Spooked - Brick and Mortal

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

Sometimes the spirits we encounter are benevolent and kind — like guardian angels. And sometimes, they wait, and watch, and wish us ill. STORIES Eunice Tiffany’s keeps waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone walking around her room. Finally, one night, a woman materializes right in front of her, wearing the snazziest business casual attire she’s ever seen. But there’s one problem: this woman is a ghost. Thank you, Tiffany, for sharing your story with Spooked! Produced by Anne Ford, original score by Daniel Riera Brick and Mortal Rhea is excited to visit her mom and dad, who have just bought a brand-new cabin in the woods. The house seems great, except Rhea keeps seeing a figure out of the corner of her eye: a woman, standing in the woods, staring at her. Thanks, Rhea, for sharing your story with us! Produced by Annie Nguyen, original score by Clay Xavier Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall and nobody pushed him, how did he fall? With all the king's horses and all the king's men, why couldn't they put him together again? You're listening to Spooked. Stay tuned. Here's the crazy thing about the story I'm going to tell you. I learned hypnotism as a lark. In addition to the occasional car trick at the school library, I practice my hypnotism games. You are getting sleepier and sleepier.

Every sound you hear, every breath you take, more deeply and deeply in fraud. Then I make it so people can't open their eyes, or maybe they suddenly feel cold or hot. Have tiny little petites display extraordinary strength, such that even the muscle heads can't bend their outstretched arms. And finally, I'll take them blinking out of this, not remembering a thing.

Tadda! Yeah, I take my bow. Sometimes even the teachers clap. And it's all fun in games, but there's this thing I'm itching to try. Age regression. Just like it sounds, I finally get a volunteer, Sally. And right when she's at her deepest state, Sally?

Sally, you were 12. 10 years old, 7. Five. Three years old. Now, Sally, please write your name on this piece of paper. I smile as she cast around confused. But I don't know how to write yet. The screams, the gasp, the applause for my fellow students, the newfound respect, intoxicated.

And I don't know what. Let me not lie. Let me at least tell the truth here. Let me finally tell the truth because I do know what let me to do what I do next. Trying to be the man. Trying to impress people I don't even know. So when Matt asked to go under, goofy, friendly, trusting Matt, Matt, who's only ever been nice to me, Matt waiting backstage with a group of drama kids, getting ready to practice a midsummer's night dream, it's my chance.

Okay, everybody. round. No talking, please. I put Matt through the paces deeper and deeper. Then, math, you're 10, nine, seven years old, six, you're five years old now, three years old, two, one, zero. And this is the part I've never done before, the thing that will show off my mad skills and make me a high school legend Matt, there are those that claim they've been here before. If you are one of those secrets, and I know that you are, man, I want you to find your previous shell, the previous life. But I want you to go there, Matt.

Go there. Go there. Now, Matt, while you remain unable to move your arms or legs, open your eyes and you'll have just five seconds to tell me what you see. Matt opens his eyes. His face, a spasm of pure rage, and I know instantly, I've made a huge mistake. He screams.

Everyone leaps backwards, he shrieks a language. I have never heard of agony and curses and hate and venom and hurt, and I don't know what to do. I don't know how to stop it. He is pain. People are shouting, crying, as they scrabble back away, and then as quickly as it starts. He's head slums, and he's quiet.

I get trembling. Then I remember to pretend, to pretend that this is still my show. Okay, oh, Matt, you're going to come back to yourself now. Back to your age. You awake feeling refreshed and happy, and you won't remember anything. Please, when Matt opens his eyes,

smiles, ask what happened. There's no clapping, no bows. I want to cry to beg forgiveness, to collapse. But most of all, more than any explanation of what happened to him, I want to know what is wrong with me. How many faces to every action, every person has more than two sides, even those closest to us. our first storyteller, Tiffany.

When she was growing up, she was very close with her grandmother. We were very close. I grew up a lot in her house. She'd sit at the kitchen table and drink her coffee. And she taught me to drink coffee. She would drink her normal coffee, but she had these little Demetas cups where I would fill it half full with evaporated milk. She always had a story and she really liked telling youth the stories, especially while you were making dinner. Oh, you know, you know what I have a taste for? Fried oysters.

Why don't you fry me some oysters, Tiffany? I loved hearing her stories. My grandmother used to tell me all these outrageous stories with her best friend from high school, Eunice. So she grew up in a small town called a. Hepner, Oregon. She and Eunice used to get around town, causing all sorts of havoc. In Hepner at that time, you could go to the bar and drink if you were married. So she and Eunice used to go to the grocery store and buy plastic rings. They would have these plastic wedding rings on and then they'd go getting tanked up at the local tavern. And one evening, they ended up steward. And one evening, they ended up

stealing a birthday cake from some party. They ended up in somebody's front yard, extremely drunk, eating the birthday cake as everybody's going to work in the morning. To imagine her being young and being friends with Eunice, it was incredible. After I graduated high school, I went and got up to as much shenanigans as I could.

moved from Seattle to Boston and then down to North Carolina. So I finally made it back home. And when I did get here, of course, I was flat broke, didn't have any money. And my grandmother said, hey, you can live in the basement while you get your feet back under you. She had the whole upstairs to herself. She was a heavy, heavy smoker. And I am not. So staying in the basement, kept most of the smoke out of my room. So I moved back in with my dog, Chuck. I was very relieved to move back into the basement, of course, but it was always so creepy. I never, even as a kid, wanted to go downstairs by myself.

It was a half-sunk basement. It was dark. It was always a little bit, something weird down there. My aunt, who'd grown up in the basement, that was where her room was, She wouldn't go back to that house by yourself ever. It never felt like you were alone. It always felt like there was something in there with you. But my grandmother always told me she didn't believe in ghosts.

I was scared to sleep down there, but I had my dog. Chuck wasn't afraid of anything. Chuck was always, Mr. I am here to protect you. He would lunch and he would bite if he thought I was in danger. He slept in bed with me because there was a... no way I was going to sleep by myself. He was a huge dog, so he would sleep in every corner of the bed, and he was an old grumpy dog.

He made all sorts of old grumpy dog noises, but it was comforting to me to hear him. After I moved back in, that's when things started happening. It was 4.30 in the morning. My eyes open, and I can hear somebody say, hey, Tiffany, hey. Tiffany, come here. And I sat up. And then I heard, hey, Tiffany, come here. I could hear it.

It wasn't in my head. I could hear somebody tell me, come here. I wasn't scared at first. I was still half asleep. So I got up out of bed and I started walking across the room. About three seconds after my body started moving, and it just dawned on me. I had no idea who was talking to me. and I didn't know what they wanted me for.

And I thought, oh my God, I'm walking into a trap. I was terrified. So I got back in bed and put the covers over my head. And I actually sat there in bed saying, no, you're not getting me. I didn't talk about that event. I tried to ignore it so that it wouldn't come back. But a few weeks later, something else happened, which I couldn't ignore. It was a regular work night for me.

I had to get up and go to work in the morning. Went to bed at 10 o'clock. I couldn't sleep with the lights off. I had to sleep with the lights on. My bed's shoved up against the wall, and I'm sleeping towards the wall because anything that's going to get me is going to have to go through Chuck first.

Woke up in the middle of the night because the bed was shaking. Chuck was always rolling around and grumpin, and I could hear him doing that old grumpy dog thing. So I sat up to tell him to go back to sleep. There was a woman standing right next to my bed. She had this brown pantsuit on and a cream-colored camisole top. And she had this long, beautiful, red, curly hair.

And it looked like she was going to a conference or going to work. She looked done up. I did not recognize her. Chuck was moving around trying to get closer to this woman that was standing in the middle of my room at 3 o'clock in the morning. And she was petting him on the chin and petting him behind the ears. And I thought, what the hell is going on? I knew that she couldn't be a real person

because no real person would be standing. in my room petting my dog while I was sleeping. Because Chuck was paying attention to her, not trying to defend me, I didn't feel like I was in danger, but I was terrified

because I had never had any sort of experience like that. I didn't know what to do. My first reaction was to hide it in the covers, which is what I did. I was there for about 15 seconds, and I thought,

Is she still there? So I poke my head out from underneath the covers, and yeah, she was still there. And I realized that she was looking at me while she was petting my dog. So I hid underneath the covers again, this time for a little bit longer, maybe 20 seconds. And when I came out from underneath the covers, she was still there. I realized that hiding under the covers was not making her go away. At that point, I realized that I didn't really have an out. So I just sat there and looked at her because I didn't know what else to do.

And she looked at me after what felt like 10 minutes. She walked to the end of my bed, chucked it and get up. She didn't react in any way other than, hey, you stopped scratching my ears, come back. She stood there and looked at me. and she was smiling a little. So we kind of had this, I see you, you see me. And I thought, okay,

I feel like you just wanted some recognition that you were here. Then she started to disappear. And not like fading away. She melted. She melted her hair and her clothes melted off of her body. Then her skin started melting like candle wax, dripping down her face.

And her eyeballs were looking at me, and she was still smiling. Then her eyeballs started to melt and pour out of her eye sockets. She still kept looking at me. I remember her skeleton looking at me in the eyes. And then she finally melted away. but there was nothing on the floor. She was gone. Chuck was sitting right next to me, not scared.

It took me a moment to realize, oh, that just happened. I remember thinking, this is the single scariest thing I have ever seen. At the same time, I thought, that was incredible. It almost felt performative, like she was giving me the biggest send-off that she could so that I would remember that she was there.

There was a very finality about it, and for that reason, I was able to go back to sleep. So we wake up in the morning, and just like normal, and for half a second I forgot that it had even happened. I sort of sat there. I thought, wow, that there was... I was a lady in the middle of my room last night. So I go upstairs to have a cup of coffee with my grandmother and tell her about my experience. As soon as I got upstairs, I noticed that she's upset. I said, well, how's it going, grandma? Are you okay?

She just said, no, I just had a very upsetting phone call. She was sad. Well, you know, my friend, Eunice, I just got a phone call that she died in the middle of the night. And at that point, I realized, hmm, maybe Eunice came to visit me last night. I didn't want to upset her anymore, but I did really, really want to know if that's who I saw. And so I kind of manipulated the conversation around to say, hey, you know, Graham, you've told me all of these stories about Eunice. And I've known of her all my life, but I never knew what she looked like. And my grandmother's response was,

I don't know what she looked like these days, but when she was young, she had the most beautiful, long, red, curly hair. I didn't want to upset her anymore, and I don't think she wants to hear any weirdness about Eunice dying. If I had brought it up, I maybe would have been, like, ridiculed for believing that actually happened. So I didn't take anything. I didn't tell her. I think Eunice came to visit my grandmother that night. I honestly do. But my grandmother maybe wasn't receptive enough to that. She was not open enough to see her.

Eunice came to say goodbye to and then was like, oh, there's a dog. I'm going to go pet him. My grandmother, she passed away about six years ago. I think of her often. Once in a while, I have a day where I just smell cigarettes. smoke everywhere. She told me all the time she didn't believe in ghosts. But when she

was nearing the end of her life, she would joke about how she was going to come back to haunt me so that I wouldn't forget her. She also said, you know you'll, I'll be there because you'll turn around and you'll see this little wisp of smoke. Thank you so much to Tiffany

for sharing your story to spook. And big love to Eunice and to your Grandma, I am so glad they're partying it up on the other side. Original score for that story is by Daniel Riera. It was produced by Ann Ford. Some people, they hear a bump in the night and they run. But others, when they reach across the veil, and they live to tell the tale, our next storyteller, Ria.

She's one of those folk. Sometimes, sometimes when you've walked this path for too long, You forget How to tell friend From foe I let Ria Take it from here It was a Friday night

We hung out as a family We have dinner together My mom made a good dinner My dad asks if we want to Hang around a campfire And we do So my dad has made some benches Out of fallen pine trees

and my son usually carries out all the supplies and he has the graham crackers and he always opens the Hershey bars first because he likes to sneak bites of the chocolate when we're silent and we've all had a smore or two we just sit there and listen to the fire crackling and that's when I really notice the nature noises

It's like coyote yips. You hear rustling and bobcats, bobcats make noises that sound like screaming children. And it's just so noisy. I have this horrible sense of dread and this feeling that, I don't know, like there's something watching us.

but I can't really put a finger on it. So I go inside and I get ready for bed. I can't sleep. That first night, I cannot sleep at all. And I think it's that moment when I think of that woman that I realize it wasn't just a hiker. Earlier in the day, when we were driving, we turned down the road leading to my parents' house

for the first time ever. and I recall the flashes of color that I know to be hikers. I looked to my right out the window, and I saw a woman set back into the woods a bit in a white dress with really long hair, and she's just standing still. It feels like something wants me to believe that it is a woman. But I don't think that is the true shape or the true form.

You know, I've always had these experiences and I've never been terrified. I've never felt threatened. I've never felt evil like I did in that moment. So that first night, I was wide awake. The next day, my mom is just not herself. And we decide, let's do a little shopping. We left the house and we start driving into town and we're just talking about the day and the further away we get from the house, the happier and more upbeat she becomes. And so I ask my mom, you know, mom, what's up? You don't seem like yourself. You don't act like yourself. You just, you just blah. And she said that she's just really tired because she hasn't.

been sleeping well. She just feels emotionally drained. And I think, well, that makes sense because everything kind of happened in a whirlwind. My dad came home, declared he purchased this house, and then you moved up north. Like, she's a very social creature and to go from having friends that she would spend time with on a daily basis to being completely isolated. That night, my mom and my son play a game of Uno, which is their favorite game. Dad watches TV at nuclear level volumes because he's getting older and he's hard of hearing. And I feel on edge. I've got goosebumps all over.

I don't know why. And it was so noticeable that even my husband asked me, hey, are you okay? What's going on? And I just tell him, you know, I don't know. I feel like I don't know. And I go to our room. My husband is down there.

He goes to bed early. So he's already in there, in the bed, already sleeping. And when I turn off the lights to the room, I can see the glow of light from my son's room because he is in there. and he is reading and I am reading a romance novel because that is the only thing to kind of, it's nice and fluffy,

it gets my mind off of things, I can just kind of escape into that world. And I heard some shuffling out in the great room and I think, oh, my son, he's probably up, you know, getting a snack for trying to sneak something

because he does that. He's a teenager. I get out of bed and I walk to the doorway of the room and I go to the great room and there is nothing in the great room. There's just like the dull hum from the fridge, the odd ice cube falling down in the fridge. And as I'm standing in the great room, I realize there's no noises outside. So I thought, oh, maybe it's a bear. I don't know. But it was unnerving. I grab a glass of water. I head back to bed. I turn off the light in the great room. I check on my son. And then I go back to bed. And in the glow of this tiny little light in this cavernous room, I go back to reading my romance novel. And about 15 minutes later, I heard a shuffling. And I glanced up from my book.

And in the doorway of my room, there's a figure standing there. I think it's my son. And because we always joke about being up late or whatever, I looked up and I just said, oh, it's really late, I know. But what page are you on? on. And all of a sudden the figure rushes towards me. My light flicks off and in my right ear, I hear in my son's voice, naughty mama. I felt the breath in my ear. And I felt cold hands

on my forehead. And I reached over to the right to kind of like pat my son. And there's nobody there. and I turn my light on and there's nobody in the room. And I go to the end of the hallway. I check on my son. My son is sound asleep and he's all curled up in his blanket. And that's when I look to my left

out the window in my son's room and there's a woman in a white dress with long hair and no facial feature. standing there. But this entity is staring right at me. I felt threatened

because it imitated my son. Like, there's like a certain amount of observance that something has to do in order to get my son's voice. I get the feeling that it's a challenge. And that's why I mentally put up

a brick wall between her and the house. and it's each individual brick in front of the lady and I say you are not welcome here as I'm mentally putting up the brick wall I see the figure straighten and arms kind of go up and the arms are gray

and I say you are not welcome here and then I envision the brick wall going up all along the front of the house and then the sides and then the back. And that lady is still there in the same exact spot where she was before, unmoving. But I know she cannot get past the bricks.

I pull down the blinds. I cover my son up. I kiss them on the forehead and say, God bless you. I love you. And then I go back to, my bedroom. I check on my husband. I kiss him on the cheek. He's sound asleep. After I went back to bed the entire night, in my mind, I go around the perimeter of the brick wall that I put. Because in my mind, there was no way the wall would stay up if I wasn't constantly thinking about it. And that lady

is still in the same exact location. She doesn't move throughout the the night. The next morning, it is Sunday, and we are getting ready to go, and I pull my mom aside. Mom, I need to talk to you about something that happened last night. My mom looks at me, and she holds my hand, and she goes, I know, honey, it's the reason I can't sleep at night. I said, Mom, you need to have the pastor come out to the house and bless the house. She says, we've tried to have the pastor come to the house three times. And there's always been some reason that the pastor can't get to the house. I said, Mom, you need to have this happen this week.

And she goes, we'll try. As we go to leave, you know, my husband is driving again. And I'm sitting in the passenger seat in the front of the vehicle. And to the left is the house. And my dad and mom are standing by the garage door. And my dad is waving. And my mom is just crying. And I started crying.

And I don't want to leave her. But I know I have to. And we pull out of the driveway. And I do look back. She's still there waving and crying and clasping her hands in front of her. My dad is still waving. And then he puts his arm around her and they go back into the house. As we reached the edge of the road, I look over to the left and there she is.

The whatever image of the woman standing back in the woods. I mentally said, you are not. welcome. It feels like that's the part of the property where it manifests. It doesn't feel like a regular spirit. It's something worse. And I don't know how to describe it other than it just needs to stay away. So the next time we went up there to visit my parents. My mom is happy. It feels lighter. after the house has been blessed. She greets us the same way she used to when she was living near Milwaukee

and just is more vibrant and she's very happy to see us. And my dad is very proud of his patio. So he asks me if I want to go sit outside with him. And I do. We're sitting there and there's a, you know, the glow from the house, which is like an orangish glow from the lights inside.

And my dad and I are just sitting there. And I feel like I'm being watched. And I look behind me because my back was facing the forest. And she's standing there. Featureless face. Just standing at the perimeter of the house. step back in the woods, facing the house. I tell my dad, I cannot, I don't want to, I need to go inside.

And I think in my mind, you are not welcome here. But this time it feels different. There are noises. You can hear the wind rustling through the trees. I feel anxious, but not as anxious as I did before. and I know whatever that is, it won't come inside the house. But I will not go outside at night unless I'm with other people. And if I do, I always stick to the light.

Big thanks to Ria for sharing that story to Spook. Ria is a spook listener who reached out to share her story. We'd love to hear from listeners. If you got a story, you need to tell. Drop us a line, spooked at Snap Judgment.org. original score for that piece was by Clay Xavier was produced by Annie He went. Walk this path together. Spooped season six

Real people, real stories, real wonder. Your self-possessed a story of inexplicable power that has shaped every aspect of how you see the world but no one will believe. But you think no one will understand? Well, try me because I want to know email us your story

spooked at snapjudgment.org because there is nothing better than a spook story and a spook listener. Let us know spook at snapjudgment.org Now warn your neighbors and the dark side

that you spook with some spook gear the t-shirt of your dreams available right now snapjudgment.org remember so much more. There is so much more if you like your storytelling under the bright light of day, under the glorious rays of sanctified sunshine,

subscribe to our sister program. The amazing stupendous Snap Judgment podcast. Storytelling. Luke was created by the team that knows not to let high school boys hypnotize them for fun and profit, except for Mark Ristich. He's always a willing test subject. Anna Sussman, Liza Smith, Chris Hamrick, Annie Nguyen, Nguyen, Morn Newsom, Leon Morimoto, Davy Kim,

Wynzo Goria, Taylor de Kott, Marissa Dodge, Zori Ferdinnell, Tiffany DeLisa, Anne Ford, Doug Stewart, and Isaiah Sims.

The spook theme song is by Pat and Ceeley Miller. My name is from Washington that you cannot avoid the wall by denying the wall. You do not ward off the chill by saying there is no cold. Neither can you avoid the dark shadow

by pretending it does not walk beside you. Ignorance is not bliss. knowledge is the only power so no matter who tells you there is nothing to fear in the darkness no matter how insistently they shriek or how pitifully they wail

never never ever never never never ever ever