 Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar, and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. This is a Fireside Frights episode, where I do away with all the fancy production, the music, sound effects, and other flashy stuff. It's just you, me, this campfire, and whatever God decides to bring us in the background. Tonight, I'm actually in Champaign, Illinois for the Dark History and HorrorCon, and we've already wrapped things up for tonight, but tomorrow we're up and running again at 10am, and we're going to be going until 7pm, so if you are anywhere near the Champaign, Illinois area, you'll want to come out. There's a lot of vendors and artists, and of course, as always, I have the weirdo wagon with me, and I'll be passing out lots of free Weird Darkness trinkets at my table, and you can get details about the Dark History and HorrorCon on the events calendar page at WeirdDarkness.com. Also, while you're on the website, you can find the Weird Darkness store, you can find my newsletter, you can 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, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Our first story comes from John. Hello, Darren. My name is John. I'd like to share a true ghost story that my grandmother shared with me. When she was a young girl in the early 50s, she lived on a farm in rural East Tennessee with her two sisters. Her mom raised them very strictly anti-religious, odd for that time, I suppose, and from a young age she never believed in ghosts, spirits, or any kind of supernatural happenings. The same thing went for her father. She told me, however, a few months after her father had passed away, she was laying in bed with her sisters when her closet door began to creak open. This was very strange because the door to the room had always been kept locked by her dad, because it was originally full of meat hooks and other tools that were being stripped out. She said that when the door was fully open, she could see a glowing white skeleton with a missing pinky finger standing there, and that the longer she looked at it, the more terrified she was, so scared that she couldn't move. When she was finally able to move again, she told me she pulled the blankets over her head and waited, only peeking out a few minutes later to see the door firmly shut and the padlock on the door secure. She said that she didn't tell her mom about it, but was too afraid to spend much time in the house. Three days later, when her sisters were at school, she went to the market with her mom only to come back to see that their farmhouse had burned down. She told me she believed strongly that it was her father that came back to warn her, because he was missing the same pinky finger that the skeleton was. John said another story as well, but before we get into that, it's surprising that your grandmother said that the more she looked at the skeleton, the more terrified she became, because I can't imagine seeing a skeleton in the closet and being any more afraid than the instant I see it. I mean, that's just me, but to realize later on that it was her father because of the missing pinky, that would be freaky. Okay, so John's second story is this. When I first got my learner's permit in Mississippi, my grandmother let me drive her car anywhere I wanted. So one Saturday, my uncle calls me from a gas station and tells me that he's too drunk to walk home, and can I please come and get him. Since my grandma didn't care about me driving the car much, since she trusted me, I grabbed her car and her car keys, that is, and sped off into the night to grab my uncle. I picked him up at the gas station and he promptly fell asleep. Since I was still 16 and had a drunk person with me, I decided to avoid taking the main road back home and instead used a nearly abandoned back road that ran along some farms. The roads were really narrow with deep embankments and trees on both sides and obviously no streetlights. I was doing about 40 when ahead of me, I see a man walking along the right side of the road. I slowed down so that I could safely pull closer to the left side of the road and avoid hitting him. When I passed him, I could see that he was an older African-American man with overalls and an old lantern in his hand. I didn't think much after I passed him, but when I looked into my rear-view mirror, the road was completely empty. It scared me a lot and my first thought was that maybe I saw a ghost, but sometimes I wonder if maybe a scared poor old man during a night walk fell into the embankment and I never went back to check. I don't know, John. Honestly, I would have guessed ghost as well. I don't know how long ago this took place, but somebody walking with a lantern, unless you're referring to a flashlight, because I know in the UK that a flashlight is still called a lantern. Unless you're referring to that, but if this is like an old-time gas-lit lantern, then I'd be thinking ghost, too. I can't imagine too many people still using those nowadays, especially unless you're out camping somewhere, but even then, most people are going to have flashlights or something. I think you probably did the best thing by continuing on and not going back. I know I'd feel a little bit guilty as well, just because you're right. You'd always wonder if it was a real person, but I think you're OK on this one. I think maybe that actually was just a ghost or something like that. Thank you for the stories, John. I appreciate it. Before I continue on, I do want to let you know that I need stories for fireside frights. I do this once a month, and I try to use all the stories that have come in over the past month. Every time you hear a fireside frights episode, I am out of stories. I use all of them, or at least I try to, in every episode. Please, if you have these have to be true stories. True paranormal story or something dark that's happened, something scary that's happened to you or somebody you know, please send the stories in and to do that, just go to WeirdDarkness.com and click on tell your story. And like John did, you can send more than one story at a time if you want to. You can put them all in the same email that you send to me, or if you need to, you can send separate emails. It doesn't work. It works either way. But please, I would love to get those stories from you. And like I said, I do this once a month, and fireside frights are only stories from Weird Darkness listeners. So if I don't get very many stories from you, you're going to get a pretty short fireside frights next month. So please send me those stories. Go to WeirdDarkness.com and then click on tell your story. And by the way, you did hear me at the beginning say weirdo wagon. I think that's going to be the official name for the SUV. We still have the poll going. And the last I checked the poll, 83% of the votes went towards weirdo wagon. And the others were spit pretty were split, that is pretty evenly between the X screen machine and the Weird Darkness machine. But the weirdo wagon is I mean, wow. It man, it it there was no way this isn't there's no way this is not going to be weirdo wagon. All right, I'll leave it up there for a little while. So if you want to vote on the SUV and for a name for it, you can do that at WeirdDarkness.com. But yeah, I think I think we're going to be going with the Weird Darkness weirdo wagon. Okay, our next email comes from Crystal. Hey, my name is Crystal. And I love your podcast. I find it highly interesting and fun. Before I tell you my story, I'll give you all some background so it'll make sense. Please excuse my sentence structure and or missing words or ad words. I'm 30 and the story I'm going to tell happened to me 20 years ago. I was raped and I kept it a secret for two years. I grew up in a Christian family and my parents thought that I was acting out because I was refusing the call the call of the Lord. Little did they know that I was keeping a dark secret. One day I got home from school and my parents as normal we get the mail before driving up to the house. Well, folks got a letter. My folks that is got a letter and they read it and called me to come into my room. I was scared because I didn't know what was going on. My dad, I've never seen such mixed emotions and rage and mom, her face and her emotions were a guilt and sympathy and outrage. My rapist wrote a letter asking for forgiveness for what he had done to me two years ago. The first words out of my dad's mouth was, I'm going to kill him. But then he was like, no, I can't do that. I'll have my brother do it. No, that won't work either. And then he was silent. Mom grabbed and hugged me tight crying and saying over and over again saying, I'm so sorry. I didn't know and I should have listened to you when you told me he'd messed with you. Well, fast forward, we sent him to prison and I went to therapy. Well, one night I was feeling sad, depressed, alone and feeling unloved. So I prayed asking God if he still loved me and if so to send an angel. Well, not even five minutes after praying, I opened my eyes and I saw the most beautiful sight. My bed was facing my closet and I saw an angel and here she was about six feet tall and the wings touched the ceiling and the floor. I felt immense peace and love. I tried to talk to the angel and ask her or him to sit on my bed so I could talk. But the angel just stood there and after a few minutes later the angel went away and I fell asleep knowing that I was truly loved. I told my parents the next day and they were extremely happy for me. I do have plenty more stories to tell but I'll tell them when the time is right. May God bless you and your family and keep up the fascinating work. I love the scripture you read after the stories you tell. Thank you, Crystal. Wow, what a story. I'm not used to telling stories of true angel encounters. That is amazing. As I was reading this, I've said this in the past but just to reiterate, I don't read these in advance because I like to react to them naturally so as I'm reading that I'm just so horrified by what happened to you and I was thinking that you were going to turn away from God and I was actually going to spend a little time after your email telling you how much God loves you but it is amazing how that turned around. You asked God to show you that he loved you and that he was still there and boy did he deliver on that. Not everybody is going to get that experience. Even those who are deep down in a valley and are hurting and reach out to God, most people aren't going to get this type of reply from God. That is incredible. One short thought about this. You asked the angel to sit and talk with you and I'm wondering if just maybe the reason the angel didn't do that is because that is just this side of worship. What I mean is we're not supposed to pray to angels. We are supposed to pray to God for angels. God please send angels my way. For me I don't even go with the angels thing. I just say God please send help my way or please help me. If he decides to send an angel in order to make that happen that's fine. But we are not supposed to pray to angels. Talking to an angel might be just this side of praying to angels. I'm wondering if maybe that would be the reason why they didn't stay because they didn't want to put you into that situation. It even shows in the Bible that we are not supposed to worship and pray to angels. The angels say that to whoever is talking to them. I think maybe that might be why but I could totally understand why you would want to sit there and talk to an angel because that would be incredible. It would also be somewhat terrifying I would think. Just the amount of power coming from an angelic being like that would be overwhelming. Anyway I'm somewhat jealous of you Crystal. I've never really had the paranormal experiences except for the one that I've spoken of regarding the sleep paralysis thing which I still believe has a demonic influence on it but other than that I've never had any paranormal experiences or supernatural experiences. At least not like this. That is amazing Crystal. You're going to live on that story the rest of your life. You're probably going to tell your kids and your grandkids. Thank you so much for sharing that. Welcome Maria. Hello weirdos. I'd like to share a true story that happened to my parents long ago. My dad always told this story when we'd get together as a family and share scary stories so I'm really excited to share this with y'all. I'm calling this Cemetery Crossing. This happened about 36 years ago. My mom and dad were crossing the border to the United States in the month of January. It was a cold night about 3.30 or 4 a.m. when they were walking through the desert. It was a full moon that night and they could tell it was windy since they could see some of the treetops moving with the wind as they were walking. My dad suddenly saw someone standing in the darkness. They came to a stop. He pulled out his big hunting knife and he yelled, stop right there. Don't come any closer. I'll hurt you. But the shadow still kept coming and they could hear the leaves rustling on the ground. They ran as fast as they could on the ground and covered themselves with a black tarp that they had as quick as they could. They could still hear the footsteps and then they saw the bottom of a dress except there were no feet touching the ground. It was floating and then it disappeared. They stayed there laying flat on the ground and fell asleep until sunrise. When they woke up the next morning they realized they were in an old cemetery. This is how they found the ghost. They found the ghost outside Maria. Man! Number 1. How on earth do you fall asleep after an experience like that? So many people say that. They'll have a ghost visit them in their bedroom or something and somehow I fell back to sleep. I do not understand how that happened. How can you fall asleep after an experience like this? Number 2. How to fall asleep after an experience like that? So many people say that. They fell asleep after an experience like that. They found the ghost outside Maria. They were in an old cemetery. They did not realize that they were in a cemetery until they woke up. That is freaky. Thank you, Maria. Appreciate the story. This next one comes from Tavia. I love the work. First discovered the podcast I can't imagine how awful that would be to lose your parent, especially with COVID. I'm very sorry, Tavia. Moving on with Tavia's story. She says, I've come to terms with it from the help of my lady. This was around Thanksgiving time and my sister and her babies moved in with me because of our lost. Because of our loss. She was living with my mom at the time she passed away. One night, my nine month old nephew had fallen asleep on the couch and I can remember my dream so vividly. Mom, mom, where are you? Looking down and around but I'm in complete darkness. My voice sounds like a cold voice. I'm not understanding. Feeling around, trying to find something to give me a light source, something to tell me what's happening. Mom, answer me, where are I cut my sentence off. Why do I sound like a little girl? I couldn't really move too afraid of the dark and then I see it. A small light floating towards my arms and a woman with two hands held out. Wait, I know those hands and those nails. It was my mom's hands gently touching my arm and I hear, I'm here baby. I'll always be here to catch you. And suddenly both the baby and I jumped up looking in the direction of where her hands and voice came from. I looked at him and he looked at me and I asked, did you hear that too, nephew? Without any words he looked back in that direction as if to say yes, yes I did. He giggled a little then laid back down and I did the same. I've always believed in the paranormal as well as believing in God and the spirit world as well as we are not alone in the universe. So I wasn't surprised she let us feel her presence. Thanks for sharing. I have more stories to come from my childhood living in a neighborhood with it being built on an Indian burial ground or being in a haunted hospital where unmarked graves were found. Well, thank you Tavia. I appreciate the story and yes, please send those other stories. This next one comes from Ney. Hi Darren, I'm currently listening to Fireside Frights and one of the stories reminded me of something that happened to my older sister. So here it goes. So my mom's old boss kept horses and one day after work she took my mom, my older sister and my younger sister who was about 8 or 9 at the time or not younger. Upon leaving the stables and entering the main road, my older sister heard a voice in her ear simply saying seat belt. So she buckled up and checked my little sisters and she was always putting the part that goes over your chest and shoulder behind her as she didn't like rubbing her neck. Well as they're entering the main road, the speed limit is I believe 40 miles per hour, a car came speeding down at what was determined by officials to be around 90 miles per hour and hit the rear driver's side where my older sister was sat. An instant before impact, my older sister put her arm out in front of my little sister saving her from being really hurt. She had whiplash and PTSD afterwards but no serious injuries. My mom also had whiplash and a beautiful bruise on her leg where the impact caused the radio to come out and hit her leg. My older sister took pretty much all the impact and had to be cut out of the car by the fire services and then airlifted to Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital. She was paralyzed from the neck down and had to learn to walk again. Because of this she had to sleep downstairs when she was released from the hospital. One night something suddenly woke me up and I had the urge to go and check on her downstairs. I go down and she's on the floor in tears. She had fallen out of bed trying to reach for her drink and she was still wobbly on her legs. I don't know what made me wake up but I'm glad I did. This was the most depressing time of my sister's life and to be stuck and alone is awful. I slept on the sofa from then on so I would be with her. She's fully recovered now except for being nervous in the car. I must say the accident was only a couple of weeks after my grandad passed away and my sister still says it was his voice that she heard telling her to put her seat belt on. I have another one to do with my sister and my dead grandad too. A few months after he passed away my nan decided to clear out the trailer they used as storage. My sister says that our grandad somehow told her to tell our nan that a ring he gave her when they were younger was in that trailer and that she would need to find it. My sister even described the ring that none of us had ever seen as it had been in the trailer probably longer than we had been alive. She described it perfectly, a ring with stones that spelled eternity each stone's first letter being a letter to spell the word for example emerald for E topaz for T emerald ruby and so on spelling out eternity. I don't remember the exact stones. My nan found the ring today. Love the podcast. Thank you. Signed, nay. Thank you, nay. That's a really great story. I appreciate that. I'm so sorry to hear that about your sister. I'm glad that she did recover and you know that very well could have been grandad whispering in the ear, hey you know what put the seat belt on and it's also a great lesson on why we wear seat belts. That could have been so much worse for your sister as bad as that was. We know it could have been worse and I'm really glad that she was able to recover and maybe with a little therapy maybe she can get past the fear of cars. I understand why she'd have the fear but it'd be great if she could get past that and lead a truly normal life. This next story comes from Vanessa. Hi Darren. I'm a big fan of your podcast. I finally decided to send in some of my experiences. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. This is Vanessa in Fort Worth. I finally decided to send in some of my experiences. Throughout my life I have had many paranormal experiences. My mother always said that it was because she played with a Ouija board when she was younger and it opened the gates to somewhere and ever since then things have followed her. In the house she grew up in her family saw many ghosts in their everyday lives. They'd see soldiers marching through their living room, women and children crying in their front lawn and their lights and appliances would turn on and off on their own. Once when my aunt was home alone my grandfather's alarm clock went off. Weird she thought since it was the afternoon but she went to check it out and found that it was already switched to off. She turned it on and off again then went back to see what she was doing. As she sat back down on the couch the alarm went off again. This time she called the plug on the alarm clock to ensure that it would not go off again. Before she even made it out of the room the alarm went off again. She was terrified and decided to wait outside for someone else to get home. The first time my dad experienced something paranormal with my mother was when they were newly dating. My dad drove up to my mom's house and saw her smile and wave in the window. My dad smiled and waved back and walked up to the door. My father answered the door and told my dad that my mom wasn't home. My dad was upset that my grandfather was lying to him but decided to wait in the car for my mom. Minutes later my mom drove up and parked in the driveway. My dad told her what he saw in the window and my mom awkwardly admitted that things like that happen a lot around her. A couple of years later my parents married and had me. When I was around a year old my mom heard me scream and I ran into their room. I couldn't talk yet so they couldn't ask me what happened. After they calmed me down my dad went into my room to find out what upset me. The only thing he saw at a place was my doll, face down in the middle of my room. My dad picked it up and noticed right away the doll had human-like facial features. The doll's wide eyes were rapidly looking around the room with its eyebrows raised and its mouth and my dad threw the doll at the wall then picked it up with a bag and threw it in our outdoor trash bin. We all went to church the next day and the priest told my dad that the doll was likely a demon. They had invited the priest into our home and he blessed and prayed over it. Nothing that intense happened again in the home. Small things often happened to my sister and I like our hair being pulled, us being pushed from behind and we both sometimes saw my mom doing things but it turned out that they weren't even home. I remember clearly seeing my mom opening our back door and when I asked her a question she answered from her room the other mom disappeared when she answered. I never saw her as clearly again but I would see her briefly as she turned a corner or I'd see a dark figure that seemed to follow us around. One night when I was around 17 years old I woke up because I felt my blanket being pulled down. I slowly brought it back up to my chin hoping it was just slipping or maybe I was dreaming that it was falling but then something grabbed my ankle and pulled me out of bed and onto the floor. I ran into my parents room and slept in between them not caring that I was way too old to be doing this. When I was young my grandmother loved to take us to visit my great-grandmother in Mexico. Her house was very spooky. My sister and I did not like going to bed sure to stick together. We didn't like to be in a room alone even using the bathroom was terrifying. My sister and I would accompany each other in the bathroom at times especially during our showers. Most of the paranormal things that happened there were small events like seeing things move in a corner of our eyes or hearing what sounded like nails running along the walls but the sound would continue through the door frames so it couldn't possibly be something in the walls. One day my cousins and I were in my great-grandmother's kitchen. In the kitchen there's a screen door that shows into an enclosed patio. My cousins and I were talking until one of my cousins had a terrified look on her face and she slowly pointed to the screen door behind us. We all turned to look and in the enclosed patio was a raggedy Anne doll. She was standing on top of a box with her body facing the door to the backyard but her head facing our direction. We stared at each other for a while until she started running towards the back door. My cousins and I took off running and told my grandmother what happened. She came with us to investigate but could not find the doll and it's been missing ever since. I'm not sure if this was during the same trip or another time but one night I had trouble falling asleep so my grandmother told me to watch television in the living room until I got tired. I turned on the TV and was sad there weren't any cartoons on since it was the middle of the night. In the corner of my eye I see a woman in a long white nightgown standing in the doorway and at first I assumed it was my great grandmother but I was surprised I hadn't heard her because she's very old and grunts when she walks. I turned to her to explain why I was watching TV this late but then I see that it's not my grandmother. The woman is floating and fills the entire doorway. I look at her face but she lifts her hand to point to me and drags out the word meania which means little girl in Spanish. I threw the blanket over my head and ran back to my grandmother's bed and cried myself to sleep. When I was around 18 I visited my grandmother in Texas. I walked into her house and she asked me angrily, who is that with you? No one grandma it's just me. No I saw someone with you. Who is he? He walks into the back room and looks around for the person. She doesn't find anyone, comes back and tells me when you walked in I saw a tall man with a black coat standing behind you. When I asked you who he was, he walked off to the back room. There's no one there now. I replied back no no no no no and ran to put my back against a wall. I hated visiting her after that. My dad had his own experiences that he hesitantly shared with us. My favorite is the story of Bobby. My dad used to be a truck driver. He drove all over the country so he usually worked three weeks on and two weeks off. One night he was driving down a very dark and quiet interstate. The street lights didn't seem to be working that night. As my dad's driving he passes by an abandoned truck. A few miles later he sees a man walking down the road. He pulls up to him and rolls down the window. Sir do you need a ride? The man replies and says yes. I'd be very grateful. My truck broke down just down the road. I was headed to the nearest gas station which is just about five miles down this way. He hops into my dad's truck and they chat on the way to the gas station. A nice fellow introduces himself as Bobby. Five miles came and went. 10 miles, 15 miles. No gas station. It wasn't until 30 miles down the road that the first gas station came into sight. My dad pulls in and Bobby says I really appreciate this. Can I get you a cup of coffee as a thank you? My dad tells him not to worry about it and Bobby gets out of the truck and goes on his way. My dad waits a bit then decides to get his own coffee. He walks into the gas station and everyone in there is starting to quiet down. My dad walks over to the coffee machine and he can feel that all eyes are on him. Finally one of the men spoke up. Hey man what are you doing way out here? We don't have a lot of people stopped by. My dad replies I was just giving a ride to a man whose truck broke down not too far from here. Thought I'd grab a coffee before I head back out. The men all look at each other and my dad starts to get a really weird feeling. The man asked quietly was it Bobby? Yes my dad says. Again the silence grows and my dad is feeling ill at this point. Something doesn't feel right. The man doesn't seem sure if he wants to continue but he does. There was a man years ago whose truck broke down down this road. He was walking but it was hit and killed. His name was Bobby and every now and then someone comes here to drop him off. My dad put his coffee on the counter and walked out. It was years before he could tell us this story and he was pale and shaking. He asked us to never ever bring it up again. Holy cow Vanessa Oh man! Is there no end to the paranormal stuff that happened in your family? Dang! Yeah, if your mom thinks it all started with a Ouija board experience that might have been it but that doesn't explain everything like your great grandmother's house unless she did the Ouija board thing in that house but then I would think it'd be stronger there rather than elsewhere but so many things in here I could comment on. I would have to go back and read this all over again to come up with the things. I should have been taking notes while I was reading this because wow. One thing that crossed my mind was the Raggedy Ann doll because a lot of people probably know this if you're into the paranormal stories but the Annabelle doll which was made famous in the Conjuring movies the real Annabelle doll actually is a Raggedy Ann and so it's interesting that you would see that Raggedy Ann doll and that it would disappear on you makes me wonder when the Raggedy Ann doll was found and what time this happened with you. Like maybe it was the original Annabelle. Not to creep you out at all but maybe it was like the original Annabelle that saw you before it was picked up later on but goodness gracious. What else in here maybe I don't know I guess the whole Bobby story really at the end that's the creepiest one has very much that feel of the Resurrection Mary story picking up the hitchhiker on the side of the road and then she disappears before you get her to her house or wherever you're taking her but 30 miles to have Bobby in the car talking that whole time that is a long ghostly experience for the person to just disappear that is freaky so for all you truck drivers out there don't you don't say what road this is but I guess truckers if you come across a guy who is walking and says he needs gas or needs help because of a broken down truck and his name is Bobby you might want to just hesitate before giving him the ride oh wow that has a whole story behind it on its own so thank you very much Vanessa for sharing that and I'm sure you do have many more stories that you would share or could share from your family I mean you've got a whole novel right there or at least an anthology of stories that's happened to you you could definitely write a book this next story comes from Cody hello Darren I first want to start out that this podcast is the best so here's one story I have it's not exactly paranormal in and of itself it has to do with aliens and Area 51 and it's a true story so here we go just about a year or two ago I was living in Las Vegas and my grandpa and I had gone out on lots of adventures in Nevada we went to the Alien Cafe also down at also down Extraterrestrial Highway nothing really ever happened but my grandpa always had joked to me saying that I should run into Area 51 or put an alien suit on and they might come in because I always wanted to see what was in there like everyone else well here's where he gets better I was one of the people that started the best hoax ever it was meant to be only a prank that turned out to be the talk of the world in a matter of a few months a friend and I were talking to each other about how we can get into Area 51 and joking around knowing we would never be able to just the fun thought well we went on talking I mentioned that we need more people than just me and him so we started a Facebook page that page was called Storm Area 51 so at the time of the page being made lots of people around the world signed up to go to the event there were over 4 million people that signed up but what the event explains is that everyone that shows up will all run past the gate at Area 51 and there were surely not enough armed guards to take out 4 million people storm storming the base in hopes that a few of us might get in without getting caught or hurt and we all were to run in such a fashion known as the Naruto Run that was my friend's idea the prank then caught wind to a few news stations around the world and reports of the military and the government were put on the brink of thinking out a plan that could actually work so they got scared and had the media report that if anyone was to storm Area 51 whoever was caught first was to be fined and arrested but all were to go they would shoot to kill overall though only a few thousand people showed up and no one stormed Area 51 but a few people did in fact cross the line and were charged for trespassing and were fined also the alien cafe got the most business it ever has had in a few years last but not least one person did in fact get a mile past the gate and hopped into a plane that was being looked at and took off for a few seconds and then crashed it and ran into the desert I don't know what happened to him but it was a funny sight to see Cody Cody really you you are one of the storm Area 51 creators really I'm kind of honored that you found the podcast and are listening I mean so many people have talked about that over the years I actually did a story about somebody wrote a story about what would have happened had it actually taken place and I narrated that story wow Cody well thank you very much I appreciate you you calling or you calling you can tell it my radio background I'm thankful that you wrote in and told told me the story that is amazing thank you Cody I appreciate it now I'm really glad to have you as one of our weirdo family members my next story comes from Christina hello door door and boy the the tongue is suddenly not working today hello Darren I'm not even half done with the stories hello Darren let me first just say your podcast is my favorite it's actually the only one I listen to please keep doing what you do I grew up in a haunted home so I have so many stories it's crazy some are very very scary others not so much when I was little like around five or six I was walking to the bathroom and in order to do that I had to go by the parlor by the way the house I grew up in is an old Victorian style house that was built in the mid 1800s located about 20 minutes from Boston south shore area anyway I'm walking through the parlor and about two feet from me as a white tall misty transparent apparition very tall about six feet just floating in between two chairs that my grandmother had up against a parlor wall I was frozen with fear it was the figure of a woman but it was hard for me to make out features I ran screaming to my mother that was on the other side of the house in the laundry room by the time I told her what I saw and got her to walk with with me to the bathroom of course nothing was there she believed me of course she had a lot of things happened to her as well that was the first paranormal encounter I had in the house I've had so many things happen to me over the years I'm 40 years old now the last time something happened was when I was 18 for some reason the activity just slowed down and has pretty much stopped I wanted to write about one more thing that happened today I'll write in about the other things that happened but I went to wanted to work my way up to the last time 20 years ago as it was and is very traumatic to to me and it's very hard to believe so here's the second story I was around 14 it was around 3 a.m. I got up to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water I went back into my bedroom got in the bed the TV was off all the lights everything was quiet and all of a sudden about two minutes later I got into bed and a man's voice yelled inches from my face it sounded very strange even the way his voice sounded was so loud and right in my face I didn't see anything it was just that strange man's voice it almost sounded like he was yelling it on a microphone I screamed for my grandmother and she came running into my bedroom I told her I heard a man scream in my face she also had a man call her name at night in her bedroom so she just told me to keep my bedroom door open I was so scared I couldn't sleep the rest of the night I tried to look up the word Zim but I can't find anything on it I don't know if maybe you will have some insight on what the word could mean or maybe something or somebody listening might thank you so much for reading my story please keep doing what you do you created this amazing platform where people like me can send in their experiences without fear of being ridiculed I'll definitely be sending in more of my experiences I have a lot well thank you Christina I just off the top of my head I don't know anything about Zim I'm not in front of my computer to look at it Zim almost sounds like gin like genie type of thing and I don't know if that would be part of it or I also think of Zim Zalabim and if you know that reference you're old too but I don't know of anything about Zim off the top of my head it's interesting that the last time things happen to you or that things slowed down a lot was around the age of 18 that seems to be a regular occurrence for poltergeist activity that because some people believe poltergeist activity is actually energy from somebody who's in turmoil and it happens a lot with children going through puberty and like once you get past puberty then things slow down or sometimes even stop often even stop so I'm wondering if maybe what you were experiencing was a poltergeist kind of thing but you said that your grandmother had experiences as well and that you were in an actual haunted house and it wasn't just you so that's probably not the solution on that it just kind of struck me as strange that that's the time things started to slow down for you this next one I'll just I'll leave it anonymous because they asked to ask to remain so they say I'm not sure if this counts as a true story or not but mine is about a nightmare I had not too long ago warning tropedophobia fear of needles or syringes me and my sister were home alone and all of a sudden this man walks into our house and just casually just starts asking personal questions like my name and my age then my sister comes down the stairs sees this guy sitting on our couch and she pulls out a syringe and says it's time for the man to leave the man also had a syringe I stand up and try to go up the stairs rookie move but the man grabs my arm my sister accidentally struck me with a syringe instead of the guy and then I collapsed and I could feel the soreness of the syringe in my arm in my head I remember thinking so vividly please please don't let me die when I woke up I was in the hospital and I was asking my mom what happened but she didn't say anything but you were taken by the mailbox killer so I went home and asked my sister who he was and apparently he would stick people with syringes and let them die and then wrap them up and mail them back so the parents could see their dead child but I've been stuck with my sister's syringe so I was supposed to die but I didn't I felt there was something that they weren't telling me so I asked my friends what he was to me but they didn't answer me and I ended up having a breakdown in the dream because no one told me what I had been through and then I woke up when I woke up I looked out my window for a while after like a good two minutes or so until I realized hey wait that dream wasn't normal I think the weirdest thing I remember after the dream is that your brain can't make up fake people in your dreams so that so that guy who tried to kill me actually exists anyway hope you enjoyed reading this I appreciate it I love the Fireside Frights episodes keep doing what you're doing oh also I'll be making a longer more detailed story a creepy pasta if you want to hear if you want to hear that just let me know and I'll send it well thank you anonymous yeah I would love to see the creepy pasta story always open to stories of fiction and nonfiction the nonfiction stories obviously come into our Fireside Frights episodes if they come to me from one of our weirdo family members like you but if it's a fiction story then it'll go into a creepy pasta episode someday in fact I could use a few more creepy pastas because you probably heard a few months ago I had a that computer crash and I lost a lot of the stories I was planning on using for creepy pastas so if you want to send something my way if you got an original story of fiction yeah I would love to I'd love to see it your story was a little bit confusing because when you first said that you'd woken up in the hospital I thought you'd actually woken up but no that was in the dream you were still dreaming that you'd woken up but it was still part of the dream and then only later on did you actually wake up for real that that was confusing wow yes very strange dream very strange dream I don't know about the whole the whole thing about fake people in your dreams not not being able to exist you say here that your brain how you say that um the dream that your brain can't make up fake people I've I think I heard that but I've never really understood that because I've had dreams of people that I've never met myself but is that a theory then is there a theory that your brain can't make up fake people and so if it's somebody that you don't know in your dream it actually is somebody that you've seen you just don't remember or it's a real person in the world somehow soaking into your dream but you've never met them I don't know that's if anybody has a theory on that or wants to tell me their their version let me know I would be interested in hearing about that our next story comes from heavens lost angel that's the way they they signed it which I think is really cool hi Darren I finally decided to pen my story for you to tell you always tell people to send all of their stories in so I'll send my three encounters in and you can choose to read one two or all three I've had encounters from three different spectrums first when I was 15 I'd started my first job at a cannery it was a seasonal it was a seasonal job so it was my second year out there and I'd received a promotion to QC trainer slash supervisor part of my job was training quality control associates and part of my job was walking around to each QC station and checking that everyone was doing their jobs helping anyone having problems collecting paperwork and reporting if we needed to find somebody new to train for a spot since the turn over rate was extremely high so one day I was heading out to make my rounds and I'd stopped at the water fountain to get a drink as I leaned down I caught sight of someone behind me in the mirror that hung over the fountain I took a drink then stood and turned to see who was standing there since at the time everyone should be at their positions and no one should be at that fountain so I was going to get on to them when I turned around though there was no one there I looked to the left which was a long open area where no one was walking and then I looked to the right which is a narrow which is a narrow walkway the only thing close to there is the maintenance area and they were all currently working on a broken line so it wouldn't have been any one of them besides I was pretty sure that it was a female I had seen not a male I looked back to my left again and my right one more time confused that there was no one there when I knew I had seen someone in the mirror standing behind me just then one of the alarms went off and I went to see what was happening turns out a pipe busted and was spraying 165 degree brine right along the path that I normally take to do my rounds if I had taken a drink of water and went on with my rounds I would have been severely burnt but because I had paused at the fountain and looked for whoever I had seen behind me I had delayed myself just enough that the pipe burst before I got to it I believe my guardian angel showed herself to me for a split second to save me from getting hurt that day my second encounter came 10 years later when I was around 25 or 26 we moved into a huge five bedroom two bath home it had two bedrooms downstairs the master with a nursery attached to it and three upstairs two of them set up exactly like the master and nursery the staircase had a door at the bottom of it and I always had to have that door closed as I always felt creeped out walking past the stairs if the door was opened like someone was watching me once when I had went upstairs on my way back down when I had reached the third from the bottom step I physically felt hands on the back of my legs pushed my legs out from under me and caused me to fall the rest of the way down the stairs everyone that has ever been in that house except my husband has been pushed down the stairs my youngest daughter had night terrors she'd wake up screaming and I couldn't pull her out of them later she would tell me she would see a scary monster from her window through her room and out her door my sister stayed with us once and she woke up in the night and saw a woman's silhouette on the door she thought it was me messing around with her so she got up and walked out into the hall but the hall was empty she went back to bed and stared at where she had seen the shadow and she thought about what she saw she realized the woman had worn a bonnet the next night she woke up feeling someone watching her she looked around and then noticed red eyes looking out of the crawl space at her she refused to sleep in that room for the rest of the night the next day she made my husband put a new cover on the opening and nail it tightly shut after that she didn't feel the eyes on her however the malice we felt throughout the house intensified until the day we moved out my third encounter happened when I was living in the mountains and worked at the National Forest one summer the first time I was driving to work and I saw movement out of the corner of my eye deer are a real problem up there and so I threw on my brakes expecting a deer to run in front of me I saw a shadow of a deer but then it vanished it began to happen more and more often I'd see shadows of deer squirrels, raccoons that would start to run across the road and then disappear I know others see shadow people but has anyone else ever seen shadow animals signed heavens lost angel that third story that shadow animals that is weird never have I heard of that except for like hell hounds like dark dogs but those are actual physical dogs that people have seen they're not really shadows I don't think I've ever heard of shadow animals that is freaky if anybody listening now has ever seen shadow animals I would like to hear those stories those would be very very interesting shadow people we get those stories all the time both from weird old family members as well as the stories that I do research for but never have I seen shadow animals that's weird and yeah I think you're right about that guardian angel saving you at the drinking fountain that makes perfect sense sometimes we don't know that an angel is working until after the fact and that very well could have been your angel saving you knowing it just needed to hold you back for just a few seconds in order to keep you out of danger that's amazing this next story comes from Jill hi Darren my older sister and I were born in 1965 and 1967 when we were growing up she was really mean to me she pushed me into rose bushes brand me with curling irons turn off the cold water when I was in the shower etc after she moved out at 18 our relationship greatly improved so much so in our 20s we had a very successful cleaning business together one night on a break from cleaning offices we were talking about our fears I was always afraid of the dark and I told her I was always afraid that she'd stab me with scissors when I was sleeping she started weeping and said that she remembers when they finally brought me home from the hospital I was a preemie so in an incubator for a month or so she was going to stab me with the little baby scissors mom had by the crib mom said she didn't remember it yet my sister did and somehow I think my little preemie brain did too so you be the judge thank you Darren your weird friend Jill you know the human mind is an incredible and un unknowable thing it's so strange that people have memories of what they think are past lives or the repressed memories as a child so yeah your little preemie brain could very well have remembered that in some way you just don't you just didn't remember it in your conscious memory it just manifested itself as a fear but for your sister to remember that because she would have been so young at the time as well but for her to remember that she actually did have those thoughts that's you know there's a lot of guilt there sounds like she was a horrible sister in the beginning I'm glad you guys repaired things later on I was a terrible big brother too I kind of understand that and I was I'm I'm not going to say I feel guilty but I'm really sorry that I was a bad older brother I found out later on after I became an adult in fact I wrote in fact I just found this out the other day my mom was talking to Robin my bride and somehow the subject came up that when my little brother was brought home I'm two and a half years older than my brother when my little brother was brought home I was really angry at my parents and I said I don't want him here taking back and I don't remember that but apparently I just I had that resentment towards my little brother and it doesn't surprise me now that I look back because I used to pick on my brother all the stinking time and I would tickle him until he would cry I actually picked on him so bad he ran away from home once he was under the age of 10 so he was desperate to leave and he was walking up the street he probably got about three miles from home fortunately my parents happened to be passing by I was supposed to be watching over my brother and I didn't realize that he'd even left the house I thought he had locked himself in the bathroom and so I went off went to my own room and did my own things and my parents are on the street passing by this little kid going you know that looks a lot like our little son and so they pull over and sure enough it is him and then they come home and they say so how's your little brother did you take care of him and I said yeah yeah I took care of him alright can you go get him for us and I couldn't find him they played it up for a little bit and when they finally let me know what had happened boy was I in trouble so I was a terrible terrible big brother I never I never branded my my little brother with curling irons of course because I didn't use curling irons and I don't know if I would have gone that far but you know I'd poke him and tickle him to the point that he'd cry and then of course run away but so yeah I think when we're very very young even to the point that we're babies some of those memories can get lodged in our brains and even if they're even if we're not aware of them they're still there and they still have an effect on us so yeah thank you Jill I appreciate that appreciate your story Frank sent in this one hello there Darren just want to thank you for all you do for us weirdos from the entertainment to the support I come from a small little south Texas town named Harlingen as a kid my best friend and I would choose to walk home from football practice just to spend more time together one day we got on our usual walk home and we're chatting away mid-sentence we just both get quiet as we continue walking in silence past a field a ball of light just shoots up and hovers over the field the orb twinkles green blue and white and I know that whatever it is it's watching us it follows us for about a minute and then just darts back over the field then shoots straight up into the sky we continued our walk and he goes left to his home and I turn right towards mine I get home as my mother sees me she scolds me asking why am I home later than usual 7 p.m. practice was over at 5.30 the next day I see my friend and we just look at each other and he asks you saw that too right and that's it we later went into detail saying for some reason we just couldn't say anything to each other in that moment even with the fear and shock we felt and no matter how much we wanted to run or shout we just kept silent and walked as if our actions weren't in our control we never brought it up again and just chalked it up to our imagination fast forward 13 years and I'm at a buddy's after work just catching up as we're talking I notice that he lives across from that same field he sees me eye the field and without missing a beat he starts telling me how he doesn't like being out at night because one too many times he's seen lights in or above that field as he tells me his experiences that one day in 7th grade just comes racing back to my memory and finally I have it confirmed it really happened to this day I cannot remember where the time went or remember the last mile on my walk home but I'm okay not knowing that part at least I know it did happen thank you once again Darren for all your support God bless you your family and all our fellow weirdos signed Frank Frank your story has the ring of truth to it in so many ways the more I get into what I'm doing here with weird darkness and the more stories I read the more I see these extra terrestrial encounters and so many of them have very similar facets now the missing time is something that a lot of people experience and said you definitely had that missing time you you found yourself actually further along your route then you thought what you said you walked that last mile without remembering it at all that happens in some of these what most people don't report at least not not in most of the stories but I've been seeing this a little bit more L.A. Marzulli has a YouTube channel and he's been interviewing people who've had experiences like this and I can't remember what he calls it but it's almost like a mental paralysis that takes place where you don't talk about it or even acknowledge that it happened even right there when it did happen like as soon as you see it and it disappears and you find yourself back into your reality or whatever you don't even though you know what just happened you don't have the ability to talk about it you're not able to even with the people that are there next to you you just can't discuss it and it takes a while to get to that point where you can discuss it and it's not out of fear it's not out of thinking you might be ridiculed for it it's just sort of a mental block or paralysis you know it happened you remember it happened but you can't bring yourself to talk about it no matter how much you would like to it's a really weird thing that seems to happen with extraterrestrial encounters like this the fact that you put that into there really makes me believe that this is a true story not that I doubt the other stories that come in but yours just has that certain detail to it that just confirms that it truly did happen so Frank, thank you very much for sharing that story I really appreciate it this next one comes from Shane he actually sent us a couple of stories I'm no storyteller or writer but I'll do my best to convey the stories this one is from my childhood, I'll title it the Unknown Visitor when I was about 12 years old my younger brother and I shared a room, not a very big room but enough for him and I one warm spring night I was awakened from sleep by having to use the restroom and needed to drink a water after going downstairs and completing my task I returned to my bed now as I said it was a warm night and I decided not to cover myself back up with my sheet as I lay there on the bed before falling back to sleep I noticed a small white dot of light on the wall over my brother's bed at first I thought it was some light filtering in from the street or from the neighbor's house next door as the houses were only about 10 feet apart nothing, no light from either of them I looked back at the dot and by this time it had gotten larger as I lay there watching this light grow it began moving away from the wall it became larger and more dense it began to take shape that of a woman in a long flowing white gown with long flowing white hair but no face as you can imagine I became terrified and started to yell for my mom or my brother but before I could do so this entity placed her hand upon my mouth I was unable to move or speak I looked up into that blank face and was terrified the room became like a freezer and I could see my breath upon every quivering exhale remember I said it was a warm night and I had only been sleeping with a light sheet covering me to begin with anyway I remembered reading somewhere that if you ask a spirit what it wants or who it is that they will leave you alone so not being able to speak I thought to myself what do you want the entity just looked down at me with that blank face and shook her head then she departed as soon as she did I was able to move and move I did right to my mom's room I woke her and told her the whole story needless to say she didn't believe me said it was a nightmare and to go back to sleep that was no nightmare years later a medium friend of mine told me that it was my great great grandmother coming to prepare me for the passing of my dad at the hospital at the time and did indeed pass a short time after this incident she had no prior knowledge of this and I hadn't told her anything other than the description of the entity I don't know if it was or wasn't I just know that this incident and the one from the story of the old blue house that I'll tell you next sent me on the search for answers and my lifelong love of the paranormal so then Shane sends his next story I grew up next door to a very active haunted house guess that's why I've been into the paranormal ever since within this house you get everything from disembodied voices things getting moved by themselves rocking chairs rocking beds shaking the sound of glass breaking the sound of dishes being washed and a baby crying whenever you walked by the house it always felt like someone was watching you another kid from our neighborhood would walk the railroad tracks across the street just to avoid it when he would be coming to my house or going back to his and don't get me wrong I dearly loved the people who lived in the house we all did as they were a great family but I think most of the neighborhood hated that house and didn't want to ever go inside I'd been in it a few times but it always felt way too creepy even during the day unfortunately during the blizzard of 78 my brother and I got the pleasure of not only spending the day inside this home but the night as well my family had gotten stuck out of town visiting our father in the hospital it started off innocent enough dinner, some games, watching TV it didn't last long shortly after dark I started noticing the rocking chair in the next room began to rock slightly just enough to make you think you were imagining it after a few minutes there was no doubt that it was indeed rocking by itself you could also hear the sound of a distant baby crying and it sounded like a muffled female voice singing what could have been a lullaby trying to calm the baby needless to say I was more than a little frightened by this I made it known and was told there was nothing to worry about as this was just Mary rocking her baby to sleep Mary's what the family had named her as she was one of the most active spirits the next incident came about 30 minutes later it was the sound of dishes being washed in a female humming probably was there weren't any dishes to be washed and no one was in the kitchen this was immediately followed by the sound of glass breaking in the bathroom now this got the family up and investigating as this was something new I was told in a joking manner that the spirits were just trying to make themselves known to me and my brother well they were doing a fine job of that things calmed down for a while we finished watching TV and it was time for bed my brother got a bed and I got the couch the house was quiet only the sound of a clock ticking I was extremely exhausted and wanted to sleep but at the same time was afraid to do so afraid something might grab me in the middle of the night as I was laying there I heard faint footsteps coming down the stairs and the voice of a little boy crying mommy mommy there weren't any other little boys in the house except my brother and I I threw the blankets over my head and shut my eyes tightly wanting it all to stop well I must have fallen asleep as the next thing I know it's morning and time for breakfast remember what I said about the shaking bed well my brother told me that about 2 or 3 a.m. he didn't know for sure the bed that he was sleeping in began to shake and it woke him he said he thought that he was dreaming it the lady of the house told us that her first husband had died of a heart attack in that bed at 2 45 a.m. and every night at the hour he died the bed shakes I told the family about my experience with a little boy they said they were so used to all of the events that they just didn't notice them anymore needless to say I was so happy and relieved that my family was able to make it home that afternoon and we get out of that house couple years later the lady of the house passed away God rest her soul she must have taken the restless spirits with her as the paranormal activity stopped and never occurred again to my knowledge though that creepy feeling of being watched persisted for some time after that since that day I've had intense interest in the paranormal I've done many investigations and have had some very interesting experiences some of which I may share later shame yes shame please send those experiences this this woman I'm kind of angry at this woman God rest her soul I know she's gone she put your brother into a bed that she knows shakes every evening at the time that her husband died in that bed what kind of a torture what kind of a torture is that who does that to a little kid I can understand if it happens once in a while you know like maybe once a month or something like that and so you're taking a chance of giving the kid the bed if you know that happens every night at the hour he died nobody should be in that bed you should get rid of that bed or lock the room so nobody sleeps there that woman that's just torture right that's child abuse you couldn't prove it of course because it's paranormal but that's child abuse right there and your first story about seeing the woman coming out of the glowing orb and you being paralyzed that reminds me so much of a sleep paralysis incident I'm not saying that it was but it just reminds me of that because the sleep paralysis does quite often have somebody who's either pinning you down or keeping you from speaking you mentioned that this entity placed her hand upon your mouth and so that makes me think it was a sleep paralysis incident I'm not saying that there isn't a paranormal aspect to it it very well could be because I'm I've said this before I am convinced that sleep paralysis is not just something in the mind that there is a paranormal aspect to it for me mine was a demonic presence that came into mine whether yours was demonic or not I don't know maybe it was angelic maybe rather than that being your great grandmother maybe it was an angel preparing you I don't know you said that the medium was preparing you for the death of your grandfather I think you said no no your dad preparing for the passing of your dad which did happen shortly after that I don't know how that encounter would prepare you for the death of a parent that doesn't make any sense to me I mean how can something terrifying you in the middle of the night putting their hand over your mouth how could that possibly prepare you for something later in life I just I don't see any benefit to that whatsoever but then again I'm not I'm not a spirit so I really don't know and I'm not you maybe for some maybe somehow that did give you some sort of comfort or something I don't know I tend to disagree with the medium on that I think it was something else I don't think it had anything to do with your dad I think that was either a demonic entity or it was an angelic entity who just did a horrible job trying to talk to you one of those two but either way thank you very much for sending in your stories Shane I appreciate it I do have one final story and as you know I like to save the a long one for my final story and that's what this one is it comes from Martin but before we get into it again a quick reminder I do need your stories as I mentioned at the beginning of tonight's fireside frights I use all the stories that I get over the past month in each episode so whatever you hear a new fireside frights episode that means that I am now completely out of stories and I need new ones to be sent in so please if you have a true paranormal story something scary that's happened to you somebody earlier tonight shared a nightmare that happened to them that's fine so long as it's something that's true that's happened to you or somebody you know I would love to hear those stories we even had an an angel encounter so it doesn't even have to be dark and creepy sometimes it can be uplifting like that either way you can send in your stories just go to weirddarkness.com and click on tell your story and if you if you could please ask somebody to check out the the podcast that really helps to grow the show helps me keep doing what I'm doing just let your friends know about it I know a lot of people are big fans of fireside frights specifically if you want to hear just more of these you can go to weirddarkness.com and click on fireside frights and I have the episodes there posted individually so you can hear just the fireside frights episodes but whatever if you like weirddarkness please share it with a friend I'd appreciate it okay so the the story from Martin the following story reads like fiction but it is actually a true story I hope you can use this but if not I plan on submitting more things as time permits I'm a big fan of your podcast and it's gotten me through many hours of tedious work so thanks for that Martin and he calls this story the 20th on a summer day many years ago my friend Chris called me you afraid of heights he asked um no I answered but why the weird question well because my usher is he refuses to go up the ladder to change the marquee and I'm getting tired of doing it so what a job Chris was the manager of the 20th century movie theater please say yes he pleaded you'll be working every Thursday night that's when we change over to the incoming movie plus two or three other shifts I thought about it I just got in my first car a custard colored oldsmobile cutlass for which I still owed the previous owner on the other hand that previous owner was my dad and he was in no hurry for me to pay in the balance also it was summer when I was 17 did I really want to spend my nights laboring inside some dark theater still there Chris asked as the seconds ticked by did I mention all the free popcorn you can eat and free movies sure I said at last why not with no idea of the impact those words would have on the rest of my life Chris lived just a few blocks from the theater so that first Thursday I parked at his place and we walked to work I still remember rounding the corner and seeing the theater for the first time the sign dominated the small town square 20th century spelled out in a vertical tower in neon below that the extravagantly lit marquee was her shining crown a tiny box office jutted out onto the sidewalk next to a row of glass doors Chris unlocked one of the doors and we went inside the ubiquitous aroma of popcorn the dimly lit lobby we have a little while before we open Chris said come on I give you the 5 cent tour the theater that everyone just called the 20th was a behemoth of a building and adorned in art deco flourishes chrome light scones gaudy foil wallpaper and stylized floral patterns carved plaster crown molding and glass and mirrors everywhere it was built in 1941 and in its heyday it must have been a sight to behold but now her looks were fading like an actress forced to work past her prime the once vibrant carpets were spotted and wrinkled the paint to wallpaper peeling in places or cracked like old grease paint makeup there was something indescribably sad about it and under the aroma of popcorn lingered a slight stench of decay this was the early 80s giant single screen theaters like the 20th were the dinosaurs of the movie showing business their extinction hastened by the meteoric rise of multi-screened megaplex cinemas opening in malls all around the country we went through leather covered swinging doors and into the auditorium rows and rows of seats in the dark the aisles between lit and faint amber lights like miniature airport runways the screen was the size of a billboard slightly set back on an actual stage bordered by massive curtains the color of Merlot this place is humongous ever sell out I asked Chris shook his head not these days we're a second and third run theater by that he meant that the 20th booked hand-to-me-down movies after they completed their initial runs in the cinemas in attempt to squeeze a little more profit from them and sometimes we get a movie that's been out for years Chris went on as I trailed him back to the lobby those nights we're lucky if we sell three tickets the concession stand was a long narrow space walled in by waist high candy cases of chrome and glass like the doors and lobby mirrors they were covered in tiny fingerprints I would soon learn that cleaning all of that glass was part of my job duties as an usher and to this day the smell of Windex reminds me of the 20th and my first real job come on I'll show you the projection move Chris moved aside a barricade of purple velvet ropes on silver poles and we climbed a wide set of stairs to the balcony the patterned maroon carpet in the upstairs hall looked less worn the paint and wallpaper there a little brighter we keep the balcony closed to the public Chris explained cats down on cleaning costs another set of doors led to the balcony seating bisected by a narrow concrete stairway which we climbed to the metal door the projection booth as Chris flipped through a ring of keys to unlock it I noticed an aisle seat that was in the down position small metal tag declared it E8 I lifted the bottom of the seat to the upright position but with a faint squawk it flopped back down got a broken one I commented now that's just George Chris said cryptically every old theater has to have a ghost story right well the project was no different according to legend some time in her hazy past the theater employed a projectionist named George in my time there the manager and assistant manager divided their shifts between operating the theater and running the movies in the booth but there was a time when movie projection technology was much more labor intensive and a full time projectionist was needed there was even a projectionist union Chris explained the legend as we stood in the claustrophobic space of the booth story goes that George loved his job so much that he'd spend his nights off here and he always sat in seat E8 I guessed bingo and when I heard he actually died sitting in that seat I laughed you've watched too many of your own horror movies maybe he said but I'll tell you this I've replaced the spring in E8 twice now it still will not stay upright Chris showed me the inner workings of the booth 235 millimeter film projectors sat with their lenses positioned before small portholes reels sat atop both machines with the film threaded into the complex assortment of gears and pulleys then out the bottom and onto another take up reel I'll have all these ready for tonight's first showing Chris explained a folding metal chair sat beneath a third porthole slightly ajar Chris went over and worked a crank to close it he tried to keep the booth closed up he explained films are expensive and dust is the enemy up here he explained how the celluloid films while running through the projectors build up a slight static charge and that charge attracts dust Chris said which causes scratches he tugged a string and a fluorescent light flickered to life with an insectile buzzing noise under it was a steel rewind table another large film reel hung from a sprocket on one end there was a small device like a miniscule guillotine that I would later learn was for splicing movies and white cotton gloves for handling the film on Thursdays, Chris explained incoming movies are built up and built up? they interrupted yeah films come on 20 minute reels inside those he pointed to two octagonal canisters of dented metal that sat on the scuffed tile floor under the table we split those small reels onto the big reels aka build them up and after the last showings on Thursdays we reversed the process, breaking down the outgoing movie then back into the cans and off to some theater slightly more pathetic than this place he laughed anyway that's why Thursdays are always late nights also I usually screen the incoming movie he pointed to another set of metal film cans, next week we're getting American werewolf in London I'm gonna screen it tonight, you can hang around and watch it too if you want heck yeah I said just then the toilet nestled into one corner of the tiny room, flushed I looked at Chris and he shrugged as if to say told you so I bent, looked under the door to the stall empty on our way back downstairs I lifted seat E8 a few seconds later it flopped back down for me seeing was believing you might say the needle of my skeptometer was pointing firmly in the yeah right zone the toilet had a plumbing issue seat E8 had a busted spring and ghosts do not exist except in the movies I met Guy the acrophobic usher that first night he came in to change out the movie posters called one sheets in theater vernacular I was quickly learning that inside language previews were called trailers because they were once spliced onto the trailing edge at the end of the film until they realized that people were not staying to watch them and moved them to the beginning you didn't watch a movie closed to the public you screened it and the silver screen was actually silver the material infused with a metallic element to make it more reflective I thanked Guy for his reluctance to climb ladders and he laughed yeah and I'll not go up to the booth either yours big guy really I asked why not you'll see you said enigmatically and thus my career in the movie theater business began and a lifelong love of films on the big screen was born and soon my fascination with ghost stories as promised I worked every Thursday night changing the marquee and suffering no mishaps beyond the occasional reversed Z or inverted N I worked through the summer and my dad off for my car and because I loved the work the people and the old building I continued working at the 20th eventually getting promoted to assistant manager and then to manager another summer night a few years later Chris called me at the 20th he'd moved on to manage a theater across town owned by the same people but we'd remained friends give me a salad he asked sure what is it two of my friends are coming in can you give them passes I said I would the two girls arrived just after we opened got their passes from the box office grabbed some popcorn and coax at the concession stand and then one of them approached me hi she said Chris always lets us sit up there she pointed to the balcony stairs pretty please be my guest I said I moved the ropes aside and up they went the girl who had asked looked back at me and smiled her name was Patricia and after the movie she found me again to thank me for the passes anytime I told her really because I love movies she said flashing that smile I'll take you up on that I hope you do I said and meant it because from the moment of that smile I was smitten in my time working at the 20th several things happened that nudged the needle of my skeptometer further and further from the yeah right zone into the what the heck range maybe you could truck this up to youthful naivete or the consumption of copious cans of beer which we stored inside the ice making machine and which often enhanced our late night screenings but even so here are a few of the weird and eerie things that took place remember that unused third porthole in the projection booth no matter how many times I would crank it closed I would inexplicably find it open even though I knew I'd been the last to leave the booth and always locked the door and occasionally I could swear the air held the faintest aroma of cherry pipe smoke said to be George's favorite more than once I was working in the projection booth alone when I heard a faint squeak and my mind would think just George taking a seat and waiting for the movie to start and that toilet flushed itself so often I learned to ignore it and then one Friday afternoon while I was putting away stock Chris showed up with his doberman I stopped in yesterday he said to grab the film from the booth but you were gone meaning his theater was getting our outgoing movie Shiba was with me and something weird happened check this out he moved the ropes blocking the balcony stairs started up them and then turned to his dog come Shiba come on girl the dog stood at the bottom of the stairs and whined but did not budge it was obvious that she wanted to obey but she also refused to set foot or paw on those stairs weird right Chris asked yeah I agreed quietly Chris lived on the second story of a two family house and I've been there often I have seen this dog happily go up and down stairs numerous times what made these stairs different and then there are the events that happened during the weeks that we showed the shining first the morning after the opening show I came in to find the movies one sheet ripped down right down the middle it might have been vandalism except that the poster was inside of a locked glass enclosed case and the film kept jamming look those old 35 millimeter films would do that occasionally jam up and stop then blister and burn on a scene but with the shining it always happened during one particular scene that one where the elevators opened and let out a torrent of blood it got so bad I would make my way up to the projection booth as that part of the movie approached just so I could splice it back together and get it going quicker I guess George was not a fan of that Kubrick classic Patricia and I dated for a few months but eventually we broke it off I don't even remember who broke up with whom but life was on right a few short years later the inevitable happened and the 20th closed for good it was very sad see her neon gone dark the marquee unlit and bare of letters the door is locked and covered in paper I had seen the handwriting on the wall and I quickly landed a job as a manager for a cinema chain if you can beat them join them right because we have so many mutual friends Patricia and I saw one another a lot eventually we got together and we got married and now almost four decades later we're still married now and she is still the love of my life I hadn't thought about the 20th or the phantom projectionist George in a very long time until we received an invitation to my nephew's wedding with the reception being held at the 20th century theater the old movie palace turned event venue looked much the same on the outside the owners had even kept the name in towering neon and the old marquee on which the plastic letters now read congrats tie a linse the inside however was transformed almost unrecognizable except for the old stage it was a surreal night and many memories came flooding back from that first Thursday shift to all those late night screenings and every happy moment and every weird little event in between as Patricia and I toasted the new bride and groom as we ate and drank laughed and danced I couldn't help but wonder what does George think of all of this that is a great story you're right it does read like fiction but you say every bit of it's true and I believe you that still amazing writing Martin thank you very much for sending that in and if you have other true stories written like that I would love to narrate them here on fireside frights thank you very much for sending that in and thanks to everybody who has been listening if you like the show please share it with somebody you know somebody who loves paranormal or strange stories true crime monsters unsolved mysteries and please leave a rating and review of the show in the podcast app you listen from you can also email me anytime with your questions or comments that's also where to go if you want to send in your own true story for a future fireside frights just go to weirddarkness.com and click on tell your story while you're there on the website you can also find my social media you can listen to free audio books that I've narrated you can shop the Weird Darkness store you can sign up for the email newsletter for my monthly contest you can find other podcasts that I host and of course you can find the hope in the darkness page if you or somebody you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts all stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions copyright Weird Darkness 2022 and now that we're coming out of the dark I'll leave you with a little light Proverbs 17 verse 1 better a dry crust with peace and quiet just full of feasting with strife and a final thought from Brett Harris when ordinary people decide to step out and be part of something big that's when they become extraordinary I'm Darren Marlar thanks for joining me here by the fireside in the Weird Darkness