Perplexity: A Halloween Collaboration Special

Speaker 2 Get ready for Malice, a twisted new drama starring Jack Whitehall, David DeCovney, and Carice Van Houten.

Speaker 2 Jack Whitehall plays Adam, a charming manny, infiltrates the wealthy Tanner family with a hidden motive to destroy them.

Speaker 2 This edge-of-your-seat revenge thriller unravels a deliciously dark mystery in a world full of wealth, secrets, and betrayal. Malice will constantly keep you on your toes.

Speaker 2 Why is Adam after the Tanner family? What lengths will he go to? One thing's for sure, the past never stays buried, so keep your enemies close.

Speaker 2 Watch Malice, all episodes now streaming exclusively on Prime Video.

Speaker 4 Degree Advanced, the world's number one antiperspirant, provides up to 72 hours of protection against the sweat and odor that comes with life.

Speaker 4 Degree is the wake up, work out, make a fully family breakfast antiperspirant, the dashing, darting, carpool honking, get the kids off to school antiperspirant, the work from home home and do the laundry, grocery shop in your lunch hour, never take a break, antiperspirant.

Speaker 4 So you can do what you need to do and work how you need to work.

Speaker 3 Sweat moves you forward.

Speaker 4 Degree is here to make sure it doesn't hold you back.

Speaker 5 Degree, here for sweat.

Speaker 6 Happy Halloween, friends and ghouls. Recently, I was featured on an episode of Perplexity, a mystery podcast hosted by a friend of the show Kadra Brannon.

Speaker 6 We were also joined by friends Cassidy, listen from drinking the Kool-Aid and Shelby Novak of Scare You to Sleep, sharing some very terrifying tales to celebrate the best holiday of the year.

Speaker 6 I wanted to share this episode with you as a Halloween treat because it was a lot of fun, and I know you're really going to like this one, especially if you're a fan of my podcasts.

Speaker 6 Kaedra and Cassidy will also be joining us for the live stream episode of Let's Not Meet tomorrow evening, November 1st at 7 p.m. Pacific over at twitch.tv/slash cryptic county.

Speaker 6 And they're going to share even more creepy stories with you. This Halloween couldn't get any better.
Enjoy this episode of Perplexity, and I'll see you all tomorrow night. Don't miss it.

Speaker 7 You are listening to Perplexity.

Speaker 9 Hello, everybody. Happy October.
Welcome to an episode of Perplexity, a Mystery Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Kaidra, and this is a very, very special episode.

Speaker 9 We are ringing in 150 episodes, which is just insane to think about. I started this show in December 2022, and this is a huge collaborative episode.
I picked these podcasts to be in this collab.

Speaker 9 While there are many more that I could have included, I picked these people because they have helped the show grow in many ways. They've also become friends to the show.

Speaker 9 So I'm really, really excited to have everybody in this collaborative episode.

Speaker 9 Everybody will be reading A Creepy Story from the Internet, which is a series that I've been doing on Patreon for a while. And I just thought it would be perfect for Halloween.

Speaker 9 But I wanted to include my podcast friends. So I hope you all enjoy it.
And be sure to check out everybody's links in the show notes.

Speaker 9 These are people that you are probably familiar with because I've collaborated with them before, but maybe not. And I know I have not done a collab with Let's Get Haunted before and they are amazing.

Speaker 9 So I'm really excited that you get to listen to this and I hope you find a new podcast to listen to through this. Happy Halloween and everybody stay safe this week.
I hope you enjoy.

Speaker 9 So the story I'm going to be reading is from the Glitch in the Matrix subreddit and it is from Reddit user 1-2 underscore 34.

Speaker 9 The story is titled, My Wife and I Saw Our Five-Year-Old Daughter, but Older. This happened a few months ago.
In early January, my wife and I were in the kitchen, prepping lunch and chatting.

Speaker 9 Our five-year-old daughter was in the living room watching TV. No one else was in the house.

Speaker 9 We live in a two-bedroom apartment, and the layout of the house allows us to see a bit of the corridor and hallway outside the kitchen door.

Speaker 9 My wife was cutting up food, and I was sitting behind her. As we talked, she started to turn around to face me, but stopped midway, staring at the kitchen door.

Speaker 9 She froze up completely, and I remember asking, what is it?

Speaker 9 She let out a loud gasp, and then I instinctively looked towards the door as well. I saw a brief glimpse of what seemed to be a person turning the corner toward the living room.

Speaker 9 It happened very fast, but I was sure I saw someone.

Speaker 9 I panicked. My immediate thought was, holy fuck, someone broke in.
My daughter's alone in the living room.

Speaker 9 The only thing I thought of doing was grabbing a knife, and I yelled at my wife to call the police.

Speaker 9 I rushed into the corridor and into the living room. But in the living room, there was nothing.

Speaker 9 My kid was just sitting on the couch watching Bluey.

Speaker 9 She looked at me and asked, what's up? With a confused expression. Mind you, I had a knife in my hand and probably looked crazy.
I tried to play it off and asked if she saw anyone come in the room.

Speaker 9 She hadn't and was clueless about what I was talking about. I searched the living room and the rest of the house.
No sign of a break-in, windows closed, and we live on the third floor.

Speaker 9 If someone had tried to escape that way, they would have fallen really bad.

Speaker 9 I checked everywhere. Wardrobes, behind curtains, the front door.

Speaker 9 Nothing.

Speaker 9 No signs of entry, and the front door was totally closed. We did not hear anyone come in.
or anything of the sort. So this all happened within maybe 10 minutes.

Speaker 9 I went back to the kitchen where my wife was crying. She had frozen up.
She didn't call the cops. I calmed her down, but she had gotten scared so badly, she couldn't even speak properly.

Speaker 9 When she calmed down, she explained to me what she saw. I personally only caught a very quick glimpse of the thing turning around the corner.
However, my wife says that she got a good look at it.

Speaker 9 She says she saw what looked like a tall woman dressed in a floral dress and high heels walking around the corridor.

Speaker 9 Neither of us heard any sound though. She said the woman stopped when she understood she was seen.

Speaker 9 She looked at my wife in the eyes and my wife swears the figure looked just like our daughter, but older. This happened in the space of seconds when she first froze up in shock.

Speaker 9 When my wife gasped, the woman hurried and turned the corner into the living room. I only saw this last part.

Speaker 9 If I hadn't caught a glimpse of it, I would ask my wife to go into therapy or something. But I know something was there.

Speaker 9 We never figured out what we saw, but it was definitely the strangest moment of my life, and I know it happened.

Speaker 12 I saw Wendigo, and I wish I hadn't.

Speaker 13 I need to write this down before I convinced myself it didn't happen.

Speaker 13 This happened in December last year. I was visiting my uncle in northern Minnesota, near the Canadian border.

Speaker 13 He's the kind of guy who prefers solitude, lives in a cabin deep in the woods, no close neighbors, just the trees and whatever lives in them.

Speaker 13 I never minded visiting.

Speaker 10 I like the quiet.

Speaker 13 But after that night, I don't think I'll ever go back. It was the coldest night of the year, at least negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
My uncle had gone into town for supplies, so I was alone.

Speaker 13 The cabin was warm, the fire crackling, and I was scrolling on my phone when I heard it. Something moving outside.
Not footsteps, more like a dragging sound.

Speaker 5 Slow, deliberate.

Speaker 13 At first, I thought it was the wind, but then came the knock.

Speaker 14 Not at the door, at the window.

Speaker 16 Three slow, deliberate taps.

Speaker 13 I froze. My uncle's nearest neighbor was miles away, and no sane person would be out in that cold.
The knocking came again.

Speaker 13 I reached for my flashlight and shined it through the window. I wish I hadn't.
There was something standing just beyond the tree line.

Speaker 13 It was tall, at least seven or eight feet, but emaciated with long, bony limbs.

Speaker 13 Its skin looked frostbitten, almost blackened, and its eyes were glowing, not reflecting light, glowing on their own, like embers buried in a dying fire. I should have looked away.

Speaker 13 I should have closed the curtains, but I was frozen. staring, unable to breathe.
And then, it smiled. Its teeth were too many, too sharp, stretching across its face.

Speaker 13 It opened its mouth wider than any human should, and then it spoke.

Speaker 13 Let me in.

Speaker 12 The voice didn't match the body. Like a recording playing at the wrong speed.

Speaker 16 Too deep, too garbled.

Speaker 7 I ran.

Speaker 16 I grabbed my uncle's rifle.

Speaker 12 I locked the door. and backed into the farthest corner of the room.

Speaker 17 The knocking stopped, but I could hear it scraping against the walls outside.

Speaker 12 Slow, patient, like it had all the time of the world. I sat there for what felt like hours, rifle shaking in my hands, until my uncle finally came back.

Speaker 12 The second his headlights swept across the trees, the noise stopped. He found me, pale, sweating, gripping the gun like my life depended on it.
I told him everything, and he didn't say a word.

Speaker 19 He just nodded.

Speaker 13 and checked around the cabin.

Speaker 12 When he came back, he looked unsettled. There were no tracks in the the snow, he said.

Speaker 16 Nothing.

Speaker 12 That was impossible.

Speaker 10 I heard it.

Speaker 5 I saw it.

Speaker 12 But there was nothing outside. No footprints, no marks on the walls.
Just the untouched snow and the silent, watching trees.

Speaker 17 I left the next morning and I haven't been back since.

Speaker 12 My uncle still lives there, but he told me something before I left. He said, quote, if you ever hear it, he said, Don't look.
And whatever you do, never let it in.

Speaker 17 I haven't told anyone else until now, but I know what I saw and I know it's still out there.

Speaker 1 Hey guys, I'm Nat. I'm Allie.

Speaker 22 And we are from the podcast Let's Get Haunted here to do just that.

Speaker 1 The following is a scary story posted to r/slash backwoods creepy on Reddit six years ago by a now deleted user. Title, My First Time Backpacking.

Speaker 1 These events occurred two summers ago in the Grand Teton area. My boyfriend at the time, now husband, let's call him H, was an avid outdoorsman and also served in the military.

Speaker 1 I was an ecology major and wanted to spend more time outdoors. So he decided to take me on my first backpack, just the two of us.

Speaker 1 For those who aren't familiar, the Grand Tetons are well known for their wildlife, specifically grizzly bears. First incident.
My boyfriend looked like Indiana Jones.

Speaker 1 Machete hanging from his belt, large knives attached to each side of his pack, bear spray strapped to his waist. You get the picture.
The beginning of our 25-mile journey was all uphill.

Speaker 1 When in bear country, you're supposed to make noise and not startle the wildlife by accidentally sneaking up on it.

Speaker 1 As you can imagine, going up a steep hill while carrying a 40-pound pack makes it difficult to make conversation. We were about an hour in and almost at the top of the ascent.

Speaker 1 I noticed that the woods had gone completely silent, save for the rushing stream that was to our left of the trail. Silent woods are never a good sign.
This usually indicates predators are nearby.

Speaker 1 At this point, I was in front of my boyfriend and we were about to crest the hill. For the past 20 minutes, we had not said a word to each other, having been too tired to speak.

Speaker 1 We noticed the silence at the same time and gave each other knowing glances. I came up over the top of the hill and immediately froze.

Speaker 1 Sitting not 10 feet in front of me in the middle of the trail was a grizzly bear. My husband wasn't aware yet as he was behind me, so I did the first thing I could think of.

Speaker 1 While still in my frozen stance, I managed to take my arm and started flinging it wildly behind me trying to get H's attention. I was too terrified to speak.

Speaker 1 The bear went from sitting to all fours, not looking away from us once.

Speaker 1 H quickly swung me around so that I was behind him and he just started yelling. Being in the military, he knows how to yell.
The grizzly wasn't quite phased as it started to walk slowly toward us.

Speaker 1 At this point, I was on the verge of passing out from terror. This bear was about five feet in front of us when we heard a loud crack

Speaker 1 coming from the woods to our right. The bear heard it too and he bolted toward the stream.
A second crack boomed again, this time much closer than before.

Speaker 1 H said, it's probably just some falling branches. But we both knew that wasn't the case.

Speaker 1 At this point, we were walking quickly up the trail in an attempt to create some distance from the grizzly and those strange strange noises. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up.

Speaker 1 And at that same moment, H stopped moving in front of me. He turned around to look at me and I turned to look behind me.
To this day, we are not sure what we saw.

Speaker 1 Back where we were standing was a large black and brown mass. It looked to be about three times bigger than the already large grizzly that we had seen just a few moments before.

Speaker 1 Its back was facing us, and then it stood on its back legs. It looked similar to a bear, but something about the shape was just off.

Speaker 1 At this point, it was probably stupid to run away, but that is exactly what we did. We were aware of heavy footsteps trailing behind us, but neither of us looked back.
Eventually, the footsteps faded.

Speaker 1 At this point, I was a mess. H was doing his best to console me.
Honey, this is extremely unusual. The bears usually stay away from humans.
We're going to be okay. I'm sure that won't happen again.

Speaker 1 That was enough to convince me to continue on the backpack. Not another hour later, though, we reached a clearing where we decided to take a rest and eat a snack.

Speaker 1 About a minute after we had sat down, I noticed bushes moving in a line toward the clearing. Toward us.

Speaker 1 Out of the brush comes this adolescent grizzly who looks just as spooked as I'm sure we did. But he came straight for us.

Speaker 1 H, being the crazy nut that he is, decided to charge back at the bear while screaming. Bear spray at the ready.
That did the trick and the bear ran off. All I could think was, just my luck.

Speaker 1 But that wasn't even close to what happened the second night. Second night.
Before we began our backpack, we had to let the ranger station know which trails slash route we planned to take.

Speaker 1 With this information, they usually send a ranger on horseback horseback at some point during the backpack to check on you to make sure everything's okay.

Speaker 1 There were not many approved trails left for us to choose from, and it was just our luck that they were the most difficult.

Speaker 1 Apparently over the three days we were on those trails, we had been the sole hikers. We didn't see a single other person once we were en route.

Speaker 1 Anyhow, I guess we missed the ranger who came to check on us. We had been following hoof prints the entire second day and we hadn't seen anyone the day before.

Speaker 1 I had some foot problems so we spent valuable daylight trying to adjust my boots slash laces slash socks to compensate for the pain.

Speaker 1 When we started on the trail again, we had maybe an hour or two of daylight left and in the woods, it gets dark fast.

Speaker 1 I was exhausted. It was now dark out and H was the only one with a working headlamp, as mine wouldn't even turn on for some reason.

Speaker 1 We needed to find somewhere to set up camp as we still needed to eat.

Speaker 1 It was freezing, the wind was blowing, and it was creating a howling sound as it rushed through the trees which made it difficult to hear H or discern any other sounds coming from the woods.

Speaker 1 After another hour of hiking through the dark, we finally found a clearing. Well, it was more like a bowl.

Speaker 1 It looked to be 200 meters in diameter with the sides being 10 meters down from the trail to the bottom of the clearing. This place was strange.

Speaker 1 We both felt it, though he didn't tell me how freaked out he was until after we had left.

Speaker 1 There was no moonlight, so all we had was the illumination from his headlamp and the flashlight that I fished from my pocket. Half of the trees were dead/slash fallen, just in the bowl.

Speaker 1 The vegetation everywhere else was very dense. To help alleviate my anxiousness, he started playing Ninja's sex party out of his portable speaker.

Speaker 1 This didn't help much as it just echoed off the trees, creating a dissonance of sounds. He also thought that it would ward off any predators nearby.

Speaker 1 This is when we knew our anxiousness wasn't just paranoia. The silence was back.

Speaker 1 There hadn't been a single bird chirp since we arrived at the clearing.

Speaker 1 It also may have had to do with the obnoxious music, but because of our previous experience, we decided to turn off the music and head into the tent. It was freezing.

Speaker 1 As soon as we were situated in our sleeping bags, we heard deep cracks and thuds echoing from beyond the tree line. Falling trees?

Speaker 11 We wondered.

Speaker 1 There had been a lot of wildfires and very little rain this season.

Speaker 9 Thud.

Speaker 1 We both froze. That sound wasn't an echo.
It came from inside the clearing. Definitely not a fallen tree.

Speaker 9 Thud.

Speaker 1 It came from right outside the tent now. We both stopped breathing.
H's hand found mine and we clung to each other, paralyzed.

Speaker 1 Something dragged across the outside of our tent, making an indent as it went along. It was thin,

Speaker 1 almost like a finger.

Speaker 8 What is it?

Speaker 1 I whispered, shaking.

Speaker 10 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Shouldn't be a person. We're the only ones on this side of the mountain.
I was trying my hardest to stifle sobs, trying to listen to what was outside.

Speaker 1 I could hear steps, but couldn't decipher what it was. Then the steps stopped.
And then the whole side of the tent was slowly pushed inwards.

Speaker 1 At this point, whatever was outside our tent knew that we were inside. So I shone my flashlight at the side of the tent.
What I saw made my blood run cold.

Speaker 1 It was the shape of a human face pressed into the tent wall. I could make out the nose and an open mouth.
Each time they breathed, it made the tent around their mouth billow in and out.

Speaker 1 H said, fuck that, and pulled a Glock from his sleeping bag. He cocked it, and the sound shattered the silence.

Speaker 1 Suddenly, the face pulled back and we heard fast footsteps heading towards the edge of the clearing. We didn't leave the tent till the sun was shining the next morning.

Speaker 1 The first thing we noticed was the smell of urine. We We came out of the tent and looked around.

Speaker 1 Whoever it was had peed on our coals we had left in the fire, leaving a disgusting stench of evaporated pea.

Speaker 1 Footprints surrounded our tent, circling around multiple times, and muddy handprints decorated the outside of the tent. We think it was mud anyway.

Speaker 1 The takeaway: wildlife is not the most dangerous thing in the back country.

Speaker 22 I can't leave my bathroom.

Speaker 22 About 30 minutes ago, I got out of the shower and I dried off, put on my PJs, opened the door to walk out, only to find myself back in my bathroom, staring at the closed door.

Speaker 22 I stopped and tried to rationalize what just happened to me. I convinced myself that I had simply imagined that I'd opened the door and stepped out.
So I tried again.

Speaker 22 I pushed the door handle down, opened it, stepped out, and yet again, I find myself in my bathroom, standing in front of a closed door. This has happened every single time I have tried to leave.

Speaker 22 I keep my phone in the bathroom with me when I'm showering. I live alone, so I keep it with me just in case, you know, for safety.
The first thing I did was call my parents.

Speaker 22 My dad didn't pick up, but my mom did. I tried to explain the situation to her, but she couldn't seem to understand how I was trapped in my own bathroom if I could open the door.

Speaker 22 She seemed convinced that I must mean that my bathroom door's lock was broken and that I was trapped inside. Regardless, she said that she would be over ASAP.

Speaker 22 She only lives like 15 minutes away, so she should be here any minute. I'm sat leaning against my bathtub, looking out the open bathroom door into my landing.

Speaker 22 I opened it this time, but I didn't even try to step out. Everything looks normal.
My bedroom door is closed just as I left it. The airing cupboard door as well.

Speaker 22 The stairs leading down the hallway and the front door, they're all normal.

Speaker 22 The door's shut. I don't have any recollection of how it shut, when it shut, only that it must have happened in the last few seconds after I wrote that last paragraph.

Speaker 22 I've just reread and reread that paragraph. It's proof that I'm not going crazy.
I'm not imagining this.

Speaker 22 My mom just texts me to ask if I'm in the house. I said, yes, of course I am.
I'm trapped in the bathroom. That's the whole reason that I called you here.
And this is what she sent.

Speaker 9 Why aren't you saying anything?

Speaker 22 What do you mean?

Speaker 10 Are you even in there?

Speaker 22 Yes, I'm in here.

Speaker 1 Are you here?

Speaker 22 I'm outside the bathroom door. I've been calling your name.

Speaker 22 I don't understand. I can't hear anything through the door.
I'm gonna open it.

Speaker 3 Okay,

Speaker 22 I can see my landing, my stairs, my front door, but no mom.

Speaker 22 I try to walk out, but it's fruitless. Back staring at the closed bathroom door again.

Speaker 22 My mom said she tried the handle of the door from her side, but it won't open. She brought tools to unscrew the lock.

Speaker 22 She says she's doing it now, but I can't hear anything, and I can't see the handle moving.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 22 mom texted me. She said the lock is taken out, but the door still won't open, not on her side.
She looked through the circular hole in the door where the lock was and just saw an empty bathroom.

Speaker 22 There's no hole on my side of the door. The handle, the lock, they're all intact.

Speaker 22 I have no idea what's happening or how I can get out. After much convincing my mom the fact that I actually am here, she said that she's calling someone to possibly knock the door down.

Speaker 22 I'm worried that once they do that, they'll find an empty bathroom and I'm still in here. I'm trapped in my bathroom.
There's no plug sockets in here. Never mind my phone charger.

Speaker 22 And my phone will die at some point. I'm already on 24%.
When it runs out, I might lose my only point of contact with the rest of the world.

Speaker 17 I don't know what to do.

Speaker 22 Mom's left now to go get help, and I'm just sat here wondering what I can do. I tried to break down the door myself.
I knew it wouldn't work, but I had to try.

Speaker 22 I remember reading once on Reddit that you shouldn't use your shoulder. You should try to kick it down, you know, by the lock because that's a weak point.
It didn't work.

Speaker 22 I'm not sure any part of this door has a weak point at this point.

Speaker 22 The window is small, and I'm not sure if I'd even be able to actually fit through it.

Speaker 22 Scratch that. The window won't open open either.
There are locks on the windows in my house.

Speaker 22 You can lock them with a little key, but I never received any when I moved in, so I've never been able to lock them. This is now locked though.

Speaker 22 It's got one of those white plastic cheap blinds covering it. I ended up just ripping that down.
It's pulled some plaster down with it, but now I can get at the window better.

Speaker 22 It's straight above the toilet, so I'm kneeling on top of the toilet lid, yanking at the window handle, and it won't budge.

Speaker 23 Wait.

Speaker 22 It opened.

Speaker 22 I didn't notice how dark it was outside. It shouldn't be dark right now.
It's midday.

Speaker 22 I look around, desperately trying to see anyone, and no one is around. And everything looks kind of

Speaker 22 muted.

Speaker 22 I can't really describe it, nor can I describe this deep-seated feeling of dread and wrongness as I look out on my own neighborhood.

Speaker 22 My instincts are telling me not to, but I stick my head out the window and I look down to where I could possibly drop.

Speaker 22 My window's closed. Wait, I never felt myself move, but my window's closed? Even the fucking plastic blind is back in place.

Speaker 22 I'm sat on the floor now, as far away from the window and the door as I can get. I feel sick.

Speaker 22 Mom came back, along with her work friend. He helped her unscrew the hinges and remove the door, and I'm not in there.

Speaker 22 They can't see me.

Speaker 22 My mom sent a photo of her inside the bathroom. No me.
She thinks this is all just a big joke and is refusing to reply to my texts or answer my calls. I'm on 14% battery.

Speaker 22 I don't know if I will ever get to leave. This might be my only chance to say goodbye to my mom, but she won't answer her phone.

Speaker 1 Edit.

Speaker 22 I've ripped down the shower curtain and yet I'm staring at it right now, hung up, hanging over the side of my bath. I looked out the window again.
I think I hear rumbling, low, quiet rumbling.

Speaker 22 I haven't opened the window since. My phone's on 1%.

Speaker 22 If I get out, I'll update this post. If no edit comes,

Speaker 22 assume I'm still here.

Speaker 21 Welcome to the Live, Laugh, Larceny portion of this spooky stories extravaganza. This is Trevin.

Speaker 24 And I am Amanda, and we are a true petty crime podcast.

Speaker 18 And we are so excited to be a part of of this spooky Halloween episode.

Speaker 21 Yeah, we're usually the ones making dumb crimes and tiny things sound like they're really serious, so we don't actually get a chance to read things that might be super serious.

Speaker 24 Yes, and this story does sound pretty scary, and I think it's going to pair really nicely with your music and sound effects today, Trevin.

Speaker 21 Why don't we just jump on into this then?

Speaker 17 Okay.

Speaker 21 Because I've got a Reddit story called, I heard a creepy voice whisper, help, while walking alone in the woods at night.

Speaker 18 I think we're all gonna need help after this one.

Speaker 21 This is a Reddit story that was sent in, it looks like four years ago from a Redditor with the profile name Monster Sheik16.

Speaker 24 Oh, I was hoping it was gonna be Monster Sheik 69, but I'll take it.

Speaker 17 Yeah, we'll take 16.

Speaker 15 Yeah. Okay, here we go.

Speaker 21 This was about four or five-ish years ago. Back then, I lived with my mother in a shed on a farm surrounded by woodland.

Speaker 21 Our farmland was part of a larger piece of farmland that was split up and sold off, so we did have neighbors, but they were roughly half a kilometer away each. We loved that because of the privacy.

Speaker 21 It wasn't like there was nobody nearby I couldn't go to if I needed help.

Speaker 21 That thought is what I had fearlessly walking alone at night between the hours of 7 and 8 p.m., sometimes fluctuating from earlier to later depending on the day.

Speaker 21 Sometimes I even went out on a walk at 2 a.m.

Speaker 7 in the morning because I was restless and couldn't sleep.

Speaker 21 Looking back, this was incredibly stupid, and after this incident, I never walked after 6 p.m. ever again, always making sure there was at least some sunlight left when I set out.

Speaker 21 The first part was out in the open in front of all the other farms, including my own.

Speaker 21 If anything had happened, at least one person would have noticed, and reception was pretty good, so I would have also been able to call someone.

Speaker 21 The second half, on the other hand, was concealed by about 200 meters of woods between the farms and the back road, stretching the full two kilometers at the back of the farm.

Speaker 21 And it was during that part of the walk when I had this creepy encounter. It was late at night.
I can't remember what time exactly, but it was pitch black with the exception of my torchlight.

Speaker 21 I was about to approach the turn in the loop that would bring me out to the open again when I heard it.

Speaker 21 It was the monotone voice that repeatedly asked for help. It didn't seem panicked in the least.

Speaker 21 I took my headphones out and turned my music off to make sure I was hearing correctly, but it didn't stop.

Speaker 9 I think I just peed.

Speaker 21 A very stupid part of me almost responded, because for some reason, my first first instinct was, oh no, someone's in trouble, like a naive kid, even though I would have been like 16 or 17 at the time.

Speaker 21 Of course, then my brain kicked in and realized that approaching that voice was just about the stupidest thing I could do. So I started quietly backing away.

Speaker 21 Unfortunately, my cat had followed me on the walk and wasn't backing away with me. No, she was walking towards the voice, softly hissing.

Speaker 21 I remember desperately trying to get her to come back towards me without alerting the voice to my presence, just in case they hadn't noticed me yet.

Speaker 21 But I was getting scared and didn't want to stay there a moment more, so I ran towards and grabbed her, then turned around and bolted back towards my house.

Speaker 21 I didn't know if it was stupid of me to turn my back to the voice, as I was making so much noise while running, but there was no way they didn't know I was there, and I had no way of knowing if they were giving chase.

Speaker 21 I was so fucking terrified the whole time, the image of someone cloaked in shadows chasing me entered my mind.

Speaker 21 And even though I couldn't hear anyone behind me, I never once slowed down until I was back safe and sound within my house. It doesn't end there though.

Speaker 21 Despite how terrifying it was, there was still a part of me that was concerned about whoever it was.

Speaker 5 Because what if they really had needed help?

Speaker 21 So I asked my mother to drive us to the location, another very stupid decision considering what we found. That being nothing, we called out and called out, but nobody answered.

Speaker 17 We didn't get out of our car though.

Speaker 21 Luckily neither of us were that stupid. We drove home, having seen nothing and no one.

Speaker 21 But it still bothered me in the morning, so I had my mother drive us over again and we searched the immediate area. Nothing.
No indication that anyone had been there.

Speaker 21 There was no body, which admittedly was a drastic thing to search for.

Speaker 21 But I know shock can leave you eerily calm, which could have explained the monotone voice, and the lack of response afterwards made me fear that we would have been too late and we'd find a body in the morning.

Speaker 21 I don't know if I would have preferred this outcome. At least then I would have had a face to the voice.
But no, we found absolutely nothing to this day.

Speaker 21 I have no idea who the voice belonged to and why they were monotonously calling out for help. My mind has naturally come to some chilling conclusion and theories that leaves me unable to sleep.

Speaker 7 Rapist?

Speaker 21 Kidnapper? Serial killer? All the classic horror stories. But I guess I'll never really know, for sure.

Speaker 15 Bump, bump, bump.

Speaker 21 Ominously, I think the scariest thing was the grammar of that writing, am I right?

Speaker 18 Hopefully the author is not listening to this current collab.

Speaker 18 Wow, that actually would be really scary. Yes.

Speaker 24 In my mind, I was wondering, okay, maybe did they not actually hear this and it it was just something else? But if your cat is hissing, then yeah, cats know when there's evil around.

Speaker 5 Oh, yeah, I trust the pets.

Speaker 21 Granted, and I think everybody can agree with me, we have caught our animals many a time seeing things that aren't there.

Speaker 21 So I don't know why we feel like we can trust them as a gauge in these situations.

Speaker 15 Or were they, Trevin?

Speaker 18 Maybe it was a ghost.

Speaker 21 Emily and I have a thing with our Torti Harvey that we say she has a case of the demons. At certain points, she just looks at us with those big eyes and we're like, oh, she's got a case of the demons.

Speaker 16 And then she just

Speaker 24 that is really scary, though. That was a good story.
Perfect for spooky Halloween times.

Speaker 21 Yes, I can't wait to hear what the rest of everybody before and after us have to add to this. And it's really cool to be a part of this whole thing.
We love spooky stories. We love spooky season.

Speaker 21 Kajra got to be on the one that I put on for our show, and I'm so glad to get to be on hers. Thank you, Kaja, with Perplexity, for putting this together.

Speaker 14 And make sure you're giving her a follow, especially because she put this whole thing together.

Speaker 10 Yes.

Speaker 24 And if you'd like to hear more petty crimes, go ahead and listen, Live, Laugh, Larceny, wherever you're listening now.

Speaker 7 And happy Halloween.

Speaker 14 Ooh, yes.

Speaker 21 Get spooky, y'all.

Speaker 1 One evening when I was in my junior year of high school, my mom and dad went out, leaving me home alone. I had a lot of homework to do, so I spent the whole evening sitting at my desk in my bedroom.

Speaker 1 My parents left the house around 6 p.m.

Speaker 1 While I was doing my homework, I put on my headphones and I listened to loud music. There was a big storm that night, and my desk was facing the window, so I could see the rain and lightning outside.

Speaker 1 My parents got back around 11 p.m. When I saw their car drive up, I took off the headphones.
As soon as my mom opened the front door and came inside, I heard her shout my name.

Speaker 1 What on earth happened in here? She demanded in an angry voice. Confused, I ran downstairs.
My mom was standing in the hallway with a furious look on her face.

Speaker 1 She pointed at the floor and yelled, was this you?

Speaker 1 I looked down and saw that the carpet was covered in muddy footprints. I have no idea how those got there.
I spent the whole night at my desk doing my homework.

Speaker 1 I watched as the look on her face changed from anger to confusion and then to fear. We both realized it at the same time.
Someone else must have been in the house.

Speaker 1 We followed the trail of footprints, trying to make sense of the whole situation. They started at the back door, which we usually left unlocked.
Then we noticed something else.

Speaker 1 The footsteps started at the back door, but there was no trail of footprints leading through the back door. All of a sudden, we hear something, a loud, pounding noise that echoed throughout the house.

Speaker 1 Then, the sound of the front door being wrenched open and slammed shut again. Wham!

Speaker 1 We all ran into the garage and locked the door behind us. My mom took out her cell phone and called the police.
Please come quickly, she shouted. Someone's in our house.

Speaker 1 After what seemed like hours, a patrol car arrived with two police officers, a male and a female.

Speaker 1 One officer stayed with us in the garage while his partner went through the house, searching it room by room.

Speaker 1 When she came back, the female officer told us that there was no one in the house and it was safe to go back in.

Speaker 1 As we were all breathing a sigh of relief, she asked, Whose bedroom is upstairs on the left? My parents looked at me. It's mine, I told the officer.
She asked us to follow her.

Speaker 1 As we walked through the house, we could see the trail of muddy footprints leading from the back door, through the living room, through the hallway, up the stairs, into my parents' bedroom, and then towards my room.

Speaker 1 They stopped at my doorway. The female officer pointed at my door, which had been opened the whole night.
Scrawled on it in black marker was the following. At 8:47, I see you.

Speaker 1 At 8:53, you forgot to lock the back door. At 8:59,

Speaker 1 you seem focused.

Speaker 1 At 9:24,

Speaker 1 turn around.

Speaker 1 At 9:47,

Speaker 1 look at me. At 10:15, look at me.

Speaker 1 At 10:37,

Speaker 1 look at me. At 10:49, 10.49, look at me.

Speaker 1 For more than two hours, someone had been standing in my doorway watching me. To this day, I still shudder to think what would have happened if I had turned around.

Speaker 11 Hi, I'm Shelby Novak from the show Scare You to Sleep and also the Bloody Disgusting podcast. And I'm going to read to you a story from the subreddit Glitch in the Matrix by user LiquidGold83.

Speaker 11 So this actually happened last week. It just took me some time to come to terms with it.

Speaker 11 I got a phone call from my next door neighbor late in the evening asking if I can help him move a mattress into his upstairs. His mom is ill and has a big heavy sleep number bed.

Speaker 11 I of course ran over to help because they're great neighbors. I get over there and his friend who is is also a priest, was there to help.

Speaker 11 I helped them figure out how to separate the mattress from the bed so we could fit it upstairs.

Speaker 11 We get it all moved up and back in place when my neighbor asks if I can help them move an armoire upstairs too.

Speaker 11 I think nothing of it and we pull it out of his travel trailer and start bringing it up the front stairs of his house.

Speaker 10 This

Speaker 11 is where I died.

Speaker 11 The front stairs are 11 steps.

Speaker 11 I was on the lower end of the armoire about six steps up when my neighbor and his friend lose a handle on the armoire and it comes crashing down on me and I fall backwards towards the pavement.

Speaker 11 I then wake up in my dining room to my phone ringing and my wife asking me if I'm going to answer the phone. It's my neighbor asking me if I can help move a bed upstairs for his mom.

Speaker 11 I go over there and meet his priest friend again, as this has been the first time I met him.

Speaker 11 I say I can help with the bed, but I cannot help with the armoire. My neighbor was like, how'd you know about the armoire?

Speaker 11 I then proceeded to tell them, I'm pretty sure I just died.

Speaker 11 I spent the next hour talking with the priest. He had so many questions.

Speaker 11 My neighbor didn't believe it until I described the upstairs bedroom in perfect detail down to the the metal mattress frame on the floor and the intricate headboard leaning against the wall.

Speaker 11 And I had never been upstairs in their house before.

Speaker 11 The priest asked me what I saw after I died.

Speaker 3 I told him, I never actually died.

Speaker 11 Before it happened, I woke up at my dining room table.

Speaker 11 TLDR, I experienced my death, but woke up alive about 20 minutes earlier in my life.

Speaker 11 Thank you.

Speaker 6 Last year, I met a girl, fell in love, and got engaged.

Speaker 25 She had two little girls who I love dearly.

Speaker 6 We all moved into a house together October last year.

Speaker 6 Nothing too out of the ordinary happened, but one morning she comes to me and tells me she's pregnant.

Speaker 6 She tells me that with the girls, she got postpartum very badly and explained breastfeeding can make it worse. I said that we could do formula for the baby.

Speaker 6 The added bonus of this being I can help with nighttime feedings and it wouldn't all be on her.

Speaker 6 Fast forward 10 months and the baby is here. We keep him in a bassinet by the foot of our bed.
When it's my fiancée's turn to feed him, she prefers to bring him into our bed.

Speaker 6 I worry that I may fall asleep, so during my turns, I take him downstairs and lie down on the beanbag and watch TikToks while he eats. The girls' bedrooms are across the hall from our room.

Speaker 6 The baby has a very distinct cry that he uses when he's actually hungry and doesn't just want want his pacifier back in his mouth. My fiancé calls it his pterodactyl scream.

Speaker 6 One night last week, it was my turn to feed him at around 3 a.m.

Speaker 6 I got up, made his bottle, then took him downstairs. The dog and the cats all followed me.
I usually let the dog out to use the bathroom.

Speaker 6 I changed the baby's diaper, then got comfy on the bean bag with the baby next to me. Bottle in one hand, TikTok in the other, I let him drink away.
He finished and fell asleep.

Speaker 6 I wasn't quite done with the TikTok that I was watching, so I sat up and put his pacifier in. About one minute later, I hear his pterodactyl cry, but it's coming from upstairs.

Speaker 6 I was very confused and completely shocked. I just froze for a few seconds.
I thought, I must be really, really tired.

Speaker 6 I put TikTok away, then looked down at my son, and just as I was about to stand up, I heard the cry from upstairs again.

Speaker 6 There was no denying what I heard.

Speaker 6 I got my flashlight on my phone out and cautiously headed up the steps. Trying to come up with a rational explanation, I thought, I'm just hearing things that aren't there.

Speaker 6 Then I open our bedroom door, and my wife is sitting up, wide awake.

Speaker 6 I asked her if she heard that and she said yes.

Speaker 6 I said that it sounded like the baby,

Speaker 6 but I had the baby with me.

Speaker 6 She suggested maybe one of the girls made the noise. I handed her the baby and I went to check on them both.
They were sound asleep.

Speaker 6 The cats, our dog, and our baby were all downstairs with me, so none of them made this sound.

Speaker 6 I was really freaked out at this point.

Speaker 25 I returned to our bedroom.

Speaker 6 My fiancé was putting the baby in his bassinet and lying down to go back to sleep.

Speaker 6 In a whisper, I asked her, What was that? And she just said, No, we're not going to talk about it. Let's pretend it never happened.

Speaker 6 We then fell asleep.

Speaker 6 It's been about a week now, no noises at night, but I don't rest easy, knowing that something is there.

Speaker 3 Hello and welcome to this Halloween extravaganza. Thank you so much to Kaidra for having me be a part of it.
My name is Alicia Watson and I am one half of the Twisted and Uncorked podcast.

Speaker 3 And I also host a show with Fire Eyes Media called Truly Twisted. Now, today I have a very specifically picked for me story to tell you.

Speaker 3 This comes from r slash paranormal with the user being specificattempt 9057 and it's titled A Mimic Tried to Lure Me Out. I lived in the same house my entire childhood and teenage life.

Speaker 3 In that time I experienced countless paranormal or unexplained events many of which from what I've heard people call mimics.

Speaker 3 The house owned by my father was fairly new, built in the 80s and as far as I know no one ever died in the house or on the property.

Speaker 3 However, I have heard locals talk about the surrounding location was where Native American tribes used to live.

Speaker 3 So I've kind of always chalked up any activity to that.

Speaker 3 I have several experiences I could recount, but for now I will share the one most bone-chilling.

Speaker 3 Once I reached 13 years old, my parents started letting me stay home alone with my older brother, who was about two years ahead of me.

Speaker 3 On the days that they were at work, however, since my brother was in sports, he usually wouldn't get home from school until an hour and a half to two hours after I had.

Speaker 3 I would get dropped off on the bus and he'd come home on his bike after practice.

Speaker 3 Anyways, as I mentioned above, my whole life I experienced weird activity in that house. I want to say that my first encounter was around five years old.

Speaker 3 So at 13 years old I had seen enough to creep me out when I was home alone. Also whenever I was home alone the energy always felt so much stronger.

Speaker 3 I walked in the house and my hair would practically stand up straight.

Speaker 3 So on the days that both my parents were at work I developed this routine of checking the house with a knife before locking myself in the bathroom with it, and playing games on my phone until I heard my brother get home.

Speaker 3 It's kind of odd I'd gravitate towards the bathroom, but when I think about it, it's well lit, small sized, with a door that locked.

Speaker 3 Also, with a wall always to my back. It eliminated the possibility of something creeping up behind me.

Speaker 3 Everywhere else in the house felt like something was breathing down my neck. So the bathroom became my safe space.

Speaker 3 One day, about an hour into my routine bathroom hideaway, I hear the signature squeak of the sliding door leading from the garage into the house.

Speaker 3 I then hear what sounds like my brother's footsteps walking into the main area or kitchen of the house and throwing his keys down on the table and letting out one of his loud, identifiable burps.

Speaker 3 Kind of funny that I can tell you which family members who by the sound of their footsteps and the noises of their gas, but I digress.

Speaker 3 Finally, I think to myself, feeling a wave of relief wash over me that now somebody was home, and I can stop hiding in the bathroom with a knife.

Speaker 3 I set my phone down and stand up, ready to leave the bathroom, but the moment my hands reach for the doorknob to unlock it, and step out and say hi, a chill runs through me.

Speaker 3 Something instinctual was telling me to pump the brakes. Something was not right.

Speaker 3 I couldn't put my finger on it, but it's almost like when you see an image that looks real, but upon further inspection you realize it's AI.

Speaker 3 I don't know, that's the best way I can describe it. It just felt eerily artificial in a way.
Maybe it's because my brother would always come in through the front door, not the garage.

Speaker 3 Also, he'd keep his keys in his room, not on the table. I don't know, something about it just wasn't lining up.
So I texted my brother, are you home? Which he immediately replied, no.

Speaker 3 Leaving practice now, my blood ran cold.

Speaker 3 As soon as I read his message, all the noise in the main area of the house stopped.

Speaker 3 For a moment, it was dead quiet, and then all of a sudden, I heard the kitchen stools getting dragged across the tile floor.

Speaker 3 Not thrown, not shoved, like someone was picking up the edge of the stool and quickly walking out of the kitchen to the living room. The house is an open concept.

Speaker 3 I immediately texted my brother back saying there's someone in the house.

Speaker 3 Just then I hear my dog leap onto the couch, the cushions making their familiar squeak, and then she starts growling and snarling at something.

Speaker 3 I'm sitting in the bathroom, silently crying my eyes out, gripping the knife that I have with me like it's my lifeline, and being careful not to make a peep of noise.

Speaker 3 At this point, it sounds like stuff is being tossed around. My dog is barking like crazy at something, and naturally I'm confused because I vividly heard my brother just a moment ago.

Speaker 3 But now it sounds like a massively large man is stumping around the house.

Speaker 3 I would have called the police, but this felt supernatural, and I didn't want to look like a lunatic if police showed up and found nothing. A few minutes of noise goes by.

Speaker 3 and then ceases immediately when my brother texts me, I'm home now, about to walk in. I hear him come through the front door and say something like, hello? No one is here, so I decide to come out.

Speaker 3 After I stepped out of the bathroom, I thought for sure the house would be a total mess from all the racket that I had just heard. But to my shock, everything was exactly as I left it.

Speaker 3 Nothing was out of place, damaged, or even touched. The garage door that I heard swing open, well, that was completely locked from inside the entire time.

Speaker 3 It had never budged. The only sign that something was off was my dog, who was still on the couch with her fur standing up looking terrified.

Speaker 3 This was almost 10 years ago now, but recounting this still chokes me up and gives me goosebumps.

Speaker 3 I've come to the conclusion that a mimic or a demon or some sort was trying to lure me out of the bathroom that day.

Speaker 3 And when I didn't take the bait, it got angry and became aggressive. I don't don't know, I'm not an expert.

Speaker 3 I've encountered a mimic a few other times in this house, and I will share if anyone is interested.

Speaker 3 Side note, I need to add that I do not suffer from any mental illness, nor does anyone in my family. And I would also like to say that I was not on any drugs at the time.

Speaker 3 I just want to say thank you so much to Kaidra for having me again for this segment. I myself have experienced something mimic-like, and the demonic distorted voice

Speaker 3 way too familiar to me. I have shared this story in an episode of Kaidra's featuring Believing the Bazaar where she actually read my listener story.
So if you'd like to hear that, go listen there.

Speaker 3 But otherwise, enjoy the next story.

Speaker 8 Astonishing Legends Network.

Speaker 5 Scared All the Time presents a dramatic reading of the original Black Eyed Kids story. Posted online by Brian Bethel on Friday, January 26th, 1998.

Speaker 5 Subject Those Darned Black Eyed Kids.

Speaker 5 I don't really know what I'd call this story if I was submitting it for publication in Fate or something of its ilk.

Speaker 5 Maybe Brian vs. the evil black-eyed, possibly vampiric or demonic, but at least not bloody normal kids.
That doesn't have much of a ring to it. Shrug.

Speaker 5 Smiley face. But that's at least an accurate title.
As so many things do, it all started out innocently.

Speaker 5 My internet service provider used to have offices in a shopping center before they moved to their comparatively lush accommodations elsewhere. There was a drop box at that original location.

Speaker 5 The monthly bill was due, and thus, there but for the grace of the net, I went. It was about 9:30 p.m.
when I left.

Speaker 5 From my relatively isolated apartments, it's about 10 to 15 minutes or so to downtown. Abeline has a population of about 110,000.

Speaker 5 Right next to Camelot Communications old location is a $1.50 movie theater. At the time, the place was featuring that masterwork of modern film, Mortal Kombat.

Speaker 5 I drove by the theater on the way into the center proper and pulled into an empty parking space.

Speaker 5 Using the glow of the marquee to write out my check, I was startled to hear a knock on the driver's side window of my car. I looked over and saw two children staring at me from the street.

Speaker 5 I need to describe them with the one feature, you can guess what it was, that I didn't realize until about halfway through the conversation, cleverly omitted.

Speaker 5 Both appeared to be in that semi-mystical stage of life children get into where you can't exactly tell their age.

Speaker 5 Both were boys, and my initial impression is that they were somewhere between 10 and 14.

Speaker 10 Boy number one was the spokesman.

Speaker 5 Boy number two didn't speak during the entire conversation. At least not in words.

Speaker 5 Boy number one was slightly taller than his companion, wearing a pullover hooded shirt with a sort of grey-checked pattern and jeans. I couldn't see his shoes.

Speaker 5 His skin was olive colored and had curly, medium-length brown hair. He exuded an air of quiet confidence.
Boy number two had pale skin with a trace of freckles.

Speaker 5 His primary characteristic seemed to be looking around nervously. He was dressed in a similar manner to his companion, but his pullover was a light green color.
His hair was a sort of pale orange.

Speaker 5 They didn't appear to be related, at least directly. No great, I thought.
They're gonna hit me up for money. And then the air changed.

Speaker 5 I've experienced this before, but for the benefit of any new lurkers out there, right before I experience something strange, there's a change in perception that comes about, which I describe in the above manner.

Speaker 5 It's basically enough time to know it's too late. Winkyface.

Speaker 5 So there I was, filling out a a check in my car, which was still running, and in a sudden panic over the appearance of two little boys.

Speaker 5 I was confused, but an overwhelming sense of fear and unearthliness rushed in nonetheless. The spokesman smiled, and the sight, for some inexplicable reason, chilled my blood.

Speaker 5 I could feel fight-or-flight responses kicking in. Something I knew instinctually was not right, but I didn't know what it could possibly be.

Speaker 5 I rolled down the window very, very slightly and asked, yes?

Speaker 5 The spokesman smiled again, broader this time. His teeth were very, very white.
Hey, mister, what's up? We have a problem, he said.

Speaker 5 His voice was that of a young man, but his diction, quiet, calm, and something I still couldn't put my finger on, made my desire to flee even greater.

Speaker 5 You see, my friend and I want to see the films, but we forgot our money, he continued. We need to go to our house to get it.
Want to help us out?

Speaker 7 Okay.

Speaker 5 Journalists are required to talk to lots of people, and that includes children. I've seen and spoken to lots of them.
Here's how that usually goes. Uh uh mm mm-mm-mister, can I see that camera?

Speaker 10 I won't, I won't break it or anything, I promise.

Speaker 5 My dad has a camera and he lets me hold it sometimes, I guess, and I took a picture of my dog.

Speaker 5 It wasn't very good, because I got my finger in the way and added some feet shuffling and or body swaying, and you've got a typical kid talking to a stranger. In short, they're usually apologetic.

Speaker 5 People generally teach children that when they talk to adults, they're usually bothering them for one reason or another, and they should at least be polite. This kid was in no way fitting the mold.

Speaker 5 His command of language was incredible, and he showed no signs of fear. He spoke as if my help was a foregone conclusion.

Speaker 5 When he grinned, it was as if he was trying to say, I know something, and you're not gonna like it. But the only way you're going to find out what it is will be to do what I say.

Speaker 5 Uh well, was the best reply I could offer. Now here's where it starts to get strange.

Speaker 5 The quiet companion looked at the spokesman with a mixture of confusion and guilt on his face.

Speaker 5 He seemed in some ways shocked, not with his friend's brusque manner, but that I didn't just immediately open the door. He eyed me nervously.
The spokesman seemed a bit perturbed too.

Speaker 5 I still was registering something wrong with both. Come on, mister, the spokesman said again, smooth as silk.
Car salesman could learn something from this kid.

Speaker 5 Now, we just want to go to our house, and we're just two little boys. That really scared me.
Something in the tone and diction again set off alarm bells.

Speaker 5 My mind was frantically trying to process what it was perceiving about the two figures that was wrong.

Speaker 5 Uh um

Speaker 5 was all I could manage. I felt myself digging my fingernails into the steering wheel.

Speaker 10 What

Speaker 5 uh what movie were you going to see? I asked finally. Mortal Kombat, of course, the spokesman said.
The silent one nodded in affirmation, standing a few paces behind.

Speaker 10 Oh,

Speaker 5 I said. I stole a quick glance at the Marquis and at the clock in my car.
Mortal Kombat had been playing for an hour, the last showing of the evening. The silent one looked increasingly nervous.

Speaker 5 I think he saw my glances and suspected that I might be detecting something, was not above board. Come on, mister, let us in.

Speaker 5 We can't get in your car until you do, you know, the spokesman said soothingly. Just let us in, and we'll be gone before you know it.
We'll go to our mother's house. We locked eyes.

Speaker 5 To my horror, I realized my hand had strayed toward the door lock, which was engaged, and was in the process of opening it.

Speaker 5 I pulled it away, probably a bit too violently, but it did force me to look away from the children. I turned back.

Speaker 7 Uh,

Speaker 5 I offered weakly, and then my mind snapped into sharp focus. For the first time, I noticed their eyes.
They were coal black.

Speaker 5 No pupil, no iris, just two staring orbs reflecting the red and white of the marquee. At that point, I know my expression betrayed me.

Speaker 5 The silent one had a look of horror on his face in a combination that seemed to indicate A, the impossible had just happened, and B, we've been found out.

Speaker 5 The spokesman, on the other hand, wore a mask of anger. His eyes glittered brightly in the half-light.
Come on, mister, he said, we won't hurt you. You have to let us in.
We don't have a gun.

Speaker 5 That last statement scared the living hell out of me, because at that point, by his tone, he was plainly saying, we don't need a gun. He noticed my hand shooting down toward the gear shift.

Speaker 5 The spokesman's final words contained an anger that was complete and whole, and yet contained, in some respects, a tone of panic. We can't come in unless you tell us it's okay.

Speaker 10 Let us in.

Speaker 5 I ripped the car in reverse, thank goodness no one was coming up behind me, and tore out of the parking lot. I noticed the boys in my peripheral vision and I stole a quick glance back.

Speaker 17 They were gone.

Speaker 5 The sidewalk by the theater was deserted. I drove home in a heightened state of panic.
Had anyone attempted to stop me, I would have run through and faced the consequences later.

Speaker 5 I bolted into my house, scanning all around, including the sky. What did I see?

Speaker 5 Maybe nothing more than some kids looking for a ride and some really funky contacts.

Speaker 5 Yeah, right. A friend suggested they were vampires, what with the old let us in bit, and my compelled response to open the door.
That and the we'll go see our mother thing.

Speaker 5 I'm still not sure what they were, but here's an epilogue I find chilling.

Speaker 5 I talk about Chad a lot. He's still my best friend, my best ghost hunting companion, and an all-around cool guy.

Speaker 5 He recently moved to Amarillo, but at the time this happened was still living in the San Angelo of Rampage fame. I called him and talked to him briefly.

Speaker 5 He had two female friends with him at the time, both professing some type of psychic ability. I started telling him the story, leaving out the part about the black eyes for the kicker.

Speaker 5 One of the women, we were on speakerphone, stopped me.

Speaker 10 These children had black eyes, right? She asked.

Speaker 21 I mean, all black eyes?

Speaker 5 Uh, yeah, I said, a bit taken aback.

Speaker 14 Hmm, she said.

Speaker 5 One night last week I had a dream about children with black eyes. They were outside my house wanting to be let in, but there was something wrong with them.

Speaker 5 It took me a while to realize it was the eyes. I hadn't even gotten as far as them wanting to come in.
What did you do? I asked. I kept the doors and windows locked, she said.

Speaker 5 I knew if they came in, they'd kill me. She paused.
And they would have killed you too, if you'd let them into your car.

Speaker 5 So from this extra long post, we have three unanswered questions: A, What did I see?

Speaker 5 B, what would have happened if I opened my car door? And C,

Speaker 5 why does Chad always get all the cool psychic chicks?

Speaker 5 This has been a dramatic reading of the original Black-Eyed Kids post by Brian Bethel from your friends at ScaredAll the Time. Happy Halloween.

Speaker 7 Ed was here too.

Speaker 9 Thank you guys so much for listening to this this collaborative episode. Ringing in 150 episodes means so much to me.
I love each and every one of my listeners so much.

Speaker 9 And I just hope you have the best Halloween. Share this episode with somebody to ring in Halloween.
And be sure to check out all of these amazing podcasts.

Speaker 9 All their links will be down in the show notes along with the stories that they read so that we give full credit to those writers.

Speaker 9 If you haven't done so yet, please leave a five-star review wherever you're listening. Each time you do that, it helps me get new listeners and boosts me up the charts.
So that is much appreciated.

Speaker 9 And if you're watching on YouTube, I would love if you subscribe, give this video a like, and drop a comment down below.

Speaker 9 If you really want to support the show, if you want early and ad-free episodes and tons of bonus content, you can always join the Perplexed Society.

Speaker 9 Tiers start at just two bucks a month, and that is patreon.com/slash/perplexity mystery podcast. You all are amazing.
I hope you have the best week. Please stay safe.
Happy Halloween.

Speaker 9 Happy 150 episodes. And here's to 150 more.

Speaker 9 I'll talk to you guys soon.

Speaker 14 Bye.

Speaker 7 Thank you for listening to Perplexity, a mystery podcast. Hosted, written, and produced by Kedra Brannon.
Assistant producer is TJ McRae.

Speaker 7 If you enjoyed today's episode, tell the world about it by leaving a five-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It really is the best way to support.

Speaker 7 Have a topic request or a perplexing story of your own you'd like to share? Send an email to Perplexity Mystery Podcast at gmail.com.

Speaker 7 If you would like to support the show further and unlock exclusive bonus content, join the Perplexed Society at patreon.com forward slash perplexity mystery podcast.

Speaker 7 Perplexity merch and additional support links can be found in the episode description. Until next week,

Speaker 20 stay curious.

Speaker 20 There are two types of fishing. The kind I'm doing out here that brings me calm.

Speaker 20 And the kind of fishing hackers do online.

Speaker 20 They're always casting their lines, impersonating users, phony logins, anything to get someone to bite.

Speaker 10 But here's the thing.

Speaker 20 With Cisco Duo, fishing season is over.

Speaker 20 Because Duo goes beyond multi-factor authentication, providing full phishing resistance, session theft protection, and AI-powered monitoring, all at half the cost of most solutions.

Speaker 20 So while hackers keep casting, I just enjoy the calm. No ripples, no splashes, just a hook that never gets a bite.

Speaker 20 Learn more at duo.com. Cisco Duo.
Fishing season is over.

Speaker 25 This is Matt Rogers from Los Culturist with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

Speaker 19 This is Bowen Yang from Los Culture Isos with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

Speaker 25 Hey, Bowen, it's gift season.

Speaker 19 Ugh, stressing me out. Why are the people I love so hard to shop for?

Speaker 25 Probably because they only make boring gift guides that are totally uninspired. Except for the guide we made.

Speaker 19 In partnership with Marshalls, where premium gifts meet incredible value, it's giving gifts.

Speaker 25 With categories like best gifts for the mom whose idea of a sensible walking shoe is a stiletto.

Speaker 19 Or best gifts for me that were so thoughtful I really shouldn't have. Check out the guide on marshalls.com and gift the good stuff at Marshalls.

Speaker 1 Your global campaign just launched.

Speaker 10 But wait, the logo's cropped.

Speaker 22 The colors are off and did legal clear that image? When teams create without guardrails, mistakes slip through.

Speaker 26 But not with Adobe Express, the quick and easy app to create on-brand content. Brand kits and lock templates make following design guidelines a no-brainer for HR sales and marketing teams.

Speaker 26 And commercially safe AI powered by Firefly lets them create confidently so your brand always shows up polished, protected, and consistent everywhere. Learn more at adobe.com slash go slash express.