 Welcome, Weirdos, I'm Darren 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. And as I'm sure you can already tell, this is a fireside frights episode. Once a month I come to you, without any of the fancy production and creepy music, it's just you, me, this campfire, and whatever mother nature wants to send our way for background noise. And all stories on fireside frights episodes are submitted by you, the listeners of the podcast, my Weirdo family. And I can always use more. In fact, I'm going to use everything that's been sent to me over the last few weeks in this episode. Since I had my computer crash a few weeks ago, I lost a lot of fireside frights episodes or fireside frights stories, that is. I was able to gather up most of them, and if you have not heard your story yet on fireside frights and you don't hear it tonight, that means it was lost in the computer crash, so please send it again. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, to enter contests, to 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. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Our first story comes from Sarah. Hi Darren, while listening to Volume 15 of your fireside frights series, by the way that was our previous episode, she says, you mentioned wanting to hear stories about dreams, and I have a couple. The experiences are very close to my heart, so I took some time to think over whether I wanted to share them, and after a lot of thought, I realized that both of the dreams have a common thread of depression, so if I were ever going to share them, Weird Darkness would be the best place, since these involve both depression as a lived experience and losing a loved one to suicide. My first dream happened when I was under general anesthesia. I was in my 30s and in a very bad place emotionally, and much of the pain was due to my marriage being very unhealthy. I was going through the kind of sadness that you push down and just tread water, and everyone around you can see things aren't good, but you're too tired to recognize it. While under the anesthesia, I found myself in a white place, not a room, not outside, just a place with absolutely no scenery. My grandmother was there, and by the time this dream came to me, she had been gone about 15 years. I'd been very close to my grandma, and in a lot of ways, she was the only person I really knew loved me enough to be invested in me and make me feel like I belonged somewhere when I was young. In the dream, we had our greetings and started to talk, and I found myself sobbing and telling her that I didn't want to go back. I'll never forget the pain on her face and her gently telling me I could not stay. The way she let me know that she knew I was in a bad place that was painful for her to see me in, but that it was not something she could take me out of. I woke up from my surgery with such a profound sense of grief and loneliness. As time passed, I felt a lot of regret about the way I spoke to her. I couldn't understand why I unloaded all that pain onto someone who should be in heaven and filled with peace and love, especially since all that pain was not something I was even aware of. The only thing I can think of is that in that state of consciousness, you can only be your true self and politeness and etiquette aren't really part of the equation when you're communicating on such a deep level. I can only hope that if I really was communicating with her and I believe I was, that she can see that I'm in a good place now and that speaking with her made me realize that what I was doing was not sustainable or healthy. By the grace of God, my marriage has also found healing and we're now in a place so wonderful we would never have believed it possible. Of course my marriage was not something within my power to heal, but I am thankful that I did my part to make myself better and my husband was also figuring himself out at the same time. And in my opinion, that can only have happened if we allowed God in to be with us while we did the work. The second dream was after my little sister lost her battle with her mental health. She was in her early thirties and had struggled all her life to come to terms with the hand that we had been dealt as kids born into dysfunction, abuse, drugs and parents with mental health disorders. Her death was so, so painful and confusing because I thought she was doing better with her life and finding a peace that she had never had growing up. In my dream, I had gone to my church to investigate a water leak and the dream just felt like a normal dream, the kind of dream that you wake up and realize your subconscious is trying to tell you something. I was with another member of the church and when we walked in, we found three puddles of water. I have two sisters, so I have often wondered if the three puddles represent the three of us, the holy trinity or possibly both. I said to the person with me that the problem was not something we could fix and we needed to call another member of the church who knew more about where the water could be coming from since we could not find a reason. We walked to the back of the church to head downstairs to the phone and that's where my dream went, something from subconscious was sending myself to a feeling that the dream messages were coming from something outside myself. As we walked the stairs, a large group of adults started to come up from the downstairs. This is a dream, so the rules of logic are a little different and in this dream, there was an indoor pool downstairs that does not exist in reality. I noticed the adults were all wearing swimming clothes and their hair was wet like they had just been swimming. I also started to notice that they all had special needs. They were all so happy and excited to have been swimming and they were talking excitedly to the leader of the group. The leader was at the back of the group and they all seemed to want to be around her and talk to her and tell her things and it was a jumble of people in the stairway moving in the opposite of the direction I wanted to go. I looked at the leader of the group and it was my sister. I could not get to her through the crowd of people so we stood there staring at each other, her at the bottom of the stairs, me toward the top. I wanted so badly to hug her but I couldn't get through. We had this wordless conversation with our eyes because we could not physically get close enough to talk over the loud group. She let me know she was okay and that she was sorry, that she was working on healing and that she could see things more clearly now. I could see in her eyes how surprised she was that I loved her as much as I did and that losing her hurt me so badly. The conversation had no words but was so full of information and then the group left the church and was gone, my sister with them. That dream makes absolutely no sense to me to this day. My sister did not work with people with disabilities and never expressed a desire to do so. The peace on her face when they were so excited to share things with her was not something I would have ever seen on her in a loud and chaotic moment like that. I don't know how much of the dream was real, how much was symbolism but I do believe the dream was something I was meant to experience. It hasn't helped my hurt any less but I'll never forget the look of realization in her eyes when she saw my pain and realized she had such a big place in my heart. I decided to share these because they have so much meaning to me and maybe someone who is in a dark place and hears these will know that they are loved and valued beyond measure even if their mind will not allow them to really grasp onto that right now. One thing that carried me through the cruelest moments in my own head is when I demand that I treat myself with as much kindness as I would anyone else and what better reason to be nice to yourself than to accept that you should treat all of God's children kindly and that you are one of his kids. Sorry if that got a little too spiritual or religious. I'm the type of person who can't really take my creator out of the equation when I think of things like this. Thanks for letting me share this, signed Sarah. That is powerful stuff. It's not exactly what I was asking for when it came to dreams in our previous fireside frights because I was asking for dreams that have like you've dreamed and then actually came true later on but there is a lot of really powerful imagery in here and I'm trying to think of some sort of interpretation for the dream about your sister and the special needs kids and if she gave herself let me no let me rephrase that if she succumbed to her dark feelings and took her own life I have to wonder if maybe this is just a small glimpse of heaven and she's in a place now where she's helping people who without possibly having others to be with them would be depressed. People's special needs I'd imagine could be very susceptible to dark thoughts because I you know that life is going to be a struggle for them even more so than for those of us who don't have special needs and maybe that's her way of relieving their pain their dark thoughts although you're not going to have pain and dark thoughts in heaven but perhaps God put her in that place to allow her to kind of fill that role I guess it's a stretch I know it is but that's the only thing I could think of the three the three puddles could very well be you and your and your sisters and I don't know that that part doesn't really have anything to do for me but just the the image of your of your sister taking care of the special needs people she's giving of herself maybe that's it maybe this is just coming up coming to me now but some people say suicide is one of the the most selfish things that you can do now I'm not going to get in get into that here but just assuming for a moment that that's true then on the other side maybe she's in a position where she's doing the most unselfish thing that she can do and that would be giving all of herself to help others just an idea anyway thank you very much for sending that to me sir I really appreciate it this next story comes from Tina I want to share an experience I've had with what I can only describe as a thought form when I was turning 13 my parents allowed me to have a sleepover with a few of my friends it was the one and only time I was allowed this privilege for reasons that I will soon become obvious I've always had a special affinity for Halloween and all things spooky planning my party for the weekend before Halloween was almost a given even though my actual birthday was not until November well you and I Tina have something in common right there my birthday is November 1st the day after Halloween so I get it anyway she continues I put a lot of thought into the food the drinks and activities for the night especially my own completely fictitious this house's haunted story our property was on a large lot with two outbuildings as well as fruit trees a large garden area and a fence strapped with grapevines that looked quite dead in the fall once the grapes were harvested the barren look at the trees and vines made a perfect backdrop for the tail I wove once all my friends and assembled the festivities began on the back patio over drinks and snacks I began to tell bits of the story the larger of the outbuildings had admittedly fallen into some disrepair as it was only used for storage and honestly looked like a perfect home for a ghost we always thought it was originally built as a mother-in-law's cottage so I explained in great detail how the previous owner had banished his mother-in-law to the little house in her old age she had become too unpredictable and mean to be in close quarters with the family's children and the father had locked her in there over time she became quite frail and eventually died the father fearing that he would be charged with neglect removed the floorboards and buried her beneath to hide his guilt for a fact I took my group of friends out to the door of the building and pretended to be scared to go in myself I dared one of them to go in and look at the closet floor I knew one of them would inevitably go in see the boards my dad had replaced due to water damage from the leaking roof and confirm that newer boards were there the first step of my planned story was success after my friend came rushing back out the building screaming I saw it the floor has been torn up she's really in there I'm sorry I'm picturing this in my head this is awesome okay so the friend comes out screaming that the floor has been torn up she's really in there I knew I could continue to lead them to believe in my haunted tale as night fell I continued to add to the story our house had a unique design as it had started as a simple one-bedroom frame house and had been added on to several times each addition occurred different uh each addition occurred in a different era with distinctively different building materials as a result the windows and trim and different rooms varied from six pane then single pane wooden frames then finally modern aluminum framed picture windows walking through the rooms I pointed out the changing materials and styles noting that change that the changes were done to confuse the old lady's spirit and keep her away from the family who built the additions by this time I was scaring myself a little even though I knew none of what I was saying was true by eight o'clock we were all on edge and I made sure all the curtains were closed I told my friends that it was imperative yes I was that kid who liked to use such words that no one opened the curtains or peek out as the spirit liked to peer in at night problem was I was more scared than anyone else there after playing around with a homemade spirit board we were so freaked out that we could almost see things coming out the corners from the shadows and every pop and crack from the settling old house was amplified and ominous by nine o'clock my parents had been in a fierce and uncharacteristic argument on the phone that ended with my friend's parents being called to pick them up it was a great relief to all of them they were terrified by the thought of staying the rest of the night but none of them would have asked to leave my mother then loaded me my sisters and the family dog into her car and drove us to her friend's house in the city later that night my dad came home to an empty house and tore the place apart in a rage we returned a couple days later to undo the destruction my dad caused that night and went on to live there several more years before my parents sold the house to another family I began having night terrors at episodes of sleep paralysis after we after we returned home that still affect me even today coincidentally I grew up to marry the new owner's son and had to return to that house many times they never had any issues with the house but the dark spirit I spoke into being followed me for a long time I still love Halloween scary stories and all things paranormal I do not however speak often about this incident or the havoc that it wreaked tonight I hope to banish it forever finally putting to rest whatever I created may it never harm anyone again what an amazing tale Tina that is incredible and you know you you may have been you know creating that dark spirit in your mind but you said that you did play with a homemade Ouija board you didn't call it a Ouija board but spirit board you've you played with one of those even if it is homemade still you're inviting spirits to come in even if you're playing around and I don't really mean it if you're saying the words and you're using a spirit board like that it's an invitation so it very well could be that playing with that that spirit a spirit did come through and decided to take on the presence of that dark spirit that you made up you never know so that's why I that's why I tell people you know what be very careful when it comes to using spirit boards Ouija boards stuff like that doing seances because you you are inviting the dark side to come in and we're not talking Darth Vader so anyway great story by the way that that would make a great short film this one comes from Genira hello again Darren I was so excited to hear you read my story it was amazing to hear it being narrated the way you did it thank you so much now last time I left off by telling you about when I was a little what I was little and had overheard my mom talking with my uncle who at that moment had voluntarily let an entity into him to communicate with my mom I'm not a hundred percent sure how or when I was blessed my mom had told me when I was growing up about it saying that I had a guardian angel and as I grew up I continued to have incidents and I started to believe she was right since later on in life it it actually let itself known growing up in the early 80s I was one of many children who fell through who fell through the cracks of the children and family services system in New York as well as around the country growing up I get hit by my stepfather for no real reason just because he wanted to on those days I'd wake up and look at my hand if they looked slightly cold and all my veins showed that I knew I was going to have a bad day I knew it sounded strange but I promise you that I started this habit at eight years old and it never failed me if my hands were clear I knew I'd be good not a real power but it worked for me once when I was eight I saw my first ghost ever the lady next door was my mom's friend and my mom would bring me over to spend some time with her according to my mom she was a really nice lady but lonely for the privacy of the family let's call her mary well we lived at 1151 elder avenue in the Bronx on the third floor but one day mary was alone and decided to sit at the top of the stairs of the outside hallway as she was sitting down she had been drinking so she was a little off balance mary must have either dozed off or passed out drunk but she ended up falling down the stairs and broke her neck the strangest thing I remember my mom telling me is that that mary was wearing funeral clothes when this happened turned out mary was dying from lung cancer and she had tried on the outfit to make sure that it would fit for when the day finally did come but fate had other plans a couple days later we had a funeral and a wake once we were done with that I remember going into her apartment to clean it out with my mom it was pretty empty somebody had come and cleaned out most of it most likely family we made our way into her room and I remember my mom picking up an Easter basket filled with pennies lots and lots of pennies she handed it to me here look you can sit and count all these pennies wouldn't that be fun it was a lot of spare change so I gladly took the basket then asked if we could go home which was right next door so she couldn't say no that night after dinner I went to my room my brother was on his bed reading a comic book I grabbed the basket and sat on my bed counting pennies not long after that it was time for bed the floorboards in our room were made of wood and when someone walked they would creak it must have been sometime around 2am when my brother woke me up hey hey wake up do you hear that hear what I groaned as I rubbed my eyes half asleep then all of a sudden creak we both laid down quick and covered our heads with our blankets from head to toe we could hear the floorboard creak some more but we knew we were alone in the room or so we thought the next night my brother was asleep and the creaking started and I didn't dare get off the bed but the creaking was getting closer so I took my chance and ran out of the room my mom asked me what was wrong I told her I can't sleep my floorboards keep creaking I'm scared what if it's the lady who died Mary what if she wants her pennies back what if she's mad because I took them my mom gave me a look of assurance she went and checked and nothing she closed the door but as she walked away the door opened she slowly walked back and shut the door for a second time but this time she put on the lock I was at the kitchen table staring down the hall scared she was already halfway to the kitchen when the door opened but this time as she was walking towards the door someone or something walked through her I was staring at the hallway and saw the ghost it stood in the entryway and even though it was slightly blurred I could make out the figure it was the next door neighbor as she stood there she just waved at me and then headed to the door mom mom she's here mom she's going out the door mom but of course she missed her and didn't see anything mom she waved at me I saw I'm I giving back her pennies I don't want them I don't want her to come back my mom was looking at me with a small smile well if she was here then she just said goodbye you did say she went through the door correct yes she did this was the one experience I had I had I have was seeing a ghost but it wasn't my only encounter with ghosts or entities the next day sure enough I took the basket of pennies back and I left them in the now empty apartment that was the last I saw ever now as an adult I really think she just wanted to say goodbye well I think you're probably uh better off either way whether or not you just wanted to say goodbye or wanted her pennies back uh Shenira I think it's probably best you just take the pennies back better safe than sorry right okay excuse me this next story comes from Velma hi Darren I'm listening to your stories on angels this is my pastor's testimony of his angel contact where we live there is a single mountain called Mount Taranaki Taranaki I think that's how you say it anyway there's a small ski field on the slopes of this mountain while my pastor loves surfing and snowboarding he's a very active man he was snowboarding on this ski field and went too far to one side and slipped over the edge of the field he managed to stop before the cliff's edge but every time he tried to get back up to the slopes he kept getting closer to the edge well he was starting to get really worried and started praying when this stranger walked past him held out his hand and pulled him up from the edge my pastor started taking off his board and then looked up to thank the man for his help but the man was gone the ski field is not big it has no trees or anything to obscure your view but this man had completely vanished he swears it was an angel and the lord sends them when we are in need well I'm not going to argue with your pastor I believe in angels and they I've had my my experiences with them as well at least I think I have so yeah this next one comes from panda I know you're all now wondering what's his angel story what's his angel story okay it's it's nothing too major it's just I truly believe that it was it was maybe not even an angel but God sent somebody my way to help me it's just I had some car trouble once with a flat tire and I am terrible with that kind of stuff and I have a bad back I can't reach down to do it or whatever but I was I called my wife and asked her say hey look what can we do and she didn't have her car with her so she couldn't come and pick me up and I was just about to call a tow service when these two big black gentlemen came up and started saying hey you need some help or we're here to help you and so they they took care of me and made sure that I was taken that everything was done that the new tire was on and so then I started talking to them and turns out they were a couple of a couple of guys on a ministry trip if I remember correctly anyway they had nowhere to stay the night so I gave them enough cash to get them a hotel for the night and they were just so so thankful and so like I said I don't think it was necessarily angels I think what it was is God knew that they needed a place to stay and didn't have the money to do it and I needed somebody to help me with my car and I didn't know how to do it and God brought the two of us together or the three of us together because there was two of them but brought us all together in order to take care of our needs so that that's the old that's the story so okay moving on this one comes from I think her name is Amanda but she calls herself Panda which I think is just the cutest thing ever here she says hey Darren I have two shadow person stories to share for fireside frights the story happened about six years ago when my husband and I were visiting his late grandmother's house she had passed away a couple weeks before and my husband was helping to fix up the house so it could be put on the market we worked on the house all day and decided to spend the night there to get an early start the next morning we went to bed around midnight sometime later I woke up it was still dark but there was some muted light coming in through the window on my side of the room I was laying on my side facing my husband with my back to the window the room felt weird like someone was watching me I nervously started to look around the room as I looked up over my husband's shoulder I saw a shadow standing over him it seemed to be bending down looking at my husband I should have been terrified but I only felt calm I didn't feel threatened by this entity I just calmly snuggled into my pillow closed my eyes and went back to sleep I woke up in the morning very freaked out I'm no stranger to shadow person stories it really bothered me that I had come face to face with a shadow person and just went back to sleep I should have been afraid for myself and my husband I should have looked around the room for others I should have prayed there were a number of other things that I could or should have done instead of going to sleep I rushed my husband to finish up what he was doing so we could pack up and go home not until we were on our way home that I relax enough to tell my husband about the experience I don't know what the shadow person wanted since that experience I've seen another shadow person and that time I was terrified part of me wonders if perhaps this was my husband's grandma coming to say goodbye to him and that's why I wasn't afraid maybe this was just sleep paralysis but I've had that before and the experience was a lot different than this I'll never know for sure here's the second story this incident happened about three years ago I was going to pick up a case of beer from a friend's place for our softball team each week somebody else brings beer for after the game but this week the appointed person forgot my husband had left a case at a friend's house nearby so I went to go get it when I arrived at the house it was completely dark and our friends weren't there I know the door code so I went in through the kitchen door as I came in the door I flicked on the light the kitchen light seeped into the adjacent dining room that was straight ahead I looked up and standing behind the dining room table stood a large shadow person I couldn't make out any features just a person standing there it startled me and I stood there terrified I only saw it for a few seconds before it disappeared I stood there for a long time trying to figure out what I should do the shadow person it stood between me and where I needed to go the light switch I needed to turn on next was right behind where the shadow person had stood I needed to walk through the dark living room to get to that light switch I seriously considered going back to the ball diamond without the beer but that would have caused a lot of questions I gathered my courage and decided to keep going and get the beer it wasn't going to be I wasn't going to be easy prey though I left my shoes on and moved through the house as quickly as I could entering the living room was the hardest part for me I had to walk through the semi darkness to the light switch what if the shadow person was still in that room I peaked in and when I saw no shadow person I ran across the room to the switch I went to the basement cold storage picked up the beer and got out of there I've been to this house many times before and slept there on multiple occasions it always felt a bit off to me but nowhere near the feelings I had in an actual haunted house I figured the house felt weird because of the conflict and negativity in my friends relationship they need to learn to communicate it's so frustrating to watch now I think that there's something more to the feel of the house and possibly the conflict between my friends I avoid going to this house now it's not just the shadow figure though after that happened anytime I would sleep at their place I would wake up in the night in a full-blown panic attack after this happened a few times I stopped sleeping there I tried to do a house cleansing as well but I kept getting unfocused and messing up my words at that point I decided that I was not getting more involved with this energy and I was going to remove myself from the situation I worry about my friends who live there but one just seems indifferent the other wouldn't even believe in the supernatural if it walked up slapped him in the face and said hey I'm a spirit so there's not much more to be done about this situation thanks for reading my stories Darren I promise to send you more so much weird stuff has happened in my life and it's nice to share it with others who don't think that I'm strange well actually Panda we do think you're strange but that's also why you're loved and accepted here so not to worry um yeah it sounds like that house does definitely need to be cleansed um whether it be from shadow people or or just the the negativity from the relationship or maybe it's the house that's causing that negativity you might actually have something about something there so if you weren't able to stay focused find somebody that can me obviously from my from my religion you know I would be going to a pastor or something and saying hey we need somebody to bless this house and you know anoint it with oil or something along those lines but yeah it definitely needs to be cleansed this next story comes from Savannah this is my true story I call this a story Trevor I was participating in a haunting tour at Bartonville insane asylum it was September of 2015 now many of you may know that this is one of Illinois's most haunted places during this tour I had a spirit following me I'll get to that in a minute one of the other people in the tour had an EVP and we actually got to hear Zeller which he is the owner of the asylum he said my name and I thought that was cool I witnessed so many paranormal activities there was this spirit that kept calling me his sweetheart I asked what his name was and he said Trevor I asked if he was a passerby or if he used to be a patient there he said passerby well Trevor kept following me around didn't think too much of it at the time but then I kept noticing through the tour that my ex was constantly in pain and every time we put the K2 meter near him it was going off little did we know that it was Trevor causing her pain so me and my ex continued walking around with the tour and she doubled up in pain again and my K2 meter was going off like crazy he apparently didn't like my ex which now I know why he didn't like her so he followed me all night and I finally I said hey Trevor I want to take a pic with your sweetheart and as you can see in the photo that she actually sent me a photo here unfortunately I lost it in the computer crash but the photo does have Savannah standing there and there is this orb right next to her that's the photo that she was referring to she says that it didn't stop there little did she know um little did I know that he was gonna follow me home so after the tour had finished I stepped outside and said whatever dwells here stays here I said it three times little did I know that Trevor was was gonna follow me anyway so me and my ex got into the car we pulled out of the parking space and strange things kept happening in the car like my charger kept falling out of the cigarette lighter port and then my iPhone that was no longer activated was ringing and I won't lie I was really shaking because well the phone doesn't work because it's not activated and now it's ringing so I nervously picked up the phone looked at it and said you may answer and there was a series of random numbers with a ghost face my ex took the phone and answered and it was it was nothing but white noise she passed the phone to me and I said hello it was still white noise so I hung up and said oh well now I know who now I know who it is it's Trevor so my ex decided to say something that she shouldn't have said and he threw my paperwork all over the backseat and tried to drain my ex's energy whilst she was driving I told her to turn the car around and go back so we can take Trevor home where he came from we almost got into several wrecks that night all because of her basically taunting Trevor her energy was declining so fast I took my pentagram off my neck and placed it in her hand and told Trevor to knock it off finally we get back and I fling open the door so fast and I tell him to get the hell out of my car now mind you everybody in the asylum knew of Trevor following me while I was there and when I came back they said you're back I said I had to drop off and then what a guest they said let me guess Trevor I said yes it was a very interesting night sadly the Bartonville insane asylum has been torn down since this one comes from Kelly and she actually titled it it's called quarters from heaven since I was a girl I have heard about dead family members leaving pennies so to let us living know we are being thought of I've always wondered if you could ever see them fall or even hear them fall well I know I now know you can last summer I went and spent an hour with a psychic among lots of things we talked about she mentioned that the quarters I have been finding throughout the house were from my grandmother I said I had been finding them for about a year and was thrilled to know that they were from her many months later I was in the car with my granddaughters and we were waiting for my son to come back from the house my oldest granddaughter and I were discussing the importance of finishing her french toast sticks I just given her back a stick saying that I'm not going to eat mine if she didn't eat hers I turned around and focused on if my son had left the house yet when I heard something hit by me I turned around thinking the child had thrown a french toast stick at me she said no not totally believing her I turned my eyes to where I heard the sound my heart leapt as I spied a shiny quarter laying on the driver's seat I was shocked amazed and thrilled yes you can hear the coins when they hit well you can't always hear them Kelly and the reason I say that is I had a coin experience happened to me I'd completely forgotten about it until I read your story but Kathy Cresshall over at hauntedrockford.com she had a small presentation about a year or so ago maybe a little bit more and I volunteered to read a couple of stories for her while we were there well once the whole thing was over it was just her and I talking and we were just packing up ready to go and suddenly she looked down and there was a quarter we had both been in that area for a while and I have a tendency to look down to the floor a lot I just do that I did not see that quarter there before nobody passed by to drop a quarter but suddenly there it was between the two of us right next to the wall so now I'm personally I'm thinking okay I just missed it you know it maybe all right maybe it was dropped by somebody else but Kathy's really turned really tuned into the spirit world and she says that it actually happens at this location it was oh by the way it was the tinker swiss cottage that this took place in in the barn there and there's a one specific entity which I cannot remember the name of but I think it was I think it's a little boy uh or I think it back to one of one of the former workers of the of the tinker swiss cottage anyway it doesn't matter but regardless there is an actual spirit there that is known to once in a while drop coin and she says that's where it came from so and we had we did not hear it drop that's so that's why I say that okay this next one comes to us um anonymously uh I do know the person's name but they asked me to keep them anonymous and they said hi Darren I was born and raised in the south bay of Los Angeles I lived on the same street for the majority of my adolescents and adult life in two separate homes my family and I first lived in a tiny two bedroom apartment having to share a room with my parents and two sisters while my uncles shared the other room and my aunt was in the living room as long as I can remember the first home we lived in was always really scary and dark my friends would always tease me and my sisters about our apartment complex being haunted the following scary events started when I was around six the neighborhood we lived in was a Hispanic community and it was a pretty dangerous gang area shootings were a nightly occurrence and it wasn't out of the norm to see a dead body being picked up on the way to school next door to my building was a huge parking lot where most of the gang activity took place if I remember correctly there was at least three murders back there anyway I was really close to my aunt my family would leave to the store and I'd be allowed to stay home with her we'd watch movies together until they came home and one night while we were watching tv my uncle's room door slammed shut a few times scaring the crap out of us my aunt was a really tough lady she kept a gun under her bed she quickly got it and ran towards the room with guns aimed she opened the door quickly turned to me and said calmly let's go to the store mind you it was eight at night and there'd been a shooting earlier that night but I didn't think anything of it at the moment by the time we got back my parents were home I overheard my auntie speaking to my mom about it my mom telling her that she's crazy my dad making fun of her I still don't know what she saw but she saw something about a week later again I was at home with her while my family was out I walked into the room to get something when I noticed the tv was on when I went to turn it off I noticed something that I will never forget on the tv screen the words touch screen were flashing this was the early 90s the tv we had was probably 20 inches with two dials no remote no technology at all I placed my hand on the screen and it went haywire for a few seconds and then back to normal still I didn't think anything of it I was so young a few weeks later my elementary school class was going on a field trip to somewhere that I really can't remember but it was something to do with hiking my parents said no because some kid from my school had disappeared during a field trip to the same place they said I don't know if that really ever happened I cried but had to accept it because when they said no they meant we have no money that night I cried myself to sleep I had a weird dream that the tv was on when I got up to turn it off I see a news report and footage of a kid crying walking with a dog I'm guessing this was the lost kid my parents were talking about it scared me awake and that's when the most terrifying thing happened to me and would change my life forever I felt someone hitting me really hard on my legs repeatedly when I tried to get up to see what was there there was an old lady crouching on the floor when she saw me she swung a punch to my face but missed and hit me in the legs over and over till my cries woke my sister up and then it was gone to this day I'm still unsure if that was just a nightmare or if it really happened I'm 35 now and I'm still scared to the dark and I always sleep in the fetal position because of this our landlord was this really nice old man named Raymond he had a really deep voice he was aware of all the gang activity in the lot next to my home and said that he'd put up a fence since the alley that separated the lot from us was used as a getaway route when the cops pulled up once they knocked over my 80 year old neighbor while trying to get away she banged her head and ended up with six staples one night my sister was getting some water it had to be about 9 p.m. because my parents were watching the news but she heard something at the back door when she looked out she saw Raymond he signaled for her to come out and when she did she asked why are you out here so late he said come out and help me my sister quickly said no and turned back inside when something grabbed her ankle I remember the screaming my dad and uncles getting up and even the gangsters in the lot came running towards our door but there was nothing there they searched the area but nothing my sister kept yelling that was not Raymond over and over again that really messed her up even today she's 38 years old and refuses to speak about that night there was always something weird going on in our apartment but also the other two units my neighbors complained to my dad once saying that I should not be allowed to be outside after midnight bouncing my basketball I never did that another neighbor said that she heard my auntie crying by their window she denied that ever happened as I got older things started to change and the activity settled a bit but one night a week before we would be moving across the street to a way bigger home a two floor three bathroom three bedroom town home no more sharing a room with our parents we still had to share it with my sisters though anyway I was packing my few belongings in our room when the lights began to flicker when I turned around I got a glimpse of a shadow and then the box with my belongings got smacked to the floor I mean literally smacked I heard the smacking sound of a hand-making contact I felt the wind of the smack being thrown I ran out crying no one believed me either we moved to our new home in 1998 and within the first six months of being there my mother's health began to get bad my mom's always been a sickly lady she's diabetic suffers from my blood pressure a few other things she began having trouble breathing and one night she had to be rushed to the hospital turns out her kidneys were failing she began dialysis immediately and was forced into early retirement she was only 45 at the time her health was so bad she prepared us for her death these were hard and sad times our neighbor was a former gang member from the same neighborhood that we lived in named eddie a really nice guy with an awesome monocarlo with great sounds and a hydraulic system was bad ass you let me hit the switches a few times anyway while my mom was going through her health issues she began telling my dad and uncles by then my auntie had moved out that her bedroom door was opening and closing by itself she got glimpses of someone sitting next to her and that she was having dreams of her mother who had passed in 1980 telling her I'll let you know when it's time to go and to explain to us that she'd have to leave but we would see each other again these were really bad and sad times this one night my mom came into our room and kissed us all I was the youngest and the only boy I think she was the most worried about me because of this she didn't realize that I was awake she was sobbing saying not to be scared of her when she left because that was just her watching over me and to be ready to become a man because my dad would need my help I cried but didn't reply she must have felt so ill my dad said that you heard my mom praying she said god I'm ready to go if it's my time but please let me watch over my kids and don't let them be scared of me or forget me my dad says he was expecting to wake up to find my mom dead but she made it through the night my neighbor Eddie did not see the morning though he was getting gas at a station nearby when someone drove up and shot four times he tried to drive himself to the hospital but didn't make it he left two boys behind four and two and an unborn daughter my mom says that she felt like it was her time to go that night but when she started praying she felt like her accepting her death that her final wish of being able to watch over us changed god's mind and decided to spare her and took Eddie instead it still sucked we were heartbroken that he had passed especially being murdered I miss Eddie a few months after we moved into our new home things started to get a bit odd we all started getting used to the new routine of my mother's dialysis treatment which was four hours a day three times a week she'd be home by the time my sister's and I would get home from school the treatment was hard on her her attitude changed a lot she was always a really sweet and positive lady my friends all love her but that treatment was horrible on her and I can't blame her she'd still cook for us but she was slow we tried as much to help her but she'd get annoyed kick us out of the kitchen I'd hear her whisper to my uncle Manny her younger brother that lived with us that she'd seen Eddie our deceased neighbor passed by the window when she was cooking that she could smell the cologne that he used to wear when she would come home for her treatment and would be alone for about an hour until we got home Eddie was about 26 when he was murdered he was at least five foot 10 Hispanic really light skinned and slim always had a smile on his face he'd work on his Monte Carlo in the back of our building and would show me what was on a car to this day I still work in the automotive business because of him anyway I hate to get personal about his life but he had a very abusive wife she'd hit him throw things at him always cursing at him so it was no surprise that his death brought lots of shame and guilt to her life I'm sure she was already a drug addict but she hit rock bottom after he departed her two kids were always dirty and hungry my mom would feed them and wash their clothes one day in September of 98 she was having a bad trip on whatever drug she had used that she tried attacking me when I was coming out of my door I was 12 I had no choice but to body slam her fragile butt she laid there crying until my mom came out to help her up she looked like she was all ready to kill my mom when I told her you touch my mom one of us is gonna die today I meant it too she went inside and went into labor oh yeah she was prego we didn't know that especially not me needless to say I felt horrible the ambulance came and took her and her newborn daughter away but the kids were left behind I was friends with Eddie's younger brother Wally he was 18 and a full-fledged gang member my parents would tell me to stay away from him but I was at that age where you couldn't tell me anything I called him and he and his brother came for the two boys in November a few days before my 13th birthday my then-girlfriend invited me to let's just say have a sleepover of sorts her parents were out of town and her 18-year-old sister had no dams to give about who came over it was past 11 p.m. when I snuck out of the house my girlfriend lived two streets up from me on what was considered the most dangerous street in the neighborhood I prepared myself mentally and physically for the walk because I was literally walking into a war zone as I slowly closed my front door I clearly heard don't do it I jumped because it was Eddie's voice I stood there frozen for a few seconds and then made my way out quietly as I began the short walk an older Chevy passed me up and I clearly heard go home it was Eddie again this time I freaked out ran back to my house and as I ran into the driveway I hear get your ass home it was Eddie again I ran inside slammed the door I didn't care if my parents heard me or not when I lay down I heard it gunshots about 20 of them I found out the next morning that a good friend of mine was shot and killed and another friend was wounded and left paralyzed from the waist down if it wasn't for Eddie I surely would have been hit or worse I know I didn't imagine it these are all things Eddie would say to me he saved me in early February 1999 that woman came home clean or so she seemed her daughter tested positive for drugs the three children were taken away but she regained custody after getting clean she kept a low profile and stayed away from us especially me one night I was outside fixing my low rider bike that I was very proud of when this woman comes outside in the low voice and says there he is three older men which I had never seen before try attacking me using the new bike chain I was attempting to replace I swung it hitting them all repeatedly one pulled a knife out I pick up nearly every empty bottle of WD-40 off the floor I don't know what I was thinking and all three of these cowards covering themselves up like a mountain was falling on top of them they ran off mind you I was 13 five foot two maybe 112 soaking wet these guys were probably in their 30s I still don't know who they were one ran off but something I'll never forget who the blank is that tall-ass white boy with that bat Eddie was Mexican but he was very light-skinned and he loved baseball from what his brother told me he was buried with a baseball bat my other neighbor heard the commotion outside and called the cops this woman barricaded her son in her home and threatened to kill her children there was a two-hour hostage negotiation one of my really strange and recluse neighbors calmly told my mom those children are okay their daddy is with them he's in the room with them I'll never forget the look in my mom's face when she told my dad she doesn't know Eddie died huh my dad said I doubt it she never comes out of her house and probably doesn't have a phone the police finally got her to surrender that was the last time we have heard or felt Eddie the kids were adopted by their oldest uncle they're all very successful now and I see the baby girl which is now 24 and lives close to my home she looks just like her father it's almost eerie she asked me if I remember him I say yes he was awesome you have his smile and he loved all three of you and stayed around for you she said I think he still is and I'm sure he is I'm 35 now single and I live in a very quiet and safe coastal town in the south bay of Los Angeles not too far away from the neighborhood I grew up in but far enough I have a five-year-old daughter and I regularly go on walks with her on the weekends when she comes over I seen Eddie's daughter last Saturday while on our walk we waved at each other I thought to myself now I know why you couldn't leave that night I had a dream that he passed by in his badass Monte Carlo and said go home with a big smile on his face I yelled I'm a grown-ass man now Eddie you go home he responded you're always going to be a little kid to me I woke up and I could smell his cologne he's the reason why I'm sharing this story he's still around I miss Eddie what a great story wow and I've heard of angels being uh being identified from like muggers where they'll like they'll try to rob somebody like an old lady or something but they ran off because there was like two or three people big guys behind the old lady and they didn't want to take them on but there wasn't actually anybody there and now it looks like Eddie is kind of filling the role of an angel in that way which is really cool um Scott sent us this one so some years ago me and my girlfriend now wife we're driving in our little town and we grew up in Burbank Illinois literally right outside Chicago South Siders we drove down the street near our house we've seen a light in the sky too low to be aircraft or helicopter even though midway airport was right there this light seemed to stop abruptly and then start again hover and then dart ahead and stop just as quick not moving like any aircraft I've ever seen and far too low below the tree line at the park we followed it into the next town bedford park down to a street that horseshoes following back along the factories and manufacturers it seemed to have seen us doing this because it increased its speed now we followed it until the light itself just disappeared between a small area of trees in between a warehouse and a manufacturer just disappeared like if you turned off a flashlight in a dark room this light was an orange yellow color like an old incandescent light but much brighter and it went out so and it went out without a trace left this light still to this day is a sore topic of conversation for my bride she'll admit what she had seen reluctantly as she might be to address it for some years now we've been akin to several unexplained and paranormal experiences instances some until this day just bring the shivers to me we also witnessed the tinley park triangles firsthand but only in our town I believe we're not alone in this universe which also leads me to believe that there are more planes of existence the one that we're used to is one of just many I've seen things too of a supernatural feel but they're more of for a different time and well that's a different story I think I may be a sensitive slightly attuned to things but can't be explained by means of science as I've gotten older they may become they've become less and less frequent but maybe I'm just open-minded anyway keep up the great work keep stories coming and I'll definitely keep listening God bless thanks Scott this one comes from Janine my daughter's university is located in the Catskills and it's about three and a half hours from my home I've made this drive several times over the last two years and always make sure to use the bathroom before I leave but this particular night I did not I saw in the news a snowstorm was going to start around 7 a.m. with an expected accumulation of 10 to 15 inches after seeing this I called my daughter and told her that I was heading out so I would not get stuck in the storm about two hours had passed being on the road I suddenly had the urge to use the bathroom I've always avoided truck stops or rest stops because of the negative events portrayed on television and in movies but I could not hold it any longer when I pulled into the parking area there were eight 18-wheelers and four other cars all seemed peaceful and quiet so I decided I could run in and out without incident but I was wrong I entered the bathroom using the second stall at which point the main bathroom door opened at this point I thought nothing of it as I was just glad to relieve myself I'm not sure why but I looked down and saw a pair of large men's construction boots I said hey mister this is the ladies room no response I was so angry I thought this guy must be a pervert and I opened my stall door and proceeded to kick in the door next to mine and nothing there was no one there this freaked me out I quickly washed my hands and walked without haste to my car I started my car and as I backed up there stood an apparition of a man wearing those same boots I saw in the stall right next to mine I was so scared I drove off and didn't look back it'll be the first and last time I stopped at a truck stop hmm haunted rest areas that would be an interesting topic for a per an episode although right so far I have only one story that would be in that episode and that's this one from Janine actually I guess this is a this is a truck stop actually not even a rest stop so there are a lot of a lot of creepy truck stop stories that that's for sure I've actually done episodes on that you can just look for just do a search for truck stop at weirddarkness.com you'll you'll actually find some of the uh the truck stop nightmare stories this next one comes from Turian hello Darren I have a short story back in 2009 when I was alone one day I just got home from work and I chose to relax kick back and watch a movie so I grabbed everything I would that I would need to watch my movie I like to smoke some ganja while I relax please don't judge now this is back when DVDs were popular and I bought a movie called Black Swan now this is far from a scary movie maybe a thriller but no scary movie so I closed my room door and again I was completely alone I powered up my ps3 I popped in the disc and jumped in bed now the movie was really good it ran for an hour 48 minutes so as the movie ended the lights in my room began to flicker not my tv not my playstation just my bedroom lights then my room door swung open and hit the wall behind it I looked at my joint and noped right out of there I didn't even put my shoes on till I got in the car I spent the next four hours in my car till I had to pick up my girlfriend at the time she laughed at me but that fear was real there wasn't a soul in front or behind the door just the living room empty is all get out when we got home I tried to find a scientific explanation like maybe I didn't close it all the way or the power surge caused the ac unit to turn off but well how did the door open that's my question anyway thank you so much have a blessed day and thank you my weirdo family this next one comes from Cali hello darron I'm a fairly new weirdo I'm starting from the first episode I have two stories to share with you thank you for mentioning first responders and military I'm an emt firefighter and my whole family are military and first responders one is when my grandma passed away October 21st 2009 and before she passed she told me that I'll always protect you and be at your important events in your life when my husband and I got married in 2019 on October 26th right as my husband and I were getting ready you could smell roses and baby powder which was her scent of choice my husband and I smiled and we knew she was there another time my husband and I got into a bad argument when he was working at a target warehouse and we went to bed angry at each other and the next morning my grandma pushed my husband down the porch and three feet into gravel since then she's done stuff to drive him crazy thank you for all you do and keep the podcast going I can't wait for the new episodes and this December I'll be 11 years clean from self-harming wow Kelly first congratulations 11 years clean that's amazing that's definitely inspiring you should you should you should be proud of that and also a huge thank you for your service not just yours but your family as well you said you're an emt firefighter and that your whole family are military and first responders so thank you to your entire family and if your grandmother's listening um hi sounds like a lady you do not want to tick off um this next one comes from Laurie hi Darren the following is an original poem that I wrote about black-eyed children I write all the time and usually let my friends read it I've never shared anything on a larger scale like this nervous I hope you like it and uh you can use it for the podcast your friendly fellow weirdo signed Laurie PS I love the podcast all right Laurie well let's give it a shot it's called don't let them in all hallows eve has come and passed but you hear a tapping at your door upon inspection there you find that three small children stand before don't let them in a sweeping wind comes gusting by the hair up on your neck stands straight you feel the fear drip down your spine your sweating hands begin to shake something seems unnatural something's off about these kids every fiber of your being screams but you can't tell just what it is they tell you they've lost their way they cannot find their home can they come in for a moment please can they just use your phone it's cordless please just wait out here I'll bring the phone to you their scowling faces indicate this assembly will not do you lock and bolt and chain your door retreat to find your phone for the first time in a long time you wish you weren't alone you call the sheriff hello yes there are kids outside my door yeah seems that there's some sort of prank we've had this call before lock the door and go to bed they'll be gone by morning we don't think they're dangerous but we'll put out a warning don't let them in the night does not pass easy the children in a rage shake doors and rattle windows turn your home into a cage rays of dawn spill in your room like golden sweet relief but commotion from across the street cuts your moment brief crime tape all around the house lights of flashing blue what happened to your neighbor and could it have been you no body found but pools of crimson footprints small and bare when you refused them entry they found welcome over there she didn't heed the warning she was such a gentle soul she felt pity for these small lost babes and pulled them in her home did she not get the awful feeling could she not sense that they were evil it's something in her body worn something's wrong about these people then you realized what was wrong with them it stopped you in your track they looked like normal children except their eyes were solid black don't let them in that is really good lori i don't know why you were nervous about sending that in that is really good i would love to see somebody like a musician put music under that and make a song out of it that would be a really creepy tune okay one final story and i always like to end the evening on a long one but before i get into this please know that i am out of stories now so again because of my computer crash i lost just about everything so if you have not heard your story in fireside frights and you have sent one in the past then that probably means that your story was lost in my computer crash and please send in your story again all you got to do is go to weirddarkness.com and then click on tell your story and you can follow the directions there to send in your story i'm looking for true stories specifically true stories that happen to you or someone you know and they can be paranormal supernatural um extraterrestrial um a stalker story anything dark strange mysterious and scary that's that would be fine okay so again if you have a story just go to weirddarkness.com and click on tell your story if you don't well then we won't have any fireside frights next next month okay our last story comes from sarah Gandenavia summer 1992 my family and a couple of friends were winding down a summer backpacking trip on urail pass we left Copenhagen and were headed back to norway where my mom and i lived at the time she taught english overseas throughout my high school years we had two compartments on the train one for my cousin sister and her boyfriend they were between 19 and 25 years old my mom my friend from school and i were in the other my friend and i had both turned 15 that summer my mom had dozed off we were restless so took a walk down the hall to the restroom in the hall were seats that folded against the wall for overflowing seating when necessary i pulled out a wall seat directly between my family's two rooms and waited for my friends to return from the restroom the car we occupied was not full which is how we lucked out with two compartments it was a rare treat that summer suddenly the door between cars opened and a man walked through he was pretty tall probably in his 40s and was dressed from head to toe in light blue denim there were no other people in sight as he approached me i noticed he was staggering i attributed it to bumps on the train as he walked by me he leaned close to me and placed a hand against the wall in the moment i assumed he had lost his balance and was trying to steady himself i smiled politely suddenly he started yelling words that i didn't understand he quickly switched to english mumbling about something i was wearing and what did it say he put his hands around my throat lifted me up and pushed me against the wall i remembered the save the planet dog tags that i was wearing they were a birthday gift from my sister while he was strangling me he grabbed the dog tags and kept shouting about war and did i understand what it meant etc i struggled and kicked but i couldn't scream with my with his hands around my throat i remember wondering why my family who were only just a few feet from me weren't coming to help me just then my friend came running down the hall screaming to the man to stop i think she may have hit his arm still no one came my friend slid open the door to our compartment and got my mom i don't know what she told her but when my mom came out the man let go of me and ran down the hall to the next car my mom called the conductor and told him what had happened they found the man threw him off the train at the next stop somewhere in sweden evidently he had a history of getting drunk boarding trains and harassing people especially americans he claimed to be a veteran of a war but who knows i stopped wearing those dog tags a few months later no idea what happened to them and i had been excited to receive them too they were so me now i prefer clothing that doesn't touch my throat or pull on my neck in any way i love colorful scarves but it took me many years to be able to wear one without having an anxiety attack i can be jumpy when strangers come into my personal space i may never understand how a piece of costume jewelry provoked this man to attack me san diego january or february 2004 i was a new mom living in a two-bedroom apartment a mile from san diego state university it was a bustling urban area my then husband was enlisted in the marines i was a newlywed with a newborn but all my neighbors were partying sd su students the back of our apartment had a typical san diego dirt yard area with a patio off the living room there was another patio area that appeared to be connected to the apartment prior to us living there i sat beneath our daughter's window that could only be accessed from the outside there were two floors above us there were no patios or fire escape ladders between the floors one night i put our daughter to bed in a crib which was in front of the room's one long window it had vertical blinds a few minutes later i came back because i'd forgotten to close those blinds but i reached for the rod to pull him closed i saw someone looking back at me through the window i ran from the room and opened the sliding door i saw a young looking man wearing a dark hoodie i screamed that there was a man standing outside the baby's window my husband quickly got his gun and ran outside he saw the guy run off nothing ever came of it but i will tell you this the first time i watched the pilot episode of supernatural when mary walks in and finds a man in a trench coat standing over sam's crib it gave me special chills who was that guy and what did he want we were on high alert for a while worried that someone was trying to break in and or steal our baby rural missouri the late 70s when i was an infant my parents married my dad adopted my older sister and me we moved into the house where he'd lived with his late wife and two sons my mom's sister lived with her husband and her two sons in a neighborhood a couple miles away my uncle and my dad were work colleagues they visited our house on a regular basis my mom and her sister were on the phone back and forth making plans i was in diapers so i don't know their specific plans my aunt and two cousins drove our house and when they got there my aunt sent one of my cousins inside the house to tell everybody that they were here and that they were ready to go from the front yard and driveway there was a breezeway that led to an enormous deck that was connected to the side of the house where we had a lot of family barbecues and get-togethers when my cousin made it to the deck he found my teenage step brother washing the deck with a garden hose this was one of his regular chores he told my cousin that he was the only one home and had no idea what we were talking about my cousin went back to the car and told my aunt what's what the step brother had said confused my aunt made the short drive back to her house and when she walked in the phone was ringing it was my mom calling to ask what the hold up was she's ready to go my aunt told her that my step brother said nobody was home my mom said that's obviously not right and had no idea what was going on but to please come back in the meantime my mom went to ask my step brother why he told my cousin no one was home when she had spoken to him only a few minutes prior and that she had not left the house but when she walked out to the deck my step brother was nowhere to be found and the deck was bone dry there was not enough time for him to put away the garden hose or adequate time for the deck to dry off in the five minutes it took my aunt to drive home when my step brother was asked about the story he said it never happened that he never talked to my cousin because he was not home at the time a couple side notes no one has ever been able to explain the story but there are speculations some family members believe my step brother was the catalyst he was in middle school his mother died suddenly a year later his dad remarried and moves in moves in a stepmom and two little sisters and his older brother is headed off to college we've all wondered if this unhappiness stirred up some weirdness maybe my stepbrother had a doppelganger most of my family felt that the house was haunted before my parents met my dad was married with two sons as i mentioned his wife died of an aneurysm on that deck the day i was born it wasn't until i was eight or nine years old that i learned i was not his biological child i was 16 when my mom told me this story my parents were set up by the same aunt that i'd mentioned earlier he was newly widowed with two teenage sons and my mom was divorced with two young children when my dad learned that i had been born the day that his wife died he believed that she had been reincarnated in me i've never felt any connection to the woman but i feel that it may have influenced his perspective after all he married my mother adopted my sister and me we were the midwest's answer to the brady bunch he passed away many years ago and i never had the opportunity to have an adult conversation with him about these things as i mentioned when my parents met i was an infant my sister was six when we moved into that home my sister told my mom several times that she saw fire in the windows she said that she would look at the window and see flames in it but there was no fire my mom believed 100 that the house was haunted but i don't know this house was in town but the backyard was a hobby farm a shed for my stepbrothers horse a chicken coop at a large garden this yard about at a cemetery we played there a lot as kids we left that house when i was five and moved to a cattle farm if you believe in these kinds of things i feel the conditions were prime for paranormal activity the house was torn down a few years ago the story also takes place in rural Missouri around 1988 it was an evening in october and we were driving to a town about 45 minutes away to see my cousins play in a college basketball game living in a rural area meant long drives on winding roads through farmland and wooded areas my mom was driving and my aunt the same aunt was the passenger in our fort bronco in the back were two of my classmates on either side of me nothing seemed out of the ordinary we were excited to see the basketball game and probably talking about boy bands i noticed something off to the left in the woods i said hey look i see some christmas lights over there but isn't it kind of early to put up christmas lights my mom and aunt asked what i was talking about there aren't any houses over there are you sure you saw christmas lights i said yes look they're still there everyone looked out the left side of the car about 10 feet from the road was something that looked like a single strand of old fashioned multicolored outdoor christmas lights with huge bulbs i said it looks like the lights are following us we were traveling at least 45 miles per hour all five of us saw this the lights continued to keep pace with us through the trees and hills then the lights shot straight up into the air i yelled they're gone what do you mean they're gone my mom yelled trying to keep her eyes on the road and the strange lights my aunt pointed at the night sky in front of us and gasped look when the strand of lights flew out of the woods and into the sky several crafts with red lights appeared the christmas lights crafts and the crafts with red lights moved around in zigzag formations at unfathomable speeds i said are they putting on a show my mom said it looks like they're having a dogfight she swears she saw activity between crafts as in something being fired like a laser or weapon but i don't recall that my friend on the left burst into tears terrified my friend on the right covered her eyes and refused to watch i don't know what that is i don't want to look she has never willingly admitted to this experience and i don't hold it against her i lost touch with the friend who was a scared witless i doubt she ever told anyone i can't remember if we stopped the car or kept going but we watched this display until one of the crafts shot straight up followed by the others until they vanished i don't remember the basketball game or who won of course we can't explain what we saw but we saw it i haven't seen anything like that before or since i hope you enjoyed my stories there are more where those came from that i am happy to share in the future fireside frights is one of my favorite things about this podcast i hope it continues everyone has stories to share and i hope they will well thank you so much sir i appreciate that yes fireside frights will continue in fact there is talk of us actually making a book series from the fireside frights like maybe it'd be like an online e-reader book only it wouldn't be worth it in paperback because they'd be so short but we're thinking about maybe like making an e-version of each week or excuse me each fireside frights episode as its own book we're talking about it anyway so yeah we definitely are going to keep this up and more than anything else i just love getting the stories from all of you it's great for me to find those articles and stories and and give you the typical weird darkness episodes but i really love the personal stories that you send to me because they also come with the personal comments and this way i'm also able to kind of react to them because i try not to read them before i record fireside frights so that way my reaction is genuine and that way if i have anything to say about it afterwards it just comes out you know off the cuff and it's just a lot of fun that way so as much as you like them i like them uh for some of the same reasons so that's it that's the end of end of our stories for this episode again thank you for listening if you like fireside frights as well as weird darkness please share this this podcast with somebody you know who loves the paranormal and strange stories true crime monsters and unsolved mysteries just like you do and please if you're listening to the podcast leave a rating and a review of the show in the podcast app that you'll listen from doing so helps the show to get noticed you can also email me anytime with your questions or comments not necessarily with a story but if you just want to email me for any reason you can do that on the contact page at weirddarkness.com but that that that contact page it's also where you can find all of my social media plus you can listen to free audiobooks i've narrated on the website you can shop the weird darkness store where of course all profits i receive go to help those who are struggling with depression you can sign up for the email newsletter you can find other podcasts that i host like allegedly and also the church of the undead which i promise is coming back i just have to build up some of the content again after that computer crash but church of the undead is coming back and of course at weirddarkness.com you can find the hope in the darkness page if you or somebody you know is struggling with depression dark thoughts and if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell i need stories for the next fireside frights i am now officially out of stories so go to weirddarkness.com and click on tell your story and please send it in all stories of course in weird darkness especially on fireside frights episodes are purported to be true and all of them were submitted by listeners like you weirddarkness is a production and trademark of marlar house productions copyright weirddarkness and now that we're coming out of the dark i'll leave you with a little light james three versus 17 and 18 the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure then peace loving consider it submissive full of mercy and good fruit impartial and sincere peacemakers who sew in peace raise a harvest of righteousness and a final thought from thomas a campus the acknowledgement of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss i'm darron marlar thanks for joining me in the weird darkness