Two Hot Takes - 82: Ghosts Are Real.. We're Not Gullible

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

Two Hot Takes host, Morgan, is joined by guest co-host Alejandra! We're starting this fall season off with some full body chills, nerve wracking spooky stories. We start of real with r/Paranormal and r/LetsNotMeet to diving into the fiction realm of r/NoSleep.. buckle up friends.  Join us for our New Spotify Live Show:  https://spotifylive.link/dtrh to join LIVE https://spotify.link/dtrh to listen to already aired episodes Patreon for TIE DYE PARTY THIS WEEKEND // & BONUS CONTENT https://www.patreon.com/TwoHotTakes  Thank you again to all the users who let me read their stories. Here is the link for the user NMwrites's narration page--it has the charities they'd like highlighted along with amazing other works. https://www.reddit.com/r/nmwrites/comments/wepc8r/narration_policy/ Partners: Flip: Download the Flip app for FREE & save 30% with Promo Code: twohottakes ZocDoc: Zocdoc.com/THT NextEvo: NextEvo.com Promo Code: THT Cerebral: Cerebral.com/THT Our SubReddit to Submit YOUR Stories!!! https://reddit.app.link/twohottakes Full length Video episodes available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TwoHotTakes

Replacement windows by Amzco Windows are masterfully crafted right here in Utah at prices you can afford. Our windows combine energy efficiency, sturdy design, and great colors, including black. Choose from several options, styles, and colors to create the perfect fit. With over 30 million units installed, Amzco Windows is a time-tested industry leader. For more information, visit amzcowindows.com. Request a quote and mention this ad, and you'll receive 15% off amzcowindows.com. Welcome to spooky season, y'all. This episode is dropping on the first day of autumn, so it is officially spooky season. I am ready. I'm sure you guys are ready. The desk is ready

with the pumpkins, and one of them has a cowboy hat, but it's fine. We're just going to ignore that. I also just want to let you know that our first show for Down the Rabbit Hole with Morgan Apsher has aired. This is a Spotify Live exclusive show. I'm so, so excited to be partnering with Spotify for this show, and last night was incredible. It's probably some of the most fun I've had with you guys. I mean, it was tangent, galore, fast-paced. We really, like, were vibing with you guys on the chat that were there, and, like, it kind of steered the whole show. So I'm really excited to see where this show is going to go. It's going to be a very heavy audience involved, letting you guys kind of dictate how we travel down these rabbit holes and really explore the topics we pick each

week. So I will be sure to put the links for Down the Rabbit Hole in the description and show notes so you guys can join us on Tuesdays, 7 p.m. Pacific, 10 p.m. Eastern, and you can replay them. They'll drop on the following Fridays in your regular Spotify app, but I really would love to have you guys join us live, so be sure to download the Spotify Live app and follow Down the Rabbit Hole, or me, because you'll get notifications for when it goes live. Can't wait to have you guys join us and enjoy this episode. I don't know what this theme will be. I think, because I'm doing, like, two spooky episodes, I think this is going to be more, like, reddit stories, maybe a couple listener write-ins, but then the second one will be just listener write-ins,

because I got bombarded with listener write-ins from you guys, and they're fucking nuts. Wow. They're nuts. The listener write-ins go hard. Do you remember the one from last year about, like, the hotel in Chicago that was, like, another universe? Yeah. Oh my god, that one was the craziest. That one was insane. The one where everything disappears? Yeah. Insane. That one was crazy. Oh, it's freaky. Freaky. We're going to actually introduce ourselves at the beginning of this episode, because we always forget and we patch it at the end. I know. So, hi, guys. Welcome back to another episode of Two Hot Takes. I'm your host, Morgan. And I'm Alejandra. She's back. I'm back. I, like, forgot how to do this. I know. You've been, like... I'm, like, do I talk in the

mic? Yes. Yes, always. But pull it down so you don't hide your cute little self. You know, like, pull down tilt up, turn. I truly forgot how to podcast. It's okay. It comes back. Is this good? Is this right? Yeah, it's like riding a bike. Is it, though? I think so. Okay. All right. We're in business now. Yeah, I think it's good. Yeah, it's been a minute. You've been traveling all over. You went to Greece. Paris. Paris, London. Cabo. Oh, my God. Arizona. Minnesota. Minnesota, New York. Sanford? Oh, my God. I've been to, like, five countries in seven cities since my last episode. That's actually insane. Are you ready to just hibernate? Yeah. I would be ready to hibernate. Yeah. I've never been more ready to hibernate. Like, don't even ask me to do anything.

Don't ask me. I literally was like, yeah, no, I can't commit to anything. No, I wouldn't. I'd be, I'm like hermit mode right now. I don't know what it is. Something about the fall. You think? Yeah. I think you just like want to slow down after busy summer and just like hermit mode. Yeah, hot girl summer popped off a little too hard. So it's time to like... I want to know. I didn't, I didn't have that same experience. Okay. Well, yeah, you did. You had a hot girl summer. Margie's got some healthy shoes. Margie's got figure out. So same. I mean, I literally had a meltdown. You know that. Yeah. You've been battling too. Yeah. So.

Plantar fasciitis is kicking your ass. My foot is literally elevated and iced right now. So I'm not that hot girl right now, but you know, we try, we try. We do. We do try. And honestly, these stories are coming in just in time to make us want to stay home, lock the doors and never go outside ever again. Good, good. Unless, unless your house is haunted, like some of these people. I do not claim that negative energy. The lights I come, I like came into the room today to like set up the studio and the light would not stop flickering. I'm like, are you kidding me?

It's the spirit from last year. Warning us. It never left. It never left. We opened the door with that episode and it has been here since. Yeah. It's not good. We made mistakes. I know. Mistakes were made. But we knew, we knew what we were signing up for. We did it. So. Well, some of these are going to be even worse. Good. Okay. Let's dive in. Bring them.

Okay. So starting off, we did like a little switcheroo. You'll hear it in probably an hour, but we're going to start off with the stories that are real. So there are stories from the subreddit like paranormal or their listener write-ins. So they are real paranormal spooky experiences. Nonfiction. Nonfiction. Yeah. You'll, you'll, you'll catch up in a little bit here. Okay. So this one is posted by username 6081miles posted a day ago.

I saw someone that I wasn't supposed to see. I was once working as a receptionist at a five star resort. That's about 45 minutes away from the city center. Everyone who has worked in tourism and or hospitality knows that there are certain periods during the year where it's busier than usual, i.e. peak season. This incident happened during peak season. The resort was overbooked and guests were checking into their rooms one after another at the reception counter.

I was almost done checking in this nice lovely couple when I saw this family of five standing behind them and tried to finish up the whole check-in process so I could assist the family that was next in line. You must be thinking that when I said family of five, it's the parents and three kids, right? But it's actually two kids and one elderly woman who at the time I assumed was either the husband or wife's mother.

Now the resort's policy was to get the details of every guest that were staying in the resort and it is for a good reason, safety. It's the same reason that all airlines are doing this when they obtain their passengers info. So I told the husband that we needed everyone's details and he just said, sure, no problem. And of course I was expecting five names on the registration form. By the time I realized there were only four names,

the family were already at the concierge area to pick up their luggage and then left to go to their rooms. I couldn't go after them as I was assisting another guest. Like I said, it was peak season. So all I could do was just watch them from afar, walking towards the elevators, then disappearing from sight. The whole time they were walking, the old woman just followed them from behind quietly.

But I didn't give much thought to it and went right back to assisting the guest that was in front of me. After the bus had died down at around 4pm, I decided to ring the family's room to inform them that they were missing details. The husband came down to the reception alone and I told him I needed the info of his slash his wife's mother's info. This man just stood there, stared at me for what felt like a minute and said, it's only my wife and I and our two kids.

Me being confused obviously said, but sir, I saw there were five of you. At this point, I thought he was lying to avoid pain for a third person charge for one of the rooms. They got two rooms and one room only has amenities for two people. Same goes for the buffet breakfast that's included. He took another minute and asked me what did this elderly woman look like? To which I explained that she had gray hair and it was short like a bob haircut.

I also told him that she was wearing this red, I'm going to butcher this. I'm so sorry. I also told him that she was wearing this red Cheongsam shirt, similar to this with long black pants. Oh, pretty. Yeah. That's really pretty. Really pretty.

That's what I was picturing when you said red. Wow. Right as I told him that, he quickly took out his phone, frantically scrolled for a few seconds and showed me a picture of the same woman in the same clothes lying in a closed coffin. No. That had a clear glass cover so you could still look inside. I just nodded slightly and he said that it's his mother.

She died unexpectedly a few months ago. I was, to no surprise, too shocked to say anything at this point, but somehow managed to muddle the words. I'm so sorry for your loss, sir. And I am so sorry about this. He just said it was okay. Give me a small smile then left without saying anything. When they checked out two days later,

we just pretended like the whole thing never happened. Luckily enough, the elderly woman was not there. Still get goosebumps just thinking about it till this day. Oh my God. That's so crazy. Cannot imagine seeing a ghost that is so clear, so present, so there that you just think it's another person. Yeah, I've never, like I,

I can't even imagine because I've never even had anything remotely. I kind of knew where the story was going when you said that, but it's still jarring because this is like somebody's real experience. Yeah. Well, and the fact that- That she described her without- Yeah. Yeah.

And the fact that like he just happened to have a picture of his mom in her funeral attire in the coffin, which I know some people do take pictures, like I think for some reason I feel like I remember them taking pictures at my great grandma's funeral. I don't know if it's done so much anymore, but some people do it. I don't know, teach their own. But like I just can't even imagine being like hearing someone describe

your mom that just passed like, and you're like, what? Yeah, like it's weirding you out. That's so crazy. And then it's like, do you get weirded out? Yeah. Or do you feel like a sense of comfort that like she's watching over us, she's here? I was thinking that too, like do you get weirded out or is it kind of comforting? It seems like he wasn't weirded out.

No. I think at first he was like confirming like, wait, wait, wait, like this woman and you know, the one that passed and then when it was confirmed, he was kind of like, no worries and walked away almost like, has it happened before or are you relieved or you know, he didn't seem like fucked up over it. I know. I really wonder what his like thought process was. The top comment on this one, it only has 22 upvotes at this time,

but so that obviously could change as things develop here. But it goes, while the story should make me be like, quote, that's really sweet. His mother is very much still with him. In fact, it feels ominous to me, spooky in that dark somber kind of way. I don't know. A little bit. Just yeah, it does because I think it's because there's so much left for the imagination.

Like there's just no context. Like where did she go? Was she just like watching over them? Is she like, we don't know the background or the relationship. Like did they not have a good relationship? Was it severed? You know, so it's, I think that's the open-endedness of it just leaves you to wonder. I've had a lot, I think you know this, like I'm a very spiritual dreamer.

I have such vivid dreams. I've had like premonition dreams where something that I dream comes true. And whether that's a crazy coincidence, I don't know, chalk it up to whatever you believe in, but I had a dream kind of recently actually where like, people can think I'm crazy. That's fine. But this is my experience. I've had dreams where I genuinely feel like some of my relatives who have passed

are visiting me genuinely. I wake up, I felt their presence. I literally feel like they visited me. It's like a visitation dream. And I feel just like very, it's like emotional hangover when I wake up because it genuinely feels like their presence was there. And the most recent one I had was actually, I think last month, and it was, I'll spare the details, but it was very interesting.

There was like a conversation between like me and my grandpa who's passed and my uncle who also passed. And in the dream, the uncle hadn't passed yet. So we were talking to the uncle, but I knew he's passed in real life. So in my dream, I'm like, how is he here? He's passed away. Oh my God, that's such a mental, like- It's like inception almost, but then the weird part about it was that

when I woke up, I was realizing that that literally the day I had that dream was the one year anniversary of my uncle's passing. What the hell? To the day. So that part weirded me out. So like, you know what I mean? Like coincidence maybe, but I never dream about this uncle ever. No, that's definitely, that feels like very purposeful.

Yeah. And when you wake up, I don't know if anyone out there has had a dream like this and I know I'm not alone because I looked this up and there's like psychology. People really feel like they've had visitation dreams. You genuinely feel their presence. Like when you wake up, you're like, it's heavy because you just feel like you were near somebody that has since passed and you hear their voice and their personality is there. And you're just like, oh my, and why?

Why are they visiting me? Like, do they have something to say? And so, I mean- It's so crazy. Related back to the story, like I'm sure he's questioning too, like if he believes that that was in fact the spirit of his mom. Yeah. He's probably thinking, well, why is she doing that?

I know. Well, and to just like follow them, like it seems like she was like so at peace, just like following them around versus like if she was still there, like you think she would be trying to make contact or maybe she's been there the past three months and has tried to make contact. So she has no idea what else to do, which if you think about it in that sense, that's where for me, it becomes like not sweet. It becomes more like sad because it's like her spirit is stuck.

Like she can't move on. She can't move on. But you know the question I have in my brain right now? Why was the receptionist able to see her? Because they say that spirits don't give everybody visibility. Only certain people have the access to it. Yeah. So why that girl must be either very connected to spirits or why her?

She's a virtual stranger to these people. Why did she have visibility? I want to know, did everyone else in the hotel lobby see them? See her? That is so true. Like I'd be curious to know if she's the only person who saw her because if so, what's that connection? Why her?

Oh my God. So OP comments a bunch and I did message them and I said like, hey, can I share your story? And they said yes. And so they might be tuning in so hi and thank you. So someone did comment and they go, wow, is this a true story? I assume there's no chance the woman could have been with another family. That's what I thought too.

The fact that she was wearing the same thing his mother was buried in basically confirms it. That's simply amazing. I hope my mom is following me around. And OP goes, I wish this wasn't a true story. I really do still get scared just thinking about it. I thought that was the case too that she could have been with another family, but from when they were lining up to get checked in, the woman was right behind them the whole time, way too close to them if you asked me.

And even then that didn't bother the family. And when they were walking towards the concierge and getting their stuff, the woman just followed them the whole way from behind, again, standing very closely. That is interesting. Someone else asked them, is it the first and only time in your life that you encountered paranormal? Also can't help but wonder if you ever checked the security cameras or asked any people around you if they saw it.

Very curious. Wouldn't say the first time, but it is the first for me to actually see it. I did not actually, unfortunately. First, I was way too shocked to do anything after that. Second, it would have been a lot of work to get the CCTV footage, honestly. Tons of procedures to do and got to get approval from a manager just to view the footage. Third, the resort has been up and running for more than 30 years, and it is normal to hear the staff and guests encounter things like this.

It is also not the only time I have encountered paranormal stuff like this at this resort. I worked there for about two years. I would definitely love to share the other stuff that happened to me some other time. Just wow. People also asked, maybe she appeared visible to you so that you could tell the family about her. If she appeared visible to them, I would upset them or friend them in some way, perhaps.

Yeah, I'm wondering why she was able to see her. Yeah, I have no idea. I think that's the case with a lot of things though. I think some people, because I do have some listeners that have written stories that will be included on the next spooky season theme. There's a few listeners that are ones a medium and is very connected to the spiritual realm, and another one has more of a, I forget the way they put it, but in the email, it was like they have a certain heightened level of awareness.

They're more predisposed to picking up on those energies and stuff like that. So I think there are some people that are just truly more connected to that other realm energy. Yeah, I do think that that's the case. I don't think it's just random, and I believe that. I know some people think it's not in your head or whatever, but I've just had so many close encounters with spirits that it's felt so spiritual that I believe that had really interesting things happen.

Oh, I've 100% believed this. And if you do want to check out their account, I'll be sure to link it in the description. If I forget to add story links, just comment on the YouTube, because I often run out of time and forget. But it seems like they're going to be posting more about their other paranormal experiences, so might be a good account to follow along with. Needling, et cetera. If you've been down the road of traditional care and it hasn't helped,

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Love those, because that's not, like, malicious. No. You know? No. And this one, this one doesn't seem, doesn't seem too malicious either. Okay. So this is from the subreddit, Let's Not Meet, and it's titled, What Happened to My Roommate.

Okay, what? How is this not scary? It's on Let's Not Meet. It's not as scary as the one we end with. Okay, that one was, like, full gang busters. Yeah, okay, right. Many, many years ago, before kids, rescue animals, a mortgage, and a husband, I was a travel writer in Europe.

I did most of my trips alone. This story is about the first time I visited Prague. I'd never been to Prague, and the trip was last minute, so I had little time to prepare. My travel partner had dumped me in another country, and I was determined to make the best out of my trip by visiting a place I'd never been. Upon arrival at the train station, I visited the accommodation office and asked for a hostel not far from the center. In my early 20s, winging it was part of the fun.

These days, I'm far less adventurous. The hostel they sent me to was a sprawling, crumbling, slate gray art deco building on a nondescript street about 10-minute walk to the Stair Mesto. The inside was probably beautiful at one time, but by the time I checked in, it was full of shabby, mismatched furniture and cheap stained carpet. Most of the light fixtures were broken, leaving everything but the lobby dark and gloomy. It smelled of standing water and dust. I found my room a double for $12 per night and made note of the fact that I had a roommate.

She wasn't there, but on her side of the room, there was a suitcase, dress neatly folded across the back of the plastic chair, a scattering of makeup containers on the back, on the beat-up desk, and a stack of German fashion magazines on the bed. As I had no plans or goals on this impromptu trip, I spent the afternoon exploring Old Town Square, the Jewish Quarter, and Wenseles, and Wenseles, and Wenseles Square. I purchased some Czech crystal for my mom and painted eggs from a street vendor for myself.

I also made reservations for a sunset dinner cruise for one. At around 6pm, I returned my room to shower, changed clothes, and unloaded my purchases. When I left my room about an hour later, there was no indication that my roommate had returned at any point during the day. After the cruise, I stopped at a tiny bar on Tinska and had a glass of wine. I heard horror stories about the dangers of Prague, but I felt no more trepidation than I did in any other large city. Sure, the cobblestone streets, fog rolling off the Vitalva,

backlit gothic architecture, and winding alleys made me think of Jack the Ripper and Dracula, but in a good way. In a good way. I don't know how. Why? It was nearly midnight when I returned to my hostel, so I was surprised to find that my roommate still hadn't returned. This wasn't uncommon, though.

Backpackers are a fickle lot. She could have gone on a short overnight trip and just left her stuff behind, hooked up with a guy or girl, and was holed up at their place, or hanging out at another hostel. So I was surprised, but not concerned. I took another shower before bed, however, and was surprised to find that things in the room had changed upon my return. Her bed was neatly turned down, the magazines had moved to the nightstand,

and the dress was gone. The strangest thing, though, was the addition of a pink silky nightgown spread across my bed. Maybe she thought she still had the room to herself? I didn't see how. My shopping bags, clothes, and toiletries were in plain view. I gently moved the nightgown over to her bed, and then settled in for the night, as I wrote in my journal. I assumed she was in the shower or somewhere nearby,

so I expected her to return shortly. After about an hour, though, her side was still empty. I needed to use the restroom before I went to sleep, so I made one last trip down the hall. The building was unusually quiet. There weren't the regular sounds of chatty backpackers, the clinking of glasses, or music that would normally leak through the walls. There was, dot, dot, dot, nothing.

It was hushed, like a church after the congregation had left. I found myself practically tiptoeing back. My room was near the end of the hall, and I couldn't shake the feeling that the corridor was darker than before. The few working lights were blinking as they struggled to stay lit, and it reminded me of a fun house. A tightness began to fill my stomach, and I subconsciously quickened my stubs.

There wasn't a soul behind me, yet I kept glancing over my back shoulder, convinced I'd see someone gaining momentum upon me. My god, I don't like this. The only sound was the soft thud of my flip-flops as they struck my soles. I was floored with relief as I flung open my door, but it didn't last long. Everything was exactly as I left it, except for the silky nightgown, which was now back on my bed.

Ah! Sleep came in fits and starts. I left the lamp on for a while, still convinced my roommate would be right back, but the shadows it cast made the room even spookier. It was too dark with the light off. I'd finally slipped into a deep sleep when I suddenly heard the door open. A man stood in the darkened doorway,

the hall light behind him, showing just enough for me to see his contorted face. Stop! Quote, I didn't mean to, he sobbed. You have to help me. Oh my god. Too confused and disoriented to be scared. I sat up, scrubbed my eyes, and reached for the lamp switch.

But once the room was lit, I saw that the door was closed. There was no man. Oh my god, what is happening? I quickly bound off the bed and went for the door. It was locked. Nobody could have entered without a key. And the hallway? Empty. I passed the rest of the night fully clothed,

sitting up in bed and with the light on. Yeah. Though I'd paid for two more nights, at 7 a.m. I gathered all of my stuff and went down to the reception desk to check out. Quote, by the way, I said to the 20-something receptionist, my roommate never returned. I'm a little concerned.

She picked up the room key, looked at it hard, frowned, and then glanced at her computer. Quote, what room were you in again? When I repeated it to her, she looked back at her screen. Quote, ma'am, that room's been empty for three weeks, and it's been cleaned since then. We only have six people in the whole building. The hostel has since been renovated,

and is now a luxury hotel. The end. Wait, so she wasn't even supposed to be staying in that room? She was, but like, there was no roommate. There was no roommate. So, like, whose stuff was that? Oh, my God. How was the nightgown getting moved around?

All of that freaks me out so much. The nightgown just... I don't know how she even tried to sleep with the light off. That was ballsy. Like, after the nightgown, it had already been moved, like, twice, and she was like, oh, I just tried to go to sleep, put the light off. Like, what?

It's really interesting, because when you're in that, like, I've... Like, my Palm Springs experience I talked about last year, and I don't want to, like, tell it again, because I'm sure, like, a lot of you have already heard it, but I, when I was working in Palm Springs, I was in this, like, old assisted living house, turned Airbnb, and it was haunted.

And so, when you're there, like, I was laying in bed, and I started hearing the pitter-pattering of feet and the light switch going on and off. Like, you try to convince yourself so hard, like, it's not real. I'm safe. It's all good. You're just going to go to sleep.

You're going to wake up in the morning. It's all going to be good. And it's like, when it's in the middle of the night, it's like, well, what am I supposed to do? You kind of, like, just feel trapped. Yeah, I do get that. But, and I agree with you, because I was telling somebody recently,

like, the thing with paranormal is that it's human nature to try to justify it. Yeah, always. When something crazy happens, it's our instant reaction to be like, it's the wind. It's an old house. We try to rationalize it.

Oh, yeah. So that part is super, like, instinctual, but I will, if I'm scared, like, to this day, I will sleep with all lights on. I will. I'll turn all the lights on. Yes, absolutely. Are you kidding me?

One? What? Have you not at recently? Probably. I mean, like, yeah, if I hear some shit and I get scared, I'm sleeping with the lights on. Because, yeah, you're not going to get a great night's sleep, but I'd rather, like, wake up alive.

Like, very true. Like, valid point. Yeah, fair enough. I don't know. Like, I'm not spooked that easily, but once I'm, like, in that mind, I just start to spiral, and I start thinking of all the scary stuff that can happen,

especially, first of all, I would never say in a hostel. Never have a rent. Like, I would never do that. Me, personally, I'm just too scared for that. I have done it. I don't know how. I'm so out of desperation. I don't know how.

London was so, so expensive, and so me and Lauren stayed in a hostel. But did you have a random roommate in your room? So we had a bunk room with four bunk beds. And there were other people in there. We had one other person, one of the nights. That's so creepy to me. You don't know these people.

You don't. And, like, our stuff, like, we had suitcases, and so our stuff, like, at hostels, you typically have, like, a lock box that you can put stuff in, but, like, obviously, our suitcases didn't, like, fit in it. So what did you do? You just leave it out.

No. We just, like, left it out on our bed. No. Yeah. Are you, what? Yeah. It was a different time. I would do it again.

Like, there's, there's, there are hostels with, like, private rooms and private bathrooms, and then there's some with, like, private rooms but a shared bathroom. Like, I would, I would do it again. I think it depends on what city. Maybe, maybe. I don't know.

It's so funny hearing this because I, you know, I was just in Europe, and I, first of all, Sia is the most paranoid person I've ever met in my entire life. I, like, it's insanely to the point where, like, I'm just flashing back to some of the times when we'd come home. She was convinced everyone was trying to kidnap us.

Okay, see, I would love to travel with her. Go ahead. Because there's no way to live, to be honest. Traveling, I love Lauren, and, like, we have a really good time traveling together. Well, let me tell you, there's sometimes where I'm like, Lauren, you are going to get us kidnapped. Stop being so friendly.

There's a balance. There's a balance. Like, you can't be, like, that way either, but you also, like, to convince yourself that everyone is trying to kidnap you is almost- But you guys are two beautiful women, and, like, sex trafficking is so real. I'm team, I'm team Sia.

I don't know. I mean, I'm not saying, be vigilant, be alert, stay, stay alive, whatever crime drink he says, stay alive, stay alert, or whatever. Be weird. I listen to it all the time, and I can't remember. Yeah, something. But, yeah, be vigilant, be, like, smart.

There's, you know, like, but at one point, she was, like, sending photos of us to her parents so that we'd have, like, last scene photos. Yeah. Oh, poor Sia. She'd be like, 3 a.m., this is the name of the bar in Paris, like, and she'd send selfies of us so that, like, they'd be like, yeah, they were last seen at this bar

at 3 a.m. in Paris. Like, I'm like, bro, like, that's too much. And we'd go home and she would, like, cover the lock box, and I'm like, there's no one here. Like, there's no one in the hallway. Who are you hiding the keypad from? Who are you hiding the keypad from? If anyone walked by, she'd make a stop.

Like, we couldn't put our key thing in. I've done that in a hotel where, like, I, like, got in the elevator and, like, this person got in the elevator, too, and they didn't press a button. Yeah. And we were, like, we were both, like, standing there waiting for the other person

to, like, press a button. That's awkward. And it was, like, me and this dude, and I was, like, okay, well, are you going to press a button first? So, of course, I press the button because he's not pressing the button, so I press the button. Sure enough, guess what floor he gets out on?

My floor. Damn. And it's, like, at that point, you're, like, well, that, yeah. This feels so scary. If it feels off, listen to it. But let's remember Frickin' Viye. We were all convinced that we were gonna kidnap.

Oh, my God, yeah. All of us. All of us were kidding. We're gonna kidnap. The guy was so sweet to us, and we were convinced he was trafficking us. It was. We already kept taking so many pictures.

But do you remember when we got to the house and we had a gate code and you were like, oh, Andrew. Oh. Don't let him see the gate code. I think that's, like, just normal though. Oh, I think that was normal. Yeah.

That was fine. That was good. But we built it up to this, like, thing where we convinced ourselves that we were, like, in danger. And we, like, we weren't. But it is good to be smart, especially in another country. You just never know.

You never know. I agree with that one. That one, I was on your team for that. But it, like, goes to a certain level where you're like, okay, life is worth living, you know? And if I have to be terrified, you know, there are definitely things as women that we need to be more mindful of.

Like, when I am, when we were at the live show in Minnesota, we all stayed in the hotel that one night. I was checking in. I was flustered, hurried. You know, we weren't, like, had to be at sound check in, like, an hour or whatever. And I'm like, what room number am I again? And the guy was like, and I was like,

what's my room number? Like, why are you being weird? He's like, I, like, can't say it out loud. My policy is I can't say it out loud. Yeah. And I was like, because there's people, like, watching. Yeah. And I was like, that's actually really smart.

Oh, my God. The, the security at the hotel was actually great. Like, because remember, you guys went. Until they locked me out of the fricking. The stairwell. Me and Lauren. So yeah. So I, I was like, oh, I have to, I have to let them in.

Like they got locked out of the stairwell. And he goes, you won't be able to get back in. I go, oh, and he goes, once you're in the stairwell, you can't get on any of the room floors because people were like, it's like a security measure in case like people like. Come in. Like, um, what's the term where you like, uh, backpack through someone else's door?

Hitchhike? You hitchhiked through a door? Never heard that. Oh my God. Well, you like, you've tailed, tailgate. Tailgate. You tailgate them through a door. Hitchhike.

So you tailgate through the door and like he, it's like the hotel was like locked down, which I do appreciate. I do too. I do too. It was a pain in the ass because we were already late and we had to go through on like five flights of stairs, but, but I appreciate it.

Yeah. This is crazy. I, I do agree. Be, be weird, stay cautious, but also maybe don't let it affect your trip in a negative way. But again, again, it's better to be alive than dead. So top comment on this one, this, I don't know if I said it, this one was from nine days ago.

It's got 465 upvotes at this time. And this is a real subreddit. Like let's not meet is for real stories. But it was, it is, it is interesting that this one is in here because to me, based on this, like this doesn't sound like a real person. Like let's not meet is usually stories that are like, I was almost kidnapped. I was stalked, things like that.

But like this to me sounds paranormal. Yeah, that sounds paranormal because there was a man who she essentially cannot verify ever existed and an alleged roommate that. Never was there. Apparently was never there. And the door was locked. Yeah.

So like how did they get it? It is kind of paranormal to me. Unless someone was like literally in the room sleeping and living under one of the beds. Yeah. Which all the stories about people like discovering out, Oh, I had a person living in my attic. Oh, I had a person living in my walls.

Oh my God. Freak me out. That freaks me out so much. Freaks me out. That is, and the thing too that can't be understated is if you're O.P. or you're somebody who's experienced this, the gaslighting you must do after this, because again, human nature is to rationalize with real solutions.

Like there's no way that a ghost was in my room. So what do you think? Okay, there was never a girl roommate. It was a guy. He was camping out in my room. Maybe he set that up as decoys like the satin nightgown and the magazines and the makeup was maybe all planted to make it seem like there's a girl roommate.

No need to be alarmed. And this guy really is like hiding under the bed and he waited until the lights were off and then came out, did his charade and then left. That's a plausible explanation. Like that's not impossible. No, people know how to pick locks. Someone could get in that room.

Exactly. So that's like that. And if you're O.P., you're probably feeding yourself these things because you're like, you have to sleep at night and you have to make sense of this. Otherwise, it's very hard to move on. And like your fear is just unleashed in perpetuity until you can kind of rationalize like what happened that night.

So I'm sure they're going through all the motions of like trying to justify like, well, how did that happen? It's, oh yeah, that feeling is like, it's like no weather. Like me and Justin, we love going up to Solving, California. That's like our little thing. We do like a little weekend day trips up there or whatever. And it's the super cute town in California. It is so cute.

It's Danish. Like it's supposed to be like a baby Copenhagen kind of vibe. And the last time we went, we were at this hotel room and like- Wasn't that when I went with you? No, we like went back recently and ended up like just walking in a hotel and being like, Hey, do you have any room like rooms left? And they go, Oh yeah, we have like one left. And so we ended up like getting the room, went out to the bar,

like had dinner, had some drinks after and came back to the room. And as I was like walking in the room, like we had literally just walked in. We weren't being loud. We weren't doing anything. I had this like desire or just like this thought in my head. And I feel like it's something I always do in hotels, but I've never like considered, but it was in a joining room.

So it had a door that like opened up into someone else's room. So I wanted to check the lock. And it's the type of lock. It's not the one that like swings over the door. It was like one of those weird dead bolts that like, you almost like can't tell if it's locked unless you unlock it. Like this kind? It's like, you know how they're like sneaky dead bolts

where you like, you can't even see if like you turn it. So like if you turn it, you see like a bolt go through. It wasn't that kind. It was like a weird kind where like you turned it, but they couldn't tell what it was. Okay, so you had to kind of try it. Yeah. So I unlocked it and as I unlocked it,

someone pushed from the other side. Stop. Yeah. So like, Stop. So they were like waiting? Yeah. How?

I don't know. I don't know. Like we still, and we went through the same thing where we were like, we left. What'd you do? So we left the hotel. We went down to the front desk. I was like bawling.

I have like a video after because like, obviously we like, we had drinks. Like I had like four drinks that like over the course of the night. So I was like, okay, like did I just get too drunk and like make this up in my head? Like you literally start to gaslight yourself. You gaslight yourself. Yeah.

And so I went to the front desk and I was like, this just happened. Did you have any other rooms? We need a new room. Like we are not staying here, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he goes, well, let me call up there. Calls there. And it's a guy.

And he goes, they were being so loud and blah, blah, blah, blah. And the guy goes, yeah, he has a noise complaint now against you. And I'm like, oh my God. We just walked in the room. We weren't in the room. Yeah. You literally walked us. And you can check the records, like what time we came back.

We literally just walked past you. We just got here. Yeah. And so we ended up like, we were like, okay, do we sleep in the car? I called my dad crying, like save the day. Dad, he found us like another hotel room, like a block away. So we just like went there. But we like, even once we got to that room, like we were so scared.

We like put a chair up against the door and we're just like, both laying there like, that was terrifying. Yeah. Did that just happen? To just didn't see it. He was like, so this, I'm telling you, this was like the weirdest room we've ever had. So you walked in and on your left was like another door.

And it looked like a hotel room door. It didn't look like a closet or anything. And on the door was hanging a do not disturb sign. And it didn't say closet. It didn't say anything. And like, okay, you walk in the room. There's a living room area with like a TV. You took a left went through another doorway.

You have a kitchen. And then if you took a left through the kitchen, there was another room with like a twin bed. So it was meant to be like a family room. Okay. And then if you went into the room with the twin bed, then you like got through a closet and then it went back into the main room. Like you could do a lap.

Okay. But then there was like an adjoining door like in the kitchen. So Justin was like still in the bedroom. Okay. And I had walked through to check the adjoining door. Okay. So he wasn't anywhere near you? No.

He just like, he saw my face after because I didn't say anything. Because I like, I just walked out and I was like, we need to go. So you pushed back and closed it. Yeah. Was it hard? It was like definitely like a push. Like it wasn't like a just like, oh, it swung open. It was like a push.

That would creep me out. And he screamed at me. The guy? Yeah, he screamed. He said like, shut the fuck up or something. Oh my God. Yeah, that would creep me out too. It didn't sound like it was coming from across the room.

It sounded like it was like on the other side of the door. It was just like the whole experience was so weird. But I feel like you have, okay, I know you love solving, but I feel like you've had a couple of bad experiences now. When we went up with you, remember when all of us went up that one time? I swear you guys had a weird experience that night. Oh my God. You did.

You had a weird experience. I don't remember that one. Come on. I know Justin will remember it. Remember when we all went up, something weird happened. It was me, you, Sarah. Yeah. Then I know me and Brett.

Justin puked that night because she was too drunk. Yeah, but I swear something happened. We're like, okay, well, yeah, but that's not, that's normal. Just kidding. That's not normal for Justin, but- No, he doesn't really- No, he never drinks that hard. It's actually very abnormal for him.

But no, I swear you had a weird, you had a weird situation. I remember like a very similar, where you guys were like, I need to find a new hotel. Not that, there was something- Something weird happened. You like didn't like, something happened with your room. Like the door wouldn't lock or something. The room was weird, for sure.

Something was weird about, I know it. Maybe we'll have to phone our friends, I don't know. Yeah, I'm sure it happened, but- I guess we can't rely on Justin's judgment. He wasn't really all there. No, he was going, going. What happened? Because we stayed up till three in the morning playing Katan.

Yeah, and just had a couple of bottles of wine and- So funny. Just too fucked up. Too far. Okay, well, good stuff. Good talk, good talk. Top comment on this one. Sorry, very tangential today, y'all.

Top comment though is, what the fuck? Surprised the story doesn't have more upvotes. Glad you got out of there, OP. Did you ever look up any history on the building itself? And OP goes, I've actually tried over the years, but I haven't uncovered anything. I figured that someone somewhere should have a similar story about it,

or at least a creepy one. It's changed a lot since that stay. At the time, it was a hostel slash one star hotel. One star? Damn. No chance at all I would stay there. I feel like nothing, everything you've said has been so crazy,

and the thing that fucked me up most was the one star. At least three stars. Come on, guys. At least three. My face. It's since been completely refurbished and is an expensive hotel, and it's really beautiful now.

The pictures are amazing. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to name it, but searching for Prague Art Deco Hotel should bring it up. It's still big and gray. Look it up, look it up. I'm like, drop the name. I know. I'm like, wait, did I stay there?

Yeah, at them. Also, why? Why can't you drop, you can leave bad reviews. Like why can't you be like, hey, I had a weird ass experience in the same hotel? I mean, it looks like there's a couple pictures that pull up. Like this one is literally called the Imperial Cafe. You know what it's giving?

Like this one's pretty. It's giving. That's the same building. Did you ever watch Cecil Hotel? Oh my God. About the... Elisa? Her last name is about the lamb girl.

You know what I'm telling you. We're on the same page, but I forget her name. Which we should probably look up. And was it Elisa Lamb? Elisa Lamb. There you go. Yeah.

That one is a crazy one, you guys. If you have, I don't know if it's still on Netflix, but that one's pretty creepy. I suggest watching it with another person. Because, and for us too, it's especially creepy because the building is in Los Angeles where we're based. And it is still standing. I think it's rebranded to the...

Is it the Stanley Hotel now? It has a different name now. I'm not sure. It's still in downtown Los Angeles. Same structure. They have renovated it. I think it's called the Stanley Hotel now. But so it's even creepier watching it,

being like, okay, this is down the street from us. And this happened in the city that we live in. And it's a true story, so... Absolutely crazy. How it's creepy. It's giving that vibe though. Definitely, definitely is. I'm like, I searched Prague Haunted Hotels

just to see if it would come up, but nothing about any hauntings at it. But absolutely crazy. That's crazy. Would you stay in a hotel that you know is haunted? So that's what we're debating on currently. I know, I know. So...

That's wild. Um, spoiler alert for the other upcoming Spooky episode. We're considering either staying at a haunted hotel or at least just like going and recording there because I don't think I can sleep there. I really, I don't think I can do it. I don't want to like expose myself to those energies overnight when I'm sleeping and vulnerable.

Yeah. Justin wants to experience something. I was gonna say, does Justin? He wants to experience something. What the hell? So maybe we'll, me, and whoever records with me will just drop him off and he can stay there overnight. He would stay there by himself, he said that.

I think he would. You really think so? I 100% think he would. That's so unlike him. I feel like he wants to believe that supernatural stuff is real and he hasn't had any experiences to point to the fact it could be. So I think he's at this point where he's definitely like open and receptive to the opportunity.

Okay. Well, be careful what you wish for, Justin. I wish you the best. Yeah. I'm like, dude, I just say I'm like, don't fucking happen when I'm there. Your equipment's gonna like... Malfunction. Yeah.

Something's gonna malfunction. Like we'll record and the whole recording will be like. Yeah. Help me. Let me out. Literally, I swear to God, I will never record another episode with you. If you come back and you say, yeah, our equipment malfunctioned, I'll throw it away.

That's it. We have to start over. I wouldn't keep it. No, you have to scrap everything. I donate it to a listener that wants to start a podcast. All of it. If that is the audio that you pick up from an episode, I would literally be unwell.

I'd be unwell. Or you're gonna get some weird orb. I don't know. I just, I want you to do it because I am curious as to what would happen. What are the local ones? Sorry, really. There's a hotel in Long Beach that's on a haunted ship. The Queen Mary.

I've heard of that one. They do like a holy thing. Yeah, there's a couple. I mean, the Cecil one is on there. I was gonna say, would you do it? I can't. No, fuck no. I watched that Netflix thing. That elevator scene we'll get, yeah.

It is really, really scary. And I, I mean. It's scary because it's real. It's real footage. Yeah. And I just like don't, I don't know if I want to experience something so close to home to where like I can't get away from it. Like it's right in my own neighborhood.

Right. But there is another really cool one that's a little further. It's in Flagstaff, Arizona. But that's a drive. And then there's a bunch in San Francisco. Like there's the Winchester Mystery House, which is really cool. Okay. And it was built by this woman who like believed that if she stopped building, she would die.

And so like she kept building this house for like years and years and years and years. It's massive. Like she just had to keep building. She just, she built every single day. Don't you have to get permits to like keep building? She did it. She did it somehow. Wow.

Great work ethic. She had a lot of money here. She was like an heiress. Okay. But like this is how big it is. Oh my God. Wow. Oh my God.

It's massive. It goes all the way back there. So they just kept building. Oh, here's a good area. Oh. Yeah. So it's called the Winchester. How many square feet is that?

That is one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard. It's a really, there's a lot of true crime podcasts that also do like spooky stuff. Can you send those my way? Yeah. One that I watched is, I believe it was Morbid, had a good episode on this. I like Morbid. It's 24,000 square feet. Oh my gosh.

From 1886 to 1922, construction seemingly never ceased. Yeah. That was different, different times, different nowadays. You can't even like add an addition. It takes like six months for the city to approve of it. Oh, I know. I mean, Justin will probably end up. When we do get a house, it'll be a fucking, he likes to call them knockdowns.

Knockdowns, teardowns. I think they have potential. Oh, I'm on, I'm team Justin. Sorry, I won't turn key. Day one. I like, I like an adventure. You like an adventure. You like a project.

I like not working. I like walking in and being home. It is quite nice, quite nice when that happens. No, but you are doing it right though, because, wow, it just like malfunctioned. But you're doing it right because the people who do it that way always are happier because they get exactly what they want. Yeah. Versus I'm like, oh, I wish I could change this, but I'm like, way too easy to do it.

Unless I get someone that does shoddy work, then it's a little dicey. It's a little dicey. Little dicey. Hi, Jan from Toyota speaking. Jan, I heard it's a good time to buy a Toyota. Sure is. From now until April 4th, you can shop all your favorites like Corolla, Raph 4, Sequoia, and more.

Imagine yourself in a new tundra where- You stopped by the home improvement store and finally built that tree house. You promised your daughter. Sarah, when did you hop on the call? Hi, Dad. Mom said you were taking too long on the phone. Toyota, let's go places. See your participating Toyota dealer for details.

Dealer inventory may vary. Okay, so I have a quick listener write-ins and then we're going to no sleep, but we're still on the reel here. You did mention in all of our tangents here just now, you did mention technology and technology picking up things. So this is from a listener. So I'm going to 1000% believe all these listener write-ins are totally real. So it starts off, this happened twice with my family,

but I can only remember the second incident as I was just 12 slash 13. This happened around 2009, just a backstory. Whenever a loved one close to us passes away, we were told to stay inside the house or stay with family because that loved one may try to contact us and convince us to go with them to the afterlife. I think the term might be spirited away. On to the story.

My mom was in Memphis, Tennessee helping my aunt take care of my sick grandma, her mom. My grandma's health was declining fast, so my mom wanted to see her one last time before she passed. My dad, siblings and I opted to stay in California as we had school and my dad couldn't take time off from work. I was helping my dad cook dinner for the family when we got a phone call from a 901 number. I think it's important to mention that we had a landline phone at the time.

My dad recognized the number as it belonged to my grandma and he thought my mom or aunt was using her phone to call us. Something felt off to me, so I begged him not to answer. As the phone was ringing, I remember crying. Not hysterically crying, but just an overwhelming feeling of sadness. She left us a two-minute voicemail and my dad decided to play it to see why she was calling us. I don't remember what exactly was in that voicemail,

but I remembered my grandma saying she missed everyone and loved us very much. One phrase that did stick out to me was, quote, I know it'll be a while, but I'll be waiting for you guys to visit me. My dad immediately called my mom's cell phone to ask her if grandma was okay and my mom told him that she had passed away an hour ago. She was going to tell us the next morning as she was still grieving since she was with my grandma at her final moments. My dad's face looked like he had seen a ghost when my mom told him the news

and he explained to her what had happened just minutes ago. Once my dad ended the phone call, he told me we were all going to stay home the next couple of days to grieve. Fast forward to two weeks later, my mom came home and finally listened to the voicemail since my dad never deleted it. She started to cry and said that this was actually my grandma and she believed that this was her telling us her last words before officially crossing over to the afterlife.

My mom explained to us that if one of us answered that call and meant that we were inviting her in and believed that my grandma could have convinced us to go with her. I asked my dad about this because I wanted to get his side of the story and to see if he remembered more than I did and he told me that this was not the first time this had happened. He said six years prior to my grandma's passing, we received a phone call, same landline,

from his uncle the day after he passed away. Not sure if this was a way of our dead loved ones calling us before they cross over or if my landline was just flat out haunted. We got rid of our landline once I went off to college so of course that voicemail is gone. As scary as it sounds, I found this heartwarming because I really loved my grandma and she's been such a special person in my life.

And I believe this was her way of saying goodbye to us since we didn't get to see her before she passed. It's been 12 years since she left this world and I miss her every day. I thought I would share it because it's been a memory that never went away and I never told anyone about this story until now. Wow, that's so special. Crazy. That's really sweet that they shared it.

I just truly believe that there's such weird, unexplainable things. Totally. I think that's one thing, even you when you talk about the dreams and how these dreams, when you feel you've been visited, they leave you feeling more drained. And I truly believe that has something to do with the energy you're using energy to connect with their actual spiritual energy. So maybe they're even using your energy as a battery to power that.

And so when I hear this and stories about the departed using technology or radios and things like that, it's like, okay, I could totally see that happening because there's all the laws of science. No energy is created nor destroyed. So where does that energy go? Where does it go? That is, see, to me, the story is, it's like twofold, it's beautiful, but it's a little eerie.

Obviously the facts are eerie because it was after they had passed. And then also, I don't know why the notion of like, like why would the grandma want to invite them to the other side? Why, like, you know, typically we're left under the impression that they want you to, your loved ones leave you and they leave you in a better place. And they want you to thrive and go on without them and live a happy, fulfilled life. I don't love the notion of like, oh, they're trying to invite you with them. It sounds like they're trying to like, steal you away from living your best life.

I wonder if that's a cultural thing. I don't know. I'm wondering the same thing. And in certain cultures, if they believe that, like, I don't want to call the grandma like the boogeyman, but you know how it's like, every culture has its own like, views. And I respect that and I'm super interested to learn more about it. But for some reason, just my visceral is like, I didn't like that

because it makes it seem like eerie when it might not be. And it could be just like this beautiful thing. Beautiful thing. But like to me, it just seems like eerie. Like you're trying to take the person with you, but it could be beautiful and I'm missing context. But more than anything, I mean, this story speaks to me so much. Like I have one grandparent remaining.

I love my grandparents and like, if there's one thing, I really wish I had a voicemail for my grandpa. Like my friend, Richa, she says that like, she will record conversations on her iPhone. Like she'll be like, grandma, tell me about this timer. That's beautiful. Tell me about this. And then she'll record it and just put her phone on the table.

And I'm like, she's like, I have all these recordings. And I'm like, oh, I wish I did that. It like pains me that I didn't use technology the way I could have. And I could have like his voice. Like I would kill to hear a voicemail of like my grandparents, like talking for two minutes. Like that would mean everything to me. Like so that when I hear that, I'm like, that's so special,

but obviously they don't have it anymore. But it left such a like a lasting impact. Yeah. Definitely. Especially the fact like 12 years later, it's still like such a clear memory. And it means so much. She says I miss her every single day.

Like, I can't imagine. Like the voicemail would almost in a way maybe be even painful because of you already missing the person. And like I was talking to somebody the other day and his, he just on Sunday was the two months since his father has passed. And in the culture that he's in, apparently like at the two month mark, they do like a,

it's, I don't know the official word for it, but it's the grieving has end. Like the grieving period has ended. And they have like a ceremony and like a traditional thing where they're like, okay, the grief has ended and now we move past it. And it's a beautiful, it was beautiful. Like the way he described it, it was really great.

But oh my gosh, I just lost my train of thought with this one. That never happens to me. I felt like someone just wiped my memory. Dude, what was I saying? That's kind of like weird, what happened there? I feel like a ghost just went, I feel like someone just like in our brain. I don't even remember what I was saying.

Washed my memory. We got to roll the tapes. What happened? What were we saying? I don't even know. Where was I going with that? Why did I start talking with that? Just like death in general and how like interesting it can be.

Yeah. I don't know. I love when cultures have ceremonies like that. Like I know the Jewish, right? Like they have a, what's it called with like the seven days? So yeah. So after a person passes, you have, oh my God, what is my brain broken for?

Brains are broken. Seder, so you have like a seder. And so for seven days, like the family comes together, you eat, you like celebrate that person's life. And then after that, you also have like cottage. So for a year after that person's death, you say a prayer for them every day. And that takes place for one year.

And then after that, like at the one year anniversary of their death, you go back to their gravesite to do a headstone unveiling or like a commemoration. My boss just did that. Yeah. I like that. Like there's cultures that like make grief like a process. And it's like very inclusive to like,

just like it helps to do it. Like Dia de los Muertos. Oh my God. So beautiful. And has anyone seen Coco? Have you seen Coco? Of course. Movie.

Like fucking watched on an airplane and. Bald. Ugly. Bald. Ugliest cry in my life. The Disney movies get you. Like Coco is such a beautiful movie, but that's honestly what we're talking about.

Like this, like it's like a celebration for the dead among the living. Yeah. And when I was saying, I just remembered what I was going with that story. I wish I could like, I want to celebrate that so bad. I think that's just the most beautiful, I think this was the most beautiful tradition.

Morgan and I participated in a celebration like what five years ago. It was so cool. And we went to downtown LA and like we got our faces painted and we broke bread and we did all the things. I love the pond. Yeah. The pond then went.

And we, we tried to get our face painted today for in commemoration. We tried. We tried. She, she canceled on us. She bailed. Yeah. Don't trust the Craigslist face painter.

I know next time. But I was so excited. I loved that face painting. I was trying to find a picture. But what I was saying, the reason, yes, like the reason I told that story is because I was talking to him on the phone and I was like, I'm very sorry.

You know, it sounds like whatever. And he was, he made this comment of like grief is the absence of love. It's love that has nowhere to go. And so to say, to come back to what you were saying where it's like energy, like energy has to go somewhere. That's kind of like in the same spirit of grief. Like it's love that has nowhere to go.

So when you're grieving the dead, it's like it has to go somewhere and the energy is transferred. Wow. I think that's, that's like going to be very thought provoking for a lot of people. I hope so. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah.

Grief is love that has nowhere to go. Yeah. Isn't that kind of beautiful? Damn. I know. Is that on a key chain? I don't know. I feel like it should be.

Yeah. Someone's gotta be, yeah, someone's gotta be making it on Etsy. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's intense. I do have moving on now to, I do have like more listener right ends, but there's, there's so many that I think I'm literally just going to make the next theme just listener right ends.

And so get these ones off our plate. Okay. So. Also, I'm so sorry, but like, why can't my ribcage be the small and real life? Look at this. Also, look at my pelvis. It's meant for a baby.

Look at my pelvis. The bones are the size of babies. Wait, do you think my pelvis is this size though? No chance. You don't think? No chance. But you kidding me? Feel your hip bones right now.

Yeah, but they could be this big and they're just wide apart. No, no, no, sweetie. No. I looked in the mirror and I was like, the physique. Damn, I'm hot. Damn. My skeleton's hot.

Okay, sorry. For those of you that are listening and not watching on YouTube. Oh, yeah. Alejandro and I are wearing skeleton onesies to celebrate the spooky season. So spook. So spook.

So spooky. Wait, yeah, I just realized that people didn't have any context. No, they're going to be like, what is happening? They're like, why is it my ribcage this small? Look at this little ribcage. It's the size of a child. I know.

I know. It's too small. It's too small. What's up, everybody? I'm Mike Wilson with Any Hour Services and if you've been thinking about replacing your old water heater, Any Hour Services is here to help and save you some money. Whether you're looking for a new tanked water heater or you

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So I have one last one from Paranormal. No. Okay. Okay. That was such a thoughtful no. I see it. I've seen what I needed to see and it's a no. It is a good one.

It's from the Paranormal too so it is real and they gave me permission to use it. It's titled As a Correctional Officer. I've had tons of experiences and so they share all about their experiences working as a correctional officer and like ghost stories and stuff like that. But I'm going to save this one for Patreon because I do want to read it and they gave me permission.

So we're going to put this one over on our Patreon. Okay. So now moving along to No Sleep and No Sleep is fiction so it's not real stories. It is a place for Redditors to share scary personal experiences. However, if you like go into their guidelines, they say it's not real.

Nailed it. So here are the no sleep rules for anyone that wants to know. It must be a complete horror story. Must be plausible. Everything is true here even if it's not. So I'm going to go with their fake. That was an interesting mind fuck there at the end. Yeah.

Okay. Everything is true even if it's not. What? I think they want the subreddit to be like, it's so plausible. It's so believable. It could happen and hey, maybe some of these people are actually telling the truth but posted in No Sleep to like, is it real?

Is it not real? Is it real? Is it not real? Yeah. And this one really, really freaks me out because they have screenshots. So if it is on No Sleep and is not real, they did a great job making me fucking terrified.

So okay, damn. Here we go. Okay. This was posted eight years ago by Nate SW. I did reach out to Nate, however, this is the only story posted on their page and it was posted eight years ago. So I did not get a message back. However, I will link it.

It is by Nate SW. It's titled, My Dead Girlfriend Keeps Messaging Me on Facebook. I've got the screenshots. I don't know what to do. Wow. Tonight's kind of a catalyst for this post. I just received another message and it's worse than any of the others.

My girlfriend died on the 7th of August, 2012. She was involved in a three car collision driving home from work when someone ran a red light. She passed away within minutes on the scene. We had been dating for five years at that point. She wasn't big on the idea of marriage. It felt archaic, she said, gave her a weird vibe. But if she had been, I would have married her within three

months of our relationship. She was vibrant, the kind of girl that would choose dare every time. She was the happiest when camping, but a total technophile too. She always smelled like cinnamon. That being said, she wasn't perfect. She always said something along the lines of, quote, if I carke it first, don't say good things about me. I've never liked that.

If you don't pay me out, you're doing me a disservice. I've got so many flaws and that's just part of me. So this is for M. The music she said she liked and the music she actually liked were very different. Her idea of affection was a side hug. She had really long toes like a chimpanzee. Okay, damn. I know that's tangential, but I don't feel right discussing her

without you having an idea of what she was like. Yeah. On to the meat. M had been dead for approaching 13 months when she first messaged me. September 4th, 2013. This is when it began. I'd left Emily's Facebook account activated so I could send her the occasional message, post on her wall, go through her albums.

It felt too final and too un-Emily to memorialize it. I share access with her mother, Susan, meaning her mother has her login and password and has spent a total of approximately three minutes on the website or on a computer total. After a little confusion, I assumed it was her. So they do share the screenshot. It is an old Facebook messenger, what it used to look like,

and it's a message from Emily. Hello. He replied, who is this? It's really weird receiving messages from Emily's account. No response. Question, question. Okay, well, in the future, please send me messages from your account, even if you want to discuss her page, from Emily again.

Hello, from him again. Susan, you're on Emily's account, which is like so plausible, it could just be your mom having issues. Boomer. November 16th, 2013, so over a month later. Okay. I had received confirmation from Susan that she hadn't logged on to Emily's Facebook

since the week of her death. Em knew a lot of people, so I instantly assumed it was one of her more tech-savvy friends fucking with me in the worst way possible. I noticed pretty much immediately that whoever was chatting with me was recycling old messages from Emily and my shared chat history. The quote, wheels on the bus comment was from when we were discussing songs to play on a road trip that never eventuated. Hello happened a million times.

So again, he posts a screenshot. So Emily's just saying hello, there's no substance. No substance, hello. Yeah, so it left off with him saying, Susan, you're on Emily's account and then going to the next date. Emily, hello, let's hit up blank trail this Sunday. He replies, who the fuck is this? Emily, the wheels on the bus, him, Emily.

Please tell me who you are. Around February 2014, Emily started tagging herself in my photos. I would get notifications for them, but the tag would generally always be removed by the time I got to it. The first time I actually caught one, it felt like someone had punched me in the gut. She would tag herself in spaces where it was plausible for her to be or where she would usually hang out. I've got screenshots of two from April and June.

These are the only ones I've caught. So they are a little out of the timeline. I'm trying to read out. I literally, you guys just got complete full body chills. So again, he shares the images. So the tag for her is here where if she was sitting next to him, it could have been her or if she was standing behind, it could have been her. And very clearly, this is his profile tagged with Emily.

Yeah, tagged by Emily. Also, you guys, I'm starting to get the vibes that this is real. I do too. Again, full body chills. I wonder if like eight years ago, because you have to remember this post is eight years old. I wonder if the no sleep subreddit has changed. This feels real. How do you have this much evidence?

I know. Tagged again, tagged by Emily. It looks like he's sitting on a sofa couch. Both pictures looked like he was sitting on a couch. And this one is like more of a laying down posture where the person, Emily, the ghost, whoever is doing this tagged right next to him. So where like, if there was a person sitting on the couch next to him, would be right there. Right.

Wow. That one's really creepy because it is like such a space for a person. Yeah. It's insane. Around this period of time, I stopped being able to sleep. I was too angry to sleep. She would tag herself in random photos every couple of weeks. The friends who noticed and said something thought it was a fucked up bug.

I found out recently that there have been friends who have noticed and didn't say anything. Some of them have removed me from their Facebook friends list. At this point, some of you may be wondering why I didn't just kill my Facebook profile. I wish I had. I did for a little while on days when I can't get out of there though. It's nice having my friends available to chat. It's nice visiting M's page when the little green circle isn't next to her name. I was already socially reclusive when Emily was alive.

Her death turned me into something pretty close to a hermit. And Facebook and MMOs were, are, my only real social outlets. On March 15th, I sent what I assumed was M's hacker a message. And he just goes, why are you doing this? Why do you keep tagging her? On March 25th, I received an answer. And so it's again screenshots of the message and it's from Emily. Hello, Emily again about an hour later.

Hello, hello, Emily. Hello, Nathan, which is him. This is actually devastating. I don't know why you enjoy doing this, Emily. Oh my God, cinnamon scented candles. Oh my God. Nathan, go to hell. Emily, why are you doing this?

It wasn't until I was going over these logs a few months later that I noticed she was recycling my own words as well. My response seems kind of lackluster here. I wasn't intentionally providing him slash her with emotional bait. This is actually devastating to keep them interested in their game. I was working off the assumption that the kind of person to do this would be the kind of person that would thrive on the distress of others. I was posting in tech forums, looking for ways to track this person,

contacting Facebook. I needed to keep them around so I could gather evidence. Before anyone asks, yes, I changed the password and all security info countless times. Oh my gosh. At this point, I was like, oh, it could still be the mom, like just not sure how to use technology, but. Or a hacker, but like after multiple Facebook changes on her account. Yeah.

16th of April, I received this. So it's all from Emily and it's just like message after message. We should make our own jam. Jesus fucking Christ, Samantha, like awkward smiley face. No, different. No chance of passing. No chance of passing. How many question mark?

Garage side door, side, eye. No chance of passing. This is all her. So it's a kind of gibberish. Yeah. So this is what it looks like. It's just kind of like message after message, like kind of like sent in a row.

That's so eerie. The fact that it says like no chance of passing three times. And that whole thing is like very eerie to me. This seems like word salad, like all of her conversations so far. It's recycled from previous messages she sent. 26th of April, Emily baked beans on toast. I don't know. I just said, yo, ask Nathan, Nathan, Nathan, Nathan.

He responds, I don't know what's happening. I don't know how you're still doing this. Please stop. Emily, please stop. I don't know what's happening. Nathan, I don't know what's happening. I don't like this. I hadn't discovered any leads.

Facebook had told me the locations her page had been accessed from. But since her death, they're all places I can account for. My home, my work, her mom's house, et cetera. My response here wasn't bait. Yo, ask Nathan. Was an in-joke, too lame, worth explaining. But seeing her say it again just absolutely fucking crippled me. My reaction in real life was much less prettier.

I'm not expecting my bond back. Her last few messages had started to scare me, but I wouldn't admit it at this point. Eighth of May, I don't really have words for this. Emily, I, I, negative 12, negative 15. My jumper's in the dryer and it's really cold out. Really cold out. Cold, cold.

Nathan, please stop. I, cold. Freezing. I don't know what's happening. I don't like this. It's getting so much weirder. Freezing is the first original word she's made. This has given me nightmares that have only started to kick in recently.

As in it's not from previous conversations. Yeah, it seems that way. I keep dreaming that she's in an ice cold car frozen blue and gray. That is terrifying because we've talked so much about spirits visiting in dreams. I know, I know. I keep dreaming that she's in an ice cold car frozen blue and gray and I'm standing outside in the warmth screaming at her to open the door. She doesn't even realize I'm there.

Sometimes her legs are outside with me. Twenty-fourth of May, Nathan goes, I'm really drunk. I miss you. Whoever's on this account, I don't give a fuck. I keep coming home from work and expecting to see you at the computer. Shouldn't I be used to that by now? And Emily, just let me walk. I wasn't actually drunk.

She wasn't an affectionate girl and it always embarrassed her to exchange. I love yous, cuddle, talk about how much we meant to each other. She was more comfortable with it when I was boozed up. I got fake drunk a lot. Her reply is what prompted me to finally memorialize her page, thinking it might help curb this behavior. It might seem innocuous compared to her previous message. It's posted from an old conversation

where I was trying to convince her to let me drive her home from a friend's. In the collision, the dashboard had crushed her. She was severed in a diagonal line from her right hip to midway down her left thigh. One of her legs was found tucked under the back seat, which like then to get that message just let me walk. Going back in time, seventh of August, 2012. These are logs from the day she died. She was usually home from work by 4.30.

This alongside a couple of voice messages is the last time I talked to her under the assumption that she was still alive. You'll see why I'm showing you these soon. And so it's messages all from Nathan Gray Street somewhere. Hey, you on your way home? Emily, when you see this message, please ring me straight away. I rang blank and they said you left at 4. I'm starting to panic.

I feel sick in my stomach. Please, please ring me. And this is all kind of over the course of like the first one was at 5.36 p.m. The next one was at 5.44 saying like I'm starting to panic. And then this one is at 7.59. Emily, Emily, answer your phone. Yesterday, 1st of July, 2014. I memorialized her page a couple of days after I received the message about walking.

Until today, she'd been quiet. She wasn't even taking herself in my photos. I don't know what to do anymore. Do I kill her memorial page? What if it is her? I want to puke. I don't know what's happening. I just heard a Facebook alert.

I'm too afraid to swap windows and check it. And then it's a screenshot and it's from Emily. And it goes, hey, you on your way home? Emily, when you see this message, please ring me straight away. Please stop. I rang blank and they said you left at 5. I'm starting to panic. Please stop.

Cold. Emily, Emily, answer your phone. I don't know what's happening. Cold. And then all caps freezing. That's Emily, all Emily. So like repeating what he had said on the day of her accident, the day of her death. But then like the freezing, like he said is new and like cold.

And like, I think that's something when you see stories about people that have like had near death experiences, they, some people will write like, I just felt cold. I felt a cold presence. I felt like, yeah. And when people pass too, like there is a listener, right? And I have where it's from a nurse who was with an ICU patient that was passing. And she said, like the room got really cold. And you, you hear that again and again with like stories of the paranormal.

Like all of a sudden a cold came over the room. Exactly. And it's just, or when they do those like ghost hunters or whatever, they bring that like thermometer. And whenever there's like a spirit, the temperature goes down. So like the first time I heard cold, I freaked out. I was like, oh my God. Yeah.

I like don't have words. Is that the end of it? That's the end of it. So there's no resolve. Like we don't know what he did with the page. There is, I'll go to the account just to look and see if there were any comments. But this is the only post. That's even creepier.

There are some comments from OP. Okay. It's really kind of, it's hard to tell what the timeline is because it is eight years old. But this is from them and they go bold at the top and it's update. I just checked the alert. I heard it as I was compiling and editing the post. This was the message.

Oh my God. No, what? Well, what? Stop. Okay. So it's a picture. It's like a picture. It's like Emily, the Facebook account, Emily's account sent a picture.

In the chat? In the chat to him. And then it goes freezing. And so it looks like there's two images. I'm getting like more scared to open them. Yeah, I am too. So that's like the door. It looks like just from the image from what you can tell,

it's a door with a window and it's almost got like a grid, like grate over the door. Like you see is like a security for like people that try to break glass, then you still can't get in. And so OP goes, that's my door. That's my computer. No. It's taken from outside.

No. I got the message three hours ago, but didn't check it until now. I'm on my tablet in my garage. Zen for now. Going to drive to a friend's. Forgot to open the garage door in my panic. So building up the nerve to get out to do that now. I could never.

I'm like terrified. OP, again, there's like a lot of comments that actually like they respond to. And so someone goes, tell her you love her and it's okay to move on. You'll see her soon. Then kill the page and move on with your life. If it's a sick joke, maybe they will realize what they did wasn't funny. If it's something else, maybe she can move on. And OP goes, this is a really good idea and something I've been considering doing on and off.

It's just there's this part of my brain that thinks that I might still have the tiniest connection to her, even though every conversation with her makes my mouth dry and stomach hurt. She's more real to me there than in her columbarium. It's so final, but I agree. I think that's my end game. Edit. I would also piss off or upset several thousand people following it, including close friends that post there at least once a week,

which is true of like others using that as a support page. Someone else comments, you don't need to kill her page. There's a feature on Facebook to turn on two factor authentication when logging in. Facebook will ask for a secret code, which will be sent to the configured mobile phone. You get to keep the account while preventing others from logging in. But it's clearly like a paranormal login. It seems like that. And so OP does respond, wow, where were you six months ago?

Thanks so much. I'll do this. So I don't know. I'm, people are again like asking like keep us posted, things like that. The last comment, it doesn't look like it was in reply to something, or if it was, it was deleted, but it goes, I should be scared. I've occasionally opened a heart, just fucked up. It's not, it's very not me.

She's more real to me in that state. So someone like was like, basically what the fuck is going on? I wanted to check OP's account for an update. OP, please do not be dead. Oh my God. Yeah. Like when you look at the response from OP that I just read, it's very like, you don't even know what it means.

It's like very jumbled and hard to read even. Which one though? This one is what I just read. And so someone goes, I cracked this shit. All right. So all of that is just clip bits of the comment replies on here. I went through all of it and found all of the pieces. I don't know what any of this may mean, but here it is.

Look for the sections with like the underscore dash around it. I should be scared. I've occasionally opened a heart, just fucked up. It's not very me. She's more real to me in that state. I saw her after the accident. I keep getting mental pictures of her in that state, trying desperately to contact me.

I don't know if I'm scared because I'm weak or scared because I should be scared. Thank you. There are a few things that get to me though. No one really knows that her legs were shorn off in the accident, but it's possible whoever just got lucky with that comment about walking. I have occasionally opened her chat window and have seen the Emily is typing message. The message usually never comes through though.

Whoever it is is really dedicated to the joke. I don't own anything with a heart on it. And no one was over that night. That's definitely heart-like though, really weird. I don't get the heart. I don't get the heart either. Damn. Okay.

I scrolled ahead. I scrolled ahead. I scrolled ahead. Oh, oh, oh. Okay. Ah! This one has us fucked up. I know.

So really good eyes. I'm not sure. Maybe they just fucked up typing out the right sentence and this is proof of human hands at play. It was also always a point of contention between us that she got off on full hour earlier than I did, but that seems flimsy. On second thought, the crash was just before five.

There could be something in that. Copies of some of the crash investigation reports are at her mom's. So I might check out the times when I'm over there next. These are all, again, these are all just comments from OP that this person compiled. Yeah. Gave me a really strange prickly feeling. This has been ongoing for me for the last handful of months.

It's, it gets really exhausting. I'll check it out or other books like it. I feel so weird doing this because I would have never believed in this kind of thing before. It's very not me, but I haven't had much of a grasp on what me is for a while anyways. Again, there's just like a couple other comments that are very repetitive.

Someone like commented on it and was just kind of like, and again, this is from eight years ago, and they go, he's dead. He was working up the nerve to open the garage door. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning and it's going to look like a suicide with no evidence that someone drove him to it. And someone goes plot twist.

He's dead. She's the OP. Oh my God. And then someone goes very plausible. As I just Googled the date of the car crash and her first name, I found this. No, stop. Yeah.

And so I'm like really scared to open the link. I'm scared. Okay. So this is from a comment. It looks like it's from Reddit. I found a website that says updates and additional info. Update. Forum users researched Nathan's story

and found an accident report in Australia that matched much of Nathan's description of Emily's accident and the date the accident occurred. Strangely, no mention of a woman named Emily died in the accident. A man, however, was killed in the accident. My God, stop. His name was Nathan.

No, stop. Yeah. But someone goes can't find anything to back that up either. So this might be one for everyone to fucking... This is such a mind-fuck. Dive into, but wow. It's such a mind-fuck. That should be a movie.

I'm like really, I'm like, oh my God, my brain. My brain hurts. I don't understand. If again, this is on no sleep. I don't know what the rules of no sleep were eight years ago, but it's really scary. And we have one more, which is even worse. No.

How? Oh my God. No, we've already read it, but they haven't. They don't know yet. Oh, okay. I was like, I can't. I physically can't. No, and here's where we cut to the patched up audio

because we started with this next story and it was too much. But yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there you go. What was that? Did you just hear a noise? That's the neighbors upstairs. They're elephants. No, it sounded like a screech.

No, I'm so serious. Did that come from me? I don't know. Did you do that? I don't know. I don't remember. We'll have to roll the tape. I just heard something in my headphones.

You're scaring me. I'm like not fucking with you right now. You're scaring me. I'm scaring myself. I don't like it. Okay, we're done. We're done. All right, good night.

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No one helps more homeowners than any hour services. So this is going to be the trigger warning for the last story. Me and Alejandra opened with it, and it did not pass the vibe check. I'm like unsettled. That was not okay. So we're reorganizing the whole episode.

She started another podcast, and I was not informed, and we were on a whole different show. That didn't even feel like the show. That was obviously, I don't even... I feel weird. I feel wrong. Felt like I was like,

you know, what were those books, those scary books, like Goosebumps? Oh my God. It felt like I was in a Goosebumps episode. Those were terrifying. Do you remember the girl that turned into the pig? No. Oh my God.

There were so many, there was like 50. Was it Goosebumps or was it the scary stories series? I thought there was like the Goosebumps. There's definitely Goosebumps, but then there was another book. And then there was somebody who chose your venture. It would be like, you get to the end of a dark hall. These ones with the terrifying...

Oh my God, I hated those books. You just literally... Unlocked a memory. Yes, I have actual Goosebumps. Yeah. This series... I don't need that. Oh my God, I remember being in elementary school.

Why would they read that to us? I don't know, dude. I don't know. I don't know why. I want to sue for trauma. They were in my elementary school library. It was like reading... No, no.

They would read them to us. Oh, my library didn't go that far. My teacher would sit around children. We're going to have a little story time, and they would read us those. Oh my God, the one... The girl that turned into the pig. Scared still...

It sits with me. Do you remember the one who was raised by wolves? Yeah. The one who like was born in the wilderness, and she like... So people would see this like girl running through the woods on all fours, and she literally thought she was a wolf, like attacked people.

Do you remember the other one where it was a woman driving her car, and someone was like following her and kept like flashing their lights and hitting their horn? And she was like, what are they doing? Yeah, what happened again? And there was someone in the back seat that would like come up behind the back seat.

So every time they would flash their lights and hit the horn, the person was trying to come up. Oh my God, yeah. You are like unlocking a lot of trauma that I buried. Yeah, terrifying. I kind of want to read it again just to see if they're that bad, like as I remember, or if it was like...

Yeah, you're right. But the series, it's specifically called Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. And this last one could very easily be in the book. So... Really? Yeah, the one that this is like the trigger warning for. Dude, you asked me what I wanted to do,

and I said funny and lighthearted. I have receipts. Post the receipts on this episode. I want you to post. Morgan said, it's been a while, Alhantra. Like, you know, we're going to have a fun episode. Oh, you love spooky. I'm like...

So I need a mental health break. And this is how she welcomes me back. This is how you welcome me back. I'm sorry. Scary traumatic shit. Well, I will say. So trigger warning for this next one. It contains like...

I don't even know. It contains like murder, like scary stories. Sorry, it's choked on my teeth. I don't know how else to describe it. It contains like homicide and violence. Torture. Torture. Yeah.

What? It's bad. But it is from no sleep. So with no sleep, the whole thing is that they're nonfiction. So you can sleep easy knowing that the story is not real. I don't know. So not fiction is... Oh, it's fiction.

Is real. The nonfiction so you can sleep at night knowing these stories are real. No, it's fiction. So you can... Yeah, sleep easy, you guys. So can I give you my trick on that? Yeah. So the way I remember is fiction is false.

Nonfiction is not false. Okay, that's good. So like when you hear... So these stories are fiction. They're false. Yeah. I hope my goldfish brain can remember that. It's like people using the trick for left and right.

Like, how do you know left and right? Oh, this one makes an L. That's my left hand. Yeah. That's how I feel. False. Nonfiction, not false. Okay, let's check back in an hour when we're done with the episode.

I'm gonna ask you. I'm gonna quiz you. Yeah, okay. That would be good. It would be good. So that being said, here is that story patched in. And fair warning, if you are queasy easily, end the episode here. Damn.

Love you. Bye. I found one story today that I was obsessed with, and I went to go message them because on No Sleep, you also have to ask for permission to use their stories. And they actually sold the story to Sony, and it's being turned into a movie. Wow.

So I couldn't even read that one, but they had a bunch of other stories that I was like, okay, this one is amazing. Like let's do this one too. So they have like a specific policy. So for their policy, I had to like make a donation, and they want me to tell you guys about the charities that they support. And one of them is the ASPCA of Albert Marl County,

or the Sunshine Senior Dog Sanctuary. So both of those will be posted in the show notes. I made a donation to Sunshine Senior Dog Sanctuary. And the writer is also, the username is NMRites, just so you guys can look them up. But I'll be sure that their page is linked because they have a bunch of amazing stories, including one that if you've been on Reddit and No Sleep,

you might be familiar with. It's called My Mother-in-law Is Poisoning Me, and I like found out why. And it is insane. Like actually getting poisoned? Yeah, but it's a fiction one. Oh, right, right, right. Yeah, but it's insane.

It's so good. I love creative writing. We're starting off with their story first. Okay, cool. And it's titled, I run a cursed images website. The recent submissions are scaring me. I run a cursed images account.

You probably know the type if you spend any time online. I like to joke that my site is the 11th most popular cursed images account. And if you can think of one, it's probably a competitor. Well, I used to run one. It's down now, though I don't think it matters much anymore. The site was downright simple to run, and I got a lot of submissions. Most days, I woke up and checked the various places

people sent me photos to consider. Email, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Once I had enough followers, people made the rest of it almost automated for me. I picked out four images for the day and scheduled them to post on my website. Once they went live on the website, they automatically reposted on all my social media,

where people shared them and then more people saw them and followed me and sent me stuff. It never made me any money, but I had a lot of followers and it was fun. The whole thing took maybe 20 minutes a day before work. What is a cursed image? Well, it's hard to describe, but it's a photo that makes you uneasy.

A picture that, as you look at it, gives you a nine feeling of dread. I don't like the edited ones, like the pictures where someone's mouth has been photoshopped over one of their eyes. I like real photos, ones that get under your skin and are eerie and unsettling and creep you out a bit. The heavy feeling that starts in your gut

and crawls up to your head. The first picture arrived just about three months ago. I checked my Dropbox and there it was, 100.jpg. I opened it and saw a bunch of disturbed dirt in a field at night. Not a great one, honestly, and I stuck it in a folder with the rest of the rejections before continuing my day.

The next day, I had another in the Dropbox. 99.jpg. I opened it and immediately recognized it as the same place I saw the day before. In this one, I could see a shallow grave dug in a field, with what looked like a body laid at the bottom of it. This might sound crazy, but it really used to happen all the time.

People tried to scare me. They pulled elaborate pranks on me. They hoped to get a fake photo on the site they could brag about fooling me with. This one didn't look entirely real. I moved it into the rejection folder and forgot about it. The next morning, another photo appeared. In this one, a horribly flayed body

laid on the ground next to a shovel. There was too much blood to see much of it, and honestly, it still didn't look real. 98.jpg went into the rejection pile, though I was amused at this point. Most people either sent one fake photo or overloaded me with them. This one was working in reverse order

and being clever about it. The next day, I got a movie, 97.move. I watched it. I watched it again and vomited. I watched it a third time and called the cops. This one showed the death of the person in the first two videos, and there was no doubt it was real.

The victim, who had been horribly tortured, was stabbed over and over. The police were disgusted, but also unimpressed. They took a copy of the files and told me to email them if I got more, but thought it was probably a prank. Even if it wasn't a prank, there was no way to know where in the world this happened.

They probably didn't have jurisdiction. The next day, switched back to photos, still in descending order. Each one showed the victim in a cell, in the midst of being horribly tortured. Each one was the same, no metadata, no metadata, nothing distinguishing. I couldn't even see the victim's face in any of them.

I just knew I was looking at a relatively young man tortured for a very long time. After a month, I finally snapped and deleted my Dropbox. The police weren't responding to my emails anymore, even to confirm they received them, and I couldn't keep looking at these photos. The next day, photo68.jpg landed in my Facebook DM, from an account with an obviously fake name and photo,

that of a fairly well-known celebrity. I blocked the account, but each day the photos still slipped through. I changed my Facebook settings, so I couldn't receive messages anymore. Then I did the same with my Twitter. I deleted my email address, and used a new one that I didn't post online.

I also reduced the number of images posted. I had a lot of submissions left over, but people started to complain. My social life suffered. I would come home and lock myself in, feeling anxious about the arrival of the next day's photo. Still, the pictures made it through. My personal Facebook, my personal email,

a text message on my phone. Every time I deleted an account, it just showed up in another, even ones I had never posted online. I scanned my computer for viruses, but nothing changed. 50, 45, 20. For some reason, I was growing increasingly frantic,

as each day passed, feeling that I drew closer to some awful truth I was better off not knowing. 7, 5, 2. One morning, the photo was an email in an alumni account I forgot I had. The next day, it printed out of my printer. The first photo showed the victim lying in a clean cell.

They had a bag over their head, and seemed to have just been put in there. It was horrible to know what followed, but it had a feeling of finality somehow. The next morning, I woke up and realized there was no picture. With a sense of freedom, I logged onto my website to post the day's photo,

and saw there was one already there. It was the cell that I had seen so many torture photos in, but now it was empty, clean. An old-fashioned sign that said, Vacancy, hung on the bars. The file name was 0.jpg. I deleted my website in every account I had. If someone could hack my account,

I didn't want it anyway. I threw my laptop in a drawer and called my internet company to cancel my service. Damn. I tossed my phone in the trash after that and picked up a new one on sale. Your light just flickered. It's broken.

Okay, okay. The sign is not cursed. It's just broken. Okay, okay. It's not what I needed. I tossed my phone in the trash after that and picked up a new one on sale at a place down the street. I woke up the next day feeling uneasy,

but hopeful. There was really no way to reach me. I hadn't even given my new phone number to my parents. I went to work and settled in nicely, until the mail came. Tucked in along with some packages I was expecting was an envelope with the number negative seven on it. No, no.

I opened it and found a photo of someone sleeping. No, bro, no. I couldn't make out any details. It was taken in a dark room and you could see someone in bed, but nothing distinguishing. I got fired about five minutes later, right after I unloaded on Betty,

the nice lady who did our mail. She had no idea what was wrong. I still feel bad about that. The next morning I woke up and still trying to figure out what to do with my day almost slipped on the next photo. The envelope marked negative six. Wait, like physically?

Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Like you physically almost slipped. Yeah, almost slipped on the next photo. It shouldn't be that funny to me. I'm sorry. I got a light in the mood somehow.

Yeah, save everyone listening. Okay, all right. The envelope marked negative six had been slipped under my front door during the night. This photo showed the same sleeping figure in bed, but this time it was taken from further back. I could see the room. I saw the framed poster over my bed

of my favorite movie. I knew it. The lamps I bought at a garage sale because I thought they looked cool. I saw myself sleeping. Worse, I could see the beer can I left on my nightstand last night, something I never did.

This photo had been taken just hours before while I slept by someone in the same room with me. Oh my God. I dug my laptop off and powered it on. I looked through all the horrible photos again, this time ignoring the fact that I couldn't see the face of the victim.

Now, I noticed the scar on my right side from where my best friend caught it with a stick in second grade. I noticed the birthmark on the back of my knee, the mole on the side of my neck. I watched myself slowly be tortured over the course of several months before dying. I watched the video again,

realizing that the screams were mine or what would be left of me by then. I'm on the road now, but I don't know where I'm going. I know I have just a few more days before that empty cell is supposed to be full. Only a few more days before whoever or whatever is hunting me

plans to begin torturing me to death slowly. I'm going to run. I don't know if I'm going to make it, but I'm going to try. What? Okay, I have questions. I think everyone's going to have questions. What?

Yeah. So they were foreshadowing how he's going to be killed and tortured? Yeah, it almost feels like the story we had from a listener writing last year where it's like this other dimension of like, this is that person's life, but in another timeline.

Because how else do you get those photos of them like literally being tortured? Well, I thought maybe like the torture ones are like doctored images of him. And so they're like showing you this is what's going to happen here. And then some of the ones of him sleeping and everything are like real.

Yeah. That was a thought of mine, but no, I guess if you're thinking of like paranormal like alternate universe, then oh my gosh. Yeah, I don't know. This is just like a rabbit hole. I knew where they were going though with the countdown. Yeah. Well, the countdown.

And then when he said like a dark pictures of a bedroom, I was like, okay. Yeah. That's where I knew where it was going. But the printer fucked me up. The printer. Because that always... I think that's like what's so creepy about like Bluetooth

and like Wi-Fi and even airdrop. Airdrop, I know. I think this could like easily happen where people airdrop you shit. And it's like, I get that nonstop when I'm in airports or traveling. I forget to turn it off. Yeah.

People constantly try to airdrop me stuff. No one tries to airdrop me anything. Always, always at airports. What the hell, am I not cool? No, you probably have it turned off to contacts only. Maybe. Which I need to change to. You should.

But that actually could be a really interesting story. Like if you were getting airdropped photos of you like every day, you know? Yeah. And you're like, where the hell is this person? Oh my God. The one that they are getting turned into a movie is absolutely insane too.

Is it using modern day technology? It's not. So it's essentially about a woman who married this guy and she goes to visit his mom or something like that. And I read it years ago and it stuck with me so much that I'm like, okay, I should find it for this episode. Wow. But she goes to visit his mom and every time

she goes to visit his mom, like she gets super violently ill. And she kept being like, baby, your mom is like, every time I'm here, I get sick. And it was so like, he would never be left alone with her. And so it turns out he killed his past wife and the mom was trying to save her. And so the mom was like poisoning her. Oh my God.

Yeah. So this writer is absolutely incredible. So if you- This is the same writer. Same writer. Oh wow. So many stories. I mean, the abundance of stories.

Yeah, definitely link the- Yeah. I'll link their main, the like narration policy page because they have a bunch of their stories just like linked easy to find. Like one of them is titled, I own a cursed necklace that is going to cause the end of the world.

I need your help in delaying it. What? Yeah. I can read minds. Someone is trying to kill me. There is a serial killer. Everyone else thinks is dead. So they are an amazing, amazing writer.

So be sure to check out their page if you're interested in- The so spooky- These stories. Oh my gosh. So spooky. Really is kicking off spooky season. Yeah.

I feel like everything went zero to 100. Going out with a bang. I, like, I was not ready. I was not ready. Not prepared. No. Not prepared. No.

I don't think I was either. You know what I mean? I don't think I knew what it was really. It really hit me. Yeah. We're really doing this. We're diving into spooky season. We are.

Like we cannonballed into spooky season. That was crazy. I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep. No, I'm thinking about that as you're talking. I'm like, I have to go home and go to sleep. Well, at least you're a roommate. Can you imagine being home alone right now? I feel like I'm home alone because we're on different floors

and it's a big house, an old house that creaks. Yeah. That's one thing about when I'm home in Minnesota, our house is so old. And like, especially when it's windy, you just hear everything creaking and like my great-grandma died in that house. Oh my God.

Yeah. I don't even want to know who probably died in my house. Someone for sure. For someone. Yeah, you'd think. Yeah. It's old. I know.

I wish there were more like, I wish public records were easier to access on that stuff. That's best that they're not. Justin lived in a murder house. Did you know that? You did tell me that. Yeah. That's insane.

And here in LA, right? Yeah, this guy murdered his parents and then like wrapped his mom up and put her- Oh my God. Okay. Yeah. The details. Yeah, it's really bad.

Like bludgeoned them to death. That's so bad. Yeah. That's such negative energy. And Justin used to get his mail. Like the mail. The murderers mail. The mail for that family would show up at his house still.

It was the weirdest thing. And thank God he didn't find out until right before he moved out because- Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. Oh my, see that's why it's- some things are better left just not knowing.

Oh yeah. You know? Absolutely. I don't want to know what happened. No. No, like I'm already getting creeped out. Yeah. Fuck.

Oh. Okay. So spooky. Well, on that note, that's it for this episode. Okay. We have the tie-dye party on September 25th. What day is that? Sunday.

Sunday. Sunday. Sunday. That's the Sunday. The Sunday. So if you have merch or just want to tune in, join our Patreon. The link will be posted there. And I don't have any other exciting announcements really right now.

Oh. Our new Spotify show that I'm doing called Down the Rabbit Hole. So it's on Spotify Live. And basically week to week, I just dive through crazy fucking topics. So this week, I'm actually recording it tomorrow. We're doing it live because it's live every Tuesday. Ooh. 7 p.m. Pacific, 10 p.m. Eastern.

Totally free if you download the Spotify Live app. But this week is going to be the history of fairy tales. That's interesting. I know. It's giving Alice in Wonderland. Like Down the Rabbit Hole. You never know what it's going to be. So it'll be interesting.

So every week is different. Every week is going to be different. Completely different. Completely different. Like it could be like, why are dogs so cute? Like, okay. Yeah. On a happier note.

On a way happier note. I'm clearly trying to steer us this way. Yeah. Well, if you ever join me, you can pick your happy theme. Can I? Yeah. And it won't be spooky and scary and heavy. It'll be like, why do dogs make us so happy?

And then we'll have like, do you do research sometimes? In On the Fly. Oh, it's all kind of On the Fly. It's all kind of On the Fly. So we sit there with like computers and just like dual. I was going to say it's like a battle of the research. Yeah, kind of. Can you just go down rabbit holes?

I have no idea what it's going to be. I want to be honest. We're going to find out tomorrow. Tune in at seven o'clock Pacific. I'll be there because I'm very fucking curious. I was fucking so scared. I want to be there. I want to see how this goes down.

I'm so scared. It's going to be crazy, but you can also listen after the fact if you can't make it when it's alive. So it's going to be a really cool show. So be sure to tune in. Love a rabbit hole. Just the way my brain works, you know, ADD just bouncing off the wall like a pinball machine.

Yeah. I know. Yeah. It's kind of going to be like, I think those wiki, have you seen those wiki shows where they start on one Wikipedia page and like go through to try to get to another one? No, that's cool. Where do you find that YouTube?

Yeah, they have it on YouTube. There's some creators that do it. That's interesting. There's so much shit on the internet. It's so wild. Wow. The internet is scary. It is scary.

But it's cursed images website like this story is based on. Yeah. They're real. Cursed images. These cursed images thing like this last one was on. Real. There's some dark shit out there. That's choosing violence.

If you, you know what I mean? If you're going out of your way, just spook yourself. I don't have it in me. I don't either. I don't have it in me. Why? Like you're that bored that you're like, let me just spook myself. I saw a picture when I was like, like looking for stories today.

I saw a picture and I forget what subreddit it's on. But it's like, it's like oddly scary or something like that. And it is a subreddit that is oddly terrifying is what it's called. So it's a subreddit for stuff that's like not supposed to be scary. Uh-huh. I have seen that one. But like is scary. So like the top photo right now is a man who's holding a sign and it says,

I will kidnap your boss for you for $5 and then I will whoop his ass for you. And then the person titled it. It was funny until he told me he served 20 years for kidnapping. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's this picture and it's titled a three legged dog licking its back. Oh, that is so creepy. And so the dog has an amputated front leg and because of the way it's like,

it's reaching around its body to lick itself, it looks like it's literally a headless dog. Oh yeah. Okay. That is so it. Yeah. Like it's oddly terrifying. Wow. So this, I went on this subreddit and this is kind of what that story reminds me of.

It's like dark, weird images that are just like make you. But nowadays and upset. Not to be the skeptic in the room, but it's so easy to doctor photos now. I know. So it's like, where's, how can you decide for? How can you be sure? Yeah. I know.

Someone did post on the dog one and they're like, I need to see a picture of the dog with its head. With its head. And so someone found like more pictures of the dog. Okay. I guess it is. It's, it's cuter. It's, it's okay.

I would hope so. It looks. That's the dog. Apparently. I would never think so. It is really freaking cute. Oh my God. Same color.

What the hell? Yeah. I mean, I wonder if this one's photoshop though. I mean, where the hell is the head? Come on. I don't know. Like what's that blue thing?

Is that supposed to be the color? Why is there so much slack? I think it's a tag on the color. Like I literally think it's like. I don't know. Because dogs are conventionist. I'm not, I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced.

We know all too well how good the photoshop is these days. We do. Please. Scary shit out there though guys. Sleep well tonight. Today. Good night on that note. Little lullaby.

Sweet dream. To lull you to sleep. My God. Well. Can you imagine? I can't. I'm, and we have to go to bed after this. Yeah.

Be well. Be well people. Until next time guys. Bye. Bye. Any hour services has a team of technicians that can take care of any plumbing, electrical, or air conditioning needs you might have around your house. Got a drain that's clogged?

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