S19 Ep9: California Screamin': Tales from the Golden State (Sn. 19 Ep. 9)
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My name's Jack Wagner, host of Otherworld, a podcast featuring real people who experienced something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained. I have no idea how I got there. I don't think I've ever seen anything that looks like this. It felt like electric stars on fire. I started Otherworld to take a grounded approach to the paranormal, help people tell their own stories, and encourage more to come forward. I certainly don't have the answers, but I'm going to do my best.

but maybe one day we will. Join me as we explore our world's greatest mysteries. Listen to Otherworld now for free on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I am your guide, Derek Hayes. Welcome back to another spine-tingling episode.

Like I said, I am Derek Hayes and this is Monsters Among Us. And I'm mighty glad that you could join us here this evening. I have something interesting lined up for you here tonight. Now we typically do a central theme for these Tuesday episodes. All Bigfoot, all alien, all ghosts, something like that. But this week I thought we'd try something a little bit different.

Just a breathy little variety into these episodes. So while each of tonight's calls might cover a wildly different subject, they all have one thing in common. They all took place in my state of California. From the north to the south, to the alpine forest to the desert floor, from the cities to the highest mountain peaks, we cover the Golden State like no other show can.

with first-hand experiences. Experiences like Tina's out of, well, you guessed it, the state of California. Hi, Derek. This is Tina. I'm calling from Northern California. I just listened to the episode for Patreon members all about animals, and I was super bummed I didn't call this in sooner.

But I wanted to tell you about something that happened. My friend and I went to Sierra Hot Springs in Sierraville, California. Just the two of us. Went for a girls weekend. I think it was like late spring. I don't know. It was cold at night, but it was beautiful during the day. Anyways, we got to the lodge. We checked in. There were signs all over the lodge that said,

beware of mountain lions. And I thought mountain lions have never really scared me. I'm here in Northern California. We have mountain lions in our Canyon, but I've never really been scared of them. So I didn't really think that much of the flyers, but when we checked in, they said there was going to be a bonfire. You have to walk out past all the hot springs and there was going to be a gathering area where they're going to have big bonfire that night. So my friend and I are like, okay, well, that sounds pretty fun. We should do that.

We go, we get dressed, we go down to try to find the first hot springs. It's not exactly foresty, but it's very woodsy. And so we're walking down this little dirt path to go to the hot springs and it's just like a hot tub in the ground with rocks. It's not manmade. It's all natural. And there was a bunch of people in there and

We go and we get in, we say hi, and the people were just leaving. So my friend and I had to alter ourselves. And it's getting to be dark. You can still see, but it's getting dark. So it's probably, I don't know, 7.30, 8 o'clock at night. And we're sitting there talking. We're having fun, relaxing. We had just, you know, starting our girls weekend. And all of a sudden, this bat comes out of nowhere and starts screaming.

dive bombing us. And I got this really weird feeling like someone was watching us. And I thought, I feel weird. And then the bat came out of nowhere and started dive bombing us. Bats don't normally dive bomb you, like really dive bombing us, trying to get our attention almost. Then I thought, let's go. Like, I feel weird. And this bat is bothering us.

So we got up and we walked back to the lodge and we ate dinner and got ready to head out for the bonfire. So we're walking out towards the bonfire. And again, you have to walk this long dirt path out there. We get there and there's music and people are playing guitars and there's fire spinners. It's very hippie, very fun. And this girl walks up to us. She's all, Oh, Hey, you guys, I saw you in the hot tub. I was walking over there and I,

there was a mountain lion watching you from across the path and you're like what and she's really like like i don't know it's very relaxed hippie woman but she was like yeah i came walking down the path and i stopped and i looked to the right there was a mountain lion in the woods and it was watching you girls in the hot tub and i was gonna say something but you guys just got up and left

She turned around and went the other way because she saw the mountain lion. And I was just kind of floored about, like, what the heck? First of all, why did she yell at us? But second of all, I really think that bat saved us. I think that bat was trying to tell us to get out of the water because we're just sitting there like a couple of sitting ducks, sporgasbord for this mountain lion, but...

Anyways, that was a super creepy incident that happened to us up at Sierra Hot Springs. So I just wanted to share that with you. Thanks, Derek. Bye. Thank you, Tina. Now, not so much paranormal, but definitely spooky and very California because mountain lions are a part of life here on the West Coast, the Western half of the continent, really. We've even had our run-ins with them up here on the mountain.

A few years ago we started feeding and fixing stray cats in our area. We lost at least four of those cats to a huge lion that came right up on the deck. We actually caught a lot of it on video. That's how we know for sure it was a lion. And Monster Squad members may remember some of this because I did talk about it at length on a few of the Beyond episodes back when it was all happening. But the point here is unless you live in the heart of the big city

They're out there, and sometimes the cities aren't even safe. They're like ghosts in the night. They slip in, they slip out, doing what big cats do, haunting. So it sounds like you and your friend really dodged a bullet there, Tina. I shudder to think what might have happened had the bat not intervened. And I'll also say that the flighty woman that finally told you about the big cat, she could have done a better job of communicating.

someone should let her know it's okay to shout in situations like that especially once she'd already backed away but hey no harm no foul right that's how most mountain lion encounters go here attacks are very rare but every once in a while things take a dangerous turn but again that is rare only 26 attacks in the state since 1986 only four of those ended up being fatal

So you're much more likely to get killed by someone's pet dog than you are a big cat in California. So I'd say you were damn lucky, Tina. But that might not have been the case. He might have just been waiting for you to leave so he could get a big drink of water. But regardless, they're majestic animals that deserve our respect. And it sounds like you're already there, Tina. So thank you for sharing the phone call.

Now gang, the stories I have remaining are paranormal in nature. And they're all equally as unsettling. And I have all kinds of them in store for you. On the other side of this quick break, we'll be right back. Which is hard to do. He was a life preserver for a kid.

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Your local volunteer fire department desperately needs you. Now, what sort of trip to Cali would it be? No one calls it that here, by the way. Without a visit to the infamous Queen Mary. Please welcome Daniel to tonight's program. Hello, Derek. My name is Daniel from Tehachapi, California. I started listening to your podcast after I saw the show on Borrego Springs. Anyway, this happened to me back in the early 70s.

I was about 12 or 13. It was right after the Queen Mary had docked in Long Beach and it opened up for tours. My father wanted to take me, my sister, and my mother to tour the place since he went on the Queen Mary on his way to Germany during World War II. Anyways, we were at the bottom of the ship and we had just gone in to see the propeller room, which always creeps me out when I see it now. And we had gone out the door, made a left, and there was a staircase.

about 15, 20 steps into the next level. I was at the back of the tour and when I got to about the fifth step, I felt something run the long part of their index finger up the back from my neck up to the top of my head like it was just flicking my hair up. I looked back really quick, never saw a thing. My dad was in front of me so I just squeezed between him and the wall and I jumped in front of him and he kind of looked at me and said, what the heck's going on?

I said, nothing, nothing. And I looked back and he looked back and he didn't say anything. The tour continued with nothing else happening. And I've gone back there a couple of times with my wife and kids, the tour. And we stayed there at the hotel. Now there's the hotel and it's been remodeled. And every time I go to that propeller room, it creeps me out. But now when you go up the stairs, at like about the fifth step where I felt that, there's the bottom of the floor. They remodeled it and you can't go up those stairs anymore. Probably has nothing to do with it.

But anyways, that's my story. Thank you very much. Keep up the good work. Thanks, Daniel. And thanks for checking out our paranormal documentary, Shadows in the Desert, High Strangeness in the Borrego Triangle. It's streaming for free right now on Amazon and Tubi, FYI, just in case you're interested. And as far as haunted locations in California are concerned, the Queen Mary always finds its way near the top of that list.

An old luxury liner turned military transport turned permanently docked hotel. It's a place plagued with all sorts of paranormal activity. And speaking of haunted places in California, my local news station just happened to put together a list of the top 10. And here they are. In no particular order, I believe. We have Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel, the Cecil Hotel in L.A.,

Hotel Del Coronado down near San Diego, Point Sur Lighthouse in Big Sur, the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Bodie Ghost Town and Bodie State Historic Park in Bodie, Preston Castle in Lone California, Fort Humboldt in Eureka, and the Chilnuulna Falls Trail there in Yosemite National Park.

And of course, rounding out the list is the gray ghost herself, the infamous Queen Mary. Now that's quite the resume there, and I think they even left off a couple of heavy hitters. But if you would like to learn more about one or all of these places, I've linked to this article by KCAL5 in tonight's show notes. So thank you again, Daniel, for sharing your experience. I spent a night on the Queen Mary once.

I don't recall anything paranormal taking place, but it sure did feel like we weren't alone. Now, folks, if you have a spooky story you would like me to share here on the program, and I know each of you do, just call our hotline at 888-608-NIGHT. That's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T. Or you can record your story using the Voice Memo app on your phone and email it to me at MonstersAmongUsPodcast at gmail.com.

Be sure to keep those monster stories coming. And also, while I'm making requests, if you have a good camping story, now would be an excellent time to submit it. Summer camp, camp outs, Boy Scout camp, glamping. Anything like that is in high demand right now. So again, that number is 888-608-NIGHT. Now, time for another story from the Golden State. Please welcome Scott Dillard.

to tonight's program. Hi, Derek. My name is Scott from Central California. And I listened to your recent episode, season 18, episode 47, where Jay was talking about having a shared dream with his brother. You asked for more stories like that. About 30 years ago, I was a firefighter working in a station that was known for being haunted.

One of the strangest things about that station was the dreams. It was actually nicknamed the nightmare station because firefighters there would often have extremely vivid, unsettling nightmares. And of course, as soon as I started working there, the nightmares began. And every morning at 7 a.m., the morning tones would go off, waking us up and giving us about an hour to prepare for the incoming shift. So one morning I was in the middle of a nightmare.

where I had murdered people and I was frantically digging holes to try to bury them when the tones went off and woke me up. I was laying there shaken and I yelled across the room to my fire captain who was on the other side of the wall. I said, Kurt, I just had the craziest dream. I was trying to bury a bunch of people that I'd killed. Now, if you knew Kurt,

You knew that he was a gruff, no-nonsense kind of guy. He wasn't prone to exaggeration or wild stories, and I'd never talked to him about any of the nightmare stuff at the station. So I was shocked when he immediately yelled back, "Oh my God, I had the exact same dream!" So we both got up and started comparing details, and they were identical. It wasn't just similar, it was the same dream.

And this is just one of many bizarre dream experiences that I had at that station, but it was the only one where I shared a dream with somebody. I also wanted to comment on Jay's story about the faceless woman and his shared dream. That hit close to home for me because I had a nightmares of child experience.

One of the earliest nightmares I can remember, and it has haunted me my entire life. I was young, four or five years old, and in the dream, I walked up to a cemetery family crypt, and I looked through the iron doors. You could see inside. And inside, I was shocked to see that one of the long drawers was pulled open. The coffin lid inside was up. And in the center of the crypt,

There was a woman in a long white dress seated at a small vanity. Her back to me, but she was brushing her long straight black hair and she was putting on makeup. And then she saw me in the mirror.

Thank you, Scott.

Now the concept of a shared dream blows my mind, so I always welcome a tale like this one. And what is it with fire stations? It seems like a lot of those are purportedly haunted. I wonder why that is. But whatever is going on up there, we appreciate you telling us about it, Scott. Thank you again for taking the time to call in.

Now our next destination is a cemetery. Please join me in welcoming Nick to tonight's show. Hey, this is Nick from California. This is a story that happened back in 2010.

So anyways, my cousin had gotten a DUI and he asked me if I didn't mind driving him to meet up with this girl that he met online. He would, you know, pay my gas and give me a couple bucks. So I agreed. And we drove up to Astro Robles from where we lived. We met up with this girl.

And we were kind of hanging out with her and we all got kind of bored. So she's like, hey, there's this spot on the outside of town called Adelaide. It's a haunted cemetery and schoolhouse. Let's go check it out. I'm like, all right, sounds fun. So we drive. It's about five, six miles outside of town. It's on a lonely, desolate road. We drive out there.

And the whole way there, she's telling us all these stories about growing up and ASO and hanging out there and seeing all kinds of creepy, ghostly stuff. And, you know, we're just kind of laughing about it, like, yeah, whatever. So we get out there and my cousin and I start getting out of the car.

You know, she's sitting in the back seat or whatever. And we're like, "Are you coming?" And she's just kind of sitting there like, "No, I'm gonna stay here." So my cousin and I kind of chuckled to each other and start walking into the cemetery and we get about halfway in and we start hearing all this rustling in the bushes. You're screaming and yelling and all this stuff. There's all these trees and bushes just surrounding the whole cemetery and we just kind of hear something.

And it was just like, it was horrific what we heard. So him and I look at each other and we decide we're going to head back to the car. We made it about, I don't know, 50 yards maybe into the cemetery. And we ran back as quick as we could. And we thought she might have been messing with us, but...

When we opened the door, we're like, was that you like screaming? And she's like, no, I've just been sitting here. And we're like, you didn't hear that at all? And she's like, no, I didn't hear anything. So we went back and him and I both had like this weird feeling. Fast forward a couple of years later, my girlfriend and I and some friends, we went out there again. This was probably like 2015. And we decide, you know, we're going to go walk around the cemetery.

So you walk into the cemetery and right in front of you is this big, like, oak tree, like a giant oak tree in the very center of the cemetery. And right to the left of that is like the little caretaker shack. We're walking around and we're talking and, you know, talking about spooky stuff that's happened to us.

I'm mentioning my story about the first time that I went there. There's like a slight hill to the left, so we go up the hill and, you know, we're talking and just doing our thing and not really paying attention. And we start walking back. We've been there maybe 10 minutes. And right under that oak tree, my girlfriend stops us. And she goes, did you guys hear that?

And we just kind of looked at her thinking she's messing with us. And we're like, oh, like, boo, like you're trying to scare us or whatever. And she's like, no, shut up, be quiet, listen. And we heard this sound. I can't even describe it. It sounded like power lines arcing, essentially. Like if you've ever seen like a video of them flipping a switch on some power lines and you hear the electricity go through. That's what it sounded like.

And it was literally like right over our head because we were at the tree. And we all just kind of froze and kind of looked at each other and we're like, all right. So we slowly made our way back to the car. And when we got to the car, we all started Googling these sounds, trying to figure out what it was. And I mean, the best we could come up with was it was a mountain lion.

The weird thing was, was we had the car was pointed like straight ahead at the tree. And my friend Jess had flipped on the headlights that were pointed directly at the tree and we didn't see a single thing in that tree. We sat there for like five minutes just looking, trying to figure out what it was that we heard. I mean, if it was a mountain lion, that's pretty terrifying too. But we never figured out what it was. And we decided to leave.

Yeah, strangely, we left the same way we came in and somehow we got lost and went up on a road that has a dead end with a huge sign that says this road doesn't lead to the ocean. So we turn around and we start heading back into town and we wind up in a completely different area than where we started. I have no idea how that happened, but it happened. Pretty strange.

Anyways, I enjoyed the podcast and have a good night. Do you see what I mean? Lions are just a part of life here. Thank you, Nick, for the phone call. Now, this is a bit off topic, but Nick did visit a cemetery in the story. And I've lived here in Southern California for going on 20 years now. And I can count on my two hands all the cemeteries I know of here.

Now back east, cemeteries are everywhere. I can think of 10 or 15 in and around my small hometown back in Ohio. But for a city center 100 miles long and just as wide and some 20 million people in the vicinity, the greater LA area is seriously lacking cemeteries. Making me wonder, where exactly do all of our dead go?

Anyway, that's just something that I've always thought about, living out here. But I'm glad that you found a cemetery, Nick. And I'm also glad that you got the thrill that you were seeking. It's always fun when something strange happens while legend-tripping. Now thanks again, Nick, for sharing the submission. Now let's switch gears here a bit for this next call. Look up to the skies and welcome Tammy to the program.

Hi, Derek. This is Tammy in San Diego, California. I'm calling in regarding three somethings that happened to me, I don't know, 30 years ago. It was in my late teens, early 20s. I'm almost 50 now. So the first event was when I lived with my sister. We lived in a little rental house in La Mesa, California. We were going to school. And I used to like to stay up late at night. I was in my room and I walked over to the window. I don't know why. I peeled open the blinds.

And I looked out into the sky in the exact location where there was a hovering UAP. It was a giant triangle. It had lights along its edge. The reason I could see the triangle or make it out was because it was blocking out the light behind it. Otherwise, it was black against the sky. And I just stood there in, like, shock and panic and just quickly went and woke up my sister and said, you've got to come with me and look at this. And by the time we got back, it was gone.

Then fast forward a couple years later, she and I moved out of our rental. We're briefly living back with my mom. She was in one guest room and I was in the other. And again, it's, you know, two in the morning and I go over to the window and I don't know what compels me to go to the window, but I go to the window and look out in the sky. My mom's backyard was flat and it sort of had an embankment that went up. So I had to specifically look up and to this particular part of the sky. And there is a white light coming

that at first looks like it's moving like an airplane, but then starts to move erratically, like in a zigzag way, in a way that it can't just stop and go back and forth, but it is. And so I just have this complete panic flood my body, and I just feel my heart pounding out of my chest. And I go next door, and I get my sister, and I get out of bed. She's not very happy with me, but she goes with me. We go in the backyard. I point up in the sky,

I spotted it again and I said, what is that? And she sees it and she's like, I have no idea what that is. We just watched it for another few minutes while it just zigzagged all over the place. And then it just shot straight up in the sky and was gone. So now I've had two events where I've just gone to a window randomly. Fast forward five more years. I'm camping with my then fiance and a bunch of people from work. I have a huge group there. We're all sitting in chairs around a campfire.

And I just stood up, turned around and looked at this particular part of the sky. And I see what at first I think is an airplane, but then it starts to move radically. And so I tap my friend on the shoulder. I'm like, do you see that? And she looked and then pretty soon everybody looked. We were all just standing there in silence, watching this thing bounce around the sky. So people started to say things and people were getting excited. And then it just shot off and was gone.

I don't find it strange that people have sightings. What I do find extremely strange is that three different times in my life, I specifically looked where something was. I don't know what kind of compulsion would make me look out the window late at night. I'm kind of a scaredy cat. I would never go to my window and just randomly look out into my yard.

or randomly looked into the sky. And it was always associated with this like feeling that washed over me. It was primarily panic, but also, you know, excitement and wonder and shock. I'm really curious because I've had this story with me my whole entire life and just never thought to see if anybody else had ever had this experience. So I'm just really hoping that someone who listens to the podcast might have experienced this too. Anyway, I love the podcast. Thanks, Derek. Bye.

Thank you for the call, Tammy. Well, I have some good news for you. I've received multiple reports resembling each of the encounters you shared in your story. So to say you're not alone would be an understatement. And being a California native, you're also not alone in seeing strange things in the sky. California ranks number one in UFO sightings, according to the National UFO Reporting Center.

and living in and around San Diego, Tammy. You also have company, because as far as cities in California and UFO sightings are concerned, San Diego ranks number two, right behind Los Angeles as the most active. Now it's followed by Sacramento, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Long Beach, Santa Barbara, and Santa Rosa.

but seeing a handful of UFOs is one thing. Encountering the occupants of these unidentified flying objects is another. Please welcome Morin to the program. Hi, my name is Morin. I am a resident of Central California, and I had an encounter with three gray beings. It must have been maybe the summer of 2016,

And the weeks kind of leading up to my encounter, it had been very dark, very gloomy. Weather that was unusual for summer. And I remember that maybe days leading up to my encounter, I looked up at the sky and the wind was still. You couldn't hear any birds. Nothing. It was just utter quiet. And it was maybe a couple of hours before sunset.

So I remember that I was with my roommate at the time and we were both outside. And we looked up at the sky and we saw like, I don't know, maybe like nine or ten orbs that were coming in from the east and heading west. And you would see these orbs lighting behind the clouds. So you couldn't see what it was exactly. It was more of like a bright light silhouette between the clouds.

And we saw them just kind of come down from the sky and then turn at a straight 90 degree angle and head west. We had family also visiting and I remember that they called us and they're like, hey, do you guys see those lights in the sky? And I remember that the people that we lived with next door said, oh, you know, it's the Chinese lantern. So I just felt in my gut that it was something more than that. The night of my encounter, I remember I was in my room.

And I had taken a look at the time and the time was maybe like a couple of minutes close to midnight. And I was scrolling along and then I remember that I kept hearing like this loud generator right outside my door. I didn't think anything unusual of it since I lived next to transients. There was always noise and just random things going up in the night.

I always chalked it up to be the transients that kind of settled in next door. So I was hearing that generator noise and I remember I was becoming irritated because at that time I was ready to fall asleep and I kept hearing that generator. So I thought to myself, if this goes on any longer, I'm going to call in a noise disturbance.

A few seconds later, a big bright beam of light shines in through my window, kind of like if somebody has like a spotlight or something. I remember that the light beams were kind of coming through the cracks of the curtain. I became a rape. I decided that at that point I was going to call 911 and I was going to complain. Just let them know that I had people disturbing my sleep.

So once I picked up my phone and that light was shining through my window, my door flung open. I saw like three what looked like, you know, it's a terrestrial being about three feet tall running towards me. I remember that like I blinked my eyes and they were gone. So I figured that, you know what? I fell asleep. I had a nightmare.

It's a horrible nightmare. This is us. And then when I looked down at the clock, I saw that it was three in the morning. So I lost about three hours of time that I couldn't explain. It was literally a blink of an eye. And I experienced all that. And then I woke up and I was terrified. I figured, you know what, it's maybe a bad dream. Try to make some sense in what had happened.

I remember I had seen the lights, you know, a couple weeks before. So it was just really strange. And a part of me wants to believe that it actually happened because my dreams never have any kind of like sequence. And I remember just, you know, a sequence of these events happening. And I want to believe as much as I don't want to believe. So, you know, if anyone has had an encounter such as mine,

I'm eager to hear about it. So thank you for your time and thank you for hearing my story. And thank you for your podcast. Thanks, Morin. Sure, it could have been a dream. It could have also been sleep paralysis. But it also could have been the remnants of a traumatizing alien abduction experience. They are known for wiping minds, after all. And such an event could fit snugly within a three-hour missing time window.

But I don't want to plant things in your head, Morin. So of course, this is all simply a theory. So aliens or a hallucination, it doesn't really matter. Because we appreciate the call. Either way. Now folks, I have plenty more coming up for you. But right now, I'm well overdue for an ad break. So please, don't touch that tile. I'll be right back. 2.0. Where? 0.0.

just kind of kept doing what they do and it resulted in a blowout win. Alright, this next call takes us back into the ghostly realm. Nicole, the digital airwaves are yours. Hi Eric, this is Nicole. I'm calling from Redland, California. I was calling in a story that happened just this past November at my home. So I was laying in bed with my husband

And, you know, we're just laying there kind of having a conversation between us. It's a little quiet. Our dog is laying to the left side of our bed. We have two kids across the hallway, both in bed. And the dog usually never lays on the left side of the bed towards the window, the front of the house. But he was that night for some reason.

We hear a thump, which sounds like my daughter, my six-year-old, getting out of bed. So we kind of got quiet to listen. We heard footsteps come from her bedroom, like they normally would, into our bedroom. And it stopped. The dog jumped like he got kicked or hit.

We heard his collar jingle and he usually never jumps like that. He got up and he walked out of the room and so we just assumed it was my daughter. My husband called out and said, you know, "Hey, come on, get in bed." And there was no response. And then he said, "I can see you." Still no response. He kind of nudged me. I got my phone out and kind of hit the flashlight

and there was no one there. He looked at me and he said, "You heard that, right?" And I said, "Absolutely." The dog even reacted to it. So we were kind of, you know, surprised. It's not the first thing that's happened in this house. This house was built in the '60s. But, you know, as far as we know, our neighbor said there's never really been anything that's happened there. You know, he got up and went to go check on my daughter.

She was fast asleep in bed. So this is the second time we've kind of heard those footsteps, so I don't know what it might be. If it's, you know, like a residual kind of thing. I mean, she's still living, but maybe it's just something that keeps continuing. I don't know. But the dogs obviously reacted to it, so there was something that disturbed him. All righty, thanks for the show. I really appreciate your effort. You keep me entertained for hours. Thanks. Bye.

And proud I am to be your source for paranormal entertainment. Thanks for calling in. I'll tell you what, Nicole. If our cats and dogs episode a week or so back taught us anything, it's that pets, too, can see ghosts. And it sounds like that may well have happened in your story as well, Nicole. Now, if only we had a pet-to-human translator, that sure would come in handy. But until that's invented...

Thank you again, Nicole, for sharing your entry. Now let's keep the California calls coming with John's entry. Welcome to the show, John. Hey there, this is John from the Palm Springs area. I have a few for you. One's mine, one's my sister's, and one's my brother's. And then another one is my wife and I. First one, this happened to me when I was younger. I was a kid. I was probably about 11 years old. My father had recently passed away.

So everyone in the house is having a hard time, but me and my brother used to share a room, but we kind of got into an argument and the older brother kicked me out of the room. So I go sleep on our living room couch. I don't know what time it was that I'm like suddenly jolted awake. I'm laying on my back and when I open my eyes, it looks like someone leaned over me. I see like a silhouette up ahead and I close my eyes and open them again and they're gone. That could be kind of like, you know, anything, I guess. Maybe just seeing things, but...

It was still creepy. I still remember it pretty vividly. I got up right away, went back into my room. Thankfully, my brother was sleeping and I was able to sleep. The first one. Second one, a bit odd. It's my sister's story. Her and her husband were living over at my grandma's house. This had to be maybe about 2010. They were outside hanging clothes on the clothesline. And I guess she's facing the house and he's facing away. And he's looking at something behind her and she turned around. She looks.

She told me they saw a tall green that looked like a person, I guess. It was in the neighbor's backyard over the fence. This was a tall fence. I remember my grandma's house. I mean, this fence is not a small fence. They were definitely towered over the fence. That's all she told me. My grandma, I guess, threw one of the sheets over her and took her inside. And I can't get a guy to talk about it. And if I bring it up to him here and there when we see them...

He really doesn't talk about it. He kind of like blasts it off a little bit. He can't really get much out of them. I know he saw much more than my sister did, but he's not willing to talk about it. That's what she says they saw. So next, short one. I mean, he was driving in this area. They call it Desert Hot Springs area. And there's a stretch of road there called Dillon. It's kind of a dark road. But he says he saw something big run across it on two feet. He didn't get a really good look at it.

He's really like not a believer in anything, kind of bust my chops a lot, you know, that I've been through that kind of stuff. So it's kind of like, I mean, maybe he was playing with me, I don't know, but pretty strange to hear him say something like that, that he saw something. Like I said, that one, take a grain of salt. But it's my older brother and he just messed it up. The last one is actually here where we live in the town of India. Me and my wife were actually on our way to go buy something for dinner. We're driving down one of the streets here and it looked like a plastic bag kind of floating in the air.

Thank you, John.

right down the road from me. He's calling from the desert communities just east of here. There's lots of magic in those sun-baked rocks, as I'm sure John can attest. And he had quite the laundry list of activity to report. And given that all these locations aren't all that far from the aforementioned Borrego Triangle, this all sort of makes a lot of sense. So keep your eyes open, John.

Keep reporting what you see. And thank you again for sharing those tales and keeping the desert's magic alive. Now, if you were to climb the mountains to the northwest that overlook those desert lands, you'd find yourself in a place called Big Bear. And that's where we meet our next storyteller. Jay, welcome to tonight's program.

Hello, this is Jake. This story happened a few years ago in summer in Big Bear, California. I was visiting with family for a few weeks. We'd rented a cabin up there. We hiked the first day. We went around the town. We ate at the place with the giant plate-sized pancakes. Anyone who's been there will know. And we slept and woke up, did stuff the next day, and headed to bed again. So this is about the second night there. But this night, something happened.

kind of strange happened in the middle. So it was probably midnight or very early in the morning. It was totally dark out. I woke up to my cat stepping on the end of the bed, which I didn't think anything of until I remembered that I was on vacation and my cat was 150 miles away and I was on top of a bunk bed. So I opened my eyes and I was still half asleep. I sort of rolled onto my back and looked down to see what it was. It was dark, but

You know, your eyes are sort of adjusted at night. It's like visible. And in the murkiness, I could clearly make out what I can only describe as a gnome. I couldn't make out any features because of the darkness, or at least I don't remember, but I could see the silhouette. It was about a foot tall maximum, and it had a hat of some sort. I know it was pointed. I don't know, like, how much. I don't know how much of that is my brain now thinking back, sort of adding traditional gnome characteristics, but...

I know it had a hat. I know it was only about a foot tall, was kind of broad. And it was pausing sort of like mid waddle up on the bed beside my legs. And again, I could feel it. That's what woke me up. It felt like when my cat's walking at night, it was like a physical sensation. And this whole thing only lasted for about 10 seconds at maximum. It was very short.

I should have been terrified, but I wasn't at all. I just didn't feel scared. And maybe that was because I was half asleep, but I only felt calmness and sort of amusement. Like, oh, you scared me. I wasn't scared. It was just amused, I guess is the best word. And I knew somehow, like very, very clearly in my head, I knew what he was here for. I knew he was just here to see what was going on.

Like, I understood instantly in my head that he wasn't here for anything malicious. I was just on his land or in his home and he wanted to check in and see what was happening. So I flopped back down and went to sleep. And only in the morning did I think back and realize how weird that is. I never have experiences like that. I asked my family if any of them had been there or touched my bed or anything, which wouldn't explain it either, but none of them had.

So rolled that out. And I've had sleep paralysis before, not super often, but I've had it. And this wasn't sleep paralysis, mostly because I moved, but it just didn't feel the same. It didn't have that sense of dread. It's distinctly different, I guess.

But the more I've learned about and like discussed and understood the Fae, I think so many ghosts and shadow people sightings are just fairies misunderstood. And I encourage anyone who's had paranormal experiences to learn about the Fae. I hope there will be more fairy based calls. I would love that. If you guys have any fairy related stories who are listening, please call it in. I would love to hear it. Yeah, that's it. Have a great day, everyone. I love the show. Whoa, Jay.

that is almost literally in my backyard. Only 14 miles from our lake to Big Bear Lake. And I've been tracking paranormal reports from up here on the mountain for going on a decade now. And there has been some activity here. The lady that tried to sue the state of California for Bigfoot had her sighting just three or four miles from my front door. And there are any number of haunted buildings in the area. Mostly restaurants, but a few hotels here as well.

And UFO sightings are common in the area. We actually shared one just a few weeks ago out of Crestline, a town just a little bit lower than us here on the mountain. But I've never heard of someone seeing a gnome. Well, let me rephrase that. We actually get that report much more often than you would expect. But I've never heard of one from up here in the San Bernardino Mountains. But the reports that we get are almost always the same.

A tiny man, dressed in clothing seemingly made from woodland materials. People see them outside their houses, in barns, but mostly out on the paths and trails, up in the mountains, and almost never inside the home. And you know a second Jay's call to action. If you have a gnome or a little person story, what are you waiting for? Call that baby in. 888-608-NIGHT

And thank you again, Jay, for taking the time to share that amazing call. I can tell you that you certainly have my interest piqued. And that takes us to the home stretch. And here to get that last leg started is Becky.

Becky, go ahead and tell us what you saw. Hi, Derek. This is Becky. I'm in Merino Valley, California. My boyfriend's son lives in Ventura, California. And we were listening to season 15, episode 25. And we were talking about things in the sky you had a guest on named Allie. And strange happenings in Ventura County.

My boyfriend recently went to go see his son out there and on his way home early in the morning, he saw something in the sky and he said at first it looked like maybe a shooting star, but it was going a lot faster and a lot brighter through the clouds.

Thank you, Becky. Now, Becky is referencing Season 15, Episode 25, one of those rare episodes where I had a guest on.

And joining me on that episode was the incomparable Allie Terry of Let's Get Haunted Podcast. And coincidentally, we discussed several encounters from the Golden State on that episode, including a monstrous beast from up near Ventura, where Becky's boyfriend's son lives. So be sure to check out that episode if you're digging for more West Coast sagas. But for now, it's time for me to introduce tonight's closer.

Hey Derek, this is Matt from Los Angeles. I'm just calling in with a short one. I've been holding onto this one for a while. This happened to me and it was either 1989 or 1990.

I was either, I'd just turned five or I was six. And this occurred in the house that I currently live in now, which at the time when I was a kid, it wasn't mine, it was my grandparents'. I used to come over here all the time. Sometimes my parents would like go on like a date night and they would drop me off here at my grandparents' house and I would, you know, have dinner here, hang out, we'd watch some TV. I'd fall asleep on the couch and then my parents would come back and pick me up and bring me back home.

Anyway, this particular time, for whatever reason, my grandparents didn't let me stay up late or I might have been tired. So they were up watching TV still and they sent me off to bed and I started out in their room. I went and got out of their bed and my grandma came and tucked me in. You know, they told me that grandpa would move me out to the couch later and that was it. They put me in their room. They went out to the living room.

They left the hall light on, but what they did was they closed the door so there was still, you know, kind of that ambient light of a line of light coming around the door frame, creating kind of a night light, but it was still dark enough in that room. And I was laying in bed, you know, kind of just trying to doze off, and with the light that was in the room, I could still make out enough detail. And I look up at the door that's closed, and I see a hand

that is through the door. The door is closed, but there is a hand that's somewhat transparent, and it's, I think it was just beneath the doorknob. And this hand, you and everybody listening, imagine a hand, someone pointing at you, right? Like that you would point at anything or someone. Now I want you to rotate your wrist so that your thumb is looking up at you, and then the finger is just curling forward and back like beckoning.

Right? Like when you're a kid and you're in trouble and someone's just kind of pointing at you, moving their finger back and forth. It's doing that, but it's going very slow. The finger's going very slow, but the motion is clear. Whatever this is wants me to go over to the door. And I remember as a kid looking at this thing and kind of blinking my eyes a bit, thinking I'm not seeing what I'm seeing, but nope, it's still there. And I looked at it and I shook my head.

slowly back and forth, just sending the message, no. And then I just rolled over and went to sleep. And that was it. Nothing like that ever happened again in this house. And here I am now, the house I'm living in now, it's the same place my grandparents passed. And I'm living in this place with my family. And the room that that happened in is my son's room now. I'm always kind of wondering if something like that's going to happen again. And it hasn't. But I haven't told many people this story. I just told my wife and she kind of laughed a little bit.

But she kind of believes me. I'm not sure if she does. But when I was, you know, five or six, I saw a hand push through the door, beckoning me to come to it. And I refused and went back to bed. Don't know what it was. Can never explain it. And I'll never forget it. Love the show, man. Keep it going. Take care. Bye. Thank you, Matt. It seems like Hollywood's very own thing made an appearance. And I wonder if Matt's last name might happen to be Adams.

with two D's. Now I joke, but in reality, could you imagine being a young child and seeing this disembodied hand beckoning you into a darkened doorway? What would you do in this situation? Would you have followed the hand's request or would you have refused the way Matt did? And perhaps a more important question, if you were Matt, would you let your son sleep in the very same room?

Now either you're very confident, Matt, that it won't come back, or you know your son will also make the correct choice. Now again, I'm kidding, but I love this call, and I bet none of you had disembodied hand on your radar. I sure wouldn't have. But either way, that's going to do it for this evening. A big thanks to Jay for calling in, and one more big thanks to each of tonight's California-based visitors.

Now Monsters Among Us is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Bowers, and Connor Ryan. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Give us a like and follow on our social media pages. Give us a like and follow at YouTube. And give us a rate and review wherever that sort of thing is possible.

We appreciate all of the above. Don't forget that you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 10 p.m. Eastern on the Unexed Digital Network. Just visit unexednetwork.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. Now I'm back here on Thursday with a brand new installment.

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Alright folks, that's my time for today. Thanks for swinging by, thanks for the support, and thanks for keeping it spooky. Have yourselves a good night.