 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. As you might have already guessed, this is a fireside rights episode. Once a month I come to you without the fancy production, no creepy music, it's just you, me, and this campfire and whatever Mother Nature wants to send our way for background noise. All the stories on fireside rights episodes are submitted by you, the listeners of the podcast, my Weirdo family. 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, to enter contests, to connect with me on social media. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Our beverage of choice this evening is sparkling soda, cherry flavored, bubbly, and mixed with diet cranberry juice from Ocean Spray. Our first story comes from Gage. I was younger, around 15 years old. Me and my family, which consisted of myself, my mother, father, and two brothers, ages 14, and the younger, somewhere around 8, and moved into an older house. We moved from a rural part of the area called Bolivar, coincidentally to a house in the downtown area of the town nearby on a street called Bolivar Street. The dark green house, numbered 7-1-1, was much older and showed signs of renovations over the years. Though the house still seemed rickety, with the exception of a newer 10 metal building added onto the back of the house just off the kitchen, this added third bedroom was my room. The living room, other two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom all opened up to the dining area, which was centrally located. The master bedroom, which my parents and youngest brothers slept in, and the other bedroom, where my 14-year-old brother slept, were located off of this dining area. The bathroom was the only one in the house. It was sort of narrow and the ceiling was higher than the rest of the house, aside from over the bathtub where the ceiling dropped down by design to where you could reach it by standing on your tippy toes. This is the room where we first started noticing things. Starting with my 14-year-old brother and I, hearing footsteps over the bathtub walking across the ceiling, this phenomenon seemed only to happen when we took a bath or a shower. Back and forth, the steps overhead, and they were very audible and clear. We tried mentioning the steps to our parents, but decided to keep it between ourselves after we were met with disbelief from them. The next phenomenon we started to take notice of was the strange behavior of our pets, in particularly a cat that we had the ferociousness that had the ferociousness of a tiger. She was fierce and would often bring whole rabbits to our doorstep when we lived in the country and devoured them. As things went on in the house, we began to notice her absence. She darted around the house from one hiding spot to another. Me and my brother didn't really give it thought other than that she might be trying to get used to the new space. The house itself had a very eerie feeling, like the air was heavy and you were always being watched. Shadows seemed to move in and out of your peripheral vision. I first noticed shadows in my peripheral standing in my doorway to my room. My bedroom door was directly in front of the stove, and the vent hood light was always on and would illuminate a good portion of my room. Though at certain times my doorway seemed absolutely void of light. When I would turn my head to look at my door, the light would return as if someone jumped out of view. I'd also see the same shadows in the living room area. The shadows would peek around corners almost like they were glaring at us, but would dart out of view when we turned our heads. If you ignored the shadows, they would slowly move inch by inch into your vision. Of course, all of this was felt and seen by me and my brother. Nobody else seemed to notice as of yet. The feeling in the house was unbearable, and we would sleep with the windows open at all times of the night, even though there were no screens over the windows. It just felt safer to sleep with the windows and doors unlocked. We'd run through the house in the evening and never look at anything with a reflection because we feared that we'd see something behind us. One day while walking through the kitchen and into the dining room, making my way to the living room, I noticed to my right where the bathroom door was, a pair of white legs making their way out of the darkness and through the doorway. They walked right up to about two feet from me, just casually and vanished. I didn't mention this to my brother, but I was too sure of what I saw and was freaked out. Days passed and my brother came to me and told me that he found something in his closet, which butted up against the area where the bathtub was on the other side of the wall. He took me to his closet and showed me the attic door that was located in the ceiling towards the back of his closet. We decided to look into the attic. My brother first peeked in using the chest of drawers in the closet as a platform to stand on. I then took my turn and peeked into the attic. It was eerily spotless with a single old coffee can sitting on the floor of the attic. Me and my brother just shrugged it off and got off the chest of drawers and continued on our day. Things kept happening around the house as things went on and one day it happened, a surreal affirmation. My brother approached me one afternoon and told me that he just saw a pair of legs leave the bathroom. I just looked at him. I had never told him about that experience. He described the exact thing I saw to detail. I told him about how the exact same thing happened to me and we both knew that we weren't crazy. The footsteps and happenings progressed when my father started his journey to become a Baptist pastor. At one point he came out of the bathroom yelling at me and my brother for playing in the attic. We explained that it wasn't us and that we had been trying to explain these things that were happening in the house. At this point my father began to believe us. As my father continued his journey, things progressively worsened and happened more frequently. One night my brother said that he was awoke by his closet door. He said that it would swing open and close, opening wider and wider, eventually becoming fully opened and then slamming. He said a figure left the closet right after and approached him. It began to scream and hold him down and suddenly vanished. This was of course acknowledged by myself and my father. I stated I started to take notice of something that kept happening in my room. The sounds of a screaming cat would circle the tan metal building that was my room at the back of the house. It would circle back and forth and scream at all hours of the night. It struck fear in me and I couldn't comfort myself with the thought of it just being a cat. Thanks peaked when my dad noticed the shadows. He was watching some evangelicals on TV when he said that a black shadow made its way from the door of the dining room all the way across the room and sat about the television. Dad believed everything we ever told him after that. What I didn't know at the time was that dad was having dark and gory nightmares. One day all the knives disappeared and him to find out dad took them and hid them in the shed because his nightmares were getting worse and they revolved around me and my brother being butchered and quartered by something evil. We concluded that this thing must be a demon. Dad still noticing the footsteps went into the attic and he too noted that it was spotless and clean other than the coffee can. My dad soon requested the assistance of local pastors and they all prayed over the home. My dad being a freshly ordained minister was warned that if this persisted we should leave. Things concluded one night. We were all awoken in the early hours of the morning by my father. He told us to pack our bags and we were leaving. He told us that he had a warm and peaceful dream. Everything was white and thundering voice and said not one more night in this house. And my father said that he awoke to the smell of cat urine and smoke. We ended up packing things up at 3am and leaving. Stated a relatives house for a few weeks until we found a new home. To this day it gives me chills to recall this story. Okay I got a question then for you Gage. What was in the coffee can? And I know everybody else is wondering that exact same thing right now. If nothing was in the attic other than a coffee can you went up there and your brother you saw the coffee can and you didn't look into it to see if there was anything in the coffee can. You just left it there. Your dad peaked up there saw nothing in the attic except a coffee can and apparently left it there unless he took it down but you don't mention that. So in my mind everything's still going on and the coffee can is by itself up there. I want to know what's in the coffee can because apparently that's where everything is coming from. That's the center of everything is coming from the attic and that's the only thing in the attic and you just left it there? Seriously? Oh man I'd be looking well I don't know if I'd actually have the the bravery to look in the coffee can but I'd be doing something with it. I'd be hiring somebody to go and get it maybe like you know call an exterminator and say well I don't know hey why you're up there since you don't find any mice can you bring that coffee can down? I'd do something like that just to make sure that that wasn't the case. So now you've left the coffee can for the new owners. Way to go. All right I would love to have an update on that I would if if you've heard from the new owners if they continue to have issues and stuff like that maybe they looked in the coffee can I'd like to know. All right moving on this next one comes from Luke. Hey there I've been listening for a few months now and I love the podcast my number one. Anyway I was six at the time and I fell asleep at like eight thirty-ish since it was a school night. Later on that night about 10 30 11 I woke up to something with long bony fingers grabbing my ankle from under the bed I couldn't move couldn't speak nothing I tried screaming out and no voice and lasted for like 30 seconds but it seemed like forever. I have a few more stories for you if you want them. Well yeah Luke I definitely want them that's a short story but you know if you gather them all up send them my way I'd love to I'd love to read the other freaky stuff that's happened to you and I think most people are probably thinking the same thing that I am that what you experienced is probably a sleep paralysis incident that seems very similar to what other sleep paralysis incidents sound like. I'm not saying that there wasn't anything demonic about it or anything I'm just saying that that it it does feel that way the idea that something is pinning you down or pulling you down or pushing you down and you can't move at all and you can't speak or anything that sounds like a sleep paralysis moment and yeah even if it lasts for 30 seconds you're right it it feels like forever it feels like hours pass because you can't move I've been there I know what it's I know what it feels like this next one comes from Madeline hi Darren I want to start with apologies if my English might not uh if my English may ain't that good since I'm from Sweden well my name is Madeline and I've since I was a child experienced paranormal things I've not told my family so much about this because I know they wouldn't believe me now to my story okay I'm gonna try and clean this up as I go uh so that way it won't sound like broken English I've not read this yet I like to read these off the cuff so my first reaction is what you get on a fireside frights episode so I'll do my best I lost my both grandpa lost my both grandpa okay she apparently lost both of her grandpas I guess is what she's trying to say I was really devastated and heartbroken one night I was crying and my tears couldn't stop so I prayed to God over and over to see them again I finally dozed off but what was up was woken up by a knock on my door to my room I was living at home at the time it was my grandpa's both of them my dad's father and my mom's father they were almost looking like they were alive again they came in and my mom's dad was sat at my bedside beside me and started talking to me and still today I remember every word he said Madeline please don't be sad live your life we know you miss us and we love you too but if you grieve so much we can't come to rest because we still care and we and we are still with you in your heart please stop crying he was stroking my cheek but was just feeling a little bit cold after he said that I promised them that I promised them and we said goodbye and they just disappeared and I slept off again easier than ever I never saw them again I love your show and listen daily thanks for a great show sincerely Madeline well thank you Madeline I appreciate the I appreciate the compliment and thank you for the story and you don't really need to need to apologize so much actually I completely understood what you were saying there and you're in your Swedish to English translation however you ended up making that happen it worked um you bring up something that I've never heard before and I'm wondering if there's something to it you mentioned that your grandpas both grandpas were saying that they couldn't move on because you were so sad and I'm wondering if that has some reality to it I wonder if maybe some of the ghosts that uh that people experience if it is an actual ghost like a spirit of a dead person not a demonic influence or something like that or a shadow person or whatever if it's an actual ghost of somebody that we know I wonder if the reason they can't move on is because people are mourning so hard for them like maybe we haven't let go yet and so they can't be released in order to go to the go go you know to the great beyond just a guess but and I've never heard that before and but but your story kind of makes makes that a possibility I'm interested to see what it what uh what others might think about that concept do or do ghosts stick around simply because people are still mourning them to the point that they can't let go let me know what you think about that this next one comes from Shane and he's titled his story the old blue house next door I'm no writer but I'll do my best to convey my story as it happened I grew up next door to a very active haunted house yes that's why I've been into the paranormal ever since within this house you'd 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 the house when he'd come by or uh or if he was passing by my house or going back to his house it'll get me wrong I dearly loved the people who lived in the house we all did 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 as our 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 begin to rock slightly just enough to make you think that maybe 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 it would sound 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 is 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 and a female humming problem was there wasn'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 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 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 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 my blankets over my head and shut my eyes tightly wanting it all to stop well I must have fallen asleep the next thing I know it's morning and time for breakfast remember I said about remember I said about the shaking bed well my brother told me that about two or three a.m. he didn't know for sure the bed 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 experiences with the little boy they said that they were so used to all the events 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 could get out of that house a 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 an intense interest in the paranormal I've done many investigations and have had some interesting experiences some of which I might share later thank you Shane yeah please share your other experiences and the way you're describing this it almost sounds like somebody's playing a sound effects CD in several rooms of the house it would be hard to get used to that too the idea that that lady just kind of like didn't notice it anymore that would be hard to get used to especially the idea of a boy coming down the because that's audible the boy walking on stairs saying mommy mommy that would be hard to get used to I could I could probably get used to the rocking chair going back and forth maybe the the mom lullaby because I would think that'd be soft enough that maybe you'd kind of get used to it but a boy yelling for mommy or crying mommy down the stairs that would just be too creepy for me this next story holy let me get another sip out of here I'm really dry today okay this next story comes from Jonathan hey Darren please excuse the horrible writing skills English is my first language I graduated from public school in North Carolina yeah I love that Jonathan before I even get to your to your story you're blaming your incompetence on public school I love it okay it's continuing on thanks for doing all you do I listen to the podcast daily and usually pick random a random month to listen to more archive episodes while I work uh oh I see what you're saying you just you just pick a pick an episode at random no matter what the month or year of that episode was you just pick it at random to listen to it work I see what you're saying there okay moving on I now sit behind a computer for work but when I was in my early 20s I used to work third shifts at a gas station I loved it I was a night owl so it was perfect believe it or not this gas station was haunted I don't have any history of the land or if somebody died there any who here is a few quick stories of it on the back wall of the station there was a row of refrigerator doors about every night between 2 and 3 a.m the doors would fling open and shut starting from the right side to the left it never failed afterwards you would hear noises and things would move about it scared the crap out of me the first time but after a while it just became normal in fact sometimes I would yell out if you're going to be here start cleaning that would usually keep the noises and movements down well yeah sure you're putting them to work of course they're gonna shut up then continuing on we would close Christmas Eve about 8 p.m and then open back up on Christmas Day at about 7 a.m. I know doesn't make any sense to me either I came in to restock the cooler and my manager called me to her office on the screen sat a black object it was standing behind the register it stood there moving just a little the whole time this door was closed disappeared when the manager walked in my last week there I was restocking the cigarettes we kept the overstock in the back locked up at its own little room the back room door couldn't close something wrong with the hinges I think I stepped into the cigarette room and bam the back room door slams closed and locked I tried everything I could to get it open it wouldn't budge lucky for me one of the local taxi drivers saw it slam from the parking lot and was able to open it I always assumed whatever was in there was made was mad that I was leaving thanks again in this crazy world somehow your podcast helps me to stay sane a note to leave on failure is not the opposite of success it is part of from someone this is Jonathan signing out ps sorry I have a weird sense of humor hey you do not have to apologize for having a weird sense of humor when you're submitting a story to weird darkness Jonathan you're just part of the family here so thank you very much for the for the story I appreciate that that would be straight I'm curious about the whole Christmas ghost situation there you close up at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve and open up Christmas Day 7 a.m. but from 8 p.m. until 7 a.m. or whatever hours nobody was there you have the camera that's still working and you actually record a black figure standing there at the register the whole time standing behind the register that whole time just barely moves so you know that it's something it's not like just a static shadow it's moving so there's got to be something there that is that is freaky that is I've never heard of a of a ghost guarding a cash register but I have heard of Christmas ghosts you know hence a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens so maybe you know what there you go there you go because it's it's a cash register it's probably the ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge because he's become he's become miserly again and he's guarding the money there you go that's what I'm going to go with okay our next story is from Pete Hi Darren love your show I'm a longtime listener and I'm so glad you've made a place for the good people of this earth to tell their stories this one is a bit weird I'm not sure if you can if it can be classified as a ghost story stepping through time or what but to this day it still sends a cold chill down my back back when I lived in Florida and did a lot of civil war reenacting up and down the east coast during weekend events at or near historic battlefields there was this one in particular that'll always stay in my memory forever the battle of Shiloh a bloodbath for both sides during the war it was just getting dusk on a saturday the event was over I was with the 50th georgia company e volunteers I represented a militia unit that formed up to defend the city of savannah georgia I'd slipped out of my confederate graze and in a shorts and t-shirt my tent was one of hundreds all in perfect formation according to military regulations of the day for the 19th century called company streets guards posted every so often gave us the impression of meal of a real military life I needed to use the port of john I asked one of the centuries where the nearest one was he said just around this red barn you can't miss it thanks made it to the john did my business left just then it got real quiet it I felt all the hairs on my body stand up I looked up and saw an officer waving to me from the corner of the barn to hurry up so I ran to him he darted away past the barn I got to the barn around the other side to see that same guard but no officer he said why are you running I said well trying to catch up with the guy in the officer's uniform he tilted his head and said you're nuts you're the only one who's been through here to this day was that a ghost or was that a soldier calling me to join the fight and if he was asking for help and I caught up with him when I have gone back in time and fought and died yours and everyone else's idea see why it still sends chills down my spine thanks for reading this signed Pete Pete that is a great story somebody needs to flesh that out and make an actual full story about that the idea that you would be doing a confederate reenactment and then at night somehow come across like however that crossing took place whether it's a ghost or if it's a time portal or you know it's crossing of universes in some way to but to come across an actual soldier and then to be pulled into the actual battle that would make for a great novel or at least a great short story somebody ought to flesh that out or do it yourself and set it my way I'd love to read it this this next one comes from Dylan I have a collection of short stories that I've collected over the last two years all the stories have the same connection but I cannot find what the connection is I started listening to Weird Darkness around September 2020 I found it on Spotify and at the time was working as a mobile mechanic I started my days from our shop outside Joliet and would have to travel long distances like Rockford South Bend Champagne even all the way to Indianapolis doing the math being on the road all the music I listened to was getting stale anyways I found your podcast and wanted to start from the beginning the first episode was dated for early 2018 and the more I listened to the podcast the more I noticed the weird phenomenon going on around me just like all phenomenon it began with small things most that most people brush off I had small incidents at work where I would hit my hand on the equipment I was working or smack my head moving up too fast from being under a truck once I noticed that these were not coincidental the phenomenon began to increase in volume and severity one instance I got my hand caught and needed stitches from it now as the back as a backstory the job I was doing was a job no one in my family was happy about my wife and kids hated how I was constantly I believe after leaving the job what I believe after leaving the job it was the catalyst to my occurrences anyway one occurrence left me dumbfounded I was ending one episode and driving back roads when I slammed on the brakes thinking I was going to hit a train stopped on the tracks it was a typical intersection but was not typical but what was not typical was the flashing red lights and the arms to block the road they weren't active also what was not typical is the appearance of the train what I noticed was three gentlemen holding on to the side of the train as I'm studying the anomaly in front of me more and more is apparent I see a single bright light from the front I'm beginning to realize I'm seeing workers trying to fix a steam engine train one red flag is one red flag is this is around 11 30 p.m. so I don't see people working that late at night to no flashing lighter arms to block the intersection usually they are pressure activated the way to the train should have activated them three the gentlemen are dressed period correct to the time frame of when steam engine trains were popular as I'm trying to take in my surroundings the muffled voice becomes vibrant again and I hear in this episode we'll be talking about the death of Abraham Lincoln and the funeral procession around the country I'm paraphrasing but likelihood of saying this anomaly and five minutes into seeing this having an episode start in regards to the same anomaly I'm seeing the second main occurrence to happen that took a turn for the worse I was driving into work and it had to be around 7 30 7 45 now it's wintertime in Illinois so it's already dark but I had an uneasy feeling and look through my rear-view mirror and I see a dark shadow in my back seat once I see this I talk myself into not into it not being real I began to focus hard on the shadow not being real and once I can this myself that it wasn't real my truck was bumping alongside a fence I blacked out for what had to have been two to three minutes a slam on my brakes pull over opposite the fence and park on the shoulder of the road I turn my hazards on and look at the damage within 30 to 45 seconds of inspecting the damage I see flashing red and blue lights pull up the officer asks me if everything's okay and if I need medical assistance seeing the damage I tell him no he then starts to ask what happened by telling my saw something in the road and swerved and then lost control I didn't think bringing up what I really saw would be taken seriously anyways he gives me a look at disbelief and tells me he's been patrolling this road for the last hour for the mental picture it's a two-lane road a forest preserve on both sides and the nearest intersections are two miles apart from each other well he continues to say that he was driving opposite to me saw my hazards turn on and pulled a u-turn immediately to see why the hazards were on we both walked the fence line and I find the starting point to where I drove alongside of the fence it had to have stretched two to three hundred yards the police officer is showing a look of confusion he didn't say it but his expression looks like how did this happen and I didn't see it happen after a few minutes he gives me some paperwork so I can file the insurance claim and I can make it to work there were more and more occurrences that led me to believe that it was time to find new work the culmination of the occurrences was when I totaled that truck the ending to this is a good ending not so after getting a new job the phenomenon slowly died down not so long after getting a new job the phenomenon slowly died down it did not end completely but the occurrences I have are benevolent the main occurrence that happened was smelling perfume my grandma used as I walked as I walked past my daughter's room my grandma passed away in 1999 trying to verify that I wasn't losing my mind my wife smelled the same smell in the same room a week later my younger child's toy started playing on its own a baby shark a baby shark board activated by magnets no one was home at the time but I walked past it about five five feet away from the board and it sang grandma shark a minute later the board sang mama shark well my grandma who has passed on was my it was when my grandma who has passed on was my mom okay well my grandma who'd passed on was my mom's mom okay sorry about that the last occurrence related to my grandma was a small two inch by two inch negative photo sitting on the floor in my garage the photo negative is a family photo of my mom her mom and her dad in disbelief I called my mom and asked about the photo she had no idea how I had it one I live in Illinois she lives in Florida we don't use physical mail to send things back and forth two she hasn't seen that photo in years feeling spiritually lifted and third I open I asked my mom what age she was in the photo she responded 10 at the time of finding the photo my daughter was and still is nine she'll be 10 later this year I'm not sure why these things are happening I don't know why it started with bad happenings and moved to good happenings was it my job I took on I believe it a part of it but I can't find a definitive explanation Dylan that is some crazy stuff and I gotta tell you that that story about coming across the train that really wasn't there and then listening to an episode of Weird Darkness about that same possibly that same train you don't know if that was the same train but at same time period and everything I mean that almost sounds like an episode out of Weirdling Woods that's that's really freaky so and it's interesting that you travel long distances like Rockford and South Bend Champaign because I'm actually in the Rockford area so you don't say exactly I don't think you say here where that the the train thing took place but it'd be really interesting if that happened to be in the Rockford area too so anyway thank you very much for sending those in Dylan I appreciate it uh this next one comes from Jen and let me get a sip here real quick before we uh before we continue with her story we're doing a lot of drinking tonight I don't drink but I'm doing a lot of drinking but you know what I mean anyway okay this one says from Jen hi Darren I'm a big fan of the Weird Darkness podcast and we'd like to say a huge hello to all the weirdos out there I've always experienced strange events growing up but tonight's story belongs to my grandmother the story is claimed to be true and was regularly told to us every Christmas Eve and she calls the story an Irish ghost story the story is set in the winter of 1953 my grandparents had moved from Ireland to help run a farm and in Denbingshire Wales I'm I may be mispronouncing that word you know sorry uh but Denbingshire Wales is what I'm going to go with the work was guaranteed and offered free accommodation but this was a little comfort to my grandmother she found the move very hard and was deeply unhappy the farm was extremely remote and nestled down a back country road the nearest property was two miles away and it was a further five miles to a small town as well as the feeling of isolation it was the middle of autumn and the days were getting darker and longer they'd been there for two weeks when the nightmares started the dream always started on the country road by her old house in Waterford her dad was cycling at night and was approached by a fast moving car the car hit him at top speed and left him for dead in the road she'd awake from her the dream and a panic and try and go back to sleep but she couldn't get the image of the of her dad's lifeless body out of her head at first she thought it was due to homesickness and the insecurities from being pregnant but the dreams became more frequent in the end she reached out to her father and warned him he assured her that he'd be okay and slowly the dreams did settle down weeks went by and my grandparents were making denbingshire their new home they got used to their isolation of the farm and they were starting to get excited for Christmas however my grandmother still couldn't shake off a feeling that something bad was going to happen and before long the dreams returned Christmas eve arrived and they had spent the day decorating the house it had been agreed that my grandmother would drive to midnight mass alone whilst my grandfather looked after the children now my grandmother had only been gone 10 minutes when the first incident occurred my grandfather was in the midst of reading when he heard a very loud knocking in the front door thinking it was my grandmother he raced to open it but nothing absolutely nobody was there he figured he had misheard it and went back to his book 10 minutes later the knocking returned he opened the door and nothing this time he put it down to pranksters and went back to his reading before he could get comfy the knocking returned well he's furious and went and uh when nobody was there he started to search around the property nobody or even a sign of anybody had been there he stood there for a few minutes and listened nothing complete silence he made another quick check with his torch around the house but there was no sign of anyone before he could even get to his seat the knocking returned again nobody but he did a much more thorough search of the property this time and even walked down to the lane nothing nobody and the probability of such was unlikely it was extremely cold and the farm was not somewhere a local would visit without an imitation it was hard to find and very much off the beaten track puzzled he decided he would stand directly behind the door so he could catch whoever was in the act sure enough the knocking came a few minutes later he swung open the door nobody two minutes later the knocking returned he immediately opened the door to find nobody there at this point he started to feel incredibly scared and went back inside two further knocks were heard and then it all ceased later on my grandmother returned looking very sad he hugged her and asked her what was wrong she answered that her dad was dead she didn't know how she knew but she just knew that he was dead my granddad then proceeded to tell her about the strange activity around the house my grandmother who was a true believer in the banshee firmly believed the knocking was an irish messenger who was giving a warning of death my grandfather who was a true skeptic even admitted to being unnerved about the whole knocking events and had no rational explanation on christmas morning my grandmother contacted her brother to check on everything back home her brother patrick confirmed that their dad had not returned from the pub a couple of nights prior patrick had subsequently gone out looking for him and discovered their father lying dead on the side of the road it appears he had been hit by a car and left for dead unfortunately nobody ever caught the driver and my great-granddad was buried three days later that is a spooky christmas story jen thank you for sharing that and that must be a family story because i you're right i've never heard that before so you said that it's it's from your family but uh that could become a classic so thank you for sharing that this next one comes from chance hey darren my name is chance and i'm emailing you from a town in north alabama you probably wouldn't find on a map my family has always been sensitive to the spiritual side of life and i wanted to share some stories that were passed down sorry if this gets really long in alabama it is a rare occurrence for snow and extremely rare for it to not melt immediately one such rare morning my great uncle and family got their winter gear on and went out the door for a fun snow day when they opened the door they noticed footprints in the snow and after investigating they discovered the footprints went all around the house but they couldn't find any leading to or leaving the house the kitchen door at their house was akin to one you'd see at a restaurant where it would swing every which way the door had two bolt locks one at the top and one at the bottom when anyone was in the kitchen or even walking by it the door would unlock and begin to swing of a swing of its own accord sometimes slowly with intention as if somebody was peeking through or just wildly swinging a great uncle's grandmother was visiting and noticed the door and asked what in the name of god do you want well after that the swinging stopped and it never did it again while plowing the field in the heat of the day a relative of mine was abruptly stopped by his beast of burden and it refused to progress any further after a couple of futile attempts to get the cow moving he noticed that the other animals on the farm were severely agitated and afraid of something he began to look around thinking some kind of predator was around and saw a woman roaming the field without her head he knew exactly who it was by her dress and it was a community member that recently died to try and tie this up a close childhood friend and his family bought the property he liked to hike and camp in the woods behind his house these woods are behind the field previously mentioned field and have always given me the creeps he said while walking through the woods he would feel like he was being watched and out of his peripheral or even direct sight he catch a glimpse of a shadow person peeking at him behind a tree before it disappeared when we were in high school he mentioned that the attic door which was in his room kept opening and couldn't figure out who or what was opening it after I told him about the story he has been barricading it ever since from your fellow weirdo in Christ chance thank you chance I like that you use weirdo in Christ let's know that somebody else is picking that up I got a wonder about your childhood friend that had a problem with this attic and he just keeps it barricaded now you should look up there and see if there's a copycan just saying this next story comes from Mary back in 2004 my favorite aunt passed away at the age of 97 my mother inherited my aunt's antique mantle clock that was her parents late 1800s after not being able to get it to work even after taking it to a clock repair shop she gave it to my older sister my sister kept it for a couple of years and just had it sitting in the corner of her desk collecting dust it I had been estranged from my family for 18 years I was in an abusive marriage thankfully I finally got out of it when I made amends with my family I went to visit my sister and saw the clock so I asked her if she'd be willing to sell it to me didn't feel right to ask for it she said it hasn't worked in all these years but that she felt that I should have it since I was named after the aunt knowing that it didn't work I still didn't care because the clock held memories for me I've had it for a couple years now and it's been working ever since I brought it home I told my sister about it working she said that that was a sign that belonged with me I cried the first time it chimed I feel as if the clock is a part of my aunt and that she is with me wow that's amazing Mary that that's that's I've never heard that kind of story before that something would be broken and then suddenly start working when it's passed to a certain family member I've heard of things breaking and not ever working again or things starting up on their own but to hand something off to a new to a family member that that's not been around that item and suddenly it begins working correctly that's pretty cool makes me wonder what's going to happen when I finally inherit the grandfather clock from my grandmother it's been been it's been passed around from from a family member to family member and I'm supposed I'm the one that's supposed to get it once my what's my my dad passes away and the the the clock is haunted so we think it's haunted it'll be interesting to see what happens if I if I get that okay our next story comes from dawn hi darren I guess I'm a kind of a new weirdo I found your podcast by accident and I have been hooked ever since it's everything I was looking for plus you're a wonderful advocate for those of us who live with depression and anxiety to top it all off you end your show with bringing us into the light with a reminder that our father in heaven is always there for us it's like a really wonderful present all wrapped up and topped with a big bow why are all of these things so meaningful well as a child I knew there was something not quite right with me my first suicide attempt was at the age of 13 thankfully I was clueless and the pills I took just made me take a long nap the second attempt was a lot more serious I was 32 at this time I knew that I knew that what I took would stop my heart I remember feeling that my kids would be better off without me I honestly cannot put into words the mental and physical pain and the anguish I felt it was like I was a worthless burden to the world and I was in a bottomless pit void of anything or anyone who would even notice that I was gone I was ready to check out turns out my grandpa disagreed with my choice he said I was loved and I'd be missed and my kids needed their mom this is really hard to relive my eyes are welling up with tears as I remember and share the raw pain I felt anyway my grandpa told me I had to get up off the floor and call the emergency room my emergency room because that's where I worked here's the thing my grandpa passed away 10 years earlier I was admitted to the psychiatric ward for a month my parents came and got my kids what a mess but I finally got the help and medication I so desperately needed my story is a happy ending I eventually got my kids back when I was stable enough and our lives went on with good times and hard times but we made it through fast forward many years and I am now a doting grandma to my grandkids and I am so proud of the adults my own children have become I now live in the country next to my wonderful loving supportive parents I'm a medication for the rest of my life which is why I still have a life I would have otherwise left behind my hope is that others out there will reach out and get the help they need it's worth it they are worth it I'm sure thankful my grandpa stepped in beyond the grave and saved my life was he really there I believe he was by the way I just finished my very first weirdo watch party what a hoot it was the monster walks with tim the enchanter I was mama ddb in the chat room I had a blast and the other weirdos had me laughing about my behind off anyway sorry this is so long the readers digest version would have just been a big heartfelt thank you so thank you well thank you dawn or mama ddb uh yeah that was that that was a fun weirdo watch party I did not really expect it to be a good watch party because the movie was horrible worst movie I think we've ever shown which I didn't think would be possible after seeing the one uh before it which was the uh oh the bloody pit of horror which was it was terrible but the monster walks was just it was exponentially worse than that one so I really didn't think that we'd have that great of a party but we had people come out in droves into the chat room for that it was so much fun I'm glad that that was your first one and that you had a lot of fun with it and and that's the point of the chat too is that you know you actually have more fun in the chat sometimes than actually watching the movie and this is good timing that you're mentioning this because next weekend is our next weirdo watch party um in fact let me uh I'm trying to remember off hand I don't I'm not since I'm since I'm next to a fire not in front of a computer the next one's going to be the ah stars charles reigns it's not the uh it's not the psychic but it's the the mentalists is that what it is the uh well for crying out loud I can't think of it right now what is as charles reigns and it also has the the lady from uh from king kong uh she was the one the one that king kong captured and and ran off with um she's in it as well and now for the life of me I cannot remember what it's called it's um oh man it's gonna kill me uh the clairvoyant that there the clairvoyant that's what it is um and theré I think I think is the girl's name too but uh it's gonna be it's actually gonna be one of the few movies that we've done that actually is worth watching from what I understand it's actually had some pretty good ratings and claud reigns is just great in everything he does so that's coming up this coming friday a week from today it's on uh friday the 22nd and we're actually doing it an hour earlier than uh than we usually do it'll be at uh well i'm in central time zone so it'll be 7 p.m here rather than uh eight or or actually i guess it's a couple hours earlier than we normally do it because we normally do these things at like 9 p.m central time on a saturday but we're doing it 7 p.m on a sunday uh or on a friday uh so you know what i'm the more i talk about this the more confusing it gets just go to weirddarkness.com and click on weirdo watch party you can get all the details about it there but i'm really glad that you had fun with the first one don and um looking forward to this next one and more than anything i'm really thankful that you got the help you needed for your depression and whether or not it took your grandpa coming back to the grave in order to get you that help i'm glad that you got it that's the most important thing if uh if don's story does touches anybody um if uh if that sounds like somebody you know or maybe even you if you're struggling with depression if you're thinking about possibly harming yourself um if you go to the hope in the darkness page there are some free resources there for you that can get you that help that you need kind of uh there's there's free counseling and uh and there's uh there's groups that you can join like uh chat groups um support groups online that kind of stuff that can that can get you some help uh because i know not everybody has money um myself included and so that's why i was really happy to find those those resources but they're always there for you on the hope in the darkness page please use those please share those with others uh if you know of anybody who has suicidal thoughts if they suffer from depression anything like that uh please send them to that hope in the darkness page and really happy to have you as part of our weirdo family don this next story comes from katie hey i had a weird experience about 18 years ago my father lives in kichikan Alaska which is located in southeast alaska on the island of oh my gosh rev reviled revilla ga jito revilla ga jito i'm that's what i'm gonna say revilla ga jito i have no idea if that's that's actually uh correct or not and i don't think that's that word's used ever again so it may not matter but anyway it's a huge wild island in southeast alaska with a small city on one side we decided to take uh take its fishing a crabbing trip to the other side which is very remote but has cabins peppered around for people to stay at we got close to our destination set out dome crab pots then anchored our boat and rode a small boat to the cabin in the evening my father stepmother and i went out to the main boat to drive around and pull our crab pots and this is a wild area no settlements around anywhere close just wild forest beach and water we started pulling our crab pots and for some reason me and my father looked up at the same time and saw something on the shore about the size of a house but was a cube with square edges i described it as the brightest white i've ever seen my dad describes it as if there was a void in the landscape as weird as this was we both kind of shrugged and went back to the crab pots but seconds later we were like what and looked up and it was gone neither of us heard a splash a takeoff noise anything but it was just gone we're both extremely weirded out but my stepmother noticed nothing one of the weirdest to explain one of the weirdest experiences of my life i would have doubted myself but my father saw it and talks about it to this day he is a square that doesn't believe in anything weird but he admits that he has no explanation for it it's weird we both so saw it and both were like oh looked away and then both were like what looked up and it was gone it's an extremely remote location my stepmother didn't notice anything that is weird sounds like you were uh attacked by the borg but didn't realize it if you suddenly turn into robots maybe that's the maybe that's the reason for that that would be a strange thing i was expecting you to say that you would uh that you looked up and saw a creature on the side or something like that i would never have expected a perfect cube and that you saw it look like it was white but your stepdad looked at a stepdad your dad whichever uh looked up and saw that as a void is weird one of you sees a void one of you sees it white but you both see it as perfectly square that is really strange all right uh this next one is it was sent in anonymously but they did title it alien experience i was driving down the road late at night or early morning down straightsville road in prospect connecticut i really um a really nothing town here in new england it's an extremely long straight ironic i know road linking bethany and logituk to the town though the woods and a bunch of small houses along the way down and up and um oh through the woods and a bunch of small houses along the way down and up deep hills uh i was a couple hundred feet from the next turn porter hill road near the reservoir it was so early and i don't remember where i was coming from maybe my dad's house or making my way home from work it's 2022 now and this happened in 2014 it was maybe two or three a.m i'll never know i was driving my old nissan maxima a decent car with a sunroof nothing really special about it for your first car as a new driver i love looking at the sky when i can and having the roof open for that nice summer air i should preface this by saying i have never drank nor have i done drugs or smoked anything i usually don't go to sleep until five so i wasn't tired either i'm driving along and i glanced up perfectly safe to do so there's never been any wildlife on this road like deer or anything things don't cross the road much but i wasn't speeding either it was a quick glance not enough to impede my driving but suddenly a white flash enveloped my car like when a spotlight comes down from a helicopter in movies to find someone in the water at night it was so bright it flooded everything there are no lights on this stretch of road from town to town i couldn't see i was blinded the entire car soaked in bright white light like being in a way like in a way limbo is depicted in cartoons just nothing forever i felt myself becoming weightless the car lifted like it was nothing like a tissue in the breeze i must have passed out i don't know it was seven a.m when i fell into my bed i felt my body drop down a few inches and my eyes opened before i hit the mattress the flood of light disappeared and i was in my bedroom replaced with the regular darkness of the night in the room and outside i looked up in time to see the light leave the window there was nothing but my bedroom and myself fully dressed for a movie night with my dad or out with friends i didn't care to look sexy in front of or or impress i wasn't scared i was just a little confused i didn't feel different just uncomfortable lost i lost a few hours of time my car was parked neatly outside sunroof closed which i never do my mom always yells at me about this and my belongings in my purse at my side iphone which i had jammed in the cassette player to play music from and didn't have a phone proper holder at this time it confirmed i lost hours of time i never told anyone this a few months later my friend leslie was talking in school about me coming over one night i can't get to her town without going through that road and i'd been refusing to drive down that road at night again no i was scared i was uncomfortable everything in me told me not to do it again even though i was fine and unharmed i tried to convince myself it was a dream i don't remember how we got on the subject but i trusted leslie she's never said a bad thing about anyone and has never gossiped she's kind of a perfect person i was comfortable telling her something terrifying happened to me i didn't get a lot out just something like have you ever had a crazy alien experience i wanted to tell her not about my story first but but a date i had a few weeks prior with this guy chris who i idolized as a teen and finally got to spend some time with at his home in saltington connecticut we left his house and started walking down the street i told her in this normal cul-de-sac neighborhood and only got a few paces down i was trailing behind him taking a photo behind his back i noticed that every time he passed a street lamp it would turn off it would turn off if he walked back it turned on crazy total bull i figured he had something in his pockets or hands making it happen i confronted him about it not rude because i was crushing on him hard but gently and he told me how this has been happening to him since he was a kid and he and his brother and father had an alien encounter with a ship one late night outside of of the espn headquarters he described the flood of light and some details that i don't remember well back to leslie i didn't tell her anything and she didn't really respond to my question in the morning at her house i finally confided to her and said i had a crazy night with chris something weird happened and he told me some alien story i didn't want her to think that i was an idiot or psychotic or something i adored her without prompting or any other further comments from me she told me a story about a time she lived in prospect on a little corner of scott and austin road i never knew she lived there of course here's the wild part that i'll never understand she didn't know chris she hung out in a rich upper class circle and he was part of the underground music crowd no relation no prior mention before this nothing she told the same story that he told about his espn encounter she told my story almost word for word to this day i don't understand i won't talk about any of this unless i'm indoors i won't talk about it at night writing this my body feels red and hot up my spine and shoulders shortly after my experience maybe the next day i moved my bed immediately out from under the window i gave the car away to my grandparents when i got a new one it's destroyed and gone now i'll never know what happened that night or to my friends they've both since moved away and they never met i've since driven down that road at night and never had another experience that's whoever you are anonymous that is a freaky story definitely that's that's something out of a sci-fi movie definitely uh this next one comes from janine hi darin i grew up in a suburban neighborhood in westchester new york about 25 minutes from manhattan when i was six years old i started seeing a shadow figure no visible facial features only an outline of a tall period hat the kind abraham lincoln wore my sister eight years old and i used to sleep in the basement which was already creepy and dark i'd yell from my mother but because i was terrified to get out of my bed to use the bathroom some nights she heard me and others she would not come and i waited until the sun came up and would run to the bathroom from holding it in all night the shadow figure was the first paranormal thing i experienced the second was a full body apparition of a woman in period clothes with her hair neatly wrapped in a bun while folding clothes in my grandmother's bedroom she didn't seem malevolent just watched my every move and then would disappear into the closet as i got older i continued to see both figures and one night i had a sleepover i was 14 years old and my friend let out a loud scream which woke me up around three a.m i asked what was wrong and she said the man in the corner don't you see him who is he i said uh not tonight go away and to my surprise he did needless to say my friend called her mother and she could not leave my house fast enough fast forward to my 20s my grandmother passed away and my sister and i were tasked with selling the house one summer night we were gathering clothes to donate and i asked her is there anyone here who would like to communicate well not more than five minutes later my sister and i saw our breath which should have been impossible it was 85 degrees after telling family members of my experiences over the years i was told my grandmother practiced santeria before becoming a devout christian and this may have been the reason for the paranormal activity since moving a year later into my apartment i could say i had two experiences one where the microwave counted down from 50 and the second the small the smell of rotting meat not sure if something attached itself from the house but i prayed that whatever it was there to go away i currently live in connecticut and can say all activity has ceased and i'm glad you have this platform where i can share my experiences i never told what happened to me to any of my friends only a select few family members before this was because i didn't want to be laughed at or called crazy thank you signed janine well i'm not going to call you crazy or laugh at you janine um shadow people that's actually a fairly common uh story uh that we get here at weird darkness and there's there's a specific one and some people uh don't say that it is an actual shadow person but some people say it is it's the it's the hat man and it sounds like that might be what you're dealing with however the hat man usually is is described as again it's just a black outline you're not really seeing any details of his face or anything like that much like what you described but the hat the i guess the the shadow that it makes or the the image it makes kind of looks more like a fedora or something along those lines not the long the tall top hat that you're talking about like but abraham lincoln is often pictured wearing so now i don't know if there's if there's a correlation between those two or not but i just it's it's interesting that you would mention that that shadow people and with a hat and so i immediately thought of the hat man uh this next one comes from lisa hello i recently got on to spotify after the rogan bruhaha discovered your podcast and brother it is right up my alley i love everything about it i'm a 55 year old retired veteran and i worked security mostly over nights for many years before getting into pre-hospital medicine and enlisting as a medic well as retirement sometimes does it got boring after a while so i took a nice easy security job but a warehouse transfer facility for something to do when i say this place was big i mean cavernous the building covered 770 000 square feet it was three stories tall and there were 36 bays for semi trailers and three more bays for deliveries there was more acreage outside for empty trailers to park and freight to be dropped it was a secure facility which means that employees and vendors needed a badge to access the warehouse from any door there were cameras at all access points that were monitored from the security desk and in addition a computer program logged every key card entry and exit by name location and time down to the second no one came or went without it being logged and witnessed this is important no employees were on site on the weekends when i was scheduled now a lot of creepy things happened in this place the southeast corner had nothing in it but was boiling with dark energy it was a giant shadow man with a perfectly round head that took up the entire back wall and would glide back and forth and although it was directly in the path of three cameras never showed up on any of them i hear loud crashes like bins being pulled down onto the concrete floor but when i followed the sound everything would be neat in order sometimes i would simply walk in the doors to begin my walking patrol and the weight of being watched would be almost palpable one friday i was off fridays maintenance had to run two back backup generators all day and night for an inspection these things have their own rooms they can power a neighborhood they are loud when i walked in that saturday morning it was like being punched in the face whatever was in there was absolutely livid at being disturbed i guess i can only describe it as the air was angry top creepy unexplained event at this site i was walking my required hourly patrol route uh around the perimeter and checked the doors i'd already checked for the sixth time right in the middle of the floor where i'd already been an hour before placed perfectly right side up was a four inch rubber cable cap for scale about the size of a medium dq blizzard cup with a quarter inch thick walls it was no way for it to have gotten there on its own no one else was on site no one could have entered or left without me knowing about it or the cameras seeing it or the computer is logging it the air handlers were strong but not strong enough to pick up a heavy four inch rubber cable cap and carry it 20 feet from its bin and place it perfectly in my path if it was a gift i was careful to respectfully respectfully say thank you just in case and set it to the side so the cameras wouldn't see me take it two hours later in the exact same place was a white feather birds got in the warehouse from time to time so not too weird but in a same spot one hour later a piece of paper specifically one of the papers you peel off the back of an adhesive panel a pallet seal it was blank again placed perfectly in the center of the walkway no one had come or gone through any door and none of the cameras that were trained on that area or leading to it showed anything i wrote hello on the paper and set it back down the next hour it was gone i spent 10 minutes looking for it just gone creepy explained things the long steel cables on the bay doors would bang about in the winds and make that michael mayer's kill kill kill kill kill kill sound and because of the great acoustics would be definitely amplified there was one officer who flatly refused to go into the warehouse because an extra creepy thing was the aged cascading phone system that was connected to the administration building downtown if it rained reasonably hard which happened often enough the wires would cross and suddenly a random landline conversation between some nice office ladies would come booming over the warehouse pa that'll startle you out of your socks believe me this is long so feel free to edit for time and clarity thanks again for the best podcast i've ever come across yours in weirdness and darkness lisa northern indiana well i did not have to edit that for time or clarity because i think that was a great story just the way it is lisa that and i had no idea what i was getting into before i started reading it because that's the way i do fireside frights but that is amazing stuff i i'm curious about the idea that you wrote a hello on that note and then it was taken did did the note ever come back with something else written on it or have you did you ever try putting another piece of paper there with with a message and seeing if that disappeared i mean it looks like you almost had a possibility for a conversation there with whatever was in the building um and had did you ever go in and find um any like history to not necessarily the building because it sounds like it was a pretty new building but maybe like the area like the property it was built on or something like that was there anything that could possibly explain some of the weirdness that was taking place there and the idea that you would do that by yourself um you're the only one on the premises dealing with all of this stuff you are a brave individual you mentioned that you are a retired veteran so maybe that has something to do with it thank you for your service by the way um wow i don't understand you mentioned the whole spotify thing with the rogan brouhaha i know what you're talking about i never got the rogan rogan thing uh joe rogan i've i've tried listening and i could only get like four minutes into it i just got bored out of my skull i just can't get into the joe rogan thing so i don't know why why he there's such a whoop-de-doo about him and why there was a brouhaha so okay moving on let's go to uh this one comes from kirsten years ago my husband and i were expecting i was not home and our crib we got as a hand me down was in our dining room waiting for the baby to arrive my husband was alone in the house and he walked by the dining room to the kitchen and as he walked by he saw this figure standing over the empty crib it appeared to be a woman he heard her singing hush little baby he did a double take and then he looked at her again and she continued to sing and then he saw her look at him and he was so weirded out i think the crib was haunted because we never had any issues since thanks a big fan i am signed kirsten well uh why would you keep the crib you said that you think the crib was haunted but you didn't have any issues since then i would not have kept the crib to find out um or if i was going to keep it i definitely wouldn't put my baby in it that's for sure if you want to keep the crib put it in the garage or the basement or the attic or somewhere where it's out of the way but i would not be using it for a for my actual baby uh that is that's freaky stuff okay this one comes from joseph or joseph i'm gonna go with joseph it could be joseph but i think it's joseph and she she actually is extremely active on just about everything that uh i do on weird darkness she she comments on the youtube channel she uh she's an i think she's in the locals group the weird darkness uh dot locals dot com group in there she she comments there she is a patron uh she sends me emails she i think she's quite she's quite possibly the biggest weirdo i have so joseph thank you very much you are very much loved uh here's what she wrote hi darren i'm so happy for you you have to be ecstatic about being your own boss you deserve every bit of it okay before i go on with jozelle's um email here just to let people know i am now my own boss in fact this is the first week of me being uh self-employed completely i walked away from my from my real job which i'd been at for 10 years i've been in radio for 32 years um up until friday of last week that was my last day and now it's just the podcast and my voiceovers and that's it took a step of faith and decided to to do this full time and uh so far it's going great in fact there's some big things that have happened just in the last few days that i'm not allowed to tell you about just yet some things that don't even have anything to do with the podcast but the timing it's it can't be a coincidence for me to step away from doing something and taking a step of faith and then for certain things to happen um but i'll tell you about those once i i am able to but um i'd let's just say i've got confirmation that i truly believe confirmation from god that i made the right step okay anyway moving on now here's what jozelle wrote um i promised you a story this is absolutely true being i'm a sensitive i truly felt everything that happened in this dream i had this dream about five years ago it really frazzled me to the core it'll i will never forget so here goes and she calls it past future me not me one night my husband and i had gone to bed and i fell into a deep sleep all of a sudden i'm in another place and or time it's hard to tell if it's me i'm dreaming about or someone else so anyway i'm being drugged down a main street of some town the issue with this is i'm being drugged backwards i can't see my legs or arms just that it's happening very fast i can't see the person that's doing this to me either i can see people standing around just watching it happen while the whole time i'm yelling for help they just watch no one makes a move to help me all of a sudden the person makes a right up between some buildings the person's pulling me towards an 1800s style dilapidated old house i'm being pulled between wire fencing on both sides of me dirt's flying all around me and i'm still yelling for help now i'm totally freaking out and screaming help i'm being buried alive by then i wake myself up screaming help i'm being buried alive i woke my husband up screaming totally freaking out all i can say is i will never forget that dream ever it felt so real i've always wondered if it was precognitive or past i thank you darin for letting me tell my story keep up keeping on well thank you joseph um i don't have any opinions as to whether or not it's uh precognitive or past or if it's just a dream you mentioned that you are um what do you call yourself you call yourself a sensitive so i don't know there may or may not be something about it but i think we've all had those dreams that are just so realistic it's hard to explain them away as just a dream um i had one many many years ago but i don't know if i've ever told this on the on the podcast before or not um i had a dream that i was a father my in case you in case you uh you don't know my my bride and i we've been married now for 27 years we do not have kids we actually chose not to go that route but i had a dream that and i think i think i actually had the dream before robin and i got married so this was a long time back but i had this dream that i had a a child and the child looked so much like me when i was a little kid um maybe two years old three years old big giant smile uh orange hair uh just adorable little kid laughing and i was playing with him and i just loved him beyond loved him in this dream and i can't remember too much about what happened in the dream but what i do remember is my emotions waking up because something had been taken from me when i woke up it it i i can't i can't say that it actually felt like what a parent would feel like because i'm not a parent so i really can't say that for sure and i don't want i don't want to minimize that in any way if a parent was to lose a child but in my own in my own existence in my own um ignorance of being a parent the it felt like a child had been taken from me because suddenly now this child that i loved so much of my dream was gone and i literally cried when i woke up because i knew that i was never going to see that my son again and it was it was so powerful and it's still it's i mean i'm i'm telling you the story now because it's still so fresh in my memory even all even after all of these years because i felt that real and um you're probably going to ask well then why didn't you have kids someday and honestly we did we prayed about it and just decided that was not the right direction that we needed to go and i i'm sure that if we did go that route and have kids that weird darkness wouldn't exist because there's no way i would have been able to spend the amount of time in order to make this happen for so many years now before making it a full-time job and i probably wouldn't have been able to go into radio uh because that didn't really pay very well never did um so i mean one little choice in your life of course changes everything that happens after it that's the whole butterfly effect thing so i have no idea where i'd be today if i decided if we decided that we were going to have kids but still that doesn't change the fact that it just it felt so fresh that that wound was so deep at that time so yeah we all have those dreams that are so realistic and in fact that would actually be a great topic for a for an episode sometime if if you send me a send me a story for this is for anybody listening not just usual cell but anybody that had a dream so realistic that you had a hard time believing it wasn't real once you woke up i'd love to have those stories that would make for a great episode by itself okay moving on uh let me get a a sip real quick before i continue starting to run low on water we have to get a refill here soon all right this one comes from nina and i like the way that she spells her name it's an i i and a i've never seen a nina with two eyes like that it's pretty cool uh she says dear mr marlar i love listening to weird darkness and have recommended it to everyone i know who fancies the weird the below is a true story about an occurrence that both my daughter and i had my name is nina and i don't care if i do or don't receive any credit for telling my story if you feel like mentioning me that's totally cool with me it was 2013 and the collapse of the housing market had completely taken its terrible toll on my husband in my finances we were regrettably forced to move in with my parents after a brief month another married couple often offered to split a house that they were renting with us they too had fallen on hard times when we asked about their former arrangement we were told that their previous roommate had died due to losing her battle with addiction unfortunately this is not the first time that we've had this occurrence with both family members and friends so we moved in with our four year old daughter this was an older house and my daughter's room was much further away from my and my husband's bedroom this may be terribly uncomfortable the couple that we uh that we house shared with seemed to not be battling with their addictions they seemed to enjoy the addictions the previous roommate had passed away in the bedroom that my husband and i shared still i grew increasingly more and more uneasy about my daughter's bedroom being on the opposite side of the house i assumed it was because of the loud music and all night every night of the roommate's constant flow of traffic one night my daughter rylan not her actual name begged me so much that i took pity and told her that she would sleep in the room with her father and i so we made our way across the house to her bedroom to get her pajamas once rylan opened the door to her bedroom i walked in behind her on the farthest side of the bedroom at the head of her bed stood a very tall shadow man my heart thudded hard and i felt the blood drained to my feet it literally seemed like i was bleeding to death from my brain i have never been so terrified in my entire life two tiny hands gripped my knees from behind me and i realized that rylan had run behind me to my complete astonishment i heard my voice speaking it was calm and authoritative it's okay rylan without taking my eyes off of the shadow i reached my arm behind me and felt my fingertips brush against the light switch on the wall in a fraction of a second the darkened man dropped to the ground and crawled on all fours from the head of the bed down to the foot and behind a curtain there was a window directly at the foot of the bed the speed of this creature was inhumanly fast by the second that the room flooded with light the shadow man had vanished completely i ran over to the bed and pulled up the comforter from the bed there was nothing underneath no mom he went behind the window curtain rylan cried i know that sweetheart i wanted to show you under the bed first see he's nowhere to be seen i answered her again behind the curtain nothing was there rylan began to shake violently with that i hugged her tightly and then i grabbed those pajamas triple fast and ran out of that room my daughter never slept in that room again at that time i was not walking with my savior jesus christ i attribute that shadow creature bowing his knees and hauling butt away to my little girl rylan had just given her heart to jesus at her grandparents church a few months before this occurrence he could not bear to be in the presence of the light inside of my daughter i had the proof that many don't receive here was inevitable evidence that the prince of the air existed if there's demons then surely there is a devil again if the devil exists then so too must god i'm very glad today that jesus christ has freed me from the evil one we have the authority through the blood of jesus to cast out every demon they must go i'm still waiting for my heavenly father to allow my daughter to see the angel that he's given charge over her i think it's about time that she sees the other side now thank you for considering this for your show i sincerely appreciate everything that you do may god bless you and make everything your hands find to do prosper your sister nina well thank you nina great to have another weirdo in christ listening and yeah you know what the faith of little children is so powerful um i won't i won't get into that but uh there there are stories that you hear a child say something or pray something and there's just so it's just so heavy with with emotion and truth and insight and wisdom and so yeah i could totally see how a demon might have some issues with a child who knows jesus uh walking into the room um but that being said you said you were you weren't really working with jesus at the time but you had given your life to him so you had a little light in you as well too it's just that uh you weren't showing it nearly as brightly as you're a little girl but man that's that is great and yet yet with the with the past in that house with somebody dying of addiction and the darkness and the parties and everything going on in there it wouldn't surprise me that some sort of demonic presence would be there i'm very very glad that you were there to help your little daughter and that you got her out of there and i'm hoping that you moved out of there shortly thereafter you don't say you did but i'm i'm sure you did this next story comes from linette hi darin i listened to your podcast regularly and just love it i was listening to a january 2022 upload about hitchhikers and it reminded me of an experience i had as a young adult several too many years ago and thought i'd share i have other stories from living in a haunted house however i'll leave them for another time i was driving in a remote part of our country late at night or excuse me a remote remote part of our county late at night i live in southern west virginia so almost everything is remote it was raining and as i drove i saw a guy walking on the same side of the road that i was on when he looked back i immediately thought that it was a friend of mine i wouldn't want my friend walking late in the rain so i as a quick decision decided to pull over and see if you wanted to ride normally i would say that me being a girl wouldn't be relevant however considering this guy was about six foot two and i'm five foot three in this story i feel that it's important to fully understand it anyway i pull over and the guy came up and opened the passenger side door i said hey i want to ride he leans in and says sure thanks as soon as he leaned over to get in i immediately knew this was not my friend i mean this guy looked like my friend long hair large build but carrying a bible i silently scolded myself for being so stupid at this point my only two options were to pull off with the guy hanging halfway out of the car or go ahead and give him a ride i chose the latter as we drove we made small talk i don't remember the entire conversation since after he made this statement i couldn't think of anything else he says he had just gotten out of prison for murder that day and was heading to the house of his elderly couple just at the bottom of the mountain to thank them for bringing the word of god to the prison he said that they'd been instrumental and is coming to christ and he wanted to thank them personally i pretty much stopped listening after he said prison for murder but responded with something like oh that's great or something i'm sure equally as awkward he explained that they didn't know he was coming since he wanted to surprise them and hoped that they were at home about that time he said i could let him out at the next cross street and i did he thanked me for the ride and politely got out in the rain i pulled off thanking the good lord that i had survived what could have turned into a terrible situation i considered calling the police but couldn't think of what i would say yeah i picked up and released a convict looking for the house of the couple who brought him to the lord and have no idea who they are who he was or where he went but please come check it out yeah that wouldn't work so instead i just listened to the news and watched the paper i never saw anything about something happening to anyone thank goodness this guy could have been the best guy in the world or me could have still been a murderer i'll never know but i do know i left that encounter with a newfound understanding of how dangerous it could have turned out to be long story short i don't pick up hitchhikers anymore whether i think i know them or not thanks for listening to my story love you and your show god bless lanette thank you very much i appreciate that and i would be torn in that situation being a born-again believer myself i would want to believe the guy uh that he's that he you know he found god in in prison and that he's actually going to thank those people but yeah hearing those words that that he used to be a murderer or that he was in prison for murder right then and there you have to think okay well even if you are godly now you've got a really dangerous past behind you and i don't know if i want you in my car so i'll be just because somebody uh finds god doesn't mean that they're perfectly safe uh not not all the time uh that that that would be scary so i'm really glad that it worked out for you and um not well for you but also for the for the old people for that he was going to see that because obviously worked out for them too because there was nothing in the paper and so nothing happened wow i do have one last story let me take a real quick sip before we go on with it before i get to this last story though i do need to let you know that this is not only the last story for the episode but the last story that i have at all for fireside frights i was able to use all of them that i've received over the last month for this episode but that means that i don't have any stories at all moving forward so if something has happened to you or someone you know if you want to send in your story i would love to receive it and use it in our next fireside frights episode it's very rare that i turn one down um that would only happen if i start reading it and realize that i can't understand the thing that's being said i looked them over very briefly for that before putting them in i try not to read them um in detail because i like to read them uh on the spur of the moment for you on fireside frights but i do check to see if there's any grammar or capitalization if everything's a run-on sentence then i'll just drop them off to the side and and not use them but that being said if you want to send me your stories i could definitely use them for the next fireside frights and and uh and future ones as well so just go to weirddarkness.com click on tell your story and you can send in your stories and there's a possibility we're not sure yet but there's a possibility we might actually make these into a book series in the near future for uh like like a fireside frights book series through weird darkness uh debating it right now more more information about about that to come if we decided to go that direction but there's a possibility that your your story would actually end up in a book uh okay here we go the very last story for the evening it's from CJ hey darin my name is CJ and i'm from northern california i'm 25 and i currently work as a senior roughneck on a drilling rig and your podcast helps me get through the long and tiring work shifts since i work 12 to 18 hour shifts on both days and nights although being in rural isolated areas on the rig i've seen and heard some of the most bizarre sometimes most terrifying and unexplainable experiences as well as even a handful of paranormal experiences while growing up and i'd love to send some of these stories to you and the rest of the weirdos later on but this story isn't about one of them well aren't you the ts cj so give me that whole paragraph about how you have all these great stories to tell but no i'm not going to tell any of those right now i'm going to tell you something else so hopefully you will come back with those stories in the future cj okay moving on he continues to write from 2018 to 2020 i was a co in southern nevada working as a category three peace officer in the nevada state prison system i've seen a lot of things and had a lot done to me in 2020 i was diagnosed with ptsd post traumatic stress disorder and was medically separated from my department that led me to start heavily drinking and even to the point of drinking so much just to fall asleep my experiences began about a month after i was separated and moved myself to bullhead city arizona to give myself a new start in life i was even giving a given a maintenance job at the the apartment i was living at and i thought it'd be a fresh start that i'd need but boy was i wrong one night i had just put away a bottle of jd and was settling down for the night that was when i heard footsteps coming up the stairs and a knock at my door i thought to myself who the heck is knocking at my door at 11 p.m so i walked up to my door and looked through the people to my surprise no one was there strange i thought to myself so i walked back to my bed laid back down and about five minutes later it happened again so i followed my same routine as before and yet still no one was there now thinking someone's messing with me or someone's trying to lead me to open the door and possibly rush my home i was getting irritated and honestly a little worried now i'm feeling sober and on alert i laid back down and just as my head hit the pillow the knock came again i immediately reached for my glock 19 9 millimeter and racked around ran to the door put the hand with the firearm behind my back and flung the door open into my amazement no one was there i did however feel a rush of cold wind hit me like a freight train it's cold i thought as i shut the door and locked it i dropped the magazine and unloaded the chambered round and put my handgun back into my lockbox in my nightstand i laid my head down and slowly fell asleep that night i had the most terrifying dream i have ever had at that point in my life i was back in uniform walking the segregation unit the sounds of the inmates where that were everywhere which was common all of a sudden the lights went out and everything went quiet one single light loomed over the top tier i looked around and then up that's when i saw a figure standing looking over the railing and it looked like just a black mass with massive white eyes i remember yelling inmate get down here and cuff up all of a sudden it smiled these sharp looking teeth and its eyes began to glow an amber red i immediately reached for my weapon a standard law enforcement retractable baton called an asp and deployed it with a sickening three clicks as the baton shot out of its handle as i snapped my arm and wrist down at a 45 degree angle just as it deployed the thing jumped off the top tier and landed on me with a terrifying growl and scream i woke up in a startle sweating immensely looking around that's when i felt the burning on my hip i looked down to see a red bruise had formed there what uh i thought to myself i called a friend who i knew was a sensitive and took her abilities extremely serious she came over and wouldn't even walk through my door she looked at me cj what in the world if you allowed in your home i looked at her in shock what do you mean i asked i i can't go in there i'm sorry i'd ask for a change of apartments if i were you and that was it she just walked quickly down the stairs and i swear i heard her tires screech as she took off back to her hometown that was shocked what in the actual hell i just looked around my apartment and felt defeated i just wanted a new start i thought to myself as i felt the tear hit my cheek this experience was the start of months of dark disturbing and terrifying nightmares one i remember is a deep and gargled voice telling me one night your mind and soul are weak you will soon be mine my ptsd anxiety and yes sadly my drinking heightened and got worse to the point that i felt like there was only one way for it to end my now ex-girlfriend actually called me the moment i was getting ready to do the deed and knew something was wrong she immediately came over and being sensitive herself she started to slowly move in with me to help me start making changes we moved apartment buildings on the same property and we had a great beginning that was until the night things started happening outside of my dreams one night in september of 2020 we were laying in bed when i heard a sickening crash come from the living room i immediately go for my handgun and flashlight i flip on the light placing my hand under my wrist that was holding the firearm and began checking each corner closet and room in the apartment yelling out i have a gun come out now and nothing will happen the police are being called now out of the corner of my eye i see a flash of black darker than the darkness around me run past me i turned on its i turned it in its direction and nothing was there i went towards the living room light switch and flipped it on i saw absolutely nothing but a couple of pictures that had been thrown across the room one of them being my late canine partner jed i broke down in tears months before jed saved my life while we were off duty and on a run when a drunk driver jumped the curb and he pushed me out of the way and took the impact himself my partner my four-legged furry brother my baby boy and my best friend died in my arms that day giving me one last lick on the face before finally being at rest this event that night didn't just sadden me it enraged me the picture on and his collar were all that i had left of him and whatever was messing with me trying to hurt me knew this picture would get to me at that moment i knew it was time to go to battle my ex and i set up to move in december things happened and we broke up i knew my last two months in the apartment i was going to have to deal with it alone i began reading about spiritual protections prayers symbols anything that could get me through it and hopefully keep the activity at ease everything i did only enraged the thing from glasses flying off the counter to objects being flipped over or thrown all over the house to waking up with cuts and bruises on my body while sleeping to seeing the dark figure out of the corner of my eye to hearing a deep voice say my name and a whisper by my ear my depression and anxiety were taking a mental toll on me i felt myself get closer to where i was in the last apartment that was until my second to last night in the apartment i woke up around 2am for some reason jed's collar was laying next to me weird that's supposed to be packed away i looked at my bedroom door a dark figure with amber red eyes was looking at me smiling standing in the doorway slowly it began to walk towards me i grabbed from my handgun and flashlight all of a sudden i heard what sounded like a bark and growl and a smaller four-legged entity began to manifest itself out of the corner of the room it rushed the bigger entity with one final growl from the smaller entity it made contact and both disappeared i looked around the room flipped on my nightstand light nothing was there i got this overwhelming feeling of relief and light and i began to cry did jed just come back and save my life once again i clenched his collar and laid back down and fell into a heavy sleep whispering jed that was you thank you buddy you always were my protector i love you a couple days later i loaded up my gmc pickup and the trailer and headed down to northern california i placed jed's collar on my rear view and didn't even look back although i still struggle daily with my own demons i want to thank you darron and thank the weird darkness community you all have helped me overcome a lot of my mental issues and have helped me have a lot more light in my life so here's a little turnaround for you darron now that we're done with the darkness i'm gonna leave you all with a little light god gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers keep the faith and keep pushing forward no matter how hard it gets always remember you are never out of the fight god bless darron and god bless weird darkness what a way to end tonight i had no idea that was going to be the last story all i knew is that it was a long story and so i saved it for the end but i had not read it yet what a way to end tonight cj thank you so much man that is an incredible story incredible um i don't know about pet ghosts but man how else do you explain that it was either jed or or god sending you something that looked like jed to to save you that night who knows maybe maybe angels can come in the form of dogs i don't that is that is an incredibly crazy but uplifting story wow and i'm so thankful that you're still with us that you were able to get that uh that help that you needed um and i don't know if you got that from the hope in the darkness page at weirddarkness.com or where you got it and i don't care as long as you've got it that's the important thing but stories like yours just show that much more how important it is that there is some resources for people that they can reach out and get the help that they need and that's what we have on the hope in the darkness page there's the seven cups app there there's um ifred.org who uh they do a lot of stuff uh to help people who um who have depression they're more of a research and education type of situation so um they're helping people in the early days and also the people that know them um but the seven cups app is great if you do have depression right now and you just need to talk to somebody or if you're looking for like a support group online again it's all free and then of course there's the suicide prevention lifeline that's there um if you're feeling like maybe you're gonna hurt yourself if you're if you're contemplating taking that last step um please don't please call them first and and let them talk to you and uh give you a bit more perspective on life before you take that that plunge so but that's it for the night folks thank you so much for listening if you like the show please share it with somebody you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories true crime monsters unsolved mysteries and please leave a rating and review of the podcast in whatever podcast app you're listening in doing that does help the show to get noticed and you can also email me anytime with your questions and comments through the website at weirddarkness.com and like I mentioned we are needing more stories for next month's fireside frights I'm completely out at this point so click on tell your story when you go to weirddarkness.com and send in your true story and again I mentioned earlier that I think it'd be great as people sent in those dreams that were so realistic that you had a hard time believing that they weren't real when you woke up I would love to see some of those we could make an entire episode out of just those uh some time uh all stories in weird darkness are purported to be true unless dated otherwise weird darkness is a production and trademark of barlar house productions copyright weird darkness and now that we're coming out of the dark I'll leave you with a little light Proverbs 15 verse 3 the eyes of the Lord are everywhere keeping watch on the wicked and the good and although CJ did give us a final thought that was great I already had one planned us all share it with you madam Jean Guyon said if knowing answers to life's questions is absolutely necessary to you then forget the journey you'll never make it for this is a journey of unknowables of unanswered questions enigmas incomprehensibles and most of all things unfair I'm Darren Marlar thanks for joining me in the weird darkness