Radio Rental - Two of our scariest stories!

Episode Date: October 31, 2020

Two of our scariest stories. On todays tapes... >> Laura of the Woods > What Was She Planning?

Thank you. stories we tackle next. Plus, you could win a nice prize just for sharing your thoughts. Head over to tenderfoot.tv slash survey and let your voice be heard, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card plus a Tenderfoot merch pack. It only takes a few minutes, and it makes a big difference. Thank you for being part of our community. We can't wait to hear from you. Hey guys, I hope you're surviving 2020 okay. I wanted to let you know that we're hard at work on season 3 of Radio Rental, and we're looking forward to releasing more episodes in the near future. In the meantime, I want to do a little throwback to two of the scariest stories on the show, in my opinion at least, just to try and hold you over.

Also, if you're looking for a new podcast to binge while you're waiting for more Radio Rental, check out my new podcast called Dead and Gone. Here's the trailer for it. Mary was found with a male companion in the Berkeley, California marina on Thursday. Both had a single gunshot to the head. Early reports said Mary was a devout follower of the Grateful Dead rock group. In 1985, Mary Joya and Greg Niffin were brutally murdered. They were both Grateful Dead fans. An African-American man named Ralph Thomas was convicted and sentenced to death.

But for the last three decades, rumors have flown around the Grateful Dead community that they got the wrong guy. A long lost group of friends all have their own stories that point towards a new suspect. Dead and Gone is a deep dive investigative podcast that explores a horrific crime, a possible wrongful conviction, and the dark side of one of America's most infamous bands, the Grateful Dead. Dead and Gone is out right now. If you're looking for a new true crime podcast,

I think you'll find this story very compelling. Now, on to the scariest stories from Radio Rental thus far, according to me. Okay, it was 1988. I was 10 years old. My family and I lived in a small town called Trafalgar, Indiana. When you think of out in the middle of the country, that's what it was. We finally got a Dairy Queen, I think, when I was in high school, and a gas station. That was big. All the kids knew each other. We all liked each other. Some kids are nerds and some kids are cool. But in the summer, on the street, everyone's friends.

Everyone hangs together. It's your typical 80s childhood, you know. Before computers, everyone's riding their BMXs around town, playing Star Wars, G.I. Joe's. Pretty much a Steven Spielberg movie. On our street that I lived in, there was about five houses and in between was a giant wooded area. All these neighbors we knew, the Mitchells on one side, they rode our bus. They were a little older than me and my sister. Down the other street we had had Mr. Robinson. I mean, he's a really good guy. And then one of the other houses was a teacher of mine. They didn't have any kids.

And then there was another house. We called it the mystery house around town. No one knew who lived there. You could hardly see it. You could see it if you went back in the woods, but you could only see, like, the top story, the roof, the window. We kind of became fascinated with it, the kids around town. You know, we'd spy on the mystery house, try to catch any sign of people coming in or out, and we never did, really. You could tell they wanted their privacy.

No one knew who even lived there, really. The look of the house was kind of, it was different than all the other houses. You know, this is 80s in Indiana. Most are just one story brick houses. This was like three stories, very Gothic. Just stood out, it was out of place. And it wasn't just me, the other kids,

we talked about this house too. Talked about vampires, you know, stuff like that. I think my buddy, Mike Earlywine said that he saw a vampire. You know, we made up stories. It was a house that was connected to the woods that we were all connected to, but no one knew a thing about it. We just referred to it as the mystery house.

All of us did. I had two sisters. I was by myself a lot. You know, I was a middle child. My oldest sister, I'm good friends with her, but, you know, she had her friends. And in the summertime, I just liked going out in the woods. I just liked being out there by myself. I was kind of a loner. I'd take a bag of G.I. Joes out in the woods.

I wouldn't take my Star Wars because they were too precious, you know. But G.I. Joe, that was fine to put in the creek or bury, you know, or play in the woods with. And one day I went back there, there's a little spot by the creek where you could kind of see the mystery house. I'm out there, and I'm playing with my G.I. Joes, and all of a sudden, just an overwhelming feeling of paralyzing fear, basically. I don't know how to explain it besides I knew someone or something was watching me out there.

I don't know if it was a human or an animal or what, but I just could tell I was not alone. I don't know if I heard a branch crack or an animal or what, but I just could tell I was not alone. I don't know if I heard a branch crack or a leaf or whatever, but I just remember stiffening up and being scared shitless basically. I didn't turn around. I didn't want to know what it was. And I remember putting my GI Joes back in the bag.

I still remember the bag. It was blue with yellow straps and a yellow zipper. Calmly stood up and walked back to my house without turning around. Freaked me out and I didn't go back in the woods for a few days. I didn't tell anybody either because I was a kid who watched horror movies.

I loved stuff like that. Even at that age, trying to read Stephen King books, but I don't think I was getting very far in them. A few days went by, and I decided to go back out there. I don't know if it was morbid curiosity or what, but I went back to the exact same spot. This time, I didn't take anything with me, probably because in case I need to get out, I could just get out and go. And sitting there, I'm sticking sticks in the creek mud. And then all of a sudden, I don't know if I heard something or not, but I just knew. I don't know how to explain it other than someone's there. And I started walking away. And all of a sudden, the voice came. It scared me, but since it was a gentle voice, I turned around and there's a

girl standing there and she simply said, you don't have to go home. And, uh, this is how I met Laura. Laura was kind of strange looking. She had like a mop top hair, kind of messy. Her clothes were kind of weird. She explained to me that she lived in the mystery house. She was an only child, and that she was home-taught. That's how we struck up our friendship. She was wearing clothing that you shouldn't be wearing this summer.

She had a long-sleeve sleeve flannel buttoned real high. It looked very uncomfortable to me. It was like too tight in some spots and too baggy in other spots. And her hair was like a mop top, kind of slobby, you know, like she hadn't combed it. For like a week or two, I kept going out there and hanging out with Laura.

I just was having fun out there, you know. I met a new friend in the woods, which is kind of strange. She explained to me that her room in her house was the whole top floor, like a giant attic to herself. You could see one window from the area in the woods, and that was her window. The way she made it sound was a giant, basically, toy room. She just told me she was homeschooled, and that her parents let her basically run the top floor of the house, basically like a giant toy room.

Never gave me their names, never invited me up. Definitely didn't invite me up to the house. I don't know if I invited her to my house, to be honest with you. I think we kind of just agreed to have our meeting spot out there. Eventually she took me around to a spot on the other side of her house, which I had not been to previously. She showed me a swing hanging from the trees. It was a wood swing with rope and it was attached to two different trees, but the branches, like, came together.

She swung on it. I remember pushing her. She asked me about my life a lot. I just pushed her while she asked me questions about my life. And whenever I'd ask her about hers, very vague, not much answers. She never said much about her parents. I don't know why I got the feeling something was kind of off there. I asked her why she was homeschooled. I

didn't quite understand what that meant at the time. I wanted to ask her if her parents were strange, but I never did. She didn't want to talk about herself. I'd be pushing her on the swing, and I'd ask her a question, and then she would just come back with a question of her own. Just change the subject. No one ever asked me about myself really so I was probably just out there blabbing away about my life. I think maybe the fact that this older girl was talking to me, I probably had like a little schoolboy crush going on even though I didn't find her pretty really but she was paying attention to me, you know? One day, she said very matter-of-factly, come here, I want to show you something. She took me to this little area, and there was this tree.

And her name was carved on the tree, and then she said, I want to show you something else. One of the limbs had fallen off, and it was like a hole. And she put her hand in and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Marlboro Reds. Soft pack, like they used to sell. I don't think they even sell soft packs anymore. I'll never forget it, because it was all crumpled up.

And she taught me how to smoke cigarettes out there. I remember feeling, oh man, this is not good. I'm out here breaking the rules, you know. She pulled one out and lit it, smoked it like half down and then handed it to me. And I took, at the time, my best attempt at inhaling a cigarette. I think I did like two of them. And she smoked a lot. I think I watched her smoke like ten cigarettes out in the woods.

She had a smoking habit. I eventually told my parents that I was hanging out with someone out there. And they thought it was cool. You know, they didn't really question it. My older sister kind of teased me and saying I had a girlfriend out there. And you know, looking back on it, I probably did have a little adolescent crush that I developed on this 11-year-old when I'm 10, and she's teaching me to do bad things and showing me around. And then one day I went out there and she was gone.

I went back out there a few times and she never came back. I just thought maybe she didn't want to come back out, or I didn't know. You know, maybe her parents caught her smoking out there, but she never came back. For weeks that summer, he played in the woods with his new friend Laura, and one day, in what seemed like a blink of an eye, she was gone. But little did he know at the time with the same Vegas drift excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions. Or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette. Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.

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Like probably right here. Growing up, he'd always been more of a loner. But that summer, having his new friend Laura around was a pleasant change. He even started to develop a crush. Laura was different, often vague about her personal life, and strange-looking, as he described. Mop-top hair, clothes that didn't fit. But nevertheless, he was thrilled to have someone to hang out with, someone who would listen to him, made him feel good.

But one day, she was gone. No trace of Laura at all. School year started, and so life went back to normal. The year after, the house was for sale. They were having an open house like they do. All of a sudden, Laura came back

into my head. We'd talked for years about this house, and finally it was open to the public. So we pleaded and pleaded with my mom to go to the open house. We knew we weren't going to buy the house, you know. But finally mom gave in. I think even the adults wanted to see what was going on in that house. And we went to the open house. I thought I might see her, you know. Plus, we just wanted to see what the house looked like. My mom wasn't even excited, I remember.

So we felt like we were going to something special, you know? Like any open house, there's other people there. I remember some other people like us looking at the house, and then there was a man, which I assume was Laura's dad and then there was Laura's mom and I could tell right away it was Laura's mom they looked a lot alike only she had real short hair and but they looked alike and you could just tell that they were related she's showing us around the house and my mom's striking a small conversation you know saying we've lived

here you know been neighbors you know it's a shame we've never met. Her mom said, yeah, although I feel like I recognize this guy here and pointed at me. I don't know if she was watching me and her daughter out there playing or what. Kind of creeped me out a little bit. Walking around and doing the tour of the house and we get through the second floor and that's it. That's the tour of the house, and we get through the second floor,

and that's it. That's the end of the tour. And I know there's a third floor because she's told me. There's a giant attic up there, and I've seen the window. She didn't mention it. She just said, and that's the house.

I was 10, and I was kind of shy. I wanted to stay. I knew there was a third floor, but I didn't. My mom was talking to her, and eventually she said that they lost their daughter years ago. She said her daughter had passed away. And at that point, I'm freaked out. She said years ago.

It hadn't been years since I'd hung out with the girl. Me and my sister, I'll never forget, we looked at each other and thinking, who have I been out there hanging with? I must have looked funny because the mom said to me, what's wrong, buddy? Looks like you've seen a ghost. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. You know, I played out there on multiple occasions.

She never came to my house or anything, so no one saw her but me. She was not in school. There was no yearbook pictures to look up. We were walking to the car, and my mom said, no more. No more going out there. I don't know what's going on here, but you're not going out there by yourself anymore. I don't know if she believed in ghosts or what, but she, you know, you're not going back out there without someone's supervision.

It wasn't real scary until we got back to the house and I was thinking about the ramifications of what, oh my God, is it a ghost? Am I playing with a ghost? And I didn't think she was dead. It's still creepy thinking about it. It's been 31 years. Already with my interactions with Laura, I already had a bad vibe about her parents,

because she wouldn't ever talk about it. I didn't trust the lady. I thought Laura was in that house. I honestly thought Laura was locked in the attic. Maybe something bad's going on up there. I physically had pushed this person on a swing. I don't know. I just feel like I wouldn't be able to touch a ghost. And I, you know, I smoked a cigarette. I didn't take the cigarettes out there myself. I was 10 years old, I didn't have a way of getting cigarettes. After the open house,

I disobeyed my parents one time and did go back out there. I kind of thought maybe Laura was locked up there. I thought she was being held hostage or something in the house. Being a kid, very curious. Thought maybe I could save Laura, I think. I thought maybe if she was in the window

maybe she'd try to signal me and I went out to the exact spot and I went to the where I could see the window and I looked up at the window and sure enough I was being watched but it wasn't Laura it was her mom staring at me like she was waiting for me. And it scared the piss out of me. She was staring right at me out the window. There was no smile, just staring at me. I turned around and got the hell out of there. My sister coined the name Laura of the Woods as the ghost out there, and it sounded like a pretty cool name. So eventually it kind of became a cool story. I was telling my buddies that I had a little ghost friend out there, and Laura of the Woods, you know, out there roaming the wild woods at night or whatever.

And it kind of became a myth of its own. But I just, I didn't think it was a ghost, really. I just kind of went with the ghost story eventually in my head. Finally, I started believing it over and over. Eventually, a couple years later, my parents got divorced. And in that process, we sold the house. So I moved. And I never went back there for a long time.

Eventually, Mr. Robinson passed away. And my Uncle Bill bought his property. So now I had a chance to go back, not to my house, but to the wooded area that I knew. And one day when we were at a cookout, I took my wife, which I had told her a little bit about the story, but not too much. And my sister brought up, remember Laura of the Woods? We were all sitting around drinking beers and I started telling the story again.

I never told it fully to my wife. And then I realized after I was telling, I never told my family about the cigarette part and all that good stuff. So that came out. After a few beers, you know, my wife and sister were like, okay, let's go see it. The spot that I hung out in with the swing and the tree.

Mr. Robinson's trails were grown up, but they were still there. It was just like being a kid again. I was tracing my old footsteps. We're going along the trail, and finally we get to the part where I used to sit with my GI Joes and we found it. The swing was amazingly still hanging there, although I wouldn't sit on it. It looked like it could have snapped at any moment. And the tree was there and the name was still on the tree. And without really thinking, I walked up to it and put my hand in the tree and pulled out the old pack of cigarettes that was still there.

We were all freaked out at this point. I thought I was maybe playing with a ghost, you know, but now it's physical. I'm feeling this. So we're like, OK, it confirmed what I was telling them. What the hell was my childhood? What was I doing out there? It's true. Let's get the hell out of here.

For the next week or so, it was on my mind big time. And one night, I had some kind of food poisoning or something. I was real sick and in bed, having like fever dreams and sweating. And I had this dream. I'm walking out on the trails, Mr. Robinson's trails again. It's dusk. It's gray outside. It's fall. The trees have no leaves, but the leaves are on the ground. I'm on Mr. Robinson's trail.

I know the trail well. It's the one with the bench overlooking the creek. I'm just following the trail, and I don't want to, but I just keep walking. Turn the corner, and there's one of the benches. Sitting on the bench was Laura. Mop top hair from the back. She was facing the other way.

I was coming up from behind, but I could tell from the hair, everything, that it was her. And I get closer, and she's, like, laughing. This weird little giggle. She's laughing, and I feel like she's laughing at me. I feel really stupid. She lifts her head up and when she does her hand is on her hair and it just comes off. And what I saw then really freaked me out.

My wife said I sat straight up in the bed, panting and sweating and screaming. It was always her. It was always the mom. It was the mom the whole time. Decades later, he had a horrifying revelation. The mom. It was always the mom. It explained everything. Her weird mop top hair the strange clothes she wore that didn't fit

smoking cigarettes. He always knew it wasn't a ghost. He just couldn't explain it until all these years later. It's one thing to think you were playing with ghosts as a kid. It's even creepier to think that you're playing with an adult woman dressed as a kid pretending to as a kid. It's even creepier to think that you're playing with an adult woman

dressed as a kid, pretending to be a kid, just playing games on a little boy. That's the conclusion I've come with, and that's what I, in my heart, know what happened to me and I believe it wholeheartedly. The dream was so vivid and so lucid and so real. And people ask me, how could a 10 year old be so stupid to think a grown woman is an 11 year old kid? I don't know, I guess I was gullible. But I thought it was an 11-year-old girl. I felt kind of stupid, to be honest with you.

This was a friend I thought I had. I think I knew. Maybe even when I went to the open house and saw how similar they looked. And I just wouldn't admit it to myself, suppressed memory or whatever you wanna call it. I had a feeling. I know in my heart that's exactly what happened. I think I knew long before the dream, actually.

I don't think I wanted to admit such a weird thing happened to me. I have a 10-year-old son right now and I could see him being fooled too. The idea of a grown woman out in the woods waiting on anyone to come and then befriend for like two weeks or so and teach me to smoke cigarettes, make me push her on a swing, just weird. She even her on a swing. Just weird. She even talked like a kid.

Her voice was not the same as the voice at the open house. She, like, had a kid voice. Here's my theory. I believe her daughter did die, and I believe she was acting like her daughter. Maybe as a coping mechanism, I don't know. I just can't imagine a woman with no kids thinking that was a fun idea. Unless she was just total batshit crazy.

I feel like she did lose something, and she was trying to let it live through this weird game. In this next story, a man too intrigued to say no, too curious to turn around, finds himself in a whole world of trouble. It's like 10 years ago and I just turned 21. Me and my friend, we kind of went out one night and we were drinking. I kind of was like drinking way too much at the time. And I was blacking out and just forgetting everything that I was doing, so I'm like, you know what, I'm not gonna drink. I'm just gonna watch my boy all night, you know?

We went to the bar. My friend's already smashed. He's already drunk when we're getting to the bar. I took a couple shots, and I'm trying not to drink too much. Pretty quick, some girl comes up to us, and she's a cute girl, pretty she's like oh hi my name's candace nice to meet you white girl kind of greenish eyes red hair bright red hair it was

like unnatural but it was like pretty it was like kind of like a young scarlett johansson it was very distinct i was definitely definitely into it, you know? So she comes up to us, introduces herself. She's like, hi, my name's Candace. How you guys doing? She kind of just, like, injected herself. Comes up, starts talking to us, starts flirting with both of us. We weren't really paying attention to her or anything. So I tell her my name.

My friend says his name. And she's like, oh, you guys want to get some drinks? And I'm like, nah, not really. I just thought she was trying to get some money from us and get free drinks and stuff. And she's like, no, I'll buy the drinks. All right, well, if you want to buy some drinks, go ahead. She starts buying us drinks and getting shots and getting

beers. And I'm kind of giving them to my friend because I don't want to get too drunk. And she's barely drinking. I don't even really remember seeing her drink. My friend's smashed this time. He's drunk. He can barely stand. The bouncers see him drunk.

And they're like, you got to leave. So we're both carrying my friend out. He's sitting on the wall, like with his back on the wall like sleep you know what i'm saying so i'm about to take him back to his car and she's like oh i'll take him home let me take him home and i'm like no i'm not i'm not leaving him with you it's all about him like oh let's go to my house and he's not talking to her not even responding to her i kind of like intervening i'm like no he's too drunk he can't go anywhere i'm gonna, no, he's too drunk. He can't go anywhere. I'm going to take him home. He's messed up.

And she's like, oh, why are you being like that? You're ruining a good time for him. Why would you do that? And I'm like, look, we can both go, but I'm not going to let him go be drunk and wake up in a house that he doesn't, without his car, without anything. It's just bro code. You don't leave your friends drunk like that. She just kept persisting at it. Like, oh, I'll take care of him.

Trust me, he's going to have a good time. I'm like, he can barely stand. If you want to take both of us, then I'll go. But he's not going alone. And she presented to me like, how about me and you go to my house then? She was like, let's go get a couple drinks and then we'll hang out. Like making me feel like I was a weirdo for not like drinking or like having fun. She's like, we're going to have a good time. Just come on. I'm like, all right. I don't got any money.

I don't know how he's getting home. I don't know how we're getting more drinks because I don't have any money. She's like, look, I got the money. I'll pay for everything. I'll get him a cab home. We'll come to my house. We're going to have a good time. I'm like, all right, OK. How can I say no to that? She calls the cab, put my friend in it, called his sister.

Like, hey, he's coming home. He leaves. He's out of the situation now. I walk into her car. I got my arm around her. And I kind of stumble. And she's like, like oh you're really drunk kind of like oh you really got drunk in there and I was like yeah I really got drunk

she have like a fetish for drunk dudes or something we get in her car I kind of like stumble to the door open the door I'm just acting more drunk than I am because whatever her thing is she wants me to be drunk so so I'm playing that role. Because I just felt like that's what she wanted, and I kind of wanted to see what her whole game was. Once she seen how drunk my friend was, she stopped flirting with me. It was like a marathon to see which one of us got drunker first, you know? I kind of want to gauge what her intentions are, so kind of acting drunk.

We're in the car now. We're driving. She's like, oh, you want a drink some more? And I'm like, not really. I don't have any money. You know, I hit her with the money thing again. She's like, no, don't worry about it. I'll buy the drink.

I'll buy you a drink. What do you want? And I'm like, I don't feel like going to any bars. She's like, oh, I'll just buy something from the liquor store. I'm like, OK, I'll just buy something from the liquor store. I'm like, OK. Do you want to spend money? Just go get me a little pint of something and some apple juice.

Like, you don't want any more? I'm like, no, just get that. She goes in the liquor store. She comes out. I see her walk into the car. She has a bag that was way more than a pint. It was a whole fifth. Before she drives, she's like, take a shot. I'm like,

what is going on? What is she like? Now I'm kind of sketched out. I don't want to get too drunk. I don't want to make a fool of myself. I don't want to black out. And I don't really trust her. At the time, I was just like, I don't want to seem like I'm lame. So I kind of just went with what she was saying. My plan was to drink everything that wasn't liquor to sober up and to not drink the liquor. I wasn't comfortable drinking at all. I kind of leaned the seat all the way back, so I drink all the apple juice,

and I'm putting the liquor in my mouth but spitting it back into the apple juice bottle when she's not looking. And I was buzzed, but I still had, like, my faculties to me, you know? I want to see what she's planning because I don't know what's going on. She said her name was Candace,

and I'm kind of playing a little drunker than I am, and I'm like, hey, anyways, Carla, what are we doing? What's the plan for tonight? I'm calling her the wrong name, and she's just not reacting to it. Holding the conversation the same. So that's when I put together, like, oh, well, she gave me a fake name, you know? Something inside me was like, no, this girl's up to no good.

She's doing something funny. But then I was kind of curious at the same time. I was really mixed up emotionally, but I didn't know, I'm like, maybe I'm just being me. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Something was up with her, you know? Now she's just driving. We're going to her house and, hey, who's going to be at the house?

I don't really want to meet anyone, you know? She goes, no one's going to be there. It's just going to be me and you. You don't have to worry about anyone being there. We're going to have a good time, just relax. We pull going to be there. It's just going to be me and you. You don't have to worry about anyone being there. We're going to have a good time. Just relax. We pull up to the house. We get out the car, and I'm kind of like stumbling.

She's holding me, bringing me into the house. And she's like, oh, you're really drunk, huh? I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm really drunk. I got you. All right. I'm kind of like stumbling and like trying to like see like if she can keep my balance. She's like leading me to the door. She opens

the door, I walk in, she closes the door and then locks it. The door was unlocked when we were coming in and then she locked it when we were inside the house. Weird. If no one's here, why wouldn't she have the door locked? Now I'm kind of like, all right, there's something kind of sketchy about this. The whole house was dark. Nothing was on. I'm like, where's the bathroom? And she's like, oh, just somewhere over there.

It just didn't seem like she was really familiar with the house. And I'm like, oh, I got to go to the bathroom, you know. He's like, all right, just hurry up in there. I walk into the bathroom, shut the door, lock it, go to the toilet, make myself puke, puke out of all the liquor I drank. I just felt weird. Wash my hands, wash my face. I'm drinking the tap water.

I'm just trying to sober up. I just felt weird, you know? I walk to the door, and I hear her talking. She's whispering to someone else. There's definitely someone else in the house. And I try to listen in, and I hear her like, oh, he's drunk as hell. He can barely move.

You do it. He's drunk. He can can barely move you do it he's drunk he can barely function you do it and I'm thinking like you do what who's here and who's gonna do what my first initial thought was to walk out and be like who's gonna do what what are you talking about but when I walked out of the bathroom she runs into another room. As I'm walking in, she's walking out, but she's walking out kind of fast, like she's trying to get away from me for some reason. I just see like the back of her head, her strange bright red hair going into her room. And I was like, hey, what are you doing? Where are you going? The room's just dark, you know?

A couple seconds maybe passed, and she walks back out of the room. She's walking up to me. The room's dark. I can barely see. My eyes are adjusting from being in the bright bathroom. And when she walked up to me, I noticed, like, her face was just different. Kind of, like, looked her up and down, and I'm like, her face is different. But everything's different.

What is this, a different girl with the same hair? And then I'm like, no, that's a wig. This is a different girl with the same wig on. Now my whole plan is get out of the house. I was panicking like my heart was racing. I'm thinking, run out the front door. I'm like, front door is locked. I'm thinking the worst at this point.

I'm just thinking, get out. I would have just jumped through the glass window on some Bruce Willis stuff. I was getting out of there no matter what. I'm like, I'm going to the bathroom, jumping out the window. She's like, oh, let's go in the room. And I was like, yeah, I just need to go and use the bathroom one more time. I'm really drunk, sorry. Different voice.

All right, just hurry up in there. I walked to the bathroom and I was like, nope, there's something going on out there. I'm not figuring it out. I locked the door. I heard a male's voice. I don't know what he said. I honestly didn't care what he said

because in my head, I'm like, I'm leaving. Three people in the house, when she told it was just going to be me and her. She's talking to someone, talking about you do it. I don't know what the guy's there for. I don't know what's in that room. And some other girls switching wigs. I think the dude was listening from the other room and knew like he knows. I don't know what's going on, but I'm getting out of here. I think the dude was listening from the other room and knew, like, he knows.

I don't know what's going on, but I'm getting out of here. Open the window, jump out. And just run as fast as I can. Didn't look back. I just kept running. I didn't know if someone was chasing me. I didn't know if they had someone waiting outside. I didn't know anything.

I just ran as fast as I could. Jumped a fence. Ran ran, jumped another fence, ran down the road, went to a CVS, went in front of the camera and just made sure I could see me and just stood there. Like, if somebody comes and kidnaps me or something, I'm on camera. Called the cab and then went home. A different name. A different face.

That strange bright red hair. What was she planning? What were they planning? What was inside that room? These questions were eating him alive. And when he finally returned to safety, his investigative mind kicked into gear. But to get anywhere at all,

he'd have to go back to the house. The next day, me and a couple of my friends, we went to the house. No one was there. It was vacant. Just empty. No cars in the house. No one was there, it was vacant. Just empty. No cars in the driveway. I went to the neighbor's house, told them I needed the information for the owner, and they were like, no one stays over there, no one's been over there. It's a summer rental, they rent it out throughout the summer. I called the guy that was renting it out, and I was like, I know the house is occupied right now,

but could I rent it out? And he cut me off. I was like, oh, it's not occupied. It hasn't been occupied for two weeks now. Whoever those people were that I was in that house with, they didn't rent that house out and they didn't own it. Whoever it was, they broke into that house. They were planning something weird. Felt like I kind of dodged a bullet, honestly.

They weren't trying to rob me for money because they were spending money on us. She's buying cabs, she's buying drinks for two people. She's going into the liquor store, buying bottles. You don't spend money to rob somebody. It definitely wasn't a robbery attempt. I try not to think it was a murder attempt. It was definitely something malicious and definitely something not good for me.

I just don't know what it was. produced by Payne Lindsey, Mike Rooney, and me, Meredith Stedman. Written by Meredith Stedman with additional writing by Mark Laughlin. Sound design by Cooper Skinner. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set. Additional production by Christina Dana and Mason Lindsey. Cover art by Trevor Eiler and Rob Sheridan. Voice acting by Ryan Jones, Casey Willis, and the Tenderfoot TV team. Shout out to Tiny Doors ATL for the creation of our real-life miniature radio rental store. You can check that out and more on their Instagram

at tinydoorsatl. Special thanks to Grace Royer and Oren Rosenbaum at UTA, as well as support from the Nord Group, Station 16, Beck Media and Marketing, and the team at Cadence 13. 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 at Radio Rental and on Twitter at Radio Rental USA. You can also follow the beloved 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. And don't forget to share our show with a friend of the genre. 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 Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening right now. Then join me if you dare.