Spooked - Three Sickles And A Roomba

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

Diana knows that the little girl she keeps seeing in her house is a ghost. But what she doesn’t know is if this ghost means her family any harm. Thank you, Diana, for sharing your story with Spooked! Produced by Annie Nguyen, original score 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.

You might suppose that half life, almost life, past life might hunger for the warmth of an actual body. And you would be mostly right. Mostly. You're listening to Spute. Stay. In Detroit, we had lots of white neighbors. We played together, ran in and out of each other's houses, ate at each other's tables, but then almost, Over night, I felt like all the white folk left.

Every single white person vanished, every one. But Charlie. Blue eyes, blonde hair, one curl that stood straight up from the back of his head. Charlie, still there. Digging in our sandbox out back, playing catch with my little brother and me, still there. And when I asked Charlie when he was moving, Charlie looked at me funny. I ain't moving, he said.

Yes, you is. Y'all moving away. Nah. Then Charlie, one day came over with his mom to say goodbye. She said they were moving. She said before they left, Charlie had a gift he wanted to give me. Go on, Charlie, go on, go on. And Charlie handed me a box.

And I opened it, little boy quick. and inside the box was a doll, and the dog looked just like Charlie. Big head, blind hair, blue eyes, smiling. But Charlie wasn't smiling, Charlie said. I told him back. Then his mother hustled him away down the street. I looked at the doll because my father didn't let us have dolls.

But for some reason, Pops didn't take this doll away. We named him Charlie After Charlie Never were removed Chasing those missing white folk The Charlie doll Seemed to come with us

And even after my little brother forgot all about Charlie He still knew Charlie Smiling up at us Blonde Charlie hair Blue Charlie eyes looking just like Charlie Almost like Charlie was still there Charlie looking like he knew something we didn't know.

Later on, we'd talk about Charlie at Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mom would say, y'all remember Charlie? And I would wonder, never exactly sure which Charlie she was talking about. My name is Lynn Washington. We leave a little of ourselves behind everywhere we go. Spook starts. Now, it works. Just got to transfer to a military base in a small German town.

Now, they've got the car all packed up. They've got the two kids strapped into the back seat, and they're driving down the auto bar. Spooked. In the car is my husband, my son, and my daughter, Maddie. And as we were driving towards the base, I noticed these three sickles. There are large concrete statues that are huge.

It look like 20 stories up in the air. Even if you're a couple miles away, you cannot help but see these three large sickles standing smack in the middle of the intersection. When I see the sickles, I can't help but think of when my mom would say it, you know, in Chinese families, there are just certain things that you don't give. You don't give a clock because,

it signifies death. You don't give knives because it signifies killing. You know, like you're about to strike someone. So the first thing I thought of when I saw the signals, it just seems sinister, the sharpness, the curve. Like, it just felt evil somehow. So when we first moved into this apartment, we were excited because all the other apartments in Germany are very small. So when we saw our apartment and moved in, it was this nice large living room. It was wonderful. We knew we could just, you know, have a lot of great family moments in this large living room. So we have our tiny little French dining table and four chairs sitting on one corner of that living room. My husband was sitting next to his friend Jorge, his wife, Jess, and I were sitting on the other side.

His wife had just moved over here from New Orleans. And we were talking. Had a great time. We all just connected really quickly, really well. somehow we started talking about ghosts and spirits. And she said, oh, I can actually communicate with spirits. You know, I've had a lot of experience with that. I thought, oh, that's strange.

And my husband said, oh, hey, so have you used that ghost app called Ghost Tracker? I thought, oh, my gosh, this is not a good idea. But in the spirit of, you know, 10, 11 o'clock at night in a foreign country, it seemed like a fun thing to do. As soon as my husband downloaded the game, he plopped it on the middle of the table. Literally, all you do is press play. There are these flashes of light, red signifies, and evil spirit. the green and blue signify a friendly spirit. There were pops of red, but mostly green and blue.

But they were constantly popping up. It felt like there was a roomful of spirits around us. Jess and I were freaked out. We were both scared, but it was a fun scared. It's like going to Natsbury Farm and getting spooked. So soon after that night of playing with that ghost tracker, I woke up early in the morning and my son comes up to me. And he said, Mommy, Mommy, what were you doing in the kitchen? And he said, why?

What's going on? Mommy, what were you doing in the kitchen? What were you chopping? And he said, that was so loud. I knew I wasn't in the kitchen. I knew my husband was in the kitchen or anyone else was in the kitchen. I don't know. I didn't make that noise. All I know was that I couldn't tell him, you know, mommy doesn't know why you heard chopping noises in the middle of the night.

So I said, I'm so sorry, sweetie, I was chopping vegetables for the smoothie. And he said, Mommy, don't ever do that again. Don't ever, ever, ever do that again. That was so scary, Mommy. And so I hugged him and I apologized profusely and I told him to go. back to bed. Shortly after the chopping noise, I was sleeping in my bed and my son comes running into the door and wakes me up. My son says, can I sleep with you? And this was about three, four o'clock in the morning. I said, why? And he said, Mommy, Maddie was standing in the room just looking at me. And then she just vanished, Mommy. And I knew something else had just happened to him that freaked him out, but I didn't want to scare him.

So I said, oh, baby, Maddie runs really fast. Don't worry about it. It's okay. Go back to bed. And he said, no, Mommy. Maddie was standing there and she just vanished. She just vanished, Mommy, into thin air, just vanished. Mommy, can I just please sleep with you?

So I move over, I let him crawl in between me and my husband and let him sleep. And he just snuggled up like a little bug between us. I felt useless, but I didn't know what I was dealing with. I knew something else was trying to scare my son. So I sat there looking at my ceiling, trying to figure out what is my next move. All I knew was I couldn't do anything that very moment. The only thing I could do was go to sleep and try to get some rest so I could go to work. So I just put myself back to sleep.

And then I had a dream of a little girl, maybe about five, six years old. She was standing at the doorway of our apartment. And she looked stoic. She wasn't smelling. She was just looking at me. she had long curly blonde hair wearing a dress and she was holding a sickle the sickle is about the same size as heard and i thought why is she holding that sickle that sickle appeared to be just like the sickle that was at the bottom of the base and i thought well maybe maybe she needs help so i'm looking at her just looking at me i smiled at her

And the next thing you know, she started coming at me with a sickle. But she was swinging it up and down in a vertical motion as if she was trying to attack me with it. And that's when I freak out. She just wants me out. And in my dream, I grabbed my family. I grabbed as much as I could. And I just left. But she was standing at the doorway of our apartment.

I woke up from that dream and I had this eerie feeling come over me. I thought, well, that was really strange. Whatever, I have things to do. I need to get the kids to school. I need to go to work. I'm a dental hygienist. I work at my office and I start cleaning my patient and I could not stop thinking about this dream that I had. So as I'm working on my patient, this, you know, this mom who was also a mom.

military wife who lived on Panzer housing just like I do. And I said, hey, you know what? I think my place is haunted. And she said, oh, yeah. She said, where do you live? I said, C6 on Panzer. She said, oh yeah. My best friend lived in that apartment. I said, really? She lived on Panzer. She's like, yep. I used to go there all the time. Yeah, it's haunted. And she said it as plain as day as if she was talking about how pretty this guy is. No big deal. And here I am standing there trying to clean her teeth and not be shocked. And I said, what do you mean?

And she said, oh, yeah, there's a little girl that lives there. And that's when my jaw dropped. And she said, oh, don't worry. All you have to do is pretend like you don't care. You know, just let her be. And I thought, I can't let her be. She's freaking us out. She's freaking my son out.

I can't have this. So I asked her, hey, do you mind if I contact your best friend? And she's like, oh, yeah, she lives across the street. You know, give her your name. You can just contact her on Facebook. So I found her on Facebook and I messaged her. I said, hey, you know, I'm living in C6 now. and I just talked to your friend.

I heard there was a little girl living in the apartment. And she said, oh, yeah, but don't worry. She won't bother you. Here's another nonchalant response. I'm like, I don't understand. So I said, you know, hey, do you mind answering some questions about her? So she's like, yeah, sure. I said, how often did you see her?

She said, I saw her about once a month. So I thought, oh, my God. I said, since you saw her once a month, do you mind describing her? And this woman said, oh yeah, she's about six years old, long blonde curly hair, wears a blue dress and she holds a teddy bear. And I felt all sorts of my hair stands straight up. She just described the little girl in my dream. The dream that I had where this little girl was coming at me with a sickle. I knew we were talking about that same girl.

So she said, don't worry. She knows I'm not scared of her, you know, so she doesn't bother me. But she knows my husband's scared of her, so she messes with him. So I asked her, would you mean how does she mess with him? And she said, well, if he's sitting on the couch watching TV and he wants to get a bottle of beer from the fridge, he'll get up. And by the time he walks back to the couch to sit down, she is sitting. there waiting for him. So he knows he can't go back to the couch. So she said, don't worry, she won't bother you, just leave her alone. I used to just talk to her and I thought, holy crap, you just talk to her. She said, yeah, you know, just if she's standing there, I said,

hey, what's up? And she doesn't, she knows I'm not scared of her, you know, so she doesn't bother me. My husband was sleeping next to me and the door is shut. Where we live it is not a big street. We are in the middle of a base and so any noise is very audible

and so in the middle of the night, I hear the click of the door open and it slowly swings open and I hear Mommy I thought well that's strange and it sounded so faint

mommy. I know the sound of my daughter. I know the sound of my son. And when you hear someone call you mommy like that, you want to run to them. And I know it wasn't them. So I get up and I check on the kids and they're both literally dead asleep.

Knowing that someone else is calling me mommy sends these little spikes up my spine. I go to this German physical therapist named Monica And we talk a lot. I told her about this little ghost girl interrupting my life and my family and all the little things that happened. And I was describing to her how she appeared in my dream and how she stood at my doorway with a sickle. And Monica said, oh, ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The sickle, she said, that's why there are three sickles at the bottom.

of the hill. I said, I don't know that story. And she said, yeah, a long, long, long time ago, there was a war in that little town of Bublingan between the rich and the poor. And the poor only had sickles. She said they only had farming tools to fight with. They didn't have guns. The rich folks had guns and rifles and such. So it really wasn't a fight. It was a massacre. her. So she said to commemorate these poor souls who fought, they were commemorated with those three sickles. That way we can always remember what happened in that little town of Bublingan. And then she said maybe she was a little girl who was a farmer's daughter and maybe she was fighting and was lost in the war and doesn't know that, you know, the wars are. Maybe

she doesn't realize that she's dead and she's just trying to protect her land. She's trying to protect her home. And here you are moving in and living in her home. And I thought, wow, maybe, you know, that makes sense. The fact that she was holding a sickle coming at me with that sickle in my dream, that completely made, and the fact that there was a chopping noise in the kitchen, you know, I think she was trying to scare us out of that house. And then I felt, I felt bad.

I'm the invader, not her. I'm only here for a few years. And every two to three years, there's a new family coming into her home. And she's just trying to defend it. But then I noticed more things started happening. It got to the point where these little things that were happening in the apartment were just really irritating me. I would set the Rumba to clean during the day.

Around 9 o'clock in the morning is when it's supposed to go on. And it kept going on at 11 o'clock at night, 2 o'clock in the morning, 3 o'clock in the morning. It never went on when it was supposed to. I would get up in the middle of my sleep and turn it off and walk back and try to go back to sleep. And I can never go back to sleep once I'm going to. awake. Even though I checked to make sure the time was right, everything was right, it would still go off in the middle of night. And this happened about, oh, two to three times a week. It was just tiring. So that just really, really, really bothered me. I was getting ready to go to work.

Nobody was home. I was in the restroom. And the heavy steel German door slowly opens. And someone says, mommy. And I knew nobody's home. That's when I freak out. I quickly get my clothes on, get put on my makeup. I get out of there. You know, like every single time something happens,

it only happens when I'm home alone or when everyone is sleeping. But I feel like she's, I really feel that she was targeting me and she was targeting my son. So I would always find ways to run errands when nobody was home or to hang out with a friend's house. But I absolutely hated, hated, hated, hated, hated being home alone. I was talking to my friend, this Brazilian lady who happened to live in Germany. And she was going home to Brazil for this summer. And she messages me on Facebook. We're Facebook friends.

Hey, Dinah, I talked to you. to my priest, he is someone who knows very much about the spirit world. And I told him about your situation. And she's telling me, he's a real deal. Like he literally has scars on him from trying to dispel negative spirits. And she said that he told her to tell me, do not contact the ghost. Whatever you do, do not make any contact with her. Do not try to talk to her. Do not try to look at her.

Do not try in any way to contact her. She is not good. She is evil. She does not want to be your friend. She does not want your help. You just need to get rid of her. And he said, take some ammonia and just put it on all the parameters of her home, Just start from one end and go all around the other.

Then open up all your windows. What is possible. Then you go back and burn some incense and again burn it at the very edge of the perimeter of the home all the way through. Make sure those windows stay open. You know, honestly, I was afraid that this was going to make her more upset. But I just, I knew that I needed to get rid of her and I was just, to find any way to do it. And so here was an expert from Brazil who said he knew what he was talking about.

I was willing to try it. I did this one. Nobody was home. I did not want anyone questioning me. I did not want my kids asking me, what does that smell? Why are you doing this? Why are all the windows open? So I went ahead and I bought some ammonia and I poured it on a rag and just kind of, you know, know, wiped it along the edges of the wall, the windows.

But I did exactly as he told me, and I left the windows open. I just hoped and prayed that nothing else would happen. And sure enough, it was nice and quiet. It was nice and quiet for about a month, and then somewhere things happened. So I thought, okay, let's do it again. And for the most part, it was quiet. Nothing else really happened. I mean, if anything, it was really small in my nude and I couldn't quite figure out if it was a ghost or not.

But nothing major happened. So since we've moved out of Germany for the past three years, we've had the exact same Roomba in my house. And it has not malfunctioned at all. It's worked like it's supposed to work. I'm just really glad that I don't have to get up in the middle of night to turn off a stinking Roomba. Thank you, Diana, for sharing your story with the spooked. We are so glad to hear Your Roomba is back to normal.

Thank you for taking this journey with us. Know this. There are so many dark places left to explore real people, real stories, be afraid. If you prefer your storytelling in the bright light of day, take out our sister podcast, Snap Judgment at ORG, amazing storytelling from real people, Cinema of the Soul.

Wherever you get your podcast, Get this one, it might change your life. Snap Judgment.org. Spook was brought to you by Mark Ristich, Anna Sussman, Chief Spookster, Eliza Smith, Annie New Inn, Renzo Gorial, Lauren Newsom, and Marissa Dodge. If you hear the vacuum,

turn itself on in the next room, you could hide it in fear, sure. Try to wait for it to go away, maybe, but even waiting for someone else to come home still leaves you exposed, my friend, your dilemma. could be avoided if you were to take my long-standing advice and remember to never. Never, never, ever, never, never, never, never, ever.