Baby in the Woods – Ep. 124

[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] I grew up in rural Texas, but not so isolated that our neighbors were a miles away or anything.

[00:01:10] We were 15 minutes away from a small town with the local grocery store. When I was in high school though, we did get a dollar general, which you see in so many small towns.

[00:01:23] This happened when I was in college. I was commuting 45 minutes to a nearby university while living with my parents. They had gone with my younger brother on a trip somewhere. For the life of me, I can't remember where. The important part is that I was home alone for a few nights.

[00:01:44] I had cooked dinner and was just sitting outside on our back porch browsing the internet. We had a dog kennel about 100 feet from the back porch that used to house our two lapradors who were prone to attacking the neighbors chickens.

[00:02:00] They had passed away years before this happened, but we never took down the kennel. It was in view of our neighbors about twice the distance from their house as ours. The neighbors had two boys who I believe were around 9 and 14 at this time.

[00:02:21] I was sitting there and heard what sounded like the mischievous giggling of a couple of young boys in the trees just past the dog kennel.

[00:02:31] I know I just said there were two young boys living nearby, but this was very strange, seeing as that they had never come onto our property uninvited and mostly kept to themselves.

[00:02:46] I walked a bit toward the kennel and yelled out, Brian? Tommy? What are y'all doing out there?

[00:02:56] I heard what sounded like some hushed whispers and then something moving through the trees towards the pasture a little farther back.

[00:03:07] I was a bit angry with them at this point for trying to run away, so I grabbed a flashlight and went after them. I could hear them moving in front of me.

[00:03:19] In my area of Texas we have these tall bushes called Yopon Holley that grow thick through a lot of the forests. Trying to move through them is a slow process and I thought I heard the boys moving farther away.

[00:03:36] Thinking it was probably easier for two small boys to move through them than me, I called out to them again.

[00:03:45] This was met with another round of giggling followed by what sounded like them trying to move faster to get away.

[00:03:54] After about 10 minutes, I made it to the edge of the pasture, assuming they would be far ahead of me.

[00:04:02] Honestly, if they had just laid down in the grass I wouldn't have been able to see them.

[00:04:08] I shined my flashlight around a bit wildly trying to find them, but quickly stopped when it passed over two large gray masses.

[00:04:21] I moved the light back and my hair stood on end.

[00:04:27] About 20 feet away were two very large creatures. They were about the size of a big cow,

[00:04:36] but their hind legs were short. Their back was straight and angled up to wide shoulders and forelimbs

[00:04:45] that were longer than I was tall. I'm about six foot three.

[00:04:52] They stood something like a gorilla, but their backs had a sharper angle.

[00:04:59] They turned their heads towards me and I saw flat gray faces without anything resembling a nose.

[00:05:08] Their mouths were small on the frame. I can't be certain if it was the flashlight reflecting in their eyes

[00:05:16] or if they were actually glowing yellow. I was shocked and stood there completely paralyzed.

[00:05:26] I could hear my heart beating in my ears. I was ready to be attacked or abducted or God knows what else.

[00:05:34] God knows what else. I was even more shocked when I heard the giggling sound come from them

[00:05:43] as they turned and slowly wandered off away from me.

[00:05:48] I stood stuck there for probably five minutes before bolting back through the woods,

[00:05:55] through those damn bushes and locking myself in the house.

[00:06:00] I don't think I slept at all during the next three nights waiting for my parents to come home.

[00:06:08] Thinking back on it now, I don't believe I actually felt any ill intent from them.

[00:06:15] They didn't seem aggressive in any way. It was almost like they were just passing through.

[00:06:22] I will always wonder why they called out to me and why they wanted me to follow.

[00:06:31] Since then, I've done a lot of research trying to find out what they might be,

[00:06:38] but it always comes back to aggressive and dangerous entities like crawlers.

[00:06:44] None of the other encounters I read about are quite correct.

[00:06:48] I guess I will never know what the creatures on the planes were,

[00:06:52] but being so far removed from it now, I'm glad they asked me to follow them.

[00:06:59] I think I would like to meet them again.

[00:07:18] Route 491 by One Planch Man

[00:07:31] I was on an assignment for the army, making my way up from San Antonio, Texas to Tacoma, Washington.

[00:07:38] It was a long drive, so I was given six days to report to my new unit.

[00:07:44] I don't mind the long trek. I love road trips. There's nothing like the freedom of exploring

[00:07:49] the world by yourself. On the first day of my journey, I planned to get as much driving in as

[00:07:55] possible so that I could spend a few days in Utah—a sort of mini-vacation, you could say.

[00:08:01] It was January, meaning that the days were short, so maximizing the amount of daylight

[00:08:07] was crucial. I got up extra early that morning, carried the last of my bags out to my Corolla,

[00:08:14] signed out of my old unit and hit the road at roughly 5 a.m.

[00:08:19] It was an amazing day. I saw the landscape transform around me as I headed farther west

[00:08:24] than I ever had in my life. From the San Antonio metropolitan area to the savannas of the Edwards

[00:08:32] Plateau to the Pancake Flat Farmlands of the Great Plains region, America's breadbasket.

[00:08:39] Finally, the farms opened up into prairie, and I saw the Welcome to New Mexico The Land of Enchantment

[00:08:45] sign. I was really in the middle of nowhere. Continuing on U.S. Route 380, I eventually

[00:08:53] found myself in Roswell. I could have gotten a few more hours of driving in and made it to

[00:08:59] Albuquerque, but I figured since I was in no rush, I might as well see all of what Roswell has to offer.

[00:09:07] Besides, who knows if I would get a chance to visit again?

[00:09:11] As a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious as Mr. Bollen would say, I took a self-guided tour

[00:09:17] of the shops and attractions while I was there. The next day, I continued to Albuquerque,

[00:09:24] then went westward on Interstate 40. By the time I started northbound on U.S. Route 491,

[00:09:32] I still had two hours of driving left before crossing the border into Colorado,

[00:09:37] and another 45 minutes on top of that before I would get to Cortez, my plan to stop for the

[00:09:43] night. However, my daylight was already running out as sunset was at 6 p.m. The last stretch

[00:09:50] of my journey for the day was supposed to be easy, just a straight shot. So, I got Starbucks and

[00:09:56] refreshed myself. But looking back on it now, I figured that had I decided to stop in Albuquerque

[00:10:03] instead of Roswell the night before, I would have been in Colorado by now, and possibly be

[00:10:09] making my way into Utah. Not to mention, I would have saved myself from what was waiting

[00:10:14] for me on that desolate highway. Route 491 stretched far into the Navajo Nation,

[00:10:22] on either side of me were endless expanses of prairie bookended by dark indigo mountains on

[00:10:29] the horizon. To my left, the sky glowed a faint orange-purple and the light slowly dying down,

[00:10:37] like smoldering embers in a fire, until finally plunging the land into darkness.

[00:10:43] Now and then I would see the headlights of another car passing by, which gave me a bit of relief that

[00:10:48] I wasn't alone. I also had my road trip playlist on to keep me company and call me ironic but Hotel

[00:10:55] California was playing. After passing the small lonely town of Newcomb, the next piece

[00:11:00] of civilization would be known as Shiprock. However, between the two towns, there was

[00:11:07] a 36 mile stretch of absolute nothingness, an abyss that I had to cross, and I was not

[00:11:15] ready for what I was about to witness. After several miles, having not seen another car on the road,

[00:11:22] I saw something strange emerge from the horizon. Barely lit by the moonlight,

[00:11:27] I thought it was a road sign at first. Then as it came closer, I realized it was a person

[00:11:34] walking on the shoulder of the road headed in my direction. I squinted, trying my hardest to

[00:11:41] focus on the figure. In the darkness I could tell that they were wearing a poncho of some sort,

[00:11:47] with long black hair flowing down past their chest. Who could be walking out here all alone

[00:11:53] at night? I thought. Whoever it was had no lights, no reflectors, and no strobes of any

[00:12:00] kind to signal passing cars that they were there, and they were walking on the pavement,

[00:12:06] dangerously close to uncoming traffic. I pulled to the left a bit giving them some room,

[00:12:12] then suddenly my stereo cut out, as if I had turned it off. The screen went completely dark

[00:12:20] and my phone disconnected from Bluetooth. While this was unusual, it certainly did

[00:12:25] happen from time to time, so I thought nothing of it. As I approached, I saw the person raise

[00:12:31] their right arm as if to flag me down and hitch a ride. Oh no no no, I thought, there is no way

[00:12:38] that's happening buddy. As my headlights swept past the figure, I realized it was a man

[00:12:45] dressed in a button-up shirt with a wool poncho, jeans, and cowboy boots.

[00:12:50] His large belt buckle glinted as my lights passed him, but in that split second, I realized with

[00:12:58] abject shock that not only were his eyes painfully wide open, but they seemed to be fixated on me.

[00:13:06] Somehow it seemed as though he were able to see me through the glare of my headlights

[00:13:12] and look me dead in the eyes, not breaking eye contact until I passed.

[00:13:17] I was a bit shaken, but my nerves gradually subsided. My stereo abruptly turned back on

[00:13:23] and my music continued playing. I looked in my rearview mirror and he was gone.

[00:13:30] I couldn't see him so I drove on, trying to figure out what he was doing here,

[00:13:34] but at the same time forcing myself not to think about it. Just when I thought I had

[00:13:39] moved on, I saw another shape in the distance, getting closer and closer to me.

[00:13:45] Getting closer, I realized it was another figure, another person walking alone at night.

[00:13:51] There's no way, right? They walked along the shoulder of the road, swaying back and forth.

[00:13:58] Slowly I could make out that this person was wearing a poncho as well.

[00:14:03] Then I saw what looked like long black hair reaching down past the chest.

[00:14:08] No. There's no way. Was this the same man? But how? The man raised his arm again, trying to flag me

[00:14:18] down. What did this guy want? I kept up my pace to indicate that I had no intention of stopping

[00:14:25] for any reason and just like the last time, my stereo turned off again.

[00:14:32] Suddenly the man leaped out into the road, arms waving frantically. I swerved into the

[00:14:40] left lane, narrowly avoiding him. In my headlights, I noticed he had the same wide-eyed look as his

[00:14:47] gaze locked onto mine. I also saw that his clothes didn't look as they did in the first

[00:14:52] encounter. His attire was once clean if not well worn, but now it was soiled and tattered.

[00:14:59] His hair was wild and unkempt, with clods of dried dirt stuck in the locks.

[00:15:05] But his eyes remained the same. My heart nearly burst through my chest at the sudden shock.

[00:15:12] Hyperventilating, I slowed down and glanced into my rearview mirror to make sure that he

[00:15:17] was alright, but nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see.

[00:15:23] The man was running. He was full on sprinting towards me.

[00:15:27] I quickly centered the wheel and accelerated, hoping to get some distance from him. But as I sped up,

[00:15:33] so did he. And every time I looked in the mirror to check on him, I would still see him right behind

[00:15:40] me, perfectly keeping his pace, his body tinted red by my taillights. I could feel my temples

[00:15:46] throbbing, my hands getting slick with sweat on the steering wheel.

[00:15:51] I was sick to my stomach. I looked forward, hoping to see a faint glimmer of light from the town ahead.

[00:15:58] But I was still too far away. I looked back at the rearview mirror. The man was gone.

[00:16:04] I should have been relieved, but I knew better. Where did he go? I looked around hoping to regain

[00:16:11] a visual of him, but I couldn't see anything. I took a deep breath and I refocused on the road

[00:16:15] and kept my guard up. Just keep driving, I told myself, only a few more miles to go.

[00:16:23] Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw something, another shape. I could tell that it

[00:16:30] wasn't the man again. At least, I didn't think so. I glanced over, bracing myself for whatever

[00:16:37] I was going to meet in my sight. It looked like an animal, though I couldn't make out exactly

[00:16:44] what it was. Under the moonlight, I could see it running alongside my car. It's four limbs,

[00:16:50] reaching out in long strides. It's back, undulating like a dog. Closer and closer it came.

[00:16:58] The closer it was, the more of it I could see little by little. Then I noticed its limbs were

[00:17:05] far too long for its body. Its body was too short and it had no tail. And the head was

[00:17:12] oddly round and from that head came a long trail of black hair. I slammed my foot on the gas,

[00:17:21] pushing the car's engine harder than it had ever been pushed before. I was clocking well over 110

[00:17:28] miles per hour, but this creature just kept up. It wasn't phased. It simply ran faster to match

[00:17:35] my speed. What was this thing? How could anyone or anything keep up this fast? Whatever it was,

[00:17:42] seemed to have endless stamina. How long could it keep this up? How much faster could it go?

[00:17:49] Soon, my car would hit its top speed. And then what? How long could I maintain that before

[00:17:55] breaking down? It wouldn't be long before my engine overheated. But regardless,

[00:18:00] I would eventually run out of gas. And when I do, what would happen if that thing got to me?

[00:18:07] At 120 miles per hour, my car reached its limit. This was the fastest I could go,

[00:18:15] but the creature continued to pursue me. My temperature gauge was reaching the red.

[00:18:20] I couldn't keep this up much longer. Suddenly, like the beacon of a lighthouse in the sea,

[00:18:26] the first light of shiprock came into view. It was so close. If I could just go a little longer,

[00:18:34] I could make it into town. To safety. So I pressed on. I fixed my eyes on the lights,

[00:18:39] growing brighter on the horizon. They bloomed outwards, glimmering in the night air.

[00:18:45] Though it was a small town, it was a sight for sore eyes in my situation.

[00:18:49] Looking in my periphery, I saw the undulation of the creature's spine

[00:18:54] as it kept pace with my car. But now, it was slipping away, steering farther and farther

[00:19:01] from the road. It suddenly hit me just how hard my heart was pounding. Beads of sweat dripped down

[00:19:07] my face. I looked over and the creature was gone. But this time, the feeling of dread

[00:19:13] had also gone with it. My stereo once again turned back on, and as my music resumed,

[00:19:20] I breathed a sigh of relief. I let off the accelerator. The man, or creature, whatever it was,

[00:19:28] it was finally gone for good. Having white-knuckled my steering wheel the whole time without realizing

[00:19:35] it, my hands were extremely sore. But I was glad to have made it through.

[00:19:41] A week later, I told another soldier at my unit about what I had experienced.

[00:19:47] Being originally from Albuquerque, she was familiar with the Native American legends of the Southwest.

[00:19:52] The conversation steered toward a certain creature that she would dare not speak the name of.

[00:19:59] She told me that the highway I took was well known for all sorts of paranormal phenomena.

[00:20:04] Just Google what Route 491 used to be called, and everything will make sense. Be careful out there.

[00:20:16] So,

[00:20:38] did my bad relationship feed a negative entity by Maryland?

[00:20:43] To start off, I'm more of a believer in the paranormal than a skeptic. But I like to try and

[00:20:52] debunk things before I assume what I am experiencing is paranormal. I don't have many experiences that

[00:20:59] I believe to be paranormal, but what I'm sharing with you here are a few that rocked me to my core.

[00:21:06] In my early 20s, I was in a relationship with a man a few years older than me.

[00:21:12] I met him through my serving job at a chain restaurant that was in the same strip mall as his

[00:21:18] job. It's probably the most New Jersey thing you've ever heard. That said, our relationship

[00:21:27] was something that could probably be featured on Let's Not Me. It went from passionate

[00:21:34] to problematic to tumultuous to downright horrible and terrifying.

[00:21:42] Our fights were intense, but were usually about things that didn't happen or were hypothetical

[00:21:49] scenarios. One night after a long argument about something that I didn't do,

[00:21:56] we were both sobbing on the couch in his living room. The couch faced the doorway and wall

[00:22:02] that divided the kitchen and living room. He had his head in my lap and he was hysterically sobbing.

[00:22:12] Suddenly, he stopped and stared wide eyed into the kitchen.

[00:22:18] He shot up and asked if I saw him too. I had no clue what he was talking about.

[00:22:26] I was so distraught I couldn't see right from left, but I knew there wasn't anything to see.

[00:22:34] He insisted though that there was a man in there staring at us,

[00:22:41] that the man was angry and it was going to kill us.

[00:22:46] I calmed him down and we eventually went to bed.

[00:22:49] I woke up in the middle of the night while my ex was still sound asleep.

[00:22:54] I walked into the kitchen where I found a glass shattered on the floor,

[00:23:00] but nothing was on the counter when we had gone to bed just a few hours prior.

[00:23:06] A few days later, after a particularly brutal fight, I went to the bathroom and shut the door.

[00:23:14] My ex had a thing about me going to the bathroom. He hated it when I shut the door,

[00:23:22] so to appease him I'd sometimes leave it open, but not this time.

[00:23:28] I did my business and when I stood up to wash my hands, I looked in the mirror.

[00:23:34] I had been crying and looked awful, but just behind me I saw a face,

[00:23:42] a face that looked as if it had been burnt and wanted to hurt me.

[00:23:50] It looked as if it hated me, then it lunged at me.

[00:23:57] I ran out of the bathroom. My ex took me in his arms. He had never seen me so scared before.

[00:24:05] I didn't tell him what I saw.

[00:24:10] I sometimes worked late hours at the restaurant. After I got done, I'd go to his place.

[00:24:17] One night, I got to his apartment and he was already asleep.

[00:24:22] All the lights were off and I wouldn't dare turn them on.

[00:24:27] When I got in bed, he rolled over and said hello and kissed me, but something didn't feel right.

[00:24:37] Despite this, I somehow got myself to sleep.

[00:24:42] I woke up a few hours later. My eyes shot open as if I had had a nightmare.

[00:24:49] There was light creeping under the bedroom door.

[00:24:55] I turned and my ex was still behind me, sleeping peacefully.

[00:25:01] Maybe he just forgot to turn the bathroom light off.

[00:25:05] I saw shadows passing by the foot of the door, pacing back and forth, back and forth.

[00:25:13] I kept looking behind me to make sure my ex is actually in bed with me, and he is.

[00:25:22] What the hell is happening? This isn't real, I said to myself.

[00:25:28] I continued to watch as the shadows paced behind the door.

[00:25:34] Then the bedroom door handle started to jiggle.

[00:25:38] I woke my ex up because I was hysterical. I was sobbing and asked him to look.

[00:25:48] There was nobody there. Not long after these experiences, we broke up.

[00:25:56] I couldn't do it anymore. His personal issues aside, we just weren't good for each other.

[00:26:02] After we broke up, I went to pick up my things from his apartment.

[00:26:09] When I was there, I had never felt an energy so charged in my life.

[00:26:16] It was like this electricity was screaming at me to get out.

[00:26:22] I think the negative energy of our relationship charged whatever was happening there.

[00:26:27] I feel as though it was feeding a negative entity that was there before we were.

[00:26:34] It was tangible and absolutely terrible. When you walked into that apartment, you could feel it.

[00:26:44] All that said, I hope he's okay, and I'm sure he's out of that apartment by now.

[00:26:58] I still don't know what happened on our annual family trip by Slasher. Fair warning,

[00:27:13] this story does contain descriptions of dead wild animals.

[00:27:19] This was maybe six or seven years ago. My family and I have been going on

[00:27:24] trips together for a really long time now, probably about 17 years if I had to guess.

[00:27:29] I won't say exactly where we go, but it's in the Australian bush just to give you all an idea

[00:27:35] of the setting. On this particular trip, my sister, my cousin, my dad, and I all drove up together.

[00:27:43] We were the first to arrive at the vacation house. When we got there, we waited outside

[00:27:48] since we had to wait for my grandma to arrive with the key. My dad took a seat on the deck

[00:27:53] with the beer while my sister, my cousin, and I went on a little journey. The three of us made our

[00:27:59] way to a little creek not far from the house that we nicknamed Bridge of Terabithia. We call it this

[00:28:06] since a tree had fallen across the creek acting like a bridge for us to get across.

[00:28:12] The creek never had water in it, and it wasn't wide or deep, so we could easily walk across

[00:28:18] it without the tree, but the tree was fun. My cousin made a comment as we walked across the tree.

[00:28:24] He asked sort of sarcastically, is there something dead around here? This was a fair question since

[00:28:31] there were so many flies around. Lo and behold, when we got to the other side,

[00:28:37] there was something dead. It wasn't a human, but it was a larger animal of some sort.

[00:28:43] As we drew closer, we were met with a dead kangaroo.

[00:28:48] It wasn't too jarring since I had seen plenty on the side of the road, but this one was clean cut

[00:28:54] and half. And when I say clean cut, I mean like clean. It was perfectly halved.

[00:29:02] There wasn't an ounce of blood on the fur, no blood on the ground, and the top half

[00:29:08] was nowhere to be found. I happened to have my camera on me so I took some photos of it,

[00:29:14] then my cousin poked it with a stick and literally hundreds of flies came out.

[00:29:21] My cousin and sister kept poking at it, trying to move it into the creek,

[00:29:26] but a full grown kangaroo, even half of one, isn't exactly light.

[00:29:32] Their sticks broke so I just grabbed it by the tail and pulled it into the creek

[00:29:36] so that we could quote unquote bury it. After I moved it, we covered it with sticks and flowers.

[00:29:44] We looked around up top everywhere for the second half or a trace of what might have happened to it,

[00:29:50] but we couldn't find anything. We ended up going back down into the creek.

[00:29:55] As we were walking through it, we found some more stuff that made this even more confusing.

[00:30:02] We found four dead rabbits, but only their bottom halves.

[00:30:07] They were all lined up neatly along the floor of the creek, leading up to the thick brush

[00:30:12] that we couldn't walk through. It was the same story with these rabbits. No top halves were

[00:30:20] found. They were cut clean in half with no traces of blood anywhere. My family and I

[00:30:26] still return to the spot every year, and we haven't seen anything like this since.

[00:30:42] Baby in the Woods by Kristin

[00:30:57] My best friend Meg and I were about 13 years old in the late 90s.

[00:31:03] Meg lived on a lake which separated two large subdivisions. We were friends with two boys

[00:31:10] around our age who lived on the opposite side. Car or boat was the quickest way to get from

[00:31:17] one side to the other. Since we had neither and couldn't drive them even if we did,

[00:31:23] we decided to walk through the woods that bordered the lake. We walked about a mile

[00:31:29] through the woods, and were still about 500 yards away from the trail exit that meets the road.

[00:31:36] As we walked and talked, every so often, I heard something foraging in the fallen leaves.

[00:31:45] It was mid-fall, so leaves were abundant in our southern town.

[00:31:52] Meg was walking in front of me at this point. I thought it was odd that I was still getting

[00:31:57] hit by spider webs but didn't say much about it. Finally, I complained about something else.

[00:32:06] Probably how slow she was walking. I mean, the boys were waiting, right?

[00:32:13] So we switched places, me in front and her behind. We began walking again,

[00:32:21] and that's when she noticed the rustling leaves. We talked about it and decided it wasn't us

[00:32:29] making the noise. Because we were on such a well-worn trail, the leaves were all beaten down or cleared

[00:32:37] off. There was also no one else in the woods that we had seen. As the rustling got closer,

[00:32:46] I stopped talking and quickly started looking around. Meg wasn't paying attention,

[00:32:53] so she ran right into me. As I turned to say something, I noticed something behind her on the

[00:33:01] ground. This thing was the size and shape of a crawling baby and had its hand outstretched,

[00:33:11] reaching for Meg's foot. As I looked down, the baby looked up at me.

[00:33:18] The face on this creature was not a face at all. Imagine Jack Skellington, but with flesh stretched

[00:33:26] on all of the facial orifices. No actual eyeballs or a nose, no mouth or hair, just flesh.

[00:33:39] Then, as if the bones in the face were made of muscle, the eyebrow area furrowed into an

[00:33:47] angry expression. Its face changed so quickly, then it turned up and ran up the hill on all fours.

[00:34:00] As it fled up the hill, it turned black and disappeared from view.

[00:34:07] We screamed and ran the rest of the way out of the woods,

[00:34:12] and at least halfway to the boys house. That night, we decided to forgo the woods

[00:34:19] and walk the road back to her house, something like two and a half miles, most of which is uphill.

[00:34:29] It's been 25 years and I still have no answers. But I know in my heart, if that demon baby

[00:34:37] had touched Meg, something bad would have happened. If I were to call her today and ask,

[00:34:45] do you remember the woods? She would know exactly what I mean. She refuses to talk about it.

[00:34:55] I frequent that same lake several times a year with my children,

[00:35:00] but I still won't go into those woods. If anyone has any thoughts on what that

[00:35:06] demonic baby could have been, I'd love to know.

[00:35:30] Marilyn's personal analysis of her story was pretty spot on.

[00:35:34] I definitely think that her relationship field whatever was in that apartment.

[00:35:40] Yeah, as I was reading through it, that's exactly what I was thinking. I took

[00:35:43] note of the exact wording here because when she says,

[00:35:47] I think the negative energy of our relationship charged whatever was happening here,

[00:35:53] I was like, okay, cool, we're on the same page. That seems to be the most plausible

[00:35:58] explanation. And before I read the sentence after that, I was thinking it was probably

[00:36:03] something already there. They basically kicked the hornet's nest, figured it'd be fun to explore in

[00:36:09] the outro. Yeah, and she goes on to essentially say the same thing. Yep, specifically, she said,

[00:36:17] I feel as though it was feeding a negative entity that was there before we were.

[00:36:22] Yeah, that makes things easy. Yeah, thanks for that, Marilyn. Gave me a story to read

[00:36:27] and took my words out of my mouth. It's to be fair, saying they kicked the hornet's nest,

[00:36:34] packs a certain punch. Hey, thanks. Hey, kicking and punching. We love our puns and metaphors.

[00:36:41] Yeah, I didn't even mean to do that. But yeah, we do. And I guess, do you have any original

[00:36:47] thoughts to add to that? Let's see, the face in the mirror was obviously really scary, but

[00:36:58] and I can't believe I'm saying this. I want to know more about the layout of the apartment.

[00:37:03] Wait, like, like actually? Yeah, because when she said that she walked into the apartment late

[00:37:11] one night and all the lights were off, but then she saw the light poking through the door

[00:37:15] and all that pacing going on. The first thing I thought of was like how car lights can peek

[00:37:21] through window blinds. Oh yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying. Like if they were on the

[00:37:26] first floor and their bedroom faced the street or something like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, like the

[00:37:31] bedroom door or something. I just want to rule it out for my own little warm fuzzy. I sort of

[00:37:37] in doubt the legitimacy of the story, especially with everything else that was going on there.

[00:37:43] I'm sure that car lights would have been noticeable before that happened.

[00:37:47] I thought about that too. I just want to know. Just want to know.

[00:37:51] Yeah, well, let us know, Marilyn. You also mentioned, okay, sorry, but you also mentioned

[00:37:57] the relationship had some let's not meet qualities to it. So if you're comfortable sharing, I'm all

[00:38:04] ears. Oh boy, here we go. I had to. Yeah, that was smooth. That was smooth. So have you ever

[00:38:13] gone on a hike in the woods and had a faceless baby crawl towards you? Yeah, it happens every

[00:38:19] now and then. Okay, so that makes four of us. Yeah, yeah. I don't even know how I feel about

[00:38:25] that story. It's so out there, but I guess anything's possible. Right. If we're going to believe in the

[00:38:31] other paranormal phenomenon that's seemingly impossible, there's always a chance that what

[00:38:36] Kristen saw really was some weird faceless baby out in the woods. Yeah, I feel like if she were

[00:38:44] just making the whole thing up, she would have least mentioned hearing crying noises for that

[00:38:50] extra spooky factor. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's just what I was thinking. But yeah,

[00:38:55] just the rustling leaves. Right, right. That would make sense to throw in some like

[00:38:59] cooing and crying. And even though it wasn't described like them, I still pictured two very

[00:39:06] specific babies. I don't know if you may have thought the same thing, but

[00:39:10] the one on the ceiling. Transpoting, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was thinking that exact same thing.

[00:39:17] And the one from Dead Alive. Yeah, both those movies are really good. I was so mind blown when I

[00:39:26] found out Dead Alive was directed by the same Peter Jackson who did Lord of the Rings.

[00:39:32] Me too, me too. I still like showing people that movie for the first time and then

[00:39:36] at the end or just randomly throughout the movie, like when the ear falls into the soup,

[00:39:41] just going like, oh, by the way, this is the same director that made Lord of the Rings.

[00:39:45] The reactions are either hilariously surprised or they just don't find it that amusing.

[00:39:51] It's at the very least mildly amusing. Thank you. Come on now.

[00:39:57] Yeah, I still need to watch Bad Taste. Same, same.

[00:40:00] I always think of Angelica's baby brother in that nightmare. So do you know the one?

[00:40:05] All too well. Even when I'm by myself, I sometimes like to hold food up to my mouth and say,

[00:40:11] nom nom! Before I take my first bite, it's such a core memory.

[00:40:16] Yeah, that episode kind of made me glad to be an only child.

[00:40:20] Very understandable. So I guess we can just assume that it was some sort of baby in the woods

[00:40:26] and leave it at that? Might as well. Yeah.

[00:40:30] So the gray cow gorilla things in Cagney's story, those have me stumped.

[00:40:36] Yeah, you and me both. And I'm not trying to cop out here, but I think they could have just been

[00:40:42] unknown cryptids that haven't been reported before, since the features were pretty unique.

[00:40:50] Yeah, right, right. I'm not going to pretend to know either. Sometimes the best I can offer is

[00:40:55] what existing things something reminds me of, like the babies.

[00:40:59] Yeah. His story was really good and probably my favorite in the episode actually.

[00:41:04] But I just got to say that for some reason I pictured the iron golems in Minecraft.

[00:41:10] Oh yeah, I could see that. And they don't attack unless you attack first, right?

[00:41:15] As far as I remember, yeah, they're just intimidating, gentle giants, but not outright

[00:41:20] threatening. Yeah, well if meeting them again is what Cagney wants, I hope he gets his wish

[00:41:27] and we can feature a part two. Hey, that'd be perfect as long as they don't mess with Texas.

[00:41:33] Yeah, don't mess with Texas. That reminds me, I guess we can glean from Route 491

[00:41:41] that skinwalkers really dislike the eagles. They are both wildly disliked and liked

[00:41:48] kind of a polarizing band. Yeah, yeah, one of my favorites honestly.

[00:41:54] Yeah, I don't see how the dude Lebowski could hate them so much.

[00:41:58] I have a soft spot for all these yacht rock stuff. That's my summertime poolside music.

[00:42:04] Yeah, and when I think of the eagles, I do think of like the desert and tequila.

[00:42:08] Yeah. You know just all that like, yeah, you know what I mean.

[00:42:12] The whole vibe. But yeah, Route 491 it was originally 666.

[00:42:18] Oh, how convenient. Yeah, and just that was just based on its location and the format that they

[00:42:23] numbered highways back then at the time. Well, I'm guessing religious and superstitious beliefs

[00:42:29] influence the change. Yeah, that and the fact that people like us were constantly stealing the

[00:42:35] signs. Well, we are thieves. Yeah, like that a 420 mile marker sign, they finally changed

[00:42:41] after like our 78th time stealing it. But yeah, 491 used to be 666 and they used to refer to it

[00:42:50] as the Devil's Highway. There were actually a high number of fatalities and accidents, but

[00:42:57] also plenty of lore about otherworldly like hitchhikers and skinwalkers. There's actually

[00:43:03] a really cool legend about this car that always seems to be referred to as the Black

[00:43:08] Sedan and it runs people off the highway. Black sedans are pretty ubiquitous, but

[00:43:14] I probably could see the devil driving one, the devil. Yeah, totally. Then there are the hounds of

[00:43:21] hell, stories of time loss and missing persons, lots of crazy stories to dig up. Yeah, the

[00:43:27] only thing that comes up on maps between Newcomb and Shiprock where the skinwalker incident

[00:43:32] occurred is a little cemetery just along the highway called Little Water Cemetery.

[00:43:38] Makes sense that it's probably haunted, right? Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can imagine it's pretty

[00:43:43] desolate and creepy. It kind of makes me want to boot up American Truck Sim and take a trip

[00:43:47] through to Mexico. Yeah, we can start an odd trails convoy. Yeah. Pick up a few tons of

[00:43:54] element 115 from area 51, a lot of numbers. My connection already said it's cool if we

[00:44:00] swing by. Let's do it. 10-4 little buddy. All right, let's get out of here. Sounds good.

[00:44:06] Yeah, thanks for listening everyone. Make sure you send your stories into stories at oddtrails.com

[00:44:11] if you want to hear them on the show. All the stories you heard this week were narrated

[00:44:14] and produced with the permission of their respective authors. If you want to support

[00:44:19] the show and get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes, go over to patreon.com

[00:44:23] forward slash oddtrails to sign up and support the show today and make sure you check out

[00:44:27] the new episodes of my other podcast like let's not meet a true horror podcast and the old-time

[00:44:31] radio cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com. Everybody stay safe. Peace out.

[00:44:57] Let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, Don.