The NoSleep Podcast - NoSleep Podcast S3E18

Starting point is 00:00:05 As the sunlight fades to darkness, the frightful tales creep into your mind. There will be no sleep. And now he was listening. Trapped in a bag. There's little boys in the window. Brace yourself for the no sleep podcast. It's episode 18 of season three. Welcome to the show.

Starting point is 00:01:39 I'm your host, David Cumber. We have Seven Tales for you in this episode, featuring stories about horrible harassers, harrowing health issues, and horrors in the heartland. I've received a number of emails and comments recently asking me if there are other podcasts or sources of horror audio fiction like we do here at the No Sleep podcast. That's a good reason to remind everyone that there are some really, talented people out there who bring dark tales to life via the internet. I always recommend the fantastic work done by our friends over at pseudopod and Tales to Terrify. If you like hearing

Starting point is 00:02:27 about people who have had paranormal experiences of their own, I recommend the podcast's Anything Ghost and Jim Herald's Campfire Stories. Both of those shows allow listeners to share the spooky things that they have encountered in their lives. The podcast, Knife Point Horror, was dormant for quite a while, but author and narrator Soren Narnia has returned with more frightening stories, so make sure you check out his recent stories and his great archive of tales. And finally, I don't want to miss a chance to mention our friends over at Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. They produce stories from many online sources, such as creepy pastas and many of the authors whose work appears on this show.

Starting point is 00:03:21 You can listen to their stories from their site, or visit their YouTube channel where they have all their stories available. For links to all of these shows, check out the show notes for this episode, and you'll have plenty of resources to keep you up at night as you indulge in the wonderfully haunting world of horror audio fiction. And speaking of that, let's get started with some of our own. We're going to start the show with two microfiction stories. These are short tales that have few words, but plenty of spooky chills. The first of the two stories is about a man whose grandfather had a very strange anomaly that perplexed his family, friends and doctors alike. When The cause of his condition was discovered, it had quite an impact on his family.

Starting point is 00:04:19 The second of the two stories is about a man whose wife feels that beauty is far more important than being healthy. When their daughter starts to show signs of becoming physically unappealing, the father starts to worry that there may be more going on in her life than he imagined. So let's begin these two stories with Grandpaw's Second Voice By Taylor Price When I was younger, my grandpa and I would watch those medical mystery TV shows.

Starting point is 00:05:10 You know, the ones with six-legged cows or skinless babies that still manage to live. Weird allergies, genetic mutations, and even the somewhat comical. Well, the doctor made a really big oops and left medical equipment inside of you, and you've been living with it for over five years' stories. They were educational and gross at the same time, something that I fed off of as a young teen. Grandpa would always joke around that he should be on those shows. I knew he wasn't serious.

Starting point is 00:05:46 He hated drawing attention to his issue. I would occupy myself with what they would title an episode of his, and always came back to the blunt, retro movie title of The Man with Two Voices. Ever since any of my family can remember, Grandpas had two voices. The only way for me to describe it is to compare it to having phlegm in your throat when you're sick, and how it sometimes creates a split in your voice.

Starting point is 00:06:21 There's your normal speaking voice that you can hear fine. but underneath it is like a deeper growly echo. Then it would be gone when you cleared your throat. My grandpa is like that all the time, but his second voice is just as loud as his normal voice. I remember him telling me stories when he was much younger and his mother pulling her hair out over the whole ordeal. Took him to doctors that stuck scopes and lights down his throat.

Starting point is 00:06:54 Nothing. Primitive x-rays on his neck. Nothing. I used to ask Grandpa why he didn't go back to the doctor after that, especially now with all the new things they have in hospitals that he didn't have growing up. It was always the same answer. They can't tell me nothing new. We named his second voice, Ed.

Starting point is 00:07:22 My grandpa's name was Alba. Albert, usually Al. So it sounded like a TV show. Ed and Al, Al and Ed. When my grandpa died, it was tragic. Despite his vocal anomaly, he had tons of friends and people that loved him. Or, my skeptical mother would say, people that liked his circus act. Her skepticism, that grandpa was using some sort of parlor trick was quickly debunked at his autopsy. Grandpa should have gone back to the doctor, we learned. An ultrasound would have indicated that his beer gut wasn't actually beer, and his second voice was literally a second voice.

Starting point is 00:08:15 The small, curled up body of his unknown twin was unearthed from his belly, connected to his esophagus below his collarbone. His childhood doctors didn't detect it. It was made clear then that the hollow tube connecting the mouth of grandpa's twin to his esophagus was the source of grandpa's second voice, a voice that kept talking past grandpa's death, according to the autopsist. Ed was still alive, some days after that.

Starting point is 00:09:05 Heart of plastic by Otis Mari. I live in a home where vanity is placed a step above health. I have a wife and teenage daughter, and let's just say I'm not exactly pleased with

Starting point is 00:09:30 the example my significant other is setting. She's had over a dozen plastic surgeries, mostly around the face and neck. She'd had breast implants, plants last year, but was forced to remove them due to repeated infection. The woman actually flew to Brazil for a facelift.

Starting point is 00:09:53 Brazil. I'd never heard of such a thing. She's been pumped with so much Botox that her forehead is basically a pincushion at this point. Her hair is bleached once a week. She tends to sleep in her makeup. Not a pretty sight. Now that our daughter has become a little heavier, my wife has become an even bigger pain in the ass. When she's not constantly suggesting workout schedules to the poor girl,

Starting point is 00:10:27 she's replacing half of her meals with diet shakes and raw vegetables. I can see the hurt in my daughter's expression, and as her waistline swells, her self-esteem deflates. I'd watched enough talk shows to know that it was an eating disorder waiting to happen. I was in the process of repeating this to my wife yesterday over dinner with friends. This time, however, she had a new angle. I'm telling you that girl is hiding something, she said through clenched teeth. Yeah, well, maybe she's hiding Snickers bars.

Starting point is 00:11:10 You don't know. Christ, just leave it alone. With all of the help I've given, she should be losing weight right now. And she's been awfully quiet lately. Really not like her usual self. Turning to the other couple at the table. I held my hand in the air. No, no, she's not behaving like herself because you're being way too hard on her.

Starting point is 00:11:40 You know how sensitive young girls. and women are about their weight, and you just nag her endlessly. You want to know what I think's going on? She asked with a hooked eyebrow. Not particularly. That girl is fucking pregnant. I felt my heart jitter in my chest, and immediately I started to deny it.

Starting point is 00:12:09 I thought about my daughter's slightly distended bell, and my mouth went dry. My wife's friend across the table changed subjects, mercifully, but the night was effectively ruined. The next day I took my daughter to the doctor. As she was being examined, I could only think of how her life might now be destroyed, gone and sucked dry by a child. I was too young to be a grandfather. When the doctor came back in with the results, I was holding my little girl's hand, shaking. He spoke in a rough baritone and seemed very authoritative in the clean white coat. I could tell immediately he didn't bring good news.

Starting point is 00:13:02 Well, your daughter is definitely not pregnant. A little sigh of relief came out of me, but I knew. he wasn't done talking. Polygonoporous giganticus. Excuse me? It's a massive species of tapeworm. I would say the one inside your daughter is approaching a hundred feet in length, and I really don't know how she could have contracted this.

Starting point is 00:13:36 I immediately felt sheer horror. I didn't know what to say. Say or think. I spoke with a trembling voice. Have you seen anything like this before? His face suggested that he hadn't. In some parts of the world, people actually purchase these for weight loss. Really sick stuff.

Starting point is 00:14:06 Seriously? Yes, in South America. Brazil, more specifically. Of all the chores that most of us have to endure in our society, there are few less appealing than standing in line waiting to renew a driver's license. But as author Milos Bogetich describes, when his friend took on this unpleasant task, it turned out that long lines were the least of his concerns.

Starting point is 00:15:06 And the strange events did not end when he left that place. No, the nightmare only began when he was at the DMV. I just got a call from my best friend who lives in Erie, Pennsylvania. He told me about something really strange that happened to him. He got up yesterday morning thinking it was a perfect day to run some errands. Clean the house, buy groceries, renew his driver's license, you know, the regular shit. Except that renewing the license almost cost him his life, well, at least according to him. Before I tell you what happened, know this.

Starting point is 00:16:07 My friend is a silly guy. He has a weird sense of humor, but I know him well, at least well enough to know that he wasn't just fucking with me. I could tell that something really did happen to him. So my buddy got to the DMV, that's the Department of Motor Vehicles, where you get your driver's license, at around 5.30 p.m., which is about 30 minutes before the closing time.

Starting point is 00:16:36 I suppose everyone in the city had the same idea of when they should get their licenses because the DMV was packed. While he was waiting in line, my friend noticed a man, a young man, sitting not too far from him, staring. Not just looking, but staring, as in never losing the sight of my friend. Then the guy got up and walked over to my confused buddy, got really close to him, and started touching my friend's face.

Starting point is 00:17:11 Now you have to understand something about my friend. He's very socially awkward. He's the kind of guy who remains silent while watching the barber butcher his haircut because he would rather walk around looking scalped than say anything. So when this strange guy started touching his face, my friend barely managed to mumble, what are you doing? You're...

Starting point is 00:17:41 The man said, while still touching his face, Just perfect. My buddy finally got the courage to do something. Please, leave me alone, he said. You'll remember me forever, the man said as he let go. If you know anything about the DMV in America, you know it's much like Walmart. It attracts the strangest types of people, so meeting crazies at a place like this wasn't exactly unheard of. My friend, still a little shook up, took a seat. It just so happened

Starting point is 00:18:27 that the only open seat was the one that the strange guy used to occupy. He kept thinking about the man, and what bothered him the most was the fact that the man looked very similar to my friend, similar facial features, same hairstyle, etc. But he decided to brush it off and took out his phone to kill some time with his apps. The DMV closed its doors at 6 p.m., meaning no new customers would be allowed in, but the ones who were waiting would be accommodated. My friend waited for nearly 45 minutes when he started noticing something off. While the waiting room was slowly emptying, he realized that the people in his row of seats weren't exactly moving. It wasn't. It wasn't It wasn't like they were frozen in place or anything.

Starting point is 00:19:20 He could see them breathe, but they weren't doing the usual stuff you do while you wait, like play with your phone or read. He looked to his right and saw a little girl sitting next to him. He does remember two things about her. She had a hearing aid in her left ear, and she held a pink Dora the Explorer pen that she kept clicking, which was annoying him. The DMV was getting emptier with every passing minute, but nobody from his section was getting called. My friend was getting increasingly worried, but it still wasn't too big of a deal. Nothing surreal was happening, right?

Starting point is 00:20:04 Plus, it was a damn DMV, the government agency, one of the more secure places in the city. Until the last person who wasn't sitting in his row got called out. My friend got very nervous. What were the chances that these exact seven people sitting around him were the last ones to be called? He looked to his right again. The little girl looked back at him this time. As the last of the, uh, the normal customers closed the exit door of the DMV, the little girl from his right leaned towards my friend and whispered very, very, very close the exit door.

Starting point is 00:20:47 quietly. Don't you... At that moment, all of the lights in the DMV shut off, leaving the huge room completely dark. My friend froze. He wasn't sure if he froze because he was scared shitless or because the girl told him not to move. Perhaps the combination of both.

Starting point is 00:21:16 Not only was the room pitch black, but there was also no noise. other than people breathing around him. Even the pen clicking next to him had stopped. It must have been close to 7 p.m. by that time because it was getting pretty dark outside as well. My friend says it was probably five minutes of motionless waiting in real time, but to him it seemed like an hour at least.

Starting point is 00:21:44 And while he was silent on the outside, inside he was an erupting volcano of thought. What would you do? Get up and run in the dark? Would you wait? It was the DMV after all. There must be an explanation for this. The sound of a door opening interrupted his thoughts. Someone came in. All he could hear were the footsteps. They were getting closer. My friend's breathing got so heavy that he had to pinch himself to calm down. When the footsteps got dangerously close to his seat, he took a deep breath. Still, silence. Another slow step towards him. He says that the worst part about it was not being able to see what was happening. Another footstep. He was positive the person was now standing directly in front of him. He couldn't be sure, of course, but you know how you can sometimes sense you're being watched? I guess the feeling is similar to the one when you can sense that someone

Starting point is 00:23:02 else is in the room, although you can't see them. You know, like when you're lying in your bed and you can feel your roommate or family member lying in the other bed, though you can't visually confirm it. That's how my friend described that feeling. He could tell someone was so close, but he couldn't see them. Apparently, my friend's lung capacity was reaching its limit because he was getting close to needing to take a breath. He waited until the last possible moment, and when he couldn't take it anymore, he exhaled. He hated himself immediately because the exhale was loud. Who are you?

Starting point is 00:23:50 said the voice right in front of his face. It sounded like it belonged to an old woman. After a wave of violent goosebumps and driven by fear, my friend pushed the person in front of him, got up and started running towards the door, screamed the voice from the darkness behind him. When my friend got to the door, he realized it was locked.

Starting point is 00:24:22 As you can assume, He's not the kind of a person who'd take drastic measures, but at that moment he knew that if he didn't get out, something bad would happen to him. The moment he heard footsteps approaching from the dark, he slammed his elbow into the glass door. The glass broke surprisingly easy. My buddy crawled out of the DMV, not daring to turn around and look. He sprinted to his car in the parking lot. And although he was overrun with emotions, his brain noticed that his was the only car left in the whole parking lot.

Starting point is 00:25:06 This wasn't like in the movies where he got to the car and tried starting it, but it wouldn't work. No, he got in, started it, and floored it. As he sped out of the lot, he looked into the rearview near and saw a person. the woman most likely, standing behind the broken door of the DMV. A few minutes of fast and furious driving later, when the adrenaline wore off, my friend noticed the cut on his forearm. He was bleeding pretty badly. Luckily, the hospital wasn't too far away.

Starting point is 00:25:47 The ER accepted him almost instantly, and ten minutes later, he was received. receiving his stitches. As soon as the nurse was done, she gave him two Vicodins. As my friend started entering the wonderful land of Vicodin, the nurse walked in. I'm going to give you two more Vicodins for tonight, and the doctor will write you a prescription so you can pick up more tomorrow, all right? She said politely.

Starting point is 00:26:18 Thank you. My friend answered as the pain started. started going away. Ten minutes later, the nurse came back. I'm going to give you two more Vicodins for tonight, and the doctor will write you a prescription so you can pick up more tomorrow, all right? Uh, sure.

Starting point is 00:26:41 Thanks. My friend said, laughing because he was sure he was high at that point. Five or so minutes later, the nurse came back in. I'm going to give you two more Vicodins for tonight, and the doctor will write you a prescription so you can pick up more tomorrow, all right? My friends, High, wore off immediately. You know how when you're drunk or high and face someone of authority, like cops or even parents, you immediately sober up?

Starting point is 00:27:17 That's what happened to him. The nurse walked out. My friend started contemplating the possibility that the meds fucked him up to the point of hallucinating. That was until the same nurse walked in again. I'm going to give you two more Vicodins for tonight, and the doctor... My friend didn't wait for her to finish. Completely sobered up, he jumped off the bed and ran out. Was what he heard as he was running out of the ER.

Starting point is 00:27:52 Utterly confused, my buddy drove around the town for an hour or so. He didn't know what to do. I mean, what would you do? Nothing illegal happened so he couldn't go to the police. And even if he did go, who would believe the guy who had pain meds in his system? He would probably get in trouble for admitting to breaking the DMV door. So he drove home. I suppose the Vicodon stuck around in his system because he fell asleep as soon as he hit the sack.

Starting point is 00:28:31 He woke up this morning and the first thing he remembered was the hospital. Then the rest came back to him. He thought it was all a bad dream until his forearms pain threw him back into reality. Needing to talk to someone about all this, he called me on FaceTime. He was walking around the house while we talked. At the moment I was telling him that he was full of shit, he interrupted me. Holy fuck! He said.

Starting point is 00:29:03 I could see genuine fear on his face. What? It's all over my yard. My friend walked outside and showed me about a dozen different sized footprints in his grass. He guessed that it had rained during the night, making his yard muddy. He looked more closely and calculated that it was exactly 16 footprints of eight different people. Now, just like you're probably thinking, I thought that he was fucking with me at first. First of all, I am nearly positive that the whole hospital deja vu nurse thing was a consequence of Vicodin.

Starting point is 00:29:52 For the rest, I have to say that I believe him. I mean, the guy never does drugs or even drinks. One time I got him wasted off of three beers and he was hung over for two days. He showed me his stitches, but that wasn't enough to convince me that he wasn't screwing around. But while he was looking around his yard, he was looking around his yard, and I noticed that his face was becoming deathly pale. just a few seconds. What is it?

Starting point is 00:30:32 I asked, but he wasn't able to reply. He was just silent, staring at something. Come on, at least show me, I said, getting frustrated. He turned the camera to the ground. I saw a set of small footprints. He brought the camera closer to the grass. next to the footprints laid a pen a pink Dora the Explorer pen

Starting point is 00:31:06 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 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.

The NoSleep Podcast - NoSleep Podcast S3E18

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