Fairy Tale Fix - 112: Slay… Literally

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

It's Halloween season! Abbie kicks things off by telling us all about our childhood favorites; the Ouija Board Demon and Bloody Mary, followed by the terrifying English legend of Black Annis. Kelsey follows it up with a millennial Halloween favorite with more Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, featuring The Haunted House and Room for One More.

The theory, the fan theory, because I googled like, why is season six so fucked up? I love that. But what did it, what did you find? The fan theory on Reddit is that Amy Sherman Palladino and her husband, who she was co-writing the show with, they were renegotiating their contracts toward the end of season six and they wanted more money. And the studio was refusing to give them more money. And so they think the common theory is that.

that they wrote April into the show as a way to disrupt everyone's favorite storyline the will they won't they of Luke and Lorelei Yeah Great idea I mean it worked

And that like oh you have to keep us for season seven because we're the only ones who know a way out of this Interesting And the studio said Great Lover

That's a great character Let's Keeper Okay No more money for you And they left Very interesting And thus April was born And shows up out of the blue

I mean she's cute She's fine I actually don't hate her I think I think Luke and Lorelei Are being so weird about her That I hate the storyline But the little girl herself is fine She's adorable

But the two of them are being so fucking weird That it makes me hate the storyline Yeah for sure It was just so random. Just like, let's throw another kid in there. I thought that way about Jess, too. Like, I don't know why I just had to be Luke's, like, nephew. Yeah, I don't.

Yeah. Live on a cot at the foot of his bed for a little while because that's normal. And 17-year-old boys love that. You know, it's what I love about this show is that it's messy. I love that. It's very fun. The drama is drama. It is very fun.

And I love some low-stakes small-town Connecticut drama. Hell yes. It's delightful. It's been such a fun show. It's a great ride. I love the show. As much as I complain about it. I just want to make that clear.

Oh, my gosh. You're on the last episode. It's crazy. So, wait, was the reunion episode like a one-off episode or is it like a... It's called Gilmore Girls a Year in the Life. Interesting. And it's a mini-series. it's neat four episodes and each episode covers a season so it's winter spring summer and fall

I can't wait to check it out me too because this one this one's the one that's really controversial like I get the sense that like opinions are very mixed about season seven and I totally agree with that my opinions are very mixed about season seven but the the reunion special is universally reviled by everyone and I can't wait to find out why I can't wait either. I know. I keep skipping past all the, like, memes and videos that are coming up in my algorithm, even though I really want to watch them.

Because I'm kind of avoiding spoilers. Like, I don't really want to know, like, I want to watch it. And I'm so close. You're so close to the end. But also, it's time to take a break for the Halloween season. Yes. For the season of nightmares. and hauntings and general spookiness.

And it is time. It's time! So Adam made us a very special Halloween gift. I mean, I asked him to. I basically told him he was going to. But he delivered. So thank you, Adam, my sweet husband for making that, making our theme song sound sound badass and spooky. Is a handsome genius.

Hell yeah. So I took a break from watching Gilmore Girls to read a book that I just have to mention on the podcast because. Oh, yeah. Tell me about it. It's called The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. And it was written around 2006. or it was published in 2006

and I read it because I was looking for books with like the same kind of cozy autumn feel as over the garden wall and a lot of people recommended this book it is not like over the garden wall like there's two there's a boy that's and he goes like off into the woods

that's the only that's where the similarities end and some folklore monsters yeah I do not understand how I guess I kind of high to understand cozy? It's a lot less cozy. It's pretty, I wouldn't say it's a horror novel, but it's, there's a, maybe it is, because there's a lot of death. There's a lot of, there's a lot of, there's a lot of really dark themes. It's about a young boy named David and he's living in London around World War II when Nazi Germany is like around. And he loses his mother. So it's really sad and it's a really sad. and it's a really slow start, but he ends up, like, hearing his books, like, kind of speaking to him. And he kind of starts to get lost in his books. And he ends up in, like, this kind of fairy tale world.

Ooh. And he has to Wizard of Ozzy through this fairy tale world. And I didn't realize how fairy tale-esque it was. Like, I didn't know because there are, it has, like, specific references to specific fairy tales. So he meets Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. He hears a tale about basically like the goose girl. And then he hears a tale about Hansel and Gretel. And they're all kind of like twisted.

Oh, I mentioned to you, I texted you after I read this. There's a little red riding hood tale in it that the Axeman tells. It was definitely a what the fuck fairy tale. It was basically like little red grows up and she wants to fuck a wolf. Yes, I remember you texting me about that. I'm very excited for that one. She goes and she goes off and she falls in love with this wolf and she fucks this wolf and they make a cross between humans and wolves.

So like a were wolf that they call the wolfmen come from. Yes. And they're kind of like monsters in this book. It's wild. It's so much fun. There's a lot of like twisty kind of tales like that. So it's like your classic fairy tales with a different twist. And I almost lost my mind because one of the characters was called Roland. And I was like, I assumed it was from sweetheart Roland and I was just losing my ever loving mind. I was so excited for this to be his redemption arc. Yeah. Because Roland ended up being my favorite character in the book. but that would have been such a crazy deep cut in something that otherwise has pretty standard fairy tales in it but one of the fairy tales that it references is the three army surgeons which i kind of think is a deep cut oh okay i mean three army surgeons is totally a deep cut so and this book that i am going to give you when you come to visit yes absolutely has like every fairy tale that he references and he like it's like an interview with the author about why he included it and some history about the fairy tale. So it was just really cool. Oh, I'm so excited.

Very, very dark and kind of emotional. I almost cried a couple of times reading it. Oh. Which means I'm going to sob like a little baby. Probably. So I highly, highly recommend. Everybody definitely go check out the Book of Lost Things. It was...

It sounds like a perfect, like, fall, Halloween time read. Yeah. I mean, it was so great. normally I'm not really into like boys coming of age stories kind of reminds me of like Stephen King kind of style a little bit yeah um but this one was really well done so anyway I just wanted to mention that definitely one of the top books I've read so far this year okay wow okay and you've read you've read some bangers this year I have I have another book that I'm going to force you to read which one The eyes are the best part. Oh, yeah. I'm also excited to scoop that up when I come by. That'll be a good one to read on the plane because it's really short.

I bet you could finish it. I bet I good too. And what I'm going to try to finish before I get to you so that I can swap it with you is I started reading a book called the Buffalo Hunter Hunter, which is a blackfeet revenge story about a blackfeet serial killer. named Goodstab, who has been, he's like basically immortal somehow mysteriously, I haven't gotten to why. And he's just basically been hunting white people who did wrong against his village. I love a good vengeance story. Something. It's, so it's just immortal serial killer hunting down people who deserve it. Fuck, yes. Yeah. So that's, that's my like, uh, fall uh horror read and i will i'll swap you for it when i get to californ i'm going to try

to finish it in a couple weeks i need an october one i have started another one called of ship of bones and teeth yes you told me isn't that basically like nasty mermaid pirate porn yes which is why i bought it because it got so many bad reviews and apparently there's like two full pages of trigger warnings at the beginning, too. So I haven't gotten to anything really bad yet. They call him Captain Bones. It's like the main pirate. Captain Bones, eh? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So it's kind of like the Little Mermaid, except she's like really unhappy with Prince Eric. So she ends up getting kidnapped by pirates. See, I think this sounds so fun. I hope, I hope that I, like, it sounds like it's probably bad, but I hope it's like a, yeah. Like, I hope it's a good bad, like a fun bad.

Yeah. That's what I'm hoping to. It is so far. I'm a few chapters in and so far nothing like super smutty, which I'm a little disappointed. Come on. A few chapters in. We should be getting to it. But get there faster. I have already found a couple of like typos or spelling errors. Singing. Yeah. Yeah. spelled signing. Oh, no. That kind of thing.

I love it, though. I'm excited. I hope it's going to be, you know, a very good, bad. And hey, you know what? Good for this person for writing a book. She's a New York Times bestselling author. Oh, okay. So it's not like self-published or anything, I don't think.

Wow. That her editor did a bad job. I was thinking. I was like, how am I already finding a typo in this? I feel like that adds to it though That adds to the like crappy Add to its charm This is a crappy book

I wanted it to be bad I really miss Textual tension I was just thinking the same thing About like I would have loved To have hear them cover this one Or maybe have us on to cover this one I love them

If you haven't yet Everybody go listen to textual attention They're no longer releasing new episodes But there are a bunch in the bank The ones that are glorious They're so much fun to listen to that podcast was criminally underrated like they should have been so much more popular they should have been not that they weren't popular but like they just I feel like they should have

been like they should have made buckets and buckets of money and been able to go out and do live shows and stuff yeah 100% I love them so much anyway me too ah alas alas anywho what are we what are we talking about today what's what stories of our own are we sharing our last episode i went first with repunzel so it's your turn to start us off excellent okay so i'm doing two different ones today um the the the first one is basically like i just wanted i i was trying to find if there was an actual like folk tale story associated with Bloody Mary. Ooh, yeah.

Cool. There isn't. So don't get too excited. So to kind of kick off Halloween in October, I figured we'll start with the superstition of Bloody Mary and I'll talk about it.

Hell, yes. I love where your head's at. Me too. Actually, I'm going to check and make sure that Bloody Mary isn't already in my superstition book. Oh, yeah. I feel like I've listened to podcasts. about Bloody Mary before you probably have so I like I won't belabor it because I think a lot of us

already are like somewhat familiar I can't remember stuff though so no Bloody Mary but in the death and the spirit world that are there are definitely some good Halloween themed uh entries yeah do you want to cold read one or two yeah let's let me cold read one or two and then I'll tell you briefly about Bloody Mary and then I've got like an actual an actual shortish story. Perfect to share. Okay, I'm going to let you pick because there's a few there's a few different ones that I think might be fun.

The options are ghost flight, the Ouija board demon or holding your breath past the cemetery. And whichever one you don't pick, I'll probably read. And then our next episode with Chapman. Okay. I definitely want to hear about the Ouji Board. board demon. I think his, was it Pizzouzu? Close. Okay. I'm so I'm glad you picked this one. I'm excited about this because like I don't know if, um, how many of you were aware, but the guy who

invented the Ouija board is buried in Baltimore. Oh, that's really cool. Yeah. And his headstone is shaped like a Ouija board. That's fucking awesome. It's very creepy. Have you seen it? It's very fun. Yes, I have. I've been, so it's in the Green Mountain Cemetery in Baltimore, which is also just like if you enjoy a cemetery, it's an excellent cemetery to go for a stroll in because it's just all of the headstones are super old for the most part. There's some really like gothic and creepy looking mausoleums. There's a lot of big old trees.

So it's honestly, it's a nice place for a picnic. How do you, before you read it, how do you feel about Ouija boards? Do you fuck with Ouija boards? I do not just in case. I don't necessarily believe in ghosts. I don't necessarily believe in a world beyond our own. I do for the most part think that what happens when we die is we're just dead. And that's it, lights out. But just in case I'm wrong, I do not fuck with Ouija boards. And also just in case. Like, I don't know, there really are forces in this universe outside of our understanding and beyond our control. Yeah. I do not fuck with Ouija boards. What about you?

Yeah. I mean, I don't know about now, but I definitely have had a Ouija board and I tried to bring it in because I wanted to play with it with my sister. And Adam would not let me bring it in the house. Oh, Adam wouldn't let it in. He was like, you need to keep that in your car in the trunk. like he's like don't even and I think I like didn't have an eye for it so we use like a shot glass 100% weird those like those girls fucking with a Ouija board at a bar being totally idiotic I feel like that was a while ago I don't have it anymore I can't even remember what I did with it

I probably just threw it away. Nothing ever happened. And it probably won't. It's a board game invented by some guy who is buried here. It's from Hasbro. He sold it to Hasbro. Like, it's mass produced, probably, probably perfectly safe. Yeah.

I also don't want to summon the dark forces down upon me because I'm being dumb. I loved Ouija boards when I was a kid. Like, we would, you used to go out in the garage and do it. And then we would light a candle. And I remember asking, like, flicker the candle if, you know, whatever, blah, blah. And, like, we would just freak out if the candle, like, somebody would be breathing on it. Like, it was so much fun. I loved that shit when I was a kid.

We did Bloody Mary. We did Candyman. Like, I was, you know, a horror freak from the beginning. From the beginning. And nothing bad ever happened to you, which means, and you're exactly, like, you know, you're a beautiful blonde girl playing with forces beyond her understanding. If something was going to happen, it would have happened to you. Maybe it should have.

I do remember that you and me and Morgan, and I think a fourth person who I can't remember, went out to the Centerville Cemetery one Halloween. With the Ouija board. Yeah. Oh, my God. And we didn't end up staying for very long, though, because like, no. The bugs, I think. bugs it was cold um and it was and it was sincerely a little creepy like i think someone else

i think i remember someone else came into the cemetery and we were like yeah we were freaking just in case that's a demon yeah i always loved i've always loved scaring myself i just especially when i was young it's just fun it was fun it was like it's a good memory like we had a good time yeah i wish i still had those pictures we took like creepy pictures in front of the bridge. We did. We're trying to be like vampire-looking. We were so cute.

What adorable teens we were. I know. I love that. Like most like teens are out like doing drugs and getting drunk and we're like, let's drive 45 minutes to this totally abandoned super overgrown cemetery in the middle of fucking nowhere and play with the Ouija board. Mm-hmm. Didn't you, like, get a tick in your foot, in your shoe or something? Was that from there? It was definitely, you're right.

One of the times we went up there. Yep. And so I got a tick and then I had just recently found one of my other friends that had Lyme disease and it really fucked him up. And so then I found a tick in my ankle after. Yeah, it must have been, because it was around that time, must have been. And I don't think we, like, ever went back. No, because I was like, scared of the ticks.

No ticks. Like, more scared of ticks than demons. Absolutely. Which is still my current state of being. Mm-hmm. I don't walk in the woods without long pants and high socks anymore because no thank you. Lyme disease. Lime disease is no fucking joke.

Uh, anyway. Yeah, tell me, now I'm so excited. Tell me everything. The Ouija board demon. Oh, and listeners, by the way. this is from the book of superstitions that Kelsey bought for me a couple years ago

and I shall now read to you more of. Yes. Has the temperature in your room suddenly dropped? Are your windows shattering for seemingly no reason? Are you or your loved ones waking up with inexplicable scratches all over your body? And if you answered yes to any

of these questions, you may be being haunted by Zozo, the Ouija board demon. Zosu is a a mysterious and malicious demon that can only be summoned while using a Ouija board. So he's pretty easy to avoid, but once he's made contact, he can make your life a living hell. Just ask Darren Evans from Oklahoma. Oh shit.

What happened to Darren? Evans is largely credited with bringing the legend of Zosow under the public eye after posting the story of his alleged encounters with the demon on a forum called True Ghost Stories in 2009. and excellent use of late 2000's internet. Hell, yes. What the internet was created for. Absolutely. Fear mongering. Yes, but like ghostly fearmongering.

Yeah, yeah. The post details initially innocuous and even pleasant interactions with what Evans thought was a friendly spirit or even the spirit of someone he had intended to contact. Ultimately, though, the interactions became more hostile, as Zozo revealed himself through clear threats to Evans, his ex-wife, and his then-infant daughter, who allegedly experienced several life-threatening incidents

following a particularly intense interaction with the demon. The post on the original forum has amassed hundreds of replies, sharing similar stories and encounters with the spirit that either directly introduced himself as Zozo well before they had even been aware of the name, they say, as well as the strange and downright evil things that have happened to them after making contact. There are also accounts

of people being contacted not by Zozo, but by spirits with similarly repetitive names like Zaza or Mama and then experiencing very similar phenomena. Yeah.

Many people believe that Zoso uses aliases so he can infiltrate the living world without raising suspicions. Ooh. Besides a potential reference to Zoso in an early

19th century French publication and speculation around the demon being the influence for famous horror tales like The Exorcist, there's not much else known about this alleged Ouija board demon, where he comes from, or what he wants. It's very possible that Zozo is just an internet legend meant to give you a fright, but if you're reading this and eager to give the old Ouija board a world,

be sure to look up the rules before you get started. And if you're worried, you'll contact Zozo accidentally, just put the board back in the closet and walk away. You probably won't like anything you find. Yeah, there's, like, specific ways to start it and close it out, I feel like. Yeah, like, it's very, there's, there's ritual to it. There's, to safely use the Ouija word, you have to do. Wait, what was the name of the guy who created it?

This says Elijah Bond. Oh, yeah, here's Elijah Bond's Ouija, Ouija boardgrave. I don't have to post pictures. of these on our Instagram of the grave. That's really neat. Heck yeah. It is, it's a really cool looking headstone. Wait, when did he die?

He died. He's born in 1847, died 1921. Feels like the Ouija board should be so much more ancient than that. I know. Than invented by some dude with like mutton chops. That's pretty funny. It is. And like I keep meaning to look up what his life must have been like because like I feel like the, this guy being the inventor of the Ouija board in like the early 1900s or whatever.

Like he must have absolutely been the talk of the town is like, what a weird dude. Probably. Like trying to summon demons. I don't think. It wasn't really about summoning demons. though it was more just like to talk to the dead right like to talk to contact the dead like that yeah people always have to bring demons into it I do every single time I don't know he looks great in his luncheops he looks fun

I bet he was a good time oh I bet it was a great time oh and he was a lawyer too oh he was in the confederacy oh less cool a lot less cool boom no never mind he sucked I don't know, it is one of my favorite, like, it is one of my favorite fun facts about Baltimore is that the inventor of the Ouija board is buried here. Baltimore is such a fun, funky town. It is. It's also like Egg Girl and Poe's haunt. Yep, we have the Edgar Allan Poe Museum around here. That's why, like, our football team is the Ravens. Oh, that's cute. I didn't know that. Yeah.

We love Edgar Allan Poe around here. Yeah. You guys are, uh, you like the, the creepy stuff. We do. All right. Tell me about Bloody Mary. Okay. So Bloody Mary, like, this isn't like a long, uh, anything.

Really? Uh, but like, there's just a couple of different ideas about, like, how the ritual of Bloody Mary, of doing Bloody Mary got started. And so, like, you know, most of the people listening to this show probably already know because you unwisely played Bloody Mary as a child. Yeah, definitely. And the ritual varies, but the one I'm familiar with is like during a sleepover, you'd go into the bathroom, you'd shut the door, you turn up the lights,

either with your friends all in the room with you, or you'd go in one at a time. And you would just say, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary three times. and then the witch is supposed to appear and, like, kill you. Yeah. I don't know if she was... I don't remember her supposed to, like, kill you. But I remember it was like, when you turn on the light, you're supposed to be able to see her.

Yeah, you're just supposed to be... Is that it? You're just supposed to be able to see her in the mirror? I thought that there was more, um... That's my recollection. She's supposed to be able to hurt you. Yeah, as a child was that you would just be able to see her for like a second. And that was it.

but like the idea is that you'd be scared she could hurt you gotcha okay um i don't know like in in the version of the game because i never i never played it because again just in case uh you were smart you were a cautious child i've always been this way you've always been very smart i've always been very afraid i don't know if that's the same thing but you've got self-preservation i do i'm just like i don't want to do anything with ghosts i don't want to know about them i don't want them to see me i don't want that i don't want to see them um because i always heard that she was supposed to be able to like injure you somehow um do you remember if there ever being a ritual to get her to go away if you summon her

okay um because according to the wikipedia article the lore surrounding the ritual states that the participants may endure the apparition screaming at them cursing them strangling them stealing their soul drinking their blood or scratching their eyes out jesus god damn you just essentially have to endure it until she goes away according to what you do it then why would anybody of the ritual. I don't know. See, when we were kids,

it was like low stakes because it was like, oh, you can see her in the mirror if you call her. But it wasn't like, yeah, she's going to fucking kill you. I don't think anybody would do it.

I mean, that's why I never did it because the version of the story I always heard was like, she might fuck you up. She's going to scratch your eyes. That will no, thank you. Or yell at you.

Is that the worst part for you? Someone's going to yell. at you. I can take physical injury, but please don't yell at me. I will cry. Per our conversation last week. But what if she doesn't like me? I've always been a sensitive little child. Sensitive soul. But anyway, then there, you know, there are all the different theories about, like, who Bloody Mary is. You know, I think the most popular. one that I've heard is that she's

Bloody Mary as in Mary the first of England who you know slaughtered hundreds of Protestants during her reign of terror and so she was known as Bloody Mary during the time Yeah So maybe she only screams at you if you're a Protestant

And then another option the other option that is most popular this I never I never heard this one but um this might be more bandied about and like maybe like in the american south uh would be Mary worth uh who was one who like there's debate about whether or not Mary Worth is even a real historical figure because because she was either a woman who killed slaves escaping the American South via the underground railroad and earned her name Bloody Mary that way, or she was a woman who was burned at the stake during the witch trials. Oh, yeah.

Also, also in the United States. So those are three possibilities for whom Bloody Mary is. Okay. Do you have a guess for how this ritual even started, like what the earliest traceable origins of this particular ritual are? No, no way. Okay. I thought this was really fun and it's why it's, it's why I decided to tell you about it

because I had no idea. Yeah. This, this, this ritual was historically a divination ritual that was performed by little girls in the 90s. That it was performed by little girls in the early, in the early 20th century. Oh, yeah, okay. Um, so the idea was, is that you would see your future husband. Uh, yeah, I would do that as a little girl, for sure.

As a little, totally, I totally would have done that. It's like, um, how romantic. What's that one game? Mystery date. Mystery date. I think I have a game, actually. What was mystery date? Was that the famous mash?

I feel like that's a more of an 80s thing, but it's like a board game and you get like these clues about who your dates. going to be and you and there's like a bunch of different guys you have to figure out who's oh man I never played it but I totally would have maybe you will when you come visit me oh my gosh do you have it let's play it yes please let's do it I want to play okay so historically the divination ritual encouraged young women to walk up a flight of stairs backward holding a candle and a hand mirror in a darkened house and this was like supposed to be performed around Halloween.

It was like a Halloween game. That sounds spooky and not like find your future husband. Also sounds dangerous. A candle, a mirror, and walking backwards downstairs. And you're walking backwards up your stairs. Yeah. So as they gazed into the mirror, they were supposed to be able to catch a view of their future husband's face.

There was, however, a chance that they would see a skull or the face of the grim reaper instead. indicating that they were going to die before they had the chance to marry. I love it. Yeah. And then, so there's like a cute, I'll save this and then we can share it, but there's like a cute little photo of a girl playing this game. And then there's like the shadow of a witch on the wall. Ooh, it's like one of those old postcards, like a vintagey.

It's very vintagey postcard looking. And then the poem that goes with us is, is on Halloween, look in the glass, your future husband's face will pass. So that's, and that's the origin of the Bloody Mary game. Huh. Which young girls have played for at least a century.

It just morphed into something a little different. Something much more terrifying. Something a little scarier. That's fun. Yeah. I like, I love stuff like that, obviously. Me too. Little kids trying to scare themselves.

I know. I love it. Adorable. Nice. Okay. And so that brings me to our final story. Yes. And I'm going to tell you the legend of black anise. Okay.

How do you spell anise? A-N-N-I-S, like the spice. The legend of black anise. And this is a English folk tale from the city of Leicester or Leicestershire. area in England. Okay. How many predictions do I get? I'm going to let you have two.

Okay. My first prediction is, I don't know, ghost. Ghost? Oh, what book is this from? Oh, it's not from any book. I found it. Ooh, cool. The version I'm going to be reading you is from old chronicles.

dot org.uk. Okay. And that's old with an E. My prediction is ghost and beheading type. Okay. Okay.

The legend of black anise. The Dane Hills of Leicestershire were home to many creatures, but none so terrifying as black anise. She lives in a cave, carving it out herself with her clawed hands At night, she stalked the woods Looking for children to prey on

And her howls and screeches Could be heard from miles around She had black mangled hair, pale blue skin And wore the skin and skulls of dead innocents She had feasted upon. Hell yeah. This, of course, terrified the local inhabitants of the area Who, when night fell,

locked doors, bolted windows And huddled around fires listening to the screams in the distance. But the threat of Black Anus did not stop one angry stepmother on one evening, sending her children out into the woods to collect firewood.

Shutting her three children out, she told them to not return until they had enough firewood and she locked the door. Yeah, kids, you know, I know that there's like a crazy, scary monster that praise upon kids, but go out into the woods.

It gets a firewood. Go on to the woods. She was trying to be fine. She was straight up trying to get rid of those kids. 100% or at least one of them because it's like the slowest one will die One less mouth to feed Yeah

The two youngest children were terrified And began screaming and crying But the oldest consoled them saying If they started to collect firewood now They could be back before night fell And that black anus only hunted In the deepest parts of the woods And they were only going to the edges

But as chance would have it There was no firewood at the edges and the children found themselves going ever deeper into the woods. Yeah, they did. Soon night fell and the children became terrified. The oldest continued to comfort his brothers, but he himself now became aware that it was getting darker. Just before he was about to suggest turning back,

the boys heard a distant scream echo across the woods. Yep, time to go. Yep, time to fucking bail. and bang on your stepmother's door and yeah or a neighbor so the two youngest began to cry but the oldest one once again took initiative i like the story because for once the oldest kid is not the useless one hell yeah hell yeah justice for eldest siblings everywhere stepping up i love it he said that the scream sounded distant and that if they were to run now they could have had a chance at escaping her it was then the youngest piped up saying that maybe his witchstone

might be of help. He just has one. Who didn't have one back then? Fair enough. I mean, if you were smart at all, you had one. The oldest brother quickly took it and looking through the hole saw a horrible blue hag far off in the distance. He said to the others that she was indeed far away and that she couldn't possibly notice them there. But no sooner had they relaxed, the oldest saw her lift up her greasy hair and begin sniffing the air. She then began to run toward them at an incredible pace,

leaping over rocks and trees, continually sniffing the air. Yeah, that's super scary. She sounds so fucking scary. The oldest shouted to run, and they began to sprint toward their home, desperate to escape from the witch. When they neared their house,

their father ran out the door, relieved to see them alive, armed with an axe. But to his horror, he also saw, very close behind, the terrible figure of black anis loomed, grasping at the edges of their clothes. The father wasted no time waiting. He burst forward and threw his axe straight into the hag's head.

She gave a wail and green blood spurted forth from her temple. She turned and fled back to her cave to recover from her wounds. The father was outraged at his wife and ordered her to leave the house indifferent to the fact that Black Anus was about. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Somebody's getting her just desserts. Absolutely.

Although we do like to see a father. actually being a like, whoa, bridge too far. Yeah, nice. Nowadays, the Dane Hills have been built upon and her cave has been filled in, but some still report seeing a dark figure haunting the streets at night and hearing her wails and grinding teeth. The end. Amazing. 100% if I lived in that area, I would want to dress up and, like, just freak people out.

I would scare kids at that story so much. I love a good, like scary legend like that. Heck yeah. And it's not too late. Any kids we know now, we can tell them that story for free. Black Anus. Yeah, I really should get to know the kids in my neighborhood and tell them because we have a lot of like woodsy areas near here. There's actually a little creek by my house and I like kind of refer to it as like the

witch's grove because it's there's like I don't know it's just a lot of pine trees there's nothing really back there and then there's just kind of like random wood pallets that look like kids have been making forts or something yes oh like it's a little abandoned yeah maybe I should like make those weird stick people and hang them up everywhere do it oh my gosh and then tell people there's a creepy old hag who has burrowed into the hill. Black Anus. Yeah. Very cool.

There's a lot of really spooky art for Black Anus too, by the way. Oh, yeah. Like, she looks creepy as fuck. Love it. There's also a short poem about Black Anus. Yes, please. I'm just going to read to you real quick. This poem is called Black Anus's Bower.

And I found this on all poetry.com. While you wander in the glen, go steady and mind your way. As darkness drifts and shadows shift, be sure to swiftly end your play. As the birdsong cease at day's release, remember what your ma did warn. Hurry little child run along home where your father's fire stands tall and warm. The blackness of the creeping night unfurls its fingers, pinching tight. Soon, Annis will be out walking in the hills. The sun is sleeping, sinking low.

How dusk brings with it such bitter chills. Rush, little child, flee to your mother's arms, for the light is quickly growing very dim. Beware the oak tree by the bower and all its ancient wooden sin. Beware the oak tree beside her bower, bitter branches draped in drying skin. I know. And like, beware the oak tree and all its ancient wooden sin is so. That's so good.

What a line. line rush home now little darlings have splendid suppers and cozy homes soon annis will be out walking in the hills collecting skin and flesh and bones the end that's so good yeah well yes way to make an oak tree spooky i know i love that covered in skin mm-hmm yeah covered in drying draped and drying skin is like that needs to be a metal song for sure like black anise would be a great band name oh my god okay we should start a band named black anis and then our first single like this will be the bridge and the chorus oh hell yeah so good incredible how'd you find that were you just like i was just i was just googling scary folklore

love it perfect um and bloody mary came up as as an option and that turned out not to have a lot as part of it although the origins of it really interesting and then but i found um i found black anise and a little short story associated with her so hell yeah love it here we are sometimes it's hard to find like a really scary folk tale like that. So that's perfect. Yeah, exactly. So I figured it was the perfect one to kick off October. Excellent choice. I love, I loved all of those. Excellent. I'm glad. Me too. All right. Uh, I got zero points. Yep. Unforch. So because it is October, the scariest month of them all. Yes. I am doing my classic with a couple of scary stories to tell in the dark.

Woo! Oh, my gosh. It's the most wonderful time of the year. It really is. I love these stories so much. They are my favorite. And I realized I hadn't read the story from the scariest cover art of all time. Oh, my God.

The lady, and she, like, has, like, like, her face. is decaying because she's dead yes oh my god like the like the iconic scary stories to tell in the dark illustration oh my goodness so that is what i'm going to be reading today and that story is called the haunted house oh my goodness oh i'm so excited you can give me i'm going to give you three predictions child protagonist okay it feels like i can't predict Ghost because Haunted House is in the title feels too obvious. Yeah, I would agree with that. Okay.

There's a haunt. I discovered a band today called The Haunt and they're awesome. Hell yeah. Just FYI. Calling it the Haunt reminds me of betrayal at House on Haunted Hill. Yeah, me too. It sounds like badass. And it's like a female singer in a kick-ass rock band.

Oh my gosh. I'll add a couple songs to the Calabby Lab for you. yes please do uh okay uh the house is built on someone's grave classic everybody dies everybody dies okay um and as a reminder this is from the book scary stories to tell in the dark by alvin schwartz and we have a couple of episodes with these but they are so much fun so time. I'm so excited. I love it when you do these. The Haunted House. One time a preacher went to see if he could put a haunt to rest at a house in his settlement. The house had been haunted for about 10 years. Several people had tried to stay there all night, but they would always

get scared out by the haunt. I love calling it a haunt too. I don't know. Me too. Yeah. It's cool. Classy. So this preacher took his Bible and went to the house. went on in, built himself a good fire, and lit a lamp. Sat there reading the Bible. Oh, this is like a classic grave encounters situation. Oh, my God, I love grave encounters so much. So the preacher is sitting there reading the Bible. Sure.

So on brand. Then just before midnight, he heard something start up the cellar, walking back and forth, back and forth. Then it sounded like somebody was trying to scream and got choked off. Then there was a lot of thrashing around and struggling. And finally, everything got quiet. The old preacher took up his Bible again. But before he could start reading, also, I love that all that stuff is happening.

And he's just, he's an unbothered king right now. Absolutely. See, it sounds like everyone else just scared too easy. And he's just kind of like, well, that sounds like none of my business. Yeah, exactly. But before he could start reading, he heard footsteps coming up the cellar stairs. He sat watching the door to the cellar, and the footsteps kept coming closer and closer. He saw the doorknob turn, and when the door began to open, he jumped and hollered.

What do you want? The door shut back easy like, and there wasn't a sound. But the preacher was trembling a little, but he finally opened the Bible and read a while. So he's a reasonable man. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So he's not totally unbothered. Yeah. But I mean, I don't know. He's still there, so he's a brave dude. It sounds like the ghost is shy that he's like, what do you want? And the ghost is like, oh, oh, never mind. Sorry. Sorry. Oops, sorry. I didn't mean to bother you. So finally, he opened the Bible and read a while. Then he got up and laid the book on the chair and went to mending the fire.

the haunt started walking again and step step step up the cellar stairs the old preacher sat watching the door and saw the doorknob turn and the door open it looked like a young woman he backed up and said who are you what do you want the haunt sort of swayed like she didn't know what to do then she just faded out the old preacher waited and waited and when he didn't hear any more noise is he went over and shut the door he was sweating and trembling all over but he was a brave man yeah he was true story a brave brave man and probably hot i'm just imagining he's the hot priest from fleabag the hot priest from fleabag hold and i have to look that up oh yeah just i'm pretty sure if you just google hot priest like he'll come up sure sure if you just google hot priest like he'll come up. Sure.

Okay. Why not? Pictures don't quite do him justice. He has a very hot personality. That really makes all the difference. Yeah. He has a hot personality and a handsome enough face. So.

Perfect. He's casted. So the character of Fleabag very inappropriately, it falls in love with him. Nice. All right. He was a brave man and he thought he'd be able to see it through. So he turned his chair to,

where he could watch and he sat down and waited. It wasn't long before he heard the haunt start up again slowly. Step, step, step, step, closer and closer. Step, step. What does she want? And it was right at the door. The preacher stood up and held out his Bible in front of him. Then the knob slowly turned and the door opened wide. This time the preacher spoke quiet like. He said, in the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost, who are you and what do you want? The haunt came right across the room, straight to him, and took a hold of his coat. And I imagine she's just floating, like, super fast at him. It was a young woman about 20 years old.

Her hair was torn and tangled, and the flesh was dropping off her face, so he could see the bones and part of her teeth. She had no eyeballs, and there was sort of a blue light way back. in her eye sockets, and she had no nose to her face. And if you have seen the picture, it is fucking horrifying. Oh, my God. Okay. Literally nightmare fuels. Send me the picture.

Oh, yeah. Oops. I think I remember it, but I can't remember or remember it. It's literally nightmare fuel. It's the scariest. I, like, I think I remember I had this book and this was the cover art. and I had to put the book away and I still haven't been able to find it either

You hit it from yourself so Oh God, yep, okay, now I remember Now I remember Gabbra, it's just It just looks like her face, her flesh is just Yeah, she's decayed Like shuffing off. It's so creepy. Gross, gross.

All right. Okay, so she was right at his face holding his coat. Yep, gross. Then she started talking. It sounded like her voice was coming and going with the wind blowing it. She told how her lover had killed her for her money and buried her in the cellar.

She said if the preacher would dig up her bones and bury her properly, she could rest. Then she told him to take the end joint of the little finger from her left hand and to lay it in the collection plate at the next church meeting and he'd find out who had murdered her. Oh my gosh, I love it. She's solving her own murder. I know. Love this for her. Me too. And she said, if you come back here once more after that, you'll hear my voice at midnight and I'll tell you where my money is hid and you can give it to the church.

Don't believe her. This is the real haunt. This is how you get cursed. The haunt sobbed. Uh-huh. Give it away. Yeah, maybe don't do that. Don't trust anybody.

No, you leave that buried where it is. Mm-hmm. The haunt sobbed like she was tied. and she sunk down toward the floor and was gone. But the preacher found her bones and buried them in the graveyard. The next Sunday, the preacher put the finger in the bone in the collection plate. And when a certain man happened to touch it, it stuck to his hand. The man jumped up and rubbed and scraped to tore the bone trying to get it off.

Then he went to screaming like he was going crazy. Well, he confessed to the murder and they took him on to jail. Excellent. After the man was hung, the preacher went back to that. house one midnight and the haunt's voice told him to dig under the hearth rock he did and he found a big sack of money where the haunt had held onto his coat the print of the bony fingers was burned right into the cloth it never did come out the end okay see that was a happy ending that was great i do for them i do like your idea and my fixes definitely that he goes to take the money

but she just kills him instead, too. Oh, 100%. That's my fix. She solves her murder and then she just keeps on haunting the place. Yeah. For fun. For fun. Because she's bored.

Because she chooses to. Yeah. She's like, actually, that was really fun. I was like, that was really fun. I love to scaring the crap out of that guy. I want to like, and then she finds a way to keep like spreading rumors in town about the fabulous treasure buried somewhere in this mansion. so that she can keep scaring the fuck out of people.

And then eventually the grave encounters guys come by. Yeah, that's where that movie starts. She murders the fuck out of them. That movie was so fun. I love how it kind of started off as like a satire and then it actually got pretty scary. Like when the door is in the wrong place or something, like the front door. Yep. Like heartstoppingly effective on me.

That was incredible. And all it is is like there is. a door there anymore and like and that's it that's all they had to do and I was like yeah I was genuinely freaked out it was so good I was gone oh I'm gonna watch that soon I love Halloween it's a great it's a great Halloween watch yeah I love Halloween it's the best do you want to hear another story please okay it's really short and you only get one prediction it's one page and this one is called room for one more who who um ghost

okay oh wait what was your last uh no you did not get any points that last one uh i disagree you disagree

the house is built on her grave it wasn't built on her grave somebody murdered her and buried her in the cellar yeah which is the resting place of her boat somebody's grave someone was buried in that house that house was there

and then she was murdered. I feel like because someone was buried in that house, that it totally counts. It's the spirit of the thing. You said the house is built on someone's grave. Yeah, but I meant someone's buried in there. All right. All right.

I'll give you that. I'll give you a pity point. Thank you. And I'll take my pity point. But I don't think you should get it. I'm just going to say. you have to be careful with your words i feel like i argued my case very effectively because i got my pity point you know what we're going to put it to a poll for our listeners okay yes absolutely

listeners back me up here i don't know that's what i meant that house is built on someone's grave and someone's and someone is buried beneath the house no somebody was somebody's grave was put in that house right it's like the opposite no i don't i for i disagree it's the house is built over but not the house was built over someone's grave like that that wasn't the timeline the house is over someone's grave i'm just saying anyway i'm excited to see the results of this poll me too okay room for one more give me one oh yeah ghost do you already ghost okay a man named joseph came to Philadelphia on a business trip. He stayed with friends in the big house they owned outside the city.

That night, they had a good time visiting, but when Blackwell went to bed, he tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. Sometime during the night, he heard a car turn into the driveway. He went to the window to see who was arriving at such a late hour. In the moonlight, he saw a long black hearse filled with people. The driver of the hearse looked up at him, and when Blackwell saw his queer, hideous face, he should. The driver called to him, there's room for one more.

Then he waited for a minute or two, and he drove off. In the morning, Blackwell told his friends what had happened. You were dreaming, they said. I must have been, he said, but it didn't seem like a dream. After breakfast, he went into Philadelphia. He spent the day high above the city in one of the new office buildings there. Late in the afternoon, he was waiting for an elevator to take him back down to the street. But when it arrived, it was very crowded.

One of the passengers looked out and called to him. There's room for one more, he said. And it was the driver of the hearse. Oh. No thanks, said Blackwell. I'll get the next one. The Green Reaper is haunting him. He's like, goodbye.

No thank you. The door is closed and the elevator starts. started down. They were shrieking and screaming and then the sound of the crash. Yep. The elevator had fallen to the bottom of the shaft. Everyone aboard was killed. The end.

Dun, done. Dun! Oh my goodness. I know. It was not fun. That was great. I really liked that. It was like an episode of Supernatural.

Totally. Yeah. But then they have to go find the driver of the hearse. Right. Whereas this guy just gets to go on about his life because good for him. But he talks to Sam and Dean. They pretend to work in his office. Oh, my gosh.

I am so excited to watch more supernatural. I need to give you episodes. I really, because now that I'm done most down with Gilmore Girls, I want a supernatural watch list so that I can switch over because that's, that's another show that I got almost all the way through, almost all the way through season five. And it's long.

And then stopped. It's long. And I feel like there are. so many filler arc episodes that just aren't great. I really like the monster of the week kind of episode. I just want something fun like that. I don't care about angels and demons at all or the apocalypse. Like, I'm having fun with the angels and demons stuff in season five.

Like, it's not, it's not good, but it also like, yeah, I don't know. I kind of, the show is definitely at its best when it's Sam and Dean in their car, going from dusty midwestern town to dusty midwestern town, getting rid of various haunts and demons and stuff. It's so much fun. It's awesome. And there's a couple like, yeah, I'll send you a list. Please.

Listeners, what are you watching and or reading for Halloween? Please let us know because what are your faves? We need to consume all of the Halloween and stuff. And please send us more of your Gilmore Girls hot takes because. Please do. I'm so curious. Be nice. Don't yell at Abby.

Yell at me. I can take. I actually can't take it. Please don't yell at me. If you have to yell at someone, yell at me. I will cry. Maybe I need to get tougher. Maybe this will be good for you.

Maybe this will be good for me. And I'm on the outro. You're on the outro. I'm almost sad that it's over because that was such a good episode. I know. It was. It was incredible. Halloween ones are always fun.

They are. You'll have to do a couple more scary stories to tell in the dark next episode when we hang out with Chadwick for a bit. I might because they're my favorite. They're so fun. They're impeccable. But, unfortunately, all good things come to an end, including banger episodes of this show. I mean, every single episode's a banger, but I just, I love our Halloween episodes the most. Always.

Let's see. What can you do for us? Well, you can write to us. over email, Instagram, through our Patreon at patreon.com forward slash fairy talefix pod. Tell us all of your hot takes,

make predictions on stories yourself if you like, just chit-chat to us about anything, basically. If you want to help out the podcast further, we'd really appreciate it if you would leave some kind of review

or a rating, wherever your podcaster lets you do that. What should the word be for this episode? Oh, Bloody Mary. But you have to type of three times. Yes. Oh, my God. You have the type of three times, exactly.

Bloody Mary. So that's what we're reviewing on us for this episode. Thank you so much. If you... So much. Oh, so... Thank you so much. So very much.

If you really want to go the extra mile and help us out with a little money, We'd very much appreciate that You can do that at Patreon as well Patreon.com forward slash Verytail FixPod We have various tiers Various Reward Levels But you can get all of our bonus episodes right now

For I think about $3. Yeah It's a deal Truly because honestly Our best episodes are the Patreon ones And we have a bunch of Halloween Patreon episodes We do So if you like this

If you mean more spooky stories Yes We promise you, uh, you'll enjoy the bonus episodes. So I had it over there. Yeah, you know, I think that's it. Thank you so much for listening to fairy tale fix. We love you. Oh yeah. Did you have a fix? No. Black Annis is perfect. Gosh. I don't know. Black Anis is pretty perfect. I think my fix might be she gets to eat the youngest one, the slowest one. Yeah. Okay. As she deserves. Queen. Slay. Slay. Slay. Literally.

Yeah. And the haunt didn't reveal a big bag of money, but she actually killed the priest, scared him to death, and then kept on haunting the house forever and ever, where she still haunts it to this day. Woo! And all of the ghosts and ghouls and black anus lived.

Happily ever after. The end.