As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 241 - 19 Scary Stories From Listeners

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Today, on the 241st episode of the As The Raven Dreams podcast, we have 19 True Chilling stories. All of these stories are from Listeners just like you! Today's Episode is brought to you in partnership with Laffwicks Studio! We've partnered to bring you TWO fantastic candles based on the show! More information at https://www.astheravendreams.com/candles If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like or rate the podcast, and leave me a comment with your thoughts if the platform your on supports it! If you have a story to submit, would like to find where to listen to the podcast, or want to find me on social media platforms, all of that info can be found at https://www.astheravendreams.com You can also send stories into my subreddit (r/theravensdream) or email them to me at [e-mail] Want to check out some ATRD Podcast Merch? ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Or for signed merch ➤ https://ko-fi.com/AsTheRavenDreams I wrote a novel, "The Insomniac's Experiment" by Raven Adams! Check it out on amazon (Or you can email me for a signed copy!) Join Patreon to get early access and support the Podcast! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Check out my gaming channel with my pal Ghost_Ink ➤ @superNefariousBros On YouTube Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in todays episode... Old Dad, Marilyn Shelton, Rick, Rosemarie, ROB, Adam Pajkowski, Alessa, Amy, 4thDegree, Voxdarkwing, As Well As Any Author That Has Requested Anonymity. TimeStamps… Ad breaks after Story 1 and Story 15 1 ➤ 1:44 2 ➤ 13:00 3 ➤ 19:16 4 ➤ 28:54 Laffwicks Partnership Info ➤ 36:02 5 ➤ 37:23 6 ➤ 45:57 7 ➤ 56:47 8 ➤ 1:06:25 9 ➤ 1:11:23 10 ➤ 1:19:10 11 ➤ 1:25;42 12 ➤ 1:27:35 13 ➤ 1:42:23 14 ➤ 1:47:11 15 ➤ 1:49:39 16 ➤ 1:59:48 17 ➤ 2:14:40 18 ➤ 2:28:52 19 ➤ 2:39:36 Disclaimer ➤ Episodes include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Listener discretion is always advised. ALL Audio and visuals on this podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format. Bless This Mess. None of my audio is AI Generated, I am a real person reading real stories into a real microphone. Note: The podcast nor the host endorses any advertisements played during the podcast, ads are not chosen by ATRD or Raven Adams, they are chosen automatically by the advertisement systems by the platforms that host the podcast. I do not endorse, support, or promote any opinions or statements made in any adverts played during the show. #ScaryStories #UnexplainedMysteries #TrueHorror Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This family is on the brink of civil war. On September 18th, Mobland, the hit original series is back on Paramount Plus. We are the Harrogans. Don't know the net? And Google us. From the underworld of Guy Ritchie. Do you want to step up the ladder? I want combat dead. Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren.

Do I have to do everything myself? You want to want! I'll give you a... Mobland, new season hits September 18th on Paramount Plus. Hey there, friends. well, if you're in part of the world where fall is finally upon us, hopefully, you're enjoying the start of the cooler weather. I say finally upon us.

We got like, what, two weeks-ish? Somewhere in there? I don't know. It's not as close as I would like it to be. Still getting kind of warm here, but next week, we're actually supposed to have, like, really cool days. I think Tuesday, let me check, because I'm so professional, let me check while I do this intro. Tuesday, the high is 66 with a low of 44 here in Rochester, Minnesota.

So looking forward to that, that's for sure. Get to wear a jacket. Anyway, yesterday, the 10th was also the wife and I's 11th anniversary, wedding anniversary. So I wanted to mention that because, you know, it's fun to just be talkative and chat with y'all about what's going on in my life. just another thing that's going on in my life. So, yeah. Anyway, we were busy yesterday doing stuff, and then today we're going to go to the movies. Going to see, what is that, Acme, Coyote versus Acme, I think. It was, I was told it was funny by a friend, so we're going to go see it. And then next week we're going to go see Resident Evil, too, so that'd be fun. I love Zach Craigers' work, though,

so anyway, enough blabbing. Today we have a bunch of subscriber stories, a big, mix of just random scary stories for you to enjoy, and I'm going to stop talking, so uh, enjoy. Hello, Raven. I wanted to share with you a few stories that my wife had shared with me over the years from her job working at a nursing home. She gave me her blessing to share on here, but she didn't want to write it herself. I hope that's okay with you. Sure, it's fine. She did not work the floor working with patients, but in the office. Her first job there was kind of administrative. She did data entry, filing, answering phones, and clerical type of work.

The one thing that she had to get used to when she first started working there was the passing of patients. Most of them were there just long enough to pass away. Death had become part of her job. Over the years, she's moved up in the company to manager, and over the years she was always the type of employee to step up and accept duties that were outside of her scope of work. One such time was about 13 years ago. The facility needed someone to cover night shifts,

just being at the office while the night staff tended to the patients. She worked overnight shifts off and on throughout the years, but it was a position that was hard to keep filled, so they kept putting her back on it, until she moved up in the company. During the evening, she just manned the office, mostly taking calls that came in after hours. pulling files for the nurses, getting caught up on other tasks.

She didn't mind it. The shift started after visiting hours concluded, and she liked that. Mostly because during visiting hours, the hospital would get random people walking in, sometimes people who went there to steal or cause trouble. She would work until about 6 a.m., and then would clock out and go home, during the middle of the night hours. Nurses and other staff were always on the other side of the building. She had a monitor in the office that would switch to different areas around the hospital.

She would have her little radio on while she worked. Sometimes she would make tea in the office waiting for something for her to do. This one time she had seen on the monitor that a patient was walking down the hallway. She got on the phone and alerted the nurse's station that a patient was wandering in the halls. She gave the location. The monitor only would list each frame for a few seconds, and then move on to the next. When the frame of that section was up,

it would say something like first floor, main hall, west, or a general description like that. The nurses on staff did not find anyone up on that floor. They did a room to room, and everyone was asleep. They called her back and asked her to describe the person, and she said it looked like a woman wearing a gown walking towards the rec room.

They called her back, and they said no one was up. there. Everyone on the floor was accounted for. However, my wife got a very cold sensation about it and left her office to check the rec room. No one was there, and there were no signs of anyone being there. So, she went back to her office. On the way back, she started to get a sensation that someone was looking at her. She hurried back to her office and locked the doors. This incident may be explained off, but it wasn't the only one that happened. A few weeks go by, and she was in the office again in the middle of the night,

and she heard a buzzing noise. She turned around to see a notification on her screen. You see, the nurses station in her office had this kind of alert indicator that if a patient pushed the call or emergency button, it would alert them. She normally dismissed it because nurses would respond. She was only the failsafe. Normally, the alert would be turned off by the nurse's station acknowledging it and then going to the room. However, this time the alert kept sounding.

She called to the nurse's station and the alert turned off. The nurse on duty answered and my wife said, Hey, did you get that alert from room number? The nurse was quiet for a moment and said that she didn't get an alert. And she asked her to repeat the room number. My wife read her out again. If I remember correctly, she said that she would log them, so she repeated back, and the nurse said, Stand by. I'll go check it out and call you back.

About ten minutes went by, and my wife said that the nurse called her back and said, Well, we didn't get the alert from that room or any other alerts in the past two hours. Are you sure? My wife said yes. The nurse said that the alert came from an unoccupied room. My wife shrugged and said that maybe something was wrong with the system. She pulled up the room charts and saw that the gentleman who was in that room prior had passed away about three days before. She got really creeped out by that.

Another event, it was early in the evening. There were employees who were checking out for the day. A maintenance man had stayed later to fix a plumbing issue and things were starting to get settled in. She went to the break room to make herself a noodle cup because it was a cold evening. and when she came back to her office, the door was closed and the lights were off. She thought that someone had walked by and assumed that she wasn't there and turned off the lights and closed the door. She sat at her desk eating her soup and working on her computer. Once again, the monitors that showed different parts of the hospital were playing and she saw areas that had motion lights turning on,

like as if someone had walked into the area. She said the main areas lights were always on, but these were like areas that were like areas. that during the night, lights would just be off. Storage areas, laundry, and one of the areas was like at the end of the hall, where there was a utility room, a filing room, and an electrical room. The cameras were not inside the rooms, but pointed to that area. And she would laugh because sometimes employees that were having affairs with each other would sneak over to the utility room for hookups.

She guessed that they were not aware they were seen down that hallway, and one would go in and then another. So that's what she thought. It was just another affair going on. She always said in nursing homes it was like a hookup market for all the nurses and techs. Anyway, when she saw that the motion lights were triggered in that area, she paused the camera on that spot, mostly to see who was fooling around. After a few minutes, the lights turned off.

She kept doing what she was doing and then the lights came back on, but no one was there. She waited, watching to see. After some time, the lights turned off and then on again. She called down to the nurse's station and asked for someone to check things out down that way. One of the guys who was like a nurse's aide went down there. My wife saw him walk down towards the storage and electrical room, and he stood there for a few seconds, acting as if he was hearing something. And then he quickly turned to look behind himself and jolted from the area. My wife was like, what is going on? He just reported back that nothing was down there, that nobody was down there.

The next story is about the Death Cat. This was when my wife was put back on days, working in the office, and they had a patio area that was nice, especially during the nice days to sit outside and take a break. She worked with mostly Filipino co-workers and actually started learning phrases. and greetings. They all loved that. However, she thought that a lot of them were superstitious. My wife is a cat lover, but they would chase away this one cat. My wife said that the cat looked like a brown, tan and reddish Garfield cat, but looked dirty and homeless. They said the cat would only come around when someone would die. Sure enough, that night, one of the patients died in her sleep.

My wife said that one more time she saw the cat another patient had died the day before, so she started believing in the death cat. Now, this is the last story that I'll share. Some people look at my wife and talk to her in Armenian. Sometimes people think that she speaks Greek, or people will assume that she's Middle Eastern. And, since we live in an area that has many cultures, it's not hard to assume that she may be Greek, Italian, Armenian, Middle Eastern Indian, or something like that. She's also very classic in her appearance.

Like, you could put her back in the 1940s and she would fit in. I'm not sure if I'm making sense with that, but hopefully you all know what I mean. Not too long ago, she had to meet with a patient, a translator, a family member, and a social worker. Some kind of paperwork had to be filled out. out for the benefits or something like that. The patient was in the bed. My wife was seated in a chair behind the patient's daughter. And next to her was the translator and on the other side was a social worker.

I guess the patient didn't notice my wife at first because when my wife started talking about the paperwork to the daughter, the patient looked at her like she was almost in shock. She started crying out and speaking really fast in another language. And she was crying wiping away tears. My wife said that she sat there thinking, oh my God, what did I just say? She turned to the translator and to the daughter who were trying to calm her down, and my wife hit the nurse's button, because she was afraid that the patient was having some sort of episode.

The patient started pointing at my wife and talking really loud and fast. The daughter was trying to calm her down. My wife understood her saying, no, no, no, because the daughter was speaking a little bit in another language and a little bit in English. Turns out, the patient said that my wife was her long-lost friend from when they were kids, and that during the war they were separated, and that she had heard that she was killed. She thought she was seeing the ghost of her friend. My wife decided that it was best to leave the room,

but she was urged to go over so she could get a closer look, and the patient grabbed her and hugged her and would not let her go. My wife was like, it's okay, it's okay, to the patient. To them, my wife was like her childhood friend who was killed in a bombing during World War II. And thank you for allowing me to share my wife's stories with you. I hope it wasn't too long. She does have a few others, maybe, if you do like this, and I'll ask her to share them. with you. First, I wanted to say that I've been binge watching your videos at work or at home,

and they've been giving me motivation for completing tasks and making my day easier, so thank you for that. The pleasure's mine, trust me. This story is something that I dreamed of and have been thinking about for years. It's not something scary at all, but it was so vivid that it stuck with me in a way that something feels like it's missing. I think it could be considered a glitch or some type of dream, but I'll just put it in that group since it sounds similar to some other stories I've heard. Feel free to put it in a category that feels like it makes more sense. Like a stories from listeners video, potentially? This dream happened to me at college. I do want to make people aware that I have

constant anxiety and depression which makes sleeping difficult for me and have a restless mind. And during college, it was one of the stages of my anxiety and depression. that were unknowingly bad. I was raised in a don't show too much emotion type of family. On this particular day, I was stressed since projects and work were piling up for me, and I needed to get up early for some volunteering I was doing in the morning. Well, that flared my anxiety, and I went for a smoke. At that time, I used to smoke just to fall asleep since it was difficult for me.

Then I went to sleep, and the dreams started. with me being in the middle of the ocean with others that I didn't know. It was stormy, and all of us were confused about what was happening. I felt panicky since the waves were constant, just not big enough to pull us underwater. We were trying to talk to each other, but the lightning and rain was so intense that I couldn't hear what they were saying. But from their faces, it looked like they were questioning and alarmed. I was going to say something to them, but someone ahead of us talked to us.

It was surprising because it was not in front of us, but it was a voice inside of our heads. I knew we all heard it due to trying to find where it came from. We didn't know who was talking to us. What they said to us was that we were going somewhere that will convince us to stay, but warn us not to. I was confused about what the voice meant, but it became dark in my awareness of the dream was in a different scene. I was then in a gas station with this girl that I didn't know, and a guy that I also didn't know. They weren't the same people from before, but in the dream I vividly could feel that I was close to them, like close friends. But the guys felt different. It was like I loved him.

This confused me since I've really never loved anyone like that before. Anyway, we were talking about our day while getting icies or slurpees, and after buying, we three were just hanging in a city until we got close to the girl's house. We said bye to her, and the guy and I continued to hang out more. We walked around the city and then stopped in an alleyway. We just sat down and continued talking, but it was more about our feelings or something in that field. What I remembered is that I genuinely felt happy and fluttery towards him.

I can't remember how he looked, but he had curly hair, dark features, and that was just what I remember of him. Getting back to the emotions, because that was what made the dream very vivid for me, I just rarely feel this genuine happiness towards people. It was so inviting. It was like I knew the person well. It also felt so comfortable where I was. I didn't really need to observe him to know what his reaction was with what I said or my surroundings.

But in the back of my mind, the same voice from the beginning started speaking to me, telling me that I needed to go back. I was confused, and I suddenly felt panicked. As I said before, I was happy and free in that dream, and it was so vivid that it just felt confusing to leave. I also didn't want to leave this person at all. The voice got louder, and that was when I woke up in real life. Coincidentally, I woke up one second before my alarm. When I woke up, I was just shocked, like I had lost something. The emotions were just too real for me, and it actually made me cry.

I only told one friend since she would not make me feel crazy, and she thought that it could have been some kind of astral projection, but I've never done that before and have never been able to. I have tried to see if I could go back to the dream, but I was never able to go back. That is until this year, but it was very short. I knew it was him since I remembered his hair. I was also getting the calm feeling that I felt from the prior dream. I remembered the feeling of laughing and cuddling, but that's about all.

The same as before, I woke up about one second before my alarm went off. To be honest, I think it was just a vivid dream due to my restless mind, but the emotions were too vivid for me. They were emotions that I haven't felt before for somebody. Or feeling safe in my surroundings. And if this was a glitch, parts of the future, or another universe, did the people that I saw in the beginning see similar things as me? And why did the voice want me to see it but warn me not to stay? there. If anyone has any questions or has something similar, please let me know in the comments if this story makes it to the podcast. Lastly, again, I'm sorry if this story doesn't make sense.

I just wanted to let it out because it was a dream that I've been rethinking again. And thank you for everything, Raven, and reading my story. This all started with a single loud knock on the door. And, uh, hi, I'm Angela. I'm your new neighbor. I live next door. I live next or nobody in our last neighborhood liked us, but you will, I'm sure. This was all said by the woman with shaggy, bright red Ronald McDonald's hair, and a rainbow fanny pack adhering tightly to her waist. Later, I would find out that there was nothing angelic about Angela, the woman with the aggressively planted stance,

the one with the fire red hair. She always stood like that, with her feet planted widely apart in sandals, with large bare toes as if to state, this is my territory. I would never find out what was in that fanny pack, but Angela wore it constantly every day. Perhaps the fanny pack, which was so 1980s, contained Angela's kidneys or some of their vital body part. Maybe I never wanted to know what was in that bag. Angela stated that they had five kids and had just moved in next door.

That was a lot of reason to dislike her right there, with having that many kids who were also very noisy children, I would later find out. And all of them except for one had the same bright red hair. The previous owners of the cottage-style home next door had been a semi-retired couple with grown children who never visited. You know, the quiet and peaceful type. The neighborhood had previously been dull and peaceful before Angela with the bright red hair moved in. Then there was her last name,

Polish and hard to pronounce. It ended with the word ski and was more syllables than I could pronounce, which gave me even more reason to dislike her. The fact that Angela said that no one in their previous neighborhood liked them made red flags stand out in my brain. So did the fact that Angela stated that she was deeply involved in therapy to heal her, quote, broken mind. Usually people don't talk about such subjects so openly upon first meeting someone.

Customarily, it's not the first thing you say to someone. Not at all. Boo-hoo, no one likes me. That, the five kids, the fanny pack, and her aggressively planted stance, made my new neighbor Angela as scary as hell. Angela went on to state that she was a strict Mormon, had graduated from BYU, and she had married her husband, who was a doctor, when she was 19 years old.

Then Angela added that the doctor who had delivered her first baby had somehow given her an STD. Such private and personal information only scared me and made more red flags go off in my head. I was relieved to have another doctor in the neighborhood, but not after I met her husband, the man with the long Polish name. As it turns out, my new doctor neighbor was only a radiologist, and he was a serious. as a grave, and stayed up late studying broken bones and other severe injuries, but his wife Angela called him a doctor. My new doctor neighbor never laughed, always talked in a loud, deep voice, and his posture

was always ramrod straight, unlike his wife's widely planted feet. And also, yes, here's a major fact. They never, ever supervised their kids. As they explained it, a doctor was too busy for such things. Letting herself brush past me and allowing herself into the house, my new neighbor, Angela, sat down on the couch. She told me how she had been abused by a family physician and was in therapy for it. Customarily, people don't usually do this either. Tell everyone all of their secrets upon first meeting.

Was the man who abused you, your husband? I did wonder. Angela's red flags were causing my brain to erupt in a full red flag explosion. I wanted her out of my house. But then she mentioned my daughter and how she had a daughter of the same age, and one just two years older, and asked wouldn't they like to play. Later, I would learn that this just meant that I would have to babysit for Angela for free, because conveniently, she lived just next door. Oh gosh, sometimes I can barely function.

Sometimes I won't even get out of bed. It must be nice for the girls to have someone to play with. Angela would say, as more red flags went off in my brain at that mention of her never getting out of bed in the morning. The boys seemed somewhat rowdy as I saw over the fence. That they shot off toy guns and rode bikes in the streets, but I just thought kids will be kids. I should have judged them more harshly in retrospect. At this point forward, after a short introduction, Angela volunteered to let the kids ring the doorbell endlessly and proceeded to let her kids come over four days a week, mostly in the morning, and the kids would then stay all day until it got dark. The children's names have been changed for the purpose of the story to protect their privacy.

Amber, Angela's youngest daughter, would wake up and knock on our door around 9 in the morning, about 10. four times a week. I understand that kids want to play, but I also like my privacy. Sometimes we hadn't even finished with breakfast when Amber would knock. I wasn't able to enjoy any alone time since our new neighbors moved in. Amber, the four-year-old, was polite enough, but all of Angela's five kids didn't wear shoes, and they walked around in bare feet with visible dirt under their toenails. I tried to excuse the gross factor when letting Amber into play.

I always expected her parents to come along to supervise her. After all, Amber was only four years old, but her parents honestly didn't seem to care about her that much. Nor do they provide much supervision, because Amber was always at our house. Amber was nice enough, but she said she watched a lot of TV at home and would demand to watch a show after only about half an hour of play. Amber was also a little piggy and a real food hog. She would gobble up all of the food meant for my four-year-old, and then ask for more with a loud burp.

I soon realized Angela was using me for free babysitting, so she could sleep in, and my life became a living hell. Everyone in my household gaslit me, and told me that Angela was a nice person because she was a Mormon, but I realized what the demon lady with the bright red hair and the fanny pack was doing. Then, Angela's daughter, Amber caught the flu, and passed it on to me, and the rest of the family. Amber caught the flu because in the winter her parents still let her run around barefoot and without a coat. I realized why no one in their previous neighborhood liked them.

I felt bad for Amber, and I offered to let her borrow a coat of my daughters. Soon, the Polish radiologist's family caught on and they started providing a coat for Amber, but I never had to. saw any of the kids ever wear shoes. And I had to ask Angela, cheapishly, to provide snacks for her daughter, Amber, and she did, though the snacks that she provided were always the same rubbery, tasteless cheese sticks and not a fruit or vegetable in sight. Angela's older daughter, Clarice, would also ring the doorbell several times a day too, and also stay until nighttime, without a polite request without having been invited. Clarice was seven years old,

and more savvy in the ways of the world than her four-year-old sister, of course. Clarice was also pickier. I hate sushi, she would say, like some sort of aristocrat who wasn't the recipient of free babysitting. But Clarice would still ring the doorbells several times a day and try to come back after lunch,

just like her sister Amber. The last straw came when not only did I have to free babysit and provide food for two girls for gratis, but when Angela made the mistake of parking multiple vehicles in front of our mailbox, I contacted her about this, and I politely asked her to move the vehicle so that the mail could be delivered. Angela blew up on me. She came over and waved her hands in my face with the same aggressive wide foot stance. I thought that Angela was going to hit me that day. Angela's eyes were wild and crazed, and her red hair was messy.

Also, Amber did hit me in the face as hard as she could one day, knocking my glasses off my face. I know she was only four years old, but with a constant doorbell ringing, walking around barefoot on our floor and with her eating up all of the household's food, I knew that I wouldn't miss them. I made it clear then that I wanted nothing to do with Angela that day, and that she said that. her daughters were not welcome to play with my daughter anymore. And I honestly cannot say that I regret this much. I have a bit of a weird story from back when I used to work nights at a hospital. For some background on the story, this happened a long time ago. This was back when this particular hospital only had one security guard per shift,

and they had them to make sure nothing ever happened. Not because something did, if that makes sense. sense. This hospital was fairly small. It only had a few floors, but back then, in the city I lived in, this hospital was the biggest building around. As I said, I was a security guard for the overnight shift, probably because I was the only person that applied for the job. I was a bit of a scrawny kid, a few years out of high school with no formal training, which, again, highlights how serious they were about their guards. This hospital had a 24-7 visitation policy, which is basically why I had a job.

They held a strong policy that was basically that the friends and family of those in the care of the hospital had unfettered rights to visitations. So if you had someone that was in the hospital and you got off work at 4 in the morning, you were allowed to check in and see them. While this seems like a terrible idea, they implemented it well enough. So long as you were on the list of approved people, the nurses would sit down with you and go over everything that had been done and the patient's status. If the patient was awake, they could visit as long as they stayed quiet. Despite this, and as you can probably imagine, working the overnight shift at that hospital was an incredibly do-nothing job.

That said, we had a couple of people that had to be asked to leave, but nothing too crazy. Mostly just people loitering or saying things that the nurses weren't too fond of. There was one night, though, that something happened that I still, to this day, cannot explain. It was a night about as eventful as the rest of them. Nothing was going on. There were no fires to put out. and the visitor log included about three names over the past four hours. I informed the head nurse on duty that I was going to step away from the post for a few moments

for a bathroom break and to get some coffee. She agreed to sit at the desk to make sure that no one got in without signing in on the board, and I walked away. I go do my business in the restrooms, and then I take the stairs down to the cafeteria area where I put my money in the machine for one of those fancy coffees, which was pretty much just a coffee with cocoa powder in it. I stir it, add a little extra milk, and then I head back up. As I'm sitting back at the main desk, I notice that on camera 3, which is the camera for the cafeteria area,

there's a guy sitting at one of the tables. He looks fairly normal. He's wearing a polo-style shirt and jeans and just sitting at the table, staring at nothing in particular. I was a bit confused because I was just down there and I didn't see anybody. But I also wasn't being incredibly attentive, so I thought that we may have just missed each other. I asked the head nurse if the guy on camera had signed in. She looked at me and said that no one had walked in while I was gone.

I pointed to the screen and clarified that this guy hadn't walked in while I was away, and she of course confirmed. He had not come in. It was a bit weird, but I let it go. She walked back to her area, and I sat back down to watch the cameras. After a few minutes of just kind of staring at this guy, he looks up straight at the camera and just kind of... Glares.

Honestly, it was a bit creepy. He was seriously just staring at the camera with a blank stare, just holding him. his gaze. As dumb as it may sound, it almost felt like he was staring at me, not the camera. I call for the head nurse again, and I tell her that I'm going to head down to talk to this guy. I asked her to watch the screen and make sure he didn't walk away. She agrees. I get in the elevator and head down to the seating area and the cafeteria, and much to my surprise, he wasn't there. The entire cafeteria area was completely and totally empty. I did a quick check through the entire spot,

shined my light into the back of the kitchen, and checked every single side room. There was seriously nobody in the room. The chills that I was getting from this were unbearable. The hair in my arm was standing on end. I walked back to the elevator and headed back to the desk. When I got up there, the nurse looked up and asked me what was going on. I responded her by asking her when he walked away from the table.

She said that he hadn't walked away and then looked back to the screen. At that moment, her face went white as a ghost. All of the color drained and she looked like she was about to scream or pass out. Apparently she had been watching the screen the entire time and she said the guy hadn't moved. She said that she saw me exit the elevator, walk around the room, and check everything, and she thought it was really weird how I had seemingly walked right past this guy. She then mentioned that the man was on camera staring straight at her the entire time up until she looked away toward me.

It was honestly creepy as hell. This guy, seemingly, did not exist. I saw him clear his day on the screen, and she saw him just the same, but when I went down there he wasn't there. What's worse, I actually got a look at the archived footage the next day, and at no point was the man in the video. I confirmed the time with the head nurse, and he did not exist on the recorded footage. I even watched the clip where I was walking around and checking the area, but there was nobody

there. I don't know if this was some sort of glitch or really freaky. anomaly. Or maybe it was some kind of ghost that was just being really creepy. But it was honestly the most terrifying thing that happened at that job. Nothing like it ever happened again for the five or so years that I worked there, and I'm actually pretty thankful for that. Today's episode is brought to you in partnership with Lafwick Studio. LaFwick Studio makes candles that inspire, and we've partner to bring you two candles based on this podcast you were listening to. The Raven's Dream is a dreamy white sage and lavender that will help you stay cozy as you drift into the dark,

and a glitch in reality, which is a deja vu-inducing citrus and sandalwood, certain to make your world feel a bit out of sync. All of Lafwick's soy candles are hand-poured in the great state of Vermont, are paraben and dye-free, plant-based, have cotton wicks and come in recycled can containers. The As the Raven Dreams cross-Laughwick Studio Co-Lab feature since chosen by me, Raven, as well as gorgeous labels, if I may say so myself, designed by me specifically for this collaboration. I'm super excited to be working with Lafewicks, and I hope that you'll take the time to check these candles out, as well as all the other great offerings that Lafwick's has to offer. For more information, just go to as-the-ravendreams.com slash candles, and a huge thank you to Laugh-Ravenings. Lafwick Studio for partnering with me to make this possible. And now back to the stories.

For some general background for all of my stories, I'm a very experienced, think expert or pro-level person when it comes to certain wilderness activities. Specifically, my focus is a hobby called peak bagging, which, as the word implies, centers around hiking mountains. And since most mountains do not have trails or jeep roads leading to the top, I'm extremely versed in off-trail hiking and navigation. Also, in recent years, I've developed quite a knack for backpacking,

which I engage in strictly as a means of transportation, i.e., in order to be able to hike extremely remote and far-out peaks or mountains that would otherwise not be feasible in a waking day. The longest hike I've ever done in a waking day was over 27 miles, and the longest backpack I've ever done was approximately 17. to 18 miles one way, in terms of distance from vehicle to the farthest out base camp, seven-day, one week, in terms of number of days in the wilderness, including pack-in day and pack-out day, and it was during the spring months with more daylight. On these days, I regularly do

12 to 14 hours of hiking per day, for several consecutive days, and I've been engaging this type of hiking for just over a decade now. To date, I've summited over a decade now. To date, I've summited over 1900 peaks, mostly in Arizona and New Mexico. Thus, I'm not new to backpacking hiking or backpacking or peak bagging or just outtore adventuring, and I'm very fortunate that the one bear encounter that could well have ended catastrophically, had I handled it differently, occurred after I had acquired all of this experience, versus when I was a newbie. On that note, this is my first story.

It was the bear encounter that played out and ended like none other. At the end, I've also thrown in some shorter bear encounter stories to lighten the mood, and to illustrate what is much more typical for bare encounters. I've taken those, and I've split them out into their own separate entry for this video. As a note, since I contacted the Forest Service post-incident, as one should do if they have a semi-aggressive encounter such as I did, I've simply copied and pasted the write-up that I did for them. For those not savvy with GPS coordinations, as I have included the exact location where the incident occurred in my right-up below,

my encounter took place, no joke, approximately 1.16 miles, as the person hikes, south of Bear Mountain, and approximately 3.26 miles as the person hikes north of a peak called Wahoo Peak, both located in the northeast end of New Mexico's Gila National Forest. So, on to the story. On day six of my trip, I was on a sense of my second peak of the day. At approximately 8,356, light our altitude on Kautapo, and riding southward along a pretty level portion of the ridge. This was when the sound of breaking branches ahead prompted me to look up.

Immediately I caught sight of a small to medium-sized black bear, approximately seven to a hundred feet away on the ridge. Initially, it was moving east to west, i.e. cutting across, the north-south segment of the ridge. Both bear and I stopped moving when we caught sight of each other. Ironically, given how all of my prior bear encounters were never problematic, I was even contemplating reaching for my cell phone to take a photo of it. However, even before the next several moments played out, I had a very bad gut feeling. So, instead of reaching for my phone or camera, I attempted to give the bear space by immediately

angling my trajectory 90 degrees and slowly walking onward away from it. But no sooner did I turn away when the unthinkable happened. The bear started running toward me. It did not full-on charge, nor did it immediately run right up to me, but the fact that it had closed the distance from 70 to 100 feet to just 20 to 3. 30, in a matter of seconds, was very unsettling to say the least. I had stopped walking to keep tabs on the bear, but when it had stopped, I once again tried to slowly walk away. However, the bear once again ran toward me, this time stopping only approximately 10 feet away from me.

There was no time to reach from my gun in this situation, and clearly attempting to walk away was not working. The bear was obviously testing me, and I figured my best chance of the situation ending in my favor was to make a bold move now, i.e. before the bear potentially tried to make a real move on me. Thus, with as deep of a voice as possible, and with a lot of gusto, I screamed, Get out of here! And when the bear did not flinch, I proceeded to charge at the bear. while simultaneously waving my trekking poles at it and screaming a deep and confident voice, Get the F out of here.

It worked, thank God. The bear immediately did a 180 and ran about 10 feet away from me, and then stopped. I stopped my charge in hopes of vindicating to the bear that I meant it no harm and just wanted it out of my space. Then I shouted, back off more! And when it did not, I charged at it a few more steps. steps. At which point, it ran approximately 20 to 30 feet away from me before stopping. At this point, I slowly turned the other way, all the while keeping tabs on the bear and, luckily this time, it did not follow. Just to note, somehow, thanks to a kind of inner knowing

or intuition throughout the incident that I'd be okay, I was surprisingly calm during the encounter. Though, in the five to ten minutes that followed, as I continued on my way up to the peak I was hiking, my knees were pretty weak. During the encounter, I attributed my quick thinking, in resorting and opting to literally charging the bear to two things. One, my own experiences of just how flightly bears usually are. I've added a few super-silly such accounts toward the end that Raven can read if he feels as listeners will appreciate.

It'll be in the second part of this story, which will be a few after this one. and two, a YouTube video I had seen about two to four years ago, where a hiker had no choice but to turn toward the bear like he was going to charge and fight it. After a bear charged right out of the brush, out of nowhere, and straight toward him. His actions worked to deter a fight, and were successful in scaring off the bear. I tried, unsuccessfully, to find that video clip when I got home for my trip because the success that man had, was literally playing through my mind during the encounter, and I felt such gratitude for having seen that video. Off memory, the man was on the side of a paved road when this encounter happened,

and I think it might have happened in a country outside the U.S., but I can't be 100% certain of this detail. It was at least two years ago, and no more than four. And at the time that I saw it, the video kept popping up in my YouTube feet left and right, but now a few years later, no amount of keyword combinations are pulling up the video that I'm thinking of. Finally, upon getting home for my trip, I told my circle of hiking slash peak-bagging buddies, some of which are very seasoned and have upwards of 3,000 to 4,000 peaks to their name. So, about double what I've accomplished to date. All about my bear encounter.

One of them then said to me, you probably know the saying about bears. If it's black, fight back, if it's brown, lie down. If it's white, good night. And you did the right thing. I was laughing profusely, as I'd actually never heard that before. This story didn't happen to me, and it isn't mine directly. It happened to my aunt back in the mid to late 90s when she was still a teenager.

I asked her if I could share this story, and she said that she would prefer I did, just in case it could help someone else avoid a similar situation. situation. Though, I don't know if anyone would ever be in a similar situation in this current day and age. That said, I'm going to tell this from memory, so if some parts seem inconsistent or a bit confusing, I do apologize. Like I said, this was back when my aunt was a teenager. She was a pretty well-liked young woman, she was a good kid, a straight-a-student, and she was well-known and held in a high regard in the neighborhood, as being a dependable babysitter. She loved spending time with kids.

Kids loved her. And she had done a good amount of volunteer work over the summer with the daycare at our local church group. Basically, people in the area knew that if they needed someone to take care of a kid for a couple of hours, they could just call her and not worry about anything. She actually ended up going in to child care, and owns a local daycare today, if that helps to explain how much she loved and loves working with children. This specific situation happened when she got a call from a couple a few blocks away.

It was the expected story. They wanted to have a date night, and they needed someone to watch their young daughter for a few hours. They said they would pay her $10 an hour to watch her from 5 to 11. My aunt agreed, and everything seemed like it was a pretty standard job. Now, this was back in the 90s. Almost no one had a cell phone. The internet wasn't really a widespread thing,

and a lot of people just trusted people in their neighborhood based solely on the fact that they were in the neighborhood. It was a totally different time from today, where we're way more protected in our everyday lives. My aunt and grandparents didn't know anything about this couple, which also wasn't out of the ordinary. And while the situation really didn't seem too out there, things got strange pretty much right off the bat. My grandfather dropped my aunt off, and she knocked on the door, but at first nobody answered. She stood there for a few moments and knocked again.

Then, after a few more minutes, the man of the house finally did answer the door. She said that he apologized for not hearing her knock sooner, and that he was in the bathroom getting things ready. After that, my aunt says that she entered the house and noticed that it was incredibly clean, and also fairly minimalist. The living room was pretty much just an old couch, a chair, and a television. There was a lamp in the corner for light, but that was it. There were no pictures, no toys, nothing to indicate that this family had a young woman. child, or was even a family at all. She ignored this and thought that maybe they just didn't have much in ways of money.

And she turned to ask the man about the daughter. The basics, really. Name, emergency contact information, schedule, and any special rules that she would need to abide by. She said that at first the man had a look about his face that made it seem like he was nervous, like he was thinking of an answer to the questions on the spot. After a few moments, he cleared his throat and responded. Uh, her name is Abigail.

If there's an emergency, call my mother. Her phone numbers on the fridge. Her name is Beth. Scheduling and rules won't really be an issue. Abigail's too young to do anything, and she'll most likely be asleep the whole night at her crib. At this point, my aunt had a few things click for her. There weren't any toys because Abigail,

was still a newborn. This could also have explained the lack of pictures in the wall of the family. She nodded and told him that she understood and asked if Abigail had a feeding schedule and asked if they were trying to keep things on a strict timeline. She said that at this point, the man just shook his head and told her not to bother Abigail while she slept. And if she didn't wake up crying, to just let her sleep. Obviously, my aunt was a bit confused. When you have a baby that young, you typically don't just let them sleep.

You keep them on a schedule and try to keep things consistent. But she was also doing this based on the parents' terms, so she didn't want to fight or argue about it. After a few moments of talking, the man said something that caught my aunt off guard. He said something along the lines of, I know you probably had a long day at school, and maybe you'll want to take a shower at some point. If you do, the shower is upstairs, second door on the left. Feel free to use it if you need to.

How many weird or red flags is this at that point? Three, at least. Well, there was another that happened immediately after this comment. After insisting she could take a shower, the man said that they needed to go, and thanked her for taking her time to watch their daughter. He then opened the front door, got in the car and started to drive off, leaving my aunt there alone with Abigail.

It may not be obvious what the red flag was in that situation, but my aunt immediately realized that something was off. At no point did the mother of the child come out of any room in the house. She hadn't met her, and the man had just left without her. At this point, it seemed like there wasn't a mother in the situation. Again, my aunt thought that maybe she just didn't understand the whole thing. Maybe the man had to pick her up from work.

Maybe they were meeting up somewhere. So, she let it go and just sat on the couch to watch TV. She sat there for a little while and watched whatever was on, but after a little bit, she said that something didn't feel right, which, yeah, obviously. She said that something in her told her that she needed to check on Abigail, even though the father said she didn't need to. She got up and started up the stairs and realized that she didn't know which room was hers. There were two doors on the left and one on the right. She knew the second on the left was the bathroom, so she checked the first one on the left.

It was a small room that looked like it should have been a bedroom, but there was no bed. She said that the room was an absolute mess with trash everywhere, and off to the side was a small desk with a computer sitting on it. Since that wasn't the room, she assumed that maybe Abigail's crib was in the master bedroom. She went over to the other door and opened it, only to find nothing but a mattress and box spring on the floor, and a single dresser. She looked in the room and there was no crib. There was no indication of a small child. just a bed and the dresser. Much like the living room and in complete contrast to the computer room, it was completely clean. It was at this point that a few things became a little more clear.

One, this guy was a bit off, putting it lightly. Two, there was no daughter. Abigail did not exist, and she was babysitting a non-existent child. three, this guy's insistence that she'd take a shower was all the more creepy by the fact that the first two things were true. She closed the doors and went back downstairs and then grabbed the phone and quickly called her own house. She explained to her dad that there was no baby there and told him how weird the guy was. My grandpa told her that he would drive over and park on the street and wait for the guy to get back to make sure nothing happened. After about four or five hours, the guy came back and his creepy vibes escalated.

She said that when he got back, the first thing he asked her was if she had taken a shower. She told him that she hadn't, and said that he seemed legitimately upset about this fact, to the point that he actually asked her why she hadn't. She said that she just didn't, and moved on telling him that Abigail was quiet all night and that she needed to get going now that he was home. When she went to leave, she said that he stepped to the door and told her that she didn't need to rush out, and that the night was still young. She said that he pretty much turned the skeeve up to 11 at this point,

and was looking her up and down and telling her that she could make herself comfortable if she wanted to. She looked at him and told him directly that she had already called her dad, and that he was sitting just outside waiting for her to come out, and that he would likely be coming to the door if she didn't go. For a moment, he seemed to be sizing her up and trying to determine if she was lying. But eventually he relented, saying something like, well, we wouldn't want to keep him waiting, I guess. He opened the door, my aunt walked out, and he quickly shut it behind her.

She took off over to my grandpa's car and her. Godin quickly before she realized that in everything that had just happened, he didn't even pay her for her time. Honestly, the money didn't even matter to her. She just wanted to go home. My aunt said that she explained everything to my grandfather, and while he believed that this guy was a creep, he said that he technically hadn't done anything illegal or wrong, so there wasn't much that could be done. Even so, my aunt didn't babysit for anyone that wasn't an immediate neighbor or family after that. And she holds on to the thought that had my grandfather not been parked outside and waiting,

things would have gone much, much worse. I'm in my late 40s, but this happened when I was around 30 or 35. This is a two-part story, but I think it may have been the same thing overall. I'm not sure. What I mean is that it is two different experiences, but after years of thinking I may have experienced the same thing, but two different ways. The two things I experienced were being in a dream-like state and lightly sleeping.

I was aware of what was going on around me and also seeing the dream take place, but both times were different dreams. I call them dreams because I don't have a better word to describe, them. It was like I was in a trance both times, and also out of my body and somewhere else. Now, for a bit of background, I was living in a city about 15-minute drive away from my hometown, and living on my own. No friends or family, just me, myself, and I. So, one time when I arrived home from work, which was a five-minute walk,

I noticed that my payday was a few days off, and I had no gas, money, or food in my house. I had to do something so that I could contact my family and ask for help until I got paid. I didn't know anyone in the building where I lived, and I felt too shy to borrow a phone from someone so I could make a call to my family to ask for the help. This is just the way that I was then. Don't ask why, because I don't know myself. Anyway, I was remembering something that I saw online about the law of attraction, so I decided to give it a try, and I sat down in an old leather chair that I had and closed my eyes. I then started to feel like I was sleeping, but awake at the same time, and I started watching myself get up from the chair and walk over to my apartment door and then grab my keys from the table, next to the door, and walk through the door.

I then saw myself lock the door and start walking down the hallway to the exit. Keep in mind that I was aware of being in my chair still, but also seeing this happen in front of my eyes, like I was dreaming it, but also I was there. It was like I was in two places at once, but back to the story. So there I was, watching myself do these things but not able to change things, and as I watched myself doing these things, I noticed that it was like I was watching myself on a TV show. Like I was seeing everything unfold in front of my eyes, but being observed and observing at the same time. It's hard to explain.

So, in my vision, I remember thinking that this was amazing, and that it was working. As I left the building, I saw someone who lived there and we had a short conversation about how I like living there. there so far, and the weather, or something like that. Then I turned and started walking to the sidewalk, and I could hear ducks in the water near my apartment building where there's a small pond in a park with a bridge that goes over the pond, which was for people walking, and for cars. The park and the pond were below the bridge. But it wasn't a bridge that was high up in the air or anything, it was just to get over

the pond so you didn't need to go way around to bypass the park. So I kept walking and watching myself walk, and a car came over the bridge, then for some reason honked their horn at me. Then, when I reached the other side, I went right up to a phone booth that was on the corner, and there was a quarter on top of the phone. So I used it, and I called home. That's when I woke up and was back sitting in my chair. And I lived the exact experience that I had in my vision. Okay, now for Part 2. It starts the same way, but this time I was sick.

I had something like a bad cold, and later after the dust settled and the sickness was almost over, I went to the doctor who said that I should have been in the hospital if everything I said about the sickness was true. I never told him about the part that I'm going to tell you here. He also said that if true, that I could have died, and that's what really made me wonder if what happened to me was true or not. I should point out that I am in Canada, so our health care doesn't really cost anything because it's included in our taxes that we pay. I only mention this because my story makes more sense when you know this because I had no money, again, but was still able to get medical attention without money. So as I was saying, I had some kind of bad cold or flu-like sickness for about a week, and I had a really high fever to go with it. I was also dizzy, I had chest pains off and on.

So one day, at about five or six days in, I was again with no gas in my car and no way to call for help, as my cell phone ran out of time. It was a pay-as-you-go and I was running out of food again. This time, however, I was able to get some Advil and get some rest, and then I woke up feeling okay. Like, nothing was wrong. but it was just like before. I was aware that I was in bed feeling sick, but also watching myself and being not sick, in two places at once, like before. I was seeing this happen in front of my eyes, but also being there at the same time, being back in my bed sick.

It was the same as before, when I was sitting in my chair with my eyes closed. I found myself in darkness and on a large, slab of concrete floating about 50 feet in the air. I looked down and saw a river of lava, and when I looked forward I could see a gate, like the gates of heaven, but still darkness. I could see other platforms at different heights also floating in the distance with figure standing on them, and some were walking off and falling into the river of lava below, and some were going through the gates. I could feel the effect of a warm breeze on my shirt as it was flapping in the breeze, but for some reason I could not feel the breeze itself.

I also could hear a voice talking to me, but I couldn't see anyone, just a voice. The voice said that I should choose, but I didn't know what the voice wanted me to choose. Then I wondered if I had died, and if I could choose heaven or hell. And that's when the gates opened, but it opened like a sliding door, not a swinging gate.

I then stuck my arm in, and I could tell that, that my arm felt the peace and love of heaven, but the rest of me felt nothing. I then started thinking of my past, and what I have done with my life, and I could hear the voice ask me to choose again. That's when I put my head in, but not the rest of my body, and all I could see was white light, and I felt like my arm did a moment ago, but I was scared and just backed away. Then the voice shouted at me as if it were angry, and it asked me again. again to choose. I sat down and closed my eyes and just said out loud that I wanted to go back.

Then I could feel myself being vacuumed back into my sick body. I woke up and noticed that my glasses were on the table next to my bed, but I could see a clear face hovering near my bed that looked at me and just smiled and then walked away. I got up and looked for the person who was there but didn't see them. When I woke up the next day, I felt a little bit better but still was sick. I was better enough that I could do a bit more than just sleeping or trying to eat and keep drinking water. I was dizzy and I had a high fever that whole week and was only able to do basic things like use the bathroom, eat. I was keeping food down, but I didn't feel like eating much and sleep.

With my fever broken and my mind clearing up again, I found out. found some change and went to the corner phone booth again to call my family for help. They picked me up and took me to the hospital, and that's where the story ends, with a doctor saying that I was lucky, that I didn't die and should have come in sooner. They still treated me for how I was feeling, but said that it appears that I started to recover, so they gave a prescription and sent me home to fully recover. There were other times as well when this sort of thing happened. I would pass out and then be watching myself in a moment, but also being in the moment and an event would happen, and then I would wake up and experience it. This has happened several times since I was about 10 years old, but not in the last 10 years or so.

The two parts of the story happened in the same apartment about two to three months apart, and they were the last time that anything like this happened that I can remember. The other times I was not sure of, which is why I only told these things. two parts, because I am sure they happened how I remember them. The first time happened was when I was 10. It's a bit different, so it doesn't quite belong in this story. Hi, Raven. I actually wanted to share my 9-11 story with you, because a chain of events that happened were really, really odd.

To start this story, I had broken up with my ex in 1999. We kept our breakup secret from my parents. because my dad was going to pass away any time, and I didn't want to let my parents know. By February 2000, I started dating Nina, who was originally from Europe and was studying in America. We moved into an apartment together. I know it sounds fast, but we clicked so fast and connected in every way. My dad ended up passing in early February of 2000. and shortly after my dad's passing, I let my mom and family know that my ex and I broke up,

and I didn't tell them about Nina and how we were living together. However, by July of 2001, Nina was offered a position in her country for 12 months. This position was going to be a great opportunity for her career, so I pushed her to take it, and she agreed. By the first week of August, she was back in her country, staying with her aunt, working in a hospital, We agreed to stay exclusive in the long-distance relationship, and we were getting more and more serious by this time. There were a lot of what-ifs as far as marriage and things like that. We would use a Skype type of program to talk to each other over the computer, and she told me that she was going to have a short break in September.

We made plans to meet up in New York. I booked a ticket to arrive September 9th, and Nina was going to be a short break in September 9th, and Nina was going to be a short break in September. going to arrive September 10th. I had also brought a ring to propose to her, but she didn't know it, but she did have some idea that it was coming. We talked about things we were going to do in New York, Central Park, theater tickets, some places we were going to eat. I had planned on asking her to marry me after she was done with her program. My plans were that I wanted to take her to windows on the world and proposed to her there. She loved going to the Twin Towers, and would always go to the mall at the Trade Center. She knew New York more than I did, as I'd only been there a couple of times

before, but she had her favorites, and one of those favorites was Windows on the World and Observation Deck. The theater tickets that I booked were for September 10th, and I booked some tour bus thing on the same day. I was planning on taking her to the observation deck, and on that Tuesday. But about a week before my departure, I got a call from her at 5 a.m. my time. She was crying on the phone and said that she was so sorry that the department she was volunteering at had asked her to stay on instead of taking the break. I comforted her, even though I was very disappointed.

And we arranged that I would fly out to her country on Christmas break. I was able to get a voucher on my flight, and I applied that to flying out on December 23rd. The morning of 9-11, I woke up to my clock radio news instead of it playing music like it normally does. And that is how I found out about the planes hitting the World Trade Center. I look over at the little blue box that's on my dresser. It was Nina's engagement ring.

The day that I fly out to Europe to see Nina and her family, my plane, which was a national airline of her country, experienced trouble. and we had to make an emergency landing at JFK. Some hours pass, and we eventually take off in another plane. During my stay in her country, I experienced a medical emergency. I had to have an emergency operation, a blood transfusion, and was hours from death. I had to stay in her country another month until I was strong enough to fly back home. The time never seemed right to propose to her.

I had planned on New Year's Eve. Instead, I was in a hospital with tubes and breathing things all over me. When I got back home, I rested another week and went back to work. Then I collapsed at my office and was rushed to the hospital again, and I had to stay for a week. Even though I slowly got better, it was like something was telling me that I cheated death by not being at the towers on 9-11. I felt like I was living that movie Final Destination. And to those of you wondering what happened to Nina and me, we broke up in 2002. Her family didn't want her coming back to America, so she left the U.S. for good, and we parted ways.

I'm not sure what this would fall under, but listening to some of the other stories on your channel, I can't help think back about my old job that I used to do in the 90s. Back in the 90s, I started working in the trauma-scene cleaning business. My job was to go into nightmares and try to make it look normal. A lot of the scenes were accidental deaths, some were self-endings, and some were homicides. Some were fire-related deaths. It wasn't uncommon to walk into a scene that was on the news earlier that day. People trapped in fires, murder, self-ends, just murders, cars crashing into homes.

However, you can imagine someone violently dying in a home, I would. went there, and I cleaned it up, and I tried to make it all look sterilized. This one particular call was midday. I received the information that it was a self-end. Sometimes we were given the manner of death, but not always. We would arrive on scene. I was the supervisor, and I had two workers with me. The house was a huge house in a better part of the city. The area was known for some famous residents, and there were a lot of cars on the long curved driveway, and all of the cars were high-end cars. Some of them were vintage, high-end cars. I usually would go to the door and investigate the scene and then

bring my crew in. An older white lady with blondeish gray hair answered the door, and I explained that I was from the scene cleaning company. She looked half annoyed that I had bothered her, and half annoyed that I was so beneath her. I could hear a little bit of her. I could hear a little bit of lot of people talking in another room, and I was led down the hallway toward a room that looked like it was a library room. There was a hunter-green chair with obvious signs and light blue carpet, with also a lot of matter. I won't go into the details of the manner of death, but it was very clear. I asked her if there was anything that she wanted us to try to save or anything sensitive in the room that she would like us to take away, and she looked at me with the face

like, why are you asking me? She was the widow. She asked me if I needed her for anything else. I just had a form for her to sign to release the scene to us. She signed it and turned back to her party. I took a few pictures of the scene before we got started. We did this to protect us in case the client later said that we damaged something or stole her Picasso from the walls.

I could hear the group of people getting louder. It didn't sound like awake, but a person. party. I heard laughing and music playing in another room. As I walked back toward the front door, I heard a song called Chances Are. I didn't know it at the time, but that song was from a singer Johnny Mathis. I gather my crew and bring them in. We had to remove all of the carpet in the room because some of it was tracked around, and I assume, by first responders, or just people in the house. We would cut things in small portions to fit in bio-bags if needed or cut items and bag them regularly in large black bags. I was standing in the hallway when a group from the party came over to see us.

To be honest, they all looked like characters from a movie or something. They all looked like they were from the 1960s. Think of the rich couple from Gilligan's Island. They were the kind of people you just didn't see at Walmart or McDonald's. One lady was wearing a fur thing around her neck, and another guy was wearing a turtleneck sweater with a fancy jacket over it. They all had drinks in their hands and looked at us like we were performing for their amusement. None of them looked at all upset or concerned about the deceased. I walk out with our crew members to our truck several times just to escort them.

I don't know why, but I felt like I had to each time. These people were giving me the creeps. The song just kept playing each time I walked by, like it was on a loop. Each time I went by, the song should have ended a long time ago. From my point of view, the hallway that led from the scene ended at a big entryway, and from that entryway to the left was a fancy sitting room. Straight ahead of the front door, it led to a very large den type of room that the party was there, and just beyond that, I could see people outside on a patio.

I would try to glance over and figure out why there was a party at a scene like this. The noise from the people was a loud hum of many different conversations and laughing going on, and the music kept playing chances are, which began to seriously creep me out. We were just about finished with what we needed to do. The scene wasn't at all the worst scene we'd ever done, but the people were just getting to all of us. I walked over toward the main room looking for the widow, right into the party. At first, no one notices me. There was a maid with a tray of drinks that walked by, and I asked for the misses.

She just pointed with her head over to the right. I got a really good look at the people in that room, and the only way I can describe it was the ending of Rosemary's baby, with all the strange people having a very elegant cocktail party. There was a man on the piano playing along with chances are. And what creeped me out the most was that all of these people looked like they were in their 50s to 60s and were dressed up like it was some kind of party happening in 1965. None of them looked like they were from the 90s.

I found the widow, she looked startled that I was there, and she just said yes, and I told her we were completed and just needed a signature. She said that I could have just asked the maid to sign. I offered her my pen, she refused, and went over to a small cabinet next to a sofa and took the pen from there and signed it. She then waved me off and said, I trust you can find your way out.

I slowly turned looking at everyone, some of them looked at me up and down, and some just turned their heads away as I walked out of the room and toward the entryway. I was just looking at how everyone was dressed. One guy was wearing a beret, scarf, and black and white shoes. He looked at me and smiled and winked. I could still hear the music playing. All the conversations, the laughing.

I went out to our truck and my crew were all standing behind the truck. They looked at me and just said, What the hell was that all about? What was up with those people? The last thing was I had mentioned the song that kept playing. my crew asked what the song was. They had only heard the sounds of the party. I was the only one who had contact with them.

The other guys didn't remember seeing the people that came down the hall looking at us. The very last part of my story, I mentioned that at the time I didn't know the name of the song. But a few nights later, I got off work at another scene close to 1 a.m. I got into my car, and that song came on the radio. I never left it on an oldie station. but it was. And I immediately changed the channel. This happened a few years ago, somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I remember that I was doing some Christmas shopping for my hubby, so I had to go shopping with someone that wasn't him. Well, he was at work. Normally that wouldn't be so bad, but he worked nights at the time, so I was having to go out to Walmart to find something for him with pretty much any friend of mine that didn't sleep. Thankfully, I had a good friend, Shannon, that was the type to stay up all night, a lot. And she agreed that she would go with me to find something for him.

I knew a few things that he wanted, specifically a few video games that he'd been clamoring for for the last couple months, and I didn't really want to spend a whole lot of time there. We got into the Walmart, and I told Shannon that I knew exactly what I needed to get, back from the electronics department. She asked me if it was okay if she went and did a bit of grocery shopping, and then she would meet me in the front of the store when she was ready. I was a bit annoyed. I was kind of hoping that she would stick by my side so I wasn't alone in the store, but at the same time, just knowing that she was around was more than enough for me to

feel better. I know. It's a Walmart. What's the worst that could happen? Honestly, you never know. Anyways, I headed back to the electronics, and I'm looking at the game shelf and trying to find a copy of Super Smash Bros. When I started to get that feeling that someone was watching me. You know the one. That feeling when your hair kind of stands up and you feel a bit on edge. At first I thought that maybe Shannon was going to try to scare me, but when I turned to look, I saw a random guy wearing a Walmart branded vest and holding his phone out.

and pointing it in my direction. As soon as I turned, he quickly turned to look the other way and started talking, like he was talking to somebody. I didn't think much of it, really. At first, I kind of assumed that he was on a FaceTime call or something, and that he realized he was facing toward me and that it was awkward. It wasn't a huge deal to me. I noted what game I was needing to grab and went over to go and find someone that had a key.

Of course, there was no one there, so I decided that I would walk around a bit and see if someone in the electronics department would show up. As I'm turning down the aisle with earphones, I noticed that he went down the other end of the aisle and was just kind of looking around, like he was supposed to be there. It was then that I thought things were getting a bit weird. But again, he worked there. So, maybe he was supposed to be. to be there. Because this guy was being a bit of a weirdo, I decided I would go to the front and talk to someone at customer service about getting a key for the electronics, since there was no one but this guy

there. I walked past him in the aisle to head for the front, and as soon as I actually got by him, I heard what sounded like a camera shutter sound. I stopped and turned to face this guy and asked what the hell he was doing. but by the time I turned around I saw him turning away to walk the other direction. At this point I was livid. The first time, I thought it was nothing, but now I was certain that this guy was trying to sneak picks of me from behind.

I stepped toward him and very loudly asked him what his name was. He just kept walking away. I kept yelling at him and asking who the hell he was, what his problem was, what his name was. basically anything that would get the attention of another employee. Thankfully, it did. One of the electronics employees heard me and rushed over to the guy and stopped him. He asked me what was going on, and I told him that this employee was taking pictures of me from behind,

and that he had been following me around the electronics aisle with his phone out and on the camera. The guy in electronics calls up for a CSM to come to the back. the whole time this other guy is trying his damnedest to get away from him, telling him that he has to go. After a few moments of waiting for the manager, and this employee was trying to pull away from the electronics guy, creepy employee decided that he'd had enough and then took a swing at the electronics guy to get away. He connected, and then started booking it toward the front of the store. Thankfully, the CSM was nearby and saw what happened. He actually chased the guy and got him on the ground.

Then they called the police to try to sort this whole thing out. So what did we learn from the police and this customer service manager? Well, this guy was a super creep. And when I say super creep, I mean absolute skis. When he was confronted about taking pictures, he actually opened his phone and, come to find out. He had taken pictures of women in the changing room. under stall walls and just random girls of various age throughout the store.

What's even worse, he didn't actually work there. He used to work there, but he had managed to sneak the vest out when he got fired for following people like a creep. He'd been doing this for a while, coming into the store in a uniform that was only slightly outdated, and following women around to take their pictures. He was charged, obviously. and I'm pretty sure he spent a good amount of time behind bars. I never went back to that particular Walmart, mostly because every time I tried, I would have a panic attack.

A good lesson to take away from this situation, ladies, always be aware of your surroundings. And if it feels like someone is watching, check your six. Also, never go alone when going to Walmart because some people, even the ones dressed in a trusting manner could absolutely be the creep that's trying to take your picture. This happened many years ago. I live in Rotterdam and the Netherlands.

Between my city and the Hague is a light rail train that I took sometimes to go visit shops that sell things I can't find in my city. One day, after shopping, I went to the central station in the Hague to take the train home. The hall in the station is very big and the platform for my train is at the end of it. I could see that my train was due to depart in six minutes, and I didn't want to rush, so I decided to take the train later and look around a bookshop in the hall. Suddenly, I heard a loud voice in my head that shouted,

Run, you must take this train. I looked around to see where the voice had come from, and it shouted again that I must run. So I did. I just caught the train when the doors started closing. The ride home was awful. The train was swaying, bonging, and even sort of lifted off the track and came down again, which it made for several people to slide from their seats, including me. I was angry with myself that I had listened to that voice.

When I got home, I made myself some food, and after that I sat down to watch the news on TV, and I was shocked to see that the next train, the one, that I had wanted to take, had actually derailed. Luckily, nobody was killed, but a lot of passengers were injured, and it was due to where it happened. It was difficult to get the people out. I don't know where that voice came from, but I thanked it out loud. And thank you, Raven, for your videos, as by now I'm quite addicted.

So, I had a crazy ex that I didn't know was crazy back. whenever we dated. In fact, he seemed pretty normal back then. Of course, he wasn't in the end. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a story to tell here. I guess for a bit of a disclaimer or disclosure, this is a messed up story, as they all are. And if you aren't good with crazy people or really messed up situations, then I highly recommend you stop listening here. I'll start by telling the story about myself and this person. Well, my name is Amy and his name was Maverick, but we all called him Mav.

Mav and I met each other at a football game back in high school during freshman year, and we hit it off pretty much right away. Back then, I was, unfortunately and admittedly, in the, quote, popular girls click, and he was a bit of a goth emotive, which is why it was odd that he was. he and I got along so well from that first minute.

Something about not judging a book by its cover, I guess. Of all things, we actually bonded strongly over music. He had me listened to something by some screamo band, and I fell in love with it. From that day, we actually hung out frequently, and we became super close. My friends weren't into him because he was emo and dressed in all black, but I didn't really care and I liked him. So, we ended up actually dating near the end of that year. During summer break, we were together quite a bit.

We spent time at each other's houses, met each other's parents, and honestly, it was one of those high school sweetheart situations where I think our parents were under the impression that we might actually stay together. My dad really liked him. He was respectful and polite. and while he may have looked all dark and brooding, he was, in my dad's words, the nicest boy he'd ever met. His parents seemed to like me. I think they were surprised that he got with me as a girlfriend, which I know sounds conceded, but we were polar opposites.

Anyway, we spent all of the summer together. We went to the park, the movies, all the basic things you do when your date. someone early high school. During our sophomore year, unfortunately, Mav started hanging around the stoner kids that were seniors and pretty quickly got pressured

into becoming one of them. This was a deal breaker for me. We got into an argument or conversation, and I told him that if he was going to start down that road, then I wasn't going to be able to be with him. He actually chose pot over me, so I broke it off. It sucked.

I really liked him. We got along well enough, and I had had so many good times with him for the almost full year that we dated, but he wasn't willing to abandon his new vice for me, so that was that. We didn't really talk much after that either. I dated other guys,

he dated other girls, and really life just moved on from there. We kind of started talking, again the last semester of senior year, mostly because we had photography class together, and we worked on a few yearbook projects together. There was one point that we were working on a project together, and as I was leaving, he gave me a hug and then a quick peck on the cheek. And while it was a bit nostalgic at the time, I told him that there was nothing more between

us than friendship, and while I really loved the time that we had together a couple years back, there was no future for us. He looked upset, but he nodded and told me that he understood. Now, all of this was basically to set up that we had a normal high school romance that ended with us just being friends. And there was nothing else there. And I thought that that was it. I was, apparently, wrong.

After high school, he moved out of state with his parents. and I stayed close to home. I went into nursing for college and then got a job. Basically, we were as far apart as we could have been, and the time we spent together was forgotten. Then, out of nowhere, I got a friend request on Facebook from Maverick. I was actually pretty excited to talk to him since it had been about eight years, so I accepted and I messaged him, asking him how things were going.

I did what we all do. I stalked his profile a bit, found out that he was married, living in the next state over, and he was working in IT. He messaged me back and was telling me all about his life after high school. I told him about my endeavors and all that I had done since then. I commented that I saw that he had found someone and that she was gorgeous. She really was. And I told him that I was beyond ecstatic for the fact that things worked out for him.

He then responded by asking me if I was with anyone, and he stated that he noticed that I was still going by my maiden name. I informed him that I was not with anyone, that my last relationship ended a bit abruptly, but that I was pretty happy with my life, and I wasn't in any rush to get with anyone new. Then he told me that he and his wife were actually thinking of moving back to our hometown for a job, and that he wanted to get together when he was. he was here. I was a bit hesitant at first, but honestly, I was also excited to see him and catch up some. We agreed that when he moved back to town, we would hang out and get coffee or something and spend some time reminiscing about high school. The next day, I got a text from one of my friends mentioning that they got a friend request from Mav, and that I should be careful, which was kind of strange. I messaged her back and asked why I should be careful.

She asked if I had forgotten how crazy he was. I was completely taken aback. I had no clue what she was talking about, so I called her and asked her to explain. She started talking to me about him and how he was absolutely obsessed with me back in high school. She said that I was the only thing he ever talked about with his friends, and that he had pictures of me taped to his wall,

and that his freaky obsession with me was the reason that he couldn't hold down a relationship. She then went on to tell me that one day in high school, that he kissed me on the cheek, and I turned him down, he had apparently told all of his friends that he was going to end his own life because I wouldn't be with him. They had all talked him away from it, but he was adamant that his life was worthless without me, and that he needed to be with me. She was surprised to hear that I had no idea about any of this. I hadn't heard a word about it at all, and was genuinely shocked. We ended the conversation with me saying that I would be careful around him, and we left it at that.

Obviously, I was a little bit freaked out, but at the same time, he was married. He had a wife at this point, and a career, and his own life, so, while he may have been a bit obsessive back then, I didn't think it would mean much at this point, right? He'd clearly moved on, and there was nothing to worry about. Right? Anyway, a couple of weeks went by and I got a call for Mav on a Saturday morning, telling me that they were all moved in and that he really wanted to get with me that morning to talk. I didn't have any plans, and while I didn't like that he was wanting to have coffee so quickly, mostly because it didn't bode well after finding out that he was creepily obsessed with me back then, I agreed. I then asked him if his lovely wife would be

joining us, and he paused for a moment, and then said that she was busy and wouldn't be able to make it. Oh boy, coffee, alone with an ex, that used to be overly obsessed with me, sounded like a great time, really. Me, being the optimist I was, honestly thought that he was just wanting to get together and have coffee and be friends, and that's really what I expected. He showed up, and he looked nothing like I had remembered him looking. Long gone were the tripped pants and long black hair, and they were replaced by a closely shaved head, khakis, and a button-down shirt. I mentioned to him that he looked nice, and that it was almost a bit strange to see him wearing anything other than black. He laughed and then looked me dead in the eyes and said, do you really like it? If you don't,

I can go get changed. I brought some of my clothes from high school that still fit me, just in case you wanted me to wear those. I honestly chuckled. I thought it was a joke, but he didn't change his expression at all. I immediately changed the subject and asked him about his wife and job. He started dodging the questions, and then started asking me about myself, what I had been up to since high school, had I been with many guys, which is way too personal, and did I have any kids yet? Just a barrage of really strange and personal questions, including some that were definitely inappropriate for coffee shop conversation. Then, out of nowhere, he asked if he could come back with me to my place.

I was shocked by this. I shook my head and said that I had apparently made a huge mistake, thinking that he just wanted to chat and didn't want anything more out of this. I told him that his behavior was disgusting, and doubly so as a married man. I told him that I wouldn't go and tell his wife about how he had acted, but that he really needed to sit down with her and have a conversation about them and their future, because clearly he wasn't willing to remain faithful. He didn't like this.

He started screaming at me about how I ruined his life and how I was meant to be his. He was yelling, at the top of his lungs, mind you, in the middle of a Starbucks about how I needed to be with him and how he and I were soulmates, destined to be together for the rest of our lives. Long story, a bit shorter on this one. They called the cops on him,

because of how aggressive he was getting with his screaming and berating. They showed up and he was still screaming. Then he turned his aggression to them. Thankfully, they had tasers and they dropped him without hesitation, and then they hauled him away. And while this was the last time he and I spoke, it wasn't the end of this situation. I actually got called down to the station the next day to talk with the police about what had happened. Honestly, I thought they were just going to have me confirm that he had made his situation.

seen and tell them what was going on with him. But no, there was a lot more to it than that. They did ask me what was going on, and they were asking if he and I were in a relationship or if we had made any sort of plans to be together. I laughed and told them no, that we were old high school friends and that this was literally us getting together for coffee to catch up. And then the bombshell dropped. They said after the whole event went down, they actually searched his car.

They did so, and were allowed to do so, because in plain view was a change of clothes covered in blood, a rather large knife also covered in blood, and various items that could be used to bind somebody. They then said that they had spoken with him about the items in his car, and he was incredibly direct and honest with them. He told him that he had killed his wife, that he had cut her throat and left her bleeding in their house, and he had left the murder weapon and bloody clothing in his passenger seat. He told them that he and I met there because we were going to run away and start a new life, and that I was in on it because I agreed to get with him. I thought when he said that he wanted us to get together, he meant his friends for coffee.

He, somehow, thought that I had agreed to spend the rest of my life on the run with him after he committed murder. I spent a lot of time with the police explaining my place and all this. I showed them all of our texts and the Facebook messages. They asked about what we talked about when he had called me that morning. I explained that it was just him saying that we could meet that day. I feel like there was a bit of suspicion on me because of what he was. was telling them, but they eventually were satisfied that I had nothing to do with this, and they decided to leave me alone.

He, on the other hand, was charged with murder, and they decided to throw in conspiracy to commit kidnapping charge because of the rope and duct tape, which tells me that they had enough reason to believe he was going to try to take me forcefully. So, that's the story of my creepy ex, Maverick, who was also a homicides. sidal maniac, and was, unbeknownst to me, obsessed with me all throughout high school and apparently after. Just a quick final note. Ladies, listen to your friends if they tell you someone's a creep, and then tell you a bunch of

things you didn't know. And, Mav, I hope you and I never, ever cross paths again, and I really hope that your wife was able to rest in peace, you disgusting. bastard. Hi, Raven. I don't know whether this counts as a spooky story, paranormal, or something else. I'll let you decide how to categorize it. It's the only time I've ever experienced anything that seems supernatural. This also does come with a content warning for death. When I was 12 years old, we were living around the corner from another family who we had gotten to know well through our church. They had a son who was my age and a daughter who was my son.

sister's age. So, we played together a lot. This was in 1993, and home computers and PC games were starting to be a thing. But not everyone had a computer. We had one, but it was old by the standards of that day, whereas our friends around the corner had a newer PC and a couple of games. One of the games was the strategy game Dune 2, which was made by Westwood, who went on to create the Command to Conquer games. It was challenging, as many of the things common in strategy games hadn't been implemented yet. For example, you had to select an order every single unit individually, rather than selecting or grouping them.

It therefore required a lot of attention, and as was common for games at the time, the difficulty curve was steep. I had gone over to our friend's house one afternoon in winter. It was dark outside, but it was only a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of about 5 p.m. That's what living in the UK will do for you. My friend and I were taking turns playing on the computer, while my sister and his sister were playing in another room. We were in their dining room, which had a large bay window facing out towards the street, although the curtains were closed as it was dark. It was my turn playing one of the levels of Dune 2, and as I mentioned,

it was demanding, so my attention was focused entirely on the game. My friend had left the room for whatever reason, I don't remember why, and I was alone in the dining room. It was quiet except for the MIDI music of the game and the incessant clicking of the mouse. At one point, with no warning at all, I felt a sudden and strong shiver raced through my whole body. It wasn't like shivering with cold or fever. This was like an energy that passed through me and was gone again within a second or two. It was the strangest sensation, and I've never had it before or since. It's hard to describe as it was so short-lived and yet so intense.

As soon as it hit me, it was gone, and I was left sitting in front of the computer in the quiet room, wondering what had just happened to me. Only a couple of minutes later, my friend's father came into the room looking for him. He was a teacher at a private boys' school. in town and very much the old-fashioned tweed jacket-wearing type. Stiff upper lip, strict but fair, all the stereotypes. He was actually a really nice man, and he always made sure to take care of us when we were at their house.

But this time he was distraught. Tears were forming in his eyes, which I had never seen before. He asked where my friend was, and I said honestly that I wasn't sure, but he was here somewhere. His dad then told me that a boy, only a little younger than us, had been riding his bike along the road outside the front of the house. And because it was dark, a car driver hadn't seen him and it hit him. Very sadly, the boy was killed almost instantly. It had happened just a few minutes prior. That would have been at the same time that I felt the strange, intense shiver passed through me.

I didn't know anything about it until I was told. told, so what did I feel? A release of energy? The poor kid's soul leaving his body? Did I somehow sense this accident subconsciously despite focusing on the game? Or was I feeling something supernatural? I believe in God and in the spiritual world, and I'm open-minded when it comes to the supernatural, but this is still the only time that I felt anything like this.

So far, and thank goodness, I've never been near to anyone else that has been killed suddenly or died for any reason. Perhaps if it does happen again, I'll feel that too. I've had this one for a while, though it's likely going to be read way out of season because this happened in December, near Christmas. I live in a state known for Potoskey Stones and an island famous for its fudge. If you know anything about this state, you would know it gets dark in the winter around 5 p.m. Anyway, it was shortly after Thanksgiving some years ago. We, as a family, traditionally went to a Christmas tree farm, around 45 minutes away from our city, because the farm had a small church next to it that used to have a bake sale where you could get hot chocolate and homemade donuts after getting your tree.

After we got our tree, had our donuts and such, we drove my brother and his wife back to their house and hung out for a while. Then we left to go back home. My brother's wife's in-laws live in a much more rural area of town than we do, and it was getting dark. We were driving down a dirt road that was in the passenger side of our family's 2015 Honda CRV with our Christmas tree on the top. This is important, because, as a little bit of our family's 2015 Honda CRV, with our Christmas tree on the top. This is important, because as we were going down the road, I saw something come up in the road, two white eyes. I couldn't quite tell what it was. Then we got closer and closer, and then I realized it was a deer.

And we were about to hit it. I said, whoa, out loud, and my mom hit the brakes. I braced for impact, but all we heard was a small. click, and then nothing. We then slowly continued down the road, where we, no joke, saw a hunter holding a rifle, and

he waved us down. We rolled down our window and he said, hey, I saw what happened. That deer jumped clean over your car. I didn't know deer's could jump that higher far. This may not be the most scary

or interesting story out there, but there was no one hurt in the car and it wasn't damaged. Stay safe, everyone. And happy early Christmas if this gets read early. A little bit. Don't you wish you could just hit skip

on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad. I get it. I'm Siaiaa and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse

before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. Dear Raven, as I mentioned in my other story, I used to do trauma scene cleanup back in the early 1990s. I said that I would submit more stories for my time doing that work. Most of the sites that I went on were just sad,

a feeling of heaviness throughout. Sometimes seeing little things like breakfast cereal bowl, still left on the kitchen table for a family who will never come back to eat there again, or kids' toys and school books on a sofa. Seeing things like that would make a scene heavy, but I was there for a job, and I had to do what needed to be done. It was probably back around 1995. I got an assignment to go out to a house,

and a family representative was going to meet me there. I only had an address and phone number, details to follow. That day it was around noon. It was a dark and stormy day in the hills of Los Angeles. The home was a very large home in the hills, a very wealthy neighborhood. We pulled up and the driveway was empty, and then a brand new Mercedes pulled in. I walked over to the car and the gentleman gets out. We're both standing in the rain and I start to motion over to walk to the house thinking he would follow.

He didn't. He said in a kind of irritated voice, Do you need me to sign something? And I said yes. I asked him if he wanted to go inside and he said no. So we both stood there in the rain as he signed the paperwork releasing the scene to us. I asked them if there was anything of value that he wanted to secure, anything he wanted to try to save or was concerned about.

He said no, do what you need to. I once again asked him if he wanted to show me and say, and he said, look, I don't go in there. Here's the key. Just do what you need to do. I don't care what you do and send the bill to my office. He then handed me a business card. I won't say what industry he was in, but he was obviously rich. I take the keys from him and he jumps back in his car and takes off. I walk up the driveway, also a hill, the house sat on top of the plot of land. It was a very nice house. I opened the front door and to my door. my surprise, the house is empty. There was no furniture. It just looked like the family had moved

out. I walked the entire house, and the only thing I could say was that there was water damage, stains around the house, and upstairs all the carpet was white. In the master bedroom, I assumed that was where whatever happened happened. I go back out and call my crew in, and we look around and just come up with a game plan of tearing out all of the master bedroom. and everything directly below it. Whatever death or accident happened here must have happened a long time ago. The home just smelled old and musty. Not super bad, but we all still wore our personal protective equipment.

I only had two guys with me on this job, so I left one upstairs to handle the master bedroom, and directly below was part of the kitchen and pantry. We started removing the damaged items, cabinets, flooring, some countertops, ceiling and insulation. Inside the cabinets was old stuff still, like cleaning products that looked like they were from the 70s. Just some really funky things that were like opening a time capsule.

It was the only sign that someone actually once lived there. I also found an old TV guide magazine from the 70s, and there were a few other magazines and newspapers stacked inside the pantry on the floor. I heard my guy from upstairs yell at us. I went up to see what was going on and he said, Stop screwing around. I looked at him like, what are you talking about? He said, you guys are messing with the intercom.

I didn't even notice that the house had an intercom system. But yeah, the bedrooms, master bathroom, and downstairs all had intercoms around. He said that we were all trying to scare him. I said that I didn't know what he was talking about. Let's just get what we need done before the storm hits. The weather was supposed to get really bad by nighttime. I went back downstairs and we were still removing stuff from the kitchen and pantry, and I again hear him yell from upstairs.

I asked him if he wanted to come down and we all would work together and then go upstairs. He calmed down and said that he was hearing noises from the intercom. He said that it sounded like grunts, or clicking noises. We were working all together, and my other guy who was near the kitchen intercom heard it go on, like someone pressed the button.

I said, you know what, guys? Maybe it's the water flowing and it shorted out the system. That's probably what we're hearing. Let's just get back to work. We didn't venture out around the rest of the house, only what we saw that was visibly damaged.

My best guess was that someone was killed in the bathtub and the water flowed down. It looked like it had happened ages ago. I'm not sure why they called us out, and not just a regular contractor. We were just about done with the downstairs, and I heard a noise from upstairs like somebody was moving something heavy,

like a dragging noise. We all looked at each other and said, well, let's go check that out. We looked around upstairs and there was nobody there. It sounded like it had come from right above us, so the master bedroom. I tell my other guy that we needed to go finish upstairs and to get out of here. I was in the bedroom part and he was over by the bathroom vanity that was outside the bathroom. The intercom comes on again with a click, click, and then static that sounded like,

ha, ha, ha, sounds. Not a laugh, but like a deep, ha. I went down to the main intercom panel to look at it. It was downstairs by the front door, so it was actually outside the damaged area. There was no power to the system. Actually, we noticed that most of the house was without power. It was only the kitchen lights. There was a ceiling light in the entryway, hall light, bedroom, and bathroom lights.

Other areas of the house were without power, like the den, the front room and other bedrooms, and the porch light, which was okay, because the rooms that we were working in had lights and that's all we needed. And it was a good thing, too, since it was dark and stormy outside. I walked outside with a few bags of debris and saw a neighbor standing outside looking at me. I walked over to talk to him, and he asked me, Do you have permission to be in that house? He also said that he would call the police if I didn't prove it.

I said, wait here, and I would grab my clip. board. This wouldn't be the first time we'd had police called on us. People are very sensitive at crime scenes, especially neighbors. I showed him the signature and business card, and he just said, oh, well, what are you guys doing in there? I told him that we were removing the damaged areas. I said that it seemed like a flood happened a while back, and he said that no one had been at that house in about 20 years, but that the gardener and handyman come out every once in a while. I asked him if he knew what happened there. He looked down and just said, sad.

And then, well, be sure to lock up when you leave, and then he turned away. I go back to the house, and my guys are yelling at each other. One's accusing the other one of trying to scare him. I say, look, guys, we're almost done, let's all just work together and get out of here. My guys were normally very professional on job sites, very respectful. and never fought with each other. Something in this house was getting to them. We finished up and locked up the house.

We were instructed to mail the key back with our invoice. I get back to the office and tell our secretary to mail the key back, handing her the business card and paperwork. I then asked her if she had any information about the house. She said no, that someone else called it in and asked us to send a crew out there to clean up the scene. They never asked much detail. because we knew that it was hard to talk about.

About 10 days later, we received a check for our services. Nothing else. We never knew what truly happened there. I tried asking around if anyone knew or remembered anything about a murder or something. This was the days before Google. I wish I could remember where exactly the house was so I could look it up now. However, I've been to so many sites in my time doing that type of work that I only remember the city. I'm not sure if you would find this story interesting, and maybe I'm not doing it

justice from actually being there. However, it certainly was odd. I still cannot explain the intercom. There was no power to it. None of the ones that I saw worked. There was no reason for any of them to work. One person I told this story to mentioned that sometimes radio waves could cause that, like from a truck nearby or something. But this home was set so far back from the main road that we would have heard a large truck nearby. And the homes were spaced so far apart from each other that I doubt that was causing it.

Anyway, thank you for reading my story. I'll post another one about my days cleaning up after crimes soon. This happened a few years back in 2016. My girlfriend at the time, Erica and her friend L, decided that we would make spring break plans for the four of us. Myself, Erica, Elle, and her boyfriend, who we'll call O. We thought if we booked together, we would get a better deal on the hotel and maybe the car rental and any places we wanted to go. We went with Mexico because my girlfriend had been, and she spoke fluent Spanish, so we thought we would be okay.

I'd been working a lot more to save up for this, so I decided to put it all in. in my name so it would be all together, and then they could just pay me back. Obviously, I wasn't worried about my girlfriend, but I didn't know her friend and her friend's boyfriend that well, and stupidly I trusted them. We've gone to a few parties, and they were there. The guy seemed okay, and they'd only been together for like a year at the time that we went on this trip. He was quiet, and he stuck around L, but I thought it was just because he didn't know a lot of

of the people. Nothing odd ever really stuck out to me. So as we started going through the reservations and plans, Erica decided that it would be easier to start a group chat with the four of us to make arrangements. Now, I hate group chats, and she knows that, and she also knew that I was down for whatever as long as it was within our budget. But I think she may have done this for a reason, as I started realizing. As she would ask in there, what hotel they may prefer, and if they wanted any specific accommodations. I would see L start typing, and then O would always answer. He was always curt with his responses and would not budge on what he wanted.

He wanted separate rooms, not even one of those joined rooms. We had to be completely separated. If we did a car rental, he said that he wanted one for himself, and then we could have another one. We were trying to do this as a group, so we were. We weren't planning on getting more than just the one car, but he was adamant that he wanted one, and he wanted it in his name. So we agreed, but said that he would have to pay for all of the car, because I wasn't going to be paying for something I couldn't even use.

He went silent for a while, and after a few hours, Elle actually responded, saying that she would pay for it and put in her name. So I guess we finally agreed to that. two long-ass days of figuring everything out that should have only taken like two hours, and more money than we intended to spend, we were finally booked. But I was supposed to be paid back for half, so I wasn't as concerned about it. We had three weeks before this trip. L&O said that they would pay part of theirs next week when they got paid.

No problem. Next week came around, and Elle gave my girlfriend the money for the car. Not a word from O on any of this. Elle told my girl that O was going through some things, and apologized that he hadn't sent the money and that he would the next week. Wouldn't you know it? The next week, and he still didn't pay, so I was actually an ass, and put it in the chat that I appreciated Elle paying us for the car so quickly.

This money was going to help with our food. Anything that we wanted to buy, and for any emergencies, so yes, I was depending on getting that back. Within the hour, Elle called Erica and said that she was sorry, and that she would help pay it back, and then that she would help take care of our meals if it's not paid for by then. I did feel bad because I didn't feel like it should have been all up to Elle. I didn't expect Erica to pay for all of it either.

It's just the right thing to do. Because of this, I let it go, because I wasn't going to. to make this girl that I barely knew pay for my food. Anyway, onward to the time of the trip. Erica and I had someone drop us off at the airport. I'm always the type to be early, so we were there well over an hour before. Erica messaged Elle to see how they were doing, and they didn't respond. It wasn't a big deal at first until we got closer and closer to the time,

and she finally responded saying that they were almost there. I wanted to board the plane instead of waiting on them, but Erica insisted that we wait. Again, I was kind of glad we did, because when they finally arrived, he looked pissed, and was only carrying a duffel bag. I may not need much, but I definitely packed more than a single small duffel bag worth of stuff for a trip for five days, to a different country. In the same manner, Erica was excited, and as most women... intend to do, she was wearing a nice sundress and had her makeup all done. However, Elle had her hair in a messy bun and looked like she had just pulled something out of a basket, no makeup or anything, and she looked genuinely exhausted. She was also rolling behind her two suitcases. Not unusual,

but also not usual to see her with some girly bag in a matching carry-on, and then also a second dark blue one. So I was thinking, is this guy really making her pull around both of their bags? I remember Erica running up to Elle and grabbing one of the bags, and she said something to her that I couldn't hear. O walked up to me, his manner completely changed, and tried to act like we were best buds. It was a weird situation, but we boarded, thankfully, and we're on our way. Once we finally got there, it did not get better.

We got the car with no issue, but the hotel was not at all what we were expecting. The pictures must have been when they first opened because it looked run down to hell. The outside just looks sad, and the inside wasn't much better, but at least it had an AC that worked. The lobby had a small desk to the side with an older lady at it. Erica started speaking to her to get us checked in, and she led us to our rooms. The halls were musty, and the wallpaper was warping toward the top. The carpet was also old and stained by the many feet that must have walked down those halls. And, of course, the rooms were not much different.

The bed was big and comfortable, but I couldn't tell if it was a cream color, or if they were supposed to be white. It also reeked of cigarette smoke, and there was supposed to be non-smoking. So overall, not a good start, but the lady was really nice. She even spoke English and asked if we needed anything, so I couldn't really bring myself to complain. We decided that we should go find a place for lunch,

so we could just forget everything and start having fun. We left our stuff in the rooms and headed out to find a place. There were a few buildings that were boarded up nearby, and we had so many eyes on us. It was not a good feeling, so I tried to keep Erica close. We did find a place to eat, and most of the time there, the girls talked, and I joined in every once in a while. I tried involving O as well, but he didn't seem interested. He was on his phone most of the time and would look over at Elle sometimes, and she would quiet down.

I was starting to not get a good feeling about this guy. Little things like this would happen everywhere we went. We would start having fun, but he would start having fun, but he would be a good feeling about this guy. he wasn't hardly laughing or joining in. He was just on his phone a lot. On the second night, we went to have drinks. This was the first time that he started loosening up and was kind of fun to be around. However, L now started looking nervous.

Sure enough, we all learned that he was not a fun drunk to be around. After a while, he became really aggressive, groping and being inappropriate with not only L, but the servers as well. When confronted by another server, he became angry, yelling, and threatening them. I tried to calm him down, but he acted like I was the enemy, too. He did end up punching someone there, and of course, we were kicked out right away. And, of course, being the foreigners, people must have seen us as problems. So other places weren't letting us in, so we ended up screwed.

I told Erica that we should probably just go back to our rooms for the night, which she agreed. Elle asked if we all wanted to just hang out together and, oh, refused, so we all went our separate ways. I could tell that Erica wasn't feeling good about this either, so we went back to our room, and it didn't take long, but we started hearing a lot of loud bangs, like doors slamming. Erica asked me to go with her to check them out. I didn't hesitate. Our room was in the same hall, opposite side and two down. We could tell as we got closer, that the banging and now the yelling was coming from their room. I knocked on the door and no one answered, but all of the noise stopped.

I knocked again, no answer. Erica shouted out asking Elle if she wanted a soda from the machine, and the door finally. opened. It was, oh. He didn't have a shirt on. His hair was a mess, and he had like scratch marks on his chest. Erica tried to play dumb. I know her. She's not one for confrontation, but not me. I immediately asked where Elle was, and he tried to say that it wasn't any of my business, and then tried to stop me from coming into the room. I attempted to push my way through when he immediately slugged me. All I remember after that was us going at it for what had to be a few moments when Erica yelled for me.

I managed to get O back enough to get the door closed and him out. He was trying his damnedest to break that door down. When I got over there, Elle was in the bathroom curled up in a ball with blood all over her face and welts and other marks on her arms. Erica said that we needed to call the cops, but I said that we needed to figure out a way to get out before he got in, because the windows didn't open. After what seemed like forever, the slamming finally stopped. I went and checked the door, and he wasn't there.

I opened the door quietly to make sure he wasn't hiding around the corner. When it was clear, we took L to our room so we could figure out what to do next. That's when she told us that O had been abusive, for a very long time, but that he hadn't gotten this physical before. She said that she tried avoiding being alone with him because she knew that he was already pissed off and that it wasn't going to end well. They went to their room, she went to take a shower,

and that's when he laid into her. She also said that she doesn't know where he got it from since he's been here, but he pulled out a knife on her and told her that he'd leave her there and no one would ever find her. Again, Erica suggested we call the cops, and we did, but they didn't do much as expected because he was nowhere to be found. We, of course, suggested that she stayed in our room that night, and then we would just go home tomorrow.

Problem was, L's passport and belongings were in her room. The police were still there, so we asked them to stay long enough for her to get her stuff to make sure he didn't show back up, but somehow he managed to go back to their room in between and took all. almost everything. He took her purse, including her wallet, which had her money, her cards, and her ID, and he took her suitcase, but luckily he didn't take her carry on which she had hit under her side of the bed, and that's where she kept her passport.

Unfortunately, she expected this to happen, and wanted to be safe in case something did happen. We slept the most that we could. we started packing up to leave the next morning, and I told the girls to stay in the room and that I would make sure our taxi to the airport was here, because of course he took the car. I was glad I didn't put it in my name, but I felt bad that Elle did, because who knows what he was going to do. The path was clear, so I walked our stuff out to the car and got the girls in when I noticed a car in the parking lot just sitting there.

It was him. I tried to stay calm and rush the girls in without time. telling them. I didn't want to worry anyone, but I did text Erica to let her know, so she at least knew the situation. The dude followed us all the way to the airport. He sat there in the car, though, and didn't get out, which was odd. I shuffled the two of them out, got in the airport, and tried to buy tickets as fast as I could. I had to use a credit card, but I didn't care. I was not feeling good about this, and Erica could see that I was scared. Unfortunately, the closest thing we could do was find a flight to the neighboring state that was starting to board, and I just took it so we could get the hell out of there.

We stayed in South Carolina for the night, and then just flew home from there. Sadly, Elle had to stop her credit cards and her debit card because he apparently tried to get home, too. Erica told me that Elle filed a restraining order and never heard from this guy again, thankfully, but news always spreads. We found out that he was arrested on a domestic battery charge a few years later. I hope that that girl was just as lucky to get away from him, though. Overall, I guess just don't go on vacation, especially somewhere you've never been, with someone that you hardly know.

Hey, Raven. I'm going to start this the way a lot of your stories are started by thanking you for reading and posting to YouTube and Spotify. It's my pleasure. I don't have Spotify, so YouTube is my main method of listening to your channel. It's great when you need to focus on something else at work. If you end up actually reading this, here's the... You're welcome.

Oh, jeez. Okay. Anyways, yeah, thanks for listening. I appreciate you. Anyway, here's my absolute true, most ineastern. explicable story out of everything paranormal that I've experienced. This is a true story directly from my memories, and a curse upon the if you submit fictional or AI-generated stories to this wonderful paranormal podcast, under the guise of it being true.

I double that curse upon the... I 100% believe in ghosts. I've seen them for years. But it was always like shadow figures or phantom odors or things getting knocked down. or feeling somebody sit on my bed and hug me. This was the first time I ever saw a full-bodied human, anyway, apparition, that was so realistic that I thought she was a person. I'm going to sort of docks myself here,

but it doesn't matter since this was four years ago and the store is closed. I'm hoping that this will encourage other people who might have experienced things there to submit stories. I know my other co-workers did, but I don't know if any customers have. My last job was working at the Joanne Fabrics in Comic New York, Rip Joans. We had a nice, clean-ish store in a decent strip mall location in the suburbs of Long Island. We've always got compliments on our service and products and organization compared to our sister locations in the nearby town. The only flaw was that the place got creepy at night.

But I had no idea just how creepy it would really get. until much later on in my time there. I lived literally five minutes away at the time, so I was always able to do the closing shift. Our store was your typical rectangular setup. We were on the second floor and had an elevator escalator to get us from street level. Two main aisles,

with display shelves of fabric ringing the perimeter on one side, floral and other stuff on the mirror image side in the front half of the store. We had locked rolling racks of fabric all along the left-hand side, home goods in the center, and other crafts on the left. The fabric-cutting counter, my domain for most of my time there, was dead center, and separated the store. The yarn, art supplies, and upholstery, and cushion stuff were in the very back on the far left. Before I describe the hauntings, I need to describe what it was like at night. Our closing procedure was to comb through each aisle and make sure that there was nobody straggling.

We announced every 15 minutes that the store was closing in X time, starting from 8, doors locked at 9 unless we had a few customers whose orders kept us late. Luckily, that didn't happen often. But almost every night, we would always hear either banging, things falling, or footsteps. especially from the very back of the store. The back wall encompassed pillows and home decor foam on the far left, art supplies and yarn towards the center, and everything you needed for embroidery on the back right. The back left was always spooky even during the day. The way the store was set up, there were weird little nooks where the light just never reached,

because there was a support beam or maybe some kind of protruding duct in the very corner for some reason. There were fewer lights in that section with the foam and pillows. Most of the sound would be coming from that aisle. Naturally, we would go to check and there would be no signs that anything had been knocked over, and nobody would be there when we heard footsteps. Then, sometimes, out of the corner of my eye, I would see somebody. Not always, and not often, but I could swear I had seen what looked like an older white guy,

with brown hair and a blue button-up shirt and khakis, standing in various parts of the aisles encompassing the back wall. It wasn't a full figure, but more like a streaky blob that was human-shaped. Like if he took an oil painting of a guy and smeared it. Then again, my peripheral vision has always been crappy. He could have genuinely had trouble manifesting, or it could have just been my messed up eyes. I would usually notice him more toward the art supplies, the yarn and the embroidery thread. I guess the spooky appultery corner was too spooky for him, even. But, believe it or not, this wasn't the most realistic apparition that I saw.

This was just to show you that the store had a weird energy and was definitely haunted. The real story begins one night in 2021, or more likely, 2022. can't really remember an exact date. But it was past closing, like 9.45 or 9.50 p.m. We'd already done our walk-through and locked the doors. Our store was purposely understaffed, so it was usually myself, the manager on duty that night, and maybe one other person if we were lucky. This night, however, we had company, the living sort.

Since two or three of our stores were so close together, we often traded managers or employees from Westbury, West Babylon, or Holbrook as needed. I knew most of the employees, but I hadn't yet met all the managers. So, there were maybe 10 people working that night to help us set up shelves and unpack some stock. Myself, along with three stockwork ladies, were the only white people there. Everybody else was either African American or Latino. I knew our store manager and one of the other visiting managers, who used to to be manager at our store too before she moved to another store. I could have sworn that I heard there was a third manager there that night,

in addition to the two that I already knew, so when I clocked out to leave, I saw her, and it wasn't much of a surprise because I was expecting to see some strangers that night. I left the spooky upholstery aisle where I was putting up a shelving unit, walked up the main aisle where the fabric was, and as I was about to make a right to go to our break room to leave, and that's when our paths almost crossed. This was straight on, and not out of the corner of my eyes. So my vision was perfectly fine.

She was an older white lady, probably in her 60s or 70s. She looked like somebody's grandmother. Typical upper middle class Long Island grandma dressed in a teal button-up garment of either a shirt or a cardigan, white capri sandals, short and curly fading red hair. and she was wearing purple metallic rectangular glasses. She didn't have a name tag, but that wasn't unusual since the managers weren't required to wear that, or the lime green uniform apron that the rest of us had to wear. It was after closing anyway, so most people had stripped off parts of their uniforms at that point.

She walked out of the second aisle of home goods in the center of the store, where some of my co-workers were still unpacking birdhouses, or ceramic novelty planters or whatever the heck we were selling at that time. And this was an occupied aisle. There were at least three people in there, and it was crammed with empty boxes and discarded packaging from the stock that was being put out. She walked from that aisle, across the main aisle, and as I was turning right to go to the break room, we paralleled each other.

She disappeared out of my line of sight because she was walking into one of the smaller aisles, where we kept the rolling racks of fleecy blanket fabric. I grabbed my stuff, clocked out, and then left. Of course, I didn't see where she was since I was behind a closed door. I didn't think much of her. I just thought that she was a manager from the Westbury or Holbrook or something that I just hadn't met yet. But I asked around. First, I asked my coworkers who were there the next afternoon slash evening,

who the third manager was. They told me there was no third manager, just the two that I knew before. I then described the woman that I saw, and even though the person I asked was literally in the same aisle I saw this woman walk out of, they didn't see her. That's when I started to realize something was fishy. So then, over the next couple of weeks, as I saw them, I asked everybody who was there that night. Nobody saw this woman and nobody recognized. her. She wasn't a manager from any location. She wasn't one of the stock work ladies. All three of them were related and they all looked fairly similar. Mystery Woman looked like none of them. Well,

flash forward to the summer of 2023 and I finally get my answer. Our store wasn't one of the ones that closed last year, 2025. Our landlord wanted us out, so he refused to renew the lease. Now, that location is back to being a mattress store, the way it was before Joanne's moved in in 2013 or so. I'm still salty about that, because we literally had a mattress store in the same strip mall. Why did we need two? Anyway, so we were in the final days before the store closed, and it was all hands-on deck to take the bolts, count the yardage of fabric and trims, and wrap them up so that people

could buy all of them at once, since we were no longer selling anything by the yard. The scariest thing that it happened since that night was people completely bypassing the several hundred bright yellow and black signs that we had everywhere saying that the store was closing and being surprised that you could only buy whole bolts of fabric. It's no exaggeration, by the way. Customers just don't read, man. What do you mean you can't sell this to me by the yard? And why don't you have the new Badgley Mishka bridal fabric collection? All the other stores have it, to which I would say, well, ma'am, our store. store is closing, so we haven't gotten in any new stock in weeks. They would say, what do you mean the store is closing? Where does it say that?

I would then point to the massive store closing everything 60% off signed right above her head. Oh, she says sheepishly, but still miffed, as if I'm personally responsible for her not getting what turned out to be incredibly garish, beaded wedding gown fabric. If it helps, I sympathize with you. Anyway, doing all of that grueling counting and wrapping made me work with some of my coworkers that I didn't get to see often. And there was plenty of time to talk since most of our conversations with customers ended after they realized we couldn't sell them yardage as a fabric anymore. I got to talking with one of my co-workers, whose name I forget, but she was on medical leave

for about a year and a half by the time I joined the crew. And she came back to work full-time, about a year after I started. We weren't that close, and we had vastly different political beliefs, so I didn't want to get into an argument or anything. So when we were working together, wrapping up upholstery cordage, we decided to play it safe and talk about paranormal stuff. She was moving to the deep woods of Pennsylvania, so I half-jokingly told her to avoid the skinwalkers. That's what got us talking about paranormal encounters.

I didn't know this about her, but she claimed that she was a psychic. She correctly identified some details about my late uncle, whom she said was kind of attached to me. That makes sense, since he pretty much died in the house I was staying at at the time, my late-grandparents' house. My mom swears she heard his voice yell her name in the ear about a year after he died. Maybe if the story gets read, I'll write about the hauntings that I've experienced in that house. Please do.

So I decided to tell her about the experience with the mystery woman. She got really quiet for a few seconds after I finished, and then she told me, as serious and she told me, as serious and sober sounding as if she was at a funeral. Oh yeah, I remember her. Her name was, I can't remember the name she said, so I'm just going to use a fake name, Pam. Pam was a regular here. I remember seeing her pretty much every day before the pandemic, but she died about three

or four years ago. I guess she loved shopping around here so much that she just stuck around. Now, I was fully willing to believe that this mystery woman was a ghost before I talked to my co-worker about her, the fact that literally nobody I talked to who was there that night saw her, even though she walked out of a busy aisle of shelving units with three people in packing boxes. Well, that was enough to convince me. But my co-worker's information really sealed the deal. Well, that's the end of it.

I think about Pam or whatever her name actually was from time to time. I do wonder how she's doing. I guess now that it's a mattress store, Pam and the guy in the khakis are going to be pretty disappointed since now they don't have any craft supplies to knock over at 9.30 at night. Thanks for listening and if by any chance any of my former customers are listening to this too, stay crafty, stay creative, and keep on listening to this awesome paranormal channel. This is the collection of related bear encounters to lighten the mood from Amy. This first one happened at the end of May of 26.

I've had loads of bear encounters, and in all other instances, the bears either continue to mind their own business, usually if far off and probably won't even see me, or they run away as if I'm the devil. In fact, on the recent trip back to New Mexico, at the end of May of 26, I was in the San Mateo Mountains, located in the Cabola National Forest. but only about 15 to 20 miles away from the part of the Gila National Forest, where the semi-aggressive bear encounter occurred on my previous trip, less than a month prior. I had just finished enjoying the summit view from peak 8748, and decided to make my way to a short distance westward along the summit ridge line for some additional views.

I hadn't gone more than five to ten feet from the peak's high point area when, out of the corner of my eye, around 10 to 15 feet away toward the edge of the summit, I noticed movement on top of a boulder. My brain was trying to register what I was seeing. At first glance, it looked like perhaps a ginormous skunk, but there was no white, just black fur. And it was rather large to be a skunk. The surrounding vegetation was preventing me from getting a clear view, until, that is, the animal, which seemed panicked at my presence

and was frantically making fast and furious circles atop the boulder, proceeded to leap off the boulder and book it down the mountain. As it leapt off, I had an unobstructed view of it for a split second, but it was enough to clearly realize what it was, an adorable bear cub. I felt horrible and I hoped that it was okay, as the drop off from that boulder in the direction had leapt, was on the order of a mini cliff, and the slope was very steep on that side of the mountain. But such a reaction is normally how bears act, making a true effort to have nothing to do with you.

A second story, huge bear freaks out over innocent cow, which occurred June 13, 2019. One time in New Mexico's Gila National Forest, which is chock full of bears, I was not far outside of Reserve New Mexico, and relaxing in my vehicle, post-hike, looking out over a huge meadow. When a bear emerged from the woods, several hundred feet away from the vehicle to get a drink out of a stock tank. A lone cow, obviously unfazed by the bear, was also thirsty, and proceeded to peacefully make its way over to get a drink from the stock tank as well. No joke, and I had this whole thing on video. the bear, which could probably make a meal out of that cow if it wanted, responded to the cow by freaking the hell out and then running off like its life was in danger. This next event happened June 12, 2019.

This one took place literally one day prior to the previous story. Also, a short drive out of Reserve New Mexico and the Gila National Forest. I had finished my hike early that day and had taken a nap post-hike in my vehicle. When I woke, with still a good two to three hours of daylight left, movement outside of my vehicle caught my eye. About 10 feet from my vehicle, there was a huge bear in the process of climbing a tree. It was about 15 feet up off the ground when I caught sight of it. It was such a neat sight, but I was mildly concerned that it may jump from the tree to the top of my vehicle, as I was on a long trip and had a good amount of food in the vehicle, which should be a little bit of food in the vehicle,

would undoubtedly be detectable by the bear, especially from that close a distance. Thus, while deciding whether to grab my camera or gun or both, I accidentally knelt on my vehicle's key clicker, which makes the softest and most non-threatening of sounds. Yet when the bear heard that, it practically leapt out of the tree and then proceeded to run away several hundred feet down a shallow slope, across a creek at the bottom, and then a good way up the other bank to the other side of the creek, before finally stopping to briefly look back at my vehicle, and then more slowly run off into the woods. This next story was September 22nd of 2024. This next one takes place in Arizona's Huachuca Mountains, practically on Fort Huachuka,

which is where I had started my hike. About, 10 years prior when I went to the civilian check-in, not being familiar with the process, I was told that I could not enter due to having my gun on me. They do not offer any type of holding service for firearms. And because I didn't feel like going all the way back home, I simply hiked elsewhere. Ironically, this time, nearly 10 years later, when I returned to finally hike the mountain of interest, I remembered to leave my firearm at home. Yet, upon checking in, I was told that civilians who are entering,

aftering post to hike, are now strongly encouraged to carry a firearm. Something that is normally not allowed, but due to the very high bare activity they were experiencing that year, the military felt it was imperative to make an exception. The guard told me to bring a firearm on post as a civilian. It would require an extra type of background check, but assured me it would not take long. Problem was, it would be about a one-hour, one-way drive back to my home to get my firearm. Thus, I further questioned the guard about the recent bear activity, and learn that the extent of things were bears being a real nuisance in terms of coming on to post and getting into trash cans, and that there had been zero reported incidents of bears attacking or acting even semi-aggressively toward hikers. Thus, I decided to purchase a storm whistle from one of the stores on post and proceeded with my hiking plans.

I do want to mention, as I did in my experience above, that I'm not a new hiker, to put it mildly, and modestly. Yet I have never seen anything remotely close to the amount of bear scat. When the military tells you they have high bear activity, think high bear activity on steroids, or high bear activity, no BS. My hike that first day, which is when the encounter occurred, was just over 12 miles. and let's just say during at least two to three miles of the hike, I could literally stop at any moment, and while standing in one spot simply pivot my body in a circle of 360 degrees and count no less than 10 to 12 piles, within a 5 to 15 foot radius of me.

No exaggeration. I know this may sound extreme, and I can totally understand, as I've never seen anything even remotely close to that amount of bear droppings previously. and never since then. I could understand maybe in a bad case of encountering one such spot, and even that would be considered excessive. But to encounter that much, such that at any given moment along a two to three miles stretch you could stop and count no less than 10 to 12, that's pretty freaking crazy. And let's just say that I'm quite shocked I had just one bare encounter during my four-day trip there. The encounter technically occurred off-post.

However, since it was under 0.10 miles off-post, I reported it when I signed in at the end of my hike, and the military police appreciated that, and were glad that the encounter was peaceful. It was also rather comical. For those familiar with the area, I had summited the magnificent Hewichuka Peak, and then summited Lyle Peak, and from there I had bushwhacked, or off-trailed it, to come up-and-a-traked. connect with the portion of trail on the west side of Lyle Peak and was heading southward on the trail to go get Peterson Peak. Due to the combination of steep terrain in this location, the heavily vegetated slope, and the manner in which the trail was contouring the slope,

one could not typically see more than five to 15 feet down the trail. As I rounded a curve, it was a sudden, oh crap moment, as I saw on the trail about 10 feet in the trail. in front of me and coming toward me, what I thought at first glance was a javelina, which are generally harmless and like bears typically quick to run away from people. However, with razor-sharp teeth and being almost blind, it's a bit scary to accidentally come right up on javelina, as they can certainly attack if they feel threatened. A fraction of a second later, though, as I got a better look, my reaction was that of, oh crap times two. as I realized I was not dealing with javelina, but with bears.

They were smaller ones, definitely larger than cubs, but not the typical adult size. So, perhaps, juveniles. And they were walking single-file line on the narrow trail headed in the opposite direction as I was. So, basically, we were on a collision course. Luckily, the whole thing played out peacefully and quite comically. The moment we noticed each other's presence, I slammed to a halt, as did the lead bear, which resulted in the one that was second in line walking into the ass end of the lead bear.

The expressions on their faces looked just as startled, if not more so, than I was. I slowly turned around to go back in the direction I'd come from, and the bears did the same. Given that I was only about ten feet away from them, I kept casting glances over my shoulder to make sure they did not follow, and they did the same with me, looking back in my direction as they retreated and headed back the way from which they'd come. And that was the end of it. I tabled Peterson Peak for a different day and from a different approach, and I ended up having a more efficient hike, in terms of the way I combined the peaks I was doing on that trip,

all thanks to having encountered those bears and hence deciding on a change in course. When I was younger, I always tried to be a strong and helpful son and brother. I was the oldest out of four kids with three little sisters, so. I always tried to help my parents take care of them, get them the things they needed, just stuff like that. I actually enjoyed it. I also helped a lot because of my father's job and the amount of time he worked or was away from home, so. I stepped in a lot to help when they needed something. My parents were always thankful, and when given the opportunity, they always talked well of me to others.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't hate that either. Not to mention, when I did ask to do something or go somewhere, they were usually willing since I behaved and helped so much. Along with my dad's job, though, was the requirement to relocate. We had to move just about every one to two years. Maybe that was partially why I stayed near my family. because my closest friends never lived close for long enough to do anything with. So, this happened a few months after moving into our new place in Kentucky. It was an awesome house.

I loved it because it went in a complete square. From the living room, you could go one way down the hall to my parents' room and my twin sister's bedroom, and then the bathroom or straight to the kitchen. From the kitchen, you could get to the dining room and then to what we just called the back living room. It was like a second living room or playroom. There was an old couch back there, a smaller TV with our shared game consoles, and a few of my sister's toy sets. When my parents had friends over, we usually stayed back there. From the back room, there was a set of stairs that led to my bedroom, my other sister's room and another bathroom.

Continuing left from the back room took you to a den in the front door, and then from there you were back and then from there you were back. the living room. It was always fun running around with my sisters or when I needed to get past an area with a baby gate. It was summer vacation, I think I was 14 at the time, and I'd been staying up late playing a new game that I'd bought with my allowance. My parents told me it was fine, as long as I went to bed before midnight, which was plenty of time for me as I typically crashed around 11 or 12 anyway. So they went to bed, locked the front of the front of the house. door and told me to make sure to lock the back door and close the window when I was done. We had the back window open, where I was at, as it was actually a little cooler than it had

been, so there was a nice breeze back there, which just added to the perfect night. After a while, though, I started hearing rustling or walking around outside the window. At first, I thought it was the dog and that I'd forgotten to let him in, so I went to check the door, but I didn't see him. Then I just chalked it up to hearing things and went back to my game. Shortly after, though, I started hearing that shuffling again, so I checked the door. No dog. This time I decided to try and find her, and that's when I was a little spooked to see her lying in her dog bed in the other room.

I had looked at the time on the stove and noticed that it was a little past midnight, and I decided that I needed to head to bed right then, so I went back to the room. I went back to my game to save and turn it off. After I turned off the game, I started to walk over to lock the door and close the window. I know it was stupid that I didn't do that the first two times, but hey, I was a kid. And that's when I noticed a shadow by the window. I thought it was just me being tired at the time, so I just stared for a while at it to see if I could make out what I was actually looking at. That's when it moved across the window quickly.

It made me jump at first, but then I ran to the window, closing and locking it, but I remember pressing my head against it to once again see if there really was anything out there. Unfortunately, and to my horror, I could see something. There was a man wearing a hoodie with his hood pulled tight around his face. He was standing close to the door, looking at it like he was going to be going to be. going to try to open it, so I quickly dashed to the door and locked it, too. I just stood there staring at the door trying to figure out what to do next, when I saw the door knob start to move. The guy was wiggling it so hard, I was afraid he was going to break it,

so I turned on the porch light. This got him to stop, but I didn't see him run off, so I just waited. After a few ungodly long minutes, I turned off the light and went to look out the window to see if he did finally leave. Nope. In fact, he must have known that I was there because he walked in front of the window, smiling and pointing at me. He then tried pulling on the window to open it. These were like the long bay windows, and they didn't have the best screens on them so they could easily be pulled off. I tapped on the window back and was shaking my head no. I guess I was trying to be intimidating since I was the only one awake.

The guy again just stopped and smiled at me and would point to the next window to try it. However, after the first time, I made sure to run around and verify that all the windows were locked too. This unfortunately continued. After the three bay windows, he again had that creepy smile on his face and jumped over the porch railing. I tried to look for him, but I could no longer see him.

However, it finally clicked, and I started running to the next window going around the house. The next one was the kitchen. Thankfully, that one was a little taller, but the guy was still trying to open it. I jumped onto the counter and made sure it was locked, and it was, thankfully, so... I saw him keep moving. Up next was the bathroom. The bathroom didn't have a window, it, so the next room was actually my parents' room.

I wasn't really thinking of anything other than the idea of keeping this guy out, and I busted into the room real quick, which woke up my parents. They immediately asked me what was going on, since I never went into their room, and I found it hard to explain it first. So I just pointed to the window and said, There's a man. My dad immediately turned to look out the window. and my mom turned on the lamp and began asking me a bunch of questions. While I was trying to answer them, my dad sped off out of the room.

We soon saw him outside their window, and my mom told me to go to my sister's room while she went to my other sister. We then all gathered in the living room, and my mom called the cops. I tried to give a description as much as I possibly could, but it was dark, so all I could really see was his lower face and his creepy smile. The police did walk around a few times, and I remember them dusting for prints and maybe some other things, but I don't think they ever actually caught the guy. I will say that my parents were proud of me for being as brave as I was, but I was also scared to go to bed for months. I made sure all the doors and windows were locked. I didn't like windows being opened after dark, and I always had the curtains closed in my room or at night, even though my room was on my room. on the second floor.

It was just hard to fall asleep when all I could think of or see was this guy's face as he tried to break in. I did feel a little better when my dad installed cameras because it at least alerted us when someone approached, but I still have some troubles to this day with the thought of someone possibly trying to break into my own place. So, a creepy guy that tried to race me to the windows so he could break in. Let's never meet again. Hello there, friends. Raven here.

Welcome to the end of this episode of As the Raven Dreams. I hope that you genuinely enjoyed this collection of scary stories, as I enjoyed putting them together for you. If the platform you're on has the option to follow the podcast or leave ratings or reviews, please do consider doing so as it helps the podcast grow. Of course, if you enjoy the content, that is. If you didn't enjoy it, then feel free to all. Also leave a rating as honesty is important, and I take all feedback seriously. Also, I do have a YouTube channel. It's a lot of the same content, but we do live streams

on Saturdays around 6 p.m. Central, so if you're free one Saturday night and want to come over and say hi, I would love to have you there. We just kind of have a good time doing whatever we want for the few hours that I'm online. You can also join the Patreon, patreon.com slash as the Raven Dreams, for early access to all this content. Check out the website as the ravendreams.com for information and where you can listen to the podcast, find all my social media links, find the merch store, and send in your own stories to keep the podcast going, as it pretty much exists on crowdsourced content at this point. All of you really do keep the show going, so a huge thank you for that.

Also on the website is information about the book that I wrote, titled The Insomniacs Experiment by Raven Adams. It's a psychological thriller, and I think that you. think it's pretty good. You might actually like it. Check it out. It's available on Amazon. Or if you want a signed copy, you can email me to see if I have any left, and I will absolutely oblige if I do. All that said, friends, I hope you have a lovely rest of your day. I hope I see you again here very soon. But until then, remember that you are loved. You are valid. You are important. And the world is a better place with you in it. Don't forget that. Until next time, much love, and sleep well.