MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Campfire Stories Vol. II

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Today's podcast features 3 classic scary stories. The audio for all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "Turn Around" -- This is why you should never explore abandoned buildings (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/auz4tq50xZ0?t=1000)#2 -- "The Witch" -- Wildland firefighter finds a strange looking cabin (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/fLs9za4X08E?t=787)#1 -- "The Woman in Black" -- Sleep paralysis or a haunting? (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/7gFlFR1NBFE?t=727)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast features three classic scary stories. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Turn Around, and it's about why you should never explore abandoned buildings. The second story you'll hear is called The Witch, and it's about a firefighter who finds a very

strange-looking cabin out in the woods. And the third and final story you'll hear is called The Woman in Black, and it's up to you if you believe this is really sleep paralysis or a paranormal haunting. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please offer to spot the Amazon Music Follow button on their next set of Benchpress, but once they start to fatigue, just walk away. Okay, let's get into our first story called Turnaround. Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast, British Scandal.

On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round the world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail, almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story,

follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Hello, I'm Emily and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No?

Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? OK, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all.

But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wanderie Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. From the 1950s until present, a Canadian family has owned this very isolated cabin in the middle of the Ontario backcountry. It was the only property on this very small lake.

There was two others across the lake, but they were pretty far away. And with the exception of the side of the cabin that was facing the water, the rest of it was surrounded by really dense forest that went on for quite a while. About two miles away from this cabin on the other side of this dirt road was this huge wildlife reserve that was pretty much just a huge forest that was protected. And anytime the family was visiting this cabin, the kids would at some point go into the reserve and go explore. In 2001, when the family was at the cabin, the kids were across the road over at the reserve, and they decided to walk down this particular trail that they hadn't seen before,

and they just started walking. And for about 30 minutes, they're seeing new areas they hadn't seen before, and then they come to this clearing, and there's all these abandoned houses. At first, there was a little debate about whether these were actually abandoned because they did look like they were in pretty good condition. But when they walked a little bit closer, it became very clear that nature is reclaiming this land. Grass is up to your waist.

You know, there's vines growing up the side of the houses. There were cars still parked in driveways that were totally rusted out and, you know, grass is growing all through them. And so they knew these were abandoned. They walked up to the first house they saw and they looked in and they couldn't believe what they were looking at. It was like whoever lived here had left without taking anything. The house was still totally furnished. In fact, their dining room tables still had plates and cups and forks and knives, like they had just had dinner and then just got up and left. They start talking about going into these houses and looking around inside, but they started wondering, like, is this a museum? Is that why everything is in such good repair? You know,

should we not go inside these houses? And they start looking around for any indication that definitely this is not a museum. These are just plain abandoned. And across the street from the house they were at was this totally decrepit looking house. Let's go over there and look in there. And so they look in a window and very clearly the ceiling is totally sagging down. And the first floor is buckling completely. And there's clothes and shoes scattered everywhere. And so for them, this was confirmation that this is no museum.

These are abandoned. We can totally go look around inside. that this is no museum. These are abandoned. We can totally go look around inside. And so for the next couple of hours, the kids explored all the houses that looked structurally sound that weren't going to collapse on them. And it was just fascinating. There was all this stuff that was left behind that was fairly valuable. And they didn't take anything. They just thought it was very cool. And after a while, they decided they had seen enough and they turned around and headed back to their cabin. After they got back, they told their parents about what they found and their father was like, man, that sounds awesome.

I want to go check that out. And so that day they went right back over to the abandoned houses. The first house they showed him was the really decrepit looking one where the ceiling was sagging and there was women's shoes and clothes all over the ground to show him for sure these are abandoned because we had some doubts at first too these are definitely abandoned so they look at that house and then they went back to the very first house they saw when they walked into this complex the one that was in great condition and had the dining table still set so they go inside and they go upstairs and they find this bedroom that like everything else in the house is totally intact you have pictures on the wall it's fully furnished there's even still sheets made on the bed in the house is totally intact. You have pictures on the wall. It's fully furnished. There's even still sheets made on the bed in the pillow.

It's got a head imprint from whoever was there last. And at the foot of the bed is this beautiful fur coat. And the father walks over to it and he looks at it and he's like, this is real fur. This is a really expensive coat. I want to take this for our family. But before he took it, he had a hesitation. Is this really abandoned? You know, if someone had been here, they would have seen footprints all over the house just because there's

grime all over the ground and they can clearly see their footprints from where they've just come in. And he's like, no, this is just a weird situation. It's definitely abandoned and finders keepers. And so he picks up the jacket and he says, I'm going to give this to mom after I clean it up. And so with the jacket in hand, the father and the kids explore the rest of the house. And when they go outside, they realize it's starting to get late and it's probably time to head back. And so they turn around and they start walking away from these houses towards their cabin. And they get about 50 or 60 meters away when one of the kids said he just had this weird sense that they were being watched. And so he turns around and he's shocked when he sees there is an old woman standing in the bedroom that they had just been in, where the fur coat was.

She's got a loose bun on the top of her head. She's got this blue shawl on her shoulders over a cream blouse, and she's glaring at them. When the father saw this woman, he made an audible gasp, and the rest of the group turned around too and saw this woman in the window. And the feeling was guilt. They're like, oh my goodness, we just stole from this poor woman who lives in this abandoned house. And so right away, the whole group starts walking right back towards the house. They're going to give this jacket back. In fact, the dad is like, I'm so sorry.

I shouldn't have taken this. I'm sorry. And as they're walking back towards the property, the woman in the window who hasn't said anything just turns around and walks back into the main part of the house. They can't see her anymore. And so as they're walking closer to the house, they're assuming she's going to come downstairs to retrieve this jacket that they've taken from her. And so they get right up to the front door and the father is yelling to her, I'm sorry, where do you want me to leave this jacket? I can bring it into you. And they're kind of just waiting for her to come downstairs and she doesn't. She's nowhere to be found. She's not

making any sound. She's not indicating what to do. And so after waiting for a couple of minutes, the kids don't really know what to do. And they're kind of getting uneasy about the situation. And the father is still very confident that he just wants to give this back and make amends, make peace with her, say he's sorry. And so he walks inside. He tells his kids, stay here. I'm going to go give it to her. And he goes inside and he disappears upstairs. And then all of a sudden from across the street in that decrepit house with the caved in ceiling, they hear one of the second floor windows come slamming down. And at the same time, their dad comes charging down the stairs, no jacket with him. And he's saying, go, go, go. And the kids are spooked from the window getting

slammed and they start running away until they're about 100 meters away from these houses. And they stop. And they're panting. And they're out of breath. And the kids ask their dad, what happened? And he says to them, I looked everywhere upstairs. And I could not find that lady. I don't know where she is.

Either she's hiding from us or something. But I happened to be looking out at that other house. Something caught my eye. There was movement. And I saw another person in the second floor of that building that's falling apart and I watched them slam the window and then as soon as I did I heard someone yell get out and I ran out after you guys. Now the kids and the dad are absolutely terrified and they want to leave but they also want one more look at these buildings before they do and when they had run away they had stopped behind this big group of trees that

obscured their view to the buildings they were out of sight and so they begin to peek their heads around the tree until they can see the building and they can't believe what they see standing in the window of the fur coat room is not only the old woman, but also a very tall man who's holding her shoulders and is bending down because his head is too high to look standing. He's crouched down and he's looking out the window next to her and they're both glaring towards them. The father and his kids are practically falling over themselves to sprint away and back to their cabin. To this day, that family has no idea who those people were, what they were doing there, how they were able to move around

without making any noise and consistently hide from them and not leave any footprints. It was all very strange and terrifying stuff. And then the government ended up demolishing those houses almost immediately after they were there. And so they'll never get any answers because everything's gone.

So they'll never get any answers because everything's gone. Our next story is called The Witch. In 2004, wildland firefighters were called into a forest in central Idaho to combat an emerging fire. By the time the crew arrived at this forest, it was clear this fire was spreading a lot faster than they anticipated. As a result, Mike, who was the assistant superintendent, basically the second in command of this particular crew, he said he was going to hop on the ATV and drive off way ahead of them to see if they needed to spread out farther to stop this fire. So Mike hops on an ATV and he takes off down this ancient looking logging road that probably hasn't seen a vehicle or a person in decades. Mike had made it about a half mile down this trail when he noticed out of the

corner of his eye a bobcat was running perpendicular to him straight out of the forest as if it was going to cross the road about 100 feet in front of him. Mike comes to a stop and thinks this bobcat doesn't know I'm here. It probably is not used to seeing people. It's going to come out into this trail, see me get spooked and run away. But instead, this bobcat runs directly into the middle of the road, turns and faces Mike in a very aggressive posture. Mike is shocked at what he's seeing because he knows bobcats are notoriously elusive and they're nocturnal. So for this thing to be out in the daytime and to be intentionally blocking his path

and standing there aggressively like it's going to attack him was so out of the ordinary. So the two of them are just looking at each other not moving for about 10 seconds until this bobcat opens its mouth and then begins screaming like a person. It did not seem like the right sound for what he was looking at. He said more than scary, it was just intensely weird. And just as quickly as this bobcat has arrived, it stops screaming, turns and runs to a tree, sprints up the tree and climbs onto this branch that happens to be perched right over the trail he's on. And Mike's looking up at this bobcat that's right over this trail and he knows if I'm going to continue going down this trail, I have to go under this screaming bobcat. Although totally freaked out, he knew he needed

to keep going down this trail and he's thinking to himself, you know what? This bobcat is probably just scared of me. And that was its reaction, as bizarre as it was. And so he throws his ATV in gear and he starts slowly moving down the trail. The whole time keeping his eye on the bobcat, making sure it doesn't show any sign like it's going to leap off onto him. And as he got closer and closer, he just gunned it and sped underneath the branch. And luckily it didn't jump down on him. And as he got a little bit farther away, he turned up to look and the bobcat had turned around and was still watching him very intently sitting on this branch.

Mike makes it about another half mile down the road before he sees something else that's very strange. He sees a cabin. It's this little tiny cabin that's tucked away in the woods. And he's thinking to himself, I'm on federal land. There aren't supposed to be any private structures here. And he figures, even if this is illegal, I do need to stop and make sure no one's in there because there's this huge fire coming this way. And so he parks his ATV and he starts walking off the trail towards this cabin. And as he gets closer, he can tell it's not only a very old cabin, but it's almost certainly abandoned because he can see all these slats that have been put over all of the windows like it's been boarded up. But when he got up close, he noticed something strange. The door itself into this cabin was not

boarded up and the doorknob was missing. And in its place was this shiny silver chain link that was thread through the opening where there should have been a doorknob around a wooden post that was right outside the door. Basically a makeshift lock because there was no doorknob to it and he's thinking how weird it is that in the middle of this forest on an old ancient logging road that clearly no one goes down where bobcats are running around freely that there would be this new chain here which indicates someone must have been here recently and so he bends down to look through the space that was still there from where the doorknob should have been and he looks inside and he can't really see anything and so he takes

his flashlight and he shines it in and he can't believe what he's looking at there's all this furniture inside this tiny little cabin in the middle of nowhere and it's all upside down and he's just totally creeped out so he puts his flashlight away and kind of backs up and he starts walking back towards the road and he can't help it. But the whole time he's looking over his shoulder back at the cabin, like someone's going to emerge from outside of this cabin. He gets to the road and by the time he's there, he's running. He jumps on his ATV. He whips it around. He starts blazing back up the logging road back towards his crew. And when he turns the corner to where that bobcat was, he sees there is now a native american woman standing in the

middle of the path she's wearing this tattered white nightgown she's barefoot and she's standing in the same spot he saw that bobcat and she's looking at him as if she's expecting him like she's been tipped off that he's gonna be here and he stops about a hundred feet away from her and now he's officially freaked out he's still looking over his shoulder towards that cabin because now everything is just totally weird to him. And before he has a chance to do anything, this woman lets out a scream, a blood curdling scream that is identical to the Bobcat's scream.

And so Mike is totally unnerved by this. Everything about this day has really gone sideways as this woman is screaming at the top of her lungs. And then suddenly she stops mike's still just standing there like what's going on and she runs to the same tree the bobcat had climbed earlier and she climbs up this tree and gets onto the branch where the bobcat was and perches like an animal on the branch looking at mike and now just like the bobcat mike is going to have to drive right underneath this

woman who was perched over the trail. And so he throws his ATV in gear and he starts driving and he's staring at this woman and now her mouth is just open like she's about to scream again. And as soon as he got close, he gunned it and went right underneath her. And he turned around after he got some distance away from her and she's still on the branch now turned around facing him as he drives away he goes back he tells the crew what he saw and as much as they all want to go back and see this woman and see this cabin they know they can't they gotta fight this fire and so ultimately they do that and then they leave a couple of days later Mike was in a bar in the town right near the forest they had just been in fighting that fire and Mike had seen the woman in the cabin and he struck up a conversation with a local and he said hey do you know of any buildings that are in that section of the forest and the guy kind of laughed and he was like you know the only

building i ever heard of out there was apparently some cabin where some crazy lady thought of herself as a witch and she apparently had a bobcat for a pet and so we as kids were just told to stay away from there so besides besides that, I don't know. I'm Peter Frankopan. And I'm Afua Hirsch. And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone.

Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone one of my favourite artists of all time. Somebody who's had a huge impact on me who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle, that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone.

Hey, Mr. Ballin fans. Did you know you can listen to episodes of this very show ad-free and one month early on Amazon Music with your Prime membership? That's right. All your favorite Mr. Ballin episodes can be heard on Amazon Music ad-free, and you'll always be the first one to catch our new episodes. But that's not all. You get access to other amazing shows like Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries,

Morbid, 48 Hours, and 2020, all ad-free too. And you know what that means. Uninterrupted listening, so no more cliffhangers. Amazon Music is your home for all things true crime and offers the most ad-free top podcasts, so we definitely have something for you. And it's

already included in your Prime membership. To listen now, all you need to do is go to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash ballin, or download the free Amazon Music app. It's just that easy. or download the free Amazon Music app. It's just that easy. The next and final story of today's episode is called The Woman in Black. In October of 2005, a 21-year-old named Nathan was back home in Elk Grove, California, visiting his mother at her apartment for a couple of days.

Her apartment was part of this really safe complex. It was gated. There's lots of lights and cameras. So anything that went bump in the night was just going to be, you know, your noisy neighbors or something. On the last night of Nathan's stay, he was laying in his bed in the guest room, listening to the hum of the street lamp that was outside, and the crickets, and the passing by of cars when he drifted off to sleep. At about 2 a.m., Nathan woke up, or so he thought. He couldn't move his body, he could only move his eyes, and even though he had never experienced sleep paralysis before, he instinctively understood, this is probably that. He noticed the room was completely silent.

There was no more crickets, no more hum of the light outside, no more traffic, just total silence. And then he started flashing his eyes around the room because he couldn't move his head or his body, and he started taking stock of the room. The bed he was in was positioned as far away from the door as he could in the back right corner.

From where he was laying, if he looked to his right, in that corner was this big armoire. And then moving left from the armoire, as he scanned the room, you'd come to the door, which is on the opposite side of where his bed was. And then if he kept scanning left, he would reach the foot of his bed. And just beyond the foot of his bed was a table and a chair. But because he was laying flat, he couldn't really look down and actually see the table and chair. And so with all of his strength, he managed to raise his head just enough that he had a line of sight to that section of his room, the only section he has not looked at yet. And he sees the table and chair, and he sees in the corner is this dark figure that's standing there looking at him.

He's completely frozen with fear. His thought is is there's an intruder in the house. How did they get in here? What are they doing in here? And he managed to keep his head up just long enough to get a decent look at this dark figure. And he determined it was most likely a woman with a shawl covering her face. And before his head fell back to the pillow, he saw her suddenly crouch down on the ground out of view. And then Nathan's head fell back. And now he knows there's just some stranger in his room and he can't lift his head up anymore. And he's looking around with his eyes. He sees the armoire. He sees the door. He can't see that table and chair. And then he hears the sound of someone slithering along the ground out of view. And he can hear her breathing as she's

getting closer and closer to the edge of the bed. And he's laying there terrified. He's so scared he can't even make a sound. And he's telling himself this has to be a dream. Wake up, wake up, wake up. And he's laying there. And this woman, she stands up and she leans out over his bed and she looks at him and her face is pale and her eyes are sunk way back in her head. Then she begins to slowly crawl on top of him. And Nathan sitting here looking at this woman, he wants to close his eyes, but he can't. And he just feels his chest being pressed down. He can hear the sounds of the springs compressing all around him as this woman positions herself on his chest. And then he finally manages to let out a scream. And then suddenly he's awake. The woman's gone. And he sits up and he's looking around. There's nobody in his room.

The familiar hum of the light and the crickets and the traffic outside they all return and his mom comes running in the room and she's like hey are you okay i heard screaming in here he said oh no i i had a i had a bad dream i'm fine now i had a terrible dream but i'm fine now and his mom's like okay uh all right you need anything and he's like nope so she comes over she gives him a hug and a kiss she goes back to bed and he would go downstairs, flip on a Disney movie, actually Aladdin, and he would fall asleep with a Disney movie on and with lights on. And there was no more sleep paralysis that night. The next day, Nathan got up and he headed back to his house.

And he really, he couldn't shake the experience. He had never had sleep paralysis before, but it was just so much more terrifying than he ever would have imagined. And he's just thinking to himself, I can't believe there are people that put up with this on any sort of regular basis but you know after a couple of days and getting home and not experiencing any sleep paralysis you know time went on and he just kind of forgot about it a few months later in march of 2006 nathan is at this big family party in Chico, California, big outdoor barbecue, all of his family's there. And at some point, his sister shows up. His sister

was not supposed to be attending this party. So it was a great surprise. He hasn't seen her in a while. And he immediately pulls her aside to catch up with her. And so for the first hour of their conversation, they're just chatting about their lives and what they're up to. Towards the end of their conversation, Nathan suddenly felt compelled to share his sleep paralysis experience with his sister. And the reason he wanted to was because he knew that she knew that he was actually a skeptic. And so she would believe him. If he's telling her this is what happened, she would believe that that's what he saw. And so he starts by saying, you know, I had the weirdest experience at mom's apartment

just a couple of months ago. I'm pretty sure it was sleep paralysis. And his sister immediately butts in and she goes, wait a minute. I had sleep paralysis for the first time in my life two weeks ago at mom's apartment. It was horrible. I was in the guest room and then I saw this woman and she was like standing on me. I thought I was going to die. It was horrible. That's exactly what happened to me. I was laying in the guest room and I couldn't move

and then I saw a woman in the corner and she stood on my chest. They proceeded to go over all the details of each of their stories and they discovered that they had had almost the exact same experience. And at the end of it, they wanted to have a rational explanation for how they both could just somehow have their only sleep paralysis experience in the same room and roughly the same timeline and experience the exact same events. They were trying to come up

with a rational explanation for that, but it was just too much of a coincidence. But ultimately, neither of them were really prepared to start discussing what else it could be. So they decided to just kind of laugh it off and say, man, that's pretty weird. And they moved on. After the party was over, Nathan would go back to his house and he would tell his wife about this crazy coincidence he and his sister had had. And his wife would say, yeah, that's wild. But after that, Nathan just did not want to think about it or talk about it. And so he kind of just pushed it out of his mental space and did forget about it.

He moved on. Five months later, in August of 2006, Nathan's mom would move out of that apartment building and she would move into a two-story house still in Elk Grove, California. Shortly after she moved in, she asked Nathan if he would come spend a couple nights with her. And Nathan said, sure. In order to better understand what happens to Nathan over the course of his stay at his mother's new house, you need to understand a basic layout of her house. So when you walk through her double doors, to your left is going to be a formal living room. In the center of the house is a hallway that shoots straight back to the kitchen, and then to your right, right when you walk in, there's a wall.

And on that wall is the stairs leading up to the second floor. If you take those stairs to the second floor, you reach a landing where there's a window that looks back into the backyard. And immediately to your right, there is a single door. And that's the master bedroom where Nathan's mom would sleep.

From the landing, if you turned left, there'd be another door that's a mirror image of the master bedroom door. And this door is the guest room. That's where Nathan was going to stay. And then to the left of the guest room was a hall that went to the front of the house, but that's irrelevant to the story. If you went inside the guest room, the bed was located in the back right corner. So the same layout as the guest room in the apartment building where the person laying in the bed, so Nathan, his feet would be closest to the door. And from Nathan's perspective in the bed,

the only other piece of furniture in this new house guest room was a table that was from his perspective on the right-hand wall, centered on the wall, and on the table was a TV. So that's the only things in the room. The first night Nathan was at this new house was totally uneventful. The second night, not so much.

He was up in the guest room, laying on the bed, watching TV. The lights are off. It's just the TV on. And at some point, he dozes off. He wakes up a short time later and he can't move. It's the same sensation he had when he was staying with his mom at her apartment. And he begins to panic because the last time he felt this way, a strange veiled woman stood on his chest and made it feel like he was dying. And so immediately he's trying to move his body. He can't.

And so using his eyes, he starts looking around the room, praying this woman is not in the room with him. And so he looks to the right to that corner, which he can see there's no one there. From this corner, he starts scanning across the room. He sees the TV. It's still on. He keeps scanning and he sees the tv it's still on he keeps scanning and he sees the door and it's open and then he scans and he's able to just barely make out the

space at the foot of the bed he can actually see to the corner and this woman she's not in here and so initially he feels incredibly relieved that she's not in the room with him but then he finds himself focusing on the open door into the dark hallway. And he's thinking to himself, please, please do not come walking through that door. And so he stares at the open door, just hoping he breaks out of the sleep paralysis when he notices something about the TV. It's flickering. And so he averts his gaze to the TV and he realizes what he's looking at on TV does not look familiar. It does not look like a TV show. It looks like CCTV camera footage. Like, it looks like a security camera footage. And he realizes the footage he's looking at is the inside

of his mother's kitchen downstairs. He recognized the way it was laid out. That's his mother's house. That's downstairs. And he's staring at the footage thinking, why is this footage playing on the TV? And I don't think there's a camera down there. When he notices on the camera the woman with the veil walks into the middle of the frame and she looks up at the camera right as the camera turns off and then the room is completely dark. There's no more ambient light in the room. The hallway is dark and he's left paralyzed knowing this woman is downstairs in the kitchen. And as he's laying there, he hears her start running through the house. And it sounds like an animal is barreling into things as she's running through the bottom floor and she stops at the foot of the stairs. And he's thinking to himself, I know where she's

going. She's coming up to my room. And so as he's laying there, he feels his heart racing and he's staring at the open door. He knows she's going to come flying up those stairs and she's going to come through that door. And instead of running up the stairs, he hears her take one step, two step. And as she's making her way up the stairs, he's just thinking, please break out of this trance. Stop this paralysis. Wake up, wake up. And then he sees her head emerge and she turns to look at him from the stairs into the room. once she sees it's him she bolts around and starts charging into the room on all fours like an animal at this point nathan lets out a primal scream he is scared for his life as this woman is charging towards him and she stops dead in her tracks right in the middle of the room she looks at him turns around and crashes out of the room charges downstairs and then it's silent. As soon as she

was downstairs, Nathan could sit up, except it did not feel like the first time he had sleep paralysis at his mom's apartment when he sat up and he had the sensation of relief. You've woken up. You were asleep before. Now you're awake. This time, it was like he was always awake, but now he can sit up. He did not have a sense of relief. In fact, he was worried she was still in the house. And as he's sitting up in bed, his mother comes running into the room. She looks disheveled. She's half asleep. And she's like, was that you?

Were you running around the house? I could have sworn I heard someone running around the house. Was that you? Nathan's looking at her and he can't even process what he's been through, whether that was real, whether it was a dream. And he's trying to find the words to describe to his mom the dream he had. Like he can't process what's happening. And he just says, Mom, we have to check the house.

We have to make sure no one's in the house. And so the two of them flip on every light upstairs. They're not even talking. At this point, it's survival mode. They turn on all the lights upstairs and Nathan leads the way down. They're flicking on all the lights and they manage to search the whole house and there's no sign of a break-in. There's no one in their house. After the coast was clear and they felt like they were not in immediate danger, they went into the kitchen to kind of talk about what just happened.

And so Nathan's like, okay, mom, I just got to tell you everything that I'm thinking right now. I can't really process what just happened. I think it was a bad dream, but I'm got to tell you everything that I'm thinking right now. I can't really process what just happened. I think it was a bad dream, but I'm starting to think that it could be something else or I'm just losing my mind. So a few months ago, I was sleeping in your guest room in your apartment and I had an experience that I'm almost positive was sleep paralysis. You know, I was laying there, I couldn't move and this figure was in the room and they were standing on me.

It was terrifying, but it sounded an awful lot like sleep paralysis. But then I, a couple months after that, I talked to my sister and I told her about it. And she told me that very recently, right before you moved into this house, actually, she was in that room and she also had basically the exact same experience. She had never had sleep paralysis before.

I had never had sleep paralysis before. So we've basically had the exact same experience. She had never had sleep paralysis before. I had never had sleep paralysis before. So we've basically had the exact same horrifying experience in the same room around the same time. And then just now, tonight, I had another sleep paralysis experience with the same woman who was running around the house. And you just said you heard her running around the house. His mom looked really

concerned, but she wasn't shocked. She says to Nathan, I have seen this woman. I saw her in my apartment way long time ago, but I remember what you're describing. That's the experience I had. This woman, you know, showed up in the room and she stood on me and it scared the heck out of me, but I didn't tell anyone because I thought it was sleep paralysis. And so Nathan and his mom proceeded to spend the next several hours just talking through what this could be. How could they, all three of them,

him, his mom and his sister, how could all of them have had the exact same experience? And how could tonight, when Nathan had this experience, how could his mom have heard those footsteps if that was indeed sleep paralysis? Because it wasn't Nathan. He was in the bedroom and it wasn't his mom. She was in her bedroom and she didn't have any pets. So who could it be? Nathan says he and his family are still totally rattled by this experience and they don't have an answer. And this is a family of skeptics. So they're not looking for a reason to call this paranormal. They simply don't have the answers.

Nathan has said that he, his mom, and his sister have not had any further experiences with the woman in black ever since that last experience Nathan had, and they're just hoping it stays that is that way. of them are not available on this podcast. They're only on YouTube. Again, the YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. I'm going to go. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news. We just launched a brand new Strange, Dark, and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans

have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome. In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between. Each story is totally true and totally terrifying. Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music.