Otherworld - Episode 74: The Situation Pt. 1

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

Growing up, Maeve collected many dolls, but one in particular gave her strange feelings of being watched. It wasn't until an incident with a close friend in early adulthood that things went from slightly creepy to a serious concern. This 2 part series follows Maeve and her 3 friends as they work together to deal with the problems surrounding this mysterious doll. Want more episodes? For bonus episodes and videos, sign up for the Otherworld Patreon Check out our Merch Follow us on: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter If you have experienced something paranormal or unexplained, email us your 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

Hey everyone, before we start this episode, I just want to remind everybody that we're always looking for story submissions here at Otherworld. If you or somebody you know has experienced something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained, email us a summary of your story at Stories at Otherworldpod.com. Sending the story to that email is the only way to submit a story to the show currently. So if you've sent it anywhere else in the past, you should probably resend it to the submission email, which is Stories at Otherworldpod.com. But please do send us your story. We're always looking for more, and we love reading them. So if you've thought about sending yours in in the past and haven't for any reason, don't hesitate. Send it in to Stories at Otherworldpod.com. Let's get started with the

show. Welcome to Otherworld. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. The story comes from a person named Maeve, who at the time was completing a degree in ecology at the university. of Calgary. We got to know Mave quite well during the process of making these episodes, as well as her friends. They're all people who have degrees or jobs in the scientific fields. Pretty skeptical, grounded people. And I'd also just describe them as very normal, typical young women who are in their early years of college and just generally do not have going through a strange, frightening, and kind of embarrassing paranormal saga on the top of their priorities list. In fact, I think they still have trouble fully wrapping their heads around

what they went through. It all started with a particular doll that Maeve kept in her childhood room, a doll that she used to kind of jokingly say was haunted until it became maybe not so much of a joke anymore. Now, look, I pride myself on making other world as nonfiction and journalistic as a paranormal show could possibly be. And for that reason, I'm generally not interested in the type of paranormal stories that are, I don't know, partly make-believe or horror movie adjacent. Whatever type of paranormal story, a haunted doll would typically be in. So we went into this one pretty skeptical, but it's genuinely such a bizarre and funny story.

So do I think a doll can be haunted? I don't know. I don't know anymore. But something very, very weird happen to the people you're about to hear from. And there's something about this entire saga that just reminds me of a classic teen movie from the 90s, which is a main reason why I love it so much. But at the same time, the things these women went through genuinely terrified and perplexed them. This is going to be a two-part series. This is part one. This is episode 74. The title is The Situation Part 1, and you're listening to Otherworld. Is this Bobby? Yes, it is. At its core, the science, you can't argue. It's not only.

All of a sudden. It's almost frustrating that it's happening. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. It's limbs were just like wrong. Everybody moves back into the light, even if it takes them in a minute. My name's Maeve. I'm 23 years old.

I just graduated in ecology. from the University of Calgary. I currently live in Victoria, BC. I just moved. I currently am working, I guess, as a research assistant for some whale researchers here. I guess as like a young kid, I was raised in like a Catholic household.

And it wasn't ever something that I really felt like I connected with. I was always kind of the kid in like religion class or at church that was like, well, if God's real, like, why can't I see him? Like, angels aren't real, ghosts aren't real. Like I was very much like always challenging, I guess, the status quo, and I was very hesitant to believe anything that I couldn't see. And I had no problem, like, voicing that opinion much to like the embarrassment of the adults around me, I guess. Everyone was kind of always like, oh my God, you cannot say that here.

But other than that, I guess my mom always kind of described me as like a more spiritual child. And I never really understood what she meant. I think she kind of means like, I was always talking to trees. and like worms and like those were kind of my best friends, but definitely not spiritual in the sense that I believed in like the paranormal or like I wasn't like scared of ghosts or I wasn't really scared of God or anything like that. I was like a huge collector as a kid. I had like tons of collections of like dolls and of seashells

and really anything I could get my hands on. And the doll collection is what proved to be kind of the issue in the long run. I had this collection of, like, all these beautiful dolls, and I loved them so much. Like, they were my prize possession. I loved each and every one of them. I was not scared of dolls whatsoever. I'd never watched, like, a scary doll movie in my life. Nothing like that.

Whenever I tell people this story, they always like, oh, you just saw Chuckie as a kid or something, and it freaked you out. But that was never the case. I was never scared of dolls. But somehow I came into the possession when I was about, like, I want to be a lot of. I want to say like six to eight of this little sailor porcelain doll. And she was super cute. She had like a little sailor hat. And I named her Sally.

And she was one of my favorites. And I put her kind of right up on the shelf facing my bed. So when I go to sleep, I could like look up at her and she'd be facing me. And she wasn't creepy at all. Like she looked like the cutest little doll. She had brunette hair and like a brown chocolate eyes. And she had a little sailor's cap. and she was holding like a ship because she was a sailor.

And she came with like a little birth certificate. And I wrote down on the first certificate, their name was Sally's ship. And I couldn't, I don't know where this doll came from. And after like all of this went down, I asked my parents, like, do you remember who gave me this doll? Because a lot of like the dolls that I got came from my dad's clients. My dad's a lawyer. And sometimes his clients give him gifts or from like other family members. And no one could remember where this doll was from, which is interesting to me because like the doll.

had been kind of such a point of contention in my childhood because I was always afraid of it and like was always talking about it and seemed really freaked out by it. I assumed like it might be one that would stick out in their memory more. But no one could tell me and I don't, I don't remember at all. Like it just sort of like appeared in my life. And I know like where most of my dolls are from. Like I know who gave them to me or like if I asked my parents they'll know. So that was just like a bit odd. But yeah, I wish, I really wish I knew who gave me this doll. I feel like that would be something that could help me figure out, like, the bigger picture. I really vividly, like, one of, I would say this is one of my most vivid childhood memories is, like, lying in bed and then, like,

looking across my room, and there's, like, my whole shelf of dolls, some of which I will say are much creepier looking than this doll, but my whole shelf of dolls, and then Sally, um, looking at me, like looking at her at night and just like knowing that she is watching me. Like it feels like if someone were standing in your room staring at you. And it would really, really upset me as a kid. So yeah, I would call my dad into my room and I would be really upset and like ask him to do something about it. And then he'd always be like, oh, you're being silly. We'll just get rid of the doll.

And that's when I would start screaming and being like, no, like you cannot get rid of her. Like I was very clear on the point you cannot get rid of her because when he said, okay, we'll just get rid of her. We'll go put her in the basement. We'll go throw her out. You're being silly. It was just this feeling of dread. Like something bad is going to happen.

It was just like this intuitive feeling that if the doll were to get, being got rid of something bad was going to happen. She was going to be mad. I remember saying that to him. She's going to be mad if you get rid of her. And I don't know where that came from. Like I really have no explanation of how I came to that conclusion. It wasn't like it came to me in a dream.

It wasn't like the doll told. me anything. It was just this intense feeling that I had surrounding the doll. And that feeling never went away. Definitely my dad's more of a jokester. So he would always be like poking fun at me and just be like, oh, you watch too many scary movies or like, oh, like, you're just being silly, you're just having nightmares. And that definitely wasn't true. I never like sat well with me because I'm like, I was not the kind of kid who was watching scary movies at all. I had never seen a horror movie probably until I was 15 years old. And I didn't even know that like dolls could be haunted.

I didn't know that that was a common like cultural, I guess, phenomenon that we have. So that was always also just a little bit of tension in between me and my dad of like, you don't believe me. But then also your kids like screaming that a doll is going to be mad at her. Like you're not going to do anything about that. It's very easy to brush off. And this sort of followed me throughout my life. As I got older, we would move houses and I would change rooms in the house.

And I would always bring this doll with me, even when I got into my late teens, which sounds like really wild that I was just carrying this little porcelain doll around from room to room and placing it in my room specifically so that it could see me. Because I just had this intense feeling that that's what she wanted. And if I didn't give it to her, something bad was going to happen. Like even when I had the thought, like, if I was taking it off my shelf and being like, okay, I'm 17, I do not need a porcelain. I do not need a porcelain doll in my room anymore.

I would just get this huge, like, feeling of dread and, like, fear that something bad was going to happen if I got rid of this doll. And it was always kind of just something that I kept on the back burner. I never really talked about it with people because it's embarrassing and I never even really wanted to think about it. It was just something that I kind of had in my room and I refused to move, even, I guess, getting older and becoming, like, increasingly more atheist and not. believing in ghosts. It was never really something that I was like, oh, this doll is haunted or,

oh, this doll, like, has a demon in it or anything like that. It was just something of, I feel like this doll is going to be upset with me. I feel like something bad is going to happen if I don't give it what it wants. And for some reason in my mind, I thought what it wanted was to watch me, I don't know, or to be near me and be in my room with me. So yeah, this, like, sort of continued up until the point of like 2020 when I was in university during COVID, and I was doing all my courses from my room and stuff. And I still had the doll. It was sitting right next to me,

so I'd go to sleep and I'd be sitting next to me and my dresser and kind of like angled kind of towards my bed, I guess. I thought this doll was watching me, and while I believed, like, that it would be mad if I moved it, it still made me very uncomfortable that it was watching me. This was still like, I didn't like the doll. I didn't like having the doll in my room. So what I would kind of do to curb my anxiety around it was I would put her little

sailor's cap over her eye. So I'd like pull it down so she couldn't see anything, if that makes sense. But she was still there. Like I still wasn't removing her. So that was kind of my compromise with my own feelings around the doll. And then I guess one day one of my best friends, Senea, she really wanted me to meet this guy. I was like, okay, like bring him to my. house. So she like snuck this guy, like into my house or whatever. And we were just having like a good

time like drinking and stuff. And I was showing him around my room. Like he wanted like a tour of my house. I was showing him around my room. And just like as a joke, because I kind of, I guess in the moment I kind of realized, oh, it's like kind of embarrassing that I have this like doll next to my bed, this porcelain, like kids doll next to my bed. I was like, ha ha. And here's my haunted doll. Just kind of as a throwaway joke. Like I didn't mean anything. I didn't want to go into detail about it. Like, I just thought it would be like a funny thing to say. And Sineo was like super drunk and she thought it would be funny to lift up the doll's hat so that it could see. Its eyes were exposed.

And then she slapped it across the face. And like I kind of had like this jump of fear at that moment. Like I was like, oh, like Sally is not going to like she was not going to like that. Like that is, that's not good. Like, but overall like I was just kind of like pushing it down like you're just being silly. Maeve, like, the doll is not going to be mad. It is a doll. Like, it is not actually haunted. So I didn't say anything about it because I was just kind of like, ha ha, like, I'm in on the joke. Like, I'm not a crazy person who believes that this doll is actually haunted. But the guy

had a very different reaction. And he was a lot more spiritual than the rest of us. Like, he, like, sort of, like, fancied himself, like, a witch, that sort of thing. He had a very different reaction. He was kind of, like, yelling and being like, you should not have done that. And like being very upset with her about it. And it kind of just, it made the situation very awkward because then she felt bad and she was kind of like, oh, I'm sorry. Like I just thought it would be funny.

But kind of the moment passed and we just continued on with our night. Nothing really bad happened. But it stuck out in my mind, definitely, because it was one of the first times that I had acknowledged that the doll, I guess, was there to anyone else in like years since complaining about it to my dad. And it was also just like kind of an out-of-pocket thing for her to do. And I kind of like had some anxiety surrounding it. So my name is Sinea and I am Mave's friend of a million years.

We met in grades four and five on the bus together. Maeve is the type of person that weird things are always happening to her. Every time Mave and I hang out, something crazy happens, and that only happens when I'm with her. She's like a light. Like, if you meet her, she's just like the best person you'll ever meet. And it's kind of like, it makes sense that she's cursed because no one can, like, there has to be a tradeoff. Like, there has to be. Like, we laugh about it, but it's true.

So the story, I guess that you've all been listening. to I was there the night of when all the crazy shit happened for the first time, I guess. So the first night I really was exposed to the doll. It was a night, Mave and I were having a sleepover and one of my friends was also over. And I don't really remember how it was brought up, but she said she's giving us a tour of her room. And then she just says, oh, and that's the doll and she called it by her name, which I'm honestly scared to say her name. And then at the time,

I was a very, like, skeptical person and I didn't really understand the full, like, the consequences of this. But she showed, she showed her to us, and Mave was basically saying that, like, she has really, like, the doll, she has really weird energy. And she would keep her, on the dresser in her room and there would be a light right above and she was saying like,

oh yeah, the light always flickers like above where she is. And then I was really annoying and I was just like, oh, ha ha. And then I like hit the doll. I'm like, because I'm like, this is bullshit. Like I just hit it. And then Maeve and my friend both just look at me in horror. They're like, why would you do this? And then I was like, oh, like I felt really bad. I was like this. I thought it would be funny, but I could tell the joke was not good. My friend was like, why would you do that? Like immediately, why would you do that? And then, like, I can't believe you did that.

And then Maeve is a very sweet person, so she's not going to make me feel bad about that. Because also she, at the time she knew that, like, I didn't really believe in the greater picture of this. And I guess in the back of my mind, I was just thinking it was all a coincidence. like, oh, the lights flickering up of this doll's head, like, ha ha, like, that's just like your light. Just fix your light. I guess that's what I was thinking. It was just like, what are the odds that this happens to us? Next time, I went to go see Sineo, which was like two days later. It was at 6 in the morning. We were going to go for a hike super early in the morning. So I was like getting ready in the dark. I went to go text her. I was like, I'm on my way. And the second I, like,

text her, I'm on my way and press send. The light ball, directly above the doll. I heard like a pop and it like exploded and went out. And I just had like this huge like wave of fear that just hit me. And I was like oh like oh God, I was like like she's mad like something bad. There was just like such a bad energy in the room. I don't know how to describe it. I was just full of like fear.

And I was just really, really trying to push it down and be like, you're silly. It's a coincidence. I bobbed to go off all the time. Like there's. four light bulbs in the room. It could have been any one of them. It just happened to be the one above the dot. Like, that doesn't mean anything. And really just trying to like shove down the feeling, shoved down like the intuition because I didn't want to believe it. And also it's just

sort of like a crazy thing that I didn't, wasn't willing to believe at that point. Anyways, I went to go see Sineo and I think that happened like while we were hanging out. After that, I went on a trip, so I didn't see my friends for really long time, and I was out of, out of the province. And when I came back, I went on a hike with one of my other best friends named Genevieve, who had recently kind of started getting more into spirit spirituality. She started getting into, like, manifestation than things. And she was a lot more open to that sort of thing than me, and a lot more, I guess, knowledgeable. And we were just on our usual, like, hike, talking about energies in the world.

and for some reason, yeah, we started talking about her childhood home and she was telling me like, oh, the energy was super weird in her childhood home, and she was telling me about this doll that she had that she was convinced as a kid was haunted. And it kind of like sparked my memory about what had happened with Sinea and like my doll at home because I had kind of forgotten about it at that point, but I was like, oh my God, yeah, I had a similar experience as a kid. And also like this weird thing like happened like recently with Sinea like ha ha, like that's so similar. And just kind of being like, yeah, whatever.

Like this is like a fun bonding moment but not really thinking much of it. And she took it like very seriously. Like I was kind of laughing about it. But she was like, no, like you need to go cleanse. You need to go home and cleanse the stall. You need to get rid of this doll. Like this is not like a joke maid. Like this is not something that like you want to be messing around with.

And at this point I assumed like, oh, there's like a ghost in the doll. like, oh, maybe there's like a little spirit attached to the doll. Maybe I should do something. Maybe I should get rid of it. Maybe that would be a good idea. But at this point, I was like, okay, maybe it's a little, it could be a little bit more real. Maybe there is like a bad energy or like a weird spirit or something attached to this doll. But I never thought it would be like dangerous or powerful beyond just, oh, it's like bad, bad vibes in this doll that I can get, I can probably get rid of pretty easily.

after that conversation, I went home and I remember like Googling, like, how do you get rid of ghost and doll? Like, just trying to like scour the internet, like briefly, just like, like, how would one go about getting rid of this if it was a real problem? And I kind of sort of found stuff about, like, incense and like ringing a bell or whatever to kind of get rid of spirits. And I was like, yeah, sure, I can do that. So I, like, went to, like, a store and I bought some incense and I incented around the doll. I didn't say anything. I was just kind of like, and in my mind I was really just like, ha, ha, like, yeah, like, just we'll get rid of the spirit and then I'll, like, feel better about it.

I still wasn't really taking it that seriously because a lot of it I could just play off as, like, psychological or, like, coincidence. But, yeah, after I did that, I, like, put the doll back where it was. And after that, I think I started really, like, noticing the doll more, especially after like my friends had brought it up and I had cleansed a doll, I was really becoming like aware of the doll's presence in my room. And those feelings of like being a kid and like constantly being watched were like coming back. Like I don't know if it was just childhood fears.

But I was becoming like a lot more aware of like this presence in my room. Like it felt like there was someone else in my room. And like I had just seen them and now I can't understand. see them. So I would always like have the hat covering the eyes and then I would turn the doll as far away from my bed as possible without moving her. So I would like turn her so she was facing like dead on at the wall, not at me. And I would do that over and over again. And I still do not know what was happening because I kept having to do it. I don't know why it didn't just stay turned away. I would turn it and then I would come like notice a few days later it was turned back.

And I couldn't explain that. I certainly wasn't turning it back. And I still to this day, like, do not know what was happening there. But I just kept having to turn it. And I just was, like, getting more freaked out and more, like, frustrated with it. And more frustrated with myself that I wasn't just willing to throw this doll away. Because I was still as scared and freaked out as I was about this doll, I wasn't willing to throw it away. I just could not bring myself to get rid of it.

Because, again, I had, like, this innate fear that if I tried to get rid of it, something worse was going to happen. But yeah, I guess I was just noticing it more and more. I was kind of coming to the conclusion with myself of, okay, maybe it's haunted. Like, maybe, like, this horrible, like, feeling that I have around the doll is just, like, there's just a little ghost in my doll. No big deal, just a little ghost in my doll, and I can get rid of it.

And what I assumed, I guess, based off of, like, the light bulb cracking and, like, what happened with Sinea was, it was pissed off because of that situation, was pissed off at Sinea, and I could resolve this issue if I just looked up some like occult rituals and some things to do online, and we just performed like a little ritual. I could get rid of it and make it not mad anymore. So I concocted this plan. I kind of looked up online like all of these different little rituals and I thought in my brain, I was not very knowledgeable about this stuff at the time, but I thought in my brain if I just like mashed all of the different strategies

for getting rid of a spirit together and just did them all at once, that it would get rid of the spirit for sure. Like, there's no way it wouldn't. Like, just the power of all of the combined methods. So my plan was to get a bunch of incense, light some candles, say, like, this incantation I found online to, like, banish a spirit, and then, like, ring a bell around the doll, and then bury it in the ground away from my house, like, at a park. And that way, the internet told me that the spirit would, like, go into the ground and, like, dissipate from the doll. And so I called Senea because I had this, like, kind of, I guess, hypothesis that it had something to do with her because, like, I started feeling worse about it after she slapped the doll.

So I was like, you're going to come with me and you're going to apologize to the doll before I put it in the ground, just in case something weird is happening there. I also just wanted her there because she was still very much, like, a non-believer. She was still very much skeptical. Like, she remained skeptical to this day. And I just thought that would be a good grounding presence so I don't get freaked out. She could just be like, oh, it's not real. And I would get freaked out by anything.

So, Sinea, I told her our plan of what we were going to do. And she was kind of just like, oh, like, she wanted to go along with it. She felt bad. But I could tell she was kind of like, oh, like, you're crazy. Like that this isn't real. but like I'll do it as like a favorite to you if it will make you feel better. But this is definitely all in your head, I think was her reaction to my proposal. But nevertheless, I like went to go pick her up.

It was like our plan was like around midnight. I was going to go pick her up. A lot of things started going wrong on the day that I was going to carry out this ritual. I like went about my day and then I like came home. And I was going to, my plan was, I was like, going to have a shower and get ready and then go pick up the Sinea. So I got in the shower and there was no one else in the house, no other machine, like no, another washing machine or nothing else was like going. And I got in the shower and the shower just like started oscillating between like freezing cold and burning hot. And I was like, it was burning my skin.

Like I like had to jump out of the shower. I was just like, nope. And that like kind of freaked me up. But I was like, whatever is in your head, whatever it's in your head. So I went to go text Senea And I couldn't find my phone I had put my phone on my bed And I couldn't find my phone

I went to go text her that I was going to come pick her up And I was looking for my phone Looking for my phone And I went kind of like To bend down to look underneath my bed for my phone And I just felt like It felt like two hands shoving my knees

The back of my knees And I just felt like flat down on my face And I like whipped my head around And looked because I was like Did my sister sneak in or like, like, what was that? And there was nothing behind me at all. And so I was confused, but then I, like, crouched down to look under my bed.

And sure enough, my phone was under my bed. And I was just like, ugh, do not like that. Like, icky, icky, icky feeling. That kind of pushed it beyond the just, like, oh, like, this is, like, explainable in your head sort of, like, psychology excuse. You can sort of give yourself with a lot of paranormal things. Because a lot of this stuff, like, could be, like, one bunch of, one rationalized in my brain as like, okay, that was just a coincidence or whatever.

But like the physical feeling of something pushing me, I just felt like it like crossed a line into something like that was just so much more real now. We have to take a quick break, but we'll be right back. I think it had been like, I'm going to guess a week or something. That night was still fresh in all of our minds. And then Maeve sent me a text and she said, I want to cleanse that doll that's mad at you. because it's giving me such bad energy on August 29th of 2020. And I said, oh my God, I'm so sorry.

Yes, let's do it. I'm so sorry. And then she said, okay, thank you. It's freaking me out. When she was telling me about it, I believed her because Mava is someone who's super truthful. Like everything she says, I believe. She said she was cleaning her room and her back was facing the doll. and she was like making her bed

and she felt something push her. And when she told me that, I was like genuinely terrified for her. I was like, we need to do something. So I literally snuck out of my parents' house with her at like 11 p.m. or something to go with her. I was like, how do I prepare for this? Because this was, I feel like, something,

it's out of my comfort zone. I just didn't know anything about what to do. I did not know what this entailed, but I'm like, I'll do anything for Maeve. Let's go. Like, just tell me what you need from me. I think I got, like, lost on the way, like, going to Senea's house, which is, like, not super normal,

but it was, like, stressing me out and, like, making me just, like, more anxious. It wasn't a few minutes. It was, like, a while. Like, the longer that, like, things kept getting delayed because of, like, all of this, like, stuff happening. And then... Because all these weird things were happening to me, I was getting, like, more frazzled and just, like, not... Like, I felt like I was getting disorientated.

So, like, the longer, like, things that just kept getting pushed and pushed, and it ended up being 3 a.m. And I didn't really know at this point that, like, you probably shouldn't do things around 3 a.m. Like, that's probably, like, not a good idea. Trying to conduct, like, yeah, little exorcisms on dolls during witching hour, probably not the most brilliant idea. I went to go get her, and we went to go get her, and we did. drove to the park, which is like five minutes away from my house, is in a very quiet neighborhood. There is no noise at this time of night, like, no dogs barking. Everyone was like asleep.

There's just nothing going on. It was like dead silent neighborhood. And then just like a little field by a school where like we were going to bury this doll. Literally the second I got in the car, something just felt really weird. And I remember asking Mave, like, where is it? And then Maeves like, oh, she's like in my bag. And she had her wrapped in like a cloth. We drive.

It's like honestly a chaotic drive. We don't really know where we're going, but we end up going to kind of near our old high school. Honestly, it felt like when I got out of the car and then Mave like pulls her out, something just shifted. And I was like, I mean, the whole time I respected what we were doing. But then it just felt super like almost personal too. because the whole time I was feeling bad that we were doing this,

I felt like responsible because I was in a lot of ways. So I was like honestly grateful to go and like apologize and do my part, but also to give Mave like the sense of like relief that like we tried to do something. I was honestly just like hypnotized by the process. Like I was, I was really nervous because it was just like too, in a park in the middle of the night. It was just like a scary thing. We drive out to the field

where we were going to do this little ritual. And it was a relatively still night. Like there might have been like a slight breeze, but it wasn't windy. It wasn't like the weather was like very normal for like a summer evening. And it was pitch black, dark, like super, super silent in the neighborhood.

Like you could hear a pin drop. And we went to go like light the, candles and, like, burn the incense. None of the matches were lighting. None of the matches were lighting. And we must have gone through, like, 25 matches, which was very confusing. I know how to use matches. Like, I grew up camping. Like, this shouldn't have really been a problem. And, like, I would get, like, the 26th to light. And I would light, and then I'd go to light the candles and none of the candles were lighting. I was just like, damn, like, I do not need this right now. Like, trying to light everything. And I'm like, what is going on? And I was like, okay, maybe like the

slight breeze is what's blowing everything out. So we were like covering stuff, but it still wasn't making sense because it was not windy enough to be like not being able to light this stuff. But I was like, okay, like whatever. We'll just like Sarah incantation, we'll ring the bell and we'll bury the doll. So Maeve starts the process and I remember Mayve asked me if you want to say something. I like apologized for what I did and then just wanted. forgiveness and just wanted to give like good intentions.

I didn't know what was going on, but I could tell it wasn't going well. Like it wasn't going super smoothly. I was trying to light these matches and it wasn't even windy out, but it kept, they kept going out. We just did not feel safe. Like the whole time we were there, we did not feel safe. All I was thinking of the whole time was,

okay, we need to like bury her in the ground because that was like the end goal. We did bury her and then like the energy goes back to the earth. So we say a little like banishing spell. We're kind of like giggling because it's awkward, but we're like, say a little banishing spell and we're like nervous. And I ring, I go to like ring the bell around the doll because supposedly that will

banish the spirit. And then I go and I put the bell down on the ground. So like all parts of the bell are down on the ground. And I hear the bell ring, which should have been physically impossible because like the bell was being held still and I was like not touching it. And that really freaked me out because that shouldn't have happened. Like there should not have been like a physical way that that could have happened. But I put it down and it rang and I was like, that freaked me out.

And I was like, hey, maybe this is not the night for this. Maybe we don't know what we're doing. Maybe we shouldn't be doing this. Maybe we're like messing with something that we shouldn't do. and we kind of, I'm like, we'll go home, we'll look up what to do, we'll deal with it at home. Like, I don't feel good about this anymore. I don't want to do this anymore here. I was just, like, freaked.

We need to get to that part because this is freaking me out. The part where it really hits me, that holy shit, like this is something very heavy was when we were packing up. The whole time I wasn't feeling well and Mave wasn't. feeling good. We're packing up and we're hearing really weird noises. So we get up and we're like going back to the car

and I just hear like two chains like smash together like really close to us and I'm like looking around to see what made this sound in this like dead silent and nothing like nothing's moving. It's completely silent can't hear anything. So we start like running towards the car because we're like that's scary

like someone's going to come murder us and then we just keep hearing like these chains like smashing and I'm like looking around and I cannot find what the source of this noise whatsoever. And I can see the entire street. I can see the whole neighborhood. Nothing's moving. Like, there's nothing that would be making this sound. These noises, I think, are kind of what made us panic even more. I was definitely not helping the situation. I was like, Mave, we've got to go. Like, we got to get in the car. Mave could not find her car keys. Oh my God. It was like five minutes of her just looking for her keys.

Like every single thing, there was like a roadblock for everything. It's like we needed to pack up, something happened. She needed to get in the car because we were genuinely scared about these noises we were hearing. So we get in my car and I'm like slowly pulling out of the neighborhood and I throw the doll kind of haphazardly right behind my seat. Like I throw it right in the back seat. And I'm just like sit there, like sit there. Like we'll deal with you when you get home. And I'm like driving.

I'm just slowly pulling out of the neighborhood. And I hear like these chains like smash right. behind my head and it like startled me so I turned to see like what is making this noise it must be right behind me like what is making this noise I'm going to see it so I turn we finally get in the car and we're still hearing these noises or at least I'm still hearing these noises and the dolls in the back seat and mave and I are just driving very slowly because we're panicked like we know we're panicked but we're also just trying to relax and trying to go home and then suddenly we like hit a pole Sinea screamed like Mave

and then we like mash into like this pole like a sign. It was like a soccer kid's soccer team sign that was made out of metal. I automatically just went into denial. I was like, nope, this didn't happen. This didn't happen. Like I did not just crash this car. There's no way. And then because I could still,

the car was still moving. So I was like, okay, maybe it's not so bad. Maybe like, and I wasn't driving very fast. So I didn't assume the damage was that bad. Maybe the car was like dented or like scratched or something. So I pulled over and kind of went out to look at it and I was like, oh my God, this is really, really bad. Basically the whole Sinea's side of the car, so the passenger side was like completely smashed in and then the wheel like was almost falling off. It was yeah, huge amount of damage.

The like camera was complete, like the camera on the car was completely smashed to pieces. And like now I'm like super freaked out. Like we've crashed the car. like Sinia's like screaming because we crashed the car. I go to call my parents. I'm like so upset. I'm crying. I don't know how to explain to them what happened.

I don't know how to explain how I lost like control of the car. I just didn't make much sense, I guess, to me, because I wasn't going very fast. But like the car, like the full front of the car was totaled. I just remember like being like, it's about to happen. I'm like, oh my God, Maeve or like, Maeve stop. And then we hit it. And she was distracted because I think I kept bringing up the noises.

Like, her head was turned the other way, but she was like driving straight. Like, I don't know how this happened. Like, this road is such a quiet road. She was, like, not going fast at all. But when you look at the damage of the car, it was, like, totaled almost. Like, the front bumper was just, like, for hitting a pole, it was, like, mostly gone. corner was mostly gone. And then we had to sit with the fact that, oh, this just happened to Mief's car, but then also,

like, how did this happen? And immediately, for me, like, someone who's super skeptical about kind of this whole thing, but is slowly coming to realize, like, the severity of, like, or like the power of what's going on, I was, like, it's because of the doll. Like, it's because of what we just tried to do. And it's, like, another roadblock to, like, getting this doll cleanse. that's what it felt like to me. And it was even weirder because, like, the doll was still in the car.

It was a very scary moment. I'm trying hard to explain what it felt like, but it was just, like, the weirdest feeling I've ever had. And it was even weirder because, like, the doll was still in the car. It just felt like suddenly the problem was, like, right in front of me. And, like, my parents were obviously super worried. They're super mad at me. I could not explain to them what's going on.

I was like hiding the doll because I was like, I do not want to explain like this situation. Like this is so like crazy. They are not going to understand. And yeah, it was just a super, super scary situation. I'm not going to like sit here and say like the doll made me crash the car. But I think something definitely made that noise. And it scared me to the point where I completely lost control in like that split second. Yeah, and we took the car into the mechanic later.

The mechanic was like, you must have been going like 80 miles an hour to do this damage. Like, you must have been like speeding. And I was like, no, I was just pulling out of like the parking lot. Like I was going like under 40 miles an hour. Like definitely. And like I confirmed this and I was like, I was not going that fast. I was like, no, that doesn't make sense. But the mechanic definitely didn't believe me.

He was like, no, like you were speeding, like, you're lying. And I was like, I don't know. I don't know what happened. Anyways, I got home. And I was like, I was pissed at that point. Like, I had enough of the doll. Like, I threw it into like a box. I threw it into a bag and I threw it under my desk.

And I was just like done with it. I was so mad. I was so over it. Like, I was like, I never, I want this thing out of my life. I want it out like for good. I don't want to have to deal with this anymore. And after that. that night, the energy in my room was, I don't even know how to describe so horrifically

horrendous. I did not want to go in my room. It just felt every time I was in my room, I felt like I was being suffocated. It was freezing cold and I just felt like I was like literally I couldn't breathe and I just refused to go in my room. I forced my sister. I was like, I'm sleeping in your bed. She was not happy with that. She was, because she was a teenager. She was like, get out of my bed. But I just refused to go down to my room. I was so scared, like, being in the house alone, like, during the day. I always wanted someone over. I was always, like, trying to stay at a friend's house.

I was just becoming so tired and so worn down and exhausted. And my friends were, like, commenting, like, you look like death. Like, you are clearly not yourself. You are not talking of anymore. like you're so tired, like you need to get some sleep. And I just couldn't. I was so scared all the time. I was so tired.

I just felt like my whole life had been taken over by this fear and like this horrible, horrible energy in my house. Okay, that brings us to the end of part one. I really love this story so much. Like I said before, it reminds me of like a teen horror movie from the 90s, something I would have seen on TV or on a VHS when I was a kid. Even though, to be clear, I believe Mave and her friends were in fact not teenagers. They were actually fully grown women.

I think they were about 20 years old and they were in college, which makes the car accident part even funnier and the fact that they had to call her parents to bail them out of something that they could not obviously fully explain to them. I'm sure you can imagine how that would go saying that it was a very good. actually caused by a haunted doll. Everything about this story is both terrifying and funny at the same time, which is why I love it so much.

The car accident in particular and the noises that they were hearing right behind their head, the noises that made them crash the car in the first place, is very confusing and unsettling to me. That part is very strange, and I cut out about 30 minutes of me asking Mave all sorts of questions and details about the sign that they hit and the damage to the car. The sign was basically just a simple metal pole, the type that you'd see a handicapped parking sign attached to, stuck into the sidewalk.

Yet the damage to her car was severe, as though she had crashed into a very solid structure. The wheel and the axle were even rammed back and stuck all the way against the frame. It's just really, really strange. for that to happen from such a flimsy sign that a car could normally crash into with just a couple scratches in the bumper. Now, am I suggesting that the doll did this to the car somehow? I mean, I guess not. But it's just strange and certainly adds to the entire weirdness of this situation. I can only imagine what they must have been going through, especially when they had to

call their parents to bail them out and couldn't tell them what they were really doing out in this field. In the next part, things only get we're hearing from more of Maeve's friends as this entire saga begins to escalate and they decide to fight back one more time. This has been episode 74, The Situation Part 1, and you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is executive produced and hosted by myself Jack Wagner. Our theme song is by Cobra Man. The soundtrack of this episode is by Juice Jackal and North Americans. The song you're hearing right now is higher than the stars by the pains of being pure at heart. This episode was edited by Theo Krantz and myself, engineered by Theo Schaefer, and produced by Nikki K. Delgado.

Our artwork is by Coldestack Studios. Please show us your support by subscribing, leaving a five-star review, and telling your friends about the show. If you want to hear bonus episodes, you could become a patron at patreon.com slash otherworld. Our social media is at Otherworld Pod. Thank you to the team at Odyssey, J.D. Crowley, Jenna Weiss-Berman, Leah Reef, Reese Dennis, Rob Morandi, Eric Donnelly, Matt Casey, Laura Curran, Josephina Francis, and Hillary Shuff. Follow and listen to Otherworld Now for free on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And finally, if you or somebody you know has experienced something paranormal, supernatural,

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