Spooked - Mirror, Mirror

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

If you received an omen of your own death, would you heed it? Or push it aside as a hallucination or a paranoid, passing fancy?Big thanks to our storyteller! Want to share your story of the unexplained? Email us: [e-mail] by Chris Hambrick, original score by Leon Morimoto, artwork by Teo Ducot. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mirror mirror on the wall pretending that you see it all yet if I ask When comes the storm you only riddle but never warn you're listening to spoot Stayed. There's this guy Kind on the periphery of my social circle a lot of my friends knew him Oh you two should meet folks would say you guys would get along so great Okay, whatever whatever, whatever. But finally, one Sunday morning at a backyard brunch, he comes through. And they're all smiling at this guy. I can all happy and huggy when he spreads love.

They introduce him to me, firm handshake, eye contact, big grin, the whole charade, but I don't pay it any, never mind because instantly, I know. Deep down in my soul, I know that this guy is a monster. I know it like I know the sun's going to rise in the morning I know it. So yeah, I shake his hand. Nice to meet you. I don't say anything. I don't let him know I see his truth because I've got all the time in the world. He's going to slip up. True color's going to come out, so I wait. Some people even ask me. Seems like you don't like him would ever give you that idea. I don't know what you're talking about. That I don't go. back to Michigan for an event, go out for pizza and beer with some old friends from high school,

and I freeze when I see a man working behind the counter, and I have a flashback. This is the same kid who shoved me in a garbage can in seventh grade, the guy who literally waited in the bushes to beat me up and take my lunch money, the guy who painted the inward on my locker and jam pencils into my lock in high school, so I couldn't get my stuff out. right before a big exam. But that's not what's crazy. What's crazy is that this guy looks an awful lot like that dude back home. I knew why I hated him at first glance.

It wasn't him. It was me. Transference based on a superficial resemblance. My certain intuition, my premonition was wrong. And it almost cost me dearly because since then, This guy Cisco has become one of my best and closest friends. One of my deepest male relationships and I almost missed out on our friendship because he kind of looks like my childhood tormentor. And I tell you this as someone who's learned to trust his inner voice, someone that pays attention to signs that others might discard, intuition, premonition, that sudden apprehension, the sixth sense, I listen to it.

I heed it, which is great until it isn't. Luke starts to know what the future holds. We all want this peak over the mountaintop. And our next storyteller has Astor remain anonymous. But let me just tell you a little bit about her. She was very close to her grandparents as she grew up. In fact, they lived right around the corner from the home she shared with her mother and father. My grandfather was, he was very loving.

He talked a lot to my mom because he would come over in the morning and they would sit at the kitchen table and have a cup of coffee before they started their day. Tuesdays he would go to the local bread company because they would give away these little bread samples. And I liked cute little things and he'd always pick me up one. So Tuesday was bread day. I was sick a lot as a kid and I was in bed a lot. My bedroom was right off the kitchen and he'd pop his head in to see how he was doing and he'd give me a nod and a thumbs up.

We were very close and after he passed away I felt a huge hole was just ripped out of my life. I would hide in the closet and not talk to anybody because there was nothing to say. I was just really sad and depressed. My mom was sad. my dad was sad. The world was just sad. One night, I just couldn't sleep. And then I just felt something. I can't say if it was a breeze or just a mental feeling. But I looked up and in the doorway was my grandfather.

How he had always been wearing his clothes, poking his head in. He had a smile. He gave me the thumbs up that he used to give me when he was around and he winked. And then he withdrew. And I ran to the doorway and there is nothing there. And then I felt better. I was still sad, but I wasn't depressed. I told my grandma, she said that she had seen him too. And she said that it was a good thing not to worry, not to worry.

to be scared by it, but it was his way of coming back to let the people who are still here know that he was okay. After my grandfather passed, my grandmother moved in with my family. I was in first grade because we had a smaller house. She moved into my room and we shared a room together for several years. It was less a authority figure and a child

and it morphed a little bit into girlfriends because at night she would talk to me talk about hopes, dreams we kind of

became just chatty during the morning hour she would ask me about outfits, what to wear. She would provide fashion chips. For instance, if you find a pair of shoes of one color that you like, it's better to buy all five. If you have a work course, it's always better to buy a backup.

Or she would sit at the kitchen table and apply her makeup and always say, now always wear lipstick. You may not feel good on the inside, but nobody wants to see that, so look good on the outside. By the time I was in my early 30s, I was already moved out of the house. I had been working. I got married. My husband lived in a different city.

I moved to his city, and I just didn't see her as much. We flew in to spend Christmas and New Year's with my family. And it was probably a day or two after Christmas. There wasn't anything scheduled or planned. Everyone was just sitting around talking, watching television. And I was sitting on the couch with my grandmother. And she was just different. Usually, she's the focus of the room.

She's the family matriarch. She has opinions. She gives them freely. And people listen. She was very quiet, very pale. She wasn't part of the conversation. She wasn't bubbling, so I asked her how she was feeling, what was the matter? She says that she's tired.

I said, I'm sorry to hear that. Are you sick? Have you been getting enough sleep? And she said, no, not like that. I'm just tired. I'm done. I'm alone. She named off some of her friends who had passed away. She said, I miss your grandfather, and I think it's time. I'm ready to move on.

So I was very taken aback by that because I didn't want her to feel that way. And I asked her, what do you mean? How do you know? She looks at me and she said, I saw myself. I had on your grandfather's watch. and I pointed to it, and I was happy, and I know that it's time. She saw herself in another room of the house

where she was alone. She saw herself standing in front of her. My grandfather's watch, she had it, she was wearing it. It was a watch she had given to him. It was watch he was buried with. She just saw it as that was, the gift between them, and that was a symbol for her. I was very scared of what would happen next.

I didn't want her to do anything to speed up or to take matters in her own hands, but I was just quiet. It sat with me because I believed her. Question it because I saw myself too. At the time, it's my last year of grad school. I am going to Germany to visit a friend. Part of me wished that he was a little bit more than a friend.

So I was kind of excited that he had invited me to come visit him. So over the summer, I had looked into flights. I had found a flight that would have taken me first to Switzerland and then to Germany. I started packing three weeks before the trip. And I did some shopping and bought a new pair of shoes. I got an outfit for the plane. A pair of those Abercrombie boyfriend jeans.

This white button-down shirt and this black cardigan like knit blazer I thought looked kind of funky a bit wouldn't wrinkle and I thought it'd make me a bit more proper maybe I'd have a chance

of getting an upgrade but if I didn't I can use as a blanket I kind of went about it strategic because I wanted to look good two weeks before the trip I generally went to bed

10 o'clock 10.30 but just Something was bothering me. I didn't know if I'd forgotten something for work, if I was worried about school. I was going through all the things that potentially could be in the back of my head that would cause me to not be able to sleep and nothing. When it caught 2 o'clock in the morning, I decided to get up.

I left my bedroom, went into the bathroom, splashed some water on my face. I had a drink a water. And I felt a little bit more at ease. I didn't feel so restless. So I thought, I don't know what it was. Let it go. Count sheep. It's about probably four or five steps from the bathroom door into the bedroom.

And when I walk into the room and I turned. I saw myself. Sitting on the bed was me. I was sitting on my bed. But more than that, it was really weird, awful, me because I was wearing an outfit, the one that I had bought to wear on the airplane. And I had never worn it before,

and I was wearing it. But it was wet. But there were burn marks all over it. And then me, I was wet. And my hair was like all raggedy, and my face was burned. And I was open in my mouth as if I was trying to talk. But no sounds were coming out.

It was almost like a fish. You know, open clothes, open clothes. hit by this wave of sadness and dread and regret. It was surreal. It was me. Every part of it, just as if I was looking in a mirror, but a weird twisted mirror. I was scared.

I didn't know if my mind was going or what. This happening, but... I wasn't dreaming. Took a step back. I kind of blinked my eyes, shook my head, and then over. Everything was back the way I was. It was just my bed.

It was just my room. I looked all around too. I looked under the bed. I looked behind the curtains or someone playing a trick on me. It was in a prank. I ran into the living room and the outfit was right where

I had left it on the edge of the couch, straightened out, tags still on it. Jeanne's shirt, laser. One of the first things that popped into my head was, don't get on that flight. The flight I had booked, I knew that something bad would happen if I got on that plane. I thought it, and then I said it to nothing, just out in the air. I verbalized, I am not getting on that flight. And once I said it, I felt better because then I went to bed.

I went to sleep, and I felt right to sleep. When I got up in the morning, there was no indication of anything that had happened the night before. I took a shower, made some breakfast, and I turned on my computer, and I started to look at alternate flights. And I pressed out a new itinerary that had me leaving on the same day. Flying pretty much the same hours. And with canceling the flight that I had, rebooking this new flight, it was a $50 savings. So I actually came out ahead. I called my friend, say, hey, I brought a new flight.

I explained it to him by saying I wasn't feeling the other flight. And this came up and it's a lot less expensive. He said, oh, yeah, no, totally understand. We'll work it out. That's fine. I'm happy you're still coming. I was worried that you're going to say you weren't coming. It's weird.

I didn't think don't go on the trip. My thought was, don't get on that flight. And I didn't think anything more of it. The day the trip starts, I had to take two plans. I had a layover in London. And when we get to London, you have the... televisions at various spots. I noticed that there are some people who look upset

who are watching the television. The flight attendants are off to my side with their heads together, conversing. And I walk over to one of the televisions, and it's a report on a plane that had gone down while our plane was in the air and it was the flight that I was supposed to be on. There was a fire on the plane and it lost altitude and it crashed into the ocean. Kind of how I had that and my clothes were burnt, but I was wet sitting on the bed.

I didn't have a lot of time to stand there. process because I had to catch another flight that was in a different building. I watched as much as I could and then I just hurried on to the bus or shuttle. I don't even remember what it was. That took me to the next terminal. Got in line, got in the flight and just was tired, sad, dumbstruck. What do you do? There's nothing you can do.

And then when I got to Germany and my friend picked me up, I said, did you see what happened? He said, no, what happened? I said that flight I was on, it crashed. And his response was, wow, your frugleness saved you. I think people, you know, graveyard gallows humor tried to make the most of it. Once it was out in the open,

There wasn't anything really left to say. He's like, well, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad I'm here too. Nine years later, my grandma was confiding in me. She saw herself. I just understood that I respected her privacy, that if she had wanted to tell someone, she would have talked to my mom, she would have taught to my sister.

But for whatever reason, I was the person she confided in, and I kept her confidence. She had a stroke two months later. It's as though she didn't fight it. Her vitals never got better. She was moved into hospice care. I sat down next to her bed, talked to her, you know, said goodbye. She passed privately, which is what she wanted.

I didn't tell anybody that I saw myself. They all think I was a cheap scape. I'm never really like, talk, talked about it. I told everybody it was to save 50. And that's the story that everybody knows. But it wasn't just to say $50. It was because of what I saw and what did I see, what I saw, and no one else saw anything.

Did people see it and ignore it? So I don't really bring it up because you want to make people feel uncomfortable and I wasn't going to say, oh, I was really on the flight. I thought it happened. It doesn't make any sense to anybody, but me. me who had happened to. I like to say that in my

interactions with people, it's made me a kinder person, but I don't know that it has. Or I'm going to take better care of my body. My addiction to Pop-Tarts probably would lead to a

different conclusion. And you want to say that's something like that changed you so fundamentally but it doesn't. There's certain things you can change, certain things you can be mindful of, but life, things happen.

Sometimes my grandma would say stuff happens for a reason, and I always hated when she said that, because what was the reason for it? I think it's more just things happen, and we don't have a good explanation for it. Thank you, thank you so much for sharing your story, folks. Today's storyteller is a spook listener who reached out to tell us her story.

We love hearing your stories. If you have one to tell, reach out spooked at snapjudgment.org. The original score for that story was by Leon Morimoto. It was produced by Chris Kambrick. We walk this path together. Spooked Season 6, and do you yourself possess an inexplicable power?

Do you have contact with forces beyond the normal realm of experience and you can't tell anyone about it? Tell me, because I want to know, spooked at snapjudgment.org because there is nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener.

Let us know, spooked at snapjudgment.org. And to tell the dark side that you spooked, best to do was in spook gear, the t-shirt of your dreams available right now at snapjudgment.org. And remember, if you'd like your storytelling

under the bright light of day. Get the amazing, the stupendous, snap judgment podcast because it's storytelling with a beat. Spook was created by the team that knows the future

is a liar. Except, of course, Mark Ristich, he believes anything the Magic 8 Ball says. There's Anna Sussman, Chief Spookster, Eliza Smith,

Chris Hambrick, Annie New Inn, Lauren Newsom, Leon Worme Motto, Davey Kim, Renzo Gorio, Tayao DeCotte, Marissa Dodge, Zoe Fregno, Tiffany Delisa, Ann Ford, Doug Stewart, and Isaiah Sims. The spook theme song is by Pat McSeedley Miller.

My name is from Washington, and you may have heard it said that not just people, but spirits, shades, specters, entities, gin, are all attracted to a warm heart. Some go further to suggest that thoughts, feelings, memories, sensations can also travel. of their own accord with their own agendas. There are very few means we have to filter out the benign from the evil. Which is why I suggest to use the most basic tool we do have. Never, ever, never, ever, never, never.