Faces in the Clock – Ep. 104

[00:00:00] Odd Trails contains adult language and content. If you have a story to share, send it to stories

[00:01:05] to start a conversation.

[00:01:06] Odd Trails is a story about a boy who is a bit scared of new things. My mom is very

[00:01:07] understanding and familiar with the paranormal. She has been someone who understands and someone

[00:01:14] I can turn to when things get scary, annoying or if something new happens.

[00:01:21] I have now met with a couple of mediums who have told me that I am sensitive and that

[00:01:26] I can hone my skills to do what they do if I so choose. They said I shouldn't be scared

[00:01:33] and that I am a bright light that will naturally draw so many things to me, including things

[00:01:39] that are no longer on the same realm as we are now or never were to begin with.

[00:01:46] When I was in middle or late elementary school, I used to wake up multiple times a week to

[00:01:51] someone saying my name and telling me to wake up.

[00:01:55] Ellie, Ellie, wake up! Ellie, wake up!

[00:02:01] I would wake up thinking someone was in my room, needing me for some reason. The voice

[00:02:08] would vary from someone I didn't recognize or it would be in my mom's voice.

[00:02:14] One night it was my mom telling me to wake up, in that sing-song voice moms use to gently

[00:02:20] wake up their children. I opened my eyes and she wasn't there. The door was shut and

[00:02:27] nothing new was in my room. So the next morning I asked her, were you in my room last night

[00:02:35] after I went to bed? Did you tell me to wake up and then leave?

[00:02:40] Uh, no, she replied. You sure? You didn't come to drop off laundry or something like

[00:02:47] that, I asked. Nope, she replied.

[00:02:52] Then I asked her if she's been doing that at all this month or if my stepdad had needed

[00:02:57] me awake for some reason and she said no to it all.

[00:03:03] Once I made the realization that the voices weren't her or anyone in the house, it only

[00:03:08] ever happened two other times after that and many years apart from one another. I have

[00:03:14] yet to be woken up by them again.

[00:03:18] Here's another story. My mom was in my room saying goodnight and chit-chatting with me.

[00:03:24] She's well aware of the other things that have been happening to me up to this point.

[00:03:28] For example, hearing what sounded like someone trying to get into my bedroom at night, the

[00:03:34] footsteps I would hear walking up and down the hallway, my door being creaked open, hit

[00:03:41] and sometimes shutting on its own, clothes hangers in my closet moving and clinging about

[00:03:47] and then stopping on their own, among other things.

[00:03:52] While she was in there talking to me, my hairbrush that was sitting on top of one of my tables

[00:03:57] flew off. It moved as if someone had launched it off the table.

[00:04:03] My mom looked at the brush and then at me. I was trying to communicate to her via my

[00:04:09] facial expression and eyes to plead with her to ignore it.

[00:04:14] She definitely picked up what I was trying to get at and she just said,

[00:04:18] Okay, well, I love you honey. If you need anything tonight, come get me, okay? Goodnight.

[00:04:28] The next morning, on our way to run errands, she mentioned the hairbrush incident. I remember

[00:04:34] just telling her that I was too scared and that I felt so deeply the need to ignore it.

[00:04:41] She was telling me how I have the power to kick out anything I didn't want in my space.

[00:04:46] I can tell them to leave now and that they are not welcome here, tell them to go to the

[00:04:51] light and whatnot.

[00:04:53] I remember one school night, I rolled over in the middle of the night and checked my

[00:04:58] digital clock on my bedside table to see what time it was. You know, to see how many or

[00:05:04] how few hours you had left to sleep before the dreaded alarm went off.

[00:05:11] As I was rolling over and glancing at the clock, I noticed no numbers, but there were

[00:05:16] faces. There were two faces in my bedside clock instead of the blue digital numbers.

[00:05:24] They were making these horrifying facial expressions as if they were screaming so loudly and with

[00:05:30] so much hate and fury toward me, but not a sound came out.

[00:05:36] The best visual representation I can give you is to relate them to the rock and roll

[00:05:40] band KISS, how their faces were painted in black and white patterns, but these markings

[00:05:46] were different, more intricate, maybe as if they were symbols.

[00:05:53] Now this all took place within probably 10 seconds, but it felt much longer in the moment.

[00:06:00] I remember seeing their faces, doing a quick double take to see if my eyes were playing

[00:06:05] tricks on me. The faces and their emotions remained.

[00:06:11] After I realized I was in fact awake and this was really happening, I became very afraid.

[00:06:18] I turned my head, looked away, and closed my eyes.

[00:06:23] After a second or two of me looking away, my intuition kicked in. A jolt of bravery

[00:06:30] suddenly came over me. I said, screw it, if this is really happening, I might as well

[00:06:36] give them what they want. So I turned back over to face my clock. They were still there,

[00:06:44] just as mean and terrifying as before, screaming their rage at me but with no actual sound

[00:06:50] coming through. I just stared right back at them. I sat there, blankly staring at these

[00:06:57] marked up, unearthly faces, who were making the most purely hateful and malevolent sneers

[00:07:04] at me. They seemed to have so much anger and violence.

[00:07:09] After maybe 2-3 seconds of staring back at them, with not a tear or any kind of emotion

[00:07:15] showing on my own face, that's when they started to fade back into the clock. They simply faded

[00:07:22] into nothingness. Then the clock went black. Then shortly after that, the LED numbers popped

[00:07:29] back into their original places. I didn't sleep in my room for roughly 7 months after that.

[00:07:36] I used that room as storage. I slept on the couch, changed and got ready in the bathroom,

[00:07:42] and had sleepovers in the living room. After a while, I got the courage to throw that clock out,

[00:07:49] even though I was too scared to touch it at first. I haven't had anything happen on that level since,

[00:07:57] and I'm grateful. Don't get me wrong, I still see and hear the paranormal,

[00:08:03] but I think I've created a sturdy wall that holds back the terrifying.

[00:08:08] The Time My Dad Walked Through The Wall by Ashley

[00:08:32] This happened roughly 15 years ago, but I still remember it very vividly.

[00:08:37] I was 8 years old, living with my single father. I always felt an odd feeling and had regularly

[00:08:44] experienced pressure in my temples in the house that we lived in. I now know that I get this

[00:08:52] pressure due to a sensitivity to the supernatural. It was a Saturday, and I had received some new

[00:08:59] nail polish for my birthday. My father had been occupied all day with housework, so I decided to

[00:09:05] entertain myself by painting my nails. I chose to do this in my father's bathroom. His bathroom

[00:09:12] connected to the master bedroom on the far side of the room opposite the door. If I sat in the

[00:09:19] door, I would get a near perfect view of his TV, which sat on the opposite corner of the room.

[00:09:29] I turned on some cartoons and found a comfy place on the bathtub to do my nails.

[00:09:35] This went on without any issue. I watched TV and painted away without any care.

[00:09:42] When I finished my toes, I got up to switch colors and start on my fingers.

[00:09:47] I began to rummage through the bag of nail polish. This is when I began to feel that

[00:09:52] pressure in my head. Suddenly, I heard the TV turn off.

[00:09:57] Dad? Could you turn the TV on? I'm still in here. I called out. I got no answer.

[00:10:06] I looked up at the mirror and I noticed him standing at the door.

[00:10:10] He was staring at the bedroom wall it was connected to.

[00:10:15] I repeated that I wanted to keep the TV on, but I got no response. He didn't even look at me.

[00:10:24] Dad, what are you doing? I asked. Again, there was nothing.

[00:10:29] You're scaring me. Stop! I said rather loudly. Again, he said nothing and he still would not

[00:10:36] look at me. That's when he started walking. Not towards me, but towards the wall that he had

[00:10:44] been facing. He walked directly into the wall and just like that, the pressure was gone.

[00:10:53] I froze from shock. Suddenly, I heard a noise that jolted me from my trance.

[00:11:00] I ran outside to find my dad weeding in the backyard.

[00:11:05] What were you doing in your room? I asked. When? He responded after turning off his weed eater.

[00:11:11] Just now, I said slightly panicked. Ash, I haven't been inside at all in the past hour.

[00:11:17] Don't you see how dirty I am? I looked down and he was obviously covered in dust and grass from

[00:11:24] his lawn work. He wouldn't have gotten that dirty in the time that I just saw him in his room to

[00:11:30] when I found him outside. Are you okay? He asked. Yeah, I'm okay. I just had a bad dream, I think.

[00:11:38] I didn't want to tell him what I saw. He's a very firm skeptic and he wouldn't have believed

[00:11:44] me anyway. I never saw that exact figure again. I did see shadows from time to time and would

[00:11:51] still get the pressure in my head. Once we moved, the activity stopped. I still don't know what

[00:11:57] caused it as there were no deaths or tragedies in that home. Even so, I'll never forget the day

[00:12:04] I'll never forget the day that my dad walked through the wall.

[00:12:33] Victorian Girl by Amanda

[00:12:37] My parents separated about ten years ago. My mom, sister, and myself moved out of the house we

[00:12:44] shared with my dad and into a rental house. I'll spare you any descriptions of the layout.

[00:12:51] The house had an eerie feeling to it at all times. The whole neighborhood was also a bit creepy.

[00:12:57] The house that gave us the worst feeling looked like the one from the movie Monster House.

[00:13:03] Most homes in the neighborhood were very old and there were no streetlights. Despite this,

[00:13:09] we settled in quickly. A few months after moving in, my sister and I got into my car to run some

[00:13:16] errands. It was pouring down rain. As soon as we pulled out of the driveway and onto the road,

[00:13:23] I saw a girl I hadn't seen before standing on the lawn of the Monster House.

[00:13:29] I didn't know of anyone living in that house but I didn't think much of it at the time.

[00:13:35] She was wearing a Victorian era white dress. She was standing beside a rickety looking chair

[00:13:42] with her hand placed on top of the back piece. As we got closer to her, I saw that her hair

[00:13:48] wasn't wet at all despite the mass amount of rain coming down. I thought my eyes were just

[00:13:55] playing tricks on me until my sister mentioned seeing her as well. We continued driving.

[00:14:02] The road looped around in a way that let us see the backyards of the homes on our street.

[00:14:07] I slowed down to see if the girl was visible from here. She was. I stopped the car because

[00:14:14] we had some distance from her. For a moment, she was completely still. I would have thought

[00:14:21] it was a statue if I hadn't seen her from our street first. After a minute, she started to

[00:14:28] turn around and took her hand off the chair. I wasn't waiting around to see what would happen

[00:14:35] next so I sped away. We took our time with our errands and threw out multiple theories about

[00:14:42] what we had seen. We eventually had to go back home and started heading that way.

[00:14:49] It had stopped raining at this point. We talked about how the whole situation was weird

[00:14:55] and how strange it was that we had never seen the chair before either.

[00:14:59] When we got back to our street, we noticed that the chair was gone and so was that girl.

[00:15:05] We eventually had to let it go even though we both knew what we saw. Some time went by

[00:15:11] and we never saw her again. We did randomly see the chair again on our neighbor's porch though.

[00:15:19] I saw him outside a few weeks after first spotting the chair and asked him where he got it from.

[00:15:24] He said that it wasn't his but he wouldn't mess with it anymore because every time he brought it

[00:15:30] down to the curb to be picked up by waste management, it would always somehow end up

[00:15:36] back on his porch. I'm not sure if the two incidents are related but I still vividly

[00:15:42] remember the girl years later.

[00:16:15] For some brief history, Fort Delaware is a state park on Pea Patch Island smack dab in the middle of Delaware River between Delaware and New Jersey.

[00:16:29] Originally constructed as part of a system of forts for coastal protection along the Atlantic Coast,

[00:16:36] the current fort was finished at around 1860 just in time for the American Civil War.

[00:16:43] Although it was designed for defense, it was actually put into more practical use

[00:16:48] as a POW camp mostly consisting of Confederate soldiers. Throughout those four years of war,

[00:16:55] it saw about 33,000 prisoners with the most at one time being at around 11 to 12,000.

[00:17:04] Many of the prisoners were captured after the Battle of Gettysburg. All in all, about 2,500

[00:17:10] prisoners died while they were on the island. Although it never saw any battles, the fort was

[00:17:16] used by the military until the end of World War II and became a state park a few years later.

[00:17:23] I worked at the state park for a couple of years and I describe myself as an open-minded skeptic

[00:17:29] but I've had a few paranormal experiences. To set the scene, the park employees have to take a ferry

[00:17:36] over to the island, walk down a long wooden dock, board a tram that drives along the gravel road

[00:17:42] surrounded on both sides with wet marshy land and then arrive at the imposing three-story fort.

[00:17:49] To get in, you walk over a moat crossing a drawbridge and into a dark stone-floored room

[00:17:56] called the Sally Port. The employees then would get their room assignments and dress up in Civil

[00:18:02] War era attire to act for the visitors as if we were really from that time. One minor event

[00:18:10] that happened to me was when I was sitting upstairs alone in our lunchroom taking my break.

[00:18:17] I heard a wooden floorboard creak as if someone had shifted their weight onto it.

[00:18:23] I looked over and saw what I can only describe as a small blurry object sort of hovering above

[00:18:30] where I heard the creaking noise. It was there for a few moments but then dissipated.

[00:18:36] Another event happened during the fort's yearly paranormal investigations in October.

[00:18:42] We'd have a ghost hunting group lead visitors to different areas of the fort for them to have

[00:18:48] hands-on experiences with nighttime paranormal investigations. The fort employees would dress up

[00:18:56] and give the history of each area that we visited.

[00:19:00] During this particular night, I was dressed up as a Confederate soldier. At one point,

[00:19:05] we visited the mess hall where dozens of Union soldiers would have had their meals at the time.

[00:19:11] While the visitors were doing their investigation, I was standing by the

[00:19:16] wall minding my own business when I started to feel a pressure on my neck.

[00:19:21] This lasted for a few seconds and it felt a little difficult to breathe. I decided to walk

[00:19:26] outside to get some fresh air and the pressure was immediately gone when I left the room.

[00:19:31] Another experience happened when I was helping close up the fort for the day.

[00:19:37] One of my duties was to go around each area and make sure that the visitors were gone and to put

[00:19:43] up these little half-door barriers that you often see in historic house museums to block off the

[00:19:48] rooms. I go up to check out the officers' quarters, the rooms where officers would live with their

[00:19:55] wives and children. I put up the barrier and was walking away when slam! The barrier loudly falls

[00:20:03] down behind me. The weird part is that immediately after it fell, I clearly heard a woman's voice

[00:20:10] kindly say, careful as if she were warning a child. All of the other employees were far away

[00:20:19] at the entrance and all of the visitors were waiting to ride back on the tram. I have no

[00:20:25] explanation for this. The last event is from a former employee. We'll call them Ellie. Ellie

[00:20:33] had worked at Fort Delaware for many years with another employee called N. Ellie and N

[00:20:41] were both historians and were firm skeptics, believing all of the ghost stuff to be baloney.

[00:20:48] Apparently they agreed one time that if one of them dies first, they'll send the other a sign

[00:20:54] to let them know that it's real. They would even joke about it and say things like,

[00:20:59] where are you ghost? Come on out. Unfortunately, N passed away. Not too long after,

[00:21:07] the show Ghost Hunters came out to do an investigation and film at Fort Delaware.

[00:21:13] At the end of the investigation, one of the Ghost Hunter members said that they got this strange EVP

[00:21:20] and they wanted to play it for Ellie. They listened to it and I swear it says,

[00:21:25] where are you ghost? Come on out. She swears that it was the same tone and inflection as N.

[00:21:35] Thank you for reading the stories. Hopefully some listeners will check out Fort Delaware.

[00:21:39] It really is a gem of a state park and all ghosts aside,

[00:21:43] it's a wonderful place to visit to learn more about Civil War history.

[00:21:48] Something Followed Me Home by Lance110

[00:22:12] I'll preface this by saying I'm very skeptical and don't believe in ghosts or the paranormal.

[00:22:19] I also believe that there is something after we die, but what that is, I have no idea.

[00:22:26] I lived in Edinburgh at the time, in an old sandstone tenement flat.

[00:22:31] Someone had given me the book The Ghost That Haunted Itself by Jan Andrew Anderson.

[00:22:38] The story is about the Black Mausoleum and the Mackenzie Poltergeist.

[00:22:44] It was an interesting non-fiction read about an old and historical part of Greyfriars Cemetery.

[00:22:51] Jan founded the City of the Dead Tour and despite living in the city and not being tourists,

[00:22:58] my girlfriend at the time suggested we go on it.

[00:23:02] For the most part it was really interesting and being held at night,

[00:23:07] the tour was obviously designed to be very spooky.

[00:23:11] You're taken around a lot of historical and spooky sites

[00:23:15] and the guide tells you about the history and deaths that occurred there.

[00:23:20] I'm not easily scared and thought it was all good fun.

[00:23:24] The tour ends by locking the entire group inside the Black Mausoleum in the dark and

[00:23:30] leaving you there for ten minutes. I won't go into the history and experiences people have had there

[00:23:37] but it's worth looking up. I never experienced anything other than hearing a scratching noise

[00:23:44] on the inside about three feet above my head. My back was to the rear wall so I just assumed

[00:23:53] it to be the birds. Everyone in the group was whispering and nervously laughing

[00:23:59] but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. After the ten minutes is up, the gate is unlocked

[00:24:05] and you're let out. Then the group is invited to a pub across the road for a drink to finish off

[00:24:11] the tour. My girlfriend and I declined and this is where it got weird. Something followed me home.

[00:24:20] The only way I can describe this is that it felt like I was physically carrying something on my

[00:24:26] back. Like someone had put an invisible rucksack on me. I didn't know what to make of it and the

[00:24:34] whole walk home I had this really weird feeling that something was there. Not just an inanimate

[00:24:41] object but like an actual person was on my back. When you walked into my flat, the hall was an L

[00:24:50] shape. To the left was the living room and halfway down the hall in front of the living room door

[00:24:57] was the bedroom. It was an oddly small and tall room which I think used to be an airing cupboard

[00:25:04] but had somehow been converted into a bedroom. On the right hand wall up near the ceiling

[00:25:11] was a large square hole which opened into the kitchen. We could never figure out what this

[00:25:18] hole was for but there was a small curtain over it for privacy. The room only had space for a

[00:25:25] bunk bed with a desk under it and a small armchair. So when you were in bed at night

[00:25:33] that hole was right at your head. This becomes relevant later. After we got home I got this

[00:25:41] weird feeling but it wasn't particularly late so we decided to relax in the living room for a while

[00:25:47] before bed. The flat was always uncomfortably hot so we left the windows open quite often.

[00:25:55] This night was no different. Once we were in the living room however that bizarre feeling left me

[00:26:03] and I felt kind of relieved. I had no idea what it was so I just shrugged it off.

[00:26:11] That's when other things started happening. We had three cats all of which had free roam of the house.

[00:26:20] It didn't take long for us to notice that they were flat out refusing to go into the hall.

[00:26:26] I didn't think much of this at the moment but not long after I got up to go to the bathroom

[00:26:32] which was down the far end of the hall. That's when I heard a loud bang in the middle of the hallway

[00:26:39] right in front of our closed bedroom door. It was also freezing cold. Nowhere else in the house

[00:26:47] just that one area and it was very noticeable when he walked through.

[00:26:53] Again I just shrugged it off and went to the bathroom. The cats were acting weird and a bit

[00:26:59] frightened. One was standing at the living room door looking into the hall and growling quietly

[00:27:06] to itself. We didn't really know what to make of this but she eventually took herself away

[00:27:13] so we thought she was just being a bit odd and that was that.

[00:27:18] Something didn't feel quite right though so we decided we would just head to bed.

[00:27:24] That night I had unbelievably restless sleep. I was 18 at the time and didn't really have

[00:27:31] nightmares anymore but I had a dream that I woke up and I was drawn to that hole in the wall.

[00:27:39] I pulled back the curtain and staring back at me angrily was the face of an old man with long

[00:27:46] and thin black hair. There was something really off about his face that terrified me

[00:27:53] to the point I woke up instantly. I didn't know what it was and I didn't want to wake my girlfriend

[00:28:01] because of what I assumed to be a stupid dream. Thankfully I managed to get back to sleep and had

[00:28:08] no other weird dreams. I mentioned it to her in the morning and although she was kind of freaked

[00:28:15] out by it considering what happened the night before, we just chalked it up to being a nightmare.

[00:28:22] It took almost a week before that whole place felt normal again.

[00:28:27] It just always felt like there was something else there with you.

[00:28:31] As skeptical and rational as I am, I still can't explain what followed me home that night.

[00:29:00] Echoes and Shadows by a listener that asked to remain anonymous.

[00:29:05] This story took place at one of the lowest points in my life but before I get into it,

[00:29:10] some context is needed. This takes place in the midst of COVID-19 and my sophomore year.

[00:29:16] While our parents are very religious, I was not at the time. Now onto the story. After COVID started

[00:29:22] my freshman year, I started losing motivation to do well in school. I gave up. My insomnia

[00:29:29] was horrible. I'd be going to bed at about 8 in the morning as everyone would start to wake up.

[00:29:36] Fast forward to my sophomore year. One night my parents hadn't gotten home from work yet and I was

[00:29:42] just watching TV with my little sister, Melanie. We heard our closet door slide open. We gave each

[00:29:50] other a look and brushed it off, thinking our older sister Mila had woken up from her nap

[00:29:57] in a bad mood. Then we hear a drawer open then slam shut. Our dresser drawers are heavy,

[00:30:06] they're loaded with clothes and slamming them is very difficult. I started to get annoyed at this

[00:30:12] point as I had a bad day and just wanted to watch my show in peace. I get up and I open the door to

[00:30:20] Mila, sound asleep. I decided to ignore it and sit back down. Just as I sit down, I hear it again.

[00:30:30] We freak out and grab knives from the kitchen after Melanie made a comment about us not being

[00:30:35] alone in the house. We went to find Mila dead asleep on her bed. So we went to wake her.

[00:30:43] Mila has always been a heavy sleeper. My family has joked that she could sleep right through the

[00:30:49] apocalypse, but this was different. The minute I reached and touched her arm to shake her awake,

[00:30:56] I felt a sense of heavy dread. No matter what I did, she wouldn't wake up. It was like she was

[00:31:04] dead. We tried to drag her out of bed, but no matter how hard we tried, she wouldn't move an

[00:31:11] inch. I heard the closet door creak before something on the shelf inside came crashing down.

[00:31:19] I freaked. I ran to the kitchen and I grabbed some olive oil. I grew up in a religious household,

[00:31:27] and though I wasn't exactly religious myself, it seemed like the safest bet to me. I went straight

[00:31:34] into our room and I blessed my sisters and dog with it, muttering a few prayers that I knew.

[00:31:40] The cupboards in the kitchen opened and slammed shut as I went on to bless the doorways of our

[00:31:46] home. After that, it grew silent. We didn't tell our parents for about two weeks, but nothing

[00:31:54] happened. The next incident happened at around 3 30 in the morning. I was drawing on the top bunk of

[00:32:03] my bed when the bed started shaking. So I said, Melanie, stop moving so much. You're shaking the

[00:32:09] bed. There was no response. Thinking that she was ignoring me, I rolled my eyes and leaned over the

[00:32:17] railing of my bed to tell her to knock it off. When my heart dropped, I see that she's sound asleep,

[00:32:26] but that's not what caught my eye. There was a dirty greenish hand with sharp nails reaching

[00:32:33] out from under her bed. I froze. It didn't make sense. We used the underneath of the bed for

[00:32:41] storage and there was zero space left over. A second later, my dog started howling from outside

[00:32:48] of our bedroom door. I snapped out of it and jumped off of my bed, practically throwing myself at the

[00:32:54] door to let him in. As soon as the door was open, my dog placed himself between me and the bed,

[00:33:01] letting out a growl that I didn't know he could make. I caught a glimpse of the hand again and

[00:33:07] screamed. I tried waking Mila when I got the same sense of dread. I knew that they would not wake

[00:33:14] up anytime soon. I freaked out and I ran to my parents' room screaming. I reached out to shake

[00:33:21] my mother when I realized how cold it was. Now we live in California and we don't even use the AC

[00:33:29] unless we're practically dying of heat stroke. I felt sick. I knew that my parents would not be

[00:33:35] waking up. I went into a frenzy after that. I ran back to my room to see my dog lunging in the

[00:33:42] direction of Melanie's bed. I started pulling everything out from under the bed and instinctively

[00:33:47] started praying. In the end, there was nothing but three deep scratches on the bottom left leg of

[00:33:55] the bed. I was tired as I sat in the middle of the room surrounded by the things we had stored

[00:34:01] under the bed. My dog never left my side. My sisters found us sitting side by side in the morning.

[00:34:09] Two weeks passed and nothing happened. After this brief period of peace, it began again. 3 30 a.m.

[00:34:18] The bed started to shake, but this time I heard whispering voices. It sounded like thousands of

[00:34:25] them. Again, my dog howled outside the door. I jumped down and landed a little funny. In the

[00:34:34] second that it took me to regain my balance, I felt a sharp freezing breath on my heels.

[00:34:40] I jumped away and I looked down to see frost forming at the back of my ankles.

[00:34:46] I screamed and opened the door, letting my dog in as I ran past him to my parents room. I swung

[00:34:52] their door open, sobbing and reached for my mother. After a minute of pleading for her to wake up,

[00:34:57] I felt that same dread once more. I backed up, wiped away my tears and went to grab a kitchen

[00:35:04] knife before marching into my room once more. As I walked in, I saw that same disgusting hand,

[00:35:11] but this time a whole arm was exposed and it was reaching for Melanie. My devoted dog standing over

[00:35:19] her snapping when it got too close. I've never felt so much rage in my life. Tormenting me is

[00:35:27] one thing, but going for my baby sister, that's the wrong move. I swung the knife and I cut it.

[00:35:34] There was no blood. It retreated immediately as I once again clawed the boxes out from under the

[00:35:40] bed. Nothing was there. I sat in the middle of the room while my dog paced circles around me.

[00:35:48] My sisters found us like that the next morning. Another uneventful two weeks.

[00:35:55] This next one took place in broad daylight, 3.30 PM. I was sitting at the kitchen table

[00:36:01] doing schoolwork when a noise in our room caught my attention. We had this rickety fan that was

[00:36:07] held together by a lot of duct tape. I turned, expecting to see Melanie ready to tell me to stop

[00:36:14] messing with the fan. What I saw when I looked was dirty with matted hair and greenish with

[00:36:21] a deep wound in its left arm. It was a horrifying sight. Looking at it made me gag.

[00:36:28] I can't describe how disgusting it was and how it made me feel.

[00:36:32] I ripped the tape before jumping onto Mila's bed. I ran into the room and there was nothing there.

[00:36:38] The only proof is the now dirty ripped tape. In shock, I walked back to the table where my mom

[00:36:45] gave me a puzzled look. I told her, I have to tell you something. Still reeling from what had

[00:36:51] just happened, I explained the whole story to her. Two days later, we had a priest come over

[00:36:58] and bless our house and our family. After that, everything went back to normal.

[00:37:05] We still live in the same apartment.

[00:37:39] So I'm thinking that clock could probably be a haunted object or something.

[00:38:08] We've had a few of those on the show.

[00:38:39] Raising.

[00:38:41] Listen, you might think that popsicle stick jokes like that would annoy me,

[00:38:48] but those are some of my favorite jokes.

[00:38:50] Yeah. Clean humor is actually sometimes more impressive because it doesn't rely on the

[00:38:54] shock value. I like it like Mitch Hedberg master at that craft.

[00:38:58] Yeah, I agree. I prefer clean jokes because it's so much more surprising that you can be funny

[00:39:04] in this day and age without cussing or being dirty. So I got one for you.

[00:39:08] Sure.

[00:39:09] Okay. How about this one? What room does a ghost not need in a house?

[00:39:14] I don't know. Maybe a bathroom, but that wouldn't be a punchline.

[00:39:18] A living room.

[00:39:19] That's cute. I like that.

[00:39:21] Yeah. You can thank my Googling skills for that one.

[00:39:23] Your efforts don't go unnoticed, but yeah, the, the hairbrush thing could be some poltergeist

[00:39:30] action if you ask me.

[00:39:32] Yeah. That's what I was thinking. They can sometimes just cause some kind of

[00:39:36] mild inconvenience for people.

[00:39:37] What's a mild inconvenience you've experienced that you just can't help but get a little

[00:39:42] too worked up over? I know there's gotta be a lot.

[00:39:44] Oh man, I've been working on this problem. I let things bother me too often,

[00:39:49] but one that's hard to shake is people eating loudly, especially at the movies.

[00:39:55] Yeah. Definitely one of mine too. Just unwanted noise in general.

[00:40:00] Other people have made it so hard to go to the movies anymore.

[00:40:03] Yeah. I watched this interview where Christopher Nolan was upset about how

[00:40:07] movies are produced for streaming and people aren't going to the movies enough anymore. And

[00:40:12] I totally get that, but for me, and I would imagine a lot of other people because I'm not

[00:40:17] crazy. This is really happening. It has nothing to do with streaming. I love the movies. I just

[00:40:23] can't handle how like 90% of the time people just don't follow proper movie etiquette.

[00:40:30] Exactly. There's always somebody that feels the need to talk. My blood boils more than it should

[00:40:36] when people just say a couple of words to each other. The worst though is when people try to

[00:40:41] predict plot twists out loud. There is no reason for that. You don't need to flex on everybody else

[00:40:48] by trying to be one step ahead. Yeah. I remember I accidentally did this,

[00:40:53] did that, but more subtly I took Natalia to a movie that I had seen already. I think it was

[00:40:59] the Origins of Evil. Yeah, it was the sequel to Ouija. And I was holding her hand throughout

[00:41:05] the movie because it was a little bit early on during our dating so that we were still doing

[00:41:09] cute stuff like that. And every time something scary was about to happen, I would squeeze her

[00:41:13] hand and she'd be like, you ruined that movie for me because every time something scary was

[00:41:17] about to happen, you squeezed my hand and I didn't get any of the jump scares.

[00:41:22] Wow. Yeah. She's still married to you. Yeah. Surprising.

[00:41:25] But I do hate that. I hate it when people ruin the movie.

[00:41:29] Mm-hmm. In The Force Awakens, some random dude next to me felt the need to say,

[00:41:34] oh, he's going to kill him during that fateful scene with Kylo Ren and Han Solo.

[00:41:39] Yeah. I don't care how innocent or obvious it may

[00:41:42] have seemed that it was going to happen, but it completely ruined the immersion. I just want to

[00:41:47] sit quietly and submit myself to the experience and for it to play out without any expectations.

[00:41:53] Yeah, I agree. I guess, yeah, you could say my biggest pet peeve though is people eating loudly,

[00:41:58] but especially when it's at the movies. How about you?

[00:42:02] In general, as far as mild inconveniences or pet peeves.

[00:42:08] I mean, I love people, don't get me wrong, especially those who listen to the podcast, but

[00:42:13] I have a lot of problems with the general public, if that makes sense. I love people,

[00:42:18] but I hate the general public. Okay, yeah, it does.

[00:42:21] I get pretty bad road rage, but I've been doing better. I try not to pass cars if I don't need to.

[00:42:26] Life is too short. You're going to get to the destination when you get there. But also people

[00:42:30] just walking too slow in front of me. And I definitely don't feel like the universe should

[00:42:36] revolve around me, but I do. I get overly annoyed when people just kind of get in my way or interrupt

[00:42:42] my flow somehow. I totally agree. I'm with you there. I hate that too. But yeah,

[00:42:48] it's something that I think that both of us probably need to work on because I've noticed

[00:42:52] both of us are very intolerant to being irritated. We're so edgy and touchy.

[00:42:59] I know, I know. We act like this is some profound pet peeve that nobody else has. I also think

[00:43:04] it's funny how everybody hates bad drivers, but if everybody hates bad drivers, that would mean

[00:43:09] there aren't any bad drivers or just a big lack of self-awareness.

[00:43:14] True. So going on to Ashley's story about her dad walking through the wall, this gave me the

[00:43:20] same exact goosebumps that I got from that video camera story that I always talk about.

[00:43:24] Oh yeah. The one with the little kid who saw the hands holding a camera in the bathroom window,

[00:43:29] but like the dad was the only one in the house, right? Doing construction or something like that.

[00:43:33] Yeah. It would have been impossible for them to see somebody else holding a camera outside

[00:43:37] of the window. And it's a similar thing where you see your dad somewhere in the house and they

[00:43:42] aren't behaving like themselves and it's impossible for them to be there because they're out doing

[00:43:47] something else. I really hope that dad wasn't actually filming this entire time. That would be

[00:43:54] a twist. But yeah, the doppelganger phenomenon is one of the creepier ones for sure.

[00:44:01] Yeah. I find those guys to be way more frightening than ghosts or aliens for some reason.

[00:44:05] Totally get that. Oh, so I found an answer to our old bill mystery last week.

[00:44:10] Oh, what'd you find out? Well, so if you missed last week's episode,

[00:44:14] Brandon presented us with the mystery of the missing bills.

[00:44:18] Yes, he did. It's a good week for me to refer to myself in the third person like that hot sauce

[00:44:24] video. Gosh, that was a lot. That was insane. We can talk about that in a little bit. But

[00:44:31] yeah, basically we talked about how you never see the older dollar bills anymore. I don't want to

[00:44:36] say dollar bills because the actual one dollar bill is the same, but everything from five and up,

[00:44:43] the old designs are hard to come by. Yeah. I mean, I haven't seen any in such a long time.

[00:44:48] So where are they going? So a listener named Mary Beth responded with the following. I quote,

[00:44:55] I don't know if Andy and Brandon will actually see this. We did. But on their outro and episode

[00:45:02] one oh three, Brandon was curious about what happens to the old money when the government

[00:45:06] prints new bills. Well, my mom is a bank teller and said that when people would come in with old

[00:45:12] money, they would keep it in the vault until it was picked up by the trucks that would bring in

[00:45:17] new bills. And when customers would come in and cash their checks, they were told to only give

[00:45:22] out the new bills to keep the old bills out of rotation. I had an old ten dollar bill a few

[00:45:28] months ago and I should have kept it. You should have. It makes me wonder, though, who's who's

[00:45:32] hoarding all these old bills? That's a question for one of our higher up listeners, I guess.

[00:45:38] Shame, shame. I want some spread the wealth. Yeah, totally. So the hot sauce thing on your

[00:45:45] Instagram, you were doing the I guess the what's it called? The Hot Ones. The Hot Ones. Hot ones

[00:45:51] challenge. Yeah, I like this. They had this value pack with ten sauces to include da bomb.

[00:45:58] Yeah. And I think it's da bomb, right? Yeah. It's with a D. I hate that like moons over my hammy.

[00:46:03] I like that stuff. Oh man. But yeah, that was in there in the last dab and I went overboard trying

[00:46:11] to well, I was with my my friend from work and he's somebody who doesn't handle hot sauces very

[00:46:17] well. But for some reason he took it a lot better than me. So I said, you know what? I'm going to

[00:46:21] show you up. And for the last dab I put on like about a tablespoon and yeah, that was not fun. I

[00:46:28] really thought I was going to need some medical attention there. But yeah, I'm glad you liked

[00:46:33] that video. Yeah, definitely. Actually, my wife ordered the last dab a couple of years ago and

[00:46:41] I like hot sauce, but there's only so much my body can handle. My mouth can handle,

[00:46:46] but there's only so much like the rest of me can handle if you know what I mean.

[00:46:49] Yeah. And I tried the last dab. I tried a generous amount, pretty much like what you took that

[00:46:54] picture of that you sent me and it burned so bad in my mouth that the roof of my mouth swelled up

[00:47:02] like like an actual burn, like something actually hot, like a fire hit it. And yeah, we'll just say

[00:47:09] that the next day was not pleasant. I'm not going to go into details. I I'm surprisingly doing OK.

[00:47:15] Yeah. No, no lasting effects there. I would do it again. I really like hot food. If I could make a

[00:47:21] suggestion and you would agree on this secret, Aardvark is perhaps one of the best hot sauces

[00:47:26] to exist. Yellowbird also. Yep. It's the perfect limit of burning your mouth, but not torture. It's

[00:47:33] the tip of enjoyability. Exactly. Yeah. Well, I got nothing else for you, nor do I. Thanks

[00:47:40] everybody so much for listening. Make sure that you sign up for our Patreon if you want

[00:47:44] to get ad free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate. You can do that at Patreon.com

[00:47:48] forward slash odd trails. And don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts

[00:47:52] like Let's Not Meet a True Horror podcast. Welcome to Paradise. It sucks. And the old

[00:47:56] time radio cast all at cryptic county podcasts dot com. Everyone stay safe. Peace out.

[00:48:19] Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you.

[00:48:24] Transcribed by https://otter.ai