MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Point of No Return (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Today, I’m going to tell you two stories about people who found themselves in hopeless situations. But they made an unexpected choice that changed their lives – for better or worse.   You can WATCH all new & exclusive MrBallen podcast episodes on my YouTube channel, just called "MrBallen" - https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen If 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 @mrballen Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, I'm going to share two stories about people who found themselves in truly just hopeless situations. And in both of these stories, the main character makes a very unexpected decision that completely changes their lives for better or for worse. 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 place 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 surprise the follow button with a brand new wireless controller for their gaming console. But don't tell them it's really just their old controller that you cut the wire off of. Okay, let's get into our first story, which is called homesick.

One night in late August of 1557, a Frenchman in his 30s named Martin Gare was laying in a bed in a makeshift military hospital in St. Quentin, France, writhing around in pain. So a few weeks earlier, Martin had fought in this massive battle between the French and Spanish armies, and it had been this just horrible, bloody, violent battle, and during it, Martin had been wounded very severely. In fact, he had lost his leg. Now, this injury was obviously just devastating and very painful, but Martin also knew he was just lucky to be alive here. The doctors who had treated him at one point had seemed certain that he was going to die. So Martin and his doctors were all very surprised when he didn't die and he pulled through and survived.

And Martin knew that a lot of his comrades who'd already left St. Quentin by this point and moved on with the army or gone back home, they very likely thought that he had died given how bad it looked. But he was alive and in a lot of pain. And really more than that, he was just like sort of devastated. I mean, he was incredibly lonely. you know, all of his army mates had basically left the hospital or just moved on with their careers or they'd gone home. And he was still here, you know, unable to leave the hospital.

And he has this injury too. Like he hasn't really gotten used to life without the use of his leg. And so his whole world has come crashing down. He's sort of by himself. You know, all he has is the few army doctors who periodically come over and check on him. But beyond those people, he was just isolated and sort of trapped with these awful thoughts in his head 24-7. And eventually, these spiraling thoughts became really like the worst thing he was dealing with. Like, they surpassed the actual physical pain he was dealing with.

It was just this incredible depression that had set in. So Martin, he had grown up in the small rural village in southern France called Artiga. And he had gotten married at a very young age to a woman named Bertrand. And they had loved each other very much. And they had a son together. However, Martin had sort of completely messed up his life when he saw. stole some grain from his father and had to literally flee town. Stealing, especially from a family member at the time, was not only criminal, but really quite shameful. And Martin had been so

afraid of what people would say and what they would think of him that he decided not to face them at all. And he just left R.T. God, leaving behind Bertrand and his son and his whole life. Now, initially, after he had sort of run away, he had considered going back and just saying he was sorry and accepting whatever punishment he'd be given. But he was always too scared to do it. And so he just didn't. And then before long, he got caught up in this war. And then years had passed by. It's like he's basically just gone. He's been removed from Bertrand in his son's life. Like, he's just out of their lives. He's left them. And now, you know, he's had his leg blown off. And in his mind, you know, in this depressed state he was in, now, you know, he had never really

stopped thinking about his former life. He missed his wife terribly, but he's thinking to himself, I'm not the person she married. I'm a different person. I'm a degraded, like, bad person. Like, she wouldn't even want to be with me at this point. And then beyond Bertrand and his son, like, and how they would look at him, he also was thinking that, like, he was this thief, this shameful person that the rest of the village would not welcome back. So in his mind, he really felt not just isolated in this hospital, you know, with no, army mates nearby, you know, stuck because of this injury, but he's also thinking, I don't even have a place in the world. Like, I have nothing. My life is ruined. And so as Martin lay in the hospital

bed, you know, having these horrible thoughts and feeling all this physical pain in his leg, you know, just having this horrible time, he found his mind wondering to somebody else in his life that had been very important to him. His friend Arnault. He just wished if there was one person that he could talk to right now, it would be him. So Arnault was. a fellow soldier. And before this really horrible battle where Martin lost his leg, the two had been great friends and they bonded because they had a lot in common. They were both from small towns in the south of France, and they even looked the same like they could pass his brothers. So they've gotten really close and they talked about their lives and they shared a lot with one

another. But like everyone else in the military that Martin had been friendly with or just worked with, Arnault had moved on. He was no longer here. He had gone somewhere else, you know, wherever the army sent him. And so Arnaud was just yet another person in his life who he wished he could spend more time with but knew he wouldn't. And so Martin's recovery would take a very long time. He was stuck in a hospital, basically bedridden with these horrible thoughts and this awful pain for weeks and then months and then years passed by. And Martin still was just a shell of himself. And so he actually was moved to hospice care. However, after getting to hospice, Martin actually didn't die.

Like, typically hospice care is for people that are at the end of life and that no longer is it about trying to save them. It's about keeping them comfortable until they pass away. But for Martin, he didn't die. He actually got better. And one afternoon in early September of 1560, so now about three years or so after he had lost his leg, Martin sat on a bench outside of the hospice that he had been standing. staying in since the war had ended. Now, where he was located was actually just, you know, a few miles

from his hometown, Artie Gah. But despite the now close proximity to, you know, his former life, if you will, to Martin, it felt like, you know, Artigat could have been a million miles away. Couldn't have felt further away for him. So after Martin sort of miraculously healed inside of hospice care and he was outfitted with a wooden prosthetic leg and was told that he could now leave and go about his life? Well, it was good, on the one hand, he got to go, you know, back into reality, but he still had a lot of health problems as a result of his injuries. And, you know, given this treacherous stretch of time where he had just been like stuck in bed having these horrible thoughts, he had completely convinced himself that truly he was like a shell of the man he used to be

and that nobody from his previous life would want him, not his wife, not his son, not anybody. Like he was nothing now. And so even though Martin was like better at this point, in his mind, he sort of had resigned himself to simply wasting away and dying all alone. He just figured, even though the doctors say I'm better, that's the path I'm on and I'm not going to change it. But now, as Martin sat outside on this bench, he heard a voice. And when he looked over at the road in front of the hospice where he heard this voice,

he saw there was a man that he had never met before who was clearly walking towards him. Like, that was the person speaking to him. As the man approached Martin, he asked him, are you Martin Gare? And when Martin slowly nodded, saying, yes, I am, this man's face lit up, and he explained that he'd been looking all over for him. He said he'd been sent here on behalf of Martin's family back in Artiga, and he wanted to bring Martin back to them. When Martin heard this, he couldn't believe it.

I mean, he really was so convinced that he was just destined for a life of shame and agony until he died. And now to hear that his family wants him back, they're looking for him? Like, this was incredible. This was unbelievable. I mean, he really assumed he would never go home again. And now here was this guy saying, come with me, let's go home. However, before Martin could ask any follow-up questions of which he had many, like about his family and what they asked about him, that kind of thing, the man told Martin that actually he had been sent here to get Martin and he was going to bring him home, but first, they needed to stop at the courthouse in a city called Toulouse. Martin looked at him like, what do you mean?

And the man explained the reason behind it, and Martin simply couldn't believe what he was being told. A few days later, on the morning of September 12th, Martin climbed out of a wagon in front of the courthouse in Toulouse, a city about 40 miles away from R.T. Gap. And Martin, he felt butterflies in his stomach as he, you know, used his cane to climb the court steps to get up to the front doors. And then when he got up there, he took a deep breath, threw open the double doors, and stepped inside. And the instant he did, the first thing he saw is the entire courthouse was filled with people. And they all turned to look at him and everyone's speaking with these hushed voices like, oh my goodness, I can't believe it. And that's when

Martin realized he had just walked directly in to the middle of a trial. And so Martin, for a second, he just stood there staring back at all these people who were turned to look at him, and he realized that he recognized many of their faces. He saw some of his friends, he saw his uncle Pierre and some of his sisters. He saw his wife Bertrand, as well as a boy sitting next to her, who must have been his son. And all of these people, they are looking at Martin with just looks of absolute shock on their faces. Like, they were completely stunned to see him, and they're all looking at his wooden leg,

and they're looking back at him. It was like they couldn't believe he had just walked in here. However, before Martin could really, you know, fully appreciate the emotional moment he was having here, you know, seeing his loved ones after over a decade, he first looked towards the front of the courthouse. And as soon as Martin saw what was up there, he knew that what that man had told him who came up to him on the bench in front of the hospice was true. And Martin had to bite his lip to keep from screaming. It would turn out, Martin was wrong to believe that, you know, his wife and the town of Artiga would never accept him back, that he was worthless and should never return. Because his wife Bertrand and the town of Artigua actually did welcome him back. Or so they thought.

because when Martin walked into that courthouse and looked towards the front of the room, what he saw was his long-lost buddy Arnaud from the war, and Arnaud was on trial. Arnaud did not just look like he could be Martin's brother. He looked exactly like Martin. And since Arnaud really had been very disliked in his own hometown for being a con artist, He wanted a fresh start in a new place after he left the army. So, years earlier, while Martin was lying in a makeshift Army hospital so badly injured that doctors were telling him he was almost certainly going to die while that was happening,

his best bud Arnaud, Arnaud, was using their likeness and his knowledge of Martin's life from all the times that Martin had confided in his friend to literally steal Martin's life. Arnault had waltzed into Artiga and told everyone there that he was Martin Gare. And the entire town not only believed him, they celebrated his return. Arnault was actually so convincing that even Bertrand had believed Arnaud was her husband and she had gone on to have two additional children with him believing this was Martin. However, one person, Martin's uncle, Pierre, he just didn't buy him. He thought this guy was a fake. He thought he was an imposter and he took him to court for fraud.

And that trial was why the man had tracked Martin down at the hospice and brought him to Toulouse to help prove to everyone there that, look, Arnault's an imposter because here's the real Martin. And of course, it worked. Because when Martin stepped into that courtroom and his own family laid eyes on him, the actual Martin Gare, they realized right away that Arnaud truly was a fake. Arnault was ultimately sentenced to death and hanged in front of Martin's house in Artiga while the entire village watched. As for Bertrand, Martin's wife, she was horrified to learn that she had not recognized her own husband and that she had had two kids with a stranger. She begged Martin to forgive her, but he never did.

Our second and final story today is called Layers. One morning in November of 1940, an 84-year-old prospector, named Irwin Robertson, hiked down a snowy ridge in the Alaskan wilderness. He was pushing this sled that was full of supplies and animal first, and it was pretty hard. I mean, as he was pushing this thing along, he was working so hard that he was breathing really heavy, and even though it was really cold outside, he could feel himself sweating underneath his clothes, like he was going to be covered in sweat. Now, Irwin knew that what he was doing was, you know, risky. I mean, after all, he certainly was not as young as he used to be, and you don't want to get hurt out here or, you know, totally

exhaust yourself out here. I mean, this is the wild. But Erwin was not about to slow down, because he could just not wait to get home. So Irwin had come to this area about 40 years earlier as part of the big Alaskan gold rush. And so, like basically every other prospector, he spent every summer and every fall at a cabin up in the mountains, predominantly hunting and mining. But his real home, you know, where he really considered where he lived, was in the pioneer town of Eagle, Alaska, where he lived during the winter and the spring. And that is where Erwin was headed this morning. He had just wrapped up a very successful fall season up in the mountains, and he'd actually intended on staying in the cabin up in the mountains a bit longer. But a few days ago, the temperature

had suddenly dropped, and Irwin did not have the supplies to wade out a winter storm up in that cabin. So he had packed up his things, told the handful of other prospectors in the area where he was going, and then he set out for Eagle. Now, this was a 100-mile trek to get to his home and Eagle, and it was through some very rough terrain, and also he's in Alaska, so this is like a very rough area to be navigating. But Irwin had made the trip at least once a year for the past four decades, so he knew what he was doing. So despite really exerting himself here pushing the sled, he kept up as hard of a pace as he could manage for the next couple of hours and then finally, Finally, around midday, he allowed himself to slow down and just take a quick break.

However, after stopping and reaching into his parka and pulling out his canteen to take a sip of water, as he's sipping the canteen, something catches his attention out of the corner of his eye. And even though all he saw was just like a flash of movement out in the trees, he knew immediately what it was. So during this trek so far, there was this pack of wolves that was following him. He knew they were following him. But again, this is a man who lived in the wilds of Alaska, and so he was not unaccustomed to running into packs of wolves. He knew they were quite dangerous, especially for a guy who's alone in the woods right now.

But he wasn't that concerned. However, he's thinking, okay, they're right over there. I'm going to take a very quick break. He capped his canteen, put it back in his parka, and he's like, I'm going to keep on moving here. A few hours later, Irwin was a good ways further down the ridge, but he was starting to start. starting to get cold. In fact, ice had formed on his beard and on his eyelashes. So the temperature had dropped much faster than he had expected, and he was starting to get worried because he knew it was only going to get much worse after the sun went down. And remember, he's been exerting

himself this whole time. He's been sweating under his clothes, so he's wet under his clothes. And now the temperature's dropping, so he's like getting really, really cold. And so he decided that it was in his best interest to actually just stop right now and build a fire and just make sure he was warm. And so Irwin, he continued pushing his sled, you know, keeping his eyes peeled for a good spot to actually stop and make camp. But as he's moving along, he hears something that causes him to just stop. It wasn't the sound of wolves. It was the sound of trickling water. And much like the wolves, water was quite dangerous out in the wilds of Alaska. But in many ways, water, especially in a very cold environment like this, was like the most lethal to people.

Because getting fully wet in these temperatures basically guaranteed you would freeze to death. So, Erwin moved very cautiously forward because, again, all he can do is hear the trickling water. He doesn't know where it is, and he's thinking, I better be careful I don't accidentally step into a creek or something and get wet here. He's already wet from sweating underneath his close, he can't afford to get more wet. And so he's moving carefully and cautiously. And then he rounds a bend and he actually sees the source of the sound. It was a creek that had basically completely frozen over with the exception of a little bit of water that was sort of leaking out and sort of spilling out over the ice itself. And over time, like this water that was making the

sound and leaking out, it was sort of freezing in layers on the surface of this creek. And so it was kind of like this, you know, moundy block of ice that was sitting on top of this creek, but you could clearly see water sort of trickling its way through it. And so when Irwin saw this, he realized that, you know, as long as he was very careful to avoid stepping on the frozen creek itself, that this area would actually make a great spot to spend the night. He could refill his canteen from the little spout of water coming out of the creek. Plus, there were a bunch of dead trees nearby, which were perfect for firewood. And this was good news, because by this point, was so cold he was shivering. So he parked his sled and then began gathering up some firewood.

But as he was going around doing this, he spotted a few of those wolves who had not stopped following him, not very far away from him. They were sort of lingering in the trees, clearly watching him. And for the first time, Irwin started to feel pretty anxious about these wolves. You know, the fact that they were now even closer than the last time he saw them suggested that, you know, one, they're still following him, but two, they're getting. braver, they're getting closer. But Erwin's thinking, like, I can't just continue on here. You know, as much as it makes sense to get away from the wolves, I'm beat physically and I'm soaked, my clothes are wet, like I'm getting so cold, I'm going to die of hypothermia if I'm not careful.

I got to start this fire. I have to make camp here. I just have to. About 20 minutes later, Erwin had gathered up all the wood that he would need and he piled it all next to his sled, and then he got ready to start his fire. And in this kind of very cold environment, actually starting the fire, the process of igniting the fire, was a potentially very dangerous process because in order to light the match, to light the fire, Erwin would have to take off his mittens and expose his hands to the freezing cold. But Erwin had to do it, so he reached down and he bit one of his mittens and pulled it off with his teeth, and then with that hand he reached into his parka and he pulled out his fire kit, which contained these thin scraps of tinder that he

would use as fire-starting material. Then he grabbed a match and he struck it to light it, but it didn't catch. Like the head of the match did not catch on fire. And so Irwin tried again, striking the match once more, but it didn't light. And again, he just kept trying over and over. And eventually he just snapped the match in half. Now, Erwin didn't panic because he knew that, you know, in extreme cold, some matches light better than others. And some don't even light at all. And he had seen this happen before. So he wasn't panicking. Instead, he pulled. He pulled. hold off his other mitton to make sure he had max dexterity here, and he took out the other match, and he held the thing he was striking it against, and he struck this second match, thinking

this one will light. But it didn't, and he tried again and again, and he's starting to get a little panicked when finally he strikes the match, and this one does catch. But by this point, he's now had his naked hands exposed to the unbelievably cold temperatures for over a minute, and his hands were like starting to seize up. from the cold. They were shaking, in fact, so badly from the cold that even though he's got this light, his hands shook so much that by the time he transferred it to the tinder, the shaking caused it to extinguish. It was out. And at this point, Irwin did start to panic,

because his hands are in so much pain and they're so stiff from the cold that he was afraid that even if he put his mittens back on his hands, they wouldn't warm up fast enough for him to then remove his mitten and try this whole fire thing again. He really needs to the fire in order to warm his hands, but obviously he needs his hands to make the fire. And so he's got a problem here. So, Erwin, who was not one to give up easily, he just gritted his teeth and with his failing hands, he just reached down and, you know, fumbled and grabbed a third match, thinking, I got to light this one, I got to start this fire to warm my hands up, to warm my whole body up, I got to do this. And so he's got this third match. He's barely able to hold it.

And it took all his focus just not to drop it. But finally, he managed. to scrape it against the side of this matchbook, and to his relief, it did catch. And so immediately, Erwin very carefully, you know, kind of sheltered this little flame, and he carried it over to the tinder, and he put the flame on the tinder, but nothing happened. Erwin waited for the bundle to catch fire, but it just didn't. And then the flame, the match, just burned out. And for a long moment, Erwin just stared at this scene in front of him in confusion. He didn't understand because he knew that this time he had done it all right.

He had lit the match. He put it on the Tinder. He had done this so many times before, but it's just not working. But then he looked more closely at the Tinder, and his heart just sank because he knew that the situation he was in was truly catastrophic. Several days later, there were some people living in Eagle, Alaska, who noticed that Irwin was not in Eagle. He had not arrived.

And it didn't make any sense because he had told people, when he would be there. And, you know, there was no reason he would be late unless something happened. And so these folks were just concerned enough that they went to authorities. And by November 19th, which is almost exactly a week after Irwin had struggled to light that fire, the U.S. Marshal's office was out in force looking for Irwin. And so on November 19th, a deputy from the U.S. Marshal's office who was out in the wilderness, you know, a part of this search, he and his team came through these trees and he saw this clearing up ahead, and he noticed there was something in the middle of it. It was a sled that was surrounded by supplies and it was set up on the bank

of a frozen creek. And so immediately the deputy thought, like, this could be Irwin's sled. He could be nearby. And so he and his men, they rush down to this sled and they look around and they see there's like a rifle propped up against a tree and there's the stack of unused firewood and there's all this tinder and a bunch of matches that are strewn about on the ground that also don't appear to have been used. But beyond these supplies and these things they're seeing, there was nothing else, like Irwin was not here. However, the longer the deputy stood there just looking around, the more he realized what actually must have happened to Irwin. Because after sort of doing an initial scan, he realized there was something else in this clearing

that he hadn't noticed at first, Wolf tracks. The deputy told his men that, you know, very likely Irwin has been killed and carried off by wolves here. So follow these tracks and see if we can recover Irwin's body. And so the search party set out to go look. However, pretty quickly, they realized that, you know, as they're following these tracks, that something just seemed off here. You know, it seemed obvious given that Irwin had not shown up yet. He's been found.

His stuff's all here. He's not here. And there's these tracks here. It seemed obvious that he must have been killed by wolves. But they don't see any blood anywhere. Like, wouldn't he have been attacked by? his stuff and there'd be signs of an attack and then he's been like dragged off there should be a trail of blood or something you know any any indication that a struggle happened but no it was just tracks nothing

else and so eventually as the deputy and his men are just following these tracks sort of farther and farther away from the sled and what they had found near the creek they stopped and they're like hold on a minute like something doesn't add up here but let's go back and take another look at the actual site where the sled was because again there's there's no evidence of an actual wolf attack There's just evidence of wolves. And so they turn around and they follow the wolf tracks back to where the sled is, and they start looking around more closely for, you know, maybe there is some sign of a wolf attack that they missed,

and they're looking around, and they eventually spot what appeared to be Irwin's tracks. And they began following these, thinking that, you know, maybe Irwin had become hypothermic and confused and wandered off into the woods, and either he died out there or had been attacked out there by wolves, but, you know, let's follow these, and this is bound to lead us to wherever Erwin went. But the footprints, they only led away from the sled, like a few feet, before doubling back and stopping right at the edge of this frozen creek.

And so for a minute, the deputy's looking down, like, trying to make sense of how these tracks just stop right here, like, did they miss something? Like, where did Erwin go? But then the deputy just literally looked at the creek, towards the center of this frozen creek, which to that point he hadn't really been focusing on. It was like all the things on the land. Now he's looking at the creek itself. And suddenly, he knew what happened to Erwin. So a week earlier, on the night that Irwin is trying to start this fire, he's desperate, he's

becoming hypothermic, the wolves are nearby. He finally strikes that third match. He gets it to light, but the tinder won't light. Because the tender was wet. We can assume the reason it was wet is because he kept his fire kit inside of his parka, and he was working so hard with that sled, he was sweating so much that he sweat on the tinder, and he soaked it. And so now he does not have a way to start a fire. He cannot make fire. Without fire, he is going to freeze to death. There's no two ways about it. He is a veteran of

the Alaskan wilderness. He knows he's doomed. And worse than that is he knows the wolves are getting closer and closer. And so no longer was it about like, oh, what do I have to do to survive this thing? no, it became, how do I want to die? And as he listened to the wolves howl not too far away, he thought to himself, I certainly don't want to die by being eaten alive. And so he made a choice. A week later, the deputy from the U.S. Marshal's office was standing by the creek trying to figure out what happened to Irwin, and he looks out and he realizes there is a lump

in the middle of the ice, right in the center of the creek, that he had not recognized at first as anything significant, but now he was looking more closely and he realized it was Erwin. In an effort to avoid being eaten by wolves, Irwin had at some point walked into the middle of the creek, laid down on his back right in that break in the creek where that little bit of water was trickling out that he had filled up his canteen right there, and he had just laid there, and the water kept spilling out onto him and gradually froze in layers over his whole body. Essentially, freeing. freezing himself into this cocoon in the creek. And so eventually he had frozen to death inside of the creek, but the ice had kept the wolves away. 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 Lacassio. This episode was written by Kate Murdoch and Andrew Kelleher. Story editing by Evan Allen and by Luke Baratz. Research and fact-checking by Shoeh, 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 Lacosio and Jordan Stidham. Production support by Antonio Monata and Delana Corley.

Artwork by Jessica Clogston Kiner, theme song Something Wicked by Ross Bugden.