 Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Welcome Weirdos, I'm 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. In fact, Fireside Frights number 26, where once a month I strip away all the music, sound effects and fancy audio production. It's just you, me, this campfire and stories sent into me by you, members of our Weirdo family. And if you have a true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know, you can email your story, just go to WeirdDarkness.com and click on Tell Your Story. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, to visit sponsors you hear about during the show, sign up for my newsletter, enter contests, connect with me on social media, plus you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, fold your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Our first letter comes from Rashawn saying, Hey Darren, I binge listen to your podcast daily while at work or around the house and love the format and production quality. I have more than a few different true strange stories that have happened in my life, but the other day, while listening, I was reminded of one I thought I'd share. My family were in ministry and adopted me whilst living in a parsonage next to the church my dad preached at. We lived there for the first two years of my life and I clearly have memories from that home. Once my siblings convinced me our cat was in the closet under the stairs and after crawling inside as a joke, they shut the door behind me. In the darkness I remember thinking I saw him, the cat, but the eyes were glowing yellow and I remember screaming in terror. My mom came and got me and I just remember being inconsolable. I was maybe one and a half at the time. Some context. This house was built maybe in the 50s, out in the middle of the country on a rock foundation. It sits next to an old country church that serves the local farming community. The minister's families move in and out as they come and go. Nothing nefarious that I'm aware of has ever happened inside the house. It's just old and a bit remote. It has three bedrooms on the first floor and two on the second with a few attic storage closets off each room and the upstairs hall. Fast forward five years and the new family living in the parsonage were friends of ours. Their kids were the same ages as my siblings and I. Our brothers would dare my friend and I to sit in the attic storage space as long as we could because something was in there and they would say how the doors would open at night and things would be moved. It always creeped us all out but I chalked it up to my brothers being jerks as the memories from being a toddler hadn't resurfaced just yet. Fast forward four years and my dad gets rehired to preach at the church so we move back into that same house. I turn 11 in that house and my brother and I have the two rooms upstairs. The attic storage door in my bedroom would randomly open in the night even with the latch slid shut. The floors would creak and my brother and I hated walking past the attic storage in the upstairs hall as we always felt like something was going to reach out and grab you. I asked my dad about it and he gave all the usual drafty old house or settling floors answers and shoo-shooed me away. Around 12 I started having intense hyper-realistic dreams about events or people. I would tell my dad about them and weeks or months later those things would happen. After we both realized the correlation he encouraged me to start writing them down. Around 13 my brother left home for college and I was upstairs alone as the only child and the dreams and feelings of fear intensified. The relationship with my mom was not good at this time as she had some mental health issues so I kept most of the events to myself save for the biggest ones that I told my dad about. Until one night I had a hyper-realistic dream that led to me not sleeping at night for two weeks straight. In the dream I was staying the night at my friend's house when I woke up to see a creature sitting on her floor watching me. Its skin was gaunt in stone gray stretched over its bones like it was emaciated. It turned its head from side to side like a dog would but skin was stretched over its eye sockets and its mouth was just a slit. It sat on the ground with its spindly knees pulled up and its hands resting on the knees like a gargoyle. When it saw me wake up it fluttered its tattered bony wings and hopped kind of like the flying monkeys on the Wizard of Oz out of the room. I woke up in terror and as I said didn't sleep at night for two weeks. My dad suggested I pray for protection every night before bed and being a devout baptized believer in Jesus I did. But the upstairs felt even more foreboding than before like I was always being watched. A month later I woke up inside the same dream. Same friends room, same creature, same hyper realistic feeling except this time I calmly got out of my friend's bed in the dream and followed the creature out the door. I remember everything was a dull gray color and nothing in the house had color to it. Just dark contrast. I followed this hopping creature down the hall to my friend's brother's room where he lies sleeping. When I turned into the doorway I saw a dozen of them all over his room sitting on his chest on his bed around the floor. I tried to enter the room but I couldn't. I was stuck in the doorway. When they noticed me they fluttered their tattered wings and flinched. I yelled for them to leave him alone and get out in the name of Jesus Christ. Leave this house. They all fluttered and stretched to their wings like I had thrown a rock into a flock of buzzards. With one raspy chorus of voices in unison they said, You may have the blood but he doesn't. And as I looked down at my night shirt it was covered in the brightest crimson blood I have ever seen. It was the only thing with color in the whole dream and it almost glowed against all the gray. As I looked up I saw them grab him under his arms and flew up through the corner of his room. With that I woke up. When I told my dad about it after the shock wore off a bit he sat eyes wide and silent. He suggested I tell the boy about my dream even though he couldn't explain why I kept having them. He still believes to this day that I witnessed and was protected from real demons. The dream in itself is its own story but I really believe it is connected to whatever was in that house. We finally moved when I was 14 and I never had a dream of that nature but still have plenty of odd prophetic ones to this day. Fast forward to a couple years ago when I was 32 and my mom and I had repaired our relationship. We were talking about my strange premonitions as a kid and I brought up the attic doors in that house. She legit went white and asked me what I meant. I explained I had to keep furniture in front of all the doors because they would come open even when latched. She told me that when they first moved into that house before they adopted me the doors upstairs did the same thing and it scared her so bad she made my dad nail them all closed. But when the next family moved in they pulled all the nails out. Never told her I was having the same issues while we lived there because he didn't want to scare her. This all may seem crazy but it's just what happened and honestly I wouldn't wish those dreams on my worst enemy. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read one of my weird encounters. I have plenty more stories from the haunted house I grew up in to dreams that have been journaled only to come true years later to me seeing a spirit of my past cousin dancing at her own wake and nephew-in-law coming to meet my daughter a year after his death. Keep being awesome. Signed Rishon. What a way to start a fireside frights. Rishon, oh my gosh, that is such an amazing, well I'm going to say testimony. I know it's a story and I know it's true but man I mean that's a from one Christian to another that sounds like a testimony dude that is amazing. I think you may have been, well you say from the beginning here you say that you're a that you were a believer in Jesus. You would not surprise me at all if he gave you the spirit of prophecy the the spiritual gift of prophecy and not necessarily to tell the future although it sounds like maybe it actually is kind of giving you that and which which makes me wonder about your friend you your dad told you that you want to tell your friend what it was that you dreamed about I would love to know what his response was because when that when those we're gonna come gonna call them demons but those those dog creatures with the with the wings and everything else I'm just gonna say those are demons just just makes things simple when those demons in the dream saw you walking into your friend's room and and you told them to get out in Jesus name but they said that you have the blood he doesn't that immediately struck me as you have the blood of Jesus on you you accepted Christ you accepted what he did for you on the cross so you are protected by his blood was your friend not a Jesus believer had he not given his life to Christ if so he wasn't to paraphrase bathed in the blood of Jesus at that time so you had the blood you if they were attacking you you would have been able to to be protected and you were protected from them because they didn't harm you but they they were they were at his house and him and I don't know that is that is really really strange I don't know if that actually happened in real life or if it was just in your dream because a very well could have been like a spiritual dimension type of thing I'm I'm going off the cuff here I have no biblical precedent for this at all I'm just thinking off the top of my head but it almost sounds like oh it almost sounds like you were spirit walking you know astral projection type of thing you're stepping into which I I don't know the spiritual aspect of that I used to think astral projection was was very much anti christ very much you know devilish but I'm I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I was wrong on that and maybe God gives us certain gifts to use for certain moments and you you have this moment right here which would be a prime example of it being able to astral project even though you did not intend to it's just something that that happened you were taken into his dream maybe and in a way you kind of you kind of witnessed to him I don't know I don't know I'm rambling what what a great way to start though but I would love to hear what your friend said about the dream what you went to go tell him so you because you could have been trying to do spiritual battle right there and he never would have known it now it would have been real cool if when you went to tell your friend he actually had the same dream and that you came into his room and and they said that you had the blood and he didn't and the good now that would just be freaky so anyway I would love to get an update on that Rashawn if you want to drop me an email I appreciate it this next one comes from re she says hello Darren just call me re it's pronounced out looks I want to share this creepy yet funny story from my past this may be a long one so I apologize in advance okay well I'm gonna I'm gonna interrupt you right here re this is not a long paragraph this is not a long story at all and continuing on so my dad passed away in April 2013 and a week after he passed I met my amazing now husband Dan soulmate my now husband and I met online and quickly became best friends we had decided to finally meet up exactly two months and two days after my dad's passing we meet up and quickly realize we had a spark so we decided to date during our time together he'd come down and stay and I tell him the creepy things that started happening after my dad's passing you hear glass break nothing would be there phones would act up Facebook posts would be brought up but only ones about him just weird stuff so with him knowing that he would still come and stay with me at my house and one night while we were sleeping I was facing away from him and he was facing my back he asked if I had touched his back I said no there was no possible way I could have done it without without touching his side and it was probably just my dad letting him know that he was still around and to not let it bother him even after all of that he still stayed with me at my house and now we've been together for 10 years thanks so much for all that you do you're truly appreciated best wishes re well thank you re I appreciate the email I don't know maybe your dad was kind of if I was your dad and and you had a guy there that you weren't married to yet because you know being you know being the old funny duddy that I am I would probably be the ghost of your dad going up there say hey hey hey mister hey hey I'm watching you all right I'm watching you better you better not you better not hurt my little girl it's all I'm saying okay uh let's see moving on here we've got uh Kenzie she says hey Darren I would like to tell you about a few of my experiences with the supernatural I always knew I could see things but I wasn't quite sure what they were until now when I was little I went to an elementary school in the middle of Virginia during recess I'd always see teenagers from the local high school ditching and walking behind my school but this particular afternoon I looked into the woods to see a short old woman with a black cloak on I see her every day in the same spot looking at me the only part of her that was not covered by the cloak was her face which was pale and wrinkly her eyes were black but for some reason I knew she was looking at me a few years went by and I decided to research my story to see if anybody else had experienced it nobody did but I did find out that the school was built on an Indian burial ground and they did not remove all the bodies I felt as if the woman I saw was asking me for help in the only way she knew all right well before we go on to your next story seriously yet another story about Indian burial grounds will people never ever learn that's not a not a place to build serious especially if you're not going to move all the bodies have you people not seen poltergeist the movie seriously all right moving on your other story says when I was 10 to 14 I lived in an apartment in Virginia for the first few months it was all right just your typical apartment my grandma had come out to visit us and her and her and my mom were sleeping on the couches my grandma had woken up to see a little boy in blue pajamas reaching out to my mom trying to touch her here's something to note almost every woman in my family can see or talk to spirits my grandma yelled out Athena wake up and go to bed my mother didn't know why until the next morning when my grandma told her we continued to see little kids run through the apartment every once in a while in the same apartment I had a friend stay the night she was sleeping on the top bed of my trundle and I was on the bottom she wakes up and crawls down to me and holds me out of fear because in her words she saw a tall black figure in my closet staring at me she felt so sick to her stomach and as if something was going to happen to me her crawling down was to try and protect me from what she saw I wasn't surprised when she told me as I had experiences with someone crawling on my bed and sitting on my chest almost every night I had some more experiences in that apartment but now I live in California with my family in a beautiful house no experiences yet and hopefully not soon just wanted to share my story and hope someone will listen thank you well thank you Kenzie I appreciate that you know that second story you said you almost almost every night had something crawling on your chest in the middle of the night that sounds very much like the like the old hag syndrome with sleep paralysis I you don't mention whether or not you were paralyzed or not when it happened but that sounds very very similar and for it to go away after you leave that location just lends that much more credibility to my theory that there is a demonic influence when it comes to sleep paralysis not in all cases but in many and right there because if it was just a psychological thing if it was it was if it was something chemical in your body or whatever it probably wouldn't go away just because you changed locations but as soon as you moved suddenly it stopped that makes me think that there was something in that house that was tormenting you causing that to happen so thank you very much Kenzie I appreciate it let's see this next one comes from Diane she says hi Darren this is a story told to me by my mom who was born and raised in Vietnam oh this ought to be an interesting one when she was around 11 years old she knew of an older girl who attended her school that had recently committed suicide some of her friends thought it'd be a good idea to go to the cemetery where she was buried and use some sort of spirit board to try and communicate with the girl's spirit my mom dumb and naive as she described agreed to go with them at first she only watched and did not participate as the other three girls asked questions while placing their fingers on the plant shed she saw the plant shed move in response to their questions such as will I be rich or will I win a beauty pageant after a while my mom became skeptical and accused the three girls of moving it they all denied it and told her to try and see for herself my mom agreed and with her finger placed alongside there as they proceeded to ask more questions the plant shed did not budge after several non-responses one of the girls said it was not working anymore because my mom was the only Catholic person in the group the other three girls were Buddhist they told my mom to take her finger off and sure enough it proceeded to move again it was then that my mom realized that the other girls fingers were barely touching the plant shed so it was not likely that they were the ones moving it either that evening my mom told her mother what happened at the cemetery and she received the tongue lashing of her life she never got involved with anything like that again and she told us this story to remind us to never ever mess with such things she also believes the experience reaffirmed her faith in the Lord and is a testament to God's power over all things thank you for all you do signed Diane well i'm really glad that your mom is okay in that you know that is the first time i think i've heard of of a spirit board not working because some well it doesn't surprise me if that somebody might be religious of the of the christian faith and a spirit board wouldn't work but this is the first time i've heard that it wouldn't work because one person happened to be a follower of Jesus and as soon as they walked walked away and suddenly it would work especially with three Buddhists that that's that's very unique i don't think i've ever heard that particular scenario in the past and i'm not saying by the way that Catholicism is the quote unquote correct way to worship i think there are there are several different denominations you go with the one that makes the most sense to you so long as you get the basics right when it comes to Christianity you know Jesus is the Son of God he died on the cross for your sins he rose from the dead conquering death so you can have eternal life uh that i mean that's that's pretty much it everything else after that is like a secondary issue and you can all battle over that as much as you want um and the Catholics do believe that so that that would make that's what makes me uh think there could have been some power there but i'm glad that it did uh as you say reaffirm her faith in the Lord yeah something like that if it really it it would literally scare the hell out of you and uh sometimes that's a good thing okay this next one comes from let's see they don't sign it so uh i'll just i'll just say anonymous just to be safe this is a very short story that has always creeped me out one night as the family was getting ready for bed i sat in the living room and it was watching my normal shows when i hear my six-year-old son yell for me from his upstairs bedroom no he's afraid of the dark and he's just starting to sleep in a room on his own my thoughts are he's just being dramatic about the ordeal so i go upstairs and see my son sitting straight up in bed he is oddly calm for just having screamed for me but i go to him and kneel beside him and ask what's the matter he turns and says there's something under the bed can you check for me i sigh and oblige his request i look under the bed and there's my son hugging his stuffed animal his eyes wide and clearly scared out of his mind he puts his finger to his lips for me to be quiet and whispers to me dad there's a monster on my bed all right is that a real story i'm wondering if you didn't sign that because that's not because that's not actually a real story because that definitely sounds like something that sounds like a story we would use in micro terrors scary stories for kids if it is a real story it's very very creepy it's it's a little too perfect i'm thinking maybe someone's trying to pull a pull a fast one on me on that one but still it was a fun story so for you who shared that thank you very much appreciate it looks like this next one wasn't signed either so we'll keep this one anonymous in early 2016 i got pregnant with my son i worked the overnight shift at a hospital in maryland when i was active duty in the navy oh well thank you very much for your service i appreciate that i had uh i wish my mom was still alive my entire pregnancy because she would have loved to be a part of everything because she had died in march of 2012 when i'd be up during the time when i would be up during the days i would constantly see butterflies even in the winter epically towards the middle and end of my third trimester uh when there was snow all around when i had finally went into labor on december 31st i had seen so many butterflies i couldn't believe it at 12 am on january 1st the doctors decided to do a c-section due to the underlying complications with the contractions they finally got me into the surgery room and successfully was able to birth my son while waiting in the post-op temporary holding room my mom had come up to me and said that my son was so handsome and that she will always be there for him ah sweet so the ghost of your mother let me let me reread that i want to see if i uh successful you you gave birth to your son and while waiting in the post-op temporary holding room my mom had come to me and said that my son was so handsome and that she will always be there for him and you mentioned earlier that your mom had passed away in 2012 so you're saying that the ghost of your mother was there for your pregnancy well for your birth at least the birth of your son that that is amazing well thank you very much for sharing that i appreciate it the butterflies is really really beautiful you make sure it makes me wonder if that was your mom if that was just kind of her way of saying hey i'm with you i'm here with you just helping you to see beauty all around you even in the winter months okay let's see this next one comes from lori she says hi uh stumbled on to your podcast when i was 10 years old we were on our way to north carolina to see a sister on my way my parents decided to detour and drive through the gettysburg battlefield and my mom and i saw a group of men in civil war gear i was watching as they disappeared mom said they went into the woods when we got to the souvenir store mom told the sales clerk that it was nice that the park had men dressed out there she was told there was no reenactment that day being 10 years my mother was going to argue in front of the clerk the clerk later found me and said that i was right they get a lot of reports like the one my mom was talking about and i'd been right all along but not to aggravate my mom lori thank you very much i have heard the story before i'm not i'm not telling you that it didn't happen to you because i would never call somebody a liar but i have heard this exact same story so either you sent it in before and i've i've read it or i've read or somebody else had the same encounter people going to a civil war battlefield in fact i do believe it was gettysburg seeing men dressed in civil war uniforms and the family or whoever it was thought that there was a reenactment taking place and that's why they had people there and then they went to a store or to a hotel or or wherever and said it's really neat that you guys guys have people in uniform reenacting the war and they're told that there is no reenactment that there are no actors i've heard that before so again not calling you a liar i just it's interesting that uh but i remember reading that i remember um okay let's just move on then let's see this one comes from bill he says hi darin firstly i'll apologize for my poor grammar and spelling i'm one of those 80s kids who was let down by the education system here's one you may like as it's much different from anything else i've heard on your podcasts which i really enjoy by the way anyway that out of the way uh oh anyway that out of the way i'd like to start by saying i have difficulties believing in devils demons angels etc i believe evil uh demons i believe evil demands good and angels are a creation of the dark depths of the human psyche and in turn good is its balance not exactly sure what you mean by that bill but okay anyway if you hold that thought i'll put something to you and it's easier if i if i can take you back you've heard a ground dog of a groundhog day my groundhog day goes like this it's a beautiful hot and sunny day in the wake of some war first or second it doesn't matter the one thing certain is i'm standing by a small metal fence looking down into what would have been a deep basement of a bombed out building i looked down approximately 20 feet to the rubble and the standard discarded items one item catches my gaze i cannot take my eyes off it the item in question is a rolled up carpet and there's nothing too interesting about this carpet except i know what's inside it you see the carpet held a secret the secret of a body a body and i and a friend had dumped there yes you read this right me and my friend savagely killed another person and dumped the body in plain sight this wasn't the only person i had murdered i had also killed another man now before you call the police hold your dialing finger waiting to dispose of the body i clearly remember the putrid smell of rotten flesh you smell death once you never forget it well you smell death once you never forget it i had to get rid of quickly or be discovered so i disposed of the body by putting it in black bin bags and burying it in a raised flower bed at the end of my garden going through the memories of these murders continued for a long time it was a groundhog day that i can never forget now am i a bad person am i evil i don't know but what i can tell you is these were recurring dreams i had for many years from the moment i can remember ever being able to recall dreams the thing is i recounted the experiences whilst i was very young child probably starting at around around the age four or five i remember the smells and i remember a rope around my neck before everything went black did i really murder two men i must have did i relive a previous life experience i don't believe in reincarnation but i can't explain it one thing i am sure of is i've always had acceptance of death even as a child and the first time in this life i smelled death i knew that smell so if there is such a thing as reincarnation do we get one chance to rectify our previous mistakes if so i'm screwed because i can't say i've been a saint in this life many things i've done i'm not proud of however in this life i've never killed someone well i don't think i have if we get more chances and good prevails then i hope then i hope i should return as a human i can be the best person i can be you see as the title suggests a child should never know cheers signed bill that's right i guess you did put that as the subject line a child should never know all right bill um i don't know if you're literally asking me these questions or not uh first no i don't believe in reincarnation um so i believe you get one shot and that's it and you either give your life to christ or you don't and that's your decision i mean god's not going to force you to to accept his son uh he's not going to try to scare you into it it's it's it's up to you whether or not you want to accept that gift uh that being said you you say however in this life i've never killed someone however in this life i've never killed someone as if okay well maybe i'm gonna go to heaven because i've never killed anybody it doesn't work that way um if that's that's comparing yourself to others who are you comparing yourself to you you can't get to heaven on a curve um this is difficult to do right off the cuff i'm trying to put into words what i what i want to say here but it's not a it's not a scale where if you do more good things than bad then you're going to make it to heaven that it doesn't work that way you have to be absolutely perfect in order to get into heaven you cannot have lied even once you cannot have stolen a piece of candy as a kid knowing that it was wrong not even once uh no no committing adultery no killing obviously but the the problem the thing is none of us can live that life none of us can be perfect and that's the whole point that's why jesus came because he lived the perfect life so he stepped in our place because the wages of sin is death meaning if you commit just one single sin you deserve death and not just death in the physical life but death in the spiritual life as well hell essentially but god loves us so much he doesn't want to see that happen to us so he sent his son to be sort of our our pinch hitter i guess for for lack of better words instead of us being punished for the sins that we've committed jesus got punished for us because he was the perfect sacrifice he was able to give that perfection to us through that his righteousness is what it's called he was able to give that to us if we just accept the gift that he actually gave his life for us took on our sins and died in our place that's where it works so the idea however in this life i've never killed someone that that's not gonna fly and i i hope you think about it i know you said you don't believe in angels you don't believe in demons and that's another topic for another day you might want to just check out my church of the undead podcast because i do cover that once in a while maybe that'll answer a couple of questions for you and if you want me to in the future for a fireside frights or a chamber of comments if i want me to get involved in that a little bit more i can but hopefully i've at least given you something to to think about tonight so thank you very much bill i appreciate the story all right our next story comes from uh iran and iran and she says it's not my real name would you like for me to um we'd like to use this for my pen name iran iran and iran and iran i'm very sorry however you want to pronounce that i'm i have i apologize um but lady iran that's the way i'm gonna call you anyway she says i have a shadow man story for you i am from england uk i originally lived in somerset in the west county of england or excuse me west country of england and moved to london at 18 years old i first lived in herne hill in south london and moved shortly after to a place called plumstead in southeast london to live with my best friend at her granddad's three-story victorian house as soon as i set foot in the house i knew it was haunted i'm claire sentient with extremely high intuition bordering on partial psychic abilities believe it or not at the time i ignored this as part of me was agnostic about ghosts and didn't really believe in them i had cognitive dissonance about them weird i know i fully expect and embrace my beliefs and ghosts in the spirit world now after about six to eight months of living there i had a premonition that if i were to sleep on my back i would see something it started first with something shaking my bed low and behold one night i was sleeping on my back i woke up to extreme paralysis all i could move was my eyes i noticed a six-foot black shadow man standing at the side of my bed staring down at me in a stern disapproving manner he had white horizontal almost uh almond shaped eyes and he was darker than the dark of the room there was a static in the room i was in a trance that i felt that this spirit prepared me for it was extremely eerie but i was not petrified he said to me telepathically what are you doing here i replied back telepathically i live here you let me go and i fell back to sleep in the morning he was gone three days later i heard a male sorry excuse me three days later i heard male breathing coming from the couch in my room which coincidentally used to be my best friend's granddad's father's living room when he lived there decades ago it was the first room on the bottom floor as soon as you entered the front door it was the first room on the right this male breathing actually scared me more than the sighting as it confirmed that what i saw was real and not a hypnopompic hypno hypnopompic that there's a big word for you hypnopompic hallucination like science wants us to believe this shadow man did not hurt me and i'm lucky and privileged to have met him he was actually okay sometimes i think back and feel happy about meeting him and sometimes i'll remember the way he was staring at me and i get a bit freaked out it also looked like he was hooded his eyes are something i'll never forget after me and my friend stopped being friends and i moved out the grandfather died of diabetic complications and his son sold the house to a company that refurbished it for an assisted living house for people with mental health issues years later i went back to talk to the woman who ran it i told her that i used to live there she showed me around and i saw how beautiful the refurbishments looked i asked her if she saw or felt anything there she said that her husband could feel the bed being shaken and she also said that something was picked up on the outside camera i was talking with her in what used to be the woodwork room on the second floor which was now a leisure room i could sense my ex-best friend's grandfather tony who died of the diabetes complications sitting on one of the chairs in the room he's there too now i haven't been back i still live in london thank you darin for your channel and podcast i really enjoy it best regards lady airnan and subscriber to your channel thank you very much lady e i really appreciate that so you threw a couple of new words at me i gotta look up a little bit later on hypno what was that again hypnopompic hypnopompic i'm gonna have to look up that see what that means um i've heard of hypnagogic jerks hypnopompic hallucinations that's a new one on me and then you threw me another one claire sentient i've heard of clairvoyant i've heard of sentient claire sentient is uh is a new combo so thank you for the homework that you've given me lady i really appreciate it uh okay this next one comes from mary she says about six years ago i experienced the darkest times of my life at first i didn't know why everything around me from personal relationships to my relationships but with my two daughters seemed to be falling apart it was like my children had become total strangers and i was just no fun to be around for family and friends i lived in constant fear and major confusion out of concern for my daughters 15 and 10 i reached out to a neuropsychologist i think is what you're trying to say there a neuropsychologist that had been recommended to me she had a great reputation for helping patients with some of the same symptoms my daughters were experiencing cutting lying detachment anger etc after a few months and several diagnoses from depression ptsd to adhd to severe anxiety disorder a dark truth was revealed my daughter's father had been molesting them in the most violent way imaginable during this time my daughters and i all saw dark shadows lurking in our home mainly between our bedrooms in the back of the house we turned to law enforcement and received nothing but accusations of making everything up we were in fear constantly i feared since they had come forward with the terrible truth that they may be at risk for their lives especially since their father knew he had been reported months went by and we knew we were being watched his business was in surveillance dark shadows continued to move around in our house with no help from the people we saw protection from i only had god to turn to i prayed for god to heal and protect all of us especially my two precious daughters i felt like i was going crazy and often hoped i was madness would have been better than the painful truth i had murder in my mind and heart it seemed justifiable but i knew it may do more damage than good if i wasn't around to help them heal after several months of therapy and fear not to mention all the other emotions that circulated around us my ex-husband shot and killed his beautiful young girlfriend in front of their six month old son then he shot and killed himself the dark shadows disappeared after such a long time of fear and darkness i could finally see the light and fortunately for me uh he had the murder suicide recorded so i wasn't a suspect at this time i'd been accused of being everything from a lying drug addict to a crazy vindictive ex-wife i wholeheartedly know that my prayers and my family's prayers kept us alive we're continuing to heal and i'm so thankful god protected us man i am so sorry you had to go through all of that mary that is just horrible even even the death of the demon ex-husband still even even that i mean he is as horrible as he was as evil of a person as he was he was still the father of your daughters and i know that had to have been tough to live through makes me really and i'm not using demon and evil lightly here it really does especially with the dark shadows and everything it really sounds like your husband may very well have been possessed um i i have a hard time seeing how anybody could do what your husband did to your daughters without some sort of demonic influence i just can't i have a hard time seeing that kind of evil coming without some sort of supernatural paranormal aspect to it it's just so so dark um but that combined with the dark shadows that you kept seeing and uh and everything else that you went through and then suddenly all of that disappearing when he committed suicide makes me think he actually was possessed uh i i hope and pray that god that god continues to heal your family you and your daughters and i'm sure you know about it but if you need help when it comes to depression or or anything else i do have a lot of resources there on my hope in the darkness page if you just go to weirddarkness.com slash hope there's a lot of stuff there that might be able to to help you okay this next next one comes from chris saying hi darren i've been a listener for about six months now been catching up on all your podcasts i've had many experiences in my life beginning at a very young age and i've been contemplating writing a book compiling every experience that i can recall for now i'll share my stories with you and i'd appreciate it if you just use the name chris this first story is very short and it's my very first experience that i can remember as a child when i was four years old my mom had begun renting a cute little house in the country somewhere in oregon state i remember the property surrounded by fields of tall cheatgrass and various wildflowers we didn't stay there long later i found out that my mom was only caring for the house temporarily while the family figured out the estate this house once belonged to an elderly woman that recently passed due to natural causes i believe i only remember sleeping in a bedroom with floral wallpaper and a floral quilt on a bed with a classic brass bed frame i was awoken in the middle of the night i don't know what time it was but i do remember it was still very dark outside and yet there seemed to be just enough light coming in through the single bedroom window that allowed me to make out the shapes and silhouettes of the furniture in the room i'd woken up because i thought i heard a cat meowing as i laid there awake for a moment to see if i could hear the meowing again i felt something jump on the bed at my feet and lay down i wasn't scared but curious what just sat on my bed when i sat up and looked at the spot where i felt the presence i saw a beautiful white long-haired cat i remember saying hi kitty and i've pet it's soft warm fur the cat never moved but i do remember it had purred as if it was enjoying the attention i then told the cat that it was time to go back to sleep and i laid back down and fell asleep when i woke the next morning i looked all over my room for that beautiful white cat when i couldn't find it in my room i began looking throughout the house calling here kitty kitty my mom was in the kitchen cooking breakfast and when she heard me calling for the cat she asked what are you doing to which i responded i'm looking for the pretty white kitty my mom confused said but honey we don't have any pets i then told my mom about the experience in my room the night before my mom insisted that it must have been a dream i must have been upset at this because i implored with her that it was real that i had touched it and it was real at the time i didn't know what the look of my mom's face meant but she agreed to help me look for the cat and once we gave up the search we never spoke of the cat again thinking back on it now i think my mom didn't want to frighten me with details of the old lady who died and had a pet cat so that's my first story of unexplained experiences i'll share more of my stories in the future thanks for creating a safe space to share the unexplained your fellow weirdo chris thank you chris that's a really great for your first story too for that for that first paranormal thing to happen to you that is that's kind of it's it's tame it's almost it's kind of sweet too almost like well i don't know what happened to the cat from from the old lady if the cat died too maybe the cat uh maybe the lady died and so she wasn't able to take care of the cat and the cat died before anybody found the old lady or whatever i don't know but it's almost like the ghost of the cat say hey i need somebody to love me chris will you love me please uh pet ghosts they they they exist uh this next one comes from let's see here from jane okay i again it's it's jane from eerie pennsylvania i thought i'd sit down and send you another true paranormal experience i had when i was a teenager but before i do that i thought you might get a kick out of something that just happened to me the other night as you know i'm a fairly new fan but loving every episode i've been trying to listen to as many as i can i happen to listen to your episode that you did back on march 31st your friday night frights live about the black eyed kids gotta tell you i usually don't get scared or creeped out by much but that particular episode got to me lol right after i got done listening to it my husband was sitting in his recliner with a really funny look on his face he didn't hear the podcast because i was listening with my earbuds but he was looking at me with this weird look he had the volume of the tv on mute and kept looking around trying to hear something i asked him what was going on he said he kept hearing this really weird light tapping and couldn't figure out where it was coming from my daughter and i didn't hear a thing but he said he kept hearing it then it suddenly stopped then our ring cameras all of a sudden stopped working at this point i was waiting for someone to show up asking to come into our house but thankfully that didn't happen but i did make my daughters stand by the door while i took our dog out for the final time that night lol you have to love the timing of all that happened oh i was wondering where you're going with that i was thinking oh my gosh they're gonna knock on the door she's actually gonna open it up there's gonna be there's gonna be a black eyed kid there isn't there there's gonna be one there's gonna be one nope that's what they say though they say um once you know about black eyed kids once you hear about them you're you're that much more apt to have an experience so not that i told the story purposefully so people would have the experience uh it's because i don't necessarily believe that particular aspect of the legend uh but it's interesting that that would happen to you that night too that's that's funny okay on to the experience that happened to me when i was a teenager so i'm continuing on with jane's email i was a teenager back in the 80s you know back when us girls used to curl our hair and use a lot of hairspray yes jane i do remember those days i miss those days i really loved 80s hair i did for the guys and the girls i i had really long hair as well um on the front combed back almost like not quite a pompadour but you know it was feathered back and lots of hairspray for that too so it wasn't just the girls uh okay she anyway she says i bring that up because the hairspray is a big part of the story my mother and i live in a house in downtown eerie pennsylvania this house was converted into four big apartments my mother and i lived in in one on the first floor one of the first floor apartments these apartments always had a creepy feel to them i mean you'd always feel like someone was walking behind you when you were home alone i was always hearing someone or something walking in our hallways of the apartment i had a black cat back then her name was midnight she'd even act like there was something there she would walk around and literally turn around and bat at midair like she was going after something anyway i digress i was getting ready to go to a halloween party with a group of my friends i was dressed in my french maid costume and still had to do my hair so i was sitting at the end of the hallway that leads into my bedroom the way the apartment was laid out was my mother's bedroom was off the living room then off the living room was a long hallway that led to the back of the apartment and my bedroom was on the right and the kitchen was in the back i was sitting on the floor with my curling iron and mirror on a chair i had my hairspray on the floor behind me my mother and her boyfriend at the time were sitting on the couch watching tv while i was getting ready my cat was sitting beside me watching i just curled my hair put down the curling iron and reached behind me to get the hairspray can that was just behind me but it wasn't there i got up thinking i'd kicked it under something but it wasn't anywhere to be found i asked my mother if she saw it or moved it but she said no in fact she and her boyfriend hadn't even moved from the couch so there was no way either of them could have done anything with the can midnight the cat hadn't even moved either so i got up looking around for that hairspray i walked down the hallway then turned right went into my bedroom there under my bed was my can of hairspray that was just minutes before behind me in the living room i come out with it in my hand and both my mother and boyfriend said they saw me put it behind me on the floor there was no way it could have gotten into my bedroom without any one of us seeing the other one placing it there it was really weird weird things like that would happen all the time in that apartment always felt creeped out there i have had other creepy experiences that happen there but i'll save that for another email thanks for letting me share and i'm a big fan and absolutely love your podcast hugs jane thank you jane i appreciate it i also appreciate the visual that you gave me about an eighties girl working on her hair wearing a maid outfit thank you thank you very much oh suddenly not to be 18 again oh those were the days okay i've got one final story tonight this one let's see i want to make sure that they don't want to remain anonymous well they don't sign it so i'll just i'll i'll go with anonymous anyway just to be safe i have a story for you though formerly published unlike most stories you'll hear around the internet this one is true because it happened to me on a windswept summer's night i call it the girl under the blood moon we used to have a cabin down by the fjord in the southern part of norway this particular area was known for its folklore our parents and grandparents would tell us stories of trolls that lurk in the deep forests and if you went to uh went to uh deem into there and if you went to deem into their domain i don't know what deem in your language is a little bit different from america anyway okay anyway and if you went to deem into their domain they could eat you so i'm just going to say if you wander into their domain i assume that's maybe what that what that means anyway we were warned never to go near the lake especially at night or the neck who dwells underneath the water would lure you in with his enchanting song drag you under and devour you our cabin lay not far from where theodore kittleson claimed to have seen the creature he later painted a copy of that painting hung in the hallway of my aunt's house just next to our cabin i'd always hurry past it whenever i visited her a painting of a monstrous creature that seemed as if it was made by rotting twigs and flesh lurking ever watchful at the water's edge the thing haunted my childhood with its piercing gaze and numerous foreboding tales which crept which crept into my angst ridden dreams one night when staying over with my sister mother and grandmother i awoke late at night i had to go relieve myself finally deciding i could not hold it in i slid off my bed into my pants and crept ever so quietly out of the bedroom grabbing the old rusty flashlight off the hook on the wall i proceeded outside towards the lavatory i didn't go in for i knew spiders and creepy crawlies might lurk in the dark instead i chose a bush and conducted my business there while standing there i happened to gaze up at the night sky stars twinkled behind a misty red veil that shimmered in crimson a gasped when i beheld the moon larger than i'd ever seen it red as though bleeding this must be that blood moon i read about in the paper the other day but no amount of reading could have prepared me for the thing itself walking down the hill hardly needing my flashlight and the crimson moonlight it all felt unreal like i was wandering through some strange dreamscape my family disapproved of me smoking so i decided to go down to the dock and light one up there when i was sure i was far enough away not to be seen i lit one up and continued down the old dock looked over at the other side of the lake where there was a camping area with an old farm supposedly it dated back to the 12th century i remembered an old tale i'd heard about the ghost horse long ago there'd been a fire where the farm now stood rebuilt the barn had caught fire leaving the horse trapped inside it had made kicked and screamed to the door until it finally broke free emerging from the barn set ablaze the horse had run across the island screaming it ran leaving behind it a trail of fire as it ran panicked across the fields according to what people said half the island had caught fire by the time the horse finally healed over dead they say to this day sometimes you can see the ghost horse run across the island with a trail of fire behind it to this very day shaking the memory of the tale from my mind i continued down towards the dock there at the edge of the pier sat a little girl with her feet dangling in over the water perhaps around eight or nine years of age she had long dark hair and wore a white dress with a blue flower pattern as i stepped closer i could see that she was sobbing hello i said stepping nervously towards her do you need help she turned and looked at me with a sad expression on her face which soon turned to one of surprise as our eyes met she then faded and blew across the lake as a puff of smoke rolling out into the darkness and disappearing dumbfounded i stood there taking a long drag for my cigarette until it burned down to my fingers sudden pain knocked me out of my stupor and i ran back up the hill what the hell i muttered to myself as i peeled off my wet pants and replaced them with fresh ones i lay awake a while pondering what i'd seen later through some searching in the local newspaper archive i discovered an old news article from the 1950s where a young girl had fallen into the water and drowned could it be her earthbound spirit i saw that night beautiful story thank you very much for sending that in anonymous um i don't know if you wanted to stay anonymous or not but if you don't sign these i'm going to assume anonymous because some people just do not want to be known because these these stories are true and and they're personal and i understand that so not everybody's okay with people knowing that it's their story so uh but that's the last story for this evening which means i am completely out of stories for fireside frights so i need more if you have a true paranormal story that's happened to you or somebody you know just go to weirddarkness.com and click on tell your story uh thank you for listening 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 you can email me anytime with your questions or comments too my email address is darin at weirddarkness.com darin is d a r r e n however if you are sending in a true story for fireside frights please go to the website and send it from there that comes to a slot to a different email address and helps me organize things uh weirddarkness.com is also where you can find information on any of the sponsors that you hear in the show find all my social media listen to audiobooks that i've narrated sign up for the email newsletter you can find other podcasts that i host including church of the undead you can visit the store for weirddarkness merchandise and more weirddarkness.com is also where you can find the hope in the darkness page if you or somebody you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts all stories on weirddarkness are reported to be true unless stated otherwise weirddarkness is a registered trademark copyright weirddarkness and now that we're coming out of the dark i'll leave you with a little light first Corinthians 1 verse 18 for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of god and a final thought the amount of our endurance is directly proportionate to the clarity of our vision i'm Darren Marlar thanks for joining me in the weirddarkness hey weirdos be sure to click the like button and subscribe to this channel and click the notification bell so you don't miss future videos i post videos seven days a week and while you're at it spread the darkness by sharing this video with someone you know who loves all things strange and macabre if you want to listen to the podcast you can find it at weirddarkness.com