Otherworld - Episode 14: Chicago Tales

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

In this episode, we cover 3 different encounters that all take place in Chicago, Illinois. The first story involves a man seeing a UFO in Beverly. The second story comes from two brothers who saw a Cryptid, Mothman-like figure in the suburbs.  The third story comes from a woman named Jessi who I have interviewed for several years. Jessi grew up with a ghost girl in her room that she became very familiar with. To see photos related to this episode, click here Subscribe to Otherworld on Patreon for exclusive content and bonus interviews Check out our Merch Follow us on: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter  If you have experienced something paranormal or unexplained, email us your full story at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Otherworld. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. This week, I have a very special episode, a dedication to my home state and hometown, Chicago, Illinois, and all of the cities that surround it. Chicago is a very unique place. It's very different from where I live now in Los Angeles. In California, it's not uncommon at all to meet somebody at a party that starts talking to you about aliens or a ghost. or the psychic that they see, or the crystals they just bought. In fact, I think most people have some kind of story or connection to the type of thing that we cover on this show. In Chicago, that type of conversation does not get you very far at a dinner party. People in Chicago want to live a pretty simple, straightforward life.

It takes a lot to rattle the people of Chicago. They want to go to work, they want to come home, they want to watch the Bears game, they want to have a big fridge in their basement filled with Costco water bottles and beers, they want to have their friends over, have a good time, and go back to work. They don't really think about ghosts too much. They're not thinking about aliens, and when they do see something out of the ordinary, they tend to bottle it up pretty quickly from what I found. And I'd say it's almost impressive how little these things affect.

their lives when something does happen to them. I've had a lot of stories come to me from Chicago, but they are always told in a very specific way that I've grown to love. And that's not to say that Chicago does not have things happening. In fact, I'd say that Chicago is a remarkably haunted city. I mean, this is a place that completely burned to the ground in 1871. This is the home of Al Capone, H.H. Holmes, John Wayne Gasey, Bachelor's Cross,

Grove and Resurrection Mary. In fact, my great aunt saw John Dillinger get shot dead in 1931 outside the biograph theater, and she said that people were dipping popcorn in his blood for souvenirs. But despite all this, Chicagoans have a way of being extremely nonchalant and unaffected by all these things. They're the type of people that wouldn't even look up from the Bears game if an angel manifested before their eyes. In fact, if it got in the way of the TV, I'd say they'd probably yell at it.

And when people do come out of the woodwork with these stories, it always affects me quite a bit more. Because these are people who are not out there looking for this stuff. They're not trying to convince themselves of anything. These are people who do not want this disturbing their day-to-day lives. So, today on Otherworld, I have three stories from Illinois, specifically the Chicagoland area. And I think you're really going to enjoy them. And hopefully, after this episode comes out, I'll get even more stories submitted from the Chicagoland area because I know stuff's happening to you people and I know you're bottling it up. So let's get this episode started.

This is episode 14. I'm your host Jack Wagner and you're listening to Otherworld. Yes, and here. Yeah, let us know when you're ready. Okay, okay. This is a story. All right. Our first story comes from a guy named Ryan. He grew up in a town called Beverly on the south-south side of Chicago, very far south. This is a place that is home to a lot of

firefighters and police officers. It's extremely Irish and not a place where something like this tends to happen. Ryan has a very interesting UFO story for us. This is the first one to appear on Otherworld, and it's definitely not going to be the last. I'm hoping to get a lot more. Half of the reason I put out these stories is in hopes of getting more submitted. So if you've seen something, send it in. But I'm going to let Ryan tell this story himself. I think you're all going to like it.

So my name is Ryan. I'm from Chicago. I am 37 years old, and I'm currently, I do a count. counting work. So this story is from, it's got to be 2002 or 2001. I was 17 or 16 at the time. So it was like very early 2000s. And it's on the south side of Chicago. Well, technically, at this point, I was in the suburbs. But I was, my parents had split up and I was driving home from my dad's house, who lived in Beverly. for folks who don't know that's like cops firefighters white irish it's mostly filled with city workers because they got to be in the borders of chicago like they'd ask you not like what school you

went to what parish are you from like when you meet people they're like oh where you are you from saint saint sabinus or you know whatever that they don't care what school you want to they want to know Paris you're from. You're a deep in civilization. You know, like you're not, you don't go 20 minutes and then there's just a wide open sky and you can see everything. It's, you know, there's humanity and light pollution and there's just like not a lot of empty sky. You can't really see the stars out there. You know, you can see a couple on a clear night if you go away from the streetlights, but that's about it. Um, so I was, driving home, my parents had just got divorced. My old man had moved out to the burbs and I was driving home.

So like I said, it was like 2002. I remember I was in, like I had a string of really shitty cars, but the last really shitty car was 1988 Regency Broham Oldsmobile. It was about 10, 10.30. and it's funny, I remember exactly, I was, my parents had just divorced, and I was visiting him, and I was getting into punk rock music and all punk rock people love their records, and my dad had a bunch of records, and I had just gotten a bunch of records, terrible records,

never listened to him, but I just picked them up from his house and I was driving home to my mom's. And the car was in the back seat, it was just full of records. And we lived at the top of the hill, And me and another car came to this stop sign at the foot of the hill. And like as I'm starting to stop and waiting this car to go through, you know, normally I would just tap the brake and roll right through. But since there was another car there, I had to fully stop. And I keep on thinking back that it was something in my eye, like there was something on the periphery, like the top of my eyesight. but like I don't even know if I saw anything at the top of my eyesight.

I just think, oh, there's a plane up there because that's pretty much what you'd see around the area. Like we lived near Midway, which is the smaller Chicago airport. So most of the things you'd see flying overhead were planes and maybe a couple stars. But like right on the edge of my periphery, I thought it was a plane, I thought it whatever, but I didn't look up. But then like, you know, I was at the stop sign. and I just something there was a sense so just look up and I looked up and it was not an airplane. It was three lights in that formed like an equilateral triangle. So it was just like dink, ding, ding, just like forming a triangle and it had just drifted.

It was barely moving when I looked up and then it just like, froze. And obviously so did I. It was three lights moving in unison, stopping on a dime, just forming a triangle right above my head. I had to be five, six hundred feet away, up in the air. And I couldn't see anything. I just saw the three lights. Like I didn't see like the outline of anything. It was just like those three lights frozen right there. And me also frozen right there and just stopped and just looking up at it and like I wasn't scared I was just like awe and shock and like oh this this is here and I sat there for I don't know how long I didn't move the lights didn't move and then the lights began to rotate

and a center point. So it stayed and it kept the triangular shape, but the light started to rotate and stay in that triangle. And it was like there was a center point and they were all just sort of very slowly rotating around. And so it rotated a little bit and then boom, it shot like 200 feet in the other direction. just like change position in the sky.

Just like, voop, shot right across. It wasn't like there was a slow speed up. It was just, you blink and it moved. Like, it wasn't like, uh, moving. It was like foop. And then just stopped right there. And now it's still rotating.

I've been just in awe. And after it shot back to the original position, just back. and forth, the rotation sped up a little bit. Like, the points were, this whole time, once it started moving, the points, there was still a rotation happening. But now the rotation really started to speed up. It wasn't like going very, very fast, but it was faster than before.

And then I think I got a little scared. Like, what is it going to do? Like, I think maybe I was starting to think of, oh, here's my abduction, you know, I'm going to come to five hours later with this lost time. Before I could finish that thought, it just shot to the south and it was gone. Like it didn't even like disappear over the horizon. It was just like speeding up rotating and then just boom, gone. And like there was no like there's no contrails.

There's no exhaust. There was like nothing there to tell you that it was there except me seeing it. Nothing. And it was just gone. and like I think I just sat there in shock for like 30 seconds and turned up the hill to home parked, pulled my car in the garage, I don't park in the garage, I'm not allowed to, but I pulled in that garage

because I was starting to get a little scared. I was like, oh God, and I pulled in the garage and I picked up our house phone and I called my grandma to tell her what I saw. And like also my brother's a pilot at this time. He got his pilot's license very young. So, like, I knew, and I still know, like, a little bit about how flight happens, and, like, there's absolutely nothing that I know of now and knew of then and know of now that could do what that thing did. I found out much later in life that the government lies to you pretty much about everything.

So either there are aliens here or, like, you know, we have crazy technology. But I'm thinking it sort of confirmed my suspicion that, like, there's at least some. something out there. Like there's something not, not of our own technological understanding, which is something crazy, or it's like something like not from this world out there. It's funny because my girlfriend is like 100% believes in spirits and ghosts, and I'm just always like, ads bullshit. But then it's funny, this, during, during COVID, we went and stayed in Airbnb and I definitely saw and heard a ghost. So, that's that's kind of change now but uh i guess it just sort of made me sort of double down on my belief

that there's definitely aliens somewhere hanging out probably around here maybe they're not abducting people uh but there there's definitely something otherworldly here all right ryan thank you so much for telling that story i've been to beverly many times on st patrick's day for the south side of Irish parade. And I've seen a lot of very strange things. I've witnessed a lot of very strange things happen there, but never a UFO. So thanks so much for that story. You know, he teased that ghost story at the end. It really doesn't have anything to do with the UFO, but obviously I had to ask him about it. So here it is. It's actually pretty wild. So it was the beginning of the pandemic. We were like, like when actually people were

locking down, locking down. But we got an Airbnb out in Michigan for like four or five days. She can work remotely. I got really good vacation days. So we get to use them. We get to go there and do some shit. I don't know if you've ever been to Michigan. But like, you know, outside of the big cities, it's like, you know, downstate Illinois.

It's like nothing. It's farmland. We went in the wintertime. I remember because it was tons of snow had come down. and we got there. It was like this old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. We just have the first floor. It's really great, really nice, just snowing a ton.

So we're there for four or five days. The first night there, she always falls asleep first, and I'm always up until like one or two o'clock at night. And then three emeralds around, and like I just hear, like, the creaking noises of someone above you. Like, you know, it's a two-story thing. I just hear someone going like like resettling themselves

or like getting up and walking across the floor I'm like oh it's the person who lives upstairs is a two-story house someone just getting up and taking a piss you know whatever I didn't think anything of it woke up everything's fine did the whole day

next night three o'clock same time I hear it again I'm like man it snowed some more that night and I went out to shovel the walkway and there was like no car and like the entire house was surrounded in snow like no one had parked

walked in through the other door like there were no footsteps there was no like there was no sign of other humanity and I thought whatever fuck it it's the guy came whatever I don't believe in ghosts

you know third night again happened again just like the I'm like this guy just has like a routine I have a routine. That makes sense. I was just hearing like, and then just like the creaking.

I can't do it because it's the floorboards, but I have wood floorboards here at my house. You just hear it when someone's above me. Like it wasn't scary. It was just like, you know, sounds of another person. And we pack up and we're leaving and we're driving home. And I'm like, did you know who else was staying up there? And she's like,

and I was like, oh, no, they said that part's under construction. No one's up there. I'm like, oh, someone must have been doing work then or something. The work we're staying there. I'm like, just ask the Airbnb people. She's like, you heard a ghost. I'm like, no, I didn't. There's no fucking ghost.

So she messaged them. And they're like, oh, yeah, that's her uncle. He's been dead for like 20 years. He lived on that property, his entire life. He like literally left that town once. I think it was like to go register for selective service. And like he died like 20 years ago. And like that upstairs is blocked off.

No one even lives there. It's like under construction, not livable. And they're like, oh yeah, people have seen him walking down the road before. All right. Thank you, Ryan, for both of those stories. Our first UFO story on Otherworld is definitely not going to be the last. So once again, if you've seen something, send it in. Stories at Otherworldpod.com.

Same goes for this next one. This next story is about something very weird that happened in Chicago. I mean, I guess all of this is weird, but this is particularly weird, and I don't think there's much credible research and storytelling on it that I've seen. A few years ago, in Chicago, there was a huge uptick in sightings of something called the Mothman. This is a very famous entity, super mysterious entity from West Virginia, specifically Point Pleasant. And it's kind of this dark flying creature, almost like a humanoid winged creature that has been spotted before tragedies, many, many, many things. It would take a

slew of episodes to even scratch the surface on this. And I'm hoping to do so one day. But all of the sudden, people were starting to see this in Chicago, which is strange. This is very far from West Virginia, but a lot of people were seeing the mothman. And like I said, in Chicago, this is not, people aren't walking around hoping to see stuff like this. It's very unusual. And the people who were seeing it were truck drivers, you know, blue collar workers, things like that. Guys that, I don't know how to explain it. They're just not trying to see a flying huge.

This is not something they're hoping to see. So if they do see it, it must be something that left a very strong impression on them. So this story is a small one, and it's not even going to scratch the surface of this topic. But I really focus on firsthand experiences on this podcast, and I'm always hoping to put something out and shake loose more firsthand experiences. So hopefully that'll happen. but this story comes to me from one of the listeners who said his brother came home one night after seeing this thing. And what stuck out to me is that he said his brother is not the type of guy

at all to want to see this stuff. He didn't even know what it was. And it's pretty much something that he immediately wanted to never talk about again. And it was very hard to get the brother on the phone, but I did manage to do it for a few minutes to get his version of the story. I find this whole thing very creepy, and I really, really hope to one day learn more about not only the Chicago sightings, but the mothman in general and all of the lore surrounding it. So I hope you enjoy. My name's Dex. I'm from Chicago. Originally from Streamwood, which is a suburb of Chicago. Yeah, my brother had an experience where he saw what I think is a mothman. So I was living at home and my brother was living with us and he came home one night and he was just really shook up by what had just happened.

And he drove his girlfriend home. It was about two in the morning. And they drove down, couldn't have been more than a mile, a road that we've driven down a million times. And they stopped in the middle of the road because they saw like a seven foot tall man just standing there. and both him and his girlfriend saw it so you know they knew it wasn't you know he wasn't just seeing things and they stopped and the thing just kind of sprouted wings and shot straight up into the sky he he just had a look you know like he was he he didn't he didn't want to talk about what he saw and the next day he kind of went into more detail about it but yeah he was they were driving

his headlights went on something just standing in the middle of the road and like, what the fuck is this? At first he thought it was a person just standing there. But then he noticed the height of it and that the skin was black. And they just sat there and looked at it. It just shot up into the sky. He said it didn't flap or anything. It just kind of rocketed up.

You and your brother ever talked about it again, like later? Yeah, we kind of, I mean, when we talked about it, it was more like researching, you know, what had happened. And if anyone had had seen anything like that in the area. And yeah, that's when we came upon, like, you know, Native Americans talking about thunderbirds. And then I came around and saw, you know, Mothman lore. There was a big flap in sightings. And I think there were about five sightings that were documented. Most of them were along the lake.

One of them was downtown. Another one, I think, was along 55. A trucker saw it. What's your brother like? How do you describe him? he's just like he's very normal like at that time he was he's he's very quiet soft spoken he doesn't like to go into detail about anything um yeah he doesn't talk much all right like i said it was very hard to get his brother on the phone but i did manage to do it honestly i did not think i was going to be

able to um but he called me out of nowhere and i quickly started plugging stuff in I started to record a little bit late, so you're going to hear this kind of kick in mid-conversation, but I managed to get the brother on the phone for a few minutes. This is not something he likes talking about. It's probably only the second time he's ever talked about it. So here's my call with Dex's brother. I didn't even know about this thing. Like, I haven't, I knew nothing about this thing before I even saw it.

And even when I saw it, I was like, just so shocked, I was like, What the fuck was that? Yeah. Can you, um... Oh, yeah, I was, um, should I... Are you recording right now? Yeah, I can start recording. Okay.

If you're ready. Just, you want to give me an intro if... I don't know if you want to use your name or if you want to keep it anonymous, but... I don't care. Okay. Go ahead and then just started out with like, hi, my name's, you know... Hi, my name's Austin. I'm from Streamwood, Illinois.

And I experienced... the Moth Man, I guess, in Streamwood or Elgin right around there. I was coming home one day, one night. It was probably around one in the morning. I was just dropping my girlfriend off. And we live right along the Forest Preserve along Schaumburg Road. And so this was in between, if you're familiar with the area, in between Irving, or I'm sorry, in between 59 and Irving.

And just driving down, and I see this creature just walking alongside the forest preserve. And it was about as tall as, like, a street sign that's, as there's a turn coming up, maybe a little bit shorter than the top of it, probably about the middle. and as I got closer when my headlights hit it, as it got brighter, it just took, they just like jumped in the air and flew vertical. And the wingspan was huge. It was just like a human flying. It was just, and I didn't even say anything when I saw it. I just was silent for about five seconds and I just went to my girlfriend and I was like, did you just fucking see that? And she's like, yeah, I have no idea what that was. So I, I know I was. wasn't crazy or hallucinating anything. It was just, uh, I didn't even, I didn't even really tell anybody about it for the longest time, except my friend, I called him as soon as I got home, just freaking out. Like, at what I saw, I just needed to tell somebody. So I called my buddy

Andrew. But yeah, after that, I didn't tell anybody for months because I thought people would think I was crazy. What did it, what did it look like? I couldn't see because it was just like, Like, all you know, all I saw was dark. Just the, I couldn't see the details of it. But it was like the most I could compare it to is the Jeepers-creepers thing, which is ridiculous, I know. But that's like the closest thing I could compare it to. I'm looking up the Jeepers-creepers thing right now.

It had wings, a huge wingspan, you said. Yeah, it's just like that thing with human legs. how it flew was just vertical. It wasn't like a bird. Like the just, as if a human was flapping his arms, but just wings. What did your, what did your girlfriend see? She saw basically the same thing? Yeah, the same thing. That's insane. So what'd you, you just never told anybody really? No, until I told my brother and then he told the whole world. Including me? Yep. and you said you didn't know about it before no i had no clue i i wasn't like research like a

moth man i don't that's just what i think it's called i don't know but after i found out that it's called this then i started looking at uh you know movies about it and stuff and uh yeah i never knew about the thing at all before you weren't going around like wanting to see something you know you just it just happened to you. No, not at all. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I wish I had a dash cam or something that, yeah, I don't know. I mean, now I feel like maybe some of it is fake because it's out in the world.

But I'm, maybe not. But just some of the areas in Chicago where people saw them, it's like how, why would that thing be there? But yeah, I was just in a, it's a huge forest preserve in that area. Yeah, I mean, I don't think you're making it up, but like, you saw it take off, right? Yeah, it was walking like a human and then just took off. It was nuts. It was gone so fast. Huh. How do you think it, did it affect you? You know, are you different now? No, not at all. I just actually, every time I drive down that road, I'm looking in the trees and stuff now to see if I see anything.

But no, yeah, it just freaked me out, but now I'm not any, not in that type of way where it's, makes me a different person. Have you ever talked to anybody else that seen one? No. Oh, I guess you haven't really even told anybody. Right. That's true. Maybe I'll get, maybe somebody will find me now to talk about it. Yeah. Thanks for telling me because I know you haven't told many people.

Yeah, no problem. I appreciate it. All right, man, drive safe. All right, you have a good one. You too. So, I mean, they, I like to talk about it, you know. It's really interesting to me that the whole, you know, cryptid, all, you know, the, it's like folklore, man. I just like the stories.

So I would talk about it and then my friends were like, dude, we saw something like that in-stream would around the same time that Hawkson saw that. And it happened to them when they were going from my friend's house to a 7-Eleven. And to get there, you had to walk across. it was like a community center there was a church and there was also like youth baseball fields with like creeks and trees in between but as they're walking past the community center they saw something fly out of a tree and they noticed the size of it like you know we don't live in the city at this point and we you know we've seen birds we've seen hawks and owls and all that but the size of this you know freaked them out and just like austin said they said it just shot up right

into the sky. So it freaked them out and they started to run. They're running down the street and they were passing. The church that's over there, they have like, you know, the pastor's house is on the property. And next to that, they have some, like a little tree with a, like a small creek that runs through. But it's, you know, a little densely wooded area. And they heard something rustling. So they looked over and then same thing. They just saw the thing shoot straight up into the sky again. And that was the last they saw of it. but they took off running. That's insane. I know.

My friend said he still thinks about it a lot. He said he's haunted by it. Like, he thought he was seeing something at first. Do you think of any more details he gave? No. I don't know if he saw it from the front, but, yeah, I mean, black skin, he said it just looked like a really tall man.

Your brother described as like the Jeepers creepers thing. Yeah. And you know what's weird is that it makes me, think that like a lot of the people who saw mothman in chicago said it was more of like a like a rounded shape you know more of like a moth shape like or like a butterfly shape but when he what he saw he said it looked like a man with wings coming out the back why why do you think he said jeepers creepers guy that's his frame of reference you know he's seen jeepers creepers so that's you know all he has to relate it to yeah because that's like really specific looking yeah i know and that's what i kind

picture when I see it, you know, when I see it in my head. When there was the sightings in Chicago, me and my now wife, we would go and sit at Lake Michigan and like, oh, we're going to see the moth, man. But yeah, I was just always interested in seeing it. But, you know, when you're interested in seeing it, you're not going to. What do you think it might be? Like, do you have any theories? I mean, I think that people see things. I, you know, obviously he saw something, but I don't think it's the same thing that, you know, seen him point pleasant in the 60s or 70s or, I don't know. I mean, I couldn't tell you. We call it Mothman, but it might be something else. Who knows what it is. All right. Thank you so much to Dex and his brother for telling us those stories.

Especially thanks to the brother, I know he did not want to talk about that, which made it even spookier to me. So I don't know what to make of the Chicago Mothman stuff. It's very weird. There's a lot of stuff out there that is not very legitimate. I've seen some goofy stuff that's probably fake, but I could tell how shaken up the brother was, and I do not think this is a person who would make stuff up. This is not a guy who even wants to talk about that. So, very strange.

I really hope that one day I could do episodes that fully tackle the complete Mothman topic. Chicago and West Virginia because it's something that's always been very interesting to me but it's going to take some time and it's going to take more stories submitted to Otherworld because

on this podcast I focus on firsthand experiences only, generally speaking. So if you've seen something, send it in, but in the meantime you're going to have to wait. This next story is probably one of my favorites of all time. As some of you know, I've been doing this

for longer than other world. I've always been interested in the paranormal a bit, and this is a person that I've known for a few years now. It's a person who has a ghost story that is very intertwined with their life in ways that I think you'll understand after listening to it. This is also a person that I've stayed in contact with over the years, and perhaps we'll be getting updates from in the future. Her name is Jesse. She is also from Chicago, and I think you're all going to really like her story. Okay, we have to take a quick break, but we will be right back.

I'll let Jesse take it from here. Hi, my name is Jesse, and I live in Illinois, and I'm a little nervous about telling this story, just because sometimes when I do tell the story about my story, my situation and my experiences, I do sometimes start having things happen again. So bear with me. All of this started. It was spring of 98. So I was pretty young. I was just about to go into sixth grade. And my parents had moved from the town that I really grew up in. And they were moving me to this brand new house, which was honestly just a town over. At that time, a town over seems like,

you know, a whole state over. So I was having a hard time just with the idea of moving in, you know, in the first place. But we hadn't fully moved in. It was kind of like we were going back and forth from the townhouse we were in to the new place. And I had friends that wanted to see the house. So I actually brought one of my girlfriends to the house to see it. And we were down in the basement. And I remember sitting on the floor. And we were by ourselves. My dad had actually ran out real quick to go to the store. And we're just talking downstairs. And all of a sudden, I hear the door open and hear the door close and hear footsteps up the stairs. So I just assume, it's my dad he's coming home so of course I'm like hi dad how are you and no answer and I'm like dad

hello no answer so we go into investigate which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but you know here we are we go upstairs we're looking around and nobody is there not a single person the door hadn't slammed shut or anything from the wind because the door had been closed before so it couldn't have been something like that. So it was just very, very odd. And so my dad finally came home and I told him this story. And surprisingly enough, he actually did tell me. He's like, you know, that's really strange because that actually happened to me a few days ago.

And we just kind of like dropped it after that. It was just kind of like a, hmm, that's weird type of situation. But what really, when it really, really started happening, and became very real for me was the first week that we were fully moved into the house. And we, you know, I was sleeping in my room and this was the first night that I had been in there. And I, because it was around March,

it was still very cold at night. So I ended up waking up in the middle of the night and really, really cold. And all of a sudden I looked down and my sheets were tucked into the, the bed almost like somebody had made my bed with me in it. Pretend like you're laying in bed and you've got your sheets over you and then you take your sheets and you neatly fold them towards the end of your bed and then tuck them in. So it's like somebody just took them and folded it towards the end of

the bed and then tucked it. But of course at the time I'm half asleep. I'm tired so I just decided, you know what, I'm just going to put my sheets back on and go back to bed. So, did that. And woke up the next day, I asked my mom, I was like, did you do this to me? She's like, no, I didn't do that. I'm like, okay. I'm like, well, that's weird because I literally woke up and it was like somebody had made my bed. Second night happened, and same thing happened. So I'm assuming maybe this is something I'm doing in my sleep. I don't know. Then the third night came about and I woke up again and my sheets were then also tucked, you know, folded, tucked into my bed again.

So that's when I really started getting nervous, getting scared, you know, called for my parents. They had no idea what was going on. They couldn't explain it to me because obviously they weren't the ones that were doing it. So that happened for a full week straight. And a part of me was really nervous about it, just thinking like, okay, who's doing this to me or what's doing this to me? But I didn't quite think yet, like, oh, it's a ghost, you know, because I had never experienced something like that. My parents actually got a little bit information from the neighbors because they obviously were, you know, just a little bit like what's actually going on in this house because of the,

you know, experience that my dad had and then this whole sheets, you know, fiasco. And they found out that the previous owners actually had only lived there for a very short period of time. And they had a daughter. She was around 15 at the time. And she actually was really upset with her parents because they had her move away from her boyfriend. And so she actually ran away from the house and ended up getting together with this boyfriend. And while they were driving, they actually got in a car accident and died. So we found out, okay, well, the previous owners, their daughter passed away. also found out that her room was unfortunately enough, the room that I was in.

And it was a really weird departure that they had. It was kind of like they were running away from something. They actually were very quick to sell. They left a bunch of furniture with my parents. And it was just kind of like, okay, take the house and go. So that was just a little strange, you know, just the way that they left. So once they found that out, I was actually laying in bed.

And I remember being, I was fully awake. I was watching TV and my lights were on. As I was laying there, she or something yelled, fuck in my ear so loud that it was, I mean, incredibly startling and when she said fuck it was almost like she was yelling like fuck like like she was scared like it was like almost like just angry like she was angry but scared like it was this like just this like fuck like fuck you know like what like almost like for what i can think of now is maybe you know what happened what happened to me why is this happening you know like almost like that And I just remember laying there or just sitting there and being like, what the hell was that?

Like, and being frozen and just being completely terrified. It was really messed up. And it was always in my room that things would really happen. My cats were always so freaked out in that room. They would just stare at things. Their backs would get puffed up. It was really messed up. And so that happened.

And, you know, with the cats. like that was very, very interesting. There was a moment that I, you know, when I actually saw her, that was the first time that I actually saw her. And I had woken up, which was actually very, it was a reoccurring thing. I would wake up all the time in the middle of the night and just feel that something was in the room with me.

And it was just like where, I mean, kind of like how they explain it a lot of times where, you know, the hairs on your arms. will stand up and you just have this like unsettling feeling and that's what I would feel anytime I would wake up and I would just like know okay something's in here with me and I was facing my wall because my bed was up against the wall and I had this desk in the corner of my room and I remember turning around and immediately seeing this person in the corner of my room and it was It was clearly a girl.

She had lawn dark hair, but she wasn't staring at me. She was actually staring at the computer that I had on that desk, just almost like she was dazed just looking at this. And so I had this little light above my bed, turned it on, looked, and it wasn't there. I remember coming home once from school and walking up the stairs and actually looking to my right, my bedroom was all the way at the end of the hallway. and just seeing her in there and immediately turning around and running out of my house because I was just like, nope, not doing this. My parents weren't there. My brother, like nobody was home. I wasn't going to mess with

that. So I literally just ran out and ended up actually going down to my best friend's house who, thankfully, was right down the street from where I lived. Only one thing happened to my brother. He was actually standing in the kitchen at the sink. And he felt. somebody take their finger and really just gently rub the spine of his back. And he heard a girl laughing and, or she said, hey, and then laughing in his ear. So that was kind of crazy. And my brother, if you ever knew my brother, he is one of those people that does not really believe in any of this stuff. Like, I think that was also a hard thing is he was very skeptical about stuff like this. So growing up and constantly having to have people kind of be like what you're experiencing isn't real

was really frustrating for me because obviously it was very real for me. But he had that happen to him and I remember them telling me about it and being like, oh my God, finally something's happening to somebody else because, you know, it was, and I had moved out at that time. So I thought that my experiences were over and maybe she was going to move. move on to somebody else in the house, but I was sadly mistaken. This was almost an everyday thing for me living in that house. I was constantly scared to fall asleep in that house. I never really fell asleep with my lights off. I would always have them on or I would have the TV on. But it was

to the point where I was scared to be there, you know, and I was scared. to go to sleep at night. It was very, very real the entire time. There wasn't ever a moment where I was actually fully comfortable sleeping in that room or being there by myself. It was, and I honestly, you know, I hate to say this, but I do think the reasons why I maybe did a few things in high school, you know, like going out to parties and drinking during high school and kind of like almost kind of took away the reality of it for me. Not that I had a drinking problem in high school, but, you know, I was, I was one of those people in high school that just, I went out and I had fun and I drank. And, but I do think that it did kind of numb some of that of what I was experiencing.

And I was able to kind of block it out a little bit mentally by doing that. But it was hard. I mean, you know, to this day, I have a hard time talking about it because it really, really affected me and it was a hard situation to go through my whole teenage years, you know. I moved out when I was 20 and I had moved to Naperville with a girlfriend and we were just so excited. You know, we're moved out and, you know, we're going to like have so much fun. And to be honest, we did. And so for honestly, about two years, nothing was really happening. And I thought that I had gotten away from it. I thought that I was finally not going to have these situations happen.

I was finally comfortable sleeping again. I always had my roommate there or friends over. So I never really had a moment alone. And I think that is what also kind of kept me from really experiencing. anything for those two years. But unfortunately, 22 came and things started then happening again. We came home and we were trying to unlock the door and we couldn't get the door unlocked. It was almost like it just, the key wasn't like working. Like it was fitting in, but it wasn't turning. And we heard my roommate Dana on the other side say, it's locked. And it's locked. And it's.

And we're like, yeah, we know, open the door. And the door opened. Like the lock unlocked, we opened the door and nobody was there. Dana wasn't there. Nobody. And so, and I looked at my other roommate Jess, and I was like, did you hear that? She's like, I heard it. All of a sudden, I'm like, fuck, like, she's fucking with us.

You know, like, she's here. And second night, I was sleeping. and I actually woke up and I remember not being able to move. I was able to move my eyes, but I wasn't able to move my body. And I looked over to my door and there was this girl and she was staring at me. And this was the first time I had actually seen her face. And she just kept saying my name. She just kept saying, Jesse, Jesse, Jesse.

I couldn't get up. I couldn't move. And I remember being so scared. And it wasn't like a concerned like, Jesse, wake up. Jesse wake up. It was just like her just saying it. Like, just still face saying my name. Her face, it was very, it was just still. It was almost like she was blank. I just remember her eyes just being very vacant. Like it was almost like she was just staring through me. I remember it to Lisei because it was just so wild. It was so intense. And I had that happened twice while I was in that apartment. Shortly after that, I was 23. And I was going to aesthetic school at the time. And I was sitting in the area where we're just, where we all just study. And I remember seeing this woman and she was just staring at me. And I remember, like,

looking at her and just being like, can I help you? You know, like what's going on? And finally, I kind of like shook my head and smiled at her, kind of like, I see you. You know, I see you staring at me. And she smiled back and she said, you know, I have a question. And I was like, yeah, what's going on? And she's like, do you believe in mediums? And she's like, do you believe in like the supernatural? And I immediately, of course, was like, well, yeah, I definitely do. And I immediately, of course, was like, well yeah, I definitely do. And she's like, I feel like I have a message for you. I feel like I need to tell you something. And immediately it was like totally intrigued. I'm like, oh, okay. Like, what is it? So we had these different rooms that we would actually practice like facials in and stuff. And she took

me into one of the rooms. And she actually covered me with all these crystals to protect me, which I thought was a little strange. But I was like, fuck, whatever. that's fine. So she started covering me with crystals. And I significantly remember the room really changing temperature, like chilling. And she started doing the reading on me. And she said, there's somebody here. And they are trying to scare you. It's almost like she's trying to scare you. Like she's got like her hair over her face. Like she's deliberately. angry with you and she said that she is trying to scare you because she thinks that you hate her and immediately I'm thinking oh my god it's this bitch like she's still around you know and um she said she goes

she thinks that you hate her but she's always been with you she's never left your side and she said she's basically living through you and she always has because she You're living the life that was taken from her as such an early age. And at this point, she's stuck and she doesn't have anyone else to, like, really be around. And that hit home because I was like, holy shit. Like, I guess it was kind of like my awakening moment where I really realized, like, what I've experienced was actually really happening because somebody else was validating it for me. She said her name is Christina.

So that was huge. I finally had a name to put to this person, to this thing that was haunting me throughout my almost, you know, my whole teenage years and into my adulthood. But, you know, since then, I've come to, honestly, just be at peace with it. I don't really feel her anymore. I kind of joke around and just say that she's kind of gotten lazy and I need to apologize to her right now. She's listening because I just want her to stay that way. But, you know, I will say now to this day, I'm like, it is what it is. You know, she, if she's still around,

that's great. If not, I'm even better because that means she moved on. I tend to turn it kind of into a joke where it just makes me feel a little bit better by just saying, you know, yeah, you know, That's my girl. Like she's been with me for so long. And that's really the relationship that I have with her now. I think back when I was in middle school and high school, my relationship with her was obviously not good. It was I hated her, you know, like she had kind of said when, you know,

I had had that reading. Like, yeah, you're right. I did hate you. And I do hate you still because you're scaring me, you know. I've kind of felt a little better about it in a sense because it had number one been happening to me for so long. And I kind of started feeling bad for her. I started kind of gaining some empathy for her because, you know, if this was, if that was the case and, you know, she was living through me because her life was taken at such an early age, I felt bad. I'm like, this poor girl, you know, like she.

She's stuck, obviously, where she's at. She sees me living my life that she could have possibly had. And that makes me sad, you know. All right. Thank you so much to Jessie for telling that story. I love that story. Always have and always will. I'm sure a lot of people have questions.

I will say that I have received many updates from Jesse over time. about Christina, her life now. I could tell you that she's now a mom herself. This all happened to her when she is much younger, but I don't want to spoil anything, but I think in the future you'll be hearing some updates from Jesse. And this is something that I've always wanted to know more about. So hopefully one day, there will be a part two to this story.

But we do not have the time for that today, So that brings us to the end of this episode of Otherworld. Thank you so much for listening. This has been episode 14. I'm your host, Jack Wagner, and you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is executive produced and hosted by myself, Jack Wagner. Our theme songs by Cobra Man. The soundtrack of this episode is by La La La La La and North Americans.

Editing and Engineering by Theo Schaefer. The artwork for our show is by Cold of Sex Studios. This is an independent show, so please share. show us your support by subscribing, leaving a five-star review, and telling your friends. If you want to follow us on social media, we're at OtherworldPod on Instagram and Twitter. Also, if you or somebody you know has experienced something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained, you could send us the story at Stories at OtherworldPod.com, especially if you're from Chicago. Thanks for listening.