 Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Welcome Weirdos, I'm Terran Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. Coming up in this episode, it is a Fireside Frights episode. Once a month I come to you and there's no music, there's no sound effects, there's nothing fancy, it's just you, me, this campfire, and the stories that you send to me. All the stories in Fireside Frights episodes are from you, my Weird Darkness listeners, you and my Weirdo family. So if there is a story that you would like to send, they need to be true stories, please. If there's something paranormal or very dark that's happened to you or somebody, you know, go to WeirdDarkness.com, click on Tell Your Story, and you can send in your story for next month's Fireside Frights. If you are new here to the podcast, welcome to the show. And while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, to visit sponsors you might hear about during the show, sign up for my newsletter, enter contests, connect with me on social media, plus you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. And speaking of the Hope in the Darkness page, a huge thanks to everybody who has been giving to our Overcoming the Darkness campaign. Every October I dedicate the podcast to raising funds for organizations that help people who struggle with depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide. And at this precise moment, as I'm recording this, we are at $3,043 towards our goal of $5,000. I'm in thinking back on it now. I realize I don't think I've ever set it for $5,000 initially before. I think it was always like $2,000 or $3,000. I don't know what I was thinking when I set it to $5,000. But maybe it's working well for us because we're a little over $3,000 now and we still have about what, 11 days left if you count today. So anyway, if you've not given or if you've been thinking about it, maybe you'd like to give again. Whatever you want to do, go to WeirdDarkness.com slash Hope. You can find out more about the campaign as well as those organizations that we are supporting. There's four different organizations that we're supporting this year. It'll just be divided equally four ways from all the money that comes in my direction. I don't keep any of it. GoFundMe keeps their little percentage, of course, but everything that comes to me is just going to go right back out to those organizations. I'm not keeping any of it. So again, we're a little over $3,000 right now. It would be great if we could make it to $5,000 before Halloween. And there's a reason I say that because normally on Halloween, I do a live screen, live on video on Facebook and YouTube. I'm not sure it'll happen this year. People have asked me about it. So I figured I'd go ahead and tell you about it now before I get into these stories. As you know, if you've been a weirdo for some time, every year during Halloween, I do it. I do the show live on video. We have a second camera that shows the trick-or-treaters that come to my house. It's just a ring doorbell that that we simultaneously cast there on the same screen. And I tell stories, spooky stories, and I do contests, stuff like that. It's always a lot of fun. But this year, we've had a lot of hiccups. And I just I've not had the time to organize it. And I don't know if I'm going to have time to organize it. Plus, I don't know if I'm going to be in town for it. For I'll try to wrap it up here as quickly as possible. But I'm not doing spooky empire as I have been promoting, mostly because of the writers and actors strike. The actors who I was who I was supposed to go there and do the Q&A's for, you know, in front of a live audience, they are being told by their agents that they can't do that this year. So even though the celebrities will be there, you can still go there, talk to them, get their autographs, get photos with them. But they can't do the Q&A's. And that's why they wanted me there. Just to moderate that. Well, I can't because they can't. So there was really no sense in me driving all the way there to just have a booth and talk to people who stop by. You know, I would love to do that, but it's just it's a little too expensive to do that. But that was going to put me on the road for Halloween. So I wouldn't have been able to do the Halloween live screen. I'm not going now. But we do have a couple of family emergencies that have taken place that might get in the way. And I wish I could be a bit more open about those. But I don't think my family members would want everybody knowing what's going on. But we might be on the road for Halloween helping out family. So it's very up in the air. I really don't know. I will let you know as soon as I can. Once the decision has been made. But for right now, it's still just kind of up in the air. Also, though, tonight, if you're listening to this October 20th, you're going to have to be listening to this almost immediately after I post it. But tonight live live video, I will be live on kgradb.com. It's a live online radio station, but they also stream video at the same time. So I will actually be on video tonight with Renee Barnett on her radio show Night Vision Radio. It's kgradb.com. I'll try to remember to place a link to that in the show description so you can easily get to it. And they'll also be simulcasting on rumble.com and I'll put a link to that as well. So that way if you want to watch it there, you can. But that being said, we're going to talk about some paranormal stuff that's happened in my family, including the excuse me, including the one time that I had a demon situation. And we're also going to be making a big announcement about Weird Darkness on kgradb.com tonight as well. So that'll be a lot of fun. Okay, now the whole reason that you're here is for the stories. So, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. We're going to begin with an email from Lorenda. She says, Hello, Darren. Long time listener and grateful for your podcast. I've been exposed to the paranormal since I was a small child. And back then it was not talked about for fear of being considered crazy or worse. I'm glad that it is now more accepted and honest research is now being done. The worst experience I have ever had was approximately nine years ago and spanned five years. Post divorce, me and my children moved out of state. When I was finally able to rent a house versus the apartment we'd been in for a year, we were all excited. At first we were happy in a 1900s two-story bungalow. But as time went on, it became dark and frightening. Everyone except myself and my youngest, four at the time, seemed affected. To be honest, I had some mild concerns regarding the window at the landing of the first half flight of stairs. Coming down, I always had the feeling that I would trip and fall down the stairs through that window. In fact, it bothered me so much that I would take the steps one at a time with my back to the wall for added stability. As time went on, I noticed the kids would be getting along and adjusting great until stepping foot in the house. It often felt like entering a war zone. I met and married my current husband and he too was affected. I had to be careful with furniture placement, as every time I had a chair or couch in one particular place, my husband would sit there and become dark. That's the only way I can describe it. He would become angry or argumentative for no reason or just sit and stare. He was not the man I'd met and married in that spot. He was someone else entirely. I cleansed the house regularly as well as each of us, excuse me. I cleansed the house regularly as well as each of us, I think she means cleansing us as well, and things would improve for a short time, but would always go dark again. One night my husband and I were having difficulty sleeping. Our room was downstairs and had a perfect view of the living room as well as the dining room. We kept seeing something dark, dark across the living room toward the stairs to the kids' rooms. I knew it wasn't just me when my husband got the ball bat and placed it by his side of the bed. An hour or so later we were woken up by my younger daughter, about 13 years old. She had a nightmare about a woman with dark hair in a 1920s style white dress being pushed down the stairs and out the very window that had unsettled me since moving in. She woke up to a large canvas painting that hung above her head. She woke up to a large canvas painting that hung above the head of her bed, falling and hitting her in the head. She was terrified. I got up to escort her back upstairs to her room to look at the painting and took her back into bed. As we were headed up the stairs, my husband called out, asking if any of the other kids were up. I replied no and couldn't shake the feeling we were being followed. Finding no reason for the painting falling, I let her keep the light on as long as she promised to go to sleep. When I returned to my room, my husband informed me he had witnessed a dark figure follow me and my daughter across the living room toward the stairs out of his sight. Eventually, we had to leave that house. The anger was palpable and caused many issues amongst my family, some of which I'm afraid recovery is impossible. At the time we moved out, I'd been able to lessen the entity's impact by relegating it to the basement for about a year. It was infuriated by this and we'd always go to the basement in pairs if we needed to do the laundry. I never researched the history, however my oldest did find out it had belonged to a wealthy store owner in town who owned the building next door. That had been divided into apartments by my landlord, however used to be his man's general store many years ago. She was able to find, she was not able to find any other information. I have no interest in finding out myself. I believe he was a horrible man that possibly killed his young wife and stayed to torment the living on purpose. To this day, the house remains empty. I've been told that the owners have tried to sell it as well as rented out again but to no avail. About a year ago, I was recounting some of our experiences with an acquaintance at a local bar and was told that everyone in town knew it was haunted. In the five years we lived there, no one told us or even gave an inkling that we were living in a nightmare of a house. Thanks for letting me share my story. Perhaps I'll share others in the future so someone like me will not be afraid to speak out about their own experiences. Most sincerely, Laurie. Wow. Thank you for sending your story, Laurie. I appreciate it. A couple of things popped into my head as I was telling your story. Number one, you said that you had cleansed your house several times. I'm wondering how you cleansed it. If you cleansed it with sage and incense, that kind of thing, or did you use holy water and holy oil? I'm just wondering. Obviously, for me, with my faith, I would be going with the holy water and holy oil and going around the house and sprinkling all the doorways and windows with the holy water, well, actually sprinkling all the rooms with it, and then going to each opening of the house, windows and doors, and making the sign of a cross with holy oil over each one and saying prayers throughout the entire time. But I don't know how you cleansed your house. I also wonder, how did you get it to go to the basement and stay there? You don't mention how you did that. Just kind of interesting. I'd like to hear how you went about forcing an entity into just one room, because I'm sure a lot of other people would like to know how to do that, too. Thank you very much, Laurie. I appreciate it, and I'm glad that you got out of there safely and that things are okay for you now. Oh, yeah, one other thought. Your daughter was 13 when this was happening. That's about puberty time, so it makes me wonder if maybe poltergeist activity was there, because poltergeists do tend to crop up around youth who are going through their change about that time. So anyway, I appreciate it, Laurie. Thank you very much for sending that in. Okay, good morning, Darren. It's A again, so I guess we're just going to go with A as the name. As promised, more stories. I've been catching up on the podcast from oldest to newest. I'm not sure if I mentioned last time. I'm from Wisconsin. You're a neighbor to the north. Yeah, I'm practically in Wisconsin. I'm in a suburb of Rockford, Illinois, which is almost on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin. Okay, I thought I'd share a couple more stories. I got plenty. Okay, when my husband and I were first married, we decided to meet up with distant relatives of his and stayed at a B&B in the tiny town of Spillsville, Iowa. Spillsville, Iowa. What a horrible name. Upon arriving, we were told we were the only ones on the schedule. The lady who ran it lived three doors down and if we needed anything to come down and get her. Otherwise, she'd see us in the morning. Left to ourselves, we got to unpacking, getting settled, wandering around. As I've said before, I've always had a sixth sense. This time was no different. As we were looking around, I kept getting flashes of a little boy and girl peeking around corners, giggling, hiding, running around, etc. We have dinner and get to bed as we had an early morning drive ahead of us. Nothing happened overnight. However, the next morning I'm washing my face. I hear running and giggling up and down the hall right outside our door. I turn off the water and ask, did you hear that? Hubby sleepily says, what? No, nothing. I turn on the water again. The noises. Water still on. I run to the door. All of five steps, maybe. Fling it open. Look out to an empty hallway. No giggling, running, shoes, no sound at all, but the water. At this time, the lady comes to make breakfast. I tell her what happened, and that I thought she said that we were the only ones in the place. She turns to me and smiles, oh dear, you heard our resident ghost kids. They are here all the time, nothing to worry about. You must have a sense. They normally aren't that loud. We never got the chance to go back. The B&B closed a few years after we stayed there, but I'm sure those kids are still around, whomever is, or they're still around whoever's in the house now. And then another story says, my father-in-law passed away six years ago. The day of his funeral, we're all standing in the back of the church waiting to file in. My hubby is holding the urn. I'm holding our, I'm holding, oh okay, I'm holding our two-year-old and our son, Six, is next to me. Hubby asked out loud, I hope dad likes what we're doing for him. Right after our daughter turns to the left, waves and says, hi grandpa. Hubby turns, thinking my dad has come by us, but nope, he was sitting in the front of the church. Gave me a, did you just see and hear that? Look, yep, your dad is saying hi one more time. That's all for now, I'll send more in a different time. Take care and God bless. Signed A. Well thank you A, I appreciate you sharing that. I'm surprised that B&B shut down, because really, I mean, now well, maybe at the time it wasn't such a big deal, but nowadays if you say your B&B is haunted, you will be inundated with people who want to stay there, unless they just got tired of running the place and decided just to sell it anyway. You know, maybe they just didn't want to work anymore, but if it was because of a lack of business, just tell people that it's haunted. I'm sure there are a lot of them out there who are lying about that, just to get people interested. Let's see here, this next one comes from Scott. He says, Darren, while I was in junior high school, around 1979, my classmate and my brother and I went fishing on Vermont's Lake Champlain. We were in the sandbar area, where the water starts to become deeper, open lake. It's an area that has particularly clear water and a sandy bottom. Even depths around 20 feet, it was clear, just weeds and other plants wafting in the gentle current. We were in a 14-foot aluminum boat and just drifting like a slow troll for lure fishing. I looked down off the bow when I spotted a large shape moving. There was a fish, which was the tapered ship of a tapered shape of a giant catfish. This was not something ever reported in Lake Champlain before Orsans. This looked like a giant catfish like you'd see in Asia. Those species can reach over 700 pounds. This looked at least that large. It was well over half the size of the boat and almost the width of the beam. It had to be between 8 and 10 feet long and no, it was not a sturgeon. Those are narrow bodied. My brother tried to downplay it as magnification through the water. However, if that were true, water does not make plants appear farther apart. When this fish slowly swam, its head barely moved side to side when it could touch plants that were equal to the width of the boat. It was scary and fascinating for the few minutes we followed it in the boat. We didn't speak of this again. No one would have believed us. I still don't believe what we saw. Huh. My dad and I used to go fishing a lot for catfish and never saw one like that. I'm kind of jealous. You're going to need a bigger boat. I'm sorry, somebody had to say it. All right, this one comes from Lisa saying, Hello Darren, the story below happened to me not long after I graduated from college. When my mom would get home from work, she followed the same process. The automatic garage door would open, then she would come into the entry hall. I could hear all this from where I was in the basement. One day, around the time that my mom would get home, I heard the garage door open as usual. I then heard what sounded like her high heels on the entry hall floor. I called out hey, but there was no answer. I figured she didn't hear me, so I went upstairs yelling hey again. Still, no answer. I checked all through the house, and I couldn't find her. I thought it was strange, but I didn't think much more about it. A little while later, my mom came home just as she always did. I asked her if she'd come home earlier, but she hadn't. That's when I started to get creeped out. I know that I was not imagining it. Someone did come in, as my mom would. The house itself was only about 25 years old at that point. My parents had built it, so we were the only owners. I lived my whole childhood in that house without having any paranormal experiences, not even unexplainable noises. As you've probably figured out, this experience got me interested in the paranormal, so after I learned a little bit about ghosts and such, it occurred to me that it couldn't have been a residual haunt, but I've never heard of one by somebody who is still alive, as anyone else. I appreciate you sharing our stories. It's a wonderful thing for those of us who've experienced strange things. Thanks, signed Lisa. Lisa, yeah, there is one thing that I just recently talked about in the Paranormality Magazine podcast that I think might apply to this. It's the stone recording concept. This would be those residual hauntings where it's almost like you're watching a movie or something. The spirit's not interacting with you at all. It just happens. They go about doing whatever it is they want to do, and then they disappear. And it's almost like on a schedule type of thing, but not necessarily. Sometimes it could just be something that triggers it, almost like it's just a recording kind of thing. But it's a spiritual recording. This is one of the types of ghosts that I do believe is real. It's just that we don't have a scientific explanation for it yet. So I'm wondering if maybe somehow your mom walking through the house, coming home one day, somehow imprinted itself into your home and then something triggered it for you to hear those noises. I know that is a stretch. I know. I know. It sounds completely ludicrous to me as I'm saying it now, too. But that's the only thing that occurs to me. That's that's all I got. So I hope that helps. This next one comes. Let me make sure. Okay, Bev. I just want to make sure I'm saying the right names here. Hi, Darren. First, may I tell you that I love listening to weird darkness. The way that you read each story helps my imagination conjure up images that can be both enjoyable and terrifying at the same time, and your podcast helped make painting my house just a little more bearable. Enough with the pleasantries. On with my stories. My dad passed away unexpectedly in January some years ago and my family was devastated. All right, well, before I go on, I'm very sorry about your loss there, Bev. After taking care of all the arrangements, he was buried in an old cemetery in our city. My dad was a Navy vet, which afforded him a military grave marker that would be placed next to his gravestone. Unfortunately, there was an issue with both items not being available in a timely manner, which caused nothing but grief for my mom. It was August, and there was still no grave marker on his grave. Now I'm a police officer in this city, and during this time, I was working the midnight shift. On this particular night, my zone partner and I were dispatched for an active burglary at a restaurant in the southern part of the city. It never seems to fail that when a call comes in, you seem to always be at the other end of your zone. To get to the call quicker, my partner and I decided to drive through this cemetery, as it's a shortcut when going from one part of the city to the other. Going through a cemetery can be a little unnerving in the daytime, but driving through it in the wee hours of the morning puts a new spin on it. Well, we both made it to the part of the cemetery where the road comes down a steep hill connecting to a city street at the bottom. As I began going down the hill, my patrol car just died. No pun intended. No lights, no radio, no power. I started coasting down the hill with no steering or brakes. As I looked ahead, I could see that there were some wooden crates on the right side of the road at the bottom of the hill by the cemetery office building, and my patrol car was heading right for those crates. Somehow I managed to get enough braking power to slow the car down and hoped to do as little damage as possible. Wham! I struck the crates which instantly stopped my car. After saying a little thank you to above, I got out of my car to see what damage the collision may have caused. My partner pulled that beside me to see if I was okay, also getting out of his car to see what I hit. We both walked over to the passenger front side of the patrol car with flashlights in hand and saw that I did indeed strike one of the crates. I couldn't see any damage to my car and shined my flashlight onto the crate. When I lit up the crate, I could see it was only slightly damaged. Looking further, I could see that there was a grave marker inside. Well, you guessed it. I struck my dad's military grave marker. What are the odds of that? My partner, looking at me, strangely said, is that your dad's? I said, yep. After an awkward pause, we decided that he should continue on to the call, leaving me alone in the cemetery. I got back into my dark patrol car, in a dark cemetery, in the middle of a dark night, and after sitting there for a moment, decided to try and start the car. Wouldn't you know it, the car started right up with everything working. I threw it in gear, turned on the emergency lights, and continued on to the call. We did end up catching that burglar too, though during the foot chase, I did break my ankle. Thanks, dad. My second story is one that still gives me chills. My wife, kids, and I live on a 200-year-old farm where we have our share of critters. I usually do the cleaning and feedings at night, which entail going to the barn, putting out hay and oats, and generally cleaning any of the messes that may have been made throughout the day. After taking care of the chores on this night, I locked the barn doors, went inside the house, and shortly thereafter went to bed. While I was sleeping, and to this day, I don't know how or why, I felt that someone was watching me. When I opened my eyes, I could see that there was a shadow of what I perceived to be a small boy standing in front of me. I don't know why I thought it was a boy, but that's what went through my mind. I shot up out of bed, not knowing who was in the room with my wife and I. As my eyes adjusted, I looked around, but couldn't see anyone else in the room. Figuring that it was just a bad dream, I slowly went back to sleep. Next morning, I needed to take care of the animals as my wife was busy. I went out to the barn, opened the doors, and walked inside. As I stepped into the barn, I looked down at the ground in front of me and saw a child's small shoe lying there. This couldn't be. I was the last person to leave the barn and the first person to enter this morning. That shoe was not there last night. I picked it up and looked at it. The shoe appeared very old, possibly from the 1800s, and though I could not tell if it was boys or girls, I definitely was a child's shoe. I placed the shoe on one of the benches, and after looking around hesitantly, continued with the chores. Later, I told my wife what happened. Being the sane one in the marriage, she wasn't sure as to what to make of it, but figured that there needed to be a logical explanation. I'm still waiting for that explanation, by the way. What's really the icing on this cake is that when I went out later to look at the shoe, it was gone from the bench. Still haven't found it. Well, those are my stories. Hope you enjoyed them. Stay spooky, signed Bev. Oh, I have nothing. I have nothing for this, Bev. Those are amazing stories, and I have zero explanation for either of them. Nothing popped into my head. Well, the reason that nothing popped into my head while reading those is because I was just too engrossed into the story. You wrote them very, very well. So yeah, if you got other stories to send, send them my way. It's interesting that the second story is the one that gives you chills about the child's shoe, not the one about your dad's grave marker. That is interesting. All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you folks something here that I'm not sure I should. The family emergency that, that we had. My dad passed away earlier this week. He'd been sick for a long time, so it's not like it was unexpected. We made a, we made an emergency trip down to Texas, essentially to say goodbye, because we thought that'd be our last opportunity. And he still lasted for a little while after that. Tried, tried to talk to him the last day we left, and he was completely out of it. He was just sleeping the whole day, and he just, he just wasn't mentally there. So I didn't think I'd have much of an opportunity to really say goodbye to him, but fortunately he did kind of have a rebound, I guess, and was able, able a few days before he passed to, to call me and talk to me. And he still wasn't completely mentally there, but I could tell it was my dad. You know, I was talking to him, but that was the reason that we had that family emergency, and that is why I'm not sure I'll be around for Halloween live screen. I'm okay, by the way. We've been expecting this for a long time, for a couple of years now, actually. That's just that he's really been a fighter this whole time. But, you know, we, we've kind of been going through the morning process a couple of years. So I'm not sad right now. In fact, I'm kind of relieved that he's finally out of his misery, and he's in heaven. He used to be in the Air Force. He said, he actually told me that he kind of wished he'd stayed in the Air Force, because he really enjoyed being in the military. He loved working on planes. He also loved music, and wished that he had, that he had auditioned for the Air Force band. He used to play Clarinet. And I just, I just kind of picture him now in heaven, marching in the heaven band, playing, playing his Clarinet in between fixing angels' wings, because he wants to make sure that they can fly. I mean, that's just, I could see my dad doing that. And he's probably up there enjoying my my mom's mom's cooking. My grandma, from my mom's side, passed away many, many years ago, decades ago. But she, her cooking was just this side of heaven. So he's up there enjoying her cooking now, too, I'm sure. He's not enjoying his own mother's cooking. She was horrible at cooking, but, but his, but his mother-in-law's cooking was great. So anyway, I was, I wasn't sure I wanted to bring that up, mostly because he didn't want everybody knowing. He had made it pretty explicit that he didn't want any announcement going out, telling people about it. But I'm getting a lot of these, a lot of these stories here tonight are talking about dads, and so I figured I probably do need to just mention it. And so if my dad's listening, dad, I'm sorry if this is not what you wanted, I do it out of respect for you, though, because I don't want to hold anything back from my listeners, and I don't want them feeling that, that I'm keeping something a secret. I feel like they, they deserve to know what's going on, especially since it does affect them with me posting so many Dark Archive episodes and, and maybe not doing a Halloween live screen this year, all of that. So that's what happened. So anyway, we are going to talk about that, by the way, tonight on KGRADB. I'll go ahead and mention that again tonight, now that I've opened up about it. And we're going to be talking about some of the paranormal stuff that my dad, this was planned before my dad passed away. My dad, we were actually going to talk about this anyway, because I don't have a lot of paranormal stuff that's happened to me, but my dad has had quite a bit happened to him, and I was going to share some of those stories, along with my own encounter with that demon that I, that I had that one time, plus the announcement that we'll be making tonight about Weird Darkness that we'll do live on the air tonight at KGRADB.com. Starts at 10 p.m. Central tonight if you want to tune in. And again, I'll place links in the show notes for both their website and also for the Rumble video so you can actually watch it on video because it is going to be a live video stream tonight. Okay, actually I feel kind of better just kind of getting that off my chest. All right, moving on. This one comes from Dan, it's not very short. He says, Darron, I'm pretty sure this isn't what we would call paranormal, but it was pretty weird. I am naturally an insomniac, so I listen to your podcast while I wait to drift off to sleep. I was listening to one of your podcasts when in the middle of it, I went down. I also started dreaming. In my dream, a male figure was narrating the episode. At some point, I snapped awake and it flawlessly transitioned to listening back to you. Again, not really paranormal, but interesting on how the mind can work. In darkness and light, signed Dan. Dan, that happens to me so much. When I'm listening to a podcast, you're kind of halfway between sleep and awakeness and it just kind of blends in. And somehow your mind makes sense of it. Somehow it incorporates it into the story of your dream or I don't know what it is, but you're right, it is so weird how the mind can work. Okay, this next one comes from Stephen saying a couple of years ago, I was headed to work around 6 a.m. and I heard pull over in a loud whisper. I figured I may have just thought it or popped up or maybe it popped into my head. A minute later, it happened again, but louder, so I thought, okay, maybe it's the radio. I turned the radio off and then heard it one more time. This time it said pull over now. The voice was extremely aggressive and directly in my ear to the point I could feel the vibration in my ear. Part freaked out, part confused, I complied and pulled over. It may have been a minute later, a car topped the hill in my lane while passing another vehicle. I don't know who or what told me to pull over, but they can ride with me anytime because of the presence I got to see my wife and kids one more day. Thank you for what you do for suicide awareness as a survivor of attempted suicides and a sufferer of depression for 29 years now, it is dear to me. I still fight my battles and have almost lost a few, but I'm not quitting. Thank you, Stephen. Not just for your story, but also for being open about that. I appreciate it. Depression is something that we don't tend to talk about. We kind of keep it inside, almost like we're ashamed of it, because people don't understand it. People think we're just sad and it doesn't work that way. When they say, oh, just watch a happy movie or think of think happy thoughts. It doesn't work that way. Depression is the wrong word for it. We need to come up with a better word than depression because it does sound like we're just sad and we need to cheer up, but it's not what it is. I'm glad that you're still with us, though, man. Thank you so much for not making that drastic decision, and I'm really thankful that that guardian angel or whoever it was with you saved you and allowed you to see your wife and kids again. This one comes from Mike. He says, hey there, I have a story that blows me away. My girlfriend and her 18-year-old daughter had a 13-year old friend die Saturday, September 30th from terminal cancer. Oh man, that sucks. I'm sorry to hear that, Mike. The parents of her had not picked out a place to bury her yet. Before this, they asked her what she will come back as to show us that she's around, and she chose a bunny. After the funeral, their family drove to some different cemeteries. Her mom was yelling out the window, asking her daughter where she wanted to be buried. Right then, in the cemetery, they see a bunny, a domesticated bunny that played with them. That is some divine intervention. Couldn't agree more, Mike. That is a sign beyond a sign. Wow, that is incredible. Yeah, I'm guessing at that point, they found a plot in that cemetery for their daughter. I'm very sorry that they lost their 13-year-old daughter like that. But wow, what a confirmation that she's okay, and that's where she wants to end up. That's amazing. Let's see here. I'll save that one. All right, here we go for making sure it's not an anonymous. It's not. Okay, this comes from Kiana. Hey, Darren, I've been listening to your podcast for a while, and it helps me get through work. My story is a ghost story. One time, when I lived in Glens Falls, New York, me and my family were all asleep. The radio turned on out of nowhere, and it was my dad's aunt's favorite music. And when we moved here, we were checking out the mountains behind our house. I saw a little boy sitting on a rock, and I swear I heard him say, help me. And when we went up the mountain, we saw a headstone up there. Also, I love what you do to help people like me who struggle with depression. Thank you, Kiana. I appreciate that. A lot of talk about depression tonight as well. That is something that my dad also suffered with, by the way. We won't be talking about that tonight on kgradb.com, but yeah, it's something... And he didn't know when he was growing up. So, again, it was something that you don't talk about. I didn't know that I was suffering. I knew something was wrong with me. I knew that I was miserable when I was growing up, when I was a teenager. But it wasn't until my early 30s, or actually mid 30s, that I was finally diagnosed and we started getting help for me. All right, I've got one story left. And before I go, again, if you have a paranormal story that you'd like to share, something that you think would be appropriate for fireside frights next month, just go to WeirdDarkness.com and click on tell your story, and you can send it to me. And again, a quick reminder, we've got overcoming the darkness campaign that's still going on, still looking for donations through the rest of the month, trying to raise that $5,000 to help people who struggle with depression, just like the people that you've heard about in tonight's stories. And be sure to tune in tonight, if you listen to this in time, tune in tonight to listen to me and Renee Barnett on the on the radio show Night Vision. It's actually going to be a live video stream, which you can see at kgradb.com. I'll place a link to that in the show notes. And there's also, it's also going to be a simulcast to Rumble, and you can watch it there as well. I'll put links to both of those in the show notes. Hopefully you're listening to this in time in order to be able to listen to that. Okay, last story comes from Brian saying, hello, Darren. Firstly, I want to say how much I enjoy your podcast. I've been devoted listener for years and very much like to support you financially, but unfortunately during these times my family doesn't have the extra to give. But we do give what we can to Christian charities to help others in need. Well, that's awesome, Brian. I am glad that you do that. We do the same thing. We tied to our church, and then we look at our finances and see if there's anything else that we can give. If we can't, we don't. I totally get that. With that said, I thought I might be able to contribute by sharing an actual event that took place back in 2012, a few years after we bought our house. If this is not the appropriate place to share, please directly to the proper forum. Well, I've not read this in advance, so let's hope it's the proper forum. Here we go. It was in April of 2010 that my wife and I had completed our search for our first home. My wife was visiting a neighborhood that had a house for sale that she saw online and liked very much. It was an adobe style home with beautiful woodwork, nice backyard, and an attractive price. After looking it over, she called me and asked that I join her after work so she could show me the house. She also asked that I bring the dogs along, and we could take an opportunity to walk the neighborhood and feel it out. I showed up to look at the home and she pointed out the many things that she liked about it. I liked it as well, and after a brief discussion, we came to the decision to make an offer and see how it goes. As planned, after looking at the house, we began our walk through the neighborhood with our dogs. As we walked, we admired the gorgeous homes, most of them being built in the 1920s and 30s with their beautiful landscaped yards and active neighbors working in their yards or socializing with each other. The neighbors were very friendly, and when we told them about our interest in a nearby home, they were very inviting and told us how much they loved living there. As we continued our walk, we came upon a different house that was for sale just around the block of the little adobe house that we came to look at. It was a much larger brick home with unique styling. It displayed a front turret-style main entrance that was surrounded by diamond-shaped lead paint windows, a large and very wide solid oak front door, a sunroom surrounded by stained lead paint windows and a beautiful yard. We walked around the back and saw a gorgeous backyard, four-car garage and a huge deck for entertainment. We instantly fell in love with it. After arranging a showing and seeing the beautiful interior with hardwood floors, fireplace, grand staircase, stained and lead-paint glass all over the home, crown molding in every room, we knew this was our home. Looking back, it's almost like the home chose us, because after seeing the home, we couldn't stop talking about it, and we drove past it several more times after we found it. Finally, in April 2010, we bought it. After moving in and getting things settled, we began doing some home improvements, mostly landscaping in the yard. Over the next several months, we had befriended our neighbors Kent and Diane. They were both in their early 70s, but very active and a young-hearted couple. As we spent more time with them, they began to share stories about the history of our home and the neighborhood, which as a history buff I was very interested in. Kent and Diane had lived in their home next to ours for most of their lives. They married in their early 20s and lived in the same house ever since. They told us our home was built in 1927, a year before their home was originally built. The owner of our home was an architect who designed his own home, which explains why there were so many unique and custom works in our home's design. Unfortunately, he had suddenly passed away, being involved in a fatal accident, and thus the home was sold, purchased by a dentist with a young daughter named Gail. They lived in this home until the dentist passed, leaving the daughter Gail as the sole owner. Gail continued to live in the home until she was in her 80s when she passed away. Kent and Diane had become very close with Gail. She was a socialite, frequently hosting guests and parties all throughout the year. She loved to garden and always had a beautiful display of plants and flowers both inside and outside of her home, and she absolutely loved her home. Overall, Gail was a very warm and inviting neighbor who Kent and Diane had spent many nights with as guests of her hosted events. As we learn the history of our new home and more about Gail and the warm stories about her love of being a host to her friends and her love of this home, it made us feel so much more appreciative as the new owners of this house. It had so much history of happiness and joy and good times. What made it more befitting is that my wife and I shared the same interests as Gail. My wife loves to garden. She in fact is a master gardener and we both love to host dinners, get together and holiday parties. It was the summer of 2012 when, as typical, my wife and I were working in the yard that a strange and unforgettable event took place, one that left me shocked, startled and in a weird way happy at the same time. As we were working away in the yard, a young woman approached our backyard via an alley that runs behind our home. She stopped just shy of walking in the yard and said, excuse me, I don't mean to be a bother. Being that I was closest, I stopped my work and replied, hi, can I help you? She stated that she didn't want to impose but she grown up in this house and was in town for business and decided to swing by to see the old place but she didn't want to be a bother. Again, being a history buff, her response struck my interest almost immediately. Being a bit cautious, I approached and she introduced herself as Sam, which is short for Samantha. She was an attractive woman, I would guess, in her late 20s or early 30s. Average weight and height, long, reddish, tightly curled hair, similar to what you'd see on a doll or Shirley Temple. She had a warm smile and was very pleasant to speak with. We exchanged handshakes, as I gave her my first name. I asked her when she lived here and she then proceeded to tell me that her mom had lived in this house for most of her life and as a little girl and she and her best friend would play hide and seek in this house and spent all kinds of time playing in the yard. She told me all about the inside of the house. She knew every detail about the house. I found myself very excited as I wanted to learn all I could about our home's history. I asked her several questions about different things pertaining to the house and some of its design and she provided me with unbelievable amounts of detail and history about the home. I learned that her grandfather, who was a dentist, had often seen some of his more prominent patients inside the home, which included the mayor of our city and other city officials and even a state congressman and many of these officials and other elites attended the parties that her mom would host. I found myself so excited to learn all these additional details about my home's history. After we spent this time talking, Sam asked if it'd be too much trouble to take a look inside the house. I looked at my wife and we both agreed that yeah it was fine. She was a nice warm person so neither of us felt threatened by allowing her to enter our home. I escorted her to the back door that leads into the kitchen. She was very excited and full of smiles as we approached the back entrance. I let her enter first as I trailed a little behind. This is when things changed. Sam suddenly transitioned from the warm, pleasant, and full of smiles personality to a very sobered person, almost sad in appearance. To be honest it became a bit unnerving because she was like a completely different person, never saying a word, no smiles or acknowledgement of my even being in the same room with her. She shared no stories or memories as she walked around. I didn't say a word as she looked deep in thought and I was a bit stunned by the sudden and dramatic change in her personality. I assumed she was remembering a lot of the past as she walked through the house but it was so much more dramatic than that. It's almost like she went back in time, like she wasn't there with me and in our house. She was nearly emotionless, never made eye contact with me, walking slowly like she was in a trance. She eventually made her way over to the grand staircase and stood at the bottom, quietly staring at the top. She stood there, staring for what seemed like forever. It was like she was looking at someone or something. Without breaking her stare toward the top, she began making her way to the top of the stairs. I slowly walked from the dining room into the living room, watching her walk in this trance-like state up the stairs. It was so weird how she was acting and I found myself afraid to say anything. I wasn't sure what her response would be or, more frighteningly, I would get no response at all. I gave her a little space as she walked up the stairs. After reaching the top, she just stood there, looking down the hallway. She never looked at any of the bedrooms or walked down the hall. She just stood there, staring down the hall in this trance-like state. After a couple of minutes of her just standing, I was about to ask if she was okay when I saw her slowly turn back toward the stairs and make her way slowly down. It was very odd as her arms were just hanging down her side, not using the railing as she descended the stairs and she never made contact with me standing at the bottom. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, she continued to walk right by me, never looking at me, never saying a word. Again, with this sad, trance-like look, no smiles, saying nothing to me. By this time, I'm not going to lie, I was flat out scared. This was the creepiest thing I have ever witnessed. I could feel this weird anxiety building in me, afraid of what was going to happen next, she continued to walk back through the dining room and kitchen, making her way to the back door. I walked slightly behind as we entered the backyard. Amazingly, once outside, Sam's personality completely shifted back to the warm and friendly person that we first met. She committed, she commented on how beautiful the home was and she could tell we loved it as much as she did. She spent time talking with my wife and complimenting her gardening skills and shared how much her mother loved to garden. She said her mother would have been so happy to know that people like us, who obviously love this home, lived there. She thanked us for our hospitality and began to walk toward the alley. I tried to be a gentleman, trailed slightly behind, making sure that she got to her car okay. As she left and made a right-hand turn heading down the alley, she passed the corner of my neighbor's garage, dropping out of sight for about 10 seconds as I trailed behind. As I rounded the corner to see her to her car that I assumed was parked in the alley or on the street at the end of the alley, Sam was gone, nowhere to be seen. I stopped in shock. I looked all around. There is no way she was able to get into her car and drive away that fast. I was no more than 10 seconds behind her. The street at the end of the alley is about 40 yards from my house. How could she have gotten into a car and backed out of the alley if she was parked in the alley or walked down the alley to the street to get her to her car that quickly? I was stunned and confused and a bit shaken by the experience. A few days went by and I was outside again in the yard. My neighbor Kent came over to chat and to ask if we could watch over their house as they were heading off to Colorado to do some skiing. I gladly said yes and started to tell him about the experience we had with Sam. As I told the story I noticed he had a confused look about him but he stood patiently and let me finish telling him the story. Kent then asked who did the woman say she was? I said she was the daughter. Kent shakes his head in disagreement. That's not possible, he said. Gail never had any children. She never married. I reiterated to him how much about the house she knew. She knew things about the house that only somebody who'd spent any real amount of time in it would have known. Kent agreed that all of the things Sam told me about her mom were true and accurate but she never had a daughter and if she did she would have been much older than her late 20s or 30s. Kent asked me to provide a more detailed description of Sam which I obliged and as I did he grew white as a ghost. Keeping the confused look on his face he said I will be right back. After about 20 minutes he returned with Diane and asked me to tell her the story and describe Sam to her. Again she was confused and said Gail never had a daughter. Then Kent changed my life. He handed me a picture. It was an old Polaroid picture from what appeared to be in the 60s or 70s based on the clothes. It was a picture of 10 to 12 people standing in what appeared to be my backyard as I could see my garage in the background. He asked to look at the picture and see if I recognized anyone in the picture. I looked at it expecting to find Kent and Diane but much younger which I did but standing right next to Diane was a picture of someone that looked exactly like Samantha. My first response was what the... you can fill in the blank no way this can't be. Who is this woman in the picture? I asked. Steve looks at me with a smirk and says that is Gail the lady who owned this house. What stood out was the reddish tightly curled hair. I turned the picture and on the back it showed June 1968. I yelled loudly for my wife who was in the house in the kitchen. She clearly heard me with the open windows and came running out. What is it? She asked with a concerned look on her face. I showed her the picture not saying a word pointing at the woman in the picture. She was stunned and confirmed that she looked exactly like Sam who visited last Saturday. Steve informed my wife that Gail never had any kids, never married and died in Florida at the age of 82. My wife and I were stunned in silence. I didn't know what to say. I know there was a woman that looked exactly like the lady in the picture that walked through my house that I talked to that I shook hands with and then it hit me. The experience that I had walking Sam to her car as she disappeared as she rounded the corner. Just who the heck did we talk to? Who came to my house? A spirit in the past coming to check on her home or to make sure the new owners were taking care of her beloved? I don't know but whoever or whatever it was it is an experience that I will never forget. It scared me to death but at the same time if it was Gail before she left she seemed to be pleased and happy that we too loved the home as much as she did and that kind of made me feel a little happy that she accepted us. It's an experience that my wife and I will never forget but since that visit Sam has never returned and we've had no other weird experiences. Brian I don't think we could end the show on a more perfect story. Thank you for sharing that wow. If Sam ever shows up again you gotta tell us about it. Thank you very much for listening to the show. If you like what you just heard share this with somebody you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories true crime, monsters, unsolved mysteries. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at daron at weirddarkness.com Daron is D-A-R-R-E-N but again if you have a story that you'd like to share for a future episode then what you need to do is go to weirddarkness.com and click on tell your story. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark I'll leave you with a little light. Luke 12 verses 6 and 7. What is the price of five sparrows? Two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them and the very hairs on your head are all numbered so don't be afraid. You are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. And a final thought. I choose gentleness. Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand may it be only of myself. Match Locato. I'm Daron Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Hey Weirdos be sure to click the like button and subscribe to this channel and click the notification bell so you don't miss future videos. I post videos seven days a week and while you're at it spread the darkness by sharing this video with someone you know who loves all things strange and macabre. If you want to listen to the podcast you can find it at WeirdDarkness.com slash listen.