The NoSleep Podcast - NoSleep Podcast S3E05

Episode Date: July 14, 2013

It's episode 5 of Season 3! We have five tales for you in this episode, featuring stories about psychics, sidekicks, and psychos.The full episode features the following stories. The free version features only the first two tales. "The Thing That Will Kill Me" written by Ashley Rose Wellman and read by Will Rogers & Allie Palmer. Music by Brandon Boone. (Story starts at 00:04:30)"The Mine" written by Grant Rennet and read by David Cummings. (Story starts at 00:18:00)"The Accident" written by The Claverhouse Email Series and read by James Cleveland. (Story starts at 00:38:00)"Losing a Friend on Facebook" written by Tim Webster and read by David Cummings. (Story starts at 00:55:00)"The White Room" written by The Claverhouse Email Series and read by Mark Nelson. (Story starts at 01:19:25)  Click here to enter THE CONJURING contest!Click here to learn more about Will RogersClick here to learn more about The Claverhouse Email SeriesClick here to learn more about Mark Nelson Podcast produced by: David CummingsMusic & Sound Design by: David Cummings, unless otherwise notedThis podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons License 2013. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the sunlight fades to darkness, the frightful tales creep into your mind. Now he was listening to Trace yourself for the No Sleep podcast. It's episode five of season three. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, David Cummings. We have five tales for you in this episode featuring stories about psychics, sidekicks, and psychos. We have some new narrators joining us this episode. Will Rogers and his partner, Ali Palmer, and Mark Nelson. Will hosts his own podcast called Will and Bobby,

that you can check out at will and bobby.com. Mark is a professional audiobook narrator, specializing in horror and sci-fi novels. You can find out more about Mark at Mark Douglas Nelson, com. This episode also features two stories from the Claverhouse email series of stories. You can learn more about this excellent group of stories and download free ebook versions from the website at claverhouseemales.com. All these links will be posted in the show notes for this episode.

I'm proud to announce the start of the No Sleep podcast's first contest, and it features the upcoming horror movie, The Conjuring. This movie, which opens July 19th, is getting some great advanced reviews, with a lot of seasoned horror fans saying it's the scariest flick since The Exorcist. It tells the true story of a family who move into their new house only to discover something terribly wrong. They contact the famous paranormal researchers, Ed and Lorraine Warren, to help rid their home of the tormenting spirits. If you're a fan of haunted house movies like The Amityville Horror and Insidious, this movie should be on your must-see list.

To celebrate its release, I'm offering my listeners a chance to win a Conjuring Prize Pack, featuring movie merchandise from The Conjuring and Warner Brothers Studios. As of this date, the actual content of this prize pack has yet, to be finalized but if you like getting movie swag you'll want to enter this contest along with that the winner will also receive a free season pass to the no sleep podcast to enter just go to contests dot the no sleeppodcast dot com and answer the one trivia question on the page email in your answer and you're entered to win it's just that simple the contest ends on july 24 so get your entries in soon. Full contest details and rules can be found on the contest page.

And now it's time to conjure up some scary tales of our own, so let's start the show. Our first story is about two childhood friends who seek out a local psychic to learn what their future holds in store. They soon discover that oftentimes not knowing is far better. than knowing what lies ahead. Author Ashley Rose Wellman weaves the tale that is told to us by the narrating team of Will Rogers and Allie Palmer. It's a tale that will have you asking yourself, do I want to know about the thing that will kill me? I grew up in a tiny town in Vermont, tiny in terms of population, not size. There were huge sprawling farms and wooded areas, but almost no

people, more cows than people, which is standard for a lot of small towns in Vermont. So clearly not the most fun in the world for a kid who was sick of freezing winters and awful, balmy summers surrounded by boring Vermonters that didn't have many kids my age. My only close friend was Tina, who was a year older than me. We spent almost all our time with each other constantly dreaming about life outside Vermont. The people in our town were strange folk. Different, different than in other places. One thing I didn't realize about small towns until I moved to the city

is how incredibly superstitious people in towns like mine could be. They believed in the strange, the paranormal. They believed in Louvia. Louvia was an older French-Canadian woman who had moved to Vermont when she met her husband, and everyone in town thought she was a clairvoyant, psychic. Even my own parents did. One day, my mother lost her wedding ring. She'd looked around everywhere for it.

They called Louvia, and she immediately told them it was under old rotting wood. They looked in the backyard where my father had been tearing apart a decaying piano he'd found. My mother had helped him one day. The ring was there, under old, rotting wood. After hearing a lot about Louvia from all her townsfolk, who seemed to think she was 100% credible, Tina and I decided to go see her one evening to try to find out whatever she could tell us about the future. I was skeptical, but it seemed like a fun thing to do as a joke. So, we dropped by her house in the early evening, and she opened the door as we walked

up the pathway to her house before we'd even had a chance to knock. Tina elbowed me hard on the ribs and whispered that Louvia was clearly a psychic. She sensed us coming to the door. I whispered back that it probably had more to do with her house being full of windows and the fact that she probably saw us coming from a long way away. Either way, I started to feel strange the minute we got close to her. She was very, very old, very tiny and kind of sunken. Sunkin eye sockets and sharp cheekbones and a sort of concave chest cavity.

It was more than a little unnerving, but she smiled and was sweet to us and I started to warm up to her. Nothing about her or her house screamed, creepy psychic to me. Just a well-dressed older woman in a cabin-style house. It looked like you'd imagine any typical grandmother's home. Doyleys, knitting, family magazines, etc. We told her that we were interested in a clairvoyant reading and handed her about $20 that we'd scrounge together between the two of us. She led us to her kitchen table and asked which one of us wanted to go first.

What can you tell me about my love life? Tina asked. Louvia had no crystal ball, tarot cards, or tea leaves. She just closed her eyes and sat silently. for about two minutes. Then, she took a deep breath and said... Michael Carton. Tina stared at her for a few seconds, until Louvia repeated.

Michael Carton. The man you're going to marry. Michael Cardin. Tina thanked her and repeated the name to herself a few times. Michael Carton, Michael Carton, Michael Carton. Louvia then turned to me. Whatever you can tell me, I... I'd like to hear, I said.

It doesn't have to be about my love life or anything. Luvia closed her eyes for a few seconds, but information about me seemed to reach her much quicker than her visions of Tina's husband. She looked straight into my eyes, grabbed my hands and said, The thing that will kill you is shedding its skin. The thing that will kill you is sharpening its teeth.

The thing that will kill you is washing the blood off of its claws. The thing that will kill you is gathering skins. That thing that will kill you, you won't see it coming. The three of us sat there in silence for quite a while. I felt sick, shaken up. Louvia looked as if she wished she didn't have to tell me that. Is there anything I can do to stop it? I asked.

Louvia slid our money back across the table to us. No charge for the reading. Tina and I slunk out of Louvia's house quietly. We didn't say a word on the way back to our houses. Tina just found out the name of the love of her life. I got to listen to a horrifying cryptic message about my death. I was about 12 years old. I was fucking terrified.

When Tina left me at my doorstep, she tried to make light of the readings. How does she know who I'm going to marry? She asked. And it's not like some monsters going to get you, some skin shedding, bloody, sharp. It's not like some monster's going to get you. It's not like... Some monster isn't going to get you.

For years, I looked for it. The thing that'll kill me. I could almost feel it, sensed it behind each car. Swaying behind the trees at night, underneath the fresh snow, waiting outside my window. With every step, I hesitated. Every time I had tried to sleep, I could almost see it. What had she said about its teeth?

I looked out for sloughed skin, for blood, for skins, for hides. But I never found it. When I was 18, I left for college in California to get away from the snow and the cold and the thing that'll kill me. I stopped sensing it everywhere. My heart stopped pounding whenever I walked alone at night. Maybe whatever it was, it stayed in Vermont. Maybe it wasn't a thing at all. People in California laughed when I told them the story, and it stopped seeming real.

Just the ramblings of a tiny, ancient French-Canadian woman. It wasn't real. When I was 27, a wedding invitation came in the mail. Tina was getting married. This was the first I had heard of it. I was still in California and barely kept in contact with anyone from back east. It seemed like a past life. You are cordially invited to the wedding of Michael Carton and Tina...

Wait. No, she had... Clearly, she had the name in her mind. Michael Carton, and she sought him out. It had nothing to do with Louvia. Her predictions weren't real. They couldn't be. Clairvoyance don't exist.

It's ridiculous to think that kind of thing happens in the real world. I went to the wedding. Tina, Michael, and I laughed about the whole thing. The psychic knew. She predicted it. Of course she didn't. Tina and Michael decided it was nothing more than a funny story to tell their future children. Just tell us if you run into school.

some beast with razor-sharp teeth that's gathering skins, okay? Then we'll think it's more than just a funny coincidence. I left the wedding, as sure as I ever was, that the thing that will kill me wasn't real. Didn't exist. So I'd look behind the trees, behind the cars. Nothing was waiting for me. Nothing was ready to skin me. I didn't know why I'd been scared for so long.

The best thing about Tina's wedding was that we got back in touch for the first time in a very long time. We were very different people than we'd been as children, but we still shared more of a bond than we realized. She was happy, living in Vermont with Michael. She told me everything that was going on in our town. The population slowly increasing, the new schools they were building, the babies that were born, Louvia dying. As the years went on, her calls and emails got less and less frequent. She always seemed to be busy. Soon they tapered off completely.

I missed her, of course, but I had my own life. and I could check in on my childhood home whenever I wanted. One winter, I came into town to visit my parents for the holidays and decided I'd swing by Tina's house. I'd normally never just dropped by, but she was pretty bad about answering her phone, and I really wanted to see her. I pulled up to her and Michael's house. Two cars were in the driveway, so I figured they were both home. I walked up and rang the doorbell. Michael opened it, dressed in several layers and a large coat, as if he had just come in from the snow.

He looked very surprised to see me and asked if I had talked to the door. Tina recently. I haven't, actually, not in several months. Sorry for the invasion. I don't usually just drop by like this, but I was wondering if I could see her. I just figured you'd know that you'd have heard. She left me a few months ago, just up and left.

Hasn't spoken to me since. Oh, God, I said. I'm so sorry, I had no idea. He took off his coat and hung it on a coat rack by the door. Or. Can I take your coat? He asked. I told him it was all right that I wouldn't be staying long.

I was just so shocked she'd do something like that. He was a really good guy. I'm sorry. I was about to get ready for bed. I've got an early work day tomorrow. Do you mind? He kicked off his shoes, pulled his sweater off and headed toward his bathroom. I settled in, looking around their home.

Of course I don't mind. Do you know where she went? I don't. He yelled from the bathroom, mouthful of toothpaste. She didn't call until after she was gone. That's awful. I'm sorry. He started flossing, and when he saw me looking toward him, he closed the door for privacy.

When I heard the shower water start running, I pulled out my phone, figuring I'd take this time to look through Tina's last messages to me to see if she gave any hint to where she went, any clue. My phone fell out of my hand as I grabbed it out of my bag, and I saw it drop beneath the couch. As I felt around under the couch from my phone, my hand hit something else. A massive clump of long hair. I pulled it out from beneath the couch. It seemed so strange, such a large mass of hair. Brown hair. Tina's shade.

Hair with a piece of scalp still attached. The thing that will kill you is gathering skins. I turned toward the bathroom door. Michael was still showering. The thing that will kill you is washing the blood off of its claws. Flossing, brushing. The thing that will kill you is sharpening its teeth. Sloughing off his outer clothes, his shoes.

The thing that will kill you is shedding its skin. Oh God, the thing that will kill me. I heard the water in the shower stop movements from inside of the bathroom. I ran out the door, slammed the door, sprinted to my car shaking, watching the door my hands fumbling with keys shaking, shaking, the door to the house open. My car started, I drove. I didn't look back. I drove all through the night, through most of the next day, only stopping when I absolutely had to. I had no idea. If he was following me, I had no idea what I had just seen. My heart didn't start beating normally again until I was two states away. I went home.

This was months ago. I called the police. They investigated. nothing turned up. They're sure she just left him. Moved away. Maybe she did. Maybe she's far away. Safe. Maybe nothing's coming for me.

Maybe Michael's just a poor guy whose wife left him. Maybe it's nothing behind the trees. In the snow drifts underneath the cars. Outside my door at night and the windows. Maybe it's nothing. Probably it's nothing. Louvia's been wrong before, hasn't she? That thing that would kill you, you won't see it coming.

When a group of high school friends discover an abandoned mine outside their Alaskan town, they do what most kids would do. They ignore the signs of danger and keep out and plan to trek into the mine. As author Grant Renet describes, there are more dangers than just an endless maze of shafts in the dark and foreboding depths of the mine. One of the benefits of growing up in Alaska is the sense of being surrounded by nature. I've gone out of state and visited lots of towns in Washington, Oregon, etc. But none of those places had trails which made you feel like you were alone.

One trail in particular, which I shall not name, was located just a short walk from my high school. It went up about a half mile past a large stream, which served as one of the town's two sources of drinking water. It was a nice trail, and for the first half mile you can look down on the mountain side and see the whole downtown area bustling with activity. But after you reach the top of the first big hill, it comes down. down again into another valley with virtually no human presence. If you continue down to the bottom, it goes on for a very long ways and eventually comes back around up the side of another mountain and towards the downtown area. One day, as part of a class field trip, we hiked the first part of this trail.

The teachers only wanted to go halfway and turn back, since they didn't want to have to walk through the whole city to get back to the high school. school. Something that my friends and I accidentally discovered was that right at the base of the first hill, the trail branches off. My friend Zach decided he would go explore it instead of walking with the group, and how he did this without the teachers noticing, I have no idea. My other two friends and I thought he was trying to be a show off, or at least that's what I thought. However, when he met up with us on the way back, he was extremely excited. He told us that just a few hundred feet off the trail there was an old abandoned mine. It had a huge metal cage on the door with a big padlock on it and a sign that read

danger. He said that it was really cool and we should go explore it on the weekend. We agreed that it sounded pretty exciting, so we decided to go for it. Another few days passed and I forgot about it. I spent all of Friday and Saturday playing some computer game and didn't remember our promise to meet up until Zach called me on Sunday morning. He said that one of our other friends, Eric, was ready and I should come meet them at the high school. I told him I really didn't feel like it, but he began pushing extremely hard for me to go. Reluctantly, I pulled away from my computer to go for the walk. I emptied out the huge pile of books and miscellaneous crap from my backpack and put in two flashlights, some candy, and one of those headlights that attaches to your forehead.

I love gadgets, and a flashlight that goes on your head was pretty cool at the time. It was also an LED flashlight with blue tinted light, so that made it twice as cool. I was extremely lucky to have a car available for myself at that age. My dad was working for the Department of Environmental Conservation, so he often had to go up north to take soil samples and do stuff out of town. While he was gone, he let me use his car. It was a crappy run-down 1988 Toyota Camry, but it ran well and was still technically a car.

So anyway, I drove to the high school, picked up my friends, and we continued over to the trail entrance. While we were in the car, we pressed Zach for more information about the mine. He told us he looked it up online and found out that it used to be a famous gold mine and that it was there before the town even existed. He said he didn't know anything else about it, but that it must have been closed because they had finished mining it. It sounded pretty cool. At this point, a thought suddenly occurred to me, and I asked, Where's Clayton?

Clayton was our fourth friend. I was surprised when Zach smiled and said, He's already there. Clayton was obese, and we all ripped on him for it. The guy didn't want to do anything with us most of the time, except play computer games. The fact that he would go on a hike by himself, self was mind-blowing. I voiced my disbelief with a, yeah, right. The first part of the hike went

along all right. It was about two in the afternoon by the time we reached the place where the trail branched off. That meant we had about four more hours before it started to get dark. Eric and I both followed Zach as he zealously charged ahead, jumping over rocks, stomping his feet through the mud. He had been walking so fast the entire way that it was a little hard to keep up with him. Sure enough, after about 300 feet, the trail came to an end at a small clearing. Standing almost 10 feet tall was the entrance to a gigantic black hole in the mountain, covered by a skimpy little mesh fence. There was a massive chain wrapped around it, coupled together with an even more intimidating padlock.

But for some reason the padlock was not locked, and the chain hung loosely and looked like it was about to fall off. Clayton was nowhere to be found, so I assumed he was already inside. I was a little reluctant to go into the cave. It was pitch black, and I could only see about ten feet in, even with my flashlight. There must have been a gigantic room after that, because I heard a low, echo that sounded like breathing. For some reason, there was also a slight wind blowing out of the tunnel that carried with it a very pungent odor. It was like the entire mountain was ever so slowly exhaling. Just looking inside sent chills down my spine, which I tried to rationalize

away. I was scared, but I was also thrilled. I wanted to be. I wanted to be a little bit. I wanted to to explore inside. My friends were even more adventurous than I was. Eric and Zach both climbed right in, and Clayton must have been in there already. I called to my two other friends who were just on the other side of the fence. Hey, guys, let's find Clayton first.

Eric seemed to agree, but Zach said, He's farther in. He wanted to look for gold. I said, okay. but what I was really thinking is that if Clayton went into this place by himself to look for gold, he was either really greedy or just plain retarded. Still, the potential to find gold wasn't even something I had thought about. How cool would that be? Just then I realized one of my shoelaces was untied, so I bent over to fix it.

As I got back up, both of my friends had gone so far into the cave, that I couldn't see them anymore. I hurried in after them so I wouldn't get lost. I was right. After about 20 feet in, the cave opened into a gigantic room. It was incredible. The ceiling rose so high

that I could barely see it with my flashlight. And there were a whole bunch of tunnels that split off in different directions. I was already in awe of how cool it. it was. There was a constant chilled wind blowing in my face from deeper in the mine, carrying on it the scent of somewhere that had been undisturbed for a very, very long time. The walls were solid rock, but covered with clotted wet dirt from the floor to the ceiling. The entire cave had little droplets of water forming on the ceiling and dripping down slowly.

The sound it made when all the droplets hit the floor echoed around the room for what seemed like forever. Through it all, I could barely make out footsteps coming from one side of the room. I thought to myself, damn, my friends are quick. I didn't want to lose track of them again, so I hurried down the tunnel I heard the footsteps coming from. I had my headlamp on as well as one of my flashlights in my hand. They were both pretty bright, but for some reason, even with both of them pointed ahead of me, my path seemed dark. It was like the walls were so black they didn't reflect the light back.

As I continued down the tunnel, I still felt the earthy, scented breeze on my face, pushing out towards the entrance of the mine. However, I suddenly realized that I could not hear the sound of my friend's footsteps anymore. I was a little bit worried, but I didn't want to call out to them with a scared voice, because that would make me seem like a pussy. I was absolutely sure that my friends went this way, so I decided to keep going for a little while longer. That's when I started to hear a noise.

It sounded like crying, and it immediately made me stand absolutely still. My hair stood on end, and I suddenly felt very very, very, very alone. I didn't know what to do. I felt like I should call out or run away, but I didn't. I turned my flashlights off and stood absolutely still. I tried to listen through the sounds of water droplets and my heart pounding. There was definitely someone or something up ahead that was not my friends. I don't know how much time had passed. while my mind reeled and tried to think of what that sound could be. At first, I thought it was crying, but it also gurgled and hissed.

I ever so slowly walked towards the sound while putting my hands against the wall to feel my way forward. I was very close to the sound now. I stood absolutely still when I got to within ten feet of it. I could hear it making words, but I couldn't understand them. I started to hyperventilate through my nose, and I thought I was going to pass out from fear. Just then, my extra flashlight fell out of my backpack and landed on the dirt with a dull thud. The instant had hit the ground, the noises immediately got louder and began moving in my direction.

Time stopped for me. I pressed against the wall as hard as I could, holding my breath and closing my eyes. I prayed to God that whatever it was would not realize I was there in the dark. I heard and felt that something very large, bigger than me, was slowly crawling along the floor. I thought it was going to pass by me, and I remained absolutely still praying that it would. but it didn't. It stopped as it reached the area where I dropped my flashlight. I could hear it, scraping along the ground like it was feeling for something.

Suddenly, the flashlight came on. It swiveled around quickly until it was pointing straight at my face. I wanted to run, but I couldn't. I only let out a silent scream at the light and couldn't look away. Right after the flashlight pointed at me, it fell back on the ground and stopped moving. I stood there for a little while, not sure what was going on, but still too afraid to move. After some more time passed, I turned on my flashlight and pointed it at the ground. It was a heavyset man, face down in the mud.

I said something and tried poking him with my foot, but he would not move. I strained to turn him over, and as his face turned up, I saw that it was Clayton. A huge sigh of relief swept over me, which soon turned into an even greater fear than before. I realized that he had a gaping hole in his neck, and his entire shirt was soaked with blood. I was just one second from screaming out for help, but my voice was interrupted by a day. deafening, cracking sound that rang throughout the cave. It was like the crack of a whip only amplified a hundred times in my ears. The first thing that came to mind was that a stick of dynamite had gone off. The next thing I heard was a scream. It was horrendous and shrill, like the sound of someone

screaming for their life. This was followed by two more deafening cracks. And then silence. I pointed my flashlight back to Clayton and suddenly realized those were gunshots. Someone else was in the caves and had a gun. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and thanked God that I still had one bar of signal. I huddled down and dialed with one hand while holding the phone inside my jacket, trying to hide the light from the screen as I called the police. I told the dispatcher everything in hurried whispers. I was in a mine shaft. There was someone with a gun.

They were shooting my friends. Two separate times, she asked me if I was kidding, and if I knew what the punishment would be for playing a phone prank on the police. I started begging her. I just wanted her to believe me. I must have said the word, please, a hundred times. She finally seemed to believe me after I gave her my full name and address, but I suddenly had to hang up. I heard the sound of footsteps.

Rapid footsteps. Someone was coming down the tunnel towards me. I immediately turned off my lights and walked backwards. I stepped over Clayton and hurried about 20 feet past him while feeling my way along the wall. I kept moving until I could barely make out the light from the flashlight Clayton had picked up, which was still lying on the floor. It was pointed towards the entrance of the tunnel, and I could see a shadow approaching. It got to Clayton, and it stopped. It leaned over him for a second, holding something.

And then I heard another explosion like a cracking whip. A small cloud of smoke blew around Clayton's body, as it twitched a little and stopped moving again. The shadow picked up the flashlight and pointed it down the tunnel at me. I was crouched and looking down, praying that it wouldn't see me. After what seemed like forever, the shadow turned around and started walking back towards the entrance. It started calling my name, and I realized that the voice belonged. to Zach. I don't remember what happened next. I simply crouched down in the fetal position,

in complete darkness, and sat there forever, just listening to the sounds of the cave. I woke up in a hospital bed. The police had found me passed out in the tunnel, and I didn't wake up for a good half of a day. For a very long time, I had no recollection of events, and I had had to be a lot of to go to therapy for three years to come to terms with it. Even now, when I talk to people, they can tell there is something wrong with me. People say that there is just something off about me, and I find it very hard to socialize. I found out the whole story much later, but even as I tell it to other people, I don't feel like I was in it. It's like something that happened to someone else, in a far-off place that I had nothing to do with.

Apparently, Zach's parents had a fight the week before, and Zach's dad killed Zach's mom with a knife. Zach then grabbed a revolver from his dad's gun closet and shot and killed his dad. After that, Zach moved the bodies into his parents' bedroom and continued to go to school for an entire week. He didn't act the slightest bit abnormal during this time, and no one even suspected that there might have been something wrong with him. On that Saturday, Zach invited Clayton to go to the cave with him, then shot him and left him there.

Then, on Sunday, Zach invited Eric and I to the cave and tried to kill both of us, too. After shooting Eric once in the back and twice in the head, he came for me but could not find me. When the police came, they found that Zach had shot himself in the head and had a suicide note on his body. He had wanted to die, but he didn't want to die alone. He decided that he would bring his friends with him. Your episode has come to an end. Thank you for spending time with us at the No Sleep Podcast. If you would like to learn how you can hear the full-length version of this episode featuring many more stories,

please visit the no-sleeppodcast.com and click on the Season Pass link. Purchasing a Season Pass will help support everyone who contributes to the podcast, and in return you'll get 25 full-length episodes and three-ings. exclusive bonus episodes, all for only 1999. This is David Cummings. Thank you for listening and join us again for the next episode of the No Sleep Podcast.