Where Did My Soul Go? – Ep. 122

[00:00:00] Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast if you have a story to share send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:01:00] This happened back in August. A couple of days after listening to the latest Odd Trails episode which I believe had several sleep paralysis stories in it.

[00:01:14] We had just returned from an overseas cruise at the beginning of the week and we were exhausted from travel and general cruise burnout.

[00:01:23] Our sleep schedules were completely off on top of being exhausted, of course. I'm sure this contributed to my story.

[00:01:31] I typically toss and turn a lot through the night which is probably why I don't get a lot of exciting dreams.

[00:01:38] In my dream, I recall walking around the house with others. I don't recall who they were or what they looked like.

[00:01:46] There were probably five others there with me exploring this house. It seemed to be a house that they were staying at. I was helping them look for something that might be, quote unquote, off.

[00:01:59] We walked through several rooms investigating in a way paranormal investigators do but without all of the gadgets.

[00:02:07] We get to this room which appeared to be a bedroom and there seemed to be something there. The room had big windows adorned with big fancy drapes on either side.

[00:02:19] The light coming from the window indicated that it was dusk outside, making the light in the room dim but still enough to manage looking around.

[00:02:30] Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the drapes. One side of them rustled as we entered the room.

[00:02:38] I make a motion to quiet the others and point out where it is. It felt more like playing hide and seek than a paranormal investigation to be honest.

[00:02:47] As the others waited by the door, I slowly walked over to the drapes that I had noticed before.

[00:02:54] I checked the drapes and there's nothing there. Something else whispers to me and points to the adjacent window in the corner of the room.

[00:03:05] It's a bit darker here, darker than the rest of the room since the light is thinning with the sunset.

[00:03:11] I can immediately tell that something is hiding in the shadows behind the drapes. I called out to it. I know you're there, identify yourself.

[00:03:22] There was no response. I walk over to the drapes and feel the presence. It's stronger.

[00:03:30] I follow up with, I can tell that you're hiding and you are not welcome here.

[00:03:36] I sense the presence grow angry, although more of a frustration than pure anger.

[00:03:45] I push the drapes aside, exposing a cloud of darkness until the entity is unwelcome and needs to leave.

[00:03:54] I can tell that it is extremely frustrated like I ruined its fun, but it doesn't attack. It just fanishes.

[00:04:03] I turn to the others, smile and I tell them that it's all clear now. And then suddenly, I'm lying in bed. I'm in my bedroom.

[00:04:13] I briefly looked around, assuming that I had woken up, trying to figure out the dream. That's when the shadow figure phased into view beside my bed.

[00:04:23] It isn't clearly defined, but it is probably six feet tall with the mostly human-like body, arms and legs.

[00:04:33] It's clearly a shadow creature. It walks towards the foot of my bed.

[00:04:39] I look it up and down. It has dim red eyes and small green lights speckled throughout its head and shoulders.

[00:04:49] I can tell that it's angry. Angry that I obviously ruined whatever plans it had for those in the dream I was in.

[00:04:59] That's when I tried to move, and I realized that I can't. Everything washes over me.

[00:05:05] I feel the shadow creature develop a sense of pride and satisfaction. It was almost as if it hadn't entirely expected that trapping me would work.

[00:05:17] I start to panic, trying to break free from its inflicted sleep paralysis.

[00:05:23] I try to look next to me to see if my wife is there, but I can't do it.

[00:05:29] I will my body to move and manage to throw my arm in her direction, only to hit empty space.

[00:05:37] This isn't entirely unusual. Sometimes I snore and she sleeps on the couch, or sometimes our dog gets extra needy and convinces her to sleep with him on the couch.

[00:05:49] Now I start panicking a bit more, which clearly pleases the shadow entity.

[00:05:55] I focus on planning and calming down to figure out how to break free.

[00:06:01] I did just listen to sleep paralysis stories, and I do remember many suggestions from previous submitters.

[00:06:09] That's when I look back at it, then look around again, and I realized that it isn't even my actual room. It's a replica of my room, but one in the dreamscape.

[00:06:21] Replicated down to this smoke detector in the corner with its green LED reflecting off of and through its body.

[00:06:31] I realize now that's what the green lights were. It looks a little less pleased as I realized this, and it starts slowly pacing back and forth at the foot of my bed.

[00:06:43] It's waiting and thinking, seeing what I will do. Now that I know it isn't my bed, I mentally note that my wife may still be in my bed, and that my dog is probably in the room.

[00:06:57] My goal is to do something to get her or him to wake me up.

[00:07:02] I try to move, but every attempt fails. I try speaking every attempt fails.

[00:07:09] I then focus and try to make any sound with as little movement as possible.

[00:07:16] I manage to let out some low moans, not knowing if they were making it out of the dreamscape that I was trapped in.

[00:07:25] I repeated them as the shadow creature continued to pace.

[00:07:29] Its frustration was growing again. After about eight tries, I wake up and the shadow entity is gone.

[00:07:38] The green LED of the smoke detector is in the darkness, making it a bit confusing as I gain my bearings.

[00:07:44] I look over and my wife is awake, and the dog is by her side of the bed on the floor.

[00:07:51] She told me I was moaning, and our dog freaked out. She says that she wasn't sure if she should wake me up.

[00:07:59] I told her that I was in a sleep paralysis state, and that I was indeed trying to get her to wake me up.

[00:08:05] I assumed the sounds of my dog walking around the room and may be whining, likely woke me up.

[00:08:11] I went back to sleep a short time later, since I was still exhausted, but I had no more memorable dreams.

[00:08:18] I haven't seen the shadow entity since, but I believe I was in somebody else's dream, and I potentially saved them from their own nightmare.

[00:08:28] I like to think that the pact I made played a part in the lack of escalation of the events that night.

[00:08:48] I hid, but the ghost found me by how.

[00:09:03] When I was in elementary school, I lived in a neighborhood where everyone was really close.

[00:09:12] All the kids would play at each other's houses after school, when parents weren't home from work yet, and on the weekends.

[00:09:20] The parents all knew each other, the location was safe, and we all went to the same school.

[00:09:27] One day I decided to go play at my friend's house until my parents got home from work.

[00:09:33] For the sake of privacy, we all called this friend Sally.

[00:09:38] I called my mom and told her where I was headed, and walked the short distance to Sally's house for an afternoon of games, snacks, and TV.

[00:09:49] Since her parents weren't home yet, we had the run of the house.

[00:09:54] It was two stories high, which is basically a mansion for two elementary schoolers.

[00:10:02] After some back and forth about what game to play, we finally settled on Hyden's Seek.

[00:10:09] I mean, we had an entire house to Hyden without the possibility of bothering anyone so it was the perfect choice.

[00:10:18] We took turns alternating between Hyden's Seeker, taking snack breaks in between.

[00:10:26] After a few rounds, it was my turn to hide again, and Sally's turn to count.

[00:10:32] She stood in the kitchen downstairs, covered her eyes and started counting.

[00:10:38] I decided to make the risky trip up the stairs to find the perfect hiding spot.

[00:10:45] I slowly began my ascent, trying to be as quiet as possible so a creek wouldn't give away my position.

[00:10:54] But I had no idea where I would go once I reached the top.

[00:10:59] I snuck around seeing if I could fit under beds or in laundry-hampers, and eventually decided to hide in Sally's parents' closet,

[00:11:09] because no one ever checks the closet during Hyden's Seek, right?

[00:11:15] I slowly went to the end of the hall and turned left into her parents' bedroom.

[00:11:21] The closet door was a cordial style, with little slits you could see through, and it took a good initial tug to open and shut it,

[00:11:31] and then made scratching sounds as it moved.

[00:11:35] Not good for Hyden's Seek, but I stuck to my plan as my time was running out.

[00:11:41] I quietly shut the door and got in the corner of the closet.

[00:11:47] I burrowed myself behind clothes that were hanging load the ground, and any I could find piled on the floor as I crawled up, attempting to be as small and quiet as possible.

[00:12:01] A few moments later, I heard that sentence we all know too well.

[00:12:07] Ready or not here I come.

[00:12:11] When she yelled, I could hear that she was still downstairs, which was good because that means she didn't cheat and start seeking early.

[00:12:21] Now it was a waiting game to see if she could find me.

[00:12:26] I could hear her moving around downstairs, randomly saying things like, where are you? And are you here?

[00:12:36] Eventually she made her way up the stairs. It was game time.

[00:12:42] I had to stay still and quiet.

[00:12:46] I heard her pause at the top of the stairs for a moment, before immediately heading down the hallway towards her parents bedroom.

[00:12:55] My whole body was tense and anxious since I knew my discovery was moments away.

[00:13:04] I gently peeked through the clothes to check for a moment, and I saw the bedroom light turn on through the cracks in the door.

[00:13:13] I quickly covered myself up and started grinning, excited by the anticipation of being found.

[00:13:22] After another second, I heard that the closet door opened slowly.

[00:13:29] My heart was about to beat out of my chest.

[00:13:33] Then I felt slow movement on the other side of the clothes that concealed me.

[00:13:39] It almost seemed like she was going to grab the clothes and quickly rip them away to scare me and yell out, got you.

[00:13:49] I knew that I had been caught and didn't want to get jump scared so I decided to give in.

[00:13:57] I started moving clothes out of my way and said, okay, okay, you found me.

[00:14:04] But as I looked out from behind the clothes, I realized I was alone.

[00:14:10] The room was empty. Sally was nowhere in sight.

[00:14:16] However, the closet door was open, and the light in the bedroom was on.

[00:14:23] I immediately yelled as loud as I could for Sally, and she responded in concern, asking if I was okay.

[00:14:32] From downstairs, where she had been searching for me, she hadn't even been upstairs yet.

[00:14:41] I was so terrified that I ran downstairs and started to sob.

[00:14:47] Sally didn't know what to do or think, but we tried to distract ourselves with some TV while we waited for her mom to get home.

[00:14:57] I suppose I could have walked home, but I think I was too scared to be alone.

[00:15:04] We told her mom everything that happened as soon as she got home and she shed some light on the spooky history of the house.

[00:15:13] Supposedly, there used to be a closet right at the end of the hall before you turned left into Sally's parents' bedroom.

[00:15:21] And in that hall closet, someone who lived there before used to talk to spirits.

[00:15:28] I guess when they moved in, they had the hall closet boarded up for something since it was no longer there.

[00:15:37] It can't be a coincidence that a ghost joined our game of hide and seek, in the room right next to that hall closet.

[00:15:46] Did it think I was trying to communicate with it? Like, whoever lived there before did?

[00:15:52] I don't know if the ghost was lonely and wanted to play with us, if it wanted to talk to me, or if it had some other malicious intent.

[00:16:03] But that was a moment I will never forget.

[00:16:07] It still gives me chills to this day.

[00:16:10] I can't play hide and seek with my niece and nephews without thinking about the haunting day when a ghost found my hiding spot.

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[00:18:35] The touch lamp by hash.

[00:18:55] I've always been interested in the paranormal, even as a child despite being scared of the dark. I was always watching scooby do or ghost related stuff with my grandma on my dad's side.

[00:19:08] My first encounter with what I believe was paranormal came after my grandpa on my mom's side died of leukemia. He had been battling it for a couple of years.

[00:19:20] I was about nine or ten years old and after my grandpa died, there was a falling out between my grandma and my mom so I didn't see my grandma for what felt like years.

[00:19:33] This was troubling to me because my grandma was the person who watched me while my mom worked several jobs for my entire life.

[00:19:41] After pestering my mom enough she reached out to my grandma and they arranged for me to spend the night at my grandma's house.

[00:19:49] I remember being so excited to be there and to spend time with her but I was scared to go into the basement. This was my grandpa's workshop.

[00:20:00] I was also scared of the bathroom. Now this was never an issue before. After a night of catching up with my grandma and playing with the dogs, I was pretty tired and we decided to get some sleep.

[00:20:13] I remember helping her shut off all of the lights before she tucked me into bed. One of these lights was an old touch lamp with a pink glass lamp shade.

[00:20:24] I was always fascinated with it because let's face it, touch lamps are pretty sweet.

[00:20:30] They always had to tell me to leave the lamp alone because I would just cycle through the different brightnesses for fun.

[00:20:39] Anyway, I fell asleep with the door cracked open and awoke a couple of hours later needing to use the bathroom.

[00:20:47] I stepped into the hallway and into the bathroom and went about my business.

[00:20:53] I exited the bathroom and I noticed that the touch lamp was on full brightness. In case you don't know, touch lamps generally have three brightness settings so you have to touch it three times to get it on the highest setting.

[00:21:09] I thought that my grandma was trying to sneak a midnight snack without me so I walked down the hall to the doorway of the kitchen in the living room area only to find that nobody was there.

[00:21:20] So naturally I shut it off, ran back down the hall and jumped under the covers.

[00:21:26] I didn't think anything of the lamp being on until the next morning when my grandma asked me, did you go to the bathroom and forget to turn the lamp off when you were done last night?

[00:21:36] I was incredibly confused as you can imagine. She then explained that she had gotten up to use the bathroom at some point and she found that the lamp was on full blast so she shut it off and went back to bed.

[00:21:50] I told her that I had done the same exact thing.

[00:21:55] After a couple of minutes, I said, maybe it was grandpa. His ashes were only a few feet away from the lamp.

[00:22:05] We never talked about it again, at least not until recently. She has never been one to talk about or believe in the paranormal and if she does believe, she certainly doesn't talk about it.

[00:22:18] I believe it was my grandpa trying to show me his excitement that I was there and letting me know that he was watching over me.

[00:22:25] A ghost raised me by Rebecca. I toured the crescent hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

[00:22:54] A haunted location many of you are probably familiar with. It was my very first ghost tour. I didn't know what to expect, but I didn't expect to actually see anything despite it being so well known for its hauntings.

[00:23:13] We got to the hotel about an hour before the tour started so we decided to walk around the garden area to kill time.

[00:23:22] I was with my dad, stepmom, sister and niece.

[00:23:27] As we were walking, we came across a bunch of steps leading back up to the hotel.

[00:23:34] I started walking up them and through the corner of my eye, I saw somebody start running up the steps directly next to me.

[00:23:45] I assumed it was my ultra competitive sister trying to race me to the top or something. She did stuff like that all the time and was always better than me at pretty much everything.

[00:23:59] I also noticed that this person was wearing blue. My sister also usually wore blue since it was her favorite color, so I just immediately started running too, hoping I'd at least have a chance at beating her.

[00:24:18] But I noticed she wasn't passing me or catching up. I turned around to yell at her for letting me win.

[00:24:26] I then saw that she was still at the bottom of the steps with the rest of the family, helping my two-year-old niece walk up them.

[00:24:37] I thought it was really weird but I didn't think too much about it. I just figured it was one of those weird events where you think you see or hear something but it turns out to be nothing.

[00:24:51] We eventually went on the tour and nothing eventful happened. None of us saw or sensed anything.

[00:25:00] At the very end of the tour, however, the guide asked the group if anybody saw or experienced anything.

[00:25:09] No one said they did so he started talking about the ghosts that lived there.

[00:25:15] He mentioned a ghost I think her name was Abigail but it's been like 15 years so I could be wrong.

[00:25:24] But he said that she wears a blue dress and is often seen in the garden.

[00:25:30] She died when someone pushed her from the balcony and she fell to her death in the garden.

[00:25:37] This could just be a weird coincidence. But what if my first intuition was right all along? I just wonder who won that race?

[00:26:08] My baby cousins saw a ghost by iffy.

[00:26:15] One day my aunt and her three-year-old daughter were sitting out on the porch. My cousin was playing on her own while my aunt was looking after her. No one else was home at the time.

[00:26:27] The house was designed in such a way that the porch or what we hear call the veranda was enclosed within the house.

[00:26:35] It was an open space but surrounded by other rooms and walls. The kitchen, living room, bedrooms and bathrooms are all connected through this open space.

[00:26:46] While my cousin played on the veranda my aunt had gotten up to check on lunch which she had left cooking while she was with my cousin.

[00:26:55] Suddenly I heard my cousin say, what are you doing up there? Come down. You'll get hurt.

[00:27:02] Confused my aunt came out from the kitchen and asked her who she was talking to. My cousin replied pointing to the first floor railing. There the woman in white with black hair across her face.

[00:27:17] My aunt didn't see anyone. They were alone at the house. Without saying anything my aunt took my cousin and brought her inside.

[00:27:27] Who was that woman? Was she a good or bad spirit? There are too many questions but no answers. Let me know what you think it might be.

[00:27:37] And all those who may be concerned about why my aunt left my cousin alone in the first place? The house area is pretty small and the walk from the kitchen to the veranda where my cousin was sitting is just five or seven steps.

[00:27:52] So it's easily accessible.

[00:27:55] Children are sensitive to these kinds of things and they can see things that adults cannot.

[00:28:00] Nothing much came of the incident. The house was saged and when asked about it my cousin doesn't really recall any of it happening.

[00:28:09] My aunt's house in my Nana's house sit on one common land and are conjoined.

[00:28:15] My mom and other relatives have shared their own experiences where they felt their beds shake and somebody slapped them across their face when nobody was around.

[00:28:25] While I haven't seen or felt anything and as much as I'd like for it to stay that way, I just want to say that though I don't believe in ghosts, I do believe that certain entities exist that aren't to be messed around with.

[00:28:38] You just don't know who you might bring home with you.

[00:28:54] I understand the struggle of trying to kick a bad habit.

[00:29:00] It can feel as though you're battling an entire army by yourself, turning even the simplest daily tasks into daunting challenges.

[00:29:08] I've been in those trenches plenty of times. However, life is about perseverance.

[00:29:14] It's about transformation and better than the rest of the world.

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[00:31:02] Where did my soul go by Samantha?

[00:31:29] I was 14 years old when this story took place which happened in March of 2011.

[00:31:36] Like any typical teenager, I always slept in on the weekends especially on Sundays.

[00:31:43] This morning though was different. For some unknown reason, I suddenly jolted away at 6 a.m. and was overcome with fear and anxiety.

[00:31:57] I was also confused because nothing in particular triggered this and it's not something that has happened before.

[00:32:06] I then walked out to the living room where my mom was already awake watching TV.

[00:32:13] As I locked eyes with her and started to talk about what just happened, the phone rang.

[00:32:21] Just before she could pick it up, I fell to the floor screaming and crying.

[00:32:27] It felt like my heart was physically shattering.

[00:32:31] Startled and confused about my actions, she answered the phone.

[00:32:36] It was my grandma who lives in Nevada.

[00:32:41] It was 3 in the morning for her. She wouldn't have called that early unless it was something urgent.

[00:32:48] Unfortunately, that's exactly why she called.

[00:32:53] My mom started bawling and I became an even bigger mess than before, anxiously waiting to hear what happened.

[00:33:02] She quickly got off the phone and told me that my cousin Billy had just died in a car accident.

[00:33:11] Billy and I were very close throughout my childhood.

[00:33:15] He was the big brother I never had.

[00:33:18] He taught me how to ride a bike and would come camping with us in the summer.

[00:33:23] I think that somehow I knew something bad happened and that feeling drove me to wake up.

[00:33:32] Later that week my mom and I flew out to go to the funeral.

[00:33:37] The day before the funeral, we decided that we needed to go out and do something.

[00:33:43] So we spent the whole day in Vegas.

[00:33:46] We walked around trying our best to take our minds off of how hard the next day was going to be.

[00:33:53] On our way back to my aunt's house, I started to get sick.

[00:33:59] The weather changed from the cold Midwest to the warm climate of the desert was starting to catch up with me.

[00:34:07] Once we got to our house, I went to sleep in between my mom and grandma.

[00:34:13] In the middle of the night, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

[00:34:18] I figured it was my mom, checking to see how I was feeling.

[00:34:23] So I said that I was feeling a little better.

[00:34:27] When there was no response, I turned over to see her facing away from me, snoring softly.

[00:34:36] I turned to the other side to see if it was my grandma and she was also asleep facing away from me.

[00:34:45] I then clearly sensed that it was Billy checking in on me.

[00:34:50] I told him I would be okay and thanked him for looking out for me.

[00:34:56] About a year later, I was almost asleep when I heard my door open slightly.

[00:35:03] I figured it was my dog coming in for the night, but then I felt that he was already in bed with me, sleeping soundly.

[00:35:13] Again, I knew it was Billy.

[00:35:17] Just like the first time, I said that I was okay and thanked him.

[00:35:22] I then told him he could go into the next room and check on my sister.

[00:35:28] Right after I said that, I heard the distinct sound of footsteps walking away from me and towards my sister's room.

[00:35:38] It was unmistakable.

[00:35:41] I fell asleep shortly after, feeling at peace.

[00:35:46] And the next morning, my sister asked, why did you come into my room last night and not say anything?

[00:35:55] I was so happy he visited her too and that I wasn't just imagining things.

[00:36:03] I said it was Billy and that I told him to check in on her.

[00:36:08] After that, things remained quiet.

[00:36:11] Life continued, but I never felt that Billy had checked in again.

[00:36:17] Fast forward to the summer of 2022.

[00:36:21] I went camping with my mom and sister at the same campground where Billy joined us when we were younger.

[00:36:29] It had been years since we had been there, and he was on my mind quite heavily.

[00:36:36] That night, we all went to bed just like any other normal night.

[00:36:42] However, something happened after I fell asleep.

[00:36:47] It's very hard to explain, but I knew I wasn't dreaming.

[00:36:52] I also wasn't fully awake.

[00:36:55] I opened my eyes and suddenly there was this beaming bright white light everywhere.

[00:37:04] At first it was hard to see anything around me, but then my eyes adjusted.

[00:37:10] I was surprised that it didn't hurt to look around.

[00:37:14] I was very confused.

[00:37:17] I knew I was conscious, but also had no idea what was going on.

[00:37:24] I looked around and saw that I was in a field.

[00:37:28] The sun was shining bright and the wind was blowing.

[00:37:33] I felt nothing but complete serenity.

[00:37:37] Then I see him, Billy, walking towards me with a huge smile on his face.

[00:37:45] I was in a state of shock, but I managed to run up to him and give him the biggest hug I could.

[00:37:53] Then I shoved him a little and he laughed.

[00:37:57] He said we should sit down and talk.

[00:38:00] After a while he said that he missed me and is always around, but that it was time to go.

[00:38:08] As I woke up, it was already morning and his voice started to fade from memory.

[00:38:16] I couldn't recall pieces of our conversation, but I know that I saw him.

[00:38:22] He gave me so much comfort.

[00:38:25] I remember talking for what felt like an eternity and my heart felt so much lighter.

[00:38:32] I can't describe the feeling other than complete peace and comfort deep within me.

[00:38:39] It healed my soul that had been crushed for so many years.

[00:38:44] To this day, I have no idea where I was exactly.

[00:38:48] Although I have a theory that my soul left my body to meet him on a different plane of existence.

[00:38:56] Any thoughts or ideas?

[00:39:00] Smanthus story was rather touching, even if it was really sad.

[00:39:20] Yeah, rest in peace, Billy.

[00:39:23] I don't even know where to start with this one.

[00:39:27] The intuitive sixth sense stuff is always nice to read, all things considered.

[00:39:33] I've mentioned it all before, but when my mom called me on the day my grandma died as soon as my phone rang,

[00:39:40] I just felt in the pit of my stomach that was the reason why she was calling.

[00:39:44] Even though it wasn't strange for her to be calling in the first place, I just knew.

[00:39:50] I remember that. There was no indication that your grandma was going to pass anytime soon, huh?

[00:39:54] Right. Yeah, nothing like that.

[00:39:56] She was getting up there, but none of us thought the big day was going to happen anytime soon or anything like that.

[00:40:03] On the bright side though, I do have a great grandma who turned 95 this year.

[00:40:08] Wow. Well, God bless all grandma is in that case.

[00:40:12] I really don't have any strong intuitive experiences myself beyond just having a good gut feeling.

[00:40:19] It could be that I'm just overly cautious, but there are so many decisions from the last few years that I've made

[00:40:26] that have turned out to be the best decisions of my life simply because my gut was guiding me in the right direction.

[00:40:33] Yeah.

[00:40:34] I think that it's probably due to all of the let's not mean stories about people trusting their gut and basically it's saving their life.

[00:40:43] So those ones just really stick with me.

[00:40:46] Oh, for sure.

[00:40:47] I love all the spotty sense intuition stuff.

[00:40:50] And I'm not very book smart at all, but I'll take emotional and social intelligence every time which seem to intersect with intuition in a lot of ways.

[00:41:01] It just sucks getting dismissed when people are like, well, how do you know?

[00:41:06] And you don't have some concrete explanation to support yourself even though you just know you're right.

[00:41:12] Yeah, you can't win them all such is life.

[00:41:16] So another thing I liked about Samantha's story is that her sister heard Billy walk into her room too.

[00:41:24] Yes, we all know how excited you get over corroborated events.

[00:41:29] Yeah, guilty as a goose.

[00:41:32] Look, I'm just glad it didn't amount to something like I heard what I thought were footsteps the end.

[00:41:39] Yeah, yeah, I get you.

[00:41:40] It was a cool story.

[00:41:42] Let's just talk about her not dream though at the end of the story or whatever that was.

[00:41:49] Yeah, that was wild.

[00:41:50] She said she knew that she wasn't dreaming so that rolls out lucid dreaming by definition.

[00:41:55] Yeah.

[00:41:56] And if we're still exploring more scientific explanations, the possibility of a hypnagogic

[00:42:02] hallucination came to mind or I guess technically it'd be considered hypnopompic since it was daytime when she woke up.

[00:42:10] Yeah.

[00:42:11] But I'm not at all trying to cast doubt or place any bets here.

[00:42:15] I still think we're connected with the other side in so many different ways.

[00:42:19] That very well could have been Billy spirit and Samantha had somehow entered some vibrational frequency or whatever to make his visit possible.

[00:42:30] Yeah, she definitely entered some kind of realm waveling through whatever you want to call it when she said that she wasn't dreaming but also not fully awake.

[00:42:40] I thought that she was going to end up astral projecting.

[00:42:43] Yeah.

[00:42:44] Which is still possible and maybe she was able to meet Billy on whichever plane of existence that may have been in case it was an unintentional astral projection, I'd encourage her to explore it some more because she might have a gift that she could tap into.

[00:43:00] Yeah, absolutely go for it just proceed with caution of course.

[00:43:05] Of course.

[00:43:07] It's similar to Jason's story and that they were in a strange state that wasn't quite sleep paralysis wasn't quite awake when the shadow entity was in their room.

[00:43:17] Jason's room, the room was like a replica of their room.

[00:43:21] It was a weird stage between wake pool paralysis and being stuck in a dream you know.

[00:43:26] Yeah, his story reminded me of nightmare on Elm Street in that Jason lured the Freddy character in this case the shadow figure away from their Scooby-Doo.

[00:43:36] Dream game and yeah back to a nightmare replica of this bedroom.

[00:43:42] Yeah, you could say they've experienced their own Freddy versus Jason story.

[00:43:48] Oh clever, clever.

[00:43:50] I actually never got around watching that movie even though in theory the crossover sounds good.

[00:43:56] I don't know Batman versus Ninja Turtles. That was pretty cool though.

[00:44:01] Yeah, that one was very cool. I don't think I've seen Freddy versus Jason either.

[00:44:05] Well, I guess to be fair I think it was one of those movies I casually glanced up at on the TV at a bar like with caption on but I never actually watched the movie.

[00:44:17] I've really only seen the first three nightmare movies and then new nightmare from 1994. I love that one.

[00:44:24] Oh yeah, those are all good. I really liked the second one. It was so over the top in so many different ways.

[00:44:31] Yeah, me too.

[00:44:33] Fun fact, the coach in Elm Street 2 plays the dad and stand by me.

[00:44:38] Oh yeah, I happen to watch them both like a month apart and it was hard to take them seriously as a mean dad after seeing him tied up and spanked with towels.

[00:44:49] Stand by me just doesn't hit the same.

[00:44:52] I knew you were going with that and if you watch stand by me first, you get an extra sense of justice for how mean he was to Gordy.

[00:45:01] Yeah, poor Gordy. I always resonate with his character but yeah, that's perfect.

[00:45:05] Yeah, I think we all did. Three is definitely my favorite. I really liked the character Will. He was the kid in the wheelchair who turns into a wizard with magical powers in his dream.

[00:45:15] Sorry, I won't spoil anything else but now that I think about it, I've got to binge those movies again. I love all three of those so much.

[00:45:24] Yeah, three is solid. I'd say overall Freddy's one of my favorites. Really into pinhead too. Love the hell-raiser movies.

[00:45:32] Jason though never really did it for me.

[00:45:35] Yeah, I'm actually not a huge Friday the 13th fan either. I really used to like them but I've tried watching them as an adult and they just do not keep my attention at all.

[00:45:45] I think Freddy is just I don't know such a hilarious and creepy villain that's so much fun to watch and Jason never had that effect for me.

[00:45:55] I was more scared of his mom.

[00:45:58] Yeah, I like the concept of those movies but something about them never really tugged at me.

[00:46:03] I think the cast of Slut Your Shorts should get together and film a remake at Campana, Wana. Maybe Sponge could be the killer. Get his revenge on Buttenick.

[00:46:13] Yeah, that'd be good. Anyway, Jason's story, well the author of this week's story, not that Jason.

[00:46:21] Well it was a great twist on the sleep paralysis or shadow entity phenomenon.

[00:46:27] Yeah, I like the effect. The smoke detectors green light had on the shadow entity.

[00:46:32] The whole neon lights on a foggy nitesthetic is cool so I pictured something similar.

[00:46:37] Yeah, exactly. It was like the light was somehow piercing through the shadow person's I don't know shadow.

[00:46:45] Well if we've learned anything today on this beautiful Sunday Easter morning Monday for you listeners.

[00:46:51] It's to keep your smoke detectors up and running at all times. You never know what else it might detect.

[00:46:58] They got to put that on a shirt. Yeah, but that's a good point. This has been a special message from the folks at odd trails.

[00:47:05] Listen kids, be sure to change your smoke alarm batteries yearly. That way you'll always be prepared for both house fires and evil shadow demons.

[00:47:15] My name is Troy McCleur signing out.

[00:47:19] You may remember me anyways let's get out here. Let's have some Easter fun.

[00:47:24] Did you finish hiding the eggs for me? No, but I'll be finished by the time you get here.

[00:47:30] All right, I'm gonna run a bath real quick and all hop right over.

[00:47:36] All right, thanks for listening everyone. All the stories you heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors.

[00:47:42] Make sure you send your stories in to stories at odd trails.com if you want to hear them on the show.

[00:47:48] We read every submission we get, so don't be shy and don't forget to check out our Patreon.

[00:47:53] If you want to get ad free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate, you can do that by going to patreon.com forward slash odd trails.

[00:48:00] And finally, don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Let's Not Meet a True Horror Podcast

[00:48:07] and the old-time radio cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com.

[00:48:11] Everyone happy Easter and stay safe. Peace out!