RedHanded - RedHaunted #7 Stay Away From Small Boys With Red Balls

Episode Date: March 5, 2021

Alien encounters in the Australian outback, the Irish folk horror story of Half-Hanged McNaughton, the man behind the curtain in a haunted theatre, and a blood chilling tale about the ghost of a little boy named Timothy.... These are your spooky stories, and real life experiences of the paranormal and we can't get enough. Brace yourselves! Send your stories to - [e-mail]    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. So, get this. The Ontario Liberals elected Bonnie Crombie as their new leader. Bonnie who? I just sent you her profile. Check out her place in the Hamptons. Huh, fancy. She's a big carbon tax supporter, yeah? Oh yeah. Check out her record as mayor. Oh, get out of here.

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I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Haunted. I feel like we only did a Red Haunted like five minutes ago, but then also my perception of time is pretty warped at the moment. No, you are correct. We did. But we just got so many emails from you guys, or at least Seb did, that he had to sift through and find the very best cases.

And we were like, there are just so many good stories here that we have to do another one as quickly as we possibly can. So that's why we're here in our scary boxes again, doing another Red Haunted. Yeah, I'll be honest, not as scared to start as I was last time. That's good. Or is it? Well, I don't know. Now I feel like I'm tempting fate and that something's actually going to happen because I've been like, oh, I'm fine. Oh, see, it's the equivalent of naming your ghosts. It's going to get bad now. But yeah, for those of you who are maybe just red handed listeners and never listened to a Red Haunted before, this is basically just an additional little segment that we do where we ask you guys to send us the scariest real life ghost experiences that you

have had and then we pick the best ones and then we talk about them and scare ourselves and hopefully some of you a lot of people were very scared last time which was fun to see I enjoyed that I was very scared last time that's the most scared I've been I think oh well let's see how we go this week then shall we okay slightly different flavor than shall we? Okay. Slightly different flavor than usual. We've had all sorts of ghosts, but we haven't really had one quite like this before, I don't think. I'm sorry, Seb. I refuse to say the year was 2009. It's like when you write an essay and you're like so scared of plagiarizing or over-quoting that it just reads like Yoda fucking read it, like wrote it, do you know what I mean? The year was 2000... No, sorry.

Maybe he's building a scene. Maybe he's building a vibe. Maybe, maybe, maybe. It was 2009 and Brianna was four days from her 13th birthday. Her family had just finished building their new home on the edge of the outback in Australia. As the first house in a set of new developments, it was very secluded. Brianna and her siblings fell in love with running around on the dirt patches that had been carved out for the new houses in the area and generally enjoyed the freedom of it all. Have you seen

Saving Mr Banks? Yes, I believe I have. Yeah, Uh, yes. I believe I have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I have. Good film. I liked it. Like when she's a kid, she's just like running around in the desert of Australia. That's what I'm imagining now. But now are times rather than olden times. Well, 2009 times. The year was 2009. Hannah McGuire had just left school and was about to embark on several years of misery before she started a true crime podcast.

Brianna and her siblings would wake up every morning and have a visit from kangaroos and wallabies in the garden. And then they spent the rest of the days playing hide and seek. Little did they know, something was watching them. Brianna's new house had three stories. There was the ground floor, which has the kitchen and the living room. The first floor, which had her room, and then the second floor, which had everyone else's bedrooms. I think Americans say things differently. I think when Americans say first floor, they mean ground floor. Yeah, they do. They say it very differently because I learned from having

worked in conferences in the US and I'd be like, where am I sending the speaker? To the first floor. Which, where have I accidentally lost this person? I don't know. Like, I suppose maybe our way of ground floor, first floor is dumb. Maybe we've got this one wrong. Usually we're correct on stuff like this, but I really, I think maybe. I'll give it to the Americans. It does make sense.

This is the first floor. It makes more sense, doesn't it? Why is it floor zero? Why is it ground floor? Makes no sense. So, Americans listening, I hope you've managed to translate that into your floor system. So, Brianna's room opened onto the back garden, and we assume that there was some sort of hill involved. The first night that Brianna stayed at the new place, it was just her and her dad.

The rest of the family arrived the following day. So, on this first night, Brianna had school the next day, so she went to bed very early, but woke up at about one o'clock in the morning. At first she was confused, but then she became aware of a soft ringing noise, like a constant chime of a bell. The continuous chime went on for a few minutes, until eventually Brianna decided to get out of bed and see where the noise was coming from. The noise didn't sound scary so Brianna was mostly just curious to see what had woken her up. Slowly Brianna crept across her room and pushed up the blind. She looked out into the backyard. What she saw made her heart race and her palms go clammy. In the centre of

the yard was a 20 by 20 centimetre black box. No, I thought it was gonna be like a person. I thought it was gonna be like Slender Man or something. No, no Slender Man yet. Just a box. But this box is both matte and glossy at the same time. Brianna thought it must be made of metal, but it didn't look like any metal she'd ever seen. How is it matte and glossy at the same time? What magic is this? Because it's alien. It's an alien box.

Keep up. It's like, I'm sure that, I mean, obviously it depends how, how believey and Roswell-y you are, but I'm sure there's reports of like metal that doesn't really look like metal we have being associated with alien sightings. Maybe. Maybe it's like how they try to describe makeup because no one wants to be super matte these days, but you also don't want your face to be too glossy.

Maybe it's a dewy box. Maybe that's what it is. I saw that my friend said, because I've deleted TikTok now because it was my New Year's resolution, but I still get the best ones funneled to me via my friends and my sister. And one of my friends sent me a TikTok. It's like, oh, if TikTok was around when I was at school, and it's literally just a girl just smothering her face with Dream Matte Mousse and like blue eyeshadow. Yeah, guilty. Absolutely. That was me. Oh my god. Dream Map Moose. What a fucking

flashback from the horrors of faces past. From 2009. The year was 2009. Dream Map Moose was flying off the shelves. Oh my god. Nightmares. Oh god. It was such a rip off as well. It was such a small part. It was horrendous. Didn't last very long. Mainly because I was just throwing it on my face with a trowel. But seriously, though, I really can't see makeup making a comeback for me after two years of not wearing it at all, not even once.

Yeah, I mean, it's been a long time even for me. And I put a bit on when we did like a live stream a while back. And I was always like lipstick all day long. Lipstick, lipstick, lipstick. Put it on and I was like, oh, my God, you look fucking crazy. Yeah, that happened. I looked at the IGTV video I did right at the beginning of lockdown one about how we recorded. I've got makeup on.

I'm like, Hannah, you look like a clown. Yeah, yeah. Who let you do that? I don't know. I have no clue. But yeah, I just used to casually a clown. Yeah, yeah. Who let you do that? I don't know. I have no clue. But yeah, I just used to casually wear neon pink lipstick, bright red lipstick. I put a bit of like very muted lipstick on and I was like, oh my God, you look absolutely wild. You need to go wash your face.

So I don't know. I don't know. And I'm a makeup lover. Yeah, I've just got used to what my actual face looks like. Yeah, same. It's quite nice. So maybe this is what it's like to be a man. Just accept your face for what it is.

Possibly. I'm here for it, though I think this will go away quite quickly once we're allowed back into the world. Yeah, yeah, the best of intentions. Yeah, probably me too. I'll just start buying Dream Map Moose again, fill a bucket with it and shove my head in it. Roll it around.

Suffocate myself with Dream Map Moose. Okay, this has gone on long enough. Back to the alien box. So the box was not only a funky type of metal that we'd never seen before, it was shimmering and emitting a kind of dull light. But none of that was what Brianna was really bothered about. What she was really bothered about was the fact that the box was hovering. Oh, okay. That makes more sense now. I was like, why are your hands sweaty from looking at a box? But okay, if it's hovering, a levitating box is quite irksome. I'll give her that. Yeah, irksome.

Fucking hell. All right. Brianna hadn't a clue what this box was, but she knew she didn't like it. But at the same time, it was quite hard to look away. After a few seconds, Brianna took control of herself and decided that she was big enough and bad enough to look away. And the moment this thought came into her mind, the box did one final turn and stopped like it was looking at her. Brianna ran back into her bed. And as she pulled the covers back over her head,

the chiming noise got closer and closer to the window. Light began to pour through the cracks in the blinds. Brianna screwed her eyes closed and tried her best to pretend to go to sleep, the Hannah Maguire technique. After a long 60 seconds, the light faded, the noise stopped, and the feeling she was being watched went away. Not wanting to come back over the covers, Brianna hid in her bed and eventually fell back asleep. The next day she woke up.

The morning light poured through the window and the wallabies were eating in her back garden. It must have been a dream, she convinced herself. Brianna had vivid nightmares often, and what were the chances that this was the exception? Fully convinced that the whole thing was just a bad dream, Brianna got ready for school. She ate her breakfast and put the whole thing to the back of her mind.

Just before she left the house, feeling a little braver telling herself that she was just being silly, she went out into the back garden for a quick investigation, just to get rid of any last doubts that the whole thing was anything other than a bad dream. But what she saw in the back garden made her blood run cold. As she stared out into the backyard, laid out in front of her, were black scorch marks leading right up to her window.

Ooh, scary box. Scary alien box. To be honest, I know this is completely illogical. I don't vibe with alien stories. Yeah, I don't know. I'm like, yeah, I've read some that are quite scary, but I know what you mean. I don't know.

I'm just more scared of ghosts and people than aliens. There's no space in my brain to be scared of aliens as well. But Alien Box is not fun. That's not a fun experience, what happened. No, it doesn't sound like a pleasant night for Brianna in the Australian outback all on her own, being stalked by aliens. Maybe aliens doing some recon and being like, oh, actually, fuck this. We'll just send them COVID-19. That'll shut them up. Oh, definitely. I stand by that. The aliens sent COVID-19.

Okay, I've got one from Ireland again today. It's a spooky place. It is a spooky place. You are right. So this one is from a lovely lady named Amy. So in Amy's hometown of Straben, Ireland, there is a folk tale of a man named Half Hung MacNaughton, which is just the best name.

And for those of you who are as immature as I am, it does not mean that McNaughton had half a penis or he just wasn't very well endowed. I mean, we don't know that, but that's not the reason he got the nickname Half Hung McNaughton. So the tale of Half Hung McNaughton is short and sweet. Again, we don't know if that is a reference to his genitalia. It just seems to be because Amy has kept it succinct. So this is his story. So while Half Hung McNaughton's wife was being driven away in a stagecoach by her father, he, for some reason

that isn't entirely clear, although I tried to Google this and find out, took out a shotgun and fired at the carriage. Presumably it was to hit the father rather than to hit his wife. But in possibly a sick twist of fate, he did hit his wife instead and she died. So he was found guilty of murder and given the death penalty. However, when the lever was pulled, when he was in the gallows, the rope snapped and he wasn't killed. Seeing the whole thing as a sign from God, the court told him to take his freedom. But Harfung told them that he didn't want to be known as Harfung MacNaughton. I love that he preempted this nickname. He was like, I can't possibly go free from having survived being almost hanged. I don't want to live with this nickname that I just know all of my friends are going to call me, kill me.

I'd rather be dead. Did you know that when they hung H.H. Holmes, the executioner on purpose didn't snap his neck so he would have a really long and drawn out death? I didn't know that, but that doesn't surprise me. Not at all. So Ha Phuong, like we said, decided that he would rather die than live with that nickname. So he asked them to hang him again. And they did. And this time his neck was snapped. But the tale goes that although he died, Ha Phuong never left the old jail. And he still haunts it to this day. So that's the little folk tale of Ha Fung.

So now we're going to skip forward about 400 odd years to sometime in the noughties, I'm guessing. And while studying performing arts at college, Amy and her three friends were asked to perform in a film cast in the old jail that Half Hung had been killed in. The four of them assumed that the filming would take place in the museum part of the old jail, which was upstairs. But when they arrived, they were wrong. They were in fact filming downstairs in the old cells and gallows that Half Hung had died in. I mean, that does make more sense. Like, I wouldn't watch a scary movie

that was just shot in a museum. I want to see a scary movie that's filmed in some fucking gallows and old jail cells. Yeah, I mean, I can go to the museum myself. Exactly. Come on, Amy. I know you're not the set designer, but, like, that's the creepier bit.

So that is where they decide to film it. And these parts of the old jail were strictly off-limits to everyone but staff. And so, being a true spooky bitch, Amy was thrilled to have access to such creepiness. Shortly after they all arrived, the subject of Half-Hung McNaughton came up in conversation. Strangely, one of the staff at the museum sharply told the group not to call him that. I'm guessing this staff member knows a little something something about Half Hung. So, assuming that, you know, this telling off was just part of the spooky vibes

and that this person, you know, they're just in character. Amy and her mates shook off this advice and promptly continued to talk about Half Hung at length, using that name for the rest of the day. I'm going to guess that's an error. Yeah. Because we've got another page of the story to go. This person who's like, I spend all of my working life in this building. I would advise you not to do this thing. And they're just like, nah, I'm going to do it anyway. So, okay. So if you were in that situation and they told you not to, would you stop calling him half hung and stop talking about it yeah I'm not in the business of baiting ghosts I no way I'll do as I'm told

I'm very well behaved absolutely absolutely it's so funny because this this morning my dad was like I just listened to the Mohammed bin Salman case and he was like please be careful those people are very dangerous I was like no dad we going to say whatever we want about them. But when it comes to ghosts, I'm not going to bait you. I'm not going to fucking rile you up. But fuck you, Mohammed. The Saudi embassy, on the other hand, fuck that. But we're very respectful here of the ghosts.

So yes, Amy ignored this and carried on calling him this. She probably shouldn't have done that. So the four of them, Amy and her three mates, got changed for their scene in one of the old shower rooms and left their clothes out on hangers. The first few hours of filming went by smoothly and Amy went back to the showers at lunch to check her phone. She had been expecting a call from Game of Thrones

for a role as an extra. When she got through to the shower room, she was a little bit stunned though. All of their clothes that they had left hanging up on hangers had been taken down and thrown all over the floor. And Amy couldn't find her phone. She rummaged and rummaged around and she almost gave up when she finally found it stuffed deep into a classmate's sock. When she looked at her phone, she realised that she'd had three missed Game of Thrones calls.

No! I know. And so when she went back to the set, she was absolutely fuming. She had a go at one of the guys on set who was always up to hijinks and pranks. But he denied it. And so, with no other choice, they just got on with the filming. The next scene involved one of her classmates being put in the stocks. And as they were about to wrap this scene, the fire alarm suddenly went off. And that's not ideal at the

best of times, let alone in this scenario. So they're pretty pissed off about this. So they gather up their things and they're getting ready to head up the stairs when they realized that their classmate was still in the stocks. He was stuck. And it was weird because as Amy describes it, the lock on the stocks was just a, quote, Mr. Bean style padlock and they hadn't even closed it. So no one could understand why he was stuck. When they took a closer look, they realized that the padlock had been jammed closed.

And even worse, the man who was escorting them didn't have the key. No, no, no, no, no. Don't like this at all. That is quite scary. Mm-mm. Nope. Especially if there is actually a fire in this building and you are stuck in some fucking old wooden stocks and you can't get out. Oh, I hate that. That's not good. So finally, the classmates were able to get their friend

out of the old stocks using a screwdriver. And basically they just had to take the whole thing apart. Understandably, filming was cancelled while they were all taken up to the cafe to have a bit of a sit down. But when they got to the cafe and the staff opened the door they found the whole place was completely flooded and the tables and chairs were stacked upside down and all of the plates in the crockery had been taken out of the cupboards and stacked gently all over the floor at this point their teacher noped the fuck out of there and they all headed home the old jail is right next to the local cinema and Amy still walks past it from time to time. And more than once, she says she could have sworn she saw a pale face staring out from behind the barred up windows.

No. Okay, I'm scared now. It's half hung. He's there. I don't like it. Don't call him that. Stop it. Okay. Okay, I'm scared now. It's half hung. He's there. I don't like it. Don't call him that. Stop it. Okay, I've got also a performing arts themed story.

Ooh. Yes. So in 2018, BC before COVID, Courtney would perform regularly with a jazz band in LA. Her name is Courtney Fortune, which if that is not I'm in a band in LA name, that is, I don't know what is. Good for you, Courtney Fortune.

I'm Jake Warren. And in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge,

but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me. And it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding.

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Start your free trial today. One evening in LA in the before times, Courtney Fortune was playing a gig in LA's iconic Wilton Theatre. As we have discussed before, theatres, extremely haunted buildings, usually. But I think that's actually because lots of people come and go and you just, you don't know who they are. It's very normal in a theatre to just see someone you don't know and be like, oh, probably with the new show or probably an electrician. It's just comings and goings. Very lax security. And like they're all old buildings around here and yeah there's like a creepy vibe to them. Yeah yeah yeah. So Wilton Theatre, not to be confused with Wilton's Music Hall in East London, which I think we were supposed to be doing a show there once

upon a time. Yes we were. yeah i thought so oh what could have been so wilton theatre is a old beautifully old building probably not quite as old as some of the theatres we have in london but there you go and there's they did done that classic theatre thing of pictures of the stars that have been there are all around the place and because it's the theatre and because it's old there was lots lots of rumours of ghost hauntings. But Courtney is a spooky bitch, so she just isn't scared. I would be extremely scared, Courtney. So good for you. So Courtney played the show. It went well. She went back to her dressing room downstairs to get changed. She was the only girl in the band, so she had a dressing room all to herself. And she sat in front of one of those old school makeup mirrors with the bulbs all around

the edge and took off her earrings. And then she just noticed the distinct smell of cigarette smoke in the room, which isn't exactly a shocker. People do smoke and dressing rooms always smell a bit musty. But it was like someone was smoking right next to her. Courtney checked around to make sure that she hadn't left her curlers on and wasn't about to start a huge fire. Luckily, she hadn't. She carried on putting her stuff away, but the smell of smoke was getting so heavy that she started to cough. It was at this point that the feeling Courtney wasn't alone began to creep over her. She glanced behind her in the mirror and saw that there was a shape bulging from behind one of the large

floor-to-ceiling maroon curtains that lined the room. Oh my God, no. I hate that. What? It could have been a coat rack or some stacked up chairs, but something about it looked very human.

Perhaps it was a mannequin, Courtney told herself. It's never a mannequin, firstly, and it says it feels like a theatre-y thing to have in a dressing room. Maybe in wigs and wardrobe. I don't think you'd have a mannequin in a dressing room. Not in my experience.

Not on my watch. Not on my watch. Certainly not. Mannequins are for wigs and wardrobe only. Get this mannequin out of here. Yeah, exactly. It's scaring all of the performers. And who put a knife in his hand?

As Courtney took a closer look at the motionless bulge, she made out a head, shoulders and arms. So she decided that it absolutely had to be a mannequin, that it couldn't possibly be anything else. So she carried on getting change and settled her nerves. However, when she looked up, she was sure that the shape had moved. No, murderer. So now Courtney's more than a little freaked out.

She's shitting herself. So assuming it was a perv waiting to see her take her red dress off, she called out, hey, I see you over there. No, what are you doing? Just leave. Oh, fuck. Embarrassment flooded over her as the shape didn't move. Was she just shouting to an empty room like a lunatic? Excuse me, she shouted. And there was a long pause before the curtain moved just a little bit as though the person

behind it had shifted their weight. To fuck with this, thought Courtney as she walked over to pull back the curtain and confront whoever was behind it. What? As she got closer, she could make out the definition of a man's nose behind the curtain. She could even hear shallow breaths. Oh my god, shut up. She watched as he tried to make himself still

before she pulled back the curtain. Taking the curtain with one hand, she ripped it back to find nothing. Oh my god, what? Nothing. There was nothing there. No one behind the curtain. Oh my god. And as Courtney released the curtain from her hand, it settled back to its normal, non-man folded shapes the shape had gone so Courtney uh left I think to be honest even if I was the only girl in a band and that was happening I would knock on the boys door and be like you're just gonna have to get over it help hold my pants yeah I'm not getting ready alone in the fucking creepy invisible man room filled shit show next door yeah the last show we had we both had separate

dressing rooms which was very fancy and nice but we were both like nope why would we do this wow that one actually is quite scary i don't like that no i don't like that one particularly either okay i've got one i've got a good one. I've got a big one. Okay, okay. Are you ready? Oh, I'm scared. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay. This one feels like a film. It feels like it could be turned into a movie. Oh, okay. So when Anne was six years old, she moved into the house that her mum had grown up in. One day, not long after moving in, Anne's grandad glanced out of the window to see Anne walking straight across the busy road outside the house. Her mum ran out to grab her and chided Anne for doing something so dangerous. But Anne was adamant to explain herself. There was a boy on the other

side of the road and he dropped his bouncy red ball. Anne's mum looked up and down the street. There wasn't a child in sight. In fact, there weren't any other children who lived on their street. And so saying that she had gone after a child only got Anne in more trouble. A few weeks later, Anne saw the same boy. And he'd lost his ball again. So Anne, clearly not having learned her lesson from the last time, walked over, grabbed his ball, and gave it to him. She gave the boy a telling off too for losing his ball twice and she said that he should be more careful. The boy began to cry so Anne backtracked and consoled him. The boy smiled

and said my name's Timothy and my ball is always falling in the road. Anne pointed to her house and said that if he ever wanted to play with her, he should just come and ring the doorbell. I hate that. Don't fucking tell the ghost kid to come ring your doorbell. No, no. Don't invite them in. That's number one rule. Don't say they can come in. They'll never leave. That's it. That's it. So later that night, Anne excitedly told her family over dinner that she wasn't the only kid on their street, and she told them all about Timothy. Her mother asked a lot of questions, and Anne told her all about Timothy's blonde hair,

how he was about her age, and how he lived just across the street. By this point, her mum and uncle both looked very uncomfortable. Oh, dear. Her mum explained that there used to be a boy called Timothy who lived there who was about six years old when they had lived in the house as kids, but that he was hit by a car while chasing his bull. Why are you telling your little kid that? I'm sat in such an old house and it's so windy.

Like the wind is literally howling through this house like it does in films so like i literally as you said that a howl rang through this house i wish i could record it and you're home alone right yes sir oh no oh no yeah that is terrifying i hate what it's like but he's been dead for 30 years but like why are you telling your six-year-old this? Anne, why are your parents, why is your mum telling you this? That's fucking so creepy. So Halloween came around. And Anne's mum asked all of the parents in the neighbourhood if they had ever seen or heard of a boy called Timothy.

Most of them said no. But a few of the older residents also brought up what Anne's mum thought had happened, that there had been a boy who had lived there about 30 years ago. Anne's mum decided that the whole thing must just be a huge coincidence and put it all to the back of her mind. And after this, five years passed with no sign of Timothy. So if we're saying that Anne was about the same age as Timothy when this all first started, she's probably about 10 or 11 now. Not now as in currently writing us this story, I mean at this point in the story. So five years later, one day, Anne and her friend were walking out of

Sunday Mass when suddenly she saw him. On the other side of the street, there was Timothy, ball in the road once again. At first, Anne thought that it must just be her imagination. But his crying seemed so very loud and so very real. So Anne asked her friend if she could see him too. And her mate told her that she didn't know what she was on about. Instead of walking away, Anne decided to go and grab the little boy's ball and gave it back to him. And he thanked her. Then Timothy looked her dead in the eyes and said,

Something bad is going to happen to your family. But I can't tell you what. I just want you to be prepared. No! I know, I hate it. It's very like the Banshee. Sitch. Again, hate it. Hated very like the Banshee sitch again. Hate it.

Hated that story. That fucking scared me. So then, after he gave her this ominous warning, Timothy turned away and wandered off, bouncing his red ball. Three weeks later, out of the blue, Anne's dad died. I know.

So Anne says that she doesn't remember much about the funeral, but she does remember seeing Timothy waving through the church fence, grinning, holding his bouncy red ball. Oh my God. Anne, why have you not pitched this to like MGM? yep, it's going to happen, I feel it. It gets worse. So another two years passed without a trace of Timothy. Until one day, Anne saw him across the street as she did the washing up. Fear gripped her. She was scared of him now, but she thought she should deal with him once and for all. So she walked out, grabbed his ball and chucked it over the closest fence. She told him to go away and not come back. Timothy cried and told her, another bad thing is going to happen. And again, I just want you to be ready. A month later, her granddad was diagnosed with a late onset brain tumour and died of pneumonia almost

immediately. Again, at the wake, Anne saw Timothy waving, wall under his arm and grin on his face. OK, just saying something bad is going to happen, but I can't tell you what. But be prepared. It's not helpful, Timothy. That's just like having generalised anxiety disorder. It's being like, what's wrong? Something. Something is wrong, but I don't know what. Yeah, exactly. Be prepared, though. And I'm also going to be there when the

terrible thing is happening, smiling and bouncing my ball for no reason. Like you're not doing anyone any favours, Tim. No, no, he's not. So after this, another two years passed. And by this point, Anne had got a job at the same place both her father and her grandfather had had their wakes. So I assume it's like a pub situation. And Timothy was there constantly and he was always asking Anne to play. At first she would ignore him and he would just bounce his ball louder and louder, knowing that he clearly wasn't going to go away.

Anne began to entertain him with riddles that she got off the internet. And slowly they started to strike up a conversation. More and more, Timothy told Anne about his life. He said he wondered how tall he would be when he grew up, because his dad was over six foot. He also talked about baseball games he was going to, and told Anne that his favourite player was Orlando Cepeda.

Anne didn't know a thing about baseball, so she had to look up the name. He was Rookie of the Year in 1958. This confirmed it for Anne. Timothy was a ghost. And he was real. Because she obviously doesn't know anything, so she can't be making it up. Or he had access to the internet. So Timothy began to complain to Anne that she was spending far too much time with her other friends. And he also complained that he didn't like her having boobs.

I assume this is because obviously they're kids when they meet. He's still a kid and he doesn't like that she's growing up and spending more time with other people. It's obvious that Timothy is getting very possessive over Anne. And when he told her this, Anne said that she didn't want to play with him anymore because she didn't want to be friends with a boy who said such horrid things. After she said this, she didn't see Timothy again for years. Anne thought that when she left for college, Timothy would stay in her hometown and not follow her.

But not long into her first semester, she saw him and his ball outside of the library. Looking back, she must have looked crazy shouting at Thin Air, but yet again Timothy had come to give her bad news. This time he told her the boy she was in love with was a bad man who hurt people. This time Anne didn't ignore him. She knew that he'd been right before so she dumped her boyfriend. Which was hard because it's not the easiest thing to tell somebody it's not you it's the little boy ghost who's been telling me stuff about you. It's not you but it actually

is you and I've got proof from a boy ghost. From a ghost. And Anne, after the breakup, struggled, as her ex had been a big part of her friendship group. But once again, just as before, Timothy turned out to be right. By the end of their second year, there were five rape allegations against her ex-boyfriend. Jesus Christ. I know. At this point, Anne decided to just accept the little boy ghost.

He seemed helpful, all things considered. After all, he just wanted to be friends. For her second year, Anne decided to study abroad, and she came to London. Anne had a few great months here, enjoying the museums, the clubs and pubs, until Timothy appeared again. He's got a passport. Yep, he's everywhere. Transatlantic. Got a ghost passport.

Transatlantic Tim. His little ghost suitcase. And one night when she was on her way home, she saw him. And that night she'd been on a big night out with her new housemates. She's very drunk and she's standing in the middle of the road in central London when she suddenly sees Tim and he's just crying and crying and crying. Oh no. No, no. Yep. So Anne, being very drunk, wanted to just ignore him. But the screams got louder and louder until eventually he threw his ball at her.

The ball hit her hard and she fell to the floor. Her mates obviously just thought she was drunk and tried to help her up and she fell to the floor. Her mates obviously just thought she was drunk and tried to help her up and get her to her door. But when she woke up the next day, Anne told herself that it all must have just been a drunken dream. But as she lifted her head off the pillow, there he was again. Timothy was standing at the end of her bed. Anne screamed and two of her housemates burst in,

fearing that they would think she was crazy, Anne made up excuses and they left just looking a bit worried. This time Timothy was ecstatic. He ran in circles and told Anne that they could finally be together forever. Understandably, Anne freaked the fuck out at this point. But after a few days she resigned herself and said, whatever will be will be. She figured that either she would die, and that's how Timothy was planning on them being together forever, or she wouldn't. And there was just nothing she could do about it. A few weeks later, Anne woke up to a pebble-sized lump in her cheek. She went to the doctors a day later, and it already doubled in size. The doctor told her that she had been growing an infection

since her wisdom tooth had been removed. And had the swelling grown any larger, it would have popped and would most likely have caused Anne to possibly die of sepsis. So it's kind of like Timothy knew that the infection was there and that's why he was happy that she was going to die. But Anne didn't know what was wrong with her. Yeah. So luckily Anne didn't die.

She was hospitalized in the UK for five days and after some antibiotics and having her mum flown over, she made a full recovery. The first night back in her flat, Timothy was back too. He was furious and he was bouncing his balls so hard that it was echoing like they were in some huge cathedral. He said that he had tried to help her by telling her about her family, so it was only

fair that they should be together forever. Anne said she was grateful, but she wanted to be with her friends and her family. She then asked him why he wasn't with his family, to which Timothy replied, because they're all dead. She then asked, well then why aren't you with them? And he said that was a stupid question and stormed out. It was at this point that Anne realised Timothy didn't know he was a ghost. Anne has only seen him once again since that point, about five years ago. He turned up and told Anne, one of your friends is going to be my friend. The moment he said this, Anne knew who it was.

She had a friend who had been institutionalized three times for making attempts on their own life. She phoned this friend, but there was no answer. So she called for a welfare check. She told Timothy to stop smiling and that people dying wasn't funny, but he just said he didn't get the joke. An hour later, Anne got a call saying that her friend had died. Her parents asked her why she had phoned the police, and she said that she just had a bad feeling. People, including her parents, now just think she's a psychic. And she hasn't seen Timothy since this incident. She thinks that when her friend died, Timothy got the friend he'd always wanted. Anne hopes that this is the end of Timothy,

but she still worries that he'll reappear one day when she's at her most comfortable. No, thank you. I don't want a dead messenger boy. Oh my God, please. That sounds like the fucking worst. No, get away. So yeah, that is Anne's story about creepy little boy Timothy. Hate it.

Thanks very much. Ew. Fuck. No. Oh dear. So yeah, those are all of the creepy treats that we've got for you guys this time. If you have any others out there, we have got quite a few in the inbox but if anybody has any that have got maybe some photographic evidence or some audio evidence uh we'd love to have a look and have a

listen to those so send them to redhounderpatreon at gmail.com please and we can be scared together yeah come on down send them in rack up, and we will go through them. Thank you very much for all of the people who sent in their stories. Brianna, I feel like I was a bit mean about your story. I really didn't mean to be. Thank you for sending it in. I'm sure it was absolutely fucking terrifying. Well, stay away from small boys with red balls and continue to exist, please. And we'll see you next time. Absolutely. Until then, goodbye.

Bye. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most

haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up.

But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom. But I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry.

Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is The Rise and Fall of Diddy. Listen to The Rise and Fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus.