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Parental discretion is strongly advised. Welcome weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. This is a fireside frights episode where I've put away all of the music, the sound effects, and fancy production, it's just you, me, this campfire, and whatever sounds nature wants to give us in the background. 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. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. We'll begin our fireside frights with a story from Samantha. The story is she titles it Who Is Upstairs? To set up the story, you need to know a few things, she says. I don't personally believe in spirits, per se, but I am open-minded and believe there is something strange in the world. My father doesn't believe in spirits at all, he is a very logical man. That being said, if you presented him with solid evidence, he would not dismiss it. Even without the belief, my dad is careful. He won't mess with Ouija boards or any of that stuff and when he was buying our house, he straight up asked the realtor if the place was haunted or if anyone had died in it. Well, Samantha, it sounds like your dad kind of is a believer, if he's asking those kind of questions. Okay, anyway, the answer to both of those questions was no and we've lived here now for over 15 years. We moved in when I was fairly young, I had two weird things happen to me, years apart. I don't know if they're paranormal, but they were certainly unusual. The first happened when I was probably about 13 or 14. Our house is a bungalow with stairs right inside the door that lead down to the basement. It's kind of our rec room with our TV and game consoles. We've always had great sound systems. We love things with heavy bass or really cool sounds, so one weekend I decided to stay home while my parents and older brother went to town. It's a chance to blast some awesome music. Now since it's the summer, most of the windows are opened. The patio door is open and the door is open, leaving the screen door closed. As many people do, we use the door on the side of the house, not the very front. That one stays closed and locked most of the time. But I live in a fairly safe place. You don't really have to worry about leaving your door unlocked, so here I am listening to my music way too loud when suddenly I hear the door slam shut. I pause the music and listen. I'm confused. I know I heard it. When that door is slammed shut, it makes a very distinct sound. It was definitely my door and it was too loud to be the neighbor's door. Maybe my family's home, but I don't know why they would close the inside door. I listen for another moment and don't hear them. I figure maybe the door is slammed shut on its own. There was some wind and perhaps the open windows caused a cross breeze. Oddly enough, I didn't even think about it being an intruder at first. Instead of leaving it at that, I decided to look up the stairs. I stop at the bottom and look up. The door is wide open. I just stare at it. I know I heard it slam and with that sound, it would have shut for sure and been unable to reopen on its own. I slowly ascended the stairs, weary. I look all around the house, not a single person but me. I'm on edge now, so to make myself feel better, I close and lock the door, both the deadbolt and the lock on the handle. Though I don't close anything else, I feel more at ease. I go back downstairs and resume my music. Not five minutes later, I jump at the sound of the door slamming again. I sit there heart racing. There's no way. I run to the stairs. The door is shut. I go and check it, but it is still locked. It was definitely that door. The sound was too loud to be anything else. I go back downstairs, but don't restart my music. Eventually, I relax enough to continue watching stuff and I don't hear the door again. Fast forward to now, nearly ten years later. Yes, my brother and I still both live at home. No judgments. Housing is super expensive right now where I live and my family has always been close, so we were never pressured to move out. We help with chores and bills and groceries so our parents don't mind. This only happened a few weeks ago. It was another weekend. I was downstairs again half asleep on the couch. My brother is upstairs in his room and my parents are out running errands. I get a text from my dad about supper. I reply and start to doze again. A few minutes later, I hear movement upstairs in the kitchen, which is what you have to go through to get to the bedrooms from the door. I hear the door open and shut. I assume it's my brother. My dad probably messaged him to come give them a hand with taking things in. I'm a little confused because the text my dad had sent before made it sound like they hadn't gotten supper yet, so I didn't expect them home yet, but still I grab my phone waiting for him to send me a text as well, asking for a hand. Nothing. I hear the door again. This time I hear talking. Now, I'm still sleepy, but I recognize what I believe is my mom talking to my brother. They talk for a while, more movement than the door again, and quiet. My next line of thinking is, okay, mom was tired or not feeling the best and got dad to take her home, and now he and my brother are going back for food. It's happened before. I remembered the text my dad had sent me saying my brother was getting food at the same place I was and was it okay to use my card because it was already in the restaurant's app. I'd replied a quick yes and put my phone down, but I looked back again and I was right. They should not be home yet. So I text him, are you home? He replies with, no, why? I think for a minute before asking, are you really or are you home and just saying that? We like to joke around, so maybe he's pretending that he's not and will walk in the door a moment later. He says no again and tells me where he is, which would have been at least 20 minutes from our house or more depending on traffic. So I go upstairs. Nothing looks odd. The door is closed. Then my brother happens to come to the kitchen for some water. I ask him, were you out here a little while ago? He replies with yes. So I ask him if he went outside or was talking with anybody or talking to himself. He said he didn't go outside or even open the door and he was humming to himself but wasn't talking. I tell him what I heard and he's confused too since mom obviously wasn't here and he has not seen anyone. He doesn't even sound like her and I would not mistake the two, even half asleep. I am very unsettled now. When they do get home I tell my dad knowing he won't believe it's paranormal and I'm not sure I do either but knowing something was weird and I couldn't explain it. My mom had not come home early. She was with my dad the whole time and they didn't call my brother or anything so why did I hear her voice and who was coming in and out of the house? If one I heard was real someone would have still been inside and my brother certainly would have seen them if someone had randomly walked in. It could have been a sort of dream from being half asleep but after the first time I heard the door I had woken myself up because I thought I would have to go upstairs. To this day I don't know how to explain either of those instances and maybe I never will. That's a great entry there Samantha. That is some creepy stuff. Interesting that happened to you ten years apart though. I would think if you had a haunted house you'd see stuff like this more often, that first time and then maybe a few weeks later or a few months later but a whole ten years before this entity or whatever it is decides to show its head again that's kind of strange. I will say that I don't know if you heard that it's my phone going off that's okay I'll catch that later. I will say this is a perfect reason to have a home security system because at least if you have a security system you know at least if you have a security system you know that somebody's walked into the house because that door would open and it would trigger the security system unless you've got a smart ghost that knows the code to your security system I don't know but that is some freaky stuff there Samantha. I bring up the security system because today March 17th 2023 is the first day for a new sponsor for us it's ADT and they're actually giving away free home security systems. All you have to do is go to WeirdDarkness.com slash ADT and you can learn more about that I'm not going to push it right here right now just wanted to mention it because they're a new sponsor and I'm pretty excited about it so that's WeirdDarkness.com slash ADT thank you for the story Samantha that was really good. Our next story comes from Jeff he says hey there Darren I want to tell you a true ghost story from my childhood it's pretty cool. My parents divorced when I was still a baby and he lived out of state thus I grew up not knowing my father or having a father figure at all. When I was about 11 years old I cried to God one night to please please bring my father into my life I cried about my father like I never had before. To my utter surprise and amazement two weeks later I came home on a Sunday after spending the weekend at my great aunt and uncles and was told by my mother that my father had moved back to Michigan and was living in his hometown. This was only a few towns away from where we lived. My mother told me that my father wanted to talk to me and to see me she said it was my choice that after never writing not ever sending a birthday or Christmas card she would understand if I did not want to talk to him or see him but I did and so I called. He wanted to take me snowmobiling with my two half brothers both of whom were several years younger than me. I had met my father his second wife and my two half brothers once over a weekend with his parents when I was eight. I was excited to go snowmobiling with my father and two brothers my great grandparents on his side had both died a few years ago at that time they lived on a large farm in Alma Michigan. I was not especially close to them but I did spend a fair amount of time there when I would go to stay at my father's parents house. When my great grandparents passed my uncle took possession of the house and it said that we could use the snowmobiles that were in the barn there. The day was cold but we had a lot of fun racing across huge bare farm fields. My father and I each drove a snowmobile and my two younger brothers took turns on who they rode with as they were too young to drive a snowmobile by themselves. I was literally days away from turning twelve and had grown up riding small dirtbikes and three and four wheelers. When we returned to the farm at dusk we ended up deciding to explore the barn. I'm not sure whose idea it was as we explored we began to feel uneasy and a bit unnerved. We found rooms that were walled off both upstairs and in the ground floor. We could see furniture and items strewn about these rooms by shining lights in through cracks in the walls. We couldn't understand why they would leave things in the rooms yet board them up. We could only suppose that the rooms had been boarded up because the floors above them had become unstable and unsafe and therefore they walled off both the upper and lower floors in that area to keep people safe. But this did not explain why they did then not clear the rooms out before walling them off. At any rate night had fallen by the time we left. A large bright full moon shined brightly in the sky. It made the snow and ice shine and sparkle. Above us on a hill that overlooked the farm all the lights in the house were on and my dad explained that my uncle had put timers on the lights so as to deter people from breaking in or snooping around the farm. We got into my father's car and left to head back to town which was about a fifteen to twenty minute drive. When we got back to town my father took us to McDonald's where we went through the drive-thru. My father ordered our food and we had made it a little past the pay window and my father exclaimed Crap! We remembered to lock up the barn but we left all the lights on. We were going to have to drive back out there. So after we got our food we headed back out to the distant old farm. Once we arrived at the farm and my father was driving down the hill to the big barn he said Okay Travis and Ryan you two stay in the car. Jeff and I are going to run in and turn out the lights. My young mind comprehended at that moment was that my father big and loud mouthed as he was was also still a bit creeped out and didn't want to go into the barn by himself. A design flaw with the old barn was that where the main entrance was was also a large room away from the row of light switches and so my father and I crossed the room and my father lit his lighter before he flipped the lights off. This did little to illuminate the room but the bright moon outside clearly marked the doorway we had to reach. When we exited the barn I walked towards the cars my father turned to lock the deadbolt on the door. I was surprised to see both my brothers standing outside the car in the cold night air staring up towards the house on the hill. I almost reached the car when my dad asked my brothers from behind me why the heck are you standing out in the cold? Get back in the car! As a response to my father instead of getting in the car one of my brothers pointed up at the house and asked, Dad, who is that? I looked up towards the house at the same time my father did. I was shocked and dumbfounded because there near the large tree my great grandfather used to love sitting by stood a man who had been dead for four or five years by this time. I turned to look at my father who had also turned to look at me with huge eyes and asked in a low, unsteady voice, is that who I think it is? And my father said to me, that's grandpa. We stared at each other for a few seconds and then looked back up towards the hill in the spot where we had seen my great grandfather standing but no one was there. My father asked, where did he go? My two younger brothers both said they didn't know. My father had seemed was not going to or did not want to except the clearly paranormal event that had just taken place. He stated that we needed to go up to the house and make sure no one was snooping around or trying to take anything. We walked up the driveway a ways and then cut into the deeper snow. To our astonishment and amazement there were no footprints anywhere on the hill where we had seen the man standing. My father still in disbelief went to the house and began knocking on the door. When that brought no one he instructed my brothers and I to go with him around the house and to look in all the windows and see if we could see anybody inside. But we saw no one and all the snow around the house was pristine and untrampled or walked on. The only tracks in the snow that night were our own. After we'd gone around the entire house and checking to see if any windows would open or could see anyone inside, my father was still determined that we had without a doubt seen a man standing on the hill looking down on us and that he could just not disappear. And so ignoring our statements to my father about there being no footprints in the snow and we were now freaked the heck out, my father told us to stay there on the hill that he was going to go check the cellar. Flicking his trusty lighter my father went down into the basement slash cellar below that ancient farmhouse and returned after a few minutes. He found no one and no evidence that anyone had been down there. My father was then determined to get off that farm post haste and he raced precariously on these slippery country roads. I thought for sure we were going to get into a ditch but we didn't and I got home safely. About a year and a half after that I stopped talking to my father and began avoiding going to even stay at his parents house so I didn't have to chance meeting him. I was hanging out with him though when I was 18 and we were smoking a bit of weed and I asked my dad do you remember that night we went snowmobiling years ago and we saw grandpa's ghost. My father looked over at me and his eyes were big like they had been that night and he told me he'd never been able to forget that night. One thing my father said really unnerved him was that neither of my brothers had ever met my great grandparents so it's not like we could all psych ourselves up and expect to see him and share like a group vision or something nor was it the sharing of a collective memory. My father said he could find no way to explain it other than it being my grandfather's ghost. My father passed away back in 2010 but my brothers are still alive and I'd like to ask them if they remember that day. I'm 44 years old now and it's something that I've never forgotten and likely never will. I may even try to find that old farmhouse someday. Jeff that is a really cool story and I see why you said that it's a pretty cool story rather than a creepy story. It's a ghost so yeah it's gonna creep some people out and I can understand why your dad and you and your brothers were a little bit creeped out at the time but that's gotta be your great grandfather and my guess is the reason he showed up then even in front of your other brothers who had never met him I'm just guessing that your great grandfather was pleased to see all of the men in your family together doing something together. That's something that parents and grandparents long to see. They do want to see their kids they want to see their grandkids they want to see the extended family but having everybody there at the same time is something that they cherish. We did that for my dad last Father's Day and it was it was just it was really special. I've visited my dad separately my brother has visited my dad separately and my brother has has a son so that would be my dad's grandson visiting him but it is extremely rare that we are all in the same place at the same time and we made an effort last Father's Day to do that and we surprised him with that and it just meant the world to him because he had both of his boys and his grandson all there at the same time so I'm guessing that's probably why your great grandfather showed up kind of kind of his way of saying you know what I approve of this but it's too bad that you and your dad didn't get along after that and you kept hanging out with him. I don't know what happened there it's done in my business but it's it's just it's sad because I know how much I love my dad and he's not doing all that well and one of these days I know you know he's gonna be in heaven I mean that's just the way it is for all of us we we all have you know we all have that that death sentence hanging over us no matter what time it is but it's gonna be really hard when my dad passes away and especially after after moments like that where I'm hanging out with him and my brother and my nephew and yeah it's it's it's gonna be tough so it's too bad it's too bad you weren't able to repair things with your dad but hopefully he's in a better place now looking down on you and is proud of who you are and what you've been doing in your life. I got that text earlier and I just now looked down at it turns out Lance Reddick from Fringe if you remember that show apparently he passed away he was 60 oh man Lance Reddick was a great actor yeah my my wife is inside watching the news and so she quite often will text me while watching the news say hey this happened this happened this happened because she doesn't I guess she doesn't trust me to listen to my podcast news and uh and get everything that's important like like an actor passing away apparently I'll see Lance Reddick and other things not just Fringe but that's that was like the first first thing that we saw him in Robin and I were watching Fringe together and he was just so great in that role sad day and 60 is way too way too young to uh to lose an actor okay our next story comes from while she signs that creepy stuff happens everywhere so we'll just call her creepy I've been sensitive to energies ghosts my whole life every house I've ever lived in has housed spirits for now I'd like to talk about the house I grew up in but the most part everyone residing there knew that there was something strange going on in and around our house I didn't know however just how many visitors knew until much later in life to begin this ghostly journey to the past my mom was one who didn't see hear or feel what the rest of us did I was terrified for basically my whole childhood and pretty sure I never slept is I've grown up possessing the ability to see hear and feel ghosts and other spirits that are present I've gotten used to them and they no longer terrifying me but I find them to be more intriguing with that let's get into the strange and unusual growing up it was myself my two older brothers my mom dad sometimes as he was a truck driver and gone a lot and my grandma moved in with us when I was 12 after my grandfather passed away my cousins would come stay with us in the summer and a lot of our friends were there often we lived in a two-story house and while sitting in the living room you could always hear footsteps upstairs if you walked out onto the front porch to the right was our front door which went into the dining room if you walked straight there was another door which went into our living room we didn't use the ladder as it was blocked by the sofa in the living room but we did hear knocking on it frequently at first we look out to see who was knocking but after a while we just stopped checking because there was never anyone there and one of my brother's friends started knocking on it to startle us I happened to go look not expecting to see anything and that's in my fear when someone was actually standing there another time my brothers and I were telling my grandmother we noticed her wait uh telling my grandmother that we noticed her waving to us as we waited for the bus that morning she looked confused when she told us that she wasn't even awake at that hour I was late in bed trying to fall asleep when I heard a knock coming from inside my closet we did have pets but I did not want to look in my closet so I went downstairs instead in search of my pets and my brothers I was hoping to find one of them missing the brother may be playing a joke on me they would have done something like that unfortunately all was accounted for I chose to sit on the sofa until I was too tired to keep my eyes open my mom and dad's bedroom was at the end of the hall as you went up the stairs and I dread when my mom sent me to her room for something the doorknob would turn every time just before my hand would touch it eventually I ended up sleeping in this room with my grandmother because we had too many people living there and not enough bedrooms now and then we would feel the bed shaking no one believed us when we told them my brother would frequently find his class ring in the refrigerator and things would disappear at random one day we came home from school and saw someone in the upstairs window of the storage room a room off the bedroom that my brothers shared so we ran up the stairs to see what my parents were up to to our surprise there was no one home we looked all over and all agreed that there had to be there that they had to be there somewhere we all saw them and someone in the window one night my mom and grandmother were at my aunt's which was about an hour north from us I was trying to sleep the radio in the room was changing stations on its own as it often did the bed started shaking continuously and if that wasn't enough I saw a white figure coming from the walk-in closet I was terrified I couldn't even move and then I talked to it thinking it might actually be my grandfather checking up on grandma I told him that they were at my aunt's and that they'd be back soon it didn't go away and the bed continued to shake finally I got the nerve to run down the stairs where my sister-in-law said that I looked like I just seen a ghost I simply said I just did jump ahead about 25 years or so the house has been torn down I stopped there where it used to stand on a trip to visit my mom the yard looks smaller and there is one plant I don't know what it was growing in the area where the house once stood I walked the grounds of the yard even checking the ditches but it wasn't growing anywhere else in or near the yard I then stood in the space where the house once stood I felt a deep sadness and loneliness it was heartbreaking I felt like the spirits were still there and maybe didn't know where to go I told them they had to move on that their dwelling had been torn down and wished them peace a few years later I went back to find there was nothing left when I stood where the house once stood I felt nothing I hope they found peace and more so I hope they crossed over I'm not much of a storyteller I hope this isn't too hard to read I have lots of stories from my life concerning strange things ghosts and even a demon what I believe to be a demon if you'd like to hear them I love the Weird Darkness it's the best podcast I've listened to so far I hope you can use this for fireside frights or anything else that's fitting signed creepy stuff happens everywhere well obviously it is good enough for fireside frights because I just shared it so thank you very much for sending it in creepy uh yeah I've always wondered what it's like to be a sensitive person like you who who has the you know the the intuitive nature sometimes I'm a little bit jealous of people like you but then I don't know if I'd actually be able to handle having that with me all the time it would be great to have it like in times of danger like you get that spidey sense you know that'd be nice but to be able well like you like you mentioned walking where your house was and you could feel the sadness there I don't know if I'd want to walk around the world and whenever I just happened to pass by an area that something happened I would suddenly feel sad you know and then keep walking and suddenly that would go away and then a little bit later on I feel like maybe I feel anger or something you know and it would come out of nowhere because it was the it was the environment not me that it was that uh that was you know conjuring it up that would just be so that would be really difficult to grow up in especially if you're the only one if you're a kid like you mentioned you you had it as a kid um growing up and you know you were terrified for basically your whole childhood is what you said but then I guess I guess it became more refined as you grew up something along those lines and wow your house was busy not even just the spirit not just the paranormal and spiritual stuff I mean how many people did you have in that house holy cow you know let's see he's got you your two brothers your mom dad uh sometimes your dad uh grandma um so there there's six people right there in the house already your cousins would come stay with you during the summer who knows however many those are and you said friends would come over in the house I'm guessing you probably there were moments you had like 10 people living in the house that's just of course you're going to hear footsteps that's amazing uh I will say that that portion about the white entity coming out of the closet that that is creepy that that part as I was as I was watching this actually kind of gave me some goosebumps it reminds me of the scene of the white entity coming out of the out of the closet in the uh in the original movie poltergeist um and then the whole radio changing stations on its own reminds me of the static on the tv so it's almost like a scene out of poltergeist so anyway thank you very much creepy for sending that in I uh I greatly appreciate it okay this next one uh comes from Arturo he says hi Darren I love listening to your work and have debated writing or sharing some of my stories one challenge I faced while writing this was getting the English equivalents of certain Spanish words just right because I knew the listeners on the other side would understand more in English than in Spanish I hope my father's story can be featured on the podcast this comes from south Texas close to the border in Brownsville Texas but it takes place in Mexico well thank you for doing your best on getting this into English because I do not speak Spanish and if you give me a lot of Spanish words I'm gonna be I'm gonna have difficulties okay so here we go uh he calls this story tainted water summer is one of those special times and this happened to my dad when he was a boy visits to my dad's cousin's place in Mexico surrounded by mesquite trees and cacti make him forget the bright lights of rinosa even more imagine a sea of stars shining down from the sky visibility at night was scarce he smiled as he raised his hand and said the only other light you could see was a bright campfire in the distance I closed my eyes and imagined the logs as chairs since house furniture was limited if you had to go to the bathroom get to take a stroll to the outhouse so I asked my dad what they did around these campfires and what kind of stories they told he got a twinkle in his eye and said in Spanish everything but one night I had something very strange happen to me I moved closer to my seat because I was curious about what he meant or what he had seen he talked about his childhood but he didn't talk much about other paranormal things beyond the popular story of laurona it was a bit of a taboo in our culture to talk about the supernatural because it could make you seem weird he softly turned his head to look far away as if he were remembering something and letting out a secret it took a deep breath and said okay let me tell you about a night when something bad happened to me it felt so real and weird at the same time he said that night I went to the ranch to see my cousins the cousins and uncles who were older than me were still having fun so I slept in this little cabin the floor was made of cement and the walls were made of mesquite and adobe there were a few layers of blankets on the bed because it was cool but not freezing I was preparing to go to bed I kept my eyes shut mom was in the same room I kept looking at the door and I saw that there was a barrel of water right outside the door I swear I could see people drinking from this water but I couldn't tell if they were my uncles or older cousins playing a trick on me I told my mom that people were drinking the dirty water in a whisper this water was not clean so my mom told me to go to bed and not worry honestly this made me a little scared so I got out of bed to find out what it was as I did my dad said if they want to drink that water let them get the runs I turned my heels around and went to bed next morning I laughed as I asked who was thirsty enough to drink the stored rainwater the cousins looked at each other and said there was no one there we were still telling stories around the campfire at that moment I got chills and weird goosebumps all over my back I still don't know what I saw to this day I'll let you decide what he saw that late night in the ranch that cool summer night finished thank you Arturo you know the the stories are always so much cooler when they're told to you you know by the person that experienced them but when it's your own family that did that happen to and your dad if if he was as articulate in Spanish as you just were in English that would have been a great story to hear around the campfire definitely fireside frights genre definitely worthy of what we do here thank you for sharing that all right let's see here next one comes from Eli he says good afternoon Darren I love your podcast and listen on my work commute I believe you I believe you and the rest of the weirdos may enjoy some of my experiences I have several true experiences but I heard you say not to put them into the same email so I'll break them up these are the first two things I've always been what one might call open when I was seven my mom and I were heading back home from the store I remember telling her that her grandmother who was in a nursing home and pretty old was dying and would be in heaven the next day she didn't pay me much attention until her mother called the next day with news of my great-grandmother's passing the second time that I remember was about five years later when my aunt and uncle had invited all of us on a family trip to the coast for a week I used to get a tingly feeling in my lower teeth that I learned to associate with a feeling late at night while driving down to the vacation house I started getting the tingling in my teeth again so I learned to center myself and meditate on that feeling I don't know how I knew what I knew but I told my mom that we should turn around and go home I knew several of us would get sick and one would be hurt pretty bad she told me not to worry and to go and try and get some sleep a few days later almost all of the adults that went out to eat without the kids got food poisoning I stayed outside too long after the older kids locked the younger ones outside and received a third degree sunburn on my back my mom listened to my feelings after that trip thank you for letting me tell my stories until next time Eli well thank you Eli yeah please send your send your stories and sounds like all the adults there were drinking that that uh that that nasty rain water let's see this next one comes from Matt he says hello Darren I felt weird darkness about six months ago and I've been binge listening ever since I'm sending one of my many paranormal experiences I've had thank you for your awesome podcast and for the mental health resources that it provides signed Matt well thank you Matt uh you're very welcome I appreciate that so let's get to your story he says when I was a little boy my grandparents had a cookout one summer and the whole family was there along with many family friends my granddad grandma mom aunts uncles aunts uncles I keep going back and forth between aunts and aunts uh I keep telling myself well if I say aunts then how are they gonna how are they gonna know that it's not the insect but you guys are smarter than that and and being a Kansas boy aunts is the way we always said it and aunts almost almost sounds like I'm trying to be too formal like I'm putting on an air so all right my granddad grandma mom aunts uncles some family friends and their children Danny and Ronnie Danny was the oldest of the kids and was giving me and Ronnie a ride on my granddad's four-wheeler while the adults were drinking talking and grilling on the patio my grandparents house was in Chickham the Smoky Mountains region of Georgia Chickham the Smoky Mountain is that is that though is that a real place Chickham the Smoky Mountains region is that the name or is it just Chickham in the Smoky Mountains region whatever anyway um the way the property was set up the backyard extended about a hundred feet from the back of the house and then there was a steep hill down to a field the field was about 80 yards long with thick woods and bamboo thickets beyond that Danny was driving the four-wheeler and his brother in front of him and me sitting on the rack in front of the handlebars we were flying around the backyard down the hill around the field and back up again eventually Danny notices the mouth of a trail at the woods edge and asks if we want to explore the woods it's dark and eerie but Ronnie says yes and not wanting to be a baby I reluctantly agree Danny slowly starts to drive us into the woods and almost immediately I look up and see a single glowing red eye about 15 feet up in the dense canopy of the trees brush and bamboo it's staring directly at us and an overwhelming sense of doom fills every fiber of my being the evil is palpable I scream stop and Danny does I turn and look at Ronnie who has an expression of horror on his face he sees it too and begins to beg his brother to turn around we're both crying at this point Danny has no idea what's going on he keeps asking what what's wrong Ronnie and I both point to the eye in an instant Danny does a donut we are flying full throttle toward the house topping the hill so fast we become airborne all of us keep looking back expecting a monster a demon the devil himself something to be chasing us we make it to the backyard screaming crying terrified the adults all come running toward us what's wrong are you okay what's wrong the three of us exclaim frantically over each other the eye the red eye a monster the devil when we finally calm down enough to verbalize what we had seen my uncle walks to his truck and comes back with a rifle show me we walk toward the edge of the hill Danny Ronnie and I can all still see it the eye still watching us from the edge of the woods in the distance we point it out but my uncle can't see it it's not long before the rest of the adults walk over to meet us and we point the eye out to all of them but none of them see it either a granddad and uncle go to investigate Danny Ronnie and I wait and watch from the safety of the backyard as my granddad and uncle walk each with rifle in hand all the way down the hill across the field to the woods edge to the mouth of the trail the red eye is directly above them they turn back and look at us as this as if to ask if they're in the right spot we nod and point they look all around and eventually return saying there's nothing there you're imagining things in her best effort to comfort the three of us my grandma tells us maybe it was just a cardinal or a piece of trash stuck in the branches all the while we still see the evil red eye still filled with a sense of dread and doom I don't recall the rest of the evening I never saw the red eye again I also never went into that field again and certainly not the woods edge my grandparents eventually sold that house and moved to a larger property I'm 42 years old now and still no without a doubt the red eye was very much real and very much evil I'm thankful whatever it was it was unable to get us that day holy cow okay when you were telling the story at first Matt I thought maybe you and your friends were seeing a radio tower now the radio towers they could have a single red light if they're if they're a shorter radio tower I know this from being in radio for some for so long sometimes they can just have like a single light towards the top but they're supposed to be flashing so if your red eye was flashing then that's what I would have guessed it was but I'm guessing that it wasn't flashing but when you get to the point where the adults come in and they're looking right at the same place you are they're not seeing anything but you're still seeing the red eye okay well then the whole radio transmitter radio antenna thing is out the window so I have no idea what that was because you're right the adults should have been able to see it it's not like certain sounds where only younger people can hear them and and you get past those sounds that you get older because your ears start to go bad they actually have ring tones for like teenagers that only the teenagers can hear but your eyes don't work the same way as that especially not all the adults at the same time I can understand one of them may be getting glaucoma not being able to see but then they wouldn't be out there with a rifle either that is some creepy stuff Matt um I'm very curious as to what you experienced as well and you mentioned that that feeling of evil and while I was still thinking of the radio tower I was thinking okay well that's just your imagination scaring you and that's why you had that feeling of evil but once you got past that and you got the adults in there that feeling of evil okay yeah I totally get it man if you ever do find out what that is please let me know or somebody knows what that might be if you know of some sort of creature entity whatever that has that has a single red eye and can only be seen by the younger crowd I'd be interested in knowing what this thing is thanks again Matt this next one is sent from Darren well hey Darren it's Darren how you doing okay he says my family has a story about my great grandmother when she was close to passing away when my parents heard this they went to go visit and say their goodbyes at this point however my great grandmother M for short was kind of out of it so when my parents left my aunt went so when my parents left my aunt went in after them to say goodbye as well when my aunt went to talk to M M thought my aunt was my mother E for short then basically my great grandmother said E was going to have another baby and the baby was going to be a blonde girl fast forward some months later my aunt tells E what my great grandmother said turns out R was pregnant with my little blonde haired sister I typed this on my phone not sure if it's something fireside frights but I love the podcast listen to it all day at work well thank you Darren I appreciate it not one of the creepier stories but still interesting and entertaining and boy I mean dead bedside what do you call that death death bed confessions or one thing death bed predictions are something completely different and apparently your great grandmother nailed it okay this next one looks like they want to remain anonymous so that's what I'll call them hello Darren I emailed you before to say thank you for all you do and shared with you a photo I took of a supposed Sasquatch track I thought I'd take the time to share that full story with you should you choose to use this story I only ask you exclude my name not that this story isn't true rather I'd simply just be like to be left anonymous if at all possible I hope you understand now for the meat of the story before I get into the story I am really sorry I don't know what I did with that photo that anonymous sent to me he sent me the photo and I looked at it and it definitely does look like a real bigfoot track and not one of those that's in the dirt and it's very very obvious it's just the way it's the way that the the ground cover was was padded down and you could see the toes in it it definitely definitely looked like an actual bigfoot bigfoot photo that's gosh I wish I still had that if I could find it I'll post it up there on the website at WeirdDarkness.com in the Weird News section in the blog but I just I can't find it right now now I'm kicking myself for it but I'll tell you the story anyway he says you might notice I state the photo to be a supposed Sasquatch track there is a reason for this Nova Scotia Canada is not the first place one would think of when they hear of Sasquatch it seems rather off the general beaten path of other better known encounter accounts better known encounter accounts though it isn't that far from other supposed hotspots such as the woods of Maine or New Brunswick for that matter both these areas have a number of reports Nova Scotia itself is also no stranger to the weird and dark tales do you see what I did there supposed photos of Sasquatch were taken not far from from richwater Nova Scotia and even appeared on the television show paranormal caught on camera thus why would I class my photo or experience as supposed well to be honest instead it stems from some of the happenings involved which I will now explain the photo was taken in the fall of 2021 late October early November I am an avid though not successful deer hunter I've hunted 11 years and never bagged a deer shot squirrels rabbits ducks coyotes trapped raccoons and made a hat though dear I have not been of the greatest luck I've been living in the southern part of Nova Scotia since December of 2014 having moved there for my work I was a pastor for a small community church in the area one of the local families told me a sort of boggy clearing I should check out and I should have some luck in bagging a deer that year 2021 I was excited and clear today and time to go into the woods and reach the spot I don't own an ATV so my travels would be on foot given the area I'd be traveling I opted to take my Moserberg 512 gauge I had with me slugs buckshot and loads for small game I followed the only the old train track now now trail behind where I lived to where several worn deer trails branch off a snake to my way down a few following the directions I had and making note and there was a considerable deer sign in that area large numbers of tracks and even some scat gave me hopes that this might well be my year continued down the trail following some fresher signs and took an off route this was not a smooth trail the ground was rocky and broken thick with mud and moss and a few little creeks something many don't think of in regards to my home province Nova Scotia is a lot of rocky swamp land along the coasts and I love it though back to the story I followed the trail and came to a fork left followed a stream no space to walk on the sides and too deep to walk down in I checked to the right and in front of me was a trail that went up it looked like something pulled out or washed out part of it so there was about a four foot climb a cliff to climb I unloaded my shotgun broke it down and placed it in my backpack I began to climb and once on stable ground I reassembled my shotgun and loaded in three deer slugs before continuing the trail I gave a few calls out with a grunt collar I figured I might get lucky nothing then I heard a soft whoop but that's odd so I continued on the ground got more and more soupy and I walked on the thick moss where I was able as I went I could hear something up ahead moving I heard sticks breaking I stopped and ducked down I give another call on my grunt collar and leveled my shotgun on the clearing ahead I figured it was 50 yards and knew that I was comfortable taking a shot with my shotgun at that range if the deer buck or doe crossed that trail or came into that clearing I was certain I could hit it and would finally have my first deer I waited and could hear the sound of sticks breaking then it stopped everything stopped there was not a sound no birds no bugs no squirrels it was dead still after a while I heard something walking away and figured I should keep going as I continued to walk down the trail about 15 minutes from where I stopped it came to another fork I knelt to check which direction to go when I noticed a footprint in the soft ground now I've been around bears I've seen bear tracks I've been given a false or bluff charge by a black bear this was not a bear's track for one thing there were no claws as you saw Darren also there was no front footprint anywhere the track looked human like though in Nova Scotia then the wet cold ground no one's walking around barefoot it was not an easy walk to get here in several places I found myself getting sucked down into the mud or having to carefully wade through shallow pools I checked for other tracks and found six total all going down the left fork I stepped a photo with a two and three-quarter shotgun shell for scale I even pressed my foot into the ground for comparison I'm five foot nine 185 to 190 pounds my foot barely left the mark and my boots you can tell it's a boot print this track had toes clear toes I was stunned I made a quick video and sent it to my wife or tried to in it I said something like I may not be able to find deer but I think I just found Sasquatch my wife teases me about my interest in Bigfoot I was excited and started down the left trail I was only about 10 or 15 yards and I heard a sort of group sound as if something was saying hey I know you're following me now stop oh I kept going there's maybe 10 more yards down the trail I have goosebumps as I write this when I heard a louder group I decided it was time to leave I headed back down the trail in the whole way I could not help but feel like I was being followed it wasn't until I reached the old train tracks that it stopped in my video made it to my wife now this is where I state where I say suppose it Sasquatch print a few weeks later after I had some rather rough news concerning my job I went out hunting again to clear my head and spend some time with God the woods have always felt like a place that I could connect with God be it fishing hunting trapping or just walking my grandfather was the same way as I sat in my makeshift blind watching over a game trail that comes out into a clearing I heard my middle daughter's voice clear as a bell it said daddy help I'm lost daddy come help me I need you I could hear her though it didn't sound exactly like her it didn't sound as panicked as my daughter would be it was coming from the clearing next to me I tried to look into the clearing but couldn't see anything I again heard my daughter's voice this time she said daddy help they're after me I need you I jumped up and came tearing through the brush with my shotgun in hand there was no one in the clearing though there in the center was my daughter's rainbow dash winter hat a hat she lost about a week before when it disappeared off of our back deck I picked up the hat and heard a creepy laugh from the woods it was like something was trying to mimic a child's laugh but was too large I once started to pray I got my pack from my blind and left the area when I got home I asked my wife if our kids had gone into the woods to play she said no and asked why I showed her the hat and my middle daughter said excitedly it's my missing hat you got it back not you found it she said you got it back later I told my wife what happened and she and I prayed for our family I didn't hunt there anymore after that never did get my deer I also don't live in the area I hope you enjoyed the encounter thanks for listening wow anonymous um yeah you did not send me that story when you first sent me the photo uh but okay now yeah it wasn't a Sasquatch it looks like a Sasquatch track I can understand why you would think it was that at the beginning I have never heard of Sasquatch sightings though where they mimic human voices to the point of actually saying words and sentences that make sense I've heard of the whoop sound you know they have a really weird call uh according to some people just look up Bigfoot Yowl or Bigfoot uh Scream on YouTube and and you'll hear what I'm talking about but I don't I don't think I've ever heard of one that's pretending to be a child or a person in order to lure somebody in that that is creepy man so I do have one question for you though a little bit off topic you went into this place you don't have an ATV you're going so deep into the woods to all of these different places going through muck and mire through swamp area if you did get a deer how on earth were you supposed to get that out of there were you just gonna shoot it and leave it I don't think so you don't strike me as that kind of guy so if you had to have some sort of plan but man I I could not do that physically all right thanks thanks a lot Anonymous for sending that in I appreciate it all right this one comes from Robbie says hey Darren been listening to the podcast since the pandemic I have multiple stories I want to share from both my childhood as well as a story from my mom but for this one I'll focus on something that happened in my childhood when I was about eight years old I lived in a three bedroom house they gave me creeps every once in a while I say every once in a while because I lived there nine years but had only a few experiences my room was in the back of the house next to my parents room and the third bedroom was in the front which we used as a media room one night when I was grounded which happened more times than I can count I was laying in my room late at night trying to go to sleep my room was pitch black and at the time I slept with the door open that night both my parents were watching TV in the front bedroom and I don't remember why but I looked out my door into the dark hallway as I'm doing so I noticed a tall dark shape in the doorway of my parents bedroom it didn't move but I remember I swear it looked like it was wearing a rimmed hat kind of like an old west outlaw shape hat frightened I rose up from my bed about to call my parents and at that exact same time I felt something grab the back of my collar and yank me back down to the bed like it wanted me to lay down and stay there I was so freaked out I didn't move for the next hour or so until I saw both my parents go into their room for the night gradually I ended up falling asleep I have more stories about this house but I'll save those for another time love the podcast keep up the great work it gets me through my work days signed Robbie Robbie thank you very much for those kind words I really appreciate it and you know your story ends in a way that so many other stories end and I just don't understand it how can you have an incident like this and still somehow find a way to get back to sleep I've never understood that but it happens it happened to me as well when I had my demonic experience of the sleep paralysis I was somehow able to get back to sleep I just don't understand how the body and the human brain can make that happen you would think you'd be in that fight or flight mode and that your your adrenaline would be pumping to the point that you'd have to get up and walk around do something in order to try and and wear yourself out and get rid of the energy before you could go back to sleep but so many people will just say no I stayed there in bed and eventually fell back to sleep so weird so so weird okay and we got one last one this one comes from Renee she says Darren attached is a copy of my personal story about how my best friend and I had the unfortunate experience of coming face to face with evil I hope you can find a place in your podcast to read it please let me know if you need any more information about it feel free to edit as you wish if necessary thanks for reviewing my story and if you like it I have many more personal experiences in my past that I can share most of which are paranormal in nature I hope you enjoy it well before I even get to your story Renee yes please send me the other stories as to me editing it as I wish I don't do that with fireside frights I read them exactly the way I get them because I don't read them in advance I could do that and try to be more professional but fireside frights is one of those times where I kind of like I just kind of relax and just kind of let it flow I think it kind of helps with the whole intimacy thing about it but anyway uh Renee uh she calls this the mummy man we'll write that in there that's going to be a great that's a great title for a story regardless all right she says I grew up in a small town named Quincy Illinois which is located on the bump on the southwestern part of the state alongside the Mississippi River not far from Hannibal Missouri the hometown of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century Mark Twain from Samuel Clements Quincy was voted as an all-american city in 1962 and 1985 it's a place where most people feel safe doors are rarely locked most of the people living in and around Quincy are hard-working honest folk we lived outside a town on a single residential country road so far from the actual town that my bus ride to school was a two-hour ride in holy cow Renee two hours to get to school from the bus stop that is you got to get up early all right anyway we were surrounded by dairy farms and cornfields you'd think that a place like this wouldn't be an area that was plagued with violent crimes and for the most part you'd be right however during the early 1980s several communities in and around the Quincy area were in a state of panic there was a serial rapist slash murderer whom the press had nicknamed the mummy man he used gauze to conceal his identity this person was targeting vulnerable young girls raping them and he'd murdered at least one person as well he was getting bolder as time passed terrorizing the people who were living in the area some say he was arrested and sent to jail during the spring of 1982 however the man in police custody whom they believed to be the infamous rapist didn't use any gauze or try to conceal his identity in any way he was however someone who was guilty of sexually assaulting two other women so it was good they caught him many of the locals who lived in the area in the 1980s don't believe that they'd captured the mummy man some believe he may still be out there somewhere in 1981 and 1982 my friends and I were all around 12 to 13 years old which wasn't much younger than the girls being raped by this horrible person we all kept up with the news about the mummy man although none of us believed that we were in real danger I mean it was just a story about stuff happening to other people right when you're that age you seldom believe that anything bad would ever happen to you or anyone you know in real life unfortunately two of us were about to find out that we should have been more cautious than we were because our arrogance was to be proven dead wrong and our lives would never be the same again it was the beginning of November back in 1982 right after halloween the weather was turning colder with icy rain and snowstorms hitting us almost every night quite appropriate for the spooky time of year many of us thought Michael Jackson's newest album Thriller was to be released soon and I intended to be one of the first kids in my circle of friends to get a copy I've always been a huge fan of MJ the week before the album was available I'd asked my parents if it was okay for my best friend I'll call her Becky to sleep over at our house that night so we could listen to the new album together to my surprise not only did they say yes but they were going to allow us to use our family RV all night growing up my parents loved taking us on camping trips we bought our first motorhome in 1979 and went camping as often as possible especially when my parents had a long weekend or some vacation time while at home the family RV was parked on the side of our garage which was attached to the house on the other side nobody could hear us if we wanted to listen to our music loud dad even hooked up the water and electric from my sleepover so we could use the big speakers the tv and even the bathroom the mom even stocked the shelves with chips and cookies and she loaded up the fridge with pop as well who's gonna be like having our own private place to eat junk food and rock out all night long Becky and I had planned on listening to and learning all the lyrics as well of every song on the album before going back to school on Monday that make us look pretty cool in our own minds anyway Becky and I looked forward to our special sleepover all week and could hardly wait to get into the camper for the night at 9 p.m. we just finished eating some pizza so we changed into our pajamas and got ready to crank up the music dance laugh and just have fun at around 9 30 Becky and I were in the middle of dancing and being silly when suddenly she just stopped dancing almost as if she were frozen in place and was staring at the front windshield I was pretty confused at first and was about to ask her what was wrong when she quietly whispered oh my god Renee don't move just look she slightly gestured for me to look out the front windshield of the motorhome what we saw makes me break into chills to this day I'll never forget it neither will she looking outside just across the street from my house and standing directly underneath the streetlight we saw a large man in a trench coat his body was facing the motorhome as if he were staring directly at us we'd been dancing to loud music with the lights on so there's no way that this person didn't notice us what really freaked us out however was the fact that his entire face head hands were completely wrapped with gauze it was like being in a horror movie seeing the killer for the first time as he was planning on what to do to us for what seemed like hours we were frozen in place just staring at this scary man who wasn't even moving just staring back at us the only time we saw him move was to light a cigarette and then he just slowly smoke it I whispered to Becky how are we gonna let my mom and dad know what's happening outside we're too far away from the house to make a run for the front or even the back door I don't think we'd make it without him catching us anyway keep in mind this was 1982 we didn't have a cell phone to contact my parents inside who were sleeping inside and we knew that nobody would be able to hear us if we decided to scream since the motorhome was parked next to our garage which had a brick wall and our neighbors were definitely too far away to hear us he'd seen us and we were trapped after I said that Betty panicked and just reached out and grabbed the curtain from behind the driver's seat of our motorhome she then quickly pulled it shut I just looked at her and said well that's not gonna do us any good now he knows that we saw him why'd you do that after whisper arguing back and forth trying to come up with any ideas as to how we could beat him and get into the house we realized we were sitting ducks so we simply cried holding on to each other while trying to stay awake we were about to become the next victims of the mummy man there was no doubt in our minds that the serial murderer and rapist was the same guy who was now across the street from my house the one night two of us were determined to stay awake all night planning on fighting him off if he tried to get in we ended up falling asleep sometime during the wee hours of the morning and were surprised to find out we were still in one piece and undisturbed as the sun began to shine through some of the windows in the RV Becky and I began to feel brave enough to look outside ever so slowly we pulled back the curtain in the front of the camper and peered across the street he was gone when we slowly opened the door we found ourselves speechless looking down around the motorhome we noticed that there were fresh muddy footprints all around the vehicle as if someone walked around the RV several times possibly trying to peek in and see if we were still there or simply to scare us if that was his intent mission accomplished Becky and I immediately ran into my house to tell my parents about what we experienced my dad called the police and we were able to give them a statement so that's how my best friend and I encountered one of the most dangerous criminals in our hometown wow Renee I am so sorry that that happened to you I'm glad I'm glad nothing physical happened to you but yeah that's gonna be that's gonna emotionally scar a person for the rest of their lives I'd never heard of the mummy man before I'm gonna have to look into that but you were saying that apparently he's never been caught and I appreciate it Renee was kind enough to send me some some links for reference to to this guy so I might do a story about him in the future Renee thank you so much for that I really appreciate it and I look forward to you sending other stories because you you got some great writing skills there well everybody that's it that's my last story if you want to send a story for a future fireside frights I would love to get it just go to weirddarkness.com click on tell your story and you can send in your fireside fright there I try to use all of the ones that I've received over the month and this one goes through yeah now I had these back from February 16th all the way up through to today so once I use all of these I am now down to zero stories so if you want to fireside frights next month you need to send me some stories again just go to weirddarkness.com and then click on tell your story thank you for listening everybody if you like what the show whether it be the fireside frights or just the regular Weird Darkness please share the show with everybody that you know people who like the paranormal stories monsters unsolved mysteries true crime stuff like that weirddarkness.com that's also where you can find me on all of my social media I'm on I'm on Facebook Twitter Miwi Mines YouTube you can also find audio books that I've narrated including some free ones if you want to listen to those you can you've got the Weird Darkness store if you want to grab a Weird Darkness t-shirt hoodie mug whatever all that other fun stuff I got monthly contests that I do there and of course you can tell me your creepy stories Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions copyright 2023 now that we're coming out of the dark I'll leave you with a little light Ephesians 2 verse 10 for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do and a final thought from C.S. Lewis put first things first and second things are thrown in put second things first and you lose both first and second things I'm Darren Marlar thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness