Terry Gets Rattled

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Speaker 4 I'm Dennis Cooper, host of Culpable, and I want to tell you about this case I've been following in a small Ohio town.

Speaker 4 When 17-year-old Danny Violet stormed out of his house one afternoon in 1998, His family thought it was just another episode of Teenage Angst and he'd return home safely.

Speaker 1 The longer it went, the more worried I was because he never disappeared like that.

Speaker 4 But their worst fears materialized when his lifeless, asphyxiated body was later found in a nearby cornfield.

Speaker 6 He asphyxiates in a cornfield? You can't hang yourself from a cornstalk.

Speaker 4 The rumor mill in this small town has brought many theories, but the question remains, what happened to Danny?

Speaker 7 Did they get scared and have to dump the body? Was this just all good fun that went bad? Because if you are doing acid, God knows the different possibilities

Speaker 4 from tenderfoot tv an all-new season of culpable is available now

Speaker 1 hello dear fan Welcome. Welcome in.
I'm just

Speaker 5 just

Speaker 1 tuning my radio, as you can see.

Speaker 1 I have this new show I'm really into, but

Speaker 5 well,

Speaker 1 it's kind of weird. It just sort of possesses my radio.
I can't really explain it.

Speaker 5 I have to tune my radio in a very specific way to get it. It's called Rattled and Shook.

Speaker 1 It's full of creepy stories and horror-adjacent fun. If you're missing Radio Rental during the hiatus, check out Rattled and Shook from our good people down at Tenderfoot TV.

Speaker 1 It should hold you over until your next feasting of Terry Carnation.

Speaker 1 Actually, that sounds a little cannibalistic-y.

Speaker 1 Please don't eat me. This isn't an episode of Yellow Jackets.

Speaker 1 Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what's this? I think I can almost hear it.

Speaker 5 Oh, oh, oh, here it is.

Speaker 1 Hey, gather around and take a listen with me.

Speaker 1 We have no

Speaker 1 by yourself. A bargain.
And And now, presenting Rattled and Shook.

Speaker 1 Boom, boom, boom.

Speaker 8 That's you up next.

Speaker 2 No, you can start whenever. Okay.

Speaker 2 Hey, I'm April.

Speaker 11 I like horror movies and scary stuff.

Speaker 9 And I'm Meredith, and I don't.

Speaker 8 Sorry, it does sound like I'm really ending the conversation.

Speaker 12 This is Rattled and Shook, a podcast where we tell scary stories and discuss our deepest, darkest fears, but in a fun way.

Speaker 11 So a little bit about this podcast.

Speaker 12 We're going to be telling you some scary stories, playing some horror-themed games. And my goal during this journey will be to try and scare Meredith, but in a way that she enjoys.

Speaker 9 Thank you. I'm so glad it'll be in a way that I enjoy.

Speaker 9 Yeah, so a little bit more about us. I'm Meredith, and I'm a writer and producer, and I've been producing for podcasts for a while now.
And one of those is actually Radio Rental.

Speaker 9 I write for Terry Carnation. And if you're familiar with Radio Rental, actually Terry wants to say a word or two.
Here he is.

Speaker 1 Hello, is this thing on?

Speaker 1 Hi, me, Terry Carnation. I love this show.
I'm a huge fan.

Speaker 1 I listen all the time. I love the spooky stories, the scary stories.
Oh, they get my skin a tingling. And I can't wait to see what you have in store.
Can't wait.

Speaker 9 Wow. Thank you so much, Terry.
That was

Speaker 9 so genuine and unprompted.

Speaker 11 Yes. Love you, Bestie.

Speaker 9 We love you, Terry. So lucky to be supported by that guy.

Speaker 8 By a guy like Terry.

Speaker 9 And I'm joined here with

Speaker 9 this one. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 12 Hey, I'm this one.

Speaker 15 My name's April.

Speaker 17 And I am an editor.

Speaker 9 Mostly reality TV.

Speaker 15 One of my favorite jobs involved editing cats, playing football.

Speaker 9 That's a dream job. It's one of my favorite jobs.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 And I'm super into into horror. You know, I've tried to hide that part of myself for too long.

Speaker 16 And no more.

Speaker 20 I'm not doing it anymore.

Speaker 21 I love horror and I don't care who knows it.

Speaker 11 And I love sound design.

Speaker 15 And I want to put those two together.

Speaker 16 Oh, April. Did you just lay that in? That's spooky.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Ooh, where are we? Ooh.

Speaker 15 A drafty haunted house.

Speaker 9 Did I just creak on a floorboard?

Speaker 15 Maine? Yes, you did.

Speaker 2 Is that a grandfather clock?

Speaker 22 Is that Vecna calling you?

Speaker 21 Oh, no.

Speaker 8 Is that Kate Bush?

Speaker 20 Nope, we don't have the rights to that.

Speaker 8 We don't have the rights to that.

Speaker 9 So, a little bit more about this show. We're going to be listening to scary stories.
We'll tune in and then listen together in real time and react to them, give our thoughts.

Speaker 9 We'll play some horror-themed games, probably have some guests, invite some people in to listen to scary stories, share some scary stories.

Speaker 9 I think we can think about this like a little horror-themed variety hour.

Speaker 12 Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're gonna give you a little bit of everything.
You're gonna laugh, you're gonna cry, you're gonna scream.

Speaker 9 We're gonna scream,

Speaker 12 Our first story involves camping, so we already know it's gonna be terrifying.

Speaker 11 Let's check it out.

Speaker 23 Scariest moment of my life happened while my friend and I were camping in eastern Canada as teenagers.

Speaker 23 We decided to sleep in this abandoned camper we found deep in a large forest that was near our town. It had been there so long that small trees had grown around it.

Speaker 23 We'd stumbled across it when we were exploring a few months back and thought it would be cool and brave to sleep there for a night. So one weekend, we did it.

Speaker 23 We arrived after dark because we had gotten lost trying to find the camper. We had a really low power flashlight, so it made it even more difficult.

Speaker 23 Once we finally found it, we opened the rusty door and stepped in. The sounds inside the camper were shrill and echoey.

Speaker 23 There were typical camper things strewn about: cups, empty cans, swollen pulp fiction novels.

Speaker 2 Swollen?

Speaker 21 Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 9 Oh, with like humidity.

Speaker 2 Oh, okay.

Speaker 9 That's actually beautiful imagery.

Speaker 23 Already tired, we holed up in one end of the camper where the bed area had originally been, before the cushions had rotted away almost to nothing.

Speaker 23 A long hallway stretched the length of the camper, so we could basically see from end to end. It was a miserable night.
There were several rats living in there.

Speaker 23 When the wind blew outside, the camper would shriek and groan. We even thought we heard a bear outside, too, walking around.

Speaker 23 Still, we feigned bravery and acted like we were having a good time. But we were on edge.

Speaker 23 At some point, I woke up from an uncomfortable sleep. I sat up to adjust myself when I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye.
At the other end of the camper, there was a small window.

Speaker 23 And as I looked at it, I saw a man's silhouette.

Speaker 23 He was clearly staring straight at me from outside.

Speaker 23 At first, I thought maybe it was a weird shape of a tree or something. But when I moved a bit to get a better look, the person clearly reacted and then froze.

Speaker 23 My heart was pumping, and I woke up my friend immediately, saying, someone's here, over and over in a whisper, not taking my eyes off his profile.

Speaker 23 He woke up immediately and I nodded towards the window. He saw him too.

Speaker 23 We whispered frantically about who it could be and why was he staring at us.

Speaker 23 And for the next 10 minutes, no joke, we stared him down.

Speaker 23 The longer we stared at him, the more frightened we got. Occasionally he would move, but always keeping his eyes locked on us.
Eventually I shouted at him, Hey!

Speaker 23 No reaction. My friend was braver than me and decided to shine the flashlight at him.
As soon as he did, we realized our horrible mistake. It wasn't a window at all.

Speaker 23 We had been staring down ourselves from the very start.

Speaker 23 Completely idiotic. Still, it was the most fearful, relieving, and funny moment of my life that I'll never forget.
Closest to paranormal I've ever been.

Speaker 9 That had me.

Speaker 5 That had me.

Speaker 15 Just staring in a mirror the whole time.

Speaker 9 What a reversal. The description,

Speaker 9 the swollen books,

Speaker 2 the swollen throbbing books, the turgid pulp fiction novels.

Speaker 9 Man.

Speaker 12 Why do we go camping?

Speaker 9 So would you ever do that? Would you ever go to a place and sleep there because you think it's scary?

Speaker 12 I've wondered about this because I'm afraid of getting cursed.

Speaker 10 But I just slept in a haunted hotel, a supposedly haunted hotel recently.

Speaker 20 And I was like, I feel nothing. I'm fine.

Speaker 9 And my little sister was like flipping out the whole time and she wouldn't let me close the door to the bathroom because she didn't want to be alone we'd be friends yeah probably we'd be friends I slept in a haunted inn recently it was actually for a work trip and I arrived first and it was at night and no one was there to check us in and just like an empty inn with a gigantic oil painting of a cat.

Speaker 9 And then like distant music coming from somewhere else. And at first I was just like, this is kitschy.
Two of my coworkers hadn't arrived yet.

Speaker 9 And then they were just sending me articles of the inn being haunted. Yeah.
Just like unprompted. I didn't ask for it.
It was 10.30 p.m. or 11 or something.

Speaker 17 Like sorry, running late, but here's some reading material.

Speaker 9 Yeah, just by the way. And then I went up to my room and it was just like.
clearly an old Victorian parlor that someone had put a bed in. Like it wasn't the shape of a bedroom.

Speaker 9 And I did sleep with my lights lights on the entire time I was there.

Speaker 14 Everything you're describing, I'm like, that sounds great.

Speaker 12 Sign me up.

Speaker 2 Like, I'd go back.

Speaker 9 I would go back. I'm just sleeping with my lights on.

Speaker 21 Nightlight.

Speaker 9 Just

Speaker 9 a full, full-force nightlight.

Speaker 2 Or the big light, maybe.

Speaker 11 I guess you were using the big light.

Speaker 2 Oh, I was using the big light.

Speaker 11 I was using the big light.

Speaker 25 and baby van

Speaker 25 for me to tear.

Speaker 25 Cause I'm the last of the red-hot mamas.

Speaker 25 They've all cooled down but me.

Speaker 25 Flapper Van,

Speaker 25 say, what do they know? Pat and kiss and hug and don't know what it's all about. Say, when I kiss men, they feel they've had their conflicts taken out.
Cause I'm the last of the red-hot mama.

Speaker 25 I'm getting hotter all the time.

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Speaker 12 Our next story is an Internet Classic, and I know this one very well.

Speaker 10 Meredith does not.

Speaker 9 Internet.

Speaker 11 Should we let you rate it? Yeah. How scary you think it is?

Speaker 2 Actually, yes.

Speaker 9 stay tuned for my review of this viral story that I don't know.

Speaker 15 Very well known.

Speaker 9 Okay, I'm excited to be scared, I guess.

Speaker 9 Are you convinced?

Speaker 30 About five years ago, I lived downtown in a major city in the US.

Speaker 30 I've always been a night person, so I would often find myself bored after my roommate, who was decidedly not a night person, went to sleep.

Speaker 30 To pass the time, I used to go for long walks and spend the time thinking. I spent four years like that, walking alone at night, and never once had a reason to feel afraid.

Speaker 30 But all of that changed in just a few minutes of one evening.

Speaker 30 It was a Wednesday, somewhere between one and two in the morning, and I was walking near a police-patrolled park quite a ways from my apartment. It was a quiet night, even for a weeknight.

Speaker 30 with very little traffic and almost no one on foot. The park, as it was most nights, was completely empty.

Speaker 30 I turned down a short side street in order to loop back to my apartment when I first noticed him. At the far end of the street on my side was the silhouette of a man dancing.

Speaker 30 It was a strange dance, similar to a waltz, but he finished each box with an odd forward stride. I guess you could say he was dancewalking, heading straight for me.

Speaker 30 Deciding he was probably drunk, I stepped as close as I could to the road to give him the majority of the sidewalk to pass me by. The closer he got, the more I realized how gracefully he was moving.

Speaker 30 He was very tall and lanky, and wearing an old suit. He danced closer still until I could make out his face.
His eyes were open wide and wild, head tilted back slightly, looking off at the sky.

Speaker 30 His mouth was formed in a painfully wide cartoon of a smile. Between the eyes and the smile, I decided to cross the street before he danced any closer.

Speaker 30 I took my eyes off of him to cross the empty street. As I reached the other side, I glanced back and then stopped dead in my tracks.

Speaker 30 He had stopped dancing and was standing with one foot in the street perfectly parallel to me. He was facing me, but still looking skyward, smile still wide on his lips.

Speaker 30 I was completely and utterly unnerved by this. I started walking again, but kept my eyes on the man.
He didn't move.

Speaker 30 Once I had put about half a block between us, I turned away from him for a moment to watch the sidewalk in front of me. The street and sidewalk ahead of me were completely empty.

Speaker 30 Still unnerved, I looked back to where he had been standing to find him gone. For the briefest of moments, I felt relieved, until I noticed him.

Speaker 30 He had crossed the street and was now slightly crouched down. I couldn't tell for sure due to the distance and the shadows, but I was certain he was facing me.

Speaker 30 I had looked away from him for no more than 10 seconds, so it was clear that he had moved fast. I was so shocked that I stood there for some time, staring at him.

Speaker 30 And then he started moving toward me again. He took giant, exaggerated, tiptoed steps, as if he were a cartoon character sneaking up on someone.
Except he was moving very, very quickly.

Speaker 30 I'd like to say at this point I ran away or pulled out my pepper spray or my cell phone or anything at all, but I didn't. I just stood there, completely frozen as the smiling man crept toward me.

Speaker 30 And then he stopped again, about a car length away from me, still smiling, still looking to the sky. When I finally found my voice, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

Speaker 30 What I meant to ask was, what the fuck do you want? in an angry, commanding tone. What came out was a whimper.
What the fuck?

Speaker 30 Regardless of whether or not humans can smell fear, they can certainly hear it. I heard it in my own voice, and that only made me more afraid, but he didn't react to it at all.

Speaker 30 He just stood there, smiling. And then, after what felt like forever, he turned around, very slowly.
and started dance walking away.

Speaker 2 Just like that.

Speaker 30 Not wanting to turn my back to him again, I just watched him go. Until he was far enough away to almost be out of sight.

Speaker 30 And then I realized something.

Speaker 30 He wasn't moving away anymore, nor was he dancing. I watched in horror as the distant shape of him grew larger and larger.
He was coming back my way. And this time, he was running.

Speaker 30 I ran too. I ran until I was off of the side road and back onto a better lit road with sparse traffic.
Looking behind me then, he was nowhere to be found.

Speaker 30 The rest of the way home, I kept glancing over my shoulder, always expecting to see his stupid smile, but he was never there.

Speaker 30 I lived in that city for six months after that night, and I never went out for another walk. There was something about his face that always haunted me.

Speaker 30 He didn't look drunk, he didn't look high, he looked completely and utterly insane. And that's a very, very scary thing to see.

Speaker 9 That's a creepy story. Yeah.

Speaker 12 I feel like it taps into the fear that like you can't escape this guy. You know, like he just kind of appears across the street or he moves very quickly.

Speaker 9 And he seems like, I feel like I imagine someone that feels very like Uncanny Valley. Like even the big exaggerated

Speaker 9 tiptoes

Speaker 9 feels very like a cartoon character, Tim Burtony.

Speaker 11 So what's your rating?

Speaker 9 What's the numerical scale?

Speaker 14 I was going to say we're using letters D through F.

Speaker 9 D, E or F?

Speaker 9 E E plus

Speaker 9 E.5.

Speaker 9 I think if his suit was well tailored, I might have been a little less afraid.

Speaker 9 That's totally...

Speaker 15 If his suit was well tailored, I would have been like, that's the devil.

Speaker 11 Okay, that's a good point.

Speaker 15 That's how you know it's a really bad situation.

Speaker 9 Okay, now that we've listened to Smiling Man, April has made a game to play based on the Smiling Man story somewhat.

Speaker 12 Okay, this is Choose Your Own Adventure.

Speaker 24 Choose your own adventure.

Speaker 9 Excellent.

Speaker 12 Here we go.

Speaker 15 You're walking home alone at night.

Speaker 12 It's still a bit dewy outside from an evening rainstorm, and you distract yourself by playing a game of Dodge the Unearthed Snails when you see a figure up ahead.

Speaker 12 It moves in a strange fashion, then ducks behind a cluster of bushes.

Speaker 31 Do you?

Speaker 20 Option one, keep walking.

Speaker 12 It's probably nothing. Besides, if it is, you have your handy keychain pepper spray that's only eight months past its expiration date.

Speaker 12 Option two, keep walking in the same direction but cross the street.

Speaker 22 Or three, turn around and take the long way home.

Speaker 9 Ooh, okay, so I immediately am not doing one. I'm going to take the long way home.

Speaker 2 Three. Okay.
Oh, God. Option three.

Speaker 8 I know that.

Speaker 9 That's sudden death, isn't it?

Speaker 8 No, no.

Speaker 21 Okay, turn around and take the long way home.

Speaker 12 You walk briskly in the other direction, hanging right at the next corner, when the snapping of a twig causes you to turn your head.

Speaker 3 Wham!

Speaker 12 You run into what feels like a brick wall. When you face forward, however, you find a frail old lady before you.

Speaker 11 Apologizing profusely, you insincerely ask if you can help her with anything.

Speaker 12 In fact, she says you can, before asking if you could escort her to her house. When she tells you her address, you realize that it's in the direction you were headed before.

Speaker 31 Do you...

Speaker 2 A.

Speaker 12 Tell the old lady to find her own way home.

Speaker 18 Or B, help her, of course. What's wrong with you?

Speaker 9 Um, what's her creepiness level?

Speaker 12 Um, it's right now it's it's it's like a D out of F.

Speaker 9 Okay, I like that scale.

Speaker 21 Unthreatening.

Speaker 9 Okay, Okay, I think I'd say I'd help her.

Speaker 2 Alright.

Speaker 12 You walk her, albeit slowly, down the street. The woman regales you with stories from her youth, but you're too on edge to hear a word of it.
Suddenly, you hear a rustling noise from the bushes ahead.

Speaker 31 Do you?

Speaker 22 1.

Speaker 12 Insist that it's unsafe to move forward and try to usher her away.

Speaker 31 2.

Speaker 11 Throw the old lady out in front of you.

Speaker 27 3.

Speaker 14 Decide to be heroic and shield the old woman with your body, aiming your pepper spray at the shrubbery and commanding whoever is in there to come out.

Speaker 9 God, what is it with these bushes?

Speaker 9 But I've already had an experience where I saw like some sort of figure.

Speaker 2 All right, okay, I'll go three.

Speaker 9 I'm like approaching cautiously, pepper spray in hand.

Speaker 12 Well, this is the heroic option.

Speaker 18 Oh, you can't be cautious.

Speaker 2 Oh, well, hold on.

Speaker 9 Okay, I picked one.

Speaker 21 I'm getting out of there.

Speaker 12 Number one, insists that it's unsafe to move forward and try to usher her away.

Speaker 9 She tells you her running days are over, but you should go on ahead.

Speaker 12 You vow not to leave her alone. As you're debating, a man pops out from behind the bush and leaps at you both.

Speaker 14 Surprisingly spry, she removes a baton from her walker and whacks him over the head with it.

Speaker 13 He crumples to the ground.

Speaker 12 You take out your phone to call the cops, but she stops you. No cops.

Speaker 12 After some half-hearted protests and observing a certain hunger in her eyes, you heed her advice and decide to walk home, making it safely inside.

Speaker 22 The end.

Speaker 31 What?

Speaker 9 Is she a vampire? She says no cops?

Speaker 9 Okay, I want to play again.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 15 You're walking home alone at night.

Speaker 31 Do you?

Speaker 11 walking? You have that expired pepper spray. Cross the street.

Speaker 21 Turn around and take the long way home.

Speaker 9 Okay, this time I'm going option two.

Speaker 31 Option two!

Speaker 12 You begin to cross the street, but as you do, a speeding car runs a stop sign and heads straight for you.

Speaker 22 Do you, A, step back onto the curb.

Speaker 18 B, run forward.

Speaker 12 It's further, but you can make it.

Speaker 11 Ooh, that's a good one.

Speaker 2 I'll gun it. Gun it? I'm gonna run for it.
Okay.

Speaker 10 Option B, run forward.

Speaker 9 It's further, but you can make it.

Speaker 14 No, you can't.

Speaker 12 You brace yourself for impact, but the car stops short inches from you. Finally, giving you the chance to bang on the hood of a car and yell, hey, I'm walking here.

Speaker 9 Thank God.

Speaker 12 The driver steps out of the car and begins yelling at you for being in the middle of the road.

Speaker 13 Hoping to get their help, you apologize and ask them for a ride home.

Speaker 12 They look at you in terror and run back into their car, locking the doors and speeding away.

Speaker 14 As they turn a corner, a figure darts in front of their car.

Speaker 15 The driver stops short, but not before knocking the figure to the ground.

Speaker 12 Do you run towards the collision?

Speaker 22 Turn around and take the long way home. He'll be fine.

Speaker 9 Jeez. I don't love it, but like, I think if someone got hit by a car, I would probably go towards them.

Speaker 13 Okay, run towards it.

Speaker 12 You call 911 and remain on the scene as a third-party witness. Afterwards, the cops give you a ride home where you get inside safely and lock the doors.

Speaker 14 You peer out the window as the cop car drives away, revealing that same cat sitting in the middle of the road.

Speaker 12 Its glimmering eyes stare deep into yours before scampering away.

Speaker 2 There was no cat.

Speaker 2 Hold on.

Speaker 9 Wait, there was a scenario with a cat and I didn't choose it? That's upsetting.

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Speaker 10 This next story is neither here nor there.

Speaker 11 Let's take a listen.

Speaker 30 Obviously, the summer jobs there were a great pull when you were a teenager. and they employed a huge number of my friends on summer break from college.

Speaker 30 The jobs over in the water park were generally considered more desirable, although I was never able to get them because I'm a horrible swimmer.

Speaker 30 A lot of my friends worked there and I knew about three of the people involved in this story.

Speaker 30 It started at a water slide, one of the huge tube slides that you had to walk up seven flights of steps to get to the top.

Speaker 30 One lifeguard was posted up top telling people when to go down and one of my friends was the lifeguard at the bottom who helped people off the slide and gave the all clear for the next person to go.

Speaker 30 A family had come with their child who was very young and apparently barely the height limit to go on the ride.

Speaker 30 The family was in line with the father first, kids second, and mother last so that someone would be with the kid at both top and bottom of the slide.

Speaker 30 The father goes down the slide, gets off, and the lifeguard gives the all clear and waits. You can't really see what's going on up top, but finally the next rider comes down.

Speaker 30 It's the mother who walks over to the father and asks where the son is.

Speaker 30 There's a moment of confusion and my friend is pulled over by the family. The kid had been the next one to enter the slide up top before his mother, but had never come out the bottom.

Speaker 30 My friend is confused, calls up to the top lifeguard who verifies that the kid went down the slide. Neither my friend nor the father saw the kid come out the bottom.

Speaker 30 Until this is figured out, they shut down the ride. The top lifeguard calls security and reports this as a missing child while my friend calls a supervisor.

Speaker 30 The supervisor shows up and is apparently afraid the kid is wedged in the tube somehow and in such a way that the mother failed to dislodge him coming down the slide.

Speaker 30 The parents are obviously upset at this point and freaking out and the supervisor has the upper lifeguard go down the ride himself spread out to make sure there's no child jammed in the turns of the slide.

Speaker 30 He comes at the bottom having not dislodged the corpse of the child and everyone is more confused than ever.

Speaker 30 Meanwhile, security called saying they just turned up a missing kid near one of the coasters. Could they get a description of the child missing?

Speaker 30 The supervisor sort of dismisses it out of hand that it could have been the same child. The coaster they found the kid by was clear across the park.

Speaker 30 Instead, she has a bunch of lifeguards run up the stairs and come down the slide, still hoping to dislodge the kid while other employees quietly look around the bottom in case the kid somehow managed to fall out of the tube.

Speaker 30 Upper management calls security and asks them to pull the security camera footage from the the top of the slide, and one of the security guards says that he is almost positive that that's the kid they have in the next room.

Speaker 30 They get the kid's name, and sure enough, he's in the missing children's room, safe and sound. Here's where things get weird.
The footage shows the father, kid, and mother entering the slide.

Speaker 30 It's also time stamped, so they know when the child went down the slide.

Speaker 30 The incident report for when the kid was found clear across the park behind a roller coaster shows he was discovered less than five minutes later.

Speaker 30 My friend the security guard tested it and walking at a stiff clip and knowing all the shortcuts, it was a 20 minute walk for him.

Speaker 30 Furthermore, when you hit the edge of the water park, there were signs that shirts and shoes had to be worn past this point. The kid was found barefoot and shirtless in just his swim trunks.

Speaker 30 The idea that no one across 12 acres would stop this kid is completely weird.

Speaker 30 Weirdest of all was that the incident report stated that the child seemed disoriented and was at first not able to respond to questions.

Speaker 30 It also stated that the kid, who was in a water slide five minutes prior, was bone dry.

Speaker 30 This was the talk of the park for about a week, with everyone trying to come up with explanations.

Speaker 30 Guards searching the other security footage to find the kid going across the park, people trying to get from the slide to the coaster. Then the upper management came out and basically hushed it up.

Speaker 30 Supervisors told us that if they heard anyone talking about it, that they would be fired. Pretty soon, the park moved on to whatever the next drama was, and it got swept aside.

Speaker 30 But yeah, child goes down slide and into time and space portal.

Speaker 9 So right off the top, I identify with the child.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I think I was at like Disney World or something, and my mom was at the top of the slide and gave me to the person running the slide and was like, okay, don't release her until I get down there.

Speaker 9 Because I think I was too little to really do that by myself. And they were like, okay.

Speaker 9 And then my mom was headed down and they released me early. And I have this memory of plunging into water and just kind of being there.

Speaker 12 I'm sorry.

Speaker 15 Before my mom was like, Meredith.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 11 So let's say this is real.

Speaker 12 Very glitch in the matrix.

Speaker 9 I love a glitchy story. What do you think actually happened? I'd like to think that he started in one water slide and went out the bottom of the other.
Yeah.

Speaker 9 I think what happened is it's like a classic like home alone situation where the mom like thought it was her son in front of her and he was actually like next to her or behind her or whatever.

Speaker 9 And that kid went down

Speaker 9 and everyone just thought it was the kid in question and he went and did something else.

Speaker 12 He snuck out. He went and got himself a churro and then showed up at the other end of the park.

Speaker 9 Because the mom went after him.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 9 Is there a final destination with that? Oh, there should be. There really should be.

Speaker 10 There's a roller coaster one.

Speaker 20 Oh, I don't want to see that.

Speaker 5 Like these.

Speaker 9 Because I love roller coasters. Yeah.

Speaker 12 Yeah, but you know, there's always that possibility you get on a roller coaster and it's like, this could be the time.

Speaker 18 Just goes right off the track.

Speaker 15 Now we all know what April's thinking.

Speaker 2 I'm thinking, this is, ooh, this ought to be fun.

Speaker 12 Well, and this story starts with an enclosed tube water slide, and that's bad enough to begin with.

Speaker 20 I don't like enclosed tube slides.

Speaker 12 i am claustrophobic and i have been on those as soon as i get in and i'm going down i'm like what if i never stop going down this tube what if it just never opens back up again like this is my life now that is a really funny way to think of limbo yeah like you're just going down a water slide that's hell in perpetuity and every time you go over one of the seams it hurts a little

Speaker 9 And that is a perfect segue

Speaker 9 into talking about irrational fears, which is something we wanted to talk about. So let's talk about irrational fears.

Speaker 9 My number one biggest fear is sharks.

Speaker 9 And so my irrational fear, beyond just sharks in general, as an unlikely thing that I will have to encounter, is the lane markers at the bottom of the pool.

Speaker 9 Because to me, growing up, they looked kind of like hammerheads because you know, the lane marker ends in a T.

Speaker 9 And so I came from a family that swim team was very important to them.

Speaker 9 My grandma was a swim coach. Cool.
And yeah, very cool. Very cool.
We would go over to her house and she would make us swim laps. And it was pretty cool.

Speaker 9 I did get pretty good at that freestyle and that butterfly, though.

Speaker 9 But I hated backstroke because I couldn't see the sharks, believe me.

Speaker 8 Right.

Speaker 9 You know, that thing where you got to see your... That makes sense.
You got to see your enemy.

Speaker 12 Well, you do. You have to, if you make eye contact or face the sharks, they actually, a lot of the time, will swim away.

Speaker 10 They like to attack from the back.

Speaker 9 Here I was, six years old, just making that up.

Speaker 15 I had no idea.

Speaker 11 That includes hammerheads at the bottom of pools.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 9 I totally knew that. But I was a fast swimmer.
And I think at least half of that was because the landmarkers were there to motivate me.

Speaker 9 And as soon as I got to the end, I was just like, flip, turn, get out of there because the hammerhead is right there.

Speaker 9 uh-huh thank you for being so understanding thank you for nodding through that here's the thing you could say something and i'll have some version of that for myself and it's not sharks in the pool but it's but don't say that like that's crazy

Speaker 12 my thing about the pool is the fear of something being beneath you or something you can't see dragging you down In my mind, I go immediately to like weird creature monster because it's like, well, it's not going to be a real real animal in here in a pool.

Speaker 16 That doesn't make sense.

Speaker 12 It would have to be something like crazy and outlandish, you know?

Speaker 9 I'm with you on that. I had a pool growing up at home.
That was like, the fear there was more a kraken, you know, just because there were like... That's kind of a scenario.

Speaker 9 Yeah, just more like a kraken scenario. All this to say, we'd like to hear your irrational fears.
Find us on Twitter and Instagram at Rattledand Shook and let us know what your irrational fear is.

Speaker 9 That's at rattled and shook, and I'm not spelling it out.

Speaker 9 And we look forward to hearing them.

Speaker 12 And stay right where you are for episode two. We're going to have special guest Terry Carnation, who's been on standby this whole time.

Speaker 20 Terry, how you doing?

Speaker 12 You ready to listen to some scary stories and play some games?

Speaker 1 Ladies of Rattled and Shook, I couldn't be more thrilled to be with you. Thank you so much for having me on.

Speaker 19 We're so excited. We're big fans, big fans of Dark Air and Radio Rental.

Speaker 1 Is there, how am I getting paid? Is there,

Speaker 1 how is that going to work? Can we settle that right now?

Speaker 1 Is it possible that you can pay me in cash?

Speaker 5 We'll talk.

Speaker 9 Rattled and Shook is a Tenderfoot TV production in partnership with Odyssey. Executive producers are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsey.
Co-executive producer is Meredith Stedman.

Speaker 9 Hosted and produced by April Ruha and Meredith Stedman. Lead editor and sound designer is April Ruha.

Speaker 9 Additional production by Sean Nerny. Production management by Tracy Kaplan and Jordan Foxworthy.
Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set.

Speaker 9 Original artwork by Puppy Teeth Studios.

Speaker 9 Follow us on social media at Rattled and Shook.

Speaker 9 connect from the dead of cover.

Speaker 9 Once I own in my head, it's not a cover.

Speaker 9 It's a fantastic love.

Speaker 9 It's a fantastic love.

Speaker 1 Well, that was a rollicking good time.

Speaker 1 Malachi loves it too. His tail gets all puffy when he hears the theme song.

Speaker 1 No, no, Malachi, don't, don't try and meow the theme song.

Speaker 1 No, Malachi, no one wants to hear your rendition of the theme song. You sound like a squirrel giving birth.

Speaker 1 Anyway, if you'd like more of that, check out Rattled and Shook, a new weekly horror podcast from Tenderfoot TV. Subscribe to Rattled and Shook on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 Rattled and Shook is out now.

Speaker 32 My name is Manny Mattney, creator of the number one global hit Murdoch Murders podcast, the show that started it all.

Speaker 32 Now known as True Sunlight, my partner in true crime, journalist Liz Farrell, and I are taking on new cases while still pursuing justice for those we met along the way.

Speaker 32 Lunashark Media's True Sunlight podcast values accuracy over access journalism. True Sunlight shines with empathy, not exploitation.

Speaker 32 True Sunlight is the intersection of true crime, journalism, and systemic corruption.

Speaker 32 True Sunlight continues to shed light on Stephen Smith's case and the Murdoch's co-conspirators, but we also take deep dives into other cases around the country, from Grant and Gracie Solomon to Sarah Lynn Colucci, Micah Miller, and beyond.

Speaker 32 True Sunlight empowers listeners to understand their legal and judicial systems with our unique brand of pesky journalism.

Speaker 32 Listen to True Sunlight wherever you get your podcast or visit truesunlight.com to learn more.