138: Spooky Dark Edition..
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Just a reminder to subscribe, and I know I say it so much in this episode, but if you want more spooky stories that are real from listeners, head over to Father Knows because the episode this week was also spooky stories. Enjoy the episode. Hi, guys. Welcome to Spooky Dark Edition. That was so spooky. Look at him shaking in my boots. Yes.

Hi, I'm Morgan. And I'm Alejandra. Oh, man. I'm so happy you're here and I'm not alone anymore. I was telling Alejandra on the way in, like, reading scary stories by yourself is honestly terrifying. And I'm in this, like, office building where the studio, like, the guest studio is. And I'm upstairs. I'm sitting on the toilet.

Go and pee. Minding my business. And all of a sudden, the automatic hand dryer starts going off. And I'm like, are you kidding me? After I'd already started hearing noises? Like, no, thank you. Yeah, it'd be like that. So now I'm like, I feel like I'm bringing this upon myself. And after the first spooky light edition, I had nightmares.

I had nightmares. It was not good. I did too. I have weird dreams every night though. Well, you have sleep paralysis too. Sometimes. How often do you have that? Maybe once every two, three months. That's pretty often. Is it? Can you imagine having it every night though? No, I literally would never. I would never. Like, I don't know what I would do, but I would never. I could never have that every night. That's traumatizing. You probably get used to it. You probably are just, I don't even know. It's kind of like anything else.

you just get used to it. Oh my gosh. But it's really jarring when it does happen. I can't even imagine. I just learned about exploding head syndrome. That is. Okay, so it's like as you're falling asleep or like just waking up, you'll hear like really, really loud bangs in your head, like a door slamming, gunshots. Oh, I've had that. I've had that. And so I learned about it the other day and I'm like, oh my God, this has happened to me. And it's terrifying. It happens like right as I'm falling asleep usually. And then I like jump, scare myself awake. And I'm like,

Yeah. And your heart's beating out of your chest. Like, you're just like, oh, my God. Yeah. So I learned about that. Yeah. And then I recorded a spooky episode for Father Knows last night. Terrible dreams last night. So... You're spookied out. I'm spookied out. So...

Get ready for this, you guys, because it's going to be the last spooky vibes for a whole year. So get your fill in. If you want more, head over to Father Knows Something. I'll link it in the description because all of those were listener write-ins.

And they were really, like, there were some good ones. Oh. Really good ones. All of them were write-ins. All of them. And damn, they were spooky. So we're starting with listener write-ins today, and then we have some other stories. Okay. Okay. Let's dive in. Okay. Trigger warning on this first one, you guys. It does contain talks of murder, serial killers, kind of true crime vibes, if you...

If you listen to that usually. So if it's not your cup of tea, skip ahead. Okay, so up first, we have a listener write-in from username Honeytots. Cute. Here's a spooky story from my mother. Working at a Catholic school was never a thing I thought would bring me such discomfort. Growing up Catholic, it was very comforting to visit places of worship. The places where you're supposed to feel the love of God and feel safe, feel heard, and feel welcomed.

Working in a century-old school, there was no limitation in spooky experiences. Though, throughout all of my experiences, nothing will ever top this one. It started off in the morning while we were preparing breakfast for the kids. I was setting out the snacks at the counter where the kids go to pay for them. The kids start rushing in and it's business as usual until I see her.

I see this girl peeking around the corner. She's very young, maybe five or six, and she has these very distinct braided pigtails and she's wearing the school uniform. So I assumed, quote, oh, maybe that's a new girl here at school and thought about asking the front office assistant for an update on any new kids that I should be aware of.

I shrug this off. Moments later, after the morning school bell rings, I see her again. The kids are supposed to be in class already. I see her peeking around the corner, looking at me like she's playing a game of hide-and-go-seek. I try to approach her, but she ran off, giggling.

Anyways, the day goes on. It's lunch and the kindergarten teachers bring the kids down to come get their lunch. I asked, quote, Oh, do you have a new girl in your class? And she looks confused and says, quote, No, I haven't had anyone new transfer. These are all of my regular kids. And I was like, OK, whatever. Maybe she's in first grade or something. We don't really talk to those teachers. So it was out of my mind for the rest of the day.

The next morning, I ask the front office assistant as she comes in to buy breakfast. I tell her there was this new little girl in the breakfast line yesterday. I then ask her, quote, who is she? Does she need to set up a lunch account?

And Sue, the office assistant, tells me there's no one new and she has no idea what I'm talking about. I'm just confused as ever because I've never, ever seen that little girl before. I then thought maybe she just doesn't come in to get breakfast or snack ever. And it was her first time. I described the girl to Sue as she knows most of the kids really well because it's a small private school. And she's like, I have no idea who you're talking about.

So she starts bringing in students to verify if they were the one I saw. After going through three grades, none of them were the little girl I saw.

After that debacle, she is thinking hard until her face lights up like she remembered something and runs out of the kitchen. She then brings down this kind of old looking picture. She points out to a little girl and asks if it was her and it instantly clicked. It was her. She was wearing the same pigtails and it was the same uniform. And I was like, yes, that's her. And Sue's face goes ghostly white.

Full body chills. Mm-hmm.

Anyway, Sue tells her that she tried calling back the guy and the line said the phone was no longer in use. And after that day, we never heard anything from the family or this guy claiming to be her brother. It was like the picture had awakened her spirit once again and she just came to say hi. I have no idea, but it's really one of the most bizarre and scariest things to ever happen to me. Yikes. Holy smokes. I don't know anything about the Hillside Strangler.

I don't know either. No. Oh, my God. Apparently, his real name is Kenneth Bianchi, an American serial killer, kidnapper, and rapist. Ooh. Yeah. Ew. His youngest victim was 12 years old. Ew. And there was another one that was 14. How old was this girl when she passed? No mention of age. I'm trying to find...

like a picture of like maybe this victim just to like kind of corroborate the story. This was in Los Angeles. Yeah. Oh, my God. I was going to say, I think it was California. I didn't know it was L.A. I thought maybe it was San Francisco. Why is he called the Hillside Strangler? Beats me. I've definitely heard of this, but I've never looked into it.

There's a source here that says the corpses were discovered by a nine-year-old boy who was treasure hunting in a heap of trash on a hillside near Dodger Stadium. Yeah. Oh, my God. Just terrible. There's a lot of victims. Like, looking at the pictures, it is a very sad, very, very sad story.

But yeah, here in Los Angeles. So this school that they're writing about is here, local. It sounds like it would be, yeah. Wow, I wonder what school it was. I know. I...

I'm very curious. But this is coming from the Too Hot Takes subreddit. So if you guys have any questions you want to ask, look for the username HoneyTot. I love that username. Yeah, they might have replied already, but I'm sure they'd be willing to answer any questions or like have their mom maybe chime in to give us a bit more of a lowdown. But wow. Yeah.

That is crazy. Also, what about the brother? Like the brother calling? Yeah, where'd he go? And then she calls. Well, yeah. And then like she calls back and like the phone line is out of service. It's no longer in use. That's so weird. Like was it his ghost calling too? I don't know. Or what? I don't know. Oh my God. Yeah. Like is he alive? It's crazy. It's crazy.

Just such a tragic. I like can't. Serial killers is something like I like listening to true crime just because it's like if it's done well, I should say, because there's some podcasts where I'm like, this is so fucked. I just turn it off. Yeah. But if it's done well and feels like respectful and they include like the victim's family's point of view and things like that, it's just nice to listen to to like almost like you learn like any insight on like how to be safer. But yeah.

I just can't even imagine ever hurting someone. Like, I almost ran over a squirrel the other day and I started crying. Like, can you... I just... I can't imagine. I really can't imagine. No, that's...

different type of evil. I mean, there's something off about you as a human being. You have to severely lack empathy, right? What was it with, what's his face, Jeffrey Dahmer? He had some type of fixation. Even as a kid, he enjoyed watching animals suffer and kill them. And that's, I don't know what that is, but

some type of socio social disorder um but you have to lack a severe amount of empathy to be able to inflict pain and harm willingly and enjoy it like it's not even like you're able to do it that's one part of it but then to also actually enjoy it there are some i've seen like or i've heard and read about some serial killers where they like literally get off on watching their victims struggle

I can't. If they go in peace, it's not satisfying. It's so dark, you guys. There's definitely going to be a trigger warning on this. Yeah.

It's so, so, so dark and we can't comprehend it because we're normal human beings with empathy. Yeah. No, really. I can't wrap my mind around it. And we're going to get to some stories in the no sleep category too. And it is very interesting because no sleep, as I'll tell you again, is like a creative writing exercise, right? It's very scary stories, but they're not real. Yeah. Those are my cup of tea. Yeah. But as I'm sitting here today, I go...

Some of them are so dark and twisted that like...

I'm like, what if these were like the inner admissions from a serial killer? I know. And this is their creative writing outlet, but they're like confessing to all of their truths. And I fully think like this popped into my head as I was reviewing the stories for today. And I fully think there will be a murderer that gets convicted based on their Reddit posts. I think that has... Oh, on Reddit. Like their creative writings or whatever they're putting out there. I think that has happened. Has it? Has it?

This is ringing a bell. It sounds familiar now, doesn't it? Yeah. Like, I swear there was somebody where they wrote about... If not, we just... Maybe we should coin that plot line for a Netflix movie because that's really smart. Let's go, baby.

He, you know, has like a diary or he's like a professor and he does like fiction writing. Oh my God. Do you remember that one show? It was with Johnny Depp, like The Secret Window or something like that. No. Oh, I think it's The Secret Window. That one was scary. It was a movie. Oh.

It's old, right? I never watched it, but now I know what you're talking about. I think you'd get really into it. I think I started it and I don't know what happened. So, so crazy. So I did. I put enough magical words together and it did say two local Catholic school girls, Sonia Johnson, 14, and Dolores Dolly Sapita, 12, were last seen boarding a bus. And so I'm wondering if it was one of those, one of those girls. What year was that?

1977. Oh my gosh. That's the year. What's that TikTok sound? So sick and twisted. Sick and twisted. Oh my God. I'm trying to see if I can find a picture. Why does it always got to be the Catholic schools? Why do they always have to like, why? Well, and there is a picture of Dolly Dolores, but it's not, she doesn't have pigtails in this picture. Yeah. I was like, I have the vision of pigtails.

Okay. Yeah. Moving, moving along. Yeah. This is hitting, hitting too close to home. I didn't, I've never heard of this one. It's like the school down the street. It was where apparently it's close to like the Glendale Galleria. That's sorry. I screamed at the microphone. That's not far. No. That's really close to where we are. Yeah. It's very close.

Okay, this next one is coming from user Somefroyo4928. I could fuck up Somefroyo right now. It's so down. That sounds incredible. I know.

My childhood home has been haunted for as long as I can remember. For context, my Massachusetts neighborhood is built on farmland dating back hundreds of years. There were several instances growing up, but eventually my two brothers and I got used to it. For example, I always heard my name whispered. We always heard the sound of someone walking on the creaky parts of the house and the toilet flushing on its own, just to name a few. One night when I was 16 or 17 years old, me and one of my brothers were home alone.

My parents had gone out to a party, and so my brother and I were getting ready to head up to bed. I heard my parents come home, but I pretended to be asleep in my room because I didn't feel like talking to anyone. When my door was closed, my parents knew I was either sleeping or wanted my privacy, so they typically wouldn't come in or bother me. However, this night, my door slowly creaked open. In my head, I was like, okay, it's probably my mom just wanting to say goodnight. I'll keep pretending to be asleep.

That's when I felt a hand stroke my face. In my head with my eyes still closed, I thought, huh, that was weird. That's when I heard what I thought was my mom start to walk away. But then she stopped in the middle of my room.

I opened one eye and saw a little girl in a tattered dress looking straight ahead at my mirror. No, no, absolutely not. Sorry. Terrifying. I was so scared I couldn't even bring myself to scream. I just kept my eyes closed for what felt like hours. I think I eventually fell asleep, but I was terrified.

No, thank you. I can't believe he laid there in just pure terror and just fell back asleep.

I do not claim this energy. No. It's like avoiding that TikTok sound. Like, I do not. I do not claim this energy. I would. My soul would leave my body. My soul would leave my body. I would probably pass away. There'd be two dead people in the room now. Like, no chance. No chance.

I've heard it's actually really bad to have mirrors placed like facing your bed too. Really? Like I've heard that. I don't know if it's like a part of like feng shui, but Googling is a bad to put a mirror in front of your bed. Some may say it is superstitious or perhaps a little silly to worry about placing a mirror directly opposite your bed. However, there is a psychological evidence to suggest that it could interfere with your sleep.

But I've seen some people say that it can also act like a portal. Oh, I don't like this. Stop. Everyone at home with a mirror in front of their bed is screaming right now. My whole wall opposite my bed is a mirror. Oh my gosh. It's a mirror. So I can't avoid it. And I heard this like somewhat recently. And now like every time I wake up, I'm like slowly like, please don't be anything. Because the nights where I sleep by myself...

All of a sudden, I'll like see shadows like start going in my room. And then like I'll hear like this rustling. And I have like shopping bags on my floor or like, you know, an Amazon bag, like the shippers. And it sounds like there's a rat or something like crawling across it. And I'm like, don't look. It's fine. Just close your eyes.

eyes go to sleep so you think it's a rat i don't know what it is i don't think it's a rat i just tell myself that so i don't freak out i would rather it be a rat i'd be relieved i would be really really excited really instead of something crawling on your floor i just i i don't know what it is like ever since the first scary episode we ever did stop i know i've had stuff i don't want to know yeah

I don't like it. I'm not claiming this. Like, uh-uh. Absolutely not. I'm not claiming this. I'm so pissed right now. Just even exposing myself to these stories feels like I'm taking a risk. It is. It feels like I'm opening up the portal to bad energy. Yeah. And I'm so scared. I hate this. Well...

Yeah, this next one's not as bad. Luckily, I don't have a mirror. I have lots of mirrors in my room, but none of them face my bed. Okay, so you're safe. I'm safe tonight, yeah. Yeah, you're good. You're for sure good.

No, you're fine. You're like totally good. You're like so girl math. No fears, no problems. Girl math. I love girl math. I know, girl math is great. We should do a whole episode on girl math. I know, a follow-up on our math ain't mathin'. Oh my God, it needs to happen. The girl math, that math maths. Yeah, girl math slaps. Girl math is being bad at math, but the math maths when it's girl math.

I like that. I like that a lot. Okay, so this next one is coming from K-E-W. Koo. 3780. Yeah. Koo. 3780. Okay. No, wait. You wanted to keep going. Are there more numbers? I'm saying the numbers wrong. Are you okay? So it's Koo 30780. Wait, what? They were out of order. No, I just kept saying 37 instead of 307.

We're really good at math, though. Oh, my God. Really good at math. Okay. When I was 17, I started having frequent and vivid dreams about being in the Navy at Pearl Harbor during the attack in World War II. My inner thoughts were a male's voice that I didn't recognize. I'm biologically female. I watched the planes fly over through his eyes,

felt panic and fear as he ran inland, and he would repeat, "'I have to warn them. I have to warn them,' over and over inside his head. I remember the sounds of the bombs going off, of smoke and destruction, before there was a bright light and I could tell that he'd been hit. He came to for a brief moment, and I kept hearing, "'I have to warn them. I have to warn them,' before the dream ended, and I assumed he passed away."

Usually I can control my dreams, but in this, I was him. I don't know how to explain it, but for a while I kept having the same dream and would wake up when he died. But then I started having different dreams where he would die, but almost like he didn't realize he was dead and he was stuck in a time loop of trying to outrun the planes and then dying. Hmm.

Every time the dream started over, he would tell himself he just had to be a little faster and he could make it. Then one night, I remember him rubbing his finger where his wedding ring would be with his thumb. And when he realized it wasn't there since he'd got blown up, he said, quote, my wife is going to kill me and was frantically trying to find the ring.

I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at that, but like the fact that this man's final thoughts were like, can't have my wife get mad at me. Poor thing. I know. The creepiest part was when this started leaking into my waking life. I worked at Walmart at the time and I was walking to the back room for my break.

When I rubbed my left ring finger with my thumb and when I didn't feel a ring because I didn't wear one, I started panicking, frantically looking on the floor for a gold wedding band that never existed. And in my head, I heard his voice too. Whoa. Oh man, my wife's going to kill me.

It only lasted for a few seconds, but when I snapped out of it, I was insanely freaked out. After a while, the dreams started to come less and less frequently until they stopped altogether. My aunt swore up and down that I must have been reincarnated, and those were moments from my past life. I still, to this day, have the nervous habit of rubbing my now-real wedding band with my thumb and always panic if it's not there."

I'm not sure if that was actual memories of a real person, but I hope if it was, then he's found his peace. Ooh. Okay. That one is a little beautiful in a weird way. Not beautiful because it doesn't have like this happy theme to it. Yeah. But I'm really big on energy, like being recycled and believing that we maybe have past lives. And I totally believe that. I believe in reincarnation. Yeah. I really do. It really felt like, it felt like this soul thing.

didn't accept their fate. So they didn't cross over properly. And I think I, and this is where I would love to hear from like mediums and people who actually like look into this stuff. But I think I heard or was told somewhere that like, if they don't accept that and cross over peacefully, that's like, those are like the spirits that are among us that are like trapped here. And it's almost like he, he was like using her as a vessel. Yeah.

Yeah. To try to cross over by like trying to replay and replay like almost like tortured. Or like, yeah. And trying to like change the way it happened to get that closure. Exactly. You said it. You said it. You took the words out of my mouth. No, I fully agree. I think reincarnation is a thing. And I think there are some people that get trapped. And it is interesting that it's like a lot of the reincarnated stories that I've heard from people that remember their past life is

Usually it's traumatic, but a lot of them are like World War Two or like like pilots. And so there was another one that I heard where this little boy was with his parents going to like an air museum and he looked up and saw one of the planes and he's like, I used to fly that.

It was a little boy? Oh, wow. And he was like, I crashed in the ocean during this. I got shot down. This little boy? This little boy. I would not know what to do. Yeah. I'd be like, no, you didn't. Well, and so his parents were like, what the fuck is happening? What's he watching on TV? And they started evaluating it and like seeing if they could find out about his story. And sure enough, they found the guy's name. What? He crashed into the ocean, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, died. Like they found him. That's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy. That's crazy.

I do. I am a believer. I feel like they were, I don't know how it chooses like people, but this OP seems to feel it like it was so palpable that that like persona, that energy, that life, it feels like she felt it with the wedding ring thing. You know? And so I don't know. I just think that that's, that's so interesting. And I wonder what finally happened.

caused them to pass over or kind of like give up or just let it go and yeah move on I guess well just like hearing someone else's voice in your head too where she was like I I was him like I heard a male voice like I was that voice yeah and I can't imagine like I wonder if that's similar to like what people with alters feel like if you have alters like people with DID oh and so it's like

Is that what it feels like where you have someone else, like you have multiple people in your head? It's kind of like that where it's like you literally hear the other voice with you and it's not your voice. Yeah. I'm just like, I'm so fascinated by the brain and like what happens in dreams. Oh yeah, dreams. That's my number one like interest. Like my Roman Empire is dreams. You would have loved. For sure. You would have loved the Father Knows episode we did because we talked about this a lot where like,

What is the difference between like these spirits and this energy and us brushing it off as like things we can't explain? So like I gave the example, I'm like, think about sleep paralysis. What if that is an encounter with us?

a spirit or a demon or whatever it is. And enough people have had these encounters, but we can't explain it. So it's like, oh, sleep paralysis. That's exactly what it seems like. Because yeah, there's no rhyme or reason. This is why, okay, so dreams, because I'm a dreamer, like I have dreams almost every night. They're always super vivid. They're very like, they feel so tangible and I have sleep paralysis. But

I'm so invested in it. And what's hard is you do all this research, there's nothing there. They can't explain sleep paralysis. They have some links. They can kind of figure out the people who are more likely to experience it. Yeah, like insomniacs. Yeah. Well, you have to be in REM. So rapid eye movement has to be at a certain level in order for you to be in a deep enough sleep to have sleep paralysis. So there's some data behind it, but not enough. There's not...

Like no one can explain why or how to not have it. They say like don't try to cross your arms or cross your legs, but like no real data behind that. And I really hope I'm alive long enough to see the technology and the research come through on that subject. I just saw something like last week that said that maybe – I think it was Japan. They developed some type of science that can help interpret our dreams now. Yeah.

And if that's true and it's a real technology, that will be like the happiest day of my life because I have way – I'm not kidding when I say it's my Roman Empire. Like I think about dreams every single day. I'm absolutely fascinated by dreams. Well, what's interesting for you too, you're very –

I would say like sensitive. And like, I think about your story where you saw your grandpa who had already passed walking down the street. Yeah. You have like a lot of like visitation dreams. Yeah. You have sleep paralysis. Yeah. You're more sensitive to spiritual energy. I would say spirits. Totally.

So it is interesting that you have sleep paralysis and all those other things. It like kind of correlates like... 100%. And so it's so interesting. I really started wondering about that and the exploding head thing where I'm like, if people that have done sleep paralysis and exploding head, if they've done sleep studies...

is there a certain part of the brain that activates and does that same part activate for psychics yeah because you know i just saw um you know theresa the long island medium no she just went and had send me her um she's got a show on tlc oh um a lot of clips on tiktok but had her own show some people are like oh she's faking it whatever i don't know i believe in mediums maybe she's

gearing it up for cameras. But she went and got her brain scanned while she was having a reading. And it's this like really like famous neurologist. He's worked with Miley Cyrus, like all these people. And he does analyze her scans and goes, your brain, this area is way more lit up than anyone I've ever seen. Your own brain

like signals turned down and you're amplifying another, like it was so crazy. So I'm like, okay, we can kind of observe it. Kind of. Yeah, I agree. Like there, I want them to take, like do a real study, like anybody who has experienced leap process or has dreams and can relay them the next day and hook them up and see what part of their brains are lighting up. Like I, there's just not enough out there. And I would

happily sign up for a sleep study. Oh my God, you should. I know. I genuinely think like, I don't know. I think that I've- You really should. I think they're going to find something with me. I don't know. Maybe my toxic trait is I think that my sleep experience is unique. But yeah, I just, this is really cool. And I don't, what is it with like war? I feel like there's all these war dreams. I personally, I don't know if you can relate to this or anybody can relate to this where-

Okay. For example, I have this weird car anxiety sometimes. I know you do, but you have reason to. You've had a couple of car accidents. You've had car accidents. You've had experiences that's traumatic. That's justified. Not that it's never unjustified because it's a scary thing, but I've never, knock on wood, had a car accident. I'll find wood later, but I've never been in a bad car accident at all. Never had anything like that happen to me. And I have this like

terrible vision all the time of me dying in a car accident. All the time. Like all the time. To the point where I'm like, I either will die by car accident, which is like so scary and sad. And I don't even want to think about that.

Or I died in a past life in a car accident. I can see the past life. Because it's too prevalent for someone who's never come close to it. No, and seatbelts are a relatively new invention. Okay, so then... And yeah, cars aren't that safe. Yeah. Did you see what happened recently in Malibu? No.

First of all, the PCH is a death trap and Malibu needs to redo that. There's been so many fatal car accidents. A couple weeks ago, maybe even just a week ago, four Pepperdine students were killed. I did hear about that on TikTok. But it's such a freak situation. Wasn't the young man drunk? No, I guess I'm not going to die on that hill. I don't think he was under the influence. I think he was speeding. He somehow hit three parked vehicles on

And those vehicles, I think. Oh, my God. Crazy. Yeah. I just heard like a really weird blip where he was like he was driving a 2019 BMW that he was awarded in his parents' divorce. What? Yeah. That's like the weird clip I heard of it. So I don't know that much. I don't either. I thought he was. Maybe. Maybe. I'm not here to. Just tragic, though. Yeah, absolutely. Under whatever circumstances. And like you were saying earlier, like, can you imagine like

you know, taking someone else's life. And let's just, for the sake of this example, pretend he wasn't under the influence and it was an honest, like, like accidents happen. Like they do, you know, my car just got hit a couple weeks ago. Accidents happen. If it was in fact an accident and oversight, whatever, imagine now having to live with that. It's an, I, it's insane. Terrible. Yeah. It's terrible. So tragic. Okay. Okay.

We got real heavy here. I know. These are heavy topics. Okay. Moving along. Okay. So this next one is from SuccessfulTough694. Okay.

We brought both of our cats over to the house and they refused to go down into the basement. One of our cats would just sit at the top of the stairs and hiss down there constantly. I couldn't get him to move or anything. It's like he was trying to warn us about something. My other cat would quickly run up the stairs also, almost like he was running from something. Hmm.

Oh, no. Yeah.

However, I woke up one morning to find all of my cat's toys slash stuffed animals lined up across the doorway of our spare bedroom. No. I have heard of demonic presences doing similar things, so this freaked me the fuck out. Again, my husband didn't think anything of it. What? I would be furious if my husband was like, yeah? Like, what? If these toys were lined up and he just was like, okay, and? Yeah.

He said it was probably just the cats that did that. Okay. Idiot. Sorry. But they never move their toys in a straight line. What? Or really away from the living room. A straight line? I'd slap my husband. I'd be pissed. I'd be mad at myself that I married this man. I know I'm focused on the wrong thing right now, but...

Can't help it. It's giving... That's why they always die first in scary movies. I know. It's giving the TikTok energy of this little boy looking at his mom and be like, why'd you marry him? Literally the ick I would get from my own husband telling me, I think the cats just decided to line up their toys in a straight line in front of a bedroom. Super smart cats. That we don't go into. Yeah, just genius cats. Okay.

I hate you. I had nightmares occasionally before moving, but they increased drastically when we moved. I also had a significant amount of sleep paralysis where I kept waking up and walking downstairs to the basement.

That's not sleep paralysis. Ma'am, that's a fucking sleepwalk. You're sleepwalking. Where your fucking demon is calling you downstairs. Stop. Oh, my God. That's not sleep paralysis. You don't move. I know. The definition of paralysis is you cannot move. So you don't just get up and take a midnight stroll. It gets worse. Oh.

It finally got to be too much when I dreamed that I was locked in the basement with a killer, but I couldn't see his face and there was blood everywhere, like overflowing similar to that scene in The Shining. I saged the shit out of the basement and lit some good chakra candles. Found them on Amazon, lol. It seemed to get less crazy after that and my nightmares mostly went away.

I looked up if someone had died in the house, but couldn't find anything online. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the previous owners of the house had all these documents about the lot from back to the 1800s. Our house was, as you may have guessed, a former Native American settlement and was rebuilt into a home in the 50s, but had historical records of different houses and properties back hundreds of years. Nope, I didn't see that coming.

I didn't either. We also did find one record saying an elderly woman had died there in like 1920, but couldn't find anything else. My husband is still skeptical of all of it. And while I didn't see anything, I could feel the energy shift in the house.

Did she post them? I am going to go look at the thread and...

Because I'm really curious. But at the same time, do I want to see the photo or am I inviting that energy? Like if I see the photo of the toys lined up. I got a message. I'm hoping I can get them by the time this episode goes out at least. And I'll put it on the Instagram if I do. But like...

Oh, my God. I just like the cat toys lined up. Yeah. There's no way. No. I've seen some smart dogs and cats, but to do that unprovoked and across a doorway, like out of all the places, it was almost like a gate. Yes. Like, do not cross this line. Right. But it was the spare bedroom, not the basement. Which is interesting. Interesting. For sure. The sleep paralysis, air quotes, walking and dreaming of going into the basement. But did she ever actually walk?

No sleepwalking. But I wonder if she was sleepwalking and thought it was a sleep paralysis dream. No, the opposite would actually make more sense. Speaking from someone who, okay, so sometimes when you have sleep paralysis, you, this isn't always, but there's, so my sleep paralysis sometimes is different, but one of a couple of my experiences, and this might be what happened with her, and this is what makes it scary is like, you're almost feels like your soul leaves your body.

And you're looking at yourself from like when you have sleep paralysis, one of the common themes is you feel like you're being watched. It's really weird. You feel like you're being watched from like another source. Yeah. And so sometimes this happened to me where it feels like my soul leaves my body and I'm looking down at myself sleeping. It's really creepy. And so you're like watching yourself almost. And so I'm wondering if she had a she was in fact sleep paralysis. Could it move her dream or like her sleep paralysis situation?

hallucination yeah was her walking okay that would make sense literally i've had mornings where i woke up and i'm like did i get out of my bed like i genuinely you convince yourself that you actually moved oh my god yeah oh my god so maybe that's what happened to her yeah it's really creepy i just sent her a message on reddit i'm like can you send me a picture of the cat toys yeah and the cats but um didn't post them on the two out takes subreddit yet

I'll just check the account itself just to make sure. Cats are fearless motherfuckers. So you know if they don't fuck with something, it's got to be bad energy. It's always the animals that sense things first too. They're so perceptive. Animals and little kids. I know. Oh my God. We keep like talking about this. Everyone, if you want more spooky, just literally needs to go watch the Father Knows episode. But we had one story where this...

This person riding in, like, lived in this old, like, mill worker's house or something. And their dog, like, would not go upstairs, would always, like, look and bark at the stairs. Like, anytime the dog would, like, get taken away, would be, like, happy, like, in that spot, but wouldn't want to get back in the car to go home. And it's a really crazy story. But, like, animals sense shit. If animals are off, something's off. Oh, my God. I couldn't...

I hope to God I move into my new house. I hope to God it's not haunted. You've done so much reno. I feel like it. But we had someone die there. How do you know? Our previous owners told us. She was a famous Hollywood actress. How'd she die? Just died. She had cancer. Oh, I mean, that's really sad, but at least it wasn't this like. Tragic murder. Yeah. But I do live across the street from a murder house.

Yeah. Well, that energy can stay on that side of the street. I do not claim this energy. Yeah. Just like be like, hey, bring them like a pumpkin. Hey.

Walks over with like sage. Hey. Okay. Well, okay. So speaking of sage, we talked about it on our last episode. Spooky light. Yeah. And so we had a lot of people like I'm getting a lot of mixed reviews. Like there's a lot of people that are like, hey, even if you're not like buying from a bad source and you're sourcing it ethically, like if you're not native, you shouldn't use sage. So I had some comments like that. But I did have some people that identify as Native American and say like,

Yeah, like as long as you buy from an ethical source, like it's appreciated. So we're getting a lot of mixed reviews on the sage. We also had some people that are like, you should not buy sage at all because the person that picked it, if they have a bad intention or negative energy, that essentially can be opened up into your home when you burn it.

What? Yeah. So you can't buy it for yourself? You shouldn't buy it for yourself. It should be like gifted. But where it comes from is also a concern because if the person that sourced it, harvested it, I don't know, bought it, like got it,

whatever if they were picking that sage and they had dark thoughts and negative energy as you burn it in your home that could come loose oh yeah so then don't sage it yeah so we had some other recommendations of palo santo okay which smells amazing so good i love that is that something you can light like an incense

um yeah incense yeah it like it comes in a little stick i think i've seen it and then you just like burn it and it's it smells incredible um gift that to your neighbors yeah some people said you can use smoke from a candle and like waft it rose water okay um you can use rosemary cinnamon basil cloves mint oh that sounds like it would smell really good honestly sounds like it would smell incredible yeah um

And then this person does share, like, I would also suggest staying away from Palo Santo because it has cultural significance. Oh. Kind of like how white sage is sacred medicine for natives. And apparently Palo Santo is toxic for cats. So do your research. We'll just go fuck ourselves and don't do any of that, actually. Just get a candle from Target. So essentially, but like, just do your research and like try to buy from ethical sources. I was like, Palo Santo.

I was bought in and then you're like actually it's toxic for cats but this I'm just reading some of the comments on our last like thing um

But yeah, this person goes, I'm native. And one thing my mom always told me was we do not buy sage. It should be gifted. Okay. And that's with a lot of stuff. Like I, when I first got my, my first tarot card sets, someone said like, you should never buy your own. It should always, the first one should always be gifted. Okay. So I've had two amazing listeners gift me tarot card sets. I'm getting big into it. Nice. But yeah, I think it's just like, do your research. Yeah.

don't buy like from unethical places. Like if you can support small mom and pop shops, especially run by indigenous people, like that would be great. Then you learn about the culture. You're respecting the culture. But otherwise, Rosemary. Okay. I didn't see any problem with Rosemary and there's a lot of those bushes everywhere. Okay. Fair. There we go. Good to know. Now, you know, the more, the more, you know, the more, you know, all I can do is share. Yeah, that's it. Exactly.

Have you ever played with a Ouija board? Yeah. Sorry, Mom. What? I know. Okay, you're going to like this one. Yeah, it was a dark day. This is from The Secret Party Juice.

Okay, so this story takes place a few years ago at my friend's old house. But for context, a few months to probably about a year before my story takes place, my friend and her sisters decided to use a Ouija board for fun when they asked a spirit what its name was, which it spelt out G-H-U-I-G. It's like your cat right across your keyboard. It does look like that.

Obviously not knowing what this is or means, they decided to Google it where it translated to ghost in Scottish Gaelic. No way. None of them know Scottish and translate wasn't in any of their searches. However, a few days after this, one of them was telling someone about the experience and the other person didn't believe that Gweeg, Gweeg, Goog, I don't know, meant ghost. So they put it into Google Translate and it no longer translates ghost. Yeah.

Still, none of them know why it translated to ghost on that night, but doesn't anymore. But either way, it's weird.

After all that happened, it was common to see shadows around the house with the occasional sound of a door cracking or the gate outside swinging. Sometimes even sounds of the wheelie bin outside moving or closing and mirrors would frequently fall over despite being in very secure places. What? Anyways, me and my friend, who we will call Em, were home alone at her house. We decided to sit in the kitchen and listen to music, which was and still is something we frequently do.

At this point, it was dark outside, and us being angsty teenagers decided to turn off all the lights. So I got up, turned off the kitchen light, and closed the door into the hallway, leaving no light in the room apart from the very dim moonlight coming through the window. Once I closed the door, I go back to where I was sitting. As I'm hoisting myself up back onto the counter next to the sink, I see a figure standing by the door that I had just closed.

I think nothing of this as it was around the same height as Em, so I thought she was just being weird.

This figure then walks towards me and stands in front of the sink next to me. It was at this moment when I am looking down at the floor that I realized that M was sat on the floor against the wall about a meter to the left of me. In the few second it takes for me to process this, I felt a tight grip on my right forearm as if someone was aggressively grabbing me. I quickly turned to look at what is grabbing me

And as I look at this dark figure, it lets go of my arm and slowly slides down to the floor. I pull my feet up slightly as I watch the figure move across the floor towards M and then out the door next to her into the cloakroom, which leads into the back garden. It's a small room and the door to the garden was locked.

The second the figure is out of sight, I jumped off the counter as fast as I can, turn the kitchen light back on, turn off the music, and as calmly as possible, I ask Em, did you see that? She did. Em then went on to describe what had happened from her POV without any of my input. There was no way she could have known what I had seen or what I was on about unless she had also seen it.

To this day, we still can't figure out a valid non-paranormal explanation for this. Fuck no. I'm so nauseous. I'm so nauseous. I just like can't even imagine like feeling something hard just grab you that's not there and like seeing this like...

I am so scared of the dark. Like I am so, so afraid of the dark. Yeah. And like to see like this figure moving through the darkness at you and then grab you and you think it's your friend, but then you look and your friend's on the ground still like, what the fuck? I pass out. I just pass out. How did she, how did she keep it together? I don't, I think the common theme is that I think you, the term frozen in feet, frozen in fear. Is that even a thing actually?

Yeah. Frozen in fear. Okay. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That sounds right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what happens. You become literally like just frozen with fear because that's what all these stories, they never involve people like screaming and freaking out. They're like so stunned. They can't do anything. Oh my God. It is. The energy almost like overwhelms you. I don't know if it's like, I don't know. I think God, I don't, I hope I don't find out, but

Did they call it a cloak room? I'm sorry. I just need to circle back. I think that's like a closet or like we used to have it at my farm where like you walk in and it's like kind of an entryway and you like hang your coats up. Wait, coat or cloak?

coat, but it's called a cloak room. What? From like olden times. That's so cute. Because they'd have little cloaks they'd wear. It's giving Harry Potter. Cloak room. Okay, cute. A room in which outer garments, hats, umbrellas may be left temporarily. That's so funny. Very fitting for the story. But also let me get this straight. So they had played with a Ouija board, thought they got a presence identified with the ghost name. Mm-hmm.

They were having weird occurrences happening, like mirrors falling. I heard that. I heard that. I don't know what that was. I don't know what that was. We're safe here. I do not claim this energy. I'm hearing it again. That's fine. There's other people in this building, right? Yeah, there's other people here. Yeah. Yeah. That was just not fun. Okay, but why? Like, this is where I'm struggling. All this weird stuff happens to you. You know full and well you played with a Ouija board.

That's what possesses you to be like, let's sit and pitch black darkness in my kitchen and listen to music. Wouldn't be me. Why? Why? I don't know. I'm not saying you asked for it, but like you pretty much set the stage and said, come on, come right in.

Like what? That's like I will never, ever touch a Ouija board ever. Yeah. I'll never, ever play with one of those. I just think it's like. And then I wonder why I have sleep paralysis. Yeah. Did you feel anything? Like did you because you did it with people. Yeah, I did it with people. Did you feel like your hand move at all? Honestly, yeah. But here's the thing is like this was so long ago. I remember playing with at least one friend and I think we played with another friend and

And sometimes you just don't know if like people are kind of moving it without knowing. Yeah. You know, because it's so light. It can easily glide around. And so or if someone's trying to fuck with you, like they'll start to kind of push it. I know. I hear that too. I mean, the door to the outer room is locked. I mean, it's not that late. So there could just be people. Yeah. I think we're OK. Yeah. I don't know. I remember being like freaked out because at one point it did feel like it was moving. Yeah.

But not anything like groundbreaking. Yeah. I just, I can't imagine like, and I just, I never, ever, ever want to do it. But it's just like, I can't imagine having your hands there and all of a sudden just feel like it's moving from like beneath you. Yeah. I've felt that. But again, I don't know if it was in our heads. Like, I don't know. Or if like we were kind of subconscious. Like it's hard to like state for something like three people to stay still. I don't know. Don't, I don't recommend it. It was, it was really dumb. Yeah.

I probably now that's why I'm so in tune with the spirits. That's probably my like villain origin story. Yeah. My car's name is Ghost.

I've always wanted to get a little white German Shepherd and name it Ghost. I think it's really cute. Because of Game of Thrones. Oh, is there something named Ghost? Yeah, there's a dire wolf named Ghost. Really? It's Jon Snow's dog. Oh, I see. I've never seen that show. But my first white car was named Casper. And so it just made sense that this one's Ghost. Yeah. What's the next one going to be? I want to get a dark colored car. Oh. And it'll be named Phantom. Phantom.

You do like the spirits. I do. Secretly. Okay. But I'm not inviting them. No. From afar. We do not claim this. I like you guys from afar. Do not follow me home. Any energy that can come through a computer screen as I read about it. If there's anything here. I mean, this is an old ass building. You can't come home with me. You can stay here. You can hang out and play. You can like record your little episodes, but you can't come home. That's it. And don't fuck with me when I'm here by myself. Thanks. Oh my God.

Okay, moving along. Okay. Okay, so this is the last listener write-in. It's coming from Walkwell. Did I say Walkwell? Yeah. Oh, my God. What is it? It's Rockwell725. Walkwell. Walkwell. This is my most recent one, and it still creeps me out to this day. This is a listener write-in? Mm-hmm.

Back in 2020, when my daughter was only three, we were in the height of the pandemic. My daughter and I were home alone as my husband was stuck overseas due to the borders being closed. I always have been interested in all things spiritual, aliens, Reiki, and the like. Well, I went on a deep dive and got really into past life regressions and wanted to do one myself.

So I found a lady local to me that did it. However, at this appointment, she insisted we first did other things like learning to meditate and Reiki. Having done both before, I agreed as it would get us acquainted. Well, she immediately started talking about spirits being attached to me and communicating to the dead on my behalf, which is not what I was there for. I ended up leaving with the feeling of something following me, like a cloud was surrounding me.

Being the parent of a young child, I often had to lay in her room until she fell asleep. That night, I was laying under her loft bed, waiting for her to fall asleep. She had a sound machine on, and as I was listening to the sound machine, I started hearing knocking and chanting. At first, I thought it was my imagination and just brushed it off. That night, when I laid in my bed in my own room trying to fall asleep, I felt the eerie sensation that I wasn't alone. I was

I'm never one that has trouble sleeping, and I've never been afraid of the dark. But starting that night, I was, for some reason, afraid to fall asleep. This continued for days, the same bedtime routine, knocking and chanting in the sound machine and not wanting to fall asleep once I was in my own room.

The way my bedroom was set up was as you enter the bedroom door, my bed was on that same wall. Straight ahead was a whole wall of closets, and to the left was the master bathroom. My side of the bed was the side that was right next to the bedroom door, which I often kept open for my daughter. One night, I had my back turned away from the doorframe, and I felt something lean in close to the back of my neck and whisper my name.

I wasn't quite asleep, but I knew I was alone and that it couldn't be anything good, so I did my best to ignore it.

Well, after probably a week or so, it was a weekend night, and I decided to let my daughter stay up late and watch a movie with me in my bed. When we were turning the TV off, she looked at me dead in the eyes and asked me why there was a black angel on my ceiling. I immediately got the chills and felt immense fear. I tried to get her to explain more of what she saw. She explained it was a black angel with large black wings and a blue face dressed in a black gown.

What is odd is that she wasn't scared. But with the combined feelings I had been having and her saying that out of nowhere, I was convinced a demon had attached to me. That night, she slept in my bed, and I didn't sleep at all. I spent my night cuddling her, repeating a prayer in my head, literally all night long. And I felt like I was being watched. The next morning, I contacted another lady I had previously done healings with and trusted.

She told me to get cross necklaces for myself and my daughter and put them on. I was in my bathroom getting the crosses out. Mine was already on a chain, so I put it on. However, I needed a smaller chain for my daughter. I left her cross on the bathroom counter and went to the other side of the house to her bedroom to get her chain. Mind you, I was holding her at this time and we were alone in the house. When I returned, the cross was gone. Ugh!

I was freaking out, but I messaged the lady and she told me to ask for the cross back, that they were trying to mess with me and they hate the crosses. So I asked for it back and I literally blinked and it reappeared.

Things like this continued, and my daughter would tell me multiple times a day and night that the Black Angel was there. I ended up doing a cleanse where I had to dunk myself in a south-facing river and then had my healer come to my house and Sage and Palo Santo my entire house, as well as mark the entrances with the Palo Santo to keep everything out. This ended up working, and my daughter never saw the Black Angel again.

She believes, and I do as well, that the other lady I went to see either knowingly or unknowingly opened a portal for something to attach to me. Hell no. As you were saying this, I was like, that's the danger of going to different people is you just don't know...

you also open up yourself to be vulnerable for something to come in. Oh my God. What if the other lady was like fucking being like threatened by these demons to like attach people to them? Yeah. Like, and I know for a lot of people that are skeptics out there, non-believers are going to be like, Morgan, what the fuck did you smoke before this episode? But I'm, I'm like, I'm very like, stay away from me. Like, yeah, I believe in this shit. I think there's a lot that happens that you can't explain. Yeah. And,

There's weirder shit that happens every day that we do believe in. So why not this? Yeah, I mean, it's definitely hard to speak about these things and not feel like people are judging you or think you're an idiot. I feel like I'm a relatively not dumb person. But for some reason, I think I've just had enough experiences that I can't explain to where I have no choice but to be a little bit of a believer. Yeah.

Because I just can't reconcile these things. And like what's really chilling for me is that I think I've told this story on the podcast, but that story reminds me so much of what happened to my mom and my sister. Did I tell that story? And it's like, how do you explain that? Maybe just give like a little synopsis for those that might not have heard it though. So my mom, this was in the house that I've talked about before that had really bad energy and we had like a ton of weird experiences happening.

And so my mom, my sister was really young, like probably, I don't know, between the ages of three and five. And my mom and her slept in different bedrooms. My mom had a night where she felt like there was like a spirit or like something sleeping in the bed with her. She was sleeping alone. And she remembered like there was really long black hair like covering the face.

It was like a woman, obviously. And my mom got really scared and was like, I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming. But she could like feel it like next to her. And so my mom kept trying to do like the father and son Holy Spirit. Like, yeah. And she says as soon as she would like try to complete it, that her hand would get like wiped. So she'd be like father, son, holy. And then it would not let her. So my mom was because she was trying to hate crosses. Yeah. Like it wouldn't let her finish the cross. Yeah.

And so my mom was like, okay, really, really weird. The next morning she's brushing my sister's hair and my mom's like, how'd you sleep? And she's like, oh, I was a little scared. And then my mom said, like, I don't remember what she says, but then my little sister is like, there was like this woman that I saw. No. And it was scary. And she describes exactly what my mom saw. You and your whole family are just like open to it. Yeah. The fact your mom can see it, it's like, yeah, it's genetic. And then it, well, I think, I mean, what's the common denominator though? Yeah.

The house. The house. So maybe the house opens. I don't know, right? I will say ever since we moved out, we haven't had really experiences.

I still have sleep paralysis and stuff, but I haven't had my worst sleep paralysis. The ones were really dark were in that house. Like really dark. Yeah, probably because it was that fucking spirit coming at you. Those are the darker ones. Now they're like a little less scary. And you think about when are you the most vulnerable? When you're sleeping? To what? To things. To these spirits. To these spirits. To energy. Negative energy. When you're sleeping, animals, kids, innocent little kids, they don't know what they're seeing. Well, how could she like...

It's not like my mom told her and then she was like, me too. Like, how could she describe what my mom had seen the same night? She saw it. Yeah. She fully saw it too. I know. I know.

I used to have this girl that microbladed my eyebrows. Her name was Asia. She's from Wisconsin. She's still out there. She popped up on my TikTok a while ago. She's still out there. She's still alive among the living. She's just not doing eyebrows anymore, unfortunately. No, this is why my eyebrows look bad. They don't look bad. They're drawn on today. But I need another microblader. But she is very, very open and so told me many stories of like when she was like,

In this farmhouse. And I mean, I fully believe people can see it. She saw many people. Oh. Many people. And like a little girl up in this attic and just crazy shit. No, no. See, I haven't seen anybody and I'd like to keep it that way. Same. Please. Same. Please. I'm not opening up myself to that energy. No. I've had really scary like dreams and stuff, but I've never seen anything.

In a conscious state. No, I had my experience. And like the only thing I saw was like the light going on and off. And I heard the footsteps and the mumbly voices, but I never saw anyone. Okay. And thank God I didn't because I don't know how I would have stayed in Palm Springs and finished my like work experience otherwise.

Like I never would have been able to. No, that's enough to where I would, I just don't know if I recover from that personally. I don't know how people do. Like people that are mediums and like encounter this stuff often. No chance. Like just thinking about it right now actually makes me like highly anxious. I can't even know. Okay. Well, let's get into some of these no sleep stories so we can feel safe.

We can feel safe now that the real ones are behind us. Okay, so for those of you that don't know, No Sleep is a very creative writing project that

No Sleep is a place for Redditors to share their scary personal experiences. Please read our guidelines, blah, blah, blah, blah. So they're also very strict on you cannot read stories or narrate them without the user's permission. So any story that we read from No Sleep, I have gotten permission. I have made donations either to the writer or in the writer's name to the charity of their choice. Right.

that they provide in their narration guidelines. So for those of you that are out there, just so we know and we're clear, the proper channels were followed. Okay, so this first one, it is titled, I'm a search and rescue officer for the U.S. Forest Service, and I have some stories to tell. It is from username searchandrescuewoods.

I wasn't sure where to post these stories, so I figured I'd share them here. I have been a search and rescue officer for a few years now, and along the way, I've seen some things that I know you guys will be interested in. I have a pretty good track record for finding missing people. Most of the time, they just wander off the path or slip down a small cliff and they can't find their way back. The majority of them have heard the old stay where you are thing and they don't wander far. But I've had two cases where that didn't happen.

Both bother me a lot, and I use them as motivation to search even harder on the missing persons cases I get called on. The first was a little boy who was out berry picking with his parents. He and his sister were together, and both of them went missing around the same time.

Oh.

The last she saw of her brother, he was riding on the shoulders of the bear man and seemed calm. Of course, our first thought was abduction, but we never found a trace of another human being in that area. The little girl was also insistent that he wasn't a normal man, but that he was tall and covered in hair.

quote, like a bear and that he had a weird face. We searched that area for weeks and it was one of the longest calls I've ever been on, but we never found a single trace of that kid.

The other was a young woman who was out hiking with her mom and grandpa. According to the mother, her daughter had climbed up a tree to get a better view of the forest, and she'd never come back down. They waited at the base of that tree for hours, calling her name, before they called for help. Again, we searched everywhere, and we never found a trace of her. I have no idea where she could possibly have gone, because neither her mother or grandpa ever saw her come down. Wow.

A few times I've been out on my own searching with a canine, and they've tried to lead me straight up cliffs. Not hills, not even rock faces. Straight, sheer cliffs with no possible handholds. It's always baffling, and in those cases we usually find the person on the other side of the cliff, or miles away from where the canine had led us. I'm sure there's an explanation, but it's sort of strange.

One particularly sad case involved the recovery of a body. A nine-year-old girl fell down the embankment and got impaled on a dead tree at the base. It was a complete freak accident, but I'll never forget the sound of her mother when we told her what had happened. No.

It was like her whole life was crashing down around her, and a part of her had died with her daughter. I was teamed up with another SAR officer because we'd received reports of bears in the area. We were looking for a guy who hadn't come home from a climbing trip when he was supposed to, and we ended up having to do some serious climbing to get where we figured he would be. We found him trapped in a small crevice with a broken leg.

It was not pleasant. He'd been there for almost two days, and his leg was very obviously infected. We were able to get him into a chopper, and I heard from one of the EMTs that the guy was absolutely inconsolable. He kept talking about how he'd been doing fine, and when he'd gotten to the top, a man had been there. He said the guy had no climbing equipment, and he was wearing a parka and ski pants.

He walked up to the guy and when the guy turned around, he said he had no face. It was just blank. He freaked out and ended up trying to get off the mountain too fast, which is why he'd fallen. He said he could hear the guy all night climbing down the mountain and letting out these horrible muffled screams. That story bothered the hell out of me. I'm glad I wasn't there to hear it.

One of the scariest things I've ever had happen to me involved the search for a young woman who'd gotten separated from her hiking group. We were out until late at night because the dogs had picked up her scent. When we found her, she was curled up under a large rotted log. She was missing her shoes and pack and she was clearly in shock. She didn't have any injuries and we were able to get her to walk with us back to base sops.

Along the way, she kept looking behind us and asking us why that big man with black eyes was following us. We couldn't see anyone, so we just wrote it off as some weird symptom of shock. But the closer we got to the base, the more agitated this woman got. She kept asking me to tell him to stop making faces at her. At one point, she stopped and turned around and started yelling into the forest, saying that she wanted him to leave her alone.

She wasn't going to go with him, she said, and she wouldn't give us to him. We finally got her to keep moving, but we started hearing these weird noises coming from all around us. It was almost like coughing, but more rhythmic and deeper.

It was almost insect-like. I don't really know how else to describe it. When we were within sight of the base ops, the woman turns to me and her eyes are about as wide as I can imagine a human could open them. She touches my shoulder and says, quote, he says to tell you to speed up. He doesn't like looking at the scar on your neck.

I have a very small scar on the base of my neck, but it's mostly hidden under my collar, and I have no idea how this woman could have seen it. Right after she says it, I hear that weird coughing right in my ear, and I just about jumped out of my skin. I hustled her to ops, trying not to show how freaked out I was, but I have to say I was really happy when we left the area that night. This is the last one I'll tell, and it's probably the weirdest story I have. Ugh.

Now, I don't know if this is true in every SAR unit, but in mine, it's sort of an unspoken, regular thing we run into. You can try asking about it with other SAR officers, but even if they know what you're talking about, they probably won't say anything about it. We've been told not to talk about it by our superiors, and at this point, we've all gotten used to it that it doesn't even seem weird anymore.

On just about every case where we're really far into the wilderness, I'm talking 30 or 40 miles, at some point, we'll find a staircase in the middle of the woods. What? It's almost like if you took the stairs in your house, cut them out, and put them in the forest.

I asked about it the first time I saw some, and the other officer just told me not to worry about it, that it was normal. What? Everyone I asked said the same thing. I wanted to go check them out, but I was told very empathetically that I should never, never go near any of them. I just sort of ignore them now when I run into them because it happens so frequently. How do you just ignore that? I don't know.

I have a lot more stories and I suppose if anyone's interested, I'll tell some of them tomorrow. If anyone has any theories about the stairs or if you've seen them too, let me know. Creepy. Yeah. It's putting me so on edge. I feel like there's a bunch of weird stuff in like woods and places though. Like,

It's just kind of like the woods are just scary. Like I remember I was like riding my horse in this like the back of someone's property up in Hermantown. And it was like, I don't know, easily 50 acres.

And I would just always go out. I'd like take my horse swimming in their pond. Wow. And I remember seeing a cement staircase. No. Yeah. Stop. In the middle of the woods. What are you talking about? Like a cement staircase. You know how cement like, you know, stairs can kind of come like, like, like a big block of cement, but it's in the stairs. Yeah. It was just sitting there in the middle of the woods. Did you go back and look for it a different day?

Yeah, I mean, I would pass by it whenever I would ride back there. Oh, so you would see it? Yeah. It wasn't like it was there one day and then gone the next. Okay, okay. So at least it was like... It was always there. But where does it go? Why is it there? Why is it there? It wasn't like there was a house there. Like, even if there was a house there, I feel like... And it burned... Like, if it burned down, I would have seen it. Right. Like, remnants. Like, the stairs. Like, why were there stairs there? I don't know. So I hear this and I'm like... Why are there stairs out in the woods? I hate when...

No, it's like making me so on edge. Well, I'm also I'm Googling right now, like how many people go missing in national parks each year? Oh, my God. That is a statistic we don't need to know. There's a lot of people. Yeah, there are a lot. There's also real stories I've heard from people that have like been out camping and all of a sudden rocks start getting thrown at their tents or they'll hear voices. There's a lot of murders that happen in national parks. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, Gabby Petito. Some think that more than a thousand people on average go missing from national parks and public land every year. And there's story after story, the mystery of missing persons in America's national parks. And so you hear stories like this and like, you're just like, okay, this is coming from no sleep, but how far off is this from being real? Right. Like,

Right. Also, don't you remember that one story about like it's in the Russia wilderness and it was like people they were hiking and then all of a sudden I think it's this the Daltov Pass incident instance. You've never heard of this? No.

I believe, unless I'm getting punked a lot, I believe this is a real story. The Daliatolov Pass incident...

I can't talk today. Death of the Dyatlov Group was an event in which nine Soviet hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains between February 1st and 2nd, 1959, under uncertain circumstances. The experienced trekking group from the Ural Polytechnical Institute, led by Igor Dalyatilov,

had established a camp on the eastern slopes of the Katlov Silokil in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union. Overnight, something caused them to cut their way out of their tent and flee the campsite while inadequately dressed for the heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures. Explain to me why experienced trekking groups would ever cut themselves out of a tent at night.

What happened to zippers? What happened to the ties? Why would they cut themselves out? Yeah, I was trying to think of that. Without clothes. After the group's bodies were discovered, an investigation by Soviet authorities determined that six of them had died from hypothermia, while the other three had been killed by physical trauma. What? Oh my gosh. One victim had major skull damage, two had severe chest trauma, and another had a small crack in his skull.

Four of the bodies were found lying in running water in a creek, and three of these four had damaged soft tissue of the head and face. Two of the bodies had missing eyes. Stop! One had a missing tongue. Stop! And one had missing eyebrows. What? The investigation concluded that a compelling natural force had caused the deaths.

Numerous theories have been put forward to account for the unexplained deaths, including animal attacks, hypothermia, an avalanche, katabatic winds, infrared sound-induced panic, military involvement, or some combination of these factors.

Russia opened a new investigation into the incident in 2019, and its conclusions were presented in July 2020, that an avalanche had led to the deaths. No, because... Survivors of the avalanche had been forced to suddenly leave their camp in low-visibility conditions with inadequate clothing and had died of hypothermia.

Andrei Kurikov, deputy head of the regional prosecutor's office, said, quote, it was a heroic struggle. There was no panic, but they had no chance to save themselves under the circumstances. A study led by scientists published in 2021 suggested that a type of avalanche known as a slab avalanche could explain some of the trekkers' injuries. So this is a real incident. And

For a long time, it was unexplainable. Even now, like with this avalanche explanation, a lot of people still don't believe it. Well, I don't... Why would just your eyebrows be gone? Or like just your... I'm not sure. I've heard... I've thought for some reason in the past, I've heard cannibalism associated with this as well. And maybe this is another scenario that happened. So someone goes, it's absolutely...

It's absolutely real. The general consensus is that the Trekkers encountered something military and classified. There are many arguments supporting this version. One of the strongest is that the investigation by government had been started on the 6th of February, long before the terrorists should have returned home, and hence long before their relatives would have started to even worry and call police, and has been classified and quickly stopped. There are many indications that the whole scene had been set up by the KGB,

or soldiers to mislead ordinary investigators. There's just a lot of weird things. Even there was radiation on their clothes, which like it wouldn't have been found out there. But stuff like this happens. And I think there was like cannibalism associated with this. And some people even say like carbon monoxide poisoning. And there's a lot out there on this. So there's definitely a lot more we could have

like, gone into on that or if I would have thought about it before I could have researched it, but absolutely crazy. So shit happens. So how far off are any of these from an actual real event? Which I think this is the one that I started thinking in my head. I'm like,

But what if these aren't creative writing exercises? Yeah. And they're put here as a ploy to be fake, but they're actually real. Or like they work somewhere where they're not allowed to talk about these things. Yeah. But they're like, well, I'm not talking about it. I'm fictionally writing. Technically, yeah, you're not. Yeah. You know, the person who wrote these, and again, it's the username searchandrescuewoods,

There are many, many additional posts since. So we read part one. There is part two, three, four, five, six, seven, and the final update to this series. So if this is a series you're interested in, head over to their account. It's going to be linked in the YouTube description. I made a donation to them. And I think if you really like their writing and read through all of them, like they have like a little Ko-fi page set up.

I think that's what it's called. And even like $5, like sending them a coffee. I saw like a bunch of other donations on there that were like, thank you for scaring me and stuff like that. So I'll be sure to link it in the description. Perf. But moving along. Okay. So this next one is five years old. It's titled, Something Went Wrong With My Heart Transplant. Hmm.

I've always had a weak heart, not just physically. I've always been afraid of my own shadow. It was unsurprising when the doctors told me my heart murmur wasn't just a heart murmur. A year of tests, a year of therapy, constant trips to the hospital, and I was finally told that it had all been for nothing.

My poor weak heart wouldn't last until Christmas. It's a strange thing being told that you're dying. I didn't come to terms with it at first. I drank and I spent my money. I did reckless, stupid things because I was so damn scared. Then I got the news that a young woman named Laura had been declared brain dead and that I, the lucky chosen one, would be getting a brand new heart a week later.

I drove to the hospital, slowly, carefully, and readied myself for the ordeal that was to come. As I was laying in bed on the last night, the thought of Laura swirled around in my head, and it wouldn't leave me alone. It was like her name was in flashing lights every time I closed my eyes. It was wrong. I know it was. But I had to see the woman who was giving me her heart. It didn't feel right not to put a face to the one who was trying to save my life.

I knew her name. I knew what ward she was staying on. I had overheard two nurses discussing it. HIPAA bitches. I wandered down the meandering hallways until I found what I was looking for. Taking my time, making sure I didn't miss any name. I guess I had time on my hands now. In the second to the last room, she lay in bed. A woman sat on the bed next to her, holding her hand. And my own weak heart stuttered. Excuse me. I had no idea what to say to her.

"'I'm Jenna. I'm the person... I'm having surgery tomorrow.' And what I assumed was Laura's mother stood up and could tell from the look in her eye that she knew who I was. "'Thank you for visiting. I know it's strange, but a part of her is going to be living on in you.' I stood there, helpless and lost for words. Laura's mother beckoned me over. "'Please,' she said. "'Don't feel uncomfortable. It's what she would have wanted.'

I sat on the chair next to Laura. How did she... I broke off. It was too awful to ask. Laura's mother gave me a thin smile. She was a care worker, looked over battered wives, abused women. Last month, she met a guy and, well, I suppose years of training can't help you when you're in love. She ignored the warning signs and he killed her. She dedicated her life to those who needed her.

Laura's mother looked down. I don't know why I did it, but I reached over and held Laura's hand. I squeezed it. I'm so sorry. I had a boyfriend once who, he was like that too. Someone like Laura convinced me to leave. Laura's mother gave me another half smile. I could see tears in her eyes.

Then, Laura squeezed my hand. Tightly. She gripped me so hard that her fingernails dug into my skin. I recoiled, a look of horror on my face. Laura's mother looked at me calmly. She squeezes my hand sometimes as well. I think the doctors called it muscle spasms. Either way, there's none of Laura left in there anymore. I looked at the small crescent moon that had just started to bleed in the palm of my hand.

from the fingernails. Yeah. The surgery went perfectly. I was wheeled to the recovery suite after I was over and done with. The raised wound on my chest covered by gauze. It was better if I didn't see it, I thought. I didn't need any more heart issues. I spent the first day doped up on pain medication, only eating a little and sitting up maybe two times. It was a long process. They reassured me.

Laura's mother came to visit me the day before I was due to leave. Her calm demeanor hadn't wavered, but I could see that she was suffering. She looked 10 years older, and her hands shook when she gave me a hug. "'When are you going home?' "'Tomorrow,' I told her. "'Please come visit whenever you want.' I started to jot down my address for her when out of the corner of my eye, a flash of blonde disappeared through the doorway."

Wow. Ah. Wow.

When I looked down, a new set of crescent fingernails were below the ones that Laura's hand had made. Ten identical bleeding smiles. Wait, ten? Wouldn't there only be five? Like five and five. Oh, okay. Ten. I'm so good at math. Sorry.

The taxi ride home was short, and before I knew it, I was back in my own flat. It felt strange to try and slot back into where I'd left off. My life had been almost over the last time I had been here. I looked over the mess and the cardboard boxes, the remnants of one night where I had tearfully tried to pack and store my belongings so my parents wouldn't have had to do it when I died.

Laura's heart beat so strongly it felt like it would come out of my chest. It did this all the time and I realized this was what a healthy heart must feel like. So why couldn't I shake my feeling of unease? That night I had a dream.

Laura was in her hospital bed, but her mother was gone. I could hear my heart, Laura's heart, beating in my eardrums so loudly it was painful. I tried to cover them, but my hands were pinned to both sides. Some unexplainable force was moving me towards the motionless figure of Laura on the bed. Her lips were blue and the window had come open, whipping her blonde hair around her face.

I was almost on top of her when her eyes flew open. They were milky white, the eyes of someone dead. Get out, she rasped,

Her voice guttural. I could hear the heartbeat faster and faster, drumming until I thought I couldn't take it anymore. Then I woke up. The sound had been real. Laura's heart was so loud, it felt like it would rupture my eardrums, and I screamed in agony trying to cover my ears. It was useless. It was coming from some deep place inside of me. I could feel it reverberating around the hollows of my chest.

I stumbled out of bed, gasping for air, and tried to find my phone. I needed to call someone, anyone, an ambulance or my mom, anyone that would pick up. Get out. It was a faint whisper over the hammering thumps of Laura's heart, a low, guttural voice that sounded like it had been made from an animal, and I crawled to the door, down the hallway, choking on my screams for help. My neighbor opened the door, his eyes wide as saucers at the sight of me on the floor, clutching my chest.

He drove me to the hospital as I cried in the passenger seat of his car. After about 50 different checkups, the doctors told me that absolutely nothing was wrong with me. They told me my heart was regular, my blood pressure was normal, and that everything was going just swimmingly. I stood in the waiting area, wallowing in my shame and frustration. That heart didn't belong to me. Hmm.

My phone buzzed on the counter. An unknown number. Great. That was all I needed. More unexplained, scary things like a stranger on the end of my phone. My voice sounded small on the line. Hello?

Good morning. This is the Thames Valley Police. We've called to report an incident that occurred in your flat at around 1.30 a.m. today. I felt a wave of embarrassment. I'm so sorry. I recently had surgery and wasn't feeling well. I had to have my neighbor drive me to the hospital, and I think I panicked a little bit in the hallway before I left. There was a small silence on the other end of the phone.

I'm afraid this is something you might want to be sitting down for. What? I felt Laura's heart beats, strong and calm. Quote, there was an incident of forced entry by Mr. Samuel Matthews. According to our police records, he's your ex-partner and you filed a restraining order against him in September of 2017. My blood ran cold. I did.

He's in police custody. We found an automatic weapon on him, and we believe he had the intent to harm you. We have an officer currently stationed at your flat who can fill you in depending on how long your hospital stay will be. I thanked him and hung up the phone. For a moment, I leaned against the wall, the horror slowly spreading over me. If I had been in my flat, 10 minutes later, he would have found me. Oh my God. Laura's heartbeats echoed

Oh my god. Why am I crying over a scary story? Oh my god. So that's why she said get out. Get out. Get out.

And like scared the fuck out of her. Oh my God. And the heartbeat. The heartbeat. Like literally reverberating in her chest, like making her think something was wrong. Yeah. That one gave me chills. That's the one. That's the one. I have full body chills. Wow. It's like beautiful, but scary. The top comment on this one is really interesting too.

Whoa, that gave me chills. I'm a kidney transplant recipient of 11 years. I do often think about the person who had to die to give me their kidney. Whenever I first got my transplant, I wrote her family a letter thanking them and they wrote back. The letters are all filtered through the hospital and names whetted out, but I could still read her name. I looked her up online and she died in a car accident on her way to work at a hospital one morning. She was married and had three kids.

Being a transplant patient is this weird juxtaposition of feeling both incredibly thankful and happy to have a functioning organ again, but also guilty and sad that someone else had to die. Wow. I've always thought about how that would be a weird feeling. Yeah. You know, and this is where this is completely beyond my knowledge because I'm not good with like science and medicine, but like, you know how we always describe someone as like having a really good heart or like a kind heart. It's not really your heart though, right? Like,

if you're an empathetic, caring, kind person, like that isn't really from your heart. It's more so from your brain. Right? It's like your neurology that wires you a certain way, a behavior. So like if I passed and like someone got my heart, like they wouldn't actually like have my heart, right? You know what's so interesting though? And this feels like a fever dream, but I did read or maybe I'm fucking making this up in my head, but I thought that there have been people that have had

transplants and have taken on some of that person's characteristics. Really? Well, yeah. And it makes sense because like that heart was formed by that person's DNA. Yeah. Yeah.

But like, okay, let's say my heart is like stuck on one of my exes. Like that person's not going to fall in love and be like, well, her heart wanted him. So like now my heart wants him, you know? Yeah. It is an observed thing in science. Yep. So you do get some of their... So this is from a medical journal. Personality changes following heart transplantation. The role of cellular memory.

Personality changes following heart transplantation have been reported for decades, including accounts of recipients acquiring the personality characteristics of their donor. Whoa. Four categories of personality changes are discussed in this article. One, changes in preferences. Two, alterations in emotions and temperament.

three modifications of identity and four memories from the donor's life that doesn't make sense though well that's what we were just kind of saying like your heart because your heart really it's your brain yeah but it's all interwired and your heart actually has like there's striated tissue in your heart that has electrical components to be able to like work with your brain and your medulla oblongata and your your autonomous nervous system and all these things so like

They are connected. They're so intertwined. I mean, we are like a perfect system. Yeah. And if that system becomes fractured or hurt in any way, we have issues. Yeah. So it is so interesting. I literally, this felt like a fever dream and I'm like, wait, I know it's out there. Yeah. But it just, it like doesn't, it like does make sense, but it also doesn't. And it's funny because we always talk about like our heart, like our head and our heart are at conflict, right? Like your heart is the emotional component.

body and your head is the more like sound reasoning logic decision making center yeah and when they're in conflict is when you're like torn right but it's really not when more recent times now they with more research they've like no it's actually really more of a brain and gut interaction like those two are more correlated I see I've heard that especially because most of our

I believe it's serotonin is actually produced in our gut. In the gut, yeah. Like a lot of decision, like that is driven by your gut. It's so wild. It's like the gut is now the second brain. It's, yeah. Yes, yes, I've heard that, yeah. But like the heart, like I'm not trying to discredit the heart. I love the heart. I'm obsessed with my heart. But it, like if I had a heart transplant tomorrow, like, I don't know. I always thought like I would still retain the way that I am as long as my brain and everything else is still intact. Yeah.

According to research, it is. It's a phenomenon that they have really been stuttering, studying, not stuttering. It's been observed for almost half a century. Yeah, it's a lot of research. Almost 50 years. Like, yeah, this is it's. I'm going to go read up on that now. It's crazy. Well, I don't remember. I think it was might have been on an episode with Lauren. But there we had a story and it was a real Reddit story about.

Where this guy started dating this girl and he didn't put two and two together, but he had had a heart transplant around the time he was like 18 or younger or something like that. And, you know, as he got closer to this girlfriend and they started building a life together, he...

looked into the day her brother died. No, this was our episode. Was this ours? Yeah. And so there's that one. And he got her brother's heart. He got her brother's heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like... I swear that was a spooky one last year. It was a real story. I know, but I swear the theme... I might have put it. I don't remember what I put it on. I don't remember either, but this is coming back to me now. It's hard to keep stories straight. I'm surprised you recalled that. Like the only... You jogged my memory, so I remember being on that episode, but...

I wouldn't have just like pulled that one out. I oddly remember a lot of stories, which is why it really trips me up when people are like, you already read that. And I'm like, no, I think. Yeah.

Are you listening to more than one Reddit podcast? I think that's what's happening because I didn't read that on mine. I've never listened to an episode. Admittedly, I don't listen to every single episode that's put out. Yeah. But I've never heard an episode and thought this story has already been read. Yeah. So to your credit, I don't think you're rereading stories. I know you're not rereading stories. I think people are confusing themselves. I really, I try not to. And I try to like Google like the story title with Two Hot Takes Now and like,

in case it'll like come up yeah and usually doesn't but there was one from um from this user and i read one of their stories last year and i just talked about it on patreon but it's the user nm writes and they have a story and it's called like the mother-in-law story that that's how they refer to it and it's a story where this woman marries this guy fall fast in love and she

She ends up going to the mother-in-law's house to meet her and visit her. And every time she does, she gets sick to the point she thinks the mother-in-law is poisoning her food. It goes on to whatever. She finds this out. I haven't read it on the podcast. It's a great story. I'll link it in this description. But you're legally not allowed to read it because Sony bought the rights for it. To make it a movie. To make it a movie. So I reached out to this user.

for another story. And I was like, hey, can I read this story? They gave me permission. I donated, you know, money to one of their charities. I've mentioned it before, probably for the last spooky explaining the same thing. Exactly. But on Patreon, I talked about it and people were like, no, you read that. I'm like, I did not read that. It's illegal. Like it is copyright. I could be sued. So how did you read it? I did it. Oh, but like another podcast did.

And so I think like, I think people are like, it kind of all blends together. Yeah. And I'm not like blaming people. I just think. No. It's so easy. It happens to me. It happens to me all the time. I'll consume content and be like, oh, I heard it on this Dear Media podcast. And it's like, actually, no, it was an Andrew Huberman podcast, you know? And so you can mix things up if you're, especially if you're consuming.

For sure.

It's bound to happen if it hasn't happened already. Like, there's probably one that I've repeated. I don't think it has, but I could be wrong. If it happens, you know, don't yell at me. If it happens, I'm curious to hear which one you guys think it is. And like, if the person can find it and pre-

prove it. Oh, that'd be amazing. We'll give you a little shout out. How about that? Oh my God. Yeah. If you can find and prove that a story has been read twice on a Two Hot Takes podcast. Well, I think the one that a lot of people said lately is the cancer cheating one. Okay. Because there was one story that I read where this woman

who survived cancer but wanted to like have a one night stand. A dying wish, yeah. Well, but she wasn't dying. Like she survived. Yeah. But then on like an episode later, like maybe one episode or two episodes later, I read another story where this woman was dying and she wanted to fuck her ex. Yes. So people were like, you read this story. And I'm like, oh, cancer, wanting to sleep with other people.

They're different. So the second one didn't have cancer. She did, but she was dying. So they both had cancer. The first one thought she was going to die and didn't die. She didn't die. Second one died. Dying. Terminal.

Okay. So different. Yeah. But easy to mix up. I could see how you'd mix those up. But yeah. But yeah, I feel like the heart one was a great one to end on. Thank God. We're going to read one more for Patreon. No, you motherfucker. Okay. So we're going to read one more scary story for Patreon. So if you can't get enough spooky, head over there. It's going to be...

October's last bonus story so it is on the lower tier and there's also some free content for October so head over there but other than that thank you if you guys have any Halloween costume ideas send them other than that I don't have anything except merch is dropping soon speaking of merch before you launch okay why don't you tell the people what you're wearing and why oh

Yeah, so this is a spooky episode, and there's nothing scarier than being a Minnesota Vikings fan. Ooh, ouch. Ice cold. Ouch. They're playing as we speak. They're playing right now. Should we check in and see how they're doing? How they doing? How much are they losing by? Sorry. Oh, they're winning by seven. What? Beginning of the second quarter. It's because I'm not watching.

You do have a way. The minute I tune in. You do have a way. Things will go south real quick. But thank you guys for being here. And until next time. Bye. Bye.