Spooked - Rougarou - The Crossroads

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

Out of the blood reeds, down in the Bayou comes The Rougarou… and he’s coming for you.Thank you, Beldron, for sharing your story with us! If you ever find yourself in Southeast Louisiana around this time of year, please, do not go out into the marsh searching… Instead, head over to the Rougarou Fest. It’s an event that our friend Beldron helped get started.Happy Halloween Spooksters! We love you! Produced by Zoë Ferrigno, original score by Doug Stuart, scouted by Evan Stern. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I turned the curse into a spell. But what I spoke, almost reached the crossroads from spooked. Every 30 years, they rebuilt their altar. The temple they called the round. And there they dance and sanctify a child as their new Messiah. I knew nothing of their scripture. Except they were witches that dealt in magic and blood and spirits. But witches that paid good coins.

Still, I refuse their entreated to build the round. Choose another, I told the elder. My head bowed low when they came to ask again. It was not the crone who knocked, nor her soldiers. But a woman torn from dream, a beauty made of song, I felt every eye in the village burn with envy and fear as I invited her inside. Her smell was like moonflower. Her smile happy memories.

I bade her sit and pretended I would not instantly do anything she asked of me. She accepted tea and said simply that it was foretold that I was the one, the one. And that anything I desired was mine to ask anything, but I must build the temple. anything, she said meaningfully. I am no innocent, but I swear to you now, I did not touch her. I did not.

I simply agreed. I knew of their ways. That he who builds the temple participates in their rights, I understand. The temple plans had come from an unholy hand. I appreciate that messiahs are born from sacrifice, but none of this was my affair. I worked like a fever with stone and chisel, hammer and claw, to inscribe the lines of power from the school into the altar. Before the final inscription, I asked what the charred symbols meant, the crossed line.

She said it like describing the weather. The altar, of course, requires to build his blood. My blood. You asked you much. far too much. And as if waking from a dream, I put down my tools and walked away. She followed me.

No, witch. No, I will not bind myself to this coven, not even for such as you. But you are the one, she whispered. I thought of a dream when she came to me, her hot breath on my neck, the delicious pain.

When she bit into my throat, I pushed her away that no witch, my blood. is my own. She pulled away then. Hurt splashed across her face and like smoke she vanished. My mother's echo, Be careful who you love.

Don't break young girl's heart. The next day she did not come to the temple, nor the next for 40 days and 40 nights I searched, but who could stand when she's in demand? I saw her then in our family's courtyard with my own mother, whose face shone with joy and surprise. Why did you got

tell me? She said, laughing. I looked. First, the woman's flashing eyes. Then, the bundle clutched in my mother's arms. My first grandchild. I felt back. Confused.

Lifted the blanket from the baby's face and my own eyes blinked back at me. No. This child is not my son. What? Look at him. Would you deny your own child? The gleam of triumph in the woman's eyes.

What magic is this? She is not my lover. She is a witch from the forest who chants that I am the one. But this child is not my son. My face then. I warned you about young girl's heart she hiss. Be careful what you do, lest your lives, come the truth.

And she turned and walked with the baby and the mother inside the courtyard, leaving me locked outside. For 40 days, the village treated the child as sacred. Fed him, blessed him, prepared him.

On the 40th night, they brought him to the round. The witch waited at the altar, my mother beside her, weeping, knowing, the whole village

watching your blood The witch said simply, she held out a blade. The child knew he was not mine. I also knew. She made no idle threats. I took the knife then. Slashed the flesh of my palm and let my blood feed the hungry altar.

My own hands had built. The stone drank. The lines of the round began to glow. The witch smiled. The child's eyes opened my eyes. Understood then. This was always the bargain. The witch turned to the crowd.

I felt my strength fail. My life soaking into the stone rain began to fall. My mother wailed, I swayed hollowed, and as I staggered, the floor started to pulse a heartbeat of stone and blood. Dept into the rhythm, bare feet shining red, the villagers stamped with her keeping time. faces blank eyes shining she pressed close to me that

it's my ear she whispered on the floor the final episode of the crossroads stars people carry marks whether they know it or not we're headed to the bayous of south Louisiana the place where stories get passed down from one generation to the next

about good and evil about life and death and the beings who walk between both worlds Our story begins in 1979. In the fall, the days are getting short of the air, a bit cooler, and the veil. A little thinner. Belgium forest. I was born in Chauvin, Louisiana.

We were surrounded by swamp lands in Morse. Any further south than us, you would be in the water. We lived in, I guess I'm going to call them, some shack. But to us, that was really nice houses because that's all we had. We didn't know anything different. So we was satisfied with what we had. And to us, our way of living was you go catch fish, you go hunt animals, you grew your vegetables.

You didn't mingle with a whole lot of outside people because we wouldn't go to town. To us, if you went to town, that was like taking a vacation. I think I was eight or nine years old. For Christmas, I got a pellet rifle. I was so excited because now I could actually do hunting myself because all my older siblings could hunt, and I was the only one that couldn't hunt.

I used to take a slingshot and try to shoot stuff. But it was hard to kill things with slingshots because you had to be really close. And once I got my pellet rifle, well, then I was able to go out and I could actually get food for the family. So I would hunt rabbits. I would hunt neutral, stuff that wouldn't move very fast.

Raccoons, small birds. When I made 13, then I got my shotgun. It was nothing for me to go and hunt by myself. I felt like I belonged in the woods. I would go in the woods by myself and I'd climb the trees and I'd listen to the birds. That was my sanctuary. That was my place to go and relax.

One day I came home from school, and a girlfriend had hit, so it was pretty nippy. And my dog, she was a red bone, but we called her Misty. She was ready to hunt as soon as the cold front would hit. So when I got home, as soon as I came into the yard, my dog jumped the fence and got out of her pen and came running to me. In the excitement, I just went inside,

dropped my school bag down, grabbed my shotgun, changed my clothes, headed out the door. Me and the dog took off. We're going into the woods, not realizing that the day before was Halloween. I was raised Catholic,

and in a Catholic society, there's two days out of the year that is held sacred, that's all souls and all saints day. That's the two days that follow Halloween. Halloween, everybody think it's the time to go party and have bonfires and stuff, but back in the day, people would prepare for the coming of the spirits. The next two days is when the spirits could come back and walk the earth.

And my mom had told me to never kill any animals on those two days. Because when the spirits were on the earth, you wouldn't draw blood and take a spirit. But when you're growing up, a lot of times what your parents say, you hear it, you take it in, but you don't live by it until something happens that causes you to remember. remember what your parents said. Me and the dog was walking, and she is full of energy, and I was excited myself, and the coolness was in the air,

and there's a lot of underbrush, like thorns, blackberry vines. And in the wintertime, the sun sets a little bit early, so the sun started going down. I must have walked at least three miles. We hadn't even seen a squirrel to shoot.

Not even a bird. It's like, my God, I said, everything's gone. It seemed very odd. Usually the beginning of the hunting season, that's when you get most of your animals. And there's always frogs, lizards, a mouse

is going to run from your feet as you're walking in the grass. So when you're walking, there's always something that's going to rustle in the leaves. But it was dead quiet. It kind of threw me off it made it felt weird

like I was not where I was supposed to be. My dog started to notice too, I guess, because normally she was out running ahead of me, running all over the place, but here she stayed at my feet. She followed me step for step. So I told the dog, I said, well, we're going to walk back on the headlands

to go back home because it was prime feeding grounds for the rabbits, especially in the late evenings. The rabbits always came out on that headland. Now, the headlands, they had this grass. It kind of looks like an okra plant, but we call them blood reeds. I'm not sure what the real name of them is.

But when you cut them with a knife, their sap is red. So we call them blood reeds. And these things grow real tall all summer. So about this time, they're about 15 foot tall, and we're walking along, and it makes a wall right along where the grass was cut. So I was following along the edge of that grass,

and up ahead I could see a rabbit. So I told the dog, I said, stick down. I said, that rabbit's going to see you, it's going to run. So we kept sneaking up, sneaking up, sneaking up, sneaking up, sneaking up. I'd take real close to those blood reeds so that way the rabbit wouldn't see me. And when I picked up the gun and I started eyeing the rabbit to shoot, As I was pulling the aim, these blood reeds started vibrating like they were trembling. It was loud, very loud.

So I looked at the grass and the whole levee, the whole side was shaking. Like something was shaking each one of these grass. But the wind was not moving. This was a calm, quiet. not even a bird making a sound day. So I looked up a little bit. The rabbit was probably about maybe 60 feet from me.

And in between me and the rabbit, the blood reeds opened up. And there was a hand like a human hand, but it had like big claws sticking out of his fingers. And it wrapped the blood reeds and pulled them back. This foot stepped up. out. But it was a dog foot. When that thing stepped out of the grass and I could see its entire body,

immediately my heart just, it like stopped. I could feel the blood just drop out of my face. This thing was at least nine to ten foot tall. It had human form. But his body was covered in fur, and it was done. dark. Couldn't tell if it was brown or black, but it was a dark-colored shade. And his face, it was like a long dog face. The eyes were red, and it had long fangs, like a wolf fangs. The size of his hands and his teeth could shred me like a popsicle.

It wasn't wearing a shirt, but it had a pants that was shredded like the pieces. And I'm just looking at this thing. I'm frozen. I could hear my heart in my ears. And my brain is saying run, but my feet is like, uh-uh, we ain't going. I can't move. And then they just turned his head towards me real slow. It looked at me.

it was drooling and it gave me a low growl like from way down deep kind of like thunder that's off in the distance and it just carried

when it did that I knew that this thing was not going to be playing that's when my feet said okay time to go and I bolted I cleared that ditch with one jump

and was running through the briars. I could feel the vines and the thorns catching me as I was running. It was ripping my flesh away, but I could hear this thing right behind me. Each footstep sounded like it would get closer and closer to me. When his foot to hit the ground,

you'd hear that low rumble, that growl like and it sounded like he was right behind me. But I never, never looked back behind me. I just knew. If I stopped or if I hesitated to look behind me, this thing was going to have me running as fast as I can. And I kept looking ahead to try and find a way to lose this thing, make it lose his footing or find a small hole to crawl through where he can't fit.

But it's like this thing just was right on me the whole time. And I couldn't do nothing about it. I could feel this hot breath on the back of my neck and I could feel this this rumble, this growl just in my bones. In my mind, I kept playing it over and over again. This thing's going to get me. At some point, I got near the edge of the woods and when I saw the briars started to thin out a little bit,

I ran even faster because then I could step quicker. And as I broke through the clearing, To get by my house, it stopped. It stayed in the woods, but I kept running. And as I got to the house, I slowed down a little bit, but I was panting. I was out of breath. And when I looked down at my arms and my clothes was all scratched up,

like all torn, my arms were bleeding. And when I got to the porch, my dog was already on the porch. Evidently, she got out of the wood before me. I'm shaking and I realize I ran so fast I ran clean out of one of my boots I took my other boot off and I went inside my mama was sitting in her chair and when I went through that door she looked at me and she said you saw it huh she just knew because the condition I was in I just shook my head to yes ma'am it was understood that it was the rugaru as a child I was told that the rugaru was watching you and that when you do something

the Rougaroo is going to get you. I've heard of people dying in the deer stand or in the marsh, their eyes in their mouth was wide open. That's how they found them. Like they were scared to death. The way that it was handed down in legend, the Rougarou was this guy that had a curse put on him. A lady near New Orleans in the 1800s,

she used to practice witchcraft. she had summoned a demon to possess somebody. When the demon took over the person's body, he could go back and forth and shape shift whenever it felt that it was needed. My mom, she just said, you saw it, didn't you? But she didn't ask me what I saw. And then she asked me, did you draw its blood? because legend had it that if you saw a Rougarou and you drew his blood,

his spirit was released from the curse, but if you spoke of it, what you saw before a year and a day, your spirit then accepted the curse and you became the Rugaro. So my mom asked me, did I draw his blood? And I shook my head, no. But my mama didn't want to take a chance. She told me, do not speak of it for a year and a day. Because she didn't want me to turn into the Rougar room.

She said, get cleaned up. So I went, took my shower, got out, we ate supper. But the whole time, I could visualize that thing was just going to rip me to shreds. I was trying to eat, but my hand was shaken still. My mama, she could tell that I was still shook up. She made us a cup of coffee. She said, I'm going to talk. She starts telling me the story of when she was younger

that they had a snowstorm, and it don't normally snow down here in South Louisiana, but they had a snowstorm that had came in. It was in the evening, and a little girl was playing near the wood line. She got turned around when the snow hit. So she wandered in. into the woods instead of out of the woods, because she couldn't tell with the snow.

So everybody else started looking for her. As they were looking, the lanterns kept blowing out, and it was getting dark, and the storm wasn't letting up. So they just knew that they had to come in because they was going to die in the cold. They said that they were just going to go back and look for the little girl the next day. They was searching for a body.

They crossed the clearing. And in the middle of the clearing, they had a big oak tree. And one of the men went by the oak tree. And when he got there, he hollered for everybody to come. The little girl was laying underneath the oak tree in a circle with no snow. The little girl was still alive. She told him when the storm hit, a big bear caught her. and he curled up with him

and the whole time the snow was going he stayed with I get emotional every time I tell listen because that little girl was my aunt my mom, a sister my mom she said it's okay it didn't hurt you

but she said it's trying to take you a lesson it's like a light switch went off inside me because hearing the story I knew that The Rougaroo wasn't just a bad spirit. Sometimes it did things to help people when it was in trouble. That it wasn't just out to hurt people.

There's sometimes it did good things. Because why else would the Rougarou help a little girl? She wasn't really doing anything bad. She was just playing by the woods and got lost. And looking back, my little short legs could never have outrun that thing. He could have caught me before I got off the levee. Plucked me off the ground, because I'm just a little bit of squirt. Could have shredded me up and spit out the bones.

But it didn't. It just chased me, and it scared the living hell out of me. Why would it have done that? To me, this thing was stopping me from doing something wrong. That's the only thing I could see. But what would have happened if I'd have shot that rabbit? I don't know. My mama said, say your prayers and go to bed.

So I said my prayers. I asked God to forgive me. I was scratched up and shook up, but I was alive. And when I lay down, I felt peace. I did not go back hunting for the rest of that year in them woods. I live in the same house. I'm still in the same place. I didn't go anywhere.

Today, when I go in them woods, I feel this thing. I can still feel that groan, that growl, the vibrations that I felt that day when I walk in them woods. And since then, I do my best to treat others correctly. Because I know at any given time, this thing can come back. it might not be as happy, an ending if it comes back. Thank you, thank you, Belgian, for sharing your story with the spookin' spooksters. We know you want to know more, even though Belgian survived his run-in with the Rougaroo. Not everyone is so lucky.

So for your find yourself in southeast Louisiana around this time of year, please. Do not go alone into the marsh instead. head over to the Rougarou Fest. It's an event that our friend Belderon helped get started and takes place in home of Louisiana every October. More information in our show notes. This story was scouted by Evan Stern.

The original scores by Doug Stewart was produced by Zoe Frigno. This is the end of the crossroads. We've chased monsters, seen demons, face madness, but do not mourn. Do not despair spooksters. Our quest continues. If you yourself face the dark shadow, let me know.

Spooked at snapjudgment.org because there's nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener. Spooked at snapjudgment.org. And yes, Snap Judgment, the podcast, our good twin podcast has amazing stories from the bright light of day. Spook lives at the intersection of hope and of feet. The spooked underground catacombs lie deep beneath KQED in San Francisco. Do not seek to find this place. Does this place seek to find you? As oligarchy creates machinery to steal your very thoughts,

we make this declaration to the win and to the lawyers that absolutely know Snap Studios content may be used for training, testing, or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission. The crossroads. is brought to you by the Spook team, who all know that fire is hot. Except from Mr. Mark Ristich, who insists on testing it each and every time.

On Team Spooked, the union represented producers, artists, editors, and engineers, are members of the National Association of Broadcast, employees, and technicians, Communications Workers of America, AFL, CIL, Local 51, and there's David Kim, Louis Farignow, Eric Yannias,

tail de Kott Marissa Dodge Miles Lassie Elliot Lightfoot Sue Chooe Evan Stern Eves Jeffcoat Eschelle Lopez Jack Darrell

Doug Stewart The Spook Theme Song Is by Pat Maschee Miller So is this open But my name is from Washington And what scares me It's monsters, yes But a particular type

of monster zombies, vampires, vampires, wear creatures Not because of who they are I can fight monsters Because of what they do They infect, unscratch And now you

Are them Communities, families Turned on each other Abandoned who they were What they believed And yes Yes, I've seen that My own family

My own communities People turning people I've known my whole life people I've known to be wholesome to be caring people whom I love turn and casually insist to mean why it is good to lock children in cages

how it is okay to hunt our neighbors they shout that hunger and sickness is the fault of the hungry and the sick and that they are them And I wonder where was the bite that made the change, the transformation, and horror of whores, are they still there? Inside. Trapped afraid, waiting for the song to call them back out from the darkness.

What can save them? What can save us? I don't know. But even in despair and sorrow, I am certain that the only thing we can do ever, never, never, never, ever, both for them and for us. never, ever.