stories, for Fireside Frights, it's just the nonfiction. Just true stories sent in by you.

And we'll get started with one that I received all the way back in September of 2023. I know I've done one of these since then, but somehow this did not make it into a past Fireside Frights. And I apologize to you, Adam, in Charleston, South Carolina.

for not getting to this earlier. I don't know what happened. Anyway, Adam says, Hi Darren, hope all is well. Just wanted to chime in on an episode I listened to recently. I believed it was legends and lore from each state. Anyway, I reside in Charleston, South Carolina, and the story you told about Julia Laguerre is 100% true. It's been told throughout the years with different variations, but the common theme is that Julia and family were visiting relatives over on a distant

in Edisto Island when Julia became very ill very quickly. Her family believed that she had fallen into a deep coma and her heart rate and pulse dropped so low that they could not be detected by doctors at the time. This was the 1800s after all. She was pronounced deceased and her body interred into the family vault on Edisto.

It was a few years later when the family opened the vault again to place another family member, her brother, I believe, when the family noticed that Julia was not where they had left her. In the corner of the vault, they found Julia's bones covered by the dress she had been wearing at the time of her "death." The family was horrified. She had been buried alive.

From that day forward, the vault door would not stay closed. Julia did not want her family member to be buried alive as she was.

The family tried locking the door shut. They bolted the door. They nailed it shut. They tried everything they could, but they would always be informed by the church clergy that the door was open again. And again. They eventually left the vault door open, and it remains open to this day. I've seen it myself.

Now, this next part I cannot confirm or deny as it is taken on account that somebody else has given. When I moved to the area, I went on a ghost tour at Magnolia Cemetery. Our tour guide was born and raised in the area, and he claims when he and his friends were teenagers in the 70s or 80s, they would dare one another to stay in the Laguerre vault overnight. And

And every time someone would attempt to stay the night, their friends would find them up front of the church stairs ready to get the heck away from that place ASAP.

Everyone who attempted to stay at the Laguerre vault all had similar paranormal experiences. The most common thing that would happen inside the vault is a little girl's voice saying, "Get out! Get out now!" Most likely Julia, still trying to prevent someone from meeting the same grim end she did.

My tour guide also claims to have had those same words captured on an EVP recorder. I wasn't able to hear for myself. He did have the audio recorder on his phone, and it did definitely sound like a faint female saying "get out."

Darren, I've listened to your podcast for years and I don't remember hearing much about the Charleston, South Carolina area. If you've not done so already, I think you should look at the dark history of Charleston. There's so much history here, you won't be disappointed. The first female murderer to be executed, Lavinia Fisher, was down here and was actually in jail downtown and hung by a tree downtown Charleston.

There's also the tale of Charles Barker Nixon, the "slippery man" of Charleston, who set up a magic show along the banks of the Cooper River.

and i apologize for the lengthy email but it was a lot of information i wanted to cover i hope you're able to share with fellow weirdos keep doing all that you do all of us fellow weirdos appreciate it take care for now adam in charleston south carolina adam thank you i really appreciate it again i'm very sorry that i did not get to your email uh sooner than this i don't know how it got buried

So I went back to all of the oldest emails to start with first on this Fireside Frights episode, and that's why I found yours. Yeah, I've actually covered a couple of things in the Charleston area, South Carolina at least. Those specifically that you mentioned, the hanging of the woman, I've done that in the podcast. Lavinia Fisher. Did I do the other one?

The Slippery Man, Charles Berger. Charles Berger Nixon sounds familiar. I'll have to look to see if I've done anything on him. If not, then I definitely will look that up because it sounds like it would be an interesting one. He set up a magic show along the banks of the Cooper River. I'm assuming that goes darker than just having a magic show.

So anyway, yeah, thank you very much for the email. I appreciate that. In fact, let me write that down here real quick. Charles Barker Nixon. I'll look that up when I'm done doing the podcast tonight. Charles Barker Nixon. Okay, I will look that up. All right, thank you very much. All right, this next one comes from an anonymous cripple. That's their word, not mine.

"Hi, I had at least one hit put on me and here's my story. I will preface this with some information that I promise is relevant once you get to that part of the story.

1. In my prime, I was very, very good at martial arts. I have no self-confidence in any other aspect of my life, so I'm not just blowing smoke. I took to it very naturally and excelled quickly. I don't do it anymore as my health has since declined and I had a big falling out with the school owner.

I have a lot wrong with me health-wise, most of which was undiagnosed back then. I have Ehler-Danlos syndrome, which makes my conceived tissue weak and flexible. I also have some sort of nervous system disorder that makes it hard for me to feel pain appropriately. Before anybody out there thinks that it's some kind of cool superpower, it's not. I've broken bones and had serious injuries before and had to be told about it secondhand

It's a dangerous condition that means every time I fall down or have reason to think I've been injured, I really need to be checked over by someone else to make sure I'm actually good. On the flip side, sometimes my pain response is inappropriate. As in very weak for a large problem or very painful for a small scrape. It's very annoying.

3. About three months before this story happened, I had helicoptered down a ski slope on my snowboard and tore the heck out of my knee. My family, being what they were, refused me care because I couldn't feel the injury anyway and it would ruin their trip. Yeah, Parents of the Year, those guys. But I knew something felt off and now, even at my age, I still just walk funny.

Weirdly enough, the injury stiffened up that joint a little and that became my stronger knee along with the bracing I generally wore during competitions after the accident. 4. This was very long ago and my memory ain't what it was so forgive my gaps. Now to the hit.

As I mentioned previously, I was extremely good at martial arts. I was on the Rockford Illinois Elite Competition Team back in my 20s, meaning I traveled around a lot to larger competitions out of state.

I was also expected to be a scout of sorts, being sent either as a lone representative or with one or two others to new tournaments to see if it was safe or worth going to for the whole team later. As in, is the judging fair? Are the sparring matches governed safely? Is the atmosphere welcoming? Etc. etc.

It was at such a tournament that I had gone alone to that this came to light. I can't recall exactly where it was aside from I think it was in Illinois further south. The tournament itself was held in the basement of this large building. It was a fairly nice basement, however. Carpeted, furnished, I think they even had a little café that was open. All in all, initial impression was pretty good.

I noted that the ceilings were a bit low, making it hard for people with larger weapons to do their sets.

I did staff at the time, and I knew I would have to stunt the one-toss my traditionalist instructor allowed of me. There were also these large pillars fairly close together. I'm assuming load-bearing, given the spacing and size of the pillars.

They were about 4 by 4 feet squared, floor to ceiling, about every 10 or 12 feet, making the rings a bit tight and the sidelines crowded. I was navigating around, trying to figure out where my rings were going to be, who the judges were, and who I was going up against, when I found one of the people I would be sparring later that day. I noticed they were taking some ibuprofen, smelled of tiger balm, and were in the process of strapping on a back brace.

All signs of a recent injury. I asked if they needed a hand and introduced myself. We chatted for a while, and I made a note of their uniform and face so I could pick them out later during our match and remind myself to take it easy on their back. I was good, but I wasn't a jerk.

I left that interaction and was making my way back to my gear bag through the very crowded ringside when I found myself kind of stuck against one of the pillars and had to take a moment to look around for my next course of action. With how the rings were arranged around these obnoxious pillars, navigation was truly difficult and I was kind of stuck looking for a pathway back to where I wanted to go. While I was doing that, I thought I heard my name mentioned from an unfamiliar voice.

I queued in and also heard my school name. I thought about announcing my presence but for some reason stopped.

on the opposite side of the large pillar that I was standing against was one of the people I was meant to spar later that day. And their coach - I say them and their coach were there - and they were talking candidly about me. I don't recall exactly what they said, but it was something to the effect of "Okay, so at noon you'll be fighting me, Anonymous."

They have a bad left knee, been wearing braces for a while. Take the left knee out, okay? The left. We don't need them going to diamonds. If the judges call foul, I'll vouch for you that it was an accident. Can you make it look like an accident? Maybe fall over too? I need you to do this. And then proceeded to coach the fighter in how to make an illegal knee kick look like an accident.

I just stood there in disbelief. Martial arts people are generally pretty cool people. Like you can trust them not to steal your stuff or do petty crap like this. But on the other hand, there is a dark side to the sport. You rub someone the wrong way and suddenly your points aren't being called and your matches are unbalanced. I've seen a lot of crap happen. But as I mentioned, I'm generally not a jerk so I'm fairly well liked and respected.

I was good, but I wasn't a jerk about it. As far as that dark side continues, though, you don't just roll up to someone with unfounded and unprovable accusations. I knew what I heard, but I didn't have a recording or even a second person to vouch for me. Making accusations in that community is dangerous. Sometimes very dangerous. My next thought was my other opponent with the back brace.

I did return to them, and that was the only other person at the tourney I told about it, worried they would do the same thing to them because of their back brace. I don't think they believed me, though, but I figured, "Well, that's on you." I did what I could to warn you. I ended up facing my opponents later that day. Both of them. They managed to win both matches with my knee intact, though several very uncertain attempts were made.

I like to think the coach was corrupt, but the student had better morals. I did report back to my school that this was not a tournament we should be endorsing, however. I often wonder just how many failed attempts at ending my career there actually were. Funny, it should be my own coach who did it for them. Signed, Anonymous, Ripple.

Very interesting. I think that's the first time we've had a story from somebody that had a hit put out on them. When you said hit at the very beginning, I was thinking like mob situation here. You know, like somebody rolling up with a machine gun or something and firing at you. I wasn't expecting a karate match, but I totally get it. Very reminiscent of...

The Karate Kid. You know, sweep the leg, that type of thing. Thank you very much for your email, Anonymous. Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

Now sliced. Or just the world's greatest dad. We've got all the fun accessories to make your figure come to life. Build the perfect gift at Funko.com. Pop yourself. Visit Funko.com.

If pain is keeping you from the activities you love, you deserve the best care from the best orthopedic and spine practice around. Midwest Orthopedics at Rush ranks first in Illinois. But when it comes to getting the best care, we actually don't mind being second. Because a second opinion from our experts can ensure you get the best treatment available and the best possible outcome the first time. Don't just hope for the best. Get a second opinion at RushOrtho.com today and expect it.

Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

Oh, sliced. Or just the world's greatest dad. We've got all the fun accessories to make your figure come to life. Build the perfect gift at Funko.com. Pop yourself. Visit Funko.com. Okay, this next one comes from, they call themselves Mr. Lips.

Hi Darren, it was the year of 1976 that my parents bought the house in Grand Rapids, Michigan on the northeast end. The house was already over 100 years old and it was built kitty-corner from a cemetery. Me and my older brother and sister would ride our bikes often without thinking much about it. It was in 1977 that I went bike riding with my neighbor. We started racing each other starting at the top of a hill and there was a large family crypt.

And there were two smaller family crips also, with the dates of 1892 to 1923. It was in June of 1977 I was riding my bike and I hit a fallen tree branch and crashed my bike. When my neighbor came back to check to see if I was okay, he started walking backwards away from me. He started yelling, "Who's wiping that blood from your leg and arm?" "Nobody! Get my bike off of me so I can get up and continue riding around!"

Once again, he yelled, "No! Who is wiping the blood off you?" A man who was working in the cemetery started preparations for a funeral service. He came running over to help me. He asked if it was a fallen tree branch that caused me to crash my bike. I said no. There were two people standing in the road in the cemetery that wouldn't move out of my way. And when I was getting closer, I felt like someone just grabbed hold of my bike and stopped me right there on the spot.

The guy who was working asked my friend if he had seen it happen. He said that me and my bike left the ground and twisted in a weird way, and that the two people standing in the road started coming towards us. That he had seen the blood being wiped from my legs and arm. The man working asked if those two people we had seen were dressed in older styles of clothing. Yes, one was wearing a top hat and the other one was wearing a black bonnet style.

The guy working in the cemetery that day said, "You have seen the two people who were the first family members in the large crypt. Be careful of the other family members also." That the family passed in a ferry accident in northern Michigan in the 1800s to the Upper Peninsula. We kept on riding our bikes in the cemetery over the years. It always seemed like someone was watching us.

It was in 1982 or 1983 when a person who was working in the cemetery found a lady who killed herself and her daughter by hanging from a tree by the large family crypt. My father is laid to rest in that cemetery on the northeast end of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and my grandparents also. Until I see my family once again, thank you. Signed, Mr. Lips

first and foremost i want to know where you got the nickname mr lips nowhere in your email just to say uh how you got that nickname unless of course it's not very family friendly and then no you don't need to share that with me very very interesting story i'm surprised you went back to keep biking in the area after having this issue near the crypt but you kept going back to the cemetery i guess it's kind of hard to avoid it though if it's catty corner from your house so maybe that's why it is but

that's very interesting uh kind of creepy too so the cemetery worker knew who it was he didn't say at least you didn't you didn't say in your email whether they those those i guess we'll call them ghosts if

if they've done that type of thing in the past. Have they tormented or even hurt other people in the past? Or did he just know something weird happened and thought maybe it was those two ghosts and then you just confirmed it? Maybe that was the first time anybody had been injured by them, but he was just taking a stab in the dark at it. I don't know. But it's very rare that you hear of ghosts physically hurting somebody.

This one comes from Susan. She says, "Hey, Dared. Love listening to you. I had to change my listening strategy at work because the school I was at literally had no cell service. The school resource officer couldn't even use her radio. I could pull up Weird Darkness on my computer, but other podcasts were blocked. During testing season, I couldn't even access YouTube, but I had Weird Darkness, so I would get to your podcasts for six hours a day."

Loved it, and I appreciate how much work you put into it. Anyway, attached is my two hat man stories. You can use my pen name, S.M. Kirkland. Well, I already gave away your first name. Sorry about that. We'll call you S.M. Kirkland at this point. And you've got a couple of hat man stories here. Let me get a sip of my drink real quick before I jump into those. All right. Here's what she has to say. I've had paranormal encounters all my life.

Some periods, like early childhood, were rampant with experiences. They decreased in early adulthood but have started to increase over the last two or three years. These encounters have included seeing full-body apparitions, psychic phenomena and sleep paralysis. I never encountered Hat Man until last year.

By the way, this email came in in 2024, so we're talking about 2023. Yeah, in fact, she actually does say that, sorry. In the last year, I've had two experiences with this entity. The first time was in the summer of 2023. Jumped to the gut on that, SK, sorry. We live on a small farm in northwest Georgia, and our laundry closet is in the kitchen next to the back door.

One evening my husband had taken the washing machine onto the back porch. In the Facebook group I mistakenly said the dryer but it was the washer. He needed to do some maintenance on it. I went into the kitchen to the closet and opened the door to get something and there, where my washer had been, was the hat man. He was sepia toned so that I could see his form and the outline of his trench coat and fedora but I couldn't see specific details.

I wasn't afraid, although I was surprised since I wasn't expecting to see someone in my laundry closet. I held up my hand to him and said, "Hold on, I've listened." That's how you respond to the hat man? Just hold up a hand and say, "Hold on there, buddy." That's awesome. Brave. Awesome.

She continues on, I've listened to so many paranormal podcasts that it didn't rattle me at all. Going into my bedroom, I grabbed a bottle of anointing oil and went back to the closet. He was gone, but I applied oil and prayed that if he was something ominous that he'd not return. I didn't feel like it was harmful, but I wanted to cover all the bases. My husband is not a paranormal believer, so I don't even think I told him. I

I did call my best friend, who told me that she had seen him many times and had never been afraid. We're both passionate believers in Christ, so we do our best to discern spiritual matters. The second time was over Thanksgiving weekend last year. It's a big deal, and my adult children and their significant others come over and we usually invite friends who may not have family.

My middle daughter and her husband lived on our property at the time, so they came over with their two dogs, Jax and Charles. After eating, we were all hanging around outside. It's Georgia, so Thanksgiving is pretty mild temperature-wise. As I've mentioned, we live in the country and gunfire isn't uncommon as the people target practice or hunt.

We do our best to pull all the dogs in the house when we hear gunfire and thought they were all put up, but Jax – unbeknownst to us – had not gone in. Apparently he spooked and ran. When we realized it a few hours later, everybody searched for him well into the night. I stayed at home in case he showed back up but eventually went to bed.

Later that night I was asleep, facing the middle of the bed when I felt a hand squeeze my upper arm. It startled me awake and I heard a voice say, "They are bringing him home." It sounded familiar, but not exactly like my husband, and I turned over thinking Jax must have been hit and killed. I felt so sad. When I turned over I saw a black form beside my bed.

I could make out the coat and fedora, but he was more solid than the previous one. I couldn't see through him, but the room was mostly dark, so that could be an attributing factor. I didn't know how to respond because we all loved Jax. My son-in-law had owned him for seven years and he was a good boy. I'm still thinking it's my husband, even though he doesn't own a trench coat or fedora. I turned back over and my husband was in bed with me.

I prayed for my daughter, son-in-law, and Jax and pondered what this could mean. We continued our search daily and were overjoyed when Jax returned home two days later tired and hungry, but other than a small cut on his leg, he was fine. But it perplexed me more because I wanted to understand the message. Eventually, I put it out of my mind. Until January 2024. Jax went to bed fine, eating, drinking, playing normally, other than a slight cough,

The next morning he was so sick he couldn't get up. Son-in-law and daughter took him to their vet, and then to an emergency vet in Chattanooga about an hour from us. X-rays showed he had pneumonia, and the vet found a small puncture wound that had healed. The vet believes he was wounded when he got out, and the pneumonia started then, but took that long to become full-blown. He held on for two days before crossing the Rainbow Bridge, leaving us all heartbroken.

Jax had this adorable, goofy habit of letting out a random little bark every couple hours, almost like he was reminding us he was there. After he passed, my border collie Ozzy Cross, who rarely barks like twice a year, looked up toward the front door and let out a little bark. I think Jax just wanted us to not forget him, and we won't.

What a sweet ending to that story, SK. Sad ending, but also very, very sweet. It's interesting that you and your friend both had incidents with the hat man, but neither of you felt scared or threatened in any way.

That's very odd. Now, sometimes with just shadow people in general, sometimes people don't feel threatened. Other times they do. They might feel scared simply because of what they're seeing, not because of anything coming from the entity. It's just, hey, you're seeing something weird and so it scares you. But when it comes to the hat man, most all reports come with a very ominous feeling, a very evil type of feeling that comes onto you upon seeing the hat man.

So whether or not you found a hat man that just was a little bit on the nicer side, or if it wasn't a true hat man of that kind, maybe there's a different kind of hat man, I really don't know. But it's just very interesting that you and your friend, not just you, but you and your friend both met the hat man, and neither one of you felt scared. That's different.

Okay, this next one comes from Mark. "Hey Darren, I really enjoy your work. I listen to it all the time. This will be my first entry and the most significant experience I've had. I live in a small town on the Gulf Coast of Florida called Largo. In the neighborhood I grew up in, there's a good-sized cemetery with graves dating back to the 1800s. It's in a very public place with homes and a public school all around it.

I'd pass or walk through it daily, always without incident, and continued to do so after I saw this, always without anything unusual happening. One night, when I was 13 or 14, I was walking home from the convenience store just after sundown. I took the road between the cemetery and the elementary school, which at the time was neither paved or lighted.

I look over at the cemetery, and on the other side of the fence was a pair of ethereal legs from the thighs down keeping step with me. They were long enough for me to see them clearly, and then just kind of evaporated. I really thought I was just imagining it, so I pulled myself together and continued on my way. When I glanced over again, they were there again, and the same as before, just slowly disappeared.

This time I panicked, jumped the fence into the schoolyard and ran home. I avoided taking that road for a while afterwards, but eventually started walking it again. I never saw another ghost because I assumed that's what it was, but there was another odd incident that happened years later. I'll tell you about that some other time. Hope you read this one on Fireside. Thanks and keep up the good work. Your friend in the darkness, Mark.

Well, Mark, I obviously did read it in a fireside. It just took me forever to get to it. I mean, you sent that to me in June of last year. So it's been that long since I've done one of these. I apologize for that. But thank you very much, Mark. So ghosts, just ghost legs. You didn't see the whole body, just the ghost legs.

Very interesting. You didn't say, did you say, I don't think, you don't think you said male or female. When you were talking about it, I, for some reason, I envisioned female legs, you know, shapely and maybe, not necessarily in heels, but, you know, like knees down and with shapely legs, almost like they were wearing hose or, you know, something like that. But I don't think you say, I'm sorry, from the thighs down, keeping step with you.

Good evening Mr. Marlar. I have decided to tell you about my first paranormal experience. You are free to use it in your podcast if you do so choose.

I was very young. My family had moved to a very remote place, La Ronge, Saskatchewan, Canada. Dad's work was to be responsible for the move. It was an empty lot that would later prove to be our home. It was very sandy and nothing was there initially, not even grass or foliage. It almost seemed dead,

I remember our basement being dug out and a particularly large rock was also dug out. We later placed that on the front lawn of the house as a memento. We would have a bungalow-style house placed on the foundation. There was a skating rink across the street from us and a few more houses up the street. Nothing special. Nothing to ride home about.

After we finally moved in, it was normal life. My brothers and I would walk up the street to go to our school, Gordon Denny School. I'd come home and do my piano lessons, homework, maybe have a bit of TV time before supper. It wasn't long after that there was this feeling. Later on in life, I found out that it was shared by the other members of my family, too. It was a very deep, dark, depressive feeling.

My mother would suffer from it often. My dad would be gone for work, so my mom didn't have anyone with her. I would sleep with her often. My bedroom was right across from their bedroom, so I would go in from time to time. On this occasion my dad was home and we were having a family supper. My mom sent me downstairs to get the ice cream from the freezer for dessert. That's when I saw it behind the furnace. Cure evil. A black shape. Undoubtedly evil.

It was vaguely humanoid and could be described as "electrified black smoke with glowing red eyes." This was not a shadow person or anything like the Hat Man or even a Wendigo. This was something truly terrifying. My brother, whose bedroom was in the basement, would later say that it would hover over him as he was sleeping, but thankfully would never touch him. I believe this was a demon.

I rushed back up the stairs to deliver the ice cream. I was out of breath and my mom asked me what was wrong. I didn't tell her. Later on, I would talk to my brother about what I saw. He would tell his story about seeing it hover over his bed and appear sometimes just in the basement. I would also develop a serious form of epilepsy at this time. Sometimes I wonder if it was linked. I was having 256 seizures a day.

Mostly petite mole, but sometimes it was grand mole. Maybe it was linked, maybe it wasn't. My dad had the house blessed and we could live normally after that, but the seizures did continue. Epilepsy does run in my family, but I do wonder if the entity did trigger it. Thank you for reading this. You're free to use it in your podcast if you choose. With love, April." April, thank you very much for sharing that. I really do appreciate it. Um,

I don't know if epilepsy in your family was triggered by demons or not. I see what you're saying, though, that even if it was in your family already, maybe if you were susceptible to it, this encounter would trigger it in you because you were that much more susceptible. I don't know, but I could see where you'd come to that conclusion. It's interesting how you describe the demon.

You say you saw him in the basement, but then you described him as being black, almost formless. You mentioned cloud, but I think I know what you're talking about there. Red eyes. And then you say that your brother saw the same demon hovering above his bed. That sounds very familiar to me because the one time... Well, I've had sleep paralysis a couple of times, but the one time that I truly felt it was supernatural, paranormal...

it had that very demon. It was formless, blacker than black, because my room is blacked out. I even have blackout curtains for my room, so not even streetlights are getting into my room. But even as black as my room was, I could still see the blackness of this demon.

Very formless, but also solid. Kind of hard to explain. As it came, it was at the foot of my bed, slowly started to hover over me, and I don't remember if I actually saw the red eyes then, or if I just think that they were there, and I'm imagining that later on. I don't remember that. All I remember is just the pure evil from this black entity. So you telling that kind of

And it gave me a bit of a chill. Thank you, April.

Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer, or just the world's greatest dad, we've got all the fun accessories to make your figure come to life. Build the perfect gift at Funko.com.

Pop yourself. Visit Funko.com. If pain is keeping you from the activities you love, you deserve the best care from the best orthopedic and spine practice around. Midwest Orthopedics at Rush ranks first in Illinois. But when it comes to getting the best care, we actually don't mind being second. Because a second opinion from our experts can ensure you get the best treatment available and the best possible outcome. The first time. Don't just hope for the best. Get a second opinion at RushOrtho.com today and expect it.

Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

Or just the world's greatest dad. We've got all the fun accessories to make your figure come to life. Build the perfect gift at Funko.com. Pop yourself. Visit Funko.com. This next story was sent in to us by Abby? I guess who it is. By Abby. Yes. Okay. She just calls it my ghost story.

I was staying at my cousin's house because we went out for her birthday. We went bowling and we went back to her house. I was sitting in the kitchen and both of her sisters turned to me and said that there were ghosts in the house.

I didn't believe what they had to say, but I started to feel scared and have never seen a ghost until that night. I went to my cousin, she said there were not ghosts, they were just trying to scare me. I asked her mom, she said you can hear them running upstairs.

So far in this story, we've already got somebody saying it's haunted. Somebody else in the family saying, nah, it's not haunted. And then another mom saying, yeah, it's haunted. Who do you believe, Abby? Okay, she continues on. I went to the toilet upstairs because the bottom toilets were blocked. Well, thank you for sharing that. I went up the stairs and nothing was there. It was quite calm then when I was heading down the stairs. I could feel a presence behind me, but no one...

was there. Then when I went down the stairs, I could feel something holding down my ankles and something trying to push me down the stairs. But I didn't fall down the stairs because I was holding the railing. Then I was freaked out. I went back into the bedroom. My cousins were sleeping and I was shaking and I needed to go back upstairs to go to the bathroom again. I went up the stairs about four or five times and still had the same thing happen the last time. I went up for the fifth time. I saw a black thing

figure standing in a corner of the room looking directly at me. I was so freaked out I ran down the stairs. I was on my cousin's phone and I went on to Snapchat. On the phone, talking to my best mate, he was freaked out too. We stayed up the whole night. When I put a filter on, right next to me the filter detected a face right beside me and my cousin's room was really clean and there was

No dust particles. I got freaked out, but I still remember that day to this day. I still don't know who the figure in the corner was or if they were there to protect me, but I don't know if it was my cousin who died at age 11 of cancer. I think she might be with me making sure I don't get hurt. I'm still puzzled to this day. Who tried to push me down the stairs? Who was that figure in the corner watching me? I don't know, Abby.

And I've never used Snapchat. I know you've got filters. I don't know what any of those filters do, how they work. So I really can't comment on that. But you're obviously familiar with them. And it was odd enough for you to mention it. Otherwise, you wouldn't even put it in there. So I really don't know. But the whole idea that they would try to hurt you... Again, there's two stories tonight...

Somebody dealing with some sort of spirit that actually wanted to hurt them and tried to hurt them. That's so rare. That's so weird. Okay, this one comes from Jane.

"Hi Mr. Darin. Back with another creepy story to share with you. Hope all is well in your world." "Well it is, thank you very much for asking Jane." "I was just realizing all the stories I've shared with you. I look back and realize that I've been experiencing spooky happenings since I was about 7 or 8 years old. Never really thought about that until now. Guess I must be popular in that aspect lol."

The story I wish to share with you this time is when I was around 19 or 20. My mother and I had moved into a house that belonged to her then boyfriend's aunt. She was known to

She was known to... Oh, okay, I see what you're saying. You all knew her as Aunt Betty. She was very kind and sweet. She had passed away and the family had made my mother an offer to let us move into the house. It was a one-story house that had two bedrooms and a full basement with a washer and dryer in the basement. My mother and I had been living in the house for about three or four months when I had a really good friend come stay with us. She roomed with me in my room and was going to one of our local colleges.

It was around this time that each of us, my mother, me and my friend had an experience in the house. One day when my mother was home alone she was down in the basement doing laundry when she had heard footsteps above and the sound of a female voice. Thinking it was either my friend or myself that had come home she went upstairs to greet whoever came home only to find no one there. She thought it was strange but shrugged it off. She never said anything to me or my friend.

Then, one day my friend was home alone down in the basement doing laundry, and she heard the sounds of footsteps and a female voice. Thinking it was me or my mother, she went up to greet us and found no one as well. She shrugged it off and didn't say anything at this time either.

Then it was my turn, I guess. I was down in the basement doing laundry as well as while looking for something to put in storage. I heard footsteps and a female voice that clearly said "hello". I went upstairs thinking it was my mother or friend and I found no one. But I didn't shrug it off. When everyone was home that night I had to share my experience with my mother and friend. That's when they both shared their similar experiences.

None of us realized we all had the same experience until that moment. We sat still for a moment when my mother said it must be Aunt Betty checking in on us. I then said out loud, well, thanks for checking on us, Aunt Betty. We do appreciate it. I truly mean it, too. After saying that, we never heard anything again, so I'm hoping that it was Aunt Betty, and she was happy to see us happy in her house.

Thanks again for letting me share, and thanks for letting me be a part of a great family. Hugs, signed, Jane. Jane, yes, thank you very much. You are very welcome here in our weirdo family. Very cool story. I was wondering, does your ghost have an issue with laundry? Or maybe...

I don't know how your Aunt Betty was. Did she have issues with people doing laundry incorrectly, maybe? Was she very particular about how you did laundry, how you folded laundry, what goes into cold water and what's hot water, how you're supposed to divide up the colors and the delicates? And were you not following Aunt Betty's rules when you all had this experience? It's very, very cool.

Anyway, it's nice to know, though, that you acknowledged her, thinking that it was her, and that nothing happened after that. So you might have a point. Maybe it actually was her. Okay, let's see here. I want to make sure to give them credit. This is Nicole. All right. Hi, Nicole. Based on the true haunting happenings, Tales from the Road, you are free to use my name publicly. Well, good, because I just did.

These are true events that happened to my husband and I while driving. My name is... She gives a whole name, but I'll say Nicole. I'm an indie horror writer. Well, okay, never mind. I'll give you the whole name. That way you get some publicity here. Nicole Kent is an indie horror writer. Nicole Kent. She's the wife of an 18-wheeler over the road. Wow. Wow.

Way to go, Nicole. That is not an easy life. That's one of the reasons that I sometimes dedicate episodes to truck drivers, because I know how hard those guys work. They're gone. Very much like veterans. You're gone from your families all the time.

Also, my dad worked in the trucking industry. He wasn't an actual driver. He knew how to drive, but he was a salesperson for a large trucking company. But he had a lot of respect for those truckers too. And he was a veteran. So I think that's probably why I have a heart for both of those guys.

Anyway, Nicole says I've been with him in his rig for six years now and we're more than happy with the lifestyle we have on the road. Rest areas, truck stops, our twin-sized bunks, and sometimes hotels are our home.

When I first came out here on the highway with him, I wasn't prepared for a lot of the changes and oddities that came with doing so, but I've become accustomed to them as time goes on. I finished college online while in this passenger seat, wrote and published a novel online, and experienced a lot of great travels for all of my twenties. I was skeptical about it all at first. Nowadays, I wouldn't have it any other way in our tiny home on wheels.

Before I continue on here, Nicole, that is incredible that you can be with your husband 24-7. Sleep, eat, work, all your time off, all the time making money. Whether or not you need quiet time or not, you can't get it because you're with him in a tiny little truck all the time. That is incredible.

Oh, that would be a challenge. We've been married now for 30 years, and I don't think we would be able to survive that kind of lifestyle. So kudos to you for not only giving it a try, but stinking it out. That's amazing. Okay.

Anyway, she says, "I knew going into this that my life would never be the same. But what I wasn't prepared for, most of all, were the strange, unusual and very bizarre happenings that occur out on these highways. The worst things don't come only while scathing dangerous stopped traffic in Atlanta or going around horrible wreckages in the winter storms in Colorado. In fact, the scariest things to have happened to us personally always seem to occur while doing some night driving.

I'll never forget this night as long as I live. September 28, 2022. My husband was taking a load from Reno, Nevada up to Vancouver, Washington. Pet food, our usual freight at the time. We ran this load a thousand times before, just another one of our favorites. We had plenty of time to be in Vancouver, so we always tried to trip plan where we were headed to see landmarks or places we could explore.

This had been my favorite route for a while, simply because of the vast wilderness we would go through, so we didn't need to do much planning in advance. This meant we'd be going through the Willamette National Forest, by far the most amazing place I've ever been to in my entire life. Rivers, the scent of pine, mountains, small townships, I was over the moon.

Sounds like the place I'd like to live. I understand. Maybe we're a little odd for preferring to drive at night, but we meticulously plan our time so we can drive overnight as much as humanly possible.

I don't know, there's just something so much more entertaining about being alone in the woods and enjoying the silence that comes with it. Maybe it's the preference to not deal with heavy traffic or vacationers and tourists. Or maybe it's the cool night air that makes the pine smell just a tad sweeter. Whatever it was, it always captivated us. We left Reno, Nevada late in the afternoon on the first day and we were in no hurry to get through any of the scenery.

Our stop for the night was usually a township of Willamette Highway called Oak Ridge, Oregon, population 3,202. And right after that small stretch of silent, peaceful town was nothing but deep forest for miles and miles. When leaving Oak Ridge, we'd park in our usual spot off the highway, put the utility light on to signal passersby, and go into the sleeper berth.

However, tonight we were just driving through, except for one short stop, a decision we did not know could have very well cost us our lives. We passed the Oak Ridge town limits and the sign that said "Entering the Willamette National Forest" and got about five miles deep into the forest when he pulled off to the side and put the flashing emergency lights on. This never happened to me before, but I felt great uneasiness when he told me he had to get down to take a leak.

I was reluctant to let him go, but he kept telling me not to be worried about wild animals that certainly wouldn't bother him. I begged him to stay in the truck and just use an empty bottle, but he refused, saying the dark was just making me paranoid. It wasn't like that, but I considered that I might have been overreacting. I knew that it would only take a minute, so I sat back in my seat, took a deep breath, and tried to calm whatever I was feeling from turning into panic.

Still, something made my stomach turn inside out. My back got very hot and my hairs stood on end, so I told him to hurry. I watched him go between the trailer and the truck in the side mirror. I started to feel like I was in a horror movie waiting for my husband to get mauled by something or attacked by a knife-wielding maniac while I sat clueless in the cabin. Again, I tried to relate that to being paranoid, like he said.

As hoped, he got back in the cab and shut the doors. Only he locked the doors very quickly behind him as he scooted inside. I didn't understand why he locked the doors until I saw how pale and drained his face became. He sat there in his seat a moment, eyeing something outside in the mirror I couldn't pinpoint, until I finally asked him what was wrong with him, why he was acting so spooked. He looked over at me with a shaken, uneven breath, saying,

I think I saw something behind the trailer. Of course, at this point I thought he was trying to scare me, trying to get a rise out of my paranoia and pacified it as some kind of sick joke that he was trying to play on me. Just as I told him to stop messing with me, we could both feel the trailer jerk very unexpectedly from left to right, as if someone had hit the side of the 53-footer with their car. I froze, listening and watching that mirror.

I could feel the truck sway and settle a few times before realizing someone or something was walking on the top of the trailer.

We weren't top heavy and our trailer was sitting at only maybe 21,000 pounds, so every little movement was noticeable to us from inside the rig. We felt the weight shift from the back of the trailer closer and closer to the front until the movement was coming from right behind the wall of the truck where our bunks were. It stopped and shifted one last time before my husband said, "It might have been the brakes releasing." Or, "It could be the wind."

For good measure, we sat there for a few seconds longer, letting the nerves settle between us. That's when we heard the loud, guttural, animal-like screech that resembled a throaty scream. And for those who hunt, a deer when it yelps in pain. It's hard to explain it in full, but it was the most disgusting and heart-sinking sound I'd ever heard.

We shot eyes at each other and our mouths were open. I was on the verge of sobbing. We couldn't speak. My husband couldn't even turn the key to start the truck because his hands were so tight around the wheel. Whatever it was, it came hurtling onto the roof of the truck, to the front of our cab, jumped off the rig over our windshield, rocking us as it ran.

In the glow of the headlights, I could vaguely make out the features of some kind of inhuman-looking creature. It ran on all fours, but had hands and feet. Its hands were so thin and the nails on its fingers were unnaturally long and sharp. It was naked and had no hair whatsoever. Its head was round, bald, small, and had no ears — at least, if it did have ears, they weren't very visible in the dark.

its back was to, so I could see that the thing was skinny, that I could make out every bone in its back. Its feet were human-like, only smaller and very bony. In essence it looked like a very emaciated and starved, hairless person, but the sound of it and how unnaturally fast it ran were by far the most horrifying indicators that it was not a person.

We watched the thing, terrified as it made a V-line for the trees to our left, let out one more gut-wrenching screech from afar, often an eerie echo, and disappeared. I've since never returned with my husband to the Willamette National Forest, and he has switched to a company that doesn't ever go through there. We don't talk about it, and we haven't told anyone about what we saw."

Sometimes, when we drive through a wooded area, we'll give each other a knowing look, remembering what we had seen. The part of us sometimes wishes we'd go through there once more just to see if we spot or hear whatever thing is lurking around in Oregon. Since I knew no one would believe me if I told them, I wrote a novel about the encounter and passed it off as pure fiction. I plan to release it sometime next year.

As it stands, no one has ever heard this story of ours, and I wanted someone to hear me out and maybe even believe what we saw and sometimes still see some nights in my nightmares after all these years. Wow. Yes, you definitely need to finish that novel. You are an incredible writer, Nicole. That was really, really intense. Ah, but what was it that you saw? There are...

Probably three possibilities. Skinwalker would be the first one. They're often described as humanoid. They can mimic or take form of animals. They emit the terrifying unnatural screeches that you mentioned. They have unnatural movement. They have predatory presence, which you definitely described.

and the creature you you say the creature was hairless humanoid not quite animal but not quite human you're right it's kind of the same way so that could possibly be um that guttural deer in pain shriek that you mentioned that that's that's what makes it sound like a skinwalker another possibility

is... And I've always thought this more... I've thought skinwalkers to be actual real things. And I know I'm not supposed to say that term. I apologize. I should just call them shapeshifters, but that's a little bit confusing to some people. But there's also the Wendigo, which I've always thought is more legend, not a real thing. But...

The extreme thinness, the horrifying presence, along with its speed, you say it kind of like it has an inhuman quality. That kind of fits a Wendigo. They seem to be emaciated skeletal figures as well. They have human features, but are monstrous. I don't know, but Wendigo kind of popped into my head. Another one that popped into my head was a crawler. Well, they're a pale humanoid. I'm not exactly sure what you'd call it.

They get reported often in Reddit, No Sleep or the paranormal stuff. But they're hairless, grayish, extremely thin. They run on all fours too, but they also have human hands and feet. They make unnatural screeching sounds. They're often seen at night, in forests, desolate woods. I mean, your whole description, especially the long fingers and the lack of hair, that just screams crawler.

The only downside is that's mostly known on Reddit. And you know how much you can trust Reddit, right? But still, that seems to be, it fits that more than anything else. A rake, there, that's the word I was looking for. It's kind of like, it sounds like a rake. I don't know if that's true. And I've heard of the albino humanoids, but I don't remember where those were. I don't think that was Oregon.

So I don't know. But anyway, very, very good story. Yes, you definitely ought to finish that novel. Once you do, if you need somebody to do the audio book, let me know. Good stuff. Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

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Okay, this one comes from Random Me from San Antonio, Texas. Well, hello, Random. Hello, Darren. I'm writing to you from San Antonio, Texas.

The true tale happened in or around 1994. We lived in a rental home near Conception Park in San Antonio. I was out thrifting one day and found a Ouija board at a garage sale and began using it. OK, right there. Random. There's your issue. You picked up the Ouija board and started using it. I can already tell this story is going to go bad. People, stop. Stop using Ouija boards and spirit boards and playing Charlie Charlie and all that stuff. Stop!

Okay, anyway. The board would tell me when my husband would be coming home. Nothing much with the board, but then other things began to happen. One night my husband and I were in our bedroom sleeping and something woke me up late at night. I began searching the room for the digital clock to check the time and the clock was set at 6:66. Really? Really random? Clocks don't go up to 6:66. In fact, that

That first, that second six. It could be 6 p.m. It could be 6.56. It can't be 6.66. That 60 of the 66 wouldn't even show up. You can maybe make it digital. I don't know. You're starting to sound not believable. That's all I'm saying. I began to look around the room and noticed that the crucifix hanging above the door was inverted. Seriously? Seriously?

I should really start reading these in advance. Then from the wall out came an orb the size of a basketball. The orb was filled with gray smoke that swirled around with it. The whole time I'm watching it partially cover my face with my covers.

It comes around the feet of the bed, towards my side of the bed. My husband was on the other side of the bed against the wall asleep. I closed my eyes and covered my head, but when I looked again, it was right next to me. I could not speak or yell, and I kind of froze. The orb then attached itself to my side, like right on my rib cage. It then begins a pulsing movement right on my ribs. It was so weird.

Then after what seemed minutes, the orb detached itself from me and floated into the closet. I never saw it again. Okay, I'm just going to take a wild guess here before I continue on. You got pregnant from it, right? All right, let me find out.

A few weeks later, my 12-year-old son comes running to our bedroom door late at night. He began banging on the door, yelling and screaming. Crying when I opened the door, he said that something tried to choke him and was not letting him breathe. I went to his bedroom with the Bible and began praying psalms. The following day, I asked him for details of what happened that night. The story goes that my son was lying in bed getting ready to go to sleep. He had his eyes closed. He felt something small jump on his bed and onto his chest.

The invisible entity was heavy on his chest and then tried choking him. He said that he mustered enough energy to get up and run out of the room. One more and then I'll go. So this was April of '94. For context I'm going to mention the following because it may or may not be related. We had been having issues with the old lady that lived down the street. She had digged through the trash cans and that bothered my husband. One day my husband went out and yelled to her to stay out of the trash cans.

Fast forward to the day of the incident. My daughter, her friends, and I left for the Gulf of Mexico. Gulf of America, now, I'm pretty sure. I say that now just to get people's goat. Anyway, you went for the Gulf of Mexico for some beach time. We were going to be gone for two nights. During this time, my husband and sons would be home. When we got back, he had a story to tell. He said that he and our youngest son were in our bedroom sleeping when he suddenly woke up to find an old lady in the bedroom.

He described her as being disheveled, messy gray hair, and was holding a dagger of sorts. My husband grabbed our child and stood up on the bed and was trying to find a way out. He said that he looked around the room and the old hag was screaming at him. My husband said that all around the old lady's feet were snakes crawling around the bedroom floor. He said he began praying, jumped off the bed with the baby, and ran to the living room where he slept till we returned from the ocean.

We didn't see the old lady from down the street for weeks. One day, while my husband was talking to a neighbor, the neighbor mentioned to my husband the old lady had passed away. Signed, Random, me from San Antonio. Yeah. I can't tell you exactly why I think your story is bogus, but you're hitting on too many points that are cliches in movies. The Ouija board and then the inverted crucifix.

The clock that reads 666. Come on. If you had not given me the first story and only gave me the second story about this thing going to your son and the old lady with the dagger and snakes, I might believe it. But you giving me that first one, it just is so, so over the top.

that I just can't, I can't buy it. I'm sorry. And that makes me doubt the second story, even though it's more believable, it's not more believable when it's attached to the first story. You can have the old hag, the old hag thing, it's a sleep paralysis thing that can happen. But even then, if somebody experiences that, it's not an old hag holding a knife and having snakes at the bottom of her feet. So it wouldn't be a traditional old hag thing.

I'm not calling you a liar, but I'm calling you a liar. Okay, moving on. We'll go to Cdog. "Hey Darren, I wanted to share a few of my experiences for a while with you and the other weirdos and finally decided to send them in. Well, the first bits are secondhand accounts from my friend and coworker. Let's call him George." Alright, fine. Let's call him George.

All of these take place at my current place of employment. I work at a gym that wasn't originally a gym. It was converted to a gym, so it doesn't have a normal gym layout. A big open room with a bunch of equipment. Our gym has multiple rooms with different types of equipment in them, an indoor walking track that goes around the building, and a side hallway with offices and such. Can you hear that? I think I'm hearing fireworks in the back. I don't know if you guys can hear that or not, but I'm hearing fireworks.

Anyway, moving on. One day George was in his office alone, talking on the phone. As soon as he hangs up, he hears somebody whisper "Hush!" And then another day he's passing through an empty part of the gym, where he felt a hand touch his chest, stopping him in his tracks.

After he no longer felt it, he waits a few seconds, calls out something along the lines of, "I know you're here but please don't ever touch me again," and he wasn't touched again. But one evening there was three of us at the front desk waiting for closing time. We'd done our cleaning and closing procedures and knew everybody else was gone. We were sitting there when we heard two male voices talking to each other. We all look at each other and go searching for whoever was talking. We searched the entire building and no one was there.

My last experience was after COVID, so masks were still required at the time. End of the day, we're already closed, so it's just employees in the building. I was leaving to go home. I step out from the hallway heading towards the back parking lot when I hear a quiet, barely louder than a whisper, goodnight. I'm thinking it's a co-worker with their mask on, the mask quieting their voice some. I say goodnight before turning to see who said it.

My jaw dropped when I turned my head and I see my three co-workers all at the desk 60 or so feet away, definitely too far for me to hear a whisper. As they all turn, wave and say "goodnight" I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I've since switched to days and haven't really had any experience since. Aside from the occasionally seeing our punching bags swinging when no one's around,

Later, I'll tell you about my few experiences at my previous place of employment. Nowhere near as good, but still experiences, haha. Anyway, I love the podcast. Keep up the good work. Signed, C-Dawg. Well, thank you, man. I appreciate that. Um...

He also mentions that when he was typing this out, he was thinking of Fireside Frights, but use it as I see fit. But yeah, Fireside Frights, it actually works perfectly. So I guess it's a haunted gym, I guess? It'd be interesting to hear the history of that. Have you looked into it to see if anybody has passed away in the gym? Has there been any tragic accidents?

Or did somebody maybe who worked at the gym that really had a vested interest, if maybe they recently passed away and so they're coming back and kind of, that's kind of like their home away from home situation for the afterlife because that's where they felt the most comfortable. So it'd be interesting to get that.

All right. This one is from Rebecca. She says, Hey, Darren, I'd like to submit the paranormal story I have. The events are true and some names have been changed for privacy. A lot of people don't believe my story. It doesn't take place in your typical haunted house. It's actually a mobile home or a trailer. I hope you enjoy. Well, this would not be the first mobile home haunted story. So you don't have to worry about that, Rebecca. All right. She says, excuse me.

"In the early 2000s, in the summer before third grade, my family and I moved from Baton Rouge to a small town about 45 minutes east. We settled into our small, single-wide three-bedroom and two-bath trailer easily and pretty quickly. My big sister had the room on one end, facing the gravel road. I had the small room in the center, with our bathroom between us. And our parents had the room on the other side of the trailer with the living room, kitchen, and utility room/dining room in between.

My sister and I started school in the new town shortly after. There were a lot of children my age on our road, so I made friends rather quickly. We would ride our bikes up and down the road, jump on trampolines, play to pretend – you know, the typical play of 8-10 year old kids –

You don't have to stop at 8 or 10. I'm 56. I still do that. I still act like a kid. A few months after moving in, my neighbor, who was about the same age as me at the time, told me the story of the family who had lived in our trailer before us. She had mentioned that they had a son who would be the same age as us had he not passed away in the bathroom my sister and I shared.

She said that he tried to perform a magic trick with a beanbag chair that ended up going wrong. I brushed it off, saying that she was just trying to scare me, but the other kids disagreed, telling me it was true and that it actually happened. I went home a few hours after that, still not believing the story. A few weeks pass and I'm woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of running up and down the hallway between my room and my sister's.

In my half-awake state, I brush it off as my neighbor being rowdy and running around in her home. It happened a few more nights. I'd wake up to the sound of running and just kept brushing it off, thinking it was our neighbor since she was also in gymnastics. Logical thinking for a child, right? Until one morning my sister and I woke up to our vacuum cleaner's cord pulled down the hallway and wrapped around her doorknob. It was strange. Left everybody scratching their heads wondering how that happened

Our stepdad just told us it was probably him since he tends to sleepwalk. To be honest, we'd never seen or heard him sleepwalk before this incident. That was when I told him about what I had been hearing at night. She just casually mentioned that how could it be the neighbor if it's in the middle of the night? She might be sleeping. At that point, I began believing what the neighbor kids said about the little boy in our home. A few years later, my older sister moved out, which offered me the opportunity to move into her bigger room.

Of course, I was ecstatic about getting a bigger room. At first it seemed like the activity ramped up a little after that. My closet door would be open from time to time when I got home from school. The running in the hallway never stopped. I remember waking up early in the morning when the sun was just coming up to my TV being on and the old Sesame Street was playing. I turned it off, turned my bedside lamp on, and stayed up.

One night, as I had just turned off my light and rolled over in my bed to go to sleep, someone had screamed at me to wake up. It startled me so bad that I jumped, turned my light back on, and hardly slept at all. This would continue for a few years, of someone yelling, hey, or wake up, the running up and down the hallway, electronics turning on until we finally moved out just as I was about to start high school. I felt relieved that these experiences were going to stop.

"Years passed blissfully quiet in the new house until my senior year. A boyfriend of mine at the time had moved into our spare bedroom. His family had moved out of state and my parents were kind enough to let him stay with us as long as he had a job. He was about 9:30 at night and I was in his room playing Xbox when the small light in our hallway had turned on.

I had the door to the room cracked and was about to call out to my parents that we were home and they didn't need to turn the light on as this was something they did do for us if they stayed out late and we were in bed. Right as I opened my mouth a very loud and quick shuffling noise on the carpet happened, like someone run-shuffling on carpet, and the light was violently turned off.

I heard the slap of the hand on the wall in every... Okay, I'm sorry, you just answered my question. So yeah, it was a loud click. Stunned, I set the controller down and listened, waiting for my parents' bedroom door to close, or some sound indicating that they were the ones who had done it. Not a single sound happened. The house was so quiet,

I shot up out of bed, bolted for the door and closed it. So scared I was shaking. I called my boyfriend and begged him to come home with tears in my eyes. He only had a few minutes until he got off work but opted to stay on the phone with me until then. The energy in the house seemed to have shifted after that. He never felt alone, even though you could clearly see that no one else was home. Years later, after their relationship ended and my parents moved out, I had the home to myself.

I met my now-fiancé shortly after and we had our first baby while living in that house. The final moment, the moment we decided to finally move out, was when I was taking a short nap on the couch while our baby napped. Something had woken me up and I groggily opened my eyes to see the reflection of a young man in our TV behind the couch.

excuse me, on the TV behind the couch that I was sleeping on, just waving at me. I closed my eyes again, but when it registered what I saw, my eyes shot back open and I got up, looking around. As usual, I was the only one home aside from our baby. I didn't see any details of the man, just that he was tall. It was like a black shadow.

I still think about these homes. Was the young man who waved at me the same little boy who used to play pranks on me? Did he follow us? Was he saying goodbye? For years after moving, I would have nightmares of that little single wide trailer. I'd be in that small room with an overwhelming sense of someone watching me, someone I couldn't see, and when I would wake up with my heart racing and sweating.

I'm 31 now and haven't had any kind of experience since, though now I absolutely love any paranormal stories and can't get my fill of them. Whenever I relay these stories to my sister, her eyes get wide in surprise since she never experienced any of it and she was living in that single wide with me. I sometimes wonder if he attached to me only because I was around his age.

Thank you for reading. You probably get a lot of these, but I just wanted to say thank you for everything you do on your podcasts and the hard work you put into them. Signed, Rebecca. Thank you, Rebecca. I appreciate the kind words there at the end. It's interesting. I always start my comments with, it's interesting, don't I? Sorry about that. It's a crutch. But in thinking back on the early part of your story, nothing really started until you were told that there was a boy who died in your trailer.

and i'm wondering if that maybe affected you i'm not saying that you didn't have experiences but it's a skeptic would come to you and say well that's what triggered it and it was in the back of your mind after that and so when you were in these times of being half asleep which just seemed like almost all of your experiences were when you were asleep or just coming out of sleep or something along those lines which is when sleep paralysis happens and um

a lot of other weird things, that that's when it was happening, somebody, a skeptic would say, well, that's because your mind was playing tricks on you and it was your imagination or your subconscious or whatever you want to say, kind of getting the better of you in those moments. But you do say, even though you say your sister didn't have any experiences herself,

Didn't you say that you both saw the electrical cord moving down the hallway and wrapping around a doorknob? If you both saw that, then that would negate the skeptic's view because it wasn't just you who saw it. Somebody else saw it with you. So I don't know. I don't know. And maybe it was the kid who kind of attached to you, related to you because you were close to his age. That very well could be the case.

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When bone or joint pain strikes, you can get better with good orthopedic help. Or you can get the best. Midwest Orthopedics at Rush is ranked first in Illinois and among the nation's best. Our doctors are some of the world's best orthopedic and spine experts, trusted by the world's best athletes, including the Chicago Bulls and White Sox. We offer the best treatments available to help you achieve the best outcomes possible. Don't just hope for the best. Visit RushOrtho.com today and expect it.

If pain is keeping you from the activities you love, you deserve the best care from the best orthopedic and spine practice around. Midwest Orthopedics at Rush ranks first in Illinois. But when it comes to getting the best care, we actually don't mind being second. Because a second opinion from our experts can ensure you get the best treatment available and the best possible outcome the first time. Don't just hope for the best. Get a second opinion at RushOrtho.com today and expect it.

Okay. All right. Let's see here. We'll move on to, we'll go to Jordan. Jordan. Yes. Okay. Darren. Hello and good evening. I'm a new listener to the pod. Well, you're a new listener when you wrote this in July of last year. Sorry, it took me so long to get to you, Jordan. I'm a new listener to the podcast slash YouTube videos and have very much enjoyed them. That's what made me want to submit my stories on the paranormal to you.

In self-disclosure, I'm a military veteran who completed two deployments overseas and training in various arenas. The typical jack-of-all-trades, if you will. That's why I'm skeptical, I'm a skeptical believer of the paranormal. I look at it in regards to known explanations, but when those are worked through, like Sherlock Holmes, whatever's left, however impossible, must be the truth. But before I continue on, uh...

Jordan, thank you for your service. I really do appreciate that. And I totally, totally agree with you that when it comes to the paranormal, make sure that you can't come up with a real life, true, logical explanation.

You say you look at it in regards to known explanations. When those are worked through, then you consider the paranormal. That's the way you should do it. I'm glad that you say that. That's the way the Catholic Church does it, too. When they're asked to see somebody about doing an exorcism, they don't just say, okay, we'll go do an exorcism. They go through, I'm not Catholic myself, but I listen to apologetics.

a podcast called The Exorcist Files, and it's hosted by an actual Catholic exorcist,

Well, I almost said exorcist. That would be an excellent exorcist, an exorcist. Anyway, he talks about how you have to jump through so many different hoops in order to get an actual exorcism because they need to make sure that any possible explanation is ruled out before they jump to demonic entity. And even then,

Even if they think it's demonic, it's not necessarily a possession. It could be an oppression. It could be just a demonic influence somewhere. They have to dig deep. I'm glad you said you'd get rid of everything first. Anyway, moving on. My steps into the paranormal began with, what else, but my first telescope. I put it together on my back porch and looked at the sky. Even over twenty years later, I remember the sky was overcast. Not even the moon was out.

I was about to go back in when I saw a white dot of light at my 10 o'clock position. When I focused on it, it moved from my 10 to 2 in just a few seconds and stopped, which prompted me to yell for my dad to come out. He looked through the eyepiece for a few moments before looking at me with a smile. Son, you just saw your first UFO. Since then, I love that your dad just comes right out with that. Ha ha ha.

Not trying to explain it away. Yep, he's a UFO. Way to go, son. Since then, I researched to find an answer to what I saw. I've tried to use my training and experience to confirm or deny what I saw. I haven't yet. Nor have I been able to confirm four other paranormal instances that I couldn't explain.

My second paranormal experience occurred a couple years after seeing the UAP. I was home watching spaghetti westerns in my parents' room while they were at the store for groceries when I fell asleep on my side, facing away from the door. I don't know how long I was asleep when I woke up feeling someone else in the room. Thinking it was my parents, I turned toward the doorway when I saw a human shape

totally encased in shadow and looking as though it was wearing a fedora hat. Sound familiar? My dad wore baseball caps, so I instantly knew it wasn't him. The entity looked as though it was leaning in to look to see who I was. Instantly knowing it wasn't my parents or anyone else I knew, I tried to scream but passed out from fear.

When my parents came home, I woke up and tried telling them. Of course, I sounded crazy and they didn't believe me, but I tried to understand it all the way through my adult years. My third story takes place around 2010 or 2011, after I came home from deployment. I was staying with my girlfriend at the time at her grandparents' house, a single-story house in the middle of the country.

The house was bordered by an old mining structure about five or six stories tall. After the sun had set, I went outside to get a can of chewing tobacco from my car, my only vice from deployment. After closing my driver's door, I heard something from the mining structure, followed by a smell I can only describe as wet dog having just fought with a skunk.

Wow, what a smell. I drew a pistol I had in a thigh holster and started to move back toward the house, attempting to clear the area. I had my pistol on me in case there were any animals in the area. It wasn't until I was halfway past the house toward the mining structure when I realized where I was, which made me gaze toward it. I tried to see through the shadows in case someone was in the structure when I heard a deep grunt.

I raised my weapon and took a step forward when I heard a hard thump. Instead of firing my weapon, I remembered a thought that whatever it was wouldn't care or be phased about a .40 caliber round being shot at it. I quickly holstered my weapon and ran toward the house. Once I was inside, I found my then-girlfriend and told her what happened. For the rest of the night, I smelled the wet dog skunk smell and kept awake, on guard and alert.

Nothing was broken outside, and that was as far as it went. But the thump was bigger than a deer jumping, and the grunt wasn't like anything I had ever heard. My next story was a few months later, and I had fallen asleep in my room. I came home early from a party and fell soundly asleep before 10 o'clock. I don't know when, but I suddenly woke up while looking at the wall and my back was facing the bedroom door.

I felt awake and alert as I stared at the wall, feeling the worst dread and danger I have felt since coming home from overseas. I slowly rolled over and looked over my shoulder to see a dark figure in my doorway. It was almost as tall as the doorway and as wide. I narrowed my eyes to see if it was someone I knew when it lunged at me, making me roll all the way over onto my back. The next thing I remember I'm sitting up in bed and it's daytime. I first thought it was a dream

But then I looked at my arm and saw three scratches on my forearm. They were surface scratches and were really red, looking fresh. I spent the next few hours convincing myself they were from me sleeping hard, but a piece of my brain still wonders if that incident was something I truly saw and had scratches from it versus something I accidentally did to myself while I slept.

My final story was a couple years later. I was in university and befriended a fellow veteran who had a ghost hunting group. He invited me to one on Halloween night, which I heartily accepted. I've always wanted to use my training and experiences to give an objective look at ghost hunting and wanted to see if I could capture anything. Where we went was a mom-and-pop restaurant that people reported strange incidents occurring, things moving, shadows in lit areas, etc. I grabbed a couple of devices and went at it.

Everything was normal until about two hours in, when I went into the kitchen area. That was when I stopped in the doorway and started looking around, feeling my spidey sense tingling. That's the only way I can describe it, more like a sense I have when someone's behind me. This time it was somewhere in front of me. My buddy came in and saw that I was frozen, which was probably why he asked me, what's up, man? I pointed to my two o'clock, to the corner of the kitchen. That corner is darker than the rest of the room, I told him.

He went over to the corner with an EMF reader and saw that it was one or two points higher than ambient areas. With the electricity turned off, that left me slightly perplexed. After a few moments, it was gone. Even though it was a small and short incident, it left me stunned that I felt where it was and that it was documented, albeit to a small degree, by another person on the team.

I apologize for the long-windedness. I hope that these stories can help others know that there is something out there. We just have to figure it out, what it is, and what, if anything, we can do to record it. Take care and keep up the awesome work. Signed, Jordan. Thank you, Jordan. I really appreciate that. Again, thank you for your service. I think it's... I don't want to say cool. It's odd, I guess. You being in the military...

and all the stuff that you had to deal with in the military. And you pass out from fear because of what you saw with that black shape.

That's how scary does something have to be if you, a veteran dealing with so much stuff? I mean, you, you held it, you held up like a, like a, like a champ going out there and going after whatever had the grunt and everything. You pulled out your gun, you know, you were ready until you decided that it wasn't going to do any good. And you left and you retreated very smart move, but you were brave enough to go out there and do that. And yet just laying down and seeing something you passed out from fear and

That is what I'm talking about when I say what most people experience with the hat man, that's what they experience. Not necessarily passing out, but that kind of fear. You don't say that that second incident was the hat man. You do mention the first one, and you say you did feel fear. That's what I would expect with the hat man. You don't say on the other black figure if it was the hat man, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. It might have even been the same one.

So thank you for sharing those, Jordan. I appreciate it. I would say share more if you get them, but I'm really hoping you don't get them, if you know what I mean. All right, this next one comes from Roberta.

Let's see here. When I was a little girl, my grandparents owned a triplex. All three apartments were occupied by family. That's pretty cool. Actually, when I was growing up, my grandpa and grandma had one side of a duplex, and on the other side of the duplex was their daughter and son-in-law. So it was sort of the same situation, just a duplex, not a triplex. But it was kind of cool that you had a whole family there in one building. Okay, anyway. Sure.

You have many fond memories from that triplex. Years later, after I got married, we were looking for a new place to live. Driving past the old triplex, I saw a for rent sign in the apartment my aunt and uncle lived in, and I jumped at the chance. Not long after we moved in, weird things started to happen. One Saturday night, I was in bed watching TV, and my husband was already asleep. I heard the kitchen door open and close, then footsteps walking through the kitchen toward my bedroom.

I'm quietly trying to shake my husband awake, which of course he doesn't. My cat's ears went up, and then she turned and gave me that look of, "Did you hear that too?" She got up very cautiously with her fur all fluffed out. I was scared, and she was too, but she was brave enough to go check it out. She slowly makes her way out of the bedroom, into the hall, looks into the kitchen, and poof! Like that, she's not scared.

on fluffs, trots back into the bedroom, and jumps on my bed like nothing ever happened. I'm still freaked out, but eventually I fall back asleep. So you're just going to take your cat's word for it. I love it. The next day, my parents' grandmother...

My parents' grandmother who had owned the building previously and lived in one of the other apartments, along with the aunt and uncle that lived in that same one, they came over for dinner. Okay, I'm telling them about what happened the night before when my mom and aunt say, is that still going on? Still going on? What does that mean, still going on?

My mother and aunt proceed to tell me how my aunt would be in the spare room sewing while she waited for my uncle to come home from working swing shift. She'd hear the kitchen door open, close, and footsteps walking through toward the back of the apartment where she was. She'd call out, "'Billy, is that you?' No answer. She'd call out again,

No answer again. This really scared her, so she'd run out the back door over to my grandmother's apartment. If we were visiting, my dad would go over and check things out, but never found anyone. This happened so often, she eventually got used to it. I never knew any of that. I used to sleep over there a lot. Not once did I ever hear of any of them talking about it. Maybe that was a good thing. There are many more experiences at the triplex. I'll submit another time. Cordially, Roberta. Are you a little bit miffed?

That your aunt and uncle or your grandparents or both of them didn't give you a heads up about this? I would... You know, I can understand if they're strangers and they don't tell you. All right, cool. I get that. But this is your family. They should be looking out for you and they don't tell you? No. That is a reason right there to not invite them to the Christmas party. That's...

Thank you, Roberta. I really appreciate that. Let's see. We'll move on here in just a second. I got to get a sip of water and then we'll continue on. Okay. It's been so long since I've done a Fireside Frights. I got so many of these. I probably won't get through all of them, but okay. This one, this one comes from Amanda.

She says: "Dear Mr. Darren, I'm a Christian as well. I'll try my best to keep my story short so as not to bore anyone. Admittedly, I'm nothing special, just a normal woman, but I have been having dreams that feature demons off and on since I was a child. I'll share just a few of them with you. First one I remember vividly was when I was around 8 years old. I'd fallen asleep in the couch in our family room.

I was the only one in there at the time. It was well past midnight when I was scared awake by a sinister voice whispering horrible things in my ear. I was lying on my side and attempted to get up and fight what was whispering to me. However, I was completely unable to move. I couldn't speak, only blink. The demon had me held fast and was pushing my arms and legs tight to my body.

Growing up in church had allowed me to understand what was hurting me. I started praying to Jesus fervently in my mind to help and free me. It took a few minutes of this

You say, you type veggie, but I think you meant verbiage. Before I was slowly let go from its, unless you're talking about the veggie tales. Were you reciting veggie tales to the demon? If so, that might be why it let go. Because you can only take just so much veggie tales, no matter who you are. Anyway, it slowly let go from its evil grasp. I bolted up on the couch, terrified and shaking like a paint drum.

Shaking like a paint drum. I've never heard that term before. I knew God had rescued me and I praised Him, but honestly, I never wanted to experience anything like that again. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case for me. Another time I had an experience with demons in my dreams was when I was about 13 or so. I kept waking up inside my grandparents' old house. It had a long hallway that led from the living room to their two bedrooms. This hallway

Are you talking about dreaming this, or were you actually there? I can't tell yet. The hallway was pretty narrow and almost always dark due to the light switch being at the end of the hall near the bedrooms. I'd always be drawn to my grandma's room on the left at the end.

The time I walked in her room and immediately knew I was in danger. I tried to leave but was unable to move. I was frozen, standing and facing her closet. I suddenly heard a deep voice rumbling out from it as the door slowly creaked open. This is weird but I saw a huge black cat. It was the size of a bulldozer, taunting me and telling me I was his. There were three horrible misshapen human-like creatures dancing around it, holding chains meant for me.

I knew my only hope was to call on my Savior. I started screaming at it that it had no power over me. I belonged to Jesus.

This angered it, and I was suddenly knocked to the floor on my belly. I felt hands dragging me toward the demons in the closet. I started screaming again that Jesus is my Lord, and He is stronger than anything Satan could do. I belted Scripture at the top of my lungs. God had saved me several times in the past from them, so I knew He was my only hope. I was His child. The cat creature started to scream at me like he'd been lit on fire. He blamed me and said that he'd be back.

I was immediately set free and ran for the bedroom door. Once I reached it, I yelled once more that he'd never win. I had the savior of the world on my side. These are just a few of my life-changing dreams that I've had over the years. Just wanted to share my experience in case there are others who have dealt with similar things. I guess I just needed to know I'm not alone. I truly enjoy your podcast and you are a wonderful host. Thank you for all you do. Sincerely, Amanda. Amanda, I'm...

I am really sorry that you had to go through that, Amanda. And that you still do, apparently. You said it's... Do you say that it doesn't... Yeah, you don't say whether or not it stopped or like it's been a long time since you'd had it before. At least I don't see that. Now, you just say there's some of the things that have happened to you over the years. So hopefully it's not continuing on. I don't know what to tell you as to whether or not it actually is a demonic thing. I mean, it definitely sounds demonic.

I think that last story you were talking about, at first I thought it was in your dream. So I was kind of thinking of it that way. But now that you've finished the story, I say, yeah, that was actually a wake that that happened to you, which would be terrifying and definitely demonic. You're not the only one that deals with stuff like that. You're not the only born again Christian who deals with stuff like that. But you have something that others don't have.

You have a savior. You have hope. You know where you're going when your life is over, if anything were to happen. And you're right. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Meaning, Jesus is greater than any evil that can come upon you.

Whether or not you're saved from it or not, that's at His discretion. We don't know His will. We don't know exactly how God thinks. If we did, our heads would probably explode. Because I don't think we have enough brain cells to take in something like that. But...

Yeah, most of the time when I hear stories like this, especially from people who know Jesus, that's exactly what they do, just like you were doing. They start praising Jesus, asking him to save them. They'll start reciting scripture. People who are not Christian or haven't, let me rephrase that, they may have been

They may have been raised in a Christian faith, but aren't necessarily born again. You know, they haven't made that dedication of their life to Jesus type of situation. But even they will sometimes start saying the Our Father or the Hail Mary. And that will...

will negatively affect demons. I don't understand the whole Hail Mary thing. I just still don't understand why that would have such power. That is definitely a Catholic thing, but that being said, I've heard the stories, and so I know it's effective. I just don't know necessarily why, because even though she was chosen to be the vessel that Jesus would come through to be born into this world, she was just a regular girl.

She was special in the fact that she was chosen for that role. But she wasn't sinless, as some people believe. And she wouldn't have been sinless beforehand or afterwards. She just... We're all sinners. That's what the Bible says. We all sin and fall short of God's command, of God's standards. So...

I don't know why saying to Hail Mary would actually make that much of an impact, but somehow it does. At least with some demons. Not all of them. I'm still new in this. I'm still trying to figure all of that out. I can listen to this Exorcist Files podcast over and over and over again, and I'm still just getting little bits and pieces of it, I'm sure.

But yeah, calling upon Jesus and asking him to save you, that seems to work almost every time. And it's interesting because I never hear anybody say, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I never have heard any stories, none have ever been sent to me, never heard them secondhand of somebody calling upon Buddha or Muhammad or Joseph Smith, you know,

Nobody has called upon them and been saved in these situations. It's always Jesus. It's always Jesus Christ or God, the God of the Holy Bible, the God of the Trinity. So you could call him the Holy Spirit, same person. So God, Father, Holy Spirit, Son, they're all the same. So that's the only one, that's the only way though that I've ever heard of anybody getting relief

From a demonic attack, demonic possession, anything like that. So, but I don't think, by the way, that being said, I'm sorry, I got off track. I'm making this into a Church of the Undead somehow. But you being attacked like that does not mean that you are possessed.

I am, people will disagree with me, but I firmly believe you as a born again Christian, if you truly have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you've dedicated your life to him, you cannot be possessed. A demon cannot take over your body and make you do things and see things that you don't want to see through you. However, you can be oppressed and

You can have an outside influence of demons either attacking you, even physically. They can attack you physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. They can try to wear you down. They're not going to have full knowledge of what you're thinking, but they do have an influence of planting thoughts into you. And some of those thoughts could be exactly what you were experiencing, whether or not

what you were seeing was physically there or in your mind, that would still be a demonic oppression or demonic infestation if it's your house. But if it's not just your house, if this has followed you through from one place to the next, then it would be a demonic oppression, I believe. I'm not sure about all the terms, but

Somehow it's following you around which I can only assume is because it doesn't want you to be effective for Christ It's angry with you for having that type of relationship if it started before you gave your life to Christ it could be because it had foreknowledge of Knowing that that it was going to happen to you because they live out just just like the Angels because they are angels They're just fallen angels. They live outside of time and

So, that's why if you go somewhere and get your fortune told, sometimes they can actually see the real thing because it's a demon giving them that information. So, it could be that they knew that you were going to be a Christian. They didn't like the impact you were going to have on others because their goal is to keep you from becoming a Christian. They want to drag as many people to hell as they can. So, that could be it. I don't know. But anyway, you don't say if you talk to a pastor or anything after that. You should. You should.

You should talk to somebody that you trust in the church, whatever faith you happen to be a part of, and just see what they say. They're going to be a lot better source than I am. Thank you again, Amanda, for your message. I appreciate it.

If pain is keeping you from the activities you love, you deserve the best care from the best orthopedic and spine practice around. Midwest Orthopedics at Rush ranks first in Illinois. But when it comes to getting the best care, we actually don't mind being second. Because a second opinion from our experts can ensure you get the best treatment available and the best possible outcome the first time. Don't just hope for the best. Get a second opinion at RushOrtho.com today and expect it.

When bone or joint pain strikes, you can get better with good orthopedic help. Or you can get the best. Midwest Orthopedics at Rush is ranked first in Illinois and among the nation's best. Our doctors are some of the world's best orthopedic and spine experts, trusted by the world's best athletes, including the Chicago Bulls and White Sox. We offer the best treatments available to help you achieve the best outcomes possible. Don't just hope for the best. Visit RushOrtho.com today and expect it.

If pain is keeping you from the activities you love, you deserve the best care from the best orthopedic and spine practice around. Midwest Orthopedics at Rush ranks first in Illinois. But when it comes to getting the best care, we actually don't mind being second. Because a second opinion from our experts can ensure you get the best treatment available and the best possible outcome. The first time. Don't just hope for the best. Get a second opinion at RushOrtho.com today and expect it.

Alright, going to the next one. Make sure to make sure it's okay to use their name. No, okay, they want to be known as Tiny. Okay, alright, I'll call you Tiny. Hello, Darren, I'm contacting you in regards to the episode you posted August 12th, 2024, titled Nasty Gnomes and Evil Imps.

I firmly believe the fae are real. By the way, fae is fairies. My reason for this belief, I will explain. It was the early 70s. I was four or five years old. I was playing horse against myself. I was a lonely kid. I'd just gotten the neighborhood bully to lead me to...

Leave me be, and was wiping my tears away, I noticed a small figure moving out of the corner of my eye. Thinking it was a chipmunk or a squirrel, I looked towards it. I was shocked to see a tiny humanoid on the sidewalk. It was extremely thin, with a head that was just a circle, like a bunch of sticks shaped like a stick person.

It was roughly the size of my Evel Knievel action figure. It was walking from one side of the sidewalk to the other. I said hello to it, and it stopped, looked up at me, and waved. I tried to converse with it, but it didn't speak, so after a few moments I said goodbye to it, then proceeded to walk away. Just before it got across the path, it turned to me and waved goodbye.

It entered the grass and I couldn't see it anymore. I further remember that I walked with little snacks like trekking poles

I'm sorry, I further remembered that it walked with little sticks, like trekking poles. For years I'd look around that area to see if I could find it, or maybe it's home to no avail. I told my mother about it. She said it was a praying mantis, but I could tell the difference between a large spindly insect and a stick person walking upright on two legs. I've only shared this story with my mom, wife, and daughter. My wife and daughter believed me, but my mom always said it was a mantis.

Anyway, I love your show and listen almost daily. A brother in Christ. Tiny. Where did you grow up? You don't say here where you're from. I don't think you say it because in Europe, the Fae definitely are. Well, not as popular, probably not the right word for it, but very much believed in.

And I'm not going to say that they don't exist. That's something that I find interesting. I never really thought about them until I started doing the podcast. And even then, I started doing the podcast in 2015. This October will be 10 years that I've been doing this. And even though I had an interest in the paranormal, ghosts and stuff like that beforehand, I hadn't really been exposed at all to fairies or genies, stuff like that. The only leprechaun I knew about was on a cereal box. So...

But it's been the last, I'd say, maybe three years or so that I've suddenly found myself coming across stories about the Fae. And the more I learn about it, the more I wonder if maybe there's something to that. I don't know what it is. It sounds unbelievable, but then so do UFOs, aliens, Bigfoot, all that other stuff. It's all just as equally unbelievable.

It's just it's not as well known here in the States, the Fae. So I don't know. I've never heard the Fae being described as a stick figure. I think that's kind of cute. It's interesting that it did not run when you saw it. That it actually stood there, waved at you, and then waved again to say goodbye. That's a friendly Fae.

From the stories that I've seen about Faze, they don't stick around. If you do see them, you might see them out of the corner of your eye, like you said there, but as you turn, you'll either see a glimpse of a blur running away, or maybe they're not there at all. Something along those lines. They don't stick around to be identified. They don't want to be seen.

So, very cool. Very cool. If you ever see it again, you definitely need to write in and tell me. And if there's anybody listening right now who has had an experience with the Fae, because I do believe Tiny here is the first person that ever sent me a story about

fairies, goblins, leprechauns, any of the what's considered the fae. I don't think I've had any other ones for fireside frights. If you've had experience with those, please don't make it up. I want real stories. If only if you've actually truly lived through an experience, send it to me. I'd love to read it and maybe share it here. This next one comes from... Okay, they do say their name. Jillian. All right. I'd like to share my paranormal story with you. This is entirely true.

My grandpa died before me and my younger cousin were born, so we never knew him. In my childhood, I was really fascinated by him. I wondered what it would be like to know and interact with him. I was also very into the paranormal, and the two fascinations obviously went hand in hand. I spent a lot of time trying to talk to him and trying to get him to respond to me or send me some kind of message.

I could say a bunch of little things happened that made me think he was listening, but looking back I may have just been a hopeful and naive ten year old. However, one experience stands out from the rest, and that's because my younger cousin experienced it with me. We were in my uncle's house, playing in my cousin's bedroom. We were both probably between the ages of ten to twelve, so we were at that age where we could have some freedom and didn't need constant adult supervision.

I was telling her about my attempts to communicate with our grandpa, and I suggested the two of us try it together to see if he would respond. In very typical child cliche fashion, we spoke aloud to him and asked him to give us a sign if he was listening. To this day, I swear he was listening because the doorknob on her bedroom door turned and the door swung open, only to reveal no one on the other side who would have opened it.

We poked our heads out into the hallway, but absolutely no one was around. We both saw it. Grandpa was, in fact, listening. Wow, Jillian. How do you know? I know you're asking for your grandpa, but how do you know it was your grandpa that responded? That would be the thing. That's always my question when it comes to stories like this.

If you're looking for an experience, especially from someone in particular, how do you truly know beyond a shadow of a doubt that that is the person you're speaking to from the veil, from the other side? I always tend to lean on it, lean to the side of it being a demonic influence, them trying to fool you.

It doesn't look like anything happened with this. It's not like Grandpa showed up and started giving you information that you could use or anything like that. So I don't know what that would have been. And I'm not saying that I wasn't your grandpa. I'm just curious as to how you would even be able to tell something like that was who you were hoping it would be. I've never had that experience. Okay, this one comes...

When you don't sign these, it makes it really hard to determine whether or not I could use your real name or not. I can look at the email and see who you are, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's the name you want me to use. I'm just going to start reading it, and if I don't see it, then I'll give you your name. Hi friends, I'd like to share my story, even though I'm not much of a writer, but I'll do my best to recount it.

I worked at a parts store for several years and witnessed many employees come and go. Some people believe in the strange occurrences at this store, while others may think I'm

Picture this: It was a dark evening in the warehouse around 6pm. We had one final order from a major customer that happened to be on my route home, so I agreed to retrieve the part from the warehouse. It was just me and my manager, a 6-foot tall, 270-pound man with a big black beard. Not easily frightened, but not someone to be trifled with either. I went to grab a brake caliper in the dimly lit section of the warehouse, which had been dark for about half an hour.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone walk past the aisle where I was standing. I called out, but received no response. A shiver ran down my spine, but I brushed it off and continued searching. Suddenly, I saw someone standing right beside me. As I turned to look, I saw a man in a coat. For a split second, my expression turned blank, and I felt uneasy and dizzy, stumbling over... uh... stumbling over... stumbling over. I quickly...

I think you left something, you don't say what you stumbled over. Anyway, you were stumbling, you quickly left the area, shaking off the experience. When my boss asked about the part, I claimed the inventory must be off as I couldn't find it. He decided to check himself before adjusting the inventory. As I waited, my boss returned with a terrified expression, his face drained of color. I asked if he was okay, noting that he looked like he had seen a ghost. His response was chilling. He believed he had seen one.

Tears welled up in my eyes as he confirmed that he had seen it too. We never entered that back room alone after dusk with the lights off for the rest of our time working together. There were other unexplained incidents like a battery falling for no reason and a stack of rotors toppling over despite my inability to push them over. Lots of people that worked there had their own stories too.

Then, years later, I hired an older man as a driver. He shared a story with me. He mentioned that the adjacent building used to house a video store where the owner's friend was shot in the face while covering the owner's shift during a family emergency. The store extended into a warehouse area and I think the unsettled spirit of the victim might still linger, seeking closure.

This tragic event occurred almost 20 years ago. Just think about it. What was the last time you saw a movie store? Signed, Caitlin. Not signed, but that's who it came from. Okay, interesting that you bring this up. I think, did this happen in Kansas City? The reason I say that is my wife used to work at a warehouse type of store, and in the same

um not the corporate building same same building though that that all the other businesses were renting out space on one of them was a movie store right next door uh interesting yeah it's been it's been a long while since you since i've seen a movie store one that's open at least i know they're still out there but just barely kind of like kind of like a working phone booth when's the last time you saw one uh thank you for the story caitlin there it is again i'm hearing the are you hearing the fireworks

It's a little early for 4th of July, guys. You still got about a month to go. Moving on. This one comes from V. Okay, V. "I've been waiting to send this email for a while, but for some reason I've never been able to bring myself to do it up until now. This will probably be a long email, but I'll try to write this in a way that makes sense.

I want to start by saying that I found the podcast back in, I think, 2022 from another podcast that shouted out Weird Darkness. I think it might have been Cult Podcast. I've been listening almost daily since then, as I listen to the podcast while I'm working. I work from home. And if I'm on a longer drive. As I'm typing this email, I'm listening to an episode from October 2023, Nasty Gnomes, Evil Imps, and Terrifying Tommyknockers.

Another email talking about evil imps and nasty gnomes. I touched a nerve on that one, didn't I? "I love the podcast, not only because it's entertaining, but in a weird way it's brought me back to my faith." Wow. "I've never been what I refer to as a 'religious' Christian. What I mean by this is that I of course was baptized and christened in the Lutheran Church, but my parents never really went to church, so I went with my godparents to their Episcopal church for years.

I eventually stopped going as I got older, since I felt like I couldn't connect with their pastor or their sermons. I did the same thing with the Catholic Church. I left because I wasn't connecting. There were a couple of things I didn't agree with either, but more than that, it's just I didn't feel like I was getting anything from it.

Anyway, she continues on, I've never lost my faith, as I know Jesus is my Savior and God is always there, but I've just never felt connected. As I've listened to the podcast, especially the Fireside Frights episodes, I've found myself finding my faith again. The episodes where your listeners...

The episodes where your listeners detail instances where they have either seen angels or have encountered something frightening and prayed for Jesus to help them have brought me back to the realization that God is there and He is always listening. It has brought me back to occasionally listening to sermons through some other podcasts that I feel I can resonate with more than my older church. Before I continue on, V, thank you. Thank you very much.

Telling me that you found your faith again from the podcast is the ultimate compliment. I could not ask for anything better than that, than for somebody to turn to God after listening to a paranormal podcast. That's amazing. So thank you very much for sharing that. And we were just talking about it, just what I was talking about.

What I was talking about with, was it Amanda a second ago? That's exactly what you're referring to here. So thank you. She continues on. Back in October 2023, my grandfather passed and it absolutely wrecked me. I'm so sorry about that. Very sorry for your loss there, V. He was a very sick man. And even though we knew it was coming and we were preparing ourselves for the day, it still devastated my family. Yeah, it was somebody you loved. I get that.

Same with my dad. We knew his dad knew the day was coming, but still, it's hard once it finally happens. I was extremely close with him as all my other grandparents had been deceased for quite a while. My mom's dad passed in '96 before I was born. Both grandmothers passed in 2000 and 2001 when I was only around three years old. I called him every week for a few years prior to his passing, and knowing he looked forward to that call makes me smile. I struggled for a while, and to be honest, there are still days where I still struggle.

Shortly after his passing, I remembered an episode where you spoke about the archangels, and Archangel Asriel really stood out to me. I know it shouldn't have, but I found myself praying to Asriel for not only peace and help in the grieving process for myself and my family, but also for my grandfather, and for Asriel to help my grandfather in his transition into Heaven.

I found so much comfort in doing this, and since then, I found myself praying to God more frequently. Before I continue on here, V says that she knows that she shouldn't have, but she found herself praying to Israel. I know where she's coming from. You should not worship anything other than Jesus, God.

But that was one of the reasons that I left the Catholic Church too. Why would you pray to Mary or pray to any of the saints when you could just go directly to Jesus and pray to him? Why do you need a mediator? Why do you need a middleman? He's God. It's not like you have to take a note and then give it to him later because he's so busy. That's not the way God is. So why would you need a mediator?

But there are faiths that do believe that. The Catholic Church believes that. You were raised Episcopalian. You said, well, that's pretty much Catholic light. So they probably prayed to saints as well. And so praying to an angel for help is not unheard of. It's not really all that surprising.

I personally don't do it because I just think it's a waste of time and I can just go directly to, why go to middle management when you can go to higher management? But, you know, to each their own. You're still trusting in Jesus for your faith. That's the important thing. Okay, anyway, moving on. One thing kind of paranormal that happened actually happened just two or three days after his passing, her grandfather's passing.

Just an added note, he lived in the same neighborhood as my parents, so I grew up going to his house a lot. My grandmother was also my babysitter until she got too sick. She had cancer. In this experience, I had to go into the house to get a fruit basket out of the kitchen fridge. The way the house is laid out, you'd walk into the front door into the dining room and then straight into the kitchen. Back a small hallway to the left, right of the kitchen was a bedroom, and...

and a bathroom. There was a small wall that created the hallway and on the other side of this was the living room, which also opened into the kitchen and through the living room were the other bedrooms and laundry room in the back of the house. As I was in the kitchen, I felt something dark, and it felt like I was being watched. I couldn't get out of the house fast enough, and I remember thinking, "Whatever you do, don't look in the direction of the living room."

I walked out of the house and got into my car, and even then I refused to look back to the house. I peeled out of there and later told my parents what happened. As a back story, my grandmother's sister passed away in the bedroom in the hallway off the kitchen, and both my grandmother and grandfather passed away in the living room. If it was any of them, I feel like I would feel a sense of love and peace, as all three of them loved me dearly as I loved them.

The darkness I felt, I think was caused by my cousin. You see, my cousin has a drug problem, and for a couple of years she lived with my grandfather and did drugs in the house, in one of the bedrooms, in the back of the house. I believe, which is something you've also brought up in the podcast, that by doing drugs you open yourself up to demonic energy. I strongly believe that there was a negative force in that house, which is what I felt that day.

As we were clearing out the house, I still felt some of this energy, but not as strong as I did that day. But I still refused to be anywhere in the back of the house by myself, especially in the room that was my cousin's. Back in March, we sold the house, and any time I go to my parents, I struggle driving by the house, knowing that it no longer is my grandfather's. One last thing before I close this email out. Why do I feel awkward when praying?

Since you consider yourself a born-again Christian, how did you go about rebuilding your relationship with God? I always feel like I don't know how to pray, which is weird because there is no one right way to pray. I usually think of it as having a conversation with God. I also feel like I mostly pray when I need something, which I feel so guilty for.

I want to continue rebuilding my relationship with God and continue to come back to my faith a bit. Your podcast has helped so much, and I look forward to listening every day while I work. I'm actually scared that one day I'll get caught up and only have the new uploads to listen to.

Oh, I see what you're saying. I'm in that Christian mode where you said caught up, I thought rapture. You mean caught up on listening to all the episodes. Wow. Okay, you can see where my mind is. I'm actually scared that one day I'll get caught up and we'll only have the new uploads to listen to as opposed to being able to endlessly binge the show. Thank you so much for all that you do and thank you for taking the time to read my email signed, she just mentions V. You probably have heard them all now because I've been doing a lot of re-uploads recently thanks to my health.

Okay, after sharing that, I'm looking at the email now, and I did reply to her back in August of last year. I just didn't remember replying to her until just now after seeing this. So I don't even remember what I wrote back to her. So I'm just going to read it. Hopefully it says something inspirational and important, but I have no idea. I will say before I read my own comments that I do feel...

V, I'm feeling a little convicted now myself because I have struggled recently with my own prayer life, spending time with God. It's something that I've always struggled with. So you're kind of pointing out something that I deal with as well. All right, here we go. This is how I responded to her back in August. Hello, Victoria. I will certainly use your email in the next Friday Frights, but I thought a personal reply to your last paragraph might be appreciated. Your struggle with prayer.

Welcome to my world. While I've been a Christian now for 35 years, prayer has never come easy for me. I honestly don't know why that is. Are you naturally an introvert and don't talk to people? I'm that way, and I wonder if that's partially why I struggle with prayer. I've never been one to talk just for the sake of talking. I don't communicate that way with friends and family. I only talk when I have something to say.

That also has made me wonder about my own prayer life. Am I being selfish? Do I not really love Jesus as I claim to? The fact is, we are all wired differently, and that includes the way we communicate with others, how often we do, etc. But as the Bible says, pray continually. I know that I should want to talk to God more often than I do, but that's probably the case with everyone in this world, even the ultra-religious.

One thing I've found to be helpful for me is getting back to basics. I've just recently decluttered my life from things that were sucking away my time and energy. Even so-called "good Christian" things, if I felt that I wasn't truly being led by God to pursue them.

I then began listening to sermons from when I first got saved over 30 years ago, from Bible teachers I respected and who were instrumental in the building of my faith early on. I'm spending a lot of time listening to Adrian Rogers and Dr. David Jeremiah , not to be confused with Turning Point USA, which is completely different.

I've also been using an app called the YouVersion Bible app, which not only gives me a verse of the day with a short devotional to go along with it, but has a daily prayer section that can help me, even temporarily, get into speaking to God and praying for others on a list I've created within the app. So that way I don't accidentally forget somebody

The app has also got a section for plans, where if I want to go deeper, I can go through different Bible study plans. I don't do it all every day, because then it feels like a chore, like homework. One day I might listen to a couple of podcasts. Another day I might do some reading in the Bible. Another day I might go through a couple of Bible study plans. That way it keeps from becoming monotonous and predictable and boring.

But whether we're bowing our heads and talking to Him, if we're reading the Bible, if we're listening to His teachings through the created content of others, I believe that it's still communication with God. Your parents know that you love them, even if you're not on the phone with them every single day. And they take pride in you by what they see you do and accomplish, how you relate to others, help others when needed, when you're generous, etc.

They were a part of building those characteristics in you. How much more would that be the case with God who created you? We should all talk with God as best we can, but we should never feel guilt over the amount of time we pray, as condemnation is not from God, that's from the enemy. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1.

If you feel convicted to speak more with God in an encouraging and uplifting way, that's God. And when those urges pop into your head, rather than spending that time beating yourself up for not speaking to Him more often, take those moments to just stop and pray, even for just a moment to say thank you. Say thank you, Jesus, to whatever situation you're in or whatever comes to mind. I think that is the true meaning of praying without ceasing, at least for me.

It's just a day-to-day conversation with God as you think about it. You don't need to feel guilty for doing less than some other person might expect of you. The only person who matters is Jesus. I hope that helps. V, thank you very much for that email. Again, because I... It's really weird. I just learned from my own reply to you ten months ago. I'm reading that now and...

Saying, yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah, yeah, I forgot about that, yeah. I'm replying to my own thoughts and concerns. So, I guess I should thank you for letting me encourage myself. That's a weird feeling. I need a drink after that one. That was a long one. That feels like an email I should end on. I'm not going to, but that would be one that I... If I knew that in advance that was coming, I would have saved that one until last...

Kimberly Akimbo is the winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. And now it's coming to Chicago. It's a story about growing up and growing old in no particular order. The New York Times calls it profoundly funny and deeply moving. The Washington Post says, I loved it from the first note to the last. Kimberly Akimbo, playing at the CIBC Theater, June 10th through 22nd. Get tickets at BroadwayInChicago.com.

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Kimberly Akimbo is the winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. And now it's coming to Chicago. It's a story about growing up and growing old in no particular order. The New York Times calls it profoundly funny and deeply moving. The Washington Post says, I loved it from the first note to the last. Kimberly Akimbo, playing at the CIBC Theater, June 10th through 22nd. Get tickets at BroadwayInChicago.com.

That's the thing about Fireside Frights. I don't read them in advance. I read that one in advance. I just didn't remember doing it. But I try not to read these in advance, so that way my responses are as genuine as they can be. Okay, this one comes from Jane in Erie, Pennsylvania. I just got done listening to your August 30 episode of Fireside Frights and listened to a story that Tony from Colorado had shared about his sweet cat. It brought to mind about our current cat, Ford.

I've always been and will always be an animal lover. I've had cats and dogs in my life and just love the joy I get from them. Eleven years ago we had lost our second cat, Pouncer, and a year before that we had lost his brother, Tigger. So we were absolutely heartbroken that we lost both of our cats within a year's time. We still had our dog, Kia, and she even seemed to be sad at the loss of our cats. The house seemed a little less full with their passing.

My hubby and I weren't sure if we were going to adopt any more cats. So my girls and I went throughout the house and gathered up all the cats' toys and accessories. We threw out the well-used toys and passed on the food and toys to others that could be used. No cat accessories were left in the house. Three months passed and I was still missing both our sweet cats. My heart just couldn't take not having a cat in the family.

So I went onto the website of our local animal shelter and found a kitten I fell in love with. I showed my hubby and girls and everyone agreed to this cat. I filled out the online application. I received a phone call right away from the director of the shelter. She passed on my information to the person who was fostering the kitten in her home. They got in touch with me right away. She informed that the kitten I wanted was in the process of being adopted, but she had others that needed homes and set up a time to meet.

I have to say I was a little disappointed, but I went to her home to see the other sweet kittens there. When we got there, she had a kitten in mind for us to adopt. Before she even had a chance to get the kitten, he came running right to us and practically threw himself into my daughter's lap. We all took turns petting him and holding him. He ran to each one of us, wanting to be held by all.

While I was holding him, I held him like a baby. He was looking me right in the eyes, just purring away, and he took his paws and rubbed my cheek. I swear he felt our pain and was trying to console us. Ford was the name he was given, and we just kept his name the same because he seemed to really respond to that name.

When Ford finally came to our home, his forever home, he acted like he'd been living with us from the start. He never once hid or acted scared. It was as if he knew this was his home and liked it. When he eventually started to explore my younger daughter's bedroom, he found some cat toys that were Pouncer and Tiggers. That was a really kind of surprising thing because I know we'd cleared the house of the toys.

I went through every room, under the beds and dressers. I like to think of it being Pouncer and Tigger's way of welcoming Ford into the family."

There's something that Tony had said in his story that said when you have a cat as a companion, you don't choose the cat, the cat chooses you. That couldn't be more of a true statement. Ford acted like he has known us forever and is the most cuddliest cat. He even talked to you. Even as I write this, he's laying right beside me on the couch, wanting to be involved lol.

Thanks for letting me share, and please give Miss Mocha Monster a pet from me if she'd like it. Hugs, Jane. Well, thank you, Jane. I will give the Miss Mocha Monster a pet for you. She does like being petted. She does not like being held. You cannot pick up my cat and hold her. She does not like that. She's a little more tolerant with me now. She's now, what is she, seven years old now? So in cat years, that's what, like around 30, 35?

So, I guess as she's hitting middle age, she's mellowed out a bit. And I can hold her for a little bit, mostly if I'm holding her up at the window, because she gets a different view, a different angle of the yard and everything else. I think that fascinates her more than anything else. But as soon as I walk away from that window, she's done. She wants down.

That does not mean she does not want to be pepped, though. She will bug the crud out of me. Starts butting me, butting her head against me. I say, come on, pet me. Come on, come on, do it. Come on, pet me. Come on, pet me. Okay, okay, okay. You're so right, though, about how a cat chooses you. I have never been a cat person. I've never been a pet person, but definitely not cats. Even though we had two cats before Miss Mocha, I didn't connect with either one of them.

They were Robin's cats, not mine. But Miss Mocha came around and somehow she and I bonded. I don't know. I don't know exactly why or how, but we did.

And she was still a really young kitty. And I put her between my legs and I rubbed her belly, which I've since learned you're not supposed to do that to cats. They don't like having their belly rubbed. She was totally fine with it at the time. She doesn't like it now. So I understand that, you know, that's an area where they're most vulnerable. So they don't like being touched there. I get that. That would be like hitting the man's nether regions. You know, OK, we're protective of that for a reason. I get it.

But at that time, she was totally fine with it. And I think I think she was. Well, she was she was pregnant at the time. We didn't when we got her. We did not know that she was pregnant. And I think that because she was a pregnant belly, I think that's why she she was OK with it, because I was I was rubbing her pregnant belly and it probably felt good.

It's probably what it was. Unfortunately, she gave birth to the one kitten and that one kitten did not survive. But that being said, I think maybe that's why she was okay with me rubbing her belly. But I think maybe that's why she connected with me because she had that warm feeling of love and comfort at the very, very beginning. And so now whenever she wants to get pet or whatever, she'll play with mom. She'll play with Robin. But when she wants loving, she usually comes to me. She'll sleep with mom too. She sleeps with Robin all the time.

but it's not a loving thing. It's not, well, she loves her, you can tell, but it's not a physical love. When it comes to physical love, she comes running over to me. Anyway, the reason I bring that up is our previous cats were not that way with me, but...

There was one that acted that way with Robin, the way you said that cat came running to you and like jumped into your arms without you even knowing that cat. That's what happened with our cat Patches, the one we had right before Miss Mocha. We were in Kansas City and we had just lost Robin's cat that she had before we even got married, Missy Kitty. And Missy Kitty got her through some hard, hard times.

That cat, if it wasn't for that cat, I really don't know if Robin would even be alive today. I won't go into details on that, but it's just that cat meant that much to her. It was like the only companion, only friend that she had for some time when she was going through some really, really rotten things in her life. But when that cat passed, it was like, when Missy passed, it was like losing a child for Robin. I've never seen her that distraught, not since then either.

That was horrible. I never want to see that with her ever again. But about the time she thought maybe she'd be okay with looking at another cat...

There were some friends of ours who needed to get rid of their cat because they had a dog and I'm sorry, I'm sorry. They did have a dog, but the reason they need to get rid of the cat is they found out that one of their boys was allergic to cats. So they needed to get rid of the cat and they wanted it to go to a good home. And I had heard about it. So I said, well, why don't I talk to Robin and we'll, you know, and we'll see how it goes.

Well, I wasn't sure if Robin was ready for another cat. And she wasn't. She said, no, I really don't want another cat, you know, but I'll be polite. They're friends of ours from church. So yeah, we'll go, we'll talk to them and we'll just let them, we'll let them down gently. Soon as we walked in the door, Patches came running across the house, jumped onto Robin's lap and wouldn't leave. That cat picked up.

her. She didn't pick the cat. The cat picked her. And they told us that cat never does that to anyone. It's very skittish. She'll hiss, you know, maybe at other people. Never ever wants to be touched or even around other people that aren't already family. And for her to jump into Robin's lap, it's like, yep, okay, that's our cat. Yep. We didn't know it was our cat until that day, but yep, that's our cat. So,

Jane, thank you very much. You brought some really pleasant memories. Some hard memories, too, but some pleasant memories with that. Thank you very much.

Kimberly Akimbo is the winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. And now it's coming to Chicago. It's a story about growing up and growing old in no particular order. The New York Times calls it profoundly funny and deeply moving. The Washington Post says, I loved it from the first note to the last. Kimberly Akimbo, playing at the CIBC Theater, June 10th through 22nd. Get tickets at BroadwayInChicago.com.

Hold the kaleidoscope to your eye. Peer inside. One twist changes everything. A woman awakens in a grotesque, human-sized arcade game. A mysterious cigar box purchased at a farmer's market releases an ancient djinn who demands a replacement prisoner. An elderly woman possesses the terrifying power to inflict pain through handmade dolls.

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Kimberly Akimbo is the winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. And now it's coming to Chicago. It's a story about growing up and growing old in no particular order. The New York Times calls it profoundly funny and deeply moving. The Washington Post says, I loved it from the first note to the last. Kimberly Akimbo, playing at the CIBC Theater, June 10th through 22nd. Get tickets at BroadwayInChicago.com.

Let's see, this one, oh, this one's also from Jane. She sent another one later on. Like I said, it's been a while since I've done these. So, Jane says, I seem to be sending in a few stories this time, LOL. An experience I had at least 15 years ago popped into my head last night, and I thought I'd share it with you. This experience involved my dad, who I lost in 2020, and a really good friend who he had who said that

that said that she was a psychic. Now, I know that you're going to say that one shouldn't put much belief in them, and usually there's always a way to get the information out of you to make it work. I was always taught that one is not supposed to know the future and should just live their life as it comes. Anyway, my dad had called me and said that she really, really wanted to talk to me.

I had to think this over because I said, like I said, I don't have much faith in these kinds of things. But I called my dad and told him I'd talk to her as long as she was okay with me having her number versus her calling me. So in other words, you would call her instead of her calling you. Okay, I got it. A couple days later, my dad called and said that she was very agreeable, and I was given her number to call. My dad said she was looking forward to hearing from me.

It took a couple of days to think this over. Not sure if this was a good thing or not, so before I called her I presented it to God and said, "I hope this is okay I do this." I then got this feeling that it was going to be okay, but don't put too much thinking into it. So a day later, after my girls went to school and hubby was off to work, I chose to call her. The phone rang twice and when she picked up I heard a very friendly voice that said, "Hi Jane, I'm so glad you decided to call me."

I was like, "How did she even know it was me?" This was before caller ID, and my dad assured me that he didn't give her my number. This kind of threw me for a minute. She must have understood because she started chuckling and said, "Don't worry, everything is going to be okay." She said she really needed to talk to me because she had two very important things to tell me. I was like, "Okay."

She said before she started any reading with anyone, she always liked to start with a prayer to God. "Was I okay with this?" I said, "Yeah, of course. But I was also silently praying to God asking for forgiveness if I was doing anything wrong, hoping that He would understand." After the prayer, she said that she had a message for me from someone who had passed on.

She said the person's name was Doug. She didn't even ask for me a name that she came forward with the name herself. Doug was my stepfather who had died and was very physically and mentally abusive to me when I was a child. She said that he wanted to reach out to me and basically was sorry. She said

She said that he had to go through his own piece before he could enter heaven. She said that he had showed her a piece of jewelry that he'd given me when I was younger that nobody knew about but he and I. I was kind of surprised at the accuracy, but still held back. She then brought up where my stepfather's ashes were spread. I'd always teased my mother about where she spread them, but

But that was just between her and I. I never told that story to anyone, and my mother and real father didn't really speak to each other. I was sitting there wondering if this was for real. She then went on to tell me that another person wanted to reach out to me. Her name was Rose. Rose was a really good friend of mine of my father's. She had met, she had, uh, they had met down in Jonestown, Pennsylvania where they were both attending a mechanics school.

She'd often come up with my dad and stepmother when they'd visit me. I met Rose when I was about 11 or 12. She was about 10 years older than me, but we became fast friends. She used to tell me that she had special gifts, and she really wanted to share them with me. I knew what she meant, but I'd always try to switch the subject. I appreciate the thought, but I really didn't want to get involved with things I thought wouldn't be good. The visits with my dad, stepmother, and Rose would go on for about a year.

"Surely after my dad and Rose had completed their course, Rose mysteriously disappeared, and no one ever found her. One day I had a feeling that she had passed on. Couldn't explain the feeling, but had it nonetheless."

So, when this psychic said Rose wanted to reach out to me, I wasn't surprised, but what she said next really left me speechless. She said Rose was with me, and before she passed, she'd passed her gifts on to me and wanted her to train me to use them. I was like, holy crap.

She went on to say that I've always had a little of these gifts with me, but just didn't realize it. She said they weren't bad gifts, but good gifts, and I knew I didn't want anything bad. I've always been able to know if someone was kind or not, but I didn't think of it as a gift, just an intuition that I felt God had given me. I've always tried to be a good and kind person, especially if somebody needs help.

There have been many times I have helped someone who has had car troubles or needed a ride somewhere, but I'd ask God if it was okay and waited for that feeling that it would be okay. When I received that feeling, I felt it was God assuring me that I was supposed to be there and help those people. I've always believed in the random act of kindness theory.

I'd heard it somewhere, not sure where, but it goes if everybody just stopped, took a minute, and did a random act of kindness for someone, it'd be passed on and make the world a much better place. I've always tried to live that way. Some days I succeed, some days I fail, but I always try. Anyway, back to what this psychic has said, I really didn't know how to answer, but knew I really didn't want to mess around with these kinds of things.

So, I said I really appreciated that she reached out to me and for her offer, but I had to refuse. She said she understood, but I should reconsider and that these gifts would really help me. I told her I had a gift from God already, but thanked her anyway. We ended our conversation with another prayer and she told me if she needed to call her again. I never did. But I gotta say, some of the things she told me were so true that it really left me speechless. Kept me thinking for a while, but she never charged me for that phone call either.

Thanks for letting me share. Loving all your podcasts. And I am a diehard fan. Hugs, Jane. Well, hugs right back to you, Jane. Thank you very much. Sounds to me like you have the spirit of discernment, the spiritual gift of discernment. So that would be very, very, very much what you're describing, where you can kind of feel if somebody is good or bad, just being around them.

or a situation, like if you're stepping into a situation and suddenly you realize, uh-oh, I don't want to be here. I don't know why. There's no reason for me to feel this way just by looking around, but I just have this feeling that I need to be out of here. That would be like a spirit of discernment.

Some people would say it's almost like being psychic, but in a Christian sense of the word, it would be discernment. So I think that's probably what you're referring to, and that might be what the psychic was referring to as well. She may have...

She may have thought of it in a different term and thought of it maybe as something that she could build upon and strengthen you in. But I agree that you should not have gone back to her. Going to her and finding out what this was, especially after praying to God about it, that's totally cool. You can talk to anybody. It's what you do with that information, I think, is where you need to draw the line. And so...

What this could have done for you is just confirming you that, yes, you do have a gift. You obviously did know that because you told her, yes, God gave me a gift. So that's cool. She might have gotten the message from some nether world, from somebody with less than good motives to take that and train you and twist it.

And then you might still have a gift similar to that, but it wouldn't be for the right reasons. It wouldn't be for the right purposes. And yeah, just my opinion offhand. Thank you again, Jane. I appreciate the emails that you send in. This one comes from...

Making sure it's okay to say his name. Morgan, okay. I'm just about caught up on all the new episodes. Yoo-hoo! Anyway, it's been a while since I shared a story on the podcast. Actually, it's been a while since I've had something paranormal happen to me. I got a short sleep paralysis story for you. Submitted for the approval... Sorry, I gotta say this at the right word. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society... Weird Darkness podcast. I call this story, The Tale of the Demon Under My Bed.

Sorry, 90's TV reference. Couldn't help myself. Okay, on to the story. A few weeks ago in the middle of the night I was sound asleep when I felt something grab my hand. The whole experience is a little fuzzy in my head so I can't quite remember clearly, but what I do clearly remember is that I felt a hand grab onto me. I was laying on my side, towards the edge of my bed. I think I had a panic attack for a second, but then I remember something. If my eyes still shut I said, "Jesus, help me!"

I remember feeling my lips moving as I said those words, but I couldn't hear my voice. And then the hand was gone. I opened my eyes to see that no one was in the room either. At that moment, I felt a sense of relief. I thanked God for answering my prayer, and then I proceeded to fall back to sleep. Thanks for reading my story. Keep up the great work of narrating interesting stories. A fellow weirdo in Christ.

Morgan. Thank you, Morgan. And thank you for picking up the weirdo in Christ moniker that I've created. I haven't used that in quite a while. I haven't put out a message with the Church of the Undead in a long while. And that's usually when I use that. I won't go into why I haven't done that in a while. I just haven't. But the weirdo in Christ thing I still think is pretty cool for those of us who are in Christ.

who are Jesus followers, but still like the weird things, like the paranormal stuff. That's why I coined that story. Your story is very similar to other sleep paralysis stories. And it's good that you recognize that that's what it was, a sleep paralysis situation. And that you're able to kind of compartmentalize that into your head, knowing what it was. But you also, I think you have the same opinion that I do, that

It was a spiritual experience, too, a faith experience. It might have been in your head somewhat, but when it comes to those situations where you have to call on Jesus to save you, when you have that overwhelming sense of evil in the room and there's really no reason to have it there, well, you felt the hand, so obviously there would be a reason for you to feel that. But in those situations, that's what makes me feel that there is a paranormal feeling

evil supernatural aspect to those situations. So thank you for the email, Morgan. I really appreciate it. I, you know what, I'm starting to stumble a lot with what I'm saying. I'm having a hard time concentrating. I think I've got to call it

Call it a night. It is, it's, it's pretty late here. I got started on this Fireside Frights later than I normally would. And I'm just running down a lot faster than I, than I would like. So I'll go ahead and call it a night now. But if you would like to send a story to me, all you got to do is go to weirddarkness.com.

And then under the Contact Social tab, there's a place where you can click on Tell Your Story. Or if you just want to go directly there, it's weirddarkness.com slash submit because you're submitting a story. So weirddarkness.com slash submit.

or you can find it there on the contact social section. Thank you for listening. If you like the show, please share it with somebody you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. All stories used in Weird Darkness are purported to be true, unless stated otherwise. I say purported because we had that one this time, but they're purported to be true.

Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. 1 John 4:11: "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." And a final thought: Flattery is like perfume. Sniff it. Don't swallow it. I'll try to get to another Fireside Frights a lot earlier than ten months from now, like I did with this one. Sorry about that.

I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Career changers, including veterans and active duty service members. Your transition starts here. Go from GI to IT in a matter of months. Become a certified cyber warrior with training at My Computer Career. Cyber security specialists are in high demand, offering IT pros great opportunities and a rewarding lifestyle while protecting our people, liberty, and treasured institutions from cyber threats. Deploy your career in IT today.

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Do you like my horror-able humor episodes called Mind of Marler? If so, and you'd like more, it now has its very own podcast. Comedic creeps, sarcastic scares, frivolous frights, macabre madness. Every week I dive into strange history, twisted true crime, and paranormal weirdness. All the stuff you'd expect from me on Weird Darkness, but delivered with dark comedy, satire, and just the right amount of absurdity.

They've been here for thousands of years, making their presence known in the shadows. They might be seen by a lonely motorist on a deserted road late at night, or by a frightened and confused husband in the bedroom he's sharing with his wife.

Perhaps the most disconcerting part of this phenomenon boils down to this question: has the government been aware of their presence all along and is covertly working with them towards some secret end? In the audiobook, Runs of Disclosure, what once was fringe is now reality. While listening, you'll meet regular people just like you who have encountered something beyond their ability to explain

You'll also hear from people of great faith and deep religious belief who continue to have these strange and deeply unsettling encounters. Author L.A. Marzulli explores these ongoing incidents to discover the answers to these questions: Who are they? What do they want? And why are they here? Can you handle the truth? Listen to this audiobook if you dare!

Rungs of Disclosure, Following the Trail of Extraterrestrials and the End Times, by L.A. Marzulli. Narrated by Darren Marlar. Hear a free sample on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com.