S18 Ep40: A Veil of Darkness Volume 2: The Shadow People Files (Sn. 18 Ep. 40)
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Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I am your guide, Derek Hayes. Well, come on in, everyone. There's room for you all. Grab a seat or a spot to rest because I have some tales I would like to share with you. Now, long-time listeners know that the Tuesday releases are themed episodes.

All Bigfoot, all ghosts, all UFOs, and tonight's episode will be no different. So let's not waste any more time in getting into it. Tonight's theme is, once again, shadow people, hat men, or shadow figures. And we're going to get started with Aaron's entry out of my state of California. Hey, my name is Aaron. I'm from Central California, a city called Salinas.

This story happens around 2010, 2011. I was about 19 years old and I was hanging out with one of my friends, two of my friends actually. So this was all three of us being this. We were hanging out outside. It must have been around 10 to 11 o'clock at night. We were just hanging out outside on the front porch and the neighborhood I live in, it's just your typical suburban neighborhood.

So there's this car parked across the street. It's like an old station wagon. I can't really remember what color it was. It was underneath the street lamp. And this guy comes out. We weren't paying attention. This guy just comes out of nowhere. I mean, I'm not saying like he appeared out of nowhere, but he walked out of the shadows.

And from what I remember, I wasn't paying attention or anything. He was a bigger build dude. He was like a bigger dude. And I basically remember like him having those sort of like top hats, you know, old school Abraham Lincoln type of hats. Anyways, he gets in his car, you know, and we don't make much of it, but his car wouldn't start. I remember that his car was revving a few times, like if he had a dead battery or something. And like I said, me and my friends just continued along with our conversation, not even really paying attention to this guy.

After a couple revs, the car just revs like two times louder than it was before and it finally turns on. Almost like he's trying to get our attention and all of us look and I kid you not, this sounds crazy but it's true. Like we all seen this. This guy looks at us from across the street and his face

He gives us a smile, but his mouth stretches like unbelievably abnormally stretches and his eyes pop out and his face just like conforms kind of like Beetlejuice, like with his eyes pop out and his face kind of just, you know, like morphs. And that's how he looked at it. He gave us this crazy smile with his

face stretched out, his eyes popping out. But I'm talking about like supernaturally large. It was insane. Me and my friends both remember this. All three of us remember this fact that, you know, his face was contorted, like just like he will smile. And I also remember his car kind of floating off of the ground, almost outlined like in this electrical type of light. It was so weird.

And all three of us just run inside the house and we're like, yo, like, what the heck was that? You know, this happened a couple years ago, but we all remember it. This is crazy. And we kind of call him the demon clown. That's like, we can kind of describe him as, I'll never forget his face. Just the way his mouth stretched, how he talked out, and his face just contorted his mood and things. But yeah, I mean, take it for what you want. You know, throw it on your show if you want. Thanks. Thanks, Aaron, for The Spooky Encounter.

And you know it's worth noting that not all of these Shadow Man stories are like this one. Most don't share details that Eren's encounter did. There typically isn't any smiling by the figure, or driving of cars for that matter. Most of these sightings are limited to a quick glimpse or a fleeting run in. Now of course that does not mean that what Eren saw was not a shadow person. It very well could have been, but I'm afraid answering that question is above my pay grade.

But luckily, sharing calls like Aaron's is not. So we thank him once again for kicking us off here tonight. Now folks, I have a schedule I have to keep, but I think I can sneak in one more call before we have to take our first break. So from the land of enchantment, please welcome Carson to tonight's installment.

Hey, Derek. My name is Carson. I'm calling in from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I'm a first-time caller, and me and my dad are actually fans of the show, and he was the one who recommended that I call this story in. So this story takes place when I was about five or six years old. It's so far the only paranormal thing that I've directly experienced myself. I am a believer in ghosts, the paranormal, things like that. So it was late at night.

2013, 2014-ish, and it was about 1 or 2 a.m. I woke up from sleeping, and I felt a presence in my room. And I looked around, saw nothing but darkness, nothing out of the ordinary. So...

Being a kid, I immediately wanted to go to my parents' room 'cause you know, that's the safe spot. So I got out of bed and got out of my room and I quickly darted from my room across the hall and across the living room into my parents' room. And so the moment I crossed the doorway,

into their room, I felt better or less terrified. From like the moment I woke up to the moment I got there, I was terrified. As I was running across the hall in the living room, I didn't want to look behind me. I was terrified. I felt better. I was still scared. I was still like, "Oh my God, something's gonna get me." But I felt better. I went to my parents' bed and I got in between them and I looked over at the doorway and I saw the outline of a figure

all black with a fedora and trench coat on. It was about the size of the doorway, so seven-ish feet. And me and him, locked eyes or he didn't have any like facial details or anything like that, but I could tell his focus was on me and my focus was on him.

So we were looking at each other for a solid 10 seconds. And after those 10 seconds, I was like, OK, I'm done with this. I'm going to go sleep now. So I pulled the blanket over my head and I fell asleep. And this happened the next one or two nights. Like I said, this was 2013, 2014. So I had no idea what this could have been.

I never heard of a hat man until a couple years ago. And it was actually your podcast and one of the stories. I don't remember which one, but it was one of the stories of the hat man that reminded me of this event that took place. After those one or two nights, nothing else happened. Never saw him, never felt anything like that again. But yeah, that's my story. And like I said, the show's great. And me and my dad are...

fans of the show. He was the one who showed me your show, actually. So yeah, thank you for listening to my story. I hope it makes it in and I hope you have a great day. Thank you, Carson. And a big thanks to your dad for convincing you to share your ordeal. He was certainly right in suggesting so. Now I have many more stories just like these to share with you. But first, a quick word from our sponsors. The message ended up tanking down the stretch deck.

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Visit BetterHelp.com forward slash MAU today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com forward slash M-A-U. Now, just in case you've been wondering, here are the common descriptions given to these enigmatic entities. First of all, the description seems to be the same, no matter where the entity is encountered.

A tall figure, between 6 and 10 feet tall, wearing a trench coat or a cloak of some sort. A noticeable lack of facial features, an overall shadowy appearance, and sometimes wearing a wide-brimmed hat, like a top hat. And encounters may occur during both sleep and wakefulness, during the day and at night as well. And some interpret half-man as an observer or a watcher, while others see it as a harbinger of doom.

And these things are seen across all cultures and nationalities. They seem to be visiting folks from all walks of life, even down there in Australia. Please welcome Amy to the platform. Hey Derek, I thought you might like to hear a story from Sydney, Australia. My name's Amy. I used to work as a ghost tour guide at various locations in South Australia and New South Wales.

So I've seen a lot of things and I have lots of stories, but I thought I would offer you one with photo evidence. I had just started a new role at Sydney's quarantine station and this is a few years ago now. From around the 1830s until 1984, migrant ships arriving in Sydney with suspected contagious disease were stopped inside the North Head and

Passengers were offloaded to quarantine so that they could protect local residents from contagious diseases.

So there's three cemeteries on site and while 572 people officially died and were buried there, the true figure is likely to be much higher. The site is now a hotel and event centre called Q Station. It's a fantastic location, very active and I'd highly recommend people pay it a visit. On my first training session, I was observing a tour and

I was the last to enter the third class kitchen and I stood at the back of the main room behind the group while the guide was explaining the history of the room. I felt a presence behind me in a small open room just behind the main room and I turned around to see a hat man. It was very brief and when I turned back to look at him again, of course he'd gone.

I pulled the guide aside and quietly told her what I'd seen. And she said that she was not aware of any other sightings of this figure in that location. So not wanting to look like I was just making things up for attention, I thought I'd just let it go. Fast forward about six months later...

and we were at our staff Christmas party. All the guides were sharing stories and another guide was talking about a guest who had captured an entity and they'd actually captured this image in a photo. They took it in the third class kitchen. So they thought the area had a weird feeling and they'd just taken a few photos in a series one after another.

The guide shared the photos and one of them showed exactly what I had seen and explained to the other guide the night of my first training tour. It appeared to be a man in a hat and an overcoat. So not really a hat man, as we often hear about, but simply a man wearing clothes that would probably have been the fashion of the time.

So I'm including these photos for you to review. When you zoom in on the photo, you can actually see details of the coat pocket and collar. Often these things can be explained by shadow patterns on the wall that cause the pareidolia effect. So our brains are seeing something that really isn't there and it's just trying to make sense of these patterns. However, in this case...

The guest had taken several photos in a row and the image only appeared in one frame. The shadow also appears in front of one wall but behind another, so it doesn't seem that it could have been cast by anything in the main room and it does appear to be particularly in that spot. So I've included the photos for you. I'd love for you to have a look and let me know what you think. Thanks. Thank you, Amy.

Now, true to her word, Amy sent in the photos she referenced in her call, and two of them look like normal photographs of an empty doorway. The third, however, seems to show a shadowy human-shaped figure. A figure that, like Amy said, seems to be wearing a bowler-style hat. And, as Amy had mentioned, you can almost make out details of the coat the entity seems to be wearing. I swear I can see a collar, and maybe some pockets.

Now maybe she's right. Maybe it's simply pareidolia that's causing us to see this figure. But in all fairness, there doesn't seem to be a face associated with the figure in the photograph. Which is sort of what pareidolia is all about. Because after all, the human brain is pre-wired to quickly identify patterns. Especially faces. Human. Faces.

And while I can't make out a lick of this person's face, their Robert Stack-style trench coat, however, seems to almost be in 3D. And like I said in the following two images, the entity seems to be completely missing. Now I encourage you all to take a look at these images. You can find them on our show notes page at MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com, where I'll make sure that Sarah slaps them up on social media. No matter how you find them, I promise you,

They're worth a look. And a huge thanks to Amy for not only sending those in, but for sharing her experience with us as well. Now, folks, a quick announcement. We've decided to push our sale one more week. So for now, everything in our shop is 20% off. Just visit MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the shop tab. But act now, because these big savings will be gone soon enough.

Now, for another example that proves that these sort of experiences occur all over the world. The following comes to us from our neighbors up north. Samantha, from Canada. Welcome to the show. Hi, this is Samantha Heflin calling from New Brunswick, Canada. I am a repeat caller, and I wanted to call today, in particularly because I just listened to your recent episode about Shadow of People.

And I was really upset with myself that I didn't call sooner because I have a story about shadow people. It really affected my childhood. So a little preface to this is I have always been someone who has had very vivid dreams and dreams have come true. And just to give you an example of what I mean is.

my stepdad's nephew had gone missing and nobody could find him and I had a dream of where he was and I told his mother about it and they went and looked in an area that I described in my dream and they found him there. So I mean I've always I've hated it actually because it's really affected my life in a

I used to have this dream like three or four times a week. And it got to the point where I couldn't go to sleep at night because I was in fear that I'd be having this dream again. And to me, it was more than a dream because 28, 29 years later, I still remember it vividly.

It would start out in my trailer that I grew up in and the atmosphere kind of looked like how it looks like on a full moon. Everything had like a blue hue to it. And I stepped out and I looked down the hallway to my right and there was always this garbage bag. And then I'd look to my left and then I'd look back to my right and that garbage bag would be standing there.

And it would be a man in a long trench coat. And the collar would come up on his trench coat. And he had a top hat on. And I could never see his face. And I know a lot of people say he has red eyes, but he never did for me. And he'd always pop up there at the very end of the hallway where my parents' rooms were. And so I would instinctively...

run towards the door but I remember every time I dreamed this dream my legs would be spaghetti like I could not run fast I was moving but I couldn't run fast and I could always look over my shoulder and he was always coming towards me down the hallway but he was always moving at a steady pace like he was floating and I could never hear footsteps he was just floating towards me

And so I'd run outside into my yard and I shared a property with my grandparents and they were like my safe haven as a child. My grandparents were, and I ran towards my grandfather's shop and I jump up in this little shelf that he had by the door and I'd hide there. And the dream would always end with him starting to walk into the shop and

And this time I'd always hear a footstep because it was like a footstep into the shop was loud. And every time, right before he'd get to me, my grandparents would pull in the driveway and I knew I was safe and I'd wake up. And this same dream happened, I can't tell you, countless, countless, countless times. And it is worthy to note that my childhood had a lot of tension in it.

And from my own personal research on the hat man is he shows up in places where there's a lot of tension or angry feelings. And usually he shows up to children. So that's just a little back history on that as my life was quite tense. It went on for quite a few years. And then eventually my stepdad, he was Cree Native American. And they did a sage ritual and I didn't dream of him for a long time.

probably, I don't know, 12, 13 years. And then my last dream I had of him is I was standing at the top of this hill and he was standing at the bottom of this hill. And instead of running away, I ran towards him and I ran into him. And when I did, there was a high pitched ringing in my ears and I woke up instantly and I haven't dreamt of him ever since.

So, I don't know, it's pretty crazy. I should mention that my mom was into a lot of weird stuff when I was a kid. Like, we lived way far out in the country and we would have things knock on our door at like 3 in the morning and you'd go and look and nobody would be there. And things running throughout the entire walls of the house, which would have been impossible because there's those boards in the walls that prevent something from running through it like that. It was...

intense and when I found out the hat man was a real thing it just was so validating to me and that whole episode you did about it has been really validating for my experience so thank you I love your show thank you Samantha now honestly I want to hear more about you finding the missing child if you haven't already make sure you call that story in and that number for those that need it is 888-608-9

That's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T. Or you can shoot me an email at monstersamonguspodcast at gmail.com. And we look forward to hearing from all of you. Now I'll be right back with more sinister shadow people right after this. ...establish a floor that you can never fall below. The aggregate, that is a very powerful... The emotional devastation, frankly...

Now this next entry brings us back to the States, into the heartland of the country specifically. Kayla from Iowa. Welcome to tonight's program. Hey, my name is Kayla. I'm from Sioux City, Iowa, but now I currently live in South Dakota. I just want to call in and I just kind of have a very disturbing story. As a younger girl growing up, I started having...

sleep paralysis very, very young. When it started, I was having a sleepover with, you know, some buddies of mine when I was a young kid and my brother was there. And I remember it was that state in sleep paralysis where you just, you can't move or say anything. And I wake up and there is just this black entity just standing there. And he, uh,

is just all black. He has a top hat and a long trench coat. His eyes are so eerie and he has like no mouth. It's just so disturbing even talking about him, but he was just, you know, staring at me.

And I couldn't say anything or scream or move. And I think at that time when I was younger, we're talking like elementary school, I was confused as to what it was. Like I didn't know what it was. Well, when I finally got out of that state, I ran over to my best friend. He's actually, you know, my best guy friend. We grew up together. And I was like, Jake, Jake, there's someone in the house. There's someone in the house. And he woke up and I,

he saw it too. So I don't really know if it was sleep paralysis. I don't know. So he saw it too. And we wake up my brother and we bolt out the door. My mom worked overnight. So we've

We bolted out the door, ran up the street to our friend's house, and, you know, we had the cops come and check it out. And I never described what this person looked like or entity looked like to him. And so when I asked him, he described it differently.

in detail of exactly what I was seeing. And I couldn't believe it because I thought it was like a bad dream, you know? So the cops came, they checked it out, everything was fine. Now, sleep paralysis had stopped. I started picking it up again when I was in high school. I noticed it's always in my mother's house. I would wake up and there would be this

just this guy just sitting on me and I can't scream and I can't move and I'm trying to run and

and, you know, get to my mom, but he won't let me. And I'm starting to lose my mind because I don't know if it's real or it's fake. Because one time I had one and I thought my mom was in my room, you know, because we lived in an old house and I had no heating in my room. So I would sleep with a space heater on. And I thought my mom had come up there to tell me to turn it off.

And I was just like, yeah, okay, whatever, I will. But really, she didn't. And I woke up.

screaming. She ran upstairs. She fell because she didn't know what was going on. And I was just like, were you just in my room trying to tell me to turn this off? Because there was a guy in here and he wouldn't let me run to your room. And he was just sitting on my chest. And then she was like, what are you talking about? And I was just like, I don't know. I must have been having a bad dream because at that time she didn't really know what

I was having this sleep paralysis all the time. So that happened. I just dismissed it, whatever. Then there was another time. I woke up screaming again, and my mom came running upstairs, and she was just like, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, I'm okay.

I just got to go to the bathroom and then my mom's a nurse and I was like, God, my back hurts so bad. Well, I lift my shirt up and there's just three giant scratch marks across my back and my mom's face got pale and she just got quiet.

I was like, "Mom, what's wrong?" She started freaking out, you know, cussing. She's like, "I'm tired of this." And she's like, "That's it." I was just like, "Okay." So next thing I know, she's getting sage, you know, thinking that this is gonna work, blessing the house or whatever she thinks she's doing because at first, like, I never really told anyone about it. And then, like, she was freaked out. So fast forward, right? I've grown up. I'm in college and whatever.

Sleep paralysis had stopped because I had moved out and everything, but I would come back and visit my mom frequently. And I noticed a lot of times when I would visit my mom, I would have sleep paralysis. And I'm just like, gosh, I can't stay here anymore because I keep having these sleep paralysis demons. I can't take it because when you have sleep paralysis, it's terrifying. You

And there was actually one of the times where I wasn't even asleep yet. I was just laying there, you know, downstairs in the living room,

and I hear a bunch of stuff just banging around in the kitchen, and I'm just like, no, not again, not again, not again, and I honestly just, I left, I went, and I went to go stay at my buddy's house, because I couldn't deal with it, and, you know, I asked my mom, I was like, mom, like, do you ever hear anything in this house, like, at all, and she's like,

oh yeah, all the time. And I was like, do you think it's like your dog? Or it's like, no, I don't know what it is and I don't care to know. I just leave it alone. And I'm just like, okay. Well, let's fast forward again, right? So I finally get my own house and, you know, I'm by myself, whatever. And since I've bought my own house, I have had maybe like

three sleep paralysis incidents. One of the times I had sleep paralysis, he would never talk. He would just stand there. Like, when he was coming back, he just stood there, and he just stared at me. It was like he was taunting me. You know, hey, did you try to forget about me because I'm right here? I woke up immediately because it was terrifying, and I didn't go back to sleep. Then another time, I didn't see him, but I knew he was coming because...

It was so loud. Everything was so loud. I couldn't take it and I woke up screaming and my wife was like, what is going on? And I was like,

It's loud, it's loud, it's loud. And she's like, what? And then I told her what was going on. So that happened. And the most recent thing that happened was that was before. But before that, it was I had sleep paralysis. And it was very odd because it took me back to my mother's house. I'm living in my house. It took me back to my mother's house. And he's standing on the deck.

And it's like I finally get the courage and I speak up and I can finally talk. I'm telling him to leave me alone. Leave my mom alone. Leave her house alone. I run after him. And...

Before then, like he had eyes, but when I saw them this time, they were like bright red. And I went running at him and pushed him off the deck. And the next thing I know, this thing is crawling up my mom's side of the house and I woke up. Now let's fast forward to the most recent one. The most recent one was hands down the most terrifying moment.

I'm actually kind of tearing up talking about it because I don't like to talk about it because I feel like if I talk about it, it's going to happen. So I was sleeping and I noticed like he has this very distinctive pop hat. I noticed the shadow of him outside my bedroom and it's getting loud again and it's really loud. And the next thing I noticed, I look over and it's

it's him. Before, he didn't really look like human-ish, but it's like he took over a human form. And he was short, kind of chubby, long nose, bald, with a top hat. His nails were very long and his skin was just very old. And he was writing on my wall.

He was writing in like cursive that I couldn't even make out. And he was writing and yelling at me and pointing at me and then pointing at what he was writing on the wall. I couldn't move. I couldn't scream. I was so confused as to what was going on. I didn't know who it was. I just finally put it together. Like that was my sweet proudest even. Like he had to have taken over some human form. Yeah, and ever since then, I haven't seen him since.

I don't really like to talk about it because I feel like if I talk about it, it brings it back up. Yeah, he's actually terrifying to me. I actually got him tattooed on my arm. I'll send you a picture. Yeah, that's what I've been living with, my own nightmares, since I was a child. I hope you can use this. Keep up the good work, man. Thank you. Thanks for calling in, Kayla. Now, Kayla mentioned that her experience began as a sleep paralysis episode.

which could be the root of these strange sightings. But I'll be frank with you in saying that I'm yet to hear about a shared sleep paralysis experience where two people thought to be suffering from sleep paralysis experienced the exact same thing at the exact same time. And since Kayla's friend too saw the shadow figure, I'm going to go ahead and rule out sleep paralysis altogether. At least in this case.

But you know, given the frequency of the encounters and the strange scratches that Kayla received, it's obvious something odd is going on there. And I'm sorry, Kayla, that you had a front row seat for all of it. But thank you again for sharing the phone call.

But regardless of what you want to call it, the sightings are frequent and almost always terrifying. And if you don't believe me, then take Cody's word for it. He's calling in from the state of California.

Hey Derek, this is Cody from Tennessee slash California. I've called in a few more times and I will be a repeat offender for a while. One thing I wanted to add was that me and my wife are both almost magnets to the paranormal. I'm almost like a radar dish, but she would be more like a tuning fork.

She hones in on things. She can pretty quickly catch the vibe of whatever we might be around, if it's good or bad. I was thinking then it might correlate to the fact that her and I both have had near death experiences. I'm similar to you. I like water, but I am terrified of deep water. I've almost drowned twice. And the first time I almost bit the bullet. I had to crawl out because it was before I could swim.

And my wife actually had a shotgun discharge right by her face from a kid back when she was a kid. It feels only like a few centimeters. She might not be here today. She has scar tissue on her cheeks from a buckshot. Long way around to getting to this, she had a very abusive father-in-law. Mental, physical, verbal, everything. But in their house, she had the hat ghost.

The whole time they were growing up there, her mom's seen it, her sister's seen it, her brother's seen it, she's seen it.

The way their house was set up was it was the living room and then there was a long hallway that went down. To the left in the hallway was the kitchen, then you had the brother's bedroom, and you go down and it ends in three rooms. To the left, there's the bathroom and my wife and her sister's room, and at the very end was the parents' room. Now, they would constantly see the hat ghost leave the kitchen, turn, go down the hallway, and to the dad's room. I

I know there's been some mention about how Hat Ghost sort of follow negative energy or is attracted to that or sometimes is shown to appear around kids that do bad or just bad energy altogether. That house had a few odd things. There's been times I'd walk in the kitchen and a bull would just...

It sounds weird, but it will spin. Almost like if you drop a quarter and it's doing that spin down. I've seen pots do that when I walk into the kitchen. It's odd. I had a pan. I actually still have it. A frying pan that flew off the hook in one of the other houses we lived in and hit the floor hard enough it flattened one side. I still use it to cook. I'll probably take a picture and send it in. It's not really anything neat. It's just...

That's how much force it took to fly off the wall. Yeah, I don't know. We've seen a lot of things. I'll still be calling in. There's a lot. Thank you for all that you do. You have a good day. Thank you, Cody. Well, it sounds like your wife has been through a lot. And a hat ghost as well. That might be too much. And I love that term, hat ghost. No, I've never heard it called that before. But it sounds real good, rolling off the tongue.

Now this next one isn't a hat ghost per se, but it is a shadow entity. So please join me in welcoming Liam from the Lone Star State of Texas. Hey, so this is Liam from Texas and I have a story for you. This was when I was living in Illinois at the time and I lived in a house.

very old and was very haunted. The house was probably built in the 1770s to 1800s, that era. So, in my room when I was little, there was a corner and at night it would get

very dark in that corner. It did have the night light at the time that was bright in the room, but it wasn't really that bright. So there was a figure that would walk out of the corner. He was a man standing around six foot to five ten.

and he would walk up to my bed, look at me, and walk back into the corner. At the time, I was probably 5'6", and like any other 5'6" would hide under the covers. And usually when I did,

I would peek and he would be gone after an hour, an hour and thirty. But one night it was very quiet. Usually it would be loud with bugs or other creatures outside that would make noise and keep me up. But it was quiet. My parents at the time

were sleeping and they knew about this man and I talked about him but they said it was my imagination. I don't know how much I believe that what happened this night. So like every other night he walked out and was staring at me and I put the covers over my head but this time he didn't leave.

Like, someone had jumped on me. The covers fell surrounding me. And I shot up, lurking around to see him in the corner staring at me. So, I don't know what that was about. Thank you. Love your podcast. Been listening to it for a while. Thank you again. Thank you, Liam. That is an old house.

And given its age, there could be any number of things haunting that home. Certainly, the possibilities of a Shadow Man being included in that list are pretty damn good. And from the sounds of things, Liam, that is likely the case. But you know, whatever it was, we thank you again for ringing in to tell us all about it. I think that that was in place last year. Maybe there's... Maybe there's...

Now we've reached the home stretch, but don't head for the car just yet, because I have a few more stories I'd love to run by you, beginning with Carrie's entry, also out of the state of California. Hi, Derek, it's Carrie from way up in Northern California, right next to the Oregon border in the little county of Humboldt.

I was calling mostly because I've been sharing your podcast with my husband, but he wants, and I do put a lot of emphasis onto wants, to be a skeptic. He doesn't want to live in infancy.

anything outside of reality and what he can see and feel and yada, yada, yada. Anyways, my husband originally was born in Mexico, moved up here to Tehama County area with his family, which is over by Mount Lassa and Mount Shasta. And then for college,

He moved over to the little town behind the redwood curtain of Humboldt, or Arcata, which is in the middle of Humboldt. Anyways, while going to college, he was working in a side job, and he worked this side job, which was in-home support services for people with disabilities. He worked this support job for 15 years. And, oh, before I forget, he moved over here, like, I want to say 20 years ago.

Anyway, in the beginning of his in-home support service job, he had third shift or whatever people call it. He had overnights. Normally, when I met him, he was working 6 p.m. to 9 a.m., and he took care of their meds and stuff like that. He was at one of the clients' house. They lived in an apartment complex just down the street from ours.

He was sleeping on the couch because obviously sleeping overnight, the client's not doing anything. You really only need to be there if they need you in the middle of the night. But he was sleeping and then he woke up and he said he couldn't move. He didn't have his eyes open at first,

but he was just like, I can't move. It feels like the blanket's really tight on me. I remember him telling me this story vaguely after we got together. We've been together almost 15 years. When he finally opens his eyes, he notices that there is a shadow figure in the corner just standing there. At that point, that's all he would tell me. It was just a shadow person. It looked like a person sitting in the corner. That's it. And then after I started hearing about

you know, hat man and all that. He was like, actually it was with a hat on it. And I'm like, well, you should call the line, tell them you're starting. He's like, no, I don't want to do this because if I do, it's going to open up a whole can of worms. So I just let it be. And then listening to your podcast, I'm currently in season six. I like going from the beginning to the end and I love hearing all your progress. You're doing a great job.

was in some of your episodes through season six that kind of reminded me of another time me and him were actually together when he had what he is sworn on that it's sleep paralysis nothing more than sleep paralysis anyway so second story i was going to tell you about we were house sitting for my grandmother again in arcata california she lived over in this nice little neighborhood she

He used to own this house with my grandfather. Unfortunately, my grandfather passed in this house a long time ago. It was 1992 when he passed. I want to say a few months after the really big earthquake we had in California in general, and we had lost our house, so we were living with them. My mom was taking care of him because he had brain cancer. It was basically just the final stages of him staying comfortable.

at home. I remember sitting on his bed with him and talking to him and stuff like that. Anyways, he ended up passing. Fast forward to my grandmother still living there. She has to go out of town. She has two cats and a stray cat that she likes, you know, fed and watered. And so she asked me, my husband, can you house fit, take care of the cats? I don't mind if you guys stay the night.

You could do your laundry, because at the time we were in the apartment and we didn't have anywhere to do laundry. So we were just chilling, you know, we watched movies. We set up a air mattress in the spare bedroom, which was the master bedroom because my grandmother wanted the little bedroom. We set up an air mattress, went to sleep the first night, and I wake up, I want to say it's like 2.30, 3 in the morning. My husband is breathing heavily, very heavily,

And I'm like, what's wrong, honey? Why are you breathing so heavily? And he's like, there's something on my chest. I can't breathe. I don't know what's on my chest.

And I'm half out of it. I'm just not even thinking about it. I'm like, is she something? And so I just roll over and I flail my arm in the air and I'm like, grandpa, knock it off. He's okay. And then my husband said, as soon as I said those words, the weight went away.

and he was able to move. I instantly fell back to sleep because I was tired. I was pregnant at the time with my oldest who's 13 now. So I just went back to sleep, but he did not sleep for the rest of the night and he was very upset with the fact that I did not tell him that my grandfather had died in that house until that night.

He still doesn't like talking about it when I bring it up because I have brought it up again asking him to call the show. Honestly, I would like it if he would do it. He has more details and everything than I do but I figured I would put it out there anyways and you know I don't know if it was my grandpa or if it was

a hag syndrome or whatever but I like to think it was my grandpa just trying to make sure that this guy I was dating was okay and that he was going to work out and you know we've been together 15 years now so thanks grandpa for your still approval I guess anyways I gotta go see my kids I will talk to you later I love the show I love you don't change who you are what you do keep it up and I'll talk to you guys later we appreciate the call Carrie

"And don't worry, at my age, I'm not changing nothing. You don't have to worry about that. But you know I hear details like that a lot. That people don't like to talk about this stuff because they fear bringing it up will somehow summon said monstrosity. Well I suppose that could be true. It might work that way."

But I will tell you that I spend countless hours each day reading about this subject, listening to stories about this subject, and watching all kinds of programming on this subject. And I have yet to have a single encounter with one of these shadowy beings. So next time you have the fear that bringing them up might summon them, just remember that I have yet to have an encounter.

Now regardless of all that, we can't thank you enough for preserving those stories for us here tonight, Gary. Thanks again for calling in. And that, folks, takes us to tonight's final entry, an anonymously submitted story from Parts Unknown. Hey, Derek. I'd like to remain anonymous for this call. So I'm calling in a story from my childhood story.

And after listening to the Shadow People slash Hat Man episode, I'm kind of questioning something that I used to see as a child. I was a young child at this time, between the ages of like three and five. And it was when I was at my...

babysitter's house. So they lived in a really old farmhouse, beautiful, huge, great big farmhouse with wraparound porch and all the things. And I used to see a man in the house and

And for many, many years, I was under the assumption that this was a family member that had passed away in the home because that's what I was told. So when I would tell my family that I would see this person, my parents would tell me, oh, well, you know, it's just the family member that died there. You know, he was a very sweet man. That's probably what you're seeing because as a child, I would see ghosts and things like that. And I would tell my parents about it. But as I was listening to this episode,

episode and kind of hearing other people talk about the description of like the hat man or the shadow man that they would see. It got me wondering a little bit if maybe that's what I had saw. So this man, the first time I saw him was at the top of a stairwell.

And the stairway was completely straight. And at the bottom of it was a door. So I had to open the door. When I did, I saw this very, very tall man. And he was in all black, kind of

And a very long black coat on. I couldn't see his feet and I couldn't see his face. And he had like a 1920s sort of like gangster mobster kind of style hat on. Very, very tall. And I was standing there and I saw him and I didn't feel scared at all. Not at all.

And he glided down the stairs fairly quickly. And then he was right in front of my face. And he outstretched his hand to me. And I got this feeling of comfort and protection. I didn't feel any sort of doom or anything like that. And then he just disappeared. And then I used to also see him in the corner of the kitchen in the house. And again, just kind of like

observing everybody, not menacing, not scary in any sort of way, but I never saw his face. And I didn't know what this family member looked like because I never met him either. But it's just interesting because...

When I would tell my parents this, you know, they're like, oh, it's so-and-so. And I just kind of always thought that until I listened to this most recent episode, and it got me questioning things a little bit, like I mentioned. So anyways, it's just something that always kind of stuck with me, and so I thought I'd call it in. Hope you have a great day. Thank you, caller. How could I not have a great day with stories like these? And a great day they may make.

but a horrible night they might also deliver. As I'm sure each of you will be dreaming of these shadowy strangers tonight. But I'm afraid for now, that's going to do it for this episode. A Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Powers, and Connor Ryan. And I'd like to take a quick moment to welcome Connor to the team.

He's going to be helping me edit your calls down going forward, freeing up more time for me to write and expand on other projects. So welcome to the team, Connor. Now don't forget to follow the show on social media. We have accounts at Instagram and Facebook, I think TikTok as well. And we do have a Discord server, but you have to be a Patreon member to access it. And I'll give you directions on that here in just a moment.

Now don't forget the show airs every Saturday evening at 11 p.m. Eastern on the UnX Digital Network. Just visit unxnetwork.com to tune in. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse, Co.ag Music, and Carl Casey at White Bat Audio. And a quick reminder to watch our feature-length documentary film, Shadows in the Desert, A Strangeness in the Brego Triangle.

Just visit borreggotriangle.com to learn more. And don't forget, you can get even more Monsters Among Us by joining our Patreon campaign and or the Apple subscription plan for the show. To learn more, just visit the Patreon tab on our website at monstersamonguspodcast.com. And remember, you can try either of these services for free for a full week. All right, I'll catch you all back here on Thursday with our next brand new installment.

But until then, keep it spooky and have yourselves a great evening.