 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. This is a Fireside Frights episode, where once a month I come to you without the fancy production, no creepy music, it's just you, me, and this campfire with 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. So, if you don't send me stories, I don't have them to tell. In fact, what you hear tonight makes up the entirety of the stories. Once I'm done with tonight's episode, I have no more stories, so if you want to hear your stories, please send them in for the future Fireside Frights. You can do that by going to WeirdDarkness.com and click on Tell Your Story. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, you can 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. And by the way, before I get into tonight's episode, a huge thanks to everybody for their patience and their understanding over the last few days. If you've probably noticed, I've been doing a lot of dark archive episodes partly because of the health issues, but mostly because I was kind of in a bind and I needed to get an audiobook done. And the only way to do that was to concentrate on that and not do the podcast. That happens very rarely, but it was sort of an emergency situation, so I had to take care of it. And if you're one of my patrons, you know exactly what book that was because I was sharing the audiobook chapters with you as I was recording them. Okay, let's get into it. Bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Our first story tonight is from Stockton, and he says, Hey, Darren, I've been listening to your podcast close to three years now, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for the passion and excellence you put into your work. Well, now that that's out of the way, I'll get to my story. I'll begin by saying that while I love listening to other stories of the paranormal, I'm a skeptic. I tend to think that there is a scientific explanation to each narrator's story, and they are simply unable to see it. I've had a few circumstances in my life that are indeed strange, and I'd like to share them eventually, but each could possibly be explained as something that's unusual rather than paranormal. I wish that were true for all my stories, but there is one that still creeps me out to this very day. It was 2006, and I was a bright-eyed college sophomore making my annual drive to school. To simply call this trip a drive is an understatement. It was more of an adventure. You see, during this time I was hard up for money and found that with the exchange rate, an education in Canada would be much cheaper than here in my native California. I'd enjoyed my first year at the school and was entering my second. My carriage was a manual Silver 2004 Focus. I had no cell phone or GPS, and my only guide was a crumpled-up Rand McNally nap with a few tears along the creases. My only company was the scenery and a collection of CDs I kept in a disc binder. For you Gen Zers listening, a CD is Spotify on a disc that only held about 12 songs and skipped if you scratched it. The trip was a grueling 30 hours of window time, and if the weather took a turn for the worse, it could easily become a 60-hour trip. I didn't mind, though. I enjoyed these adventures. It was a time for me to experience unknown roadside diners, friendly locals, and eccentric city attractions. Yeah, I'm looking at you, medicine hat, in your world's largest TP. During this particular trip, the weather was excellent. I drove for the windows down, and the sweet American air filled my car. Certainly there was much to enjoy on these trips, but they definitely had their long periods of boredom. Miles of absolutely nothing but pavement and dirt. So much nothing that seeing a lamp post would have been something to write home about. I was in Nevada traveling on Interstate 80. It was about 2 a.m., and I hadn't seen any sort of civilization for hours. The night was unusually dark, and there was no light pollution to speak of other than the car's headlights. The darkness didn't bother me, but it is something that had caught my attention before I saw it. The road was straight as an arrow, and approximately 200 yards ahead was a large pair of yellow glowing eyes. Seeing something other than road brought some much needed excitement, especially since I was in the middle of listening to my Counting Crows album for the third time straight. I began lowering my speed, intent on pulling over to get a better look. The eyes were massive, so I was enthused about what kind of animal it could be. As I got closer, the animal began to be illuminated by my headlights. It was on the shoulder of the road, right beside the fog line. I was still far enough away that I couldn't tell what it was, but my guess was a deer due to the size of the creature's eyes. I was slowing down to about 10 miles per hour, and I noticed the way it was moving. It was on all fours, and it was hopping. Certainly not a deer, I thought, knowing that deer don't hop. I then thought that maybe it was a massive rabbit. I was now 50 yards away, and then noticed that this thing was pure white, like milk. As it became clearer for me to see, I saw that it didn't have a distinguishable nose. For a brief second, I thought maybe it was a large white rabbit just hopping along the highway in the middle of the night. That thought was extinguished the moment I saw more clearly. This wasn't even close to a rabbit. It was a freaking person. No clothes and pure white skin. Its body was gaunt, with arms about as thick as a shovel's handle. The eyes were about three times too big and glowed yellow in my headlights. It had no nose or even a mouth that I could see. It looked forward, not at me, but directly in front of itself. It placed its knuckles on the ground in front of it and pulled itself forward with little hops. It moved slowly and paid no attention to me as if I wasn't even there. I continued to slow and get closer because I couldn't believe my eyes. I hoped as I got closer, my eyes would clear and see that this was indeed an animal, but the closer I got, the more sharp and distinguished its features became. This thing wasn't animal or human. I wish I could say that I was brave enough to stop and stare, but I pulled away from the shoulder of the road, dropped into second gear and hauled ass out of there. After I passed the creature, I checked my rear view mirror, worried that it was chasing me, but all I could see was black. For the next hour, I drove much faster than was legal and could not shake the dread that came upon me the moment I saw what it was. What I saw was real. I was not tired, I didn't wear prescription glasses, my windshield was clean, I wasn't going too fast, nothing can explain what I saw except that it was actually there. What my advice? If you're ever driving in Nevada between Love Look and Battle Mountain, go during the day. Thanks again, Darren. You rock, brother. Signed Stockton. Oh my gosh, what a story to start with. Your description kind of sounded like Lord of the Rings, not Gandalf. That's Gandalf. What an idiot. Smeagol. But Smeagol has the mouth and the nose and everything, but it kind of struck me that way, and he's more gray than white. But anyway, still, that would be freaky. Of course, it would also be freaky if you saw Gandalf in the middle of the road, but that would be for different reasons. Anyway, thank you very much for the story, Stockton. I really appreciate it. Very creepy way to start up our fireside frights. This next one comes from Greg. Hi, Darren. I love your podcast. It keeps me company while I spend many hours on the road away from my family. I have a host of stories I could share with you. I grew up in a house where every one of my family members encountered something unexplainable. I was also an EMT for a while, and although never experienced anything paranormal while on call, did witness some very macabre situations. Anyway, back to two separate stories I'd like to share. The first is a story of my grandpa, who was my best friend. He loved all his grandchildren immensely and had a very special relationship with each of us. For me, it was fishing. When I was a kid, he'd show up at my house and tell my mom that I needed a day off from school to go fishing with him. It was great. Excuse me. He said it was great, and some of my best memories are spending time with him. The man smoked cigars like a chimney. Dutch masters were his brand, which probably led to his health issues later on. My grandpa spent the last few weeks of his life in a hospital due to those health issues. I remember his last day on earth with us. My mom and his sister were at the hospital, keeping watch with my grandma. I'd gotten into bed and was laying there trying to fall asleep. I remember my bedroom door was open to the hallway. I looked over and saw my grandpa standing in the doorway smiling at me. He waved and walked down the hallway, leaving behind the smell of a Dutch master cigar. I broke down in tears. Not long after, my mom called the house to tell us grandpa had passed. But I already knew that. He'd just come to say one last goodbye. My second story is one of the paranormal experiences I had while driving in my childhood house. It was weird. Oh, while living in my childhood house, that makes a lot more sense. I don't know why I read that as driving. Anyway, it was weird. In high school, I worked on a dairy farm. It was a decent sized operation that milked around 300 cows twice a day. The morning shift, which I worked, clocked in at 3 30am, which means I was usually up at 245 to get to work on time. I remember one morning I was sleeping when my dad came busting into my room yelling, You better get up. You're late for work. Like jumped out of bed and saw him head downstairs. All our bedrooms were on the upper level. I got dressed and went downstairs to get some coffee and breakfast. I noticed it was only 130 an hour and 15 minutes before I had to get up. I was ticked. I started to look for my dad to ask what was going on. But he wasn't there. I was confused because I remember seeing him go down the stairs. But he was nowhere to be found. I went back upstairs and looked in his room. There he was snoring away. I woke him up and asked him why he got me out of bed so early. And his reply freaked me out. I didn't wake you up. Why are you even awake? Don't you have to work early today? I swear it was my dad who woke me up and then went downstairs. But he was asleep in bed. Did I see my dad's doppelganger? Your brother in Christ, Greg. Greg, I that your question at the end. Did I see my dad's doppelganger? I don't know. I don't know about doppelgangers showing up like that. I've heard of doppelgangers being like elsewhere in the world. Like you'll see somebody you'll think that it's that it's your dad or your sister or even you and it's unexplained. But I've never heard of well, I guess I guess there have been stories about doppelgangers showing up in the same in the in the same house. Okay, yeah, I don't know though. That's that's odd either that or you had the the most vivid dream ever. Speak speaking of last night, I was having a weird dream. And I think it had something to do with the fact that I was also listening to the radio at the same time. But normally when you're asleep, you're not supposed to be able to move your muscles. Somehow I did and this has happened to me in the past. But I was I was dreaming that I was in a high school gymnasium. And they were playing soccer in the gymnasium, but they were only using half the gymnasium, only one goal. And instead of a soccer ball, they were using a football like an American football, they're like from the NFL. At the same time, the quarterback, I guess for lack of better words, he was telling the news in a newscaster's voice. And that's why I think it's key that came from the radio because I know that voice. It's the voice of Mike Scott from from AM 560 in Chicago. I know that voice. So but so I'm I'm assuming that I was listening to the news somehow in the back of my you know, in the background that was seeping through into my into my dream. But can you imagine watching a soccer game, regardless of whether or not they're using the right ball for it anyway, but watching a soccer game and or a football game or whatever. And the and the guy was sitting there. I mean, never missed a beat just kept on telling the news as if it was just like every day occurrence. No big deal. And then the ball ended up coming up. I was on on the in the bleachers on like towards the top. And for some reason, I was laying down, covered up, which might be because I was in bed at the time dreaming this. Maybe that's why. But anyway, the ball came up and I reached for it because it was it was like one one step down from me that that it landed. So when I reached for it, I found myself leaning over the bed when I because I woke up at that point and I was about to fall out of bed because I was reaching for an invisible ball that wasn't there. And I was half off the bed reaching down. We're just dream ever. And I don't know why I'm sharing that with you. But anyway, oh yeah, that's right, because Greg saw his doppelganger. So it would have to be a very, very vivid dream to see your doppelganger. But you know what the difference is between a dream and reality, Greg. So I have no explanation for you. And I told that story. And I'm kind of kind of thinking maybe after I'm done recording this, I need to go back in and delete that story because it made no sense and has nothing to do with weird dark. I'll leave it and I'll leave that. Okay. Let me get a sip here real quick of a drink. Tonight. I'm just drinking regular water. Well, that and it's a it's got some Splenda sweet tea water enhancer in it. Just trying out a different some different drinks rather than just the sparkling waters just just for the heck of it. Okay, this next story comes from Rachel. Hi, absolutely love your podcast. I'd like to share a personal true story of my own with you. When my daughter was about two in 2010, she started having night terrors after we moved back home to my parents home. Now, when I was a child, I had many odd experiences in the home, all stemming from a night where my father opened the back glass door after we heard repeated phantom knocking. As a superstitious kid, I begged him not to open the door, but he insisted we never found anyone outside yet. Since that day, we have had odd happenings. Things moved from where they were left doors opening on their own and seeing family members when they were not yet home. Hey, there you go, Greg. There's your doppelganger right there. Looks like Rachel has one too. Anyway, now my daughter's night terrors started out with her simply waking up crying. But quickly, they changed to her not only waking up screaming, but she would be terrified for 15 to 20 minutes later, often looking down the hallway toward our shared room and then randomly jumping and resuming screaming as if she'd just seen something. I shared my concerns with my parents as I was a 20-year-old new mom. They told me it was normal and it would eventually stop. But for the next three months, things just got worse. Each night when she awoke, she would head to the living room to rock in the recliner. Eventually, the dogs started waking and acting strangely, pacing and raising their hair near the hallway to the bedrooms. And then one night, about four months after her night terrors started, my daughter awoke in the middle of the night screaming. And when I jumped out of my bed to pick her up from her toddler bed in the corner, I swear, I heard something growl at me. I screamed for my life and quickly turned on the bedroom light. Now, my door was shut, so had it been a cat or a dog, they would not have left the room. However, I found no animals in the room, nor under the bed or in the closet. For the next two nights, I heard this growl whenever I would pick my daughter up out of bed. We started sleeping in the living room. After a few days, I decided to take action. I saged the house and spoke firmly that whatever was there was not welcome and that she was my baby. I also made her a dreamcatcher and tied in four pieces of turquoise at each directional point, north, south, east, and west, all the time praying in my head for safety for my daughter. The very day that I hung that dreamcatcher over her bed, she slept through the night and all was well for nearly a year. After about a year, my father called me at work while he was watching my daughter, saying that she came from her room crying about a monster and the dogs were acting oddly. I asked him to check if her dreamcatcher was hanging up. He said it wasn't. When I arrived home, the dogs were still pacing and guarding the hallway. I found my daughter's dreamcatcher under a blanket under her dresser. I again saged the house and the dreamcatcher, and the dreamcatcher, and then hung it back up. Within 10 minutes, not only were the dogs acting normal, but my daughter resumed playing in her room. To this day, I don't know what was in that house, but I believe it wanted my daughter, and I believe we had allowed it to continue, had we allowed it to continue, it would have eventually harmed her. Dang, Rachel. So I'm not into saging the house. We're more into blessing our house, but that is creepy that not only would the dreamcatcher have fallen down, that you found it under the dresser under a blanket. Nothing just falls into that position. That was that was placed there. That was hidden there by something or someone. Scary stuff. I'm glad that you're not having any issues now, man. For people who, I'm not really familiar with the dreamcatcher. I know what a dreamcatcher is, but I'm not familiar with using them in that way. So if anybody has dreamcatcher stories that you want to throw my direction, or if you've got stories about using holy water in your house, or sage, whatever, send them my way. We actually need more stories for fireside frights anyway, and that'd be an interesting thing to read about. Okay, this next story comes from Lisa. She says, Hey, Darren. First, I want to say I literally stumbled across your podcast while trying to find documentaries on Apple about three years ago, and I have been a fan since. Here's my true story. When I was younger, my grandmother used to collect what she called china dolls. She had a huge cabinet full of them, and she also had some hang off of her bedroom walls. She loved these dolls, and talked to them often, almost like they were human. It's kind of creepy now that I look back on it. So maybe two or three times out of the week, me and three of my other cousins would have to spend the night over at our granny's house so that she can watch us and take us to school while our parents worked. She'll feed us, bathe us, have our pallets made in the front room so we can all sleep together and watch TV since one of us was terrified of the dark. We'll laugh and play until we finally got sleepy and drift on off to sleep. One night, I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. It was really dark with a little light on from the kitchen that dimmed on the cabinet and it was filled with dolls in the dining room. Me, being the brave one, I just hopped up and started walking towards the restroom, passing the cabinet and looking at the dolls along the way. I finished taking care of my business then started to make my way back to the front room and that's what I noticed that some of the dolls' heads were turned but earlier they were all facing forward. I glanced at it but shrugged it off as me still being half asleep. The next morning I got up, looked at the cabinet, all the heads were facing forward so I laughed and thought to myself, you had to be dreaming or so I thought. Fast forward to later that day. My cousins are outside playing and my granny is on the porch watching them and asked me to grab something for her out of the room and I happily ran up the stairs straight in the house. Once I got in the house I started to walk past the cabinet as I walked it felt like I was being watched so I walked a little faster hurrying to my grandma's room. Now I remind you in her room she has the same kind of dolls hanging from her walls going in there just intensified the feeling that I was being watched and the room felt different. I can only explain as the feeling you get when you know someone's behind you like you can feel it. I ran out the I ran out the house so so fast and late that night my mother came to get us but before leaving my grandma gave us all three of these raggedy and dolls you know the dolls with the red yarn hair the one that we were so happy that we played with every day after school. A few months and went by and my grandma got sick and left us. This is when things started getting scary. I would leave the doll on my bed and would come home she'd be in my chair or on many occasions I'll have it hanging on the wall and she'll be somewhere else. At first I thought nothing of it since my mom straightened up while we were while we weren't home but as it kept happening even on days I knew my mom wasn't home I built up the nerves to ask hey mom are you moving the doll around? Her response was a simple no. She could see the confusion on my face but I proceeded to just say okay maybe I forgot I took it down it's now Friday and my cousins are over for our slumber party we all have our dolls we're playing in my room with the door closed and then we noticed it got really cold out of nowhere the tv is becoming fuzzy and then it just snaps off we were all about to start screaming and that's when we see what looked like an image of my grandma flash on the tv screen and then go back out we ran out of the room screaming bumping right into my mom we told her what happened and she basically told us it's in our minds we just missed grandma her passing was still fresh we all looked at each other and agreed that had to be it there's no way to see her on the tv she made us a light snack and sent us on our way to bed when we got in the room the dolls that we kind of threw anywhere from running in fear we're all sitting on the bed next to one another it's safe to say we did not sleep in that room and those dolls were later donated to a church i'm not sure my grandmother may have anything to do with the dolls but i can say until this day i have a slight fear of any porcelain and raggedy and dolls thanks for allowing me to tell my story i wish many blessings on you and yours please never stop doing your podcast work is no fun without them well thank you lisa that's a very very nice way for you to end that i appreciate that no plans on my stopping the podcast um in fact i was even talking to a friend of mine the other day who works for spreeker the people that i actually host the podcast with and uh she was asking you know what i'm going to do in the future when i stop podcasting i said i'm i'm not planning on stopping this is this is a career i can do until like i'm 95 or 105 or 125 if i live that long so long as i have a voice i can keep doing this so no plans to stop in the near future in fact i've got plans to expand on things which you'll hear about more in the future if we decide to go that direction but going back to your story lisa um a couple of things popped out at me one the raggedy and all um most people well most people listening to the podcast probably do know but most people in the world don't because the uh the movie anabelle is based on a real-life doll but the doll they show in the movie is not what the doll looks like the real anabelle doll the real-life one that's behind glass you're not allowed to touch is a raggedy and all that kind of creep me out there just a little bit when you said that that was that was the doll that had been giving you some some strange things uh something else i was thinking of you said that your grandma used to talk to the dolls like they were actually real people and that makes me kind of wonder about the whole the whole uh tulpa idea that you believe in something hard enough and if enough people believe in it that it could be something that actually manifests and becomes reality that's not scientifically possible but there are so many things that we don't understand when it comes to science so you never really know to us it just looks like magic but if you're continually talking to an inanimate object and you're treating it like it is animate and like it understands you and maybe that it could even reply to you who knows after a while you got to wonder if maybe something that maybe there is something to that i really don't know but it's interesting though that you had those raggedy and dolls all three of them i mean yours obviously was met was you know you know freaking around with you but freaking around with you that's a weird way of putting that sorry uh it was scaring you it was freaking you out that's what i was trying to go with but the other girls you know you never mentioned whether they had any issues until of course they all three came together for your sleepover and that's when they all sat together on the bed after you you dropped them and ran out of the room so anyway strange things lisa thank you very much for sharing your story i appreciate it okay this next story comes from tarian i've been a believer in the paranormal for close to 30 years you ever had a moment in life where you find yourself saying oh my god this is really happening well my story was the scariest thing to ever happened to me i remember it being a regular day normal stuff breakfast school lunch playing like any other kid in the neighborhood but as night fell upon us that is when my life changed now we lived in a duplex which is a house plan that has two living units attached to each other ours was a side-by-side with only two rooms a piece our parents had one room i'm sure she means only two bedrooms a piece our parents had one room my brother and i had the other room all together there are three of us so we had two bunk beds in the room i slept on the top bunk farthest away from the door my mom told us goodnight and turned the light out as i laid there thinking why can't i sleep i stared into the void of darkness i heard two voices i have never heard before talking the first voice said there he is and the second voice said let's get him starting for starting from my feet i could feel this energy surge over me until i couldn't move i was able to look around and saw nothing but something was holding me down i was so terrified at that moment i cried out for god in my head and asked for forgiveness i had no idea how to pray as i was crying out to god the strangest thing happened the best way to describe it is to take a blanket and pull it over your head and slowly pull it down once i was able to speak i screamed jolting my younger brother out of his bed to turn on the lights as the light touched me i was able to regain feeling in my whole body i explained what i just went through but he was only six years old so you can imagine it went in one ear and out the other he turned the lights back off but i was afraid of sleeping so my plan was to try and sleep with my mouth open just in case it happens again oh boy did it happen again even faster than the last time but i was able to make noises loud enough for him to hear and turn the lights on again and nothing uh turn turn the lights on again but nothing happened after that fast forward 25 years i was listening to a podcast talking about sleep paralysis saying if you hear or see something that your event was demon related after hearing that it sent chills down my spine well that's it for me for now darin thank you for being a bright spot in the darkness keep up the good work and thank you listeners for all your support of weird darkness thank you so much uh tarian i appreciate that and you were listening to that podcast talking about sleep paralysis saying that it was demon related i don't know if that was weird darkness or not but but that is what i believe um i know that there have been sleep paralysis issues when i'm reading your story and i just i know it's sleep paralysis the way you're saying it but um i believe in many cases there is a demonic element to it i'm not going to say that all sleep paralysis out um situations are that way uh because i really don't know about all of them i can tell you about the one that i had uh and it was very much uh like what you were talking about but it went a step further and i actually saw the demonic entity in my bedroom but it was the same i couldn't move i could see but i couldn't move i couldn't talk um and the only thing that happened the only the only way i was able to get out of it was to to pray for jesus to save me uh being a born-again christian that's that was my first instinct and that's what finally released me and i was and and i was freed but that feeling of of evil was so overwhelming that i'm convinced that it was demonic i don't think that kind of that kind of feeling that that's that's such strong presence of of evil can be explained away scientifically um i might be wrong but i'm just saying this is just what i believe i'm sure there are other issues where people have sleep paralysis and it's not demonic i know it has been explained by science in in many cases but in those few instances where it's similar to what you're talking about and what happened to me i really do i i believe that there's a demonic um aspect to that not a demonic possession because that's when they actually take over your body but a demonic oppression where they actually influence you from the outside of your body that i truly do believe is what happened to me this next story comes from dany in the first story of mine right on your show i told my experience with what i believed to be a sasquatch and although it was my first experience as an adult with adult memory adult feelings and adult responses to a terrifying strange situation it was not my first experience nor would it be my last my first experience was at the age of seven we had just moved from a small village in midwestern ontario about an hour away to a small hobby farm in the middle of the country it was an odd house it was essentially two square units from other places brought to the property and joined by a five-foot hall our barns were the same an old and old-time worn steel a-frame barn and a newer square steel clad horse barn in in black with white trim almost the nicest building on the property it was certainly more square than the house watching my dad and grandpa trying to do drywall in a house without a straight wall inside is a horror story that i'll save for my contractor buddies that's correct it was my first summer in the house i'm sorry i'm picturing a house with no straight lines no no straight walls inside i i can't imagine somebody's got to take if you if you can get a picture of that house i want to see what you're talking about that is that this that just doesn't even sound possible okay anyway um it was my first summer in the house i was still getting used to it it had a weird feeling to it that's how i summed it up back then weird feeling now as an adult i know that feeling to be anxiety i have an explanation to the feeling that place had more easily now as an adult even easier if you suffer from tinnitus like i do to me there are no quiet places i hear that grenade went off sound effects sound all day to a lesser degree than the movies of course but it's there all the time imagine going camping no more peace and quiet it gets oppressive heavy disquieting frustrating there's always something in the background well that's the way this house felt like a dark blanket hung over the place i didn't notice it at first and even though the feeling unnerved me i knew it must be the unfamiliarity of the place the fact that now there was only one yard light out front of the hydropole and not a small town worth of lights around our house wasn't lost on me at seven years old it was dark not to mention now i heard cows lowing in the dark at the stamp of a hoof the wind blowing through acres of corn it was eerie at times but i still preferred the starry night over being in that house it was a saturday morning i got up with my alarm at 9 30 because the spurts were on global at 10 and i wanted to make oatmeal first yes i did a little cooking for myself at seven my mother had to teach me because i was trying to do it anytime her back was turned anyway i guess the career i guess the career i picked so there i am lying in bed staring at the wood paneling in my bedroom making faces out of the whoops and worlds of the of the wood grain and knots in the paneling slowly waking up and coming to my senses it's a beautiful sunny day out my curtains were open and the sun was streaming down warm and cozy on my legs and across the door to my room perhaps that's why i first noticed it about four feet up the frame on the left side of the door a head very slowly slid into view and ear gnarly and wrinkled dark tanned like old good quality loafers came first with a cheek deeply scarred and stretching following and stretched that is following i remember being frightened of the detail in that face and yet feeling like i couldn't focus on it i closed my eyes tight and opened them again there it was it almost looked uh burned or mummified and desiccated it looked at me while warm sunlight fell across its face and it smiled black eyes stretched at the corners and a too wide thin smile crept its way over its face my father was well he had a twisted sense of humor he would have been glued to whatever fail video was out if he were still alive most of his beloved childhood stories and memories involved him and his brothers beaten the crap out of each other for fun anyway he once dressed up as a scary clown and crashed a toddler's birthday party by running around banging on the windows and laughing maniacally so i immediately thought the smiling terrifying nightmare coming more into view every second was just my jackass father pulling his latest attempt to make me crap my pants dad stop trying to scare me i know it's you i said loudly still sure that it was my dad but my skin still crawled my terror was complete when i heard my father's voice from his room just down the hall what what's wrong i heard him say down the hall as that thing smiled wider leering at me i shrieked as realization hit me i screamed from the soul my mother came into my room like a valkyrie her hip passing through the head of whatever night spawn i was hanging in my door she pulled me in close and asked me what was wrong i told her what i saw there was a burned man smiling at me in my door mom she turned and stiffened but said nothing the doorway was now empty my superhero mom had chased it off and i was back in a sunny room safe she left briefly whispering to my father in the other room i was still nervously sitting there in bed scared to look at my door when i heard him pulling on pants in the other room his belt buckle jingling as he tongue as he tugged them hurriedly up his legs i watched him pass by my door carrying a baseball bat he searched the entire house saving the basement door right next to my room for last i only ever saw it once more i changed rooms because of that incident i just couldn't sleep there anymore my new room was just down the hall on the opposite side right across from mom and dad's room it was a comfort then one night i saw it again i woke up sometime in the middle of the night something had woke me up and i was kind of miffed that i had been woke up i looked to the hall and there it was it stood there in the hall in plain sight it didn't bend down looking at me from a door frame now it stood there in plain sight and it smiled like a thin zipper being drawn open to this day i still wonder at my response like i said i was miffed for being woke up back then just as i am now i am a complete angry bear when woke early or quickly and this night my child's Scottish temper protected me oh you get lost i'm trying to sleep you asshole my 7 year old self rolled over back to the door and went back to sleep i was never bothered again by the apparition well i never saw it again my father and i could feel it sometimes the hair would stand up on your forearms and that feeling of being watched would spread over your body my dad and i would look at each other and nod my mother didn't notice anything she told me that she hadn't felt it at all had never seen a thing fast forward another 7 or 8 years i'm in my middle teens and we're sitting in our living room with friends and my parents they were talking about ghost stories and the local places that were talked about in whispers and avoided that was when my mom started to tell my story that i relate to you now if you remember i had only told her there was a burned man in my doorway i hadn't gone into more details i hadn't described anything more about it i wanted to forget so when mom started to describe the thing the hair lifted on my arms mom i didn't tell you that i said trailing off as she looked at me and fear came over her face you didn't have to dany she stated quietly we stared at each other the whole time i held you she whispered quietly that house always felt heavy the feeling of being watched never really left but never developed into anything more than what's been told we did renovate the place we took out the little five-foot hall and fully connected the two halves of the house the place was okay after that lighter no more being watched no more hair standing up but it did teach me one thing there is some weird things in the darkness wow okay dany that is a great story i'm kind of miffed at your mom for uh seeing the creature while she's holding you and yet never revealing it until so many years later she had to have told your dad though i would say because uh because otherwise why would he have picked up the bat and started looking around so if if you're scared that you maybe saw somebody but then your mom bursts in and doesn't see anything then he would probably chalk it up to you having a bad dream but if she told him that yes she saw something that's when he grabs the bat and starts looking around so i think maybe she did tell your dad they just decided that they weren't going to tell you for some reason maybe they didn't want to confirm that something was there because that would scare you even more i i don't really know but man that is that is creepy and it kind of makes me wonder if maybe that hallway was what was uh was what was either possessed or haunted or whatever guys you said that you saw the demon in the hallway you saw it coming out of the hallway into your room like in in the in the doorway and that you never saw it again once the hallway was removed so i'm wondering if maybe the hallway in some strange way has uh something to do with it great story thanks for sharing that this next story comes from audrey hello darren i'm listening to your show about hitchhiking your story is about phantom hitchhikers moved me to share my own story i usually don't share this story as it is very formulaic but this is 100 true about 30 years ago now i was driving home when i saw a young lady walking towards me along the side of the road who was crying hysterically i stopped to see if she needed help and she asked for a ride home saying that she didn't live far she refused any other kind of help saying she did not need the police or hospital or anything like that so i offered to take her home she got in and told me she was going the opposite way of which i was headed so i turned around a few streets up she pointed to the street on the left and asked me to be to let her off at a house about to block up the road i stopped and let her out and she passed behind my van and crossed the street worried for her i went to the next driveway and turned around to see where she went off to and she did not go into the house she asked to do it at turns out the only thing in the other side of the road from this house was a graveyard she was nowhere to be seen yeah very formulaic aubrey but that doesn't mean it's not true one of the reasons that these kinds of stories are formulaic is because the same thing does tend to happen all the time people picking up a girl in white and she her asking to be taken to a house or to some destination and disappearing like almost immediately after she gets out of the car or something like that it happens the same way every time so because it's formulaic that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a a fake story or a true story either way but it does tend to lean to a to a lend credence to your story at least in my opinion so thank you for sharing that aubrey this next one comes from Emma Hi Darren I've been thinking about sharing these two related experiences with you for a couple weeks now maybe for a fireside rights episode English isn't my first language so I'm sorry in advance for any errors feel free to edit as you wish okay here we go I moved into my one room apartment of just about 20 about 312 feet square in July last year the apartment's located on the ground floor and has two windows one smaller window in the bathroom just above the bathtub and one larger window in the main room opposite to my bed and computer desk my neighbors are wonderful people ranging from a young family with small kids to a middle-aged lady that eats pizza four times a week and then there's an older couple living just above me or well it was about two months ago the man died at the hospital from natural causes he was somewhere in his late 80s and when I met his wife as she came back from the hospital I knew from the look on her face that something had happened I'd met her so many times since I moved in and she was always so cheerful however I had never met the man at least not alive a couple days later after he'd passed I sat by my computer to edit some photographs I'm a photographer when I saw a man in the reflection on my computer screen on my computer screen that is I freeze in my chair watched him as he walked from one side of the room to the other disappearing through the wall the hair on my neck stood up at that moment that I knew that he was gone I turned around to inspect the room at first I thought that someone had just walked past my window I live on the ground floor after all however as I turned around I noticed to my dismay that the blinds in the window had been shut which meant that no one could have walked by outside for me to notice on my computer screen and despite that someone had clear as day a couple days later I had gone shopping and parked my car outside my apartment so I didn't have to walk with my groceries from the parking lot to the door as I stepped out of the car I noticed that the bathroom light was on this was very unusual because I always turned the lights off when I don't use the bathroom I take my groceries with me walk inside and put them down on the kitchen table after that I head into the bathroom and turn off the lamp that had been left on watching it as I turned it off and then walked out to the car to head back to the parking lot just as I'm about to start the car I turn my head to the left to see that once again the light in the bathroom was on I couldn't believe it I watched to make sure that it was turned off once I headed back to the car ever since then my bathroom lamp has lived its own life I've had my father come check it to see what the trouble might be only there is none I think that it's the husband of the sweet old lady upstairs I want to ask her if she's been experiencing weird things as well but I'm afraid that I might upset her I'd like to think that her husband is visiting her from the other side making sure that everything is okay and somehow as my apartment is below theirs he accidentally turns up here as well what do you think? well you know that makes more sense than anything else that I could think of Emma in fact I kind of like that idea that he's coming to make sure that she's okay and he just happens to accidentally come into your apartment because they're they're attached that almost sounds sweet and if I had to think of it in some way that's the way I'd probably want to think about it because you doesn't sound like there's anything notorious going on there and you don't you don't you're not feeling aside from seeing a ghost of course but you're not feeling any like dark presence or anything like that so and by the way you do not need to apologize for your English skills at all this was very well written I could easily understand it in fact there were a couple of stories that I had to throw away tonight because I couldn't understand what they were trying to say there was no punctuation there was no capitalization it was just I mean it could be like three pages of nothing but one long run on sentence and I just can't work with that stuff so I usually end up tossing them and throwing them away so thank you for thank you for understanding English so well especially with it not being your first language you've done an amazing job in learning that second language you're doing a much better job than many many English native speakers so congratulations on that this next story comes from Ashley I love listening to Weird Darkness I've been listening to this show since I was 23 being 27 now let me just start by clarifying I'm not crazy anyways it all started about May 2016 I was a big paranormal fan and curious about Wiccans being my mom is one and one day I was googling simple spells that I could try on my own and eventually lingered into black magic things well I found a spell on how to summon a demon of your own choice me being was like let's try this all it said it required was a Ouija board five red candles four red one black a mirror and then draw the sigil of choice well that night when my mom left for work I got everything ready and even waited till three to three thirty two you know to make things more spooky I guess I read the directions placed the candles around the Ouija board and sat the mirror in front of me and the board and said the spell now remind you it came off a cheesy website that wasn't updated since 2005 anyway when everything was said and done it said the candles will flicker and then you'll hear a low hum and get really cold well low and behold all of that was happening me being dumb I forgot to prepare any bargains deals or questions I've learned it out you can feed off my energy if you decide to stay oh now I didn't sell my soul or anything like that so a week or so passes and I'm staying at my friend Haley's house I'm cuddling her cat downstairs on the couch while her and her boyfriend and her roommates sleep upstairs it sounded like someone was walking in the kitchen and all of a sudden my friend's cat starts growling and hissing and then took off running upstairs I swear up and down I saw someone just standing there staring I rolled over and went to sleep so another week passes and I live in Pennsylvania the area I live in there's a haunted house in cemetery built in October 30th 1860 notorious for its haunting St. Joseph's but anywhere anybody here they just call it St. Joe's well there you get this overwhelming feeling of dread like you're not supposed to be there you'll hear Indians yelling and horses galloping women screaming and some nights the bell will swing well when we were three friends and I we pulled in and I instantly felt euphoric like I was on the best drugs in the world and then when we were in the cemetery we heard snarling coming from near me then the galloping was heard I was getting sick a dizzy feeling and my one friend stopped or grabbed me that is to snap out of it he was attacked scratches all down his back throat legs the snarling got louder I got sicker my other friend patience clung to me begging for us to leave and I don't remember this but apparently I stood there laughing maniacally and apparently it wasn't my laugh either my laugh sounds like Kitty Foreman from that 70s show yeah it's terrible anyways they forced me into the car and I'm back in reality sort of I turned to my best friend Haley at the time which with this ghostly white face and touched her with my cold clammy hands and she instantly got a migraine scared the heck out of me a couple days after St. Joe's I sat my friend down and told them what I did and why certain things are happening they weren't thrilled time skip August 2016 I'm babysitting my twin niece and nephew there were two at the time I went and got them a sippy and when I got back their wide eyes were peeled behind me and my niece goes who dat flash forward to November 2016 my two friends and I were experimenting with things that we shouldn't have been and we went to my bedroom which is three rooms from the living over from the living room we were praying something creepy wouldn't happen but it did and they sent me into my living room and I kept hearing tapping on the mirror and as plain as day I heard do you really believe in God chilled me right to the bone now I go on about all the creepy things that has happened since he's been there but that's so long things I've learned since having him is he's strong enough to kill killed my little brother's cat because my brother called him out he moves things and can manifests his face makes you question everything you've ever known it's been about six years now having him with me and most friends kind of accept his energy around I think mostly out of fear in my opinion I feel he's mellowed out recently moved into a new house with my childhood best friend he does not harm my cats but messes with my roommate's dogs and bearded dragon I've had to hang a rosary in the door frame in my roommate's son's bedroom and paid the price for that also to this day we don't use his actual name we refer to him as Mr. Not So Nice to avoid conflict he seems to feed off people's bad energies especially mine when I'm upset my friends and I have a theory that he travels through mirrors to make visits to them like an unfriendly pop in hello sometimes he even warns me to get out of a situation ever been mercled by a demon it's unpleasant okay Ashley um creepy story weird I think you're fooling yourself and I mean you said that you're well I didn't say I like I sold my soul or anything like that yeah maybe you didn't specifically use the word soul but you did invite a demon into your life to suck your energy I mean what how close can you come to selling your soul than that you've invited this into your life and I know that you wanted this I mean your mom was a Wiccan and so you were already familiar with you know with with some of this stuff you went out you got the Ouija board the candles the the mirror and your sigil of choice whatever that was so you knew what you were going into with this you knew that you were going to be asking about something from an entity now don't fool yourself into thinking these entities are good I've never heard any of these stories where they're actually good entities ghosts are a different story but I mean we're talking demonic stuff here if you're if you're using a Ouija board and stuff like that and you're inviting something to feed off of your energy there's nothing good about that and to say that he's mellowed out no he's fooling you demons don't mellow out I don't see that happening at all there was also something else in here that you had mentioned oh yeah do you really believe in God honestly I don't even know that a demon would say that so that's where I'm kind of torn here because I do believe that this is a demon that you've invited into your life but I don't believe that a demon would say that and the reason that I have come to that conclusion that a demon wouldn't say do you really believe in God they don't want you thinking about God period so the whole concept of them saying or asking the question do you believe in God that's immediately going to bring God to mind and they don't want you thinking in that direction they want you as far away from God and Jesus as humanly as well as spiritually possible I guess a better way of saying it so I really don't know what you're dealing with but it's not good no matter what and I really don't understand why you haven't done something about it and I can't tell you how to get rid of it etc I've never messed with the Ouija board never will but I mean if it's feeding off of your negative energies and it's feeding off of the negative energies of your friends which is which is which you kind of kind of you know kind of say here you need to do something about this young lady you really do talk to a I don't think Sage is going to work for you on this either I think this is I think you're way beyond that I think you're going to actually have to get some spiritual advice here get either an exorcist or some sort of sort of I don't know I say exorcist because you know being the religious guy that I am I immediately think towards you know getting a pastor or something but personally I would I would take I would go into the house as a Christian again this is as a born again Christian I would come in with with oil and I would be blessing the house with oil and making the sign of the cross over every door and window and at the whole time praying you know Jesus moved the spirit out of here you are and it's not welcome you know that kind of thing but if you don't believe in that I don't know what you would do I don't I don't know how the sage thing works but you need to do something you you cannot continue with this actually I am really glad that you're listening and you've been listening for so long and the reason I'm spending so much time after your your letter here your email is because I care I am scared for you Ashley you really need to do something and I don't know again I don't know what it is look into ask your mom I would never go to a Wiccan but you obviously would go to your mom ask her hey what would you do if you were in the situation how would you get rid of this but find some help somewhere you really need out of that before I move on let me get a sip of great care real quick that's just a scary scary story actually okay let's see this next story comes from Taylor hello Darren my name is Taylor and I've had a lot of sleep paralysis episodes well there you go another story with sleep paralysis I've had episodes where I am face down and feel like I'm suffocating those suck but they're nothing compared to the episodes with hallucinations I've had too many episodes to count so I'll just focus on the two scariest ones due to this first story I no longer keep a mirror in my bedroom the mirror that I had was viewable from my bed when this episode occurred I of course was unable to move or speak I saw a red hooded figure that appeared as if it was making its way from inside of the mirror towards the outside it was as if it was walking towards me there were flames all around the figure I felt extremely sinister as if this being was going to hurt me this one terrified me the most because I only have ever seen shadow figures as soon as I snapped out of it and returned to reality I grabbed the mirror and threw it out the second one that stands out is the time I've seen more than one figure this time I was unable to move and I saw a shadow figure on top of me sort of like the old hag that many reports seeing but mine was a large shadowy figure there were multiple shadow figures surrounding my bed during this episode all just staring at me as I was trapped under this large figure once I snapped out of it I was not able to get back to sleep that night anyway big fan of the show especially the fireside Frights episodes listening to your podcast and hearing about other people having issues with sleep paralysis has made me feel way less crazy I wish you and the show many blessings well thank you Taylor I appreciate that yeah you're not alone as we were talking about earlier with sleep paralysis and your situation your particular experience is very similar to what mine was I only had the one figure and I I've never really never really called it a shadow figure but you could you could kind of see it that way because it was even though it was pitch black in my room the blackness of the figure was so much deeper that you could definitely see it but it was but you were seeing nothing I mean you were like seeing through it into the abyss of eternal darkness or whatever it was really hard to explain but the outer side the outer parts of it the you know the shape of this figure was was more demonic I picture it having red eyes but I think that's just because I put that into it after the after the effect I don't really think that at the time that it had eyes I think it was all just pure pure black and the and it was looming over me it wasn't on me like yours was like it wasn't laying on top of me it was looming over me I didn't have to really look very far down down the bed you know it like it was it it was at the foot of my bed but it was so tall so huge and like it was kind of bending and looking down upon me that's that's the feeling that I had I didn't have any other any other figures in the room with me but yeah so that's that was mine regarding the red hooded figure that came out of the mirror and it had flames around it I mean that almost sounds like the caricature of of the devil that that people draw in cartoons and stuff and that that particular image isn't scary but if that's what you would expect the devil to to be then I guess it could terrify you I mean if it's coming if you're stuck in bed if you can't move you're already terrified because of that and then you see that particular figure I can understand why that would be scary as all get out I guess in my rational mind I would say well that's not the devil the devil's not going to come at me wearing wearing a red cape and black boots carrying you know carrying a trident and and have the the black goatee and have fire around him but that's just the this is a stupid cartoon cartoon devil but if that's what you've grown up with and you and you see that as the devil image then maybe so wow anyway I hope that never happens to you again regardless of of which one or any others sleep paralysis is just one just the most terrifying thing that's ever happened to me moving on to a story from Janira or Janira and I don't know how how to pronounce your name I'm very I'm very sorry about that this story also has a lot of words that are not in English it's written with a lot of Spanish in it and I flunked the Spanish in my seventh grade first quarter of seventh grade so I'm gonna I am going to butcher these words and I apologize in advance for that but anyway here we go or from I'm gonna say your name is Janira anyway she says hello Darren I'm a big fan of your show and I just I just like you mentioned be in fireside frights volume 11 Weird Darkness I also found you during the peak of oh I see she she found the show while listening to a fireside frights episode volume 11 I get it okay anyway she says that she found us during the week the peak of covid but it wasn't that I hadn't already been listening to podcasts but I had just finished a different podcast that didn't have any new episodes so while browsing I found yours and since I'm interested in strange and weird stories I scrolled to the bottom and hit play and I have been listening to you almost religiously for the last 10 months while I wash dishes do laundry clean the house while running errands while driving things like that I laughed so hard that episode but I get how you're trying to figure out why so many people started during the covid crisis but if you think about it it was a time where everybody had to stay home from work and that's a time where we had honestly also to find a way to get away from the people that we were stuck with at home you can only feel stuck for so long before you want to scream this pandemic has kept us home and for some like me being stuck is not always an option so your podcast among others became my getaway I appreciate you and all that you do I currently live in Connecticut and enjoy your podcast so much highly recommended now for one of my stories so I'll give you a little bit of background about myself I'm Puerto Rican female in my late 30s I've had several experiences with strange I guess I'll call them incidents which which if I manage to type up this incident correctly I may just tell you about my other stories growing up my family lived in Jamaica Queens, New York in Jamaica Queens oh is Jamaica Queens an actual place when I first read this I thought Jamaica and then Queens, New York but I don't think that's what you're saying I think you're saying Jamaica Queens, New York you know what I got my phone here I'm going to look that up real quick before we before we continue on because now you got me wondering I'm going to be I mean I could continue telling the story but in my back in my head I'm going to be thinking what the heck is Jamaica, New York or Jamaica Queens Jamaica Queens zip code sure enough that's a real place okay I've heard of Jamaica I've heard of Queens never heard of Jamaica Queens all right hey you learn something new every day even if you're the narrator of the podcast okay moving on so okay so growing up my family lived in Jamaica Queens, New York and I had aunts and uncles who were big into Santillera which is Spanish the way of the saints the most common name given to a religious tradition of African origin that was developed in Cuba and then spread throughout Latin America and the United States San Santillera is that right Santillera am I even saying that right Sant Santaria Santillera that's how that's the way it said okay I'm sorry folks had aunts and uncles who were big into Santillera which is Spanish the way of the saints the most common name given to a religious tradition of African origin that was developed in Cuba and then spread through Latin America and the United States Santillera was brought to Cuba by the people of the Yoruban nations of West Africa who were enslaved in great numbers in the first decades of the 19th century it's believed access to the Orishas can be arrived through various types of divination one of this divination I witnessed multiple times as a child I must have been no older than six years old the divination was called the crowning ceremony which is when the symbols of the patron Orisha are placed on the head of the devotee and he or she may enter a ceremonial trance and become a medium for that Orisha Orisha whatever however you say that the ordinary consciousness and manifest that of the Orisha oh the ordinary consciousness and manifest that of the Orisha patrons through the bodies of their mediums the Orishas are believed to interact with the congregation directly and heal and prophesy for those who approach them well my family didn't do it at a church or somewhere more private my mother when felt that she needed advice or whatnot would take us for a drive to my aunt's house this was back in the late 80s I remember their house like it was yesterday there was this one time when we got to their house my mom would knock and my aunt answered pretty fast we came into a mud room with a red rug we turned to the right and went through a door that led into an open layout where there was a huge living room but it was gloomy and dark back then it was tradition to get money from our elders the older they were the more you would get I didn't like going to my aunt's house because it was always dark and scary to me but what kid doesn't love money I'll explain mom would tell me and my older brother who at the time was eight years old go to my uncle whose room is on the way to the kitchen and say hi while she and my aunt would go have some coffee and catch up in the kitchen I would look at my brother and ask him to knock because he was older and could knock harder than I could I don't remember my uncle's face it's a bit of a blur but my brother knocked and our uncle opened the door BEDICIÓN TIÓ we said to him he replied DEOS DE PENDIGA which how most Hispanic children greet and get greeted in return from most elders even still today and before I continue with the story again I apologize if I butchered those words moving on my mother exchanged words with him and he handed us money I got five dollars my brother got ten dollars because he was older we then said goodbye and he shut the door my brother went to the living room to watch TV and I walked to the kitchen my mom and aunt were having coffee I showed my mom my money and she smiled I asked to use the bathroom my aunt told me that the bathroom was at the top of the stairs and one of my other uncle's one of my other uncle's was upstairs not to worry if I heard anything it was just him I walked up the stairs and the walls were those ugly wood planked walls I got to the top of the stairs and straight ahead was the bathroom there were three rooms upstairs the first room which was right next right next to the bathroom and the light was on and I could see a table to sit and there were two chairs the room looked like a somewhat waiting room per se I decided to just go to the bathroom before exploring the rest of the upstairs after coming out of the bathroom I heard something coming from the third room I knew it was the third room because the first room was still empty and the second room was dark with the door open the floor was rugged so I thought I could creep closer to the room to sneak a peek but as I tiptoed toward the door the floorboard started creaking and I got scared and stopped to see if my uncle had heard me no one came out nor did they say anything as I stood it sounded as if there were two people talking in the room but Tia said only Tia was up there so he could be so who could he be talking to as I stood like a stone statue I could hear the deep voice of the second voice my uncle's voice was a soft but stern type I stepped back again the floorboard creaked the talking stopped and I decided now was no longer the time to be nosy I quickly went downstairs to go sit with my brother I told him what I had heard and he told me that maybe he was watching TV well it didn't sound like it was the TV I explained he didn't care to hear it he just wanted to be left alone while he watched his shows I heard my mom and aunt heading toward the bottom of the stairs I ran over ma where are you going my mom looked at me and smiled I'm going up to talk to your Tio I need to help him I need him to help me with something can I go up with you I'll sit quietly I promise please but she looked at me and said go sit with your brother this is adult things and children should be should be seen but not heard excuse me but not heard so please go sit with your brother well I nodded and walked away once she was upstairs I think it must have been like 10 minutes and I decided to go up I crept up the stairs as quiet as I could be and I poked my head around the corner of the top of the stairs I could hear my mother as well as my uncles I could see my uncle's feet and I could see my mom's feet so I know that there was only two of them in there but the first few minutes it seemed like a normal conversation among two people I could hear my uncle telling my mom in Spanish that they were ready to begin my uncle started humming and playing a drum talking in a language I didn't understand for that moment I was giggling because it looked so funny but I was sure to be quiet suddenly my giggle was stopped instantly when everything went quiet nothing but dead silence the hair in my arms started to stand and I felt as if someone was standing behind me I turned but no one all of a sudden the deep voice that I heard earlier started speaking in Spanish to my mom I froze and slowly put my head around the corner my mom's face was like she was just talking to my uncle but I know the voice that was speaking was not his the deep voice used words that we don't use even now whomever was speaking was old I could hear the deep voice telling my mom why do you walk around the house barefoot do you know with all the negativity in your life you could attract evil spirits and they could enter through your feet when you're at your weakest so please don't walk around the house barefoot and put on socks my mom nodded and agreed how does he know that she walks around barefoot as I was thinking on how he knows my attention was brought back to their conversation when I heard Ian Nina it was just me and my brother so oh La Nina La Nina it was just me and my brother so La Nina had to be me I could hear my mom asking for protection for me and my brother he told my mom that I already had protection because I was blessed as a baby and that it might make itself known since I was a sensitive one I was terrified and could not move my brother came up behind me and asked me what I was doing I screamed he scared me my mom came running out we told her I fell going up the stairs she gave us the look of if you don't stop your stuff I'll whip you when we get home we quickly turned around and ran to the living room as we sat there I thought of telling my brother all that I had heard but he already didn't believe me from earlier so I didn't bother we continued to go back throughout the years and always the same upstairs and done eventually we moved away from Queens, New York and as I got older that's when the really creepy stuff started happening that'll be a story for another time which I look forward to telling you oh come on now that's not fair as you know you say that's when all the really creepy stuff starts and then you say I'll just tell you next next time what are you setting up a Marvel universe at the end of every movie you have to have like a stinger something to let you know that something else is coming on you do not play fair young lady so did you ever discover whether or not you were actually a quote-unquote sensitive one whatever that means I'm kind of curious as to as to what brought that about and whether or not there was any reality to that so if you're listening and you hear that let me know I'd like to know my uh the work got really dry on that one let me get another sip okay this next one comes from Levi hello darren my name is Levi I am a robotics engineer and began listening to weird darkness about two years ago which I continue to love listening to whenever I'm working I suppose this may be because I come from a long line of Jewish mystics and rabbis and unfortunately due to some heavy occult activity my family has taken part in the past part in in the past I've had a numerous let me say that again I apologize due to some heavy occult activity my family has taken part in in the past I've had a number of encounters with the paranormal you and the weirdo family make me feel a little less alone out here when these when these encounters do occur recently however I've been dealing with a series of events that frankly have unnerved me and my girlfriend for four years for some background I tend to travel across the US for work but destroyed my ankle back in January which required us to move back in with my mom for the time being till I can walk again excuse me until I can walk again for the time being I have a knee roller to get around the house my mom's house is located deep in the woods on 43 acres up by Camp David and the Raven Rock presidential complex in Maryland so there's almost nobody around the events began a few weeks ago when late at night we hear a woman talking and the sound of someone walking up and down the stairs only for nobody to be there while odd we chalked it up to pipes the house settling etc a few days ago it really escalated my mom had left for church and my younger brother went out for a date with his girlfriend leaving my girlfriend and I alone at the house because she's been taking care of me in my current injured state as well as taking care of all the big chores around the house I decided to write her a love letter showing just how much I appreciate her and planned on leaving it on my pillow for when she woke up while I was writing it I heard the voice again this time unmistakable as a woman's voice as if coming from just the next room I still couldn't see anyone and knew nobody but the two of us were home still I chalked it up to Tinnitus or something of that nature as I was sneaking back into our bedroom I noticed my girlfriend was awake ruining my plans of surprising her she still loved the letter though she gave me a great big hug and then things really took a turn what did your mom want? she asked me I was a little confused and asked her what she meant she laughed and continued when you were in the doorway she was standing directly behind you before turning around and walking upstairs my heart nearly stopped I informed her that we were the only people here and asked if she's certain that she saw my mom behind me suddenly terrified at the implication she told me that she was so close her head was hidden behind my back but she could clearly see my mom's slippers and that mom was wearing lavender pants and a pink sweater armed with an AR-15 and a Gerber knife we immediately searched every room in the house every closet under every nook and cranny fearful that we were in the middle of some bizarre home invasion the dogs were acting strange and hiding but despite our best efforts we found nobody the phone call with my mom confirmed what we'd already known she'd never left the church she was never there for the past few days a new symptom has appeared in the form of a recurring nightmare in it I am in a well-lit condo in the middle of a bright and sunny day my mom wants to talk to me in private and asks me if I'm secretly married to a woman named Diviana perplexed I tell her no she insists that a woman named Diviana keeps calling her claiming that we are married I push back and insist I've never met a woman named Diviana let alone married one my mom looks at me sighs and says Diviana is here she's on the balcony I think you should talk to her the door to the balcony is a french door made primarily from glass in contrast to the bright and sunny day in every single one of the other windows in the house beyond the french doors is nothing but pitch black void when I wake up I feel like someone's crushing me like something's invading my mind in body with icy tendrils I hear a woman's voice and see a pale figure floating beyond my bed I pray until she goes away this isn't our first brush with the paranormal another one of those encounters involved a hat man that was haunting Martinsburg West Virginia since my great-grandmother summoned him by mistake in the 1920s and which by great-grandmother insisted was the devil himself though I disagree and we do have a class A EVP of that encounter but I'll wait until I have access to our recorder again which is in storage for that story the situation however is a very different one for us as I have no idea from where this entity originated is there anyone else who's experienced anything similar or had any encounters with an entity named Diviana Diviana I have no idea exactly how to pronounce that but that's freaky that it would be so specific that you actually remember the name I've had dreams of other people coming up to me and in the dream like I recognize them but I really don't know them from real life but I don't remember anything that specific like at the name itself and then waking up and still remembering that name to the point that you could actually write it down later on and share it with our audience here that is weird I am going to while I'm doing this I'm just going to look up Diviana on my phone I'm just kind of curious is that even a real I've never heard that name before so D-I-V-I-A-N-A that's how you're pronouncing it or that's how you're spelling it of okay Diviana is a genus of snout moths it was it was described by Raganott in 1888 and contains a species the blah blah blah blah okay all right so it's a moth I doubt seriously that that's what we're looking at there's also a okay there's also a a music artist by the name of Diviana at least I'm seeing that on Spotify so it could be that maybe you had overheard that name sometime in the last couple of days before you had that dream you just didn't really recall it and maybe that's where it creeped in if it's something that people listen to if it's a it's a brand new selfie time okay there's a Diviana series on Twitter but it's a Russian language Diviana has luxury interior experiences it was was counted in 2004 oh in his love okay Diviana is a guy in this in this situation he's an artist what does the name Diviana mean all right this will be interesting let's see let me click click on that this is from names.org it's a Latin name and how to pronounce Diviana all right let me see we move this up to the to the microphone so we can hear this Diviana Diviana Diviana okay so they're saying what this with a short a sound Diviana I'm looking to see what it means and they're not really saying it on this don't you hate those sites that say find out what such and such means and then you get there and it's just a whole bunch of links to the other stuff they want you to buy meaning of Diviana um origin of Diviana unknown well thank you so much for wasting my time and wasting the time of all of our weird darkness listeners thank you so much okay that's something else that I could I could just edit out but I'm not going to because I'm sure you like you guys like to hear me stumble over my own tongue and feet as I do stuff like this that's very interesting Levi and it's interesting that you have that that that background the the Jewish background and some of that stuff follows you with the Jewish mystics and the rabbis and so that's brought some occult activity into you I'm not familiar enough with the Jewish religion to know anything about the Jewish mystics and rabbis so I don't know what kind of occult activity that that involves so that's kind of interesting that you brought that to us here just something new to you know to listen to I was kind of a I was I was a little bit jealous of you there for a little bit on that 43 acres up by Camp David in Maryland or 43 acres by yourself in a gorgeous area like that until you started doing the hauntings at which point no I'm not interested never mind okay moving on let's go to a story from Patrick this is a very short one hi I had a visitation one night in a hotel room that I rented for one night in Arkansas of all places it happened maybe 10 years ago I don't talk about much because nobody believes me some long story short version 11 p.m stone sober all alone no camera of course turned off lights pitch black for half a second and then a six foot tall entity was standing in the room made out of soft white light looked like an angel or alien light the room up I could have read a book I froze and then he walked over and sat on the other bed four feet from me I dove under the covers till the room went dark scared the crap out of me that's the basic story well I got nothing for you on that one Patrick you're all over the place on that the room is dark and then it's and then it's light you think maybe it's an angel or an alien and then you jump under the covers until it gets dark again so I really have no idea what on earth happened to you on that okay this next story comes from a friend of mine actually a spooky boo she is another podcaster she has a podcast called spooky boo's scary story time but she was so sweet and decided to go ahead and send me a story for fireside frights so boo if you're listening thank you so much I really appreciate it and I do encourage you folks to check out spooky boo's scary story time she did not pay for that I'm just doing that because she's a sweet gal okay so here we go for the first few months the house seemed pretty normal but then one night my son came screaming down the stairs and what I'd call a night terror I assume he woke up from a nightmare and it just kept going he finally took a deep breath and said I was sleepwalking I'm okay and then went back up to his room and then the weirdness started one night I was down in the basement doing laundry and I heard a small child's voice behind me say hi there but when I turned around no one was there at that point we started finding toys in the basement in obscure places my first thought was that the children who lived there before had hidden them in the crevices in the walls and one day I noticed a box of old marbles appeared where I had just cleaned none of the toys belonged to my kids I also set up a cheap dollar store alarm system around the office area so I knew when the kids would sneak into the office to try to find birthday and Christmas presents little stinkers they did it often one day when I was in the bathroom the alarm went off I yelled from the bathroom hey get out of my office well since my son and I were the only ones home I heard him yell from upstairs I'm not in your office as time went by we could hear a piano playing at night that I thought might be the neighbors and sometimes the lights and ceiling fan would go on and off I blamed old lighting the front door would sometimes open if not double locked I told the woman who owned the home before the new landlords bought it as our kids were friends she told me the reason why she put the double lock on the door is that someone would open the door at night and the reason she finally sold the houses because of all the weirdness surrounding it including the piano after that we started looking for another place to live it was during this time that really strange stuff started happening my kids would feel like they were getting pushed up the stairs when going up and then one night my son was asleep in his room he heard an old woman's raspy whisper from the closet saying I'm going to kill you the kids would see shadows of figures going from our back porch area to a small building that belonged that belonged to the old house next door that was supposedly a candy store that burnt up inside years before but the outside remained undamaged all of this point at this point that is we moved I don't blame you boo although man what an opportunity you that you've missed you had toys coming out of nowhere for your kids you could have kept those wrapped them up for Christmas and suddenly there you go whole bunch of really old toys for Christmas that you didn't have to pay a dollar for assuming that they would still be in the boxes who knows if they were presents from ghosts then maybe after you boxed them up and put them under the tree when they were opened the presents would be gone they disappeared I don't know anyway I'm sorry I just I thought there was a missed opportunity there somewhere okay this one comes from Pat this is my last story for the evening as well let me get one more sit real quick before I jump into our last story you didn't hear her but my bride came out and brought me some some new water and this one she said she put some orange vanilla in I don't know it's from a company called Clear Theory I guess it's all right trying all bunch of different flavors to see which ones I like best okay like you needed to know any of that okay last story for the evening this is from Pat I lived in a mildly haunted house for about seven years I thought you could use this for one of your fireside frights shows but feel please feel free to use it however you need I was a single dad raising two daughters when their mother and I divorced I fought for and won full custody of them they were one and four at the time about 10 years ago when they were in high school for financial reasons beyond my control and for reasons I'd rather not disclose we had to move to a much smaller house we went from an almost 3000 square foot three bedroom two bath house to renting a much smaller two bedroom one bath house that was about 1400 square feet wow that is a step down dang Pat um our very first house was about that size 1400 square feet actually I think it was like closer to 1500 and that's that's tiny 3000 much better okay anyway Pat continues the new house was small but charming it was almost a hundred years old and although about the size about half the size we were used to we made it work the plan was that my daughters would share a room until my oldest left for college in less than a year our new house was in one of our historic neighborhoods this neighborhood was amazing it had large beautiful similarly aged homes and it also contained several multi-million dollar home historic mansions I'm talking about the 8000 square feet and larger these were exceptionally big houses I was really proud to live there the house we were renting was literally the last house on the last street in that neighborhood for an older home it had been kept up well enough but still needed some TLC it had a lot of appeal built in bookcases arched entryways between rooms 12 foot ceilings awesome doors with glass knobs amazing trim and woodwork throughout the place hardwood floors and plaster walls and ceilings it just don't make houses like this anymore I later learned in the early 90s that they added the central air conditioning which is a must where we live oddly the heat was from radiators which took some getting used to as it takes quite a while to warm up the house once they're cold the front door was half round top and was painted green my kids loved it and said it reminded them of the door from the book and movie The Hobbit the rent was surprisingly affordable and it had been vacant for a while so the landlord was very excited that I was interested excited to the point that she tried to sell me the property almost as soon as I signed the rental agreement although the place was small it did have a large basement and a large attic I'm going to be honest the basement was creepy as hell when you opened the door to the basement there was about a foot drop to the top stair but the staircase was at 90 degrees to the door so when you open the door you go down and to the right the washer and dryer were in the basement and as was the ancient boiler for the heating system luckily the washer and dryer were near the stairs so you'd not have to venture very far into the basement often the basement would always make me feel uncomfortable the entire time we lived there my kids and dogs would not go down into the basement without some coaxing the basement had a very heavy presence to it it was dark damp and it felt very gloomy down there we pretty much would only go down there to quickly throw a load of clothes and the washer or dryer and then book it back upstairs there were some shelving units against the far wall in the basement that had junk on it from previous tenants but I didn't get a good look when we moved in and they were soon to be buried by a wall of boxes when we moved in it was extremely hectic that wasn't prepared and was working against a deadline my friends were very helpful but moving into a place half the size of what you're accustomed to takes some planning which I failed to do so once the kitchen boxes and large furniture items were in the correct rooms and the kids and my bedroom boxes were in our rooms mostly everything else went to the basement as a staging area to be sorted through later the day we moved in as I was unloading the moving truck I noticed an elderly woman watching from the porch across the street after a while she came over and introduced herself she proceeded to tell me that she was born in the house she just came from and that her grandfather had built several of the houses on our street including mine and hers and then I noticed her looking up as in thought and silently counting by closing and then silently counting by closing her fist and at one at a time pointing out a finger one two three four four people have died in your house she told me without batting an eye I was thinking to myself what the heck lady who tells someone that she proceeded to tell me that three of the deaths were previous occupants long ago when she was little and again and when she was in high school we didn't get into the details but I did confirm they expired in the house the most recent was from the 80s apparently in the early 80s the house was vacant for an extended period of time and that on one particularly cold winter a homeless person had broken into my house and had apparently died on the floor in front of the fireplace we chit-chatted about the neighborhood I thanked her for the information and then I got back to unloading the rented moving truck sadly she died not long after we moved in so I was never able to get more information I just thought I was extremely odd that she felt compelled to tell me this right off the bat I remembered when I initially walked through the house with the landlord that there was a rug on the floor in front of the fireplace but didn't think much of it I pulled my best friend aside when we were in the back of the moving truck and told him what my new neighbor had just told me I asked him to keep it on the down low for the time being which he agreed to we went into the living room and when I pulled the rug back I literally gasped and my friend was like oh man that's cool it was a dark stain on the floor that looked exactly the same shape and size as an adult human laying on his side my buddy excitedly laid down on the stain and was like yep someone was dead right here for quite a while no doubt about it at this point he was completely messing with me as he knew me well enough to know I was getting seriously freaked out at this point the stain matched his body outlined perfectly I put the rug back and started wondering if I was going to tell my daughters I decided not to spook them unnecessarily because I was already quite freaked out about this and the conversation that I had with my neighbor I eventually told them but it was a few years later I asked my landlord and she claimed not to know anything about it it took a few months after moving into the process to process all the boxes in the basement I'd hastily go down those weird stairs grab a box and quickly jog back upstairs with it once I got everything sorted in the house and had extra room in the basement to move around I finally got access to the shelves and sorted junk items that came with the house on one shelf there was a large gallon sized glass jar with a metal twist on lid the kind that pickles come in I thought what it was full of was sand but my girlfriend later informed me they were human ashes she recently cremated her father and showed me his ashes one day for comparison all the other items were mostly broken and rusted hand tools but on another shelf there was also a very old rusted coffee can with a metal slip on it metal slip on lid it had a bunch of adult sized human teeth in it not wanting to attract any bad juju I just closed the lid and put the can back on the shelf and I said out loud hey I'm sorry to disturb your stuff and then I backed away slowly until I got to the stairs and then ran back up them to the kitchen slamming the door behind me I never touched anything of those shelves the rest of the time I was in the house we lived in that house for about seven years until I met my wife and got married the whole time my daughters and I lived there we never saw anything resembling ghosts or shadows but there were obvious signs that we were not alone in the house at least once a week one of us would come home after being away and would smell and would smell pipe tobacco none of us smoke it always occurred when one of us were coming home to an empty house we never smelled it when we were already at home it would only occur when we would come home after being away at first I thought someone might be breaking in while we were away but we had a burglar alarm that we always used in the landlord had also allowed me to change the door locks I cannot tell you how many times I would be sitting on the couch reading or watching TV and I would notice both my dogs looking at something in the other room their little heads would move in Utison as if they were watching something moving from room to room it would not be uncommon for me to get home late from working or a date and find my kids sitting on the porch with every light on in the house at first I'd be like hey what's up what are you guys uh why are you guys out here and they would proceed to tell me about knocks and bangs in the house doors slowly opening and closing etc in the fall and winter I'd try to explain away the sounds as possibly from the radiators and the doors activity because the house is old and it was settling but in the back of my mind I was beginning to think we were not alone I personally never witnessed any doors moving but I would occasionally hear knocks and bumps but not often at least once a week over the seven years we lived in the house something would always turn up missing only to be found later usually right where it was supposed to be keys cell phones books even the occasional can of soda would be there one minute you'd leave the room or whatever come back and it would be gone a little while later it would be back but I was on call for work I would literally keep my keys with me all the time because of this on some weekends when my kids were with their mother and I would have the occasional girlfriend spend the night I remember one in particular left in the middle of the night and refused to come back I breasted off thinking she just wasn't into me or whatever but she eventually told me when we were sleeping she had got up to use the restroom and was physically pushed into the wall into the hall she grabbed her stuff and booked it out of there saying not a word when my wife and I were dating she would tell me that she was not comfortable in my house it creeped her out so we would normally spend time together at her place we eventually got married and moved into a different house I'd mentioned the large attic earlier it was floored and mostly empty except for a rocking chair that was situated in a way that if you sat in it you would be perfectly positioned to look out the little round window in the peak of the house looking into the backyard I'm not sure what these windows are called but I think it was referred to as an ox eye on one episode of this old house anyway there was one of these little round windows on the front and another on the back of the house I'm a pretty big guy weighing in at 250 plus and the pull downstairs looked to be old and rickety not to mention the 12 foot drop so that's another reason why most all of our boxes went to the basement when we moved in long story short we didn't use or go into the attic except for two times once when we moved in and again one last time when we moved out just to be sure the kids didn't put something up there without telling me anyway the day I was moving out I pulled down the stairs and hesitantly climbed the creaking flimsy stairs high enough to get my head into the attic to have a look around that damn chair was now situated at the front of the house positioned so you could now see the front yard I remember saying out loud okay then see you later and quickly climbed back down and folded up the stairs my daughters both swear they didn't do it and I believe them fast forward seven years it's moving day my girlfriend slash fiance and I had found a place that we both like and are in the process of moving boxes and furniture out of my house and into the truck at one point during the day she comes out of the restroom looking pale with a puzzled and a bit scared look on her face asked her what's wrong and she calmly asked me to look in the bathroom I look on the floor by the radiator and plain as day there are two dirty child-sized footprints on the tile near the radiator as if they were standing in front of it they were about the size of a three or four-year-old which really stopped me in my tracks as I'm a bit of a clean freak and I mopped that floor once we had everything packed out of the bathroom she has cute little feet but they're not that little and there hasn't been a toddler or any kids for that matter in my house in the seven or so years I lived there the whole time we lived there I never felt scared to be there alone but I also never felt truly alone in that house it's weird and hard to explain but I almost felt drawn to the house at times I still actually kind of miss it in a peculiar way on my way out the door for the last time I said out loud I'm leaving it was nice living here with you but please stay here I think it worked because I have had no weird experiences since what a story to end with nicely written Pat thank you so much for that and I think your I think your landlord there was a blatant liar oh she didn't know anything about that stain on the floor that looks like a person right sure sure she didn't and that's also why she wanted to sell the house to you almost immediately when you started when you assigned the rental agreement yeah right okay yeah she definitely wanted to get rid of that house and there were a lot of stories that she knew about that she did not tell you before you moved in you know that's true I have to wonder I know when you're selling a house you got to tell you got to tell well depending on where you live I think everywhere in the U.S. this is the case I might be wrong on that but I'm pretty sure that you have to tell the the person wanting to buy your house whether or not somebody has died in the house and and I mean you got confirmation there from your neighbor that four people had died in that house I don't know if that's the case when you're renting though if somebody could tell me that if you're listening to this and you know the rule or the law on that let me know I would like to know if you are renting a place does the landlord have to tell you if anybody died there or is that only when you're buying a place just just kind of curious about that anyway that is all of the stories that I have for you no more left to read and I do mean no more I have zero stories left for next month so if you want there to be a fireside frights next month you better be sending me in those stories just visit weirddarkness.com click on tell your story and send in your true story of anything spooky creepy or paranormal that's happened to you or maybe to somebody you know also on the website you can find all of my social media listen to free audiobooks shop the Weird Darkness store sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes and find the hope in the darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts if you like the show please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories true crime monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do and please leave a rating and review of the show in the podcast app you listen from doing that actually does help the show to get noticed all stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions copyright Weird Darkness and now that we're coming out of the dark I'll leave you with a little light Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6 trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight and a final thought life's so short spend it with friends who make you laugh and feel loved and folks that's exactly why I like fireside frights because I really do feel like I'm spending the time with friends you make me laugh at some of your stories you make me feel loved with some of your comments I really do truly appreciate all the emails messages everything else you send me I really do love it so again I would love to to hear more stories from you just go to WeirdDarkness.com and click on tell your story but if you don't have a story and you just want to email me I'd love to hear from you anyway just send it to Daron D-A-R-R-E-N at WeirdDarkness.com I'm Darren Marlar thanks for joining me for another Fireside Frights in the Weird Darkness