Interdimensional

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Story 1: The Waivertree Bus Incident.

Stories of ghostly encounters are most commonly associated with long-standing sites of historical interest where a particular tragedy may have occurred.

But every so often, such incidents have taken place where there is no demonstrable link between the apparition and the setting.

This week, we explore the strange case of the Wavertree Bus Incident.

The last shift of the evening, which left the city centre immediately after midnight, was traditionally the worst for the drivers of the number 79 bus route.

It was too early for the many workers finishing their twilight shifts to make use of, yet too late for anyone else needing to wake up early for work the next morning.

As a result, the majority of those staggering onto the bus in the city's main station were drunk, or under the subdued effects of something far more addictive and dangerous.

Those few passengers who were not incapacitated tended to keep their heads down, avoiding eye contact, as the revelers and partygoers gradually thinned out along the route.

This evening had been no exception.

And with only 10 minutes to go before their arrival at the final stop, there were now only a few sporadic passengers remaining on the vehicle.

All were situated downstairs on the bus's lower deck, with the exception of one young woman who was seated on her own on the upper level.

It was just at the point when the driver was beginning to ease up and thank God for a rare uneventful journey that a piercing scream echoed down the stairway behind him.

This sudden and unexpected commotion forced him to apply the brakes and pull over to one side of the road, before looking into the periscope at the side of his steering wheel to see what was going on.

As he did so, he caught sight of the disturbing image of the girl seated high above him writhing and twisting, as if she was suffering the effects of a seizure or other medical incident.

Gesturing to the rest of his passengers to remain seated, The driver hurriedly made his way up the stairs and attempted to calm the girl as he walked past the rows of empty seats towards her, noting that she appeared to be completely awake and in control of her actions.

But at the same time, she seemed to be struggling in a violent manner, trying to rise from her seated position, almost as if she was caught fast upon something.

Leaning across the writhing and screaming figure and trying to assist her in freeing herself, The driver suddenly recoiled in shock and horror, falling hard against the seats nearby.

He watched in utter disbelief as the badly burned and twisted human hand which was holding onto the girl's arm ever so slowly released its grip, remaining perfectly still for a moment, almost as if it was some sentient creature.

In an instant, it retreated directly through the cushioning of the rear section of the seat where the girl was sitting.

leaving absolutely no trace of its presence.

The girl tumbled into the driver's arms, with a series of dark red marks appearing on her skin where the charred and gnarled appendage had been holding on to her.

A faint whiff of acrid smoke hung in the air, this having been the only trace of the horrifying encounter which both of the traumatised witnesses had just experienced.

Located on Britain's northwestern coastline, facing outward towards the Irish Sea, Liverpool is one of the United Kingdom's oldest and largest settlements.

It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that this vast community possesses an abundance of famous hauntings and supernatural encounters.

From the phantom page boy who walks the corridors of the Adelphi Hotel to the ghostly priest of Speak Hall, there is no shortage of unearthly residents.

But Liverpool also plays host to a somewhat curious phenomenon, which is to to be found within its wider paranormal catalogue of time slips and strange reality glitches.

A significant number of inexplicable incidents have been reported, all of which relate directly to the city's transportation network.

These involve modern-day vehicles and travel routes, which could not possibly have any association with events from the past.

Yet somehow they continue to play host to mysterious encounters with entities which seem to defy any kind of rational explanation.

Beings and characters that appear alongside unassuming residents who are attempting to travel across the city.

More often than not, these apparitions choose to interact directly with their fellow passengers, often causing deep distress as a result of their actions.

Amongst these strange entities is a young girl with shoulder-length blonde hair who wears traditional Victorian dress and appears in front of numerous passengers along the city's number 10 bus route.

Mischievous in nature, she has been known to play tricks on others, delighting in poking sleeping passengers in the face with her finger in order to wake them up.

On each and every occasion, she will then disappear right before the witness.

leaving no physical trace that she had ever been present.

There are also multiple reports of faceless spirits riding the number 79, which have run away or disappeared when they've been challenged.

These apparitions present as having no recognisable features whatsoever, instead possessing perfectly smooth facial areas.

They appear isolated, well away from other passengers, and make no sound whatsoever when they are subsequently interacted with.

Several of these anonymous figures have been documented by members of the city's police force, which has been called to a number of incidents by terrified bus drivers.

When the police then approach these apparitions, they run off on foot and then disappear from sight, despite there having been no physical way for them to have escaped.

But perhaps the most unnerving incident to have ever taken place on the number 79 is reported to have occurred one afternoon during January of 1961.

An episode which deeply affected multiple witnesses and was so utterly traumatizing in nature that it firmly cemented itself within the city's already extensive supernatural law.

The day in question carried with it a biting chill in the air, despite the fact the skies were clear with a beaming sun.

Just after 12pm, the bus was making its way along Wavertree High Street, bringing passengers out of the city centre.

The driver that afternoon was a man by the name of Douglas Johnson, who was not a regular driver along that particular route.

Instead, he had been called in by his employers at short notice, due to several of the other drivers all suffering from a stomach illness, which had been making the rounds.

The bus at that time was carrying a relatively high number of passengers, who were spread somewhat evenly across both decks of the vehicle.

It had started out like any other afternoon service, until Douglas happened across an unexpected diversion along the route.

Sitting in the middle of the road, just outside the Thatched House pub, was a metal sign that was ordering him to turn onto Prince Alfred Road.

Indicating to turn right, Douglas had started to make the manoeuvre and then called out to inform the passengers of this development.

This, of course, resulted in a chorus of groans and protests due to the additional time which would likely be added onto the journey.

He had not travelled far along Prince Alfred Road when the engine had unexpectedly cut out, giving no prior warning or indication that it was going to do so.

This mechanical failure left the vehicle completely stranded at the junction with Hunter's Lane.

With the passengers growing restless behind him, Douglas was trying to restart the engine when he suddenly became aware of a figure standing immediately outside the doors.

Pausing his efforts and looking across at this odd-looking form, The driver was bewildered to see that they were wearing a dark-coloured hooded cloak with a black mask covering their face.

More worrying still, eight more figures dressed in an identical manner were all now standing at various other points around the exterior of the bus, effectively surrounding it.

In a heartbeat, the figure which had been stood outside the doors was suddenly standing right next to Douglas, having somehow entered the vehicle despite the doors having remained closed.

As Douglas rose to his feet to object to this this intrusion, the hooded figure had commanded him to sit back down, waving his hand in a dismissive manner.

The driver discovered that he could do nothing but obey the order, as if under some kind of spell, before then going on to lose consciousness.

As the conductor and passengers began to protest and shout about what was taking place, More of the figures now mysteriously materialized amongst their number.

They either gestured or verbally commanded the rest of the passengers to cease their complaints, seeming to send each one of them into a sleep or trance-like state as they moved through the bus.

At this point, a 16-year-old girl who had slipped down behind one of the seats to avoid detection suddenly darted out from her hiding place and managed to escape through the middle doorway.

Running as fast as she could along Church Road North and away from the vehicle, she had turned to find two of the cloaked figures desperately chasing after her.

In the distance ahead, the girl had caught sight of a lone police officer walking in the same direction she was running, apparently walking his daily beat.

Screaming for his attention, she had run up to the constable and pleaded with him to help her and the other passengers.

indicating the direction of the incident.

The two cloaked figures who had been running after her had now disappeared, and when she and the police officer had reached the road on which the stricken vehicle was situated, so too had the others who had been surrounding it.

Clearly persuaded by her impassioned and agitated state, the officer had told the girl to go into a nearby shop and to phone his local station to report the matter.

He then set off on foot down the road towards the bus, where he found the driver and all the passengers still sitting in an apparent trance-like state.

One at a time, and with a significant effort, the officer was gradually able to bring each of the vehicle's occupants back to a state of awareness, noting that every one of them took several minutes to recall what had taken place, apparently suffering from some form of memory loss.

They became highly emotional or agitated as they remembered the haunting robed figures who had incapacitated them.

The engine started up at the first time of asking, once the driver had recovered sufficiently from his ordeal to be able to continue on his journey.

When the officer asked him why he had driven the bus onto this particular stretch of road, as it was not a standard bus route, Douglas told him about the diversion at the Thatched House pub.

However, on further investigation, no such diversionary signage was found at that location.

In the years since the mysterious Wavertree encounter, many local commentators have sought to try and make sense of the event's bizarre circumstances.

A number of them propose that the whole affair may have been a joke or trick being played on the passengers.

likely by the driver and some unknown associates of his.

A prank that was hastily discontinued and then covered up when one of the passengers proved so intimidated as to go and involve the authorities.

Others have argued in favour of several similar scenarios, including an impromptu performance by local actors or students.

Alternatively, it might have been an attempted robbery or another criminal act.

which was abandoned by the perpetrators upon realizing it was doomed to fail.

There are also those who have suggested that the incident may have been the result of some form of mass hallucination or hysteria, somehow brought about by the unexpected diversion from what should have been a routine journey, producing a collective paranoia about what was taking place.

But there are other theories about what occurred on that strange and fateful day, which centre around the bizarre powers the cloaked figures seemed to possess.

Beings which appeared capable of passing directly through the metallic exterior exterior of the bus and incapacitating their victims with only the power of their minds.

These abilities raise questions regarding their origins, such as whether they may have travelled from the past or the far future, or may not have been of this Earth at all.

Perhaps they were interdimensional travellers, who had somehow accessed our reality through a weakness in the fabric of space and time.

Whatever the case may be, their motives for placing the driver and passengers into such a trance-like state remains a complete mystery to this day.

We first heard this story on the Beyond Creepy YouTube channel, an excellent resource for finding some of the most obscure cases on record, but after some more digging, it quickly became apparent that what happened in Wavertree High Street is only one of several bizarre incidents to have taken place across the Merseyside area.

It seems there have also been strange time slip occurrences and reality glitches in other locations, most notably the village of Thingwall and the infamous Bold Street in the Roatwalks district of Liverpool.

Could Merseyside be situated in an area where the boundaries between neighbouring realities or timelines are particularly weak?

And what possible dangers do those unlucky enough to slip between these cracks face?

Perhaps we'll find out when we explore these cases in future episodes.

Story 2 The Sandown Clown

During the mid-1970s, two small children would find themselves confronted by a mysterious figure whilst holidaying on the Isle of Wight.

From their description of this bizarre entity, it still remains unclear whether the encounter was paranormal or extraterrestrial in nature.

Join us as we explore the haunting story of the Sandown Clown.

The Isle of Wight is England's largest and second most populated island and lies a mere four miles from the shores of southern Hampshire.

Over the years, many of the idyllic coastal communities which surround the island have grown to become busy tourist destinations, with one of the most popular being a small town situated on its southeastern coast named Sandown.

The settlement and the bay in which it sits have been the site of a number of significant historical events, including an attempted invasion by French military forces.

It was also the site of the loss of the Royal Navy training vessel HMS Eurydice, which remains one of Britain's worst peacetime disasters.

But it would be a bizarre incident alleged to have taken place just outside the town during the Easter of 1973, which is perhaps the most unsettling to have occurred there.

One which may be linked to a wider series of inexplicable events reported to have transpired at or around the same time, suggesting a hidden undercurrent of strange and mysterious incidents which are somehow associated with the town and its surrounding area.

In May of that year, Two young children named Harry and Faye were holidaying with their respective families at Lake Common, which is located not far from Sandown Airport.

Both were around seven years of age and had headed off together one afternoon into a swampy area, which lay just outside the perimeter of the airfield.

It was a bright and sunny day, and the two children could see several workers through the nearby chain link fence which surrounded the facility going about their daily routine.

But then

The quiet of the afternoon was suddenly broken by the loud blaring of a nearby siren, very similar to that of an ambulance.

Standing and looking about themselves for the source of this interruption, the two children had initially assumed that something significant must have occurred inside the airport.

But to their surprise, the various mechanics there had continued to carry out their duties, seemingly oblivious to the sound as it rang out, across the distance.

Deciding to investigate further, the pair then set off away from the fence, making their way along a well-trodden footpath deeper into the adjoining marshy ground.

They had not travelled far and were just approaching a small pedestrian footbridge when the sound of the alarm unexpectedly ceased.

Moments later, A truly bizarre-looking shape had slowly clambered out from beneath the wooden bridge, prompting the two children to crouch down and hide in the nearest undergrowth.

They watched on as an overly tall figure unfolded itself into a fully upright position and then started to labour its way towards a patch of nearby open water.

Both would later relate how this person's gait was exceptionally stiff and awkward, as if they were completely unaccustomed to walking.

But however unusual the figure's manner of movement may have been, its visual appearance was even more astounding to the two onlookers.

Although outwardly resembling an adult male, they noted how it didn't seem to have a neck, instead exhibiting a pointed head, which seemed to have been planted firmly atop its square shoulders.

Either side of its face where there should have been ears was instead a pair of small antennae.

Its skin was of an exceptionally pale complexion, presenting as bright white in appearance.

Equally as outlandish were the clothes it was wearing, which included a torn bright green tunic and a grimy yellow hat which was topped off with some form of rounded metallic bobble.

Upon reaching the water, the figure appeared to drop something and then began to flail around erratically as if it was struggling to bend down and retrieve the object.

When it started to move off again, with an odd combination of shuffling and hopping, it disappeared from view through a dense clump of trees situated a short distance away.

A minute or so later, the siren-like sound which the children had heard earlier then resumed, emanating from the tree line into which the multicoloured stranger had disappeared.

This prompted some debate between the pair, with Harry suggesting they head back to the airfield and Faye arguing that they should follow the stranger into the trees.

As it turned out, Faye would have her way.

Almost immediately after entering the tree line, the pair encountered the seven-foot-tall entity in a small clearing, this time holding an equally strange-looking device in one of its hands.

During a subsequent interview with investigators, Faye would describe this as a microphone of some description, apparently connected to its chest by a length of white cable.

It was from this contraption that the blaring sound was being emitted, although it was not being held anywhere near the figure's face or mouth.

As the children emerged into the clearing, the slender figure turned to face them, causing Harry to turn and run.

But as Faye had also gone to flee, she had suddenly heard an odd metallic voice in her head, pleading with her not to leave and reassuring her that she was in no danger.

When Harry nervously rejoined her, the two children slowly approached the waiting stranger, who then put away the odd device and walked forwards to greet them.

With apparent difficulty, the colourful entity then produced a small notepad and pen, proceeding to write out the words, Hello,

I am all colours Sam.

An awkward pause then followed, before the stranger then began to speak in the same bizarre metallic tone that Faye had heard in her head.

The children noted that as it did so, the crude yellow lips which seemed to comprise its mouth were not actually moving.

This odd feature, along with a square nose and triangular patches where the eyes should have been, gave Faye the impression that Sam was wearing some kind of mask.

After a brief conversation, the stranger then asked the children to accompany him to his home, which was situated a short distance away.

Having persuaded themselves that despite its odd appearance this being was not a danger to them, Harry and Faye agreed to do so.

After following him a short distance, they eventually came to a rectangular metallic structure which was hidden hidden further away in the marshes.

Both children maintained that this construction was sparsely furnished, with chairs and a heating element, and walls covered with gauges and dials of varying descriptions.

Here, the stranger shared a simple meal of berries and water with Harry and Faye, who were then bewildered by the bizarre manner in which he ate.

He inserted the berries into a small aperture located beneath one of the antennae on the side of his head and then jerked his head to one side.

Seconds later, the children saw the berry apparently pass behind one of Sam's triangular eyes, before briefly appearing within his mouth where it then disappeared.

As time passed, they questioned Sam regarding who he was and where he came from, listening to his stilted and often confusing replies.

He explained that he was not like them and that he stayed away from people in the forest as he feared they would attack him for being different.

He reassured the children by stating that he was not a monster and that he was also not a ghost either.

He then bade them farewell, shuffling alongside them for a short distance back to the tree line.

before heading back in the direction of his home.

Initially, the children had decided to keep their encounter to themselves.

However, Faye eventually disclosed the incident to her father, prompting a brief search of the marshes for the mysterious stranger and his metal abode, though no trace of either was found.

Whilst initially dismissive of his daughter's and her friend's account, Faye's father soon became firmly convinced as to the validity of her story.

He would later inform investigators that the high level of detail she had provided regarding Sam's appearance had not deviated or varied in any way over the course of repeated questioning.

Furthermore, the incident she described was not so dissimilar from two other inexplicable events he himself had experienced during the last few years on previous visits to the location.

Three years prior, during October of 1970, Faye's family had again been holidaying on the Isle of Wight, staying with friends at their house in nearby Shanklin.

One evening, her father was driving across the island to visit another friend in Ryde, when he had suddenly become aware of what he assumed was a low-flying aircraft.

Slowing down, he observed a series of bright red lights rapidly descending from the night sky, before coming to a hover above the adjoining marshlands.

The lights, about seven or eight in total, were all distributed in a wide ring around a cylindrical metal fuselage, unlike anything he had ever seen before.

As he watched on, they then began to move quickly across the marshes, travelling at exactly the same speed and in exactly the same direction as his car.

Suddenly the lights rose up and rotated in a wide circle above his vehicle, before banking sharply to resume their parallel trajectory once again.

The lights then repeated this maneuver, making no sound whatsoever, before Faye's father pulled over to the side of the road.

He retrieved a torch from the glove box and then exited the vehicle, shining the beam up at the object, which then quickly receded into the darkness.

But as soon as he got back in the car and restarted the engine, the lights again moved closer, seemingly engaging in a peculiar game of cat and mouse.

This sequence of events repeated itself twice more during the journey, with Faye's father stopping and shining his torch at the unknown object before it then retreated from view each time.

In essence, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being stalked.

until it disappeared altogether as he neared his intended destination.

On another evening in March of 1972, Faye's father had again been travelling across the Isle of Wight when he experienced a strong compulsion to drive to the nearby cliffs.

Parking up and exiting his vehicle, he had detected a deep droning sound, clearly audible above the crashing of the surf against the base of the precipice.

Sitting down and scanning the stormy waters, he could not see anything that might account for the odd hum, despite a strong feeling that he was being observed.

Just then, a pair of bright yellow lights suddenly appeared beneath the surface of the waters, projecting upwards at the cliff face where he was sitting.

Whilst recounting his story in a magazine interview, Faye's father described the lights as small and circular, as if they were the eyes of a sea monster.

But like the object he had seen two years earlier, when he went to fetch his camera from his car, he found that the two lights below had disappeared upon returning to the cliff face.

They then rematerialized after he had replaced the device in the car, as if whatever was generating them was aware of his intention.

After several minutes, the lights then retreated from the coast, heading further out to sea.

As they did so, they had fixed him within their beams until they faded away altogether, leaving Faye's father feeling utterly alone and lost in the confusion of what he had just experienced.

During an interview with the British UFO Research Association in 1978,

Fay's father went as far as to state that he believed her experiences were directly linked to his own.

that whatever beings had observed him during his stay on the island had clearly elected to engage with his daughter as well.

He was unable to give an explanation as to what the enigmatic All Colours Sam may have been, but was sure the entity had not meant the two children any harm.

Instead, he believed it was simply continuing an ongoing process of monitoring and observation of his family whilst they were on the Isle of Wight.

In the years since, the incident concerning All Colours Sam has become known as the Sandown Clown, due to the colourful attire that the strange visitor was described as wearing.

It has sharply divided the opinions of those who have taken the time to dissect the events as described by those involved.

The fact that neither of the children's families chose to name themselves in interviews has been seized upon as indicative that the story was a hoax.

With no evidence that the police or anyone else in a position of authority had been party to the case, and only the reports of UFO researchers submitted as evidence of the event, it's understandable that many commentators have trouble giving the story any credence.

No trace of Sam's home has ever been found, despite repeated visits to the area and even questioning of local residents.

This has led to speculation that this was, at best, a tall tale by two small children, and at worst, a cunning attempt to try and increase tourist trade in the region.

The idea of a being that presents as truly bizarre in nature, trying hard but ultimately failing to pass itself off as something more familiar, is one commonly associated with close encounters of the third kind, especially where children are involved.

There is a theory that Sam's bizarre appearance may not have been the entity's true form, but instead, only appeared as such in the minds of Harry and Faye, so as to present as more approachable.

Sam's home may similarly have been constructed for this purpose, having never really existed.

Those who have reported encounters with the alleged men in black also describe a similar phenomenon, in which facial features such as noses or ears are oddly misrepresented and sometimes missing altogether, or they have penetrating eyes that don't blink.

Most encounters with men in black are entirely benign, despite the more frightening accounts.

Many believe these beings are extraterrestrial in nature and that their intention is only to study human beings up close without causing too much distress in the subject.

It is entirely possible that Sam was an emissary from beyond the stars, wanting to assess the children, but ultimately meaning them no harm.

There are those who believe he may have been a type of pixie or fairy, perhaps a woodland spirit, which are mentioned repeatedly in common folklore of the British Isles.

And of course,

there is always the possibility that Sam was a vagrant or local eccentric playing a trick on the children, despite no evidence of any such person living in or frequenting that area.

In the end, the encounter is certainly unlike any other visitation on record, either in the United Kingdom, or for that matter, any other part of the world.

That said, and as we will continue to discover, this is only one of many such bizarre encounters from across the globe, with entities that simply do not exist in day-to-day life.

If Sam was indeed another entity attempting to pass itself off as something whimsical and child-friendly, then the question remains,

who or what was behind the mask?

Bedtime stories.