 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. If you're new here, welcome to the show, and while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, the winter 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. This is my monthly Fireside Frights episode, where I strip away the fancy production, the music, the cool sound effects. It's just you, me, this campfire, and stories sent in by you, my Weirdo family. If you have a true story to share of your own, you can click on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com, and I can use it in a future Fireside Frights episode. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. The first story I'm sharing tonight comes from Katie. She says, Hi Darren, my name is Katie, and I'm a New York transplant in Texas working as a nurse. Your podcast brings so much joy to my day, even those days I want to pull my hair out. I wanted to share a short story about my grandfather who passed away in 2016. My grandpa was my best friend. I loved him so much. When I was younger, my mom and I, as well as my grandma and grandpa, went to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway in New York. It was one of the happiest experiences of my life. A few years later, I got a Beauty and the Beast snow globe. Not from that day, but a gift from a priest my family was close with. It did what any snow globe did, kind of sit there and look pretty while collecting dust. The night I found out my grandpa passed away, I was absolutely devastated. I sat down on the floor next to my bed and said, Grandpa, I love you so much, and I'll miss you terribly. Please let me know you'll still be with me, even if you're not physically here. And the snow globe started to play the Beauty and the Beast song, Tale is Oldest Time. I hadn't touched that thing in years. I took it to mean my grandpa was and still is with me. I love your podcast and listen to it every morning before work. Thank you for bringing so many different people together who love the weird darkness. Your fellow weirdo, Katie. Wow, Katie, that is a beautiful story. And I kind of had a feeling that it was going that direction once you mentioned the snow globe and that your grandpa was passing away, Beauty and the Beast. But what a beautiful way just to let you know that he's still around, that he's still watching over you, be it next to you or from heaven or wherever he happens to be. But he still has you in his sights and what a great way for him to share that with you. That is gorgeous. Our next one comes from Stacey. She says, Hello, Darren. I joined this Facebook group, and I see a lot of stories on there, but this one especially creeped me out a bit. I asked the lady who told it if I could send it to you. She said, Yes. Here is the screenshot of the story and her approval along with her name, in case you can't see the photos. Here's the story. Her name is Rachel Smith Taylor. She says, When I was about eight years old, I was waiting for the bus at the end of our long driveway. Our house was surrounded by woods with no neighbors nearby. My German shepherd would faithfully walk me down the driveway, wait with me and walk herself back to the house once I was on the bus. This particular morning, a woman's voice started calling my dog's name from the woods. My dog's ears perked up and she turned towards the voice. She would not leave my side, but it was clear she heard that she was being called. Her hair on her neck raised. She started to growl. The voice called for my dog twice more and the last time made me run back into my house. The voice changed from a woman's voice to an evil and menacing voice calling her name. Of course, my mother thought that I was making all of this up and sent me running back down the driveway to catch the bus. That incident has frightened me for almost 40 years, and after listening to and reading other people's experiences, I do feel like it was something sinister. Okay, now that's the post that Stacey shared and that she continues on in her own words. Now what's even creepier about this is a lot of people have claimed very similar stories, most regarding their dogs being called away by something. Have you heard of anything like this? Anyways, if you share this, thank you and stay blessed. Sincerely, Stacey from St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Stacey, I've not heard of this. At least not that I remember, but I agree. This definitely is something sinister, as Rachel says in that last line of her story. We all seem to know that pets can sense things that we can't. Animals just happen to have that sixth sense that God for some reason didn't give us or we've lost over time or whatever. I don't know. But that really sounds like something evil wanting to get the dog away from Rachel so that she would be easier to reach with a demonic entity or whatever. And I don't know how that would be the case. Why would a dog or a cat or any animal be in the way of a demon getting to you? I don't know. What could they do about it? I mean, a demon is a spiritual entity. But it could be that it was trying to draw the animal away so that you wouldn't be warned in advance that the spiritual entity was coming to get you. So that's the only thing I can think of, but that definitely is creepy. And now I'm going to start watching a little Miss Mocha on a regular basis and see if she starts freaking out like that as well. And if anybody does have stories like that, if a dog or your pet has started freaking out in a certain way like that, not just looking at corners in your house and thinking there might be a ghost there, but something like this or you actually heard a voice calling your pet or whatever, I would love to hear those stories. Please send them in. Just go to WeirdDarkness.com, click on Tell Your Story, and you can email your experience to me. Timothy sent in our next story. He says, I've been a listener for about a year and a half. I've seen a few paranormal things in my 37 years. The first was when I moved into my first apartment. I'd see a white human shape walking by my front door, and at the time of seeing it, I would rush out the door right behind it, and it would not be there. The second thing was in a trailer I lived in for a year. For that one, I saw an 8-foot-tall something walk past the rear window of the living room. In the house that I now rent, there were three things that happened. The first was when I had the front door opened to the storm door. I would sometimes see the shape of a kid about the age of five run past, and I would run out and around the house to see nothing. Number two was when I was in bed. I had just woke up and turned to my back, getting ready to get up and heard a voice say, touch me in my right ear, and I felt like a woman was sitting on my lap. I opened my eyes a split second after that and saw nothing. And the last was when I would see the shape of an old grandma in the hallway, sometimes as I would sit on the couch watching TV. That's all my paranormal experiences, and I loved the podcast, and the live scream this year was really great. Keep up the good work and sending weirdo love. Tim, goodness gracious, the one incident that I would have any idea about would be the one where you felt somebody sitting on your lap, because that sounds like the typical old hag sleep paralysis incident, but you didn't mention anything about being paralyzed, but it could have been for just a split second too. Maybe that's why. But combining that with your other incidents, I'm more inclined to think that that's not sleep paralysis and that you truly are sensitive in some way. It's interesting that you don't mention shadow people. Most of the time when I get stories like this, I get some sort of report of somebody seeing a dark shadow out of the corner of their eye, something along those lines, definitely in the more brownish black, not a white entity walking past. That's really interesting. Now, I don't know if there are white shadow people, or if it was a ghost, maybe you glimpsed an angel passing by. I really don't know, but that's really cool stuff. Our next story comes from Jordan. He says, A few years ago, when I was in middle school taking the bus, I'd usually have a set time before I leave my house, before going to the bus stop. One morning, I looked at the time and see that I still have 20 minutes before I need to be out the door. I figured I should pass the time somehow and decided to watch a YouTube video that was under 20 minutes. There wasn't many ads either, so I'm watching the video and when it's over, I grab my things and go downstairs. My mom heard me and asked why I wasn't at school yet. Confused, I responded with, I'm about to go to the bus. She looked even more confused as that the bus left two hours ago. Shocked, I checked my watch and sure enough, two whole hours have passed. That didn't make sense though, because when I checked my watch before watching the video, there was only 20 minutes. I somehow skipped time for two hours. That's freaky, Jordan. That is weird. It sounds like something I would have tried to say when I was in grade school. Well, mom, I was only watching the video. I didn't know that the time passed, anything just to get out of going to school. I know that's not what you're doing here, but it just kind of reminds me of some of the stupid things that I would say to my mom, thinking that I was being clever. This is one of those time delay things, like stepping into a portal almost, but you're not going anywhere. You're just there. You're frozen in time. Although time is continuing to pass, it's just you're the only one frozen. It's interesting too, because you say that you were watching a video that was under 20 minutes. If that's the case and you were there for two hours, how is it that you didn't notice that you were watching a different video when you snapped out of it two hours later? You would think that you would watch that 20 minute video and somehow if you had zoned out or something and then zoned back in a couple hours later, you'd be watching something completely different on YouTube, assuming that it was still playing at all. You didn't notice anything different. You watched a 20 minute video from start to finish and then you got up and started to go to school. You didn't notice anything different. So that means the video also paused or was frozen in time or whatever for that time period. That is really, really freaky, man. Let's say our next one comes from Brett saying, Hello, I have a short story I want to tell about my first and only UFO sighting. I'm a 51 year old Hoosier, born and raised and always believed that we can't be the only ones, but I've never saw anything to actually prove it to me. It happened in the fall of 2021. I was at my friend's house who does not believe in UFOs. We've actually got into arguments about it, but I gave up because he's stubborn. We like to sit by the campfire at night and watch the planes go by. At 10pm every night, the planes consistently fly by every 10 minutes until the wee hours of the morning. We usually pass out before it ends. The neighbors next door had put their campfire out early about two hours before we saw what we did. A big, bright flash in the sky like a round ball just appeared and stayed there for approximately six or seven seconds and then just disappeared. It didn't move at all, so it couldn't be a plane. I asked him, Did you see that? And he agreed. He saw it and I said, Now, what do you think it was? While we were trying to decide about 10 seconds after that bright light had disappeared, the neighbors fire just lit up out of nowhere and it was a big flame like it was started with gas or something. We saw them put that out and pour water on it two hours before that. Needless to say, my friend is still skeptical, but I'm sure he feels a little different after that night. Always did believe, but now I have my own proof and a friend who was with me that saw it too. Well, I hope you can use this for your show. I love the podcast and listen to it every night. What you do for depression and the fact that you can admit you deal with it too, makes it a little easier for me, so thank you very much. I'm also a weirdo, so this just fits me perfectly. Thanks again. Well, thank you, Brett. I appreciate the kind words there at the end. And yeah, it does help that you know you're not the only one suffering with depression. Most people who have depression do, even though they might know logically, intellectually, that others suffer from depression, it still feels like you're alone in it, but you're not. There are millions of people just like you and me who deal with it. We just don't talk about it to everybody. It's something that we just don't feel others can relate to, I guess. But yes, you're not alone, so I appreciate you mentioning that. It makes me feel good when people admit or say to me that they feel a little less alone when listening to the podcast. Your UFO story is really different. You might see a flash in the sky, and for a moment, think that it could be a meteor or maybe ball lightning. That's what I was originally thinking while reading through your story. But once you add that your water-soaked neighbor's fire pit suddenly bursts into flames, that's a whole new one. That one, I can't explain that one at all. I have no idea what happened to you. And I would say that it was a dream or something like that, but since you had your friend there with you and he witnessed it as well, not a clue. That's some freaky stuff. This story comes from Martina. I'm only 22, and I know this might sound crazy, but I know what I saw. This takes place here in St. Louis, Missouri, in the Oakville area, and where my house is, is in a wooded area, and there's a bunch of trees. I've always been a paranormal enthusiast, mostly into werewolves, vampires, skinwalkers, and wendigos. I was intrigued myself in listening to the lore and stories. Anyway, my parents told me on the night of October 20th that they would be going out to visit my older brother, who lives out in Chicago, and my little sister at the time was at a sleepover, so I'd be home alone with our dog, Sven. He's a beautiful Chihuahua, so he's small. That night, I was on the phone with my fiancée, Vane, who lives in the Philippines, talking about when and where we were going to meet up in the future and our plans of marriage when I heard a tap-tap sound on the kitchen window. I thought it was only just the trees, so I continued the conversation while Sven was on the couch next to me. That's when I heard it, a low but very clear growl coming outside on the deck. I told Vane I needed to go check the deck, and there stood a big wolf dog figure, about seven feet tall, and the one word that came to my mind was werewolf. I know a werewolf when I see one. Sven started barking as the werewolf growled in response, and still holding my phone, told Vane, there's a freaking werewolf outside on my deck. Vane on the other end said to me in reply, you serious? I was shaking a bit, looking out the window in a whisper-like voice, hoping that the werewolf didn't see me. Vane, I'm not kidding. There's a freaking seven-foot werewolf outside on the deck. Then I heard the sound of a huff outside the window I was looking at. I didn't want to look, so I slowly walked across the kitchen and ran upstairs, also holding Sven in my arms and holding my phone to my ear and locked the door. It seemed only a few hours I could hear a howl of a wolf. I peeked out my bedroom window to the front of the house and there it ran across the street to my neighbor's yard. Vane tried everything to calm me down on the other line while I petted Sven. I couldn't even sleep, thinking the werewolf could come back, leaving the lights on in my room. The next morning I was exhausted and so tired I couldn't stand. That's when I saw four long scratch marks outside my bedroom window and I knew that the werewolf did that. Freaky, I have never actually received a true werewolf story before. Martina, thank you. I appreciate you setting that in. That is terrifying. And I have to admit, as soon as you said I heard a huff, I immediately thought of the three little pigs. I'm guessing others did as well. Like the werewolf was going to say, I will huff and puff and blow your door down and then come in and eat you. The werewolf has always been my favorite cryptid. So as I'm getting into this, I'm just going, oh my gosh, what's going to happen? Oh my gosh, what's going to happen? Is this really happening? Is this really happening? I've only heard from one other person about a true werewolf story. It was not sent to me. This is way, way, way back before I ever started Weird Darkness. I was actually working at Christian Radio at the time and one of the salespeople at the radio station I worked for had her own werewolf experience. Hers was a little bit different in the fact that she had witnessed a satanic ritual take place. I can't remember. It was a long time ago, so I can't remember exactly what the details were, but essentially she was seeing the group that she had witnessed were giving their lives to Satan, doing some sort of witchcraft or something or other, and they, they received the ability to shape shift. And she literally saw with her own eyes one of the people change shape and turn into a wolf. And I questioned her immediately after that. I said, okay, so were any drugs involved in this? Were you on any substances, any medications that may have made you hallucinate? Because I didn't believe her. This was before I got into the paranormal stuff to the point that I am now. I mean, I've always liked creepy stuff. Having my birthday the day after Halloween, it was always there, but I did not believe her at first. But I, but you also don't want to just come out and call somebody a liar, especially as strong of a Christian as she was. She swore to me that it was the real thing. We even got into an argument about it because I just did not believe her. And I, I felt bad about that. And later on, I bought her some flowers and took them to the office and said, you know what, I'm really sorry. I apologize. You saw what you saw. And it's just that I just don't understand it. And that was my issue. So that's the only other time that anybody has told me about a werewolf story of their own. That is amazing, Martina. Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate it. This one comes from Tony. He says, Hi, Darren. Love the show. Here's a story that I haven't really told anyone. When I was about 13, I lived on a dead end street. My two best friends, Rose and Brian, lived in the cul-de-sac at the end of the street in a mansion of a house. Their housemates feel like you were being watched. The front door led to a mud room and attached was a small flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs was an office area. What creeped me out to the most was the living room. There was a huge flight of stairs that led all the way down to the living room and a huge mirror hung on the opposite wall. One night, we decided to have a sleepover in the office area. We camped out on the pull-out couch and whispered in the dark for what seemed like forever. I couldn't sleep a wink in that house. I rolled over on my side, facing the top of the stairs and saw something black and small standing there, crouched. I couldn't tell if it saw me and dashed down the stairs. My friends and I jumped up and ran to the top of the stairs, afraid to go down to the living room. We looked in the mirror to see if anyone was there, but it was too dark. It was quiet, but I clearly remember someone saying, call the ambulance. Sounded like an old lady, whispering in fear. I never stayed the night again. Thanks, Darren. Signed, Tony. Thank you, Tony. I appreciate the story. I don't really have much of a comment on it. Nothing really pops into my head, but from your email, your profile pic looks like you are in uniform, so I do want to thank you for your service. I appreciate everything that men and women in uniform do for us. This next one comes from Joanna. She says, Hello. First off, I love the show. It keeps me going through my work day. So happy to be a fellow weirdo. This is my first time writing into anywhere, ever, so I hope I'm doing this right. This is an old memory, so here we go. I have 13-year-old special needs kiddo. He's the love of my life. You never know true love, true, true love until you have a kid. Anyways, he has autism, non-verbal, can do a lot for himself, but also, same time, not. So when he was about, I don't know, maybe one, maybe two or three, it's been a while, sorry for the foggy memory. I had a dream about my kiddo. The short of it is, I, we encountered a devil. When I saw the devil, I mean your stereotypical devil, red horns, very, very, very big, almost Hulk size. Devil here somehow ends up with my son. He has him in his arms and he's laughing, belly laughing, and I'm crying, give me back my baby. And the more I cry, the harder he laughs. That's it, honestly. I woke up shortly after, creeped out and glad my son was okay. But a few months later, we found out my son was diagnosed with autism. And I don't know why I can't help but wonder if that was the moment my son had autism. Was that stupid to think? It just feels very weird to me in random. Anyway, thanks for reading if you do. Love the show, keep up the awesome work, signed Joanna. Well, Joanna, I don't know if that is the moment that your son received autism. I don't know. But that definitely would be a terrifying nightmare, regardless. The idea that the devil is taking somebody you love so much and not letting you reach them. That also very well could have been a vision of some kind. Maybe God is warning you or giving you a heads up that your son is in danger in some way spiritually. Maybe it's time if you don't already look at going into church, maybe getting your son in Sunday school. I don't know. You said this was some time back, so I don't know how old he is now, but probably old enough that he could go to Sunday school or something along those lines. But just start soaking him in God. And for nothing else, just for protection reasons. But I'm also one to believe that once you give your life to Christ, you cannot be possessed by Satan. And so that would be one more reason to get your son to go to church. And speaking of possession, we'll get into that a little bit later on. There's a story that came in that is just terrifying from an exorcist, an actual literal exorcist sent me a story. But we'll touch on that here in just a bit. Thank you for your story, Joanna. I really appreciate it. And yes, you did send it incorrectly. This one comes from R.K. Hi, Darren. I love your podcast, and I just listened to the episode about Black Dogs and want to share my story. I live in the Midwest United States. When I was 14, I babysat for a single dad who owned two businesses and had a very busy schedule. I babysit odd hours on the weekends and summer, sometimes very early in the morning, sometimes late at night, and occasionally long hours. I didn't mind. He paid me well, and I loved the kids. My mom didn't have a vehicle at that time, so mostly he would pick me up and drop me off, but occasionally I'd walk as it was only a 10-minute walk. Harder that walk involves going by a stretch of field. One night, close to midnight, he called me with an emergency and asked if I could babysit that night, which I agreed to. However, he wasn't able to pick me up. The neighbor would stay at the house with the kids until I got there. No big deal. I'd walk, and my mom decided to walk with me as she felt it was safer than letting me walk alone. As we were coming up around the corner to walk past the fields, a big black dog came running. She was very, very friendly to us, licking our hands and rolling on her back and showing us her belly. We pet her for a bit, but we had to keep moving, and like she sensed what we were thinking, she stopped playing with us, turned her head towards the field and started growling, a deep, menacing growl. It was certainly unnerving. We started walking and the dog walked about a foot in front of us, never keeping her eyes off of the field and constantly growling, letting out an occasional threatening snarl like she was warning something in the field to stay away. She kept walking in front of us like that until we reached the end of the field, which is where my mom and I had to turn the corner. The dog stopped at the corner where she sat and watched us until, I'm guessing, she felt we were safe, and then ran off the way she came. That was a strange experience. I don't know if that dog was just a regular dog, or if there was something more supernatural occurring, but I do know that she protected us from someone or something that was in those fields that night, signed R.K. Very similar to the creature or entity trying to call the dog away, saying, you know, here boy or here girl or whatever it was trying to get the dog away from you so we could reach you, another one of those stories where the dog is protecting you, even just by being there is protecting you. That's amazing. It would not surprise me if that was a supernatural event. God very well could have sent that dog there specifically to protect you, or it could have been just a regular dog who loved getting its belly rubbed and just wanted to protect its new friends. So I don't know, but great story R.K. Thank you for sharing. This next story comes from Troy. My wife and I in June 1990 married and our new home was built in 1993. We were married nine years when my mother passed away at only 63 years old in October 1999. My wife found out in December 1999 that she was pregnant with our daughter who was born in August 2000. As our daughter started to develop, we noticed that she would jabber looking up as if she was trying to talk to someone. When she was 18 months old, she told us that she had met her grandma Janet before she was born, which really caught our attention. She would sit and talk to someone and look into the air like someone was there. Many times she seemed to have a guardian angel that kept her from being hurt. Many times she took hard falls and was just fine. We've seen shadows from the corner of our eyes many times or caught a glimpse of a dark mass as if somebody were walking by in our home. My mother smoked a couple packs of cigarettes a day. We smell cigarettes smoke often, but there's no source for the smell. Growing up in our neighborhood, there was an elderly man who lived down the street with his wife. A daughter became incredibly close to him and considered him as a grandfather. He had a lot of health issues and passed away when she was 17. She was the last person he spoke to just hours before his passing. After his passing, the shadowing smoke smell increased a lot. He also smoked cigarettes. We hear noises in our home that are unexplained all the time. We never feel afraid, quite the opposite really. We feel as if they are there to make sure our daughter is protected. I know that our home had no spirits from previous owners because we had it built new. I listen to your podcast on Pandora and I enjoy it very much. Thank you. Signed, Troy. Thank you, Troy. I appreciate that. And yes, since it is a new house, your only explanations would be your mother and this elderly gentleman that was like a grandfather to your daughter. Your thinking is pretty much where I would go with it as well. It's a way of them kind of looking over your daughter. They loved her that much. Thank you for sharing the story, Troy. B sent me an email saying, I come from what would be called by today's standards a big family. It wasn't unheard of or multiple siblings to share a room back in the late 70s and early 80s. This was the case for most of my youth. I grew up in a five-bedroom house in a small suburb of Chicago. Nothing fancy, just a simple two-story with an unfinished basement. The entire house was probably between 1,400 and 1,600 square feet and pink. Yes, pink. Two bedrooms were on the main level. That's where my parents as well as my two younger siblings slept. My sister had not been born yet. My two older brothers and I had the large bedroom on the second floor. The other bedrooms were combined. You had to walk through one to get to the other and that's where our aunt stayed. I was between the ages of six and eight at this time and really not frightened by anything because of the constant torment from two older brothers as well as a teenage aunt. One night, I can't recall the time of year, my brothers and I were in bed talking. We had three separate beds lined up parallel to each other, one brother to each side of me. I remember not being tired and wanting to get up and play a game of some sort to which my brothers said, No, Dad's home, he'll hear us. Just go to sleep, we can play tomorrow. Frustrated from not getting my way, I decided to sing just to annoy them. This did not work in my favor. I was much smaller than them and they threatened to make me stop if I didn't on my own. So I just laid there, restless, tossing and turning. I'm not sure how much time had passed, but both were soon sleeping. I suddenly felt as though I was being watched. I couldn't shake it. I closed my eyes as tight as I could and tried to just fall asleep. I felt as though somebody was standing over me. I relaxed and said, You don't scare me, thinking it was one of my brothers. I opened my eyes. Nothing. Nobody was there. I looked to each side of me and both of them are sleeping bed. I start to toss and turn again. I just can't get comfortable. I hang my head over the end of the bed with my eyes closed and start to hum. And that feeling comes back. Okay, and I thought to myself, the dog must be in the room. So I sit up and scan the room for our family pet. Nothing. I go back to that same position in bed. I'm just laying there, no humming. Eyes wide open and concentrating on every sound in the house. I have nothing to be afraid of. I have both my brothers here to save me from any intruder into our space. I relax and begin to drift off. Just as I'm about to give in to sleep, I feel a long, slow scratch on the top of my head. I immediately look to each side to see my brothers, both still asleep. A fear I've never felt before enters my body. I dive under my covers, shaking violently. I never pull the covers from my head until morning when I wake up. I thought it was all a dream for years. Other instances occurred as I got older that told me different, but I'll save those for another email. Thank you once again, Darren, for what you do. I wish you and your bride the best on your voyage through life. True love is hard to find for many. We are part of the lucky few that get to enjoy everything true love brings. Please, keep being a voice to follow for those of us that aren't ready to seek help with troubling thoughts. Again, you could be the angel they have been waiting for. Hope you have a Merry Christmas and joyful New Year signed B. Well, thank you, B, man. I appreciate that so much. And I'm very Merry Christmas and a very joyful New Year to you as well. Being a little kid like that, I know your imagination can run wild. And I can tell you, I had numerous times when I was a kid, you can kind of freak yourself out, you know? It's a dark room and it's everything's very, very quiet. If you really try and listen hard, you could almost convince yourself of anything in that room. But once you feel a scratch, then that changes things. The mind can be a powerful thing. It could have been your mind playing a trick on you, but still, it's got to be terrifying for that to have happened. So I'm sorry it happened to you. I'm not going to say that it was your imagination because you say you have a lot of other things that have happened to you later in life that kind of back up your paranormal experience when you were in bed between the two brothers. So I'm not saying that that is what happened, that it was just your mind, but I'm saying that for some people that could be the mind. But you don't know. You didn't see anything. You only felt that scratch. Everything else was just sort of an internal sense that something was wrong. And just that by itself can be terrifying even if nothing happens. Our next one comes from Bill saying, hi Darren. One of my first cases as an exorcist took place in a small town in Iowa. It was in the summer of 2012 and the residence was in a very rural location. During my drive home, I saw nothing but cornfields for miles on end. It was such a pleasure to drive on roads without any traffic on them as I was used to driving in bumper to bumper traffic that engulfs the Baltimore DC metro area. What many people don't realize is that when I have to travel a long distance to help someone, it requires me to jump through many hoops to get there. The flight, rental car and hotel have to be booked. I have to get a ride to the airport and go through the process with boarding passes, checking luggage, security, etc. Sometimes flights get delayed and or canceled. Many times I have to get a connecting flight to another city's airport to be able to reach my destination. I could be on four different planes to get to and fro. I recall a few times being on six different planes, three to get to a destination and three to come back home. When I arrive at the destination, the process starts all over again. It involves retrieving the luggage, getting the rental car, checking into the hotel. It is an exhausting course of steps which all takes place before I can even begin to focus on the person that I am there to help. My involvement in this case began when I received an urgent message from the mother of the victim. I followed up with a phone call to her and she was absolutely frantic. She told me that she believed that her teenage son was possessed. The victim had suffered terribly in childhood and was very angry at God over it. Not only was he abused as a child, but he went on to be bullied during his school years. That led him to become so angry that he decided to make a deal with the devil. Side note to mention here is that people who make deals with the devil are being conned. Our God Yahweh created us and gave each of us a soul. The devil can't take what is not his and he knows that. However, he can create an illusion of empowering, enriching, and helping a person to achieve the desires of their heart. God allows it because of free will. The end game of making a deal with the devil is that he will use abuse and destroy the person when he is finished with them. There is no kinship or partnership with the devil, that is for sure. The MO for the devil is that he will give you things, but what he wants in return is far greater than what he will give. The young man would go on to join a satanic coven. He would be performing ritual sacrifices on animals along with casting spells on people. Then he began acting very violently towards his family, physically attacking them on several occasions. His mom told me that when he came under what she believed to be demonic possession, his eyes would change color to all black. His facial features were altered as the cheekbones bulged out of the sides of his face and his chin became elongated. I could feel her genuineness, and I believed that she was telling me the truth. She was so worried about her son and for the family as well. I could feel the relief in her voice when I agreed to come and help them. The victim was not pleased to hear that I was coming to help him. However, there were prior times when he told his mother that he wanted my help. I arrived at their home on a warm Saturday afternoon in June. They lived in a tiny town located in and around crops and cornfields. The aged farmhouse looked like it was from the 1800s as the whole area had a historic look and feel. I got out of my vehicle and could instantly feel the presence of evil. It was coming from the house, but it was mostly emanating from the victim who was inside waiting for a showdown with me. Before knocking on the door, I started praying outside. My prayer began with Kedosh, Kedosh, Kedosh, Yahweh, Elohim, which means that Hebrew, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. I asked God to send giant warrior angels to take every demon that might be on the land, in the home, and on the victim into custody. Next, I said a land blessing, asking God to bless, heal, forgive, and cleanse the land from all wickedness, bloodshed and transgressions that may have taken place there. I anointed my head with a combination of holy water, holy oil, and holy salt, then knocked on the front door. The mother of the victim answered the door and was very happy to see me. I came in and immediately felt the presence of evil. It was much stronger on the inside of the home. Her husband then came and greeted me along with other family members. I proceeded to anoint all of their heads and began to pray. I said the Lord's prayer, Matthew 6, verses 9-13, followed by a power warfare declaration prayer. I praise you, Father Yahweh, and by your mighty power and your mighty and holy name, in Yeshua Jesus' name, I have power and authority over Satan and his demons. By your mighty power and your mighty and holy name, in Yeshua Jesus' name, I have the power and authority to cast out Satan and his demons, and nothing by any means shall hurt me. I am a humble servant and fierce warrior for you, and I can do all things by your mighty power and your mighty and holy name, in Yeshua Jesus' name, hallelujah, which means glory to Yahweh. I followed with a house blessing prayer. Father, blesses this house, I pray. Make it safe by night and day. Bless the walls firm and stout, keep evil and trouble out. Bless the roof and chimney tall, let thy peace be over all. Bless the windows shining bright, letting in your heavenly light. Bless all who dwell within, keep them pure and free from sin. Bless us that one day we may dwell with thee. Father, I ask you for an abundance of love, peace, joy, good health and prosperity to come over this family. Father Yahweh, by your mighty power and in Yeshua Jesus' name, I declare it to be so, hallelujah. Suddenly the victim walked into the room where we were gathered. He looked very unkempt and disheveled. He was pale and appeared to be shaking. I quickly advanced to greet him, but he backed off. I put my hand out to him, and he would not shake it. I could see the demons in him. God has given me a gift to be able to see certain things that others can't, and I could feel his internal struggle in wanting to be free from evil yet not strong enough to be. He had a lot of rage and anger inside that needed to be dealt with before moving forward in spiritual warfare. I told him I'd come a long way from home to help him and that I cared about him. I said that I cared about his family as well, and wanted all of them to have peace. He couldn't look me in the eye, as his head stayed down the entire time that I was talking to him. I began to share with him what I'd gone through in my childhood, and how I had been victimized by evil forces too. I could feel him beginning to trust me more and more. He was listening to what I was telling him about my sufferings, and a bond began to develop between us. I asked if we could sit down and talk privately. He agreed, and we went into the kitchen and sat down at the table. I asked if he could tell me how it all began. With his head still down, he started telling me some things from his childhood. It's very important to address the underlying problems of victims who are under a demonic attack. I don't want to know their deepest and darkest things, but I have to know them to get them up, out, and off of the victim. When we go to the deepest and darkest places in the victim's past, it breaks all the strongholds and legal rights that the devil feels he has over the victim. The young man shared horrible things with me that no child should ever have to go through. It was gut-wrenching to hear, and at one point I just wanted to hug the kid. He continued to talk, and I continued to listen. I could feel my jaw tightening and outrage as he vividly recalled the terrible details. He went on to say that he was so angry with God that he decided to sell his soul to the devil. He wanted power to take vengeance on people. He wanted others to suffer like he was suffering. He began crying, which made me feel even worse for him. I put my right hand on his left forearm and thanked him for sharing all of that with me. I told him how badly I felt for him and that I was sorry that he had gone through so much. I said to him, son, God has sent me here to free you from evil. Do you want my help? He sat there, head still down and unresponsive as if he didn't hear me. I said, look at me, son. God has sent me here to help you. Look at me. He lifted his head and quickly put it back down. I said one last time, do you want my help? He then nodded, yes. I anointed his head with my holy mixture and began to pray over him. I recited Psalm 91, Psalm 23, and Hebrews 11. He became agitated as I was reading the Bible verses as those demons within him did not want to go. As I continued to pray, I watched him become completely possessed right before my eyes. He was shaking uncontrollably. His eyes turned all black and several voices were coming out of him, shouting profanities and threats to me. I commanded them to be silent by the mighty power of Yahweh in Jesus' name. They obeyed my command momentarily, becoming silent. He started foaming at the mouth, followed by growling, hissing and shrieking sounds. I splashed some of the holy mixtures on him, which made him grimace and writhe in agony. I then instructed him to take my right hand. He reluctantly took my hand, and when he did, it was like an electric current going through us. His body jumped as it being shocked. It was the power of God working through me and going into him. I told him, son, I know that you can hear me, and I know that you want to be free from this. Please, trust me, and listen to what I am going to tell you. God is doing his part, I am doing my part, and now, you have to do your part. I want you to close your eyes and see yourself standing in total darkness. Bring all your problems and fears into your mind right now. Every bit of the abuse, depression, torment, bullying, rage, anger, frustration, anxiety, along with the deal that you made with the devil. I want you to see every evil act that has been done to you, along with the evil you have done to others. I want you to focus on it and see it now. I also want you to feel that you are in the presence of God, see his magnificent white light swallowing up all of that evil garbage. Now, see the majestic figure of Jesus coming to you. He is holding a large window in his right hand, and it is open. Father Yahweh, I ask that you send fifty of your giant warrior angels here to take into custody every demon in, on, and around this young man. May your angels carry those demons off and deposit them into the pits of hell where they belong. In Jesus' name, may it be so. Then I said to him, I want you to begin seeing many giant warrior angels around you right now, and they are preparing to take all of that evil into custody. The voice is screamed, No, you cannot have him. He belongs to us. I said, I command you to be silent by the mighty power of Yahweh in Yeshua Jesus' name. I told him to see the angels creating a gigantic, ugly black ball, and that they were going to take every benefit suffering from him and place it inside of that ball. I said, on the count of three, I want you to kick that ball harder than anything that you've ever kicked in your entire life. Let's kick it right out of your life now. Then I instructed him to take a deep breath in and exhale, and he did. I asked him to do it again, and he complied. I said, before I ask you to do it again, I want to renew your everlasting covenant with God. That stirred the demons into a frenzy with voices, shouts, shrieks, and threats coming from him. I took power and authority over them by the power of God working through me. I command you foul demons to be silent at once in Jesus' name. I said to him, do you want to renew your everlasting covenant with Yahweh and make him first in your life? Do you want Jesus? His reply was no. It sounded more like a growl than a word response. Do you renounce Satan and all of his works? I said. He shook his head. No. Son, you have to fight this. Don't let them win. I am in the fight with you, and more importantly, God is. I began to bind and rebuke the demons, saying, by the mighty power of Yahweh in Jesus' name, I command you foul demons to depart from him at once. Suddenly, a deep voice came from him and said, He is ours, and you can't have him. My reply was Yahweh, rebuke thee in Jesus' name, depart from him at once. The response from them was the same. This must have gone back and forth at least a hundred times. In most cases, when I invoke the power of God over a demon, they depart fairly quickly. However, in this case, it was a real battle and a true test of wills. In these types of cases, I have to continue to wear the demons down until they finally depart. They were on the victim because of the abuse that he suffered in childhood. Other demons came on him and became prominent in his life when he made his so-called deal with the devil. Those are the types of demons that won't go away so easily, because they have a legal right to be there. I grabbed more of my holy mixture and placed it on his head, and he began to shake even more violently. I placed my right hand on his head, and he continued to hide his face from me. I said, Do you come back to God and accept Jesus as your savior? Do you renounce Satan in all of his works? He shook his head, no. The battle was intensifying as I grabbed his head and shouted, By the almighty power of Yahweh in Jesus' name, I command every demon to leave this boy now. You have no more right, claim or deed to him anymore. Yahweh, rebuke thee in Jesus' name, depart and leave him at once, I say. At that moment, one of the chairs at the table shot out and flipped over. I kept my composure during the entire exorcism, remaining in charge of the situation no matter what. It is of the utmost importance to always be in control of the situation and never show any fear during an exorcism. I could feel that the power of God was wearing the demons down and they were losing their grip on the young man. I said again, By the mighty power of Yahweh in Jesus' name, I command every demon to leave this boy now. You have no more right, claim or deed to him anymore. Yahweh, rebuke thee in Jesus' name, depart and leave him at once, I say. What happened next was like the sound of many voices shouting, No, as God had his angels take every demon from him. I felt them leave him at that moment as he suddenly slumped in his chair. Imagine someone holding you against a wall by your shirt collar and you are on your tiptoes. When they let go, you slump. I could see and feel them let go of him as he slumped and began to cry. I once again said, Do you come back to God now by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior? This time he said yes. I said, Do you renounce Satan in all of his works? He said yes. I then completed the task of renewing his everlasting covenant with God by saying, Father, I thank and praise you for what you have done for this young man today. We are not only here today because of his situation. We are also here for him to renew his everlasting covenant with you. He wants to come back to you now and accept your Son, Yeshua Jesus the Christ, into his life as well. He will make you first and keep you first and he renounces Satan and all of his demons. I ask that you forgive him for everything that he has ever done and may you lose the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 on him now. I asked the victim if he was in agreement with me and he said yes. I took him back to the vision quest of kicking that giant ugly ball through the open window. I said, One, take a deep breath in and exhale. Two, take a deeper breath in and exhale. Three, take the deepest breath in and push it out as hard as you can. See yourself kicking the ball right through that open window and feel every bit of evil residue and negativity departing from you now. I want you to see Jesus standing there and feel the power of God coming into your body right now. Let the power of God fill you in every fiber of your being. Once that was completed, he was purged and freed from all of it. He hugged me as he was overwhelmed with tears of joy. His family surrounded me and hugged me as well. I finalized his covenant with God by baptizing him in the bathtub. I said, By the mighty power of Yahweh in Jesus' name, I declare you to be blessed, sealed, sanctified, purified, cleansed, made holy, and baptized before the most high God. In Jesus' name it is so. I have ended most of the exorcism and spiritual deliverance by performing a baptism for the individual. All of the years of suffering and torment were gone. The trauma from the abuse was gone, and the rage, anger, and bitterness were also gone. His intent to serve the devil by harming others was gone. There are no words to describe the level of joy that I felt in knowing that God worked through me to save that young man. My work was not done, as I went through the entire house and anointed it. I had already blessed the home in the beginning prayers. Still, I had to be very thorough in making sure that no demons were hiding anywhere in the house. That requires me to go into every room, closet, basement, attic, garage, vehicle, etc. I left there exhausted, yet feeling on top of the world at the same time. The young man is doing well these days, with no further incidents. Praise God. Rev. Bill B. Wow. I am really glad that we are ending this fireside frights with your story, Rev. It is doubly important because of the Christmas season. What Rev. Bill B. just described would not have been possible if Jesus had not been born. Jesus came into this world as we celebrate this month, but he came into this world in order to die, to give his life on that cross, to be the perfect sacrifice that we could not be, because we are not perfect, and sin requires the punishment of death. For us to not have to go through that, Jesus did it on our behalf. And then he came back from the dead three days later, conquering death, so that we will not have to experience eternal death. That is the true reason that Jesus was born. That is the reason we celebrate Christmas. We do not think of that, but that is actually why he came to earth to begin with. And Rev. Bill just gave us one of numerous stories of why Christmas is so important. He did not mention Christmas in the story, but if it had not been for Christmas, and then 30 years later the death of that baby Jesus, none of what Rev. Bill just said would have been possible, and we would all be doomed. Thank you, Rev. I appreciate you sharing that story with us. Thanks 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 at darren at WeirdDarkness.com. Weird Darkness is also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks of narrated, visit the store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone cases and more merchandise, sign up for monthly contests, find other podcasts that I host, and find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on tell your story. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories in Weird Darkness aren't purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright Weird Darkness 2022. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. John 15, verse 10, Jesus said, If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love. And a final thought, you're better off being disappointed by the things you tried and failed than regretting chances you never took. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness, and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas.