As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 003 - Babysitting & Thanksgiving Horror Stories- 06 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: November 26, 2021

Hello and Welcome to the 3rd episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today we have some intriguing and terrifying stories submitted by everyday people. In Today's Episode we will have stories about the horrors of babysitting, and the horrors that come with Thanksgiving.  ➤ Want your story featured? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/Submit ➤ Want to know where to follow me on the internet? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/the-nevermore for all my links! ➤ You can also get EARLY ACCESS By joining my Patreon! https://patreon.com/astheravendreams Today's Video contains stories submitted by wonderful people! ➤ All stories within are used w/ Either direct permission from the author- or under some level of CC license (where noted) True Stories are not verified, and should all be considered 'supposedly true'.  And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's see. So, no, that's a good thing. That's definitely not a problem. Reises, you did it. You stumped this charming devil. I'd been babysitting since I was 14. My parents were divorced and my dad wouldn't be home for a few more hours after we got home from school. So since I was the oldest of three kids, I often watched my younger siblings.

After two years of this and my parents both agreeing that I was responsible enough, I decided to start offering to babysit for others as a way. way to make my own income, and I loved it. Thanks to my parents, primarily being my walking advertising, my mom had actually suggested I watch one of her co-worker's kids, Noah. They had recently moved from a couple of cities over, and the mother worked with my mom and the father worked elsewhere, but since their schedules overlapped, they needed someone there until they got home.

They had a babysitter previously, but of course, you can't take your babysitter with you. They said that it would be for at least a few months until the mom could get her schedule changed. And they also told me he was well-mannered and assured me that he would be easy to handle. So, I agreed. I believe it was April when I started watching Noah. They actually lived close enough to the high school. school that I could just ride my bike there. I arrived at their place, and the mom was still at work, but the dad greeted me at the door.

He gave me a bit of a rundown, some do's and don'ts, said he would leave some money so we could order pizza for dinner, and then introduced me to Noah. When he came out, he seemed a bit shy in standoffish at first, but I could tell that wasn't who he normally was. So, after the dad left, I found Noah still standing in the hall and staring at me as I shut the door behind his dad. I walked up to him, smiling, and I kneeled down in front of him to introduce myself. He smiled and told me his name, and then asked if I wanted to see his toys. After about an hour or so, I asked him about dinner, and if he wanted pizza, he wanted pizza,

to which he was very excited about. So, we went downstairs. I ordered the pizza, and he watched some TV while I did my homework. Occasionally, while it was playing commercials, he would ask me if he could ask a question or say something. I thought it was cute and funny that this kid was asking, rather than just standing above me and asking whatever was on his mind. So, I chuckled.

and I told him that he didn't have to ask first. He just smiled and continued to watch TV. Pizza showed up shortly after. I paid them and brought the pizza into the kitchen, and I noticed that Noah was still sitting in the living room. Usually the kids come running in, so it was a nice difference to get to serve it before they snatched it from me. I put a slice on the plate, and I called for him when he slowly came walking in the room.

I asked him if he wanted one or two slices, and he said one and sat down as I brought him his plate. He ate the one piece, and I had brought my packet into the kitchen and was highlighting as I ate my two slices, and I noticed that once again he was just watching me. I asked him if he wanted more, and he seemed surprised or like he didn't know how to respond. I asked if he was okay, and he again, quote. quietly asked if he could. Curious, I just got up and got him another piece and a breadstick. He seemed really excited about getting more, so again, I just chocked it up to him being too shy to ask.

Now, afterwards, part of me then thought maybe his parents have a thing about getting one plate or not eating too much, so I let him have one more slice and breadstick and told him, let's wait before we eat. more so we didn't upset our stomach. And he then apologized for eating. Again, I know they told me he was very well-mannered, but I thought this was just silly. So I chuckled some and told him he didn't have to apologize. The rest of the night went fine. I had him get ready for bed and he fell asleep in his room playing.

When his mom got home, I explained how it all went and asked if he was only allowed to eat so much, or if there were any rules for dinner, and she explained no. She also said that she noticed that he started asking for seconds since he started being babysat. We both thought that maybe it was just something the previous babysitter did and made them do it and left it at that. So I did the same.

I watched Noah for a few more days, and it seemed like a fairly normal routine. Him asking permission for just about everything, even to go to the bathroom, but again, I just thought it was this kid's personality. Until this one night. I had a project for school that involved making a collage of sorts, and I thought it would be fun to bring the supplies with me so Noah could let out his creative side. I was definitely right, too. He seemed to be having a blast coloring and gluing stuff. He said he was going to make a card for his parents.

One thing I forgot to bring was scissors, and I made a comment about it aloud, to which Noah quickly jumped up saying they had some and that he would grab them. I quickly tried to get up and follow him when he started grabbing them, and I stopped him to say that I would get them, as they weren't safe to your craft scissors. and it was unsafe, and then he immediately dropped them on the ground and started crying saying he was sorry. He immediately walked past me and did the weirdest thing.

He started removing the couch cushions and laid on the couch, face down, crying. At first I thought maybe this was just his weird way of throwing a tantrum, so I just went and rubbed his back and tried to calm him down. I told him it was okay, and that he should sit on the couch with the cushions. He looked at me confused at first. He slowly put the cushions back, sat on the couch, and wiped his face again, then apologized for crying. And again, I told him it was okay. He wasn't even remotely in trouble, and I made him some chocolate milk to calm him down.

We went back to normal after that. and again, I brought it up to his mom. She chuckled, and once more, said that he had done that a few times when he got in trouble, but she never understood why. So they told me that I could just tell him not to tear the couch apart, and he'll be fine. Again, I thought the parents knew best and just let it go.

But I still did think that was weird. I noticed a few more things like those as time when, on. Noah was extremely excited to see me, to the point that he would hug me when I arrived, and would try to rush his parents out the door. Then, we would carry on as usual until something would come up. I made spaghetti one night, and he asked to carry his bowl from the counter to the table, and I allowed it. He, unfortunately, tripped, though, dropping the plates and breaking it. He immediately stood up and started bawling and apologizing. I think I scared him, too, because it splashed on me, and I let out a little yelp.

I tried to calm him down when he immediately went back to the couch. While trying to clean up the broken bowl, I noticed this and walked into the living room to tell him that he didn't need to do this, and that's when I noticed that he had pied himself. I asked him what was wrong when I asked him what was wrong when I said, I noticed that he looked terrified. I walked up to him, not knowing really what to do, when he flinched. So I backed off, kneeling on the floor, and I just told him it's okay.

He wasn't in trouble, and I was not mad at him. I suggested he'd go ahead and clean himself up, and that I would clean up the mess so he could eat when he got back. It must have been half an hour or so since this happened, and he hadn't come back down, so I went upstairs looking for him. I saw the bathroom was empty with his clothes lying on the floor, but no Noah. I went to his bedroom, and I didn't see him at first until I noticed his mattress looked uneven. That's when I saw him lying under it, like he did the couch. I calmly asked him to come out as he was not in trouble, and that his dinner was getting cold.

After a few minutes, I finally got him to come out and have his dinner. While eating dinner, the thought was eating at me, and I finally asked him about the bed and the couch thing. He said when he gets in trouble or has an accident, he has to be put in time out. so I told him I had never put him in time out and he agreed but said that he had been before but then he said he's glad that I didn't sit on him though I asked him what he meant by that

and he shyly explained that she would sit on him while he was under the couch cushions or bed I didn't know how to respond so I just told him that I would never do that and that he had never been in trouble with me. He eased up some throughout the night, but that was digging at me like, who could he have meant by that? Who does that? Was he talking about his mother?

I held on to this information longer than I should have, but I was worried with where to go with it. I thought that maybe I could get more information out of him the next week I watched him, him, but I ended up not seeing him for about a week as his dad had taken some time off. However, when I went back, he seemed incredibly excited to see me. Just looking him over, I didn't see any marks on him, though. Right before his dad left, I asked him without Noah in the room, asking what he suggested if he was too rowdy or not obeying, claiming I didn't want to overstep my bounds.

The dad was curious at first and asked if I had any issues with him. I didn't, but I told him that it was something I always wanted to check with the parents. He said he never really thought about it since they've never really had to do anything, and just said that I could send him to his room and left it at that. He seemed genuinely surprised by the questions, so... I was at a loss. That night, we started playing a video game, and I tried to be competitive, but fair, and as he started losing, he shouted out a cuss word.

Now, when kids do this and they immediately freeze like they realized, I kind of find it hilarious. So when I turned to look at him and just gave the normal, hey, let's not say that, buddy, he was an instant tears. and before I could react to that, he took off into the kitchen. I got up to follow him and immediately saw him with his hand in a drawer crying. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was waiting for me to... ...droar jam?

Again, I asked him to clarify, and he explained that she would smash his hand in the drawer for saying bad words. I took his hand from the drawer and I held it and I told him that was not okay and that I would never do that. This kid was terrified and I didn't know what to do because his parents did not seem like the type to hurt him. I asked him if he had other forms of punishment and he explained that if he talked back when he wasn't supposed to or wasn't allowed to talk, he would be locked in the deep freeze. He told me about a few other things, like not getting to eat dinner

because he wouldn't do as he was told. And I told him that those are not nice things to do. And I finally asked him who was doing this. But he wouldn't tell me. It was always just she did it. That night, I had to try to sleep with that in my 16 to 17-year-old mind. I took a chance and I asked my mom about it.

I thought I was being sly by saying it was a kid that I sat and he told me this info and I didn't know what to do with it. She told me that she would help with getting the right numbers to report it and to try to keep a record of everything I was told, to which I did. She wasn't dumb, though, and she figured out who I was talking about. I told her that Noah hadn't specified it was his parents, though, so she said that she would do what she needed and let me know, but to not say anything to his parents just yet, just in case.

The next night, I watched Noah again, and he was his happy self again. I tried to keep things as light and happy as possible, thinking maybe he might let something slip. This time, I had my dad bring me over, though, because I brought stuff to make cookies. He was having a blast with making them and decorating. And that's exactly what we needed for multiple reasons. I let him have three cookies, and he said that I was the best babysitter ever, and that I was much better than the last one.

I teased at first, asking if it was because they only let him have one cookie, and he said it was because I was so. nicer. I tried to say something like everyone has their own rules or something to that effect when it finally hit me. He said something about at least he was a better kid now for me because of her. It was the previous babysitter. So trying not to show it, I continued cleaning up and asked if it was the babysitter that punished him and he confirmed it. It was so hard to not immediately scream. I was so happy that it wasn't his parents, but I was enraged that another babysitter would do this.

While he was watching a movie, I snuck into the kitchen to call my mom and told her everything, and she told me to tell his mom when she got there. The rest of the night, it went fine, thinking of how to explain this to them, but it was a lot easier when she did get home. She put Noah to bed, and I told her everything that had happened. She was shocked, and crying and apologizing to me for him. I couldn't imagine at that time how you could explain to your own kid that what he experienced was not okay.

She did explain that she noticed some changes in him when she started watching him, but just thought it was him. I was asked to be a way. witness since Noah told me the info in order for them to try to press charges on her, and thankfully she was charged with abuse. Sadly, Noah was not the only kid she was watching, but I have no idea if anyone else ever spoke up. I do hope so. People like that piss me off, and it makes me glad that I now work in a daycare to show that we're not all creepy, bad people.

But until then, Melissa, you better hope we never meet because it will not be pleasant. This happened to me back when I was a freshman in high school. I was 14 at the time, and it was right around Halloween. I babysat for a family in our neighborhood, which, during the time, was in a newly developing neighborhood, meaning new houses were being built around the area, and there were still lots of empty lots and fields owned by farmers in the surrounding area. This particular house that I babysat for sat in front of an empty field. This house was gorgeous, but it had huge bay windows in the living room,

and at night, you couldn't see anything outside. if all the lights in the house were on. So, on this particular night that I was babysitting, I had just put the two kids to bed around 8.30, 9-ish, and I was heading downstairs to the living room to watch TV. The parents were not due home until well after midnight. So I had quite a bit of time left. I used their landline to call a few friends, because at the time, cell phones were not as common, and smartphones were not even in existence.

I remember I was sitting in the kitchen at the snack bar while on the phone with my boyfriend at the time, and I'd happened to glance outside the porch door. I thought I saw a flash of moving light running across the field beyond the backyard, but since the lights in the kitchen were on, it was hard to see if anyone was standing out there. I mentioned this to my boyfriend, and he just sort of teased me, saying every girl in every horror movie always says she thinks she see something outside, right before being a victim.

I clicked on the porch lights, and I didn't see any more light or movement, so I assumed it was just my imagination and went on with my evening. About two or three hours later, I'm sitting in the living room with all the lights in the house turned off, and watching TV in the living room again. The TV was placed in front of the large bay window, and I remember, I was starting to feel pretty tired. As I was beginning to sort of zone out, my eyes drifted toward the backyard,

and I again thought I saw something move. I blinked a few times and squinted my eyes and realized I was looking at a masked face staring up at me from the backyard. I froze, still stuck in between wondering if I was imagining this, or if I was actually seeing a person staring at me from the backyard.

I slowly stood up and went upstairs to the parents' master bedroom, since the window in that room overlooked the entire backyard and the fields behind it. I carefully pulled aside a corner of the curtain and peered outside. To my horrific realization, there was, indeed,

A person standing right between the backyard and the field right behind it. The person had on, and I kid you not, a freaking potato sack mask. I wish that I could tell you that I was quick to get on the phone with the police and grab a weapon and lock myself and the kids in one of the bedrooms, but I was honestly just standing there, frozen. in fear. As someone who always loved and watched tons of horror movies, you always think you'll be prepared to handle any situation that happens to you in real life.

But here I was, just frozen and scared out of my mind. Finally, I snap myself out of my trance and think, how do I make sure the kids and I get help out here? I picked up the cordless phone next to the bed, and I dialed the police. The dispatch asked me if the doors and windows of the house were locked up, to which I confirmed yes, as I always ensured we locked up after coming in from playing outside earlier that day. The dispatch told me that the responding officer would be there in less than ten minutes.

She told me to stay on the line with her and get the two kids into the room me and lock the door. Clutching the phone to my chest, I quietly tiptoe out of the bedroom and go into the bedroom of the two kids, who shared a bedroom. They both tiredly but willingly cooperated. I told them we were going to all sleep in their parents' bedroom for the night. Fortunately, they were too tired to ask any further questions and followed me to their parents' room. Once we were in there, I locked the door and told the dispatch that we were safely in a locked room. I got the kids into the bed and quickly went back to the window to see if the person was still standing in the backyard.

To my surprise, he wasn't standing there anymore. This scared me even more, as I knew he could be anywhere or trying to break into the house. My heart skipped a beat when I heard a loud thudding noise downstairs. It sounded like something heavy was thrown against the back door. I told the dispatch what I had heard, and she said the units were just about a minute away. Trying to hold back tears, I continued to stay on the main line with her,

all while trying to maintain my composure, so as to not scare two kids. Finally, the dispatch told me that the police had arrived, and it was okay for me to let them inside. I went downstairs, and I could see the flashing lights of the squad cars. I unlocked the door, and two officers entered the house. They had me phone the parents to inform them of what had happened. While the police searched the house, another officer arrived and sat upstairs with the kids and me, while I called their parents,

who were, fortunately, already almost home and were beyond horrified at this news. The police did not find anyone on the property, but what they did find still chills me to this day. As they opened the door to the backyard, they found a huge hunting knife sticking right in the door. I'm guessing that is what had caused the loud thud that I had heard earlier while hiding in the upstairs bedroom.

There was no blood or note just a large knife sticking out of the door. As far as I know, the person was never caught, but there had been reports from other people in the surrounding neighborhoods of the same person, wearing that mask and standing in the backyard of other people's houses. The scariest part is that all of these reports were coming from people who were babysitting at the time. So, for a while, there was a big scare in the community that someone was stalking babysitters and threatening their safety. Since the person was never caught, my parents had me quit babysitting for some time until either this person was caught, or more information was released on the situation. Eventually, the reporting of sightings of this man had stopped after a few weeks.

But, to my knowledge, the house I was at was the only one who actually had a weapon thrown at the door. Nobody knows if it was just someone playing a prank, or if this was a sick and twisted person intending to do much worse. Reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest, but let me play devil's advocate here. Let's see. So, no, that's a good thing. That's definitely not a problem. Reese's, you did it. You stumped this charming devil.

I babysat for most of my teenage years. I still occasionally do it for people I'm close with and that I know, but it was one of the easiest ways to make money, in my opinion. However, there are some weird people out there, adults and kids alike, which, after a while, gets tiring to deal with. There were definitely a few that I remember that really stood out, but one specifically that I would like to share with you now. Now, this happened quite some time ago. back when Craigslist was popular, and you didn't have to worry about being kidnapped or robbed. I used to post my babysitting services there.

I got a response from someone to watch their kids that lived a few blocks over. They called, and we set up a time to meet, and basically interview each other. When I went over there, the house was kind of a mess. from boxes everywhere, carpet being ripped up, the walls painted, just things like that. They said they were renovating because it used to belong to the dad's parents. His mother passed away and his dad was in a nursing home, so they got the house, or something like that, and they were trying to make it a bit more modern.

That being said, they thought they would save some money by getting a baby, instead of a daycare. That was fine by me. They basically set up the back living room and the bedroom, so we had places to be in the home that were safe. Sometimes I watched their son Caleb while they were away. Sometimes they asked me to watch him while they were getting supplies, delivered, having appliances put in, etc.

Caleb was around five, I believe, when I saw him. started. He was talking a lot, but still had trouble making full sentences. Caleb's room was the second room in the hallway, right after the bathroom, so they had a baby monitor in his room still, so that way I could sit in the living room and watch TV or something if he was playing. I could hear him mumbled to himself and play randomly at times, but one time, I started hearing him get really into a conversation. I first just thought it was that he was deep into playing with his toys or something, and I let it go. Then I heard him laugh and talk again, so I started to listen closer.

I heard him start talking about himself. He said, I'm five, I like chips, I like purple, Daddy made it, just little things. things like that, but I never heard him say something on the other side of the conversation. Curious, I went to his room to see what was going on. I saw him sitting on the floor lining up all his toys, and he continued to talk as he looked over in the corner of his room, which kind of worried me, so I went all the way in. I asked him what was going on, and he said he was playing with his friend. I questioned about his friend, and he said, the wet man.

I thought I misheard him at first and asked him maybe the white man, and he corrected me again, saying, no, the wet man. It was weird, but I asked why he was wet, and he said he didn't know, but he thought it was funny, because he still had his clothes on. I was a little weirded out by this, so, I decided to ask Caleb to watch a movie in the living room with me, and he did. This actually occurred a few more times, but was making me more and more curious as to who he was talking about, or seeing. I thought his parents seemed to be pretty cool, so I asked them if they believed in ghosts one time while we were eating.

The dad laughed and didn't really answer, but the mom said she believed they existed but never experienced anything. And then I told them about Caleb's friend. While the mom thought it was interesting, the dad actually lost all color and got quiet. I kind of thought he was mad at me at first and quickly started apologizing when he said it was fine. I remember they looked at each other,

And the dad said, Clyde, and then the mom's face matched his. Then they told me about how his great-grandfather had a heart attack in the bath and had drowned in it. He showed me a picture of him and everything. It was kind of creepy. Was this kid seeing his dead great-great-grandfather then? In case anyone was curious, I continued to babysat him for, a few more years, and got pretty close to the family. And the mom freaked out one time when I came over saying they were going through pictures,

and they showed one of Clyde, and he stopped and exclaimed, Hey, that's the wet man. So, yep, he definitely saw him. The visits from Clyde stopped happening after a while from what I've witnessed, and what they've told me, he doesn't really remember it either. It's definitely one of the most memorable babysitting experiences that I've had. I have a personal story that really messed me up as I got older and realized what had happened. But when I was young, I was just kind of confused and curious more than I was scared.

What had actually happened had to be explained to me when I got older so that I had a better understanding of the situation. But, like I said, when this happened, I was around six, and nothing about any of it had actually registered in my little brain. Besides that fact, I actually have a very clean and vivid memory of it, which is probably why it's messed me up mentally. It's absolutely haunted me as I got older, which is why I've had to talk through this all. with my mother and actually had to get professional help for it. I'm not trying to hype this up. It really left me with a mental scar. So, this happened back on Thanksgiving in 1992.

Like I said, I was six at the time. And around then, we always went out to my grandparents' house in the middle of nowhere, Missouri, for the holidays. I was the kind of kid that loved to go out to their home because they had a lot of land and they raised a few different types of animals, like chickens, goats, and a couple cows. Because I loved the animals, specifically the smaller ones, I was kind of scared of the cows. I would typically spend my time outside with them, playing with them, feeding them, talking to them, just basically doing whatever my little brain could think up in the presence of the goats.

It sounds kind of weird now, but it made sense back then, I think. On this particular Thanksgiving, we were all meeting up at my grandparents' house, and when I say we all, I mean the entire family, which was my parents, myself and my little sister, my aunts and uncle with their eight kids total. And on top of that, my dad's cousin Danny was also joining us. Which, it was interesting to me then because he was someone in the family that I had never met. He wasn't around much when it came to family gatherings, and I wasn't sure what to really think of the guy.

He was a bit awkward and kind of dismissive whenever you would go to talk to him, pretty much about anything. It was fairly obvious that he really didn't. want to be there, and I didn't understand that because it was Thanksgiving. That meant it was family time, right? Which meant you were supposed to be happy, right? I'll get to the explanation of that later, but for now, I figure it would be best to actually go over what had happened. The night was seemingly normal.

I got to play with my cousins, we watched the parade on TV, and, we all got ready to have a huge dinner. My family always had a tradition where, before we carved the turkey, we would all say something that we were thankful for for that year. And when everyone was done, we would eat. As we went around the table, everyone was saying they were thankful for their wives or families and loved ones, and other various things that were fairly heartwarming, sure. But then it got to Danny in the whole room,

just kind of went silent. I remember the look on his face when it was his turn, and the look on everyone else's face when he just kind of sat there after a moment in silence. After several awkward moments of nobody speaking, he kind of perked up and said something like, I'm thankful that I get to look forward to all this food, which caused some laughter and chuckles, and we all moved on. We all ate our food, probably way too much, especially me, because I always did.

The holiday kept going, as it should have, and everything seemed to be okay. My dad's cousin was still a bit standoffish, but he almost seemed like he had opened up to us somewhat after we had ate. That is, until one of my cousins, who was only a year or two older than me, asked why his wife wasn't there with him. I remember that same awkward silent as my aunt ran over and grabbed my cousin, apologizing profusely in saying that she had told him not to bring it up. And I remember the tense feeling in the air when he said it was okay, but then said that he was going to step outside for a minute just to get some fresh air. Obviously, I didn't understand then why it was such a big deal,

but it apparently was something we were not supposed to mention. I think now was a good time to go ahead and get the explanation out of the way. Danny was a drug addict. I'm pretty sure it was heroin or something strong like that. He and his wife were both hardcore into it, and they had tried to get clean several times and had failed each time. However, around July in that same, same year, his wife actually ended up in an OD and died while he was unconscious lying literally

right next to her. Apparently, and obviously, this had devastated him as they had been together since they were in high school, and they had been married for several years. When this happened, he spiraled hard into a depression for, again, obvious reasons, but then he decided to try to make it right by getting clean. He went into a rehab facility and he got off the drugs, but was struggling to make it without the woman that he loved. Yes, he was clean, but he was an emotional mess,

and he was struggling a lot with everything. My dad thought it might be a good idea to invite him over for dinner with the family, since we were all going to be there, and they didn't want him to just be alone. I know that this is a super sad story, and being an adult that's married with a kid, I can totally understand how painful it must have been for him to go through all that. That said, nothing could have prepared me

or really make me understand how things played out from there. After we were all done eating, I wanted to go outside, and play with the goats, something I had been really looking forward to doing since I had gotten there. It was getting a bit dark, but since the barn was close to the house, my parents didn't really have a problem with it. I went outside, as excited as I could possibly be,

and I went over to the barn where the goats were. I remember going out there and petting them and hugging them. I really loved those goats. I was playing with one of the kids, feeding him weeds from the ground, petting him, talking to him about nothing and all that. When out of nowhere, there was a loud bang noise, like a firecracker, and the goats all ran away. I didn't know what it was, and I just remember standing up and smelling something weird. I now know what it was, but at that point, I just remember it's smelling something weird. I just remember it's smelling something weird. bad and me being really confused as to why someone would light a firework in the barn.

If you haven't pieced it altogether by this point, my dad's cousin had actually shot himself. My grandpa, he used to keep a shotgun in the barn in case someone or something tried to get on to the property to hurt his animals, namely coyotes. Apparently, right before I had gone outside to play with the goats, Danny had found the gun, and made the hard decision to end his own life then and there. A decision that, I don't think anyone in my family expected or could really find a further explanation for. The man was severely depressed. He had recently lost the love of his life and was probably thinking more clearly than he had in a few years.

I don't think he wanted or expected any of us kids to find him, or see it, and I think it was just bad timing and a bad place for me. But I remember the scene in very horrible detail. I won't describe it. I would never put anyone through that. I just remember standing up, seeing what had happened, and my mom running outside and grabbing at me. The whole time, I'm yelling at her about how cousin Danny hurt himself.

I remember just screaming that at her several times, thinking that they needed to go back and help him. It hadn't registered in my little mind that he was definitely not alive anymore. Looking back, it's actually pretty clear why this messed with my brain as I grew up. There's not a person out there that wouldn't have some sort of PTSD after this situation. I was the only kid to see what happened, and the only one. to see the aftermath, thankfully. As I got older, I started having these really weird and vivid nightmares, and I had to sit down and talk to my parents about them.

They were shocked that I actually remembered him and that night, because I was so young, but when I told them what I was seeing in my head, they knew that it had traumatized me. I actually went to see a therapist after that, and I've been working through things as I've matured and turned into an adult with the life of my own. I just want to end this story by saying,

to anyone out there that is struggling, please know that you are important, and going this route is not an answer. It may start to feel like the solution, but it's a very permanent one to a very temporary problem. Life is hard, but it gets better, and there are those out there that love you. Please, stay strong, and thank you for reading.

This story takes place well over a decade ago. I had just turned 19. I was fresh out of high school with no idea what it was I wanted to do, and I was trying to make some easy cash. So, I took a job at a local, bigger-named pizza place. Because this story involves employees, and happened at an actual location, I'm not going to name the brand.

Just know that it's large enough that most of you have probably eaten there, or at the very least, seen their commercials. This specific franchise that I worked for was owned by a man and a woman that had apparently run it for almost a decade, and were super well-known to the community. They were active in charity events, they were well liked by those that lived in the area. That is, if you didn't work for them and were part of their fancy social circle.

When it came to running their pizza place, they were the most degrading people to talk with. Everything that you did was wrong, everything you did needed to be redone, and if you got on the wrong side of the husband, he would have you come into his office, which was a repurposed storeroom, and would scream at you and berate you until he decided that you got it. I'd seen a number of people quit immediately after having one of these meetings, honestly, and I don't blame them at all. All of this is to set up that these people were terrible managers and genuinely treated their staff like garbage. Treating their staff like garbage and genuinely not caring about the people they employed,

included being open every major holiday, and then not paying us extra for working, said holiday. And if you were to call in, you would be written up and have your hours docked as a punishment. On top of this, two of their employees that always seemed to work every single holiday and had to work almost every shift together were Derek and Adam. Derek and Adam were actually the twin sons of the owners, and they were 21. Being their twin sons, I feel like it actually makes it worse that they would put them on the schedule to work on the holidays.

Aren't holidays supposed to be about family? Well, apparently not for this family. They were fine with making sure the boys were never home for any of their holiday festivities. I was another one of the employees that always had to work the evening shift with them, and I was also one of the youngest employees, so I was forced to work all the holidays with them. These boys were decent enough workers, but they were also a pain in the back end to deal with.

I mean that in the nicest way. They were fast on the pizza lines, one was typically a cook, and the other cut and boxed and worked, the front end, but they hated each other. I have never seen twins that seemed to be at each other's throat so much, and it would typically end up with them yelling at each other over something incredibly stupid over and over again in the back.

Most of the time while we had customers dining in the front. There was even one time that they actually ended up in a fist fight, just past the threshold of the dining room, And we had people calling the police and screaming. Yeah, it was nothing shy of a mess. So now you know the place, the owners, and the two employees that were involved in the actual situation that happened. The overall events took place on Thanksgiving of 2005.

We were, of course, open, which, in my opinion, was the dumbest thing that has ever happened in the history of pizza establishments. Do you know who orders pizza on Thanksgiving? Nobody, which was evident by the fact that we had maybe four orders from 5 p.m. to close, which was midnight. The staff that night consisted of me working on the prep line and doing dishes, the brothers, one driver, and one person working the front register. So a total of five people were there, and the fact that we only had one driver, told me everything that I needed to know.

That night was slow as hell. I barely had to wash anything or even make a pizza, so it was pretty much just sweep and mop and wait for the clock to tick down. We did get a last-minute order at somewhere close to 10 p.m. It was a decent-sized order, something like three pizzas and two breadsticks. I have no idea why somebody wanted this much pizza, on Thanksgiving, but I also really didn't care. I got the pizzas all put together,

got everything in the oven, and got it ready to go. The first pizza came out of the oven, and Derek grabbed it. He used the rocker knife to split it like normal. And then I heard Adam say something under his breath. Typically, between these two, that meant that something was about to go down, they were going to start yelling, and we'd all have to sit back

while they got whatever BS there was off their chest. Derek turns and asks what Adam's problem is. He then starts yelling about how Derek was cutting the pizzas wrong. From this, they started seriously screaming at each other. The whole time they're sitting there and fighting over how to cut the pizza, the items are starting to line up on the belt from the oven. I lean over, and I see that one of the pizzas was pretty much now on top of the other pizza, which was a major problem with those ovens,

and that meant I was going to have to remake it. I politely tried to interject into their argument and tell them that Derek needed to grab the food out of the oven before it overcooked or got worse. but they just kept yelling at each other. After a few more times of trying to cut in, I'd had enough and finally just yelled, Would you take the damn pizza out of the oven? Derek reached over and grabbed the pizza and breadsticks

as soon as I finished yelling, and immediately Adam started saying something about how he would just screw it all up anyways. This is where things exploded. Derek turned around and decked Adam, knocking him to the floor. While Adam was scrambling on the floor trying to figure out what had happened, Derek grabbed one of the pans of breadsticks from the oven with a mitted hand and slammed it down on Adam's face and just held it there.

He was seriously shoving his oven-mit-covered hand into the middle of the breadsticks to hold this super-hot pan over his own brother's. face. Now, I don't know if any of you have ever worked at a pizza chain, but those ovens that have conveyor belts, the ones that cook your pizza in around eight minutes, yeah, they get around 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Compound that with the fact the breadsticks had been in the oven for extra time, and you can assume that the metal of the pan was just as hot.

We also used thick pans for the sticks, so they held the heat even longer. At this point, I'm literally just kind of standing there, watching Derek burn Adam's face with a 400-plus degree pan, and I was honestly not sure what the hell I was supposed to do. Like, I thought that I should run over and grab Derek and pull him off, but I was a scrawny dude compared to these two, and he would snap me like a twig if I'd. tried to intervene. Thankfully, our delivery driver was a bit of a bigger guy and had the same thought that I did, to pull Derek off of his brother.

He wrestled him off and pulled him to the ground, and then started shouting at me to call 911, which I immediately ran to go do. All in all, Derek got put in cuffs and charged pretty heftily, mostly because the attack did permanent damage. Adam's face was seriously damaged on the right side. It was burned to the point of hefty scarring, and he had to have grafts to fix part of his cheek. On top of that, he actually lost his eye from the attack.

Apparently the pan had hit his actual eye, and there was no way for them to repair it. I didn't work there for too much longer after that, mostly because that was just one of those things you don't really get over. To the best of my knowledge, Derek is still locked up, and Adam actually took the place over when his parents decided to retire, which is good on him, I guess. I know I wouldn't have wanted to stay in the place where my own brother scarred me for life,

on Thanksgiving of all days, no less. of Villaray, Embarked and profite. Embarked and celebrate. Rigolet. Publiere. Savoyer. Admire. And profite. Viaray, the voice that we love that

I have a quick story that actually makes me cry almost every time I think about it. Mostly because it's one of those things that hits you really hard and makes you kind of think about the finality of life. I know that's vague,

but it'll make sense when the story's done. This all took place a few years ago in 2017. That year, about a week before Thanksgiving, my mother had passed away. She'd been diagnosed with cancer about nine months before that, and she did her best to fight it, but in the end, she didn't make it to the end of the year. Obviously, this Thanksgiving was going to be incredibly difficult, on all of us, as we would have to get together, prepare the food, and spend time together with an

empty seat at the table. We wanted to make sure that my dad didn't have to do anything, so we all came to the decision that we would have dinner at my house. Me and my sister would prepare it for our families and dad, and we would make the most of it to honor mom's memory. She was the one that had been preparing Thanksgiving dinner since the day I was born, and while we had helped her here and there, it was always her day to shine. As much as there was to do, I think she honestly loved making the food for everyone, plus it got everybody together, so it was important to her. This year, like I said, was going to be a challenge. We had to do the work and try to keep a positive attitude. I got to see Mom a lot more before she passed than my sister Nell did, mostly because

she had moved a few states over and had two kids. She wasn't able to drop everything to come visit, so it was incredibly rough on her. I was able to say goodbye, and I was able to see Mom to the end of her days, so I was more at peace with the whole thing. She was doing her best, though, and I applauded her for that. The week came and it was about as tough as I expected. Nell and her family showed up the night before and set up the spare bedroom so they could stay through the weekend. After they had gone to bed, I was in the living room watching a movie when I saw Nell

come downstairs, and she told me that she was struggling to sleep. She kind of had a look about her, like something was bothering her, so we kind of had to talked for a while. She had mentioned that she was worried that she was going to mess everything up and how she'd felt like mom was depending on her to do this right. I told her that I would be there to help her and that she needed to not be so worried. Then we talked about how she had been having dreams about mom every night and how it was really causing her to feel depressed.

I tried to talk her into looking at it more as a mom was there with her than something that she should be sad about. I don't think I was able to do a whole lot to cheer her up, but I tried. The next morning we got to work on everything. We spent the entire day preparing things exactly as mom had written them down, to the letter. We wanted to make this perfect for our dad, to show him that, while mom may be gone, she had taught us well, and that she would always be a part of the family, even in the family. if she wasn't there physically anymore.

Much to my surprise, everything was perfect. We got the entire meal made, and it all came out as it was supposed to. My dad complimented Nell and myself repeatedly, telling us how great everything was. After the meal, Nell asked if she could talk to me in the other room for a moment, so we walked over to my bedroom, and she shut the door. As soon as she did, she burst into tears and hugged me as tightly as she could. It was a bit of a surprise, but I hugged her back, and I just told her that we did an amazing job. That's when she opened up about the whole situation, and why it was weighing so heavily on her mind.

She mentioned that there was a reason she was struggling to sleep the night before, why she felt she needed to come talk to me about everything, and it wasn't just because she was feeling the pressure. She pulled her phone out and opened her voicemail app and put it on speaker. It was a quiet message, but as I listened, I could hear exactly what she was trying to show me. There was a bunch of static, but through the static there was mom's voice saying,

You can do it, Nell. She said that a little, little before she went to bed, she had a new voicemail on her phone, but there was no missed calls. She listened to it, and it made her want to break down and cry. It was an absolute mystery what that voicemail was. I don't really have an explanation for it, other than Mom was trying to give her some encouragement from the other side. I'm not huge into the paranormal or anything, but this absolutely hit me hard and made me have to rethink my position. We never told anyone else about it, and Nell still has the voicemail saved.

We've since made it a tradition for our family to get together at my place for Thanksgiving, and this year will be the fifth time that we've done this. I know that if Mom was still here with us today, she would be very proud of us. That was today's episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. Thank you so very much for love. listening and I really hope you enjoyed these scary stories. If you want to support the channel further, please do consider checking out my YouTube channel. Just search As the Raven Dreams on YouTube and subscribing.

You can also join the channel or go to my Patreon for early access to all of my content, all of it's appreciated and never expected. But if it happens, thank you. All that said, friends, I will see you on the next episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. But of course, until then, sleep well.