Radio Rental - Brush By >>

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

An abnormal night at the front desk of a hotel leaves our storyteller questioning his sanity. >> Help Me

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The following podcast includes scary stories with content that could be triggering to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Take a break from the same old boring blockbusters and experience a new kind of movie night with Radio Rental. At Radio Rental, our videos come to life in your living room, defy all logic and reasoning, and make you question your own reality. This is not your ordinary video rental store.

At Radio Rental, we carry one-of-a-kind videos so frightening, so mind-bending, you won't be able to sleep at night. You've gone Radio Rental. Hello there. Welcome in. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Terry Carnation, and you've found yourself once again at Radio Rental, a VHS rental shop specializing in the bizarre and the terrifying. And the bizarrely terrifying. And the terrifyingly bizarre.

And the terrifyingly tizar. Okay. Oh, yes, speaking of terrifyingly bizarre, that's my shop cat, Malachi. Hi, Malachi. Hi, Malachi. But I digress. I'm sure you already know where you are. I assume you've seen our advertisements everywhere and your curiosity got the better of you. Hmm?

No? You haven't seen our commercials? Then why am I paying an arm and a leg for a prime spot on local broadcast television? I knew I should have sprung for a spot on... cable. Then surely you would have seen our commercial. Please tell me you know what cable is. How old are you all?

Actually, you know what? Don't even answer that. I don't want to feel depressed. It's just that people simply don't appreciate media the way they used to. Now, everything is too easy. It's too quick, people don't savor it. That's why I'm committed to running this very store. Someone has to be the self-appointed guardian of physical media. I mean, there's nothing quite like holding a VHS tape in your hand and knowing that if you hurled it into the river, that film would be gone forever.

Yeah, try throwing Paramount Plus into the river. You can't. Believe me, I would have done it already. How many Yellowstone spinoffs can one possibly have? Although I did like that one about the misunderstood cowboy. Kidding! They're all about misunderstood cowboys. Ugh. I digress. You're here at Radio Rental and that must mean that you have some semblance of respect for the art form that is analog video recording. And because of that, I will reward you by allowing

you access to my special collection of horror tapes. Ah, here we go. Here it is, special collection. The restricted section. Terry's No Touch-Ums. This here box is chock full of tapes with the scariest stories you've ever heard in your life. And here's the kicker. They're all told by real people.

These are sensitive, classified, generally downright creepy tales of real horror in real life. And they're the only copies in the world. So please, for the love of God, don't throw these into a river. I really, seriously, I can't stress that enough. Please don't throw these into a river. I really... seriously, I can't stress that enough. Please do not throw these into a river or any body of water.

Thank you. Now, I am nothing if not chivalrous, so I'll let you pick the first tape. Oh, good choice. I actually have no idea if that is true because I forgot to label this one. So I guess we'll just have to pop it in to see. The joys of analog media. Here we go. And play.

At the time, I was a student. Second year in college. I had a job working as a night auditor at the hotel that was nearby, and I worked from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. It was my job to do the daily audit and send that to corporate. Every night at 3 a.m. on the dot, you have to send that audit to the parent company of the hotel. Like, that's the whole reason you're there. So from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., I'm the only employee that's working in the hotel at that time. I work at the reception desk.

So when people walk in, they come through a set of automatic doors, they take a few steps, they turn to their left, and they're standing at the reception desk. I would sit on the far end and mess around on my laptop, and I could see the camera feed as well as hear people when they came in. And if they came to the desk, they couldn't see me, but I could hear them and see them on the cameras and could get up and greet them. It must have been roughly around midnight that evening. I'm sitting at the far corner, out of sight, watching Netflix on my laptop.

We may have had two or three guests who were checked into the hotel at that time and everybody, as far as I was concerned, was down for the night. While I'm watching Netflix, I hear the double automated doors to the hotel open. I get up and walk to the window to greet whoever's coming into the hotel. And when I get to the window and look, I don't see anyone there. But I end up getting that cold rush of wind that kind of brushes by you as someone's passing you. And it brushes right past me.

And I follow it with my eyes, not necessarily seeing anything, but following the sensation. And the elevator opens. The doors close. And I'm watching as the numbers ding up from one to two to three. I glance up at the security camera feed to see if anyone or anything gets out of the elevator. And the doors open, and I anticlimactically don't see anything come out of the elevator. So I think to myself that that was just kind of weird and eerie. And I ultimately go back to sitting down and watching Netflix.

I get the feeling to look up at the cameras at the monitor showing me the cameras of the hotel in the third floor vending area i can see a silhouette not so much a shadow it was definitely someone or something standing just out of eye shot enough that you could see in the camera that someone's there, but you couldn't quite make out any of their specific features. As I'm looking at this, a couple of minutes go by, and I think to myself, what's this asshole doing? What's he up to? I might as well go up there and see what's going on I put

my away from desk sign up at the counter and I head up to the third floor I walk into the vending area and there's no one there but the weird thing is that there is a puddle, not a small puddle. We're talking 25, 30 gallons, like a very large puddle of water on the floor. And the water has this dark black, more of like a paint tinge to it. And you can smell it. This thick, dead animal smell. I looked around the hallway and the vending area, and there was no one there.

I tried putting two and two together, and I figured it must have been some kind of oily leak that had come out of the ice machine. Ultimately, I ended up going to the maintenance closet, getting the things I needed, a mop and a bucket to clean it. I cleaned it up the best that I could, left the bucket and the mop there and proceeded to go back downstairs to man the desk.

A few minutes go by and something tells me to look back up at the camera. I look up at the camera and that same black amalgamation is right where it was the first time I saw it. But this time, instead of being curious, I start to feel a sense of dread. This is a little freaky. I don't like what's happening, but I still feel the need to have to go and investigate. I put the I'm-away-from-the-desk sign back up. I go back up the stairwell again.

I get to the rest area. And as if it was the exact same way I found it the first time. No one is there. And that same puddle of black liquid is on the floor again. I'm trying to rationalize how... I mean it must... the ice machine must really be leaking or someone's playing a prank or something. So I again mop up this filthy stinky puddle of water, put the bucket back and head back downstairs. Kind of shook by the whole instance.

And I try to just keep it out of my mind because I don't want to scare myself. And I go back to watching my program, but this time I hear the elevator ding open. Like, oh, someone's coming out of the elevator. So I get up and walk to the front counter. I'm standing there and the door is open and there's no one there. But just as I had felt it an hour or so earlier, I got that same feeling, that brisk wind that someone was passing me.

And the double doors open, and just as fast as whatever had come into that hotel, it walked out. Three days later, I come in for my shift at the hotel. I get called into the office by the manager. It's a little unexpected. I've never been called in by the manager ever, but she sits me down and she tells me that I'm getting a corporate write-up. I'm kind of baffled by the whole thing, wondering, you know, a corporate write-up, it's more or less a big deal. She tells me that three nights ago while I was working, I failed to submit the nightly audit to the parent company.

And I'd never failed to do anything like that in the past. I've always done it like clockwork. It's literally the reason why I'm there. I was protesting with her. I told her, I know I did this. I've never missed it before. I, at one point, was like, you can check the cameras. I know I did it. And she's like, I looked at the cameras, and there's something I want to talk to you about. I was taken aback a little. She boots up the cameras, questioning me about if I've been using drugs, if I'm having a hard time with work, have I been sleeping, are my classes interfering with my sleep schedule?

She gets to the time slot. It's roughly 2.45 in the morning. And I'm looking at the camera, and I can't believe my eyes. What I'm looking at, which originally was that black amalgamation, is actually myself. I'm just standing with my head kind of down

and my arms at my side in a puddle of water in the vending area on the third floor. It was 100% me. There was no doubt in my mind that I was looking at myself.

The manager, she's like, what were you doing? Not only did you miss the 3 a.m. window, but you were there from 2.45 until like 4.15, almost a two and a half hour stretch of time where I'm just standing there on camera. And I'm trying to tell her that it was some ghost. And she's like, oh yeah, really funny. I never cleaned anything on the video. All I did was walk up the stairwell around 2 a.m. and stand in the vending area. There was no mop. There was no bucket.

There was no me walking around. There was no me watching Netflix. That same puddle that I thought that I cleaned up, I mean, I never heard anything from the manager or housekeeping the following morning. You could see it on the camera. You can see this watery pattern on the floor. It'd be easy to say it's coming from one of the machines,

but when you really look at it, it looked like it was just kind of a puddle forming on the floor. I had no explanation. I knew I did that audit. I'd never missed it before. But the facts tell otherwise. According to the company and her and the parent company, I never did that audit.

I honestly couldn't believe it. In fact, I tried to tell her that what I saw was something completely different and she wrote it off as me being a kid who maybe was drinking or not getting enough sleep. Ultimately, my relationship with the staff and the management at the hotel soured. And over the course of the next few days, I kind of became that guy, either a drug addict or a loony tune who was seeing things and ended up cutting ties with the hotel. It became this deep-seated question of, am I struggling with something mentally? I like to think that it was something else and not me, because nobody wants to be crazy, but you never know. Well, I for one don't think he's crazy. In fact, I've had many similar experiences.

God, why do all of these stories happen in hotels? This is why I don't stay in hotels anymore. Only bed and breakfast for me. No elevators, no security cameras. And I like the little muffins they have in the morning. And the awkward cocktail hour. And the consistently hovering homeowner. And the dolls.

So many dolls. Always so many dolls. Always so many dolls. And so many pillows. A bed needs one pillow, two max. You don't need 43 pillows on a bed. Don't get me started. Now it's time for a word from our sponsors.

But, imagine if you didn't have to listen to any words from any sponsors. And the episode just continued on into the next very scary story. Wouldn't that be amazing? What if something like that existed, and it was called, oh, I don't know, Tenderfoot Plus.

And you could go to tenderfootplus.com and, like, I don't know, subscribe or something for ad-free listening and early access. That would be crazy. Too bad something like that doesn't exist. Well, anyways, enjoy this huge chunk of ads. I am so dreading groceries this week. Why? You can skip it.

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Oh, good, good. Hand that over to me. Oh, you're going to love this. And off we go. It was 2014. I was 17 years old. I had done a lot of babysitting for local families and stuff. I really liked being around kids, really enjoyed it. There was a new family that had asked me to babysit for them.

They had two boys, four and six. And then the mom was pregnant. She was very pregnant, like eight months pregnant. It was Christmas time because the parents were going to a holiday party. I go over, they're getting ready for the party, and they were going as Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, but the wife was Santa Claus because her big pregnant belly made her have a big belly like Santa, which I thought was really cute. They lived in this really nice neighborhood with these big houses,

and then behind them was all woods so the back side of their house in their living room the wall was just floor to ceiling windows and just forest and woods out the back that's all you could see the dad is giving me a tour of the house you know showing me where things are talking about the rules and bedtime and all that. And we go down to the basement. There's a playroom down there, and he says, the boys are welcome to play down here. Then he points to a door that's shut,

and he says, don't go back there. It's unfinished. It's not safe. Don't go back there. It's unfinished. It's not safe. Don't go back there. The room behind it was definitely big. It was probably like half of the basement. And I was like, okay, no problem. So we go back upstairs.

The parents go to their party. I have a great evening with the kids, they're really sweet. We eat pizza for dinner and I put them to bed 8.30 or so. The parents had said that they weren't gonna be home until like 11 or midnight, so cool, I can just basically get paid to watch TV and do nothing. I sit down on the couch in the living room. I had a baby monitor that was connected to the boys' room upstairs.

That was on the floor next to me. There was also a vent right next to that on the floor. And then I was sitting on the couch and the wall of windows was behind me and I was watching old episodes of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I start to hear this weird sound. It sounds distant. I can't quite tell what it is. It's kind of like one long, drawn-out sound. It sounds like it's coming from far away.

I paused the TV because I thought maybe it was the AC running or the heat, or like the refrigerator sometimes makes weird noises or something like that. When I paused the TV, I continued to hear the sound. It almost sounded like a moaning or like groaning type sound. They didn't have any pets or anything like it wasn't a dog or anything. It was happening every 30 or 45 seconds and it would go on for probably five seconds. I got a little bit worried and I thought maybe it was coming from the baby monitor. So I go upstairs and check on the boys and they're sound asleep. They're totally fine. They weren't making any noise at all. So I go back downstairs and I keep watching TV. I just basically try to ignore it. I was like, you know, you're just being dramatic. It's nothing. You're fine. You're safe. You're in a safe neighborhood. Like, it's all good. But then it gets louder. It's still distant, but it's like I can make

it out better. I can tell now that it is coming from not only a person, but a woman. That note that was kind of long and drawn out, that was groaning or moaning, that turns to more like yelling. Almost like screaming. But again, it was very, very distant. And so I was kind of going back and forth with myself. Am I really hearing this? Like, is something going on? You know, I looked down and the baby monitor was right next to the vent.

So I was like, well, if it's not coming from the baby monitor, what if it's coming from the vent? I start to really panic. What if I'm hearing noises from somewhere in this house? It's this big huge house. I only was in the kitchen, the living room, the basement, and the boys room, so I don't know what else is here. And there's that room in the basement that the dad said, don't go back there. There was a part of the basement underneath the living room. That vent would be connected to this unfinished room in the basement. My mind really starts to race

and I'm kind of trying to figure out what should I do? Should I call the parents? But I don't want to worry them and their children are totally fine. They're asleep and they're safe. I don't want to sound crazy. As I'm trying to figure out, you know, what should I do? The screaming turns into this woman screaming, help me.

My blood just ran cold. It was like this bone-chilling, just absolutely awful noise of her screaming, Help me! I really panic. I feel frozen on the couch. There was someone trapped in the basement. And I could hear it because her screams were coming through the vent. So I called my mom.

She said, are you sure that you can hear someone yelling, help me? This person was desperate and was just screaming for help. And I said, yes, I can hear them saying help me. And she said, well, I'm on my way, but you need to call 911 if there's someone who needs help. I hang up with her and I dial 911. And I tell them I can hear a woman screaming for help. I'm babysitting and the kids are asleep and they're safe. But I can hear a woman screaming for help. It's coming from somewhere inside the house.

It's coming from someone that they have locked in their basement. I can hear it coming through the vents. This vent that was on the floor next to me would be attached to the basement and he had very clearly said don't go into this part of the basement. They have someone trapped here and I'm next. These people, this is what they do. They have babysitters come over and they chain them up in their basement. They probably have cameras watching me right now.

They probably heard me call my mom and say that I'm going to call 911. They had said that they were just going to a party in the neighborhood. They must be close by. I was going to a party in the neighborhood. They must be close by. I was going to die. These people who were dressed like Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus were going to kill me. I'm on the phone with 9-1-1 and the operator says they'll stay with me until the police get there. Just try to keep me calm. Let me know that police were on their way. She asked a few times if the kids were okay,

and I said, yes, they're fine. I'm telling the 911 operator, there's someone locked in the basement. I was really scared, just kind of numb. I just was very cold. I felt very frozen, like my body really couldn't move. I knew there was no way I was going to go into the basement and try to investigate for myself. This family that seems so, you know, nice and perfect, but really they have like this dark

secret. Something terrible was going to happen to me. I was going to be killed. I was going to be locked up. I was thinking something awful was going to happen to me. The only thing that made me move was hearing the knock on the door once the 911 operator said, OK, the police are about to knock on the door. They actually knocked on my door at the same time that my mom pulled in the driveway.

My mom, like, booked it from where she was. When I opened the door, the police officer was right there, but my mom was down at the end of the driveway. And she said she's never seen me look so pale. She said I was literally not the first person to call reporting that they had heard screams of someone screaming for help. The girl who lived next door, her cat had gotten out. It had escaped out the back and was somewhere in the woods. So this girl was wandering through the woods.

It was dark outside. She was looking for her cat. And as she got more and more desperate, she started crying, screaming, and that eventually led to her screaming, help me. Eesh. Well, let's take a quick break.

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And stick around for the Crime Writers Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down reviews. It's the original True Crime Review podcast. Crime Writers On, wherever you get your podcasts. Like probably right here. Well, my friend, it's so nice to be back here at Radio Rental doing what I love most. Spending time with my fans by plunging into the terrifying and bizarre headfirst. Getting spooked all by myself doesn't quite pack the same punch, wouldn't you agree? So I hope for that very reason, you'll come back and join us again next week. I'm sure you will,

because my name is Terry Carnation, and this has been Radio Rental. Oh, and I almost forgot. If you want to hear a little bit more of that first story, join Tenderfoot Plus, and you can hear what happened to him next. And other exclusive bonus episodes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. You get the picture anyway.

Bye. Get out of here. Stop lingering. It's kind of creepy. Radio Rental is created by Payne Lindsay and brought to you by Tenderfoot TV. Lead producer is Eric Quintana. Executive producers are Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. Hosted by Rainn Wilson as his character, Terry Carnation. Written and produced by Meredith Stedman.

Additional writing by Mark Laughlin. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Associate producer is Jaja Muhammad. Editing by Eric Quintana, Mike Rooney, Stephen Perez, and Meredith Stedman. Sound design by Cooper Skinner, with additional sound design by Stephen Perez and April Ruha. Mix and master by Cooper Skinner, with additional mixing design by Steven Perez and April Ruha. Mix and master by Cooper Skinner, with additional mixing by Steven Perez and Devin Johnson. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set,

with additional score by Jay Ragsdale. Video editing by Dylan Harrington. Cover artwork by Trevor Eiler and Rob Sheridan. Special thanks to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTI, the Nord Group, Station 16, Beck Media and Marketing, and the team at Odyssey. If you have a Radio Rental story

that you'd like to share, please email us at yourscarystory at gmail.com or contact us via the form on our website, radiorentalusa.com. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Radio Rental. You can also follow the illustrious Terry Carnation on social media. Just search at Terry Carnation. On behalf of the Radio Rental store, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate, and review. Thanks for listening. I'm Nadine Bailey.

I've been a ghost tour guide for 20 years and have taken people into haunted places to uncover macabre tales and dark secrets. On my podcast, Haunted Canada, I share bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening right now. Then join me if you dare.