Spooked - Lost

Episode Date: October 24, 2017

Stories: "Cat Scratch Fever" - Something is here, scratching, clawing its way out of the darkness...  "Invisible Children" - What do you do when you find three ghost children living in your attic?  "Pastor’s Oil"  - Jenny is up in her room, she’s shaking like there’s something inside of her. And Glynn is about to find out what . . . Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

While it's true that a ghost may look like a child, act like a child, even want to play like a child, please understand that creature luring you in, smiling, laughing, that creature is not a child. From Snap Judgment's underground layer, you're listening to Spute. Stay tuned. See, I've moved over 23 times in my life. And I've learned a few things early on. Rule number one, everybody leaves something behind. Everyone. Whether they know it or not, whether they want to or not, they leave something back. And that's why, before I unload a single box or take the bubble wrap off the mirror,

I examine every inch of the new place. Now, it might be as simple as an old deck of playing cards. perhaps some worn tennis shoes or maybe the former tenants are running away from someone they would just as soon forget My name is Lynn Washington Always check the attic

The basement In that locked closet Because spook starts Now our first story Is a listener story We love listener stories It comes to us from Cat DeFranzo

her brother and her father. The first thing that struck me about this place was it was very gloomy inside. And I remember counting the windows, and I'm saying there's so many windows in this place, and it's so gloomy. It had 30 windows. But I was desperate, and it really was a nice place.

It had all hardwood floors. It had a fireplace, and it was a great neighborhood, and I said, I'll take it. Fred DeFranza was in a bind. He was going through a tough divorce and needed a place to live. He had two kids, Mike, who was nine at the time, and Kat, who was seven. We were living in the top floor. There was a two-family home, and we had the second-floor apartment.

Above the apartment was a full-size attic, which had its own dormers, and it was really used for storage. His kids, Mike and Kat, were getting used to a new reality. Their parents were splitting up. They just moved to a new school, and now they had a new place to live. You know, we're adjusting to school, we're adjusting to our parents being divorced. This is an emotional time for everybody. And I remember moving into this place, and it's an older building.

Manchester is an old mill town, and a lot of the houses are 100, 200 years old. And shortly after we moved in, my age, dad actually said to my sister and I, hey, why don't we check out the attic, which seems innocuous enough in the middle of the day for all of us to go up there and poke around. I remember distinctly that there were canes hanging on the banister on the way up to the attic. And when we got upstairs, we kind of were poking around. There were a lot of old clothes, old dressers. busts, old vinyl records, and an entire rack on the back wall of Life magazine dating back to, you know, God knows when, neatly cataloged. So it really looked like this was somebody's whole life up here.

I felt like we were invading someone else's space. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by someone else's belongings, and we did not belong there. Dad was looking through these life magazines, and I remember very clearly that Mike was becoming more and more uncomfortable with the fact that he was pulling them all out of order, and Mike was feeling like, don't touch that. This isn't yours. Don't touch it. But it wasn't just old magazines and records up there in the attic.

Looking around, I remember distinctly seeing a rope tied to one of the rafters and cut at the knot. Not only did he notice the rope tied on the rafter, he actually found the noose. That's right. Mike found a noose on the floor of the attic tossed into a dusty corner. Fred tried to distract his son to make light of Mike's horrific discovery as best. he could. But still, everyone was shaken up. And I think we all kind of feel like that's when things escalated and got worse for us. Mike and Kat lived with Fred on the weekends and with their mom during the week. When the kids were with their mom, Fred was all alone in the house. I was getting ready to go to work. I had a daytimeer, an appointment book, which was,

was vital to me. And I was in a rush. And I had put this book on top of a banister post. These were the stairs leading to the front door downstairs. And I put it on the post simply to tie my shoes. Now I know I put it on the post. No doubt. I bend down to tie my shoe. I get up. It's gone. I went so far to go into the garage to see if I left it in my car. I have to find this book. I come back and it's on the post, flipped over upside on. And I just grabbed it and ran out of the house. And then there was a light in the attic.

At least once or twice a week when I would come home, the attic light would be on. So much so that I would have to, I would be the only one really to access, go upstairs, shut it off. Of course, it would creep me out. You try to rationalize. I don't want to believe that something is here messing with me. On the weekends, when Kat and Mike were with him, Fred never mentioned the things he experienced. He didn't want them to get scared away. But still, Kat and Mike couldn't help but pick up on the fact that something was off.

about the apartment. You could see things out of the corner of your eyes, and as soon as you turned to them, nothing would be there. I could barely ever sleep. So I'm lying in bed awake with my door open, hallway light on, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling that was always present. And I hear the...

Sink turn on in the kitchen. Everyone is in their separate bedrooms, and I know nobody turned it on. Mike and Kat never told each other they thought something was going on. They could barely believe it themselves. Still, about six months after moving in, they all decided they should get a kitten. We got the cat as kind of a warm, fuzzy presence in the house.

I think we were all feeling like we had so much turmoil and darkness, kind of going on in our personal lives that we just wanted something to make us happy to come home every day. And I remember we were so excited to bring the cat home. She was just such a warm, sweet kitten. It was really nice to have her around. The kitten seemed to make the apartment a little brighter. Fred could sleep through the night when his kids were gone. The kitten would snuggle up next to him.

But then something started happening to cat. My bedroom was always dark and dingy. I remember we painted clouds all over my walls to try to brighten it up and make it feel a little more cheery. But I still had this feeling of dread every time I'd go into my bedroom. Kat started having really vivid, recurring nightmares. There would be a man standing over my bed, staring down at me, watching me sleep. And he would take his fingers and run them down the flesh on my face. and I began waking up with scratches on my face.

At first, Fred thought the kitten might be scratching his daughter's face, but she wasn't. My dad decided that he was going to try something to see if this would help, because I think he was worried that it was a self-inflicted kind of scratch. He decided to tape mittens to me at night to see if I could stop myself. from scratching, and still I would wake up with scratches down my face. I almost feel like this thing was kind of feeding on our energy. We were in a bad state. We all were traumatized.

We had a lot of negative things going on in our lives. It was a bad transition for all of us. And I think that definitely awoke whatever was there and made things worse. Fred and Kat and Mike were close, and they managed to find comfort. in each other when things at the apartment got to be too much. Weekends at the apartment, Mike, Dad, and I would go out all day. We would spend the day outside doing fun things, just trying to get some fresh air and lighten the mood a little bit.

And one day, we came home and we could hear the cat meowing. But she didn't come running to us. And usually the second we came home, she'd kind of trot into the kitchen and say hello. So we thought it was odd that she's not anywhere to be found, but we can hear her soft little meow. So Mike and I and dad, we searched all over the house looking for the cat, thinking like maybe she got stuck in a closet. Who knows what happened? And I found her in my bedroom. and the cat had a bag wrapped around her neck and she was hanging off of my bedpost.

And that was terrifying. That was just a sickening, terrifying feeling like something had gotten her. And she survived. She's fine. But it was one of those things that, like, if we hadn't been home, who knows what it would have happened. And, you know, cats get themselves into all sorts of situations. I know that.

But this felt deliberate. This felt symbolic. And it was very uncomfortable. Everyone was rattled after that. Fred and the kids started sleeping together in the living room. And during the week, when Fred was alone in the apartment, he had the nagging thought that he definitely wasn't alone. I believe it was a Sunday night.

Yeah. And I go to sleep and I wake up at around 2 o'clock. I was wide awake and I turned over and there at the foot of my bed on the right side is this figure. It was a stout, short figure completely black. I mean jet black. That stood out. from the gray darkness that was in the room. And the person was leaning over, and their hands were over my feet. And I just leaped out of bed, hit the light. Of course, it's the middle of the night. I didn't know what to do.

And didn't sleep in that room for weeks. I would sleep on the couch, all the lights on. For about three weeks, I did that. Me and the cat. After he saw the figure at the end of his bed, Fred would sometimes stay at his sister's house for a couple of nights. He felt like he just couldn't hack it, staying in the apartment. And so, he decided to buy his own home. He bought a property nearby and started construction on a brand new house.

Finally, when the house was built, he and the kids were delighted to move out of the apartment. My room was mostly empty. It was the middle of the day. were getting the last loads of things into the truck. I think there were probably just some toys I was throwing into a box, and I remember realizing that it felt like someone was behind me, and I didn't really look up. This is kind of a familiar sensation at this point,

but as I'm packing things away, I see a white figure walk from behind me out the door. and it was unmistakable. Unmistakable. Mike, Kat, and Fred definitely felt the apartment was haunted. And now they were out of there, they felt like they could admit that something was up with the place. When they got to the new house,

Fred sat the kids down and told them something he'd been keeping to himself for a while. The person who had recommended and helped me find this apartment was a co-worker of mine, Phil. And this was about two months after we moved into the apartment. And I actually hadn't seen him. You know, we talk on the phone occasionally for work and things like that. And we're setting up our table and he just says, so how's the apartment? And I didn't know how to say it to him.

And I said, you know, I said, Phil, you're going to think I'm crazy. I feel like it's haunted. And he looks at me and says, yeah, I'm sure it is. I didn't want to tell you, because I know how badly you needed the apartment. It is a nice apartment, and my friends had the apartment. But the previous landlady hung herself in the attic. And it all kind of clicked when he said that. Like, my God, I'm not crazy.

Something is there. The noose in the attic. All the owner's belongings gathering dust up there. The kitten hanging from the bedpost. Once Fred and Mike and Kat put all the pieces together, they felt relieved. They never went back to the house. Well, except for one time.

I had picked up Catherine once she was, we had moved out. We were living in Concord. I have the new house. and she was at some party. It was a Halloween party. It is Halloween. And I went to pick her up along with another friend, Zoe. And they were going to stay.

She was going to stay over the house in Concord. And they start talking about, you know, it's Halloween. And the whole thing that we went through at this apartment in Manchester. And then as I'm driving, they said, wouldn't it be really fun to go to the house on Halloween night? Finally, I was like, okay. All right, we're going to take a quick detour, and we're going to go, and then we're going right back. We are driving toward the street, and I said to the kids, Catherine and Zoe, wouldn't it be funny if the attic light was on? And we drive up to the house, and lo and behold, the two dormers with the windows there, the shades were pulled up three quarters of the way down, but the attic light was on.

and that freaked me out. I went to the end of the street, turned around to go back home, and we had to drive by the house again. And it's a small street, you really can't go fast. I drove by the house slow, and what the creepiest thing of all was when we drove by the house, the shades that previously were down, three quarters of the way down,

had were up all the way. It was almost as if she saw us, put the blinds up, and wanted a good look at us. I said, you know what, I'm just not comfortable being here. And actually, to this day, I won't go anywhere near the house.

If someone said, I'll give you $1,000 to go in the house, I will not do it. Big thanks, Kat. And thanks as well to your bro and pop for sharing their story of spooked. Listeners, you will not be surprised to learn they have never returned to that.

that house. Discover now, what happens when you spend your entire savings on a home only to discover that someone already lives there? What do you do? You'd be afraid. That's what you do. Spoofed. I'm Kathleen McConnell. I live in Loyville, Kentucky. I'm a certified professional secretary. I have been the executive secretary for the presidents of three different corporations in my career. In 1966, Kathleen McConnell would take the bus every day to one of her earliest secretary jobs at a bank in downtown Louisville. She would pass an old brick house. The house just had a draw for me, and I could always see this little girl standing in the front window.

She appeared to be 10, 11 years old. She would always hold her hand up to the window glass, and I would do the same thing. I thought she was waving at the bus, and I would just hold my hand up to the glass on the bus. Five years later, Kathleen and her husband were looking to move, and they ended up buying that old brick house. They moved in with their four children, including their eight-month-old baby Duncan. Well, the first night was uneventful, but the second night we'd gone to bed, a little after one o'clock, it was like thunder in the house.

Boom, boom! And that's just exactly the way it sounded. And I woke up instantly, but I'm thinking, did I dream that, or did I hear that? that. And then it happened again. Boom, boom. My husband said, did you hear that? Well, of course I heard that. What do you think it is? And he said, I don't know, but I'm going to find out. So he slips out of bed, pulls his trousers on, and he gets a handgun that he keeps under the mattress. I think, well, it can be burglars. Burglars try to keep quiet if they're going to break into a house. So I got out of bed, and I walked down the same hallway to the landing of the steps. And George's standing. there, frozen in the spot, and just watching the front door entry.

And the inner doors of the house were opening wide and banging in the wall and closing, and opening again and banging the walls and closing. You could see that the outer doors, they were double doors inside and out, but the outer doors were latched down, and then finally it quit. And George and I stood there, and then stoically, we just walked back to the bedroom. Didn't say another word. Got into bed. and I lay awake on night

and he went right back to sleep and I thought there's no way I'm going to sleep tonight something's going on in this house there's no explanation but you know it's obvious you know there's somebody else in your house that you can't see

I knew we'd moved in to a wanted house the next day I knew what I had to do so I went from room to room asking whoever was there not to hurt my family not to hurt my children And if they didn't want us there, we wouldn't be there.

But we had just sold everything we owned and bought this house. So if there was any way we could live together, we needed to do that. Had anybody seen me, I'd have been carried out with a butterfly net. Because I could see myself in the insanity of it. Throughout the day, she tried to piece together what she knew of this puzzle. She thought of a conversation she'd had earlier with her husband. that morning when George came downstairs, he said, did you bring my shoes downstairs? And I said, well, no. And he said, I can't find my shoes. And he said, well, I'll wear something else this morning,

but when you're picking up the house, see if you can find my shoes. I said, okay. Well, as I sat there folding diapers, I knew I had yet to go down in the basement, into the cellar. It was a cellar. You had to go outside to get into it. I opened this big, heavy cellar door, and it did allow a little light. into the room. It was just a big, big dark room. It had one light bulb in the center with a chain on it. I stepped on something squishy. I thought, oh, geez, it's an animal. There's an animal in this cellar. And so I pulled the chain down and looked to see what I had stepped on. And there was George's shoes. I mean, I jumped so fast. I think I missed all the steps and ran back into the kitchen. Realizing then that whomever was in this house, it had to be children.

Only children would play a prank like that, because that's a childish prank. They moved the shoes, took them to the cellar. So I sat there a little bit, and then I was elated, really. But that was the first, last, and only time I was ever scared in that house was before I found out who and what was in it. I ended up thinking it was most likely a group of kids. Sometimes she felt like there was.

it's a baby. Bottles would go missing, toy balls rolled around the floor. Other times, she says it sounded more like a teenager playing basketball in the attic. And she was pretty sure that that girl she used to see in the window was one of these spirit children. Well, I came to know that there were three children in the house. There was a baby. I never did know how old, but I knew it was a toddler. There was a little girl about 10 or 11, and there was a young boy about 13, 15, 15. When you're a mother and you're already mothering four children and you realize there's another youngster in your house, it's kind of just instinctive that you're going to mother these other children.

As the days went on, I would be scolding sometimes and sometimes I would just be mother. I thought they would come and take me away if they saw me talking to someone that I really wasn't sure was there. The first Christmas we were in the house. I know how ridiculous this sounds. I did buy Christmas presents for these three children. I bought the little girl makeup case, and I bought perfume that was called Heaven Scent.

The baby, a little receiving blanket. And she bought the one she thought was a boy, a Nerf basketball set, hoping the loud bouncing sounds she heard in the attic would quiet down. Because I thought if he's going to continue to play, basketball. He doesn't need to make all that racket. She brought the gifts along with a little ceramic Christmas tree up to the attic. And so I asked them all to come around me and I could feel the warmth.

It was no longer cold. And I just kind of made it in my mind that they had warmed up to me. And so the air was warm. And I gave each one of them their gift. And I set the little yellow blanket beside me, opened it up and flipped it out, and explained it, you know, dunked. and has one like this. And as I sat there, I could see the yellow of the little receiving blanket crumple up. So I knew either the baby was crawling on the blanket or the children were sitting on the blank, but either way, I talked to them and told them about the gifts and about how you play the nerve basketball.

I had one critic to tell me that my story was toothacheingly sweet, and she did not believe for one minute that I bought Christmas gifts for these children. And I said, well, I didn't tell the story for your benefit. And then there were times when she thought these spirit children were protecting her own baby. One evening, I left Duncan in the bathtub, in the upstairs bathroom, when I walked out to the nursery to get Duncan's pajamas, while I'm coming back, this is a deep clawfoot tub, and the water was just pouring into the bathtub, like maybe he held onto the faucets

and he turned him on higher. She says she sees both faucets on full steam, filling the tub higher and higher. But by the time I got in there, Duncan is suspended. He is being held above the water. The water is still rushing into the bathtub. I instantly grabbed my baby, but he is suspended above this water.

I knew one of the children was holding Duncan above the water. I went into the bedroom, laid Duncan on the bed and started drying him off, and I'm still a nervous wreck. I'm shaking all over because I feared for my baby. I could see you would have drowned. And then all of once the smell of heaven's scent was around me. Heaven's scent is the perfume I gave the little girl.

And all I could do was wrap him in a towel and thank them. I just thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, you saved my baby. For the next five years, Kathleen Acted, like a mom to what she called her spirit children in the old brick house. And then Kathleen's mother got sick. And her mom lived out of town and alone. I knew I needed to take care of my mother. I needed to be next to my mother.

We had to move. We had to move. My mother was not well. And I had to have a talk with the children. I think it was the day before we were moving. I had gone up to tell them we had to live. leave. I always had the meeting place in the attic. I was very emotional, just really trying to get their acceptance and comfort them at the same time. And then just out of the blue, this nerve ball

comes, hits me square in the head. And it was like, it'll be okay. It'll be okay. I had to laugh because the nerve ball was, just came flying through the attic and hit me square in the head. The morning we were going to the actual last morning, I had gone through the house and explained everything. And as I did, I heard someone crying. I heard some soft sobs, just soft sobs. And it was like looking through water or looking through smoke. It was the first time that I actually saw these children. The little girl, she was a very pretty little girl.

She had the baby on her hip. She had a white night gown on. and the baby looked like the Gerber baby almost, little chubby cheeks, and he had a bottle in his mouth, and little blonde hair. And the little boy was slender, a little over five feet. Looked like something out of a Charles Dickens novel, actually, because of the way he was dressed, it was good.

It was just good that I was able to see all of them that one morning. People tend to think, if you have an experience like this, you're either a liar or you're a crackpot. I'm here to tell you there's more in the world than what you can see. I know what happened in that house. And all I can say is keep an open mind. Just keep an open mind. There's more in the world than what you can see.

Thanks to Kathleen McConnell for sharing her story that spooked. Finally to her book, Don't Call Them Ghost. On our website, spookedpodcast.org. Because right after this break, I got a story on my own. See, when I was a kid, during the summers, I sometimes spent the weekend at my buddy Tommy's house. He went to the same church and he had a pool, right? He also had a sister. Cute, kind of shy.

We sat down to dinner and there was an empty seat, so I tried to act all innocent. Where's Jenny? Oh, Jenny's fine, Mrs. Jones told me, just having one of her spells. Don't you worry none about her. See, and my church going to the doctor wasn't allowed. The apostles said the Lord had spilled his blood and was all the doctor we needed. We just had to pray for healing. Jesus was answering his good time, but things got serious.

We were supposed to call the minister for an anointing. And the crazy thing is, I'm the one who said it. Shouldn't we call the pastor? Kick me under the table. Miss James looked hard at Mr. James. The chicken passed from one person to the other. Yes, I think we should. In fact, we should have called a long time ago.

Your pastor can't come over here every time that girl has a spell, woman. That's not what it's for. Let the pastor say what it's for. That's not our place. Tommy tick me again. It hurt. Fine. Fine.

Go on ahead. Call and interrupt the pastor's nice dinner just because Jenny's having one of her spells. Call him. She did. A half hour later. Pastor knocked on the door. Carl? Betty, hello boys.

Carl? What's wrong with your little girl? Well, it's nothing, really. She just sometimes gets a shaking as all. She just shakes fit to bug all, and she don't shake, and she's fine. Lots of people go through phases like that. Betty's making these mountains out of mole hills. Pastor, can I get you some coffee?

Betty, get the pastor some coffee. The pastor took a piece of white clop out of his vest pocket in a small vial of olive oil. He unfolded the clob and smeared a little of the oil into it. We were both, me and Tommy, trying to disappear towards the basement when he stopped us. Boys, the Lord's healing depends on the prayers of the faithful, so I'm going to need you to stay and pray with me.

I knew Tommy would have kicked me again, but I was standing too far away. Jenny came down the stairs then, wearing pink and blue pajamas, hair, wild, eyes, red. She looked surprised. to see me and I knew I wasn't supposed to be there. I wasn't supposed to see her like that and I wanted to go home and leave these people to their trial. You could see it playing this day. Her right arm twitching. Sometimes her shoulder or her leg, Miss James started to cry. Baby, what is wrong

with your arm? Why is your arm moving like that? Pastor, why is her arm moving like that? That's not for me to know, Betty. We're just going to put the this in the Lord's hands with the Lord's anointing. He dabbed some more oil on the cloth and reached down to touch Jenny's head. And she throated a growl that shouldn't have come out of a girl's throat. Pastor snatched his hand back like he'd been bitten. Jenny's face. Jenny!

You do not speak to the pastor like that? It's not her. Betty, it's not her. What do you mean? I'm going to need everybody to pray with me now. Get me from this. child, demon. She's the growling louder,

more angry. Pastor, what's happening? What are you doing? What are you doing to my baby? This child is possessed of an evil spirit, and I mean to send it back to the devil. She's just a baby. Jenny fell to the floor.

Both of her arms failing out, demon. Pastor put the oil on her forehead, and she screamed as if it burned fire. And the name of the king of holiness, and the name of the fire. that brought light into this world, I command you out, demon, out of this child. A rank stench as Jenny voided herself on the floor. For thine is the kingdom and the glory and the power.

Jenny's eyes rolled back into her head. Her arms stopped spasming, her eyes still white. She smiled. Vanguid. She's mine. Pastor broke open his vial of oil and dumped it on her head. Out! Out, out, out!

This is a sanctified child, and you will not have her, demon. By the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood of he who has died for us, you will not have her. Jenny stretched, tight, tight, tight, like she was being pulled and then sprung back into a fetal position. Mama's right here. All right of mom's right here. Everything's going to be all right. Isn't that, Pastor? Tell her everything's going to be all right.

Pastor didn't say anything. He was breathing heavy pain looking around the. room. Ms. Jones led Jenny upstairs. Mr. Jones followed him. Thank you so much for that, Pastor. Thank you. Pastor seemed unsteady as he departed the house. Don't stop praying, boys. Do not stop praying. The floor was covered in excrement and fluid in charge of broken glass. Tommy got some buckets and towels. I grabbed a mob.

We stayed silent, each of us in our own heads until Tommy, shouted at me, what are you doing? What, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? What? Tommy pointed at my arm, I looked down. It was twitching. On the next spooked, the final spooked, the last chapter. An invisible cowboy lends a hand when he's needed most. And one man's passing becomes life for a entirely different type of creature.

Be afraid. And no, it's down to the wire. Halloween is right around the corner, but we want to hear the stories you have for us. Hit us on the spook line. Record your story. Send it to spooked at spookpodcast.org. Monster Mask team includes Mark Wistich, Anna Sussman,

Eliza Smith, Stephanie Food, Teo de Katt, Jodi Kali, and Jasmine Aguilera. Original music by Pat Masi Miller, Leon Morimoto, and Renzo Goria. Let someone know, don't miss a beat. The final episode is rising from the earth, even as we speak, download them all. Spookedpodcast.org.

And if you can't wait, I understand. Here, the final spooked episode, three days early, just download the tune-in app, spookpodcast.org. Hit me on the Twitter, Instagram, the Facebook. When walking along the dark trail and you see a figure, bent over a body, the face of blood still dripping from its open mall, unfortunate situation may have been avoided. If you simply followed my advice.

Never, ever, never, never, ever.