Sightings - The Most Frightening Places: Montana, 2017

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Venture inside three classic horror movie locations as we bring to life three brand new and very chilling listener stories.  Story Music tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Help keep Sightings free by trying this episode's sponsor Marley Spoon! Head to MarleySpoon.com/OFFER/SIGHTINGS and use code SIGHTINGS for up to 27 FREE meals! Sightings is a REVERB and QCODE Original. Find us on instagram @sightingspod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Some places seem like perfect settings for the supernatural. A centuries old house, a remote patch of land, a mysterious attic. We've seen all of these before in countless horror movies. But what happens when the horror comes to you? When your house, your land, or your attic become a gateway to the supernatural? countless horror movies. But what happens when the horror comes to you? When your house, your land, or your attic become a gateway to the supernatural and change your life forever?

Welcome to Sightings, the series that takes you inside the world's most mysterious supernatural events. Each week we bring you a thrilling story that puts you at the center of the action, followed by a discussion that dives into the accounts that inspired the story and our takes on them. I'm McCloud. And I'm Brian. And since it's the last Monday of the month, we're bringing you three new supernatural listener stories. That's right. We're taking you to three classic horror movie locations, but this time the stories are very, very real.

Experience it for yourself on this episode of Sightings. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Sightings and that special episode of the month, which is your stories, the listener's stories, where you, I don't think consciously try to freak me out, but that's often the fallout. Absolutely. And again, we do not have titles on these, so you... Right, so it's always a surprise. This was a clever twist of yours, Brian,

that I don't appreciate. Yep, well, we got three awesome stories today. As we mentioned in the opening, all of them are in kind of classic horror story locations. We've got a spooky old, old, old house. We've got a remote patch of land in Montana, and then we've got an attic that someone didn't even know was there.

So it should be a lot of fun. Okay. Yeah, those are, it's so interesting that like place and setting is kind of a central theme or a binding theme of these stories. Absolutely. Those all sound like very creepy spaces. Yeah. So this first story comes from Christian or Kishion. I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it.

He is from Denmark. Oh. And yeah, this is exciting. It's our first international listener story we've had on the show. So thank you, Kishion, for sending this in. He did. McCloud, you don't need to attempt a Danish accent. Great.

Good. In this one. He did note in his email, in Denmark we call our accent danglish and it sounds horrible. Oh, I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure it's a perfectly mellifluous dialect. Yeah. Let's just play this as yourself, McCloud. Okay. Let's get a little bit of spooky music going as always.

And here we go. We're heading to Denmark. Back in 2008, when I was 17 years old, I lived in the countryside in a nice but very old house. And when I say old, I mean very old. The house was the former servant quarters for a big manor that was built in the 1600s. The manor was beautiful with a big garden and a kilometer long avenue of trees leading to it that

formed an eerie tunnel around the road. Oh, I'm creeped out. It's like the first eerie tree tunnel. It's just like so evocative and I can see it. I'm like, no, because it's always tunnels, hallways, are something so innately horrifying because they're leading you towards, they pinch you naturally.

And there's just, your imagination starts going crazy with what's at the end of it. What's at the end of the road? What's at the end of the tunnel? Anyway, sorry. Okay, you got me, Christian. So let's revisit the tunnel here. The manor was beautiful with a big garden and

a kilometer long avenue of trees leading to it that formed an eerie tunnel around the road. But my house was more modest, two stories, but it had gone through some renovations through the years and it had a cozy and isolated feel to it. So one day my mom's very close friend and her son, let's call him Carl, came to visit. Carl was eight years old then, and he and I had a kinda big brother, smaller brother relationship. So whenever they came to visit, he slept with me in my room on the second floor

of the house. We played a lot of PlayStation and ate a lot of unhealthy food, and when it was time for bed, I pulled out a mattress on the floor, said goodnight, and turned the lights off. All was fine until I woke up in the middle of the night because Carl was screaming his lungs out and I almost fell out of my bed as I realized why he was screaming. There was this red oval orb floating in the middle of my room with strings of white light coming out of it. I only saw it for a split second before I turned my attention to Carl, who was sitting up on his mattress, wide-eyed and screaming out of pure terror. Then I looked back to where the orb had been, but there was nothing there. Then the lights turned on and Carl's

mother rushed in to see if he was okay. I quickly chalked what I'd seen up to my tired eyes and just being woken with a shock by Carl having a bad dream. We went down to the living room. It took a while before Carl was back to normal. He had a blanket wrapped around him and when Carl's mom went to the restroom and we were alone I asked him why he'd been screaming. He was quiet for a moment, then said he saw a red orb hovering in the middle of the room with strings of light coming out of it.

My stomach turned and I felt nauseous because right then and there I knew that what I'd seen for that split second was real and not just my eyes playing tricks on me. One of the girls I went to school with had an aunt who was a kind of clairvoyant, so I met with her to ask if she had an idea of what the red orb could have been. She asked me to draw it on a piece of paper, and she instantly said it was a gateway to the other side. She even showed me drawings and some books that were similar to mine, and that scared the hell out of me. I spent a lot of time back then trying to convince myself that it was not real, and she was mistaken, because if I started to believe her, it would just be too much to handle.

But every night when I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, I kept looking at the spot where the orb had been, and sometimes I felt like someone was in the room with me. Sometimes I even felt like I saw a shadow in the corner of my room or at the foot of my bed, even though there were no lights turned on in my room, so it was kind of hard for anything to cast a shadow. But I always chalked it up to my mind playing tricks on me. But there was one more episode where it was impossible for me to just play it off as my

mind playing tricks. Well, two weeks or so after I saw the orb, I was sitting in my room doing homework when I heard my mom's telltale footsteps walking up the stairs and towards my room. The footsteps stopped right outside my door and I yelled to come in. But when no one answered, I got up to open the door only to find no one there. I called out for my mom, but she was not even inside the house. She was doing some work at the far end of the garden, and since this was in the middle of the day and I was wide awake there was no convincing myself

it was fake this time. I did not tell my parents about this until years later. I think I was too scared of coming off as a crazy teenager who played too many video games. Also, to be honest, I didn't think they would believe me. So I still wonder what it could have been in that old house. To me, the scary part of it was that something was there that didn't show itself often, rather than something constantly revealing itself. Because it created this eerie tension, hoping it never showed itself again while trying to convince myself it wasn't real. At least until I saw or heard it again.

Woo. Okay. I'm okay. This was a cool story because when I first read it, I'm like, oh, this is like a UFO, alien story or something like that. You wake up and you see an orb, like a red orb with light coming out of it in the middle of your room. Yeah, the red was unique for me.

But then when he went and talked to the clairvoyant, she's like, this is a gateway to the other side. It kind of makes sense. He's in this like 400 year old house. I wonder if there was some kind of gateway in that house. I don't know. I wonder if Christian knows anymore about like the history of the house, like that he could send us. I don't know. I just if Christian knows anymore about the history of the house that he could send

us. I don't know. He did mention in the email that they only lived in this house for three years. So it sounds like they made the right move and got out before anything else really bad could happen. But I can't just... I'm envisioning that this portal's opening up or whatever when people aren't there and ghosts come walking out and that's what he heard when he thought it was his mom.

And I also, I want to just give some storytelling kudos here to Christian for, like, you know, the tunnel that I mentioned in Unharped Dawn ultimately had nothing to do with the story, but it had the effect of kind of setting the mood and the tone. It was good detail, good, like, groundwork. And then I liked his little analysis at the end too,

sort of about why the story resonated and stuck with him for so long. Yeah, that the thing didn't show itself very often. And that's- Right, it's the tension of wondering if it will ever come back is worse than something that you can acclimate to and get used to. Love it.

Well, thank you for sending in this really cool story, Christiane, but we have got two more stories coming up. We'll be back right after this. Ooh, love it. Well, thank you for sending in this really cool story, Christian. But we have got two more stories coming up. We'll be back right after this. McCloud, I have to tell you, all these supernatural stories are making me realize I would be an absolutely miserable ghost. Because you'd be stuck in eternal purgatory? Well, yes. But mostly because ghosts can't eat. I love good meals. And since I found Marley Spoon, I've been having incredible meals

every night right at home. Marley Spoon! I love Marley Spoon. It helped me fast-track my way to eating well without all the stress. And listeners, with our code SIGHTINGS, you can get up to 27 free meals. And for those nights when you need dinner faster than a ghost can blink out of existence, Marley Spoon's new 15-minute express recipes are convenient, delicious, and on the table in minutes. And with over 100 recipes to choose from each week, there's something for everyone.

Like everything bagel-crusted sirloin steak. I'm going to say that again for you. Everything bagel-crusted sirloin steak. Come on. That sounds delicious, and it makes me so glad I am not a ghost without a stomach. And by the way, if you don't have time to cook at all, Marley Spoon also has delicious, ready-to-heat meals. They are absolute lifesavers.

Lifesavers? Sounds like the ghosts needed those. I know. So this new year, fast-track your way to eating well with Marley Spoon. Head to marlyspoon.com slash offer slash sightings and use code sightings for up to 27 free meals. That's right, up to 27 free meals with Marley Spoon. One last time, that's marlyspoon.com slash offer slash

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We are coming back stateside for this story. This one comes from Henry, who's from Montana. Oh, nice. I used to spend some time in Montana. My family and I, we wouldn't do the beach thing on like spring breaks and vacations. We went to Montana. Awesome. Well, Henry is a rancher.

So I don't know if that informs your voice at all, but it sounds like the story happened some time ago, but he'd been ranching for 20 years. So I assume he's in his 40s, 50s, whatever. But yeah, here we go. Let's get some music going for this one. All right. I've had a small ranch outside Bozeman for about 20 years now.

It's not fancy, but it's quiet, and I like it. And one of the things I've done to fill the time is messing around with my ham radio. Most nights, I just sit there with a cup of coffee, scanning frequencies and chatting with other operators from all over. Sometimes I even pick up folks from as far away as Japan. But one time, I wonder if I ended up hearing something from much, much farther away. It was a regular night, clear sky, and I was at my usual spot in the den running through frequencies like I always do when I picked it up.

This really strange clicking. It was almost like Morse code, but different. More irregular, and it sounded almost organic, if that makes sense. I'm not sure how else to describe it. Like a clicking sound with an odd pattern to it. Three clicks, then two, then seven. Then it would start over. Then it would iterate. At first I figured it was just interference.

Maybe somebody's electric fence acting up or something. But here's the thing. It wasn't just on one frequency. I found it all over different bands, always that same pattern. And that gave me the creeps, honestly. I've been operating ham radios since I was in high school, and in all those years I've heard all kinds of strange things, distant broadcasts bouncing off the ionosphere, military chatter, even some bizarre Cold War number station.

But this was different. It just didn't feel right, and I knew it. In total, the signal kept up for about 10 minutes until it ended. And though I sat there for another couple hours, it didn't come back. I made some notes about it in my radio log, which I've been keeping faithfully for decades, and even now that entry stands out. You can tell I was kind of shaken. The next night I listened again and even had my old tape recorder hooked up in case I caught the signal another time. And sure enough, right around the same time as the night before that same strange pattern came back,

Right around the same time as the night before that same strange pattern came back, three, two, seven, then iterates back and forth. I don't know why, but I then did something I probably shouldn't have. I transmitted back. Just my usual, this is K-A-7-B-D-E, Montana, receiving your signal, over. Basic stuff. But in hindsight, stupid. Potentially.

Yeah, but I couldn't resist either. How can you resist? I get like, I totally get it. Yeah. Okay, so let me connect it. Basic stuff, but in hindsight, stupid. Because as soon as I said over, the clicking stopped dead. Like whatever was making this signal had heard me. Of course, I didn't dare speak again. I just sat there with my headphones on, barely breathing for probably half a minute. Then the clicking started back up, but different this time. Faster, more deliberate, if that

makes sense. Almost like it was responding. For clarity, I wasn't thinking about UFOs or any of that at the time. I just thought this was some signal that was strange, but not much else. But then I heard my horses going crazy outside, going absolutely nuts. I keep four of them in the stable about 50 yards from the house and they sounded like they were going to tear the place down. So I grabbed my gun and light and ran out there to check. All four horses were pushed up against the back of the corral, eyes all wild, nostrils flaring. And Tornado, my oldest, he never spooks, but he was shaken.

So I looked around, checking everywhere from mountain lions, coyotes, raccoons, but there was nothing there. But something had scared the crap out of those horses. I stayed out there a while, settling them down and still looking around from time to time. And when I did go back inside, the radio was silent. But this doesn't end there, it just gets stranger because the next morning I got up and everything seemed pretty normal, until I was out checking the north pasture and I saw these, I don't know, but they seemed to be odd impressions on the grass, each about two feet across, three of them, and the grass wasn't just pressed, it looked dried out, drier than the surrounding grass.

And I stood there a long time, not knowing what to make of them, but it was hard not to imagine the possibility that a craft or something had landed here, especially given what had happened on my radio and to my horses. The timing was just too spookily strange to be coincidence, in my opinion. I kept checking the radio after that, but never heard that clicking again. Just normal chatter, the usual guys I talk to. But I know this. Something heard me that night and something answered. And I don't know if it's related, but something was on my property making those marks in the ground. And whatever it was, it nearly scared my horses to death and probably would have done the same to me

had I seen it for myself. Whoa. Yeah. Until the horses, like kind of, what I really loved about this story was like, it gave me this kind of sense of wonder, this feeling of like, what is he communicating to?

Like, it was nothing so specific as like a UFO. Like there was room in my brain for like an adventure almost. Like more of a contact type story, which is ultimately about aliens, but like a little bit little bit bigger than that. That's the vibe, so it's getting like the mystery of it. I really like the mystery of it. No, cool. I agree wholeheartedly.

I think the thing that then stood out to me too was that there was, I guess, evidence after the fact. It's also interesting that he reaches out to them, he contact, he reaches out to them and then it seems that like draws their attention to him and like, like if this UFO, if it was a UFO, something goes like, wait a second, who's listening? And like comes, but he can't be the only person hearing this, right? Well, I don't know. I, that's, that's the thing.

I don't know enough about how ham radios work. I know you can pick up signals from all over on a ham radio, but I think that since this thing was kind of clouding all of his frequencies, it sounded like it was like right on top of him practically already. And then- But that moment of terror of like thinking

you've drawn the attention of something Leviathan in size, sort of. I guess he should be glad that, you know, they didn't flatten his horses like they flatten the animals in Stardust Ranch. I had the same thought where I was like, oh yes, at least they didn't seem to mean any carnal harm. So thank you for sending this in, Henry. Really cool story.

We love getting UFO stories because a lot of the ones we've been getting are spooky things that people see in their houses. But this one, this one was fun and I love the radio element of it too. It was really neat. I really like the radio element. That's very cool.

We're gonna be back with one more story though. This one's gonna be the addict story. So stay tuned right after this. I hate addicts. With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan,

you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. To support sustainable food production, BHP is building one of the world's largest hot ash mines in Canada. Essential resources responsibly produced. It's happening now at BHP, a future resources company. Okay, here we are, back for more terrifying adventures. Well, get ready for this one.

We're heading into an attic. This story comes from Angel from Denver, and he's telling us a story about when he was in school in Boston. So it's set in Boston. Okay. So let's get some music rolling. Okay. I was 22 at the time, still in grad school at Boston University and living in a very small one-bedroom house in the cheapest area of the city, Mission Hill. After work, on a Friday night, I hopped online to game with a bunch of my friends. It was the perfect night for staying up late with heavy downpour outside and no work or

school the next day. We played for probably two hours before a sudden sound had me put everything on pause for a minute. It was a thump sounding like it was coming from upstairs. My initial concern was a possible leak in the roof caused by the rainfall, so I went up to look. The only rooms upstairs were a single bedroom and a half bathroom, and neither of them had any signs of leaks anywhere, so I ran back down and got back online with my friends. We finished up at about 2 a.m.

and I shut everything off and sat on the couch with some snacks while I watched something on TV. But ten minutes later I heard another thump from upstairs again, but it was so muffled that it almost sounded like it was on the roof or something. I did an even more thorough search of both my bedroom and the bathroom up there, but there wasn't anything showing itself to be the cause of the sound. I was sure it wasn't thunder either because it vibrated through the walls like something was literally hitting the house. I was so determined to figure out what it was that I put my shoes on and went out into

the rain to see if there was something more noticeable from outside. At first I saw nothing of significance, but then I noticed a tree branch getting pretty close to my house. It was a large and sturdy branch, but it was still a good three or four feet away from the siding and it wasn't swaying much, so it seemed unlikely it was actually banging the side of the house. As I looked though, I realized there was a small window on the house that the tree kind of covered up. And it was higher than my bedroom window, meaning it had to be an attic. But I had no idea there was an attic in this house.

The hatch was nowhere noticeable and the roof wasn't a steep slope. So it didn't look like there would even be room for one. But this hidden window was the first clue I'd ever seen to indicate there being something up there. I went back inside, more curious than ever, and started searching for the hatch that I knew had to be somewhere. It took a minute, but I found it inside my bedroom closet. It was small and perfectly smooth with the ceiling, basically blending in with it. So I stood up on a box and pulled it down, releasing a rusty ladder from the opening.

Even from my closet I could tell the attic was extremely short, maybe three or four feet tall at most. But I climbed the ladder carefully and looked into the tiny space. Basically a wide, dark tunnel. Here's those tunnels again. Basically a wide, dark tunnel with that hidden window at the end. And there, by the window, was a figure ducked down on all fours and looking straight at me.

I almost fell off the ladder trying to jump down and run away. I heard shuffling up there as I grabbed my phone and fled the house before calling 911 in my driveway. And right after I called the cops, I could see this creature or whatever it was, open that attic window, jump onto the nearby tree branch, slither down the trunk and run on all fours into the darkness of the night. When the cops got there I explained to them the whole story, but I admitted certain parts being careful not to sound too crazy. The cops told me that there were a lot of vagrants in this area and that it was probably just some homeless person squatting

in the attic. Nevertheless, the cops went into my house and up that ladder and were taken aback by the repugnant smell coming from the attic. Up there they found evidence of dead animals, some rodents, a pigeon, and some other mammal. They also found these huge claw markings on the floorboards, marks that didn't appear to be from any animal but almost—what? They also found these huge claw markings on the floorboard, marks that didn't appear to be from any animal, but almost humanoid in shape. The cops offered me no explanation of these findings and just told me to call them again if the homeless person came back. But I was convinced this was no man. The absurdity of it all was almost unbelievable. I moved out very soon after that,

and in every house or apartment since, I've always checked for attics. But first, good on you, again, another reasonable person who gets out of there. But the one thing that has stayed with me is the image of that thing at the end of the attic on its hands and knees staring at me with eyes full of fear and anger. I've never forgotten that night." Oof. Oh man. Well, Angel. This, you know what I love about this story is is like I feel like all of us at some time in our life have been in Angel's position.

Like this is a very relatable. I mean what he found maybe not necessarily, but like certainly that like it being a storm, hearing bumps on the roof and sounds. Thinking it's a tree. Thinking it's a tree. Thinking it's a tree. The smell. I mean, the first place my mind goes is like it's a bobcat or something, but the bobcats of Boston doesn't really strike me as a common.

I'm just envisioning almost like a golem kind of creature. Yeah. Oof. And then the whole moment where it slithered out of the, you know, it opened the window, left the house, went down the tree and ran off on all fours. The way he described it did not make it sound like a cat. No. But there are claw marks. But cats don't open windows either.

Cats are pretty clever. You know what? It's opening the window and then closing it again behind itself. Exactly. It strains credulity for sure. Exactly. And then part of me was like, well, maybe it was just some kind of a vagrant or something, but this vagrant must have been cosplaying something because...

Yeah, yeah. It then climbs down a tree and has claw marks and like I don't believe the vagrant thing. Of course that's what the cops would say though. Of course, well, I mean, of course the cops are just gonna go, I don't know. That image is gonna stick with me for a while. The tunnel like appearance, we got two tunnels in this one, you're right. Two tunnels. I love that though about like, about supernatural stories, like the kind of common commonalities,

those like thematic consistencies of tunnels, storms, orbs. Aaron Ross Powell Absolutely. Adam Felsen Great stories this week, everyone. Aaron Ross Powell Thank you for sending them in, everyone. Keep them coming. We've been getting new stories every week from people, more than we can do right now, but we want to keep doing more listener story episodes every month.

So please send them to us at stories at sightingspodcast.com or always feel free to shoot us a message on Instagram. – We'll see everybody next week. Brian, where are we going to meet our audience? – So we are heading to Georgia next week. – Okay. – And I am struggling to figure out how to describe this one. It's kind of a UFO story, but it also has some conspiracy elements and is kind of one of the wildest stories

I think we're gonna have done on the show so far. And we've done a lot of wild episodes, so. Modern or like old school? 1970s. 1970s, all right, okay. So see y'all next week, same time, same place, right here on Sightings. Sightings is hosted by McLeod, Anders and Brian Sigley.

Produced by Brian Sigley, Chase Kinzer and McLeod, Anders. Series music by Mitch Bain. Mixing and mastering by Pat Kickleiter of Sundial Media. Artwork by Nuno Cernanos. Sightings is presented by Reverb and Q-Code. If you like the show, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you're first to hear new episodes every week.

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