MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Down the Stairs/Home Forever | Campfire Stories with MrBallen

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Welcome back to the Campfire! Tonight, I have two very weird and equally creep stories to share... perfect stories to be told at the fire. Be sure to WATCH this episode on my YouTube channel on Friday, September 4th! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome back to the campfire. Tonight I have two very weird and equally creepy stories to share that in many ways are perfect for this setting, stories to be told by a campfire. But before we get into tonight's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right campfire because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So if that's of interest to you, Please invite the like button to go camping with you, but don't tell them that you've secretly lined the inside of their sleeping bag with itching powder. Also please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.

Okay, let's get into tonight's stories. On the morning of April 25th, 2013, a 17-year-old high school senior named Henry was standing in the courtyard of this old abandoned dorm building that was on his school's campus in Tianjin, which is a major city in northeastern China. Now, Henry at this time was actually supposed to be with the rest of the students in his gym class right now playing badminton on the school's outdoor courts, but the courts were all full. So Henry and one of his friends, whose name was Wen, had decided to start their own game in this courtyard instead, even though they were not technically supposed to be over here at all. And so Henry, he hit the badminton shuttlecock

towards Wen, and they were bouncing it back and forth when suddenly Henry, heard somebody calling his name. And so Henry, you know, he turned to see who was calling to him and he saw two other boys who were heading towards their courtyard. And they too were holding badminton rackets. And Henry, as soon as he saw who these two were, you broke into a big smile because one of them was one of his other classmates whose name was Lee, who he was friends with. But the other was his childhood best friend, Pan Bowen. Henry and Pan had been very close ever since elementary school and now they're, you know, high school seniors. And And they had a ton in common.

They were both tall and thin. They wore glasses. They were both kind of quiet and nerdy. And they both loved video games. But Henry and Pan of late had not had a chance to spend much time together because they were both very busy studying for something called the Gao Kow, which is China's National College entrance exam. This test is sort of like the SAT in America, except realistically it's way more high stakes

because it's literally the only thing that some colleges in China take into account for admissions. And so if Henry and Pan wanted to get into good colleges, they needed to ace this test. So they had both spent the last several months basically studying upwards of 14 hours every single day. And as a result, they didn't see their friends much, including each other. And so this was a nice break from that. And so Henry, he's so jazzed up, you know, he sees his buddies coming over. and so he calls out to Pan as he's getting closer and he goes, hey, and he hits the badminton shuttlecock towards Pan. And Pan, he's ready, he's got his racket, and he hit it back, but it sort of

veered off to the side and it bounced along the ground in front of one of the dorm buildings. And then, before anybody could stop it, the shuttlecock fell into an open window that led into this abandoned dorm building's basement. A minute later, Henry Pan, Lee, and Wen, all gathered around this basement window. In this basement, it was just for ventilation, so it was only a couple of inches tall. And when Henry knelt down and tried to peek inside to see where the shuttlecock had gone, all he could see inside was darkness. And so he turned back to the group and said they'd just have to go back to the gym and get a new shuttlecock. But Pan said he didn't want to do that. They weren't technically supposed to be playing over here at all, and so if they admitted that they had

lost the shuttlecock, you know, it's entirely possible that one thing might lead to another and they might discover, you know, where the lost shuttlecock was. It was in this, this off-limits area. And so Pan's like, I don't want to get in trouble. I think we should, we should just go in there and get this thing. And then before anybody could stop him, Pan got up and he walked right over to the front entrance of this abandoned dorm building and he reached for the door handle. And like, right as he's doing this, Henry got up and he was about to call out like, dude, we cannot go in there. Like, this is going to get us in more trouble than anybody finding out about a lost shuttlecock. Like, don't go in there, but Henry watched his pan, he turned the handle on this door, and clearly it was unlocked.

And so Pan, he opened the door, pushed it open, and stepped inside. A minute later, Henry as well had made his way over, and he was now standing inside the entryway of this abandoned dorm building next to Pan, and then also Lee, the fourth friend, when, had decided that this was not for them. They would stay outside and stand guard in case any teachers showed up. But realistically, they just did not want to go in there. However, despite the fact that these other three now had, you know, an official lookout outside to keep them out of trouble, so to speak, Henry, just in being inside of this building, he couldn't help but feel really freaked out. The air inside of this building reeked of mildew and it was so cold that literally Henry's like shivering. Now, the first, the first thing, he couldn't help but feel really feel really freaked out.

Now, the front entryway where they were standing was relatively well lit because there were a couple of open windows that led in a bunch of light. But beyond the entryway, basically the hallways that went in different directions, you know, Henry's looking down each of them and they were totally dark because there were no windows, at least no open windows. Things were blocked by old furniture and things that had sort of cluttered up against the side of the walls. And so it's really dark and ominous. And so Henry, he's standing in the entryway wondering, like, how do we even begin to find the way down to the basement? Like, I don't want to go down these hallways. But as he's standing there, suddenly Henry, he realizes Pan has wandered off already. He's gone down the right hallway.

He can't see him anymore. He sort of vanished into the darkness, but he can hear him. And so Henry and Lee, they're watching. And then they hear this metallic sort of scraping sound. And it's the sound of Pan opening up a door. that led off that hallway. He had gone down the hallway and found a door. He was opening it up, and he calls out to Henry and to Lee and says, hey, I think I found the door that leads down to the basement. And so Henry and Lee, it's sort of like, well, you know, Pan's leading the charge here and we're already in here.

Like, let's just go get this thing. And so even though they were hesitant, they walked down this dark hallway until they eventually saw, they saw Pan and he was standing with the door open. And Henry, he peered into this. the stairwell that did lead down to the basement. And it was very dark. The only light that made it into the stairwell was from up in this hallway area, which wasn't that light to begin with. But with the limited light that was going down there, all Henry could see was just clutter on these stairs. Like they were practically completely obstructed. There was furniture. There were desks and chairs that looked like they'd almost been dumped into the stairwell. And so navigating these stairs would have been hard even with the lights on. And so at this point,

Henry, he just had this sudden, overwhelming feeling that they really ought to just leave. Like, this didn't feel right. This felt dangerous. It felt just sort of reckless. And he actually said out loud, like, hey, let's just forget about the shuttlecock. Like, who cares? If we get in trouble, we get in trouble. But this is not worth it.

Let's just go out with when. Let's go back. Let's just forget about this. But Pan is like, nah, like, we're already in here. Let's just go down and get it. Like, it's not a big deal. You know, Pam was like, it's my fault, it's in here, I feel responsible, I just want to go down and get it and not get us in trouble. And then again, without, you know, getting a chance to try to stop his friend, Pan just started walking down the stairs.

We're really climbing on the furniture and chairs, making his way down. And so Henry, he turns to Lee, still right next to him, you know, trying to get some support here, like, come on, we got to stop this guy. But Lee's like, man, we're already here. And so Lee starts making his... way across the furniture and the stuff making his way down the stairs. And so Henry's like, all right, I guess I'm going too. So we kind of propped the door open to make sure as much light would come in as he could get. And then he began the descent as well. Now at first, for Henry, the climb down these stairs was okay. Like he was able to navigate the furniture and he was very

careful and the light that he was getting from, you know, the first floor was pretty good. But the stairwell, as it went down, it eventually turned 90 degrees. And the second half of the stairs that actually led down into the basement went sort of down in the opposite direction. And as soon as Pan and Lee, who were ahead of Henry, as soon as they made that turn, Henry, like, he watched as they sort of vanished into darkness as they were in that section of the stairs. And so he knew Henry did that once he made that turn, it was going to be just totally dark. And he was kind of nervous, but now he's committed. He's all the way in here. And so Pan and Lee, they're moving on down, that last leg of the stairs.

They're in total darkness. Henry can't see him. He makes that turn on the stairs. And as he's making the turn into that last leg, the very dark leg, he can hear Pan and Lee. They're clearly still navigating this last segment of the stairs, but he can't see him at all. He kind of calls out to them to, hey, like, slow down. Let me catch up.

But they're just, they're moving along. you know, they're calling back to him, letting him know, like, come on, dude, like, hurry up. But they're moving along. And so Henry's like, man, I got to go faster. And he makes the turn. And he starts making his way down that last leg. But, like, once he was on that leg, it was like pitch black. And he was truly just operating by touch.

And all he can hear is the sound of Pan and Lee somewhere ahead of him as he descends into this void. I mean, it was terrifying. But just a moment later, as, you know, Henry is still navigating this dark section, he hears Pan and Lee call back to him. They're not that far away, but again, he can't see him. They call back to him like, hey, we reach the bottom. We're on the landing, and now we know where we have to go. And so they're clearly waiting for Henry.

And Henry's like, okay, good. He manages to climb over the last big couple pieces of furniture and tables and stuff that are blocking his way, and he gets to the bottom. And when he does, immediately he too sees what they're talking about. because once he reached the bottom, and effectively was in the basement now, he's at the very bottom of the stairs, there was this long hallway, and at the very end of the hallway, there was one source of light. There was a door that was slightly open, and there was obviously light shining in the room beyond the door. So the open door led to a room that had light.

And considering clearly there are no lights on, like electrical lights on inside of this building, that light had to be from sunlight, which suggests that's got to be the room where that window was that led outside where the shuttlecock went into the basement in the first place. And so all they got to do is go down this hallway, go to that door, open it up, go inside, get the shuttlecock, and get out of there and be done with this place. And so Henry, he felt around and grabbed Pan and he grabbed Lee. He locked arms with them because it's like so dark, it's almost intuitive that we need to walk locking arms here so we don't get separated.

and then they started slowly walking down the hallway towards the door. However, after only walking down the hallway a few steps, Henry felt Pan stop and unlink his arms and turn around. And, you know, Henry and Lee, they can't see what Pan is doing. And so they're like, hey, what are you doing? And Pan's like, I can't find my keys. I lost my keys. I think I must have dropped them on the climb down here, like back on the stairs. And then Pan just began shutting. back towards the stairs. And Henry and Lee, they can hear the sound now of Pan climbing on the furniture, like looking for his keys in the total darkness. Like, how is he going to find his keys here? And they're like, hey, like, come on. Like, we can find these later. But Pan's like, no, I have to find

these keys. I won't be able to get home later unless I have these keys. I got to look. And so Henry and Lee, they're like, oh my gosh, like we don't want to be down here. And they're like, look, let's just go down. We'll get the shuttlecock. We'll come right back. And I'm sure by the time we're back, he'll still be looking for his keys and we can help him and we'll figure it out. And so Pan, like he's in his own world, he's looking for his keys. And Henry and Lee, they sort of relinked their arms and they begin speedwalking down the hall to get this the shuttlecock. However, after only a few moments, Henry and Lee began to notice something really unsettling about what was happening to them. Like they're in this dark hallway, they have this single light ahead of

them that they're walking towards. And it's all they want to do is get to that door, get through there, and get where they came here to come find. But it was like, no matter how fast they walked, they couldn't get closer to the light. They couldn't get to the door. And as they both, like, simultaneously, but without saying anything, are experiencing this, they began speeding up to the point where they were practically running down the hall, but it didn't matter. It's like they could not get to this door. And eventually the two came to a stop. And Henry, in a very, like, fearful voice, he says to Lee in the darkness, they can't see each other. He's like, hey, does it feel like we're not getting closer to the door?

And Lee, in an equally frightened voice, is like, yeah, we're not. Like, I don't know what's going on. And so Henry, for whatever reason, he turned around to just look in the direction they had come from. And when he turned around, it's like the only thing he could say is it was like he was looking into the blackest, blackness he had ever seen in his life. It was like there was a vacuum, a void in front of him where the hallway had been. I mean, before, it had been a dark hallway where he couldn't see anything, but it was like even in this total darkness, he was discerning somehow something that was even darker. Like he had been swallowed by something. And so now he's scared. You know,

he has no idea if Lee is also experiencing this, this weird phenomenon of feeling like he was in this void. But for Henry, it was like the only, thing that was anchoring him to reality was the fact that he could feel Lee on his arm. And so Henry began yelling out for Pan because he's, you know, in his mind, he's looking back in the direction of the stairs, even though he can't see them. And his friend Pan, his best bud, is like right over there. He's calling out to him. But not only did he not get a response from Pan, but when Henry called out, his voice echoed, like way more than it should have. There hadn't been an echo when they got down there. Now his voice is echoing as if he's inside of like a massive cave or something.

And so Henry, he waited for the echo to stop. And when it did, he expected to, you know, maybe hear somewhere in the distance the sound of Pan, you know, sifting through all the furniture on the stairs, still looking for his keys. But no, it was silent. It was like a completely eerie silence had fallen over the space that they were inhabiting. And Henry, he felt Lee grip onto to his arm even tighter. And then Henry, he had this thought that was so strange and so crystal clear. It almost felt like it was coming from outside of him. It was like a voice whispering in his mind. And when this happened, it filled Henry with this overwhelming, almost primal sense of fear. The voice that now was just magically playing in Henry's head, it said, the place you came from

doesn't exist anymore. And as soon as Henry heard that, it was like he felt goosebumps, rise all along his arms. He felt like a caged animal desperate to escape. He was trapped down here. And the only way out now

was just to get out that door at the end of the hall. That was the one thing he knew he had to do was just get out of that door. And so Henry, you know, feeling Lee on his arm still, he just yelled, we have to run, run towards the door.

And the two of them turned and they just start sprinting down the hallway as fast as they could to get to that door. And so Henry and Lee, they're holding hands, they're sprinting as fast as they can to get to this door, and this time they were able to close the distance and get to the door. But when they burst through the door, it was not like a room that had been lit up by a basement ventilation window. There was not a shuttlecock on the ground. Like, none of that was in place. Instead, when Henry and Lee burst into this room, all Henry could see was just sunlight. It was so bright. It was almost disorienting. And he also smelled

fresh air like he was outside. And then he actually saw the sky was above him. He was outside. And directly in front of him was this concrete staircase. And so Henry and Lee, they just, you know, without saying anything, they run up these stairs because what else can they do? And when they get to the top, they realize they are not, you know, near the abandoned dorm building that they went into to arrive in that basement. They're not even on their school property anymore. Even though they only went into a dorm building and only were in that space this whole time, they are now on an elementary school property that was blocks away from their high school campus. Like it made no sense where they were.

And so Henry and Lee, they're looking at each other. They're looking around. Like, none of this made any sense. Like, there is no way to go from their high school to this location here. There was no underground tunnel. I mean, actually, there was pretty serious security around this elementary school. There was a gate that kept people out. Like, how did they bypass security and wind up here?

I mean, there's so many questions. It's like, what's happened? How are we here? This makes no sense. But as weird as this was, it actually wasn't even Henry's biggest worry at this very moment. The thing that was terrifying Henry was that his best friend Pan was not here with them. He had to be back inside of that basement. And so Henry's first thought was, okay, as crazy as this is that we are here,

we need to retrace our steps and go find Pan. And then we can figure this thing out. And so he and Lee, they ran back down the stairs and they tried to open the door that had led them out here, but it was locked. And so without any other option, Henry and Lee just began. began running back in the direction of their high school. They jumped over the security gate that led them onto the elementary school campus. They cleared that and they ran down the road and eventually they got back to the high school campus grounds and they went directly to the

front door of that abandoned dorm building where they had entered the first time. And Henry, he immediately tried to open the door and remember the store had been opened not too long ago. That's how they got into the building, but now this door was locked. Henry, at this point, he spun around thinking, oh, when? The other friend who had not wanted to go with them, who had decided to stay outside, to stand guard. You know, he's got to be out here somewhere. But Henry looked around, and Lee, he also began looking around, but when wasn't out here? And there was nobody else on the badminton courts either. Like, this place is abandoned. There's no one here. And in fact, when they looked over towards, like, the main area, where they should have been,

had they stayed with their gym class, they're thinking, you know, there's no way. gym class is over. We've only been gone for like, you know, 10 minutes or something. They looked and nobody was out there. Like it looked like gym class had ended and the kids had gone back inside the main school building. And so Henry and Lee, they run over to the main building and they look in one of the windows actually into the cafeteria and they see that, yes, clearly their class has gone back inside and now they're in there and they're eating lunch. And Henry and Lee, they immediately see their buddy Wend, who was supposed to be standing guard. He was in there as well, and he was eating at a table all by himself.

And so Henry and Lee, they rush inside the cafeteria, they go right over to Wend, and they begin bombarding him with questions. Like, what happened? Did you just, like, bail on us? Did Pan get caught by one of the teachers? Like, we don't know where he is. Did a teacher lock the door to the abandoned building? Because it's locked now.

We try to go in there. We don't know where Pan is. Like, hey, like, where is Pan? Have you seen Pan? And when, he's hearing all these questions, and Henry's seeing on Wend's face that, that Wen is really confused by their questions. Not like he doesn't have the answer,

but it's like he doesn't understand what they're even asking him. And for a second, he just stared back at them when they were done firing off all their questions, and he's just staring at them, and then he looks at Henry and he's like, who is Pan? It would turn out, Pan Bowen was not just missing. Henry and Lee, after hearing this weird question from when,

They began speaking to literally hundreds of other students at their school. That same day, they just went around talking to everybody, desperately trying to understand where Pan Bowen had gone. Again, despite what Wen said about not knowing who they're talking about, like, who's Pan. Like, forget that. Where is Pan? But nobody they spoke to that day. Knewer he was, one.

But more than that, they also did not know. Much like when, who Pan was. Like, they're like, who are you talking about? There is no Pan Bowen. And so Henry and Lee, they literally don't even know what to do. Like, this is madness. And so they got their hands on a list of the students enrolled at their high school. And they found that Pan's name was not listed. And then that day when Henry went home, because what else could he do? Like, he couldn't find his friend. He has no explanation for any of this. He goes home. And he starts talking to his parents about what happened to Pan and like this, none of this makes sense. And his parents are like, who is this Pan person?

Like, his parents who know Pan is his best friend. They are saying, what are you talking about? Who's Pan? And then after that, Henry went over to Pan's apartment where he knew he lived and the apartment was there. But Pan wasn't. The apartment was occupied by some different family who also didn't know who Pan was. Henry eventually got back to his home and he went to his computer and began looking for pictures of himself and Pan, just to like prove to himself that he wasn't going crazy, that this was his best friend we're talking about here. But when he would open the files that he believed were pictures of him and Pan, the files wouldn't open. They were corrupted or damaged. And so Pan was just gone. And not just like gone as in never left

the basement of that old dorm building. But he was gone from his apartment. He was gone from all official documents, he was gone from pictures, and he was gone from seemingly everybody's minds, like no one could recall who Pan Bowen was, except for Henry and Lee. Henry would eventually visit a psychiatrist, because this was obviously an enormous trauma for him, and the psychiatrist would tell him that the stress of studying for that Gao-Cow exam had caused him to hallucinate a multi-year-long friendship with a fictional person, Pan Bowen. Now, Henry did not believe this, but everyone seemed to think that he and Lee were basically crazy. So eventually, Henry and Lee decided that, you know, realistically, their only choice here is just to move on.

Now, Henry didn't accept this. I mean, he's thinking this is insane. Like, I didn't make this up. There's another person here in Lee that also knows Pan. Like, it's not just me. There's two people here saying that this has happened. But, you know, what Henry and Lee realized, is that literally everybody in their life is telling them, like, no, you're wrong. Like, basically you're crazy.

And there was no way forward, at least not without huge friction in their life in every way. And so ultimately, Henry and Lee just decided to move on. The two would go on to take their gaukow exams. They would get into different colleges, and the two would actually just grow apart. But eventually, Henry, he just, he couldn't. stopped thinking about his friend Pan and he would actually write about Pan online. And what he wrote, the story about what happened, the story that I've just shared with you, it went extremely viral in China. Now, some people thought the psychiatrist was right and that Henry had simply

hallucinated the whole thing. Others thought maybe he and Lee were experiencing what's called the Mandela effect, you know, basically where you have this really strong memory of how something was, but when you go back and look at it, you realize it's completely different than how you remember it, like people thought maybe that's it. Or some people thought maybe Henry and Lee traveled to an alternate universe. You know, that's what was happening when they were in the basement, that they had just gone to another universe. Or, of course, the other theory was that Henry and Lee were simply making this whole thing up. But we'll likely never know for sure, because only a few months after Henry posted that story that went viral about Pan, he inexplicably deleted it and deleted basically everything

he had ever shared about Pan online. And to this day, he now refuses to acknowledge that he ever even shared that story. On the afternoon of March 24, 1930, a woman named Danya Esparsa hurried a customer out of her wedding dress shop in the city of Chihuahua, Mexico. And then, once that customer was out the door, she quickly switched the shop sign to closed. and began cleaning up from the last fitting. And as she did, she was merrily singing to herself the whole time because she was now in just a great mood. So the reason Donya Esparza was in such a good mood is because her daughter, Pasquilita, was coming home after this really long trip to France that she had been on. So she's finally coming home. Now, the circumstances surrounding

why she was coming home were maybe not great in terms of, you know, from her daughter's perspective, After all, this trip to France was supposed to have been Pasquilita's honeymoon, but the wedding had been called off at the last minute. Her daughter had still gone to France, but, you know, she didn't get married. Now, of course, Danya Sparza felt terrible, you know, for her daughter, the idea that she had to endure so much pain here. I mean, that was really bad. But selfishly, as a mom who really loved her daughter, she couldn't help but be a little bit excited here because the fact that her daughter was not going to be getting married meant that Pasquilita would not be moving out, which meant Pasquilita could live at home with Donya.

And she loved living with her daughter and the idea of getting to do that for even a little bit longer was incredible. And the added bonus was Pasquilita in virtue of living at home with her mom would also be around to help out with the family store to work in the family's dress shop. So for Danya Esparza, this was kind of great. And so Donya Asparza spent a while tidying up, you know, just in this great mood. And then eventually she heard the knock on her front door that she was waiting for and she rushed over to answer it. And sure enough, just a few minutes later, Danya Asparza was ushering Pasquilita back inside, just absolutely beaming to have her daughter back home.

And then as soon as they were inside, Danya Asparza, she's looking at her daughter and, you know, she's really happy, but she knows her daughter has, you know, had this horrible thing happen to her. And so she's looking at her trying to gauge, you know, how she looks, you know, is she really upset here? But, but no, I mean, Pasquilita looked unbelievably refreshed. She didn't look upset at all. I mean, she kind of looked great. Rosie cheeks, you know, her makeup all done.

I mean, she was beautiful. And in many ways, didn't appear, at least outwardly, to be totally depressed about, you know, her wedding. And so for the rest of that day, Sparza, she totally doted on her daughter, she just completely fond over her, you're so great, it's so good to have you at home. And then the next day, she put her daughter to work, because after all, she needed the help. And then, really, over the next few weeks and months, you know, the two of them just sort of fell into a rhythm, working every day together, and it really didn't take long before the canceled wedding sort of became a distant memory, at least for Donya Esparza,

and, you know, as much as she could understand about her daughter, it seemed like that was not something she was thinking about at all. A few years later, on Valentine's Day, Donya Asparzo was hemming a dress when she began hearing singing coming from somewhere outside the dress shop. And so Donya Asparza, she goes over to the windows, she looks outside, and she sees there's a man out there. And he's standing on the sidewalk and he's looking at the shop and he's clearly belting out this love song it sounded like, and he's got this bouquet of flowers in his hand. And from the sound of it, at least, you know, to Donya Asper's, You know, it seemed like this might have been a song he had written himself because the lyrics were not very good,

but it did suggest then that he had really come here with quite a bit of intention if he's singing a homemade love song. And so Danya Asparza realizes that, of course, this must be another suitor that has come by to try to win her daughter's heart. And the reason that Danya Asparza so quickly jumped to this specific conclusion is because men seem to be constantly courting and trying to win the heart of Pasquilita. I mean, ever since she had come back from France, ever since her wedding was called off, you know, she had been working in the store, and one of her core responsibilities was actually standing in the window and modeling the dresses. I mean, Pasquilita was incredibly beautiful, and the dresses just looked amazing on her, and it really drummed up quite a bit of business. Lots of people wanted to buy the dress that Pasquilita was

swearing, but more than that, men were just drawn to her, and they would show up and they would sing songs to win her affection. But over the years, it was like no matter how many suitors tried to get Pasquilita's attention, so far anyways, she had simply ignored them. And for Donya Sparza, that was okay, because really she loved having her daughter here with her, at home, at the shop with her. She didn't want that to change. And so really keep the men away. That was okay with her. And so now, Donya Sparza, she sat at the window and just openly stared at this man who was singing his homemade love song, you know, through the glass to Pasquilita. And Donya Sparza, she just watched until the man eventually just gave up and walked away. And then Donia Sparza, she breathed a sigh of relief and went back to her chair and just got back to work.

37 years later, in 1967, Danya Esparsa died. But Pasquilita stayed at the family dress shop, where she continued to model wedding dresses, even though she was now much older. And in fact, today, almost 100 years after her wedding was called off and she came back from France, almost 100 years after the fact, Pasquilita is still working in that dress shop. And if you look at her, it's like she hasn't aged at all. Because when Pasquilita's wedding was called off in the winter of 1930, it was not because she or her fiance just didn't want to get married. It was because Pasquilita died from getting stung by a scorpion right before the wedding.

But instead of having her daughter buried, Donya Asparza sent Pasquilita's corpse over to France to have it embalmed. And so Pasquilita's rosy cheeks were a product of the makeup the morticians put on them during the embalming process and her eyes sparkled so beautifully because they had been replaced with glass eyeballs. And so when the now preserved corpse came back, Ganya Asparza put it in the display window

and told her customers that Pasquilita, her corpse, was actually just a mannequin, a really realistic, beautiful mannequin. But the reality was, nobody really believed her. I mean, she said, this is a mannequin, but it's like, come on, like, that's not a mannequin. That is a corpse. And that is really the reason so many people showed up to the shop in droves to see the corpse, or just to see what all the fuss was about.

And believe it or not, men really did show up with flowers in hand and would sing to, you know, Pasquilita's corpse in the window posing with a dress on, even though obviously she could never return their love. But, you know, hey, love just drives people to do crazy things, like singing to a corpse. Today, Pasquilita's corpse is in the care of Donya Esparza's descendants, who still own that dress shop, and they still use her to model wedding dresses, and they still deny she is anything other than a really realistic mannequin. Although, They have refused to allow anyone to see the mannequin undressed or to allow any testing of any kind. More recently, though, there have been reports from people who claim to have actually seen Pasqualea move out of the corner of their eye.

And it said that if you get too close to her and you look her right in the eyes, you'll meet the same fate as Pasquilita and die. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events. but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone and Cole Lacasio.

This episode was written by Karas Pash Cooper. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoose, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, Camille Callahan, Alex Paul, Ben Fasiano. Research and fact-checking supervision. by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacasio and Jordan Stidham. Production support by Antonio Manada and Delana Corley. Artwork by Jessica Clogston-Kiner, theme song, Something Wicked, by Ross Bugden.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballin podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and ad free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com slash podcast plus

to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see you.