Chambers of the Occult - EP# 42 Friday the 13th: Tour Guide Insider Stories from the Winchester Mystery House

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Send a textWhat is it actually like to work inside the Winchester Mystery House?For this Friday the 13th episode of Chambers of the Occult, I'm joined by two former tour guides, Isabel and Katy. We set up around a fire pit and started talking about some of the weird and unexplained things we have experienced while working inside the Winchester Mystery House.When you work in the house long enough, things happen that you can't really put into the normal tour script. Sometimes it is hearing something in a hallway when nobody else should be there. Sometimes it is a moment where the house just feels different. And sometimes it is the kind of story that you only end up sharing with other guides after a long shift.In this episode we talk about some of those moments. A few of them are creepy, a few are funny, and some are the kinds of experiences that just make you stop and say, “Okay… that was strange.”These are not internet ghost stories or things we read in a book. They are things that happened while we were actually working inside the house.If you have ever wondered what the guides experience behind the scenes at the Winchester Mystery House, this episode is basically us sitting around the fire pit trading those stories.

Chambers of the Occult may contain content that might not be suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome back to Chambers of the Occult. I'm your host, Jay. And I'm Isabel. I'm Katie. And this is another fire pit Friday the 13th stories. Yeah.

We have paranormal stories for you, personal paranormal stories for you, from the Winchester Mystery House. Because Katie and Isabel were also tour guides. Very true. Very true. Up until recently. Yeah. May we long rest. In peace.

Is. Peace is. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you really just recently left as in 2026. you're no longer there. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Could still give a full tour, no problem. Yeah. A few months ago, yeah, definitely. You still have like your tax form for 2025. Unfortunately. Unfortunately.

No, but no. Yeah. So this is March. And we have another Friday 13th. Three Friday 13th in 2026. Did you guys know I was born on a Friday of 13th? Really?

Yeah. I was born December 13th, 1996, which fall. on a Friday. So part of the reason I have so many tattoos is because every Friday of the 13th I do make it a tradition to go out and get a tattoo. But also I consider it kind of like my lucky day. I always have like unnecessarily good luck on Friday of the 13th.

Which balances out my shit luck. I have the rest of the year. That is great. That also means that if at some point like you get Alzheimer's and you forget, you just got how old you are, you just got to count your tattoos. Exactly. Exactly. Unless you get like some tattoos that you can't.

And then you're like, I'm younger than what I know. No, you're just younger then. And you're forever young. I'm okay. Actually, I'm okay with being old. I will be, I want to be, my goal in life is to be that super old grandma that's like really unnecessary and says very inappropriate things at family dinners. That is a true aspiration.

I think subconsciously we all want to get to that age. Definitely. Also, sorry for derailing. No, no, that's fine. Yeah, Katie, how long were you at Winchester for? Just about five years, just shy a few months. Yeah, and then Isabel? I was there for two and a half, almost three years.

Almost three years, yeah. Yeah, yeah, almost three years. I've been there. I'm still there for, I'm going there for five years, strong. Crazy, yeah. Jay and I are doing about the same time. Yeah, maybe like a month or like a month and a half apart. Weeks, my guy, weeks.

Probably weeks, yeah. Last episode, we saw Jennifer, Lolly, and Joey. They're all still currently there. Joey's seasonal, but not next month because we don't have a fair to 13 next month, but November will have some more tour guides. So keep an eye out for that. So yeah, we have some more paranormal stories for you of insider tour guide stories. Yeah.

When you guys came to Winchester, were you like already believers? Not at all. And then Isabel? I mean, Latina, I'm pretty sure you were. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I grew up a very superstitious family. And of course, being Latinae, that's kind of like instilled, especially with all of our lore and everything you're told as a child.

So I was definitely already a believer, especially since a few past experiences I've had. We will get into that a little later. But yeah, definitely, definitely a believer. As a believer, like what made you? apply to like a haunted, quote unquote, haunted house? That's a really good question. I think that I had always lived in San Jose most of my life.

Yeah. And so it was something that I thought was just really, really cool. I knew very little about Sarah Winchester herself. But I had been, I think, a year prior to that. And I had gone with my late grandfather. And that was one of the last things that he did his year of life is go to Winchester. are with us. Wow. And so, and just for your guys, it was when we, like, I want to say the last month they had the guns. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We no longer have the Winchester Gun Museum.

Yeah. I never got to see yet. Yeah. So, um, we, I had, I'd gone to do that. And then I had saw that they were hiring. And at the time, um, I was still in school looking for a part-time job. The hours were amazing. I was still in school. Like you're not currently. Like I'm not already in school. I was in, I was in community college versus now being officially in my undergrad. Because that makes it so much easier. That's fair. It does not. Zero to ten. But I was, it was near my house. It was like a lot of really, really good hours in the sense that it usually Monday through Sunday, it was like a 10 to 5 or so. And occasional night shifts, I thought that was super good. And it was more flexible for my schedule. And again, it is, it is a San Jose staple. It is something that as a believer that I

just felt would be kind of interesting. I don't necessarily believe that there are, there were like evil spirits or anything, like malicious there. And I used to tell my guests all this all the time, but if you look at a house or you look at somewhere where it's decrepit, it's falling apart, it's, you know, it just does not give a very welcoming vibe, then it probably means that there's something a little malicious there. Looking at Winchester, it's beautiful gardens, the beautiful house itself.

Everything is still relatively standing and relatively working. And so that kind of let me know that if there was anything there, because I didn't fully believe at the time that Winchester was haunted, you know, especially it being a very like touristy spot. That if there was anything there, that it would be any type of malicious, you know. And so for me it was, I didn't really think about it in that sense. Okay. You know, it's funny, despite being a believer, my very first venture to the Winchester when I was a kid, I definitely had something. happened and I was just so scared by it. I just was so hard into the non-believing because I was in such denial of anything actually happening. Interesting. Well, what? Do you remember what it was?

Oh, absolutely. Like it was yesterday. I, for one summer. First of all, how old were you? I was 12. So it wasn't little kid, like old enough to know it was going on, but like young enough that things still scared me. Was it like a school field trip or were you there with family? Sort of. It was summer. And so my parents, my parents didn't really want us doing anything without their supervision, but they also didn't want to watch us. So for that one summer, we got to do. Which honestly, sounds like a lot of the kids we get on tours. Yeah. So the standard array, I guess. Free babysitter for an hour. Exactly.

Please do not do that if you ever go. No, no, please, no. But that one summer was the one summer I got to do summer camps. And so it was through our city, so it was really cheap. And they kind of just picked a random thing every so often to tend us to. And it was a really long drive because I'm from the North Bay, really North Bay. And so it was a two and a half hour drive down to San Jose just to go to the Winchester Mystery House. We immediately get back in the cars and immediately drive another two and a half, if not three hours back up. So it was already a long...

Like that was the only thing you came for. Yeah, that was the only thing. We didn't even get lunch there. We had to pack like, we made PB and Js that morning at camp. So, like, that was all we were doing. So we get there, we go on tour. I'm a big history person, so this was really fun. I got real scared by the earthquake noise that we have because I did way too much research

in a natural disaster. So I was like, oh, no, they're real, and they can hurt me. So a little shaken up by that, kind of just calming myself down. For those who don't know, we kind of go up first in Winchester, and then you go back down and stay on the first floor for a while at the end. So we've just made it down. We'd been a couple rooms into the first floor and we get to the laundry room.

I kind of by that point I'd call myself down. I'm having fun again. Really interested in all the lore and history and whatnot. Oh, it's good to note that for this camp to make sure that they could keep track of us, we're all supposed to wear these bandanas. And I kept losing mine. I lost mine on a water slide.

So I had to double not mine to make sure it didn't fall off around my neck because I would lose it otherwise if I couldn't see it. Oh, God. It's not relevant. but I'm just curious. No, that's a good question. They changed it every, like, month, so...

Oh, that makes sense. You can't, like, come back and be like, yes, my parents totally paid for me to be here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And they were cheap, so anyone could buy it. But we were in the bandanas. We get to the laundry room, and, like anyone, I kind of get distracted, kind of not

notice the group go on ahead of me, and all of a sudden, you know, I'm just looking around, and I look down, and my bandanas on the floor. and I was like What to do in there? And then all the remembering of the double nodding earlier that morning and Wanting to adjust it but then remembering the double knot and then seeing on the floor all clicked at the same time And I grabbed it and ran into my best friend in the next room at the time

Ready to cry and did not talk to anyone on the way home Wow Did it have like the double knot on the floor? It was fully untied. Okay. Interesting. And I vowed to. myself that I'd never go back to the Winchester mystery house because I was so terrified of this

place. And they ended up working there for almost five years. This consistently is a pattern in my life where I will swear to never do something and it becomes my livelihood. I don't like remember that and just like remember on things that you said to never do and like make a mental note of that. In that case, I'm never going to progress my career. I'm never going to make millions of dollars.

I'm never going to retire early. Anyway, I got my wishes out of the way. That's interesting. It's interesting that you bring up the laundry room specifically because I have had something and I guess it's becoming of me to ask you guys if this has ever happened to you. But the laundry room, like you said,

it's near the end of the tour after you've seen most of the house, you've seen the third floor, you talk about her staff, you're just getting back from the back porch steps where you really talk about how the relationship between Sarah's staff and Sarah, like, that's my girl. Okay. Oh, Mrs. Winchester. We all, I swear, have this like weird parisocial relationship with Sarah Winchester to the point where we're like, oh, yeah, Sarah.

Like that's my home girl. Like our best thing. Yeah. I call her Sarah most of the time. Yeah. Okay. Like a good 80% of this time I call her Sarah. And like a strange, like 20% of the time I call her like Mrs. Winchester.

Interesting. This is Winchester's for tour. Sarah is between friends. Yes, that's fair. No, but like during tours, I will call her like Sarah like most of the time. Or like I will use her full like Sarah Winchester. That's fair. Interesting.

Yeah, I'm fully aware of that. But go ahead. So you just got back from talking about the close relationship between Sarah and her staff. You talk about the fact that she paid them double the triple the livable wage, the fact that most of them had on-site housing, the fact that, you know, it's not. Not proven necessarily, but the fact that there were nurses on site, her nurse. So with her and her relationship with the staff, it would make sense, you know, putting two and two together that if anything happened, most likely Marion would have been able to, you know, go, not Marion. Henrietta.

Henrietta would have been able to help out, would be able to help out, right? Talk about the fact that she provided lunch, she provided a dinner and things like that. And then just how generous she was. I go into the laundry room and oftentimes people will start talking about like, wow, that's so cool. I never knew how close she was with her staff. I never knew the relationship that's completely different from what we were taught in the Lord back in the day. And it's always when I'm having those types of conversations, the light dims in the laundry room. And it doesn't happen every single time.

and it doesn't happen when I'm alone in the room, per se. It only happens when I'm talking about that relationship. And the first time it happened, I was like, this is a very old house. The wiring is probably crazy. And then I started testing out theories in the sense of maybe if I stand a specific spot and does it happen every time? No. Does it happen every time they talk about the relationship?

Not necessarily. but if it does flicker or does almost turn off, it is because I've talked about that. Or that is, you know, what the prevailing conversation was at the time. And so the first time it happened, it was so funny. There was this little boy talking to me about, oh, that's so cool. I had heard X, Y, and Z. And I was like, no, I like to think that they had a very good relationship, considering that they literally called her Grandma Sarah,

considering that she literally let all these kids run around all the time. She had ice cream socials X, Y, and Z. I'm explaining all of this story and the light almost completely turns off the first time and the little boy It has happened where he dims a lot Yeah and to the point where that's not an electrical

It like dims like very a lot And then it goes back to like normal Right yeah And it won't do that normally Right right and so the first time it Like I said it happened The boy was like scared He was like oh my gosh

She's here For reference, I do not believe Sarah Winchester is actually there. But that being said, it is a reoccurring thing when I was giving tours that. I would talk about it and I'm like, okay, is the light going to dim today? Is it? Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. But that's definitely, like, I always took that as a good sign of like, yes, like, this is what I love.

Most of the time when I'm in the laundry room, I don't even think about like the light dimming. because it doesn't happen that often it does happen but most of the time I'll do my speech and then like I'll move on and if it happens it happens but I don't give it too much thought

and it's mostly because yes the electrical wiring is crazy in the house do I consider that paranormal Isabel I personally don't No no that's fair That's totally fair yeah yeah yeah I will say I still love that room but I think it's just because like

in my mind like I haven't been able to connect it to anything yeah once again like I'm not able to connect anything paranormal to anything in the house. So yeah. It could be paranormal. My thought process is like I said, the people or the entities that are there currently at the house are those that have, you know, passed on and stay at the house because they love that house. And because they love the relationship they had and the fact that their livelihoods were there.

Right. And so, you know, a lot of the times the experiences I have or had were in. rooms that were prominently staff rooms. Yes. And, you know, we're only seeing a lot of activity in areas where staff would have been high trafficked. And so that's why I thought. That is true.

The third floor is the most active. And the third floor is where the staff was living. Laundry room can see a lot of activity. Recent. I don't know if it's recently or just because I just got back from a trip from Mexico. So that was a whole wild story. We'll get back in. We'll get into that later.

Because I was down there when I was in Halisco and the cartel acted up and it was a state-white shutdown. Anyway, I was out longer than I expected. So I recently started doing tours again. But guys have, guests haven't asking me again, like, what are the most active areas of the house? And I think I just really miss given tours, especially because when I got back, I didn't get to go back to given tours because we were doing flashlight tours. Yeah. So I got back into town. And rather than given day tours, I was given the flashlight night tours.

Which if you don't know, that's not a lot of talking about the house. It's more so ushering people through. Yeah. Telling ghost stories, you know, like standing in rooms in dark, working a night shift. Which can be good. Which is enjoyable. But I got back and rather than like sharing like the history, I was standing in a room, sharing ghost stories. And tracking with guests, but not as much.

So I didn't really get back into the flow of things until probably last week. So I finally got back into the flow of it And then guests finally started asking Like what are the most active areas of the house This this and that And I finally got to tell them It's like oh like the third floor is the most active Blah blah blah blah

So the third floor is the most I don't know I just went on a tangent But yeah Third floor is true Like that it's We've done multiple You know paranormal investigations And whether they come back as conclusive or not

But any activity we have is predominantly in spaces where staff would be. Yeah. In 85% of the time, that's in the third floor. As this episode has been released on Friday the 13th, I will be working paranormal investigations at the Winchester. Nice. And they're happening Friday and Saturday.

So if that interest you, tickets are sold out. Your shit out of luck. Well, since we're talking about the third floor, we've got to tell at least one. Do you have any stories on the third floor? Yeah, actually fairly recently. And I think it was like, someone correct me, I think it was November, December that we had

a flashlight tours. We tend to do this in the winter months to get people to come. I think it is December. It was probably December then. So I usually, I like to be in like the dark cornered places, the non-high traffic. I just gives me some alone time just to exist. I actually... Did we have the third floor open for flashlight?

We did. This was the very first time we'd had the third floor open for flashlights, to my memory, that I've been here, which I thought was a weird choice. But you know what? It's a very active place, and people know that. So, you know, makes sense to offer it. But so to make sure that that space, which can be a little more delicate, was safe. They placed two people up there. Initially, I was a little annoyed because I like having a big space to wander. But it was with him when I actually really enjoyed. Evelyn was with me. I would love her. Exactly. We were having a great time. If you ever been to one of these events, oftentimes everyone buys the tickets for the very first few slots, runs through the house,

and then, you know, you get a good amount of time, but usually trickle. It's towards the end of the night when it's dead and you'll have half an hour between groups of people. If you come on a,

we're not sponsored by Winchester. Nope. If you ever come on a flashlight tour, take your time. It's self-guided. If the group in front of you is moving too slow, feel for to like skip them.

If the group behind you is moving too fast... I'm so sorry. We're actively... Nothing. It's fine. We're just giving advice. Yeah. Just enjoy it. Yeah. But anyway, at the end of the night, it's really slow. Usually we're trying to figure out where... You know, there's always someone with the last group

and we're always trying to figure out when are they going to show up with the last group so we can go home because it's usually like 1 a.m. And we're all a little bit tired. Anyway, myself and Evelyn, what usually tends to happen is sometimes if no one's around, especially since our areas were so close, well, we just started chatting because it can get kind of lonely in there. So we're talking, and there's a distinctive sound

that every tour guide knows, and that is the clanking of keys. That is not a ghost. That is a manager. And so we heard the clanking of keys, panicked a little bit, immediately scurried into our respective locations, but then no one came through. So initially we're like, okay, probably down on the second floor, sound travels, very common. Especially with the amount of open doors and stairwells and staircases and everything,

even the like hallways that go up, you know, that you can hear something on the first floor clear as day from the third floor. Exactly. So it wasn't unheard of. You know, we got a little spooked mostly because of the manager thing. But you know what? After like a few minutes, we realized that no one was coming by, you know, we could probably go back. to talking. So we're chatting. We're standing, and for anyone who knows the Winchester, we're standing in a room called the call room while we're chatting. And there's a staircase

there. And so as we're chatting, we're still keeping an ear out for where the last guest is. And more importantly, where the manager with the last guest is so we can go home. Most importantly. Most importantly, well, of course, I was tired. The manager at this point will trail the last guest, obviously leaving room behind them so they don't know that they're up behind them. But it's kind of a way for us to be. dismissed as they're coming through the house instead of just standing the entire time. Yeah. For a little bit more clarity.

We are not allowed to sit during any of these flashlight tours. We are to be standing at all times. Yes. So you can imagine after about six hours of standing and only getting to see people for about two of those hours, it can get quite long. Which is not terrible. It's just especially if you work another job that can be a long night. Not to say that it isn't lovely because, well, I'm here telling the story and I thought that was lovely. But anyway, so we are usually listening

and to know that that's the sign to go home when all of a sudden we hear these feet just come running up the stairs. We thought there was some kind of emergency going on that they maybe were not able to communicate to us. So we kind of looked down, this staircase is rather short, and you can see the end of it.

No one came up the stairs. And we were looking at each other and we're like, you heard that, right? And that's usually a clarification you'll know. And we're like, yeah, we definitely heard that. Okay. Why don't we just hang out here a little longer together.

Little nervous hanging in there and you're like it's almost the end of the night nothing's wrong and then we heard a scream. We had a scream?

A scream? Immediately now. We took off running and we actually I got my phone out and texted the manager on that time who was quite a lovely

gentleman texted him like are you near the third floor and got no response which made our panic even more worse. About one minute later, we are kind of just hiding in this hallway.

We actually do hear footsteps walking to each other towards us. And of course, we're on high alert mode. So we freak out. When someone comes around the corner, instead of a real person, we scream, as anyone would. And we realize it's the last guest with that manager. And as we're screaming,

that manager walks over and is like, are you guys okay? I'm like, yeah. My question is, did the guest scream when you scream? Yes. Okay. The manager checked in with us, made your rocane, he's like, well, you're welcome to go down together, you can leave, we can go home. Go downstairs, ready to clock out,

realize I left my water bottle up there. I'm not in for another week and I need that water bottle, so I brave it, I go by myself, all up the stairs. Oh, girls, I would have left that water bottle. I'm not the one. You say, you see, I am very pretty and not very smart,

so that's okay. I get up there, I grab my water bottle, And that manager comes running back at me. And he goes, are you okay? And I said, yeah. And he says, I heard a lady scream. And I said, I'm going home.

I'm going home. Did you leave the water bottle? No, I took the water bottle. And I just want to, if I'm thinking this is the correct manager, this is a non-believer. Oh, 100%. This man does not get scared by anything. It will close to this house at night in the dark with all the lights off and only a little pen flashlight.

Sorry, I'm just going to say this. I got into the point where I don't freak out when I hear screaming at Winchester. Fuck that. And the reason I say this is because so many guests, especially on the flashlight tours, will randomly scream. That's fair. I think I would have been fine if had not the other things happened. But you're right. It is fairly normal, actually.

I'm sorry, but if he's reacting, I'm gone. No, no. If that reaction did happen, that'd be fine. But with the first scream, I would just be like, it's just a guest. Nothing shakes that man. Nothing. Shakes that man. I have seen that man being shaken by a table, but that's because they were standing on top of a table.

Okay. I sure hope so. The man we're talking about is one of our... They have been there for many, many, many years. And they do a lot of the work there. Underappreciated. I appreciate you. We all appreciate you.

Genuinely. We'll fight for you. He does a lot of things that he shouldn't do for safety reasons. for safety reasons we shouldn't be doing them. Like changing light bulbs and rather than using a ladder he stands on a table that is not balanced

and as he's grabbing the light bulb and twisting it the table starts to you know teeter. Teeter, thank you. But he has the best inventions. I can't help but laugh because this is a very serious man

and he has no expression whatsoever. He's like, completely fly. Yes. Love him. Have you had experiences on the third floor? Honestly, I feel like the few experiences I've had, yeah, actually, now that I'm thinking about it,

so for context, the uniform was a button-down shirt and a very long skirt if you were, if you wanted to dress with a skirt, and their other option was pants. I preferred the skirt just because it's a little more breezy and I preferred it. And there is a pretty long hallway, and it is the low ceiling hallway. And there's not a lot of people. There's almost nothing on the walls. Like, there is nothing. Are you talking about the low ceiling hallway for like the EMT or the spirit tour?

Yes. So it's the low ceiling hallway, and I was dusting or some reason I was up there. For reference, we talked about this hallway on the last episode. It's literally called the low ceiling hallway. Yeah, because it's a low ceiling. I'm the only one who can stand up fully, I think, in this group right now. Yes, yes. I am like 5-5 and I cannot stand fully in that hallway.

I have to, like, crouch a little bit. But I was walking down there dusting or doing something, and I felt something tug on the bottom of my skirt. And that was something that hop happened often. And, like, I didn't really think of anything of it at first because it was just like a little tug. And I'm like, okay, whatever. it might have gotten caught on something. But I like did a quick look around and noticed that I wasn't close enough to any of the walls to catch. So I looked on the floor, see if there was anything near me on the floor. Nothing caught. I'm like, okay, whatever. Not a super big deal. Definitely

higher than like where my shoes are. So it wasn't my shoes. I'm like, okay, whatever. Like I'm just, it is what it is. So I keep walking. And then I get another, another yank. And it was like a pretty significant yank at this point. And I'm like, oh, okay. Cool. And so like I dust very quickly. There wasn't really anything that happened. And as I'm trying to go back down again, I get like another decently hard yank from when I'm leaving. And I'm like, what the heck? And I like, I like, I like turn around and like everything's fine and nothing looks out of the ordinary. But like I get this like chill. And I'm like, ooh, okay. I'm just going to, I'm going to go. Hi.

There. And I will say that, like, it wasn't like a bad chill of, it was just of like another, another something was there. Something saying hi. Yeah, something saying hi. And I liked, again, a lot of my experiences are not malicious. Like, if anything, they're more like jokester, like is what I pick up. And, and, you know, thinking about, like, a little kid just, like, yanking or, like, someone trying to tease you and, like, pulling on your skirt, pulling on your shirt, things like that. So I think that's the only really thing that has happened to me other than, like, like, you know.

like me scaring the crap out of myself. I am, I was notorious as a tour guide for being like the scariest tour guide ever. I don't know how many times. As in like easiest scared. Yes, yes. I was, I was terrible. Isabel, where I don't know if you were told this, but when I joined, I was told

the more you react, the more likely the ghosts start a mess with you because they like to play around. And if you react, they like it. I was told that. I don't know about you. I was told that. But my problem wasn't that I was jumpy. that wasn't my only problem.

My only problem was the other fucking tour guides decided that it was going to be fun to scare the shit out of me. Yeah. No comment. Yeah. Yeah. And we knew that and we took advantage of that. I was also on the receiving end of some of it, so I felt like it was justified. But I can understand from your perspective how it could not feel that way.

Did we have fun with Isabelle? Yes. Do we regret it? No. No. Was I scared shitless? Yes. Would we do it again?

Yes. Probably. Mm-hmm. Um, love you. That being said, that actually rolls into my next story of, um, I want to say this is like the first month I was there. So, or first month or two. Um, and then the first couple of weeks that you're, you're hired as a tour guide. You are to learn the script and to learn the house. So I think it was myself and maybe like a lead that was there, um, around like 9.30 in the morning. It was, I got

That's early. Because it was in the summer. We were opening at 10. Okay. So I was there 30 minutes a little early because I was going to walk the house with no one there. And so I was walking just very start of the tour, come through the carriage house, go. I'm going upstairs. I'm like, okay, I'm following all of the arrows on the floor, making sure like this is when I say this, so on and so forth.

And so I get to Sarah's bedroom. and I like say my little spiel and then like I go to walk out. And so at this point I think I see like management coming and like going through all the house. Right. So they're they're turning on all the lights, turning on everything that's supposed to be on. Mind you, it's where this is this is the middle of summer. I think this is like May starting out June at this point.

So it's super, super warm. They're like turning everything on. They're turning on the lights. We really didn't need the lights. The frame. And so I see them walk through the house and then I see them leave to go upstairs. I'm like, okay, cool. I can see them through that one hallway that connects Sarah's main bedroom to the South Conservatory.

The Sun Porch? Sun Porch, yes. And so I see them and I see them go up. And I'm like, okay, cool. They are leaving. And this is like the other side of the house at this point. So I say my speech again in Sarah's bedroom. and then I go to turn around to like leave and exit the room and go toward the seance room.

And before I officially leave Sarah's bedroom, her door like opens. And it's the door to the sun porch. And it scares the shit out of me. I've never had that door open. And yeah. I've never had that door open. And for reference, this is a turning door. You have to turn the knob, rotate it, and push it to open it.

And me being new, I didn't 100% know where the other side of that door went. And so it opened. I like peeked over to the sun porch. Saw there was no one there. And I'm like, they're fucking with me. That's what's happening. And because at this point, people have already kind of like, I've already been, you know, pranked on a little. But mind you, it, thank you for saying that it was so early because at this point, the only people that were in here would have been the leaves.

would have been me and the lead. Right. And me and the lead weren't close at this time. I was brand fucking new. And they were opening the house. They're opening. I saw them go upstairs. Which is a timed activity.

It's very timed activity because the first tour starts promptly and, and, you know, you have to go through fucking four floors to make sure everything's open. And so I'm like, oh, ha ha, that's cool. It opened. So like, I close it. And then like, I'm like, ha, ha, ha. And so I quickly text the lead. I'm like, hey, ha ha. Is you?

Are you on the second floor right now? And they're like, no, I'm on the fourth. And so I'm like, oh, okay. And so I run downstairs and practice the rest of my speech in the garden. Perfectly acceptable. For the rest of the day. Perfectly acceptable. Like the rest of the tour?

Well, because I wasn't on tour yet. No, no, but like you practice like the rest of the script. Yeah, the rest of the script for the rest of the day. Okay. In the gardens. Okay. Because I'm not going back in. I was like, no. Yeah.

And that being said, looking back on it. And you still stuck around. I still stuck around. Yeah. That being said, thank and thank you for pointing that out. I, after some reflection, part of the reasons I didn't quit was because the door was opening. The door didn't close. I think I would have had a very different reaction had the door closed.

Oh. If the door I was like coming through. had closed, I would have been like, you know what? That's it for me. Thank you. Have a great night. Okay. But the door to the sun porch had opened.

And upon further reflection, I was like, that is a much better thing to have happened than to be closing. So I chose to take that as a welcoming. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or get the fuck out, bitch. And I would have been like, you know what?

You were absolutely right. I do need to go home. But I. But I took it as a welcoming. Okay, fair. What about that also helped kind of... I haven't had, I would say, like, things happen in Sarah's bedroom. I think Sarah's bedroom, it's one of the rooms where I've had, like, the least amount

of paranormal experiences in there. That being said, that was my first and only time I ever had a paranormal experience. I will say that the things that have happened in Sarah's bedroom have been, like, minimal. Like, very, very, like, barely. noticeable things. I was given a day tour, regular day tour. I was standing by those double doors

by the sun porch. And I'm given my speech. And there's the two windows by the fireplace. And there's the window that looks into the 13 bathroom. And that window just cracked open. And you know, like that, there's no

airflow coming from the bathroom into that room or vice versa. No, because the windows are not open. Actual, like, panes are openable windows. They're completely shut. Well, I mean, it's the one that when you're in the 13th bathroom, you can see into Sarah's bedroom. No, but the windows in that room do not have access. You can't open them.

Well, it's, it's like tough. Like, you can open it. The top ones only. Yeah, the top. Yeah. So, like, that one just cracked open. Do you know which one? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The one that, yeah, it was looking in. Yeah. And when you're a guest in Sarah's bedroom, like you're standing as a guest, you can't see that window from that area in the rug that you're standing in. So as I'm giving my like speech, I'm looking at the guest. I'm looking at the, and I saw the window crack. And then once again, that's something only I can see because like the guests can't see that. And I was just like, keep giving the speech. I was like, internally freaking out.

I can't acknowledge this. I'm like, I can see this. I can't acknowledge it because I can't be like, hey, guys. I was like, take a look at that. It's just, no. That's the only thing I have. happened in Sarah's bedroom. Once again, like, nothing major. We have done paranormal investigations in Sarah's bedroom for like when we had taps and when we did our own

paranormal investigations in there. There has been activity there at night, but we haven't gotten, like, things happen in there. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say like, once again, I also don't think Sarah is at the house. I mean, she was buried back in New Haven, Connecticut. With her daughter and husband. Why is she? Very much. If she's at peace, I hope she's that piece. I believe she's that peace. She lived her life mostly without them. It's about time that she could spend some time with them.

Why would she be at? Literally. She wouldn't. No. That being said, if, you know, a sun porch opened up and they were just messing around. At the sun porch, I understand that more than I understand them messing around in Sarah's bedroom. Yeah. Yeah. If anything, I feel like they would probably leave Sarah's bedroom out of respect.

Definitely. What about you, Jay? You said Sarah's not, the bedroom's not the most haunted or most. active for you. What was one of your more active? I'm trying to think of like where I've had multiple experiences and I would just say the third floor overall. It's the most active. I do have a story to share that I've had with you.

Oh, yes. And I think at this point it's been maybe four years because this is when Elizabeth was here. That's right. So this is when we offered a seasonal tour for the holidays. It was called The Walk with the Historian. We now offer a walk with the historian tour on weekends. It's completely different because this was a holiday tour. Jan and her historian for the holiday season,

it was only a selected couple of nights. Yes. You would show up. I think it was like a two-hour tour. Something like that. It was between 90 minutes and two hours. You would get a behind-the-scenes 90 minutes to two hours. tour that you would be given the tour by the historian, the official Winchester Mystery House historian.

And it would be a holiday tour. So she would give you a tour. She would share behind the scenes. She would go into different rooms. She would share some of that inside knowledge that she had. And Katie, Elizabeth, myself, and Jim, Elizabeth has left. She is in New York, if I'm correct. Jim is still working as a tour guide. Love Jim. Love Jim. If you ever go and he's still there, he is notorious for his dad jokes. He's such a dynamic speaker.

He genuinely is, I love Jim. A great storyteller. If you happen to go on a tour at the Winchester Mystery House and he says, my name is Jim, be ready for a tour. And I mean that in the best way possible, ask him for facts. and be ready for dad jokes. That is all I have to say. And if you don't go and you just check out the Winchester Mystery House, TikTok.

He is hilarious. So please check it out. They had him talk, what was like... Gen Z slang. It was so amazing. But yes. So Katie, Elizabeth, Jim, and I were working as carolers that year. So Janine was given her tour

and we were stationed in a couple rooms to do some caroline. And we were also in the North-South Conservatory cutting out some snowflakes. Ah, yes. Which was chaotic for us because cutting out snowflakes, you make a mess. That was what was chaotic. The cleaning up of a mess. So anyway.

Yep. We clean up, we do the snowflakes. We don't have time to clean up the mess. Yeah, because we got to go carol in another part of the house. Yes. So we have to wait until the end to clean it all up. So yeah, that's what happened. So this is where the story is going.

Carolyn happened. Carolyn got done. The walk with the historian got done. It was also a small group. It was like 12, 13 people at the most. Very intimate. So Janem is done. The tour is done.

Katie, Elizabeth, Jim and myself are done. So we're kind of cleaning up. And then Katie and I are sent to clean up the snowflakes from the South Conservatory. So we go up the last flight of stair. up to the North Conservatory and then from there we go through No, it happened on that staircase.

Oh, it happened on that staircase. Yeah. Right. So we go up that staircase and at this point I would say there was maybe five people on site which was the carolers,

the four of us and the management lead. The same one we talked about during my story. Yes. So as we're going up that staircase, what did we hear, Katie?

Well, we both heard different things. I believe it was you know I think I heard you say something but you weren't behind me I heard close shuffling and you heard clothes shuffling because we wear really heavy outfits so you can like cheer when the fabric moves and I turned to you and asked if you had said something no and I just heard clothes shuffling behind us so we turned around we went down the staircase and there was no one in the hallway.

Naturally, I freaked out. When we went back to the guide, I mean, we cleaned up our mess. I was freaking out. Yes. We went back to the guide station. We asked if anyone was like in that area and like no one was there. Yeah, Jim and Elizabeth were in the ballroom, which is the opposite end of the house. So there was no one walking that hallway, that staircase when we were there.

So once again, we heard someone walking that area. And for more clarity, normally the leads are meant to stay at the guide station. because they're meant to act as like the manager, like, mod or whatever, right? The manager on duty that if anything happens, they need to be at the guide station to handle situations. So 85% of the time when we're talking about these stories, if the leads aren't, you know, like as in Jay's story following the last person, they are at the guide station at the phones in case of emergency. And I believe like in this situation, the lead was either at the guide station or with the other two people. because I mean this was the

it was an after our tours and like Janet I think was with the last group because she was helping them out he had a lot to clean up because of the deferred routes which are different from our normal roots but that was like one of those things that like we heard clothing like I heard

clothing behind us and I was like nope and I heard some kind of murmuring which I thought was you apparently not so it's just one of those things of like a lot of things happened during the day And I think it's like things happen after hours as well, but we just, we're not open after hours enough to say that, yeah, things happen after hours so often that they're so common after hours. Yeah.

It's definitely more rare for things to happen after hours, which is crazy to think about when you think about like it's supposed to be this like haunted house. And the first thing you think of like, oh, it's in the night. It's so creepy, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's actually no. the more stuff happens during the day. I had a full conversation with a lady recently during the flashlight tours. Just having that conversation as well. It's like it's very active during the day.

And I wonder why? Is it because the staff was back then active during the day because they had hard days of work? I'm just saying. Sometimes I wonder if the spirits who are out at night are just mad that we're making noise at night. And they're like, would you please? Go to hell to bed. This is ridiculous.

Please shut up. And yeah, I... Kindly. Kindly. Yeah. They're never mean or evil or anything like that. What people love to ask us that, though. It's just one of those odd things.

I know that on the third floor, it's... Have any of you, like, have had encounters with, like, a doppelganger? No, but I've heard so... I've heard one specific story. Okay. Have you heard my story about a doppelganger? No. I don't know if I've heard your story, actually.

I've heard Roxy's story. it is. Oh, I don't know if I've heard Roxie's story. I've seen Vic once. Ooh, I need to get Roxy and Courtney on here. I've also heard about one of our, our, that same lead being heard throughout the house. Oh, see? And he was actively in Mexico. Mine is about Will. Oh. Oh my goodness. And I actually just shared this with the guests this last couple weeks. This is newer. For context, Will, me and Will started, I think, the same week, if not the same day. Really? Wow. Yeah, we were both hired at the, like, hiring fair in April.

No way. Of, like, two years ago of, of 2024 or whatever it is, the centennial. Okay, for the centennial. Time flies. And we were both hired at that event, and we started the exact same time. Wow. Okay. Yeah, so I was given a mansion tour, and I just got done with the daisy bedroom.

And I made my way up to the third floor. And it was in the low-silling hallway. So once again, I swear, and I shared this last episode, but I swear I saw Will sweeping the low-selling hallway. And Will has a very distinct figure. Yeah, he does. Also, at the time, there was no one that had that figure that Will did. He's also very tall. A tall, lean white man.

I want to say he is, like, one of the tallest tour guides. I think so. He is the tallest tour guide. So it's not an easy... I think Will and Alan at the time were probably the same height. Not being said, Alan is much older. Yes.

And is love Alan. But they don't have the same body built either. No, no. Alan is like, he's an older gentleman. Yeah. And he's built, you know. Yeah. Like he's a decent sized person.

Yes. Will is very skinny, very tall. So I made my way up to the third floor. And the door into the low, hallway has glass panels on him so you can see through it and I swear I saw Will and I distinctly remember just in my head making fun of him because it's a tall man hunched over sweeping. And in my head, it was like the little Cinderella scene, you know, like just leaning over like sweeping the floor.

Yeah, definitely. So I was like, uh-huh. Sending the tallest man to sweep this glory. Exactly. You know, it's crazy. So I, this was like years back and I'm not supposed to, but I texted him. I was just like, ha-ha, just saw you. And then he's like, no, you didn't.

And I was like, yes, I did. And he's like, unless you're in Fremont, no, you didn't. This was when this man used to run an escape room in Fremont. Yes. So he said, check the signing sheet. At this point, I'm about how. halfway through the tour because it's after the daisy. Wrap up my tour, go back

to the guide station, go on my break, check the signing sheet. He was not in that day. That is probably, I think that is the only time where I have like seeing someone that was not supposed to be in the house, in the house. Oh.

That's insane. Yeah, that's the, no, I say I get scared easy, but oftentimes I recover quickly and then I have a good laugh. That is, that is one of of the few instances where I get scared and remain scared. And it's one of those things where like I didn't,

I don't even have time to like freak out because you're on tour. Well, not only because I'm on tour, but I'm like, do I take this man seriously or not? You don't know this. I can't go check the signing sheet because I'm like, I'm halfway through. There's half an hour before I can go check whether this man is playing on a joke on me or not.

And again, we all play jokes on each other all of the time. Frequently. That's half the reason of like, why it was so fun to work at Winchester is because yes, we're literally getting paid to run around in a costume. But it's also, we're like having fun

with all of our friends. Yeah. And by the time that I'm there, check and it's been half an hour since I saw him. Like, can I even like freak out about that anymore? Like, realistically, it's been half an hour. Definitely.

Ooh. Kitty, what's your... Oh, it's so short and boring. Go for it. When it was one of the earlier things that happened to me, when Jay and I first joined, we were doing something

called self-guided. It was COVID time. We were just hired as they were opening just as restrictions were lifting and people were out to be able to go out and about, of course, this is the olden times of 15 feet apart or whatever. Everyone's wearing masks and whatnot. And so because I joined really early, there was also a lot of cleaning going on. And so that was mostly what I did beyond like running.

I did like a couple of self-guided shifts or I filled in for people. people's really what happened when they needed their breaks and whatnot. But most of the time I was studying my script and doing the cleaning and whatnot. It helped you get known to the house better. And it was needed. I was going cleaning. He was the manager at the time. And I was getting a little jumping because I was starting to suspect that things might be happening,

but I was very much still in denial. It took a while for me to get out of that denial. Anyway, I was cleaning, just going around. I sometimes when you clean you like to just also explore and you're like well I wasn't explicitly told to clean this area but I've already finished the area I have

and walk it all the way down to the guide station to ask what's next that's like five minutes and you know what this area could maybe use a sweep too and they used to love when we took initiative to clean areas that they didn't tell us like hey you see something dirty you clean it they would be very appreciative

because they would have had to send us back up there to clean it anyway and that's 10 minutes lost of cleaning time Definitely. So it was not out of the norm, per se. It's a little scary for me because I was new and wasn't as familiar with the rules, but absolutely the norm. And I just go into this hallway. I'd never been in this area of the house.

This was actually my first time in this area of the house. It was an area we don't often open up to the guests except for like rare, like, haunted events and whatnot. It was the easy risers from the South Conservatory to the crystal bedroom. And I was going up and down that area, sweeping the little. stairs and I noticed a door that you can't really open at that point you could not open it from that direction. Now we've rewired and re-keyed a lot of that area so most of those doors open properly and why not. And I hear him just his distinct voice just say, Katie? I was like, oh shit, maybe I'm not supposed to be here. Shoot. And I run down. I go into the staff conservatory

And I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to play it off. Like I got lost. It's just going to work out. No one's going to fire me. Because I'm an overthinker. Get downstairs. You know, I'm ready to go in preemptively and explain.

And he's sitting at the desk. And I was like, weren't you just like on the third floor? We're a second floor with me? I've been at desk the whole day. It's like, cool. You heard nothing. By the way, is there a chance? that there are doppelgangers in the house.

And what did he respond? I've heard stories about it. Wow. And I did not need to ask. I was like, great, you know what? I'm going to go take my 15 now. Thank you. I was very awkward and nervous at that way.

The one story did hear about doppelgangers was from McKenzie. Oh. She's moved to... Somewhere in the middle of the country. Ohio. No. Something like that. Yes.

Ohio because I was in that state last year two years ago last two years ago two years ago that's a lot of numbers there I was just trying to remember because I try to get in contact with her to visit her but we're like in different cities too far apart

oh that's nice it's fine but the story that she shared was also during the pandemic oh she had the experience and it was during flashlight tours as well she was stationed in Sarah's bed bedroom. Do you remember, do you remember

Brendelan? Oh, yes. So there was a twigad named Brendan. And that night, Brendelan was stationed in the Grand Ballroom. So Sarah's bedroom and the grand ballroom are opposite sides. Grand ballroom, it's the oldest part of Sarah's home. It's in the front of the house.

Sarah's bedroom, it's the back of the house, second floor. Pretty new. And what ended up happening was that Mackenzie looked down the sun porch actually. We're just talking about the sun porch. Again. You know we'll have to have that to come up three times.

Yeah, it actually has come up. I'm just saying. So McKenzie looks down the sun porch and at the end of the sun porch she sees Brendelin. Okay. And Brendan just smiles and waves at her and McKenzie finds it odd because she's like,

oh, aren't you supposed to be like in the grand ballroom? Yeah. So then, you know, like, McKenzie, like, you know, Brendan's, like, you know, Brenda Lynn disappears from you. And they'll, like, clarify from earlier, when we do talk to each other, um, and when things are happening, is only the people who are close. We would never, like, go, you don't go floor to floor. Yeah. That's not even like, we're, we do have to be standard. To get from, like, Sarah, to get from the grand ballroom to the South Conservatory, you would have to go through a multiple rooms. So that's not even like. Yeah. You have to go through multiple rooms, multiple floors. Yeah. That's, yeah. So it's not like an easy.

I'm going to sneak to the room next door. No. I'm going to sneak through multiple rooms and to the next floor. And then I'll get there in about four minutes. Yeah. While not getting caught. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

So McKenzie decides to text Brendelan and be like, hey, what are you doing up here? And then Brendelan, it's like, what do you mean? It's like, you were just up here in the South Conservatory. And Brendanelan sends her a selfie of herself in the Grand Ballroom. And then McKenzie freaks out not because of the selfie. in the ground ballroom, but because this was pandemic times, and in the selfie, she's wearing a face mask. Oh, fuck.

In the South Conservatory, she didn't have a face mask. Oh, God. Immediately now. And I'm not going to lie, I've never seen a doppelganger, but I feel like if I ever did see a doppelganger, I would not be working there. I would have quit a long time ago. Immediately know. But I'm also going to say this, I was like, I feel like all the stories that come from, like,

doppelgangers at the Winchester house, it's like, if. you see a doppelganger, they don't talk to you. No, they don't interact other than like a hi. Exactly. Like a wave or like an acknowledgement. So like you don't hear them talk like with Brendelan or what I saw Will. And even. Or if you hear their voice, you don't physically see them.

No. No. I don't give a shit. But like I think that was like such an eerie detail that McKinsey shared with me that like when she saw Brendanelon at the Salah Conservatory. It was like a smile and a wave. Because. And when she got the selfie, it was a face mask in the...

Because how do they know what her face looks like without a mask? Well, I mean, because she's probably, like, taking her mask off. Oh, that's right. Grendelan was one of the targets that came back. Pre-pandemic, that's right. Thank you. Before the pandemic. Yeah.

Gosh. Immediately no. Mm-hmm. I think there's only been a few times where I have, like, been truly, truly freaked the fuck out. Mm-hmm. And one of those times was... in the small basement. And I fucking hate

the small basement with a passion burning inside my soul for a multitude of reasons. I am not a reason of a small basement. I am of the large basement. Oh, you're right, actually. I love the large basement better. But I've never liked the small basement.

Even before I had even officially been in there, I would walk by, you know, the kitchen that it's attached to and be like, ew, I don't like this. I don't know why I've always gotten the feeling that, like, I am not supposed to be down there. I've never not had that feeling.

And when there's slow days and days that you are like able to kind of walk around and clean and there's more groups of people that aren't on tour, a lot of the time, some of the veteran tour guides will be like, hey, you're new. Have you seen this room before? And I've done that. Of course, mine was not malicious. Um, but... Wow.

I have to throw a little shade. I have to throw a little shade. Crazy. Where'd you get that idea from? And I will tell that story right after this. But, um, you know, I was taken down. I think it was me. If I'm not mistaken, I could be wrong on who all was there.

But if I'm not mistaken, it was me, Caitlin. I don't know if you were there, Jay. I don't think so. I don't think it was. I don't think so. There was, it was, I think it was me, Caitlin. I think. think Alexis, I think, I don't think, I'm trying to remember, it was like a group of girls.

And I don't remember who, there was like five or six of us, I think like five or something. And we had all gone down in the small basement and they're supposed to be like automatic lights, like motion sensitive lights. Yeah. And so we had gone all the way. The batteries are dead most of the time. Mm, okay. We had gotten all the way down into the small basement down the stairs and we were like looking around. This was before it opened up to tour.

So there was like much Halloween decoration. and Christmas decorations and files and just this is where you threw things that you didn't want to look at, right? And so it was a storage space essentially. Yeah. It's a very deep small basement. And we had gotten all the way down

into the small basement and we were like looking around and I was like, okay guys, I'm not walking any further into this basement. Like fuck this. I'm like, I'm like, okay y'all, I'm ready to go back up. And I had like,

I was like hanging on to one of the girls because it was terrified. Again, I did not like this area. And all of a sudden, all of the motion sensor and censored lights that were supposed to be on when we walked down the stairs had turned on. Oh. I don't know if you know how fucking batteries work. That's how they work. Or motion sensors. Or motion sensors. Exactly. And so that's scared that. I immediately ran up. Immediately. Fuck that shit. And I have not had like a very good relationship with that basement since.

That being said, I didn't like love either of the basements. But it did take, it did take me a long time to like be okay with the large basement. With a large one? With the large basement. Yeah. It's not that I had like weird. I didn't have the same feeling in the sense of like, again, it's not malicious necessarily. But it feels like the best way I can describe it is if you're going into like your friends'

mom's room where you're like, oh, this is kind of uncomfortable. I'm not supposed to be here. I should not be here. You know, in the sense of, like, this is just not somewhere I'm welcome or meant to be, but not welcome in, like, a malicious way, welcome in them, like, you're going to get in trouble way. Like, this is someone else's space. Yes, yes, exactly. This is someone else's space.

For small basement. I am not, I am not, this is not where I'm supposed to me. Interesting, okay. And so I've always had, like, a hard time, especially, like, just being down there by myself, being down there in general. Have you, you haven't, you haven't. No, I haven't. Okay. If you went back as a guest, like for Flashlight Tours, do you think it would still be the same feeling?

I don't know. I don't know. I've gone towards and, like, there's always been certain specific spots in the house, which are, like, random that I just cannot, like, get over the feeling of, like, I ill. Like, I don't want, I physically want to, like, leave. If you were looking at this on video, I'm, like, I'm turning to the side because it's, like, it's a physical reaction in the sense of, like, I don't feel like I should be in that space. Yeah. And I want to get out of that space because it makes me feel uncomfortable. One of those spaces, like I said, is a small basement.

One of those is that easy risers past the South Conservatory. When I first started, I hated that area because I couldn't like, I didn't like to be by the alone. El Shave wing? Yeah. Oh, fuck no. Fuck the L-shaped wing too. Anyways. We'll talk about that layer, but the L-shaped wing was never finished.

And it's physically not the safest place to be, which is why it's underlocking key. Does that stop everyone? Does that stop everyone? No, perhaps not. There's a hole in the floor that goes down to the concrete one floor below. There's a hole in the floor. Are you talking about a hole in the floor in a house? The house drops everywhere.

Anyways. Yeah. Basements. Proceed. But yeah. So, like, that has always happened. With a large basement, I think that I was a little scared. I didn't get that same feeling.

But there was one specific time. where it was Jay, Katie, myself. Jennifer. Jennifer. Plus or minus one or two more people. And we had all gone down and, you know, one of the most famous parts of Winchester Mystery House is in the large basement.

Steam Alley, where the wheelbarrel ghost has been seen carding his wheelbarrel to fill up the coal because he doesn't understand he's a ghost. And they're like, Isabel, let's go down. email. I was like, okay, okay, I'm going to get some balls for once. You're still a green tour. And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a green tour guide and I have faith, trust, and pixie dust in all of my fellow fucking tour guys. Not enough pixie gut dust at the time. And so I'm walking and I'm walking. And Jay turns to me

and he very solemnly goes, Isabel, look. So I walk closer to this little outcove. And I turn my head. And there's a fucking skeleton with a goddamn tour guide outfit on that was like six, five. And it's the, mind you, this is the middle of the fucking basement. It's dark. There is one light on. We're all ducking. We're ducking.

I'm already on edge. I fucking scream, run down there. Realized halfway after. I feel like you collapsed. Didn't you? No, I didn't collapse yet. I fell up the stairs when we left. But.

But I got halfway, you know, to the staircase and I turned around and I'm like, fuck you guys. Because every single one of those motherfuckers were laughing. They're assholes. Because they all knew that there was a goddamn skeleton except me.

For context, sometimes when we do Halloween, the Halloween stays longer than it should. And there was a mannequin. It just tucked away in corners. Just tucked away. And every tour guide had had a moment where they like went down the hallway,

found the mannequin, freaked out, and then said, how am I going to use this to hurt someone else? Yep. And Isabel was the newer tour guide at the time. And we said, let's welcome her to the Winchester Mystery House. Good old-fashioned hazing. Because I will say, I agree with Isabel.

One of the best things you can do is take a new tour guide around, show off a cool part of the house, tell a story. Your favorite part of the house, right? Most certainly. Sometimes it's going to be like, hey, have you seen this part of the house? And you're like, no, cool. Let's jump over a window. Yeah, let's just crawl through this window, up east stairs, around this bend. Go around.

Let's check out the view from this turret. Right. It's part of the reason or part of the perks is just being able to understand how beautiful this house is and being able to see parts of it that you wouldn't be able to. And thankfully, we were very, very, you know, lucky to be able to experience the house the way we did. When I first met Evelyn, our first interaction was very much behind the, Venetian, behind the Venetian dining room, we had not met or interacted before that moment. She was new. She was cleaning.

I had been there for a while. She was like, hi. I was like, hi. She was like, I'm new. I'm cleaning. I was like, have you gone to the basement? She was like, no. She was like, it's open.

You want to go down there? She's like, yeah. And she was like, you could have killed me. I was like, I know. That sounds like. That's crazy. But it's just like part of the fun of just like, a new tour guide, just like going to explore.

I'll say for context, for those who have worked there before, you're like, you got to go this place, you got to go that place because it used to be like a pretty harsh, fireable fence in order to go into several locations this house. And granted, that was because these areas were not safe. And in the past, I would say like five to ten years specifically, actually I'd say 10 to 15. Yeah, I would say longer than that. A longer than that. They have made these areas safe for people for the express.

They were just not structurally safe. But that's why this is so incredible. A lot of these places have been truly, it's not a marketing tactic. They have been truly underwalking key for a while. I would say so too. A lot of these places, even when we started working there

a number of these places that we were not supposed to go that today are now on tour. So it is a wonderful, honestly, a joy that we got to go to these places. Even like some of the tour guides that have been there for a while, Sabina, she recently left. She had been there for six years, I want to say. A couple years ago, four years ago, three years ago.

Small basement, going back to the small basement, she had not been down there. Yeah, that makes sense. So she had been working there for about two, three years since she had never been down to the small basement. So my experience in the small basement was very similar to yours, Isabel. as a new tour guide they gave you like the tour real quick like of the house Vic was my lead

so Vic gave me the mansion tour so we walked through the route real quickly and then he like showed me the basement he showed me the extra rooms real quick and then gave me the script go learn the house this this and that as a new tour guide

we got hired you said like less than a month apart less than a month so it was during like the summer warmer months and I wanted to see the basement in more detail. It was also cooler. As a new tour guide, I don't know how to get down to the basement. So I'm trying to figure that out.

I see the double doors. I don't have a key as like, okay, cool, there has to be another way down there. And then I eventually find my way behind the Venetian dining room. And I find a door into the basement. And I'm like, oh, here's the door. That door was unlocked at the time. Open the door, go down there, and then it's pitch black. I don't know how to turn the light on, because then I'm,

my new tour guide. And there's, the automatic lights should work, but they don't always well. I also think to myself, maybe they turn the lights off when there's no tour down here. There. Because, you know, save some energy. I'm also don't know how to work the lights. Take my phone on, phone out, turn the flashlight on. And then I start walking into the basement.

Probably like two, three feet into the basement. I see like Christmas tree boxes, bags, boxes. I'm like, this is not the same basement. As a new tour guide, Vic forgot to tell... No one told me that the house was big enough that there was two separate basements in the house. Very large basements.

We call it a small basement. I think it's huge. It's bigger than my room. If I'm not mistaken, it's almost the entire length of the original first floor. It's the length of what we assume was a secondary building, maybe a different farmhouse

that was either a staff house that was built into or it was a separate house. farmhouse that the original farmhouse was backed up to, according to that really incredible source that we talked about earlier, that awesome manager who knows way more about the house than anyone else. It's also like the oldest part of the house. It is one of the oldest parts of the house for sure.

The basements are old and I believe she only extended them. She never created any of them. No, because if she purchased the house in 1886, that basement was built before that. Yes, because the house was built in the 50s or 60s and 70s. Yeah. Yeah. So I go down there. I'm like, this is not the same basement.

No one told me that this was down here. If I was in a horror movie, I would have died. Because I would have died multiple times. I wouldn't be here sharing stories with you guys in the podcast. Because I went deeper into the basement, my dumb ass. Oh, immediately no. I did not know if there was an exit to that basement. Or how to get back.

I mean, I know how to get back out. I just didn't know if there was going to be a dead end or not. So I keep going deeper into the basement. And once again, this is a big bait. I didn't know if this was bigger than the original basement. I don't know if it connected, if there was a dead end. So I keep going. And eventually I see the light coming down.

And I'm like, thing God, there is an exit. Make my way to that little section below the Postal Sixth Kitchen. Yep. Oh, yep. That is the only time in my five years working at the Winchester House that I have felt. And I'm not someone that considers myself sensitive. of that is the only time in my five years working at the Winchester house that I felt something this is the only word that I can use to describe it territorial in the house.

Okay. And then so for context also, we, my group, when we went into the small basement, we went through the post-06 kitchen. So it was that, it was probably right. Did you feel it like right off the bat? No, it was right after I got like a little, a little, I want to say like maybe 15 feet. into maybe less than 15, 10 feet from like where the staircase is. In that specific space, I'm like, ew, okay, I don't like it here.

I need to leave. And at that point, that's when the lights turned on. And I took it as a, okay, get the fuck out of the basement. Your feelings are correct. But it's that same exact space that you're talking about is where I did not like that feeling. That is the only time that I felt something territorial. Territorial is actually the best way to describe that. Okay.

And I don't know if I got that feeling because I was not supposed to be down there because I was a new tour guide or because I was out of uniform. Because once again, I was a new tour guide. I did not have a uniform. For reference, it's kind of a right of passage to get to wear a uniform. That's your first tour outfit. Yeah. So normally you're in just street clothes. Yeah, because I was, you know, like still getting to know the house.

I was still with the script in my hand. I was not expected to give tours. Yeah. So once again, it could have been. a combination of all those things. I was not supposed to be down there. I didn't have a uniform. I was new. But I felt something territorial down there. Could it just been them making it clear like, hey, this is my space. Get the fuck out. Yeah. So I kind of just like ran up that staircase. I also did not know where

I was going to end up going up that staircase. You're brave. I would not. First of all, I would not have gone that deep. I'd have been like, oh, there's the basement. Okay. Cool. Anyways, I was stupid. So I came up that Post-a-Six kitchen. I was, once again completely disoriented. I was like, I don't know where I am in that kitchen. Came out into the hallway and then that's what I knew. Okay, I know where I am now. Went back to the guide station, told them, told Vic, I was like, hey, like, no one told, at that point, like, I had calmed down a little because I was like, I know what this hallway is. Yeah, a little reassuring. Exactly. On the way back, I had calmed down. And rather than, like,

freaking out in front of, like, Vic, my lead, I told him, I was like, hey, like, no one told me that the house had two basements. And he was like, oh, yeah, like, we just didn't have the time to go down there today. And I told him it's like, that's fine. Like, I found the door behind the Venetian and it was open. So I went down there. And he looks at me. He's like, that's not supposed to be open. Yeah. So it was like one of those things that were like, okay, I don't like this. Yeah. I, after that, it was probably like two years after that where I think it was either lost in the house, the Halloween event, or Madame Nightshades Curse. Night Shades for sure.

It was one of those two, where O'Mero, one of our leads, he sent Sabina and me to change the batteries from the motion sensors. Definitely mad at nightshade. Okay. And what ended up happening is that we were done. And we're like, and I told Sabina's like, hey, there's motion sensors in the small basements. Have you ever been down there? She was like, no. And I was like, do you want to go down there?

I was like, how long have you been here? She was like this many years. And I was like, do you want to go down there? She's like, yeah. So we go down into the small basement. And like, we had done the motion sensors in the rest of the route. So we took that chance to be like, we still got extra batteries. Let's go down there for a chance.

And like, we know we're not used in this mall basin for this Halloween, but like let's still change the batteries down here. We go down there. She's having fun because she's been there like that point, like three years since she's never been down there. We changed the batteries. We make her way to like that staircase area where I felt something. At this point, I had not shared my personal experience with Sabina. Yeah. We get down there and before I can tell her anything, she says, hey, she's like, I don't like this area. Can we leave? And I'm like, yep, we can go. It wasn't until later that I told her what I felt and like that she validated that feeling.

And I'm glad you're validating my feelings. Yeah, no. Because I don't know if I've told you this story. Don't. Okay. And then what was very interesting is that I later shared this story with, this is when we still have the other lounge where we have the big tree. that I shared this story with Luna and then I think Roxy was nearby and then Roxy made a really good observation that that section of the small basement

it's well above the Posto Sixth Kitchen Oh my gosh, I know exactly where you're going with this. But above that, it's the Seance Room. That's right. And I thought isn't above that is the witch's cap? No, no, okay, fuck me. Never mind.

Cut that out. You're fine. But if they ever use that Seance Room, What is in that seance room? That drop into the kitchen. Is that directly... Which goes into this basement. So like anything in that sian's room for privacy can just go straight into that basement.

Ew. Ew. Anyway, that's just kind of like my whole like thing about the small basement. I hate the small basement. I have grown accustomed to it. I don't linger down there though. You know, I will say for that area of the house, I actually do have a nice story. Oh, go for it.

I love that you have a nice story. It's not in the small basement, though. It's adjacent to the small basement. So I think I mentioned in one of the earlier things, whenever we're not on tour, we're cleaning the house. It's a beast, and it doesn't matter if someone just clean the room. It needs to be cleaned again. There's constant work to be done.

And one of the best things you can get assigned, in my opinion, is when it's really slow, you'll be given permission to detail a room. You're given a room. Yes, I love it. And what that means is you take basically, we have like a list of like five to seven, things you have to do and take all the materials. You usually get to spend like an hour just in that room doing every possible thing you can to make that room clean. It's fantastic. I love those moments, but you have to carry a lot of stuff. Yeah. So someone had not left all the materials in the area

they were supposed to. And so I had to run and go grab them from another area of the house. Someone was doing windows in the ballroom. And so I needed to go from. our guide station to there. And one of the shortcuts we have is this little hallway. One side is where this kitchen is where you can go down to the basement. And the other side is a closed-off room. It has some storage in it. Go down this hallway.

And at the end of this hallway is a door. This door is particularly finicky. It either loves you or it hates you. And it's a door you have to like really kind of turn another one to get through. It's the one that leads to the Posto 6 kitchen. It's the connector between Before the Posto 6 kitchen door was open And you can kind of go through there sometimes

This is that door when you're going down Posto 6 Nowadays You kind of have to like Finnic with it So you've just gone past You're going to a route You're going through the Posto 6 You go past the sink from the seance room

You're going back There's the stove hood on your right On your left On your right A few more steps backwards is that door. It's a hallway. It's where the bell cords are. Oh, yes.

It's open now because we use it for... No. Yeah, part of it is open now because we partially use that area as a transit because of the new reroutes with the basement. So that door is frequently open now, but this was prior to any of that.

But anyway, I was bringing my materials. My arms were full of materials. Just, you know, brooms, dust mop, dust rag, Um, a cobweber, um, one of the spray bottles. I was looking for the other spray bottle. Um, and I had everything as much I could tucked into my costume as I could, but my arms are full.

So I got to there, I was like, God, I'm gonna have to set everything down, open the fucking door. And it just opens. I was like, you know what? Thanks. Appreciate it. Um, I'm gonna close it. Um, but thanks.

A lot of times you'll find two guys are very vocal with the house and we'll talk to the house itself. And I think that's partially just to be like, I don't know if you're here, but if you are. I have had full conversations in the large basement, just like down-sea alley. It's nice. But anyway, I think the door and I probably just thought... Fuck that, Jay. Fuck that.

What do you mean? Immediately, no. Oh, hell, though. The large basement's fantastic. It has great energy. I will have full-long conversations down-sea mallet about my personal life with like whatever's down there. Okay. I know you're not a basement fan.

I'm not a basement fan. But I love the small basement. I'm not a Winchester basement fan because I do have a basement. Oh, myself. Mm-hmm. And there, I can be down there in the complete darkness. Wow. Okay with it.

I have been so close to taking naps in the large basement. Oh, it's such a lovely space. Fuck now. Absolutely not. Usually it likes girls. Like, not like that. Did you have any, did any of you do the Walk with Spirits Tour? Yes.

I was on it, a Walk With Spirits. Okay. Did any of you have experiences down there while given that tour? I never gave a tour because I was ending by the time I was like able to learn it. Got it. But I think I learned the script a little bit. But no, actually, the only time I've ever actually had an experience in the large basement now that I'm remembering, it was during our first taps. Oh.

And so do you, in one of the situations where down in the basement you put these headphones on. Was it for the S-S method? I don't know what those words mean. Yes. You get a radio. They also, like, covered your eyes. Yes. So your eyes are covered.

You have headphones on. And you are listening to a static radio, and it's supposed to be, like, jumping through. Different channels. Different channels. And words are supposed to spit out. And those words are what the spirits or whoever entities are supposed to grab onto it. That's what they're telling you, right? And I remember just like, I was doing the thing.

Everything was fine. I don't know if either of you were there, but I got like ridiculously dizzy. And I got so dizzy. I was like actively, the lead at the time was telling me that I was like, I was leaning very far to one side. And I hadn't realized that. Wow. And so I was like dizzy and I was like, okay, I have to stop. Like I had to like, you guys please stop.

And I don't know if I was the only, I think I was the only one that day, but I had to physically like get my. out of that situation because I was so fucking dizzy. And it could just be in my own, like, medical shit, like, whatever. But I, like, it was a very, like, overwhelming feeling. Yeah. That now that I'm, like, remembering. Wow. But that being said, I have been in the large basement after that.

Like, that's one of my favorite places to hide during flashlight tours. If I'm in the large basement. No, because what I do remember from the large basements, at least when I came to the walk with spirits tour. So we've offered two tours historically from the time that I've been there. The Explore More Tour and the Walk With Spirits Tour. The Extra Tours. Yes, the extra tour, the add-ons.

And for the Walk With Spirits Tour, we used to do like an experiment with Gass where they would give them like a dumb dome, like a little lollip. And they would put them on their hand with like the stick pointing up. And we would close our eyes and we would just ask this. down there, specifically the kids. If they wanted to interact with it, they could touch the lollipop. They could play with it. But where I'm going with this is that specifically for the women tour guides during this or just during the basement parts of the tour,

the guests would comment that there would see a shadow figure behind the women tour guides. However, the shadow figure would not touch the tour guides or move or interact with them. They would just be standing behind the woman tour guide. Okay, I was one of those people. So you were one of them? Yes. And I would say it was only during a specific time period. Sometimes we do tours that the house kind of objects to. Yeah, I agree. You can tell the house is mad. You can tell. Like the energy's so off. Doors will slam, window pains will shatter. We've had tiles fly off the roof. The house lets you know if it likes it or not.

Whether or not it's commercially successful does not apply to it. No, no, no. And realistically, in my opinion, the more commercially successful, right, the more we're playing into the lore, the angrier the house gets. But this was during one of those moments. It was near Halloween and the house was not particularly happy with whatever was going on at that moment. But we had an entity down there that many of us just didn't feel like belonged.

The best way we described it is it was something that was brought in by somebody else Maybe someone visited brought it Maybe it was somebody who worked on the building Of the Halloween setup that brought it But it was not meant to be there And it was We believed for the people I talked to

Who also experienced it I believe they talked to Like at least four people It was kind of being It got bullied out essentially by our spirits But while it was there Guests would comment Specifically about the women tour guys

Who they would see faces behind us or they'd see movement behind us or they'd see a figure behind us. And that freaked me out because that area was not an area we were really allowed to go back there at that time. Freaky. Well, you were only allowed to go back there to collect the dumdums. And then put the dumbsums that people didn't put that properly in the trash can. And if I recall correctly, most tour guides didn't know about that until you left the basement. Because the guests wouldn't make those comments down there.

They would make it outside. wait until you would leave the basement and you're like, by the way, that when you were down there in the basement, I saw something behind you. Yeah. Why would you tell me in the moment? That would be totally practical. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. I think the only time anything like that has ever happened to me is I was on tour. I wasn't in the basement though, actually. And this, I don't think came from that entity at all. Like, it's completely different energy. But I was walking from the 13 staircases. case from the second floor down to the first floor coming towards backport steps. And I'm walking to that hallway and I'm like kind of like, you know, got a little pep in my step because I'm making sure that one of the doors is closed so I don't ruin the surprise that, hey, one of these doors leads to a very quick turnaround to get to the laundry room. Of course. And I'm making sure that door is closed because not all tour guides used to close the door or ensure that it was closed.

So I would like to, you know, make sure it's closed. So I'm kind of walking very, very hurriedly. It's not the right words, but whatever. And there were like a group of like younger adults, I want to say, probably like 18, freshly 19, in love with the house. Oh. In love with the history. In love with the paranormal. So they were like on my ass.

They were like, oh, I'm going to follow her wherever she's going. And so they are following me very closely. I'm walking. I have my hair up in a ponytail and they all start freaking the fuck out. They're like, oh my God. Oh my God. And I'm like, okay, these dramatic ass bitches. These guests really do be like that. And no, no, no, because guests are like, oh my God, this moved. And I'm like, it's the curtain that's moving. Yeah. Because the window right next to it is open. Like there's a door open. No, that was a breeze.

Yeah. Like that doesn't have a doorknob on it. Like, I'm all for, like, being like, that was paranormal, but let's, like, go through a couple's processes first. There also is a lot of explanations of why a lot of things happen in the house. Yeah, like when someone knocks on a door and they freak out and it's me. Yeah, and it's fucking... Or when you open a door and it's me. Yeah, and they're just hiding underneath them something and I can see their broomstick and their goddamn head. Trying to hide, but they are not hiding very well.

It's still trying to freak me out. All hypothetical. And I don't freak you up at the guest desk because they grab your hand. Yeah, oh my God, that was so creepy. Ew. Anyway, your guest freaked out. But yes, go ahead. And so my guests start freaking out.

And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? So, like, I turn around very quickly and they're like, it stopped. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? And so, like, everyone, they, like, people, people are now starting to join me. And there's maybe like six people that are all freaking the fuck out. Two or three of them, not the same group. Two or three of them are those, like, 18, 19 year olds that are, like, having a great time. The other part of their group is in the very back

being assholes and causing mischief. But there was like an older couple, the two or three girls, maybe like a kid in their mom, just like a group of people that did not come together. They were just happening to be on the same tour. And they all start like pointing in saying like your hair, your hair, your hair.

And I'm like, what about my hair? Is like, did I mess it up? Like what's going on? And they're telling me that like a decent strand. And when I'm talking a decent strand, I'm talking like a money, piece amount, I want to say like a good chunk, right? Apparently, it was being held up. Oh. From my ponytail. And they all got to see you. For those of you in the video about this much hair. So a decent

amount where it's not like a full ass chunk. Right. But like, imagine stuff that, you know, you're coming, you pull out for like a money piece in the front of your head. Right. And so they said that about that much of my hair had been, like, sitting straight up. And I had it all back in a ponytail. And so they, like, freaked the fuck out. Yeah. And I was like, but as soon as I turned around, it'd be like, what the hell are you guys talking about? Like, why are you guys freaking out?

It had dropped. And I don't know if y'all know how static electricity works. I hate that. But that's not how that works. If I had static in my hair, my entire hair, or at least, like, it would be small, spread out, singular pieces of hair. It wouldn't be a full chunk of hair and it wouldn't have immediately dropped when I turn my hair. And so that's odd. I've had that happen, you know, aside from the skirts being pulled.

That I'm Katie, I'm sure you've had your skirt, your shirt being tugged at. Like that is a very, very, very, very common thing for girls. We used to call it being polter grouped. Yeah. That's terrible. I think you started that. I asked Susan, our manager, one time. I don't even know how this happened, but I asked her one time.

Because she was talking about how, like, we take, like, incidents very seriously here, like, bullying and things like that. And I asked her as like, yeah, like, what would happen if, like, I came up to Euro and I told you that I got poultry groped? And, like, she looked at me and she was just, she took a pause and she was like, well, we take her. in sense very seriously. But like there was no follow-up or anything. It was like, okay, so I'm getting ghosted by my manager too. That's great. But yeah, I feel like most people who wore skirts

experience that at some point in time. Yeah, definitely, definitely. Wow. That's a very common occurrence. Like, very common. Shirt, skirt, jacket. Hair. Hair.

Now that you mentioned that, I don't know, for some reason, I immediately switched to when we were working the paranormal events last year. Oh, yeah. You were stationed as the room expert in the North Turret. North Wing. North Wing. When you guys were doing the SSO.

Yes. And I remember very clearly that I came into that room with my group and I got, I was just. It was crazy. Well, yeah, it was crazy. But what I'm going for specifically is that I came home. over and I told you, hey, we have 13. 13. That was not what freaked me.

That was, that was. No, yeah. Nothing like super crazy happened in that room. Yeah, we had some fun experiences. Flash, I just had a good time. We did the Estes method. Someone, she was, bless her heart. Okay.

That's all you need to say. She put the things on. She closed. She had the blindfolds. Everyone was quiet. everyone was listening and then she went woof, woof, woof. Oh, this lady. Anyway,

where I'm going with this is that I remember very distinctly going into that room Green and Katie telling her there's 13 of us. Okay. Like I have 13. After that room, I make my way up to the third floor into the gable room and then April is in there

and then we started doing the experiment and up there. It's fun. It's like we're playing like tag with like the mag flashlights. Like we're asking them to turn this flashlight on and then they turn this one and then that one. They're having fun with us. But before all of that,

I count my guess as we're walking in. As we have to do. Yes. Because we got to make sure we know everyone is. I'm down to 12. Oh. I do remember this now. So, girl, did you lose someone? Listen. Okay. I count them a second time.

Okay. And I looked down the hallway. And before we started, I was like, hey, did anyone lose their plus one? And, like, no one responds. And I was like, okay, maybe it's a single writer. Yeah. So then I looked down the Daisy staircase because, like, we came up that staircase. And there's no one coming up the staircase.

Okay. So then we did have walkies at this time. So I called Olivia. And I'm like, hey, Olivia. I was like, can you confirm how many guests? I don't even think I did that. I was like, hey, Olivia, I think I have a straggle. I lost a guest where I have a straggler. And she was like, okay, like, she either asked my location or she asked me how many guests I had.

And I was like, I have 12. And she was like, you're supposed to have 12. And I was like, no, no, no. I told Katie in the North Turret and North Wing, I have 13. and I had 13 before that room and I have 13 before that room because we got very excited when we started with 13 interesting

okay so for the first couple two three rooms of the paranormal investigations we have 13 we have 13 in Katie's room and then we get to the third floor and we're down to 12th yeah and again for context. We're counting every

single time we leave a room, every single time we enter a room. Especially for this paranormal investigations. Because the groups are a lot smaller and like we want to keep everyone in check. And we have a very minimal amount of time to do each of the tests. So we need to keep things going. So Olivia ended up coming upstairs and checking with me. She was like, hey, like, how many

guests do you have? And I was like, I have 12 and she's like, you're supposed to have 12? And I was like, I have 13 downstairs with Katie. He's like, what do you have 13? And I was like, I am freaking out. Like I had 13 in the room before Katie as well. And he was like, what are you? And like,

oh yeah, I have a thing, counting my guess, like double and triple counting my guests in every single room. As we should be. It's just one of, like,

and they remain 12 for the rest of the tour. And it's just like, it's never happened in a tour before. It's never happened after that. And it's just like, I don't remember. remember who they were. I've asked my guest that was like, hey, do any of you remember who they were? They were like, no. It's like, you guys remember saying that we have the routine? It's like,

yes. And it's like, I'm not making the, anyway. It was just like one of those weird things of like, we had a ghost spirit. We had a ghost investigating with us. Having fun, hopefully. that goes having fun with us, which was, you know, its own thing. You know, I think about these stories and think about when people say, oh, you know, what, what paranormal things happen to you at Winchester? And it always cracks me up that they're expecting us to say, like, oh, the table flew across the door and this happened and this happened. I was pulled up from my hair.

They lifted me up and shook me and threw me across the room or on some like crazy Hollywood type stuff. Right. And it always is so interesting to me that it always turns out like, oh, I was walking in this room and it pulled my hair. It did this. It did that. And it's so minor. But it's at the same time, it's so significant. And it's something that I feel stays with us.

And it will continue to stay with us. You know how, like, easy it's to open the secret passage, the wardrobe in the seance room? Yes, easy. Very easy. I've had that door close on me two times. Oh. Turn the door knob, pull it open, maybe half an inch, and it closed on me. Did that one more time, closed on me.

Very playful, hopefully? And it's a very light door. So it shouldn't close. It needs some force. And then, like, third time open it. There's no one back there, like, pulling it close or anything. And there is an additional door behind that door. So you would need to hear someone open the door and close the door.

It's such a small space. And it's there is like, it's unfinished wood. There's holes you can physically see into it. Yeah. So you can definitely see if there was someone fucking with you behind that. Yeah. No. Fun no, fun little deviation in that unfinished dressing room behind it.

Somebody, either our guest or tour guide, someone was having fun. And in little tiny words between like the two pieces of wood, they put the word fuck in there. Yes. Yep, they did. Yeah. You know, talking about rooms that are like feel territorial. that room after the seantth room. Oh, yeah, the un-in-stressing room.

That feels incredibly territorial, and I've just, I love talking about the meaning of the room, and I think it's fantastic, but I don't ever stay in there unless I need to. The furniture in the hayloft feels very, very haunted. Really? Halft has some weight to it, for sure. I don't like the hayloft. I don't either. I hate being assigned the halft at night.

I, I, that is, I could put up with, being in the small basement, I could never, if I had to stick in a singular room, I don't think I could live doing either unfinished dressing room or hayloft. Any other room would be fine. When I'm assigned hayloft

for flashlight tours, well, it's usually hayloft towards 13. I'm usually in the 13th. I will check in hayloft, but I'm not going to linger in that room. I'm actually even fine with the storage room behind the hayloft.

I'm fine with that little room What storage? There's like this tiny little Like where the hay Like the claw is That back area Yeah Behind that there's a small little room

Girl that's where the furniture is I don't like that furniture No Well let's switch Because I don't like the main room Okay Interesting I've never

I don't think I've ever Been in the hay loft long enough To or I've never been assigned there So like I've never Had the opera to spend a lot of time in that room. And like when I was on my own, I think that I was like, okay, time to go. Actually, oh my God.

So when I first started, I hated right next to the hayloft, there is a three hallway passageway. I was terrified, like on some small basement shit, terrified of that three passage hallway. I could not tell you. It is literally like fucking like super small a singular, fucking probably a singular square foot passageway that connects three different rooms and I could not stand walking by it

because I always felt like someone was there or something was there. Interesting. And I'm maybe, and I'm like thinking now, maybe that's why I never spent a lot of time in the hayloft Honestly, I hate that passageway. Because when it comes to cleaning crew, I do rush by that area. I hate that passageway.

Like, with a passion burning inside my soul. Me and Miles spent a lot of time in that area cleaning crew. I swear I almost make my a believer. For those at home, that's incredibly impressive. This man denies everything. And I would have gotten away with it if I didn't come clean at the moment. Well, that's in disingenuous. I was cleaning and then I got the chance to scare him and I took the chance.

And then I came clean. I've also, okay, I also scared the shit out of him. It was the first one I ever scared. Because he was in, I think I was in like the grand ball room. And he was cleaning at back porch steps. And I was like, ch-ch. And he was like, what the fuck? Hello?

And I am terrible. I have a terrible poker face. I'm not very good at lying. So immediately I'm like, ah ha ha ha ha ha. So he clearly immediately saw you over here. And I'm not talking like I waited.

Like I was smart and like waited like a couple of seconds. No, the minute he said, what the fuck? I said, immediately. He said, I hate you. And he walked away. I always used to say that I feel like we're upholding the duty of,

the spirits of the house whenever we play planks on each other because that's all they're doing to us. Yeah, yeah. We're just carrying their work on. 100%. It was when Omero gave me the key. He gave you the master key

to go clean something. And there's so much like trust and power with that master key. He gave me the key to go clean that window above the Postal 6 kitchen. Oh, what a fun one. So I made my way up there and when you make your way up there

you can also see that barred window into the sound room. Yeah. Right. So I was looking in there and Milo had just wrapped up his sounds like. Okay. So everyone had left the sounds room and then I think

Milo was just closing the door into the sound room, you know, closing the door for the next door. And I see him and I just go Milo. Oh, fuck no.

I would have quit right then there. I would have been like, you know what? Someone come get these people. And at this point, like, all his guests, I assume, had already left the sance room. Right. Because Milo's already, like, alone in that room. And it's the seance room. So I just see Milo from, like, I'm outside of the sion's room.

And I just see, like, my eyebrows, like, right, like, rice and concern. You leave that man alone. But the thing is, like, he opens the door and looks out into the hallway as if, like, someone was in the hallway that whispered his name. And then, like, he closes it. I cannot resist the chance to call his name a second time. And I go, my love. So once again. And he looks so fructed out.

Yeah, I fucking wonder why. You better come clean one these days. No, no. And then he finally looks out the barred window. Oh, and it's you. And he sees me. And then he finally, like, he's like, fuck. Fuck you, Jay.

And he's like, what are you doing out there? And I was like, I'm just cleaning. It's like, fuck. I was like, I couldn't help it. And then, you know, like, he goes on his, like, way. But I was just like, if I had just, like, ducked out of the way, if I had just left, that man right there would have been a believer. Yeah.

No doubt. I feel like, I feel like because of the culture of Winchester, I don't think I would foresee any tour guide, no matter how much they believe. purposefully forcing a non-believer to be a believer. Yeah. I definitely do. I think we all have way too much respect. Yeah.

For the house. Respect for, you know, our home girl, Sarah. And for each other. Yeah, definitely. And I feel like that's exactly the reason that we're, like, it's fun to play a prank on him. But at the end of the day, I was like, hey, this isn't real. I'm not going to let this run on for like a year, 10 years. And he's over here telling everybody X, Y, and Z happen.

Yeah. I'm not going to let this man, you know, like open up his. zone like paranormal investigation firm or something. Yeah. I'd be like, sorry, man. I was like, that was me. Actually, everything you know is a lie. Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah, those are some of like my paranormal stories. Thanks for coming on. Of course. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah. I'm glad to be back. Any, yeah. I'm glad to be invited.

Yes. And then you'll be back hopefully soon, Isabel. Yes. Have one of your own cases? Yes, most definitely. I have a few in the fall. that I think are incredibly interesting. Cool. That I think are incredibly impactful.

And yeah, that's all I'm going to say for right now. Cool. I definitely have some that will get you like your blood boiling. Ooh. So like in a way that will get you to be like, yeah, yeah. And then Katie, you'll definitely have to come back on as well. Of course. Thank you so much for having us.

So as you folks are listening to this, I hope you're enjoying your Friday the 13th or if you're listening to it after, you know, whatever you're doing. if you happen to stop by the Winchester Mr. House, this two fellows are gone. Yeah, we ain't there. I'm sure you can find us on a TikTok somewhere. I actually am on their TikTok page. I'm on their TikTok page.

You'll find us. You'll find us. You'll find us. Specifically us. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'll probably still be there. If I'm not, then you can still follow our social media. Yeah, and I recommend, as you guys are listening and hearing everything we've said about

the Winchester mystery house to look into the real story of Sarah Winchester and her own personal story. I really, really recommend some of the books that have come out, like the Labyrinth book. I forget the-captive of the Labyrinth. That's a very, very good book, as well as just understanding like how incredible and inspiring her personal story was, minus all the lore. And of course, there is lore there.

There's always, you know, two sides to the same coin. And where there's one story and a very opposing other story, truth is normally somewhere in the middle. And even then, there were some books written Dream Her Time Defending Her. Yeah. They're really easy to find. And if you want to go for the obscure stuff, go to the California room of the San Jose State Library

and look for Bruce Spoons, fantastically written, research paper, that actually has some really cool old interviews, who's one of a kind interviews with her original staff members. Yeah. One of the old first people to start that movement. Definitely.

I love this. Last episode, Lolly, Joey, and Jennifer were given some advice as what to do if you come as a guest. And I love how on this one, you're given advice

as to what to do as like, if you want to know more about the Winchester. Yeah, definitely. I think that we all have a love for Sarah Winchester. We have a love for the house,

the architecture, the story. And while some are believers and some are not believers, there is that shared love of the history of who Sarah Winchester was as a person and the legacy that she has left behind. There is a reason that we still haven't covered the Winchester Mystery House is an actual episode on the podcast. And that is just because there is so much to cover. Truly. You would need a whole series. Especially as like, you know, like with the insider knowledge.

It is coming your way. Just hold on because you're not going to get the typical one episode. You will get a multi-parter for the Winchester Mystery House. This lady was incredible. Yes. Genuinely. Yes. We're not just going to get you one episode with like the lore.

We will get you like who she was, what the house is, what is happening now. You know, we'll get you like more than what you asked for. Yeah. And of course, interviews with tour guides like this. because we got you the inside people. Why not? Definitely. Well, thank you so much, Jay, for having us. Thank you. We really appreciate it.

Absolutely. Longest outro of my fucking life. No, yeah. If some of the followers from Chambers of the Occult want to find you online, where can they stock you? Oh, that's a great question. Or should they just not stalk you? No, no, no. They totally can. My Instagram probably is the best way. I have a private Instagram account

But my public one Isabel Isabel Y-C-T Okay That's it Yeah Yeah And then Katie Well if you can find my social media

I'll give entry you a follow Good luck Which means that if you're following Chambers of the occult Katie will see that Oh shit we're both following No no no If they see that you're following the chambers of the occult Katie will see that

And Katie will be like I will be like That is a known person fantastic. I don't do much, but I'm here. Cool. Thanks for listening, guys. And enjoy the rest of your day. Good night. Or night, yeah.

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