S18 Ep35: Violent ghosts, mermaids and biological UFOs (Sn. 18 Ep. 35)
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True Stories

Stories of the strange, unusual, supernatural, and the paranormal. Calls like Andrew's out of the state of California. Hey Derek, my name is Andrew. I'm originally from Athens, Ohio. Although, much like you, I've moved out to California. I live up in Humboldt County. Beautiful out here.

And my story took place when I was living with my grandparents in the town of the Plains, which is a like almost a suburb of Athens is where the high school is. But anyhow, so I lived with my grandparents growing up. They had this old aluminum paneled two story white house right on the corner on Conant Road.

And from between, I wanna say like '95 to like 2000, '99, on my bedroom on the second floor, right next to my bed, I had a table with all my action figures on it. I'd play with them and whatnot. But I didn't like sleeping with them facing me. So yeah, it's weird. Athens County is weird. So I'd turn them to face away from me, and every night they'd be turned like a 45 degree angle

Like, it almost turns towards the head of my bed. And this went on for about three or four years before I eventually just took them down. Now, my bedroom was on the second floor. My bedroom was locked with a latch, like a hook latch. So even if someone was sneaking into my bedroom, they would have to...

...relatch the door before they leave, and they couldn't really do that. I look for a reasonable explanation, like, "Oh, there's a lot of semi-trucks that pass my house. Maybe it's these subtle vibrations of the truck that's just making them slightly vibrate... ...and, like, slightly rotating them over time." Ignoring the fact that it only happened at night.

So, yeah, creepy story from Athens, and that was going to be it. I was actually going to leave this story with you last week, and then I called my mom and told her, hey, I'm still listening to this great new podcast, Monsters Among Us. I told her my story, and she's like, oh, it was probably the little boy who did it. And I was like, what little boy? I'm like, oh, yeah, when my grandparents bought the house in 1964...

Apparently, the owner had a station wagon and a five-year-old son, and she was backing up, and he somehow tumbled out the back, and she didn't realize it until she ran over and killed him. So, apparently, my grandmother saw a little boy running around when I was about that age, and she thought it was me, and then she would see me playing someplace entirely different with my mom.

So, yeah, apparently my house was haunted. They also told me the sound of footsteps I would hear every night was just, it's an old house, it creaks, the constant feeling I was being watched, just like, yeah, no, like, the house was haunted. So it took me a while to internalize that and recontextualize some other stuff of my childhood growing up. So after my grandparents passed away, it got sold to...

And a daycare company bought it, and then a daycare opened up in it after we all moved out. So, hopefully, at least the young kid at least isn't lonely now. Also, when I was a little kid, I noticed there was a pair of small child's little footprints in the cement back porch. And I was like, huh, those aren't mine. I wonder who the little boy who lived here before me was. And they never told me.

Thank you, Andrew. Old Athens, Ohio. Hometown of Joe Burrow, for you football fans. And Sarah Jessica Parker, for the rest of you, if I remember correctly. And not too far from where I grew up, actually. Just a little over an hour from there. And you know, anyone that knows anything about Athens knows that it's a scary place.

According to the British Society for Psychical Research, the 13th most haunted place on Earth is Athens, Ohio.

I think it's the combination of things here in Athens. You have strange things, ghosts, a poltergeist activity, a spooky cemetery. You throw in a crying angel, a haunted mental health center, residence halls that have ghostly inhabitants walking in the halls at night, and you end up with a pretty spooky but pretty special place. I've met a couple people that have felt very uncomfortable here from the start and said that they will never ever set foot in Athens, Ohio again.

Now I've linked to that full episode if you would like to blast back to the early 2000s. And that was just the tip of the iceberg as far as activity goes. There are all sorts of legends from that little town on the Hawking River. So hearing that you had visitors in your home there, Andrew, well that don't surprise me much. But I do love the entry and there is no better way to kick off tonight's episode. So thank you again for calling in.

Now, folks, we need to take a break for a couple of advertisements. But when I come back, a close encounter of the second kind. We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Every new year brings a chance for a new beginning.

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Hi Derek, this is Gina from East Texas. I am absolutely freaking out right now, but I was like thinking, oh my gosh, I have to immediately call this in to Monsters Among Us and tell y'all as this is like just coming back to me in this moment. I was actually listening to a different podcast because I'm already caught up in all of your stuff.

but I was listening to another podcast and something that this other person had said, it triggered a dead gum memory of a UFO. I texted my sister immediately because my entire life,

I always thought this was a dream, but it had a different feeling about it, like just a real feel, like it was just a deeper set dream or something. And I'm like, okay, well, in this supposed dream, my sister was with me, and she's older than me, so I'm like, well, I can ask her some questions about this, and I can keep it very vague, and if she can fill in those blanks, then I know 100% that this happened for real.

So I texted her and I left it very simple. I told her, hey, I have this weird memory or dream. I just want to confirm something to see if you remember this too. Oh, and this was back in like, I was really young. So it was somewhere around 89 or 1990. I was about four or five when this happened.

We were living in Houston, Texas, and we were living in Magnolia Gardens at the time, back before the flood of 94 that got us out of there. So anyway, our trampoline was real close to our house.

and it was dark outside. I guess we were allowed to play a little bit past dark because we had the light from the back porch shining on us, and we just had our toys with us on the trampoline, and we were just having a good little time. We loved being outside at nighttime. It was nice and cool. We could see the stars. It just had a different feel. We just liked

like being out at night. Well, I told her, I was like, hey, we were on the trampoline at nighttime playing with our toys. Something spooked us and we ran in the house

And we were looking out the back door window. We had left our toys on the trampoline. We were really concerned about our toys. And I was like, can you confirm what that was? Like, did this actually happen or was I dreaming? And he immediately texted me back and filled in all the info. So let me tell you about that part. So...

We were sitting there on the trampoline, and out of nowhere, with absolutely no noise, this blue bubble or orb of thing comes down from the sky, and the thing is massive. It is just absolutely huge. It's bigger than our two-story house from what I remember. I was a very young child, so... And this big blue...

orb spear thing is coming down to the sky it is massive it's not making any sound it's bigger than our house our house sat on one anchor and our house kind of sat mostly central of the property and we had two neighbors who if you're looking out the front door our neighbors would be to our left

So I think in development, those two lots were probably together an acre but got split in half. So the neighbor kind of to our left but behind us

They didn't have any trees on their property. It was all grass and they maintained it very well. It's very pretty looking grass. They worked very hard for it. And we're sitting there on the trampoline watching this blue, glowy bubble thing come down from the sky and land in our neighbor's yard. Now, from what I remember...

It didn't seem like it landed in the grass. It actually seemed more like it hovered above the grass, but it had some sort of like force field effect that did make an impression on the ground because there was an indent in the grass, an impression in the grass that we checked out the very next day.

So I vividly remember seeing this orb thing, this massive orb thing that took up like all of their yard and was taller than their house.

smaller than ours. We had a two story at the time. They had a single story. Of course, it was taller than theirs, but I see this part of this orb open and a being walking out. And it was like, just like in the movie, it's all like kind of fogginess like effect.

Now that part, I am not sure is something that my tiny baby brain made up or if that part was real. Because my sister said, I mean, we both saw the same thing, but she didn't see it open up and didn't see it being. She said that I said that I could see something that's what scared us and we ran inside. But just the fact that this big blue orb thing was

got confirmed and I'm 39 years old now and my entire life I thought that that was a dream I am just in shock right now that that was real

So if y'all are able to find anything, I haven't had two seconds to even try to research this myself. But if there is anything in that area, so Magnolia Gardens, real close to Crosby, Texas. We had a paper mill close to the house, I remember, because any time they were in production, it smelled horrible.

Thank you, Gina, for calling in. I think that's exactly what this encounter was. A close encounter of the second kind, and a CE2 as they call it, is described exactly as such. A UFO event in which a physical effect is alleged.

This can be interference in the functioning of a vehicle or electronic device, animals reacting, a physiological effect such as paralysis or heat and discomfort in the witness, or some physical trace like impressions in the ground, scorched or otherwise affected vegetation, or a chemical trace. And you know the Close Encounter Scale was actually created by Dr. J. Allen Hynek of Project Blue Book fame.

And it goes all the way up to CE3, where contact with an alien is had. Which, you know, now that I think about it, also describes Gina's story. Because she did mention some sort of creature emerging from the craft, after all. And, you know, since Gina asked, I did a little digging through the National UFO Reporting Center website to see if I could find any other reports that might allude to the same thing that Gina claims to have encountered. And as we often do hear it, it may you.

we struck gold. Now the dates don't line up perfectly, but given that nearly 40 years have passed, maybe the numbers were off just a bit. To me, it was just too similar not to share. Now the following is sighting number 173465, and the witness approximates the time and date of the encounter to be November 1st, 1986. The location is somewhere outside of Houston, a suburban neighborhood that edged a forest.

Those were the only details given. Now here is what the witness wrote through the voice of her very own Delaney Bowers. I was between 8 and 12 years old and went outside to take out the trash. Our house was in a new neighborhood and there was an empty lot next to ours, then another house, then a forest. I'm female.

When I took out the trash, I walked over to a cluster of bushes and small trees in the empty lot for reasons unknown. A bright, bright cobalt blue orb of light that was larger than a softball but smaller than a cantaloupe came from the upper left of the air out of nowhere, jetted down in front of my left hand side.

floated for two or three seconds, then jetted off in the same path and disappeared. I had very bad migraines as a child after this, but I'm not sure if it's related. I never received treatment. That's pretty daggum similar to me. What do you think, Gina? And you know I should point out that there were several blue orb sightings across the state of Texas.

And I've linked to those reports, plus the one that was just read in tonight's show notes. So check out the description of this episode or visit our website at MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the show notes tab. Well, this is all on my radar now, Gina. So I'll be sure to keep my ears and my eyes open. And thank you again for the phone call. Now next up, we venture up north, way up north. Please welcome Joe to the program.

Hey, Derek, this is Joe from northern Michigan. I've been on your program at least once when you had Bryce from Expedition Bigfoot on. I've got another big hairy guy story for you. I'm a big hunter up here in northern Michigan, and I've got a bunch of people that hunt out on my property.

And my buddy who is not a believer, by no means he makes fun of me all the time because I am a believer. I'm not a knower, but I'm a believer. And he was out hunting in his blind. He's been having the same two, we keep calling them twins, but the same two deer come in for like four or five days in a row, four or five, six times a day. They just keep coming in.

And he mentioned that one day, all of a sudden, he was hearing a kitten meowing all day long, but the twins kept coming in. And all of a sudden, the twins took off, and he mentioned that he couldn't hear birds, he couldn't hear bugs, he couldn't hear squirrels or anything like that. And he mentioned that he kept hunting, said all of a sudden he got this waft of smell that came through.

And by that time, I'm getting pretty excited for him. He doesn't know why I'm getting excited. I says, well, did it smell like a wet dog? And he came back with, yes, wet dog with gunk mixed in. And at that point, I knew exactly what he was dealing with.

He still doesn't believe me, but he stayed out there for the rest of the day and he saw nothing. It was dead quiet for the rest of the day. And I've had that issue before hunting out in northern Michigan where everything just goes dead quiet. Nothing ever happened. But I never had a smell like that, but he said he had a smell off in. He didn't know what was going on.

Thank you, Derek. Again, you're doing a great job. Keep up the good work and I'll call back with more. Bye. Thank you, Joe. You know, he might be on to something. Because bad odors are part of the Bigfoot Sasquatch legend. People often speak of a foul smell moments before or after an encounter. Often described as a dead animal, raw sewage, rotting egg, hot dumpster sort of smell. But as crazy as all that sounds...

There just might be some science to back up those claims. You see, male great apes use a pungent body odor to mark their territory, announce their presence, signal stress or arousal, and for defensive posturing against other males. Additionally, from a flesh and blood perspective,

Giant hominid creatures that reside in nature are constantly exposed to the elements such as mud, mold, algae, swamps, urine, feces, sweat and decomposing animals that they use for food sources. So in short, perhaps they smell like it because they're in it. And you know the most popular opinion out there seems to suggest that this creature, if it exists, is likely some sort of ape. So this all ties together very nicely.

So there you have it. Certainly not proof of Joe's claims, but a little bit of supporting evidence, I suppose. Either way, thank you again, Joe, for ringing in. Listen up, horror movie fans. I have a giveaway just for you.

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And it's also worth mentioning that the film also features an archival interview called Under the Skin, Doug Bradley on Hellraiser, where the iconic actor discusses his first appearance as Pinhead. You won't want to miss this. Again, that's Hellraiser, newly remastered in 4K, returning to theaters nationwide next week on February 5th and 6th. Get tickets at fathomentertainment.com.

Alrighty then. This next story comes to us from parts unknown. Please welcome Sasha to tonight's program.

Hi, my name's Sasha. A few years ago, my family, just my brother and my mom and I were traveling from North Texas up to Colorado Springs. And we had stopped halfway in between in Amarillo, Texas.

And it was dark outside because we had left in the morning that day. It was probably late December because we were going after Christmas time. And we were trying to get to Colorado around New Year's. So I think it was like December 28th. So we had gotten to the Airbnb again like...

It was out in the countryside of Amarillo. It wasn't in town, Amarillo. We're going to stay at this bar in a minium. So we drive up to the gate. It was already kind of confusing to find the Airbnb.

And the lady just gives good instructions how to get there. But we finally are pulling up to the gate, and I see some weird, like, lights in the sky. And what I saw doesn't sound like other people's lights that they've seen. It was like squiggly lights is what I remember, like maybe pinks and blues. And it wasn't like a number of lights. It just seemed like...

an assortment, I guess. And so, yeah, like wiggly, they were going around and they didn't last super long and they might've flashed. I honestly don't remember a whole lot, but I also don't want to remember something like imagine something that wasn't true. So at the same time I had shut off my phone because we didn't need the maps anymore. Like I had just found the property and,

And I had opened this app that I had back then. I don't know if it was called Starry Night, maybe. You could like put your phone, move it around and you could see all the stars.

and where the sun and the moon are and I just thought it was interesting. I checked it like every day around that time. I'm not really sure why I'm not like into astronomy or anything. I just thought it was cool. So I opened that app and then quickly shut it off after I was done looking at where the moon was trying to find the moon and that's how I had looked up into the sky.

After I saw those lights, the radio in our rental car, which was like an Audi Quattro or something, it was a bigger SUV. It's like super fancy, has Bluetooth. So I had used it earlier in the day while we were traveling to listen to music via Bluetooth. But my phone, I hadn't had anything on and I just hear weird sounds. And I'm going to try and make the sound, but mind you, it's a little cringe, but it was

It was like, like weird. I don't know. Other people on this podcast have said it sounds like voices are talking over their radio. One gentleman, the same guy with like his shaking mirrors and glasses.

I didn't have that experience, but I did feel it. Yeah. I mean, it might've been on the windows. I didn't notice that. I just thought it was weird. I heard some static too, but I thought that was weird because it was such a new car. It didn't last super long, but probably made sound for about a minute.

And, you know, it has a big touchscreen and my phone was already connected to it prior. So I found it weird that it made this sound out of nowhere. For a second, I thought maybe the Starry Night app was like making sound because it did have background music sometimes, but it didn't play the background music over the radio. So I have no idea what that like squeaky noise and like...

Thank you, Sasha. You know, I've driven through Amarillo a handful of times. Talk about a town that's in the middle of nowhere. I think they have a big rodeo there as well.

Now as for the experience, I've spoke about this before, but growing up, pre-internet, I used to play around with CB radios a lot. Back in those days, there were all sorts of people on there talking late at night. And some of the bigger, stronger radios, especially those with illegal boosters, had the ability to interfere with your radio and TV. So maybe that is what Sasha encountered.

But you know, believe it or not, this is not the last unidentified flying object over Texas that I have to report to you tonight. But you'll have to wait a bit on the next one. Until then, thank you again, Sasha, for sharing your entry. Now, folks, this just might be your last chance. Everything in our merchandise shop is 20% off as part of our moving sale. Now, the shop is headed to Ohio, where my mom will resume shipping duties tomorrow.

But in the meantime, we're trying to clear out as much inventory as possible before we have to box it up and ship it out. So visit MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com today and pick up some amazing MAU-themed gear designed by the paranormal artists you already know and love. Now act fast. Not only is the sale ending soon, but the sizes and designs are already starting to sell out. And some of those may be sold out for good. That's MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com.

So I think this was my very first, what I believe was a paranormal encounter when I was 14 years old. It was 1979 and my grandmother passed away in January.

Probably sometime that summer, they were able to finally get around to doing her burial because apparently they couldn't do it in January. I don't know if it's because the ground was frozen or because we just couldn't get up there because this was in Syracuse and I live in Connecticut. So it would have been a bit of a haul for my parents to drive all the way up there. I'm not really sure, but I just know that it was just my dad

My younger brother, who was 12, I would have been 14 or somewhere thereabouts. My uncle would have been my grandfather's brother and maybe a couple of other elderly people who had been friends of the family minister. And I think that was about it.

And we were at the graveside, and it wasn't like a traditional funeral service with a casket and all that other stuff. It was very casual. Some guy showed up basically with a cardboard box that had my grandmother's ashes in it. I had no idea what it was. He just set this box on the ground, and I just said to my dad, what is that? And he's like...

That's your grandmother. Anyway, we were standing around kind of in a circle around this box on the ground and the minister started giving his service. And my brother was standing next to me to my left. And all of a sudden he went flying. I mean, he didn't crumble. He flew backwards and

And he came just a few inches away from a headstone that had been probably about 10 or 12 feet behind him. And everybody was just like floored. Nobody knew what the heck was going on. And we all just kind of looked at each other. And I don't know if the adults were trying to be protective and not admit what they had seen or if they just were in denial, but...

Everybody was just like, oh, he passed out. It must be the summer heat. It wasn't that hot. Anyhow, the minister decided, he said, maybe we should just wrap up this service. So we were all holding hands. And I don't know why we're all holding hands around my brother. I think that I don't know if anyone was even kneeling on the ground next to him or whatever. I just know he woke up and he told me later he thought he was dead because we were all standing around him holding hands in a circle and praying.

But anyhow, I talked to him about it later, and he said he felt like something had pushed him. And my dad admitted that he saw my brother fly, but he still swears up and down, or did swear up and down, that, yeah, yeah, yeah, he just passed out. He passed out. It must have been the heat. I don't know what it was, but...

There's a little part of me that kind of wonders if something didn't take control of him because he had always been a good kid up until then. And after that, he just became the black sheep of the family. That fall, he had quote-unquote borrowed the family car and smashed it up. He was 12 years old. 12. And after that, he was just constantly getting into trouble. I know it could just be a matter of him hitting puberty, being the baby of the family, and...

just being a bad kid. But part of me doesn't want to admit that, I guess. I mean, he was getting in trouble with the cops. He was stealing from my parents. He was stealing from the neighbors. He was just pretty much out of control for a long time. Until he was about 22 years old when he passed away from testicular cancer.

By the time he was near the end of his life, he was remorseful for the way he had been. But part of me still just has to wonder if that incident didn't have something to do with it. So anyway, Derek, I think you're doing a great job. I've been binging the show, really enjoying it. So I guess to be cliche, keep up the good work. And thank you. Thank you, caller.

You know, it sounds like someone or something in that cemetery was mighty upset. And you know I hadn't even thought about that. Perhaps there was already a spirit in that cemetery. Perhaps one that's not all that happy about being there. And seeing a funeral in progress only angered it further. So that's when the spectre decided to make its frustrations now. And since the brother was younger and I assume the smallest in the bunch, maybe that made him the perfect target.

and maybe as our caller suggested whatever attacked him that day stuck with him influenced him maybe even ruined him now if that is the case it's a terrifying notion but regardless it was an amazing tale and we thank you again caller for sharing it here tonight all right folks i'm going to sneak in one more entry before we move on to our next break so how about another unidentified flying object

I hear those things are very popular in the state of New Mexico. Let's see if Randy can substantiate that claim. Hello, Derek. My name's Randy. I'm from New Mexico. I live on the reservation about 23 miles northeast of Los Alamos. I'm calling to talk about UFOs, lights I see at night.

I know New Mexico's famous for that, but there hadn't been much till maybe the 90s that my father started seeing some. And lately, I can see maybe three times a week when I care to look. And I know that sounds unbelievable, but it's not that they're up close. It's that they're really high up and

I've seen satellites. I know the difference. I've got a few video recordings of it and I can send them in, but I'll talk specifically about what I saw two weeks ago. I can't remember the date off the top of my head, but it is timestamped on the video I'll send you. I went outside to let the dogs out and I was just looking around like I normally do.

to see what's up there, to look at the stars because they're so beautiful out here outside of the city limits. And I saw what was an obvious helicopter, but there were three lights that were white blinking and an orange light that was following those three.

blinking very erratically, un-uniformly, is the helicopter, because I could hear the rotors. But what was different about this was that the other lights disappeared from behind the helicopter and went to in front of it, and that's when the helicopter changed direction. So it must have been, or at least they must have seen it. And that's when I ran inside and I got the...

phone to take a video and I got a little bit of it, but it was insane how it happened so quickly. And I see these things very, very often lately before I had only seen one about 10 years ago. And again, it's always late, late at night. And that was the closest that I've seen. Normally I see things way really, really high in the atmosphere. And I

They blink with like, almost looks like it's like the jellyfish and deep sea creatures you see in the deep ocean. So I did see a video on the UFO Reddit that showed something very similar, but really up close from a passenger jet.

I'll see if I can locate that as well and try to share it with you in an email that I'll send you with the video and this recording. Thank you, Derek, for all you do. You really kick some good A on the people you bring and the new subject of, at least new to me, of the Mirror Men. Thank you, Derek, and keep up the awesome work. Thanks.

Thank you, Randy. You know, if it's a UFO you're looking for, there may be no better place to start than the Land of Enchantment. The Roswell crash, the Aztec crash, the crash at Corona, the Lani Zamora incident, the Farmington flap of 1950. The list goes on and on. And maybe it's the military installments down there that's attracting whatever these things are. Or maybe it's all that nuclear testing.

Whatever it is, New Mexico seems to be a hot spot, and Randy seems to have the proof. So thank you again, Randy, for taking the time to ring in. Now folks, I'll be right back with a couple monster stories that you won't want to miss. I'll be right back. And just for the reason you said, I think it's really important. After they start charging themselves at a crossroads, maybe it's good to consider if you want your bank to be community-oriented or corporate-minded.

Now as promised, the first of a pair of unique monster stories. Sure to scare you, silly. Jade from Texas. Welcome to the program.

Hey Derek, this is Jade from Mortal Kombat and I'm calling from Houston, Texas. This story is about a seeran or a mermaid, whatever you want to call it. And this happened about a couple of years ago. So this happened over at Surfside Beach, which is a popular beach over here on the

on the Gulf Coast outside of Houston. Me and my boyfriend at the time, we were camping out under the full moon, which was something that we like to do every so often, every other full moon. So...

This was more his experience. He told me this happened the next morning because I had gone to bed early. And basically what happened was it was maybe, I don't know, 10, 11, midnight, somewhere around that time period. I had worked early that day.

I had planned on staying up late with him because he's a night owl, but I was super tired. I was like, I'm sorry, I'm going to go to bed. And so he stayed out by the campfire. He was sitting in his little chair. He also had music playing. Again,

this is everything that he told me. So he said he had music playing, specifically the song that was playing during his encounter was The Scientist by Coldplay. So he said he was singing along to that song

kind of staring at the fire, full moon, and I'm guessing it wasn't too cloudy because the moon was shining, the moonlight was shining. And basically he told me that something caught his eye off in the distance and

where the moonlight was shining on the water that he looked over and he saw a silhouette of a figure standing in the water. Now, keep in mind, this is super late at night, out on the beach, which, to be honest,

To be honest, usually it's not ever crowded. I've been going out to this beach ever since I was like in my early 20s. This beach does not get crowded at night, let alone have people walking along the beach at night. So he said he looked over, he saw a silhouette in the moonlight in the water.

And he said this encounter happened maybe just like less than a minute. He said he saw it. And he went to stand up out of his chair. And the second he stood up, the figure turned around and splashed into the water. And he said he saw a fin. Like a tail. Like a mermaid tail. And I asked him that. I was like, it was a mermaid tail. And he was like, yeah, it...

had a human shape like it was standing in the water or something but when he stood up to get a better look at it it turned away and he saw a flipper in the water i definitely believe him i don't know about any other mermaid sightings along the gulf coast but yeah that's my story i'll probably call back with a couple other ones so love the show thanks bye

You know, I'm just now realizing I accidentally almost did an "Oops All Texas" episode here. I did not intend to include so many stories from the Lone Star State, because I do my best to give a good sampling each week. But I guess I let the subject matter influence me this time around. But who wouldn't? A real live mermaid. How could I resist? Okay, look, I know what you're probably thinking. Yeah, right. A mermaid in Texas. What's next? A Kraken in Lake Erie?

Well, don't throw your skeptic shield up just yet, because this isn't the first mermaid story I've received from the Texas coast. On Season 10, Episode 3, I shared a call from an anonymous witness that hit a lot of the same notes that Jade's entry did. So I dug the call up and trimmed it down to a sleek minute so you can contrast and compare for yourself. So, this is Anonymous from Texas.

But it had arms, long arms. And the face, man, the face was just... Like I said, it was about 10 foot down. It was clear, so I could see a lot. I could see it pretty vividly. The face was just kind of a...

I want to say like a bluish green color. I mean, it was kind of that coloration and it was just odd. Actually, later on, whenever I was at home, you know, just a couple of months later, whenever it was, my wife was watching Harry Potter. And I think it's one of the latter films of Harry Potter. And they had the bad wizard. The face of that wizard looked almost identical.

to this face. It stopped me in my tracks whenever I was kind of walking by and glancing over the TV. I was just like, "That's it. That's what it is." You had little slits in the nose. You had just this weird reptilian face, and the hair was kind of a dark, matted type of hair. It was just very odd. Very, very odd.

Now Texas has 367 miles of coastline, so these experiences couldn't have occurred too far from one another, and they sound awfully similar. Now Delaney and I did search for more Lone Star mermaids, but we came up dry. But I will keep my ears open, and I'll be sure to circle back should any new information make itself available. But until that point, thank you again, Jade, for sharing this amazing experience.

Alright gang, it's time for tonight's closer. And for this one, we're headed to Florida. Then believe it or not, back to Texas. Please welcome Kit to the program. Hey Monster Squad, this is Kit from the Tampa area. This one happened to my best friend. So with her permission, and actually a request from you, from your Facebook page, after I posted about it, I will tell you all about it.

My friend used to live in Texas. She said the property her family owned was strange. They would often see and feel odd things, like balls of light moving around unnaturally.

A few months back, I started drawing my 100 favorite cryptids because I love to draw cryptids and I wanted to challenge myself. And when I drew what folks call sky serpents or atmospheric beasts, she told me that she had actually seen one back on that property.

So one day her younger family members were playing outside when she heard them running to get her. They told her to come out and look at this weird animal that was on the ground making noises as if it was hurt. The kids were making flapping gestures as if they were imitating a bird. She went out to see, but by the time she got there, the animal wasn't on the ground. Instead, she saw something moving in the sky.

She said it had a bright glow with a little gold. It was shaped like a manta ray just swimming through the sky. My friend is a little more interested in self-preservation than I would be if I saw it. So instead of running toward it and trying to touch it like I would, she got everyone back inside and basically they all tried to forget about it. It was when I listened to

Season 14, Episode 12's encounter with atmospheric beasts and then the descriptions that followed it. I was really shocked to hear that the manta ray shape is a pretty common one reported, and that seems to validate what my friend saw. She's not as keen as I am to be a Fortean sleuth, so she's not interested in ever seeing such a thing again.

Hopefully the next one comes to one of us instead. Thank you, Derek and Sarah, for all of your hard work. It's phenomenal, and we all love you for it. Bye. Thank you, Kit. Now, Kit is one of our amazing artists that created artwork for the products in our merchandise shop. Just visit MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the Shop tab, and check out the beanie design. You can spy her handiwork there. Now, as for the tail that Kit spun...

You know I've been dying to talk about these things. Sky whales. Biological UFOs. Atmospheric beasts. Gargantuan gliders, as the boys over at Kryptonaut call them. Whatever you know them by, the experience is always the same. Typically described as gigantic, low-density, mostly translucent creatures that live high up in our atmosphere. Miles above even the highest commercial jets.

Now these creatures aren't sighted all that often, but when they are it's mostly because they drift down into the lower parts of the atmosphere. At least that's what the reports suggest. And you know there are plenty of reports, even several out of the state of Texas where this encounter took place. In fact, the following encounters were reported to Lon Strickler on his website, Phantoms and Monsters.

Hello from Braunfels, Texas. My fiance and I were watching the stars last night and saw a translucent manta ray looking creature in the sky. It was literally swimming gracefully in the sky. We watched it slowly swim from one side of the sky to the other. It was cloaked like we could see it but it was clear. It made no sound and looked to be as far up as a plane but bigger than one. We have no idea what we saw.

and this report from 2013. My husband and I were grilling out in our backyard one Sunday afternoon, approximately 5pm a month ago, when a Pacific Blue Stingray looking bird flew over our home. It must have been 1.5 to 2 feet in length and width. We were actually sitting and conversing when it caught our attention. It looked down at us and continued flying.

We live in Atascosita, Texas, and we were in shock as we'd never seen anything like it before, and one more from the very same year. I was driving home to my house about 1:20 p.m. when I came across this stingray grayish-white looking thing flying over my car, coming from the lake we have here in Laredo, Texas, going into the golf course next to it. It was roughly three feet wide, maybe bigger, and it had a glide to it.

No wings, just looked like a stingray, literally. It passed about 30 feet in front of me, and I watched it for about 10 seconds. It looked as if it was swimming, but flying. Now I certainly don't know what these things are, but the descriptions are so consistent, and plentiful. There are reports like this from all over the country, probably the world as well.

And based on my observations, it seems like the warmer parts of the planet see more encounters than do the colder parts. Now believe it or not, there's not much information out there about these creatures. You can find a little bit of it here and there. But coincidentally, just a few weeks ago, I received a book in the mail from writer Justin England that does a solid deep dive into these atmospheric beasts. The book is called Living UFOs, The Ocean Above Our Heads.

and I've linked to it in tonight's show notes. So there you go, Kit. Your friend is not alone, and it seems like neither are we while we're messing around up in the sky. Now hopefully, one day, we will get our hands on concrete proof of these creatures. But until then, stories like Kit's will have to do. So thank you again, Kit, for calling in. And thank you, listener, for joining us here this evening.

I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy evening to hang out with us tonight. But don't switch that dial off just yet. There's a little more to share with you on the other side of these credits. Monsters Among Us is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes and Delaney Bowers.

All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Be sure to follow us on our social media accounts. Don't forget that we're giving away some tickets to the upcoming 4K release of the 80s horror film Hellraiser. Now if you want to catch the show on digital radio, just visit unexnetwork.com to learn more. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse, Co.EG Music, and Carl Casey.

And way bad audio. Now don't forget to watch our film Shadows in the Desert High Strangeness in the Borrego Triangle. Just visit borregotriangle.com to learn more. And that's it, folks. Now I'll see you back here in just a minute or two. But for everyone else, have yourselves a good night.

Now, if you didn't already know, I hide a story behind the credits on every episode I release on Thursdays. Just a little nod to all the CDs that we had back in the 90s and early 2000s.

You see, almost all of them had a hidden song at the very end. A little reward for listening all the way through. And here at Monsters Among Us, we try to recapture that magic. And to help us do so tonight, we turn to Sabrina, here in California.

Hi, Derek and MAU crew and listeners. My name is Sabrina. Big fan of the podcast. I'm a fairly new listener, but I've just been hooked ever since, and I've showed it to multiple people, and multiple people have told me that they also love it so far, so thanks for what you do. I'm not sure if this will even be considered spooky to you guys, but I've always thought it was a weird thing, and I just remembered it the other day, so I wanted to call in about it.

It's about a secret room, I guess I'll call it. And the time period, I was in middle school. So back around 2005, I'm 31 now. And I had a friend in middle school, and she had this cool old house. I would venture to guess it was built in maybe the 1920s or 30s, but I don't really know, so I could be wrong. But it was a pretty cool house. And I was in middle school, and I was in middle school, and I was in middle school,

Yeah.

And it was all jagged and whatnot. And it was actually a pretty tight squeeze for us, even being little girls. And anyways, the hole led to like an unfinished room.

And it was very small. I'd say it was around equally the size of her brother's closet itself, which I think might have been a walk-in closet. I don't quite remember, but it looked like you were within the walls. I mean, it was just unfinished and dark. There were no outlets or light fixtures, but you could see...

you know, into the walls. And on the other side of that little room was the upstairs bathroom. And you could actually see into the bathroom from that little weird secret room,

and her parents didn't want us to go into it because they didn't know if it was safe, obviously, it being unfinished and all. But I liked to go into it because it was creepy and it just felt fun being a kid, you know? It really was a weird vibe, if I say. I'd consider myself someone...

sensitive to energies and whatnot. And it, I mean, maybe it was just a creepy little room. So, but it felt really creepy to me. And whenever I'd go use that upstairs bathroom, I just felt this weird sense, like someone might be watching me from that little hole in the wall on the other side. You know, maybe it was just my imagination running with me. Cause that's just a weird thing, but you know, her family didn't know why the room was there. You know, I don't know if it was a flaw in the design of the house. Maybe,

Maybe some sort of, it didn't cut some sort of regulation for the city or whatever. Or maybe it was, you know, a secret room that someone wanted from the original owner of the house. And who knows what they used it for. But it definitely made me feel weird. And yeah, it was just something that was, I thought, kind of cool and creepy that I've never been able to explain since I was a kid.

And yeah, I guess that's my story. So thanks for listening. I would love to hear if you've ever heard anything like this before. You know, I haven't. So I'd love to hear your opinion or thoughts. So thanks again for all that you do and have a great day. Bye. Thank you, Sabrina. You know, my dream is to have a house with a bunch of secret rooms. You pull down a sconce and a bookshelf opens to an old weathered hallway.

You turn a corner into a hidden paradise full of dusty relics, dark decor, neon signage, and dim lighting. Just the way I like it. One of these days, maybe. Well, until then, I have to live vicariously through callers like Sabrina. So thank you again for sharing your story.

All right, folks, it's time to go beyond. But you can join us and you can do so for free. Just visit MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the Patreon button or click the subscribe button at the bottom of our Apple homepage. Either way, $5 gets you an extended episode each and every Thursday and tons of back content. I'm talking years worth of back content.

And like I said, you can check it all out for free using either Patreon or Apple's seven-day free trial. Just promise to stick around for a month or two if you like what you hear. And you know, something tells me I think you will. Because in the beyond, we play calls like Chad's out of Washington State. Hey, Derek. My name's Chad. I'm from northwestern Washington, Skagit County. So if anybody's been in northwestern Washington...

It's weird. The entire area is just, there's something wrong with it, especially in Skagit County, around the mental institution. So my hometown, Cedarwood, Washington, used to be a coal mining town. It actually used to be two separate towns before they could join.